Joshi Spotlight — page 15

GAEA JAPAN- NEVER ENDING BUMP:
(Nov. 3rd 1995)
* We arrive at yet another GAEA show with some one-time-only matches, plus the usual rookies doing their thing. This show was based around a Main Event, as the “Chigusa vs. Bad Nurse Nakamura” match of months ago set up today’s Chigusa vs. Shark Tsuchiya main.

G vs. J 3 ON 3 MIX:
KANAKO MOTOYA (JWP), CHIHIRO NAKANO (GAEA) & REIKO AMANO (JWP) vs. TOSHIE SATO (GAEA), MEIKO SATOMURA (GAEA) & YUKI MIYAZAKI (JWP):
* Rookie Mayhem! Again JWP’s & GAEA’s are mixed up against each other. Motoya’s in white,  Chihiro’s in black, Amano’s in black & blue, Sato’s in white, Meiko’s in red and Yuki’s in pink & green.

GAEA MIRACLE NIGHT:
(08.05.1995)
* Whoops- I missed one in the GAEA list somehow! This one is from early August. I can only find a couple of matches on YouTube. We apparently miss Bomber Hikaru beating Toshie Uematsu (3:35).

KAORU (GAEA Japan) vs. CANDY OKUTSU (JWP):
* KAORU takes on another invader in a Dream Match- Candy is well below her on the pecking order, but it seems clear that JWP has high hopes for her. KAORU’s just the worker to reign in Candy’s slippy-sloppy flying, too. Both are in white with black, KAORU in her singlet and Candy in a tasseled thing.

AJW TAG LEAGUE THE BEST 1995 (Part One):
(Oct. 1995-Dec. 1995)
* So the final AJW tape release of 1995 appears to be a compilation of the Oct. 10th show and the Dec. 10th show, where the round-robin of varied teams is played up for Tag League THE BEST. We start off with four tourney matches, two of which are VERY clipped, then a show two months later where they have the Tournament Finals, with complete matches and some undercard stuff. Most of which is also badly clipped. I’ll split this in two, since it’s two different shows entirely and this would be an immense review otherwise. I’ll post this part part when the matches actually fit into the timeline.

The teams this year are actually sort of bizarre, as nobody is with their regular partner except for Akira/Shimoda- everyone else is in these mish-mash teams. The roster this year: Akira Hokuto & Mima Shimoda (the WWWA Tag Team Champions); Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito (at least they’re stablemates); Aja Kong & Takako Inoue (called “Beauty and the Beast” entertainingly enough- the team of a dethroned Champ and an up & coming upper-carder); Kyoko Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe (a rising star and her style-clone; former stablemates); Reggie Bennett & Yumiko Hotta (the strongest & best fighter in the company, respectively- both upper-level wrestlers who are a threat to anyone); Sakie Hasegawa & Mariko Yoshida (former feuding wrestlers, now stablemates); Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita (the reunited DREAM ORCA, though both now as midcarders, sorta); and Chaparrita ASARI & Kumiko Maekawa (jobbers, especially here).

Tag League THE BEST ’95:
REGGIE BENNETT & YUMIKO HOTTA vs. CHAPARRITA ASARI & KUMIKO MAEKAWA:
* Ohhhhhhhhhhh my god someone is going to murder these poor girls. Stiff, unprofessional bully Hotta teaming with the powerhouse against poor diminutive ASARI and a rookie. Yikes. ASARI’s in red & gold, Kumiko’s in blue & white, Hotta’s in black (with much longer hair that any time previous) and Reggie’s in black & purple.

JWP TV (Nov. 11th):
* Hey look! Some random JWP show from Nov. 11th! Slotted right after the huge AJW stuff, and including a random 3WA Title Defense by Dynamite Kansai against AJW’s Takako Inoue, and one of those “Okay, let’s go all-out and show off what we can do” amazing Joshi-Pace Trios matches!

KANAKO MOTOYA vs. TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI:
* Rookie Mayhem with AJW-tier Rookie Swimsuits! Motoya’s in black & pink, and Tomoko’s in one of those “Ellesse” suits in black & red. Motoya obviously quit early- she has no Cagematch profile- while Tomoko became supporting player “Ran Yu-Yu”.

Tomoko hits a good back elbow while Motoya does rookie bridge-outs and dropkicks, then adds some relish in various holds. They fight over a wristlock for a while, actually doing a good job of looking like they’re fighting to get their moves in. And then there’s this great bit where they both get hot and just start punching each other in the face, Motoya finally bringing Tomoko down with a 2nd-rope dropkick. But Tomoko tosses her off the top and spams running face kicks- “Fuck YOU!” bridge from Motoya! Tomoko does the “JB Angels” bridge out of a slam pin and backslides her for two, but Motoya spams running kicks of her own and hits a missile dropkick, only to fly off onto Tomoko’s knees, and shoulderblock spam & a flying splash gets a close two. Motoya gets a rollup, but ends up on Tomoko’s shoulders for an airplane spin into a Samoan drop… for the pin (12:22)!

Wow, actually very good for rookies! Neither had any experience yet they showed real emotion (screaming and getting aggressive), knew how to upgrade their spots over time, and even busted out a unique move for the ending. Great work for young kids.

Rating: **1/4 (a miracle for green rookies)

Yeah, this is like the clearest picture I could find. Truly the sign of a big star.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YUKARI OSAWA:
Other Names: Jen, Jen Yukari
Billed Height & Weight: 5’4″ 143 lbs.
Career Length: 1988-1996

-Yes, it’s time for another edition of “Jab tries to figure out stuff about a no-name wrestler because he’s insane”. Yukari Osawa is a low-tier LLPW wrestler who I only know because of the periodic LLPW shows that end up on YouTube that need to use their entire 12-person roster, and so here’s this random backgrounder, who kind of has that “Bison Kimura” athletic-asskicker look with the strong makeup and mid-length hair… except she’s a jobber.

It’s kind of weird that a company with so few wrestlers would have people who almost never win, but there you go having Osawa beating only green rookies and then jobbing in solo bouts against even the midcard, and never developing to the point where she threatened the LLPW Pillars (Kandori, Sawai, Saito, Tateno, Kazama). Sometimes you’ll see her tag with Miki Handa or Michiko Nagashima and beat another low-tier duo, but for the most part she has no solid push.

In matches, she rarely stood out, despite an interesting look- she is your standard “unconfident, blank-faced rookie” even with some experience under her belt. In 1993 bouts she kept throwing these awful spinkicks with no speed or accuracy- just kinda limply tossing a leg at someone’s belly. Though by some 1994 stuff I’ve seen she’s okay- tolerable and with a few nice moves, but nothing really flashy or setting her apart. REALLY nice bridges on those suplexes, though- you know they’re great when they’re up on the toes like that! I actually called one the “best I’ve ever seen” down below! So she’s not all bad! Just, like… mostly unmemorable and never giving anyone a reason to care. To me these people are almost as interesting to research as the big stars, but man sometimes I don’t turn up much!

LCO, now with a new combination, as Hokuto & Shimoda form a duo!

AJW NAGOYA WHIRLWIND ’95:
(Nov. 3rd, 1995)
* So an entire month after Manami Toyota wins the Japan Grand Prix and is set to challenge Dynamite Kansai to bring the WWWA Title back home to AJW, we have another big-ish show. And something crazy happened in the interim- Akira Hokuto teamed up with subordinate Mima Shimoda to win the WWWA Tag Team Titles from Double Inoue! With Manami busy with World Title stuff, her team with Sakie had to wait, I suppose, and now the nigh-unbeatable Tag Champs are dethroned! I really searched for that match, but couldn’t find it. Nor Yumiko Hotta defeating Toshiyo Yamada for the White Belt on the same show! It’s not even on Mike Lorefice’s list of AJW tapes! Did they even record this one at all? Evito-X says it wasn’t. Missing two major title switches is a rarity for this promotion.

So this show features the first Title defense by Hokuto/Shimoda… and they’re up against BULL NAKANO, former Ace, with Tomoko Watanabe backing her up! Bull hasn’t challenged for gold in years, so this is pretty crazy.

Looks like the card has a bunch of stuff that wasn’t taped:
AJW JUNIOR TITLE: YOSHIKO TAMURA vs. NOBUE ENDO- Time Limit Draw (20:00)- Jesus Christ, glad we missed that’n.

YUMIKO HOTTA, MISAE WATANABE & YUMI FUKAWA d. TOSHIYO YAMADA, CHAPARRITA ASARI & MINA TANIYAMA (10:45): Seems like a pretty quick result.

IWA WORLD TITLE: REGGIE BENNETT d. ETSUKO MITA (15:36): Mita seems to be settling into Suzuka Minami’s old “good wrestler who jobs in 15 minutes” role.

MANAMI TOYOTA & MARIKO YOSHIDA d. SAKIE HASEGAWA & KAORU ITO (16:57): Meltzer gave this **** and Lorefice gave it ***1/2, saying it saved the big moves for the end. It was taped, but I can’t find it on YouTube.

GAEA JAPAN FIRST NIGHT IN OSAKA:
(Sept. 17th 1995)
* Another GAEA show, and this one is pretty stacked, featuring a VERY good Ozaki/Chigusa Street Fight, and JWP’s top stars Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami teaming up against their own Hikari Fukuoka and GAEA’s KAORU! And even though it’s only 10 minutes of a 21-minute bout show, it’s an amazing one that I think would have gotten over huge had a lot of Western fans seen it during this time period.

HIKARI FUKUOKA (JWP) & KAORU (GAEA) vs. DYNAMITE KANSAI & DEVIL MASAMI (JWP):
* Here’s a fun Dream Match of sorts, mostly made by pairing KAORU up with Hikari against the Aces of JWP. Hikari’s in the leopard-print, KAORU’s in the shiny white outfit, Devil’s in purple & black, and Kansai’s in yellow.

We’re joined in progress to Hikari doing a tilt-a-whirl headscissors & rana on Devil for two, and KAORU adds a surfboard & half-crab. Devil Samoan drops Hikari to come back and does her own surfboard (man joshi crowds love that move), wowing people by adding a dragon sleeper, drawing in all the wrestlers. KAORU hits her Thesz press on Devil and leapfrogs Hikari into a stomp, leading to a Tiger Driver for two. KAORU Moonsault! Hikari Moonsault! Devil kicks out at two and avoids the next Moonsault, but Hikari lands on her feet, dodges Kansai’s lariat, then gets blasted by Devil’s- KAORU getting skooshed too! Then Kansai does one and backdrop drivers Hikari for two. KAORU runs in and also gets one, then the Aces hit stereo powerbombs! Hikari gets kicked to death, nearly getting counted down until she snaps awake at “8” and the ref counts her punch-drunk stance as being okay.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- MIKI HANDA:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 132 lbs.
Career: 1987-1995

And now we come to Miki Handa, who is interestingly forgettable given how she’s been in some incredible matches here and there. I mean, I kinda love doing Spotlights on lesser names as there’s often a lot more to discover than in an obviously famous wrestler’s case, but here I couldn’t find squat!

I sorta chalk it up to Handa being like plain bread- no taste on its own, but it soaks up the flavors of stuff around it, so it can’t hurt anything. In a sense, Miki is herself not that notable, but you can slot her in with three great workers and have a great match that she doesn’t detract from in the slightest. Not the most GLOWING of praise… but keep in mind how many potentially good or great matches are wrecked by one sub-par worker. In this sense, Miki works to the level of her opponent, and thus you’ll find a surprising number of ***1/2-**** matches from her if her opponents are good enough.

Starting off with Takako/Bison. 

AJW JAPAN GRAND PRIX ’95 (FINAL):
(Sept. 3rd 1995)
* So we’ve hit the finals of the Japan Grand Prix for 1995, with the World Title shot at stake! Unfortunately I only have two matches from this show, with the Takako/Bison match being clipped a bit. This Round Robin was a bit strange, with some flat-out odd results. You’ve got All-Pacific Champion Toshiyo Yamada tying with Shimoda, Reggie and even Kaoru Ito (!), Chaparrita ASARI getting no wins at all (with Rie Tamada above her!). Then Block B is oddly weak, with the bizarre result of TAKAKO Inoue surpassing KYOKO Inoue in the blocks. This might be because Takako scored some flukes and Kyoko jobbed to Mita and drew with Takako, I dunno. Look at poor Mita struggling in the back end of the block, though… and even Sakie Hasegawa only gets a middling rank, which is shocking given how 1995 is “The Year of Sakie’s Push”.

BLOCK A:
Manami Toyota—–11
Bison Kimura——–9
Reggie Bennett——8
Kaoru Ito————8
Mima Shimoda——8
Toshiyo Yamada—–8
Rie Tamada———-2
Chaparita Asari——0

Block B:
Yumiko Hotta——–12
Takako Inoue———11
Kyoko Inoue———-9
Mariko Yoshida——-8
Sakie Hasegawa——6
Etsuko Mita———–6
Tomoko Watanabe—4
Kumiko Maekawa—-0

Part One

AJW DESTINY:
(Sept. 2nd 1995)
* So AJW is going wild at the moment- we’re in the middle of the Japan Grand Prix round-robin, a rival promotion’s Ace (Dynamite Kansai) is AJW’s World Champion, and ticket sales are suffering in part because we’re outta fresh match-ups. Yet we’re still having ****+ matches all over the place, so fuck it- I’D be buying tickets! This is a mega, mega, mega-event, too, with TOYOTA/HOKUTO as the Main Event- two of the very best on the entire planet at this point. It’s like them, Bret, Shawn, and three of the Four Pillars and that’s it.

Also on the card are matches between upper-midcarders Yumiko Hotta & Reggie Bennett, Kyoko Inoue & Bull Nakano doing another match in Bull’s last hurrah as a major solo act (and she knows it), Aja Kong taking on her old partner Bison Kimura, and even LCO fighting the Raijin Army, which includes their trainer Jaguar Yokota. This show is STACKED, and nearly five hours long. Mike Lorefice darkly notes that this is “the last excellent top to bottom show AJW has presented”.

Of particular note is the fact that this show is literally THREE DAYS after the fantastic “Queen’s Holy Night” show, which featured Aja lose the 3WA Title to Kansai in a ****1/4 match, Akira Hokuto & Mima Shimoda hitting ***3/4, and a ****3/4-***** match between Manami & Sakie and Double Inoue! So everyone on here is busting their ass despite wrestling on the same level three days earlier!

“TL;DR: What’s The Deal?”: One of the year’s best matches in the main event, plus the big stars in assorted other bouts (including what I think is Reggie’s best match). Also shorter match lengths than in many other big shows- only two go over 20:00, so nobody is overstaying their welcome.

We start with like THIRTY MINUTES of assorted stuff, with Bull’s old stable (her, Kyoko & Tomoko) showing up for an interview, assorted signings and even memorabilia (a J.B. Angels magazine cover, ASARI’s gear, etc.). Backstage stuff with Hokuto & Bull putting on their gear together. Everyone comes out in white shirts and red shorts to start the show- the real mark of a “big event”. Biggest reactions by far are for Bull (who almost never wrestles now) and Akira. Manami & Kyoko get the next biggest reactions, but much more muted.

So with my review of AJW Destiny, with a legendary Hokuto/Toyota match on it, coming up this Monday, I figured I would finally review their first notable contest- the Jan. 11th, 1991 show! Back when Manami was the All-Pacific Champion and Akira was coming in injured. You know, for a change.

AJW ALL-PACIFIC TITLE:
MANAMI TOYOTA vs. AKIRA HOKUTO:
(Jan. 11th, 1991)
* So here’s a highly-recommended match from Evito-X’s puro channel. Neither wrestler is remotely as big as they’d later become- Hokuto is already just below the Main Event-tier, however, with a sporty haircut and in her old white & black karate gear, while Toyota’s a rising star in a black… singlet? Wow, it’s so weird not seeing her in the standard leotard. And she’s the current All-Pacific Champion! Akira is sporting a HUGE bandage wrap all up her right arm, as well as all over her right leg, which makes her look close to death and suicidally insane. So truth in advertising, I guess. Suzuka Minami, Akira’s tag partner, is her second here.

Manami hits the JB Angels armdrag immediately, then stomps the shit out of the cast to boos- hey, it’s a big target you judgemental assholes! Akira Flair-Slams her out of another armdrag but gets rolled up for one, then Manami hauls her down by the arm and starts to unwrap her like a cartoon mummy. Manami undoes the entire damn thing like she’s straight out of LCO, sending Akira scurrying to the outside for medical help, then BREAKS THE SPLINT OVER HER KNEE just to show she means it. Then she shreds the arm as soon as Akira’s back in- the medics finally re-wrap the arm while Akira moans in agony, literally heard crying on camera.

AJW OSAKA QUEEN’S HOLY NIGHT (WWWA Championship Night):
(Aug. 30th 1995)
* Welcome back to another Joshi Spotlight, as we take a look at one of the biggest shows of the year! This one has a pretty great concept- it’s just all the top belts being defended, including the fourth match between Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai! Plus Double Inoue defend their Tag Titles against Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa for the third time!

Some matches aren’t available on YouTube as far as I can tell. Mike Lorefice’s ratings are in brackets:
Rie Tamada, Yoshiko Tamura & Yumi Fukawa defeat Chaparrita ASARI, Misae Watanabe & Yuka Shiina (8:56): Basic rookie trios match. (*1/2)
Kaoru Ito & Mariko Yoshida defeat Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa (8:55): The rating seems high, here- not even ten minutes and it gets four stars (****)?.
Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita defeat Jaguar Yokota & Bison Kimura & Reggie Bennett (12:55): Interesting use of the Raijin Army, pairing them up with Reggie against… well a Random Grab-Bag team. (***1/4)
Bull Nakano beats Lioness Asuka (1:29): Huh. (*)

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES EXPLODE!:
AKIRA HOKUTO vs. MIMA SHIMODA:
* Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh shit- here comes Hokuto bringing the hate against her stablemate and adoring fangirl, Mima Shimoda! Hokuto’s in pink & white, while Shimoda’s in red, black & gold.

Writing these columns about Joshi produces some great challenges: Finding information on incredibly obscure wrestlers; speculating on angles and wrestlers without the benefit of “being there” in context; and writing anything about Reggie Bennett without turning into a cartoon wolf.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- REGGIE BENNETT:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’8″ 249 lbs. (it, um, varies, though- she was very toned in her early career)
Career: 1986-2001

-Reggie Bennett is, in many ways, the perfect Upper-Midcard wrestler. Not credible enough to be World Champion, she’s just this big, powerful wrestler able to be a credible opponent for everyone from the technical geniuses to the strikers to the monsters, yet has a likeable charisma (she’s kind of endearingly cheery in pre-match promos, even against murderous opponents) and just enough cardio to both get the fans behind her and do the long matches that Joshi requires. She kind of came out of nowhere as a forgettable women’s wrestler in the US to become AJW’s new “Big Gaijin” (a role they sometimes utilized), and actually made a heck of a career of it, unlike weaker stars like Terri Powers.

While nobody thinks Reggie’s a great worker, she’s very good at her chosen style, which is “Being Big and Wrestling Big”. Not really athletic or quick, she was big and strong and fought like it. Like Andre the Giant, she wrestled like you thought a bear might wrestle- big bear paws, or just grabbing people and hauling them down. Being, um, top-heavy, she had a somewhat awkward motion, but it still looked like it hurt when she charged in like a rickety freight train. And her Splash is legit one of the best ones ever- just hauling off the ropes and doing a wicked Superman Dive and just SPLATTING people. Like, in a company with Tiger Superplexes, Electric Chair Suplex Holds and Sit-Out Razor’s Edges as finishers, that Splash still looked like it hurt like hell.

GAEA WRESTLE OF DREAMS:
(06.18.1995)
* It’s another GAEA Korakuen show, featuring more of a lesser cast that the previous ones, though if features the #2 & 3 GAEA wrestlers paired off in a match, with KAORU taking on Bomber Hikaru. The Main Event is a peculiar one- Chigusa Nagayo taking on FMW’s Bad Nurse Nakamura of all people! I’ll also add in the next show they did, featuring KAORU vs. Candy Okutsu, and Chigusa, Meiko & Kato against Devil Masami and the two Tomokos from JWP!

This one’s missing a short Meiko Satomura vs. Chihiro Nakano match (2:41), and Chikayo Nagashima beating Makie Numao in (6:03 of 12:05 shown) in Makie’s debut match. She makes a real go of it, lasting about four years, but appears to be a job girl the entire time from a quick scan of CageMatch, almost always losing.

MOST FIGHTING G vs. J:
TOSHIE UEMATSU & SONOKO KATO (GAEA Japan) vs. TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI & TOMOMI KOBAYASHI (JWP):
* Rookie Mayhem starts us off, with Uematsu (green) & Kato (blue) representing GAEA against Miyaguchi (red) & Kobayashi (yellow) from JWP. Miyaguchi is the future Ran Yu-Yu and has looked okay in the past. These names are absolutely awful for my poor typing, lol- I can’t even switch to first names, because then it’s Toshie, Tomoko & Tomomi! Thank God this is clipped.

Pretty much universally considered Shimoda’s best singles match. And it’s Manami’s THIRD ***** match of the year.

AJW JAPAN GRAND PRIX ’95- PART ONE & TWO:
(July 1995)
* And the AJW Grand Prix is back! Last year’s was almost completely blown off and Hotta quietly won it for whatever reason, but this time it’s For Serious and it’s a big deal. Except I can only find a tiny handful of matches on YouTube of the first two shows. I managed to cobble together some other info on the tournament, at least. I’m posting this as an “extra” for Friday because it’s something I’ve reviewed before, plus just a summation of the goings-on at the time.

MANAMI TOYOTA vs. MIMA SHIMODA (AJW Japan Grand Prix- Round Robin, 23.07.1995)
* This is an interesting one, timeline-wise, as Manami is the top-tier girl at AJW at this point, and pretty much a living legend of Joshi (as what was generally accepted as the best worker), while Shimoda, who was a midcard tag team player in 1993, has now elevated herself to a higher level. Both have a history- they were a tag team coming up in the late 1980s before Toyota had better success with the sportier Toshiyo Yamada. Shimoda’s cheating will be an interesting counterpoint to Toyota’s hyper-graceful style. Their pre-match interviews show both women in good spirits- Manami looks so serious most of the time, but here she’s smiling a ton and laughing along with the interviewer. Hey, both these ladies aren’t bad looking- has anyone else noticed this? And HOLY GOD, Manami’s pre-match outfit- this giant, flowing white qipao dress with enormous, fluffy feathered sleeves. Now THAT is style. Manami’s in her black leotard with the arm cutouts, while Shimoda’s still in her black & red two-piece with all the yellow tassles.

DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. MAYUMI OZAKI- DRESS UP WILD FIGHT #2:
(July 9th, 1995)

* Hey, look! It’s the sequel to the amazing ****3/4 “Dress Up Wild Fight” brawl from earlier in the year. So JWP’s Ace and the devilish Ozaki face off one more time. Last match, they beat the ever-loving SHIT out of each other, dragging one another all over the arena. Kansai bled buckets, Ozaki bit the cut and then spat the blood at the referee to be a shit about it, and Ozaki nearly died a thousand times but managed a last-second roll-up to win. So this is good old-fashioned revenge, probably selling tickets based off of how great the first match was.

DRESS UP WILD FIGHT #2:
DYNAMITE KANSAI vs. MAYUMI OZAKI:
* Both are in street clothes again, with Ozaki in a black shirt & blue jeans, and Kansai in a white shirt & green army fatigues. Ozaki hangs out in the stands during her entrance theme, so Kansai has to go find her while “Night Creeper” plays- she calls out Oz and soon it’s a brawl using a chain as the bell rings!

Kandori, looking humorously like a female version of Antonio Inoki. Especially with the Elvis hair.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- SHINOBU KANDORI:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’7″ 165 lbs.
Career Length: 1986-today

-Shinobu Kandori, Brock Lesnar before there was a Brock Lesnar (ie. the snide, arrogant, vicious shoot-fighter whose real-life cred is played into their wrestling character) is one of those very few wrestlers that has a match so good that it eclipsed the fact that she’s one of the only pro wrestlers to ever shoot on someone in a televised match! Her ***** showdown with Akira Hokuto at AJW Dream Slam in 1993 is heralded as one of the best matches of all time, and has an even shot at being the greatest women’s match of all time. And yet nearly all the praise went to Hokuto!

Overall, Kandori has an iffy reputation in joshi circles- people like Mike Lorefice have brushed her off as having been entirely carried to one of the greatest matches of all time- and it’s generally accepted that yeah, she was the lesser party there. She’s even ignored for holding the World Championships of TWO COMPANIES simultaneously! But I think having seen a bunch of her stuff, and great matches with a variety of opponents, proves that Kandori is in fact HIGHLY underrated and could definitely hang with the top stars. Like, I would say she was the lesser worker in every one of her great matches… but her opponents were people like friggin’ Hokuto, Kyoko Inoue & Manami Toyota, y’know? I mean, do we shit on Davey-Boy Smith because “he only had ***** matches with top wrestlers?” No- we certainly don’t put him in the Greatest of All Time lists or Mount Rushmores or whatever we classify wrestlers with these days, but he’s a well-respected worker!

GAEA SECOND BATTLE:
(4/15/1995)
* More GAEA Japan goodness, as Chigusa does a tag match alongside her Mini-Me, Meiko Satomura, against some LLPW invaders on one show, and then two months later, we check out the match everyone wanted to see- a Dream Slam rematch between ’80s icons Chigusa & Devil! Plus more from the Angry Teenager Division!

I wasn’t sure if I should split this into two reviews (1500-ish words each) or one big one, so let me know which y’all would prefer.

FMW WOMEN’S TITLE:
BAD NURSE NAKAMURA vs. MEGUMI KUDO:
(May 5th 1995)
* This is from an FMW Stadium Show, featuring Bad Nurse as the Champion and Kudo the challenger- Kudo’s already suffered some kind of injury, judging by a large bandage on her face. Kudo’s in military fatigues with her face covered by a Hanes brand towel for some kinda reveal, while Bad Nurse has the creepy white facepaint on. Aaaaaaaand then Kudo bursts forth from behind Bad Nurse & assaults her, revealing the “Kudo” in the ring as a decoy. Nice! The old Dump Matsumoto trick!

The Main Event. Great thumbnail.

AJW SAPPORO BEST*ONE:
(27.06.1995)

-Coming from Sapporo is this two-match tape featuring Las Cachorras Orientales reuniting- Akira Hokuto rejoins Mita & Shimoda to put the trio back together, and they’re out to murder a randomly thrown-together trio! And also, more importantly, the WWWA World Title is on the line once again, as Manami Toyota defends against the previous champion, Aja Kong- champ rematches seem like a rarity (Bull never got one, but she was stepping back). A now-retired Suzuka Minami joins the crew at the beginning of the TV show. And also we see clips of Kensuke Sasaki & Akira Hokuto announcing their engagement! Seeing Hokuto as a reserved bride-lady is really different. Sasaki cracks up EVERYONE at the press conference with whatever he said, too.

The Japanese commercials are back, though! There’s apparently a Japanese version of “Stand By Me”! They advertise a “Born To Be Wild” movie with a guy in a gorilla suit- never heard of that one.

The matches not shown:
Nobue Endo d. Yoko Takahashi (6:03): Rookie mayhem! I bet a bodyslam was the finish!
AJW Junior Title Tournament: Yoshiko Tamura d. Misae Watanabe (10:05): A new Top Rookie!

JWP IN CHINA:
(May 1995)

* So now I finally hit more JWP matches in Rico Kasai’s YouTube channel, and these seven matches are all from a JWP tour of China in May 1995! I’m really curious what their effort-level will be. “Bret at a House Show”-tier since the crowd isn’t even aware of them? “We want to leave a good impression” tier? PPV-tier? Um, probably not that one.

The first match opens with a bit of sightseeing and clips of Chinese people doing things, while the second involves the gang at the Great Wall of China. The first show takes place in a very small auditorium with most of the crowd being Chinese military, and a “Pure Heart China” sign that looks like it was scribbled in felt-tip market the minute before showtime. There’s some announcer talking during EVERYTHING, which is weird and kinda distracting.

“TL;DR- What’s The Deal?”: Overall, this ends up being kind of an interesting look at how you make wrestling fun to an audience that’s unfamiliar with it… while also saving your bodies by not throwing too much effort into the actual moves. And also that Candy Okutsu is very spotty and botch-y at this point.

DAY ONE:

HIROMI SUGO & SUMIYO SAYAMA vs. REIKO AMANO & TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI:
* Rookie Mayhem between the bottom-tier JWP wrestlers. Sugo looks like Dynamite Kansaicito with her yellow & green-diamonds look. Soyama’s got that black/salmon thing, Miyaguchi’s in a red/black Jobber Swimsuit, and Amano’s in a black/blue & yellow Jobber Swimsuit. That only one side has real gear makes it pretty clear who’s gonna win, I think.