Joshi Spotlight: AJW in Spring 2001

AJW IN SPRING 2001:
* And now it’s time to check out Zenjo in the spring, as we hit a March show and some April ones! The “Old Guard” vs. “New Stars” feud now dominates the entire promotion, as eternal babyfaces Yumiko Hotta and Manami Toyota now join up with the hated LCO to take on Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, and the “plucky rookies” making up post-1993 classes, particularly Nanae & Momoe. Essentially anyone whose push peaked after 2000 is a good guy and any preceding star is a baddie. Except traitorous Kumiko Maekawa, who is the “Akira Taue” in this situation- a disloyal traitor siding with the veterans. A lot of this show becomes about “elevating Nanae Takahashi”, as Momoe is already impressing people, but Nanae was lagging behind- here she gets a lot of focus in a tag match, then a solo bout against Etsuko Mita, who is VERY aware of what the assignment is, from the looks of things. But yeah, almost everything here is based around the “Old Guard” vs. “New Stars of the New Fans” feud.

Case in point, before the festivities, the Zenjo wrestlers welcome the fans and do introductions… and the yellow-clad heels assault them from behind, beating them all over the front rows. Ito & Tomoko come back and see them off, but someone is injured.

MARCH 25th:
* One match from Differ Ariake!

MARK WAR ON V:
MIHO WAKIZAWA & NANAMOMO (Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi) vs. MANAMI TOYOTA & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda):
* The babyface squad gets another shot against the heels dominating Zenjo- LCO recently stole back their 3WA Tag Titles from NanaMomo, giving this feud a lot more juice. Nanae’s in purple, Momoe’s in black & green, Wakizawa’s in yellow, LCO’s in pink/black & Toyota’s in some ALL NEW GEAR for once- a black & red kinda Mad Max version of her normal shit.

We start joined in progress with a screaming Nanae bashing into Mita, and Momoe flies in with a missile kick, but Mita does the “avoids a double-team and they get missile kicked” spot with Manami. Nanae manages some backdrop drivers (the first was a bad counter so she does a better one), then they just resort to smashing each other with elbows and trying for pins. Mita blazing chops out and Shimoda & Nanae awkwardly bounce around until taking forever for a superplex, ending up in a Powerplex with the other two babyfaces doing splashes. Nanae flying headbutts her right in the face (oo, that won’t be a fun convo in the locker room) and counters strikes with another driver, then a Vader Bomb gets two. Momoe’s in but she takes a tiger suplex, but she dodges Manami’s moonsault.

Heel cheating sets up Toyota cannonballing the floor, but she only hits allies and Momoe dives into that pile. She avoids LCO’s finisher and Nanae missile kicks them, setting up Momoe’s run-up dive to ALL the heels, but Nanae’s dive just nails her partners. Ito now blatantly interferes for a Powerbomb/Missile Kick to Manami for two. Shimoda tosses a chair at Momoe to set up a missile kick Van Daminator (… first time I’ve seen that in joshi puro) and a Doomsday Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex/chairshot (hee) gets two- Wacky saves. Manami foils a double-team by having Wacky missile kick Momoe, Germans Nanae, and sits on Momoe’s rana for a dramatic two. But Nanae Germans her to set up the rana for two. A quadruple-team DVD/Ax Kick hits, but Momoe Dragon Suplexes out of the JOCS, then ANOTHER DVD, and Hotta has to catch her up top so Manami can do the JOCS- last-ditch save by the babyfaces. Solo Ocean Cyclone finishes at (8:11 of 16:42 shown). Oh come on- don’t spam it. Do one of your other finishers! Many faces are pushed after the match, and Nanae cuts an impassioned promo. SOMEone’s out to impress the bookers!

An all-action, somewhat messy bout of random double-teams and people hauling each other into position for spots and barely selling stuff cuz it was time for MORE STUFF. Fun for what it is- not much psychology and just a bunch of stuff. Got a bit sloppy, but it’s a REALLY long one we only saw half of.

Rating: **1/2 (Good enough for fun TV!)

APRIL 1st:
* From Korakuen Hall!

KUMIKO MAEKAWA vs. MIYUKI FUJII:
* hoo boy. The heel Maekawa gets to destroy the “just above the newbies” Fujii. She’s in an interesting position, as she debuted the same year MOMOE did, but is 1/10th as good, and periodically ends back up in the doghouse (doing things like busting open a brand-new rookie on my last AJW Spotlight), but since the promotion has so few wrestlers left, they can’t just dump her ENTIRELY, and the rookies need someone to fight… so here she is. One of the YouTube comments from China calls her “Forever newbie Fujii” so I’ma gonna steal that. Kumiko, who has cherry-red hair now, wears badass heel… purple & light blue. Fujii’s in black.

Kumiko easily handles Fujii, booting her in the back and throwing her into chairs, and despite her experience level, Fujii can only do “Jobber-Fu”. I’m not sure this match required a massive crowd beatdown spot, but there it is- Kumiko ends up fighting the actual good workers (Nanae and stuff) to fill time. Fujii is such a jobber she takes a BOSTON CRAB as a minute-long resthold, then a camel clutch. Fujii finally gets a weak facecrusher to come back, then… of for fuck’s sake. Just runs at Kumiko and forgets what to do so she slides to her knees for no reason. WELCOME BACK TO THE DOGHOUSE FUJII. Kumiko’s gotta be like “DROPKICK, remember” and sure enough, Fujii’s next move is actually that. Looking back I can see she was trying it the first time but so badly it looked like she fell. Hotta trips up Fujii for her own amusement, and Kumiko lands the Pump Kick for two.

Fujii scores a surprise elbow and now Momoe & Nanae charge the ring to help her! Kumiko is seen laughing after a triple-1996er dropkick, but two missile kicks and a Vader Bomb stun her, but Fujii only manages a bridging vertical suplex before Kumiko starts coming back. A scissor kick sees NanaMomo attack again, and she pulls Fujii up after a spinkick to the head so the four heels can give her a BIRTHDAY BUMP, and Kumiko finishes with Fujii’s own bridging suplex at (10:02). Yeah, just sign over ownership papers now- that was sheer dominance. Fujii weeps afterwards, while Kumiko just has piefaces for NanaMomo. Manami looks like she absolutely is just going through the motions with her heel shit, lol. Even the YouTube comments catch that she “lets her true nature show” as she almost looks sad for Fujii- come on! You’re a heel! You know rookies don’t count as people!

Fujii makes pro wrestling look SO HARD, lol. It’s actually painful watching good workers have to “dumb down” their style to fight her, because I’m still used to US style, where jobbers just get merked in seconds by all this cool shit, but in reality an actually incompetent worker can’t eat cool shit because they can’t sell it right. So unless you want to just stiff the shit out of them (which was VERY common for that exact reason) you have to do these dumb, simple matches where even an 8-year veteran has to wrestle like a third-year. And so they did some funny stuff where Nanae was the best person in the match, interfering a bunch out of hate. Kumiko wisely didn’t sell any of Fujii’s crap for long- she was kicking out with ease at “1” and just stuffing her with moves, laughing away and dismantling her. While she’s had to wait record time for her push (she was in DREAM SLAM and is still way below the main eventers), she’s way above this crap.

Rating: *1/2 (kind of fun with all the goo-gah protecting Fujii from a 3-minute squash)

TAKAKO INOUE & CHAPARRITA ASARI (Freelancers) vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA & CHIE TERASHITA (AJW):
* Takako & ASARI is a super random team, but both are Freelance, and probably here to beat up the “rookie” team, carrying the baby (Chie is BRAND new) and make Wacky look good in defeat. Terashita is a bony teenager in there against veterans. She’s in a black Rookie Swimsuit, Wacky’s in yellow/blue/animal print, Takako’s in blue/black and ASARI’s in yellow.

Terashita launches an early attack, but ASARI easily bridges out and stuffs her in holds. Takako brings her usual sense of enjoyment to torturig the rookie, stretching out her shoulders (even pulling her off the ropes to reapply a double-arm). Good selling by Terashita. Takako eventually bores of this and just throws Wacky around on the floor instead while ASARI takes the kid, and we’re clipped to Takako beating on Wacky’s taped knee. Wacky has some good defiant “I will try standing and fire back even though this hurts” stuff. Takaok throws on a clutch and Chie comes in ot throw boots at her and HAHAHAHAHAHA Takako is like “the fuck was that you little shit?” and stomps right over to the corner after her, drags her to the floor, and kicks seven shades of shit out of her. That was GREAT. Just the way she goes straight at her and the crowd laughs in anticipation. The kid eats some chairs and the wall, and after a minute of beatings we’re clipped to her being tagged in AGAIN, and she hits a tonfo dropkicks on Takako, who does a good job selling them just enough to be annoying but not devastating, then sells some rollup comebacks before hitting a DDT and viciously slapping her.

ASARI goes for a jujigatame and Wacky has to save, and Terashita even rolls HER up- they’re both really good at making it seem like this 80-lb. kid can shock them. She FINALLY tags out after 3 minutes of this and Wacky only manages a perfect plex before taking some nasty arm submissions from ASARI. She tries a double-team but Terashita missile kicks her by mistake and a Super Frankensteiner gets two for ASARI. Takako misses an uraken and takes a German, but gets her backdrop hold and super chokeslam for two-counts. Destiny Hammer (flying knee) misses but a spinkick gets two. ASARI dives onto Wacky & Terashita on the floor, then it’s a backdrop/missile kick to Wacky for two. Takako’s backfist is turned into two Fisherman’s Busters and ASARI has to save, but Takako counters a third to a giant head-kick and the backfist- Chie saves! But ASARI deals with her and backfist #2 finishes at (13:41 of xxxx shown). Takakoe’s Black Joker stablemate Rumi Kazamacomes out to talk shit to Wacky, who pauses a sec before buidling up some tears for an impassioned promo, but then two LLPW goons (Sayuri Okino & someone) come in and kick everyone and cut a promo. What’s with the animal-print fanny pack on her ass, lol?

Zenjo Child Abuse is always such a wonderful sight! Actually a way more fun match than I was expecting! Top-tier rookie-fu, great attitude by Takako, good fire by Wakizawa, and more! I was gonna say Terashita had some potential, but she’s out of the businses in two months, so c’est la vie. She was good for a rookie, though! Lots of fire, didn’t fuck up some very sudden rollups, and sold really well!

Rating: **3/4 (extremely rare for a match of the “veterans abusing children” style are this quality- a testament to Takako, and the rookie’s fire)

ETSUKO MITA vs. NANAE TAKAHASHI:
* Nanae gets a shot at some revenge. It’s interesting how Mita is being brought out a lot for these solo matches- it used to be Shimoda subtly “outranking” her and getting singles bouts, but the credibility of her finishers has been demolished and Mita’s started amping up her solo performances again. A far cry from jobbing to Chigusa in a minute. The camera spends ages zoomed in on Mita’s face during Nanae’s music playing- like 1 full minute. Who’s the camera guy? Me? Funny bit as Mita gets one streamer, while Nanae’s cover the ring.

Mita’s very casual “THIS is what they brought to oppose me?” stance and expression, which should in no way backfire on her if she takes this twerp lightly.

The bell rings and nobody moves- Nanae’s in a ready stance while Mita just has her arms on her hips looking at Nanae like “the fuck is this squirt doing in my ring expecting to oppose me?”. Nanae wants a test of strength adn Mita just bats her arm away with total disdain. But when they DO lock up… Mita can’t push her back! Nanae matches her and talks shit as they release, drawing applause. And to put her over further, Mita is finally shamed into a high grip but immediately slaps Nanae to chicken out of it, but Nanae just rams into her off a whip and puts her on the floor, remembering to gesture to the crowd before a tope suicida! Now THAT’S how ya do it! More to the point, Mita gets bounced around, resorts to using a chair, but Nanae won’t go down and instead lariats her! Mita has to resort to a Blazing Chop and a front facelock to wear her down cuz the kid is kicking her ass. Mita keeps on with an arm thing and chairs her again, but can’t get a powerbomb so settles for a DDT. Her next Chop misses, but she’s wise to Nanae’s own strikes and dodges them, but nearly gets backdropped till she falls on her for two. I’m digging how she can’t just overpower Nanae and has to use TACTICS and sneaky shit to beat her- a great way to put over Nanae’s power.

Mita still can’t get a powerbomb, nor her electric chair drop- Nanae gets out, and when Mita elbows out of a German, blasts her with a lariat. Mita gets another counter, but Nanae gets her own with two backdrop suplexes for two. She tries the Vader Bomb, Mita flings her off, but she ends up eating a German, then no-sells it to charge in… and eats another German! The Vader Bomb hits for two. Mita ducks a lariat but eats a boomerang one, but tries her Flying Backsplash and Mita gets her feet up and immediately tries a small package, pulling out all the tricks. Nanae lariats her again and gets the NanaRacka Bomb (falcon arrow) for two. Mita screams as she slugs her and pulls off a desepration Death Valley Driver for two. She looks dead to the world and SO exhausted as she slowly sits up, and pulls off a desperation elbow, only getting one. Twice Mita tries DVDs and gets lariated down- kicking out at one in revenge, but the next gets two, so Nanae tries the NanaRacka one more time.. but Mita rolls her into a jujigatame, getting the desperation submission win at (8:49). Yeah, you knew when she ate 80% of the offense she was going to win. Mita just staring at Nanae like “… the FUCK?” is a great way to put her over, too. Nanae sells it like her arm got dislocated as she needs magic spray and lots of “moving the amr to make sure it’s not broken”.

Mita’s stunned expression as she barely pulls out a win… over NANAE TAKAHASHI.

Tremendous psychology here- a year ago, Mita would be able to shrug off all Nanae’s shit, laugh her off, whip her around by the hair and crush her. But now they’re telling us that Nanae has “leveled up” and Mita is having to use her veteran’s instincts to win- Nanae can MATCH HER with power- a whip just leads to Nanae flattening her with a bodycheck, she can knock Mita over easily with lariats, and more! She’s LEVELED UP! And since “experience” is still a perfectly good way to win, Mita can still take the lead without burying Nanae, because obviously experience is something SHE will eventually use one day, and there’s no shame in losing because of it. But even Mita’s counters are often getting her countered, like avoiding a Vader Bomb (Nanae’s secondary move) only to get German’d twice in a row. Mita, a Freelancer, was obviosuly told to go out there and “make Nanae look strong in defeat” and to make it clear to the fans that she had hit the next level of credibility. This kind of thing only really comes out in singles matches, and you have to be GOOD (like Mita) to really sell it- there’s too many intricate mechanisms to the psychology that would get lost otherwise- it’s not just “oh they can match me now”, it’s “they can even match me when I’m being sneaky” mixed with “SHIT! Now what?”. The only weak thing was Nanae having some “rookie hesitation” still, afraid to go all-in with some shots, so she’d rev up to move… stall… then go again, costing some momentum and impact. She was also getting pretty tired at points, I think.

Rating: ***1/4 (a very good “suddenly great up & comer” match, where Nanae matches Mita on all fronts- beats her on power, kicks out of all her best stuff, and more, so Mita pulls off a last-ditch trick to win, establishing that she fears Nanae’s skills)

YUMIKO HOTTA, MANAMI TOYOTA & MIMA SHIMODA vs. KAORU ITO, TOMOKO WATANABE & MOMOE NAKANISHI:
* Of course the main event is clipped, lol. The two leaders of the heels, plus Shimoda, and the three top babyfaces in the promotion.

We’re JIP with Tomoko clotheslining the shit outta Hotta for two, then Shimoda throws a chair and the heels all walk into position for Ito’s dive- thank goodness they dodge so the babyfaces take it. But Manami’s Missile Kick Suicida also nails her own partners, so Momoe run-up dives them. Tomoko also boomerangs onto them (lol Hotta is always way outside of the splash zone so has to pretend to move with them). oh FUCK what a double-team- Momoe missile kicks Hotta at the peak elevation for Ito’s powerbomb. Then Tomoko does her diving Thesz Press from the same move for two, then Ito adds a Flying Stomp and rolls her into Tomoko’s backdrop suplex (supposed to be a Hellsmasher but it sucked)- the heels save. Tomoko can’t get a tiger driver and eats a chair, but manages a lariat, but Manami flies in to set up Hotta’s Pyramid Driver- two! Tomoko avoids another but lands in Toyota’s mist-spray but OH NOOOOOO her head was still down when Manami blew it- thank goodness she had enough juice for a second shot. Shotei- Ito saves. Pyramid Driver finishes at (4:06 shown). Mike Lorefice called the full match ***3/4 and said Manami & Momoe’s stuff was the hightlight, so of course we see none of that here, lol.