Joshi Spotlight — page 11

ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S TWO-DAY RIOT:
(June 17th 1997)
* It’s time for more AJW! We hit the middle of 1997, and though business is down, the CRAZINESS is afoot, as Las Cachorras Orientales have reunited and set the company on fire with banger after banger after banger! Come see LCO vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada as the now main event heel duo actually make MANAMI bleed and show just how much mayhem they can fit into a basic tag match! Also it’s the WWWA Decision Match of Kyoko Inoue vs. Kaoru Ito for the vacant Red Belt!

The YouTube videos for most of this have been axed between when I reviewed it and when I posted this, but I found the Class of ’87 Clash up above there.

CMLL WORLD WOMEN’S TITLE:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. RIE TAMADA:
* Okay, this one’s a bit weird. The CMLL Women’s World Title is largely a trophy belt created in Mexico for AJW’s women to use, but is occasionally traded to Mexican talent like Lady Apache. But Akira Hokuto won it as the masked “Reina Jabuki” until late 1996, when she was stripped of it for appearing on WCW Nitro to do a quick job in the Women’s Title Tournament (which of course Akira won… but not as Reina). Apache won the belt but vacated it herself, and Mariko won it in Feb. 1997, and is now using it as a trophy. ie. AJW realizes that they have something in Yoshida, but not enough to like… give her an IMPORTANT belt, so she has this and defends it. Like when Manami had the IWA Title in 1992.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm5y0yCoivA

BISON AND SOUL:
(Jd’, 1997)
* So this is some retrospective on Bison Kimura’s career, and boy it’d be well-timed because she retires in only a few months due to injury. First, we see her joining Dump Matsumoto’s Atrocious Alliance in its later days, using “evil heel eyeshadow” and teaming with a young Aja Kong. She joins Bull Nakano’s crew when Dump leaves, gaining a signature weapon with her tonfa rods. She & Aja form Jungle Jack and feud with Bull, becoming a legendary tag team and winning the WWWA Tag Belts, but Aja turns on her and slaughters her way to the World Title alone. Bison temporarily retires (probably forced out by AJW management) and later joins the new company Jd’ as its signature star.

She wins a variety of interpromotional matches in JD’s main events, but does a quick job to JWP’s Dynamite Kansai in 11 minutes via an armbar. She rallies back with a win over FMW’s Combat Toyoda via moonsault… and Combat gets the win back in home FMW territory, and Manami Toyota beats Bison, too. Then she fights Lioness Asuka- I thought I reviewed this one, but it’s an other bout they had and OH GOD THAT RUNTIME:

BISON KIMURA vs. LIONESS ASUKA:
(JD’, 5/2/1996)
* Asuka’s in black & white, while Bison’s in yellow & white.

Oh fart- they deleted the video before I could post the review! You’ll just have to take my word for it then!

AJW TV (May 11th 1997):
* It’s finally time more more AJW stuff! This time we get a 1:22:00 TV show. This show is a really interesting one from a booking perspective, as MANAMI TOYOTA AND TOSHIYO YAMADA team up again, as the former champs for a huge chunk of 1992-95 come calling for the current champs, Tomoko & Kumiko! Though it’s non-title. I don’t know how much drama this would have had at the time (Yamada is donezo as a threat) but it’s super-interesting for me. Also the WWWA Champion Kyoko Inoue takes on Kaoru Ito, in what’s likely a match to establish just how high-tier Ito is with her new push- she tied with Aja and BEAT Manami Toyota, so in a sense she’s a worthy challenger… as much as she has a snowball’s chance in hell with this one.

Also, we get the return of JUNGLE JACK, as Aja Kong & Bison Kimura re-team to take on another old-school team, Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta. They’re in the Nagoya Arena, which has blackened out nearly EVERYTHING- the signs of a really dying fanbase.

We start with a goofy pair of TV hosts taking us to an AJW arena show. The guy ogles Yumi Fukawa’s new bikini photobook while she does the “hide her mouth” shy laugh (they were selling Fukawa photobooks and not MITA photobooks? No wonder they went bankrupt in 1997!), then knock on a door and Aja Kong comes up behind them and starts swatting the dude with papers, then the photobook.

“The pain of barbed wire matches is beyond imagination, but when I think of the harm that she has done to us- Tsuchiya bullying rookies and forcing Combat (Toyoda) to consider retirement, I could overcome the fear with anger and a sense of responsibility.”
-A very calm, placid all-timer of a babyface promo.

31 Days of Move Origins #5 – Megumi Kudo's Kudo Driver (Vertabreaker)
byu/BrokenMasterpiece inSquaredCircle

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- MEGUMI KUDO:
Real Name: Megumi Kudo (married as Megumi Takayama)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’4″ 132 lbs.
Career Length: 1986-88 (retired/let go early), 1990-1997 (FMW)

-Interestingly, among the biggest stars in the history of women’s wrestling didn’t wrestle for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling much at all, but was the superstar mega-babyface of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, acting as a female version of their dominant Ace, Atsushi Onita. Kudo had actually started with AJW (the same graduating class as Aja Kong, in fact), but retired young and was later hand-picked to be the center of FMW’s women’s division, mostly made up of Kudo and fellow babyfaces against an army of evil, merciless heels right out of the ’80s- so it was “nice, normal girls” vs. “facepaint-wearing Nazi harridans”, which Kudo’s professional training backing up a division of mostly horrendous workers with the barest idea of what they were doing. And she was SO GOOD that FMW maintained a very nice run of ***-ish women’s matches at the top spot despite her & Combat Toyoda being the only two women in the company worth a damn in the ring.

And like… remember the Hurricane? And his crazy finisher the Vertebreaker? It was invented by Megumi Kudo- called the “Kudo Driver”. A convoluted spinning  set-up into one of the more profound neck-bumps in wrestling.

MEGUMI KUDO- QUEEN OF THE DEATH MATCHES:
* So Megumi Kudo is set to retire at this point in my timeline, so I figured I’d finally review one of those Kudo Compilations that shows up on YouTube from time to time. I hear FMW stuff gets stricken down all the time, and it’s almost never around when I want to review it, but I’ll try this one out.

BARBED WIRE STICK MATCH:
LIONESS ASUKA & SHARK TSUCHIYA vs. BISON KIMURA & MEGUMI KUDO:
(FMW Winning Road 1997)
* This one features a pair of JD’/FMW teams, as JD’ Ace Lioness Asuka teams with FMW’s top female heel against Kudo the Ace and Bison Kimura, whom JD’ was using as a common main eventer. Bison’s in khaki gear this time, and Kudo’s & Shark are in jeans and a black shirts- Asuka’s in all black.

JWP- LIFE IN THE BATTLE (April 8th, 1997):
* Here it comes- a major JWP show! Their online content is not up to snuff from 1995-97 sadly, so I feel like there’s a LOT of stuff I’ve missed out on. For example, even the disparate stuff that’s shown up on Rico Kasai’s YouTube channel has been very sparing for Hikari Fukuoka’s matches, and they’ve been building her up into a credible World Title challenger all this time! And here it is- the show where the colossal Hikari vs. Kansai match takes place for the JWP Openweight Title! An absolute banger and one of the best joshi matches from this time period!

Matches We Miss:
Tomoko Miyaguchi d. Sari Osumi (9:47): Osumi only lasts a year in the business.
Command Bolshoi, Devil Masami & Plum Mariko d. Candy Okutsu, Tomoko Kuzumi & Tomoko Miyaguchi (20:47): … man, they saddled Candy with two green rookies against Devil & Plum’s team? Crazy. And 20 minutes!

CUTIE SUZUKI vs. KANAKO MOTOYA:
* Motoya, still pretty green, gets to be demolished by Cutie Suzuki, who at this point is kind of just in the “still kicking” phase of her career. She still lasts until late ’98, but I’m to understand that she was half-assing it until then, her push long since over. Motoya’s in pink & white, looking like a Megumi Kudo clone, while Cutie’s in white ruffles. Cutie has this Takako Inoue-like “How DARE you try to be as pretty as me in my ring?” look to her, so if she leans into that, this could be fun.

GAEA JAPAN- SECOND ANNIVERSARY SHOW (Part Two):
(April 29th, 1997)
* So a week after the April 21st show comes another “Second Anniversary” special. This one features yet another WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Title defense by Toshie Uematsu, Chigusa and the first “Chigusa Clone” (Toshiyo Yamada) against the best of GAEA’s first generation of rookies (Meiko & Kato!), and Akira Hokuto teaming with Maiko Matsumoto- a rookie just entering her second year- against Mayumi Ozaki and her best goon, Chikayo Nagashima!

Oh, and it’s the debut of Chigusa Nagayo’s heel character ZERO! So, uh, there’s that. For all you Zero fans out there. Wait am I supposed to capitalize her name now?

WCW WOMEN’S CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE:
TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SUGAR SATO:
* Toshie now defends WCW gold against the OZ Academy turncoat. Sato’s now in a more elaborate version of her white gear, with lots of strings and cut-out bits. We’re JIP here.

GAEA JAPAN- SECOND ANNIVERSARY SHOW:
(April 21st 1997)
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! And it’s their Second Anniversary show! As AJW stuff becomes more and more sparse, it looks like GAEA was the only promotion really busting it out there. This April show features Toshie Uematsu defending a *WCW* belt, as she faces AJW’s Yuka Shiina for the WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Title!

Unfortunately, this show is quite massively clipped and only has two matches available. But there’s another show a week later… and it features the Japanese debut of ZERO!! Wait with baited breath!

WCW WOMEN’S CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE:
TOSHIE UEMATSU (GAEA Japan) vs. YUKA SHIINA (AJW):
* Yup- it’s April and Toshie’s already defending her newly-won WCW gold against another promotion’s wrestler, as Yuka Shiina comes in from AJW for a shot. Shiina is now angry-looking, in a red top & white shorts, looking a bit less like a jobber. Toshie’s upgraded past her green singlet and is now wearing a lot of green frills on a leotard. The giant kneebrace is a sad sign of things to come.

Two Joshi Spotlights in one week? Why, it must be “write a bio of someone with a short career” day!

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- FUSAYO NOUCHI:
Real Name: Fusayo Nouchi (somethings Anglicized as “Nochi”)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’2″ & 128 lbs.
Career Length: 1992-1996

-Yes, it’s time for another “Wait, Who?” bio, as I look at Fusayo Nouchi, who I mostly recognize as “The One Who Isn’t Candy Okutsu”, as the two were paired up in similar outfits for ages on undercards for Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling. Her career was so short (only four years) that a proper assessment is difficult, but she seems like a pretty solid undersized rookie. She probably would have been a bigger star in the later era, where teeny-tiny girls were the norm and being 5’2″ didn’t make you look like a dwarf up against monsters like Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami, the main eventers during her run.

She seems quite good for her experience level- she’s quick and spry in the mostly undercard stuff I’ve seen- when wrestling Hiromi Sugo (just a bit below her in experience), her stuff looks good and Sugo’s looks terrible. Nouchi could generally be relied upon to hit **1/2 or so in undercard stuff, and mostly just lacked diversity in her offense- as a rookie she was mostly enforced to do the basics until she started getting a push, and that never really came. I’ve seen a match against Candy Okutsu (who was slumming it) where Nouchi’s selling was pretty great, at least. Generally, her stuff looked tight and good while not necessarily being outstanding. Though one of her final matches sees her hit a Super Saito Suplex and that was pretty awesome.

It’s a double-thing this week, as I take a look at a 20+ minute match between dethroned champ Manami Toyota and JWP’s Hiromi Yagi from one of the earliest shows of 1997! And then it’s a re-watch of Manami vs. Kaoru Ito from March’s Wrestling Queendom 1997, and a recap of the rest of the show.

MANAMI TOYOTA (AJW) vs. HIROMI YAGI (JWP):
(JWP, Jan. 8th 1997)
* Okay, here’s an interesting one! Some guy is uploading stuff in a “Best of Manami Toyota” collection and I randomly found this one from Jan. 1997 against Hiromi Yagi. Yagi at this point is still in the undercard of JWP, but possibly a bit higher, and Toyota is now in her “Rookie-Destroyer” phase even as she is considering retirement. Yagi’s in black tights with a black top that has a weird purple collar on it, while Manami’s in the usual black.

Hokuto with her weird “Gas Mask/Michael Jackson” gear, fronted by Sonny Onoo, Eric Bischoff’s friend and manager to all Japanese heels in WCW.

JOSHI IN WCW (1997):
* And we’re back with more of WCW’s Women’s Division! So in early 1997, they try to make a “go” of the division, largely by having Akira Hokuto and Madusa feud, occasionally with Hokuto’s ally (enemy in GAEA) KAORU getting involved, and GAEA Japan’s Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato brought in a jobbers to the heels, and Malia Hosaka (of Japanese descent, but a Hawaiian trained in the U.S.) as a general jobber. But we also bring in Toshie Uematsu, and she gets the one WCW Title NOBODY ever remembers (as a 30-something, I learned of its existence and went “whhaaaaat?”)!

Ironically WCW attempts their Women’s Division around the same time joshi in Japan is about to go through INCREDIBLE disarray, but we’re not quite at AJW’s bankruptcy just yet. It’s mostly “Madusa & Hosaka with GAEA Japan”, and never improves with any homegrown talent.

Akira Hokuto has oddly become the first Champion- given how Madusa (always in her two-piece American flat outfit to show off her figure) was carried as the division’s “Ace” this feels peculiar, but is likely part of why GAEA agreed to it, and it at least gives Madusa someone to chase and a credible enemy instead of Madusa winning the tournament and the fans thus not buying ANYONE against her. And the division is gone before the summer ends- shockingly, it’s belts become defended in Japan!

AKIRA HOKUTO (w/ Sonny Onoo) vs. MADUSA:
(WCW Worldwide, Jan. 12th 1997)
* A Starrcade rematch on the D-show (thus, it’s non-title)- Akira’s in green & Madusa’s in the usual.

Yes, current legend Meiko Satomura actually has WCW Nitro appearances. Wrestling is weird.

JOSHI IN WCW (1996):
* And now I take a look at a pretty weird time for WCW- that early 1997 period where they actually try to have a WOMEN’S DIVISION! This actually slips between the WWF’s two big ’90s attempts at it, as the “Alundra Blayze and one heel” era and “Sable and one heel, then pra & panties matches”- this is the time when Madusa showed up in WCW, dumping the WWF Women’s Title in the trashcan, and then acting as a central star in the WCW women’s division… in which she never wins the belt. Yeah, instead AKIRA HOKUTO is the champion, which creates a pretty strange situation.

Unfortunately since these matches are all WWE property now, I can’t post them here, but YouTube has them all! Alas, I’m missing the big PPV matches (all two or three of them, I guess?) so this and next week’s column will both be a tad incomplete.

The Women’s Division:
-So the women’s division was pretty much just the GAEA Japan promotion in WCW, mixed with Madusa and Japanese-American wrestler Malia Hosaka, plus Luna Vachon sometimes. Chigusa’s young charges Meiko Satomura (who is a WWE employee today, oddly enough), Sonoko Kato and Toshie Uematsu in fact made up the backbone of the division, alongside KAORU. However, nearly every TV match is under four minutes long, and the vast majority of them appear on the D-shows like Worldwide. I was watching the HELL out of WCW at the time and I only barely remember Hokuto and Zero (just wait), much less all these subordinates.

The style used in these matches was far less risky and crazy in the US as well- they seemingly knew to take it easy on American cards, because even Hokuto is ending matches with a basic bridging suplex in nearly every match- hardly one of her more elite finishers. That Madusa is a pretty horrible worker by joshi standards (she’s sometimes okay but mostly below-average, being clumsy, slow, hesitant and a bit flaily).

This is the ONLY PICTURE on Google Image Search, and I’m only kinda sure it’s her. Yup- it’s one of THOSE bios.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- BOMBER HIKARI:
Real Name: Mitsuyo Mura
Billed Height & Weight: N/A (looks 5’4″-ish and probably 170 lbs.?)
Career Length: 1987-89 (JWP run), 1994-1997 (GAEA run)

-That’s right! It’s time for another “LOL, Jab is doing an bio of THIS idiot?” column!

Among the weirder “wait, who’s that?” people I’ve seen in my joshi reviews, Bomber Hikari has a weird origin story: she was trained in the late ’80s, but retired after only a year or two in the business. The story goes that Chigusa Nagayo, during the formation of GAEA Japan, met Bomber while she was driving a cab and then recruited her for GAEA, which was in need of someone approximating an “already-trained veteran”. And so we had this painfully mediocre wrestler using the “Communal Joshi Offense” on GAEA cards, usually trouncing the rookies in the early shows as a “Gatekeeper” of sorts to the next level. And then she jobs to a few of the rookies in 1996 and then she’s gone. It’s very strange.

Bomber at least looked the part- a squat, powerful physique with the sporty Yumiko Hotta/Toshiyo Yamada hair cut really short, and a truly bizarre ring costume with this technicolor circuit-board look to it. Her offense was all “pick up and slam them” moves and just overpowering the tiny GAEA rookies. This made her a poor fit for anyone who was actually a veteran, as the taller, stronger wrestlers didn’t mesh right with Bomber, who wasn’t that great at selling nor timing, and didn’t have the moves to keep up with them. That she lacked a lot of charisma (just kind of a “Generic friendly babyface” sort, cheering to the fans as if she hit her “Taunt” button at random) didn’t help, as did her attempts at high-flying, which always looked rather clunky (Evito suggests either she wanted to wrestle this way or Chigusa told her to, but it did her no favors).

GAEA JAPAN (February-March 1997):
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! These are mostly digested shows again. Three different nights here, with some semi-big news afoot- a main event of Chigusa Nagayo vs. OZ Academy’s evil leader Mayumi Ozaki… but the night holds great tragedy for GAEA Japan, as they lose even more rookies to the devilish one’s cause!

CHIGUSA NAGAYO, AKIRA HOKUTO & HIROMI KATO vs. MEIKO SATOMURA, TOSHIE UEMATSU & SAKURA HIROTA:
* A bizarre trios match, this one features the two top stars in GAEA teaming up with their greenest rookie (Kato, in black) up against a rookie squad- a top 1st year (red Meiko), a secondary 1st year (green Toshie) and another green-ass rookie (pink Sakura).

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.