Joshi Spotlight: AJW at Yoyogi Gymnasium (Zenjo Ends the Year)

AJW AT YOYOGI NATIONAL GYMNASIUM:
* It’s time for the last big Zenjo show of the year! Featuring Yumiko Hotta defending the Red Belt against dirty rotten cheater Takako Inoue, AND Las Cachorras Orientales defending the WWWA Tag Titles against Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa! Every bout those teams have is over ****! And we end things with the ’90s Best Bout, as Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue have the last big match of their eternal rivalry, going 20+ minutes and pulling out all the stops!

And it’s in a big building! This arena is shockingly well-lit, and clearly full of fans- the stated attendance is 3,800! OMG, Zenjo is popular again! Compare this to the darkened hellhole that was their end of year Anniversary Show just a year prior.

AYAKO SEKI vs. MIYUKI FUJI:
* ROOKIE MAYHEM! Fujii is a skinny, buzzcutted rookie in ugly gear, while Seki is a heavyset girl in an amateur-wrestling singlet over a grey t-shirt. I’ve never seen her before! She had just debuted in November!

Seki immediately charges in and just belly-bashes Fujii into the corner, then whips her around the by hair and arrogantly flexes when the scrawny kid tries dropkicks. Clipped to Fujii with an armscissors, but Seki does the BACKLUND LIFT and just chucks her down. Fujii manages a sunset flip, but gets belly-bashed again and a second-rope splash flattens her at (1:27 of 4:23 shown). Almost a total squash by the giant-sized rookie. Holy crap! This kid has so much potential! Already knows how to throw her weight around and crushes Fujii easily and I can’t wait to see… oh, this is her second-last match. She has her last one in four more days, and only ever wrestled on TV once XD. The only thing I can find is that “bullying” might have been responsible, and she was “taken home by her parents” (this wasn’t at all unusual for trainees, but usually they hadn’t debuted on TV yet).

Rating: N/A (but it was squashtastic from the looks of things!)

CHAPARRITA ASARI & HIROMI YAGI (Freelance) vs. KAYO NOUMI & MIHO WAKIZAWA (AJW):
* It’s a freelancer duo brought in to take on Zenjo’s lowest-tier tag team! Not exactly up in the air who’s winning this one. It’s clipped to almost nothing. Kayo blocks a double-dropkick and her team poses over an angry Yagi. ASARI lands her mule kick on Wacky (who zooms in a bit too close), but then the kids stage a comeback, Kayo getting a big rocket launcher to the floor on both opponents, and then Double Flying Headbutts hit ASARI for two! But the invaders both hit flying planchas to both girls, then Kayo dodges a missile kick and scores a double-wrist NL suplex on Yagi. The kids miss a Rocket Launcher in the ring and Yagi Germans Kayo so ASARI can finish her off with the Sky Twister Press (2:40 of 12:56 shown). What little we saw looked good but it was largely just the highlights.

KAORU ITO & MOMOE NAKANISHI (AJW) vs. MEGUMI YABASHITA & SUMIE SAKAI (JD’):
* A throwaway Interpromotional match that sees two highly-elevated Zenjo wrestlers taking on JD’ midcarders. Actually, both girls had left JD’ by August and were now freelance until they wrestled for JWP in 2000-2002, but shockingly, BOTH are wrestling to this day! I mean, that’s pretty nuts for a pair of 1997-debuting wrestlers I’ve never heard of. I guess they’re the “Judo Queens”?

The clipping mostly sees Team AJW destruction, as Ito uranages Sakai HARD into the mat repeatedly, then they take turns doing running stomps and finally big sentons to Yabashita. Yabashita tries an armscissors but Ito herself does the Backlund Lift now and splats her. Sakai hits a crossbody on Ito but gets demolished with a Bridging German & Rolling Germans from Momoe, and Yabashita saves her from a Doomsday Dropkick/Powerbomb. Yabashita counters one against her and Sakai gets a nearfall with a Super Frankensteiner on Momoe. Sakai gets a rollup, but on the kickout Ito hits the Flying Stomp on her & Momoe finishes with the Dragon Suplex (3:17 of 15:40 shown). That seems pretty long, but that’s the style for you. What we saw was almost ALL Team AJW. Looked **1/2-ish.

LIONESS ASUKA (Freelance) vs. NANAE TAKAHASHI (AJW):
* It’s time for some utter destruction, as midcarder Nanae is fed to Lioness, one of the top wrestlers in the business! Nanae, in pink, has a solid build and is rising in ability, but Asuka, in black and carrying her table as always, is gonna eat her alive.

Nanae charges at the bell and eats a clothesline for it, but hits some shoulder-charges- Asuka is knocked back a little but tries to no-sell them, then kicks her when she attempts a third, but she whips her off the ropes and NOW Nanae bowls her down with one! See- sell the THIRD one and make a whole “thing” out of it! Nanae does a dive and is all proud of herself, so Lioness decks her with a chair a few times, giving one to the ref for good measure. Nanae pops out of the chair when she’s sat in it, but runs right into a Raven-style drop toehold, eating it anyways, causing Lioness to point to her head to indicate intelligence- the all-time great wrestler spot. Asuka hits her two table spots (skooshing Nanae into it then flying stomping it), then rips her head off with a kick, but then MOMOE NAKANISHI runs in and cheats to help out her partner, setting up Asuka for a huge Flying Senton! Clipped to Lioness casually making a comeback, only to get superplexed, but the next cut has her powerbombing Nanae through a table. Momoe now openly cheats, but the kids eat a double lariat only for Lioness to charge into a backdrop driver, but Lioness sprays BLUE MIST in her eyes and finishes her with two Rolling Kicks (3:47 of 6:26 shown). Funny that they’ll cut a six-minute match. Looked fun with Momoe openly cheating due to the difference in level here.

Rating: **1/4 (looks about so, with Lioness easily dismantling her energetic, but hopeless, opponent)

WWWA WORLD TAG TITLES:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) (Freelance) vs. TOMOKO WATANABE & KUMIKO MAEKAWA (AJW):
* And ONCE AGAIN LCO compete for a promotion’s Tag Team Titles! Actually, this is like three days before (!!) the ARSION one, so LCO was BUSY in December. They won the tag belts from the ZAPs in the Summer, also raising hell in ARSION at the same time- the ZAPs were heels but LCO are now in their usual role of shitasses challenging Zenjo loyalists- Tomoko was ZAP T, but here is back in her babyface role of “person who hates LCO”, while Kumiko helps her reform their old team, which has traded the belts with LCO in the past, producing ****1/2-matches. The challengers are in matching blue tasseled gear. Mita’s in yellow & Shimoda’s in pink.

FALL ONE: Kumiko completely blitzes Shimoda with a rolling kick before the bell, nearly pinning her and leaving Shimoda scrambling to avoid the Ax Kick- Mita pops a chair into Kumiko’s back to stem the tide, but gets knocked around with a kick- clipped to Mita bashing Tomoko with a chair and Shimoda German-ing her, but Tomoko absolutely FLATTENS Mita with a lariat. But Mita fires back with a Blazing Chop off a whip and hits a very soft DVD by her standards for two (more of a side-roll onto Tomoko’s back bump), then hits a full one to a pin at (1:15 of 1:57 shown) and a big pop! Heel fans!

FALL TWO: Team AJW have to win two in a row now. Mita, knowing that, just grabs Tomoko as she stumbles for a tag and hits a THIRD one… and Kumiko slide-kicks her off the pin! So LCO goes to the old standby of beating them against the guardrails, but skip going into the stands and Mita just RAMS a chair into Tomoko’s taped knee and oh nooooooooo she’s in pain. This lets Tomoko let out her top-tier selling and Mita works the knee, then orders Shimoda up for a flying chairshot… and Kumiko sacrifices herself to save her friend! The delay lets Tomoko grab Mita’s kick with an intercepting Dragon screw (Mita, notably, sells different- just seething and grimacing so it’s not as sympathetic), then Kumiko comes in, literally kicks THROUGH Mita’s Blazing Chop, then rips her head off with a spinkick in an amazing spot. Shimoda cheats to turn the tide after that near-fall, but eats three leaping boots in a row for two, and Tomoko comes in with a ton of limping charges into lariat after lariat. Shimoda tries a comeback but eats Kumiko’s Ax Kick, but does her shitty one for two. Kumiko manages to fire back with a rolling kick- Mita saves. Shimoda dodges another Ax Kick so Tomoko limps in and hits her with the Screwdriver (backdrop lift into a skull-first yeeting). Ax Kick gets three (3:43 of 8:03 shown)!

FALL THREE: haha last fall and Kumiko instantly eats a banana-yellow chair to the body. Mita just tosses them to everyone to take the lead and Shimoda adds the hot-pink one. And now it’s the patented crowd brawl, with Mita piledriving Kumiko onto a table! Shimoda drags Tomoko way up to the upper deck (almost reflecting their famous match where Kumiko falls off the upper level of Korakuen!). Kumiko’s bleeding and Tomoko’s limping worse than ever, so Shimoda easily counters them with her double-clothesline and LCO hits the Assisted Tope Con Hilo/Dive combo and then start flinging chairs around and dropping guardrails on fools. The chairs are stacked on the challengers and we get the Guardrail Drop from the lighting truss around the ring! They repeat the move in the ring to cheers, but attempt a Super-Finisher and fuck up- Tomoko dodges the DVD so MITA eats a Somersault Ax Kick, and Shimoda pounces to stop the momentum… only to get lariated. She pounds the mat all upset, and then Tomoko gets reckless and charges right into another DVD- kickout out on her own! And NOW LCO hit their Super-Finisher, the Somersault Ax/DVD Combo… and Kumiko’s capable enough to save! And Mita’s next DVD is countered and she telegraphs just standing there… Ax Kick into the SIT-OUT SCREWDRIVER! Crowd shits itself at that near-fall. The challengers are like “Yeah, we’ll need something BIGGER!” and so Tomoko locks the arms for the Hellsmasher (high-angle tiger driver)… but Mita rotates out and here’s Shimoda with the flying pink chair! But hits Mita TWICE in a row by accident and Kumiko charges in to Ax Kick her and the crowd knows this is it- Ax Kick/Hellsmasher… AND SHIMODA SAVES! WTF I was like “that’s SURELY it!”. So Kumiko has to body-check Shimoda to the floor and the crowd is revved up AGAIN and Tomoko hits one final Hellsmasher for the win (5:56 of 18:07 shown)! New Tag Team Champions!

Haha damn, what a match. They abridged the hell out of this unfortunately, cutting even a 2-minute fall, only showing half of each one. This might have lost some fun bits (or just made the match drag) but it was wild. That’s maybe the largest number of “this has GOTTA be it” near-falls I’ve ever seen in a tag match, but the style fits that with all the ways someone can dive in to break up a pin. Even I thought it was it with the Ax Kick/Hellsmasher combo but then there’s that shit-ass Shimoda in there to ruin it- it’s wild that the crowd was with them for every single one at the end, never getting burned out. LIke, they were on their feet for everything after the Ax Kick into the Sit-Out Screwdriver, thinking EVERYTHING could be it. LCO eating move after move in the end was a huge way to put over the challengers, who were being built up to carry the company in the new generation. That LCO jobbed the Titles here and then walked right over to ARSION to job to Hamada & AKINO in only three days makes me realize why they made so much money as freelancers- as semi-big names that weren’t played out, they probably made BANK on these final pushes, getting paid to drop to people “junior” to them.

Rating: **** (I wish we saw the whole thing, but this looks TREMENDOUS)

WWWA WORLD TITLE:
YUMIKO HOTTA vs. TAKAKO INOUE:
* It’s a RED BELT match, but with Takako challenging! Never the most valid contender, she shows up in a black hoodie wielding her STUN-GUN, which has a ton of SFX making it look like a sci-fi super-weapon, lol. Blue lightning! But Hotta counters her with a FRIGGIN’ SWORD! With RED lightning surrounding it! Woo, Zenjo spending the big bucks on this one! This is obviously a match designed for revenge- Hotta lost her title in the summer because of Takako cheating with that damn stun-gun, and now that she has it back, Takako’s the first victim.

Takako immediately has the sword pressed right against her throat when she tries to dive in, but Hotta sadly puts it away for good after that. Takako goes “MMA” to start, but Hotta laughs off her kick and controls when she tries a takedown- Takako goes for the Stun-Gun already… but Hotta KICKS IT AWAY! Then she goes and just smashes it to pieces against the ringpost! The fans love it, giving an ovation (along with the commentators), and it takes away Takako’s once chance! Except she takes a rolling kick, rolls to the floor, and finds a SECOND one stashed under the ring! Oh, you SNAKE! That gets an equally loud cheer and some heel fans pipe up in her favor, and she jabs it into Hotta’s well-padded ankle, sending her agonized to the mat because of science. Takako boots her in the face and they go for the “Attitude Era Walk & Brawl”, though Takako isn’t actually doing anything for the longest time- she just drags Hotta high into the stands and presumably zaps her up there. She runs back waving her stun-gun around, SO proud of herself while Hotta is left crawling on her hands and knees. She makes it back in at “17” but eats some spinning elbows that actually look pretty good, collapsing for an “8”-count, looking dazed and like her legs are completely not working. Takako flies in with knee-shots and high-kicks Hotta down for a two-count that has the fans excited, but Takako takes a swing at her and Hotta blocks it right into the Tiger Driver! Takako kicks out, but looks dazed, so Hotta snags her in the Pyramid Driver- two! She signals a big finish, but Takako slides out and urakens her! A second uraken! Hotta’s.. oh she fires out a big SHOTEI palm strike! And Takako’s down for the count at (5:24 of 13:29 shown)! Hotta retains!

Haha this was GREAT for the time given (and clipped out). I mean, there’s absolutely zero chance Takako was going to beat Hotta fairly, so they didn’t even bother to pretend. No typical Zenjo cadence, no “long for the sake of long”, etc.- it’s just people blitzing each other with their best weapons right away. Hotta laughs off Takako’s weak offense and breaks her weapon, knowing it’s Takako’s only chance, but the crafty heel manages to get a second one, and this completely devastates Hotta with only two shots, effectively doing the work of like ten minutes of wrestling instantly. So Hotta is struggling and getting the fans into it with her selling, leading to Takako nearly finishing her with STRIKES of all things, but Hotta fires back her two powerbomb moves in a row. Then it’s a tease as Takako becomes one of a million people throwing out urakens, but now puro is deep into SHOTEIMANIA as palm strikes are now King Shit among wrestlers, and a big one with great timing just knocks Takako the fuck out. Great little story, and all in like six minutes! I wonder what the full version is like!

Rating: ***1/4 (incredible fun for the time given)

QUEEN OF QUEENS:
’90S FINAL BEST BOUT:
MANAMI TOYOTA (AJW) vs. KYOKO INOUE (Neo):
* It’s happening again! Their last big match against each other! This kind of “ends” things with this ages-old rivalry (one exacerbated by Zenjo bookers, no doubt- Kyoko was openly booked as the one chasing Manami in the standings for like six years, which probably did their relationship no favors- Toyota is one year senior and was booked as a force from olden times, but Kyoko was right behind her. They feuded hard in 1992 stuff I’ve seen, leading to their wild match Meltzer rated *****+++ back in the day, then feuded in the tag scene (Manami’s team ultimately jobbing out to Double Inoue, then Manami coming back with Shimoda as a partner for another round), and then Kyoko was FINALLY crowned with the Red Belt… just in time for business to nosedive completely and her run to flounder until she left the company. And now she’s back in her old company to have a match tribute to their feud… one Manami’s probably gonna win since she actually still works there and Kyoko’s company has gone tits-up and she probably needs the money.

lmao Manami holds her hand out, demanding a handshake, and when Kyoko is finally shamed into doing it, Manami pulls her hand away and makes the most self-satisfied smirk. And of course when Kyoko does the same thing to her, Manami just charges in and dropkicks her. Kyoko hits the floor, she shows awareness of Manami’s traits by hopping up to the apron AHEAD of her dive attempt, Flair Tossing her ass-first into the floor mats (OUCH). Kyoko lariats her against the rail, leaving Manami bent over backwards over it, then leisurely hauls her into the ring and eats the Manami Roll (I bet Manami misses girls being around who could take THAT), but Manami immediately eats the slingshot backsplash and Dancing Deathlock. I think Manami had to help the lift a lot there. Kyoko hits the chinlock until Manami randomly spazzes out and throws boots to the head (tater-city in here- she’s not KICKING her but she’s contacting the head and shoving it), then does the “javelin-kick them in the spine” move and mimics Kyoko’s dancing with her Muta Lock. Manami stretches her out, but gets countered to the corner DDT and surfboard. Kyoko hits her vicious off-the-shoulders backbreaker and modifies a sharpshooter into a lock over her knees as this match is so close to the old “Zenjo Cadence” it’s a complete throwback for me. Kyoko hiptosses out of a rolling cradle, but Manami soon switches her into it after all for two- a full thirty seconds of rolling, haha. Manami starts cheering for herself and Kyoko punches her right in the ass (like, dead center), then tries for an electric chair off the top, giving up and hitting an across-the-ring Super German when their balance is all messed up. A German Superplex 1/3 in? Yup- it’s a Manami match alright.

That leaves them both discombobulated enough that Kyoko has to shake the cobwebs out, hitting a couple lariats against the ropes for two. Manami reverses the slingshot into an electric chair drop this time, but takes an eternity up top and of course eats a Run-Up Belly-To-Belly like old times. But now Kyoko climbs and gets booted off (her foot slipping first so she’s not ready and takes a tumble), and it’s time for the Running Springboard Cross-Body, then Manamis’ missile dropkick suicida. And after a solid minute of set-up, Manami plops her on a table and hits a Running Springboard Ass Slam, somersaulting into Kyoko and falling backwards while the table tips over- man, that spot NEVER looks good. But now she has to be even more insane, and dumps Kyoko right below the second level of seating so she can climb all the way up there and hit a MONSTER cross-body like 15 feet to the floor below! Guys I think Manami is crazy. She of course gets right up and raises her arms in victory instead of selling the dive’s impact, then pulls Kyoko’s carcass into the ring for a Moonsault. She repositions her to get a better one, but is like “NO ONE MORRRRRRRRRE!” and the fans like that, and when Kyoko tries to poke at her, Manami just kicks her back and Kyok’s like “… FINE” and lies back to eat a third one for two. That’s seven Manami high-spots in a row, for those keeping track. But Kyoko stuffs the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex and lariats her down, FINALLY allowed to get more shit in and not just lie there for Manami’s clapping. And just as I type that, Kyoko tries her Run-Up Flying Elbow and Manami’s right there and snags the JOCS, getting two.

Manami tries a regular JOCS but Kyoko finally… FINALLY… gets to do some shit, catching a Manami Roll with a powerbomb and hitting a second for two. Kyoko tries a short-arm lariat but gets caught in Manami’s Pumphandle German finisher for two, then Manami missile kicks her head off from behind- Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex- two! A slap earns her Kyoko’s Super Headscissors for two, and then she charges right into Kyoko’s lariat for a 1.5 Jannetty Bump for two! She can still do that! Manami swings wide and eats a Bridging German, then the Niagara Driver for two! But Manami DOES THE DOUBLE-GUNS NO-SELL, taunting Kyoko into charging in and getting German’d herself! Except now Manami sits up and looks dead to the world, finally flopping over as we do an “All Japan Sell”. This takes almost a whole minute with them struggling to move (the fans are, at least, into this, cheering them on) before Kyoko recovers first and hits her Victoria Driver (inverted fireman’s carry slam)… for two! Manami pops out! Kyoko tries another, and when Manami counters just blasts her with another lariat turning her inside-out, but it’s the “Fuck YOUUUUU!” bridge! Kyoko aims for a Niagara Driver, running outta shit, but a super-quick Manami Roll nearly gets her. Manami gets out of another so they can brutally mess up whatever Manami was going for with a leg-lift backdrop suplex thingie (apparently it’s a Japanese Ocean Backdrop, a move I’ve yet to see). And so Manami apparently gives up, because she just bends down to roar and get the fans into her last-ditch move, and a third or fourth Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex ends it (23:03). Toyota is the star of the ’90s or whatever!

Man this was a nostalgic match. Though both are older, slower and less acrobatic, they had nearly the exact same cadence and spots that they used to- quick start, settling into holds and stretching, lots of “can you top this?” or “I can counter yoru stuff” moves, and then HIGHSPOTS out the ass as they go hog-wild on moves. Of course this was excessive even by Toyota standards, as she hits a literal seven huge highspots in a row, going from her modern shitty running springboard (having to bang her shin into the top rope and guide her fall with her hand) to the missile dropkick to the floor, to a somersault springboard onto a table, then a crossbody off the second level of seating into THREE Moonsaults… for two. I mean fair is fair, if this happened in AEW today we’d be shitting all over the “MOVEZ!” and how it didn’t even score the pinfall XD. Manami appears to be calling the shots here, as she totally buries Kyoko by spending ages doing taunting (even doing a weak little kick to prevent Kyoko from fighting a third moonsault- remember that this is making Kyoko look terrible because she’s taking so much unanswered stuff WHILE Manami is taunting the whole way). I checked and it was literally five straight minutes of unanswered Manami high-spots and Kyoko had to sit there and eat all of it, lol. And then she counters Kyoko before she can even get two moves in. At least Manami eats a bunch of stuff later for her trademark dramatic two-counts, only to do random no-selling and stuff.

This match came off like “You took this job for the money, so now I get to do ALL THE SHIT I WANT!” from Manami, who was just burying Kyoko left and right, haha. THAT SAID, the match just crammed in so much stuff it was still fun as a spotfest, and both were at least selling the impact and danger of the moves, meaning they weren’t just popping up and ignoring them (usually). And their stuff was executed MUCH better in recent years for both of them- Manami’s springboards were sloppy and so were a few Germans (and that electric chair they had to turn to a super german), but their finishers and the like were well-done. Aaaaaaaaaaaand as I was planning to cap that off, I see them botch the planned finish settle for the millionth JOCS- a move that’s already failed twice- for the unearned three (like why would THAT work when everything else hadn’t? Kyoko was on offense but suffered just one more thing, I guess).

Rating: *** (a very fun spotfest with some preposterous suicidal spots by Manami, with her full selfishness in the ring on display, but it’s such a throwback to the GO GO GO MOVEZ HELL YEAH style that I can’t dislike it)

So overall, this is a great sign towards the health of Zenjo for the time being, as they have a VERY full-looking, well-lit crowd of EXCITED fans, marking out for everything, popping for near-falls, and more! They trotted out some rival stars to job to their own names at the perfect time- a big, packed arena got to see Manami, Tomoko & Kumiko all pick up huge wins over established names from elsewhere, Hotta triumphed in a belt match, and more. Manami’s big win holds more importance given she’s wrestling for the Relt Belt in less than a month, too. Manami putting in effort for the first time in ages, too (she can smell the rising stars coming in behind her!).