Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in November 2000!

GAEA JAPAN IN NOVEMBER 2000:
* It’s time for the AAAW Tag Title Contender Tournament! Notably, both Chigusa & Lioness, leaders of the Third Generation Army, are teaming with their mini-mes (Meiko & Kato, respectively) to try and win the belts. This leads to a lot of mix and match stuff, as Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada form a team, taking on their own stable-mates in Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki, plus Chigusa & Meiko take on Toshie Uematsu & The Bloody (from JD’). And the final bout is Meiko & Chigusa vs. Devil Masami & KAORU, furthering the Devil/Meiko rivalry!

NOV. 3rd:

AAAW TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT:
CHIGUSA NAGAYO & MEIKO SATOMURA vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU & THE BLOODY:
* Hey, it’s The Bloody from JD! Haven’t seen her in a bit! She’s teamined up with Toshie against Team Red here, obviously a Filler Team.

The kids pounce on Chigusa to start, Bloody scoring some Germans, but she gets leglocked until Toshie saves. Chigusa drills her and sets up a double-team with Meiko’s flying knee. Meiko whips both people to the floor but impressively bounces to avoid diving onto nothing when they flee, then everyone messes around until Chigusa SMOKES Bloody with a wheel kick. But Bloody recovers with a rana and a brutal-looking straightjacket hold while Chigusa’s on her knees- Toshie’s missile kick sets up a flying senton for two. Meiko sets up Chigusa’s Ligerbomb for two, then Chigusa sets up her Super Jujigatame, leaving Bloody thrashing around for ages until she makes the ropes. Toshie runs in, but herself gets beaten up. Bloody saves her, and Toshie has to hammer repeated Goo Punches to bring Chigusa down to finally hook her Double-Wrist Armsault for two. She does another, but now CHIGUSA does one and Meiko gets the Pele kick. But she goes up and Toshie SHORYUKENS her- sadly Meiko basically no-sells it and slips off the top, Chigusa setting up her DVD for two- Bloody saves. Chigusa accidentally nails Meiko, who eats a Dragon Suplex and Chigusa BARELY saves, Meiko lands another Pele, and when Toshie tries to no-sell, she charges into a crucifix and Meiko tosses her up into another DVD for three at (11:08).

Rating: ** (A very “don’t work TOO hard” kind of filler match, with The Bloody running in for random bits but not a lot of SEQUENCES, and a lot of half-speed “yeah, we have no real plan here” kind of things, into a semi-hot Toshie/Meiko closing battle)

AAAW TAG TITLE TOURNAMENT:
LIONESS ASUKA & SONOKO KATO vs. THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada):
* The Kick Demons unite again for the tag tournament, with Kato teaming with her inspiration/trainer last year.

The babyfaces pounce before the bell, but Kansai nearly gets Splash Mountain and Yamada tope con hilos onto them on the floor- Splash Mountain on Kato! Asuka saves (she was already in the ring), then has to save her from a double-team version (pulling Yamada off the top and clotheslining Kansai), but Kato eats a lariat for two. Asuka finally just pulls Kato into the tag, hits a dive to Yamada, then sweep-kicks her table so it whacks Yamada on the head. hah- clever. Blue Thunder Bomb gets two. Kansai comes in but gets double-teamed, then takes the Iconoclasm. She avoids the Towerhacker Bomb and has to deal with energetic Kato, finally wearing her down enough to hit a flying stomp. Kato keeps doing the “Fuck YOU!” bridge for pops but it’s not really hitting the way they want it to. I think it’s a lack of “desperation selling” from Kato, who simply springs to life when it’s her time to do shit and so isn’t selling eating the early Splash Mountain well, plus the general slow pace of the match and “stay DOWN!” from the heels. Lioness comes in for a Powerbomb/Guillotine Legdrop on Yamada, who keeps plugging away with elbows for two-counts while Kansai looks wiped, in “Andre Mode” leaning on the ropes, and the crowd FINALLY starts reacting when Kansai accidentally kicks Yamada, but eventually they just pepper Kato with enough kicks to keep her down.

A very “bleh” match, as I think the slow pace and lack of desperation really hurt what they were going for (“Kato is trying so hard! Look at her kick out of all these big moves!”) because like… they’re doing “early match in the show” effort but want “main event” results. Kansai, always a potential “scratch” from her collagen disorder (her joints can sometimes prevent her from doing ANYTHING) looked to be having issues later, leaving Yamada, always iffy at this point, to just spam strikes. But Kato’s selling was the key issue here, as she was doing the majority of the match.

Rating: ** (almost wanna go lower but it wasn’t ACTIVELY bad; just fell way short of their intentions, I think)

NOV. 23rd:

HAND-MADE TITLE:
SAKURA HIROTA vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA:
* Another comedy match, this one prefaced with Hirota in GIANTS baseball gear, but she throws the shirt to Chikayo (revealing and demands she wear it (since it says “Nagasima” (sic) on the back and all), then pops the crowd by tearing the red pinstripes on her pants for the proper BLACK ones.

Some simple comedy sets up Sakura’s Flying Ass for two, and she scores her rolling sunset flip move, then draws laughs trying Chikayo’s “upside-down in the ropes” submission, accidentalling working a hold to nothing while Chikayo gets out and stomps her. Chikayo and the ref have to help her out of it, and when Chikayo misses the Flying Stomp, she just hops back to complete it! Sakura tries to meet her up top but now CHIKAYO lands her upside-down hold. Sakura humps the ground to escape a back suplex, shoves her fingers in Chikayo’s crack (a schoolyard prank in Japan), then avoids the Fisherman’s Buster & hits her 2nd-rope Uraken for two. They do some dance moves as counters to whips, Sakura drawing sarcastic applause for a clumsy “flip” counter of another Buster, but then dips Chikayo… into a PIN at (5:00 of 7:04 shown), shocking the fans!

Rating: *1/2 (a pretty short match by Sakura comedy standards, but fine)

HAND-MADE TITLE:
SAKURA HIROTA vs. LIONESS ASUKA:
* We’re shown clips of Sakura losing to Devil Masami, who flings her title into the crowd and gives it to a random audience member (I asked a puro expert!). So Sakura’s backstage promo debuts a new, feathered version of the Hand-Made Title. And Sakura comes out to DUMP MATSUMOTO’S MUSIC and gear, popping the fans who immediately get it. Joshi puro’s all-time villain. And she’s got Tommy the ref cosplaying as the Evil Dump-Aligned Referee Shiro Abe, too!

Dump Sakura attacks immediately using a bouquet and rolls up Asuka as the ref goes for the DEEP LORE and immediately fast-counts Asuka, who gives her a glare for counting 2 in like 0.2 seconds, lol. Lioness warns her off, and we’re clipped to Sakura failing to pull Asuka’s table into the ring, blaming the seconds, then walking into a lariat. Sakura saves herself from going into the table by grabbing the REF to slow her down, then holds poor Tommy in front of her so she has to get hurt by Asuka’s charging lariat, too. Asuka drapes the table over Dump Sakura, but she puts the table up edge-first to counter. Lioness then kicks her in the (padded) ass and teases the Towerhacker Bomb, but puts Sakura up top and gets “cross-bodied” for two. Sakura keeps falling on her for two-counts, but pulls her up in a big “Dump spot”, sticking her tongue out… so Lioness just swats her and hits a Ligerbomb for three (3:11 of 8:03 shown). Asuka awards the Hand-Made Belt to TOMMY, and the referee immediately cuts a tear-filled promo.

Rating: *1/2 (I remain in awe of Sakura for being a FUNNY comedy wrestler, with gags that translate to a Western audience and better yet, are UNIQUE EVERY TIME- like you know how many comedians just do the same act night in and night out? she keeps shaking it up!)

CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SUGAR SATO & SONOKO KATO:
* A weird mish-mash of teams here, as the Sato/Nagashima team is a constant over the past 5 years and now everyone’s all split up.

Everyone does running attacks as I fight to keep track of who’s on what team, and Toshie hammers Sugar’s gut with repeating boxing strikes, then an elbow/bow & arrow works the abs. Everyone takes turns double-teaming and saving one another, then Chikayo & Sonoko trade kicks. Kato cannonballs her but gets caught in the “upside-down in the ropes” hold. Toshie comes in for her new moves (the Shoryuken and the parallel running knee smash) as everyone’s just kinda… running in and trading stuff with no flow to it. Just “doing stuff”. Case in point, Kato is battering Toshie with kicks now, but Sugar missile kicks Toshie and they work a thing where she stuffs the Double-Wrist Armsault for a while because Toshie’s already countered her. Then there’s a big to-do of Sugar blocking Toshie’s GOO PUNCH (which I realize is enhanced by a glove with Toshie’s usual flower symbol), trying to hit a ligerbomb, then Toshie just punches her anyways, then hits another, then a wind-up POPEYE PUNCH~~ and hits the Double-Wrist Armsault for a basic two-count after both others interfere. Chikayo tries to finish with the Fisherman’s Buster, but has to settle for a rana, then both get flying stomps to Sugar, who does the “KICK OUT AT ONE” spot and just runs into a gutshot as we’re selling the abs again. Another flying stomp keeps that up as Sugar now sells it again. She counters Chikayo’s “armbar from the shoulders” move but collapses due to tummy pain. She’s like… grimacing and growling due to the AB PAIN but then suddenly hauls Chikayo up from a rana (which requires great core strength) and spinning ligerbombs her for two, suddenly with fine abs. Chikayo manages to German her, leading to an attempt at a dramatic double-down as they dessssperately go for tags… but only Kato gets one as she runs in, nails Toshie off the apron, then tries to finish Chikayo with Kowloon’s Gate, only for the shoulder-armlock to get her and she’s forced to tap out at (11:12), nowhere to go.

Such a WEIRD, WEIRD match. Like they were sent out there with no plan or had no “leader” and so it was just 10+ minutes of “doin’ stuff”. Nothing bad, nothing incredible, nothing botchy- just a lot of wrestlers messing about with no big ideas, match-flow, or consistent work. Building up a big move from Toshie that gets two and doesn’t matter, basic reversals, etc. Then there’s this thing early on where they work Sugar’s stomach, then it’s 7 minutes of content before they go “Hey, let’s go back to that” and they hit flying stomps she forgets to sell as huge, THEN she decides her gut is killing her, then she eats a few nearfalls due to non-gut moves and tags out… and her partner immediately runs into a submission out of nowhere for the finish. I feel this is borne out by the fact that the match wasn’t over at all, mostly getting “random fan yelling” stuff until the outta nowhere finish. My main takeaway from all this is how much more ridiculously advanced Chikayo looks compared to everyone, being more precise, agile, and capable. Everyone else has slowed down a LOT since 1995 even as they got more well-rounded as performers.

Rating: ** (A bunch of “not bad” stuff, but such a strange story with nonsensical match construction)

AAAW TAG TITLE SHOT TOURNAMENT:
MAYUMI OZAKI & AKIRA HOKUTO (w/ Police) vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI & TOSHIYO YAMADA:
* The Second Generation Army EXPLODES! The Kick Demons vs. The Regular Demons!

Everyone trades shots immediately and Hokuto tries to plant Kansai with the Northern Lights Bomb- no dice. She avoids Splash Mountain and Oz’s cannonball gets two. Kansai uses THE CLAW on Hokuto, even tossing her down with it for two, then Yamada cranks on the arm. Ozaki comes in and throws terrible punches that everyone has to sell, then an awful Tequila Sunrise gets two on Yamada. More attention is given to Hokuto attaching herself to Kansai like a lamprey on the floor, but she gets smashed into the guardrail as Yamada spinkicks Ozaki and pulls her up at “2”. Oz counters with an armbar but Kansai stomps over with Hokuto still attached to her, dumping the Dangerous Queen on the pile for a crowd pop. Ozaki keeps kicking out of elbow strikes at one until Yamada clocks her for two, Hokuto flies in to help her hit a Double DDT, then they cannonball the Kick Demons on the floor.

Hokuto lands the scorpion deathlock in the stands while Oz/Kansai do one of those sequences that makes you sad because you remember how good they USED to be when they do all these clunky reversals, Kansai hitting a backdrop driver so they’re both down. Hokuto Germans Kansai for two after a fight, but Yamada flings her off the top and Kansai adds a lariat, two more setting up a big Splash Mountain (Ozaki hits the ref on the pin). Ozaki keeps adding terrible backfists, but Kansai is like “YOU FUCKING DARE?” for doing it while Hokuto’s trying to backslide her. The camera is WAY too close so you can see whiff after whiff but at least Kansai is doing a good defiant sell until 5-6 of them finally let Hokuto complete the move for a crowd pop. Kansai springs back with a lariat counter for a close two, but eats Yamada’s flying enzuigiri by mistake, into an uraken into the Northern Lights Bomb and THAT’s a legitimate three at (10:20).

The sadness was strong with this one- four women who would have easily hit **** with this in 1993 are clunky, injured, and struggling to cross **, reduced to “fighting over a German” spots when back in the day they’d have been speedblitzing through five sequences way better than that, and doing big “Hokuto can’t answer multiple lariats” spots only 7 minutes in. Injuries are a bitch, people. At least they kinda did some okay spots in the end, but Ozaki being all-time awful with sloppy backfists hurt a lot of their intent.

Rating: **1/4 (marginally better than the other stuff thanks to a couple of fun bits and an actual story thread, but some SAD move execution)

AAAW TAG TITLE SHOT TOURNAMENT:
THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura) vs. THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Devil Masami & KAORU):
* Okay, THIS is somewhat interesting. Chigusa & her mini-me up against Devil Masami, who herself had a big thing with Meiko in past months, losing a come-from-behind match to her and then pummelling her next time. Devil stares down Meiko before the bell to emphsize this.

KAORU & Meiko start us off, wisely holding off on Devil/Meiko, and KAORU just powers Meiko into the corner and launches her with a German in an oddly good spot for her lately. She nearly botches a rana attempt, Chigusa hauling her into powerbomb position so they drop out of it, then KAORU messes up going over the ropes from a clothesline and they improvise. Devil/Chigusa try next, hitting lariats and Devil powerbombing her onto KAORU’s board. Chigusa exposes the business by over-bumping over the top so KAORU can hit both with an Orihara Moonsault. Chigusa fights Devil into a superplex for an age, and they sandwich her with wheel kicks. This lets Meiko start off with an advantage, but Devil quickly powers out of a suplex and takes the lead. It’s a good “power vs. speed” contest as Meiko keeps countering stuff and getting outmuscled, then KAORU hammers the babyfaces with her board to prevent a double-team, lands her boardsault on Meiko, then Devil CRUSHES her with a somersault senton off the top, drawing a way bigger reaction that KAORU’s big new move, lol. In a fun bit, Chigusa breaks it up with an elbow, but Devil dodges it and gets two off of THAT hitting Meiko too, haha. KAORU adds her brainbuster for two, Meiko bridging out and hitting her Pele Kick after some blocked shots.

Ever stop a video at EXACTLY the right time, lol?

KAORU flips out of a DVD and nails her rana for two, but Meiko persistently goes for kicks and lands that DVD for two. Chigusa with a sort of kneeling falcon arrow for two, then catches a rana with a crab- KAORU starts hammering her with the board, but Chigusa no-sells and even laughs at her until Police’s distraction nets her another shot, then Excalibur (michinoku driver) gets two. Everyone runs interference until Chigusa takes the board and nails DEVIL with it, allowing Meiko to hit the DVD to her! Devil no-sells but Chigusa snags her- Devil rolls her up and hits a lariat for two, but gets caught and nearly takes the Running Razor’s Edge, escaping for a sleeper in a REALLY sloppy sequence and nearly gets the win, Meiko barely able to put Chigusa’s hand on the rope. Devil misses an ax kick so Meiko clobbers her with a headshot, leaving her reeling into Chigusa’s own DVD- Devil does the “GAEA No-Sell” but just walks into another one for two. They exchange sleepers, KAORU missile kicks her partner, and Chigusa just punts Devil in the face for two. Stereo DVDs! Devil manages a desperate BRIDGE! But Chigusa easily punts her again, Devil doing a half no-sell/half death wobble, then gets cracked with a lariat & wheel kick, doing the same stumble around, but not falling, which looks terrifying. Chigusa finally builds up a super-lariat, which of course barely whizzes past the top of Devil’s head and THAT’s the pin at (13:07), lol. Well the CROWD popped! Not the wrestlers’ fault the camera was up their ass for that one cuz the cheap seats missed it!

See, this is the funny thing: Devil is more physically washed than any wrestler in GAEA, especially compared to her physical prime, yet is in the best match of this review, mostly thanks to her, because she CAN WORK. Like, she knows how and when to no-sell, then “get caught” and nearly get pinned, and how to react to moves in simple, interesting ways that can further the story. So her & Chigusa sloppily grabbing each other and lurching into moves isn’t the best, but both can still use timing to save other parts of the match. I mean, the most agile person in this match was KAORU, and she was the worst one overall! This one also smartly kept the Devil/Meiko bits to a minimum to tease it further and not overdo it with them. It also kinda builds up the “Devil is nigh-unkillable” thing, where she can just remain standing after taking a dozen killshots, but it doesn’t really “kill” the moves because persistence can still wear her down.

Rating: **3/4 (some bad execution, but a few nice spots and good sell-jobs by Devil)

Overall a very… not great show of wrestling! Like this was some JANK-ASS SHIT at points with people doing poorly laid-out matches, but nearly everyone was in the same ** stretch save the final bout. It’s rather sad, because these were once some of the best workers in the entire world in that 1991-1996 stretch, but by 2000 you can just see every mile on the road written into every move they make. Worse still, the GAEA Class of 1995 is ALSO packing on injuries and slowing down! Most of them save Chikayo & Meiko have major holes in their game by this point, and of course have a dozen senpais above them who aren’t about to start laying down for them.