Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in 8.2001 (AAAW Title Shot Tournament!)

GAEA JAPAN IN AUGUST 2001:
* It’s time for seven GAEA matches from August! This one features first a one-night Gaora Cup Tournament, then ANOTHER one-night tournament, this one deciding who the AAAW Title Challenger will be! With KAORU & Police doing SHENANIGANS the entire time!

AUG. 19th:
* From Korakuen Hall comes a one-night tournament! One of the best ways for a gutted promotion to maintain a “full card”- exhaust the talent by making everyone work multiple matches!

HAND MADE TITLE:
SAKURA HIROTA vs. KAORI NAKAYAMA:
* It’s comedy Sakura again! Thank god! Serious Sakura is no buys. She’s now carrying TWO gigantic belts and is mimicking Kaori from her “genie pants” days. Nakayama is an FMW wrestler being used to fill space on cards, and is now in street clothes.

Sakura does a few comical misses, and appears to do a theatrical parody of thigh-slapping in wrestling by mis-timing them on dropkicks and calling attention to it. They do a bit bouncing around on the middle rope, Sakura seemingly attempting a 619 (I believe Silver King had invented it as Black Tiger by that point) but getting caught. Kaori gets a crazy swinging DDT for two, but Sakura hits the Bronco Buster (that and X-Pac are named on commentary) and lowers her ass onto Kaori’s face, with commentary discussing that she might not take baths (“If so, young girls seem to be like that these days”)- 2nd-Rope Backfist gets two. But Kaori gets one of the belts and powerbombs Sakura onto it, leaving her screaming in sorrow (“it’s not cardboard anymore- there is a plastic pigeon on it so it hurts, see? The beak is very sharp”). Kaori stands on it so the STRAP tears, then blocks a backfist with it and Germans her. Sakura dodges a moonsault on the belt and uppercuts Kaori in the lady-balls, but wastes time mimicking the move to the fans and gets punted right in the same spot and just SMOKED with the other belt for the pin at (5:43)- Kaori wins!

Rating: *1/2 (the usual “dumb fun” Sakura Hirota match)

THE GAORA CUP TOURNAMENT:
-It’s time to fill space on the cards with a TOURNAMANT! Gaora TV is the channel that airs a lot of puroresu around this point- I’ve seen some AJW stuff there, too.

GAORA CUP TOURNAMENT:
MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police) vs. MEIKO SATOMURA:
* The Champ takes on her future challenger, and looks way more like the Ozaki of old- a red & gold outfit. Commentary is openly like “Well Ozaki has lost weight- she had gotten overweight in April but now her face is sharper. Meiko is a whole size bigger, though”

Ozaki immediately pounces on Meiko’s arm and twists at it, and responds to a European uppercut with a punch to the eye & a buckle bomb. But Oz chokes Meiko in the corner, causing Meiko to fireman’s lift her and throw HER into the buckles, then grinds away at her. A nice bit sees Meiko dodge five backfists in a row, but OZAKI’s able to block and dodge several kicks until a surprise backfist cracks Meiko in the mouth… but she hits her Pele Kick! They have kind of a scrappy, awkward fight (helped by Ozaki selling “stunned”), and Meiko carelessly kicks the ringpost, but avoids a chair across the guardrail and drills OZAKI with it. She doesn’t just beat Ozaki’s ass, but Police’s too (He hasn’t even CHEATED yet!). Oz fires back with dropkicks when Meiko re-enters the ring and they squabble for submissions- Meiko powerbombs out but Oz persisently goes for backfists & Ligerbombs her for two. Meiko can’t get her Super Jujigatame counter so just kicks Ozaki in the head, then tries a FLYING Pele Kick, except it hits poorly and commentary goes “chotto” (“didn’t quite get all of it, Brain…”)- like she just backwards rolled off the top instead of jumped so it looks weak. Meiko with a European uppercut & DVD, but segues right into a leglock.

Ozaki fights out, but gets dropped out of her shoulder-mount armlock but blocks another Pele Kick for a nasty back-mounted submission, yanking the arm all the way back. They “chotto” another counter-series of rollups but Oz gets a slick one that starts like a Manami Roll but ends up an inside cradle and counters a DVD for two. Oz finally gets her shoulder-mount arm thing and then kicks off the top rope when Meiko tries to break, rolling her up again. Meiko blocks a backfist and holds Oz for a suplex, switching suddenly to a DVD for two! Meiko senses the end, but Ozaki hits three limp-wristed backfists in a row (openly hitting with her forearm) for two. Tequila Sunrise- two! Meiko powers out of another and Pele Kicks her, then another has Oz sprawling against the ropes in a great sell- a third has her do the “limp doll” sell, but still gets two! Meiko counters a rollup to a Wheelbarrow German for two, but climbs and gets dragged off by the foot. She hits a scrappy, ugly-ass sleeper to Ozaki from the top and drags her off, turns it into a choke, then goes for the Death Valley Driver- but Ozaki flips it into the ugliest rollup ever, fucking up the landing and winning at (13:34)!

Well this was scrappy! Ugly, but scrappy! Meiko in particular appeared to be blown up for a lot of this which is weird (maybe that added weight the talked about) and their execution was all over the place. I kinda like how realistic that can look at times, and it’s clear they WANTED this to look scrappy and fighty as countless spots involved “persistently yank at them until they release”, but it’s hard not to think it’s just botchy- you can hear a dead Monsoon tut-tutting this all the way through. Like some of this had the ugliness of “they’re not getting along so they’re shooting to get out of things” except they WEREN’T. An interesting thing is Ozaki playing the whole match straight- ZERO instances of Police striking Meiko or her using a weapon, while Meiko actually tried it. Then she wins clean with her old MDK finisher- the “counter someone’s finisher to a rollup”. And this means that Meiko’s future challenge has even more stacked against it- while she’s run the field of veterans, Ozaki’s still unbeaten against her.

Rating: **1/4 (just an ugly, ugly match- okay selling but the worst execution you’ll see in a Meiko match- kinda on purpose but probably wasn’t supposed to look THAT ugly)

GAORA CUP TOURNAMENT:
AJA KONG vs. KAORU (w/ Police):
* These two had one of 2000’s best women’s matches last year, basing it around tons of violence, but this one looks to be much shorter. Aja immediately charges into the ring and lariats KAORU, and we’re off!

Aja fights off Police and whips KAORU over the guardrail, beating her ass in the stands, but Police finally grabs her. Aja won’t sell a few board shots to the head, so KAORU just flings a metal guardrail at her and Aja’s down. Aja tries to superplex her through a table on the floor, but gets flung off the apron into it and KAORU hits the Flying Stomp out there, but misses a moonsault suicida off the middle rope. KAORU & Police persistently blast her with boards to bring her down, KAORU blocking a punch with it and dropping her again, but Aja avoids her finishers and cracks her with a lariat, interrupted by Police. Aja hits a wheelbarrow German, copying last match’s spot, and a 2nd-rope splash gets two. Police interferes again so Aja leapfrogs KAORU over the top into him then dives into both of them (clipping the ropes- thank god there’s little room for them to hide out there). Aja hits three Brainbusters for two, then the flying back elbow- “Fuck YOU!” bridge! Aja averts the usual Sunset Bomb reversal she usually eats but misses another back elbow and takes a board shot into Excalibur (michinoku driver) for two. Jesus fuck, that was close- KAORU swung her up way too fast without centering their weights and coulda headspiked her for a shoot. Aja sells this like death and can’t be pulled up, so is able to smash KAORU into her board, then dodge a shot so Police eats it and hits KAORU with her oil can. And a fresh can for Police! KAORU blocks an Uraken with the board, but Aja hits her anyways for two. Aja dusts her off with another one for thr– POLICE YOU MOTHERFUCKER! He wacks away with a damn police baton, Aja getting up looking FURIOUS, but he spews RED MIST and she’s completely blinded! KAORU hits her with a big punch and gets three (10:34)! KAORU utterly steals one!

This one was based around a TON of stiff shots to Aja’s head with those boards- these were NOT the usual love-taps or “easily broken boards” but just a ton of legitimate head-smashes with a thick wooden board, and it served to put Aja over a lot. Typical KAORU garbage match otherwise but with Aja around to keep it centered it’s still good. The finish was clever- it’s so egregiously cheat-y that Aja is “excused” for losing and thus doesn’t have to go to the finals, and KAORU looks like a cheating bitchpie for winning it that way. Also you know what would be funny? If Police was DEAD.

Rating: **3/4 (kinda fun and wild in it’s “KAORU Garbage Match, but with more character and fun” kind of way)

Clips from other matches! Toshiyo Yamada beats Toshie Uematsu in (9:34) with her Double-Arm Submission hold! In a shocker, Chikayo Nagashima is able to kick out of Splash Mountain and pins Dynamite Kansai after hitting a rana out of a second one at (9:30)! Mayumi Ozaki beats Yamada at (4:34) after what looks like a rapid-fire strike war, backfisting her and Yamada doing the “struggling but can’t quite escape” sell of the pin. KAORU & Chikayo have a rollup war with tons of flash-pins, then Chikayo kicks out of Excalibur and blocks the red mist with KAORU’s own board. She rolls her up, KAORU counters for two, then Chikayo kicks out and spins into her Twisting Rana for three at (8:00).

GAORA CUP TOURNAMENT FINAL:
MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police) vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA:
* Ozaki immediately charges an exhausted Chikayo and we’re off.

Chikayo catches the charge with her upside-down hold in the ropes, but gets dumped and they fight in the stands, where Chikayo hits a Flying Stomp off the entranceway! We’re clipped to Chikayo spamming kicks and her Fisherman’s Buster gets two. Oz gets her backfists and her own Buster for two, then a Running Ligerbomb. They mess up a Chikayo counter, then she stops a backfist with a jujigatame for a long fight. Chikayo blocks another backfist & steals the Tequila Sunrise for two, but celebrates and takes it herself. Chikayo counters the buckle bomb & Fisherman’s Busters her again for two, and a spinning one gets a dramatic count. She eats another backfist but rolls up Oz for two, but charges into a backfist and Ozaki uses Witchcraft (inverted lifting cradle DDT) for three at (6:10 of 13:34 shown). Commentary points out how “Ozaki has a craft which can finish in one hit. Nagashima does not have a move that can finish in one hit”- ie. “Chikayo has to spam her Fisherman’s Buster and that’s her only chance”. Commentary heavily puts over Ozaki’s weight loss and resulting conditioning, and the message is clear- the AAAW Champion is actually very dominant and doesn’t have to cheat! After the match, Aja’s Rai Rai Ken stable comes out and she issues a challenge for the belt, as Ozaki hasn’t defended it yet, and Team Crush (led by Meiko) does the same. Ozaki’s answer: Sure, but you’ll fight in a competition to see who gets the shot, and *I* get to decide the matches! The crowd “ooooh”s at that one.

A quick, scrappy match, cut in half- it looked pretty hard-fought, and had the typical vibe of Ozaki/Chikayo matches- tons and tons of finisher spam. BUT they sold the “dramatic attempts at pinfalls” so well that the fans were shrieking for everything by the end, as they’d put over rollups and counters so fans were buying them. And Ozaki having to rely on her big new finisher to beat Chikayo obviously puts her over as well.

Rating: **1/2 (looked pretty good and fight-y, but of course is missing a ton)

AUG. 29th:

Ozaki announces the title shot tournament! Special Rules: Everyone must use weapons/dirty fighting, or risk Disqualification from Ozaki from her table at ringside! This is in a VERY small arena show, so expect shorter match times and some fucking around.

AAAW TITLE SHOT TOURNAMENT:
DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. KAORU: Kansai puts Aja-themed steel shinguards on to enhance her kicks, but KAORU uses a wooden beam to smash her ankles again and again, making her submit at (6:18) to an anklelock.
AJA KONG vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA: Of course Oz makes her rivals fight one another. Aja defeats a very clumsy, injured Yamada at (9:17) with the Uraken.
MEIKO SATOMURA vs. SAKURA HIROTA: This is a mostly comedic match centered around Sakura’s giant golden cooking pot. Sakura also makes like she’s talking nice to Ozaki, then Meiko starts showing real fury, and even taps her out with a vicious armbar at (9:34), getting so serious she makes even the comedy wrestler scream in agony.
CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU: Toshie’s surprise push continues as she counters Chikayo’s Fisherman’s Buster with a rollup at (12:38) and wins.

SEMI-FINALS:
SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE- POLICE:
AJA KONG (w/ Oil Cans) vs. KAORU (w/ Ladder):
* Aja gets a chance to avenge her cheap loss! Good thing she’s not a vicious, merciless killer when provoked! I… *rechecks history of joshi puro* Oh dear. And there’s a million oil cans lining the ring apron.

Aja immediatel pummels the shit out of KAORU by having a LONG line of oil cans thrown to her, then beats the absolute shit out of her with chairshots and other weapon attacks on the floor, then grinds away at a forehead cut with her elbow. She then sets up the ladder and makes a “chair mountain” spot out of her OIL CANS, laying out about a dozen of them, but of course gets flung off backwards into them and KAORU adds her Flying Stomp. KAORU babies a couple ladder shots into Aja then superplexes the ladder onto her (the landing looks like it hurt KAORU worse- how hard is that ring?). Aja climbs the ladder but gets missile kicked off the second rung, but manages to squash KAORU with the ladder. Brainbuster fails but she counters a German with her kick, hits a Backdrop Driver but misses her back elbow, and both miss their finishers but Aja lands a Brainbuster for two. KAORU keeps dodging backfists, looking increasingly helpless, but manages to German Aja off the 2nd rope, but makes the mistake of trying to use an oil can against Aja! However, that stops the attack just enough to hit Excalibur for a close call. KAORU boots all the oil cans off the ring apron to signal the finish, but Aja kicks out of Excalibur at “1”, drops her with an Uraken and pulls her up, and Rai Rai Ken tosses her every single can, allowing her a million shots with them. Uraken- two! Aja blames Police (though it was a fair count), takes off her gloves to unleash the super-punch, and hauls KAORU up… but KAORU hits the WORST UPPERCUT IN RECORDED HISTORY, whiffing so bad the hard cam can’t even disguise it, and pins Aja at (9:40), Police even doing a regular-ass slow count on the pin! oh my goddddddddddd REALLY? Police obviously tripped up Aja from behind (they even air a replay to show HOW much KAORU missed) but an almost literal banana-peel finish when the whole match was leading towards Aja brutalizing KAORU?

Just AWFUL in terms of finish, haha. Aja completely dominated for ages, obvious revenge for the cheap loss, but KAORU gets in a few dumb spots as usual, then they do some decent ladder stuff and a fun bit with oil cans, leading to the obvious finish… but SuperKAORU just absorbs two Urakens and is fine, THEN WINS with such an obvious whiff of a punch that commentary even calls out that it didn’t hit.

Rating: ** (was looking a bit higher but the finish was just plain BAD- they had to cover for how bad that punch was but Police’s little kick to the back of the leg and AJA can’t even kick out?)

SEMI-FINALS:
MEIKO SATOMURA vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* Only two GAEA originals left- we’ll see where Toshie’s micro-push is going.

Toshie controls a bit to start, catching Meiko’s new whirling elbowdrop with a jujigatame, then judo-flips her into another long one. Flying splash hits, but Meiko sleepers her up top for a while, falling off to set up an arm injury and Toshie planchas her. Toshie persistently stays on offense on the floor, hitting a German, but Meiko keeps countering her Double-Wrist Armsault into a cravat/facelock- audience is really quiet here and commentary is focused on if they can fight dirty enough for Ozaki to not DQ them. She finally gets sick of how fair they’re fighting and DEMANDS they cheat, but they barely touch their weapons (a chair & guardrail bit) before defiantly chucking them at Oz. Meiko scores some head-kicks for a defiant kickout, but Toshie fires back with soft kneelifts & punches, then Dragon Suplexes her for two. Meiko gets out of another, but Toshie GRABS THE HAIR and nearly pins her- cheating at last! Meiko ninja-kicks her in the head but things get sloppy as Toshie either falls or escapes out of a DVD, a Pele Kick… might miss, and Toshie charges in for two off a punch. But Meiko blocks a second, European uppercuts her, then leaps over her like a pommel horse for a Pele Kick, and another gets the three at (11:42).

Rating: ** (A long, dull, pretty heatless match. Toshie has better chemistry with bigger wrestlers and heels than someone her own size, and her strikes looked terrible here. Possibly in “house show mode” but their little run of pushing her only amounted to this)

WINNER GETS AAAW TITLE SHOT:
FINAL MATCH:
MEIKO SATOMURA (w/ Red Bat) vs. KAORU (w/ Board Piece):
* So everyone’s worked twice in decently-long matches. KAORU is still bloody.

They play it straight to start, but KAORU whacks Meiko with the board and Meiko immediately grabs her bat (color-coded- that’s cute). Meiko whacks the board away from her, but KAORU gets it and strikes her ankle. A Moonsault misses and Meiko immediately armbars her, while commentary suggests the bat is a bad weapon, since it’s so obviously lethal that you have to hold back a bit in wrestling, whereas KAORU can just go all-out with her board. “I’m hoping she’ll use the bat when applying joint-locks or something, like a wrestler might”. Police forces Meiko to release a hold in the ropes and gets her German’d, then fast-counts her to piss everyone off. Meiko scowls at him and hits the Pele Kick, but a DVD ends up… a TKO? No, KAORU inverted DDTs her- bad spot. Brainbuster- another fast count. Meiko pops some fans by nailing Police with the board and she hits the Super Jujigatame, but KAORU ranas her for two, and Meiko’s counter… gets the most theatrically slow count ever.

Meiko kicks Police in the ass for that, so he refuses to count her next pin, then hauls her up for KAORU’s board shot- she barely avoids hitting him, but Meiko boots the board into her face and chases her off with the bat, smashing all her boards with it to kill some time. This lures KAORU in and Meiko nails her in the ankle. She refuses to smash her full-on with it, but was just luring KAORU in and grabs the ankle. But she grabs Police’s pants and he “accidentally” drags her to a rope-break. KAORU locks on a rings of saturn mounted from the back, but Meiko forces her up into DVD position and nails it! But KAORU goes right into a submission again. Meiko finally escapes, then kicks out of Excalibur with a rollup for two, then things get REALLY sloppy as they’re just falling out of their moves and slumping over to sell exhaustion. KAORU is popped into a DVD position but hits her submission from THERE, bringing Meiko down and hitting Excalibur- “Fuck YOU!” bridge! Excalibur #2- 2.8! #3 hits, but Meiko kicks her in the head- but she grabs a wooden mallet from Ozaki and nails Meiko with it! And a shitty one, because it hits weird and the fans don’t react. Excalibur pins at (11:40). Oh I thought Meiko was gonna come from behind, lol.

Okay, so the “Police Constantly Cheats” story was a little fun. Both were beaten down and tired by this point so a match built out of fuckery is fine, especially as it’s so unfairly stacked against Meiko to the point where Police is doing slow-counts, letting KAORU escape holds, and sometimes holding Meiko for shots. But then of course KAORU wins anyways. D-FIX cheating proves to carry the day for the entire tournament, which is kinda the point of the booking I guess, but it makes for a dreary show when it’s lame-ass KAORU winning everything unfairly.

Rating: ** (seemed to be going swimmingly until the final couple minutes just sucked)

So that’s another month of GAEA down! Lots of “Heels Win Everything” dominating the summer, setting up D-FIX as unconquerable enemies for the promotion, as Ozaki commands a tournament won by her partner. The in-ring was good in July but sucked in August, with a lot of matches just descending into sloppy-shop as everyone gets tired and probably injuries pile up again.