Joshi Spotlight: AJW on 01.21.01

AJW IN JAN. 21st 2001:
It’s time for more Zenjo in January, as I check out the second half of stuff from that month! This one sees one of the most amazing “Toyota being a shitbag” performances of all, as she selfishly gobbles up humiliation spots against the supposed heels and won’t give them ANYTHING in a tag match featuring her & Kayo Noumi vs. Black Joker. BJ’s leader Eagle Sawai also takes on hapless Zenjo weakling Miho Wakizawa in a singles match, and then we get a FANTASTIC 8-woman tag with the heel army (Yumiko Hotta, Kumiko Maekawa & LCO) against Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, and NanaMomo.

JAN 4th:

AJW TITLE:
MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. KAYO NOUMI:
* MihoKayo EXPLODES! This is for Wacky’s AJW Title (the “Rookie Elevation Belt”). Though this was apparently on the 4th so I should have reviewed it last week, haha. Oh well- it’s clipped anyways!

We’re JIP with Wacky demanding Kayo give up in a clutch, but she’s then tossed to the floor and thrown into chairs, then comes back and starts whipping them at Kayo. Kayo screams and hits her falling clothesline, but Miho scares and disheartens her by roaring to life, only to hit her own clothesline and Kayo doing the same. Noumi with a flying plancha, then Wakizawa with one, then Wacky hits a big missile dropkick, but her Super Rana fails and she splats on the mat. Kayo with a bad missile kick (her legs splay apart) for two. Then she puts Wacky up for a SUPERDUPER Armsault, getting only two! She pulls up Wacky, who gets the “waking German” counter, then two more Germans for two, and even her Super Rana only gets two! Fisherman’s Buster- countered with a rapid pin for two. Miho goes “one more time!” and scores another Super Rana, but this time Kayo rolls through and nearly pins her. Miho, desperate, tries to end it but another armsault nearly pins her. Finally, though, she hits the Fisherman’s Buster, then scores another for the pin at (4:45 shown). Looked like a long, hard-fought match, full of “2.9 wrestling” (ie. ass-tons of nearfalls and “surely that would be it” kickouts when their typical durability suggests this SHOULD have been it), probably to both impress the fans and show how much further they’ve come along.

JAN. 21st:
* Over to the fantastic Differ Ariake building (aka “The one with the golden statues in the background” as we get Black Joker vs. AJW wrestlers in two matches, then a huge 8-woman tag featuring the promotion’s top angle!

MANAMI TOYOTA & KAYO NOUMI vs. BLACK JOKER (Takako Inoue & Rumi Kazama, w/ Eagle Sawai):
* This is a LONG video, unlike most of the clips on this channel, and features the Manami/Kayo team again as they face heel squadron Black Joker. Manami had her issues with them last year, defending the Red Belt against Eagle Sawai. Toyota gets the best reaction; Noumi the least (barely above “polite clapping”). Noumi’s in the usual animal-print w/ blue, Toyota’s in black, Rumi’s in black with purple frills everywhere & Takako’s in a SLICK leather get-up- mostly blue floral patterns over black with long armbands.

Takako no-sells Kayo to start, so Toyota runs in and they beat her up and humiliate her with a double-flex pose. Kayo quickly gets overwhelmed, Rumi using her kickboxing and a terrible hairtoss (is Kayo sandbagging her, lol? Risky move!). Takako throws some kicks and works holds, looking like a whole new worker (she’s gotten in great shape over the past year), and Rumi ragdolls her with a kick (great “broken doll” sell by Kayo, who has her knee bent all weird on the landing). Man, Rumi is VERY stiff and dumpy at this point. haha Manami steps in and IMMEDIATELY does the “lol u short!” arm-raise and no-sells Rumi’s kicks, so gets dragged to the heel corner for a pose. So Toyota immediately no-sells THAT and ties Rumi in the ropes and absolutely launches her dropkick to the spine, then ties her in a deathlock and takes her sweet time doing silly poses and doing a “model shimmy” and coquettishly flicking her hair to tease Rumi before locking on the hold and putting on MORE stuff to treat Rumi like a total jobber, just flinging her around and poking her in the nose. She leads Kayo through some double-teams, and now the KID wants to get in on the bullying act, tying up Rumi’s hair for a whip… but Rumi awkwardly shoot-resists and takes her down for some slaps. Oh this is getting good. Takako quickly gets tagged in and is bounced around by dropkicks until finally resisting her jobber-fu and crabbing her. But then Kayo counters the Shoulder-Mounted Backdrop for two and tags in Manami, who hits her corner dropkicks and we get the figure-four/splash combo. And again!

Takako FINALLY takes the lead with a DDT on Kayo but immediately eats falling clotheslines and a missile kick (this match has STRONG “the heels are winning so let the babyfaces do whatever all match long” energy), but dodges a splash and beats her up on the floor… and Toyota is STILL CLOWNING THE HEELS, now spitting water on Eagle, completely ignoring her counter-kick, then spewing it again. hahaha what an ass. Takako throws Kayo into every ringside thing possible and OMG now Manami swipes Takako’s gimmick, brandishing the shockstick and now Eagle has to immediately stop doing offense to put over the threat of the stick. Kayo is doing a really good “crumpled but fighting” agonized sell, eating a double-team and FIRING UP and stumble-walking over to Toyota, who hits a rolling cradle on Takako for two. Thirty seconds of it! But FINALLY Eagle cheats, and that lets Takako hit the Super Chokeslam for two. Destiny Hammer & uraken miss and Toyota Germans her with a full deadlift for two, then a Moonsault, but Takako escapes the Ocean Cyclone and PLASTERS her with an uraken (great collapsing sell by Toyota) for two. Rumi makes the most of it finally being her turn to not look stupid, hitting a big clothesline and German to Toyota, but Toyota ducks a kick and wheelbarrow Germans her (man, Manami is fuckin’ STRONG). But Rumi stops a double-team and Takako flies in with a Destiny Hammer, but Kayo pulls the heels to the floor and Manami immediately springs to life with a somersault plancha. A big plancha for Kayo takes out all three heels!

Stereo Flying Headbutts get two on Rumi, but Eagle charges in and a Double Assisted Powerbomb… is telegraphed as a set-up, as they immediately run into position for Toyota’s missile kick to wipe out two of them so Kayo lands on Eagle. Kayou with the double-wrist armsault twice for a close two-count, but Takako armdrags Kayo off the top and Rumi gets a terrible single-arm powerbomb for two. Everyone starts doing the “walk around unsure of where to be” thing as Takako casually walks to the corner and Toyota kicks her, but then it’s a Doomsday Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex/Dropkick and Takako breaks it up at two. Rumi stops Kayo up top but gets German’d off the second rope and another armsault gets two, but Rumi finally dodges the exhausted kid’s dropkick and lariats the hell out of her. Eagle runs in- Double Assisted Powerbomb! But Toyota splashes them all to break up the pin! Takako sits on her in the corner so Rumi can finish Kayo- Flying Wheel Kick sets up an awful Tiger Suplex for three (23:01).

This is such a weird match. Toyota’s team just DOMINATES the entire first 2/3, controlling like 13 minutes of action and barely selling a thing because Manami’s in “LOL I NO SELL U” mode, plus eager to humiliate Rumi in all kinds of “embarrassment” spots, despite that team being heels. Toyota was GLORIOUSLY unprofessional here, soaking up adulation and humiliating the heels, ignoring offense and wasting time in holds to make them look even worse, and taking attention away from Noumi, who was probably supposed to be getting over with her fighting spirit. This had all the aura of a “K if your team does the job we’ll let you do whatever you want” situation. Look at how she’s spewing water at Eagle repeatedly, ignoring offense, then interrupting her attempts at shit to get the weapon so she doesn’t have to eat any moves at all. Can you imagine if anyone in wrestling acted this way today? They’d be meme’d in SECONDS. The rest of the match was iffy bits, as Rumi was VERY clunky by this point and clearly having trouble moving around, and the match flow often made little sense, with nobody maintaining offense for more than two moves in a row. Spots that’d make sense get kinda messed up (Toyota rushes to a far corner to set up a dropkick counter and Rumi & Takako have to reposition despite clearly having seen her, because she has to hit them from behind).

Rating: **1/4 (not really a GREAT match, but a fascinating one- Toyota’s ego on full display and multiple spots being kinda messy, but interspersed with fun bits)

EAGLE SAWAI (w/ Black Joker) vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA (w/ Kayo Noumi):
* Zenjo’s other rising star gets fed to Eagle, probably to make Wacky look good in defeat. Wacky is SUPER serious to start, frowning a lot at a nonplussed Eagle. She even defiantly gets in the big veteran’s face, pulling hair, but Eagle just bullies her into the corner through sheer body mass in a good bit. Eagle’s in red with tons of tassels and Wacky’s in yellow.

Wacky charges at the bell, and actually ties Eagle up in the ropes, puts her own hat on Eagle’s head, and facewashes her! But Eagle quickly knocks her to the floor with a body attack and bullies her out there, smushing her face into the camera lens several times, bashing her into the wall, then elbowing her in the head at the commentary table right in front of the crew, lol. Black Joker triple-team her in the ring and THIS is the one they’re using early cheating in, haha. Eagle bullies her more until Wacky comes back with more clotheslines, but flies off straight into Eagle’s feet (OW). She sells that on the floor, Eagle following by bashing her into a table and jamming a microphone into her forehead, but she tries a running body attack off the RAMP and ends up smashing into Takako instead! Miho follows with a stomp off the apron and puts the boots to Eagle, then hits a flying plancha. Kayo Noumi then runs in for a Rocket Launcher Senton (ass-first into Eagle’s forehead, lol). Stereo Flying Headbutts for two!

We’re clipped to Eagle’s standing Rock Bottom, but she misses a Vader Bomb and Noumi pounces AGAIN, slide-dropkicking Eagle in the head and creating a big corner brawl. Rumi stops a super rana, Eagle hitting a release Superbomb (ie. Wacky just flings herself backwards and Eagle just sits there and kinda pushes her arms out), Kayo SUPERMANNING in to stop the pin. Eagle waits Miho out and hits a dropkick off the second rope for two, but gets caught up top by Kayo and NOW the Super Rana hits! And Eagle gives her the “has to grab the ropes” kickout, too! Miho looks AGONIZED to not have won, just absolutely despondent when she realizes what happened, and fires herself up, throwing a straight punch to stun Eagle, but charges right into a lariat for two, kickout out so weakly you know she’s dead. And sure enough, Eagle murdalizes the FUCK out of her with the ThunderFire Powerbomb at (7:35 shown). Wacky is defiant on the mic after the match, and Noumi lays out a challenge. Eagle laughs them off and provokes Kayo into charging her, resulting in a pullapart and Eagle’s amusement.

Okay I was expecting “Wacky looks defiant in defeat”, not “Wacky & Noumi cheat for the entire match in defeat”, haha. Noumi was the best worker in the match! Like she was EVERYWHERE, flinging her entire body into everything, cheering Wacky on, and more! Though that’s not to diss the other two- Eagle knew to milk every spot and make stuff look better. While she’s always been Aja Kong Lite, she knows that as a big girl and one who isn’t very fast, she has to make things COUNT, and doing things like building anticipation for a missile kick from the 2nd rope puts over the spot tremendously, as does stuff like trying a running body attack off the ramp because she dwarfs her opponents so. And the finish was terrific- Miho scores the super rana she’d tried before (the move getting more over because it had tried and failed earlier), Eagle puts it over by doing the “only has the energy to grab the rope” thing, and then a heartbroken Wacky has to fire herself up to score a last-ditch assault… and Eagle just breaks her heart through sheer body weight and veteran instincts, then kills her with a powerbomb. Wacky’s selling was GREAT in that end stretch, too- great stumbles and flails, knew how to look pained but still fighting, and I loved how she mastered “fling up one leg and then the other independently so it looks more ragdoll-y”.

Rating: **1/2 (very solid Big vs. Little match, also with an entertaining burst of “The babyfaces cheat the entire match but it’s still not enough”)

YUMIKO HOTTA, KUMIKO MAEKAWA & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. KAORU ITO, TOMOKO WATANABE & NANAMOMO (Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi):
* As the company shifts positions around Ito, NanaMomo and their enemies, here comes a huge 8-woman tag right out of the gate, with the newly-heel Hotta (with Heelish Blonde Hair and a slick white outfit with a black cross on it) leading the heel squadron against the New Stars. Tomoko was of course burned when Kumiko abandoned their team and left her for dead. NanaMomo defeated LCO for the tag titles last year, but have now lost them thanks to Hotta’s cheating. The kids immediately charge the heels, get shoved off, and have to be held back by Ito & Watanabe- they be FIERCE. Intros are a study of contrasts- Shimoda is mouthy as always, Mita looks sad as always (I’d call it “Jobbing Face” but she’s ALWAYS like this, even when winning), Kumiko kind of amused, and Hotta now has this masterful eyebrow-cocking look of smug amusement that instantly provokes the other team. NanaMomo chest-bump the heels during theirs, while Tomoko & Ito are more mature and hesitant.

Momoe immediately wants Hotta to start, but Nanae divebombs Hotta from behind and the others jump in to knock the heels to the floor- Hotta each a huge double-dropkick, but all three non-legal babyfaces are dragged to the floor and it’s a donnybrook in the stands. And it goes on a WHILE- the babyfaces take the lead, Hotta getting buried under chairs by Momoe while Tomoko lands a ramp-running lariat on Shimoda, and it’s so out of hand that the referee starts the count! The fans actually start getting agitated with worry as Hotta makes it in but everyone else is still on the floor, so Momoe just barrel-rolls through the ropes at “18” in a fun bit. Momoe uses her flip to avoid Hotta, but the veteran is too big to German and elbows her, then catches her with a rolling kick to the head. Nanae freely cheats, however, then dives into Shimoda & Maekawa while Momoe planchas the other two, then Ito adds a sideways dive that plasters all four. Tomoko roars for approval and then slingshots off the ropes to bash everyone down, too. Nanae fires off shoulderblocks that Hotta won’t sell, so Momoe flies in with a missile kick to the back and THEN Nanae blasts her over, and another missile kick sets up Nanae’s Vader Bomb for two. Shimoda interferes using a chair, then hands it to Hotta so she can fling it up into Nanae’s flying back elbow, and the Tiger Driver gets two. Mita can’t get a DVD, Shimoda missile kicks Nanae, Momoe missile kicks MITA, and Nanae backdrop driver her.

Momoe charges in and counters a DVD to a flash-pin, but gets Blazing Chopped down- Ito sets her up, but Mita catches a rana with a folding powerbomb for two. Momoe keeps going for suplexes but can’t get them to work, so Nanae rushes in again and they do their German/Rollover Pin combo for two! Kumiko accidentally ax kicks Mita, but Shimoda’s chairshot sets up another powerbomb for two. Shimoda’s in, and nearly pays for being cocky but manages a Tiger Suplex for two. She misses her flying ax kick and Momoe hits a run-up sunset flip for two, then everyone scrambles until Tomoko clobbers LCO down with a body attack/lariat. Nanae tries a set-up but Momoe flies onto feet, but Ito runs in with a powerbomb to Shimoda and NanaMomo hit their NanaMomo Driver (Double Razor’s Edge) to nearly pin her- Mita saves, then totally brains Momoe with a chair, and Shimoda’s straight right nearly gets her- the babyfaces dogpile them en masse to break up the pin. Kumiko’s finally in, but she gets Dragon Suplexed immediately, and IN COMES TOMOKO for revenge. They wisely do a “Kumiko ducks one lariat so the next can wipe her out” spot to build anticipation, Shimoda throws a chair into Tomoko’s back to halt her, but she immediately blasts Kumiko down after a pump kick to the face for two. Then Kumiko gets a REALLY good Pump Kick for two, and Tomoko hits an absolutely MOTHERFUCKER of a lariat for the same. Holy hell.

Another great bit sees Kumiko use the “drop-down kick” counter to stop a Screwdriver (backdrop to powerbomb spike), Ax Kick Tomoko, but get dragged off the top, dodge Tomoko’s flying attack, Tomoko dodges KUMIKO’s rolling kick, and then Shimoda just runs in with a chair because fuck technique, lol. Hotta finally comes in to mop up and she boots Tomoko on Mita’s shoulders, then Kumiko AND Shimoda add their ax kicks to set up the Death Valley Driver, and then ITO comes flying in to stop it. Tomoko ducks Kumiko’s spinkick and gets absolutely MURDERED by the follow-through and holy shit her selling is so good I thought she ate a potato killshot at first. Tomoko actually kicks out solo, then Momoe pounces with a German to set up Nanae’s flying back elbow to Kumiko and Ito FINALLY enters the match with a Flying Stomp, and Tomoko hits the Hellsmasher (one-armed backdrop to vertical ligerbomb) and another dogpile breaks it up. Tomoko roars to finish, but Mita breaks up another pin off Hellsmasher #2. Tomoko double-arms her, but Hotta uses a palm strike to stun her for Kumiko’s Ax Kick… which… gets the pin? Nanae was trying to interfere, but fell short. It… yes, the ref calls it after a weird “everyone is confused” delay at (13:04)! Everyone cuts promos and yells and it’s another pullapart.

Man, this had some SEQUENCES, haha. You can immediately tell how carefully this was planned, and how familiar they were with each other, because the sheer speed and precision of their “X dodges Y, Y dodges X, then Y gets hit by Z and eats a finisher until everyone dogpiles” and almost nobody is caught out picking hteir nose or being out of position or whatever. And when someone does hesitate or slip, you can see the others instinctively hold back so they don’t mess up the spot (Nanae slips on a counter at one point and Mita does the “half-second pause” before charging in as to not fuck up Momoe’s flying interference). So this ends up like 16 minutes straight of a goddamn sprint for the ages, with almost no slowdown or hesitation at all. The only weirdness was the ending, which came without Hotta or Ito really getting major offense- almost like Nanae was supposed to break it up and couldn’t get in deep enough. But the ref VERY clearly slapped three knowing that wouldn’t be the finish, which means it probably was supposed to happen. PLUS this keeps Hotta & Ito apart, and that’s important because that’s the main belt feud. But what’s with the delayed bell, then?

Rating: ****1/4 (non-stop action from bell to bell with a ton of fantastic sequences)