Joshi Spotlight: GAEA Japan in 8.2002

GAEA JAPAN IN AUGUST 2002:
* There are 11 total videos for August on the GAEA YouTube channel, so let’s see what things look like! Looks like we have an “All Tag Team Matches” show from a small building in Saitama, plus some random stuff from a Nagoya show. This will further Manami Toyota’s run in GAEA and further Sugar Sato’s elevation. And the culmination is a show which features the Crush Gals getting into it with Las Cachorras Orientales, and a big Aja Kong/Manami Toyota vs. Meiko Satomura/Ayako Hamada main event!

AUG. 11th:
* We’re in Nagoya at their distinctive-looking yellow-ochre building with no bleachers!

ECCENTRIC (Sakura Hirota & Chigusa Nagayo) vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA & AYAKO HAMADA:
* Time for more comedy!

Sakura does comedy pratfalls against Ayako to start, then Eccentric hit double karate throws but mutually run into feet when trying Bronco Busters. Eccentric takes the lucha “Star” submission, except EVERYONE’s tendons hurt and the ref stands in the middle whirling around asking everyone if they give up. More comedy spots see Ayako temporarily sell a crotch-shot like “Oh wait, I don’t have balls!” and punt Sakura in the same area, but then Sakura grabs her boobs (“I’m a bit jealous…” commentary) as we really class up the joint. Ayako lies there and poses while Sakura tries a Spinaroonie, then sits for the People’s Elbow so long that commentary has to explain why she just allowed herself to be hit (“she didn’t know when it was coming…”). Chigusa comes in and misses a wheel kick, then Ayako lionsaults onto nothing (Chigusa wasn’t even there) and they trade quick counters into Ayako’s octopus hold while Sakura comically extends the tag rope until it’s close to the very opposite corner & Chikayo boots her in the head to put a stop to it.

Chikayo botches two things immediately but gets a rana & Chigusa wisely grabs a hold to slow it down. Chikayo chokes out Sakura for more comedy, then snags Chigusa in the upside-down hold. Chigusa pulls her into a backdrop driver for two but Chikayo turns a powerbomb into the Tarantula & immediately flying stomps her. Sakura stops a Fisherman’s Buster but Chikayo dodges the new Running Punt move for a German- two! Chigusa resists another Buster attempt and catches her charging in with a backbreaker- Sakura gets her screaming Uraken for two, but Chikayo escapes the Sheeh-Suplex only for Sakura to roll through the O’Connor Roll for 2. Chikayo actually falls for the “look over there!” and an uraken/Sheeh-Suplex gets two. Chigusa holds Chikayo for a flying ass attack but ends up taking it and the ref counts, to their annoyance, and Ayako sunset flips in, both partners reversing it again and again until poor Tommy (the ref) is selling exhaustion, annoying them. Chigusa slingshots Sakura onto Chikayo, but does the same backwards, but Ayako dodges and pins Sakura at (14:14).

Rating: ** (Okay that got pretty good- Eccentric matches are a mixed back, especially as they’re deep into the “fuck around” bit for the first half, but they eventually threw in some genuinely amusing gags even if they were in “Lazybones Provincial Tag Match” mode)

And now it’s some random digests of stuff, related to Aja & Toyota coming in and dissing the GAEA loyalists. LCO are I guess their buddies now!

AJA KONG & MIMA SHIMODA vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA & SUGAR SATO: The highlight is Aja doing another “sell the THIRD move” thing by absorbing two of Sugar’s belly-bashes and shaking them off like nothing but misses a clothesline and is thus unable to brace herself for the third and goes down. Shimoda hits a Flying Ax Kick to her, setting her up for Aja’s Uraken at (1:12 of 12:10 shown). Aja taunts her after the bell about “Zenjoism” will turn her into a real monster.
MANAMI TOYOTA & ETSUKO MITA vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI & MEIKO SATOMURA: Manami immediately steamrolls Meiko at the bell with the Kick of Fear into missile kick spam and her spine dropkick, but Meiko counters the JB Angels armdrag by kipping up and spamming kicks. Toyota counters a whip to a REALLY high-angle Straightjacket German, and we’re clipped to Kansai hitting Splash Mountain on Toyota for two. Mita chairs her and hits a DVD, letting Toyota hit the Queen Bee Bomb (cutthroat Northern lights bomb) for three (1:50 of 12:36 shown). Team Zenjoism picking up some handy wins to start. Meiko & Manami immediately get into a hairpulling squabble. We end up with a hype video for the August 24th and 30th shows!

This tiny-looking, dark building holds a very “lesser show”-feeling event.

AUG. 24th:
* This show is to be an “All Tag Match” show. This is at Saitama, which also looks like a minor hall. “Honkawagoe Pepe Hall Atlas”? It says they drew 1,050, which means it’s a pretty small building. I can’t imagine there’s actually that many people but every crowd shot shows a full building.

ECCENTRIC (Sakura Hirota & Chigusa Nagayo) vs. DEVIL MASAMI & TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* Comedy vs. “let Devil get on the card without having to do too much”! Everyone’s in black gear. Oh god why is this video 19 minutes?

We go about 4 minutes before there’s any meaningful contact (Devil lariats Chigusa, then knocks her to the floor for Toshie’s baseball slide into the guardrail). Devil loses a floor-fight by babying some bumps, but enzui-legdrops Chigusa. Chigusa belly-bashes her and slingshots Sakura into the same, hurting her own partner. Devil lands a big overthrow powerbomb after more Sakura comedy (weak attacks that Devil no-sells), and Toshie adds a lot of facewashes, and a goo punch vs. uraken battle has them all whiffing, then Sakura lands one after more comedy. Chigusa sets up stereo bronco busters, then Sakura does a People’s Headbutt to Toshie for two. Chigusa flings around Uematsu but takes a bunch of goo punches and finally a huge shoryuken-style shotei palm, but Chigusa head-drops her on a backdrop. Chigusa & Devil do stiff chops, but Chigusa spears her out of a charge. Devil again no-sells Sakura and ax kicks her out of a spinaroonie, then the MDK Powerbomb gets two. Powerbomb/splash- Chigusa saves. Chigusa Germans Toshie AND Sakura at once, impressing the fans. A botch (Toshie misses her dropkick badly) sees Sakura nearly pinned, Chigusa saving her repeatedly and then tripping Devil out of a run… and Sakura does the shittiest attempt at a pin EVER and PINS HER at (18:43), the crowd exploding with joy and surprise.

Rating: * (haha this match was pure ass- 4 minutes of stalling, boring comedy, Devil slacking until Toshie takes over and isn’t over, then a lot of pin attempts and Sakura barely surviving against Devil until a sloppy flash-pin wins and the fans still LOVE IT because Sakura’s actually over and popular. Wrestling is weird)

A testament to how much the fans like Sakura- long-ass bullshit comedy matches can still draw audience reactions like this when a sloppy flash-pin ends it.

D-FIX (Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, w/ Police) vs. POWER HEAD (Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada):
* Power Head keep jobbing and D-FIX are heavily protected, so let’s see….

D-FIX unwisely attack while Power Head are still in their football gear, so they easily no-sell weapon shots to the helmets, then use them to beat D-FIX down. Yamada’s shots to KAORU are among the softest offense I’ve ever seen in wrestling- barely grazing her at 0 mph. They put a helmet on Oz and make D-FIX headbutt each other & Kansai uses a spear for two. Ozaki’s top comes open at the back so KAORU eats some moves and chokes Kansai to cover for her returning in a t-shirt. Yamada works half-crabs and stuff until Oz is finally read to fight, hitting a falling clothesline, then KAORU necks Yamada on the top rope off of Ozaki’s shoulders. D-FIX spam weapon shots but Yamada springs to life and Ozaki goes down to a series of strikes for two, but Oz slides out of a Doomsday Splash Mountain/Brain Kick combo and escapes Yamada’s finisher to hit an uraken for two. Her “Shining Wizard off KAORU” fails and Kansai flying stomps her and Yamada hits a wind-up elbow for two- Police saves with a chain and gets thrown out, KAORU saves Oz from a finisher, and she rolls up Yamada twice, getting her on the second one at (7:38).

Rating: * (Just sloppy crap and a mess of random moves, then ending out of nowhere- like the “house show version” of D-FIX’s weapons/cheating matches and no real flow to it, no heat segment and mostly Power Head dominating, probably because they were losing quick)

MANAMI TOYOTA & ETSUKO MITA vs. AJA KONG & MIMA SHIMODA:
* A totally bizarre mishmash sees LCO and the Toyota/Kong teams split up and paired off against one another, so soon after they formed an alliance. Listen to Toyota, brand new to GAEA, get a few scattered claps- okay to be fair this building is puny and despite being full, it’s not very noisy. During intros, she gets marginally more of a reaction than anyone but the fans are QUIET. Manami’s in black/gold, Mita’s in white, Aja’s in navy blue, Shimoda’s in pink.

Shimoda gleefully beats up her usual partner Mita, but Toyota missile kicks both opponents & Mita hits a really bad powerbomb (super low lift from Shimoda) for two, then an electric chair drop/splash hits. TIME FOR TOYOTA SPOTS! She claps to set up her spine dropkick, Muta Lock & bow and arrow, but Shimoda counters with her falling clothesline. Aja works Toyota over with the usual stuff she’s done a billion times but always looks good. She even adds a surfboard then the dragon sleeper add-on- easily 3-4 minutes of methodical good stuff to kill time and then a Manami Roll counters and Mita’s in. She immediately shrieks as Aja backdrops her out of a piledriver and now LCO EXPLODES! Mita handily controls with biting, then it’s over to Toyota again. Shimoda kicks out of the Rolling Cradle and rifts a pink chair at Manami’s head, then sits her in it for the dropkick spot. Aja adds an oil can shot, but Mita sets up Toyota’s straightjacket German for two. Shimoda dodges a Moonsault & Tiger Suplexes her for two, but Toyota crashes onto both foes with a plancha. Moonsault gets two, but Shimoda counters Mita’s stunner to a backslide for two, but runs into a Blazing Chop, only to double-clothesline out and bring in Aja.

Mita escapes the backdrop driver & brainbuster, but Aja kick-parries her Chop, Mita ducks the Uraken, but Aja shoves her out of the stunner and lariats her on the rebound for two. Good stuff. Mita ducks another Uraken and Chops Aja, but can’t get the DVD and escapes after a desperation stunner. And sure enough, Manami Roll #2 results in Toyota eating a powerbomb for two. Lol at Shimoda’s early celebration. Toyota lands her double-hammerlock suplex for two after blocking an Uraken, and Aja & Manami take turns no-selling each other & Toyota runs into a brainbuster. 2nd rope back elbow- “Fuck YOU!” bridge! Toyota blocks one Uraken but is felled by a weak one from the other hand, but Mita electric chairs Aja off from a top rope move and Toyota missile kicks Aja in the butt. Shimoda’s chair sets up Aja’s Uraken, but Mita saves- Toyota escapes the top rope again and the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex hits- Shimoda saves. She hides in the corner while Aja tries another Uraken, then fires BLUE MIST into Toyota when she ducks, but Manami shoves SHIMODA in the way of an Uraken, Mita chairshots Aja, and Toyota surprises her with the Queen Bee Bomb for the PIN at (16:24)! Holy SHIT! Aja does NOT do a lot of clean jobs, much less in a match with vulnerable Shimoda as her partner!

See, this is how good workers half-ass it. They’re still obviously in “weaker show mode” and are at maybe half their peak speed, but they all have crowd-pleasing spots and “the usual bits” that fans still like, and can build anticipation for them so it’s not as bad. The execution is usually pretty good as well, even from Shimoda (who’s been VERY iffy of late), and they did a lot of inventive bits and utilized their deep movesets to fail repeatedly before hitting things (Uraken, Tiger Suplex), fail moves after hitting them (Blazing Chop), or just have a move for every situation (Mita’s stunner & electric chair drop), enabling lots of reversals. The finish was clever, too- Toyota getting misted but instead of that being the finish, she has Shimoda eat the finisher and Mita uses a chair to set up TOYOTA’s. I was never quite sure who was gonna win and how.

Rating: *** (they’re still good enough they more or less sleepwalked to this- professional wrestling wrestled professionally)

BUT WAIT! In comes Yumiko Hotta from AJW! She bought a ticket and talks shit, challenging people! The various GAEA wrestlers come out to stare her down (D-FIX is amused), and post-match, Aja talks alongside Manami about feeling nostalgic, saying it’s been 5 years since they’d fought and even though she lost today, it makes her want to try harder for her next bout. Toyota just calmly says she’s interesting in fighting Meiko & Ayako.

MEIKO SATOMURA & AYAKO HAMADA vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA & SUGAR SATO:
* Meiko & Chikayo fight not long after their World Title match, and they’re with their regular partners!

Meiko/Chikayo to some slick grappling until Meiko smoothly nails her cartwheel kneedrop. Chikayo manages a German & rana, then Sugar escapes mat wrestling by throttling Meiko & lifting her up into a Lo Down for two. Meiko avoids a figure-four and hits her own, but Chikayo scissors her throat, then Ayako runs in and does it to Sugar to amuse some fans. Sugar no-sells a double-charge but a double-enzuigiri drops her, but Chikayo sets up her Oklahoma stampede for two. Chikayo misses a flying stomp and heads her head kicked, and more stuff sets up Ayako’s moonsault (she nearly slips). Springboard Moonsault gets two, and Ayako counters a victory roll and superkicks her, but takes the tarantula and an electric chair front slam/X-Factor nails her. Ayako pops up with a DDT & Fisherman’s Buster for two, but Chikayo gets her own for two. Ayako hits an enzuigiri but Chikayo ranas out of a Spinning Ligerbomb & ducks a spinkick to hit another F-Buster for two. Sugar adds a missile kick, then catches a leaping Ayako with a Ligerbomb for two. Ayako gets an octopus stretch, Sugar boots her down, then Ayako gets a Ligerbomb as there’s no real rhyme or reason as to who’s on offense. Meiko’s in and they hit their Assisted Tornado DDT move, then a powerbomb/flying splash. Sugar tries to counter the DVD but gets both arms trapped in a hold, but Chikayo manages her upside-down hold, letting Sugar hit a belly bash for two. Meiko dodges another but gets her ankle locked and Chikayo flying stomps her. Sugar hits a Ligerbomb but is missile kicked by Ayako, and a double-punt sets up a DVD for only two. Sugar goes for another Ligerbomb but gets Pele Kicked instead, but now CHIKAYO sneaks in with a missile kick to the back and that lets Sugar belly bash Meiko down for the Struggling Three-Count at (13:27)- Sugar pins Meiko!

A very scrambly, uninteresting match, though it was kind of high-effort with lots of screaming and running. It just had no real flow and had a lot of “they fling their arms up and slap away at each other or scream” counters, and people kind of arbitrarily flinging their way outta stuff to hit their own moves. Their moves were just used at random and so casually, like you can just easily stop a charging person and spin them into a Ligerbomb, which was spammed relentlessly through the match. Sugar picking up a win against the ex-Champ was a pretty big part of her rising push, though, as Meiko eats another loss. It honestly feels like since she’s over, it’s “safe” to have her do some jobs.

Rating: ** (very messy and random, with little plan)

AUGUST 30th:
* We’re finally back at Korakuen Hall! Some EFFORT may happen at last!

DEVIL MASAMI & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SUGAR SATO & CARLOS AMANO:
* Amano is back, this time teaming with Sugar in what looks like a filler bout, since Chikayo is elsewhere.

Devil quickly double-lariats her opponents & overthrow powerbombs Amano onto Sato. Amano escapes Devil’s powerbombs with a DDT & rollup, then she scores a jujigatame and Sugar adds a missile kick and two belly-bashes for two. Devil tries a Ligerbomb- no dice, but they collide and another try gets it. Uematsu escapes a Doomsday Device and everyone counters everyone else until Toshie hits a Dragon Suplex on Amano for two. Devil powerbombs Sugar on Amano for two, Sugar saving, then Amano scores a rollup & rolling elbow, but Toshie leverages her out of a jujigatame for two. Amano flips out of a Dragon Suplex, then backflips over Uematsu and scores a Tiger Suplex for a shock three at (5:20 of 12:49 shown), Amano FINALLY scoring a win in a GAEA ring! Funny that the Devil/Toshie team would lose to a random one. Match looked okay, but a bit scrambly with little flow, reliant mostly on Uematsu & Amano countering each other.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
* Eccentric EXPLODES as Chigusa takes on her trainee while acting as her “subordinate”. Before the match, Sakura explains she wants to get this “preliminary match” out of the way so she can go to Budokan Hall & see Bill Goldberg, who was in fact wrestling Satoshi Kojima that night. I… hey I gotta add his Japan stuff to Dream Matches.

After a brief bit of flash-pin attempts, Sakura gets on the mic and declares a special guest- LIONESS ASUKA! Lioness, who’d been teaming with Chigusa as a revival of the Crush Gals last year, comes out with the goofy Eccentric pigtails and everything, doing a dance as they waste like 4 minutes post-bell doing promo stuff. Back to the bout, Sakura attempts a “giant swing” that’s just dragging Chigusa around on her back, then squashes the ref using her and prepares to Bronco Buster both of them… but Chigusa pulls the ref’s foot up so Sakura crotches herself on it. But Sakura shoves her down and uses the REF to copy their “slingshot Sakura onto the opponent” move, but Chigusa flings her back so Sakura tries to pin the ref. Chigusa alternates between laughing and hitting Sakura, but gets uraken’d off the 2nd rope for two and Sakura hits the People’s Headbutt with 3 rope-runs for two. Chigusa misses three kicks in a row but just lifts her foot and Sakura runs into it, and a backdrop driver hits. Sakura plays dead after the kickout and rolls Chigusa up a bunch, but Chigusa hits a big powerbomb for two. But then Lioness runs in and lariats Chigusa during a sunset flip and that’s the pin at (9:57 of 14:17 shown), Sakura stealing one and Chigusa unrealistically being unable to kick out of a weak rollup. After the match, Sakura seemingly retires the Eccentric gimmick for good (THANK CHRIST), the trio doing the crotch gestures and Sakura standing in the darkness while overdramatic Japanese crooning music plays.

Rating: * (mostly just goofing off with a long promo in the middle)

POWER HEAD vs. D-FIX:
* A pair of matches sees the two teams split up fighting singles. These are quite clipped.

KAORU (w/ Police) vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA: The ref moves KAORU’s board away from a suplex, annoying her, and she can’t put Yamada through a table so settles for a moonsault from the 2nd rope the floor, smashing her knee into the hall floor. Yamada uses the board & spams elbows for two, then they do sloppy rollups. KAORU gets caught up top but uses the green mist and hits a flying cannonball senton for two. Excalibur (michinoku driver)- also 2. Yamada seems dead, but springs up with a kick, but KAORU still counters the Reverse Gory Bomb with an awful rollup attempt. Yamada kicks her and elbows her for 1, but kicks out at 1 after Excalibur hits again and both are dead. Yamada catches a kick and they flop around until they FINALLY get the spot they were going for (KAORU ranas her out of having her leg in a stretch muffler) and hits Excalibur twice more for two. A third one gets the pin at (6:15 of 15:47 shown). Nice to see KAORU killing off another finisher by letting a midcarder kick out of four of them in a row. Match looked like sloppy crap. Frequent botches and rollups that crossed the line from “energetic and wrestling ain’t always pretty and choreographed” and well into “we’ve lost our agility and are rolling each other up onto our own bodies instead of the mat”.

MAYUMI OZAKI (w/ Police) vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI: Kansai, in green & white, is in a dog-collar as we’re JIP. Ozaki drags her around, facewipes her, and hits a flying knee smash, but Kansai blocks a Shining Wizard and absorbs her running palm strikes, but an uraken drops her for two. Oz wraps a chain around her fist but runs into Splash Mountain, but manages to “punch” Kansai after landing. Kansai catches her with a kick to buy some time, then intercepts a charge with a lariat for a struggling two. Oz drops her with a chain-wrapped fist- the ref won’t count, so Kansai scores kicks and Splash Mountain hits for two. Ozaki ranas out of michinoku driver and misses urakens, but catches a charge with a fast inside cradle for two. But she grabs the chain again and Kansai kicks it into her head, hits three big side-breakers in a row then deadlifts Ozaki right into a HUGE, dramatic Splash Mountain for three, D-FIX I guess unable to interfere (5:33 of 13:16 shown). Looked much better- Oz was still a bit sloppy, but Kansai was more precise than she’s been in ages and was solid. Still a far cry from their ’90s peak.

CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. MIMA SHIMODA (w/ Etsuko Mita):
* Interestingly, the AAAW Champion faces Shimoda in a non-title match. This is probably to give the new champ a singles win over a veteran who can afford to eat a loss (Shimoda’s been doing singles jobs for ages).

We’re JIP with Mita interfering via a stunner, but Chikayo dumps LCO to the floor and fights Shimoda in the stands, where Shimoda does the “aisle run” whip into the wall as commentary talks about how she’s looking in good shape “lately” because “she used to have a bit of tummy poking out”. Chikayo fires back, but takes a pink chair to the head and is missile kicked while seated in it. Shimoda snarls and celebrates as the ref won’t count, but Chikayo avoids her Tiger Suplex and tarantulas her, then catches her charging in again with the upside-down hold. Commentary openly discusses “people saying that Nagashima isn’t fit to be Champion” and is only 50kg, and therefore she should focus on challenging veterans while Chigusa’s seen frequently cheering her on. Shimoda brawls to come back, hitting an Ax Kick/Tiger Suplex combo for two, then follows with the Flying Ax Kick (more of a somersault ass slam to the head, lol) for the same. She aims for the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) but Chikayo counters, misses a flying stomp, but pushes Shimoda in the way of Mita’s chairshot & Fisherman’s Busters her for two.

A second gets the same and Chikayo hits her Somersault Flying Stomp and Mita collides with her at “2”! Fans boo the shit out of that and Mita hits a big powerbomb (haha and goes for the pin for a sec), but Chikayo escapes the DVD/Ax Kick and Germans Shimoda, only to leap right into the DVD! DVD/Ax Kick hits, but now CHIGUSA runs in, incensed over the cheating, breaking up the pin and Asuka joins her in a prelude to Crush/LCO! Sandwich Lariat to Shimoda (brilliant “flaily” broken-doll sell by Shimoda), and the Fisherman’s Buster gets two! Somersault Flying Stomp… misses and Shimoda sprays red mist and inside cradles- two! Shimoda spazzes out as all her chambers are empty, so just sits up top and ends up Super Frankensteinered, but counters for two. Asuka flings in a chair to help but SHIMODA catches it, but Chikayo catches her swinging at Asuka and hits a German Suplex for three at (8:58 of 16:05 shown), the first time I’ve seen a German score a pin in eons. LCO get on the mic after to be like “Y U INTERFERE IN MY MATCH?” like asses, then say the LCO/Crush match “is boring” and to shore up excitement they seem to be making it a Loser Leaves Town sorta deal. Chigusa agrees and Chikayo has to be dragged away from LCO. Post-match, LCO act like they need to beat the “greatest team” (the Gals). This match is WAY in October, so they’re building this up for two solid months.

A fun one! It was interesting how “cheating” was the psychology of the match- Chikayo has it won but that dastardly Mita not only interferes constantly but finally just makes it a non-stop handicap match, giving Chigusa 1980s flashbacks and sending the Crush Gals in to fight on Chikayo’s behalf. This doeesn’t exactly make her look the STRONGEST, but kicking out of a variety of cheating moves isn’t nothing. Shimoda was a tour de force here- interestingly, she’s been sloppier than hell for the past year or so but still has “bring it” performances like this one, and is a dynamite seller and character when she wants to be, growling and snarling away and doing great “body parts in every direction” sells and exhausted walks to put over the toll of the match. Chikayo just felt like she was being carried here.

Rating: *** (we miss half of it, but it was good cheat-y fun)

LCO wistfully talk about how much the Crush Gals suck.

AJA KONG & MANAMI TOYOTA vs. MEIKO SATOMURA & AYAKO HAMADA:
* The final match of the evening has the big “Dream Match”-esque feel of the top two Zenjo wrestlers left and GAEA’S #1 and the big newbie from ARSION- Manami’s fought Meiko in a disappointing match in the past & Aja has a LONG history with both, but Manami & Ayako is new. It’s kind of an interesting thing- Ayako was similar in that she was a booker-ordained “one to be the Champion”, and could easily be seen as the “next generation” of Toyota’s type of wrestler (a flash, good-looking potential Ace), even if she’s nowhere near Toyota’s level as a worker.

Ayako gets a rear-waistlock and shoves Toyota down into a crossface attempt, but some armdrag-type stuff sees them collide and they’re at square one. They do a pretty good job of “can you match this?” with Toyota’s JB Angels armdrag and Ayako countering with a lionsault to the face. Manami laughs off Meiko’s charging elbow but takes a BIG wind-up bodyslam & elbow and Meiko teases another but just walks across her face and elbows from the other side. Manami hauls her down with her strength advantage and Muta Locks her, tagging in Aja for a beating, and they take turns crushing Meiko in the corner and Manami fires off missile kicks, one of them bolting Meiko across the ring, tumbling into the corner on the sell. Bridging suplex gets two, and a figure-four legs Aja fly in off the 2nd rope. Ayako counters by scissoring Manami’s neck, but Aja just smiles and kicks the crap out of both opponents and strolls away. Her backdrop driver gets two, but she flings Meiko into the corner and eats a vaulting elbow for it- Ayako’s in and rapidly counters Aja with a rana, but we get a good “Aja no-sells strikes and destroys Ayako with a headbutt” spot, ending with her headbutting the corner repeatedly in joyous defiance. Manami comes in but rapidly gets spinebustered & dropkicked in the face, but manages to counter a vertical suplex & Aja’s back in, but Ayako immediately tornado DDTs her and tags out- Aja no-sells and lariats both of them, then counters Meiko with a sleeper, and knocks her down when she finally forces her way out. Meiko counters Manami’s rolling cradle but Aja holds her for the spinal dropkick- total dominance by the veterans so far.

Manami hits the Missile Dropkick Suicida to the kids, but Meiko dodges an in-ring missile kick and they repeatedly hit Kicks of Fear until Meiko catches one and Pele Kicks Manami in the head. Ayako’s in and hits a superkick, but Manami no-sells a missile kick and counters a lucha rollup with a deadlifting wheelbarrow German for two. But she’s double-teamed off the top in a big bump and the vets take the Super Quebrada from Ayako. She & Toyota hit missile kicks on each other but Meiko’s in and Aja oil cans her in the head to set up Toyota’s straightjacket German. Toyota hits her Pumphandle German- Meiko saves. Ayako counters the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex for two, then Germans for two, but ends up in the Rolling Cradle when she over-swings on a strike. Aja misses a flying back elbow and ends up double-enzuigiri’d when she catches both kids’ kicks, but gets her feet up on Ayako’s moonsault and lands that elbow after all for two. But Ayako ducks an Uraken and fires off so many slaps that even Aja is stunned, and a spinkick to the head gets a close two. But she overdoes it and runs right into a massive lariat for two (Sakura cringing from the impact on the floor). Aja goes up but Ayako & Meiko manage to team up and drop her in a powerbomb for two. Manami flies in but nails AJA, Ayako promptly powerbombing Manami onto Aja and Meiko flying onto the stack with a splash, and Ayako hits a folding powerbomb to Aja & Manami saves! Ayako’s caught up top & Aja moves so Meiko accidentally Pele Kicks her own partner, allowing Aja to hit a Brainbuster for two. But Ayako bolts up and spinkicks her- Aja kicks out at 1, but Meiko nearly springs off Ayako’s back for Scorpio Rising (shining ax kick) but Toyota intercepts with a big boot, leaving Ayako alone- Aja easily avoids another powerbomb and catches her with an Uraken, snagging both legs for the pin at (19:14 of 22:27 shown). Post-match, Chikayo Nagashima comes out and calls out Toyota, who towers over her and says “Shorty, you’re the champion, right?”. Chikayo insists she won’t be destroyed and the match is on- Toyota vs. Nagashima for the belt is set for October!

A pretty high-effort match, if just a bunch of stuff going on for much of it. They played up the first half as near-total dominance for the “Zenjo-ism” team, with Meiko & Ayako having to fight for every bit of ground. The second half ended up more 50/50, but most of it had Ayako in the ring against Toyota (the expected “Dream Match” clash), though their bits were hardly as outstanding as they might have hoped- it was mostly Ayako kicking out of Manami’s secondary offense. Despite the veteran dominance, the younger team didn’t really sell hopelessness or desperation, nor was Meiko even in the entire last 5 minutes. So in general it was like nobody wanted to sell a whole ton, even as the kids were being completely destroyed by offense. Most of what Ayako was hitting was flash-pins, too- not her big stuff like the spinning ligerbomb or Ayakonoclasm, making it more obvious they were fighting from underneath really badly. So the match was good, with a lot of physical effort, but still felt like they were leaving a lot left in the tank, especially with regards to Meiko. There’ll be more to come, here.

Rating: *** (a very solid, entertaining match, but felt like less than it could have been)