Joshi Spotlight: AJW on 02.28.01

AJW (Feb. 28th 2001):
* It’s time for more Zenjo at last! When we last saw, Yumiko Hotta had committed a heel turn and joined with LCO to form a rival squad to the “new stars of Zenjo” (Kaoru Ito and rising stars NanaMomo). Now smug, blonde-haired and WEARING SUNGLASSES INDOORS, Hotta is a proper heel, and her credibility as Zenjo’s “Shooter” will be important going forward. And that leads to tonight’s Vale Tudo match against Shinobu Kandori (an even more credible “Super Shooter”). Also, come see MihoKayo come out to disco while in Native American headgear! And Miyuki Fujii end up in the doghouse again after splattering a rookie!

Oh and now MANAMI TOYOTA is a heel! I don’t know when exactly she did that, but she’s definitely a heel here, having aligned with LCO and Kumiko as well! This sets up a “New Guard” vs. “Old Guard” feud, but with Manami in a role she hasn’t had in ten years- an aggressive heel. Let’s see how she does!

MIYUKI FUJII vs. MIKA NISHIO:
* Rookie Mayhem! Except Fujii is at the same experience level as NanaMomo, Wacky and others… which I always forget, because she’s so bad and always being a jobber. But she finally has an opponent she can bully! Pray she doesn’t fuck it up! And OMG the Rookie Swimsuit! The BANGS! It’s a throwback to old times! I’m oddly nostalgic for the “flavorless rookie” look now. I think this actually hails from the last show I reviewed- this is why I wish more uploaders would post dates/shows.

Fujii bullies the kid like a good “senpai” should, but they fuck up an inside cradle counter (both slide way over to the side, so no count), and Nishio unexpectedly starts throwing FUJII around by the hair and paying back those bootscrapes, but soon the standard-issue jobber bodyscissors has Fujii turn around and start dominating again. Nishio lands a judo back throw, but Fujii slaps her and does a judo throw of her own. Nishio gets her nose bloodied from Fujii stomping RIGHT on her face (jesus) and takes two rope-assisted headlock takeovers, but snapmares Fujii off the top and unleashes JOBBER-FU, ending in a flying splash for two. Missile kick gets two as well, but Fujii quickly fires back. Facecrusher & 2nd-drop dropkick hit, the kid impressing with kickouts, so Fujii dusts her off with a missile dropkick into La Majistral for three (9:04). A pretty standard-issue rookie beat-down, but I miss these in a weird way. The kid showed some good selling and bouncing around, and the bloody nose made for a better visual than most of these get.

Rating: *1/2 (inoffensive!)

MihoKayo’s “Indian” get-up. Complete with what I’m told is a 1970s disco hit:

BLACK JOKER (Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue) vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA & KAYO NOUMI:
* The LLPW heel stable now takes another shot at Zenjo’s up & comers! This is probably another “look good in defeat” option for MihoKayo or whatever their team name is. They come out to Native American music with facepaint, lassos AND headdresses (what’s “Cultural Appropriation” in Japanese?) to show their seriousness. Wait, this is clearly a 1970s song with “disco clicks” and shit, lol. Noumi’s in blue and Wacky’s in yellow, both with TONS of brown leather fringe. Eagle’s in red & Takako’s in her new blue bodysuit thing.

The kids pounce before the bell, fighting off a counterattack to double-dropkick Eagle down and pose on her in a camel clutch, then smearing their “Indian paint-oh!”) on her face. Oh, they gonna DIE. Eagle catches a crossbody and body attacks Wacky down to escape. Takako & Kayo slap each other and Takako gets her DDT & super chokeslam, Eagle adds a 2nd-rope missile kick, and Takako’s powerbomb gets two. They try the Assited Powerbomb, but Wacky USES THE LASSO to pull Eagle back. Okay, CLEVER. The kids now use HEELISH CHEATING, strangling Eagle against the post with that lasso and finally wrapping it around her, but Takako beats up Noumi pretty easily. Wacky cuts a big promo while standing on Eagle, causing Rumi Kazama to hit ringside, but even she gets thrown around and back in Takako takes the stereo flying headbutts for two. Takako dodges a rocket launcher and throws both of them around while Eagle is untied, but misses a spinkick and takes the double-wrist armsault from Noumi. Takako improvises from whatever Noumi was messing up, then they trade pin attempts until Eagle barges in. She tries an avalanche sandwich but eats the corner, and Wacky GOES FOR THE STUNGUN. Rumi immediately pounces on her, but a struggles sees Takako zap Eagle by mistake and now Noumi grabs it, Wacky planchas Rumi, and Takako gets zapped in the leg.

Best powerbomb counter ever.

Takako eats repeated missile dropkicks as this is ALL MihoKayo, four of ’em setting up the rocket launcher for two. Wacky hits her Fisherman’s Buster (lol Takako lifted her leg early) and Noumi her double-wrist- Eagle saves and throws out body attacks and dramatically shoves the ref out of the way. Vicious uranage/chokeslam hits Noumi, Takako bolts her in the ass, and then accidentally nails the REF with it. Hahah dad-bod ref has the best sell in the match, selling it like a sniper took out his arm. Takako’s like “outta juice” and gives it up, eating another double-wrist while Eagle misses a missile kick and gets GERMAN’d by Wacky, but Rumi takes the kids down and Takako nails a dead-eyed Noumi with urakens. The ref finally is awakened via stomps and CALLS THE MATCH OFF at (12:57), enraging the heels. Well that’s a surprise given all the usual stuff you can get away with, haha. Not Takako’s fault Wacky dodged it! They abuse the referee post-match like good heels while Wacky cuts a promo, Rumi cuts one back, gets a mic thrown at her face and the kids get beaten up, left laying as Black Joker stomps off in triumph. Wacky screams out after them but Kayo still hasn’t recovered from the booty-jolt.

Actually a very generous bout from Black Joker, giving MihoKayo 8-9 minutes straight of offense, getting embarrassed and tied up, then only taking the lead via Rumi’s cheating and Takako’s stungun, and even then the match is called off. Because it was kept comparatively short, it never dragged and the kids did a good job keeping it active. Interestingly the heels barely used anything in their kid, essentially giving up 75% of the match and then getting DQ’d during their turn- I was expecting them to stomp MihoKayo after a point.

Rating: *** (good match! Active and interesting with no down points)

ELIMINATION TAG MATCH:
KAORU ITO, TOMOKO WATANABE & NANAMOMO (Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi) vs. MANAMI TOYOTA, KUMIKO MAEKAWA & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* This is the LONG one- an Elimination Tag where Toyota gets put together with LCO after months of staring intently at them as they do heelish things. Is she aligned with them now? She’s blank-faced during the intros, but Ito grabs her by the hair and we’re off!

It’s a four-woman beatdown on Ito to start, but triple stereo Germans hit them and each babyface dives onto heels on the floor. Everyone scraps as Tomoko refuses to let her ex-partner get anythong on her, and defiantly beats the hell out of her in the aisle. haha, Manami dumps a guardrail piece on Nanae and then shakes up a soda can to spray her- okay, she’s a bad guy now. The heels walk about pulling people by the hair and Manami does this crazy machine-gun punch to Nanae on the floor as LCO lines up all their favorite weapons, and the heels line up the good guys in a big line so LCO can do their Guardrail Drop, lol. Toyota damn near pins Ito with the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, but Ito fires back with a shot to the arm that has Manamie selling it like a gunshot, collapsing and writhing in pain. LCO has to drag her outta there and Shimoda takes out Ito & Watanabe with her falling clothesline. Mita comes in but gets blasted by Ito and then Momoe hits her with literally like 15 short dropkicks in a row, keeping an insane pace. Naturally a whip leads to a Blazing Chop and Kumiko comes in for a Pump Kick to the throat, ruining the pin so she can choke Momoe. The kid finally comes back with a run-up dive and Nanae’s in with fired-up stomps, but Kumiko just bides her time and thrust kicks her. Nanae keeps making comebacks using her size and power, but tries a flying senton and eats feet to the back. But Nanae hits a Superduperplex & Momoe’s flying splash sets up a Vader Bomb for two.

Momentum changes like 5 times in 30 seconds as Mita flings a chair to stop offense, Nanae & Kumiko keep cutting each other off, then LCO stops another superplex with their Double-Superbomb, but Nanae insta-comebacks with 2 backdrop suplexes and Momoe’s off-camera missile kick sets up the flying senton- Shimoda saves! Kumiko nearly gets a flash-pin but then NANAE does, the fans having a heart attack on the kickout. But Kumiko lands her scissor kick, using it to set up the Ax Kick for the pin at (11:18)- eliminating Nanae after having her in the ring for 5 minutes. Tomoko pounces with a lariat on her traitorous ex-partner, but LCO’s chairshot… has her still hitting a slingshot move to Toyota & Kumiko. Tomoko can’t get her finisher but intercepts a kick for the dragon screw/figure-four, of course assisted by all three allies (Momoe frog splashes and even Nanae flies in with a splash), then Momoe comes in, counters a whip with a run-up moonsault, but KAPOW! eats a huge kick reversal to the throat. Sold the SHIT outta that one. Mita comes in for her powerbomb, they fuck up a rana counter and Mita knows right away to try a cover for two. Everything kinda breaks down a sec but Mita draws eyeballs by DESTROYING Momoe with a pink chair. lol zoom in a little harder, camera guy- we can’t quite see Momoe fucking around with the blade. Sure enough, she’s bleeding and Mita hits a folding powerbomb for two. Tomoko tries to save and Momoe snaps off a quick German counter but Kumiko Ax Kicks her face into a blood splatter, haha. Mita’s DVD is countered, and when Manami tries to stop a dragon suplex, accidentally wipes her out with a missile kick. And that lets Momoe run in with a miracle rana pin at (15:26)! We’re tied!

Momoe mid-match.

Momoe wobbles off a double-team kick and LCO triple-team her, but she escapes the DVD/Double-Ax Kicks. Impressive “backflip off the top into German attempt” by Momoe, and Manami, who’s been absent for ages, finally missile kicks her to set up a Tiger Suplex for two. Tomoko hits Shimoda with a Hellsmasher to set up a Dragon Suplex for two, Nanae runs in with the Assisted German Pin, Shimoda counters for two, then Mita chairshots her by mistake to set up Ito’s Flying Stomp and the NanaMomo Driver (double-lift razor’s edge) for the pin at (17:52)! LCO are both gone! And now Manami’s like “ALRIGHT TIME FOR ME TO DO MY SHIT!” as poor Momoe is her victim- Toyota “pluses” her spine-dropkick by wrapping a chair bottom-first around Momoe’s FOREHEAD, thankfully LCO saving her from decapitation by repositioning it to be “draped” instead. Momoe kicks out and ONE and counters Kumiko and FINALLY tags out, Ito/Tomoko sandwiching Kumiko with lariats, then Tomoko throws some brutal ones for two. Toyota & Shimoda set up a German for two. Manami/Tomoko ends up with Tomoko hitting a facecrusher and Ito coming in for some BIG uranages, but Toyota hits the rolling cradle for two. Kumiko adds some scissor kicks but gets lariated, but Momoe comes in and everyone tees off on Toyota until Momoe tries her rollup one too many times and Manami hauls her into a Wheelbarrow German for two. Momoe counters both the Moonsault & JOCS for two, but Tomoko takes the Manami Roll for two, but inside-outs her with a lariat for the same.

Tomoko can’t get her finisher and eats Shimoda’s chairshot, but gets a lariat on Kumiko for two. Kumiko throws kicks and Mita comes in for the DVD/Double-Ax and a dogpile has to save Tomoko. Kumiko hits an Ax Kick for two, but Tomoko ducks two straight kicks, but a follow-through spinkick wipes her head off for the PIN at (25:00)! The same move hits Ito for two and Kumiko spams scissor kicks until she drops- Ito gets a powerbomb to counter, but Shimoda’s flying ax kick stuns her so Momoe has to save after an Ax Kick. But Kumiko tries one too many head-kicks and Ito snaps on a heel hook for the tap-out at (26:24)! Once again Ito has “rapid submission” powers and can catch people! Manami, the last one left, hits her missile kick suicida to Ito & Nakanishi, but Momoe does the “Fuck YOU!” bridge after a Moonsault. Then LCO runs in to hit finishers on Ito and they hit a damn Doomsday Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex Chairshot via Shimoda, only getting TWO bc. of the dogpiling. Manami hits the shittiest JOCS ever, thankfully this one Ito stops with a Flying Stomp while she’s “bridging”. Two Flying Stomps to the sternum have her bridging up at two, but Ito powerbombs her, Nanae flies in with her senton, but Ito misses a stomp and is chaired by Mita, Ax Kicked by Shimoda, then by Kumiko, then eats the Japanese Ocean Backdrop Hold (pumphandle german) for two. But Tomoko hits a Screwdriver to stop a JOCS from the top and a Flying Stomp gets two as Kumiko decks the ref. And so Ito hits another Stomp to end it at (30:27).

Well that was SPRITELY. It’s hard to find an “All Action GO GO GO!” throwback match in 2001 joshi’s scene so this is delightful! Everyone was going all-out for their bits, and you could see them use the set-up wisely, as people would get insane flourishes knowing it was the only time they’d have to wrestle. There were some bits 15-20 minutes in where things started breaking down into hesitance and “where am I supposed to be, again?” (mostly Shimoda-related, as usual these days), but usually someone would go “HEY LOOK AT ME! I’M DOIN’ SOMETHING!” and eyes would be on them again. The energy is kept up largely by the constant interference- Mita & Shimoda kept hitting the ring to cheat, then Nanae would do the same thing. A strange one was Toyota- given the most half-hearted heel performance ever, she’s just kind of like “…” showing her displeasure all match long, doesn’t do “heel stuff”, does her cool spots but doesn’t clap beforehand (I was waiting for her to forget and do it) and waits till the end to do much of anything. Some of the finishes were weird- a Doomsday JOCS would have been a GREAT way to dust off Momoe, and instead she survives and Ito crushes Toyota in her first performance as a heel, after a big double-team, and then just does the same move again for the pin. The obviously outstanding one in this was Momoe, of course- she not only sells and bumps her ass off, but hits a million counters and pins both Mita AND Shimoda before we’re out. They know what they have with her. Toyota as a heel is… iffy. Most of her spots are crowd-pleasing, so she dropped the clapping beforehand, and she didn’t do very much cheating or even “lol these kids suuuuuuuuuuck!” spots, so she comes off a bit rudderless and miserable as a bad guy.

Rating: ***3/4 (very fun, but they lose the energy at one point and some of the finishes get weird and are anticlimactic)

VALE TUDO MATCH:
YUMIKO HOTTA (AJW) vs. SHINOBU KANDORI (LLPW):
* Billed like it’s a “shoot” (big gloves and bare feet; no rope-breaks), this would be an ideal time to put Hotta over and set her up for a run at Ito’s belt. Given how Zenjo tends to carefully protect Kandori’s credibility, though, this is tricky. Kandori’s wearing a giant “Fist of the North Star villain” cape with pauldrons, and of course since she’s level with the crowd has to walk down with timid body language because she’s now trying to hold it on so their “shoulder-pads” don’t knock it off, haha. Hotta comes out to no music at all. She’s in white with black symbols and Kandori’s in a slightly more stylish variant of the typical “excessively designed” LLPW gear.

They work the “shoot” to start, as it indeed looks like two people hesitating to throw shots, afraid to overcommit, then Kandori throws a bunch of shots to Hotta’s guard and “takes her down”, the two doing the “hug on the mat” like it’s the early UFCs. Kandori nearly gets the choke but Hotta turns and throws some punches (you can tell it’s a work because the turn and punches are WAY too slow if she was actually fighting), then Kandori catches a whiffed punch and tries to lock up the arm. After more hugging, Hotta nearly lands a triangle choke until Kandori “stuffs” it. Hotta nearly gets a rear choke, but gives up on it to stand over a turtled Kandori and throw shots at her head, then throws kicks at her “leg” (one hits the gut and one is WAY too wide and is sold) and Kandori’s on her back, Hotta trying to twist her leg. Kandori nearly ties Hotta up when she starts lying on her, then chases her around with a waistlock until Hotta “escapes” and throws kicks while Kandori’s on the ground- they briefly stand up before clinching in the ropes. Hotta’s clearly blown the fuck up as there’s NOTHING behind any of her strikes. Kandori easily slaps on a front facelock and soon that turns into a near-fall on the mat- Hotta manages to slip her head out and throws some headbutts, but gets caught in a triangle choke.. but Hotta slips back and anklelocks her! Kandori has no choice but to tap at (7:39), Hotta scoring a “decisive” victory over her at last!

ehhhhh… more “interesting” than “good”, as the struggle felt earned, even as the work was obvious, and it had the cadence of a real fight with people doing stand-up, trying submissions, etc. But of course in a worked match you have a legit judoka like Kandori unable to maintain her grip and getting caught.

Rating: ** (never know how to rate these, but it was kinda interesting, if not exciting, and didn’t go too long)