Joshi Spotlight: Saya Endo

Saya Endo, between her two senpais in Neo Ladies- Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- SAYA ENDO:
Real Name: Nobue Endo
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″, 150 lbs.
Career Length: 1994-2001

-One of the “Forgotten Joshi Wrestlers” of the ’90s is Saya Endo, who had the misfortune to debut just as the Boom Period was ending, hit her “standard wrestler phase” just as her home company nearly died and jettisoned most of its talent, then ended up as “Card Filler” in a dying indie (Neo Ladies). Making matters worse, she never even got remotely good!

Saya is so unluckily bad she also wrecked OTHER wrestlers’ matches! She was paired up with Las Cachorras Orientales when they were Neo wrestlers, and their usual tag match template was extended into a “Trios Match” template, with Saya shoring them up. The problem was… that LCO formula was predicated on Mima Shimoda eating offense and selling, and Etsuko Mita coming in to mop up. Both were also A+ sellers who were good at putting over others’ offense without drawing any audience sympathy because they were so whiny and screechy about it. Endo, however, had never quite put all of that together, so what we ended up with were eternal segments where she’d be selling for 7-8 minutes, but almost never vocalize, not really act in any way to get people into the match, etc. She also had boring, weak offense that never quite developed.

Saya’s movements and execution seemed okay, though. She just… couldn’t put anything together into good matches. She felt like a pretty barebones “Generic McWrestler” archetype with nothing interesting developing, but not actively awful until you really saw how it was affecting matches to have someone with no personality tied up with the heels. When LCO quit Neo, she was left orphaned… and languished, as she was worse than pretty much everyone else in the company. One of the more surprising things is her never having won a single belt in her entire career- this is almost unheard of for someone who lasted seven years in this era, and is the true sign of a scrub. Zenjo had a million belts kicking around for nearly every tier of development as a wrestler, so not even winning the rookie belt is pretty damning. Granted Neo/NEO didn’t have belts for the longest time but still.

CAREER TRAJECTORY:
-Saya Endo debuted for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (Zenjo) in 1994 alongside Yoshiko Tamura, Misae Genki, Tanny Mouse, and Naomi Kato (who soon quit and joined JD’ as “The Bloody”). This was an interesting era for the company, as the Interpromotional Era was winding down and the fans were less interested in what each company had to offer. Problematically, every promotion had been in a holding pattern with little elevation for the entire duration (1992-95 or so), and so she was entering a company that was stagnant and hadn’t pushed the next generation nor retired the top one, so she had like 20 senpais (upperclassmen) already.

When Zenjo nearly goes bankrupt in the summer of 1997, they have to jettison all their contracts- Kyoko Inoue ensures most of them have work, and recruits most of the up & coming wrestlers and rookies to Neo Ladies- a new venture that quickly proves to be a money-loser. For some reason, she was set up with LCO as a “Junior Partner” (I believe this started at the end of their Zenjo run, though), helping them out in matches. Like I said before, I feel like this often screwed up the “LCO Template”, as the veterans would just let her eat move after move for 8 minutes, then come rampaging out with their own stuff- preventing Shimoda in particular from selling did not help them. Eventually LCO quit to go freelance, essentially abandoning Endo. I’ve seen a match from months afterwards where they interact again, and Endo acts angry, hurt and enraged at her former senpais.

Cagematch is notoriously scant about anything from 1998-2005 or so in the Joshi scene, so it’s tricky to see what’s going on, but Endo doesn’t pop up much. Just regular matches here or there, losing ot Kumiko Maekawa in a Zenjo event in 2000 in 15 minutes, or beating rookie Saika Takeuchi in GAEA. It’s clear she never wins any gold at all, which is pretty unusual, as I said before- it was common for AJW rookies to win their introductory belt/s. I’ll blame some of this on the aforementioned stall-out of the AJW roster due to the Interpromotional Era- wrestlers who would have otherwised moved up the card were still hanging onto those positions by the time Endo was experienced enough to win them.

Saya Endo retires in 2001- of her class, Yoshiko Tamura & Misae Genki become bigger stars. Tanny Mouse becomes a comedy wrestler- low-rent but she wrestles until 2010.\

MOVESET:
Powerslam, Dragon Suplex, Guillotine Legdrop (finisher… if she ever won)

THE MATCHES:
* Okay she barely appears AT ALL in my reviews- it was actually a struggle to find anything to go off of!

AAAW JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TITLES:
MEIKO SATOMURA & SONOKO KATO vs. TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI (JWP) & SAYA ENDO (AJW):
(GAEA 2nd Junior All-Star, July 18th 1997)
* Another Interpromotional war… but for the GAEA Tag Titles. “Rock Your Life Away” airs in full as Meiko & Kato defend their titles against a JWP/AJW squad of people who have no fuckin’ chance in the entire world! Great shot of the Champions standing there in the spotlights, letting the moment sink in and realizing just how big this is. Endo’s in a black one-piece with gold piping & Miyaguchi’s in a yellow sporty get-up. Meiko & Kato are in the usual.

We’re JIP to Meiko hamming it up while blitzing everyone, Miyaguchi taking her windmill elbow. They deck the hell out of each other but Endo lures Meiko into a Samoan drop & backdrop to the floor because she’s really easy to provoke. Meiko armsnaps her, but Miyaguchi just decapitates her with a kick on the apron while Kato & Endo scrap on the floor. But Miyaguchi flies into her own partner and the GAEA girls put the boots to them and hit a Hart Attack European uppercut (damn that’s sweet) and Miyaguchi’s head bounces back so Meiko elbows her in the same move. Kato throws kicks but gets hung up in the ropes and beaten on, and Endo throws kicks & neckbreaker spam for two- Meiko accidentally windmill elbows Kato when Endo ducks and Kato’s leg gets shredded. Doomsday Device dropkick gets two, and Endo misses a move so Miyaguchi just flies in with an enzuigiri to keep it going. Meiko actually runs in and drags Kato to her corner and draws BOOS for it even as Endo keeps brawling with her to stop it, and chases Endo to the corner and brings her off with the Super Cross-Armbreaker- Miyaguchi breaks it up. Endo reverses the DVD to a rollup & German for twos.

Miyaguchi with a flying Thesz press for two but Kato stops a super move, so she instead catches a flying Meiko with an airplane spin Samoan drop! Crowd LOVED that, but Kato 2nd-rope legdrops her to stop the pin and they hit a fireman’s/flying splash for two. Death Valley Driver- Endo saves. Miyaguchi’s doing this great glassy-eyed death stare as Meiko has to drag her limp body across the ring, but Endo stalls Meiko enough for Miyaguchi to spring to life and throw infuriated slaps into a Super Samoan Drop for two! Both are selling death, Meiko doing a barf-face and Miyaguchi just hanging her head as she slow-crawls and it’s 45 seconds until they make their tags- Endo goes after Kato’s legs and Germans her for two. Endo reverses a reversal to another legbar- Meiko runs in and gets powerslammed and Miyaguchi suplexes Kato ONTO her, and Endo pins the pile for two. Kato surprises her with a Dragon Suplex for two- Miyaguchi knocks out the bridge. Kato climbs but gets the Mandatory German Off The Second Rope and an Endo guillotine legdrop gets two! But Miyaguchi climbs and Meiko knocks her off the top with a European uppercut, and Kato hits a Flying Roundhouse Kick and pins Endo at (12:33 of 18:01 shown)! Well that was unexpected!

See not only was the ending pretty obvious, but the match booking makes it MORE clear since you never see one team dominate so much if they’re actually going to win, haha. But damn, check out Miyaguchi here! All “No- give ME a push!” and throwing out all sorts of cool shit. Meiko & Kato actually seemed far diminished compared to them, in part because they were being pretty generous eating all sorts of offense and even fighting dirty to stay in the game, to the boos of the crowd. The hammy theatrics of the group was getting a tad excessive at points, though, as Miyaguchi was even worse than Meiko for just screeching all match long, which gets a bit old. And yeah, wasn’t that big a fan of the finish, as it seems like the GAEA girls were getting their ASSES KICKED and then just lucked into a one-two punch for the finish.

Rating: ***1/2 (excellent in parts and disappointing in others- a real showcase for the challengers, who looked their best ever)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thZKtkkzsxM&ab_channel=PuroArchive

SAYA ENDO vs. YOSHIKO TAMURA:
(Neo Ladies, May 6th 1998)
* LCO’s goon takes on the mostly highly thought-of rookie of Neo! But uggggghhhhh I’ve already had the match length spoiled, lol. I always “spoil” that by habitually moving the cursor along the video length to see when the end was. No idea why- maybe just a constant obsession with % completion of shows? Endo’s in green & white, and Yoshiko’s in black & red.

They use rookie-fu to start, Endo biting and choking to take the lead. They’re at least putting in the effort, screaming the whole way. Tamura bites free of a clutch and works a headscissors and bow & arrow, then both do Boston crabs and okay Endo’s constant screeching has gotten annoying. oh god Endo just KEEPS GOING FOR CRABS- man, whoever built her in Fire Pro didn’t add much of a moveset. Both do running attacks, then it’s a crowd brawl as Endo slowly throws chairs onto Tamura in the stands. Tamura tries the mandatory post-beatdown comeback but botches a flying sunset flip and Endo improvises dropkicks and ANOTHER CRAB. At least Tamura is getting bent in half and seems to be hollering in the whistle-register in these.

Tamura gets a Bridging German for two, but the kickout is weak (Endo just rolls over). Two big missile dropkicks and a Super Ace Crusher get two. Tamura gets two Northern Lights suplexes, but Endo reverses to a pin on the last one and hits a straightjacket Perfect Plex for two, but eats shit on a guillotine legdrop and gets her leg worked. Endo finally breaks free from a LONG figure-four, only to end up in the “leg hump” move, but she catches Tamura with a backslide, kick of fear & powerslam as she tries to end the match. Note the lack of leg-selling despite ages in the figure-four, haha. Oh wait, she’s limping again- this lets Tamura catch her up top with the Northern Lights Superplex, and a regular NL suplex gets the “dramatic 2.8 impressive kickout” for Endo. Endo manages a snap German and they’re both justifiably selling death- Tamura gets the next one, but takes her time up top and eats a superduperplex for two. Guillotine Legdrop… 2.8! And a Dragon Suplex FINALLY scores the pinfall at (26:31). Saya Endo defeats Tamura in a MARATHON!

This is one of those “Hey, they can go long- impressive, right?” matches joshi does occasionally, and it’s nearly always a dreadful slog of rookie-fu like this. Tons of restholds made into the whole meat of the match, “screaming in holds” used to tell the match’s story, and more, because it’s usually inexperienced non-stars doing it. Granted these are like fourth-years. But you get stuff like 8 minutes of Boston crabs and then Tamura… just wrestling like normal, as if her back isn’t hurt at all from that, or Endo only sorta selling the leg after several minutes in figure-fours because now it’s time to hit the “actual moves”. THAT JUST REVEALS TO EVERYONE THAT ITS FILLER!

Rating: *1/4 (competently wrestled for the most part and they put in effort but OH MY GOD FUCK THIS MATCH and ever watching it again- a solid 10 minute match padded out to 26)

OZ ACADEMY (Mayumi Ozaki, Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima) (GAEA) vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo) (Neo Ladies):
(GAEA Japan, July 19th 1998)
* !!!!!!!!!! Holy crap- it’s OZ vs. LCO! Given how Ozaki’s entire thing is being a giant shitass and constantly cheating and being awful and she’s taking on the supreme deities of that style of wrestling, this’ll be interesting. Mita’s in white/blue, Shimoda’s in white/pink, Endo’s in a weird green & white one-piece, Ozaki’s in red/black, Sugar’s in white & Chikayo’s in yellow.

We’re Joined In Progress with ten minutes elapsed with Mita first tossing Endo onto OZ Academy on the floor, then the proper assisted tope con hilo/dive combo into the crowd brawl & chair-tossing. Shimoda missile kicks Sugar for two and Mita adds a blue chair, but the pink one hits Shimoda, but Sugar throws machine-gun knees into the dragon screw and Oz adds a backfist. She misses a second and Shimoda gets a quick ax kick for two, but misses an awful moonsault and another backfist gets two. Powerbomb gets two, then Mita tries to use a Blazing Chop but Ozaki pulls Shimoda’s back up to take the move (though the timing made it look like Mita just hit her partner on purpose). But Shimoda manages a tiger suplex for two anyways, but Oz rolls Mita up from a powerbomb attempt. But Mita swats her down with the Blazing Chop and gets the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop for two as LCO blocks OZ- Shimoda wins the day by soccer-punting the referee for not counting three. But Ozaki counters another powerbomb and stuns Mita with an axehandle before DDTing her and tagging to Chikayo, who misses a flying stomp and gets powerbombed for two, but avoids another avalanche chair drop and Germans her off the ropes and completes the stomp for two, absolutely PLANTING her ass into Mita’s ribs and presumably apologizing profusely during the two-count.

Mita grimaces as she holds her ribs but Chops Chikayo down, only to get rolled up trying an assisted powerbomb with Shimoda, and Chikayo hits a Flying Rana for a close two! But Chikayo flies off and nearly gets DVD’d, Mita just tossing her for a Shimoda missile kick and hitting a big kneeling powerbomb for two- OZ shoves them over. Chikayo rolls up Endo but gets powerslammed for two, and they screw up some top rope thing and Chikayo splashes knees. Endo wins a German war but Chikayo NO-SELLS and hits her sunset flip for two, and Sugar gets a dragon screw & facecrusher both off the top for two-counts… as Mita pastes her ass with a blue chair. Sugar dodges twin chairshots and her partners grab the chairs and smoke LCO, then hit the world’s worst double-assisted powerbomb on Endo on both chairs- damn she didn’t get any height on her jump and Sugar couldn’t handle the load till the other two showed up. LCO invades to fend OZ off and Mita electric chairs Sugar onto the chairs and sets up Endo’s attack, but her guillotine legdrop misses. Sugar misses a backfist and Ozaki accidentally nails her while she’s fighting out from a full nelson, letting Endo Dragon Suplex her until the pileup knocks them over. LCO set up a DOUBLE super chokeslam but just kinda weakly toss Sugar off (Sugar kicks herself off using the post and they don’t jump off with her). Endo hits her guillotine legdrop as everyone else clears the ring, but gets two and stupidly runs into Ozaki, who distracts her so she gets pinballed by backfists and Sugar dusts her off with a kneeling powerbomb at (12:19 of 22:48 shown). Sugar is elated at her victory, while Shimoda is just snarking at Ozaki and they have to be separated.

Well this was a bit of fun- not as all-out an effort as you might imagine given how it’s a bit of a Dream Match, but more a standard-issue, slowly wrestled tag with a LOT of prominent botches (like, how do you botch a DOUBLE assisted powerbomb? You had two people helping! But Endo’s jump was weak and Sugar couldn’t shoulder her entire lead-ass herself until the other two got there so they just kinda spun and dropped her). Mita led the majority, doing stuff with both Ozaki and Chikayo, acting as a “base” for both. Then it came time for Sugar/Endo and MAN Endo was a load as botches started coming and most of her offense is weak. Speaking of weak, most of the moves here seemed half-speed and not that impactful, like everyone was either hurt or had other stuff going on around this so didn’t wanna work too hard. Check the weakest double-super-chokeslam ever (as Sugar handles the entire bump herself). The slow speed is more easily explained once I saw the final match-time- when you have to wrestle for *23 minutes* in the middle of the card you generally gotta slow it down unless you’re main eventing.

Rating: **1/2 (pretty solid but bad when Endo was in and VERY slow-paced and simply-wrestled for what I was hoping we’d get)