Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in August 1999 (SSU vs. Nostradamus)

GAEA JAPAN IN AUGUST 1999:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! This time it’s two big matches, as Lioness Asuka, evil heel leader of Super Star Unit, takes on GAEA loyalist Sonoko Kato, with a major development after the match! Next up, the new “Nostradamus” team (a mega-stable adding AKIRA HOKUTO, back from injury at last, to one half of SSU) gives us Hokuto’s first match in a year as they take on a Chigusa Nagayo-led GAEA team. Then it’s three super-short clipped matches and finally a Super Star Unit vs. Nostradamus match on Mayumi Ozaki’s “OZ Academy” show!

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota
Super Star Unit: Lioness Asuka, Aja Kong, Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita)
Nostradamus: Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima

LIONESS ASUKA vs. SONOKO KATO:
(Aug. 15th)
* The vicious leader of SSU takes on the wrestler who was initially kinda dressed like the “Asuka” of their rookie team.

Long chain-wrestling sequence starts us off, Lioness dominating and at one point just biting to get out of a move. Kato gets a bulldog & cannonball, then SMOKES her with a kick, keeping the slower veteran on her toes, and counters a counter to a leghold. But Kato gets too cute and climbs when she shouldn’t, and Lioness smokes her and wears her down on the floor. Asuka drapes a chair on Kato and jumps on her from the apron, then drop-toeholds into it to stop a counter (tapping her head to indicate intelligence), but gets the chair booted away and we’re clipped to Kato pummeling her with punches after a counter until the ref drags her off, allowing Asuka a backdrop suplex. Kato keeps snagging sleepers to try and keep the lead, resisting all attempts to counter it, then chokes her out in the ropes and drops her face-first, leading to a Guillotine Legdrop to the back of the head for two! Asuka keeps trying to escape the Dragon Suplex, but gets caught in it twice in a row, lunging out of the pins before “1” (what is this, AEW?), but stumbles more with each escape and nearly gets pinned on a third and a regular Guillotine Legdrop gets two.

Lioness keeps resisting Kowloon’s Gate, and when they collapse, Shimoda slips her a vial and RED MIST immediately stops Kato’s assault. Stunned, she’s helpless while Asuka sets up a table, manages a quick German, but Asuka just throws the table at her and lands a HUGE flying stomp to her while the table’s draped on top. OWWWWWWWWWWWW that looked vicious. Kato counters a powerbomb but gets absolutely SLAUGHTERED by a running lariat and the crowd’s way into that kickout. Blue Thunder Bomb- two! Lioness roars and stands at the ready (thus letting the crowd build up a floundering Kato with chants), and another lariat gets two. Asuka brutalizes her with two more, goads her, then counters her charge with another, then powerbombs her, lets her drag herself up using Asuka’s body… then just slaps her and Ligerbombs her for the easy pin at (14:28 of 17:20 shown)- no comeback for THIS kid. But then, rather than heelish disrespect, the leader of SSU… HUGS HER and shakes her hand, popping the crowd and getting everyone behind Kato!

A very good, fun tactical match- Asuka is one of the best at looking like she’s in a tactical contest full of reversals and attempts to get something going. Here, it’s established that Kato is faster and has more “fire”, but Asuka is slow & steady, smarter, and has more raw power. Kate’s persistent sleeper, manic brawling and more established this further- I liked her choking Asuka out in the ropes and the landing leading right to a guillotine to the back of the head. This makes the crowd not QUITE think Kato has a chance but shows she’s getting there, but Asuka finally just establishes dominance. The red mist kills all Kato’s momentum and just leads to total brutalization, Asuka giving mini-comebacks but finally just going “I will win this easily” and pummels the kid into submission.

Rating: ***1/2 (great Kid vs. Veteran match, with Asuka just having too much durability and hitting power to lose. Kato had the fire but not the means to take on such a wrestler)

NOSTRADAMUS (Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto) vs. GAEA JAPAN (Chigusa Nagayo, Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura):
* Akira Hokuto is back! And joins Ozaki’s splinter stable of SSU- Nostramadus! Hokuto draws a pop just for her glittery, shiny aquamarine set of gear. This match is probably to let her get some reps in- I’m guessing she’ll score the deciding fall. Yamada’s in yellow, Meiko’s in red & Chigusa’s in her black gear with the arm band again.

We get the Chigusa/Akira confrontation already to start, but only do a shoulderblock before tagging out. Meiko gets her arm snapped by Aja a lot, then everyone trades for short bits. Hokuto works a scorpion deathlock & STF on Chigusa, but Ozaki eats a wheel kick and gets worked on for a second… quickly just ignoring a double-team and now Yamada’s being beaten. Weird bit sees Meiko almost ignore a few spots Hokuto is trying, doing her European uppercuts instead, then everyone starts stepping on each other’s shit until Nostradamus does a group-pose on Chigusa. Everyone keeps interfering, Meiko annoying Aja with her antics, but Aja gets German’d and Chigusa Death Valley Drives Meiko ONTO Aja for two. Yamada has to save Meiko from the Uraken (kicking her out of the way), then everyone alternates, then Hokuto/Ozaki tease dives to lure GAEA together so AJA can flatten them with a running dive and Hokuto hits her trademark cannonball to the floor. Back in, Yamada eats Ozaki’s cannonball for two, but absorbs two urakens and backdrop drivers her for two, Oz backfists her, Yamada spinkicks Hokuto, but Aja Urakens Yamada. Hokuto signals the end, but Chigusa runs in and Meiko hits a DVD on her- Ozaki Germans her out of the pin, but Aja eats the pele kick. She lariats Meiko and hits a Brainbuster for two (GAEA piles on to break). Aja nearly finishes with a huge lariat for our “last-ditch kickout”, and Nostradamus clears the ring and hits a double Doomsday Device, but Aja pulls Meiko up at “2” then ends her life with the Uraken at (14:17). This mostly furthers the Aja/Meiko issue then.

An interesting match, as it’s kind of just a mess of stuff with no flow. Like it was constantly MOVING, but offense would be ignored, countered, or interrupted willy-nilly and people were constantly running in to stop flurries or just no-selling them. The match was likely to establish Nostradamus as a group and to let Hokuto get some reps in without having to do a full bout, as she just does the basics here. It got pretty good by the end, but by that point we’d had all six women in the match so routinely that it felt like “more of the same”. Hokuto in particular was in for like 2-3 minutes tops and barely had to eat any offense, which means they were probably “babying” her (in this case, going soft and letting her rest to not overwork her). Again I’ll note that Chigusa’s big comeback and “getting in shape” montage has led to one win over Mita and a bunch of losses in team matches.

Rating: **1/4 (pretty okay but very “filler” and not much of a flow to it- just constantly interference)

AKIRA HOKUTO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. MAYUMI OZAKI & SUGAR SATO:
(Aug. 22nd)
* A much smaller gym show sees Hokuto get another match… and it’s Nostradamus splitting into matches against each other? weird. Like the Tag Champions are on opposite sides.

JIP as Sato hits an Oklahoma Stampede on Hokuto and dives onto Chikayo, and Ozaki gets a huge Ligerbomb for two. Hokuto flies in so Chikayo can hit her Fisherman’s Buster, and Sugar runs in and eats a DOUBLE one. But Etsuko Mita hits ringside and blasts her former senpai, Hokuto, with a chair (as SSU & Nostradamus are rivals), and Ozaki hits a Tiger Suplex on Chikayo for the pin at (2:12 shown).

LIONESS ASUKA & SONOKO KATO vs. NOSTRADAMUS (Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato):
(Aug. 29th)
* Lioness takes her new protege up against the Tag Champions in this non-title match. VERY clipped here- to the end of the match.

Lioness promptly hits her Flying Stomp to a table draped over Sugar, then a Blue Thunder Bomb gets two- Chikayo saves. Kamikaze Bomb (rolling fireman’s off the second rope) gets two, but Sugar escapes the Dragon Suplex & hits a falling powerbomb for two. Kato counters another and gets the Dragon with Asuka’s help, but still only gets two. Lioness powerbombs Kato ON Sugar, but only gets two (Sugar has to kick out as Chikayo is late on a flying elbow to break). Sugar powerbomb, but Kato kicks out and rips on the arm. Sugar scores some backfists but Lioness lariats her… but a Dragon Suplex STILL fails on the pin, and when Kato tries Kowloon’s Gate, Sugar counters with a Ligerbomb for three at (3:51 of 17:27 shown). Impressively, Sugar’s able to effectively fight off Kato’s finishers AND Lioness interfering. I was mostly expecting it to be “Lioness has to help Kato win” but instead Kato gets help and still loses, I guess establishing that she has a lot more work to do.

NOSTRADAMUS (Aja Kong & Akira Hokuto) vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA & MEIKO SATOMURA:
(Aug. 29th)
* Another “Team GAEA” scenario has the midcarders taking on Main Eventers)

JIP with Yamada firing kicks and babying a backdrop suplex on Hokuto, then a billion more as she just keeps going with that, then Aja saves Hokuto up top and helpfully superplexes her onto Yamada for two. Aja & Meiko finally go, Aja making hash of her with a brainbuster, but Yamada makes a save to set her up for the DVD- Hokuto saves. Meiko ducks the Uraken and hits a Pele kick, but can’t get the pin and finally eats that Uraken for the three at (4:23 of 13:10 shown). This was more of the same with this group, Aja once again showing near-total dominance over Meiko and giving only a few two-counts to her.

Clips from a press conference on Aug. 15th where Chigusa & Lioness talk about their upcoming rematch. The highlight is Aja’s wild button-up shirt. Or LCO being like “Yeah, we can afford designer dresses now. Suck it, non-freelancers”.

Joshi Wrestler Fashion Sense is usually the best aspect of these “shit-talking press conference” scenarios.

SUPER STAR UNIT (Lioness Asuka, Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. NOSTRADAMUS (Mayumi Ozaki, Aja Kong & Sugar Sato):
(OZ Academy, Aug. 29th)
* It’s a big part of the SSU/Nostradamus feud, with only Sugar not being a main eventer. Asuka’s in black, Mita yellow, Shimoda red/white, Ozaki red/black, Aja navy blue/black & Sugar white- a very colorful assemblage today. This is apparently the same day as the prior match, even though it’s still got Aja in there? OZ Academy, Ozaki’s promotion, is running it- their lime green mat is an eye-opener, but there’s not a lot of fans here.

Nostradamus attacks immediately, Aja scoring a Brainbuster on Asuka for two, missing her second rope splash after she & Oz accidentally backfist each other. LCO randomly run in and help Asuka pull in a table as this is already a sprinting mess, Aja accidentally backfisting the table but firing back anyways. She goes for a brainbuster, and Mita’s chairshot accidentally bangs Asuka right on the noggin, and Aja hits a Backdrop Driver, but climbs and eats a Ligerbomb for two. Everyone scores backfists and Sugar slows it down, but takes the blue thunder bomb for two. Mita scores a dive but Shimoda cannonballs her own partners, and Sugar missile kicks a chair into Mita’s head and powerbombs her (!) for two. Mita attempts to cheat with a chair, but eats backfists and a terrible ligerbomb (like half a kneeling powerbomb) for two. Aja superplexes Oz on Mita, the only person selling, but Mita finally lands a powrbomb on Ozaki. Shimoda takes an oil can to the head, but dodges another so Oz takes it, and SSU smokes her but she avoids Shimoda’s cannonball. Sugar waits forever for her cue and sets up Shimoda for the Tequila Sunrise and backfist for two, Shimoda kicks out of another clobbering, and then lazily ax kicks Ozaki’s next backfist as they’re being as loose and sloppy as possible, just lazing about in front of few fans. But Shimoda shows a move I’ve never seen her use- a SOMERSAULT flying ax kick, but of course only gets two. Asuka accidentally kicks her own partner, but Shimoda just… completes her next somersault ax kick anyways. And then it’s the finish, as Aja runs in but accidentally hits the Uraken on her own partner, Shimoda doing a weak ax kick and pinning Ozaki at (9:26). Oh god FINALLY.

Just a MESS of a match- everyone either has the zoomies or isn’t bothering to sell (aside from short sequences on Mita & Shimoda, people frequently sell for only a second before calmly making it to the apron and standing right up like nothing happened). Constant interference, people spamming backfists until they mean nothing, and finally they all just get lazy and sloppy like “meh, it’s falling apart anyways” and not bothering to be precise. Like look at Shimoda ax-kicking Ozaki’s backfist- both were loose and sloppy, then Shimoda just slowly swings her leg up and brings it down on Oz’s slowwwwwwwww-moving hand. Then the dreaded “you hit me, but that wasn’t the plan” move as Ozaki hits two flying somersault ax kicks in a row, but only scores a pin thanks to Aja’s mistake.

Rating: *1/2 (combining lazy with sloppy with no-selling)

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Asuka gets on the mic and talks trash, and then oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Chigusa as ZERO hits the ring! Blue flashing lights! Chigusa in her weird heel character that I was hoping we’d seen the last of! Zero comes out and… poses. Then turns around and leaves. Asuka gets on the mic and yells again.

So uh, GAEA has a Stable Warz going on! And that means loose, sloppy matches with poor selling and random clusterfucks as everyone just flings around and does whatever! Nostradamus vs. SSU goes this way, and GAEA now seems to be largely ignored.