Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in 04.01

GAEA JAPAN IN SPRING 2001:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! Mostly because I got ahead on Zenjo and didn’t realize I still had April & May to do here, lol. And they stack the HELL out of their April content, with something like 3 Spotlights’ worth of matches just from there! This one continues the Meiko Satomura/Dynamite Kansai rivalry, adds Akira Hokuto into the mix, ramps up the Satomura “Rocket Push”, and eventually leads to the dream match of the Crush Gals vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue!

APRIL 14th:
* Our first show is at Korakuen Hall.

THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Akira Hokuto & Devil Masami) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima):
* We’re JIP with two of the top heels against the top of the Class of 1995!

The kids tease Devil by tagging in & out with no contact, but she catches Chikayo with an overthrow bomb into Hokuto’s flying stomp. But she counters Hokuto and hits a stomp into Meiko’s frog splash into her own flying stomp. Meiko spams strikes on Hokuto, but ends up in Stranglehold Gamma- Cyhikayo saves and Meiko gets a DVD for two. Meiko smirks as she puts Hokuto into Stranglehold Gamma herself, and Devil finally fights free to stop it, and Hokuot hits the Dangerous Queen Bomb for two. Clipped to Devil smashing Chikayo with a lariat for two, and one last clip sees Chikayo do her upside-down submission, but Devil hauls her in and pulls the TRIPLE POWERBOMB out of the mothballs for the pin at (3:05 of 9:20 shown). After the match, Meiko & Akira get into a pullapart, and Devil does her “scary smile” at Chikayo.

APRIL 15th:
* Three Korakuen Hall matches.

LIONESS ASUKA vs. SAKURA HIROTA (w/ Police):
* More of “Akira Hirota” as she & Police slap each other during the intros while he laughs, and she blasts him while his tongue is sticking out. She’s now decked out as “Lady Police”.

Asuka busts a gut laughing while Sakura tries a weird rolling sunset flip. Lots of comedy spots and fake-selling by Sakura, but a funny bit sees her try Lioness’s “Sweep out the table to hit them” move and it just crashes onto her. She does zero damage to Lioness and still tries to drape a table over her for a flying move, and gets Iconoclasm’d for it. Sakura keeps going for the “two fingers in the ass” schoolkid prank and uses a stinkface at one point. She keeps using urakens, but can’t get her goofy suplex. Lioness tries a powerbomb, then holds Sakura when she tries to rana out of it, ultimately crabbing her for the win (7:11).

Rating: DUD (Mostly a lot of “probably only funny in Japan” gags)

THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Mayumi Ozaki & Devil Masami) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Chigusa Nagayo & Chikayo Nagashima):
* The day after the previous show, Chikayo upgrades partners to Chigusa while Devil swaps in the stable-leader.

More of the Chikayo/Devil rivalry to start as they face off. Chikayo shows a lot of defiance, and then Chigusa/Ozaki go at it, Oz spamming urakens but Chigusa no-selling them all and flattening her. Oz works some powerbombs after targetting the injured arm, but Devil powerbombs Chikayo into Chigusa, only for Chigusa to set up a Bridging German for two. She fights Devil into a rana for two, but runs right into a Double Powerbomb for two. Chigusa sets up a Super Frankensteiner for two. Devil fails a swing with a fake katana and keeps fending off Chikayo submissions, including one out of a torture rack, then next time Chikayo tries to do it, just puts on a leverage move and pins her (3:56 of 8:17 shown). This leads to ANOTHER pullapart where Devil fires off headbutts to Chikayo, and during the pulling apart, she drags Sugar Sato, Chikayo’s normal partner, up and smashes her leg, leaving her tearing away in agony. Devil starts doing ultra-hammy “I’m CRAAAAAAAZY!” acting and laughing maniacally like a lunatic as her entire stable has to hold her down. Chikayo talks shit, it’s another fight, Chigusa talks shit, and I believe we have a CHikayo/Devil match set up.

lol fan gets stranded and Takeuchi comes in for the save.

AAAW TAG TITLE SHOT TOURNAMENT:
SEMI-FINALS:
THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Akira Hokuto & KAORU) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Lioness Asuka & Meiko Satomura):
* Another mishmash tag match.

Asuka sets up her table outside and is like 0_0 as KAORU takes an INSANE suicide dive through the ropes, sliding over Asuka and nearly braining herself on the guardrail. Meiko promptly runs in and catches Hokuto with the DVD as well, but the heels turn things around in a crowd brawl (lol some fan carrying bags got stuck with nowhere to run and is trying to look inconspicuous- thankfully Takeuchi notices her and blocks the fighting so she can escape). Hokuto lands a SNUG piledriver to Meiko on the balcony while KAORU uses a board/brainbuster combo on Asuka for two. Asuka avoids the boardsault but can’t get the Towerhacker, but a slapfest ends with a SWEET rolling kick to the face and the Blue Thunder Bomb gets two. Asuka flying stomps KAORU under the table while that Meiko/Akira fight has been going on for SEVERAL minutes on the balcony until they finally slide into the ring. Ligerbomb & Towerhacker Bomb for Asuka- Hokuto saves. She & Asuka fight until KAORU smashes the board over Asuka’s head, and Hokuto punches her to set up the Northern Lights Bomb, and Meiko SMOKES her in the face with a kick to break.

Hokuto sells that like death, and then Meiko hauls her dead body into a DVD, then releases the pin to driver KAORU ONTO Hokuto, and puts on Stranglehold Gamma until KAORU smashes her. But Meiko simply beats BOTH their asses until she hauls Hokuto into the Super Cross-Armbreaker, threading it right back into the Stranglehold for a screaming nearfall until she runs outta gas and Hokuto fades. Lioness accidentally nails Meiko and Hokuto hits the Dangerous Queen Bomb, but tries another instead of escaping and nearly gets pinned after stereo kicks & a DVD. The fans are dying on these nearfalls as Meiko comes so close to beating the Dangerous Queen, but KAORU interferes and Hokuto wins a slugfest by absolutely slapping the SHIT out of her, creating a “kick out at 3.1” last-ditch pinfall at (11:25) to pull it out in the end. There’s of course a pullapart afterwards as Meiko is incensed at that loss, and the replay shows that Hokuto basically folded her face in half with the potato shot.

haha, BLAMMO.

Actually an incredible match for what it was- a never-ending Meiko/Akira brawl throughout the match to set up her “new rival”- Hokuto wins but so barely that it looks like she pulled out a sneaky, lucky win as Meiko ALMOST got her and the victory looked inevitable. Meiko doing shit like beating HOKUTO up, then DVDing KAORU right onto her and beating both of them up at once? THAT’S how you know they’re pushing Meiko to the gold, lol. Almost TOO strong, but it definitely works to put her over.

Rating: **1/2 (sheer manic energy throughout)

APRIL 22nd:
* This show is in a pretty small-looking gymnasium I’ve seen them at before, but seems to look bigger here. It starts up super well-lit like some house show, but ends up dark so it looks much cooler. The Osaka Namihaya Dome, apparently. Looks like they said they filled 2,800 of a 6,000 person building- NOT GREAT.

DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. MEIKO SATOMURA:
* Meiko won a pretty flukey one earlier, so Kansai gets a shot at revenge.

They do basic Power vs. Speed spots to start (Meiko dodges a lariat so slickly the crowd misses it entirely, and Kansai catches her with THE CLAW~~ while seated on the top rope. Kansai swats her with a kick from there and follows with the Flying Stomp, blocks the Pele kick and keeps working her over, settling on some sleeperholds so Meiko can sell a ton while Kansai gets a rest. Meiko stumbles off a whip to sell the exhaustion but suddenly springs out with a kick/DVD combo for two. She teases a Pele to try another DVD but gets kicked, enabling Kansai to hit Splash Mountain… for two! Meiko is defiant even after a kick sends her stumbling across the ring, and when Kansai tries her Backdrop Driver… Meiko holds on with such tenacity only a second one can loose her. Meiko counters a follow-up with 2 Pele Kicks, a DVD, and another Pele, but Kansai shrugs it off and crushes her with a lariat for two. Kansai fights her into a torture rack but Meiko spams Peles until Kansai finally can’t kick out at “1” anymore and nearly pins her, then a final Death Valley Driver gets the pin at (9:48). Well that was more emphatic than last time!

A decent, clever little match that hid Kansai’s frailties well, doing a slow-paced “kick and taunt” kind of thing and adequately “wearing Meiko down” with sleepers for a couple minutes to justify her doing the “death sell” only 5 minutes in. And so the match is under 10 minutes but successfully tells the “Meiko eats a ton of punishment and nearly loses, but has enough fire to spam finishers until the elder can’t respond”. Not the most EXCITING thing seeing Meiko do only two moves all match to win, but still. The angle here is obvious- Meiko ate all of Kansai’s stuff, including her finisher, and instead of using trickery, just used her own big techniques to win.

Rating: **1/4 (decent small-ish show match)

The funniest thing about these old shows is finding random dudes just peering from way up in a corner, all alone. WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THERE, RANDOM DUDE?

AAAW TAG TEAM TITLES:
THE SECOND GENERATION ARMY (Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki) vs. THE THIRD GENERATION ARMY (Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato):
* A big one sees the dethroned ex-champions try to take on the current Champions. They keep calling this “Semi-Finals” but they’re clearly fighting for the belts. The champs are now in gold & red, while Sugar’s in shiny white & black and Chikayo’s in yellow tassels.

Both teams think to attack the other before the bell, resulting in Sugar writhing in agony immediately as her injured knee is destroyed. This gives us lots of “Sugar Sells” as Hokuto shreds her with an STF and other moves, and Sugar is collapsing off whips and stuff. Chikayo has to desperately cheat repeatedly (once trying their double-team thing where she runs up Sugar’s back, only for Sugar to collapse under her weight), eventually just pulling Sato to the corner for a tag. Hokuto manages a superplex, only for Chikayo to no-sell her and hit sloppy “Rolling” Germans. Hokuto fires back with a piledriver & powerbomb, then they rocket launcher her on the ramp. They continue the beating, but again she fires back with stuff, and Sugar finally recovers enough to lift her into a super rana on Hokuto, then land her flying back elbow. Sugar uses BODY ATTACKS on both heels, still remembering to sell knee pain, then powerbombs Ozaki into Hokuto (wimpy bump- Hokuto openly catches Oz from a foot away). Chikayo holds Oz in a never-ending upside-down hold so Sugar can dragon screw Hokuto off the top & hit some powerbombs. Ozaki tries to powerbomb Chikayo on the pin but only hits Hokuto, but Chikayo’s plancha only hits Sugar. Hokuto adds her tope con hilo, but her DQ Bomb is countered with a rana for two.

Oz with a buckle bomb and slaps, but Chikayo Fisherman’s Busters her for two, then uses her own Tequila Sunrise (tiger/dragon suplex) for the same. Buster #2 gets the same, but Ozaki gets a ligerbomb. The heels get a Doomsday Bulldog, but Chikayo “Fuck YOU!” bridges out of it. 90% of the offense going to the heels has me thinking this is ending via a quick banana-peel. Oz swipes the F-Buster for two, then an uraken/Sunrise- Sugar saves, so they torture her with two big missile kicks into Ozaki’s somersault senton into the DQ Bomb for two. Sugar screams in agony when Ozaki comes off the top onto her leg, and a figure-four/uraken gets two. Chikayo stalls Ozaki so a Ligerbomb/Flying Stomp… has Oz kicking out at “1” and hitting another uraken for two. She hits a flying stomp to poor Sugar’s leg, but bends down to twist the knee and openly rolls forwards with little contact so Sugar can flash-pin her at (19:00), Hokuto thinking THEY’D won because she was busy strangling Chikayo. Ozaki seems to just laugh it off at first while Hokuto is in disbelief, but finally attacks the babyfaces, who are crowned new AAAW Tag Champions, Sugar being too hurt to even celebrate.

Yup- once the veterans controlled like 90% of it, I figured someone was gonna fluke them. A very scrappy, long match, feeling very disjointed and messy in part because the heels are broken down and not really hitting tings “flush”. So you get things like Chikayo do Rolling Germans on Hokuto, and the typically crowd-pleasing spot instead has her release and reposition on every single German (ie. not rolling, but like… just doing three separate Germans). Then the “powerbomb one into the other” spot, which is GREAT on paper, but here was a short lob from a foot away with Hokuto openly holding up her arms for a soft catch and a rolling bump. Or Oz powerbombing Chikayo onto Hokuto, which is another “rolling soft bump”- the fans can tell a lot of these lack impact and so you get this dramatic build of anticipation for an “UWA!?!” reaction, only to just peter off halfway through like a “oh, that was a pussy bump- never mind…”. The layout was also weird- Sugar’s in there for 5-ish minutes, then it’s almost ALL Chikayo until 4 minutes till the end when there’s another tag. Typically you see a lot of switch-ups and tagging. Sure Sugar had eaten some leg offense and needed to recover, but she eventually did a bit and still was gone for like 10 minutes. Her selling was fairly good, but it was painfully obvious this was all she had- her technique has fallen apart a fair bit, and so she JUST wailed and seethed while holding her knee for almost all her stuff. She’s trying to modify her stuff to have “Fat Guy Offense”, but Sugar’s like… overweight for a WRESTLER now, not fat enough to justify doing Eagle Sawai spots. Speaking of technique, Oz & Hokuto were sloppy as well throughout, not just with their bumping. Way too much hesitation and loose stuff (including the finish), and the banana-peel ending really fails to put over the kids at all.

Rating: **1/4 (kind of just a bunch of STUFF, all randomly laid out)

SPECIAL TAG MATCH:
CRUSH 2000 (Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka) vs. “THE SUPER MANIAX” AJA KONG (Freelance) & KYOKO INOUE (NEO):
* We get the Crush vs. Aja/Kyoko match already! This would be another Dream Match in the lines of Crush vs. Aja/Kansai, Aja teasing getting another partner and finding her Zenjo rival/partner. The former Gals are in black and their iconic colors, Kyoko’s in neon pink & yellow, and Aja’s in a silver version of her gear with Kyoko’s colors mixed in in a neat bit. Chigusa keeps pumping up the fans before the match until Lionses can’t help but laugh, and both Gals are soon yukking it up during handshakes, Kyoko responding in kind.

Right away you can see the different dynamics as EVERYONE is laughing, more “haha how about this, huh?” and Kyoko cheerfully asks to fight Chigusa instead of Lioness, and the two just do Hogan-style “ear-cupping” to the fans until Kyoko needs to get a hug from Aja because Chigusa’s chants were louder, haha. Chigusa wins an International with a wheel kick, but they do another and Kyoko flattens her with a lariat. Each Gal takes one, then Kyoko avoids a Double Crush Punch and Aja swats them both. Multiple lariats abound but Chigusa kicks out and DVDs Kyoko for two. Kyoko wins a strike war but gets jujigatame’d and German’d- Aja tags in and whiffs away with Urakens and wins a chopfest, then pops a successful Uraken off Chigusa taunting instead of being careful- Lioness saves after a Brainbuster. Chigusa springs up and they hit the Crush Sandwich Lariat- Flying Wheel Kick gets two, but Kyoko sets up Aja to hit her tope suicida! Chigusa gets flattened with a double-shoulderblock & Asuka’s double-teamed into a flying back elbow.

Asuka tries the sunset flip bomb reversal to Aja’s finisher but can’t get that nor the Towerhacker Bomb, but Chigusa sets up an Iconoclasm for two. Soon LIONESS takes a Lariat Sandwich and the Uraken gets two. Lioness is already up and ready, Kyoko casually walking into a counter and she eats the Double Crush Punch. Lioness gets a Ligerbomb for two, a back elbow/backdrop hits, but Kyoko soon fires back with a lariat & powerbomb (fucking up the Niagara Driver and improvising- the announcer goes “chotto”, Japanese for “She didn’t quite get all of it, Brain…”). Aja accidentally Urakens her, and Asuka’s rolling kick gets two as a result. Towerhacker Bomb- two! Aja Urakens Lioness to set up the Niagara Driver- two. Lioness counters another and hits a Michinoku Driver for the pin (11:07)- Crush2000 wins! Kyoko, huffy over the loss, is like “NO HANDSHAKE!”, but Chigusa goads her into one… and slips her a pendant in honor of the match. They toss tons of pendants to the fans as well, and we’re off.

11 minutes into a big main event and Aja STILL has fresh facepaint on? How slack-ass WAS this?

This felt more like a Happy Fun Exhibition Match that a real-ass FIGHT, as there was zero venom and a lot of “lol let’s try this” stuff. Comedy bits to start and then “Greatest hits” of each other’s offense all match long, frequently with people eating a huge move and soon getting up to stumble around, then casually counter something and hit their own move. Repeatedly people almost ignored finishers (you know a match is just for funzies when the URAKEN is largely ignored as a threat and instead just spammed out), then Kyoko (the pricey Freelancer) gets to kick out of the Towerhacker but takes another move for three. No big dramatics or hysterics to set up the finish- just people trying stuff until one move wins and the partner is tied up. I mean, 11 minutes in and Aja still has all her FACEPAINT on- that’s how you know it was half-assed!

Rating: **1/2 (really a “Just Fine” kind of match- they appeared to be making zero attempts at having a **** classic and were just out to put on a show for old fans, I think)

So what we have here is more “Greatest Hits By Aging Veterans” mixed with “Here are the Stars of the Future!” except it’s still “the kids are barely able to score flukes against the veterans six years into their careers” and the veterans seem to almost be getting WORST at selling for them. In 1998-99 you had Chikayo & Sugar beaing Aja & Ozaki with strategy and come-from-behind stuff and perseverence, but here it’s just “they get their asses kicked for 19 minutes and then pull one of them over for a flash-pin. Meiko’s uber-push is transparent as well- she’s a good wrestler but the fans HAVE to see what’s going on with her and I’m still not sure if she’s ready.