Joshi Spotlight: AJW in 01.03.01 & 01.04.01

AJW IN JANUARY 2001:
* It’s time for more Joshi Spotlight! And that one Chinese channel that uploads a bunch of stuff has a reliably large amount of Zenjo material from 2001, some of which is in fairly long videos! Though this set starts with a lot of clips under a minute.

JAN. 3rd 2001:

MOMOE NAKANISHI vs. NANAE TAKAHASHI: A quickie bout sees Nanae counter Momoe’s twisting headscissors thing, scoring the pin at (0:36 shown). Interesting they’d put her over someone who clearly seemed better, but this is solid way to build cred for Nanae.

YUMIKO HOTTA & TOMOKO WATANABE vs. TAKAKO INOUE & MIYUKI FUJII: A weird one for Takako, a Black Joker member being paired up with a rookie. Hotta is accidentally rolling kicks Tomoko, setting up a nearfall with Takako’s uraken. Tomoko finishes Fujii with a SWANK Brainbuster at (0:41 shown).

MANAMI TOYOTA & KAYO NOUMI vs. MIMA SHIMODA & KUMIKO MAEKAWA: The Toyota/Noumi team gets seen again, against Kumiko, now still aligned with LCO. We get Manami’s somersault cannonball plancha, then Maekawa using a weapon on Noumi, setting up Shimoda’s Tiger Suplex- Noumi gets a weak kickout. Maekawa finishers her with the Ax Kick at (0:43 shown).

WWWA WORLD TITLE:
KAORU ITO vs. ETSUKO MITA:
* And now we get the GOOD SHIT- these two had a **** match last year to set up Ito’s title win over Toyota, and now Mita is set up as the first challenger. They have really good chemistry, even though I can’t imagine anyone alive thought Mita (who is usually used as a “JTTS” in these situations) had a chance. Ito’s in the black bodysuit with fire designs, and Mita’s in banana yellow.

We’re JIP with poor Mita writhing in agony as Ito stomps her injured leg, then figure-fours it. Mita’s selling is, as usual, a great combo of “extreme pain” and “yet not sympathetic at all”. Ito hits her Flying Stomp TO the knee, Mita lashing out and screaming in agony, then Ito twists the leg. Mita dashes to the floor to put it over, then suuuuper hesitantly gets in… where Ito just javelins into her knee to be extra merciless. I love how Mita tries to suck it up the pain of a kneebar, and has such non-technical counters like “slam her heel into Ito’s face over and over again” to try and escape, then just settles for a banana-yellow chair. Good, scientific wrestling. Mita counters a whip to the Blazing Chop for two, but Ito lariats her. Shimoda trips Ito, who counters the electric chair drop and stomps Mita off the apron. Dominant performance so far- probably deliberate, as the Champion must have credibility. But a Flying Stomp to the floor misses, and Mita electric chair drops her out THERE- ooh, that’s a new one. Shimoda beats on Tomoko on the floor and they try their tandem finisher on Ito, but Mita eats the ax kick and Ito goes for a big dive… and Mita intercepts by flinging a chair at her. Hahah, what a counter. And Mita beats on Ito in the stands, trying her electric chair by a set of stairs, but you KNOW they got something better planned. And indeed, Tomoko fires back on Mita and puts her in place for Ito to hit a Flying Stomp off the stairs!

Mita’s growing frustration in pictures: First, she’s all smiles and confidence, able to TASTE that Red Belt.

Three straight DVDs don’t get the job done and she’s like “FUCK. Now what?”.

Now Ito starts countering Mita’s offense and she just bites her lip like “God DAMN it!”. The frustration builds and she’s leaving herself open!

Back at ringside, Ito hits a Ligerbomb on the floor, then gets that Flying Stomp off the top! Mita is screwed, but a regular Flying Stomp… only gets two! Mita springs to life and hits a chair, setting up the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop for two. Mita smiles, tasting the belt, but Ito elbows her in the face for a big pop, then hits a big powerbomb & Ligerbomb for two. But she can’t come up with anything but a sleeper, so Mita jawbreaks out of it and hits the Death Valley Driver! Another emphatic one and Mita again tastes the belt, joyous as she hits a finishing one… for two, as Ito slumps over! And now Mita ain’t so smiley, like “FUCK. What now?” Ito does that “too dead to be pulled up” sell, battering Mita with a lariat as she springs up, but Mita just looks pissed off now, like “you fuckin’ bitch…”. Ito’s dizzied strike is easily avoided, but so is Mita’s, and Ito powerbombs her to set up the Flying Stomp! And another! And another! For two! Ito readies another, but Mita shoots out ORANGE MIST and hits a DVD with the pinning combination, again for two- Mita is like “That’s it” and picks her up again, but has gotten too careless- Ito snaps on a Fujiwara Armbar and twists her arm around so Mita immediately tapes even from a jumbled-up position- Ito wins (10:44 of xxxx shown)!

This was very much a “build a match around our big moves” bout, as you can see the “2.9 Wrestling” throughout as they do all this incredible stuff, even hitting big moves on the floor (electric chair, flying stomp from the stairwell, flying stomp to the floor, ligerbomb)… but it’s only MID-MATCH, and they use this to set up the “we’re tired but have energy for one more flurry” stuff, this time Mita hitting three DVDs and Ito three stomps, then another DVD as they’re just spamming everything non-stop, repeating finishers. I used to really hate that kinda stuff, and even now I feel it KIND OF diminishes their moves, but at this point they’d already been hurt a fair bit by endless kickouts and even midcarders doing it. In particular, Mita had zero chance WITHOUT spamming DVDs, so that’s what she did. Her increasing confidence as she hits more and more bleeds through, then her frustration at the kickouts and finally anger at Ito’s counters, and the crowd even bites a bit (which is big, considering how unlikely a Mita victory was). All in all, it does the job of putting over Ito as invincible- it’s easy to sass someone’s push as “The one who kicks out of everything/keeps coming no matter what”, but it’s a good hook for her rise to the top, and as she IS the Champion, credibility is massively important (this is probably why she crushes Mita so hard and is so merciless with the knee stuff early on- like when Aja was champion, it’s important to be as forthright and murderous as possible out of respect for the belt). And ultimately, the spammed techniques didn’t win- Mita didn’t have a new move and didn’t do technical wrestling and Ito kinda could, and that made the difference- very sudden and played up Ito’s versatility.

Rating: ***1/2 (one of the better “Finisher Spam” matches you’ll see, with the two repeating their moves until one tried something new)

JAN. 4th 2001:

YUMIKO HOTTA vs. MANAMI TOYOTA: You wouldn’t expect a match between the biggest two save Ito would be clipped to nothing, but here we go. It’s a very SHOTEMANIA kind of match, as Ito piefaces Toyota off the top, leaving her laying. Toyota hits a big running shotei (palm thrust) to stagger Ito, and gets the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. Hotta piefaces her again and hits the Caribbean Splash (straightjacket superplex), then picks her up and shoteis her again for the pin at (0:42 shown). Hotta cuts a promo after the match to Toyota, saying (through 2 levels of translation) “It’s already the 21st century. Are you still sticking to the same old ways and refusing to change? Think about it carefully.” This is apparently the impetus behind Manami’s early 21st Century heel turn.

WWWA WORLD TAG TITLES:
NANAMOMO (Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi) vs. LOS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* A rematch! NanaMomo got a triumphant victory over LCO last year to win their first ever tag belts, now it’s a huge title defense! Before the bell, Shimoda is already trolling them, strolling up and grabbing at one of the belts like it’s her property.

FIRST FALL: Mita/Nanae start, but Momoe sneaks in with a missile kick to the back and tries to get a near-fall! But Mita soon counters them both and LCO does their pose to Nanae, but Momoe comes in again and fights them to the floor, where LCO take back over until Momoe is somehow able to run straight up to the next level of Korakuen’s stands off a whip and moonsault Mita in one motion. Back in, Mita takes over on Nanae but a knee to the mush sets up a ton of Momoe dropkicks- a good Big/Little fight breaks out, Momoe using a rana out of a powerbomb and Shimoda has to save. Nanae has the strength to trade slaps with Mita (who actually sells them) and backdrop her out of a powerbomb. Nanae even no-sells a Blazing Chop, but a running one puts her down and the DVD gets a close two- Momoe saves. NanaRaka (michinoku) Driver gets two- Shimoda saves. Everyone keeps interfering in each other’s shit until Shimoda hits two horrible ax kicks to finish Mita’s DVD on Nanae at (4:35).

SECOND FALL: LCO pounce immediately and beat NanaMomo’s asses in the stands, but we’re clipped to Nanae escaping their finisher & Momoe missile kicking both in the back and their Double Razor’s Edge on Shimoda getting two. Shimoda avoids a charging attack and Mita throws some half-hearted chair strikes- Double Superbomb gets two on Momoe. Nanae saves that, but then Kumiko runs in and smashes Momoe with an Ax Kick… then YUMIKO HOTTA runs in and cheats, hitting Momoe with a shotei and chair shot! HOTTA IS A HEEL NOW!! And Shimoda pins a struggling Momoe after all that at (2:39). LCO win two straight and are WWWA World Tag Champs again! Momoe pounds the mat in frustration as Hotta guts a promo with EVIL SUNGLASSES on, and this draws in Ito to defend her friends and seconds, setting off a pullapart brawl as Tomoko joins in. So now the future is clear- Hotta/Maekawa/LCO vs. Ito/Watanabe/NanaMomo! Manami comes out in a red blazer to cross her arms and silently judge people, too.

Manami Toyota, fresh from her side-job as a realtor, silently judging the wrestlers.

As a match, it’s not much- barely 7 minutes combined of content and it’s mostly scrappy brawling with everyone in the ring at all times. In fact, they seem to be noticeably avoiding going through a ton of effort or huge bumps because they know it’s just a run-in finish and not that “legit”. But it’s a good angle- Hotta, one of the foundational members of a nearly-dead Zenjo in 1997, now turns on the heroes of the new generation and is a cocky, sunglass-wearing heel, leading the evil LCO and traitorous swine Maekawa. The match’s only real highlight is the spitfire that is Momoe, hitting crazy moonsaults off the stands and a run-up sunset flip to Shimoda, whose ax kicks are usually in another stratosphere compared to her opponents.

Rating: ** (the pullapart brawl at the end was way better than almost anything in the match)