Joshi Spotlight: AJW in March 2000

AJW IN MARCH 2000:
* It’s time for more Zenjo! This is primarily from a March 4th show, but I found a single JWP match from the same month, and a March 11th one from a Rikidozan Memorial Show. The wildest one is probably an AJW/JWP mish-match with Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito teaming up with Dynamite Kansai of JWP against Yumiko Hotta, Takako Inoue & Command Bolshoi! But the BEST one, though, is a big Steel Cage Deathmatch between Las Cachorras Orientales and Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa! The last time LCO was in one of these, they were in a generational ***** match- can they match that success swapping Kaoru Ito for Maekawa? Read on!

NANAE TAKAHASHI & MIYUKI FUJII (AJW) vs. LIONESS ASUKA & MORIMATSU (JD’):
* JD’ comes to down with Asuka taking one of her goons against the low-end Zenjo squad, including their barebones rookie Fujii. Morimatsu’s the JD’ goon with black & blue Ultimate Warrior facepaint and Dudley Boyz gear otherwise. Asuka’s in black, Fujii’s in yellow/blue/black, and Nanae’s in this spectacularly ugly red singlet covered in orange tassels and pink streaks.

Morimatsu attacks before the bell, but Fujii has the temerity to start slapping Asuka and pays for it via a reverse giant swing. Morimatsu slowly works Fujii over, and Asuka accidentally nails her but cuts off the tag to Nanae anyways. Problematically, Fujii isn’t a good seller, so she just kinda stiffly holds her back or head whenever struck, so this part isn’t really getting over. But Nanae dumps Asuka and Germans Morimatsu off the 2nd rope, setting up Jobber Missile Kicks from the kid! Nanae hits a Vader Bomb for two, but Morimatsu catches her with a Bubba Bomb (that sit-out waistlock ass bump) and goes up, but gets brought down with a superduperplex for two, and Nanae hits her Refrigerator Bomb- a reverse flying senton (the Coffin Drop, made worse cuz she’s way heftier than Darby)! Asuka just bodyslams Fujii onto them to break it up, haha. Lioness uses a chair to simplify her grunt work, but Nanae fires back in a good bit, knocking Asuka over. She misses another Vader Bomb and she braves a table shot to suplex Asuka anyways.

Fujii gets tagged in and immediately fails, managing only a rollup before getting lariated. Morimatsu with a flying kick & lariat for two, and a Powerbomb/Guillotine Legdrop (!) gets two- Nanae saving! Crowd’s getting a bit into this. Asuka holds Nanae off so Morimatsu can muscle Fujii into a gutwrench superplex… for two! Fujii’s able to avoid a powerbomb & lariat from Asuka and Nanae knocks the heels ot the floor, but only dives onto Fujii. The heels do a slow beating outside the ring to kill time, but Asuka climbs the lighting rig and comes off with a double-stomp to Nanae! Fujii’s left alone in the ring (lol check Morimatsu so blown up she’s barely able to hit a running clothesline, just slinking off all tired), eating a Flying Stomp to the table and a Blue Thunder Bomb… for two! So Lioness is just like “well fuck it” and uses a new move on the spot- a Fisherman’s Suplex Michinoku Driver (Low-Ki’s “Ki Krusher”, which debuted the year before), getting the pin at (9:44).

Man it’s a pity Fujii still sucks because she was slotted into a helluva midcard tag match here. The kickouts of a couple of “that’s gotta be it” moves (the secondary finishers, which typically kill scrubs like her) was a great bit to show perseverence, made better because Nanae had previously been saving her but was now being held off so it “should get her”. Nanae went from struggling to very solid in this match, hitting some good stuff with good timing compared to her normal wrestling as well. It’s like some magic “Asuka Effect” where three people can magically make a good match when she’s involved, even as Fujii just stiffly eats moves and barely sells and Morimatsu gets blown up.

Rating: *** (almost miraculous for this crew to hit that)

MIHO WAKIZAWA, KAYO NOUMI & AZUMI HYUGA (AJW/JWP) vs. RAN YUYU, CARLOS AMANO & ACUTE SAE (JWP):
* Another Interpromotional match, this time with low-ranked girls teaming with JWP’s top babyface Hyuga vs. JWP’s Class of 1995 and Sae! Which means it’s just Zenjo setting up some easily jobbable girls to team up with JWP’s top wrestler against their top people. You can tell Zenjo is calling the shots here when the JWP Champion can only be set up against Wacky & Noumi. Sae is wearing some kind of strange yellow/red/blue gear that looks like a children’s toy. Ran’s in red & Carlos is in white & blue, looking pretty sharp. Hyuga’s in blue, Noumi’s in white & Wacky’s in yellow.

Sae knocks Noumi down and they try a three-person pose on her, but Wacky bowls them over and their team does it to Sae instead. Clipped to Wacky throwing missile kicks at Ran, but things get really uncoordinated for a second with Carlos coming in, but Hyuga pops the crowd by springboarding in. Miho falls a bit short on a dive, but Hyuga hits a big top con hilo. Ran eats a TRIPLE flying headbutt in the ring for only two, but Ran manages to bust her with a right hand for two and Team JWP hits a trio of Flying Stomps- Noumi saves. Wacky continues to be a unique combination of clumsy but energetic as she bursts up and wildly over-swings at Sae when she climbs to the top, but manages to anti-air her with an intercepting dropkick and lands the Perfect Plex- Ran has to pull her bridging leg out. A Doomsday Device Missile Dropkick pummels Sae for two- she gets the rookie “Fuck YOU!” bridge of defiance, and nearly pins Noumi after Ran enzuigiris her. Sae does a simply hideous rollup and takes a bad bump off a German, and Carlos halts a top-rope move so Sae can judo flip Noumi off the top for two. Sae misses a flying stomp and the babyfaces immediately try to finish with a Rocket Launcher- Team JWP breaks it up (Carlos seemingly entering WAY too early and having to just sit there and watch), but Noumi promptly finishes Sae with the Double-Wrist Armsault at (6:41 shown).

This one was just a little too sloppy and chaotic, especially since this TV edit only showed Wacky & Noumi, mostly against Sae. Like we didn’t see Carlos get tagged in AT ALL, and barely any Ran. So you can tell this was the Zenjo Edit even without their old-timey theme playing over the ending.

Rating: ** (good enough, but not really quality- more effort than skill)

MANAMI TOYOTA, KAORU ITO & DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. YUMIKO HOTTA, TAKAKO INOUE & COMMAND BOLSHOI:
* This is a crazy one on paper, as Manami did NOT have a lot of team-ups with Dynamite Kansai, to say the least. It’s a team of Once & Future Aces, as Ito becomes an Ace later, it was Toyota in 1996, and Kansai was JWP’s for years. Hotta is of course a stylistic counterpart to Kansai and a top Zenjo star, and Takako is her former partner but later her big rival in a ’99 feud. We unfortunately spend an assload of time with everyone standing around cutting promos- Hotta disses JWP’s President, Yamamoto. After watching it, I was told to read the match description (which this poster doesn’t normally do in such detail)- beforehand, it was about the AJW/JWP rivalry, and Hotta made a deal with Yamamoto that if she won, she wouldn’t attend a JWP show, but if she lost, he could make any demand of her (“If you want me to retire, I retire”). Bolshoi’s gear somehow mixes up tiger-stripes with red & gold. Hotta & Takako are in black, Toyota in red, and Kansai green.

We’re JIP with Hotta hitting a Tiger Driver on Toyota for two, but Manami escapes another and Kansai lariats Hotta. The timing was poor there, leaving Hotta just standing there to eat the move. Manami gets her Japanese Ocean Cyclone straightjacket suplex thingie and the others knock them over. Wow the crowd is not reacting AT ALL to this. Manami tries again but Takako “clobbers” her with a backfist and Hotta hits the Pyramid Driver (cross-armed ligerbomb) for two- another save. Then comes the betrayal- Hotta puts Manami up top for the Caribbean Splash, but Manami slinks behind her and hooks the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex with Kansai’s kick releasing Hotta off the ropes… but ITO comes flying in with a Flying Stomp to Toyota’s stomach while she’s bridging for the pin! She betrays her team! Hotta hits a Pyramid Driver for the easy three at (1:46). She yells at Ito, Ito bails, and Ito talks more shit to Yamamoto and earns an attack from his wrestlers, who are incensed. So Yamamoto doesn’t get to order Hotta around, thanks to Ito’s betrayal! Hotta gives Manami a teasing slap and causes HER to charge at her as well.

STEEL CAGE DEATHMATCH:
TOMOKO WATANABE & KUMIKO MAEKAWA vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* And HERE WE GO! In 1997, as Zenjo was nearly dying from bankruptcy, LCO and the U*Tops fought in a total bloodbath masterpiece of a Steel Cage Deathmatch, setting a new stage for the promotion and turning them all into legends- the obvious future of wrestling, even as LCO were about to quit Zenjo. And now, the long-term tag feud between LCO and the babyface duo (swapping out Kaoru Ito for Kumiko Maekawa) extends into a new version of the same match! This is clearly trying to recapture some of that same energy, even though LCO lost clean in late 1999 to this same duo. There’s so much hate here that Kumiko won’t react to any cheering fans and tries to attack the second she gets in the ring, needing to be dragged away. And then of course during intros LCO divebomb them with shots from their shinai (wooden sticks).

LCO just bludgeon the absolute shit out of them, countering any attempts at a comeback through sheer volume of weapons shots, launching neon-colored chairs and sticks at them every which-way. Two solid minutes of beatings and grinding them into the cage eventually ends with an arbitrary comeback, as Tomoko stops selling and snags the pink chair and whips it at Shimoda and cracks her with the shinai as she comes off the ropes. Good reaction for that insta-comeback, though! oh, never mind- Shimoda just stuffs her and pushes her back to the corner as Mita rolls back over Kumiko’s grappling. Tomoko is already totally bloody as she’s piledriven, but Kumiko suddenly starts bashing Mita into the cage and jumps on her face. Shimoda has to save with the shinai and starts strangling Kumiko with a chain and Mita also switches partners, rifling a chair at Tomoko. Kumiko comes back with a flurry of shinai shots but gets overwhelmed again (lol Shimoda faceplants trying a headscissors) and Tomoko is dumped over the ropes to injure her leg, allowing Mita to escape! Shimoda actually takes on both opponents at once until some fire extinguishers get involved, spreading smoke everywhere. Mita has to reenter to save Shimoda and Tomoko’s leg gets a chair ground into it. Kumiko fires off a huge spinkick to Mita and boots away at her until Shimoda saves with a chairshot, but she misses a big swing and now SHE’s wiped out with the kick! Kumiko gets a good reaction for strangling Shimoda with a chain, and then Tomoko finally gets resurrected and fires off shinai shots for everyone!

Shimoda always has the best “selling poses”, lol.

LCO have to divebomb Tomoko’s knee to stop the onslaught, but get whipped into each other- Tomoko is made to lariat Kumiko, but they immediately come back with stereo Germans and make for the exit, getting brought down with the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) and Death Valley Driver! LCO wreck the knee again, grinding a chair AND shinai into it, but Kumiko charges in and boots the chair into Shimoda’s face and starts pounding away- Shimoda counters and they roll around doing that until Kumiko finally overwhelms her. Mita starts in on her but that lights Tomoko up, and she starts dual-wielding shinai to blast Mita down, Kumiko levels Shimoda with a right, and the kids seem to have the lead at last! LCO drag them down from an escape attempt, but Kumiko dodges a double-clothesline and nails Ax Kicks, then makes a big show of taking off her boot to use unpanned Ax Kicks instead. She makes her escape, but Tomoko can’t and now gets her leg absolutely DESTROYED- they pull it from both sides using a chain, then drape her over the ropes and Shimoda rifles a pink chair at the knee. Their double-escape is prevented and Tomoko grabs the chain and peppers them with chain-lariats and dunks Shimoda with the Hellsmasher (one-armed vertical head-spike), then pulls her in the way of Mita’s chairshot! Dragon screw to Mita! She tries to climb and escape, but oh jesus… a danger move to try with Mita, because of her repetoire- AVALANCE Electric Chair Drop from the top! What a fucking bump!

LCO further crush Tomoko with a DVD/Flying Ax Kick combo, then try a CAGE version but Tomoko Hellsmashes Mita instead and gets Shimoda to hit a missile dropkick from the top of the cage to Mita. Screwdriver (backdrop suplex to ligerbomb) to Shimoda and moonsault to Mita, and Tomoko forgoes escape to engage in the time-honored tradition of Career-Shortening Insane Bumps, as she goes for a TOP OF THE CAGE MOONSAULT, missing and crash-landing in a horrific bump. Just tumbles like a car crash victim. LCO have it won, but only Shimoda can hit the floor as Kumiko drags Mita back in, only to eat a DVD. Tomoko gets DVD’d on a chair and… dodges an Ax Kick and sprays mist into Kumiko! Then she SPRINTS to the corner to climb the cage! Mita escapes and LCO wins at (23:55)! haha, impeccable strategy there. Shimoda wins the day by elevating herself and doing the double fist-pump of victory even though she’d made Mita do all the work for the last few minutes, haha. A+ bravery of Mita to drop from the top of the cage to the floor in one go with a kneebrace on. LCO are as gracious in victory as always, talking shit on a heartbroken babyface team and going back into the ring to get all their shit, picking up the chairs and demanding the ref raise their hands.

Turned into another incredible display of bumps and fortitude, ending up a memorable match despite an incredibly long “plateau” of a match for the first fifteen minutes- where the action is so constant and unyielding it ends up with no flow at all- just a single long stretch with no peaks or valleys. Not entirely a positive, as good as mayhem can come across, because most of the spots end up not standing out and the miracle comebacks come off more like “arbitrarily stop selling and fire back with your own shit”. Tomoko is one of the best “symapthy sellers” in the business at this point, but doesn’t get to fire up or scream or anything because she’s constantly just getting smothered. The first ten minutes was ALL heels, as every time the heroes came back it was reversed in seconds. Another issue is the fact that Zenjo style cage escapes don’t involve slow-climbing, so nobody can sell for long enough to put over a move cuz they always have to charge in and stop someone bolting out of the ring. However, the match does enter a proper groove once Kumiko hits the floor, as this lets Tomoko showcase some selling and huge bumps as she weathers LCO’s offense but manages to fire back. Actually managing to beat both of them simultaneously is a huge push for her (and why LCO remain some of the best in the game at this point), and she crushes them and is ready to escape… but flies too close to the sun and eats a vicious crash-landing. Spectacular bumps with that and the avalanche electric chair, just dying for her art. LCO wins, but they put over their opponents via Tomoko handling them both and winning only due to a last-ditch decision to kill them, like the hatred everyone has for LCO causes them to make lapses in judgement. And Mita’s win is “cheap” because she sprays mist at Kumiko and BOLTS like a coward- a smart decision but one without honor because she hadn’t beaten them into submission.

Rating: ***3/4 (everyone is certifiably insane. Nowhere near as good as the famous LCO/U*Tops Cage Match, but a game try with horrifying bumps throughout)

KYOKO INOUE, YOSHIKO TAMURA & YUKA NAKAMURA (Neo Ladies) vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI, AZUMI HYUGA & TSUBASA KURAGAKI (JWP):
(Rikidozan Memorial Show, March 11th 2000)
* This is from a Rikidozan Memorial show, with two failing promotions fighting each other. Kuragaki’s one I barely ever see- a heavyset girl in tights colored like the Jamaican flag.

Team Neo piles in to beat on the JWP squad at first, but we’re clipped to them gang-beating Kyoko, but she lariats two of them down and nails Hyuga with one in the ropes. Hyuga avoids powerbombs & lariats, but still eats a lariat after netting a German. Nakamura hits an ace crusher and a super double-wrist armsault, then a grounded one for two. But Kansai catches her climbing, and Noumi slowly hauls her back for a terrifyingly vertical Spider German Suplex bump that sees her crash onto the side of her head and shoulder and a Flying Knee to the back of the head nearly gets her- a pile-on stops it. Kuragaki hits a weak flying headbutt and batters a dead-looking Nakamura around, and the kid gets dumped and Kuragaki dives onto the pile. Hyuga adds the tope con hilo, a Doomsday Device hits, and Kansai hits a Flying Stomp in the ring- a pile-on stops the pin. Kyoko enables Nakamura to hit a Doomsday Dropkick for two as the kid STILL looks knackered- Hyuga missile kicks her in the back, but Kansai lariats Kuragaki by mistake and Nakamura armsaults her for two, and hits a double-wrist high-angle backdrop suplex hold for three at (5:42 shown of 16:36).

Seemed half-slow, half-fast, which befits a 16+ minute match (!). Like a lot of these, we’re getting almost none of Kansai in them, and the clipping here seems most obsessed with Nakamura getting slaughtered by that Spider German and being out of sorts all match long as a result, with weak Kuragaki being sent to dust her off. This paid off when all the kid’s stuff failed and Kansai accidentally seals her doom. Nakamura’s either a REALLY good “exhausted/dying” seller or she was totally brained by that move combination.

TWO COUNT PINS:
DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. COMMAND BOLSHOI:
(JWP, March 20th)
* The uploader of all these made this random JWP match available, so why not? You can win it on two-counts.

A quick sequence sees Bolshoi over-swing and get caught in a backdrop driver for “1”, but she ranas Kansai for the same. Kansai throws on a chinlock, but ends up in a heel hook, countered to a jujigatame. Kansai scores some corner lariats for one, then throws kicks, but gets overconfident and is dragged to the floor for a boomerang dive. Flying Rana for one! See, that move is a real threat in this context. Bolshoi uses the kickout to do the leg hump, then a schoolboy gets 1.8, and a pair of shotei palm strikes get 1.9! Kansai 360s her with a lariat, though- a counter of Splash Mountain gets 1, and Kansai nets another backdrop driver for 1. Another Splash attempt sees a rana get 1, then Bolshoi rolls her up again. Bolshoi finally charges into a big head-kick, however, and Kansai finishes with a leg-trap Michinoku Driver at (9:10).

A very “JWP” type of match- near-falls intermixed with screwing around in matwork to kill time and extend the show. The psychology of these “two-count” matches is always interesting because rollups become more dangerous than impact moves, but Kansai eventually just flattens her for the win.

Rating: **1/4 (interesting diversion but not really above-average or anything)