Joshi Spotlight — page 14

AJW IN JUNE 1996:
* Now we finally hit the mid-point of the year (though I really haven’t seen a lot of AJW stuff on YouTube from earlier in the year), and we have the big World Tag Title match- Manami & Shimoda vs. Kyoko & Takako! I’ll also run notes on what happened at Wrestlemarinepiad 1996 (spoiler alert: Not Much!).

AJW actually ran an interpromotional “All Rookies” show May 1996, which is the most promotion-packed show I’ve seen in ages! Nothing appears online, the show was mainly clipped on the VHS release, and the results are mostly “Rookie A beats Rookie B”, but there’s a few notes:

A “Woman’s Graduation Tournament” has Semi-Finals & Finals here- Sugar Sato d. Aki Kambayashi (7:54), Misae Genki d. Kiyoko Ichiki (9:38), then Genki wins the tournament, beating Sato at (6:56). JWP’s Hiromi Yagi & Kaori Nakayama defeat JWP’s Kanako Motoya & AJW’s Yumi Fukawa (11:18). Yoshiko Tamura defends her AJW Title, beating JWP’s Tomoko Kuzumi (11:15). GAEA’s Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato fight AJW’s Kumiko Maekawa & Tanny Mouse to a (20:00) Time Limit Draw (OH GOD A TWENTY MINUTE TANNY MOUSE MATCH!). In the biggest bout, Chaparrita ASARI wins a vanity-belt, the WWWA Super Lightweight Title, in a match against GAEA’s Toshie Uematsu (14:35). Finally, a 4-way interpromotional match, as Chikako Shiratori (JD’) & Michiko Omukai (LLPW) beat Rie Tamada (AJW) & Meiko Satomura (GAEA) in (20:50).

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

Remember: JD’ is pronounced “jay-DEE-star”!

JD’ BEAUTY ATHLETE- COMING TO TOKYO:
(April 14th 1996)
* Oh hey, look! The OTHER joshi splinter promotion of 1996 shows up in my Spotlights! Mostly because MoskowDiskow was like “Hey if you’re in 1996 you should have JD! There’s 4-5 videos on YouTube!” and I was like “huh? There is?” and he linked me one person’s poorly-labeled channel. I mean, typing in “JD” into a search engine ain’t gonna net you a lot, right? But here’s an April ’96 show!

So the deal with JD’ is that some company had a TV contract and were able to lure away Jaguar Yokota, wonder-trainer of AJW’s ’80s wrestlers and a big star in her own right, along with two forcibly-retired buddies in Bison Kimura (billed as a top star) and Lioness Asuka (a huge ’80s star). Like some Ted Turner dude was like “I wanna get into the wrasslin’ business! I remember Jaguar & Lioness- get ’em for my company!” because he was old and those were the stars he remembered. And they threw together a weirdo promotion of bizarre gimmicks, terrible rookies (Chikako Shiratori) and freelancers. And now I got all these damn people to look up because I have no idea who most of these people are, lol.

We start off with a highlight reel, mostly made up of big flying moves, plus a Bison Kimura/Manami Toyota match that headlines this show. Then the CGI opening, looking like a first generation PlayStation game to a hilariously nostalgic degree, leads to mini-bios of the wrestlers. For some reason there’s super-quiet commentary AND a voiceover, like they recorded both channels and played them over each other.

GAEA IN SPRING 1996:
* Here’s a pair of GAEA shows featuring the usual assortment of rookies and bigger stars, complete with the goofiest battle royal you’ll EVER see (you think Chain Sleepers and other comedy bits are new? Check GAEA doing it in 1996), and the GAEA Junior Star Tournament to crown the best rookie! Come see the best friggin’ match two one-year veterans could possibly have!

NEO QUEEN HISTORY ’95:
SONOKA KATO vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* Two of the most elite rookies go at it in the rookie tournament. Kato’s in blue & Toshie’s in green, as always.

They do the typical GAEA start with a ton of running attacks, Toshie using her “backflip off their chest” move and rollups, but Kato uses her bulldogs when Toshie tries to many running headlocks. Toshie dodges a legdrop and hits a victory roll & dropkicks, then a missile kick for two, but a flying splash hits knees. Kato gets a sleeper and they spam running attacks back & forth as this is frenetic, but quite sloppy- most things have very poor execution, but that kind of “they’re fighting for it like it was real” scrappy thing that joshi sometimes has. Toshie’s offense is like 60% flash pins. Kato finally catches her with the Tornado Bulldog, but Time Expires at (6:01 shown).

FMW MEGA-SHOW:
(Kawasaki Stadium, May 5th 1996)
* And here’s one of the biggest joshi shows in FMW history, as we get not only Chigusa Nagayo vs. Shark Tsuchiya in a rematch of their miscarriage of justice from late ’95 (when Shark won only because it was basically a 3-on-1 handicap match thanks to her subordinates), but it’s MEGUMI KUDO vs. COMBAT TOYODA, the top two women in FMW history, in Combat’s retirement match! And it’s one of the best women’s singles matches ever, to boot! And probably the best Barbed Wire Deathmatch there ever was, making maximum use of the gimmick!

Here’s a random one-off review, as Evito-X has been uploading old-school joshi among the great rarities on his YouTube channel, and I wanted to check it out.

WWWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES:
BEST TWO OF THREE FALLS:
THE QUEEN ANGELS (Lucy Kayama & Tomi Aoyama) vs. THE BLACK PAIR (Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita):
(7/31/1979)
* It’s time for some 1970s joshi! The Black Pair were set up as heels in opposition to the Beauty Pair- this is a latter incarnation, with Mami Kumano replacing Shinobu Aso. Yumi’s in black boots and Mami has red boots (both have black swimsuits and ‘fros, so that’s how I can tell them apart, haha). The Queen Angels appear to be babyfaces, with matching swimsuits with white polka-dots on them- Lucy (in red) is one I’ve seen before in a variety of old matches, usually featuring Jackie Sato. I’ve never seen Tomi (in blue) before, but she’s a hell of a high-flier, apparently: https://www.reddit.com/r/stardomjoshi/comments/87xj1c/tomi_aoyamas_springboard/.

GAEA JAPAN- GAEAISM GRAND OPENING 1ST ANNIVERSARY:
(April 29th 1996)
* GAEA Japan is now one full year old! With the greatest inaugural rookie class ever but shows still dependent on other companies to fill out the card, it’s maturing quickly. This set of matches is all clipped, but it’s got the final ten minutes of a BIG one- LLPW’s most credible wrestler, SHINOBU KANDORI (aka the woman who fought two classics with Akira Hokuto) comes calling, bringing rookie (and future terror) Michiko Omukai up against the biggest women’s star in history- Chigusa Nagayo and her own rookie, Sugar Sato. The match proves fun mostly for Kandori’s antics as an elitist shooter- she’s a truly underrated character.

The GAEAISM channel is missing a few matches:
HIKARU FUKUOKA (JWP) d. BOMBER HIKARU (GAEA) (15:45): this seems oddly padded and kinda long for Bomber to last, but that’s the style of both companies at this point.
WONDERFUL FREE: KAORU d. Carol Midori (10:52)

GAEA NEO SOUL BATTLE NEW FACES:
RINA ISHII vs. MAIKO MATSUMOTO:
* Holy shit, NEW wrestlers! This is the first I’ve seen of either one, and is Rina’s debut. She lasts two years and Maiko three, so they’re not GREAT successes but at least stuck around a bit. They have to pick unique colors, as enough of the early crew are still around in their Arena swimsuits- Maiko’s in an ugly brown one, and Rina’s in a light… puce? Salmon? Google says that’s “coral”, I guess. It’s pink, I dunno. Rina is TINY and super-thin, probably around 5 feet tall, and Maiko is comparatively bigger and thicker.

JWP IN MID-1996:
* Hey look! More JWP! Because… okay I forgot to post the one below, and then I had an undated match I figured I’d find a place for! So it’s only a two-match review! The first one is really good, though! Eventually!

CUTIE SUZUKI & HIKARI FUKUOKA vs. ESTHER MORENO & HIROMI YAGI:
* The two top idols in JWP take on rising star Yagi and Mexican talent Moreno, who was also in AJW around this time- maybe doing a full tour of Japan? The latter are in black gear, Hikari’s in her leopard-print & Cutie’s in white.

JWP IN APRIL 1996 (Part Two):
* I split these up because some matches are IMMENSELY long. This one features the retirement of Hiromi Sugo, Candy Okutsu vs. comedy wrestler Saburo, Mayumi Ozaki vs. Hiromi Yagi, and a rematch between Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato of GAEA and Devil Masami, Tomoko Kuzumi & Tomoko Miyaguchi of JWP! So comes see what JWP was doing in early 1996 (the answer: Lots of excessively-drawn out matches with aimless stretching! But some are okay!).

RETIREMENT MATCH:
FUSAYO NOUCHI vs. HIROMI SUGO:
(Thunder Queen Light up the Night, 07.04.1996)
* Here’s a match between two lower-level wrestlers, with Sugo calling it quits after only two years in the business, retiring to become a referee. Nouchi has really long hair here, while Sugo has the ugliest suit this side of Kaoru Ito- bright yellow with green designs… but with shorts for the legs.

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.