Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan’s Feb. 2000 Show

GAEA JAPAN:
(Feb. 13th 2000)
* This is all from the same show at Korakuen Hall, save for one match from the 27th. Most importantly, this is a Dual Belt show- the AAAW Tag Titles and the AAAW World Title are both beind defended! Himiko’s Sugar Sator & Chikayo Nagashima defend their belts against DorA’s Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato! Then World Champion Aja Kong defends her title against KAORU in a pretty infamous bloody brawl!

MAYUMI OZAKI vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA:
* I actually reviewed this one ages ago for a Yamada bio! I actually liked it then, but at that point the GAEA “spend the whole match in the stands” thing was new to me.

Ozaki’s carrying a freakin’ bo staff straight away for some reason, but Yamada deflects it with a kick and goes to a cross-armbreaker before Ozaki starts choking her with it, then does an LCO-style pose in the ropes to the booing fans. They scrap for a bit, leading to Yamada booting Ozaki in the face and a backdrop suplex, but Ozaki turns it around outside, throwing chairs and such. But then Yamada fights back and smashes Ozaki’s forehead into the ringpost like seven times, leading to her bleeding and taking an even BIGGER ass-kicking out there! She grinds an elbow into the cut while Ozaki embraces the official for help, then goes into a football stance and runs the length of the stands for a huge screaming lariat- hah! Back in after four minutes, Yamada plays to the crowd that’s cheering for Ozaki now, but her Flying Turn Kick is blocked and a Kneeling Powerbomb gets two for Ozaki. She actually does a Buckle Bomb into that long corner pad, but another Powerbomb only gets a one-count.

Attempting to pick Yamada up earns Ozaki a dramatic armbar, but she escapes and takes another couple kicks, including a huge Flying Enzuigiri, but no-sells and just pops up for a big swinging punch for two. A backfist is ducked, but she hits a Dragon Suplex for a close call. Tequila Sunrise is blocked and she’s kicked, but another punch gets two. Yamada reverses a whip to a Spin Kick for two, but the Finisher That Never Hits fails twice and she settles for a big armbar. Damn, this crowd is hot. Ozaki is such a pro she makes a show out of getting only three fingers on the rope, which doesn’t count as a break, maing it more meaningful when she finally DOES grab it. But… she’s a heel- why is she doing babyface spots? Yamada takes a backfist but manages an Ax Kick, then FINALLY hits her Reverse Gory Bomb for a dramatic two-count! Ozaki’s up first and manages a quick Uraken for a near-fall, then lands several more while Yamada keeps bursting up after “one” only to stumble into another, so Ozaki tries a running one- that’s blocked, but she swings with the other hand, then does two more (the first one whiffed so she repeated it) for the three (12:21- though the clip on this channel is only 10:30 or so).

Okay I was expecting to completely reverse my take on the match in retrospect (I went 3.5 for it) but I still liked it despite how tired the style is getting. They both worked really hard and did dramatic counters, with the fans popping a bunch. Yamada had less fire and more “one more desperate shot” to her and there was a LOT of no-selling, though. And the end is just them flailing at each other over and over again. They mostly went right into a crowd brawl to avoid having a “feeling out” period and then went right into a dramatic slugfest with tons of “GAEA No-Sells” as Yamada fires up again and again, only to lose. Someone would hit a killer finisher and the person who TOOK the move is up first, doing their own thing- it felt like kind of a cheat just to have a shorter match have more “momentum-shifting drama”. It makes for an exciting match, sure, but hurts the “story” if I may be so snobbish.

Rating: **3/4 (yeah, 3.5 was way too high- it was hard-fought with good energy and counters, but was largely just strike-spamming and had a LOT of no-selling)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. HIMIKO (Akira Hokuto & RIE):
* Hokuto & RIE is a weird combination.

The heels call for their staffs immediately, but Akira’s goes wide and Chigusa improvises a bit where she taunts them with it before getting jumped from behind. Hokuto tope con hilos Toshie while RIE hits a flying knee on Chigusa, who facecrushes both of them. They work Chigusa’s arm, then there’s a weird bit where Hokuto just stops selling for Toshie and goes to beat up Chigusa, ignoring a bunch of Toshie offense until the kid has to basically drag her off, and they tumble down in a heap when Chigusa wheel kicks Hokuto. She also powerbombs RIE, then hits the single least graceful tope con hilo in history, which is amazing and makes this whole match, haha. Just drops like a sack of shit, flipping onto Hokuto on the floor with her own move. She continues the beating out there while RIE tries to finish Toshie, but Toshie rolls her over in ugly fashion, trapping her with a Rings of Saturn-like move, and gets her to tap at (4:28)! Well that was quick! Chigusa’s smack-talk in the ring after leads to a fight in the back we see a bit of.

Rating: *1/2 (fine and scrappy for the time given- unimpressive and ugly for most of it but it’s only 4.5 minutes)

AAAW TAG TEAM TITLES:
SUGAR SATO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. LIONESS ASUKA & SONOKO KATO:
* Ooh, interesting! The Tag Champions have held the belts for like a year, but are from the Class of 1995, and now have to face top-tier threat Lioness and her Class of 1995 partner Kato!

Lioness clobbers the twerps down to start, then backflips Kato onto a table spread over them in a unique spot. Sugar is up quickly after a powerbomb, but Lioness easily no-sells her and she’s beaten up for a bit. She comes back on Kato but Lioness helps beat on Chikayo now, but the heels get some slick counters (dragon screw/rana out of the corner) and beat up the challengers on the floor. Eventually fortunes are reversed, however, until Kato accidentally cannonballs onto her partner. Chikayo takes a crazy risk hitting a flying stomp from the balcony to the lower level- only an eight foot drop but there are STAIRS in front of where Asuka was lying… which Chikayo then kicks Lioness down anyways. This lets them pile chairs on Kato and stomp her from the bleachers. Lioness is still selling, which is funny because her bump was SUPER safe (she just sorta slid onto her ass a few steps down), and the champs missile-kick chairs into Kato’s face in the ring. German on a chair- the ref won’t count, but a Flying Stomp gets a CLOSE two. Asuka finally comes to the rescue and it’s a chairfight until Kato Germans Chikayo. Chikayo tries some counters, but Lioness catches her and powerbombs her into the diagonal table in the corner, and DorA alternate Flying Stomps to the table, into a Blue Thunder Bomb- Sugar saves! Ligerbomb- Sugar barely manages again. Lioness prepares the Towerhacker Bomb (inverted fireman’s ligerbomb) but Chikayo slickly puts on an arm submission from the shoulder… but Kato guillotine legdrops her! Sugar finally saves with a chair, but badly messes up her back elbow, wiping out on the mat.

Asuka covers, SUPER obviously calling a spot where Sugar avoids a powerbomb (killing time), then eats a dragon screw into a flying stomp, then a ligerbomb. But she scores some kicks and a big ligerbomb of her own- Chikayo saving- then superplexes Kato ONTO Sugar for two. Kato keeps fighting for her Dragon Suplex but can’t get it, Chikayo interfering and resulting in a BIG potential fuckup by overreaching on a Ligerbomb and like… accidentally powerbombing her the OTHER way (Kato tucks and takes a shoulder bump instead of faceplanting). Yikes. Kato goes for Kowloon’s Gate to improvise Sugar ACTUALLY getting the Ligerbomb for a close two. The fans are popping for pretty much every finish attempt, at least. The powerbomb fuckup almost looked deliberate and maybe tricked them. Chikayo & Kato counter each other’s big suplexes, but Kato finally wheelbarrows her into the Dragon for two. Chikayo sunset flips out of Kowloon’s Gate and snaps off that armlock again out of the next try! Kato barely makes the ropes, but Lioness creates disaster by lariating her head off by accident, and barely saves after Chikayo lands the Fisherman’s Buster! Sugar powerbombs Kato onto her to try and end that threat, and the Rocket Launcher Stomp gets two. But Chikayo goes to the Buster again, Kato landing on her feet and Asuka kicking Chikayo in the brain to set up the Dragon Suplex- two! Kato gets fired up, getting the crowd ready, and lands two Asuka-style rolling kicks- Sugar saves. Kato guillotines onto nothing… Fisherman’s Buster- Asuka saves! Kato’s tricked into booting Kato, but then Sugar missile kicks CHIKAYO, and it’s a kick into Kowloon’s Ga– no, Chikayo flips out into the Fisherman’s Buster again! For three (18:16)! The champs retain!

Man, this was a wild one. 20 solid minutes of “this could end the match” finisher attempts, from rollups to submissions to their regular finishers- like after they do that long arena brawl bit, they construct an entire match out of nearfalls. Which can be “too much” at times, turning matches into this big “plateau” instead of the peaks and valleys wrestling kinda should be, but in this case it kind of worked out as the pace was manic and you never saw unnecessary kickouts (almost everything was because a partner broke it up). This kinda got into that “AEW Zone” where they hit some of the coolest shit way in the first half of the match, when it would have been far more harrowing to have that take place near the end, when people were desparate for pins. Because after the great Towerhacker-to-armbar-to-Guillotine spot and desperation pins… they go back to randomly scrapping and constant momentum shifts. Sugar was unfortunately really sloppy here, messing up her back elbow and ligerbomb, which is disappointing as I normally dig her stuff. She’s gotten quite a bit heftier all over, and I fear that’s interfering with her body’s natural movements- this reads, as I’ve heard a consistent issue with her is injuries (she’s not even in the GAEA Girls doc). Nagashima was the Match MVP, hitting VERY precise offense and some complicated reversals- that armbar lock out of the Towerhacker was LEGIT.

Rating: ***3/4 (already off to a good start with the 5-year vets proving themselves yet again)

AAAW WORLD TITLE MATCH:
AJA KONG vs. KAORU:
* It’s DorA vs. DorA! Aja vs. KAORU! Except KAORU kinda sucks at this point and NOBODY could possibly think she was beating Aja. Interestingly, both debuted in the same class in 1986 Zenjo. I can’t imagine there’s any drama as to the winner, here- KAORU hasn’t won a big match in ages and was never on Aja’s level.

KAORU immediately pounces with a German and a dive, then two Orihara Moonsaults, but tries her senton through a table and Aja moves. Aja recovers and puts some STINK on smashing a table-chunk over KAORU’s head- attagirl, show the dent to the close-up camera! Two more huge shots send the table piece into the front row, and now we’re into the long “crowd beatdown” portion. KAORU gets smoked and piledriven on a metal panel and NOW she’s finally bleeding (I feel she was trying to blade earlier). They do a Korakuen Run in the upper level and finally hit the ring with the methodical beatdown and the Brainbuster gets two. KAORU avoids some Urakens but fails an attempt at using Aja’s oil can and gets powerbombed. KAORU Germans her off the second rope to avoid the back elbow, but moonsaults onto feet, and tries her leaping press move and Aja leapfrogs her OVER THE TOP. Fantastic reaction from the fans and commentary for that, haha- tons of murmuring and gasping.

NYYYYYYYYOPE!

But Aja gets overconfident with a dive and KAORU finds the table piece and intercepts her! Some nice revenge stuff, especially when she just starts cracking Aja with the pieces as well, then she grabs a dividing barrier (ah so THAT’s what those things Aja uses are), then HITS that Senton through the table! Ah, wrestling 101- fail the spot earlier to make the actual execution better! Van Daminator with the table piece sets up a Moonsault assisted by the table piece- Aja averts it to disappoint people but tries an Uraken and KAORU BLOCKS IT WITH THE TABLE, sending Aja screaming to the mat in agony! Oh, slick!

Aja is turtled on the mat, occasionally sending out these piercing shrieks of agony. And a bloody-faced KAORU is ready, pouncing with the table piece to smash Aja’s hand into paste, then grinds it out with the table edge, slicing it open! The ref is great, grappling KAORU desperately trying to prevent this “lethal” assault (which is clearly not actually grinding into Aja’s hand, though the arm is sliced open hardway). And now there’s some drama- KAORU is obviously not gonna beat Aja Kong, but now Aja’s selling makes this look pretty even. KAORU finally gets that table moonsault (on the ARM) and hits a jujigatame for a nearfall. The crowd isn’t exactly buying the finishes but Aja is in DEEP trouble and URAKEN!! She counters a slam with an uraken and collapses in pain as KAORU is slumped onto her side. This at least buys her time, but KAORU flips her into another armlock, then another juji, Aja teasing falling back from the ropes, earning a better reaction. KAORU can’t lift her for Excalibur (Michinoku Driver) over-swings and eats the backdrop driver, but when Aja climbs for her splash, KAORU spams out a half-dozen urakens of her own and absolutely SLAUGHTERS her with Excalibur, hauling Aja from the top for it! Aja does a last-second kickout and KAORU can’t lift her from the mat, so settles for a rana, but eats an Uraken for two. Avalanche Waterwheel Drop- two! That poor beleaguered table piece gets brought in again, but Aja can’t splash it and URAKENS it again oh goodness! KAORU just punches her full-on in the face for two. KAORU gets too aggressive with the table and misses, eating a kick to the face and an Uraken for two, so Aja unleashes her Final Form, whipping off the gloves and roaring to empower a final bare-handed Uraken for the three at (16:40 of 18:34 shown). They hug after the finish and I’m like “oh yeah they’re in the same stable, lol”. Ozaki comes in to talk shit with Aja, drawing in Yamada.

This is one of those matches where you’re like “DAMN Aja has a great Wrestling IQ”. Like it’s gotta be at 300 or something, lol. She’s got that mentality where she knows what gets spots over and works in exactly the right way to get them. As her typical persona involves selling less than others do, it MEANS MORE when she actually does do it, and so things like “Aja accidentally Urakens a piece of table” is extremely impactful when she rolls to the mat screaming in agony. KAORU’s pressing of the injury also came off fantastically, with Aja doing things like grasping it in pain but actually also holding it straight out “because of the pain” so the table shots will be more visible to the fans and look better. And this is all for the purpose of making the fans buy the notion that KAORU could win- since their levels are so different, they’re trying to play up the injury like it could cause Aja to lose- her shrieking selling, the hand injury, and more tries to make us buy it. It doens’t QUITE work, sadly- the fans can kinda see through it. Thankfully they got more in the tank- Aja is too heavy to lift for Excalibur, but KAORU can catch her sitting on the top rope and THEN gets it for a close call, then blocks the Uraken a SECOND time. This also justifies her eating so many and kicking out, and Aja’s hesitance in using them at full-blast- this ALSO pays off, as Aja hits one final Uraken with her bare hands, which puts over both her own resilence AND KAORU’s. The only issues were some of it going on a bit long (like the arm stuff) without the fans biting on it.

Rating: **** (I liked it! The best KAORU match in ages- great spots, tons of amazing selling from Aja, perfectly setting up stuff, and more)

RIE vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
(Feb. 27th)
* From a different, much smaller show, it’s RIE vs. Sakura… who comes down the aisle dressed like RIE, with her face covered in vaseline and carting a comically oversized barbed-wire-wrapped stick, looking like a gigantic metal corn dog. It’s so big she can’t even swing it, so it drops to the mat in comedy spots. She shames RIE into picking it up, but she fails as well, as does the male announcer.

Sakura freaks at the swing of RIE’s barbed-wire stick and squirrels away, but we’re clipped to RIE stretching her face out. Sakura USES THE ASS and psyches RIE out by faking a dive, but we’re clipped to her eating a powerbomb. RIE hits a standing Tiger Driver, then transitions the kickout into an STF for the tap-out at (2:36 shown of 11:43).

Rating: N/A (kind of just a bunch of clips)