Network Of Wrestling – NEW NOW 04.04.99

NEW NOW 04.04.1999
Komazawa Olympic Park Stadium
Attendance 4,000

Previously in NOW…

Hey who wants to look at the NOW reunion show from 1999? Me, because I can’t sleep!

In case you need reminding (and I don’t blame you): when SWS died, the financial backers gave a bunch of money for half the roster to form WAR and a much smaller amount of money for the remaining roster to form NOW. The B-Side company didn’t achieve much and then lost their backing once people got sick of seeing Tiger Jeet Singh and his idiot son. This unimpressive run somehow lead to Samurai TV bringing back the name for a few shows (only this one was televised) before they came to their senses and moved on.

There were at least a few decent names on the original NOW cards (Ishinriki, George Takano, Uema) but Kendo Nagasaki is the only guy from the original to show up tonight and he was on any indie show that would book him anyway which further negates the point of bringing back this forgettable company.

We’re in a big shopping centre for this. I say “we” but in reality, there’s very few fans here and not even close to the claimed 4,000. If they claimed 400, there’d still be raised eyebrows.

There’s three Joshi matches so I am joined in italics by the wonderful Jabroniville.

Emi Motokawa & Sachie Nishibori vs. Keiko Aono & Yasha Kurenai

It’s Interpromotional mayhem, as an IWA Japan-trained Freelancer team takes on an LLPW team. Yasha Kurenai, in red, is my favorite here- doing a “shitbag cheater” gimmick where she defaults to hitting people with her kendo stick. Keiko is a bigger low-ranked one here in black & yellow. Motokawa is today known as Emi Sakura, the aging veteran doing a “laughing noblewoman” gimmick in AEW and other places, but here is a skinny teen who wrestles everywhere after I think IWA stopped running women’s matches. Sachie is the same, and I’m actually pretty sure I’ve never seen her wrestle. Emi’s in a slick Power Rangers-esque white & red look, Sachie’s in purple & green.

Keiko & Sachie start, with the puny Nishibori being ineffective and whiffing a dropkick. Emi comes in with repeated dropkicks to make up for the size difference, then a crowd-pleasing surfboard (fans LOVE it when women do that), then her team does a horrible plancha spot that exposes the business (why is everyone unable to move via a single hair-grab from Sachie?). Sachie follows with a springboard plancha as it’s painfully obvious the IWA girls are barely capable. Yasha kicks out after a rocket launcher, then avoids a missile kick so Emi takes it. Keiko flings herself into Emi repeatedly, then hits a flying splash for two. Emi gets a sunset flip powerbomb for two and a rana spot goes haywire as they forget who’s supposed to counter what, then they nearly screw up a counter when Keiko catches Sachie but can’t get her over right for a powerslam counter, back-bending too far. Yasha keeps it simple with an uranage/2nd-rope slingshot legdrop for two, then finishes with her painful-looking submission, sitting on Sachie’s shoulders in and stretching her arm up while craning her neck (6:26 of 14:49 shown).

This was REALLY bad in parts, mostly because Sachie barely seems to be trained at all. Emi can move right and go hard, but wasn’t the focus of the filming for whatever reason, so you saw Sachie screw up a lot of basic spots, not post right on moves, and whiff some stuff. Just really bad, business-exposing stuff- the “hold them for a plancha” spot was worse than anything you’ve ever seen in AEW for exposing how things work as the LLPW girls have to just stand there helpless for dives that seem to be there for the sake of being dives.

Rating: * (barely legible mess with the best wrestlers barely in it and wrestling at half-speed and half-effort)

Sanshiro Takagi & Viking Taniguchi vs. Daisaku & Yusaku

Sanshiro is still going strong for DDT in 2025 and is a hero to many. Viking has been in BJW since the start but I can’t recall anything he’s done. D & Y are very new to wrestling here but are still kicking around A-Team nowadays (The company, not the show).

Viking and his amazing leopard skin gear and mullet really get the ball rolling. Or the fat, at least. Daisaku (wearing what looks like his P.E. gear) kicks Sanshiro down. He really doesn’t like that and responds with stiff slaps so the rookie knows his place.

After being stuck in a headlock for a few minutes, Daisaku is allowed to kick Sanshiro in the back. The commentators use the term “Stone Cold” out of nowhere. I think they’re talking about the fans who have made no noise so far. Viking delivers a fat Northern Lights but the ref is distracted by something and doesn’t count the pin. How can you not notice this mullety bastard? Even his hair is fat. Viking takes a decent side suplex right onto the head but crowd doesn’t pop. This goes on for a while with nothing in the way of momentum being created or direction. I’m not going to be too harsh because there’s some very green guys here and no-one made me watch this. D & Y land a risky elevated DDT to spike Sanshiro but that’s not the end. It probably should have been. Sanshiro gets spiked on a Michinoku Driver before tagging out to Viking who delivers a proper sit-out version to show the kids how it’s done. A piledriver ends it for the veterans at 9:38.

God that was a long ten minutes. Just work experience for the young uns while they’re not making cups of tea and being beaten with sticks.

Carlos Amano & Kana Mizaki vs. Azumi Hyuga & Ran YuYu

People I all know & remember! I can pretend to be knowledgeable! Hooray! So this is Joshi Women’s Pro-Wrestling (JWP)’s miracle “Class of 1995”, as all four girls ended up being good- Amano (called “Carlos” for some reason) is a fantastic tomboyish mat wrestler at this point. Mizaki is probably the worst of the four and is still pretty good. Hyuga is the idol-ish Tomoko Kuzumi who’s been giving the rocket push and will by JWP Champion for a while. A very solid ***-ish worker who has a lot of good matches that nobody saw because the women’s scene was dying. Ran YuYu is a heelish wrestler who is normally Hyuga’s rival. JWP tends to bring it when guesting in other shows (they have easily the best match in the Tokyo Dome “Every Promotion” show that includes Misawa, AJW going all-out, and more). Amano’s in navy blue, Mizaki a frilly purple thing, Hyuga in white & pastel green, and Ran in red.

Right away we see how much bigger the level for these girls is than the prior match, as Hyuga hits a great running knee to the chest, and Amano responds by bridging out and slamming into her at full speed with an elbow. Mizuki settles for some running kick-pushes (a very common “filler” offense in joshi stuff) but Ran comes in and snapmares her around into a choke. Carlos comes in and works holds with Ran until she gets hauled up out of a jujigatame attempt and slammed, which impresses the fans. They work the Typical Joshi Restholds (half-crab, camel clutch) until everyone comes in for hair-pulling and then poor Azumi & Carlos get dropkicked repeatedly by the other people while still holding the hold, lol. Hyuga nails her butterfly backbreaker on Amano and stretches her back out, but Amano flips out of a German and throws on a juji, Ran spamming knees to stop her, but Mizaki comes in and spams sentons to Hyuga until she gets caught with a deadlift German. Pretty good power-spot coming from a skinny Hyuga.

Mizaki catches Ran with an anti-air dropkick, tornado DDT & La Majistral, then a Northern Lights suplex & flying senton. Her team hits stereo dives, and Carlos hits a flying clothesline for two. Hyuga sets up Ran’s spinning Samoan drop for two & a straightjacket German gets the same. Ran with a SUPER Samoan Drop for two (Mizaki saves), but she puts Carlos up top and Mizaki gets under her, putting Ran on her shoulders so Carlos can hit a Jujigatame from the top rope, slamming her down! Hyuga has to scramble for the save. Amano simply tries again with the “rolling juji” variant and Ran barely gets her foot under the ropes. Ran gets a wild, clever rollup holding Amano’s arms and locking the legs, but Mizaki saves and gets taken to the floor by Hyuga, leaving Ran & Carlos alone- Ran tries to Irish whip her, but Carlos slams her down with a counter into a jujigatame that leaves Ran nowhere to go and she finally taps at (12:21). Good fight by Carlos! Just kept trying it until it worked and Ran was alone.

Nice match! It felt a bit like a “resume” match, where everyone shows off their movesets one after the other- Mizaki got her ass beat by everyone and then suddenly hits 5 good moves in a row to Ran YuYu. Joshi puro almost never does runs of 5 straight moves without any counters so that stood out to me. Hyuga got to show off by deadlifting Mizaki waist-lock style in to a German, Ran got to do some flash-ass Samoan drop variants (someone oughta steal that wicked airplane spin one), Carlos got to do her submissions to hapless opponents, etc. Of course Carlos didn’t get to do much during the bout so the end run was all her throwing on variants of the same hold to Ran, who sold and twisted pretty well. It didn’t really get over because everyone seemed like they JUST wanted to get their shit in, but it’s also a small show and they’re guests so for all I know the fans didn’t know a single one of them.

Rating: **3/4 (a good match, especially in a vacuum in front of disinterested fans! A bit “Get My Shit In” but hey, if it’s a random indie and you’re guests, that’s when ya do it. “Come see our shows! Look at all the cool shit we can do!”)

Keisuke Yamada, Keizo Matsuda & The Great Takeru vs. Onryo, Shigeo Kato & Shinigami

Onryo would go onto success in FMW but for now is strictly DDT. Shinigami is still wrestling in 2025 but he sucked in 1999 so God knows what that looks like now. Never heard of Kato but he’s a WYF guy so no wonder. Takeru & Matsuda were wrestling for all the crap indies during this time but at least Yamada would make something for himself as Black Buffalo.

Crowd actually make some noise for the goth lads, helped by their theme music being the sound of a tap dripping. That’s new.

Takeru is a purple and yellow ninja. The bright colours don’t help him blend in as the goths attack during the introductions. Bright colours being the natural enemies of goths means Takeru is able to land a pretty springboard dropkick to give us all some much-needed hope. They take too long celebrating however which results in the goths attacking before everyone stands around looking awkward until everyone resets into their corners. Yamada has the Puro look of being 25% pec muscle so he takes out Shinigami’s no-selling look-at-me-I’m-dead arse. Matsuda gets smothered in the corner by Onryo as this is going nowhere slow, the last two sentences described three minutes of action. Kato takes some dropkicks as the commentators bring up Tokyo Pro Wrestling’s name as I pause to deal with the PTSD.

I’m back and the crowd still isn’t making a peep for this incredibly basic action. How can a match with zombies and ninjas be this dull? Shinigami chokes the ninja (not a euphemism) and sends him flying with an overhead belly-to-belly. Even when something decent happens, the crowd doesn’t react. Onyro’s got more life in him and he’s fucking dead. Kato dropkicks Takeru who takes out the ref (resulting in disgusted noises from the crowd) so Shinigami makes the pin instead. Crowd applaud because they think it’s over. The ref gets thrown back in so Takeru gets a cheeky roll-up to win at a ridiculously unnecessary 21:48.

Yeah no.

Barbed Wire Boards Death Match

Freddie Krueger & Tarzan Goto vs. Mitsunobu Kikuzawa & Shoji Nakamaki

This is Doug Gilbert under the Freddy mask which is something. What that something is, I don’t know. Kikuzawa is the future Kikutaro wearing a Halloween mask that may still have the price tag attached.

Pro-tip: if your Puro company was booking Tarzan Goto post-FMW, it meant your company was about to die. He dumps a barbed wire board onto Kikuzawa which takes his cheap mask right off his face. Tarzan smashes a bottle so he can cut open his foes as the camera makes sure to catch Kikuzawa blading. Goto carries on getting all the offence in on Nakamaki while Kruger uses the ropes to choke and looks for someone to hand a CV to. Goto amazingly takes a back drop onto the barbed wire board which is rare for him. Crowd gasps in shock. He kicks out at one so he can launch both opponents into the wire. Crowd goes back to being silent. With the order restored, Gilbert is tossed into the barbed wire but kicks out because he’s got crappy sequels to appear in. Kikuzawa sets up Kruger for more punishment but misses a moonsault directly into the pointy stuff. Goto waddles his arse into the ring like Baby Huey to deliver the Fall Forward Piledriver to end it at 18:45.

The typical Goto brawl where his opponents do all the work and I appreciate Kikuzawa’s effort but there’s only so much you can do when your opponents (and tag partner) are relying on one guy to take every bump.

Junko Yagi & Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai & Sayuri Okino

Oh awesome! Kandori, the best wrestler in LLPW! And… whoever the hell Yagi is. Eagle is a powerhouse-type wrestler who used her size and weight to hit power spots- she’d be more well-remembered if she ever hit more than *** consistently, but she’s fine. Okino is a lower-ranked wrestler who busts ass- good heelish shitass twerp character. But Kandori is the real deal- a legit judoka and BMF who has this great “elitist prick” character like pro wrestling is beneath her. Looking up Yagi, no wonder I don’t remember her- she was an LLPW rookie who left after two years, messed about in NEO, then quit hte business after 3-4 years total. You saw a lot of those types around this time, as the business had splintered badly. Junko’s got Super Saiyan hair and banana-yellow gear with a belly-shirt & shorts, Kandori’s got her classic ugly LLPW gear look, but with a unique design (yellow with red decals), Eagle’s in her classic black & red frilly outfit, and Okino’s in pink & black.

Eagle’s team attacks alongside Modiri, a goon ally of theirs before the bell, and it leads to a fight outside the ring immediately- huh, Junko’s pretty big. No wonder she got a look. Junko shows her “scrub” leaning by appearing to turn around for no reason, and only later drops down to hold Eagle for a lariat. Kandori claps to get the fans into it, but her judo is countered by Okino’s “kendo stick to the ass” technique. She works Kandori over, but Junko uses her size to bounce her around. Eagle steps in and Junko gets battered by stick shots, then all three heels hit corner runs on her and Kandori has to save Junko from a Double Assisted Powerbomb. A couple minutes of “the rookie sells & takes bumps” follow, and an assisted side slam gets two for Eagle. Eagle misses a Vader Bomb but Midori runs in AGAIN and stops a hot tag, so Junko is able to get a pop by clotheslining her and finally tagging out. Kandori uses lariats and her wind-up headbutt on Eagle, but charges into a backbreaker & her sleeper counter is stopped with another Okino stickshot. A good spot sees Kandori double-clothesline the heels, but only Okino falls so Kandori has to snag Eagle with a judo throw into a jujigatame and Midori has to save. Junko hits a Vader Bomb on Eagle and spams running attacks to finally bring her down for two. Backdrop suplex gets two but Eagle lariats both opponents and Okino adds missile kicks and a Northern Lights suplex for two on Kandori… who finally gets sick of the cheating when they bring in a chain and so she grabs it and GOES TO TOWN on the heels, punching everyone in the face and strangling Okino in her Spinning Sleeper assisted by the chain. Eagle saves Okino from a regular sleeper, Okino gets a rollup for two, then Kandori locks her in a nasty leglock and the GOON saves, so Kandori tosses her aside and hits a Folding Powerbomb for the three at (10:16 of 15:59 shown).

Actually pretty good! I was worried this was going to be another “LLPW makes the rookie do all the wrestling” lazybones indie guest match like they often are, but after a couple minutes of Rookie Abuse, it became the “Kandori is Awesome” show and she started counter-cheating and there’s a ton of fun stuff where she’s strangling Okino with a chain and countering all the cheating to finally pay it off. As a rookie, Junko seemed fine- a bit clumsy and she did running moves weird (like just awkwardly sliding into people) but no worse than any other 2nd-year.

Rating: **1/2 (a fun cheating-filled brawl of a match)

Genichiro Tenryu, Kendo Nagasaki & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Nobutaka Araya, Shigeo Okumura & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

The pop for Tenryu is the quietest I’ve ever heard for him. I’m surprised he didn’t do a 180 during his entrance to deliver enziguris to the production team to ensure this didn’t air. Kendo (the only real connection to the original NOW) starts off and in one of the saddest things I’ve heard in some time, a fan’s mobile phone starts ringing and you can hear it clear as day because there’s zero heat or crowd. For a main event with some decent star power too.

Mochizuki throws a flying spin kick to at least try to get something out of this match before the crowd quietens again and you can hear a baby at the back of the hall crying. I wish I was kidding. Fujiwara plods in to extract the youth out of Mochizuki’s dyed hair. He manages to get away from the master surprisingly easy so he can tag in Tenryu who immediately throws enziguris. Fujiwara is older than the concept of pain so he locks in a gentle armbar. Kendo interferes so Fujiwara takes his eyes off the prize, enabling Tenryu to go wild with the chops. Fujiwara retaliates with headbutts, ensuring there’s genuine contact and busting open Tenryu because he’s not going to half-arse this match even though he totally should.

(edit: oh wait I re-watched, Tenryu is gigging himself heavily to make up for not wanting to do much tonight. But it got me the first time so well done Mr. Wrestling).

Kendo decides to drag everyone outside for a big brawl because that’s his bread and water. Oh but then he changes his mind and goes back to the corner. I guess he didn’t feel like doing the one thing people paid to see. “Ladies & Gentlemen we regret to inform you Scotty Too Hotty will not be performing The Worm tonight. There will be no refunds.”

Tenryu gets worked over by Araya before he opens his eyes and realises who it is and immediately stops selling. Kendo tags in to demonstrate how lame his offence is for a supposed headliner. Sidewalk slam and a fireman’s toss? Yeah OK Bravo Nagasaki. Fujiwara shows his disgust by headbutting him repeatedly. Mochizuki gets worked over in the corner for a bit until Tenryu saves him. Araya throws some lariats and looks like he’s having a good time out there before Tenryu realises again that he’s selling for a goofy goofy goober and cuts that out. Fujiwara thankfully decides to dog Tenryu and not let him get any advantage, which causes everyone to brawl. Kendo sticks Araya with two piledrivers and that’s it at 15:25.

Everyone did the bare minimum and it’s hard to blame them. As soon as fifteen minutes expired, they get out of there like the fire alarm was going off. Fujiwara still somehow treated this like a Dome show and God love him for it.

Overall: Imagine if they brought back Herb Abrams’ UWF but didn’t bring any coke. A must-see for any NOW fans as well as any other fictional beings such as yetis, boogeymen and non-creepy Joshi fans.

Unrelated but thanks for helping out Jabroniville!

don’t ever ask me anything again.