Joshi Spotlight — page 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhpTHMpJMhM

AJW AT HAKATA STARLANES (Feb. 15th 1997):
* It’s time for sheer joshi greatness, as AJW wrestlers GO BOWLING!!! This time it’s a bit of February TV and the great Hakata Starlanes building- this looks like such a fun dumpy bowling arena, haha. And eventually the AJW teams split up and bowl against each other.

So on this show, Tomoko & Kumiko are our hosts, visiting a temple/shrine and talking to the audience. They bump into Kyoko Inoue praying and they do some joking about, then we’re off to the Starlanes! And a happy Dump Matsumoto is on commentary!

YUMI FUKAWA vs. YUKA SHIINA:
* It’s a rookie fight! Fukawa’s been getting an “almost push/watch this rookie!” build for all of 1996, and Shiina’s on a tier below her- Shiina’s no longer ultra-jobbery though, sporting a serious face and gear with her name on it- a sporty orange top with white shorts. Fukawa’s in white/blue, with… wow that outfit is almost entirely blue ruffles. I dunno if this is clipped or what.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w3StnONWcs

OTA-KU CHAMPION LEGEND 1997:
(Jan. 20th 1997):
* The early months of 1997 have actually been pretty wild for AJW, because there was an Ota-Ku Champion Legend show in late January, and it featured a trifecta of impactful matches! It’s the first Red Belt defense of Kyoko Inoue, as she has to take on her partner, the sadist of beauty, Takako Inoue (no relation)! Also the WWWA Tag Team Champions (Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda) take on the up & comer squad of Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa- the guardians of the new generation!

The show starts with three intensely-clipped tag matches. It seems like the average length of an AJW match has shortened because none of these go over ten minutes.

TANNY MOUSE & MIYUKI FUJII vs. MIHO WAKIZAWA & RUMI SEKIGUCHI:
* Rookie Mayhem! And oh god it’s all the names I don’t recognize, plus the mouse. Rumi goes nowhere (she has no Cagematch profile), Fujii lasts a long time (2009-ish!), and Wakizawa has two separate multi-year runs. Tanny Mouse of course ends up a long-time comedy wrestler. The non-Tanny team is in matching rookie swimsuits, one in yellow and one in pink. Tanny’s in yellow and recognizable by… *sigh*… by her TAIL, and Fujii’s in a blue rookie swimsuit.

LADIES LEGEND PRO WRESTLING:
(Oct. 30th 1992)
* The first year of LLPW continues via YouTube! My initial goal with these was to minimize the recaps a bit (I’m not even sure how many people read the move-by-move stuff) and make these shorter, but here I end up with a 2,200-word review of this random dumb show, lol. Editing is hard! I don’t know which moves to skip until the match is over!

This one again features the entire company split up into five different matches, giving us a rookie fight, a 1st-year vs. 2nd-year tag match, a veteran/1st-year match, a “second-tier” tag match and their two top stars in an actual real main event- Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno! Can the former Jumping Bomb Angel defeat the elite shooter of joshi?

MIDORI SAITO vs. RUMI YASUDA:
* Rookie fight! Yasuda (Yasha Kurenai) is in white & purple and has shoulder-length hair, while Saito has super long black hair and is in white & pink.

Devil Masami hits a nasty Powerbomb
byu/Kingfuking10 instardomjoshi

*Devil hits the goddamndest powerbomb ever on rookie Sakura Hirota*
Sonoko Kato (on the floor): “…. boss?”
Chigusa Nagayo (the trainer): “Oh my god, now I have to tell this rookie’s parents how she died.”
Devil Masami: “HEY HOW ‘BOUT IT?!”

GAEA JAPAN- WRESTLING BIBLE & WAR CRY:
(Jan. 12th & 19th, 1997)
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan, this time with a mish-mash of minor stars mixed in with the big ones. It features two matches by rookie upstart Sakura Hirota being murdered by main eventers, the latter of which features the godamndest powerbomb bump of all time and a priceless reaction from everyone involved. Akira Hokuto wrestles!… in her weird luchadora self, fighting a lucha-identity version of KAORU. And then it’s the FINAL MATCH of Bomber Hikari, as I guess the GAEA rookies were elevated enough and we didn’t need her stinking up the midcard anymore (or she was hurt- whatever). Then Akira & KAORU fight again, but with a GAEA kid and an IWA Japan joshi getting involved to make a tag match. And finally, we end with another Chigusa/GAEA kids vs. OZ Academy trios match.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
* The boss takes on the youngest rookie in GAEA, as the pink-clad upstart jumps Chigusa before the bell.

AJW TV (Jan. 3rd 1997):
* So we start off AJW’s darkest year with what turns out to be a pretty great TV show, actually, as most of the remaining top stars come out for some rare matches- Manami & Aja get to destroy up & coming rookies (with an all-timer stiff shot in the Aja/Tamura match), then a pair of long tag matches. So if you ever wanna see wrestlers fight like they don’t want to be the next midcarder to job to the rookies, or a rookie get KTFO’d with a full “fencer’s response” reaction and a glassy-eyed death stare, have I got the show for you!

TOSHIYO YAMADA & ETSUKO MITA vs. MIMA SHIMODA & CHAPARRITA ASARI:
* A weirdo grab-bag of a match sees Dream Orca revived again, with the now-midcarders Yamada & Mita going up against Mita’s old partner Shimoda and the rising star ASARI. The levels here are kind all over the place, as Yamada is higher-ranked but only sorta as she’s been tumbling, and Shimoda is a former Tag Champ yet never got a big singles run. Mita is delightfully now in her Giant Powder Blue Pirate era, but her outfit is a black & pink skirt & top. Yamada’s in a black suit with blue writing & lines on it, Shimoda’s in a rather fashionable white top & black skirt, and ASARI’s in white/red/gold.

JOSHI IN 1996- THE YEAR OF DOOM:
* aka OH GOD JOSHI IS SO DEPRESSING RIGHT HERE WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?

So now I’ve reached the end of another year in joshi history, as 1996 is at an end in my reviews. After an iffy 1995, with wrestlers leaving all over the place, 1996 is in a rough spot… and it gets worse. A LOT worse.

The Big Stories:
* Manami Toyota’s World title reign as queen of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling doesn’t draw that well for much of the year.
* Akira Hokuto joins GAEA Japan after a while away from AJW.
* AJW business dwindling leads to some truly disastrous shows, like shoving MMA into things and having a Rookie/Veteran tag tournament do awful business at the Budokan Hall.
* The top of most of the cards grew stale, without anyone ready to “step up” to the next level, requiring last minute pushes and “hey these rookies are elevated now”.
* The Japanese economy suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. This is arguably the biggest deal in all puro promotions by the mid-90s, and slaughters business as people have less money to spend. The bubble burst on the economy and hurt everyone but the biggest companies.

Key examples of the downturn include the quitting of Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto in early 1995, leaving AJW without two of its most over wrestlers and most reliable draws. The former was falling apart physically and retired, but Akira still had some “go” in her, and this was a HUGE loss for the company. And Manami Toyota as Champion… she was an okay draw at first, with some shows doing okay, but saw diminishing returns and she was rarely the most over person in her own MATCHES, much less on the card. All the fresh matches being eliminated did not help. Her first title defense, against Yumiko Hotta, was kind of a mess that saw a lot of botching in the end (I think Manami’s knee got blown out), and a crowd widely against Manami and for her opponent.

Manami Toyota’s run as WWWA Champion seems to draw well at first- defenses against Yumiko Hotta & Kyoko Inoue do pretty good business from the looks of the crowds… but the latter (Wrestling Queendom ’96) features maybe the last hurrah for AJW, as it’s their last really big crowd. The whys and hows are complicated and you’d probably have to ask the fans at the time, but it’s probably a combination of the Japanese economy, disinterest in the same old stars fighting each other (Manami had done major matches against both women in almost each year previous, and had fought everyone else a ton, too), the end of Interpromotional “Dream Matches”, the lack of Akira & Bull (huge, guaranteed draws), and likely Toyota not drawing as well (both Hotta & Kyoko draw more of a crowd reaction in their bouts).

It’s hard not to see this sense of boredom creep into everything, as the same-old matches are there, the effort falters, and there’s very few hot new stars to shore things up. Blacked-out arenas and quiet crowds become the norm when the peak periods saw hordes of screaming fans.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- CANDY OKUTSU:
Real Name: Tomoko Okutsu (aka Tiger Dream, Red Lynx)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’1″ 132 lbs.
Career Length: 1992-2001

-And now it’s time for a bio on one of the more reliable “decent performance” wrestlers of both the Interpromotional Era and later ones- Candy Okutsu!

Candy spent most of her career as a midcarder, using a fast-paced style. Despite her ability, she was never really given a big push or a good title reign- she only has three minor belt runs, and never got above “upper midcarder” even as joshi imploded in the late ’90s. Her small size and the sheer glut of talent above her (she’s perfectly good but usually not even in the top ten best workers on any given card) probably held her back, and she left after nine years in the business, having moved from Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (JWP) to ARSION when that company debuted. There, it looks like she became an idol-adjacent wrestler (I insist I found those pics from a standard Google search for images for this article! I swear!).

Candy is a pretty good example of the “Communal Joshi Style”, though she was quicker than most- undersized but athletic and fairly smooth, she was a high-flier who also used the Rolling Germans (one of the first people to do so that I can recall). Even a couple years into the business she was already pretty good and seemed way more experienced than she was, being put in tag matches that were very good, so long as veterans were in to control things. She was a flashy wrestler for sure- to the point where she’d do a “run up to the top rope” move 3-4 times per match, often to the point of spamming it because it looked like she didn’t have the “wrestling sense” to shake it up, nor a deep enough moveset to avoid repetition. She was also injured quite a bit.

GAEA JAPAN- STRAIGHT FLASH:
(Dec. 13th 1996):
* And we’re back to GAEA Japan for a Dec. 13th show that apparently aired on Christmas Eve! Three matches from this are up on the GAEAism channel, with one being a “Winner to WCW” Tournament Final, as the victor gets to head to WCW for their Women’s Title Tournament! Also on here are some big Veteran vs. Rookie battles, as Chigusa Nagayo faces down the traitorous rookies she herself trained- the ones who abandoned her for OZ Academy! A cheating-filled handicap match awaits! And also we get more Akira Hokuto, as she teams with fellow veteran KAORU as they face the rookie wonder-squad of Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato!

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. SUGAR SATO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA:
* YUP- the boss of GAEA takes on both of her traitorous trainees. This is probably the kind of match people saw when they cemented the “Chigusa was Selfish” reputation she got at one point- like YEAH she’s booking herself to beat two people at once, but it’s pretty much part of the trainee process in Japan that she’d be able to slaughter them.

GAEA JAPAN- BIG TARGET:
(Nov. 16th 1996)
* It’s more GAEA Japan, as I go to a November show featuring two “Veteran vs. Rookie God” matches, as we get the first in the great Akira Hokuto/Meiko Satomura series, and Chigusa Nagayo taking on her student, Sonoko Kato! Plus it’s the battle of OZ Academy, as Mayumi Ozaki takes Sugar Sato against Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima.

I dunno when this picture is dated to, but they definitely don’t look like that here.

AMBITIOUS:
MAYUMI OZAKI & SUGAR SATO vs. REIKO AMANO & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA:
* It’s the battle of OZ Academy, as the Sugar/Chikayo team is split up so they can ally with their JWP stablemates; the boss working with Sugar. This is a very “joshi” kind of thing, with regular teammates put up against each other all the time in these competitive battles. Alas, all we get is this clipped version.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- CHIKAKO SHIRATORI:
Real Name: Chikako Hasegawa
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″ 136 lbs.
Career Length: 1991-2001

-Chikako Shiratori has one of the funniest little careers in all of joshi, and is fascinating to me- she’s seen repeatedly in 1993-ish shows for All-Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW) in the worst match on each card, with a look on her face like she doesn’t know where she is or what she’s supposed to be doing. Lame performances left and right, and right when she’s supposed to be at the level of “improving rookie”, she’s just… not on the shows at all. And then randomly the company JD’ Beauty Athlete starts up and Chikako becomes one of the only AJW wrestlers to jump ship, suddenly becoming one of four “name athletes” on their programs. At this point Chikako is now an official “Pushed Star” and is rapidly shoved into a higher station beneath top stars like Bison Kimura and Jaguar Yokota, with a lot more emphasis on improvement and training and… she still sucks. But she’s trying! Like she sucks, but she sucks honestly! Not bad for someone who peaked as “Dollar Store Mima Shimoda”.

I mean, I appreciate the effort is what I’m saying. Chikako was never any good- just didn’t have any athleticism that’s required at higher levels, nor the charisma or character to make up for deficiencies in that area. Even at her best, she seems to be acting in a way she’s been TAUGHT to act, but not in a way that comes off as natural to her- the real performers do instinctively what she’s trying really hard to do, but sometimes forgets about. And as matches go on, you see what little move application she had go to hell, and she flubs things left and right. And she never develops beyond the “Communal Joshi Offense”, with her big deal being a Dragon Suplex that a lot of people can do. Later matches include an “Uraken” that just looks like a wimpy little backhand with no real force behind it, too.

AJW REAL EARNEST:
(Dec. 8th 1996)
* And so we reach the end of the year for AJW, as the company seems to be falling apart creatively, and then Manami Toyota’s disappointing year as Champion culminates with a match against her longtime rival, Kyoko Inoue. This arena is blacked out all to hell, which really makes it look bad. I mean, how bad DID this draw?

Though to be fair, this card seems INCREDIBLY dire. Chaparrita ASARI defends her Super Lightweight Title against low-ass JWP wrestler Fusayo Nouchi? AJW feeds their lowest-end jobbers to JWP & JD’ teams? Rie Tamada vs. Chikako Shiratori in a singles match? What IS this?

PS here’s a list of my full Joshi Spotlight archives: https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=2086

The Skipped Matches:
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR MATCH:
MOMOE NAKANISHI d. MIHO WAKIZAWA (5:06): Momoe becomes a big star in the 2000s so it’s nice to see she wins this one.
EMI MOTOKAWA & TOMOKO KUZUMI (JWP) d. MISAE GENKI & TANNY MOUSE (AJW) (15:38): A horrifyingly long match for people this green, but JWP’s team gets the lowest-tier jobbers fed to them.
BLOODY PHOENIX, CHIQUITA AZTECA & PEQUENA AZTECA (JD’) d. YOSHIKO TAMURA, YUKA SHIINA (AJW) (13:31): Once again, AJW jobs its greenest rookies to another company. Pequena is Cynthia Moreno, and way above everyone else here, though Tamura is the hottest rookie AJW has right now.

AJW JUNIOR TITLE:
RIE TAMADA (AJW) d. CHIKAKO SHIRATORI (10:27): Kept about as short as it should be, as Rie defeats her old Class of 1991 classmate.

WWWA WORLD SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE:
CHAPARRITA ASARI (AJW) vs. FUSAYO NOUCHI (JWP):
* Oh, THIS is where that damn match goes, lol. I found it in an old recap and the original video of the full match is gone. The tiny ASARI defends her trophy belt against the rival promotion’s tiny Nouchi. All we get is the last 4 minutes, which really come off well as it’s the classic “try anything you can to win” AJW style.

AJW NAGOYA ULTRA WHIRLWIND ’96:
(Oct. 6th 1996)
* And it’s an extra AJW event before “Real Earnest” (the Manami/Kyoko match)! With some big… well ONE big match on it, with Manami Toyota taking on Aja Kong for the WWWA World Title!

PS here’s a list of my full Joshi Spotlight archives: https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=2086

Looks like most of this isn’t on YouTube, but here’s what goes down:

MIHO WAKIZAWA & SAYA ENDO d. NANAE TAKAHASHI & YACHIYO KAWAMOTO (11:18): The super-green rookies (some of whom go nowhere) get 11 minutes!
YUKA SHIINA d. MOMOE NAKANISHI (7:58): Momoe is the best of her generation, but gets fed to a 2nd/3rd year.
KAORU ITO & TOMOKO WATANABE d. MISAE GENKI & YOSHIKO TAMURA (11:53): Oh god- the legendary Rookieslayers of AJW get to murder the “next generation to get pushed”. Poor Tamura especially- she was in the finals of Discover New Heroine and gets to die here.

LADIES LEGEND PRO WRESTLING:
(Sept. 24th 1992)
* It’s time for more LLPW! Again with a truncated (I hope) review format.

RUMI YASUDA & MIZUKI ENDO vs. YUKARI OSAWA & MICHIKO NAGASHIMA:
* It’s more rookie mayhem! Endo’s in navy blue & white, Yasuda (the future Yasha Kurenai) is unrecognizable in mottled purple & white, Michiko’s in frilly white, and Yukari’s in pink & black. She’s the “elder” year, such as it is.

GAEA JAPAN- WE ARE GAEA JAPAN!:
(Nov. 2nd 1996, Singapore Indoor Stadium)
* And we have more GAEA Japan! Except… this is from Singapore? Unfortunately, despite this being a very big deal for the promotion, this is clipped and is missing several matches. Like, this is the first time we see real TITLE BELTS in this promotion and it’s 14-16-minute matches cut by half so they fit in 10-minute YouTube videos. This sees the creation of the AAAW World Title, the principal belt of GAEA Japan, as Chigusa Nagayo takes on her ancient rival, Devil Masami. Also being defended are the AAAW Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles, as OZ Academy takes on the GAEA golden rookies, Meiko & Kato.

Matches We Miss:
TOSHIE UEMATSU d. MAIKO MATSUMOTO (12:36): That sounds horrifically long given how Maiko is BRAND-NEW.
BOMBER HIKARI d. MAKIE NUMAO (13:49): The weak midcarder of GAEA beats the Kicky Rookie. Said to have “stupid comedy and poor transitions” by Mike Lorefice.
KAORU & RINA ISHII d. CHIHIRO NAKANO & TOSHIE UEMATSU (14:49): Not much is said about this. KAORU is the only elder so obviously her team won.

GO AHEAD!
AKIRA HOKUTO vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
* LOL that sneaky Chigusa. Giving us back AKIRA HOKUTO and her first match back is fighting the pink-clad rookie dingus Sakura Hirota. Poor Sakura gets the rub of being demolished by Aja & Akira within a few months of each other. Akira’s in her very complex green gear- pretty well the outfit she’d wear in WCW as well (complete with the gas mask). The crowd actually pops big just for that reveal.

AJW TV (Nov. 21st 1996):
* Here’s a few matches found from near the end of the year on AJW TV! This is taped from Kobe World Memorial Hall, which has a sizable 8,000 seats but are bathed in pitch blackness so we can’t see them empty. On commentary is some VERY shrieky, annoying girl, and a card that doesn’t exactly set the world on fire. Mostly random tag stuff- even the main.

Oh, also I found an FMW vs. JD’ Beauty Athlete tag match featuring Megumi Kudo & Jaguar Yokota on opposite sides of the ring, so there’s that!

MISAE GENKI, SAYA ENDO & NANAE TAKAHASHI vs. YUMI FUKAWA, YUKA SHIINA & MOMOE NAKANISHI:
* Oh look! It’s the six bottom-tier wrestlers in AJW! I feel like the “elders” here have been curtain-jerking for like two years by this point, but Momoe & Nanae are very new. This is joined in progress and almost everyone’s in blue, making it super-annoying to recap as I barely recognize anyone. I mean there’s Genki the praying mantis in orange, so SHE stands out…

Takako Inoue challenges Mayumi Ozaki in Oz’s trademark “Dress Up Wild Fight!” hardcore match!

AJW IN 1996:
* So in this one I’ll take a look at some random 1996 AJW stuff (ie. a show that’s not on YouTube and some scattered crap I reviewed in the past or just now found online). Including another in the “Dress Up Wild Fight” series of Mayumi Ozaki’s, as she takes on Takako Inoue! In a Last Man Standing… oh jesus… 35 minute match!

PS I made a list of my full Joshi Spotlight archives: https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=2086

AJW THE RISING GENERATION QUEENS CARNIVAL (Sept. 1st):
-AJW ran yet ANOTHER rookie-themed show in Sept. 1996, but it appears to be not on YouTube. Almost the entire thing is just random rookies fighting, but the interpromotional stuff picks up a bit. Of note is Tomoko Watanabe crushing Kumiko Maekawa very quickly, which seems wasteful as Kumiko’s rising in skill quickly. TWO AJW Titles change hands, going to other promotions’ rookies- this is a curious booking thing they sometimes did with their meaningless rookie belts, which got swapped around a fair bit. So GAEA Japan gets its first gold with the Japanese Tag Titles of all things, while the future Ran Yu-Yu pics up AJW Junior gold.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- BAD NURSE NAKAMURA:
Real Name: Rie Nakamura
Ring Names: Nurse Nakamura, Bad Nurse Nakamura, RIE
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 137 lbs.
Career Length: 1990-2000

-Bad Nurse Nakamura, just “Nurse Nakamura” in her babyface incarnation (yes, she literally added “Bad” to her name upon her heel turn; puro is MAGNIFICENT), is one of those random FMW female midcarders that turns up only a little bit in the cards I’ve seen, as FMW is harder to come by. I kind of laughed a bit when I first saw her, as I was expecting some kind of “Kinky Halloween Nurse” or otherwise ostentatious dresser based off of the name, but here she was… just looking like some girl whose legit job was that she was a nurse. Like it was a normal nurse uniform. The short hair and plain appearance just added to it, making the gimmick seem all the stranger.

It was the heel turn that gave her a new lease on life, and I’ve seen some decent-ish brawls featuring her. Lacking both size and speed, she was not really any good (she’s clumsy and unathletic to the point where even her basic offense looks sub-par compared to even most 2nd or 3rd-years- in 1995, she’s worse than at least 4 of GAEA’s 5 first-years!), but could do the “punch & stab” matches full of interference and cheating okay, and could be carried by a top-tier seller like Chigusa Nagayo or Megumi Kudo. Anyone else and that match was going to SUUUUUUUUUCK but that’s what’ll happen when you let Tarzan Goto train your people. So I mean, if you like matches featuring only kicking and punching by a wrestler who only sort of looks like they know what they’re doing, have I got the wrestler for you!

LADIES LEGEND PRO WRESTLING- THE KAGEKI RENAISSANCE- GRAND OPENING!:
(Aug. 8th 1992)
* And now we travel back in time! Someone on YouTube has been uploading as much as they can of even classic joshi, so there’s a ton of stuff on there that I’ve missed, particularly from the two second-tier ’90s joshi promotions- LLPW & JWP. This one starts with a lot of black & white slow-motion images that make the promotion seem pretty cool, then the color turns up and you realize how horrific all their gear looks. Jesus, their tailor is the biggest heel in all of wrestling. I dunno what it is, but LLPW always had the worst costumes, just putting EVERY color on these poor girls’ gear, haha. They’re so garish!

With these I think I’ll do more quick-style recaps, as full ones tend to take a while and these aren’t really that amazing save for a more historical perspective. I mean, this show has Yasha Kurenai as a rookie jobber before she got her gimmick!

THE DEBUT: So LLPW was formed from the acrimonious split in the original Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, with Shinobu Kandori and her faction (with Rumi Kazama as President) splitting off to form LLPW, while the others stayed with a renewed “JWP Project”. The promotion is largely top star Kandori, upper-mid Eagle, former Jumping Bomb Angel Noriyo Tateno, great worker but upper-mid Harley Saito, and then Rumi with a bunch of rookies.

LEO KITAMURA vs. MIZUKI ENDO:
* Rookie fight! Endo has had a MASSIVE career, which is funny to me as I can never remember what she even looks like, as she’s so low-tier in all the stuff I’ve seen. Leo retired in 1994. Endo’s in navy blue & white, Leo’s in orange/black/white