Joshi Spotlight: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Azumi Hyuga (JWP Openweight Title- The Torch is Passed)

It’s time for some JWP– Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling! They have very little available on YouTube by this point, as they’ve entered a “Dark Period” and really sort of suck for years from what I’ve heard. But this is a highly important match- the passing of the torch from the old Ace to the new Ace: Hikari Fukuoka defends the JWP Openweight Title against Azumi Hyuga!

So, some backstory: Hikari, a young, pretty girl, was given a “Spirited Rookie” push when JWP started in 1992, kind of their “obvious up & comer who looks good in defeat”, jobbing to the top stars like Mayumi Ozaki, Dynamite Kansai, etc. Even Cutie Suzuki could beat her. But with a picture-perfect Moonsault (a PERFECT ARC- one of the best ever) and a lot of energy, she looked great and had obvious potential. At the famous AJW DreamSlam cards, she suffered a singles loss against her AJW equivalent, rising star Sakie Hasegawa, and was in tears begging forgiveness from the JWP President. This pays off later in the year when Hikari gets the win back on a JWP show, and then pins Sakie AGAIN at the famous Thunder Queen Battle match- beating her in the early portion to put Team JWP up 1 point early, in what turns out to be a triumphant win for the squad! Along the way, her idol and inspiration, Manami Toyota (both wear black, have long hair and do rolling cradles & moonsaults- Hikari clearly aping Manami’s milieu), crushes Hikari in emphatic fashion in a couple matches where she, uh, does not seem appreciative of having a “Mini-Me”. But it’s clear that Hikari is JWP’s primary “cheerleader”, always leading the charge against rivals.

This continues at year’s end, when AJW’s Las Cachorras Orientales crush JWP’s spirits by defeating Ozaki & Suzuki for the JWP Tag Titles. In so doing, they disrespect the promotion, its wrestlers, and its President, ripping on everybody and acting like total shits. Hikari, infuriated, tries again and again to take the Titles back from LCO, going on various interpromotional cards to do it. She teams up with Command Bolshoi and fails, then Cutie Suzuki and fails. But she teams up with Ozaki herself and THIS lets the team finally unseat the nasty invader squad, finally bringing the titles back home! In so doing, Hikari builds up a “Main Event Offense”, doing crazy shit like perfecting a Moonsault STOMP, a move you still barely ever see because the precision and athleticism required is almost impossible (most people will either miss or fall on their ass completely). She also creates the Rider Kick, a somersault missile dropkick that’s either a chest shot or her spinning and landing ass-first on the back of the opponent’s head- either works.

The Hikari Push:

Things build up with the “Hikari Push” as she gets a lot of Tag Title runs, but finally she unseats Dynamite Kansai in April 1997 to become JWP Openweight Champion! The promotion is falling on harder times by this point, so the showcases aren’t quite what they should be, and people aren’t quite lining up to put her over. When LLPW (who’d split from JWP in a nasty disruption in 1992) finally agrees to send someone over… it’s midcarder Yasha Kurenai. In early 1998 Hikari trades some wins with Neo’s Kyoko Inoue (a much bigger and more credible star), winning first but then doing the job later on in a swap. But she finally manages to get her win over Manami Toyota, beating the former Ace of AJW in a tag match!

Along the way, JWP develops four brand-new great rookies with their Class of 1995- Tomoko Kuzumi, Tomoko Miyaguchi, Reiko Amano & Kanako Motoya. A miraculous squad, almost all of them were immediately “pretty good”, though Kuzumi, a pretty, acrobatic girl like Hikari, had some early clumsiness trying to do springboards like Manami Toyota did. Wearing black, too, it seems like she took some inspiration from the same source Hikari had, but she developed as well as the others had.

Now I lack a good bit of JWP footage, and what I have usually features the top stars over the rookies, but Kuzumi’s elevation was pretty apparent- she had an ongoing rivalry with the other Tomoko, Miyaguchi, and even had fantastic matches against each other as rookies. August 1997 sees Kuzumi vs. Miyaguchi in a match I rated ****, ending with Miyaguchi taking the JWP Jr. Title: https://www.blogofdoom.com/2023/07/31/joshi-spotlight-jwp-pure-heart-festival-part-2/. Kuzumi begins actually teaming with Hikari, winning the JWP Tag Titles twice alongside her. Early 1998 saw a “Queen vs. Queen” match, as Kuzumi tried to beat Hikari and lost in a match I rated ***1/2: https://www.blogofdoom.com/2023/12/18/joshi-spotlight-jwp-sand-woman-fukuoka-vs-kuzumi/. Hikari finishes the kid with a Rider Kick. The very fact they were calling Kuzumi a “Queen” alongside Hikari shows just how highly they thought of her- I mean, they were making it as obvious, in every way they knew how, that “this is the NEXT STAR”. Cut from the same mold, it seemed clear they were setting up a future Ace.

And so we come to February 1999- not only has Kuzumi been elevated, but she’s been given a new NAME- she’s now Azumi Hyuga, a name she uses for the first time (apparently) in a Number One Contenders Match in which she beats Devil Masami herself (a joshi legend and a huge JWP star)!

JWP OPENWEIGHT TITLE:
HIKARI FUKUOKA vs. AZUMI HYUGA:
(JWP, Feb. 28th 1999)
* We’re finally here! Hikari has been Ace of JWP ever since she defeated a beleaguered, sickly Dynamite Kansai for the belt in 1997, and spent most of the time since taking on most of the company until Tomoko Kuzumi- an athletic idol cut from the same cloth- was ready. And now Kuzumi’s changed her name to Azumi Hyuga. Hikari’s got purple gear with white tiger-stripes on it, and Hyuga’s in a white outfit with blue & yellow bits, and cut-outs. Hikari, with short “mom hair” and a more mature look, seems worlds apart from the young try-hard rookie I saw in 1993 stuff.

In a good bit to show the extra experience, Azumi actually outwrestles Hikari to start, but Hikari eventually snags the leg and works it. Man their boots are distractingly squeaky on the mat- it sounds like someone playing with balloons. They play a good psyche-out game, Hikari eventually popping her one and hitting a moonsault press for two. She hits a headscissors but eats a powerbomb trying a rana, but they counter each other’s underhooks and both try brute force, going nowhere. Hikari goes up, but eats a butterfly superduperplex and Rolling Germans for two. The crowd is DEATHLY silent for most of this- obviously it’s still early and they’re going SLOW cuz it’s a big match. Azumi hits a missile kick and noticeably takes a breather while Hikari sells, then tries a Super GERMAN, then a Victory Star Drop of all things, Hikari resisting her legs underhooking her and Azumi splats… and Hikari blasts her RIGHT in the gut with a Moonsault Stomp! But even that isn’t a finish, because Hikari’s too hurt to capitalize and Azumi rolls to the floor on the sell and milks it with people attending to her and stuff with a “legitimate injury”. The JWP President checks on her and everything, and they kill TWO WHOLE MINUTES doing this. Hikari wisely just beats the shit out of her gut with precise shots, and the ref makes her stop kicking so much ass so she can count Azumi down- Azumi weakly gets up at “8” and so Hikari rightfully rifles her in the gut with a running dropkick and flattens her with a Moonsault into a flying reverse double-stomp for two! Finally a crowd reaction!

Hikari climbs to finish… and Azumi has rolled too far over so Hikari has to do the “dying inside walk of shame” to the other corner for the Rider Kick… for two! There’s an awkward bit where Azumi tries to stop her up top and Hikari has to Tiger Knee her into a second Moonsault Stomp, but Azumi immediately starts thrashing around beneath her and JOLTS off the mat before “3” to shock the Champion. Hikari misses a third one but easily Germans her for two, then laughs off the kid’s weak attempts at a comeback, but charges into her and gets caught in a Michinoku Driver for a double-down. She collapses on a second attempt, but fights her into a third for two, and gets her second win to fire up for another one- Hikari bridges out! That was all Azumi’s energy, so she’s toasted again and can only slowly crawl to the top, where Hikari meets her and they have an exhausted battle up there, but Azumi again springs to life and shoves Hikari’s legs over the ropes so she can sneak behind her and hit a Hanging German off the top! Hikari looks like she’s bawling on the mat on the sell-job, and Azumi has to wait her out to hit a flying knee smash, then another for two. Azumi misses a third shot, tries a Michinoku Driver and gets rolled up, then reverses for two, but maintains her grip, deadlifts Hikari off the mat (!), and scores another Michinoku Driver… for a springing bridge from the Champion! But that’s all Hikari has- she just stands up and looks weak and hurt as Hyuga’s able to just walk right up to her, pick her up, and then hoist her for a final Michinoku Driver for the pin at the title at (19:16)- new JWP Openweight Champion!

Man this has some strong psychology but they killed SO MUCH TIME out there in the first half- “slow and steady” is a great way to build a match, but don’t let the fans see the strings- stuff like “Azumi hits a missile kick and then just stands around for a minute while Hikari sells instead of following up” and “Azumi rolls to the floor to sell injury while Hikari just waits her out” are some brutal time-killing. At least the “work the stomach” thing proved for some strong stuff- Hikari looked uncharacteristically brutal just charging in and driving a knee into the injured stomach, Moonsault Stomping it, kicking Azumi while she was down, etc. This all justified Azumi doing the “tired sell” later on, and even though she just… stops selling the gut after a point, she feels appropriately beaten down, as does Hikari when the challenger keeps blasting her with stuff. Essentially all Azumi could manage were finisher attempts but it was legit stuff and the psychology is even there with her spamming it, trying EVERYTHING to win- going up repeatedly, trying for rollups, then a really good near-fall with the “deadlift to Michinoku Driver” spot. The funny thing is the whole last 5-6 minutes was ALL Hyuga, as Fukuoka could barely get a damn thing in, only being able to do kickouts. In that sense, it’s a good “put down the old dog” ending, as Hikari WAS retiring so there’s no need to put the Champ over in defeat- she hit all her finishers in the opening half of the match, the kid was hurt by them, but she weathered the storm and just hit move after unanswered move until the Champion had no more kickouts left in her, and we had a new Champion.

The crowd was a bit muted. Either the slow, deliberate pace or the lack of heat the two had was the issue. I mean, JWP often had quiet crowds, because they had shows full of matches extended far past their ideal match-time because they had such a small roster they needed to “pad things out” to not make the fans feel ripped off… giving them boring matches instead of short ones. It’s possible the “Hyuga Push” was so bleedingly obvious that fans were bored of it already or just kind of begrudgingly went along with what the promotion obviously wanted (just spitballing here, but I’ve read about that reaction being around in Japan- couldn’t tell you first-hand, obviously). Maybe they just knew they weren’t ending the match any less than 15 minutes in and so didn’t give a shit about any of that, even with Hikari throwing out her best offense, haha. But in either case, they didn’t really bite on ANYTHING until the back quarter of the match with all the big kickouts.

Rating: ***3/4 (I dunno- I liked it! It had flaws and was obviously killing time at first, but I liked the psychology of what I felt was the Young Dog just having too much for the Old Dog and eventually putting it down)

So Kuzumi holds the JWP Openweight Title four separate times, always in HUGE reigns (one lasts almost 800 days)- even Dynamite Kansai only won the belt once. She holds it consistently and is a big star until she retires in 2009, ten years after this bout. I’ve heard from multiple people that she’s considered one of the best women’s wrestlers of the 2000s, but also sadly a “great lost worker” as most of the stuff she’s on was obscure, unfilmed, or just kinda got lost in the era where both AJW & GAEA Japan closed and the entire scene seemed to wither up and die. Which means I’ve often heard she’s GREAT… from people who themselves bemoan that they haven’t seen much stuff but “heard it was good”, haha. So take that for what you will! But here’s one of the big “Passing the Torch” moments.

Hikari Fukuoka, of course, retires almost immediately- she lasts one more month in the business, effectively going on a “Goodbye Tour” right away. She wrestles only one other actual singles match a week later, then does an Intergender Trios Match tournament in Battlarts, does two JWP tags, does a final tag match in ARSION against Aja Kong and her friend Candy Okutsu (then a jokey 5-minute one against Mikiko Futagami), a trios match in JWP, and then retires for good on March 28th, 1999 in a (30:00) draw featuring Hyuga, Amano & Bolshoi against Hikari, Candy & Hiromi Yagi. And that’s almost it for Hikari Fukuoka in these Joshi Spotlights, as I just have the ARSION stuff to review next week and then she’s gone- one more bites the dust as I’ve been doing these.