Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in January 2000

GAEA JAPAN IN JANUARY 2000:
* It’s a whole new year for GAEA! With a ton of random matches! And look! A new stable! Yes, there’s a new one. I don’t know when they showed up- I mean there were literally 106 videos in GAEA’s channel for 1999 and I watched ALL of them so I don’t know why this stable’s debut is missed. BUT it’s called “D OR A” (Dead or Alive), and features Lioness Asuka, Sonoko Kato, KAORU & Aja Kong. And they’re kinda working heel and not with GAEA Japan but also hate Nostradamus. I was super confused watching the first match here but my notes from a couple years ago (when I asked someone who knew) indeed listed them among the stables so I can pretend to know what’s going on. … and then Nostradamus eventually changes their name to “Himiko”. WHY?! IT’S STILL THE SAME GROUP! WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE!?!

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. KAORU:
(Jan. 16th)
* So uhhhhhhhhhhh looks like KAORU did a heel turn! She’s in some stable called “D or A” with Aja Kong acting as a second. And she’s wearing a VERY unique, elaborate outfit consisting of a singlet-style bit, a black skirt on the front, various cut-outs, blue fire, etc. Okay it’s pretty ass-ugly from the front. And she jumps Chigusa before the bell, interrupting her super-peppy strange theme music to deliver a beatdown on the floor.

First move is basically KAORU hitting a senton from the top to the floor, through a table. She grinds a broken piece into Chigusa’s head, but can’t draw blood- a few more headshots and she holds the table up so Chigusa punches it, and hits her Brainbuster. Michinoku Driver gets two and Chigusa’s finally bleeding, and KAORU takes a leisurely stroll getting a table, so Chigusa meets her up top and then they go in SIDEWAYS, ramming both their ribs into the table edge, which had to suck. Chigusa’s spattering blood all over the place and eats a moonsault, but powerbombs & lariats KAORU with a miracle comeback. The SHOTEI OF DEATH leads to the Running Razor’s Edge and that’s it at (4:41). Lol, they turned KAORU heel and beat her in 5 minutes? Okay then. Chigusa looks the worse for wear, and an annoyed KAORU slugs her and stomps away, making it come off like a fluke. Match was nothing but a few spots strung together, but all the YouTube comments are about how much better KAORU is as a heel and how cool she is, haha.

Rating: *1/2 (just a bunch of stuff that happened- some big spots then right into finishers to the point where there were almost no other moves)

NOSTRADAMUS (Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki) vs. AJA KONG & LIONESS ASUKA:
(Jan. 16th)
* !!!!!!!! Okay the sad thing is this is a ****+ match on paper if it’s a few years earlier and they’re not in “GAEA Sprint” mode but I’m not gonna get my hopes up, haha. Oz is in red/black, Hokuto’s in mostly blue, Asuka’s in black & Aja’s in white/black.

Nostradamus attacks before the bell and immediately shit it up by doing the Crush Gals Double Punch to Aja and cheering themselves on. And fuck me it’s SONNY ONOO running in, throwing a high kick into Aja while the heels hold her! What in the shit is HE doing here? It’s ages since he managed Hokuto! I thought it might be a rookie Police at first but then they said “WCW” out loud and I doubled checked and they indeed said “SONNY ONOO!”. Ozaki hits a terrible super rana and they do a double fisherman’s buster while Lioness is held on the floor by Nostradamus, despite Sonoko Kato helping her out. KAORU finally runs in and saves Aja, but buggers her springboard moonsault in embarrassing fashion. Nostradamus commits a mass beating forever until Asuka finally fights free of the job squad and starts backdropping people- she gets smashed by a goon’s weapon, but fires back- she blocks Ozaki’s backfist with a kick, then gets her to backfist a table, then flying stomps it onto her- Blue Thunder Bomb gets two, but Ozaki starts landing backfists and everyone trades stuff, Aja running in with her oil can and Asuka hitting a TKO (called as such) on Oz. Aja runs through the 2nd rope splash & Brainbuster on Hokuto, but THREE goons run in and interfere. Ozaki uses her staff and Hokuto Germans Aja for two, then a four-on-one beatdown ensues until Aja fires back and her own allies charge the ring so a 4-on-4 breaks out. Ozaki kicks out of an Uraken, then does a dramatic submission from on Aja’s shoulders until Asuka pries her off, but Aja Urakens her by mistake and Ozaki hits the move on her for a close two. 2 backfists and an oil can shot (to Aja!) set up the Tequila Sunrise- Asuka saves. Ozaki tries another, but KAORU swan-dives in and that sets up a final Uraken from Aja for the pin at (10:12)- Team Aja wins! Everyone gets on the mic to talk shit after the match, ending up in another mass brawl- Onoo draws laughs for fleeing madly from Aja.

Rating: ** (Kind of a lot of STUFF going on again, but there was a bit of flow and an over-arching story of Nostradamus repeatedly running interference every time it didn’t go their way, causing the other team to do the same. This even set up the finish. SO the match largely ends up with finisher spam and interference)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO & SAIKA TAKEUCHI vs. NOSTRADAMUS (Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima):
(Jan. 22nd)
* Chigusa takes the newest trainee out for revenge against the heel stable who tortured her- Oz is with Chikayo this time. Saika’s in lime green as always, Chigusa in the usual red/black. Chikayo’s in orange & Ozaki’s in the usual.

The babyfaces attack to start, but Chikayo quickly takes the long beatdown of Takeuchi, who gets battered around everywhere, even when Chigusa helps- four straight running dropkicks to the face when she’s in a chinlock hit, but she springs to life as soon as Chigusa helps her. Ozaki weathers her forearm storm and then does her own. Chigusa finally gets sick of it and helps out, beating on Ozaki, sweeping her out of a staff-shot, but getting missile kicked by Chikayo when she grabs it herself. A weak Superbomb almost gets the pin, and Chikayo does well against Chigusa for a while, but she’s caught trying her sunset flip thing and Chigusa ligerbombs her. A slam out of suplex position gets two, and Saika is tagged in… and is immediately backfisted by Ozaki. But she dropkicks the staff from between the heels and does Dropkick Spam, and the Rocket Launcher that had Saika pin a heel on an earlier show gets two. But Chikayo gets help from Ozaki and fires off a Flying Stomp for our Miracle Rookie Kickout spot, and Chikayo gets a nifty counter of a tilt-a-whirl move by powerbombing Chikayo and tossing the rookie on for two. But Ozaki suddenly jabs Saika with the staff and a HUGE German gets three at (8:51 of 9:30 shown). Holy crap that was a high angle.

Some fun rookie spots to this one- a bit like the last match but with more focus, though they notably don’t let Takeuchi do very much in the ring but sell and do dropkicks. Some good nearfalls with the Rocket Launcher & Powerbombs (assisting Saika has gotten a pin off of like… RIE-tier wrestlers but Chikayo is superior), then Saika’s own kickout off a Flying Stomp. Little things like that, plus her rookie fire, tell some decent stories. Too bad the rookies of the 1996-97 classes mostly didn’t get that kind of storyline focus.

Rating: ** (another pretty decent one- kept simple but told what it needed to tell)

NOSTRADAMUS (Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima) vs. CHIGUSA NAGAYO & SAKURA HIROTA:
(Jan. 23rd)
* The Tag Team Champions take on Chigusa & Sakura! This is actually sorta even as Sakura might suck but Chigusa is much better than either opponent… but they beat a better team than this for the belts last year. Sakura’s doing a “Lioness Asuka” thing again, again with a big pink table made of styrofoam. This is in a brightly lit gym in Nagoya.

Sakura plays “veteran”, demanding Chigusa fight alone, then ducks out on tags- Chigusa has to beg her to come in, and she immediately gets her ass kicked for ages. Chigusa now refuses tags and ignores her pleas, leaving her to get facecrushered a billion times. Comedy spots abound as everyone ignores Sakura’s lariats, Sugar has to tell her how to apply a Scorpion Deathlock properly (then anklelocks her anyways), and she does a Tiger Feint… while Chigusa is actively holding her opponents for her. She does more goofy theatrics with Chikayo and brings in the table (which clearly weighs like 1 lb. max because it’s sliding all over the ring). It’s so fragile they waste like 2 minutes setting it up, making the ref hold it… and then Chikayo just knocks her “through” it, which Sakura of course sells. She flat-backs like death when it’s “shattered” over her head, but the heels prove immune to the same lethal treatment (what is this, AEW?). Chigusa eats a German & Flying Stomp from Chikayo, and a Rocked Launcher gets two. Sakura dropkicks her INTO Sugar, getting an “OK” sign for it, and Chigusa hits a powerbomb, sitting down at the end like she wanted a ligerbomb. Sakura hurts her hand trying “martial arts” and takes Sugar’s flying back elbow for two, but grabs Sugar’s belly-fat to stop a move and gets Chigusa’s help to hit her Half-Nelson Suplex for two. She then tries to blow a fire into Sugar’s face, but can’t get the lighter to work and is left to spew the lighter fluid into Chigusa’s face, and Sugar hoists her for a Powerbomb, countering her counter and pinning Sakura at (15:24).

About as good as 15 minutes of comedy wrestling was gonna be, with lots of gags playing off of stuff, and only like 2 minutes of serious wrestling mixed in. Some of it was pretty inventive, and Chigusa was in on all the gags, though one wonders why sometimes they just randomly decide to do goofy shit against the hated heels.

Rating: ** (I dunno what to say about this stuff usually, but it’s nowhere near as agonizing as the typical Sakura comedy match!)

NOSTRADAMUS (Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto) vs. DEAD OR ALIVE (Lioness Asuka & KAORU):
(Jan. 23rd)
* Another “mix and match” bout, but at least D or A are united.

We’re JIP and KAORU is already doing awful springboard moonsaults onto chairs, and gets piledriven on one, then does a terrible springboard cannonball into Hokuto, then brainbusters her. Ozaki cannonballs Asuka and they do a 3-person LCO pose (the one that showed up in King of Fighters) until KAORU dropkicks everyone. Ozaki runs into a Blue Thunder Bomb from Lioness, they trade strikes, and everyone fumbles about like total amateurs for a while. All 3 Nostrodamus goons run in, Kato flies in, then Asuka hits a powerbomb but KAORU moonsaults onto feet and gets buckle-bombed (a new move in 2000!). A 4-way doomsday cannonball is fucked up so horribly (both cannonballs go 2 feet wide and the wrestlers holding Lioness just arbitrarily fall back) it gets the “chotto” of doom, and KAORU hits a senton & piledriver to Ozaki through a table. The goons break up her Michinoku Driver, and a literal slapfight breaks out, won by Ozaki with a punch at (7:23 of 9:26 shown)- Ozaki wins outta nowhere.

Rating: * (just AWFUL- completely messed-up moves all match long, “House Show Mode” for most of it, and arbitrary run-ins turning it into a mess with no flow)

MAYUMI OZAKI vs. KAORU:
(Jan. 30th)
* The D or A/Nostro feud continues.

They scrap immediately, but KAORU promptly hits her Michinoku Driver- a goon slips in a barbed-wire cane but KAORU steals it and wrecks everyone, then smashes a bleeding Oz into a padless corner. KAORU does some good evasion of red staff strikes, but gets pummeled with a chain (lmao check the ref blading KAORU plain as day on-camera). KAORU superplexes her onto a mountain of chairs, but Oz wins a chairfight, getting two on a bleeding KAORU. Ligerbomb through a table gets two as well- of course there’s like ten minutes left and they’re doing mega-spots like this, lol. Tons of interference breaks out and they mess about on the floor, hitting spots off the ropes, and KAORU absolutely FLATTENS Oz with a senton from the top to the floor through a table. The goons get handcuffed to the guardrail, and a flying knee/Michinoku gets two. Brainbuster on a table piece and a Flying Knee (with a chain ’round the knee) gets two as Oz is just invincible I guess. She hits a Ligerbomb but Kato saves, and now SHE gets cuffed, and the wrestlers cuff themselves to each other for an impromptu Chain Deathmatch. KAORU quickly gets another Michinoku Driver, but Ozaki yanks her off the top and hits a bunch of chain backfists into the Tequila Sunrise for two. She whacks KAORU with a table piece and prepares another backfist, but KAORU blocks it with the table (clever!) and just Goo Punches her with the chain FOR THE PIN at (13:24 of 16:38 shown). Wow, Ozaki does a job- will wonders never cease?

Just a mindless spotfest, with KAORU (a Spotbot at the best of times now) just going from big move to big move, Ozaki kicking out of EVERYTHING. But it was all over the place- a Ligerbomb through a table 1/3 in? A huge senton through a table and then she just randomly brawls with the goons for a couple minutes, then some obvious finishers ALSO fail to win? The match was another in the long list of “nothing but finishers” style- not rare in GAEA at all.

Rating: *1/2 (really just a meaningless spotfest- the senton was KILLER and some of the chain moves were great, but the whole thing came off like they made a list of kewl spotz backstage and just went out and did them all in order without thinking of anything else)

I kinda wanted to finish the Feb. 13th show and include it with this one, but I just ran out of time and space, and that one has two LONG matches (23-minute videos) in it, so I had to make that one separate. I might do a bio of a more minor wrestler this Friday instead, haha. What we ended up with here was largely another set of plodding, interchangeable “brawls with everyone”, which increasingly makes all of GAEA look like one single Best of 35 Falls Match.