Joshi Spotlight: AJW in July 1999 (LCO vs. ZAPs in the Rain!)

ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S PRO WRESTLING:
(July 1999)
* So mere months ago, a NEW joshi channel popped up on YouTube, spamming out a bunch of content from the era I’m covering! This allows me to fill in some bases! Most of this is from the absolutely incredible ATHENA TV set-up on the Fuji Broadcasting Center building, which is on a rooftop on Odaiba Island. It’s an amazing set-up for wrestling, as it has good acoustics, is small so a smaller crowd doesn’t seem horrible, and is outdoors so you get that “windswept hair” effect and stuff.

The matches here are largely some Japan Grand Prix stuff, a good Manami/Momoe “Veteran vs. Rising Star” match, and then a mother of a tag match featuring Las Cachorras Orientales vs. The ZAPs in a Cheating Heel vs. Cheating Heel match with tons of crowd brawls, blood, huge spots on the commentary stand, and more! This is also a good showcase for just how many people used the ATHENA lighting rig for their spots, as you see this nearly constantly, haha.

JAPAN GRAND PRIX:
KAORU ITO vs. TAKAKO INOUE:
* Ito has gravitated into a much heavier, bulkier fighter since I last saw her, with her push corresponding with her squatness. Takako has become a freelancer at some point in 1999 but remains in good standing with the Zenjo office. She’s in black, with the shorter hair that she kept for a long time, and the black idol outfit that she pretty much wears to this day. And some dumbass-looking boxing gloves to put over this “Takako is a STRIKER” gimmick they sadly keep working into matches, as if she’s at all a believable puncher. Ito’s in a black & blue bodysuit with shorts.

Ito immediately USES THE ASS, but Takako works an STF & sleepers, then gets uranaged down. Takako avoids a powerbomb and hits some weak spinkicks, then manages her Backdrop Hold after some reversals, then Ito follows her up top like a doofus and eats the Super Chokeslam for two. Still a very slow pace- Ito charges to knock Takako off the top and hits a dive, then gets that powerbomb for two. Takako uses a punching flurry to escape another and hits the Destiny Hammer twice for two. They fight it out but Takako gets a third one, but Ito rolls to the floor, avoids one off the apron, and POWERBOMBS Takako out there, which seems like it should be a huge spot but is just “whatever” to the fans, lol. But Takako sells it an appropriately long time and gets dragged over to the commentary stand where… you guessed it…. Kaoru climbs the lighting rig and leaps off about 7 feet in the air onto Takako with her Flying Stomp. The crowd’s reaction suggests this is a pretty routine spot by this point and not truly astounding. Takako sells by rolling into the exact position required for Ito to hit the Stomp off the commentary stand, not exactly working it carefully. They walk slowly to the ring, Ito hits the regular Flying Stomp for two, but when she tries again, Takako springs to life and uses the POWER OF THE PUNCH to knock her flat for two. She misses another Destiny Hammer and Ito ducks a backfist and hits a shitty lariat into a Ligerbomb, then springs off for another Flying Stomp for three at (10:42), winning handily.

This was the most “By The Numbers” puro match I’ve seen in a WHILE- Takako just hitting some slow holds, her Greatest Hits, then eats three big moves from Ito, including some big showy “look at ME, Athena TV crowd!” flying footstomps, then to the ring for a finish, which was pretty well just Ito crushing her with a mini-tease in the middle, doing tons of stomps again. All the comments on the video, when I translate them, are just “Ito sucks. Too many belly-stomps!” and shit like that- though I’ve heard she’s one of the biggest stars of this era, she’s just massively disdained by the YouTube Fandom for spamming the same move out every single time. Though I’ve been told this is just “coomers” who lust after the pretty girls and don’t like the uggos beating them up so I dunno!

Rating: **1/4 (not the worst match you’ll ever see, and they took some big bumps and hit some big moves, but it was pretty slow and predictable)

JAPAN GRAND PRIX:
ZAP I (Kaoru Ito) vs. ZAP T (Tomoko Watanabe):
* Oh my god they’re still doing the ZAP shit? This is astonishing, haha. So the ZAPs were Ito & Watanabe doing a masked heel gimmick, as a floundering, nearly bankrupt Zenjo went to the old standby of “Cheating Heels”, putting their best babyfaces under masks and making them use weapons. Yeah I dunno, but they were at this for a WHILE. I have some early 1997 stuff where they’d just started doing it and now it’s mid-1999. At this point they’re apparently the “Serious Form” when they really want to wreck shit. We’re back in Korakuen Hall for this one. Ito’s in the red mask & Tomoko’s in black.

Ito charges Tomoko before the bell with a kendo stick and wipes her out on the floor, tossing her into the stands where a girl in a dress isn’t quick enough to get out of the way and falls over in her chair trying to dodge. Tomoko just gets angry and lariats her on the floor as the bell finally rings. The fight goes past the stands, through the entryway and into the halls. Tomoko gets wrapped in duct tape, appearing to make no effort whatsoever to avoid it. A slam on a table and a DDT on the floor actually seem more dangerous with the arms tied, though. They head back to the ring and have a STICK FIGHT, won by Tomoko when she ducks and fires off a lariat, and she unmasks to a good pop. She lands her traditional spots (judo flip & rana, flying attack) but can’t her Screwdriver (backdrop lift to yeeting them onto their head in a ligerbomb) and they lariat each other. Ito hits her uranage but gets TRUCKED by a lariat, but manages a shinai (those sticks) shot into a powerbomb/flying stomp combo for a close two. She hits two more, but Tomoko bursts up and nails the Screwdriver for two! That makes a double-down, but Ito backdrops Tomoko to the floor and hits her Flying Stomp out there, then unmasks as Kaoru Ito and hits one more Flying Stomp for the win (10:04). Yes, throwing FIVE of that move in one match- no wonder Zenjo YouTube is always pissed at her!

A pretty typical “Walk & Brawl” match that’s pretty simple and less full of hate and more full of cartoony spots (taping up Tomoko and then DDTing her) and running around. It got a lot better once Tomoko unmasked and hit her signature spots, but then Ito went into StompSpam mode and handily won after that stretch. She of course outranked Tomoko by this point in the pecking order (of push, not experience).

Rating: **1/4 (another “pretty okay” one- funny brawling in the stands, some weapon shots, then finisher spam)

JAPAN GRAND PRIX:
MOMOE NAKANISHI vs. MANAMI TOYOTA:
* Momoe’s elevation has been lightning-fast by the usual standards, as she was a rookie being absolutely slaughtered in great performances in 1996, but by this point has been pushed hard until she was nearing the upper-mid ranks. She’s got a sporty haircut and a white/blue/back bodysuit with the shorts, while Manami’s in the usual red. Oh, and now it’s raining on the ATHENA TV set.

Toyota dropkicks Momoe in the butt before the bell, then ignores her offense and showboats in her very “Manami” sort of way. They take turns being snotty to each other in holds, then Momoe takes the greatest bump ever from Toyota’s spinal dropkick, just forward flipping over the middle and under the bottom rope. There’s some rain in the area and they keep slipping around, but Toyota actually hits the JB Angels armdrag after some crowd-fighting. Momoe gives as good as she gets, locking on holds and tying Toyota up in the ropes, but the veteran keeps biting her to break. Possibly because Momoe keeps calling the 28-year old “Obasan” (Grandma). Toyota absolutely levels her with two missile kicks, Momoe being my hero by doing a 3-foot slide on her shoulders from one. Toyota works an octopus hold and then tries a corner whip and that has about the effect you’d imagine as Momoe slides all the way outside the ring once they slip- Momoe does a comedy take wandering around the ring to enter without getting attacked, then gets the biggest pop of the match for shouting “OBASAN!” at the perfect time after another tirade.

Momoe tortures her in holds while still shouting that, but takes the rolling cradle. She dodges the Moonsault but ends up on the floor, but drags Toyota out there with a CRACK! as Toyota just slips right onto the mat… then Momoe hits a Moonsault to the floor! Toyota ain’t taking that lying down, so quickly hits her own Missile Dropkick Suicida, Momoe just sliding all over the place to put the match over. Then Toyota OF COURSE finds the lighting rig by the stage and launches herself off to nail the kid. Toyota goes up to finish, but gets German’d off the 2nd rope in a big whiplash bump, but she counters a lariat to a great Straightjacket German for two. Moonsault gets two! Momoe counters the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex twice over, getting a jujigatame, but splashing onto feet… but so does Toyota! Momoe nails a Dragon Suplex (trying that in the RAIN!?) but loses the grip immediately on the landing, then does two more for two, but Manami suddenly roars to life with a GAEA No-Sell (guess that’s a Manami No-Sell, now) and hits a huge Wheelbarrow German for two. Toyota missile kicks her right in the spine… but now MOMOE fires up and starts trying to no-sell, getting the biggest reaction thus far! But she just collapses and Manami hits the Ocean Cyclone, immediately slipping on the landing (cuz duh- rain). So she goes like “ONE MORE!” and hits it… but they both flatten out on the landing and Momoe even kicks out! So Manami signals a full one, and nails it perfectly on the third try for the three at (18:58).

This is your typical weirdly structured “Manami Tortures a Kid” match, modified with the insanity of wrestling a 20 minute match in the pouring rain and slipping and sliding around the ring while also trying neck-breaking suplexes and top rope moves like crazy people. Toyota shows the usual disrespect, defiance and shit-ass behavior she shows her juniors, but Momoe is at least highly ranked enough to fire it right back and repeatedly catch Manami with things, often slapping her around in turn and getting her own big moves. But they kept doing weird stuff like doing comedy, then some impressive moves… then do comedy again. Like it was just Toyota on random. The rain definitely made it more fun, though of course probably prevented whatever the gameplan might have been. Momoe was good to just run around the ring, causing all sorts of slips and huge whiplash bumps over the ropes, showing maximum effort (which is the surest way to get a young kid over), and then OF COURSE Manami has to do the big crowd-pleasing spot of climbing the lighting rig. But hey- they pulled things out in the end, with Toyota paying for her behavior and Momoe mimicking her big moves every step of the way, including swiping her “roaring no-sell” spot to be “put over” at last… but it’s not enough and Manami just hits her finisher repeatedly until she finally gets a good one. I’d imagine Momoe was probably supposed to kick out of it for a big “Hey- she’s improved!” spot but it kind of lost the impact because they were so clearly slipping on the mat that the pin couldn’t be hold, but at least Manami nailed the last one right on the money (which couldn’t have been easy in the storm).

Rating: **3/4 (some fun insanity and some once-in-a-lifetime bits due to the rain making them slide around, but it had less of the “LOL I NO SELL U!” Toyota selfishness and felt like more of a competitive MATCH, so it was quite good)

ALL JAPAN TAG TITLES:
KAYO NOUMI & MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. KANA MISAKI & TSUBASA KURAGAKI (JWP):
(July 1999)
* This is an AJW/JWP match, with Kuragaki in a green outfit and Kana Misaki being the former Kanako Motoya, in gold & white. It’s daylight on the ATHENA TV set, revealing just how small it actually is.

We’re clipped quickly to a JWP double-team leading to the old “psyche them into a dual flying cross-body” spot, but they just catch Noumi and sack-of-shit slam her overhead, then do the same to Wacky. Team JWP does dives to the floorm, then we’re clipped to AJW showboating over Misaki, then rocket-launching Noumi to the floor onto both opponents. Team AJW hits stereo flying headbutts for two, then Wakizawa bridging Germans Kuragaki for two. Fisherman’s suplex gets the same but she flies off onto feet and takes rolling Northern Lights suplexes from Misaki. But Misaki puts Wakizawa up top and gets missile kicked in the head by each of them, but Noumi gets superplexed and rocket launched for two. Senton & double backdrop superplex nearly leads to a Fisherman’s Buster from Misaki, but she’s rolled up for a CLOSE two. Misaki tries La Majistral but is too close to the ropes, and finishes Noumi with a Cobra Clutch Backdrop Suplex Hold for three at (5:45 shown).

A pretty solid “Rookie Match” with the typical last-ditch kickout of the “expected” finish. Everyone looked like they were trying hard but not exactly swinging for the fences. Which is a bit too bad since it was a Tag Title match and all- I’d have expected all four to be freaking out and desperately trying to avoid any kind of pinfalls from taking place, or dramatically trying to hold each other down.

Rating: ** (just fine- clipped a bit too short to rate any other way)

WWWA TAG TEAM TITLES:
THE ZAPS (Tomoko Watanabe & Kaoru Ito) vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* Oh yes, it’s time for more of the U*Tops vs. LCO! This led to a ***** cage match in 1997 as LCO were bailing on Zenjo due to lack of monies, but now LCO are ultra well-off freelancers. But the champs come out as the ZAPS once more- the battle is so serious and hateful than they’re using their more menacing incarnations. The tape transfer here is so bad I have to differentiate the ZAPs by belt color- Tomoko’s is red & Ito’s is yellow.

FIRST FALL: Immediately the stakes are clear as the ZAPs divebomb LCO to start and Tomoko hits the Screwdriver on Mita for two! This turns into the expected arena brawl already, with Tomoko using her big lariats on Mita on the ramp so everyone can see them. Ito uses a hammer on Shimoda, then ties her up with tape and rams the shinai into her while Mita gets taken apart in the ring, and then the ZAPs start targeting her leg with the giant brace on it, smashing it to hell with stomps and the shinai, doing a dramatic double-team one sold like crazy by Mita, thrashing around. Dragon screw! But as Mita thrashes around from that, Shimoda suddenly comes in with a chair and reminds ZAP T who perfected cheating. But the ZAPs take that as a challenge and strangle her using a chain pulled on both sides until Shimoda comes back with flail-fu and brings in a limping Mita for some Blazing Chops. But Ito stops a DVD attempt and does her uranage transition, tagging in Tomoko, but Shimoda flies in with a missile kick! But Tomoko slingshots onto them both and a flying attack flattens Shimoda for two.

The beating continues, but LCO use chairshots to repeatedly halt the offense, only for the ZAPs to use shinai until Shimoda hauls them both down with her clothesline, but then they stop the Assisted Plancha spot by dragging LCO to the floor and it’s ANOTHER floor brawl. Ito with the “Fan’s Umbrella” spot! Shimoda’s bleeding even as Mita outdoes Tomoko with chair-tossing. LCO stops the ZAP finisher (powerbomb/flying move) and hits their electric chair drop/splash combo on a PILE OF CHAIRS for … did the ref just arbitrarily stop? Oh he’s checking on Ito afterwards and she looks fucked up because they just roll her outside for more stuff (a recovery beating?). The bell rings but they just keep going. They keep throwing Ito into chairs to let her recover (lol) as the ref is desperately checking on her as they waste time. Ito finally lightly tosses LCO off the top rope and hits two Flying Stomps to Shimoda for two, and their Powerbomb/Flying Attack combo gets two- Mita saves. Another Flying Stomp finally ends it at (15:12).

SECOND FALL: Crowd Brawl #4 is immediate and back in, Tomoko scores three huge Germans on Shimoda (YIKES) for two. They start slipping and sliding around due to rain in the area and Mita flings a chair and Crowd Brawl #5 sees Mita hit a DEATH VALLEY DRIVER ON THE STAGE to Ito! Ito is totally wiped out over there, and it looks like Tomoko tapped a gusher from something as they drag her corpse into the ring and… get two, as Ito flings a shinai into the way! LCO hits a Double Super Chokeslam to Tomoko, FOR TWO, then Ito saves her from a Shimoda cannonball but gets German’d, allowing Shimoda a horrible uraken- Ito kicks the ref in the butt to break. Tomoko gets a surprise lariat on Mita, but gets Blazing Chopped and swung into the path of Ito’s shinai, setting up the Somersault Ax Kick/DVD combo for… two! They didn’t neutralize Ito enough! A regular DVD finishes at (9:33). Anticlimactic but at least made tactical sense, as Shimoda was now pressing down on Ito.

You’ll never catch *LCO* under-selling!

THIRD FALL: A vulnerable Tomoko avoids DVDs but walks right into a flung chair, but lariats out repeatedly at some weird angles- Ito footstomps Mita off the ring apron and then takes her over to the commentary stand for the Mandatory Lighting Rig spot, this time a stomp where she slips and ends up shoot splashing her from seven feet in the air, haha. That must have SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKED. Shimoda piledrives Ito, who if you remember was probably shoot concussed 15 minutes ago, on a table, but Tomoko manages a triumphant German to avoid a shinai beating. But ohhhhh she’s not legal- the ref remembers Mita is, so now a struggling Tomoko has to deal with her…. but catches her with the dragon screw! Ito Flying Stomp to the leg! Tomoko slaps on a figure-four to pay all that off, Mita just SCREAMING in agony (see above). Tomoko grabs a shinai and Mita collapses trying a DVD, so Shimoda actually blocks the shot using her own body, then dodges so Ito eats it! Ax Kick/DVD to Tomoko and Ito FLIES in to stop it! Okay they’re doing the hot near-falls now. Shimoda goes apeshit on everyone with a shinai, but Ito cracks her in the face with one and Stomps her- SCREWDRIVER! Shimoda rolls over as Mita’s late on the break. The ZAPs try their tandem finisher again but LCO stops them, firing of Dual Finishers- Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) & DVD! Tomoko barely gets her shoulder up on the DLD and looks totally deceased as she’s dragged to her feet, but snaps off another Screwdriver for two! But she’s donezo- Mita sneaks in with another DVD and Shimoda hits a final Death Lake Driver, bloody faced as she sits on Tomoko’s chest and holds her legs up for the three (8:29). LCO are new WWWA Tag Team Champions!!

Just total mayhem- no flow at all, just endless cheating and crowd brawls. Part of it’s because of the obvious injury at 11 minutes in as they kill time again, but that was THREE crowd-brawl spots like that in a very short time, and they do two more in the next fall. But Fall Two was much better from a “flow” perspective as now LCO are fighting from beneath, but crush Ito with the mother of all DVDs and then overwhelm a bleeding Tomoko with their top-tier offense, finally holding them both off and scoring their own fall. The unfortunate thing is there’s like a **** found in here that you can’t find because they defaulted to crowd brawls a lot, Tomoko bled but they didn’t really GET HEAT on her because she wasn’t firing up or trying to escape or whatever, Ito got hurt, etc. Like a lot of “Later Era” LCO matches, it’s just a lot of STUFF thrown out, almost at random. Tomoko’s lariat comebacks are just thrown out there with no emotion behind them either, maybe because the ZAPs are ruthless cheaters. The crowd didn’t really respond to anything but the big moves, which is the sign a match is just a Spotfest and not really “working” as a whole. But yeah, the entire last fall totally redeems the rest of it, doing hot nearfalls, desperation pin-breaks, and more.

Rating: ***1/2 (another spotfest- starts with no flow but then gets better with a fantastic last fall)