Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in 07.14.2002 (Manami Toyota’s GAEA Debut)

GAEA JAPAN (JULY 14th):
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! Last show delivered the big news- MANAMI TOYOTA has left AJW and has joined GAEA! And is teaming up with Aja Kong! Chikayo Nagashima beat Meiko Satomura for the AAAW Title while Sugar Sato is getting a “powerhouse” push, while Aja is dissing her and others as being beneath her and needing to step up. And now it’s time for Manami’s first GAEA match, teaming up with Aja Kong against her ex-partner Toshiyo Yamada & Dynamite Kansai.  And a pair of matches feature Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota splitting up to fight D-FIX in individual matches!

Man, GAEA’s ring is now FILTHY. We’re getting into “Zenjo’s AIDS Ring before they finally got a new mat” territory, here.

DEVIL MASAMI & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA & SUGAR SATO:
* Devil’s heel team takes on the former Tag Champions in a match that will prove interesting to determine “levels”. Chikayo’s team has never been particularly “dominant”, but Chikayo is now GAEA’s Champion. Devil’s team, meanwhile, has been decidedly “midcard” and might need a push. So far it’s just been “put Devil on the card but keep her from having to do too much”.

Sugar impressively belly-bashes DEVIL down to start the match, but they get dumped to the floor. Devil claps to build the fans to a high spot that never comes- they probably thought she was gonna do a dive, lol. Instead she just claps while Toshie throws them around on the floor. Everyone fights in the stands (funny bit as Chikayo & Toshie toss a fan’s backpack back and forth until Chikayo smashes her with it). Sugar gets wrapped in pre-match tassels by Devil, who then holds the team for Toshie’s baseball slides. Then she tree-of-woes Chikayo for another, then powerbombs her to set up a flying splash, but Chikayo rolls out of the way and bursts up like nothing happened so she can hit the world’s worst Tarantula on Devil. Chikayo controlls Devil with some throws but they bite and claw each other on the mat. Devil no-sells Sugar’s missile kick, but misses a lariat so Toshie can missile kick SUGAR, who Devil powerbombs. Sugar still manages to double-choke Toshie into D’Lo Brown’s Lo-Down for two & Toshie’s hauled into the LCO pose.

Chikayo sits up out of another woe-dropkick and flying stomps Toshie, but Devil houses her with a lariat & headbutt, then ignores her defiance with a sleeperhold. Then shoves her in the way of Sugar’s missile kick. Chikayo ranas out and armbars Devil for a while, then Sugar vaults her into a Super Frankensteiner for two. Sugar smashes Devil down with another belly-bash and celebrates, and a bad swinging neckbreaker gets two. Sugar kicks out of a lariat at 1 and dragon screws Devil to set up a Rocket Launcher for two (Sugar SPLATS on Devil)- Toshie saves. Devil ligerbombs Sugar for two, but Toshie flies onto knees and charges right into a Running Ligerbomb for two. Sugar goes for the spinning version but is X-Factor’d, punched & Northern Lights Suplexed for two. Devil overthrow powerbombs Chikayo onto Sugar, but Chikayo avoids a double-team and does her upside-down hold on Devil while Sugar chokeslams Toshie for two. Toshie & Sugar do a dramatic series of rollups that the fans bite on, then Sugar misses Toshie and SLAMS into Devil, stunning both and allowing Toshie to sneak in with a Dragon Suplex for three at (14:19). Toshie finally wins one!

Not bad, but not great- typical for a Devil/Toshie match. The end bit with the rollups was good, and it’s nice to see them shaking things up with new offense (Sugar now using WWF-style “lifting up the ass” chokeslams; Toshie adding an X-Factor), but Devil’s soooooo painfully slow and broken down, largely an immobile body people have to wrestle around, and Toshie’s never been that spectacular either so it always feels like smoke & mirrors when they’re against anyone in a serious match.

Rating: **1/2 (decent to good but kinda drags at points)

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police):
* !!!!! A rare Chigusa/Ozaki solo match! Sadly, it’s “Eccentric” Chigusa. Sakura Hirota comes out with her, but amuses the fans by just going “I’ll leave you to it!” and disappearing on her.

Chigusa is hauled down by a chain before the match can begin, but swiftly kicks Ozaki’s ass and drags her into the stands, but a waiting KAORU sneaks up behind her with that board and smashes her with it. Police adds a chairshot as they do the “grab hair & walk” thing repeatedly, and Chigusa ends up posted a bunch, then Oz wraps the chain around her fist to use for a bunch of running punches. Chigusa tries to catch her up top but gets dragged down by her neck- Oz hits a running Manami Roll-type armdrag but ends up in a version of That Spinning 2000s Uranage all the indie wrestlers were doing, faceplanting instead. Chigusa hits a fireman’s gutbuster, some chops, and ducks an Uraken to hit a backbreaker, then torture racks Oz until Police throws her a chain with which to choke her way free and the Flying Cannonball gets two. Ligerbomb gets two. Ozaki spams urakens but Chigusa won’t go for a count, kicks Oz’s head off but Ozaki does the same and 3 more urakens drop Chigusa, but the Tequila Sunrise is turned to a Ligerbomb for two. Ozaki counters the finish into a stunner & a terrible Shining Wizard for two. Chigusa counters Witchcraft to the Running Three (razor’s edge), but Police pulls the ref out! Another Wizard gets two after the kids kick Police’s ass. Big pop for Chigusa just kicking Oz in the head, then her own Wizard (sigh…) gets two. Chigusa does two more of that kick (kind of a mini-pump kick with a step up) and gets three (9:35), apparently inventing a new finisher!

This was WEIRD. Just a quiet “random fans yelling” match as they aimlessly meander to start, Ozaki’s team interferes but only once apiece, and nobody bleeds so it’s mostly just some stuff. Like 5-6 minutes was smoke & mirrors and nothing of substance, then they slowly counter-wrestle one another so Chigusa can hit a string of offense between Ozaki using the chain, then they no-sell strikes until Chigusa sells but then hits a big thing, and it just kinda shows WHY D-FIX is so cheating reliant, cuz their “actual wrestling” isn’t over. Then Oz walks into a big noisy kick and the fans pop, but that’s not the finish… so Chigusa just hits some more strikes and eventually wins. Anticlimactic and weird. Shelling out the $$$ for a rare Ozaki job is unusual for GAEA, especially in a quick match like this with minimal shenanigans (by D-FIX standards), but it seems they want a big, easy finisher for Chigusa and this seems like a quick way. Unless she never uses that kick again and I’m wrong.

Rating: ** (didn’t do it for me at all- too sluggish and sloppy to really be fun, with few good nearfalls)

SAKURA HIROTA vs. KAORU (w/ Police):
* The other half of Eccentric & D-FIX go! Sakura’s pre-match promos are LONG- both a backstage one and a live one that gets a good reaction.

KAORU finally attacks Sakura during her rant and tees off on her, but Sakura actually catches her during her flip-dodge and works her over, then in the “LCO pose” just pecks her with kisses, then Police gets one and sells it like an effective punch. They have a comical fight over the KAORU’s board, Sakura getting it kicked into her face. KAORU keeps cracking up at Sakura’s “defensive tactics” like accidentally bumping into the board during what look like botches- Sakura teases a KO but spams urakens and a bronco buster, but KAORU bites (!!!) free to the fans’ amusement, Sakura selling her crotch as KAORU smiles and points to all the fans… but instead of a bronco buster of her own just facewashes Sakura and starts hitting her with the long turnbuckle pad. Sakura goes into the turnbuckle bolts a bunch and is suplexed on the board, but takes some HUGE slaps and has to call in Ozaki. But KAORU just fliiiiiiiiiiies in and launches herself straight into the post on a spear attempt… and instead of selling that as a game-changer, just comes back once Ozaki interferes, going for a walk in the stands. Sakura actually takes the ballsy “rolls all the way down the stairs” bump, but Chigusa saves her from a table and Sakura launches KAORU through it off the top! Sheeh-Suplex on the floor!

KAORU no-sells a flying thing but Sakura surpises her with a Sheeh-Suplex for a VERY close two, and this is sold as a near-KO until KAORU grabs the board- Chigusa runs in to stop it, but accidentally nails Sakura with it and KAORU sprays red mist at her and Brainbusters Sakura… for two! D-FIX hit an assisted powerbomb, pulling her up before Chigusa can interfere, but she stops a Moonsault so Sakura can pull her up for a Sheeh SUPERPLEX, KAORU doing the rollover bump and Police BREAKS UP THE PIN at the last microsecond, sending the fans into a rage. And he sprays green mist into Sakura, but she rolls KAORU out a Brainbuster for another nearfall and the fans go NUTS with a long chant as Chigusa desperately holds Ozaki down. Sakura, face like the Hulk, spams backfists and roars to life, bouncing off the ropes for a huge Running Uraken, KAORU doing a great face-first bump on the sell, but she catches Sakura running in with a spinebuster. Sakura bridges out (sorta) but Oz uses KAORU for the vaulting knee, letting KAORU hit Excalibur (michinoku driver) for three at (11:12), breaking the fans’ hearts. Just too much cheating to match.

A very KAORU/Sakura kind of match. KAORU being unserious and sloppy, Sakura being comedic and also sloppy, weird bits where someone should sell but instead they meander around because it looks like they’re trying to LOWER excitement, and more. It says a lot about how much the fans like Sakura (the only GAEA trainee other than Meiko with much personality) that THIS ends up with way more dramatic nearfalls than GAEA’s founder & most over woman ever fighting Ozaki or any of the other matches. However, it got SHOCKINGLY good, with 4-5 minutes straight of huge, believable nearfalls and heartbreaking results abounding, as Sakura hits the perfect superplex on KAORU that SHOULD work, but Police breaks it up at the last second (sadly exposed by KAORU openly looking up at him to check). Then more and more “hey, maybe” Sakura nearfalls, her kicking out of KAORU stuff, but then one move too many putting her away.

Rating: ***1/4 (miraculous for a Sakura/KAORU match)

Note: This is three straight matches with extended “fighting in the stands” bits to kill time. Wonder if they’ll stop that now– *checks next match* maybe after the fourth one.

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. AYAKO HAMADA & MEIKO SATOMURA:
* LCO are yet again in GAEA. Have I seen the last good LCO match? I hope not! Meiko usually brings it. She’s in the red top/gold trunks look again, which I guess is sticking around, unfortunately (it looks weird). Ayako’s in more silver & blue this time. LCO are in matching gear, Shimoda’s pink & Mita’s yellow.

Shimoda & Hamada make a thing of a test of strength & headlocks spot- Shimoda uses a chair but has it dropkicked back into her, but dodges a missile kick from Meiko. Mita piledrivers Ayako and they do their pose, but Ayako lionsaults onto LCO and they hit the floor for stereo dives! Ayako impresses by SAILING on a Quebrada, flying over Shimoda and the guardrail at once. But LCO run them into each other and fling chairs & guardrails at them, then Shimoda runs Meiko the full length of Korakuen’s upper deck and through a door. Shimoda spams shots from a shirt/towel to amuse the fans, then Mita wraps a chair around Meiko’s head and the kids are shoved over while seated in chairs and LCO bring back the old Guardrail Drop spot, now given a pop. Ayako escapes the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) on the chairs & missile kicks Shimoda into them, but they double-team up with shots. She & Shimoda backdrop suplex each other, but she octopus stretches Mita to escape the DVD, rolls her into a lucha submission, then Germans out to escape the electric chair and counters a charge with a superkick- Mita counters a ligerbomb with a stunner (they mess it up and she drops to her ass first), but Ayako BLASTS her with an enzuigiri and escapes. LOUD thigh-slap that time! Mita is so stunned that Meiko crushes her with a European uppercut & cartwheel kneedrop, then counters cheating and kicks Mita’s blazing chop away & head kicks her, but Shimoda sets up the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop to turn the tide.

Hamada has to break up that pin, but Mita still gets a Stunner when Meiko dodges, but Meiko escapes the DVD and Northern Lights suplexes her for two. Mita avoids Meiko’s DVD and just bowls her over for two and Shimoda arrogantly kicks some ass until Meiko does the Irish jig knees into a Pele Kick (shimoda expertly leans way in to take it), then a Powerbomb/Frog Splash combination- Mita saves both times. Everyone scraps as Mita blazing chops Meiko’s back, but Meiko no-sells a German, but Shimoda blocks the Pele Kick & Ax Kicks her, Meiko flinging her off at 1 and Pele Kicking her again, but Ayako accidentally wheel kicks her, setting up Shimoda’s Flying Somersault Ax Kick for two- Ayako saves. Mita DVDs her to end her interference, but Meiko Pele kicks Mita out of a DVD, then wins a fist vs. kick war with Shimoda, but dodges Scorpio Rising (shining ax kick) and… TIGER SUPLEXES HER FOR THE WIN at (14:20)! Shimoda WON?! With THAT? I haven’t seen that move score a pin in eons! Never mind the sudden LCO win. The crowd even pops for LCO as if they were underdogs and beloved veterans.

Another “solidly good” LCO match, which is on the high end of their 2002 stuff- Meiko & Ayako are strong opponents for them- Mita easily bases for Ayako’s best offense, and Meiko’s one of the best in the world and her sudden counters work well with the big brutes of LCO flinging her around while being vulnerable to strike-reversals. Shimoda scoring the pin was a big surprise, as typically LCO would win after lots of cheating and spammed DVDs, not a random Tiger Suplex.

Rating: ***1/4 (another good GAEA match- took a bit to get there, but it was fun enough, if not outstanding)

AJA KONG & MANAMI TOYOTA vs. POWER HEAD (Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada):
* Toyota’s debut in GAEA! Commentary puts her over big-time, showing pics of her time in Zenjo and a list of the belts she’s won. Manami gets the big reaction from the fans, especially when raising her arms. I feel like Power Head are just the unfortunate sacrifices to establish her right away as a “first feud”. Weird bit as Manami & Aja get hero’s welcomes from the excited fans, and the announcer goes “… POWER HEAD!” and the fans are like “… bwuh?”. They don’t announce them individually and I think the fans were expecting that, so the announcement just withers and dies like nobody cares, haha.

Manami, excited as ever, hits a big dropkick to Yamada and is like “YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH YOU FUCKING LIKE THAT, RIGHT?!” reveling in her newfound overness in a new promotion, but she & her ex-partner slap each other around and she’s knocked to the floor to stifle that back to square one. They sell the hatred, just staring each other down and refusing a knucklelock (Yamada lifts up the hand opposte to Toyota), then Yamada hits the Kick of Fear and literally kicks Manami’s ass. Kansai adds a dropkick but Manami fires back on Yamada with a JB Angels armdrag and her spinal dropkick, then Aja hangs her in the corner and they team up to crush her back. Aja works Yamada over with more back stuff, pulling hair, and Toyota Muta Locks her until Kansai comes by to kick at her. Kansai’s finally in, beating on Toyota & adding a sharpshooter (Toyota debuts her “No give up, BAKAYERO!” to the ref in GAEA), but takes the Manami Roll and Aja’s in for a double-dropkick. They slug it out, Kansai winning, then Power Head halting Aja’s comeback until they do the “missed move but the partner flies in” trick and Manami dropkicks them over. Yamada rolls away checking her teeth and Aja brainbusters Kansai for two, but Manami does the Mulkey Bump trying to kick Yamada and Aja’s caught up top with Splash Mountain (sit-out razor’s edge) & Manami has to take the ref and theatrically ass-slam Kansai.

Kansai pulls Aja up but gets caught with a big Uraken, Yamada saving, and Toyota flies in with missile kicks & a Moonsault for two. Power Head pummels her with kicks so she can’t follow up and even Aja gets hit with her own oil can, but Aja pulls them to the floor so Manami can do her big crowd-pleaser- the Missile Dropkick Suicida to both! Toyota & Yamada fight up top, Toyota sliding out to try her Japanese Ocean Cyclone, but Yamada escapes and spinkicks her in the head, then escapes another Cyclone with an elbow for two. But Manami boots her out of the Diving Brain Kick, then stops a comeback with a straightjacket German for two. Power Head run in with kicks to stop her, though, and Kansai hits an Edge-tier shitty spear to set up a double-lifting slam on Toyota, tee off on her for more strikes for two, then Yamada goes for the Reverse Gory Bomb, getting victory rolled for two. But Yamada hits the Diving Brain Kick, Manami pops up for her theatrical no-sell (not yelling this time)… and is immediately lariated by Kansai. But Aja Urakens both P.H. members and Toyota uses that to kill Yamada with the Queen Bee Bomb (cutthroat northern lights bomb) for three at (15:23).

Funny how Toyota shows up in a different company and suddenly all her moves are over again, haha. Like it’s a NOVELTY seeing her do dropkicks to the chest and a moonsault now! You know she had to be loving it suddenly being over again (not that she was getting BAD reactions in AJW, but they were kinda “seen it all” with her by this point). And they wisely pulled out a lot of the usual spots and big moves (clapping to set up running dropkicks, the muta lock, moonsault, missile suicida, etc.), but made the fans wait for her finishers. Poor Yamada of course ends up in Jobbing Zone again, being the first one to line up to do the job to incoming bigger stars. This was… fine… but kind of clunky and clumsy as both Power Headers are very slow and clunky at this point, even if both have wrestled Toyota a million times and they can do these spots in their sleep. Lots of random “they run in and spam kicks on her” incidents that look fairly uncoordinated and odd. Manami pinning Yamada was the natural result, but she needed Aja to do it so this wasn’t a burial (even though she never once looked in major trouble), so This Feud Must Continue.

Rating: **1/4 (kind of clunky and mostly a showcase for Manami’s offense)

Afterwards, everyone gets on the mic and talks shit, drawing great reactions with stuff that the YouTube translator can’t handle (I think they’re talking about who shows “Zenjo-ism” (ie. training/style inspired by AJW). Manami & Aja are boisterous, then LCO comes out to yell stuff, seeming more amused, then Power Head counters with yelling. Chikayo comes out and talks shit to Toyota, also delighting the fans, and oh man she looks PUNY in here next to all these giants. But she says “I sent my resume to Zenjo, but they said I was too skinny, so that’s the thing about the heyday- Zenjo-ism can go to hell!”. Aja’s like “You’re so small I can barely see you- that’s the only thing you inherited from Ozaki” (her old senpai), then says “You don’t know all rhythms (moves/techniques), so we’ll be sure to teach you slowly and thoroughly from now on, so let’s look forward to it”. In the back, Aja & Manami seem to talk about how Zenjo-ism was the best way, but that when the company went bankrupt 5 years before (1997), it hasn’t been fun for Toyota since, and so she thought it might never get better, so she came to GAEA. But she doesn’t HATE Zenjo (“I was there for 15 years, so I’m very proud of it”), but wanted to come to GAEA to see if she could have the old kind of fun there, and that there are lots of GAEA wrestlers she wants to work with. But she’s the best (“I’m not being selfish; just myself”). Aja seems to talk about how Zenjo is in her DNA, and she’s spent the past 5 years trying to recapture her feelings of wrestling and that maybe she’s just nostalgic.

So overall it feels like the ex-AJW wrestlers are coming to GAEA’s and acting like they’re using the superior style. But not like “lol GAEA sucks!” but more “GAEA seems fun and the best way to recapture wrestling when it was good” (ie. Zenjo before bankruptcy).

This show overall was pretty okay, with two ***-ish matches and the rest being kind of forgettable or clunky. Sakura/KAORU was a real surprise, and 4/5 matches had brawls into the stands that went on too long. The new “thing” seems to be LOUD strikes, with people either slapping their thighs or wearing noise-makers in their boots for stuff- multiple boots, enzuigiris and slaps were extremely noisy. The angles themselves seem to set up future stuff- Aja/Manami acting as “elitist veterans” trying to recapture their glory days, a Yamada/Toyota issue beginning, Chikayo/Toyota being a thing, LCO defeating Ayako/Meiko (probably to set up a rematch?), and Devil/Toshie winning their match against the former champs. Also the Eccentric/D-FIX issue continues.