Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in 04.14.2002 & 05.06.2002

GAEA JAPAN IN APRIL & MAY 2002:
* So GAEA just had a big show on April 7th that saw Akira Hokuto retire at last! But they have only four matches in the remainder of the month and A LOT in May so I’ll split May’s up and add them to this one. This one features the rise of Eccentric (the Chigusa/Sakura team), Ayako Hamada & Sugar Sato slotting into the promotion’s regular big spots, and more.

APRIL 14th:

“POWER HEAD” DYNAMITE KANSAI & TOSHIYO YAMADA vs. SUGAR SATO & CARLOS AMANO:
* A weird “Pair the Spares” sees Amano in GAEA yet again, and her partner is Sugar. They were in OZ Academy years back so are at least familiar. The Kick Demons are dressed in American football uniforms and throwing foam footballs into the crowd for some reason

Immediately Power Head proves the gimmick by stunning Sugar and hitting her with DOUBLE tackles. Sugar quickly pushes them over when they catch Amano, and we’re clipped to her hitting hte Kick of Fear and a double-spin neckbreaker. They humorously play up that Sugar’s body attack can counter the much larger Kansai’s, and Sugar gets his dragon screw legwhip & belly bashes her down for two. Kansai spears Yamada by accident & Amano dives onto Power Head and she Germans Kansai for two, but Kansai comes back with a lariat & backdrop. Carlos impresses with a German to Yamada & Sugar adds her flying elbow, but eats as spear, only to fire back with body attacks everywhere & Ligerbombs Yamada. Amano keeps doing rolling armbars to Yamada, but she sits on her shoulders for one and Kansai tackles her from the second rope. Amano uses an inside cradle for a hot nearfall, but they miss a Doomsday Device Ligerbomb, Power Head tackles them down, and a Double Razor’s Edge of sorts finishes Amano at (9:06 shown).

A fairly inoccuous, kinda gimmick match where the football tackles weren’t over, but Sugar got some oddly good reactions for belly-bashing people. Which is funny because they’re acting like she’s FAT only she’s just sorta undersized. The whole “Yamada does the whole match; Kansai comes in for the end” thing is more than a little obvious, as is Amano as the new “resident jobber” who doesn’t work there all the time.

Rating: ** (fine but pretty basic-ass match)

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. DEVIL MASAMI & TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* The Devil/Toshie duo finally forms here, and it’s against the recurring heels in the game.

I include this screencap for… no reason.

Toshie disses Shimoda’s handshake but Devil suckers in Mita with one and tosses her, but LCO get the better of them outside the ring. They REALLY baby some of these bumps, too (LCO can’t be arsed to run into one another so Shimoda taps Mita on the tummy on the drive-by). Devil lariats Mita in-ring but Mita “chops” her with a whiffed shot, but Devil snags Shimoda’s chair and wallops Mita with it, but Shimoda comes in to missile kick it into her face! Then sits Devil in the chair for another missile and the Bitch Pose! But Devil finally no-sells Shimoda and nails her, hitting the overthrow powerbomb and now Shimoda gets posed on. Toshie uses biting & a German- LCO cheat to come back, but Devil uses the butt end of a sword to turn the tide. Toshie hits the double-wrist armsault, but gets dropped into the turnbuckle (lol Devil finds that amusing), but facewashes Shimoda, only to run into a Tiger Suplex. Mita adds a LOUD Blazing Chop (Toshie: “AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”), but Devil counters the DVD by swinging Toshie’s leg so she DDTs Mita, haha. Some awkward reversals see Toshie leap onto Devil’s shoulders for a big dive, and a powerbomb/splash to Mita gets two. Mita gets a stunner on Toshie, but Devil “ax kicks” her to set up a Dragon Suplex for two. Shimoda lazily swings into a German, too, but uses a chair to stop the Devil/Toshie double-team legdrop thing. Toshie missile kicks Devil by accident and gets Death Valley Drivered, but Devil amusingly picks up SHIMODA for the legdrop move to break, slamming her onto Mita’s head for two. But Devil gets stunned by the DVD/Flying Ax Kick move, leaving Toshie to take the regular DVD/Ax for three (9:55).

Another “filler”, semi-amusing match, this one with a LOT of wimpy shots as LCO appear to be shrinking back from every blow so nearly everything barely grazes them. They must be hurting or something cuz they’re like “nope fuck it lol” over almost everything. There were also a few awkward moments like sudden pauses so no one would mess up the next move, and LCO just lazily doing the “swing a wild punch” to overthrow and end up getting suplexed by Toshie. Just the sort of things wrestlers do when they’re not feeling it or being lazy. There were some pretty fun spots, though, like Devil trying her new double-team move with Toshie, failing it, then using SHIMODA to do it, ending a pin attempt withi that. The finish of stunning Devil long enough to dust off Toshie was solid, too. It’s a bit weird to see Toshie do job after job for five right after getting her “new look”, but Japan/GAEA always moves slowly and you don’t just get a new gimmick and immediately win all of a sudden there.

Rating: ** (one of those “well this is crap today” mixed with “hey that was fun!” sorta deals where it’s Just Okay)

AJA KONG vs. AYAKO HAMADA:
* WHAT TH–~?! Already? So these two are old buds (Aja was at Ayako’s high school graduation and introduced her into ARSION), then Ayako beat Aja for the Queen of ARSION belt, but now both have abandoned the flailing company and are mostly in GAEA as freelancers, and are immediately set off as singles opponents. That’s interesting booking, given how Ayako was used in Hokuto’s retirement (largely as a pin-eater).

Aja pounces immediately and piledrives Hamada through a table just as quickly. Well okay then. Hamada immediately blades and takes a chairshot, then Aja waits her out in the ring for the old “methodical, merciless beatdown”. Ah, I see- try to put over Hamada as a strong fighter and wash the ARSION stink off of her. Aja works over the cut, piledrives her, avoids a submission and no-sells Ayako’s headbutt, but alas that bladejob was pretty wussy. Hamada gets a good rana, then a superkick and a windmill lucha submission, roaring to life periodically and getting better reactions than in ARSION (well… two cheers would be better than her ARSION run), then lands her Super Quebrada. Swinging DDT off the second rope & missile dropkick hit, but Aja gets her feet up on a moonsault and hits her with the oil can. Hamada takes it away and smashes Aja repeatedly, but it’s no-sold and she’s backdropped. Hamada gets another submission that Aja sells, then a Ligerbomb (!) gets two. Aja still averts the Super Hama-Chan Cutter and smashes the oil can using Hamada’s head via a brainbuster, hits her flying back elbow to the back, but Hamada scores SHOTEIMANIA and spinkicks her for two. Hamada ducks the uraken but gets whacked by another, buying Aja some time. Aja tries the Avalanche Waterwheel Drop but Hamada flips out and uses a LIGERBOMB out of the corner, but a second shotei/spinkick combo is blocked and Aja hits a sudden Uraken for the pin at (12:41).

WELL THEN. GAEA wanted Ayako to be treated like a threat/star and Aja went out and did her job with aplomb. Not only did Hamada bleed and get worked over, but she rapidly fired back and even DOMINATED the match after that, with Aja bumping around and acting like she has a hard time keeping Hamada down. You knwo when Aja does the “Score an Uraken but then sell to buy some time” that she’s trying to establish her opponent as something special. It’s wild seeing the crowd go from the “occasional yell from a man cuz Ayako is hot” to “hey, wow this is something!” as Hamada fires off tons of moves that Aja sells very well. As Hamada had little character but decent offense in ARSION, emphasizing her variety of big moves and selling them as impactful is a great “first step” in fixing ARSION’s mistakes. Ayako figuring out little things like “call out that you’re about to do something cool” or “roar defiantly when selling to power up” is another good sign. But if I’d watched this with zero familiarity I’d think that Hamada was cool and an above-average wrestler- only because I know how good Aja is and what her specialty is am I like “Wait… Hamada isn’t usually THIS good! Aja, you hoodwinked me!”.

Rating: *** (a simple little match but effective in what it sets out to do- Aja still wins fairly emphatically but it’s NOT easy and involves taking advantage of mistakes and slowly wearing Hamada down)

HAND MADE TAG TITLES:
D-FIX (Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, w/ Police) vs. ECCENTRIC (Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota):
* D-FIX have their first match, but it’s against pretend Tag Titles, wielded by ECCENTRIC- Chigusa & Sakura’s comedy tag team. Now with a modification of the Too Cool/Scott 2 Hotty theme and Chigusa has girly pigtails to go with Sakura’s new pink hair and pigtails look. Sugar & Carlos are with them too, and it’s a QUADRUPLE WORM! And indeed, none are even close to as good as Scotty at that. Sakura then does a SPINAROONIE. And engages the crowd going “FAT?” (instead of “WHAT?”) and then pops KAORU by bringing up her old tag team, Honey Wings (complete with a superimposed image of them).

Comedy abounds as Sakura has brought out a bag of gimmicks to use to counter KAORU’s board, but Chigusa keeps giving her stuff like a bottle of water or glasses. She hurts her hands swinging a board at KAORU’s and kicks Chigusa for it, but Chigusa sets up Sakura’s Eccentric (bronco buster), KAORU clearly laughing during the move. KAYFABE! A Whisper in the Wind fails because Chigusa’s weight squashes Sakura when she vaults off her, and Chigusa gets Van Daminator’d twice because everyone throws the board around the second time. They work her over with double-teams and second-rope moves, and Sakura chickens out of a tag so Ozaki shames her by copying her double-arm submission on Chigusa. They clothesline her with Ozaki’s giant red stick, Oz getting hit in the mouth cuz she’s short and sells it to amuse the fans and Sakura’s FINALLY in, but takes so long doing a Spinaroonie that Chigusa just lets Ozaki go so she can get kicked. Oz slaps her a bunch and hits Eccentric herself. KAORU beats on Sakura but Chigusa boots the board into her head so the Shiih Suplex can hit. Sakura misses the 2nd-rope uraken and KAORU brainbusters Chigusa, then Oz cannonballs in for two. Uraken gets two. KAORU gets Excalibur (michinoku driver) for two. But KAORU then leaps right into a Ligerbomb, but repositions for two. Chigusa uses a backbreaker, then a Fameasser & kneeling falcon arrow, but every time Sakura’s booted back into her to break the pin. Chigusa can’t get the Running Three, but catches KAORU’s rana counter and leverages her, Sakura flipping in… and pinning BOTH for the belts at (12:39). Chigusa & KAORU are floored, and have to have it demonstrated just how they got pinned.

Rating: *1/2 (Well it amused the fans. This is one of those Sakura matches that just kind of goes ON, and it lead to several dead points because they’d be hitting regular moves on Chigusa but the fans are waiting for the next “funny thing”, or they’d have one person standing around waiting for the next thing to happen)

MAY 6th:
* Also from Korakuen!

This is some digests of linked matches.

KAORU (w/ Police) vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU: KAORU & Toshie brawl a bit, then Police helps out while commentary amazingly compares Toshie’s new spikey hairdo to ANGUIRUS from the Godzilla pictures. Ozaki even comes in to help while Devil does nothing, but D-FIX randomly decides to baseball slide her and attack. Toshie bleeds, and Ozaki breaks up her pin, but Devil assists with a big punch and chairshot that gets two. And Toshie gets a quick flash pin at (2:45 of 12:19 shown), surprising people. Not bad considering it was basically 3-on-1 until Devil helped.

DEVIL MASAMI vs. MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police): D-FIX attacks all at once immediately after the last one, but makes the mistake of putting a dog collar around Devil’s neck- she first whips Ozaki into the guardrail using just her neck, then her and KAORU at once. Devil does an impressively gross bladejob (right into the teeth!), but we’re clipped to Ozaki hitting a Shining Wizard with a chain wrapped around her knee. Toshie accidentally missile kicks the ref, but Devil no-sells KAORU’s board and kicks ALL THE ASS, beats down Police too, then hits her old Double Powerbomb on Ozaki! Finally someone small enough! Ozaki keeps using counters and nearly gets her, but she Manami Rolls up into a rollup or armbar, and Devil repositions and hits her with a RIKISHI DRIVER (that over the shoulder sit-out tombstone), leveraging her for the pin at (2:58 of 11:27 shown)! Woah- wasn’t expecting a clean pin! Looked kinda fun for a D-Fix cheatfest- a bit surprising they’d pull out some of the moves they did here and still only leave up 1/4 of the match (… though the rest could have been really bad).

ECCENTRIC (Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota) vs. AJA KONG & MIMA SHIMODA:
* Now this is a weird one- Eccentric vs. a thrown together squad of freelancers, who squabble before the match. Sakura’s pre-match promo mentions Jungle Jack (Aja/Bison Kimura) and the Tokyo Sweethearts (Shimoda/Manami Toyota). Aja’s in a Stone Cold t-shirt today. Sakura mentions Chigusa shaving the sides of her head for today’s match, then namedrops a bunch of bald wrestlers to prevent shaming, including “Stone Cold”, then “Aja Kong”- Aja’s in disbelief but then Sakura plops down in a chair to RECREATE WHEN AJA LOST A HAIR MATCH, popping Aja and making Shimoda & Mita (on the floor) both crumple with laughter. Aja fittingly reveals her old camo gear for this one.

Aja & Chigusa are even to start, but Shimoda’s dirty fighting turns the tide. Aja slingshots her into Shimoda’s kick, but takes a wheel kick, only for Sakura to do a comedy spot repeatedly choosing a lower point to fly off the ropes, missing a headbutt off the bottom rope. Sakura tries her double-arm submission but Aja squashes Chigusa in the corner, only for Sakura to land an Eccentric to both of them. Chigusa assists the Shiih Suplex but Aja just falls back on Sakura instead. Shimoda tries but Sakura’s comedy bits end up working on her (one of the few times I’ve seen a Japanese woman sell a crotch shot, in fact). Chigusa slingshots Sakura into her goofy headbutt and it works! The Spinaroonie takes too long and Shimoda recovers with a German, but Sakura manages the 2nd-rope uraken for two. Chigusa’s Fameasser & backbreaker get two, but Sakura’s dumped onto them again. Chigusa Ligerbombs Shimoda and Sakura does a proper “roll over her for the jacknife” but Aja casually sweeps out a bridging leg at “2”. Sakura does her rollup but Chigusa’s thrown off the 2nd rope and ax kicked for two & Aja adds her splash, but Chigusa dodges three Urakens only to get backdropped for two. Sakura runs in and gets killed- a pink chair/backdrop combo gets two, but Aja’s tripped over her and that gets a really close two. Sakura literally shoves Chigusa in the way of the oil can shot, but ducks an Uraken so Shimoda takes it, and puts the can on Aja’s head and rolls her up- Aja has to check to make sure she wasn’t pinned, but when she tries to do LCO’s tandem finisher, Shimoda REFUSES and sprays red mist into her face! And Aja kicks out, but Chigusa rolls them back over and that’s three at (11:07)! Eccentric wins again! Aja taking a pin from Sakura, even with mist shenanigans, is pretty eye-opening. And instead of revenge, she’s lying there and gets curbstomped by EVERYONE- even Mita runs in to join the fun!

Rating: **1/4 (better than the prior one because it had more direct comedy and better opposition)

MEIKO SATOMURA & AYAKO HAMADA vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA & SUGAR SATO:
* And the main event is another Meiko/Ayako teaming, as they pair them up to take on the former Tag Champs only a week after the belts were lost. Well this does get more use out of Sugar immediately, and keeps fans aware that Ayako will be a deal going forward, in all the big matches. Logic dictates Ayako finally wins one to show fans she isn’t just here to do jobs, but also that Chikayo wins to set up her vs. Meiko at some point. This is doubly important because this is a very “this is the future main event of the promotion” as a concept.

Chikayo attacks from behind to start, but Ayako handles that and they do a lucha routine and Pause For Applause. Chikayo Germans her out of a handshake and they pose over the other team, then Sugar adds a neckbreaker but gets dropkicked. The crowd goes dead silent for an odd pause by Meiko, then they test of strength, won by Sugar’s mass (lol it’s so weird seeing her kinda not that big size being used like she’s Aja-tier). Meiko does kicks but gets Oklahoma Stampeded, then lands her windmill elbow so Ayako can impress by flying around and doing her headbutt. But she & Sugar both play Samoan, defying selling and Sugar belly-bashes her into Chikayo’s flying stomp. Chikayo tries armbars repeatedly, but gets whipped into a charging Sugar and is Ligerbombed for two. Rough landing as she tries a Springboard Moonsault but has the ropes kicked out from under her, and a double-windmill headscissors gets two. Ayako “shoteis” her over the top (looked like it whiffed and Chikayo flipped for no reason). Meiko lands a plancha then Ayako does her Super Quebrada to both. Chikayo sells the headbutt but flips out of the Spinning Ligerbomb and they counter pins until Chikayo runs into a BIG enzuigiri for two. Meiko/Ayako do drop-toeholds into a complex lucha submission that more… confuses the crowd that pops them as this is getting more “stop and start” by the minute.

Chikayo & Meiko both get ranas for two to amuse the fans, but Meiko European uppercuts Chikayo to death and does a wicked cartwheel kneedrop. Meiko cheers for herself and climbs, but gets whipped off the ropes and Chikayo & Sugar try an in-ring version of her upside-down neckscissors, as Sugar holds them up for the start and Chikayo ends up belly-first on the mat. Kinda doesn’t really work. Sugar comes in and there’s an awkward pause before they do something (those feel even worse than actual move botches because it “reveals the work” even more strongly- like in real life moves would be fucked up a LOT, right?), then Ayako hits Meiko by accident and Sugar belly-bashes them both down. Sugar makes like King Kong Bundy with an avalanche, then a solo bash to Meiko and roars to life, getting two, then hitting a running Ligerbomb. Meiko barely avoids some stuff but limbos under a lariat and hits a Pele Kick as a great counter, but gets dragon screwed and nearly takes the Rocket Launcher, but Ayako saves with a Super Frankensteiner to Sugar, letting Meiko hit a Running DVD- Chikayo saves. Sugar gets a release powerbomb but Ayako spinkicks her, then they do an awkward spin-around as Chikayo holds Ayako in an abdominal stretch, but Meiko uses that to vault off for her Scorpio Rising- the shining ax kick! And that’s the pin at (16:07).

This was interesting but also kinda messy, not from botches but from a lot of stallouts and odd bits here and there, like someone comes into the ring for FIGHTIN’ but then just kinda stands there in an awkward pause. Another issue is Meiko, who is the WORLD CHAMPION but is kinda acting like some midcarder doing regular stuff and showing none of her old energy and defiance. I’m trying not to read too much into it because I heard rumors ahead of time that she was having issues believing her own hype as Champion, but it’s weird seeing her just kinda… “there”. And the fans were popping only for the sudden moves and Sugar offense more than anything the others were doing, as Sugar was into her character and acting out. Ayako mostly disappeared for the back 1/3, probably because they didn’t clue her in on the whole plan, leaving Meiko to do some awkward bits with Sugar, who was doing job duties as the safest bet at this point. Which is unfortunate as she was the one throwing all the impressive bombs (ie. Meiko was bumping well for her), and the fans didn’t even really respond to Scorpio Rising. It probably would have been smarter to tease her trying it before that point so fans would be trained to expect it (but maybe not from THAT position), but it was so outta nowhere they were almost caught unprepared for it. That this match is featuring the intended future top stars of the promotion is NOT a good sign.

Rating: **1/2 (kinda good in bits but very awkward throughout)

Well looks like we’ve got more COMEDY THEATRICS with Chigusa put in with Sakura as a sort of involuntary “straight man/sometimes collaborator”, which is probably a boon to Chigusa’s health (it can’t be a mistake that she’s almost never in singles matches anymore). Also plenty of awkward stuff with the future stars.