Joshi Spotlight — page 14

JWP IN APRIL 1996:
* We’re back to more JWP stuff! Their YouTube presence is a bit odd, as it’s mainly limited to one guy’s account- Rico Kasai is the name. None of it’s dated, so it took a hell of a lot of work to find out when all of this happened. Some in my “Can’t find” pile should just be mass-reviewed at some point too, I guess. We last left off with them in September 1996, but also had the Tag Title change in December, but the last stuff of Kasai’s was a ways before that, so I haven’t gotten to his in a while. In any case, we have SIX matches from April 1996! One is an absolute BANGER that I’ve reviewed before in a Takako Inoue vs. Mayumi Ozaki spotlight- it’s a fantastic Interpromotional Tag Match between Dynamite Kansai & Takako vs. Kyoko Inoue & Ozaki- and in it, they go all-out and very clearly attempt to replicate the success of the famous Toyota/Yamada vs. Kansai/Ozaki series from 1993.

COMMAND BOLSHOI vs. RIEKO AMANO:
* Miracle rookie Amano (who gets good FAST- I’ve seen a **** match from only a couple years after this, tops) goes up against Bolshoi, who’s on the low end of the pecking order for “name” wrestlers, and is thus a good gatekeeper and “test” against the kids. Amano’s in a white & blue jobber singlet, while Bolshoi’s in the rad blue & green gear.

Bison Kimura: The world’s most photogenic kaiju!

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- BISON KIMURA:
Real Name: Nobuko Kimura
Billed Height & Weight: 5’6″ 165 lbs.
Career Length: 1986-1992, 1994-1998
Trainer: Jaguar Yokota/AJW Dojo

-If you’re like me and got into joshi around 2000, and mostly kinda focused on the Interpromotional Era with all the major companies sending their stars against each other, it’s easy to miss Bison Kimura, as her career took place mostly AROUND that major part of joshi history. She was mostly known as “Aja’s #2” back in the day, having started in the same Rookie Class as her (along with Megumi Kudo & others), then missed 1993-94 due to either injury or being forced out by AJW bookers (I’ve heard both), and so if all you got were the Dream Slams or the big AJW/JWP/LLPW/FMW cards of that era, you’d have missed her completely, and when she finally DID come back, she was relegated to “midcarder”, often being flattened by mid-tier acts in AJW. And then she switched off to Jaguar Yokota’s JD’ promotion, which was one of the least studied joshi promotions of the time, and peaked early and disappeared from the mainstream.

GAEA- WAR IS A FRIDAY NIGHT:
(Feb. 16th, 1996)

* With possibly the greatest show tagline of all time, we’ve got an interesting mixed batch here, as I found the first GAEA vs. *AJW* match I can find, as Sakie Hasegawa gets to go to GAEA Japan on her retirement road and face Chigusa Nagayo!! And Chigusa leads her girls against heel invaders from LLPW, with Eagle Sawai’s GUREN Corps showing up to act as ANOTHER “Evil Girls Group” against mega-babyface Chigusa.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO, BOMBER HIKARI & SONOKO KATO (GAEA) vs. GUREN CORPS (Eagle Sawai, Jenn Yukari & Michiko Nagashima) (LLPW):
* So what looks to be LLPW’s big heel stable at the time (Eagle had recently been LLPW Champion) invades GAEA, with Chigusa shoring up a lame “veteran” and a rookie against Eagle & midcarders Jenn Yukari (a person so minor I could barely find squat to focus on in a Spotlight just for her, haha) and Nagashima. Chigusa appears to respond to a GUREN invasion and taunt-job simply by asking two people to join her for an impromptu match. Chigusa’s in red/yellow/black, Bomber’s in black/green/white & Kato’s in blue, while Eagle’s in black, Yukari’s in red/green/white & Michiko’s in a black “Manami Toyota”-esque outfit with cut-outs.

AJW DOCUMENTARY- “LES DIABLESSES DU RING”:
* So in 1991, the “La Une” channel in France decided to do a documentary on All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling. They were invited to go on tour with the, interview the wrestlers, and see the day-to-day operations of the show. It’s about 55 minutes long, and focuses on a small handful of people: Highly-ranked Bull Nakano & Aja Kong, rising star Manami Toyota, and American trainee on an excursion Debbie Malenko. Thankfully, YouTube has an English subtitled version.

Despite pretty well everyone knowing the secret of pro wrestling by 1991, this whole thing is in kayfabe- rivalries are treated as real, people want to win matches to make more money, etc. Curiously, the promotion’s owners, the Matsunagas, are not really given much attention.

We start with Aja Kong & Bison Kimura doing a rad “Jungle Jack” theme song that sounds like it should be being played at the Foot Clan’s headquarters in the Ninja Turtles movie. The host speaks to the audience directly about how women’s pro wrestling is extremely popular in Japan, but it’s a harsh world where “The losers get no pay”, and while the top star is a Queen, everyone else are “like monks”, unable to have love affairs and have to do all the drudgery work like cleaning.

We start with Bull Nakano, then the Ace and WWWA World Champion- “The Blue Queen” makes 48,000+ yen per fight (like $409 in 1992 U.S. dollars?) and weighs 260 lbs. (she’s big, but that seems high- she’s only 5’8″! Are they using “Adam Cole pounds”?). Half-Black, Half-Japanese Aja Kong weighs 242 lbs. and makes 31K yen per fight. Glamorous Manami “Cinderella” Toyota weighs 138 lbs. and makes only half that. Okay, that’s news to me that either used those nicknames (unless the doc just invented it- the subtitles keep using “Manami” while the narrator repeatedly says “Cendrillon”- Cinderella’s French name). And they use that as Manami’s ONLY name during the advertising for one show! She hadn’t even won major singles gold at this point, so I have no idea why they decided to focus so much attention on her.

AJW TV (Feb. 1996):
* Aaaaaand everyone who saw me about to enter 1996 AJW warned me “I hope you like rookie matches”, so here’s one of those dreaded bouts. And also Tomoko Watanabe’s education continues, as she takes on the World Champ, Manami Toyota! That one’s not bad!

YUMI FUKAWA, MISAE WATANABE & MARI MOGAMI vs. NOBUE ENDO, KAYO NOUMI & MINA TANIYAMA:
* Rookie mayhem! AJW tries to push up some of their kids with another trios match, with established Fukawa on one team and bottom-tier Mogami & Kayo on opposite sides. Kayo’s in white, Mina’s in blue, Endo’s in black/red, Mogami’s in blue, Misae’s in black/white (and is the tall, gangly one), and Fukawa’s in blue/white. I think Fukawa’s the only success story of this bunch, unless you’re a huge Tanny Mouse (Taniyama) mark. My apologies to her legions of fans. (Edit- according to Manji they ALL did pretty well! Except Mogami, who quit right away)

Joshi is full of the wildest costumes designs you’ll ever see in wrestling, and wrestling’s most innovative moves… and then the crazy chick in red pants comes in and beats everyone with a stick.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YASHA KURENAI:
Real Name: Rumi Yasuda (note: “Kurenai” is Japanese for “deep red”)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 143 lbs.
Career: 1989-1999

-One of the weirder “I don’t get it” things I find when I research joshi comments made back in the day is the whole “Yasha Kurenai SUCKS!” thing. I’ve mostly seen it from Mike Lorefice, but I’m sure I’ve seen it elsewhere, too. Her & Command Bolshoi got a lot of hate from old reviewers, arguing that they’re both horrible and ruin matches, and seeing their stuff I don’t get the hate. Bolshoi at least is a comedy wrestler, which has always been a controversial thing among “serious workrate” fans. But Yasha? Yasha seems FINE. Entertaining, even. Like, any healthy wrestling company has room for a Yasha Kurenai.

Yasha’s whole style, though, is a bit contrary to a lot of “MOVEZ!”-loving fans. Where most everyone else is doing “GO GO GO!” stuff and pulling out all these huge moves, here’s this squat, frowning brawler hitting people with a damn staff for a ton of her offense. Not just a “signature spot” like with Bull Nakano and her nunchucks, but using the weapon as a full-on part of her offense. Also, her brawling style is anathema to those who want more and more suplexes and/or flips. And granted it’s not MY preferred style, either, but if it’s only one wrestler, and she’s mostly a midcarder, I don’t mind it. It creates variety! Plus, it makes her look like a huge shitstain when she’s doing it to a babyface, and makes that wrestler seem a lot better for surpassing it and getting a win. And it’s not like Yasha was particularly dominant- she was never much more than a midcard worker!

Manami Toyota: Now Ace of the promotion, but the fans are gonna let her have it on this one.

AJW OTA-KU CHAMPION LEGEND ’96:
(Jan. 22nd 1996)
* Our first big AJW event of 1996, and it’s a doozy. Manami Toyota defends her newly-won WWWA World Title against longtime rival Yumiko Hotta, who set this up by beating Manami during the “Manami vs. 30 People” Gauntlet last month! There’s also a weird one as the former Dream Orca team up with Chaparrita ASARI to take on Mariko Yoshida, a rookie, and a random Mexican lady. Unfortunately I can only find those two matches.

The Rest of the Card:
ELIMINATION MATCH: KAYO NOUMI, KUMIKO MAEKAWA, MARI MOGAMI & YUKA SHIINA d. MINA TANIYAMA, MISAE WATANABE, NOBUE ENDO & YOSHIKO TAMURA (12:39): Mogami d. Taniyama (5:45), Tamura d. Noumi (7:02), Misae d. Mogami (8:02), Kumiko d. Misae (9:14), Kumiko d. Endo (10:19), Shiina d. Tamura (10:19). Kumiko & Shiina survive.

REGGIE BENNETT d. TOMOKO WATANABE (11:20): Tomoko’s getting a bit of a push, but not THAT big- Reggie way outranks her.

AJA KONG d. KAORU ITO (16:05): Wow- Aja should absolutely be beating Ito at this point, but it speaks wonders for Ito that the match goes 16 minutes.

SAKIE HASEGAWA d. BULL NAKANO (11:47): Sakie Hasegawa’s retirement tour continues as she takes on BULL NAKANO of all people in one of Bull’s final AJW matches! Shockingly, Sakie DEFEATS Bull, likely a parting gift from the former Ace.

WWWA TAG TEAM TITLE: DOUBLE INOUE (Kyoko & Takako Inoue) d. AKIRA HOKUTO & MIMA SHIMODA (29:47): Hokuto pins Kyoko at (10:30), Kyoko pins Shimoda at (19:53) and Kyoko pins Akira at (29:47). Thus ends the reign of Shimoda & Akira, the latter of whom actually leaves AJW after a very odd 1995. Seriously, she wins the V*Top Tournament at the Tokyo Dome in late ’94 and is then “just another wrestler” for 1995 until having a ***** match against Toyota and winning the Tag Titles for a run. Hokuto leaving the company kicks a MASSIVE hole in the match quality, too. Meltzer went ****1/2 for this, so I really wish it was on YouTube (looks like an older one was deleted).

GAEA JAPAN (January 1996):
* I’ve found a bit of stuff from the early part of GAEA’s 1996 shows- Jan. 14th & 28th. Most of this is “Rookies Getting Their Reps In” but we see more of Chigusa/Combat, plus Hiromi Yagi enters GAEA for a show!

HIROMI YAGI (JWP) vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU (GAEA):
* Yagi is getting a semi-decent midcard role in JWP by this point, so is well above the rookie Toshie, but Yagi’s good enough with her judo stuff to make this fun. Toshie’s in the usual green, while Yagi’s in a black top & shorts.

Violence, stiff punches and Hossing it up! What could be better?

So when I watched the great Kudo/Kong vs. Combat/Bison match a month back, I was stricken by how it seemed to push Aja vs. Combat, giving them a lot of sequences where Combat was like “Bitch, you will NOTICE me!”, defiantly opposing the bigger monster. I was like “Wow it looks like they’re teasing us for a solo match” and wouldn’t ya know it- this is prove Joshi REALLY knows how to book ’em, even in-ring.

We seem to miss a semi-interesting TV show from January, as Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa beat Nobue Endo & Kumiko Maekawa (17:50!!) to retain the All Japan Tag Titles (the jobber ones), Aja Kong & Mima Shimoda defeat Etsuko Mita & Yumiko Hotta (17:07) in the battle of the toughies & LCO (one on each side), Sakie Hasegawa defeats Tomoko Watanabe (17:59) in a shocker since Sakie is leaving in a couple months and they seem keen on pushing Tomoko, and Double Inoue beat Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito (19:31) in a match Meltzer rated ***3/4. This might be for a tag title shot, as Double Inoue take another run at the gold before the month is out.

Later in this week I’ll take a look at a GAEA show, since this one is a one-match review.

AJA KONG vs. COMBAT TOYODA:
(Jan. 10th)
* Aja’s in white & gold here, while Combat’s in black & red. Unfortunately, this looks like a REALLY small gym.

Among the more identifiable joshi of all time is “The One Who Dressed Like The Ultimate Warrior For Some Reason”. And I mean, it’s an awesome look.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- KYOKO INOUE:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″ 238 lbs. (note: varies considerably- she was a skinny kid in 1991 and got bulkier as time went on, being noticeably heavy in 1996-97)
Career Length: 1988-today
Trained By: Jaguar Yokota

-I swear the Joshi Boys on the Blog all had the same realizations towards Kyoko Inoue: When we first started watching 1990s Joshi during livewatches, we were all blown away by Kyoko Inoue. 10 matches in, we were all thinking she was an underrated fourth pillar of all-timers alongside Manami, Aja & Akira. 30 matches in, we started seeing some cracks… and by 70 matches in, she was barely in anyone’s top ten. It’s the damndest thing.

So the deal with Kyoko is that she was a super-charismatic, likeable, popular mega-babyface in some of the best matches on any given year- ****-***** ratings abound. EXTREMELY athletic, and the only woman in joshi who could keep up with Manami Toyota at full-bore for limitless amounts of time (she’s actually a superior athlete all-around- less flippy but with even better balance and strength). Possibly the best-ever for cardio and hitting moves crisply an hour into a match. Absolutely brilliant at running up the ropes (harder than it looks), boomeranging off the middle rope, and even doing this insanely-precise little “skip to each side of the turnbuckles to lead the others on a merry chase” thing that I’ve never seen anyone else do and she made look easy. Her tag team stuff is much of the era’s best- with Takako Inoue, she had a TON of amazing 40+ minute tag bouts with false-finishes out the ass.

She did the “Manami/Jaguar Yokota Pace” but with power moves- hitting All Japan-esque pulverizing stuff in succession- her big finish was the Niagara Driver, an over-the-shoulder sit-out powerbomb that looked like death and whiplashed the person to the mat. Her early-match submissions were great fun- hanging people upside-down in a deathlock while pulling on their arms, or rocking people back and forth in a standing surfboard. Some of her set-up moves are high-tier “why isn’t THAT a finisher?” stuff like the Avalanche Powerslam, Run-Up Headscissors, etc. The crowds adored her, doing a distinctive *clapclapclap* KYO-KO!” chant in every match, no matter her opponent. And also she dressed like the Ultimate Warrior. An absolute mega-superstar, right?

1995- The year Toyota finally became AJW’s World Champion.

JOSHI IN 1995:

And now we’ve reached the end of what I can find for Joshi in 1995, so here’s my summation for the year!

This is a year of massive transitions for joshi as a whole, as everything is shifting in ways that wouldn’t be clear until MUCH later. This is both the year in which Aja Kong is finally unseated as Ace for good, cementing Manami Toyota at the top of the card… AND the gear GAEA Japan debuted, giving us what would eventually be the most popular joshi company in Japan! In addition to that, it’s the dominance of Double Inoue, the transition of Akira Hokuto from a top singles star to a tag wrestler, then the fading careers of Bull Nakano, Sakie Hasegawa & Suzuka Minami! Mayumi Ozaki becomes the insane “Dress Up Wild Fight” nutjob that would define the rest of her career (for better or worse), and things look strong going to the future… except there’s cracks all over the place, AND the Japanese economy is about to be destroyed for the next twenty-five years, and that alone would probably eighty-six a ton of plans! So let’s get to it!

1995- THE YEAR AJW WENT CRAZY:
* The booking of the Red Belt in 1995 was absolutely apeshit compared to any other year. AJW often had a very “static” company, full of very slow rises- wrestlers would often challenge and re-challenge for belts, coming a little bit closer each time before winning. It was a steady, reliable way to make new stars- Aja Kong defeating Bull Nakano after a massive feud lasting years was a great example of this. Manami Toyota had clearly been set up as a big star by the end of 1992, but spent two years coming closer to toppling the big stars, as she was a dominant tag wrestler at the time. Kyoko Inoue was clearly just a bit behind her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcGgDLhKB6U&list=PLm6tbFfvTAxnT14UL61iImS7T9Ntbvr8q&index=11

So this is a bit of a double-whammy, as I find the last two things on the unusually-packed December 1995 for Joshi- a big final battle between Akira Hokuto & Bull Nakano, as they pull out ALL the stops against each other, and the Manami Toyota Gauntlet I reviewed a couple of years ago! That one’s a re-post, but otherwise this review would only be 650 words long- and hey, it fits the schedule!

AKIRA HOKUTO vs. BULL NAKANO:
(Dec. 30th 1995)
* A weird random match from December sees Bull (who’d recently lost to Kyoko Inoue, passing the torch to her former subordinate) taking on Akira in what seems like the end of an era for them- Bull’s career is slowly ending while Akira is still going strong, and they were old rivals back in the day. Bull’s in black with white lightning all over it, while Akira’s in red & gold.

Bull gets a backdrop suplex immediately, but takes a bridging German for two- Akira avoids a lariat to cheers, but Bull turns a test of strength into another one. Bull is noticeably limping with every step but manages two more lariats for two, then kicks her ass for a bit until Akira drags her outside to toss her around some, then powerbombs her onto a goddamn table while’s she’s STANDING ON IT, causing her to fly backwards head-first into the table beside them when it collapses! Jesus Christ what an insane woman. Akira manages to get back into the ring, nodding at Bull for some reason, then of course stops her entry with a Tope Con Hilo to the floor! She telegraphs a missile kick back in the ring and misses, but locks Bull in a leghold when she pounces- she switches to Stranglehold Gamma when Bull makes the ropes, drawing a big pop for using her husband’s move. Bull kinda treats it as a “weakly struggle to the ropes” move, then reverses another to an inverted DDT for two.

So I’m finding assorted stuff from the unusually-stuffed Dec. 1995 to review before I sum up the entire year, and I found ANOTHER one-off Dream Joshi Match! It’s a fantastic Interpromotional Tag Team Match, as the former Jungle Jack and FMW’s top two women’s wrestlers are split up and made to face each other, as Kong & Kudo take on Combat & Bison! Oh, and the next night, we get a BARBED WIRE DEATHMATCH between two insane women, as Megumi Kudo shows just how she got the title “Deathmatch Queen”.

GAEA COME ON HURRY! XMAS FIGHTING:
(Dec. 23rd 1995)
* It’s another GAEA show, this one with only two (clipped) matches shown from a GAEA vs. FMW show! Chigusa Nagayo takes on FMW’s legendary Combat Toyoda in a true Dream Match, while KAORU & Megumi Kudo pair off with their promotions’ rookies in a trios match. This gives us possibly our only instance of Kudo vs. Meiko Satomura, which is a DEFINITE Dream Match if it happens a few years later.

SCRAMBLE SOUL TO SOUL:
MEGUMI KUDO, KAORI NAKAYAMA & YUKARI ISHIKURA (FMW) vs. KAORU, MEIKO SATOMURA & TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* Well damn. Kudo vs. Meiko is a Dream Match if it happens even a handful of years later, but we’ll have to do with Meiko’s rookie incarnation. Kudo’s now in a black halter top & short shorts combo with crimped hair, looking like she’s done a heel turn or something. Her partners are both rookies- Kaori’s in crimson & black and looks to have an idol look, and Yukari’s in blue & black. Kaori outlasted FMW by two years, but Yukari retired in 1996. KAORU’s in the usual white, Meiko’s in red & Toshie’s in green.

Here’s a tweet of Grizzly hitting people with kendo sticks for 50 seconds: https://mobile.twitter.com/cultofbull/status/1473830077834084362

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- GRIZZLY IWAMOTO:
Real Name: Kumiko Iwamoto (aka Dynamite Bear)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″ 147 lbs.
Career: 1985-1990

-One of the more-ignored wrestlers of the Atrocious Alliance/Gokumon-To stables of heels, Grizzly Iwamoto stands out a little bit because of two reasons: 1) Despite being too small to have the “Monster Aura” of Dump Matsumoto or Bull Nakano, she looks the most to me like the stereotype of a scary, vicious young hooligan; and 2) she is, quite possibly, the LEAST likely person you’d ever have expected to be named “Grizzly” (ally Bison Kimura shares a similar trait).

Grizzly Iwamoto only had a five year career, but it was part of the nutso “Crush Gals Era” in which she was a member of various heel stables, primarily Dump Matsumoto’s Atrocious Alliance. Sporting leather outfits and with wild, curly hair, she actually had the “Juvenile Delinquent” look that you often seen in anime & manga from the time period. So while she didn’t have the mass of Dump, Bull, Condor or Aja, she still came off like she was more dangerous than the honorable, upstanding Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka.

There’s not a great deal of stuff featuring her online (even matches on YouTube are scarce), but what’s there indicates she’s a perfectly-acceptable brawler with decent moves. In what’s probably her best match (the tag match I’ll review below), she is an excellent seller, doing great “falls straight back looking agonized” stuff, plays up being defiant against dangerous opponents, and gives good spirited comebacks. She fires off kneedrops with great intensity and precision, and can even hit a powerslam on AJA KONG, putting over both the difficulty of it and making the move look like it hurts. This to me indicates she’s a good “utility” wrestler- while not GREAT, and not likely to have **** solo matches, she can be slotted into any tag match and will go all-out and not negatively affect the match at all. You need those types.

THE JWP OPENWEIGHT TITLE TOURNAMENT:
* A double-whammy tonight, as I review both a fantastic JWP Tag Titles match from December, but the two final matches of the JWP Openweight Title Tournament! My memory’s so bad I was about to review the Ozaki/Cutie match because I just happened to find in on YouTube, but then I looked up the rest of the tournament and realized I’d already reviewed it! Which saves me some time- hooray! So this is half-repost, but I have another review coming this Friday, anyhow.

JWP OPENWEIGHT TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL:
CUTIE SUZUKI vs. MAYUMI OZAKI:
(15.10.1995, Korakuen Hall)
* So JWP’s top title had been vacant for a year, right during the Interpromotional Era for some reason, and here’s the semi-final match in the tournament to decide the winner. Cutie’s hair is now MUCH longer, while Ozaki has her signature red gear, covered in ribbons and cut-out bits. Her curly hair, dyed somewhat red, indicates a hooligan/heel nature if I know my 1990s manga.

The Tournament Finals! Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito vs. Kyoko Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe!

AJW Tag League THE BEST 1995 (Part Two):
* The second part of this tape (which starts off with an October show) sees the 1995 Tag League THE BEST Tournament end, as AJW tries desperately to put over some new stars. This is a very weird one, as we’re extra-close to the end for Lioness Asuka, Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto & Sakie Hasegawa, which has severe repercussions for AJW. But hey, another ****+ Main Event! Good ol’ AJW!

The Standings:
Kyoko/Tomoko: 10
Manami/Ito: 10
Reggie/Hotta: 9
Aja/Takako: 9
Hokuto/Shimoda: 8
Dream Orca: 6
Yoshida/Sakie: 4
ASARI/Kumiko: 0

-As expected, ASARI’s team does poorly. But I’m shocked that Kyoko & Manami’s teams did the best, since they’re teamed with midcarders. The teams below them would seem to hold a bigger advantage… and then there’s Akira & Shimoda in the bottom half! Like, what the hell is THAT? They’re the Tag Champs! They manage to beat Dream Orca & Aja/Takako, but all the other top ranked teams wipe them out. Orca seems to start fine, beating Sakie/Yoshida, but loses to Manami/Ito as well. But they do beat Reggie/Hotta, who beat Kyoko/Tomoko for their only loss.

Of course, looking at this list knowing what’s to come… the REAL purpose of this year’s Tag League is to elevate both Ito & Tomoko. Makes sense, as AJW blew 1995 trying to get Sakie over, and she is now hurt and doomed to retirement. The company probably realizes it needs to elevate Ito & Tomoko NOW and this is their way of doing it. It’s kind of transparent, actually- like this palpable sense of “OSHIT we wasted all that time on Sakie and now we have to make do and act like the other two are on her level!”.

Now we hit the portion of the show from December! Two months later, the rankings have sorted out and we get a 3rd Place Match and the Finals.

Can Manami Toyota successfully come out on top of a year of World Title switches? Read on!

AJW MONDAY NIGHT SENSATION:
(Dec. 4th 1995)
* It’s time! JWP’s Dynamite Kansai won AJW’s WWWA World Title in August and has held the rival promotion’s World Title ever since! Takako Inoue took a shot at her, but had no chance and was beaten- but now Manami Toyota’s year-long storyline comes to an head as she takes one more shot at the Gold! So in the year preceding this, Manami Toyota lost a classic match to Aja Kong at Big Egg Wrestling Universe in the Tokyo Dome… but months later, she took another shot and actually won the Title! But then she went to a 60-minute draw against Kyoko Inoue and then failed her very next challenge, as Aja won her Title back. Along the way, Manami took several failed attempts at the WWWA Tag Titles with Sakie Hasegawa as her partner, then had an insane pair of matches against Akira Hokuto (a ***** classic) and Yumiko Hotta (possibly Hotta’s greatest match, nearly getting the same rating) in which Hotta tearfully insisted Manami bring their Gold back home.

The rest of the show is a bit peculiar, as it’s very rookie-focused, with the first three matches featuring them in prominent positions. Then we get a lot of “establishing” matches, as it’s Tomoko/ASARI, Sakie/Ito, Takako/Reggie, Hotta/Yamada & Aja/Kyoko in bouts that seem designed to showcase the bigger stars and where they are in the pecking order. This entire show honestly feels like “So Here’s Where We’re Going”, with a lot of potential up & coming stars. Of course the Ringstarfield account I’m getting these from spoils nearly every single result, making that even more clear, haha.

The other insane thing is the vast majority of matches here are SHORT- kept to about 9-11 minutes apiece, which is just over half the length bouts of great importance would be. Only two matches on the card are left going longer than that and it’s the top two. That’s very unusual for AJW in general and I wonder why that is.

GAEA THE WORLD:
(Dec. 2nd, 1995)

* One more GAEA show- this one has a weird look to it, where the ring is HIGHLY reflective and looks nearly silver on the tape transfer, so there’s these super-prominent dark shadoes of the wrestlers. It’s very odd.

BOMBER HIKARU & CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA (GAEA) vs. BAD NURSE NAKAMURA & MIWA SATO (FMW):
* A weird “Dream Match” of sorts, as FMW’s mid-tier heel team takes on GAEA’s Bomber, plus a rookie. Sato has frizzy, crimped hair (the universal sign of the high school ruffian) and silver facepaint, Bad Nurse has black clothes and ghost-white facepaint, Bomber’s in black/purple/green & Chikayo’s in yellow/black. And the GAEA girls storm the ring during the introductions to go right on the attack!

Bomber stacks the heels up and splashes onto them, then scraps with Sato, who actually does the JB Angels bridge-out before getting caught in a crab. Chikayo takes a beating once she’s in, Sato & Nurse making like LCO and repeatedly double-teaming her and taunting the crowd. This goes on for way too long, with nothing more complicated than a bodyslam, but Chikayo finally hits a Stone Cold Stunner and escapes, only for Bomber to get nailed from the apron and whipped with a flag (?) and struck by multiple soda cans (which a camera close-up reveals are EMPTY). But Nurse eats one by mistake and Bomber steals hers and whales away with it. Chikayo does rookie offense on Nurse but actually nails a rana, then leapfrogs off Bomber’s shoulders with a dropkick for two. But the towel gets involved and they beat on Bomber with some very basic stuff, then Nurse uses a rolling cradle of all things for two. She does an STF so bad even Cena would shame her, but runs into a powerslam for two.

Lioness Asuka giant swings Chaparrita ASARI while Alundra Blayze, Kyoko Inoue & Sakie Hsegawa look on, alongside an old lady who was WAY into the entire show. WWF Survivor Series (1995).

Here’s a unique one, as I now hit the timeline where AJW runs a decently-big show at the same time as it features their wrestlers appearing on both WWF AND WCW programming! On PPV! In the same calendar week! Read on!

AJW WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’95 & WWF SURVIVOR SERIES 1995:
* Okay, so we’ve reached the weird era where AJW runs a half-assed Wrestlemarinepiad right the day before they send some girls to the WWF, where Aja Kong is set up as the new challenger to WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze!

My full review: https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2019/09/13/joshi-spotlight-ajw-wrestlemarinepiad-95/

The Results:
MARI MOGAMI d. KAYO NOUMI (6:56) with a goddamn headlock. 1/2*.
YOSHIKO TAMURA d. MISAE WATANABE (8:22) with the Rookie-Slaying Bodyslam. *3/4. What’s funny is this was early in my reviewing run of Joshi so I was at this point unfamiliar with the notion that rookies were so bad that bodyslams could readily destroy them.
MARIKO YOSHIDA & YUMI FUKAWA d. MINA TAMIYAMA & NOBUE ENDO (8:24) with a Flying Splash to Endo. **1/2. Yoshida was the only veteran in this match so that’s not a surprise. It was a fun thing seeing such an elite wrestler playing chess with some checkers-playing rookies.
TAKAKO INOUE & TOMOKO WATANABE d. TOSHIYO YAMADA & CHAPARRITA ASARI (15:03) with Tomoko’s Screwdriver on ASARI. ***. Yamada’s tumble down the card continues as she is teaming with a baby against Takako and rising star Tomoko, whose “She’s getting a big push next” thing is starting with the occasional win on big shows like this.
MIMA SHIMODA d. ETSUKO MITA (18:29) with the Death Lake Driver. ****1/2. A fucking awesome, bloody war as Las Cachorras Orientales EXPLODES and Mima’s push becomes solidified with a dramatic win over her former tag partner. The best part is when Akira Hokuto comes down after disrespecting Shimoda for their entire Tag Title run, carrying both Tag Titles down like she’s been doing lately… and lays one at her subordinate’s feet, as if to say “Senpai Noticed You”.
BULL NAKANO & LIONESS ASUKA d. AJA KONG & REGGIE BENNETT (14:29) after Aja Urakens Reggie by mistake. **3/4. Interesting result that kinda plays up the Aja/Asuka thing that’s been going on, and one more hurrah for Bull on a major stage. Largely a comedy bout for half of it, doing goofy things and egging the crowd on.
KYOKO INOUE d. YUMIKO HOTTA (15:46) with the Niagara Driver. ***1/2. Kyoko sets herself up as the “Next Challenger” through defeating Hotta, gatekeeping as always. Hotta repeatedly ignores lasting damage and pops up to do her own thing, and is rather plodding- this hurts the match.
REINA JUBUKI & BLIZZARD YUKI vs. MANAMI TOYOTA & BLACK BLIZZARD (17:03) with Yuki’s Rana to Black Blizzard. ***1/2. Jubuki is Akira Hokuto’s masked luchadore self, and she’s with Manami’s usual partner, while Kaoru Ito is now “Black Blizzard” and hates Yuki for some reason. A very bizarre match, with some clumsy lucha stuff wrestled at half-effort for a long period before they revved it up.