Joshi Spotlight: Steel Cage Deathmatch- Kaoru Ito & NanaMomo vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Las Cachorras Orientales

AJW WOMEN’S WRESTLING W FUSION 2000:
(Tokyo Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo 2nd Gym, Nov. 23rd 2000)
* It’s time for a HUGE Zenjo show! I could find only three Zenjo matches from November, but the main event is one HELL of a doozy- a 30-minute video of LCO & Kumiko Maekawa taking on Kaoru Ito, Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi! And this has 3-4 SPECTACULAR bumps, at least two of which are all-timers, as the name of the game is put over new champion Ito in every way possible. This is from a really big show in November, at the same arena as last year’s really big one. You can really tell that Zenjo has hit a new level of popularity from their “dark years”. It’s funny but Dave Meltzer quit watching the joshi scene in like 1997 and it led to a huge lack of updates on it, but this supposed “dark era” has a massively full arena and a HOT crowd as everyone pulls out all the stops.

We miss a handful of matches, but only involving the most barebones rookies. Miyuki Fujii finally finds someone to defeat, beating Chie Terashita (she lasts two years only). Miho Wakizawa also beats Mika Nishio (who lasts until Zenjo dies). A “mixed rules”/Amaresu match sees Wakizawa lose to Seiko Yamamoto.

TOMOKO WATANABE & KAYO NOUMI vs. BLACK JOKER (Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue):
* A Zenjo-loyalist squad takes on Black Joker’s heels in this clipped match. Tomoko’s in white, Noumi’s in blue/gold, Takako’s in a new blue/black outfit, and Eagle’s in black.

We start with Noumi showing JUNIOR DEFIANCE in the face of Takako whupping her ass, but she & Tomoko hit the floor. But then Eagle charges off the apron and eats shit on the landing. But Black Joker takes control during the floor brawl and Takako uses the main commentator as a human shield, and he gets bowled over when Eagle Sawai chairshots Tomoko into him. Noumi practices her “ragdoll physics” bumps in the ring against Eagle’s body attacks as the commentator sits back down. Noumi looks good doing that, looking super-shocked as she flips around, then does some good high-pitched shrieks as she hits Takako with some falling clotheslines. Watanabe immediately knocks Takako over, but gets double-teamed- she boomerangs onto Black Joker to stop that and collides with Eagle, who no-sells. A lariat does better convincing, but Tomoko goes up and misses her flying attack and eats a big chokeslam for two.

Takako comes in and gets dragon-screwed immediately, still selling the leg against Noumi’s missile kick, but she hits a big spinkick and Noumi is starfished across the mat. Eagle ragdolls her again, but misses a lariat on both opponents, Noumi trying a GERMAN of all things and getting stuffed… but Tomoko adds a lariat and she completes it! Eagle double-clotheslines the babyfaces down, but Tomoko trips her up and helps Noumi, who only flies off onto knees. Takako comes in but accidentally urakens her partner, Noumi getting two off that. She pops up to be like “yeah! gonna do it!” but immediately gets crushed by Takako’s Destiny Hammer (flying knee) so Eagle can hit a big Uranage slam to finish… and Noumi bolts up! REALLY fast bridge for a last-second kickout! But Eagle just squashes her face with a FLYING Splash, completely destroying her at (5:32 of 11:28 shown). Noumi is so good- even pounding her feet while she clutches her ribs in agony to sell the impact.

Really good contest from what we saw! I mean it’s only 5 minutes but I got a whole damn paragraph out of all the twists and turns, lol. Noumi was the one on display, as they just cut Tomoko’s stuff way out, and what a showcase! Tons of ragdoll flipover selling, her hitting the mat like a broken doll, and more, then putting her all into big comebacks. It seems clear that the Zenjo bosses have told Noumi & Wakizawa that they’re the “Next NanaMomo” and to put in the appropriate effort. The heels were mostly fine- mean and precise, crushing the kid whenever they got her alone. Tomoko’s stuff was probably cut but she looked fine, having to be held off to leave her partner to her comebacks and kickouts.

Rating: **1/2 (actually looked really good from what we saw)

MANAMI TOYOTA & YUMIKO HOTTA (AJW) vs. SHINOBU KANDORI & NORIYO TATENO (LLPW):
* Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit- Toyota & Hotta vs. their LLPW counterparts! Well, sorta- Toyota was more obviously inspired by Tateno’s Jumping Bomb Angels counterpart Itsuki Yamazaki, but close enough. So it’s the top two veteran stars of Zenjo (Ito is the current Champion, though) and the most “elite” of LLPW, more or less. Tateno’s push is long gone but she’s effectively the “Big Senior” of the joint, having wrestled since way back in the early 1980s, and they haven’t exactly jobbed her out. Toyota’s in black, Hotta’s in black, Kandori’s in gold, and Tateno’s in white with pink.

Kandori & Hotta start, Kandori already being awesome with her menacing stance, and they keep switching go-behinds as they jockey for position- very “true to life” yet obviously worked. And then Toyota just flies in and missile kicks the shit out of Kandori’s neck from behind, haha. Tactful and gracious as always! Toyota of course claps for herself and heads back to the apron, leaving Hotta alone. Tateno immediately comes in with boots to the ass but LLPW whips her to the ropes and she ducks a double-clothesline and facecrushers them. Well, woulda looked better if she’d run past them instead of just weirdly standing there and somehow flinging them down with no momentum, but still. Toyota’s in and immediately stares down Kandori, who juts her chin out like “the fuck you looking at?”. They both talk shit, Kandori slaps Toyota, then Manami slaps BACK and they go back and forth until Kandori drags her down with an armbar and Manami has to snag the ropes. Yeah, maybe don’t trade strikes with Kandori, lady. Manami’s about to hit her specialty as she’s whipped to the corner, but she messes up her landing in the ropes and can’t hit her missile kick, immediately getting shoved to the floor by Kandori, who charges in for a dive… and is like “hahah NOPE” and shakes her finger at the crowd. Even Manami laughs. Back in the ring, Kandori fires off some headbutts, Manami doing her “Fire-up no-sell” but getting bludgeoned back to the corner. She manages her own, Kandori laughing it off and blasting her down, and Tateno adds the JB Angels flying kneedrop for two. Manami dropkicks Tateno away, but Hotta takes some falling clotheslines from the veteran- Kandori adds a lariat but gets whipped to the corner and eats a rolling heel kick. Hotta adds another, but Kandori snaps on an armbar attempt, Toyota just strolling in to boot her face over it.

Kandori completes the Fujiwara armbar while Tateno deals with Manami, but Hotta casually makes the ropes, pops her in the face a few times (SHOTEIMANIA) and hits a Tiger Driver, immediately tagging out as Manami goes right for the Japanese Ocean Cyclone like a dumbass- Kandori gets an awesome rolling counter into an armbar but Manami doesn’t even bother to sell it as she’s trying to get into position for Tateno’s flying splash double-team, leading to Hotta firing a kick at Kandori. Toyota pulls Kandori up but takes the “palm-thrust machine-gun” counter, Kandori laughing after doing her “hi-ya” taunt and tagging out- Tateno flying splash & German gets two. Powerbomb gets two. Hotta grabs a running Tateno and holds her, but Manami’s javelin dropkick blasts her in the stomach- that woulda looked better but Manami got caught up in the ropes and robbed some momentum from the impact. Team AJW hits the floor but whips Team LLPW into one another and Manami hits her insane Missile Dropkick Suicida. Speaking of lunacy, we’re clipped to Manami clapping from the BALCONY as she decides to hit a fuckin’ dive onto LLPW from THERE. That’s a twelve-foot drop at least! Maaaaaaaan imagine catching that damn psycho from that height! Back in, Manami misses a Moonsault on Tateno but gets her Straightjacket German for two. Moonsault gets a close two. Tateno climbs up after her but takes a shitty Ocean Cyclone- Kandori does a late sweeping save. Fans are going nuts for this. Hotta stuffs Kandori so Manami can FINALLY finish, but now Tateno hits a friggin’ Death Valley Driver of all things as a counter. Another gets two as Kandori does a shitty job of blocking Hotta. Japanese Ocean Suplex (the underhook one) gets two. Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex gets the three at (10:28 of 17:26 shown). Hotta & Kandori shake hands after Hotta’s post-match promo.

Well that was a bit spirited! All four are a little older and slower than their prime, but they ended up going pretty big at points. Manami of course had to get in her big spots and do her own thing at points, so you had Kandori/Hotta doing a bit of a “shoot-off” so Kandori could look dominant, then Toyota started trying her no-selling stuff but got beaten down (one of the few times you’ll see that trick NOT work), and more. Tateno was a bit funny- obviously there as the “Pin Eater” she just kind of tags in, hits one move, then tags out, then is there to eat the hurricane of Toyota offense at the end. The finish was super-weird, though- Hotta was handling Kandori… but for three solid minutes? Like it was obviously a Toyota/Tateno fight to end it (Kandori probably wasn’t gonna do the job) but why book it so that it’s ONLY those two pairings for the whole end of the match? This just leads to a ton of weird bits where Kandori looks like a super-ineffective partner. The move execution was suffering a bit, as Toyota seemed like she could barely lift Tateno (who is probably hurt/tired/broken down at this point). Like that Japanese Ocean Suplex looked tough but Manami had to practically do a bridge while holding a woman the same size as herself (Manami’s leg strength is no joke). Also the two pulling each other’s hair to move one another around seemed a bit uhhhhhh angry? Tateno did a gut-punch then snagged Manami’s hair to pull her into the DVD, and Manami just grabbing a handful of it to shove Tateno around into the corner mighta been a “receipt”, lol.

Rating: **1/2 (good stuff in parts- never really hit the next level but was fun)

STEEL CAGE DEATHMATCH:
KAORU ITO & NANAMOMOE (Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi) vs. KUMIKO MAEKAWA & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda):
* It’s time for a HUGE Cage Match main event with the specialists- LCO have been in classic after classic in the steel cage, including one of the best joshi tags of all time against Ito & Tomoko years before. This time they’re teaming up with former enemy Kumiko Maekawa, newly heel after turning on Tomoko, her longtime partner. Kaoru Ito is the new Ace of AJW, having defeated Toyota for the Red Belt months before after a year of build, and her partners are LCO’s greatest enemies of this era- NanaMomo, who defeated them in a classic come from behind victory to win the Tag Belts! Ito looking around casually while the kids beside her just stare daggers at LCO is a great bit of business- they’re taking it SO SERIOUSLY but Ito has the confidence of a top star. Kumiko’s in purple & blue, Shimoda’s in red/pink, Mita’s in yellow, Ito’s in black w/ fire designs, Momoe’s in blue and Nanae’s in pink.

LCO divebombs the babyfaces before the bell and within a minute Nanae is already covered in her own blood- right at the bell Kumiko hits an awesome pump kick to Ito’s face out of a whip. Ito crushes Shimoda with a lariat but Shimoda just tears at her from the ground and soon gets the mount. Nanae finally learns to work as she just screams bloody murder as Kumiko grinds her into the chainlink. LCO attack with a chain & chair, but Momoe pops the crowd by launching herself out of the corner- Ito follows with a lariat but Kumiko immediately ends it with her ax kick. Kumiko adding herself to LCO is kinda terrifying, actually- her kicks are a lethal counter and very sudden in a way that LCO offense is not, providing instant counters. I’m liking how the match is going- LCO mostly dominates, but you randomly get bits like Momoe fire off repeated dropkicks to Shimoda while the heels dominate in other corners- always creating little comebacks, and just as the fans start really getting into that, Ito uses the timing to fire off some BIG chairshots to the heels. But that peak leads to another valley as LCO takes the lead again (Momoe excitedly pounds away on Shimoda but gets strangled by Kumiko, and Nanae wails as Shimoda strangles her with a chain). Momoe fires off a leg submission on Kumiko but gets beaten down, only to counter Shimoda with a German & chairshot as Mita is in Ito’s figure-four! Then all three heels eat a beating against the wall, then take one running dropkick after another in a great peak, being battered around the ring apron.

Nanae finally figures out how to sell like a top babyface in the early going.

LCO quickly start fighting back, Kumiko tossing Momoe around the ring with a chain around her neck while Mita flings chairs. A fun spot sees the heels stack the babyfaces in the corner with double-whips, then Kumiko charges in, then Mita, then Shimoda… who misses all three and gets German’d! Everyone hits moves and goes for the escape, but gets dragged off by the heels in tandem and soon Ito takes the DVD/Ax Kick combo into the Double Superbomb. Momoe is bleeding and beaten, but when the heels move to escape, NanaMomo spring to life and hit two with Germans, then build to a big fight with Shimoda and hit a Double NanaMomo Bomb from the top! Momoe heroically flips onto her feet from a DVD but immediately gets drilled by Kumiko, ending the flurry. But then ITO springs back to life, avoiding the DVD/Ax Kick and it’s stereo moves to all three! Ito Ligerbombs Mita, Nanae falcon arrows Shimoda and Momoe dragon suplexes Kumiko! Ito & Momoe bolt to escape and hit the floor! But no- ALL THREE have to escape, and this leaves Nanae alone as LCO catch her! Ito immediately has to reenter to save her, powerbombing Shimoda onto Kumiko like a boss and letting Nanae hit a coffin drop onto Shimoda from the top. Nanae’s out! But Ito tries to escape and gets caught with a motherfucking ELECTRIC CHAIR DROP FROM THE TOP! Mita was standing right on the top rope, sending Ito flat-backing from cage height!

An Electric Chair Drop from the top of the cage. Christ.

Ito, after eating a flat-back bump from like ten feet up, gets beaten down by all three heels at once with chairs, naturally provoking a huge “ITO-OH!” chant because she not only takes the beating but perfectly gets battered around and flops. They tie the bloodied champ to a chair and hit her with everything they have, making her look all the more heroic cuz her juniors are still on the floor – she gets the mini “Randy Savage” comeback with 1-2 shots but keeps getting triple-teamed to death, NanaMomo freaking out on the floor but not interrupting the moment. A Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) into the Ax Kick hits, but she fights out of the DVD and fires back! Another Ax Kick hits but she moves and LCO take each other out! Ito’s bloody-faced stagger is PERFECT for selling this, but she finally runs outta gas and takes the Death Valley Driver. But she tenaciously bites Mita’s leg from the ground to prevent an escape- Shimoda’s out but Maekawa hits the mat after Momoe interferes. and psycho Momoe… hits a Double Missile Dropkick from the top of the cage! Ito flying stomp to Kumiko! Momoe Moonsaults her from the top of the cage, too! Ito powerbombs Mita and… hits the Flying Stomp from the top of the cage to Mita! But after this obvious finish, she climbs and… Shimoda sprays her with a fire extinguisher! What an amazing way to “valley” the match after 3 huge peak spots in a row. Momoe & Shimoda fight on the floor while Ito gets into an amazing slugfest with Kumiko in the ring, taking those big kicks but firing back. But finally it’s an Ax Kick and Mita sneaks in with a DVD and Ito’s got no answer.

Ito & Momoe combined can’t prevent Mita’s escape, leaving Kumiko an easy road to beating the ever-loving shit out of a dying Ito while she’s leaning in the ropes. They chain her to the ropes, LCO pulling from the floor while Ito’s bludgeoned to death, but she miraculously lariats the hell out of one last Kumiko charge. This creates a one-minute double-down, but Momoe stops Kumiko’s climb, allowing Ito to release powerbomb her while sitting on the top rope (YIKES)- Flying Stomp! That’s an obvious finish, but there’s MORE- Ito climbs and Shimoda greets her with the dreaded fireball for another big bump! And now fresh Shimoda comes in with a chair off the top and they Double Ax Kick Ito. Shimoda escapes once more and Momoe has to save against Kumiko, getting dragged off by Shimoda so Kumiko can hit her Ax Kick with both women standing on the top rope, sending Ito back for ANOTHER huge bump into the ring! Kumiko’s definitely going to win, but then her evil bites her in the ass- TOMOKO WATANABE rushes in to interfere, stopping her old traitorous partner and throwing her back in! This gives Ito one last shot- powerbomb! FLYING STOMP FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE! Ito wins! Ito escapes the cage (22:12)!

Mita looks spooked as she looks back at the invincible Kaoru Ito.

Another really, really amazing Zenjo-style cagematch, with constant action and mania. It was really clever how they maintained the peaks & valleys a good match needs- you’d see the fans get into a Momoe comeback, then suddenly there’s this BIG MOVE as someone hits something awesome or a trio of moves hit at once, but immediately after the heels just kinda gouge at them or grab weapons and they slow the match down as soon as the peak hits, meaning everything “sticks” in the mind and is more impactful. This goes through the entire bout, as you get THREE big “top of the cage” moves, yet are realistically able to bring things back. More amateurish wrestlers would follow huge moves with more huge moves, negating the impact of any one thing, but you REMEMBER this stuff, as they always slow down the pace after a huge move. Ito did the “Babyface Ace Selling” most of the way through, powering out past impossible odds, but it never went QUITE too far in my opinion because the huge stuff would put her out for ages, and even her “counters” were more “avoid a move and slug a person down, then stumble and get caught, but get a heel to nail another heel”- she didn’t just pop up and ignore things. And all the while she stumbles and staggers around, which is one of the keys to getting the fans into your comeback.

The final ten minutes was terrific stuff, as they would alternate people hitting the floor, both putting focus on the few people left in the ring, giving us psychology of wondering when people were going to interfere again, and people being able to charge the ring while fresh after a rest. Shimoda for example runs interference on the floor, but after Mita escapes, is relatively well-off and hits the ring again to ramp up the odds against Ito. Even the run-in from Tomoko can’t hurt things, as she 100% has a reason to screw over her old partner and makes sure she pays for it by costing her the biggest win of her life. Not only that, she eats a monster finisher to end it. Ito hitting TWO Cage Stomps in a single match is already nuts, but both were put over as killers. I remember a BOD livewatch of I’m pretty sure this match, with criticisms coming from me and other over how invincible Ito seemed (“She JUST KEEPS COMING” someone uttered), but I think that was unfounded- while yeah she comes off as nigh-invincible, she never did any big kickouts or no-selling (the finisher series mid-match puts her out for 2-3 minutes), and even when she fired back, she was stumbling around the ring like she was dying and never hit any move at full-blast. AND she would have certainly lost save for Momoe & Tomoko interfering on her behalf from the floor. And so the core of the match puts her over like gangbusters, effectively leaving her alone against groups of heels for the entirety of the final third, ramping up the odds again and again as a fresh heel constantly hits her with some huge thing to try and finisher her off, only her indominable spirit letting her resist the onslaught.

Rating: ****1/2 (a masterpiece of a collection of huge spots, making sure to hit proper peaks and valleys, the heels slowing it down with comebacks constantly so the big moves meant more- A+ selling by Ito and a great “fighting against all odds” finish)