Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in Summer 2001

GAEA JAPAN IN SUMMER 2001:
* Looks like I’m a bit behind on GAEA after focusing on AJW’s Japan Grand Prix! So this brings us to early June and into July! With some BIG matches, mostly focused around elevating Toshie Uematsu, and ending with a giant Lioness Asuka vs. KAORU Hardcore Match!

So GAEA Japan is now a company in a bit of trouble- about tied with AJW in terms of fan support/drawing power, the company is now missing its top star (Chigusa Nagayo- out for surgery), several veterans (Devil Masami, Akira Hokuto), some of its big Class of 1995 students who are the backbone of the company (Sonoko Kato, Sugar Sato), and are about to lose Lioness Asuka to ARSION and even rookie Saika Takeuchi is about to give it up! Meiko Satomura has been elevated a lot, but they’re rapidly forced to push Chikayo Nagashima at the same time, and several years of using Toshie Uematsu as mere “filler” has kind of bitten them on the ass, so they need to push HER really quickly, too!

If only they had one of the best workers of all time as a recurring freelancer, whose specialty was finding something somebody was good at and threading a whole match around that!

I… wait.

JUNE 3rd:

AJA KONG vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* Okay this is a HUGE mismatch immediately, but probably a good way to “elevate” Toshie through a loss, which is one of Aja’s specialties. Aja, in a brand-new look, debuts a SILVER outfit and silver hair.

Toshie pounces immediately to do as much damage as possible, forcing Aja to shove her off the top rope (poor Toshie can barely slow herself down, eating shit on the bump). Toshie trips up trying a slingshot splash, too (“chotto”- commentary)- she spams a huge amount of knees (painting her leg with Aja’s facepaint) but finally gets kicked flying off the top. She dumps Aja off the top and planchas her, then counters her old “drop-down kick” counter by intercepting the kick with her own! She then Kidmans out of a powerbomb and actually hits a Northern Lights suplex for two! Aja’s measuring her and trying counters, but persistent running knees drop her. Commentary puts over the match’s point- Toshie wants to prove Aja needs the Uraken to beat her, which suggests her elevation that Aja requires a finisher to do it. Aja FINALLY takes the lead with some Backdrop Drivers and a trio of vicious short-arm lariats. See, once she at last gets a counter going she’s able to consistently take over. Toshie tries to stop her back elbow but a 2nd-rope splash crushes her, but impressively does a go-behind on a wheelbarrow counter and Germans her for two! Great counter sequence there. Aja misses her back elbow and eats a flying crossbody into the Rings of Saturn, punishing her. Toshie actually counters a lariat with a GOO PUNCH~~ and snaps the Uraken hand. Aja’s sleeper fails and a lariat gets her arm smashed AGAIN and Toshie hands on with submissions, having a counter for EVERYTHING.

Commentary puts over the strategy as Toshie lays waste to the arm (“using it in the middle points is good- most wrestlers stop going to the arm by the middle”- translation: most use it as meaningless stretching and ignore it once they have openings but this is more clever). Toshie tears at it in the ropes and then headscissors Aja into a submission, but that doesn’t get over despite the length. Aja shamefully has to go to her oil can, gets it kicked, and is forced to counter a German with it, but Toshie gets a Byers Bridge and countesr the Brainbuster with another flash-pin. Aja uses slaps to take over, but gets sunset bombed off the top for two, and the Dragon Suplex gets the same! But now trouble abounds- Aja’s too heavy for Toshie to lift for a followup move and gets a desperation Brainbuster for two. So Aja FINALLY resorts to the Uraken, but of course Toshie’s wise to it and rolls her up again- they mess up another, but Aja’s neck Uraken is blocked (Toshie doing the funny “they bounce off from the impact anyways” sell) and a Goo Punch UPPERCUT gets 2.9! haha, Aja psyched the fans with that one. But when Toshie drags her up for a Dragon Suplex, Aja sinks down and psyches HER out, rolling her forwards with leverage for the flash-pin at (13:38). haha, Aja Kong beat Toshie Uematsu with a ROLLUP.

haha, this was TREMENDOUS. I was not expecting Aja to go full-on “put this kid over” but she spends the entire match on the backfoot, desperately trying counters but selling Toshie’s speed (her big advantage here, obviously), so she’s getting RE-countered on everything. That wheelbarrow sequence was tremendous- Aja tries a suplex, Toshie go-behinds and tries a dragon, Aja breaks her grip using power but Toshie easily just waistlocks her for a German, Aja spins into her own, but Toshie tries the “forward roll” counter only for Aja to swing WAY back for the wheelbarrow slam… only for Toshie to spin out on her and end up getting a German after all! That’s a seven-part sequence and it never looked choreographed, assisted or too “smooth”- it looked like two people in a fight trying whatever they could but Toshie had too much “go” for Aja to restrain. And then Toshie starts working the arm and dominates AGAIN, and from then on Aja can only manage the rare counter, usually based on leverage. Humorously her repeated attempts at the waistlock counter pay off when she wins the match that way, ironically using Toshie’s own tactics (flash-pins because Aja is too strong) to beat her. And that’s why she’s the best- spends 90% of the match selling and being unable to handle the kid, then beats her at her own game, looking desperate as she does it.

Rating: ***1/2 (maybe Toshie’s best match- Aja Kong is awesome)

JULY 15th:
* We jump more than a month for this card, set at Korakuen Hall and featuring a bunch of matches.

D-FIX (Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU w/ Police) vs. LIONESS ASUKA & SAKURA HIROTA:
* Just to show the era, D-FIX is coming out to “Lady Marmalade”. Putting them against the weakest of Chigusa’s loyalists and the soon-to-be-gone Asuka is funny but probably a way to put over D-FIX right away.

To build drama, Sakura attacks and immediately getsw housed, then Asuka gets handcuffed to the POST, left helkpess as Hirota eats a beating from three people at once. She bleeds as they flying stomp a table draped across her, and pull her up after a powerbomb. KAORU misses a Moonsault but lands a Brainbuster for two. Sakura avoids a table-shot but still gets DDT’d, then D-FIX bitch-poses over her bloody body repeatedly. Saika Takeuchi tries to save her senpai but gets shoved off- superplex gets two for Ozaki. After Takeuchi’s picking away with a screwdriver does nothing, she FINALLY manages to get the keyes and Asuka’s in after the beating gets way too prolonged and dull- Asuka kicks KAORU’s ass (the crowd doesn’t react as loudly as they SHOULD probably cuz they got bored and they missed the peak- Sakura also isn’t selling desperation or near-falls yet).

Sakura being beaten on the floor distracts Asuka into taking a German, but she fires back and Blue Thunder bombs KAORU. A backfist/table shot brings her down, and Excalibur (michinoku driver) hits thrice- Sakura desperately saves. Asuka beats on D-FIX to save her, but she springs out with table shots (whiffing one so badly commentary calls it out). A table shatters over her head and KAORU spins into red misting Asuka in the face so they handcuff her to the GUARDRAIL now, and Ozaki Ligerbombs Sakura for two. Police accidentally eats a backfist from Oz, who gets rolled up and Straightjacket German’d for two. Sakura’s comeback finally gets over, but nope- D-FIX team up and KAORU planchas her through a table on the floor. Oz adds a Flying Stomp on the table pieces (!) and a Double Assisted Powerbomb in the ring… gets two! Asuka DRAGS the guardrail right to the ring edge in desperation, but Sakura is doomed- a Police lariat, KAORU table shot & Ozaki backfist finish her at (13:55). When Asuka finally gets uncuffed, she BOLTS for the back, hoping for murder, but D-FIX has escaped. Post-match, they talk shit about how that’s “the real her”- Asuka was clearly too scared to fight them, haha. “She’s a pathetic person”. This naturally sets up the upcoming Asuka vs. KAORU Hardcore Match.

Well that was, uh, LONG. For what it was, it was probably excessive, held back also by Sakura lacking compelling “babyface comeback” charisma, having defined herself as a Comedy Wrestler to this point. So she lacked the desperation and the sympathy of selling, which nullified a lot of hte match, 90% of which was spent beating on her. Granted 14 minutes is a LOT for a handicap match and D-FIX clearly ran outta shit, having only a few central spots.

Rating: ** (it got over only about once- most of the rest was just too prolonged for what they were going for- the overall STORY was good but they didn’t have the offense nor Sakura the selling to bring it past 2 stars)

GAUNTLET MATCH:
RAI RAI KEN (Aja Kong, Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada) vs. TEAM CRUSH (Meiko Satomura, Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu):
* So the uber-veteran heel stable splitting led to Aja forming Rai Rai Ken with the two Kick Demons, and now they’re set against the Class of 1995. It’s a “Gauntlet” with odd rules- the first 5 minutes in a singles match, the next 5 is a tag match with elimination rules, and the remainder is a Trios match for one fall.

Announcers are stunned as right away, Aja turns around to meet her first opponent: MEIKO! Their old rivalry over the AAAW Belt is immediately shoved to the forefront! Aja’s quick turnaround, spotting Meiko and immediately pausing is great. Like “Ah, okay”. They do some SNUG, realistic matwork to start, Aja grinding away. Meiko gets cute with counters, but Aja just cuts into her with repeater-slaps and chops, but Meiko uses Aja’s own Irish whip to build momentum for a corner elbow and spins into an elbowdrop for two. Aja boots her coming off the top, but Meiko scores the Pele Kick & tries the DVD right away- the drop is more of a Samoan one (“chotto” again) and Aja buckle bombs her- they fuck up the sunset bomb reversal but Meiko quicky Germans her out of the corner and the DVD gets two. Aja tries a sleeper but gets Pele’d again- she blocks a second but is hurting & can’t capitalize, but starts swinging Urakens when Meiko’s up… and tags her with one- CRACK! holy shit that SOUND. That gets a close 2, but another try has Meiko jujigatame her for a near-fall & Yamada runs in to assist, the match hitting (5:00) and now being a tag. Uematsu levels her with a missile kick but Aja FLATTENS her in the corner and Yamada hits the Diving Brain Kick for two. Meiko dodges a flying oil can & Toshie runs in with counter-fu on Yamada, but ends up in her Double-Arm Submission and Meiko has too knock them over. Toshie & Yamada batter each other, then the crowd “AHHH!”s at Aja nearly braining her partner with the oil can & Toshie hits the Double-Wrist Armsault for two. Aja breaks it up, and Toshie’s so hot over it she gets elbowed for two.

(10:00) gone and now it’s a Trios match- Aja Brainbusters Toshie for two, then fights everyone off up top but Chikayo superspeeds in with a super rana- Kansai boots her around but ends up in the upside-down hold & foils cheating to hit a rana. Kansai gets targeted by a three-girl ass-beating squad but still ducks Meiko & lariats the other two. Splash Mountain for Chikayo! But she immediately leverages over & Aja saves. Kansai singles out Meiko but hurts herself countering the Pele Kick- Meiko DVDs her but Kansai pops up after “1” and Backdrop Drivers her, then she & Aja hit the Crush Sandwich Lariat into Yamada’s elbow for two. Toshie hits a Super Double-Wrist Armsault on Yamada to stop the flurry, then Chikayo flying stomps in. But she can’t land the Fisherman’s Buster and Meiko accidentally wipes her out with an assist kick and then Toshie clobbers HER, but then Kansai lariats Yamada nd the Fisherman’s Buster hits- Aja breaks! Team Crush hold the vets off for another one, but Yamada avoids it and gets rolled up instead for two. Yamada lands her spinkick for two, Aja swats her for two, but is DDT’d out of her Brainbuster and Uematsu fires off some unusual flash-pins for two-counts. She’s squashed trying a third, but Meiko helps & Chikayo slides in with a German, and Toshie avoids both kickers’ attacks to hit a Dragon Suplex- two! Triple Stereo Finishers to all three veterans! Aja just gets a toe on the ropes to break their hearts, leaving Toshie no other option but to try again- this time Aja catches her with two flash-pins, and Toshie charges right into the Uraken- Mieko saves, but Triple Stereo Urakens… get two! Meiko & Chikayo charge in and stun Aja and she turns around… into Uematsu’s rollup for three (20:06)! TOSHIE UEMATSU PINS AJA KONG!!

Dragon Suplex to Aja, Death Valley Driver to Kansai, and Fisherman’s Buster to Yamada- now THAT’s a tag team spot!

A fighty match! This had a lot of pretty intricate double-teams and counters that always came off like “hey I just had an idea”, and I liked how everyone was kept guessing. A lot of “accidental shots” were teased between teammates and then everyone ACTUALLY starts hitting their partners, but two Crush ones in a row set up Rai Rai Ken doing the same into a nearfall- that kind of stuff. The fact that every pinfall was broken up by a partner and not a natural kickout enhance the drama- I feel like nobody had been worked over enough to actually lose to those moves, but the fact that everyone had “help” made it LOOK like they might, which pays off when Triple Stereo Finishers happen and they fail to score pins. The finish was kinda not as smooth as it could have been, as Aja turns and Toshie wasn’t right there to roll her up, but it helps the desperate last-minute elevation of Toshie, who was the least-pushed of the Class of 1995 and the gutted promotion is suddenly like “OH YEAH WE NEED HER, TOO!” about pushing her. Interestingly still, Aja was in it for almost the whole thing- Kansai barely did anything and Yamada just did some filler here and there. GAEA is REALLY relying on her a lot.

Rating: ***1/2 (another 3.5 star match in succession from a company that often does lazier matches)

MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police) vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* lol yes, Uematsu is doing DOUBLE DUTY today as well, taking on the champion.

We’re JIP with Ozaki hitting a pair of Buckle Bombs, then a Fujiwara armbar, then flying stomps the arm like a psycho, then has Police snap it twice (sadly, they don’t do the obvious “Uematsu reverses and Police unknowingly snaps his boss’s arm” spot). Oz misses a cannonball and gets her own arm twisted, but turns the Double-Wrist into her shoulder-mounted armbar, Toshie selling well the mania of trying to get to the ropes. But in a SWEET counter, Toshie uses the momentum of the “arm snap” move to FLIP over Ozaki and knee her right in the beak, then ducks a backfist and SMOKES her with an uppercut, with a perfect “hair toss” sell by Ozaki. That was GREAT.

PERFECT arching hairtoss sell, haha.

Police assholes it up but Toshie still gets a German- Oz backfists her to buy some relief but ends up eating a punch combo (Toshie swings just PAST her head so the technique still looks good). They counter each other’s finishers but Toshie Draogn Suplexes her for two, but Oz counters the GOO PUNCH to a Tequila Sunrise, countered to a rollup for two. They each spam rollups, the fans biting because everything’s coming out that way, leading to an exhausted double-down. Tequila Sunrise- 2.5! But Toshie nails the Goo Pounch- 2.8! Yes commentary counts it that specifically. Toshie wants to finish and hits a running knee, but Oz catches her with another backfist and swings her into Witchcraft (high-angle Inverted ddt/brainbuster) and pins her at (9:33 of 15:22) shown, showing her desperation.

ANOTHER great one as GAEA booking goes all-in on “Push Toshie”- she’s made to look like she could pin Ozaki at any moment, with Oz actually TRYING HARD for once and putting her all into selling strikes as devastating. She’s so good when she’s not just ignoring offense and doing a lazy weapons brawl- one of her best performances in a while. I loved how “whose rollup is gonna get it?” was a story, as both specialize in that over big finishers, and then Ozaki just sees an opening and MDKs her to end it with her big new finisher. It goes a long way to put over Toshie’s rising credibility to have the Champ resort to that.

Rating: ***1/4 (a very good “desperate struggle” match with both going all-out. Sloppy, but it fits the story & style)

TEAM CRUSH (Chikayo Nagashima & Sakura Hirota) vs. RAI RAI KEN (Aja Kong & Toshiyo Yamada):
* More double-duty, as Chikayo leads the chipmunk against Aja’s team.

Aja has fun splattering Sakura over and over, letting Chikayo accidentally missile kick her and BLASTING her with a piledriver- Sakura backsplashes the heels and tags out, and Chikayo runs wild with speed until Aja buckle bombs her to counter. Yamada fires off kicks, but the kids pepper her with strikes and get AJA to blast her, Chikayo hitting the Fisherman’s Buster for two. Yamada strikes back and Aja’s flying back elbow gets two. Aja looks annoyed as she easily fends off Sakura’s weak shit, but Chikayo pops the fans with a big German! Aja bashes them with her oil can, but Chikayo bridges her for two and catches her in the upside-down hold. Chikayo stays on the arm & hits a flying stomp, but swings into a backdrop driver- Sakura stuns Aja enough for a Super Rana to hit for two. But Aja & Yamada easily crush Sakura (Chikayo accidentally stomps her, too) until Chikayo sets up a big punch & flying backfist for twos on Yamada. Yamada hits her spinkick reversal but Chikayo sets up multiple backfists on Aja, Sakura getting two. Sakura stuns Aja and the crowd by kickout of a lariat at ONE, then ducks the Sandwich Lariat, but foolishly hits Aja with her own oil can, restoring her HP. She stays on Aja, but eats the Brainbuster & Lariat- Chikayo breaking, then dodges the back elbow for two- Aja finally gets sick of her and Urakens her at (12:01 of 14:22 shown).

Rating: ** (Okay match- Sakura as Legit Wrestler is NO BUYS, though- her stuff is feather-light and zero-cred, so it stinks to see her try to actually fight people. Chikayo did okay but is in kind of a holding pattern. Yamada is still barely in her matches these days, either)

HARDCORE MATCH:
LIONESS ASUKA vs. KAORU (w/ Police):
* OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. KAORU in another one of these. In a 40-minute YouTube video, too q_q.They actulaly show a lot of build, mostly KAORU fighting Asuka in tag matches going back more than a year. KAORU pinned Chigusa in Dec. 2000 as well.

However, in a brilliant idea, KAORU attacks before the bell and ties up Asuka in STREAMERS, literally trapping her so a Moonsault can hit. She subtly tries to free the VERY stuck Asuka a bit as she whaps away with her table-piece, so Asuka finally head-kicks her and whips her around using her leather jacket. But KAORU fires green mist into her and throws chairs outside the ring, but sets up a table and Lioness fires ORANGE mist and table stomps her! Ligerbomb gets two, but a clever bit sees Lioness disarm a table piece and Police slip KAORU another one so she can smash her. Another floor-brawl sees them go on an ARENA TOUR, Asuka getting the “Attitude Era Grab & Walk” treatment. She’s nearly flung over the upper balcony, then literally hanged off of it using a giant tube. Man that shit looks SO dangerous, as funny as the giant tubing looks. Speaking of, MOTHER FUCK KAORU just grabs the tubing and gets lowered down using only her grip to keep her non-dead, which would have been a 20-30 foot drop if she’d slipped. Insane woman. She hops off for a stomp and lures Asuka to the ring, trying a Boardsault but settling for a shot with it. Asuka avoids Excalibur and trips her onto the table piece- KAORU impressively vaults off the “Asuka table” onto Asuka but gets tripped into it and “buckle bombed” while it’s upright. Lioness sets up her “draped over the 2nd ropes” finisher but KAORU Germans her off it.

These absolute lunatics.

KAORU climbs the table but gets iconoclasm’d off for our first two-count. Table Ligerbo– no, rana’d off for two. KAORU dunks the table on her and pulls a turnbuckle pad off to slam Asuka into all the buckles, but javelins herself right into the exposed post in a spot joshi puro normally can’t do because of those giant pads! Asuka finally pounces, making her bleed with post-shots, and another Korakuen Tour ends with a flying stomp OFF A STAIRCASE, dropping like ten feet through a table! They fight on the long walk to the ring, and KAORU looks a MESS, covered in orange spray, green coming out of her mouth and blood on her forehead, and Lioness hits the Towerhacker Bomb (inverted fireman’s to ligerbomb)… for two. Asuka sets up another table, but gets flung through it and flying stomped. Superduperplex gets two. KAORU starts begging for a reaction and shatters a board over Asuka’s face when she escapes Excalibur, but Asuka roars to life! And a second board- again! Asuka also boots a giant wooden beam and breaks it, then Rolling Kicks KAORU’s brains out in a potato-adjacent mega-shot for a double-down. Board shot, Excalibur, board shot, Excalibur, board shot, Excalbur… for two off all that, as Asuka puts a toe on the ropes. KAORU grabs a BASEBALL BAT but gets kicked in the face and both are down, fighting up at “8”. Ozaki pounces on the floor, and both women go off the top through a table. Back in the ring, Asuka dodges more mist and beans KAORU with kicks, sets up her table, and hits the Table Ligerbomb! but oh fuck off KAORU kicks out at ONE and hits Excalibur, Lioness kicks out at one, both are down, Lioness gets another rolling kick, but she goes for the finish and KAORU mists her AGAIN, hits Excalibur for a double-down, Asuka kicks her for another, KAORU scores a Mortal Kombat-style uppercut for another… and neither can answer the count at (27:29)- Double KO!

Well that was very KAORU-ish. Not as bad as I was expecting given her tendencies but KAORU matches all have this tendency to hit 2-3 really huge, memorable spots, but shove them all really close to the beginning so they don’t contribute to the end, followed by numerous finisher kickouts and random cheating. Case in point, the giant “hang from the rafters” spot was 6 minutes in, the giant stomp off the staircase 13 minutes in, and the finish was 14 minutes LATER. The “endless kickouts” got excessive, though- KAORU has this Michinoku Driver finisher but hits like 7 of them during the match to often little effect, and even Lioness lets her big finishes fail to win- just endless Move Beamspam- it’s not quite “no-selling” because they DO act hurt, but pretending to be hurt and still kickout of everything short of a cannon to the face still affects the credibility of the MOVEZ. I hate the “Kick out at ONE” thing and GAEA had gotten it out of its system years ago and suddenly revs it up again, but I didn’t hate the finish here. Given that each big stretch of moves caused double-downs, it ended up turning THOSE into the key story of the match, as accumulated damage was put over early, lead to “5” counts, then built up slowly as more and more stuff happened, and finally both are throwing bombs and dying on their feet, barely able to stand. Credit where it’s due- KAORU has a lot of bad tendencies but REALLY looked disheveled and pained during the counts, selling more theatrically than Lioness but just as well. Doing the craaaaaazy stunts 10 minutes in kind of nullified some of the stuff later on, but at least mdae the “accumulated damage” stuff more believable too. So basically it’s a match with some annoyances but had just enough that was GOOD to still be good overall, haha. Highly annoying!

Rating: *** (I almost wish it had either sucked more or ruled more; it’s too hard to rate decisively and thus doesn’t create extreme emotions and thus it’s hard to rate- some of it annoys the SHIT out of me but the drama of the finish still landed so… *throws up hands*)

So that’s another run of GAEA shows! Toshie Uematsu gets a big pinfall and some close matches with big-time veterans so it’s clear they’re TRYING, so we’ll see how that lands. Three big matches pretty close together all pretty well landed so it seems like they’re in a healthy spot considering how many wrestlers are currently down for the count.