Joshi Spotlight: AJW Odaiba W Explosion

AJW ODAIBA W EXPLOSION:
* All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling reaches the summer of 2000! The big Odaiba shows are some of the top shows of the year for Zenjo, so this is rather important. This one features Manami Toyota making a defense of the Red Belt against Black Joker’s Eagle Sawai, backed by her stablemates Rumi Kazama & Takako Inoue!

Plus there’s a tournament to determine the WWWA Tag Team Champions! The belts were vacated for… “Undocumented Reasons” in May, so like, everyone’s gotta fight each other in matches featuring mostly “obvious stars” (LCO, NanaMomo, U*Tops) and losers with zero chance! And this one ends up being a BIG story arc culminating in a year or two of build, as the tons of new, younger fans who joined Zenjo after their 1997 downturn and adopted NanaMomo as THEIR TEAM come out in force to cheer them on against the evil demons of Las Cachorras Orientales!

NIGHT ONE:
(July 14th 2000)

WWWA TAG TEAM CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT:
FIRST ROUND:
NANAMOMO (Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi) vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA & KAYO NOUMI:
* The two “Young Girl” teams in Zenjo go at it- NanaMomo have reached the level of “Serious Midcarders” but the others are still jobbers. NanaMomo are in matching tiger-striped gear (Momoe with blue; Nanae with pink), Wacky’s in yellow & Kayo’s in blue. This is heavily clipped.

The rookies get first blood and pose over Momoe, and we’re clipped to a Wacky dive, then Noumi gets one and they do stereo flying headbutts to Nanae, but miss a rocket launcher. Clipped to Wacky’s Shotei/Super Rana on Nanae- Momoe saves. Clipped to NanaMomo dives, then Kayo doing a double-wrist armsault off the top to Nanae, then a regular one for two. NanaMomo hit a Power Plex into a Nanae flying splash for the “Fuck YOU!” bridge from Kayo, then Wacky gets her Fisherman’s Buster and another armsault gets two- Momoe saves. Nanae Flying Senton- Wacky saves. They haul Wakizawa up for a weird double-lift into a flat back- like a two-woman Razor’s Edge (the NanaMomo Driver) and Wacky saves THAT, but Nanae finally pins Kayo with a Falcon Arrow at (2:44 of 20:26 shown).

It’s funny- I’d reviewed another match with these four from later in the year not realizing it was different from this show, and it follows the same cadence- just endless wild kickouts and non-stop effort from everyone. Methinks they had found some kind of chemistry with one another, or since Momoe was a fucking lunatic and was sorta the same era in seniority for these and was thus able to get her ideas through, so they killed each other non-stop with desperation kickouts.

WWWA TAG TEAM CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT:
FIRST ROUND:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. OBACCHI IIZUKA & YUKO KOSUGI (JD’):
* haha, what? LCO is in the tournament for sure, but their opponents are JD’ jobbers? Obacchi is a comedy wrestler while Kosugi is dressed like LCO. This is clipped to almost nothing.

Shimoda almost immediately gets KABONGED by a big cooking pot, then has her face wrapped in panty hose and is then smashed by a daikon (an Asian radish). They fight into the viewing platform area, where Obacchi gets booted but Kosugi leaps onto both LCO members from the platform. Mita eats a daikon shot and hilariously sells it like excruciating pain, but in the ring gets the “fingers up the butt” schoolyard prank from Obacchi. Shimoda immediately smokes the dork from the apron and we’re clipped to Kosugi stomping Mita from the top and Obacchi hitting a terrible back-rolling kick for two. Finally it’s the Generic LCO Ending, as Mita gets her feet up on a splash, Shimoda ax kicks Obacchi, and the Death Valley Driver ends it at (1:24 of 17:56 shown). haha, these two dorks went EIGHTEEN MINUTES with LCO?

WWWA TAG TEAM CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT:
FIRST ROUND:
TOMOKO WATANABE & KUMIKO MAEKAWA vs. YUMIKO HOTTA & KAYOKO HARUYAMA:
* Haruyama is actually from JWP and randomly here with Hotta. Another super-clipped one as the Tag Champs probably have a big advantage, even though Hotta is Mega-Senior. Hotta is totally slumming it here.

Haruyama pounces on Kumiko immediately and they beat her down, then it’s a figure-four/flying splash to Tomoko, then another. Tomoko boomerangs onto them, then Kumiko pulls Haruyama off the top and ax kicks her, but runs into a powerslam (lol the angle exposes the move by showing Kumiko deliberately turn upside-down for it). Tomoko stops a double-team so Kumiko can hit Haruyama with a pump kick and the Ax Kick for three at (1:37 of 15:55 shown). haha they only showed the clips with Haruyama, protecting Hotta entirely.

WWWA WORLD TITLE:
MANAMI TOYOTA (AJW) vs. EAGLE SAWAI (LLPW, w/ Takako Inoue & Rumi Kazama):
* I reviewed this one ages ago for an “Eagle Sawai” spotlight. Eagle, in orange & black, is a member of the evil Black Joker stable with Takako Inoue & Rumi Kazama, and pinned Manami in a 6-woman tag using her Thunder Fire Powerbomb, setting up this title shot. We see clips of Manami beating others (including Takako) earlier in the year as well. Eagle’s big firebird robe on the way to the ring sure is something, though. Shockingly, Toyota is BACK IN BLACK, wearing her original style of gear for this one after wearing red for over a year. The open air is making this WINDY.

Eagle dominates to start, hitting an avalanche and body attack off the apron after charging through Manami’s attempt at her “corner dropkick” reversal. They go on a tour of ringside, Manami smashed into the commentary table (this big metal thing built right into a platform), but gets the world’s worst Rolling Cradle in the ring (Eagle is, um, not properly shaped for that anymore). She yanks the hair and dropkicks Eagle in the spine after tying her in the ropes, but gets caught with some body attacks. Eagle chokes away and hits backbreakers, but Manami finally gets a proper comeback with that corner dropkick and stretches Eagle out, making sure to taunt Black Joker with a hip swivel during a deathlock move. A slapfight leads to Eagle just dominating with physicality again, hitting a mega-lariat running all the way down the (short) ramp. But she misses an attack off the platform and Manami climbs way up the entrance structure to hit a MASSIVE dive- like holy shit, that is a legit 18 feet or so. And then she Tope Con Hilos off a lighting column like a crazy person, too. Back in the ring, Manami reverses a whip to a big German, but Eagle slides over at one. Moonsault misses and she lands on her feet from a ThunderFire Powerbomb attempt, getting a Straightjacket German- she can’t hold the bridge as Eagle hits on her shoulder.

Big missile dropkick PLASTERS Eagle in the spine for two. Black Joker interferes, letting Eagle whip Manami off the top for two- Manami Kidmans out of one powerbomb, but tries a Manami Roll and eats a weak second one for two. Eagle hits a big lariat, sending Manami rolling back… and into a standing taunt, as she completely no-sells it and hits a release German. A weird cross-armed under-the-leg German gets no elevation, and the ref is pulled out by Takako after hitting two. Eagle hits a MONSTER lariat, Jannettying Toyota this time, getting two. Manami does a HUGE sell of a 2nd-rope dropkick, and the ThunderFire Powerbomb gets two! That probably didn’t get the pop they were hoping for, but Eagle climbs and gets caught- the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex from that position (the standard lift for “big girls”) gets two. Rumi comes in with a chairshot, but climbs up and hits Eagle by mistake- Manami grabs the chair and hits a MOONSAULT with it, getting only two. Manami climbs again, but is caught! ThunderFire Powerbomb AGAIN gets two! She goes up and misses a flying thing, so tries again, but now Manami’s the one to catch her- she climbs up and hits her Super MDK, the ultimate “Holy Shitballs” move- the Victory Star Drop… but Eagle’s only on the bottom rope so it’s like 1/8th as devastating as when Aja takes it. But that gets the three at (19:14)- Toyota wins! Black Joker brawl with the ring girls afterwards and Toyota flips them off before the title award ceremony.

Watching “Later Eagle & Manami” is interesting because they both had to slow down their styles, but I thought Manami was doing it for Eagle’s benefit here (or she’s just gotten slow enough it looks like it, haha). Some odd bits as Manami tries to match power (she got a bit “stronger” as she got older, to make up for lost speed), not really pulling off the Big/Little battle you’d expect, but then she starts jumping off of giant fixtures to make something out of the match. This ended up being “Manami Doing Stuff” as a match, as Eagle just kinda stumbled around and into things, having lost a lot of her relative agility from her youth. She only went up right for one German out of four, even the JOCS didn’t really hit flush, and her powerbomb reversal was weaksauce, just kinda dropping Manami from a short height. Then you get into the never-ending kickouts of this period, where former finishers don’t work and a Chairsault, which would have been a great ironic ending, only gets two. I did like the progressive of Eagle hitting another finisher but taking too many risks repeatedly beacuse she can’t put Toyota away. The Victory Star Drop finish is a solid idea in theory, but it’s basically a sunset flip flash-pin from this position, not the “How did either of them survive that?” killshot of matches past.

Rating: ***1/2 (All in all, it’s still a good, solid match thanks to the big stuff and the story told, but way subpar for a “Manami World Title Defense”)

NIGHT TWO:
(July 15th)

ALL PACIFIC TITLE:
AZUMI HYUGA (JWP) vs. TOMOKO WATANABE (AJW):
* So JWP is croaking or has already croaked, and AJW “played nice” by bringing their girls in mostly to do jobs to midcarders. But ex-JWP Champion Hyuga is here and actually won the White Belt from Kumiko Maekawa! And Tomoko’s here to bring it back home. Interestingly, I’d always thought that Tomoko had a lock on this belt for years because I’d read the title lineage ages ago, but so far has only held it once in 1997 for a short run- her lower-ranked PARTNER has been far more associated with it. Hyuga’s in blue & Tomoko’s in white. This is massively clipped.

Hyuga dropkicks Tomoko to start and flies to the floor onto her, but Tomoko flattens her coming off the viewing platform. Clipped to Hyuga’s springboard dropkick & tope con hilo from the top, then Tomoko drags her to the ramp for the “run all the way down the ramp” lariat. Clipped to Hyuga hitting the Spider German Suplex, but climbs and Tomoko runs up to German her straight off the top. Tomoko tries to fire up, but Hyuga hits a shitty Michinoku Driver for two. Flying Knee & another Driver- two! Hyuga tries one last surge but gets lariated down and the Screwdriver (one-armed backdrop to ligerbomb) gets two. Tomoko tries another and gets Japanese leg roll clutched for two (Hyuga grabbing the legs at the last second to make it a good nearfall). Tomoko hits another Screwdriver, Hyuga coutners the next, but overswings a punch and ends up hit with another one and that’s three at (2:41 of 14:31 shown)- Tomoko is All Pacific Champion! Tomoko is all tears after winning the belt at last. And holy god does THIS reign last a while- she spends more than 400 days as champion! uh, Spoiler Alert!

Interestingly, we miss Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta beating Manami Toyota & Reggie Bennett (21:14). So yes- REGGIE BENNETT is back! But in Zenjo and not ARSION.

WWWA TAG TEAM CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT:
QUARTER FINALS:
NANAMOMO (Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi) (AJW) vs. COMMAND BOLSHOI & TSUBASA KURAGAKI (JWP):
* I missed however the JWP team got to the second round. This is also super-clipped.

Kuragaki swats Nanae to start, but gets booted off the top and Momoe dives onto her partner, setting up a Kuragaki dive. Back in, NanaMomo get the Power Plex, and Kuragaki gets a headbutt into a torture rack on Momoe. Flying Stomp & Moonsault get two for Team JWP. Kuragaki gets another moonsault on Momoe, but misses a second and Nanae does the “German so Momoe can pin” move, getting two, and Momoe gets her Twisting Rana for the pin at (2:14 of 16:36 shown).

WWWA TAG TEAM CHALLENGE TOURNAMENT:
QUARTER FINALS:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. TOMOKO WATANABE & KUMIKO MAEKAWA:
* Sadly also clipped, this is like the 900th match between these two teams, this time not for the titles. Tomoko’s notably already fought a 15-minute singles match.

Tomoko immediately clobbers Shimoda, but Mita immediately smokes her with a chair and everyone fights into the crowd! Kumiko ax kicks Shimoda on the platform, and Mita charges right into Tomoko’s lariat, but after Shimoda eats ax kick after ax kick, we’re clipped to LCO double-teaming Tomoko and raising a huge fuss, then Kumiko pump kicking the SHIT out of Shimoda. Shimoda gets some scrape-kicks of her own, only infuriating the Kick Demon, who promptly shows her how it’s done. The ref finally has to stop her mounted punches, Shimoda hilariously goozling her from the bottom once the assault stops.

Shimoda just randomly adding a choke from this position as soon as she has an opening is hilarious to me.

Clipped to ANOTHER beating on LCO, Tomoko grabbing the banana-yellow chair and smoking Shimoda with it- she just bails to the floor. Mita piledrives Kumiko on the stage while Tomoko throws a chair AND a table at Shimoda. Back in the ring, Mita eats two dragon screws from Tomoko, but finally dodges an ax kick so Tomoko takes it, resulting in Kumiko getting battered by chairs and they immediately hit the Ax Kick/DVD for two- Mita only got a release version on it. Shimoda stands there awkwardly so Kumiko can ax kick her, but next time dodges one and hits the SHIMODA DEATH PUNCH~~ for the surprise flash pin at (3:48 of 24:23 shown). Yeah, that was kinda out of nowhere. This means it’s LCO vs. NanaMomo the next night for the belts!

An entertaining look at the Zenjo “the person who’s winning eats offense all match to put over the loser/salve egos” style, as all we get are Tomoko & Kumiko beating the living shit out of their opponents, making them look super hapless. Then they just pull off a couple quick moves at the end and win, making them look super-lucky.

NIGHT THREE:
(July 16th)

This show only appears to have three matches- Kayo Noumi beats Miho Wakizawa in a Junior JGP 2000 match in (18:09) (!!!!), and the ZAPs defeat Manami Toyota & Kumiko Maekawa in (17:38). Aaaaaaaaand…

NANAMOMO (Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi) vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* It’s NanaMomo versus *LCO*, the spunky young kid squadron of like… 4th-years up against who is still kind of the most dominant tag team in the biz. This has a lot of history behind it- the one match that really put Momoe on the MAP is that one where LCO completely destroyed both girls, Momoe being like “lol spine injuries are a fake idea” with psychotic bumping, looking like a superstar taking a complete ass-kicking at the cruelty of LCO, who reveled in tormenting her and Nanae. They got a ton of hope spots and had a fantastic ****-tier match out of it. NanaMomo have been elevated a fair bit since then, especially Momoe, who is in that “Young Wrestler With a FIRE Under Their Ass” zone that I always love watching- and the fans have noticed; the legions of young woman fans having adopted them as their team. LCO are now in rose gold & black frilly gear, while the kids are in their usual, staring down their seniors in an act of defiance.

Mita staring down Momoe before the match, but Momoe is defiant and gets right in their faces.

Momoe immediately leads the charge before the bell, but LCO just kick their asses on the floor, throwing chairs at them. Running boot to Nanae! Piledriver through a table for Momoe! Haha of course that’s the opening offense. Shimoda’s hilariously like “lol- look at this piece of shit” pushing around Nanae with her foot while Mita shows everyone Momoe’s bloody forehead and piledrives her on the stage. Papers go flying as Shimoda smokes Nanae with a stack of them and then cheers herself on while Mita chairs Momoe. They FINALLY hit the ring again and LCO toy with their prey, Mita hitting a ludicrously delayed slam, then Shimoda just snarls and tears away at her, cutting off comebacks and clutching her so Mita can just saunter in and whip a yellow chair over her head. LCO continue to work the brain for a while, Mita adding the helicopter hairtosses as Momoe is really good at “defiant but helpless” as she roars up but just gets whipped around easily by her giant opponents. Momoe gets a slick flash-pin as Mita tucks at super-speed so she can be rolled up- enter Nanae! She barrels into Mita repeatedly, who won’t sell and side-steps her to hit a Blazing Chop. Nanae defiantly tries to no-sell so it’s over to Shimoda for a beating. But Nanae catches her running with a backbreaker and Momoe missile kicks her in the side of the head! Nanae adds her own and Nanae figure-fours Shimoda so Momoe can hit THREE flying splashes while she’s helpless!

haha, NOPE. LCO always have the most unnecessarily over the top weardown offense.

Shimoda laughs all this off, but Nanae basically FORCES her to sell by continuing to fight back, counter, and slam her down. Vader Bomb gets two, and when Shimoda fights back Momoe charges in to stop her- Shimoda hauls them both down with her double-clothesline, but eats a missile kick into the German-to-Jackknife combination for two! Shimoda tries her “kick from the ground” move, but Momoe cleverly snags it and boots her in the head. But Shimoda dodges a leapfrog dropkick and Mita adds a chairshot and we’re back to more child abuse! Electric Chair Drop/Flying Splash gets two, and they aim for a Double Superbomb, but Nanae charges in to flip them both over the top in big bumps! Nanae gets the huge topeeeeeeeee- into her partner. Oof. LCO just won’t give them an inch. But Momoe keeps fighting- hitting a German, then dodges a Flying Ax Kick, and the kids hit their NanaMomo Driver! Mita breaks it up with a chair, and Shimoda tiger suplexes Momoe for two. Mita hits a MONSTER powerbomb and Momoe kicks out! Mita just gets grumpy and does it again, but it happens again! Great bit as they set up the Ax Kick/DVD but Momoe suddenly springs to life and thrashes all over the place, but only has energy for that as Mita just shrugs and pushes her over, but her next powerbomb fails and Momoe suddenly bursts up with a shot and a run-up sunset flip for two! Fans are seen jumping up and down as LCO are like “ugh, FINE” and pushing her around in annoyance.

Mita again gets overconfident and Momoe dragon suplexes her, but Mita just hefts out at “1”, Momoe lacking the energy to actually hold her in the move. Things look even more hopeless as Momoe tries a second Dragon Suplex, but Mita just elbows free and Shimoda ax kicks her, but the DVD is countered to another suplex for two! Momoe fires up… but gets hoisted for the DVD! But lands on her butt to counter… but Shimoda just flings a chair at her. But Mita eats a pink chair from her partner and Momoe snaps on the twisting rana for two! Nanae gets tagged in for the first time in like eight minutes, and AGAIN no-sells the Blazing Chop, in fact following it up with a backdrop suplex counter of a wild swing, defying LCO’s usual no-selling tactics! Nanae climbs… but Shimoda slips Mita a chair in a great bit and Nanae’s Flying Back Elbow just sees a pink chair smash her spine! Mita is smug as she prepares to finish… but Nanae fires back with a Falcon Arrow and Shimoda has to dive on to save! Nanae ends up double-teamed as LCO swing it back in their favor, hitting the Superbomb… and Momoe MISSILES IN, firing across the screen like a javelin to stop the pin! LCO, exhausted and annoyed, just toss a chair at her for that one and look to finish, but Nanae springs free of the DVD/Ax Kick and Momoe MISSILE KICKS them both in the face, allowing Nanae one more Falcon Arrow for the pin AND THE CROWD GOES BANANA at (14:02 of 22:02 shown)- NanaMomo are the 3WA Tag Team Champions! LCO pout like babies and cut a snarling promos as Momoe & Nanae flop all over the place to sell excitement and exhaustion, and the fans give LCO the dreaded “KAERE!” chant (aka “GET LOST!”).

the fans completely losing it on the kids finally upending LCO’s gameplan.

hahah, great stuff. LCO were in full “Heel Shitass” mode, refusing to sell or give even a bit of ground, and the kids, Momoe in particular, had great “Fuck you, I’m TAKING that ground!” energy to counter them, essentially making their bigger, stronger seniors sell just by sheer force of will, wearing down LCO all match long. Momoe was fantastic throughout, doing the “I will not die!” thing even while in the process of being killed, LCO kind of laughing off her defiance and just facewashing her into the mat over and over again. NanaMomo taking a huge beating immediately was perfect to set the stage, as they now have to work from beneath the whole time, as they’re not only giving up experience and size but LCO got first blood (literally, as Momoe blades). The comical lack of Nanae in the match is a fun sticking point, of course- they KNOW that Nanae is only “kind of okay” at this point and isn’t good at selling or drawing sympathy from it, so the entire story of the match hingest on Momoe… so the ENTIRE MATCH just has Momoe in it. Moreover, execution becomes important so Mita is in there for minutes at a time instead of Shimoda (whose execution is ultra-sloppy and could mess up important parts of the match). But lots of crazy “oh they’re gonna… OH SHIT COUNTER!” spots near the end, as every time it looks like someone’s about to end the match they get countered and their partner has to save them- Momoe keeps countering DVDs and stuff and getting drilled for it, Nanae’s about to get crushed but no-sells and counters, then LCO cheat and nearly get her, only for HER to fire back with a finisher attempt- great stuff. They almost miss the peak a bit but Momoe’s lighting-fast javelin save brings it back.

Rating: **** (more tag team greatness from LCO and Momoe)

So that ends a successful three-day show from Zenjo on their Odaiba Island HQ! Manami gets a good Red Belt defense and NanaMomo finally get crowned after years of being slowly built up in come from behind victories. And thankfully, the crowning match is still great.