Joshi Spotlight

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!

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.

https://archive.org/details/arsion-07-21-2002

To Archive.org with this one!

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION: STARLIGHT 2002:
* Manami Toyota has quit Zenjo and joined GAEA Japan, allying with Aja Kong! Zenjo is all-in on pushing Momoe Nakanishi! Nanae Takahashi wins the Japan Grand Prix and is getting pushed going forwards! Time for… shit, there’s an ARSION show in the middle! I was prepared to do the scattered ARSION matches I have for 2002 but there’s a whole one here, so let’s see if I can do a whole 2-hour tape in one sitting, haha.

JAB QUICKLY READS NOTES TO REMEMBER WHAT’S GOING ON:
* So the company is still losing money, it’s kind of a joke, Lioness Asuka was hired to book and quickly won the belt and then put over Michiko Omukai in May 2002, and Asuka’s team with GAMI were holding the Twin Star of ARSION titles but declared them vacant for some reason. Oh and AKINO is the Sky High of ARSION Champ. And most importantly that stable of three clowns has split up FOR GOOD!

This show is from Korakuen Hall, with an attendance of… 1.35? That can’t be right. Actually that makes sense for an ARSION show but I can see more than 1.35 people in the crowd. *Checks Cagematch* ohhhhhhhh that’s supposed to be 1,350… actually the crowd doesn’t look so bad, though ARSION has that awful set-up where the hard camera is mostly their big fancy entranceway with no fans. This is for the Battle Station TV show, that collected some smaller promotions.

GAEA JAPAN IN JUNE-JULY 2002:
* It’s more GAEA as they just got through their big two-show day in the beginning of the month, so let’s see what the rest of it looked like. I was planning on this being just the five matches, but since the next show was only 3 and a short vid after, I figured I could add it in despite being short on time due to Canadian Thanksgiving… and I’m glad I did, because THAT’s the one with the huge bomb that changes GAEA forever!

JUNE 29th:
* This is from that old-looking, REALLY tall hall with very little room for fans. Looks to be maybe 100-150 people there? Three rows deep on 3 sides of the ring and some short balconies on the other side.

GAEA JAPAN- RING ON THE BEAT:
(June 2nd 2002- Evening Show)
* It’s time to finish the two-part show I started a week ago! Except since Meiko vs. Chikayo is the main event, I realize this is a perfect time to look up something I MISSED from last time. See, GAEA’s 2002 playlist is in some kinda whacky order, meaning I needed to search & find the dates manually, which meant I missed one here or there… including the main event of the April 14th show, which was ALSO Meiko Satomura defending the AAAW World Title against Chikayo Nagashima! So now’s a perfect time to post that, especially since it makes THIS show more complete! Hooray! Also this one has two mass clusterfuck matches with Aja Kong challenging the entire GAEA locker room, provoking them into a 5 on 5 tag match! And D-FIX defends the AAAW Tag Titles against Eccentric for the rare “get heat on Sakura Hirota” match!

GAEA JAPAN- RING ON THE BEAT (Morning Show):
(June 2nd 2002)
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan, now that I’m done the AJW Japan Grand Prix! And OH MY GOD it’s a positively gigantic show with fourteen damn YouTube videos making up the whole thing! If I’d have seen that I’d have probably tried to recap some of it before two days before my typical Joshi Spotlight posting on Monday, lol. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wait it’s split up into an Afternoon Show and an EVENING show! I can split this up guilt-free!

But this is indeed a VERY big show, with two separate one-night tournaments to determine the AAAW Title contender and AAAW Tag Title contenders for the evening show! So it’s Las Cachorras Orientales, Eccentric, Power Head & Devil/Toshie in the tag one, then Ayako Hamada, Carlos Amano, Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato in the singles one. This means that everyone here will be fighting an IMMENSE number of times in a single day, which is always iffy.

JAPAN GRAND PRIX- PART THREE:
* This is the finals of the Japan Grand Prix! And, in a tournament with like nine billion (approx.) 30-minute draws and preposterous match times up and down the cards… let’s all watch a series of very short matches in the final day to determine the winner!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand after a miraculously hugely full arena for the “Queendom of WWWA” show that just happened, they have a half-empty hall again. NOT GREAT, especially considering this is the end of the Tournament!

THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENT:
YUMIKO HOTTA: Former Ace, now a lazybones kicker doing a feud with Rossy Ogawa and ARSION.
MOMOE NAKANISHI: Won the tournament last year and is the obvious “Next Big Star” buuuuuuuuuuut they did a “not yet” where Kaoru Ito completely dismantled her.
KUMIKO MAEKAWA: Last year’s 2nd-runner up and the obvious one behind Momoe.
KAYO NOUMI: Was the lesser one in a “lower-card” tag team last year, but with her partner retired, suddenly it’s time for a push! She’s a big underdog who is a great bumper but has shite offense.
RIE TAMADA: An ARSION wrestler, representing an AJW/ARSION feud that the fans hate. Never even rose to Zenjo’s midcard so is likely here as Card Filler and an easy win… except she’s ARSION’s only entrant so is probably being fed wins.
TOMOKO WATANABE: Career “IC”-level wrestler by this point, bouncing around tag teams and usually being hurt. Currently forced to be in the heel Black Joker.
NANAE TAKAHASHI: Another “future star” they probably want to be better than she is. They’ve been ramping up her powerhouse showcases big-time over the past year.
MIYUKI FUJII: “The Eternal Rookie”, here to pick up a fluke and then feed the rest pins.

So will Momoe win a second year in a row? Kumiko was #2 last year- this could easily be her night. Hotta is the highest in seniority and her push is rarely QUITE finished, either. Naturally, things have ended up in a SUPER-close run-off and everyone is really close together. Oddly Hotta does the worst, which is REALLY damning given her seniority.

THE QUEENDOM OF WWWA:
* This is a “big” Zenjo show from Ota Ward Gymnasium, with a stated draw of 4,502. Which is probably bullshit but is much better than they usually get. This is their biggest show since the Winter, with the huge WWWA Title match of Manami Toyota vs. Kaoru Ito! Ito is the former Champion and seeks to regain the belt.

At least compared to other shows this year, this one is pretty full! And the crowd is RAUCOUS.

The Matches We Miss:

AJW Junior Title Tournament:
Rena Takase (2) d. Ayako Sato (0) in (9:04)
Saki Maemura (2) d. Mako Ogawa (0) in (9:20)
Mika Nishio (2) d. Emi Tojo (0) in (11:41)
* A tournament for the vacant Junior Title sees the ones Zenjo seeks actual potential in defeat others. This tournament actually runs a fairly long time (2 months), and features rookies from multiple companies in a Round Robin- an example is MARU, who wrestles 7 matches in the tournament despite never appearing on a Zenjo card (she’s only in JD’). Rena Takase is an ARSION wrestler who is already pretty decent, and has one of the best records in this tournament. Mako Ogawa is an LLPW wrestler and actually got a win over Nishio at one point. Tojo is a JD’ wrestler- she takes a year off and joins AtoZ (the former ARSION) in 2004. Mika Nishio wins a Three-Way Match (!!- joshi puro HAS those?) to win the belt in September, losing to Miyuki Fujii a couple months later, then winning it back… and apparently quits Zenjo in 2003 to wrestle for AtoZ.

Japan Grand Prix 2002:
Rie Tamada (10) d. Miyuki Fujii (4) in (12:31).

JAPAN GRAND PRIX- PART TWO:
* Part two of the Japan Grand Prix sees big matches between the “next big stars”- Momoe Nakanishi fights first Kayo Noumi, then Kumiko Maekawa! Nanae Takahashi’s push also continues as she’s put against old partner Tomoko Watanabe in a Mirror Match! Plus some tag team main events with Kaoru Ito, Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota paired off with different opponents as the final match of these JGP shows!

THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENT:
YUMIKO HOTTA: Former Ace, now a lazybones kicker doing a feud with Rossy Ogaway and ARSION.
MOMOE NAKANISHI: Won the tournament last year and is the obvious “Next Big Star” buuuuuuuuuuut they did a “not yet” where Kaoru Ito completely dismantled her.
KUMIKO MAEKAWA: Last year’s 2nd-runner up and the obvious one behind Momoe.
KAYO NOUMI: Was the lesser one in a “lower-card” tag team last year, but with her partner retired, suddenly it’s time for a push! She’s a big underdog who is a great bumper but has shite offense.
RIE TAMADA: An ARSION wrestler, representing an AJW/ARSION feud that the fans hate. Never even rose to Zenjo’s midcard so is likely here as Card Filler and an easy win… except she’s ARSION’s only entrant so is probably being fed wins.
TOMOKO WATANABE: Career “IC”-level wrestler by this point, bouncing around tag teams and usually being hurt. Currently forced to be in the heel Black Joker.
NANAE TAKAHASHI: Another “future star” they probably want to be better than she is. They’ve been ramping up her powerhouse showcases big-time over the past year.

Note that the numbers start getting fucky at some point, I suspect because Kaoru Ito dropped out and everyone got free points because of it. Checking Cagematch and even the commentary there are “missing wins”.

JUNE 7th:
* This is a small show from Mobara City Gymnasium in Chiba, Japan. Cagematch says this sold about 1,000 tickets. Judging by the shots I’m seeing, that means about 985 people must be sitting behind the hard camera.

AJW JAPAN GRAND PRIX ’02- PART ONE:
(May 26th 2002)
* It’s time for more Zenjo at last! And this time it’s the Japan Grand Prix! Which… does it always start in May? I know it usually runs the summer but this feels weird. I guess last year’s started at the beginning of June so it’s only a week early. There’s a big match on it, though- Kaoru Ito vs. Momoe Nakanishi! The rematch for 2001’s big World Title Match between the two, where Ito took Nakanishi to the woodshed!

We start out in Korakuen Hall, with apparently 1,700 paid. Which isn’t a sellout even if it was accurate (and you can DEFINITELY see empty seats even on the hard cam), which isn’t great for the big Summer Tournament, particularly when they’ve front-loaded it. A reminder that Zenjo lost TV a few months before and the result was an immediate nosedive in show attendance and fanbase.

THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENT:
YUMIKO HOTTA: Former Ace, now a lazybones kicker doing a feud with Rossy Ogaway and ARSION.
MANAMI TOYOTA: Former Ace, now in a weird zone as they want to push the next generation but wait half a year.
MOMOE NAKANISHI: Won the tournament last year and is the obvious “Next Big Star” buuuuuuuuuuut they did a “not yet” where Kaoru Ito completely dismantled her.
KUMIKO MAEKAWA: Last year’s 2nd-runner up and the obvious one behind Momoe.
KAYO NOUMI: Was the lesser one in a “lower-card” tag team last year, but with her partner retired, suddenly it’s time for a push! She’s a big underdog who is a great bumper but has shite offense.
RIE TAMADA: An ARSION wrestler, representing an AJW/ARSION feud that the fans hate. Never even rose to Zenjo’s midcard so is likely here as Card Filler and an easy win.
TOMOKO WATANABE: Career “IC”-level wrestler by this point, bouncing around tag teams and usually being hurt. Currently forced to be in the heel Black Joker.
NANAE TAKAHASHI: Another “future star” they probably want to be better than she is. They’ve been ramping up her powerhouse showcases big-time over the past year.
MIYUKI FUJII: The “Eternal Rookie” gets another year of eating pins to see if she can improve.

GAEA JAPAN:
(May 18th 2002)
* We’re at Hamamatsu (no idea) for what seems like a smaller taped show. This set will have a pair of small shows reviewed, mostly D-FIX intermingling with GAEA’s roster, Sugar Sato’s push continuing, and Ayako Hamada getting involved in the central angles with the top wrestlers. Also LOTS OF SAKURA HIROTA, both in Eccentric and in her cosplay.

OZ ACADEMY IN MAY 2002:
(ZEPP Tokyo, May 11th, 2002)
* There’s four May shows on YouTube, so let’s see how long it takes to get through them…. *reviews* okay so every match on the first show is LONG so it’s a one-show review! But interestingly, it’s an entire OZ Academy show, which I’ve yet to see on this watchthrough… and every match is an interesting pseudo Dream Match! It’s first themed around veteran wrestlers taking on the younger generation- Mita vs. Sato, Aja vs. Amano, and Devil Masami vs. Chikayo! Then the Sakura/Chigusa goof team Eccentric is split up and they’re teamed with JD’ wrestlers The Bloody & Fang Suzuki against one another, and then *D-FIX* is split up, as Mayumi Ozaki is teamed up with Mima Shimoda & KAORU is teamed up with Takako Inoue in a bloodbath main event! Some really interesting matchmaking here, so come see what OZ Academy is all about!

From ZEPP Tokyo, it’s an OZ Academy show, with their eye-bursting green ring! This looks like a pretty small, but very full, mini-hall.

ARSION:
* Back to ARSION with the rest of early 2002’s stuff! This is mostly scattered stuff, but features several big matches for the company, including Zenjo’s Momoe Nakanishi coming over to face her ARSION equivalent in Mika AKINO! Plus Lioness Asuka vs. Michiko Omukai for the Queen of ARSION Title, then the winner vs. noki-A! This also culminates in a Queen of ARSION match with AKINO getting her chance! Hoo boy but business is suffering, though.

MAY 12th:

ARSION IN SPRING 2002:
* So ARSION releases very, very little in 2002, which is a REALLY bad year for them, but matches are split up enough I can cover some of them in a big chunk. Or I WOULD if I hadn’t been half-dead from strep throat and unable to eat even ice cream without pain for a week, so uhhhhhhhhh here’s two matches! It woulda been two LONG ones, but just as I finished the second I checked and sure enough it’s from October so is way out of place at this point, so it’s an even weaker review than normal! I might have the second half of early 2002 up later in the week since now I’m sure I’m not dying- we’ll see.

MARCH 26th:
* This is from some TINY show. Like the bottom-tier of a Zenjo tour or something. This is the best a tag title defense can do?

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:

GAEA JAPAN- YOKOHAMA LIMIT BREAK:
(Yokohama Gymnasium, April 7th 2002):
* It’s time for another big GAEA Japan show! This one features the big one- the Retirement of Akira Hokuto! Hokuto’s been in GAEA for like 5 years by this point, but her impact was always somewhat minor- she happily settled into “card filler” at points, rarely getting involved in major stories and simply appearing from time to time. She became a mother, had more and more injuries, and wrestled sparingly, especially near the end. In mid-2001, she put her all into putting over Meiko Satomura in a fantastic match, and is ready to call it quits. This show also features the return of Sugar Sato, as her team with Chikayo Nagashima defends the AAAW World Tag titles against the top heels D-FIX! Also rejoining us is Devil Masami, who went out at the same show that Sugar did, with a bad leg injury!

AJW IN APRIL & MAY:
* Time for Zenjo in April! With six matches that I’ve found! The biggest of which is Kaoru Ito facing Kumiko Maekawa, one of the two “these are the future stars” acts! Plus an Ito/Momoe vs. Manami/Hotta match! In the TOKYO DOME, as they head to New Japan for a big 30th Anniversary show for that promotion! Plus the AJW vs. ARSION war heats up as Rossy Ogawa of all people starts to feud with Hotta in her matches, and both AJW & LLPW show up in Kodo Fuyuki’s short-lived WEW promotion for a Kawasaki Stadium show!

Importantly, as mentioned in February, Zenjo lost their TV in February, right around their biggest show in ages (and their only Pay Per View)… and that pretty much screws the company. For now they still have a bit of hype, but now they’re gonna be on the dregs of TV, in channels nobody gets or cares about.

APRIL 28th:

GAEA JAPAN IN MARCH:
* GAEA Japan is the only promotion I have much of for March, but there’s some interest… a new debut! ARSION fans will probably guess who it was already, haha. This time, the Akira Hokuto Countdown continues with her teaming with Aja Kong against Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima! Sakura Hirota has one of her funnier matches- inspired by the contemporary WWF! Chigusa Nagayo faces outstanding rookie Aya Sakurai! oh, and GAEA Japan adds another Freelancer to the regular roster- you might remember her from ARSION.

FEB. 16th:
* This is all February has save that one big Korakuen show. This is another house show.

GAEA JAPAN IN 01.2002:
* It’s time for another Joshi Spotlight on GAEA Japan… and it’s a huge one as we get the FINAL MATCH starring Las Cachorras Orientales in their three-woman formation- Akira Hokuto is on her Retirement Countdown, and wants one last match with her former proteges, and their opponents are the super-trio of Mayumi Ozaki, Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada! This is also the 10th Anniversary of LCO.

JAN. 26th:

ZENJO TURBULENCE:
(Feb. 24th 2002)
* And now we come to one of Zenjo’s biggest shows- ZENJO TURBULENCE! This is their attempt at a Pay-Per-View event (it says “PPV” right there next to the Japanese script!), with several huge matches- a dream match between Las Cachorras Orientales and the superteam of Yumiko Hotta & Shinobu Kandori! Kumiko Maekawa vs. Momoe Nakanishi as their rivalry continues! And the WWWA World Title defense- Kaoru Ito vs. Manami Toyota! We’re at Yokohama Bay-Side, so hopefully the famously-loud and intense Yokohoma fans are with us. The DRAMATIC highlight real and theatrical music before the show presents an epic spectacle of the five matches. You can tell it’s a big show because the main commentator announces the entire promotion out for the roll call and ceremony. This is also a LIVE BROADCAST- apparently the first time women’s wrestling was ever shot live like this. Attendance is said to be 4,160, and the building does look pretty packed.

Sadly, this is the moment (almost precisely so) where Zenjo loses their TV, and ends up doing like… guest shots on Samurai TV or whatever. Which kills business and permanently damages both the promotion and its wrestlers. GOOD TIMES!