Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in October 2000

GAEA Japan in October 2000:
* It’s time more more GAEA Japan as 2000 ticks down- the top veterans facing the top 1994 debuters again! We get a mix of Sept. 30th’s puny house show and a bit Oct. 22nd Korakuen show- two “Saika Takeuchi is improving” matches, a Sakura Hirota “title” defense, and the Sugar/Chikayo team once again taking on a team against their trainer Mayumi Ozaki!

MEIKO SATOMURA vs. SAIKA TAKEUCHI:
(Sept. 30th)
* Time for Saika to die against a veteran! It’s weird calling Meiko that, but she’s a 5th-year! Toyota was winning belts and shit at that level!

Meiko easily batters around her subordinate, then does a crazy move where she catches the leg, bends it over her shoulder and drops down- like an armsnap but holding someone’s leg, shin-down across her shoulder. Saika, new kickpads in tow, tries kicks and stuff, but Meiko is usually too good for them, easily countering to leglocks. Meiko sykes her out and hits the Pele Kick- Saika defiantly kicks out but is dead. Meiko kinda manipulates her body for a bit, doing weird stuff with a rope-choke, but Saika recovers and flings her off the top, hitting a Buff Blockbuster of all things! Actually called a “diving rolling neckbreaker” by commentary. Tiger Suplex! Meiko looks like she’s struggling, but improvises a crazy double-arm hold and nearly DVDs her- Saika tries the Tiger Suplex again, but after a fight over a top wristlock, Meiko rolls her into the Cross-Armbreaker for the submission (6:01 of 15:32 shown). Good lord, FIFTEEN MINUTES? They obviously wanna show Saika getting competitive, but holy cow.

Rating: ** (a bit tough to rate missing more than half of it)

THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima):
* The two top-ranked kids go up against the former JWP Ace and Yamada.

The kids play some evasion games against the Kick Demons, but usually end up with a shinguard to the back or face. They work Yamada’s leg- no dice. Yamada & Meiko spend an eternity up top and VERY nearly botch horribly but they quickly spin so Yamada armdrags her. Yamada gets the flying enzuigiri, but Meiko gets a regular one after missing a first. Yamada gets her spinkick, Kansai misses a kick, gets THE CLAW~~, then holds Meiko so Chikayo missile kicks her by accident, but the kids mount a comeback with double-teaming and Chikayo stretching Kansai over the ropes. Kansai slams her out of it, but Chikayo dropkicks the arm and suddenly does a BIG spinning attack with her shoulder-mounted jujigatame, teasing a near-fall until Yamada breaks it. But Chikayo ducks Yamada’s kick and scores a German, then a DVD/Flying Stomp combo gets two. Chikayo can’t get her Fisherman’s Buster and ends up sandwiched by kicks into Kansai’s lariat for two. Chikayo Germans Kansai out of her Splash Mountain taunt for two, but Kansai hits a backdrop driver for the same. Splash Mountain is countered with a rana, but Chikayo tries another spinning juji and gets caught- Splash Mountain finishes her at (9:40).

Rating: ** (your typical super low-effort house show match into a suddenly hard-worked one with some good spots once the “fluff” was out of the way. I liked the variety of finisher counters between Kansai & Chikayo, Kansai just trying and trying until she got them. The outcome wasn’t much in doubt but it wasn’t bad)

OCT. 22nd:
* This show is from Korakuen Hall.

TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SAIKA TAKEUCHI:
* More of the same, but from Toshie as the veteran this time.

Pretty much goes how you’d expect, with Toshie easily handling the rookie but for some brief comebacks. Saika shows her experience a bit by managing a jujigatame and other arm stuff, actually putting some pressure on, but Toshie uses her weight advantage by lunging at Saika full-force. Yes it’s weird that TOSHIE is the bigger person in a match. Saika boots her off the top and manages a running knee smash where she’s parallel to the mat- a new big move? She gets Flair Tossed off the top but manages a rollup for our first pretty good reaction. Saika persistently avoids the Double-Wrist Armsault finisher and actually climbs up Toshie for the JB Angels armdrag move, impressing the fans, but gets thrown off. Second try actually gets it, leaving Toshie desperately avoiding another juji. She pummels the arm, Toshie actually looking worried, and her Goo Punch~~ just hurts her arm further, but buys her some time. She switches to kicks to try and brawl it out, Saika takes the lead again, then Toshie punches her lights out and hits a running knee for two. She waits her out repeatedly, another knee & a flying splash gets the “Fuck YOU!” bridge, Saika nearly pins her countering the Double-Wrist, then BACKFLIPS out of it and… Tiger Suplex! For two! Holy that was close. Buff Blockbuster but the crowd knows she’s outta miracles- Toshie kicks out, avoids another Tiger, and catches Saika charging in with a snap powerslam, holding her down for the pin at (13:15).

Actually turned into a solid match! The first half of most Saika matches are an unrecappable slog (lots of that “bodyscissors from behind and they roll out into a clutch” stuff) but they started pulling off the “holy she just might make it” stuff, though the crowd only bought one or two. Saika “pressing” the veterans at this stage is an important part of her development, and creates ever-so-slightly more drama in these singles matches.

Rating: **1/4 (a tricky thing to rate- it’s unwashed ass for 6 minutes and then quite good for the last half, albeit never like *** or anything)

HAND MADE TITLE:
SAKURA HIROTA vs. SONOKO KATO:
* A long comedy routine sees Sakura hanging out at GAEA’s training facility (a small warehouse in the middle of goddamn nowhere, as seen in “GAEA Girls”). Kato, somewhat overlooked now among GAEA’s first generation, is up against… Sakura in Kato cosplay, complete with a fake “stitched” part of her head. Great improv as she accidentally tears the strap off her belt and looks at it in horror.

The bell rings and Sakura immediately has the crowd AND Kato in hysterics by mimicking her “lock-up” mannerisms to the point of jittering like mad. Sakura scores a stinkface (called as such by commentary) and dodges a charge, but we’re clipped to Sakura getting hung in the ropes.They go on a chase, there’s multiple “Sakura climbs on someone” comedy spots, and Kato ultimately has to avoid her own finisher and cannonballs Sakura for two. Sakura manages the most harmless looking uraken ever out of Kowloon’s Gate, but a 2nd-rope one gets two. She headstands to get out of a guillotine legdrop until she gets tired, falls over, and has to dodge, then does a complicated clutch hold for two. She leapfrogs Kato to avoid Kowloon’s Gate and slugs her down, but Kato immediately ducks another and fuckin’ BEANS her with the Gate at (6:55 of 8:23 shown). Holy shit her head HAD to have hit the mat on that one! The broken belt is taped around Kato’s waist. Not bad by Sakura cosplay match standards, with numerous gags that were ACTUALLY funny- most of these don’t translate overseas, so Sakura actually getting really amusing is a treat.

Rating: ** (funny comedy spots and a big finish)

THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada, w/ Police) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Chigusa Nagayo & Toshie Uematsu):
* A fairly unusual heel squad sees Hokuto & Yamada, who rarely paired up. This would probably further the Yamada/Uematsu feud that’s been running a bit, since Toshie scored a win via persistence and her straightjacket move, and Yamada got her win back right after in 21 seconds via fluke.

The good guys get jumped immediately, Police laying in boots and a chair. Chigusa finally drills him and Toshie planchas the heels, then immediately hits her Double-Wrist Armsault into her new Yamada-killer, the behind-the-back/dream sleeper thingie. But Hokuto just walks in and that immediately makes her release, and Yamada just pokes her with a kick from the ground, haha. Chigusa just SHOVES Yamada into the corner and squares off with Hokuto, who uses some good down-home cheating to take over- lots of interference and she nails Chigusa with her wooden sword, flying off the top. Chigusa fires back, but Toshie runs into a backdrop suplex and everyone alternates scrappy (ie. sloppy) brawling and sudden changes in momentum. Yamada finally blasts Toshie with her spinkick, but Chigusa immediatley lariats her down, then Hokuto comes in and it’s a LOT of scrappy fights into submissions. Toshie saves Chigusa from a hold, then Chigusa hits both heels with loose DVDs and Toshie can only missile kick them off the second rope. Two Double-Wrists get two-counts as they seem to be doing a “ref favors the heels” thing, but Yamada slugs Toshie down for two. They keep at it, but Toshie fires back and Chigusa superplexes Hokuto into a standing Yamada, and that lets Toshie score a Dragon Suplex for the pin at (12:20). This seems to set off a Hokuto/Nagayo issue, with Police drawing laughs for cowardly poking Hokuto towards her. This leads to Chigusa talking shit to POLICE, which turns into an arm-wrestling match, won by Chigusa, much to Police’s shame. The audience gives him the “Go home/get lost!” chant of hate as he pouts off.

Rating: ** (This was… scrappy. By which I mean sloppy. Just a “Nasty Boys”-style match of people barely passing each other by on strikes and grabs, sorta flinging each other into submissions, and assorted “it looks fighty but not pretty” stuff, with no real match flow or anything. Just people doin’ stuff)

THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami, w/ Police) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato):
* The reliable squad who used to work for Ozaki now faces both her & Devil.

We’re JIP with Ozaki winning a slapfest with a buckle bomb, and Devil has the awesomeness to spend ages building up a huge lariat that she misses, having to avoid getting suplexed. Chikayo still catches her in her “upside-down in the ropes” hold. Devil ends up literally carrying her across the aisle to slam her into the guardrail, though, then overthrow powerbombs her. Chikayo slingshots onto her and after some reversals and Sugar piling on, Chikayo manages a rana (doing a LOT of sitting up while Devil holds her steady-ish), but Sugar eats a lariat. Sugar fights her into a superplex, but misses her back elbow and both kids get lariated. Devil Ligerbomb- Chikayo saves (sorta- she can’t decide on where to go and chooses neither and the ref just stops the count, haha). Ozaki comes in and eats the KICK OF FEAR, but manages to armbar Sugar from sitting on her shoulders, but Chikayo hauls her down from the top rope. Sugar hits the Spinning Ligerbomb- Devil tosses Chikayo onto them. Chikayo manages to armbar Ozaki, then surprises her with a Fisherman’s Buster after selling Devil’s legdrop a while. Oz does the “Kick out at ONE!” trick and urakens her for two, then counters another F-Buster with a VICIOUS shoot DDT and hits the Tequila Sunrise for two. Everyone throws bombs, but Chikayo sneaks in another Buster for a close one. Uraken/Running Ligerbomb gets the same for Ozaki. But she tries another and Chikayo gets a sunset flip… aided by Sugar’s right hand of doom FOR THE PIN at (9:13 of 12:12 shown)! The kids win!

Another scrappy “pull each other into moves” style match, which rapidly turns into Finisher Spamming (the one thing Ozaki wants to do these days). Like when Meiko was spamming DVDs all match long, this kind of hurts Chikayo because it makes her finisher look a bit tired when you see it 4 times a match not scoring pins). Sugar was… kind of fine but mostly “there”, as she’s slowed a lot and isn’t as precise, and Devil was Devil. Lots of clapping for herself and big dramatic spots, but immediately countering the next move so not selling for long.

(Rating: **1/4 (One of hte better examples of this style)

Another day, another bunch of **-ass matches, haha. GAEA Japan, everyone! They pull out great matches SOMETIMES, and thankfully stopped the “matches full of cheating” thing, but we’re now in an era of “scrappy fighting for everything” with a lot of stylistic overlap. Or the less-athletic wrestlers relying on time-killers like “fight over a single superplex for a minute” (a far cry from the rapid-fire “GO GO GO GO” matches of the ’80s and ’90s).