Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in June 1999 (Chigusa Reborn!)

GAEA JAPAN IN JUNE 1999:
(July 20th 1999)
* Only three matches from GAEA for this month! Thank god cuz the friggin’ heatwave here in Alberta is robbing my energy something fierce. We have the GAEA superdefender squad of KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada going for the Tag Team Champions (Aja & Ozaki) in a non-title match, another “Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato defending GAEA’s honor” match as they face Lioness Asuka & Mima Shimoda, and then a new push for a reborn Chigusa Nagayo, debuting a new look and a ton of weight loss in a main event singles match against Etsuko Mita!

SUPER STAR UNIT (Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki) vs. KAORU & TOSHIYO YAMADA:
* The top heel team in GAEA now takes on Chigusa’s most loyal lieutenants, who have just recently defeated Las Cachorras Orientales. Aja’s in a new navy blue outfit, Ozaki’s in the usual, Yamada’s in black & KAORU’s in white.

Aja immediately pops Yamada with the Uraken and nearly gets the three- KAORU saves and then springboard dropkicks Aja after another one. Aja gets a shitty buckle bomb when KAORU does her high-jump thing but gets German’d and I’m sensing a GAEA Sprint here. But then KAORU & Ozaki scrap for a while until KAORU starts kinda blowing spots by overly-anticipating their complex double-teaming. Aja superplexes Ozaki onto KAORU and finally Yamada recovers and helps KAORU get two off a German. They do another complex double-team bit where Aja misses a clothesline and a double-backfist and gets backdropped, and Yamada gets four straight Diving Brain Kicks to wear Aja down. Yamada gets her dumb finisher countered in three different ways before everyone starts accidentally nailing their partners, and Aja gets her Brainbuster for 2.5. Oz & Yamada smoke each other with strikes, leading to KAORU going for her springboard moonsault but landing on feet. Oz goes for the Tequila Sunrise (tiger/dragon suplex) but KAORU spins out and hits her Michinoku Driver for two. Aja comes in and accidentally backfists Ozaki (twice, as she kinda botched it and needed to make sure the crowd understood it was a mistake), but when KAORU tries another Driver, Ozaki climbs onto her shoulder and hits an armlock from that position, actually getting KAORU to tap out to it while still on her knees (5:46 of 9:06 shown).

More of a scrappy mess than a good match, with everyone at half-speed but trying convoluted double-teams that usually ended up with everyone being REALLY hesitant and careful to be in the right place at the right time, which isn’t the best way to wrestle. The finish was a bit unique but also like a storm of random stuff going on, with most everyone having skipped the meat of a match and gone right to finishers good and early. Classic GAEA Sprint.

Rating: ** (just some random finisher trading)

SUPER STAR UNIT (Lioness Asuka & Mima Shimoda) vs. MEIKO SATOMURA & SONOKO KATO:
* The Meiko/Kato team takes on SSU once more, but it’s the stable boss paired up with Shimoda this time! Asuka/Shimda is an interesting team- the most credible offense in GAEA with the top seller on the heel stable. Meiko now has her hair dyed red, as Sonoko’s is still blue. Shimoda’s in a more plain red & black outfit this time.

The template is set up pretty quickly as we’re JIP with Shimoda trapped in a hold (trying to fight out using the hair) and eats a bunch of elbows, but Asuka comes in and knocks Meiko all over the ring with stiff kicks and punches. Kato fares no better, Lioness not selling, then she kicks Meiko coming off the top, but Meiko pops her RIGHT in the face trying a giant swing (Shimoda’s shocked reaction from the apron is great- the best workers ALWAYS work, even on the apron). Lioness lariats her right away anyways. We get some ugly swing attempts and a scrap so Shimoda can somersault dive onto the kids and we do the arena brawl spot, then a flying lariat gets two for Asuka. The vets won’t stop cutting off comebacks- Shimoda hits her double clothesline on both and Lioness even pulls a chair in the way of Meiko’s Super Cross-Armbreaker attempt so she gets hurt, and Kato finally has to cheat to give Meiko a chance. The Lioness uses a chair anyways and kicks her out of a comeback and Shimoda’s ax kick gets two. They bring in a table and mash Meiko with it, then Lioness gets a rare mega-botch, just slipping entirely off the top- she sells it by holding her wrist and laughing like “LOL what can ya do?” and having Shimoda do a flying stomp onto the table anyways.

Lioness just keeps laughing at the botch and works over Meiko some more, but FINALLY the kids double-kick her down for two. Shimoda ax kicks Kato, but is herself wiped out by cheating and a German gets two. Shimoda finally gets a Tiger Suplex she’s been fighting for all match, but the match is so messy it’s just “random screaming” instead of popping for kickouts. Then Shimoda just arbitrarily charges Meiko and eats the DVD, but the hot tag is messed up (why is Meiko on the floor?)- Meiko interferes and Kato gets a guillotine legdrop for two on Asuka. Shimoda chairshots Asuka by mistake, and a Dragon Suplex gets two. Kato gets a last-ditch kickout after Shimoda cheats, and a Doomsday Device Ligerbomb gets two (Meiko’s late on the break and Kato just kicks out, haha). Asuka finally just uses red mist (just as I was about to write that she was bleeding from the mouth, haha) and a MONSTER Ligerbomb gets the three (13:30 shown of 17:49 shown).

Another weird “GAEA Sprint” where it’s just a scrappy, messy fight. The veterans kept cutting the kids’ nuts off with endless comebacks, not letting them get ANY momentum- it felt kinda like the Aja/Ozaki squash in that sense, like they were trying to recapture it. But it ends up having no real flow. Shimoda’s sloppy offense wasn’t helping, as she’s kind of reduced herself to just flinging herself at her foes or flinging herself BY them and her Ax Kick (a supposed finisher) now constantly looks like a light shoulder-tap with her heel). Asuka was mostly good to go but had a big botch she tried to laugh off, and because of the endless heel comebacks there wasn’t much of a flow to the match- it was just a bunch of STUFF until the end, where the kids only get a few chances and are then killed.

Rating: **1/2 (better than the previous match by a ways, but still quite flawed)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. ETSUKO MITA:
* A rare Mita singles match, as she reps SSU against Chigusa in a match that surely has shenanigans as it’s only a 4-minute YouTube clip. And sure enough, it’s a NEW Chigusa- the video beforehand shows her working with some white guy, lifting weights and stuff, and she shows up in a reflective black bodysuit & armband, sunglasses, and her hair dyed bleach-blonde. And she’s WAY less chubby that she was months before- they call it “body modification” in the comments but she’s a whole new person here. This gets a pop at the reveal to the crowd. Mita, in pink, appears unimpressed. And with her “Jobbing Face” on, haha.

Chigusa just stomps right up at Mita with her lips pursed and decks her before the bell. Shimoda gets involved, but Mita telegraphs the spot and Blazing Chops her by accident, and Chigusa hits the Death Valley Driver on Mita for the struggling pin at (0:19). The entire crowd EXPLODES at this, and you can see GAEA’s 30-year old woman core fanbase jumping up and down in excitement all over the place as Chigusa high-fives all of the GAEA loyalists and shoves Shimoda down. haha so she gets a big win against SSU and preps her big comeback! One of the rare times a total rushjob match that’s over in seconds is preferable, because after months of struggling to get any wins against SSU, Chigusa scores a huge one that doesn’t need any of that “back and forth” stuff. The crowd doesn’t feel ripped off- they feel DELIGHTED.

Rating: DUD (I mean as an angle it’s better than that, but as a MATCH it’s just some awkward shots and then a fluke DVD)

Afterwards, Chigusa gets on the mic and disses a furious Mita, and poses a bunch. We do a press conference that seems like a contract signing for an Asuka/Chigusa rematch or a GAEA/SSU mega-match (since Yamada & KAORU are also there), and Chigusa, rather than being intense, mortified, saddened or enraged, is now kind of a teasing shit-talker. The rematch I’m thinking of isn’t until September.