Joshi Spotlight: Neo Ladies Pro Wrestling in 1999 (Part One)

NEO LADIES IN 1999 (Part One):
* Hey look! I found some Neo stuff! Which… last time it was called Neo Ladies and was a Kyoko Inoue-led mini-promotion with her and some of All Japan Women’s rookies, plus Las Cachorras Orientales & Chaparrita ASARI. But wait! Neo Ladies did not do well, and so LCO and ASARI moved on to becoming Freelancers, leaving a very top-heavy group. Neo is actually two different companies, mind you- the backers shut it down (in 2000, according to Wikipedia), leaving Kyoko with a lot of debt, but it rebrands a tad and forms a new company that lasts ten more years. I keep thinking only one is in all-caps but this is all labeled that way on YouTube, probably by mistake, but I dunno. This is in the midst of a feud with Zenjo (AJW)- promotions did these little feuds to prop themselves up and fill out cards a lot of the time.

KYOKO INOUE (NEO) vs. TAKAKO INOUE (AJW):
(May 5th 1999)
* Double Inoue EXPLODES as Kyoko once again takes on her former partner, Takako. Their levels are leagues different at this point so I can’t imagine there’s any drama here. But Takako has maxed out her “cheating” skill-tree and is now sporting an actual STUN GUN as a weapon (remember that in joshi nobody ever gets DQ’d).

Kyoko charges out of the gate with a lariat on Takako and continues to beat her ass, but quickly gets zapped with the stun gun, completely flattening a dead Kyoko and then “clicking” it at the fans and ref to show what she did while commentary laughs. Kyoko can’t get it together and recover, so Takako does the Attitude Era “stomp & taunt” thing. For three solid minutes they waste time doing this, Takako even sitting on her opponent, then easily counters a fired-up Kyoko’s stuff and starts the booting again. Kyoko resists a backdrop suplex and hits a powerbomb to buy herself some time, but Takako starts using her goofy “martial arts” techniques to pummel her with punches and a bunch of spinkicks. Takako responds to a defiant slap with a big one that gets a good reaction, but Kyoko finally knocks her down with one and Takako goes for the stun-gun, creating a big fight and Kyoko bails until she puts it away. Ten minutes gone with not much really having gone down. Takako uses a rib punch and some quick backdrop suplexes to wear Kyoko down, then does some leg twists with her super chokeslam mixed in.

Takako the Super-Shooter puts Kyoko up top and fires off a huge running punch that puts her on the floor, leading to a floor brawl for a while, then Takako backdrop suplexes her on a table and then the exposed floor. She builds a Chair Mountain in the ring and chokeslames Kyoko on it repeatedly, sending her bouncing up and wincing, but Kyoko counters one with an exploder onto the pile. Then they do a dramatic fight on the opposite corner where Takako aims for the super armdrag, Kyoko tries to pop her into her Super Powerslam, but Takako ends up with a superduper armdrag (sadly missing the pile by a ways). Destiny Hammer (flying knee)! But Kyoko kicks out at one! Another three- same result each time! Kyoko tries to fire up, but Takako ducks her lariat and urakens her. Takako gets an inside cradle for two, but charges into a powerbomb, reversing to a Manami Roll… but uh, she’s no Manami. That was ugly as sin, lol. Kyoko is for some reason now totally dead from this, and Takako undoes her gloves (commentator shouts “BARE KNUCKLE!”) and a straight right hand to the face gets two. Takako is pulling up a nearly dead Kyoko, and hits another Destiny Hammer… but Kyoko does the total no-sell! German! Lariat! Niagara Driver! And that pins Takako at (18:56), Kyoko Bret Hart Templating this shit, lol. Afterwards they hug and shake hands like the old buddies they are- never mind all that electrocution and stuff. But then Zenjo’s Yumiko Hotta hits ringside in her street-clothes and calls Kyoko out!

oh man, this was Smoke & Mirrors: The Match, as they filled time with Kyoko selling on her back for three minutes, Takako being a shit, then slow slap-fighting stuff, then Kyoko lying in holds (but not selling them), then a crowd brawl. It was like fifteen minutes before anything of real value or effort happened and then they were trying to do “final moments” stuff like the Chair Mountain spots and Takako’s punches, which are now supposed to be sold like death even though she’s a slender idol-type at this point. Then Kyoko, who’d been lying on her back all match and eating offense, and hadn’t done a single move to really warrant a pinfall for the entire thing, suddenly springs to life after eating a fifth flying knee to the heat and just effortlessly dusts Takako off all fired up as if nothing had happened to her for a “comeback”. Just dreadful, haha. Takako’s mannerisms were a bit fun and the “psychology” of her stun-gun being fearful was okay, but this was a lazy indie show match just extended to 19 minutes and given the Bret/Savage treatment with the non-stop beating leading to the insta-comeback, made worse because it also involved no-selling rather than countering.

Rating: ** (BLEH- technically fine in many parts and had a couple decent bits but mostly too long and lazy)

AZUMI HYUGA (JWP) vs. YOSHIKO TAMURA (NEO):
* Here’s a one-minute clipped match featuring JWP vs. NEO- Hyuga is of course the new Ace of JWP. It’s just quick shots here and there, but we see Hyuga land on her feet from a German attempt on the floor, then hits a super-quick running no-hands leap to the top rope and cannonballs onto Tamura on the floor. Tamura hits a super & regular Northern Lights for two, but Hyuga finishes her with a Michinoku Driver at (18:00). Yeah, your typical “kinda/sorta put over the company’s rising stars by beating her but taking forever to do it” match. Interestingly, the two debuted around the same time, which shows you how fast JWP pushed their “Class of 1994” kids.

RAN YUYU (JWP) vs. YOSHIKO TAMURA (NEO):
* Tamura also has to deal with another Class of 1995 kid, as Ran YuYu is also getting a big push in JWP. She’s in red, and Tamura’s in white with black, with a bandage on her head that’s essentially a white strip at this point.

We’re JIP with Tamura spamming Northern Lights attempts, but she goes up and Ran boots her in mid-air, then appears to stall-out before going to a Straightjacket German for two and hitting a flying enzuigiri that looks like it missed (the crowd didn’t react). Another one gets two. The motion for this is just kinda weird- like she slowly spins to the side and just kinda goes straight into them very delicately. Ran charges into a perfect plex from Tamura, and they fight up top into Tamura’s Super Double-Wrist Northern Lights into the regular one for two. Crowd is like “yeah, okay” with that kickout as they’re still pretty quiet, and Ran gets similar for a rollup and then powering her up into a Super Samoan Drop. They each do a pretty slick complex rollup, but Yoshiko finishes with a shoulder-mounted hammerlock thing at (5:59), getting a very sudden victory.

This seemed fine, though we got the back half of a pretty basic-ass match judging by the fan reactions and nobody really popping for kickouts of moves that had probably already been established as “near-fall fare” (super NL suplex/Samoan drop)- you gotta watch out in making moves- especially dangerous top rope ones- into “obvious kickouts” because the fans eventually stop biting.

Rating: *1/2 (seemed okay from what we saw, but just that- hard to judge without seeing any of the prior stuff, even with 6 minutes shown)

TANNY MOUSE & YUKA NAKAMURA (NEO) & KANA MIZAKI (JWP) vs. SHARK TSUCHIYA, CRUSHER MAEDOMARI & MISS MONGOL (FMW):
* Oh Jesus. Well at least it’s JIP and only five minutes long. This pairs two NEO undercarders with JWP’s former Konoko Motoya against three FMW goobers who can barely work at all.

Shark beats on Tanny Mouse and almost pins her with clotheslines, and Miss Mongol hits a flying shoulderblock. Crusher won’t sell Nakamura’s missile dropkicks but is forced to sell TANNY BUTTS (headbutts), but Mizuki accidentally nails Nakamura and she’s forced to kick out of a double-facecrusher. Sandwich clothesline, release double-backdrop suplex and “waist lift” Doomsday Device result in Yuka having to be saved a bunch, but Shark clotheslines Crusher by mistake… causing the entire FMW team to bail from the ring and just decide to walk out at (4:41 of 16:34 shown). haha what?

Rating: 1/4* (a few solid bumps from Nakamura the rookie but otherwise nothing to it and no finish, either)

NEO JAPAN CUP ’99:
KYOKO INOUE vs. MISAE GENKI:
* It’s Neo’s ace facing off against their biggest potential “rising star” in that Genki was on the level 2 steps below her at the start of the promotion and should have been built up during the time between their debut and here. SHOULD HAVE. Let’s see.

We’re JIP with Genki climbing after Kyoko and resisting her super powerslam to hit a superduperplex. She misses a flying elbow but backfists Kyoko off the top- then she can’t get an apron chokeslam so settles for an electric chair drop on the floor. Kyoko struggles in but finally eats that flying elbow and then another, resisting the G-Driver (powerslam) finisher but charging into the G-Driver for real right after! That gets two and they stand their awkwardly for a second before Kyoko hits a lariat for two, but Genki backdrop suplexes her and hits another G-Driver for two. A third gets a closer two and Genki rolls over, spent. Kyoko fights back with what was supposed to be an buckle bomb but misses by a bunch, but that puts Genki down enough for a lariat/Niagara Driver to get two. Ah, so Genki’s push has risen her enough to be able to do that. They keep countering and resisting strikes until Genki gets another backdrop out of a lariat, then they each resist finishers and Kyoko gets a last-ditch Lariat, also for two. Niagara Driver ALSO gets two, and a third one has to finish at (9:04 of 25:00 shown). oh man, that was LONG.

So this kinda showcases how far Genki, who was once the weird skinny “praying mantis”-looking wrestler but has now filled out and is like a giant powerhouse, has come. She’s a big bruiser using sideways chops as “filler” strikes and chokeslam/powerslam-based major offense, and is being booked like the rising star able to counter and kick out of Kyoko’s big moves, but not quite beat her. She still has a lot of hesitation, though- at two points here they both hit their feet and just stare at each other for a second before doing anything, which always looks like a brain-stallout in wrestling. The match overall is hard to assess because we clearly only get the last third of a REALLY long match, but was a solid showcase of strike & finisher attempts in the “final stretch”. Match wasn’t really over, though- the fans only seemed to react to a couple Niagara Driver kickouts, which indicates they weren’t really into Genki or thought she had a chance.

Rating: **1/4 (seemed like a good final stretch, but not enough to rate the whole bout)

So that’ll show you what Neo Ladies was getting up to in 1999! Largely… a bunch of random stuff, with Misae Genki and then Yoshiko Tamura slowly rising up the ranks. Genki is now in the “challenge Kyoko and kick out of two of her finishing hold” zone, while Tamura is in the “Job after a good fight to main eventers” zone, but can beat Ran YuYu who is next in line for the JWP Title. And the rest is mostly Interpromotional matches to fill out the cards. The crowd reactions indicate this is kind of the “Boring Promotion” that nobody really cares that much about, but the matches mostly being foregone conclusions probably doesn’t help.