Joshi Spotlight — page 6

GAEA JAPAN- YOKOHAMA DOUBLE DESTINY:
* It’s a HUGE GAEA Japan show! Yokohama Double Destiny sees major matches featuring the central angles of the company, leading up to Lioness Asuka vs. former partner & best friend Chigusa Nagayo in a blood feud over ownership of the company! So last time we saw GAEA Japan and OZ Academy, they were doing shows full of multiwoman matches, Nostradamus was feuding with Super Star Unit, and then Chigusa shows up as ZERO again! Her evil heel persona is apparently what’s needed to take on these goons wrecking her company.  The Main Event is Chigusa vs. Lioness Asuka, again for the control of GAEA Japan! Then it’s AAAW World Champion Aja Kong defending against desperate rising star Meiko Satomura to cap off their long feud! And we also have Las Cachorras Orientales vs. their former mentor Akira Hokuto with Mayumi Ozaki! That’s a guaranteed ****+ match! … Right? … RIGHT?

The show opens with each of the three factions getting separate introductions- NSD’s theme is pretty great, going from medieval/classical-esque to modern dance. The big screen in the back splitting open to reveal the wrestlers is pretty epic, especially for the depressing late ’90s joshi scene.

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Mayumi Ozaki, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota
Super Star Unit: Lioness Asuka, Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita)
Nostradamus: Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima, Kaori Nakayama

SONOKO KATO vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* So Sonoko’s a GAEA wrestler, but has now betrayed the fold and accepted the mentorship of LIONESS ASUKA, and now she gets a solo match against GAEA loyalist Toshie.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- SUMMER CARNIVAL THE QUEENS:
(Aug. 6th & 22nd, 1999)
* It’s more ARSION! This time from a summer tour in bright-ass gymnasium-style shows. It’s always weird not seeing dark arena lighting. And we start off with the Queen of ARSION Title being defended in a bout with the company’s top two stars: Mariko Yoshida and Aja Kong! Shockingly even THAT match is clipped, though- this is a two-hour tape and they couldn’t fit their top belt’s match in full? It’s also the ZION ’99 Tournament on the Aug. 22nd show, featuring Aja, Rie, Futagami, Omukai, Fukawa and even LCO’s Mima Shimoda!

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Hiromi Yagi, Chaparrita ASARI, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu, Esther Moreno, Mary Apache, Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada, Rookies: Ai Fujita

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. AJA KONG:
* We’ve seen this pairing a bit in ARSION thus far, but never in such a big context- the top belt in the promotion fought for by the top two stars. Both have been in the “Carrying Others” mode for more than a year by this point, usually trying their hardest to put over unready midcarders as threats. Yoshida has a taped left shoulder.

GAEA JAPAN IN AUGUST 1999:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! This time it’s two big matches, as Lioness Asuka, evil heel leader of Super Star Unit, takes on GAEA loyalist Sonoko Kato, with a major development after the match! Next up, the new “Nostradamus” team (a mega-stable adding AKIRA HOKUTO, back from injury at last, to one half of SSU) gives us Hokuto’s first match in a year as they take on a Chigusa Nagayo-led GAEA team. Then it’s three super-short clipped matches and finally a Super Star Unit vs. Nostradamus match on Mayumi Ozaki’s “OZ Academy” show!

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota
Super Star Unit: Lioness Asuka, Aja Kong, Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita)
Nostradamus: Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima

LIONESS ASUKA vs. SONOKO KATO:
(Aug. 15th)
* The vicious leader of SSU takes on the wrestler who was initially kinda dressed like the “Asuka” of their rookie team.

It’s another Bull Nakano interview… this one of lesser-known star Kayo Noumi! Kayo was a minor rookie at the point I’m in for my Joshi Spotlights, but it’s interesting to hear her talk about the struggles as a scrub moving up in the strict Zenjo hierarchy of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling in the late 1990s. Kayo stuck with it and had a pretty long career, though nowhere near the length of many of the ’80s stars that preceded her- she was “only” in the business for ten years, whereas most of them did 20+. Noumi is particularly notable because she quit REPEATEDLY due to how tough everything was.

These interviews are transcribed by my friend MoskowDiskow on Twitter. My Notes are in bold with “Jab’s Notes” ahead of them, so you know it’s my additions.

– Noumi first got into pro-wrestling when she and a friend rented the 1991/92 Japan Grand Prix and Tag League VHS tapes in middle school. She was a regular fan for several years, went to Big Egg, threw tape for her favorites, etc.

– During training, she was skinny and struggled to do the workouts. She failed the pro-test twice before passing. Nanae Takahashi was apparently the top performing trainee in her class, and was something of a leader among the young girls. Noumi says Takahashi always had her back and did a lot to help her out and keep her going. (Jab’s Notes: Nanae ended up becoming a pretty big star for her era, and was a name in early Stardom, and currently is in Marigold, Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion)

– Her favorite wrestler was Etsuko Mita. Once she joined, she said she never really got to talk to Mita because chances to speak with seniors are very rare, and she had to use all her opportunities to chat to issue apologies, because…

– She ran away FIVE times during training. Bull was flabbergasted by this, as it’s a very high number. She said she ran away due to being homesick, the work being too hard, etc the first few times, and the last time was when she fled with Mogami which she understandably did not want to talk about. She says Takahashi was the one who reached out to her to convince her to return.

(Jab’s Notes: So uhhhhh this was apparently due to some REALLY vicious bullying going on within the company, as it was pretty normal for one generation to treat the generation immediately below them like crap. Japan’s usual “don’t talk trash about your coworkers/other people” thing, usually about keeping the peace and not rocking the boat, is definitely in play here. Even years after the fact she’s not going to be big on dissing certain people publicly. But the bullying was bad enough that Mari Mogami has a career from 1995-1996 and never returned.)

Welcome back to yet another Bull Nakano interview- this time with the possible GOAT worker, Aja Kong! These are written out and elaborated upon by my buddy MoskowDiskow from Twitter. Aja is of course a huge legend in joshi wrestling, having come up in the late 1980s as a biracial competitor, quickly joining the heel stable and then betraying Bull Nakano to form the rival “Jungle Jack” stable, the Bull/Aja feud dominating All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW/Zenjo) in the dark period between the Crush Gals retiring (and hurting business) and the Interpromotional Era that was a tape-trader favorite from 1992-on. Aja became dominant WWWA Champion (the Red Belt- top belt of Zenjo) during this time,l and had numerous classic matches and performances.

(Jab’s Notes: My own notes will be in bold text to differentiate them)

PART I:

This is from September 2021

– They start with some greetings and Aja talks a bit about what she’s up to these days, where she’s been working, etc. They talk about how it’s a totally different environment from the days when they were starting out in Zenjo and the newly formed JWP was the only other possible employment alternative. At that time, there was a mentality of “if you leave Zenjo, you leave wrestling.”

-Bull says that since Aja is such a good talker , she’s able to thrive in the current environment. Aja says she cringes when she sees some of her old interviews from her younger days. She says she had a high pitched voice and would speed through promos too quickly. She eventually learned to slow down to get her message across more effectively. Aja takes time to give props to Bull, because it was working with Bull that really taught Aja how to promo. She stresses the importance of reading the room during live promos, which is a skill that comes with experience.

– Aja talks about how when she was a rookie, her only thoughts were about getting through the matches. She saw Bull’s success (Aja was a junior in Bull’s faction) and realized she needed to learn more about how the more experienced Bull thought about wrestling in a broader sense. (basically going from just thinking about doing her spots to thinking more in terms of psychology, etc). Aja is a very bright person in general and went all in, studying all the interviews, tape, etc that she could find.

– Aja says she heard at one point that “the real match is with the customers” and that she finally understood what that meant once she started studying Bull. (this refers to the push/pull dynamic between wrestlers and fans, how to work, get over, etc.). Aja says that once she started looking at it like this, wrestling became a lot more fun for her.

(Jab’s Notes: THE REAL MATCH IS WITH THE CUSTOMERS. That’s it right there. The whole thing. It’s the difference between the greatest and the “merely okay”. It’s why instead of bitching about “bad crowds” not reacting to “obviously great matches”, you should wonder why the wrestlers weren’t able to shift the match to something the fans actually wanted to see)

– Aja talks about the origin of her famous technique, the Uraken backfist. In 1990 when Zenjo was starting to promote shoot boxing matches on their cards, she was training with Mima Shimoda, who the office was wanting to push at the time. Aja was wearing oversized 18oz practice boxing gloves, which made her fight like a cartoon robot (ie very stiffly), so she would occasionally bonk Shimoda with a backfist out of frustration – when a lightbulb went off and she thought “this just might work!” Fast forward to her “kakutogi street fight” match with Madusa a few months later where she hit a bunch of backfists, and the Uraken was born.

-She says the office told her to use it as a trademark, and it took awhile for her to figure out how to optimize it (lots of early matches where she would just whack people willy nilly). They laugh as Aja apologies for potatoing Bull so many times while she was figuring it out (Aja -“I really used you as a practice dummy..”)

(Jab’s Notes: If you watch 1990-ish Aja matches, she indeed just spams it like crazy as a signature strike, the way Misawa would do elbows or Kobashi chops- it’s around 1991-ish that she builds it up as a proper finisher- prepping people for it, slapping them in anticipation and BAM! ending their lives)

Aja Kong shoot KO's Tamura with an uraken (1997)
byu/ShiroAbesPants inSquaredCircle

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- STARLIGHT ’99:
(July 30th 1999)
* It’s time for more ARSION! With Las Cachorras Orientales showing up! Largely because they’re freelancers and the promotions all need big matches, so the best heel team in the business makes BANK selling their appearances to all these small companies! And the first team to stand against them is the TamaFuka team of Zenjo given renewed effort, with ARSION’s try-hardest wrestler Fukawa finally trying to prove her worth!

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Hiromi Yagi, Chaparrita ASARI, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu, Esther Moreno, Mary Apache, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada

Man the rookies of the ’90s are just RIDICULOUSLY short.

AJA KONG vs. YUMI FUKAWA:
* Time for tiny Fukawa to get yet another “tiny upstart gets beaten but looks defiant in defeat” match! I got a whole version of this on Dailymotion from a reader. Aja absolutely dwarfs Fukawa.

GAEA JAPAN IN JULY 1999:
* We tick down the summer with a couple other GAEA shows. The first is a TINY-ASS theater show with only two rows on the hard cam. The next is in Korakuen Hall with a gross-ass faded “SSU” mat logo… but one of the most important shows of the year, as the AAAW Tag Champions Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki defend against their own Super Star Unit stablemates Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato… and then SSU EXPLODES as we get the formation of the new stable (called “Nostradamus”) from two factions that also both hate GAEA!

CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
(July 4th)
* Toshie reps GAEA against the SSU goon, at least switching up the usual Toshie/Sugar feud.

GAEA JAPAN IN JUNE 1999:
(July 20th 1999)
* Only three matches from GAEA for this month!  Thank god cuz the friggin’ heatwave here in Alberta is robbing my energy something fierce. We have the GAEA superdefender squad of KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada going for the Tag Team Champions (Aja & Ozaki) in a non-title match, another “Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato defending GAEA’s honor” match as they face Lioness Asuka & Mima Shimoda, and then a new push for a reborn Chigusa Nagayo, debuting a new look and a ton of weight loss in a main event singles match against Etsuko Mita!

SUPER STAR UNIT (Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki) vs. KAORU & TOSHIYO YAMADA:
* The top heel team in GAEA now takes on Chigusa’s most loyal lieutenants, who have just recently defeated Las Cachorras Orientales. Aja’s in a new navy blue outfit, Ozaki’s in the usual, Yamada’s in black & KAORU’s in white.

https://archive.org/details/arsion-05-04-1999-ars-tournament

Another one on Archive.org. I couldn’t watch it in the browser so had to actually download it. Watching via mpegs is not fun, lol. I might have to do a “YouTube only” thing even with this one.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- ARS TOURNAMENT ’99:
(May 4th 1999)
* It’s more ARSION! From Korakuen Hall we get a one-night tournament to give someone a new push or something! The issue with one-night tournaments is people inevitably half-ass performances or have to do lots of restholds if they’re working multiple times, so we’ll see what we get. Looks like this whole tape is that, plus one lucha Trios match with luchadoras fighting the native rookie trio CAZAI. Our entrants are:

Hiromi Yagi: Legit judoka who had one of ARSION’s best matches with the champion, Mariko Yoshida, early in the year. One of the best at the “House Style” (used by three wrestlers in the house). Current Tag Champion. Wears purple & black.
Rie Tamada: AJW midcarder turned ARSION midcarder. Current Tag Champion. Wears purple & black.
Yumi Fukawa: Tiny “Pretty Girl” wrestler who uses the House Style and has improved a lot, but is still smol. Specializes in “heartbreaking losses”. Wears pink.
Mariko Yoshida: The current Queen of ARSION and their “Ace” of sorts- mostly being used to defend the title while “putting over” the challengers as people who have a chance, even though they don’t really. Wears a wicked “Spider Lady” set of tights.
Aja Kong: Former AJW Ace & World Champion, currently in a role similar to Yoshida. Wears purple.
Candy Okutsu: JWP midcarder getting a big ARSION push because Rossy loves her. Last year’s victor with a shocker win over Reggie Bennett, leading to a Title shot. Dresses like Diesel in 1995, which is super-weird.
Mikiko Futagami: LLPW scrub turned into the “Shooter” of ARSION with powerful strikes. No personality. Wears blue.
Michiko Omukai: LLPW scrub who gets a push as a “striker” because she’s tall and pretty. Wears white.

FIRST ROUND:

HIROMI YAGI vs. RIE TAMADA:
* The current tag team champions face each other to start. They’re wearing near-identical gear, so thank god they look nothing alike.

GAEA JAPAN IN MAY 1996:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! Last show, Lioness Asuka led Super Star Unit (SSU) into dominance, as she was able to book a show full of unfair things to punish Chigusa and her GAEA loyalists. But now it’s another month and GAEA has a chance to rebound! Also, Chigusa Nagayo defends the AAAW Title against SSU’s Aja Kong in a huge Dream Match!

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Akira Hokuto, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Sakura Hirota
Super Star Unit: Lioness Asuka, Mayumi Ozaki, Aja Kong, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima, Kaori Nakayama

SUPER STAR UNIT (Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima) vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU & RIE:
* More of RIE from FMW as she teams with Toshie to face the two SSU subordinates. Chikayo’s in mustard yellow, Sugar white, Uematsu black/green and RIE in red.

SSU teams up on Uematsu to start, then RIE flies in with the most hilariously-bad move ever, just kinda landing on her feet and “knocking SSU down”. Chikayo then wrecks a stungun (gently placing Toshie on the top rope instead) and they hit a double-facecrusher. Toshie & Sugar absolutely paintbrush the hell out of each other, putting over their feud, then RIE comes in and they try to do stuff with her- she powerbombs Chikayo out of a rana attempt and then snaps on an STF and actually gets a good reaction for it- Chikayo dragging herself along with her elbows is a good visual. Everyone kinda fucks around as Chikayo looks legit hurt after a double-arm powerbomb from RIE, and Toshie’s huge flying splash gets two on her. Sugar sets up a German to counter, but Toshie gest some REALLY good missile dropkicks and the crowd is into that. Sugar tries a powerbomb, but RIE’s flying knee sets up the Double-Wrist Northern Lights for two and Chikayo has to save. Sugar pops Toshie with her Uraken backfist, but Toshie SLICKLY rolls her over and nearly gets three off that, then counters a powerbomb to an O’Connor roll, only for Chikayo to just shove them forwards so Sugar executes the Byers bridge for three at (8:46 of 14:28 shown).

GAEA JAPAN IN APRIL 1999:
* It’s more GAEA Japan! Chigusa Nagayo, boss & booker, has lost ownership of GAEA to hateful traitor Lionses Asuka, and is now booked in humiliating low-end matches! And ohhhhhhhhhh my god now they’re doing the “Welcome to GAEA Japan” thing but it’s Lioness and Super Star Unit (SSU) in the ring doing it, and Chigusa’s out ON THE FLOOR with the rest of the loyalists! The camera of course zooms way in on her and her absolutely dejection, as she’s clearly humiliated and depressed but trying to look strong. Of course one of the kids (probably Uematsu) loses it and tries to charge the ring and is held back and Lioness is like “hey geez” all mock-offended. Mita’s sarcastic “hiiiiiiiiiiiii” wave to the scrubs is the best.

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Akira Hokuto, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota, Hiromi Kato, Rina Ishii, Mizuki Ishii
Super Star Unit: Lioness Asuka, Mayumi Ozaki, Aja Kong, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima

CHIGUSA NAGAYO (GAEA Japan) vs. KAORI NAKAYAMA (SSU):
* Chigusa comes out with the JOBBER’S ENTRANCE of no theme music, looking miserable as she’s made to face “fellow scrub”, the lowest-end member of SSU, Kaori. Who gets theme music and flashing lights and shit while Chigusa gets NOTHING. SSU watches with amusement over by the stands (Shimoda hilariously asking a fan opening candies if she can have one while giant Mita sits like a schoolgirl, hugging her own legs)

https://archive.org/details/arsion-03-16-04-14-1999-starlet-99

It’s another one on Archive.org.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- STARLET ’99:
(March & April 1999)
* It’s time for more ARSION! In another heavily-clipped assortment of matches! From two shows in mid-March and mid-April!

March 16th, 1999:

REGGIE BENNETT vs. LA GALACTICA: An entertaining clusterfuck of styles, with newly-skinny Reggie taking on the grey-clad luchadora. After a couple of ugly-looking, super-slow sequences Reggie spins Galactica around and finishes her with the Global Bomb (spinning ligerbomb) (0:31 of 5:22 shown).

HIROMI YAGI vs. EMIKO KADO:
* The rookie who tragically dies on April 9th (ie. before the second half of this tape!) takes on Yagi, who recently brought ARSION champion Mariko Yoshida to the limit! Yagi’s in gold & black, Kado’s in black shorts and a shirt.

Takako Inoue with Bull Nakano, both in their fifties. No, really.

It’s time for another of Bull Nakano’s interviews with joshi stars. This time: TAKAKO INOUE. These are written and translated by my buddy MoskowDiskow on Twitter. (Notes From Me are in Bold, like this, to differentiate from his translations)

Takako is unique because in her generation, few focused on the “Idols in Photobooks” stuff as much as she did. She was the primary “Pretty Girl” wrestler in Zenjo (All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling) for years. She started in 1988 alongside Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida, and verrrrry slowly moved up, behind those two, but with a focus on her looks. Her “senior” (senpai) was Noriyo Tateno of Jumping Bomb Angels fame- another attractive woman in a similar (but less, uh, revealing) position. It wasn’t until late 1992 that she kind of formed her bitchy in-ring persona and hit the next level as a performer, and became one of Zenjo’s most entertaining acts for years, being a total shit in matches to the point of sociopathy. A lot of contemporary reviewers dissed her as the “worst one” in many matches, but it’s clear she was better at drawing reactions than most of the better athletes- turns out those critics were just wrongheaded workrate-snobs. She peaked at the All Pacific Title, never moving higher, despite the fact that she still wrestles to this very day, travelling around with her very good friend Shinobu Kandori.

Part 1:

– They open with some pleasantries, apparently it’s been awhile since the two have met each other. Bull asks what Takako’s been up to, and Takako says that in terms of wrestling, not much. Once covid hit, the already semi-active Inoue’s appearances in the ring had gone down to 1 per year. She says that new trainees had stopped appearing at the LLPW-X dojo as well.

– They talk about when Inoue left Zenjo to go freelance. Bull says she wondered if Takako would start her own promotion, and Takako shuts that down immediately with a laugh, saying that’s she’s not trying to be at the top of the wrestling world these days. They laugh about how being #2 or 3 in a promotion is a much more comfortable spot.

– On the topic of joining LLPW, Inoue says that she had been asked about it by Tateno (her senior in Zenjo) and Harley Saito in the past, but the timing wasn’t right. However when Shinobu Kandori later became president of LLPW, Tateno reached out again and this time she decided to join (I think she’s talking about 2011ish but it’s not clear). She says that at the time there was a surge of new wrestlers being debuted and going freelance, which provided a lot of cheap labor for padding cards. As a “name” freelancer with a higher price tag, this disruption to the market made it hard to get consistent bookings, so she joined LLPW.

It’s time for some JWP– Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling! They have very little available on YouTube by this point, as they’ve entered a “Dark Period” and really sort of suck for years from what I’ve heard. But this is a highly important match- the passing of the torch from the old Ace to the new Ace: Hikari Fukuoka defends the JWP Openweight Title against Azumi Hyuga!

So, some backstory: Hikari, a young, pretty girl, was given a “Spirited Rookie” push when JWP started in 1992, kind of their “obvious up & comer who looks good in defeat”, jobbing to the top stars like Mayumi Ozaki, Dynamite Kansai, etc. Even Cutie Suzuki could beat her. But with a picture-perfect Moonsault (a PERFECT ARC- one of the best ever) and a lot of energy, she looked great and had obvious potential. At the famous AJW DreamSlam cards, she suffered a singles loss against her AJW equivalent, rising star Sakie Hasegawa, and was in tears begging forgiveness from the JWP President. This pays off later in the year when Hikari gets the win back on a JWP show, and then pins Sakie AGAIN at the famous Thunder Queen Battle match- beating her in the early portion to put Team JWP up 1 point early, in what turns out to be a triumphant win for the squad! Along the way, her idol and inspiration, Manami Toyota (both wear black, have long hair and do rolling cradles & moonsaults- Hikari clearly aping Manami’s milieu), crushes Hikari in emphatic fashion in a couple matches where she, uh, does not seem appreciative of having a “Mini-Me”. But it’s clear that Hikari is JWP’s primary “cheerleader”, always leading the charge against rivals.

This continues at year’s end, when AJW’s Las Cachorras Orientales crush JWP’s spirits by defeating Ozaki & Suzuki for the JWP Tag Titles. In so doing, they disrespect the promotion, its wrestlers, and its President, ripping on everybody and acting like total shits. Hikari, infuriated, tries again and again to take the Titles back from LCO, going on various interpromotional cards to do it. She teams up with Command Bolshoi and fails, then Cutie Suzuki and fails. But she teams up with Ozaki herself and THIS lets the team finally unseat the nasty invader squad, finally bringing the titles back home! In so doing, Hikari builds up a “Main Event Offense”, doing crazy shit like perfecting a Moonsault STOMP, a move you still barely ever see because the precision and athleticism required is almost impossible (most people will either miss or fall on their ass completely). She also creates the Rider Kick, a somersault missile dropkick that’s either a chest shot or her spinning and landing ass-first on the back of the opponent’s head- either works.

GAEA JAPAN 4th ANNIVERSARY SHOW- GAEA vs. SSU:
(April 4th 1999)
* So the GAEA vs. Super Star Unit feud reaches a head four months into the year, as months of wild brawls and SSU wreaking havoc and pulling out wins leads to this! The opening clip is actually the opening festivities, with SSU coming out one by one in blue shirts, and GAEA’s loyalists coming out in GAEA shirts. As T-shirt based loyalties being the most indefatigable trope in wrestling during the ’90s, this rules. As SSU has MASSIVE starpower compared to GAEA, this will be rough going for the loyalists. But dig Chigusa’s “blonde hairdye of evil”! She’s ready to fight SSU on their own level!

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota, Rina Ishii, Mizuki Ishii
SSU Roster: Mayumi Ozaki, Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka, Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita), (First Class) Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima, (FMW) Kaori Nakayama

3vs3 SURVIVAL SINGLE (GAUNTLET) MATCH:
GAEA JAPAN (Toshie Uematsu, Sakura Hirota & RIE) vs. SUPER STAR UNIT/OZ ACADEMY (Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagshima & Kaori Nakayama):
* So it’s a “Survival Single Match” (ie. a Gauntlet Match), with two GAEA loyalists and FMW’s RIE (Bad Nurse Nakamura) against the GAEA students who betrayed GAEA for Mayumi Ozaki back in the day, plus Nakayama from FMW. GAEA using “Kickstart My Heart”, a ten-year old song, for the highlight reel for the wrestlers is pretty funny. Toshie’s in new gear- a bulky black top with green skirt (with gold designs that make her look like Anna from “Frozen” cosplay), Sakura’s in pink/white & RIE’s in a red top & athletic shorts. Sugar’s in white, Chikayo’s in yellow/white & Kaori’s in rose-gold genie pants with a black top.

GAEA JAPAN (March 1999):
* It’s finally time for more GAEA Japan! When we last left off, the newly formed Super Star Unit raised hell over Korakuen Hall, with Aja Kong, Mayumi Ozaki, Lioness Asuka, and their goons beating on the entire GAEA roster alongside Las Cachorras Orientales (who joined in to get in on the mayhem), spreading powder everywhere, and generally being shits. So now GAEA has a major central angle- Chigusa Nagayo leading her loyalists against the invading heel stable, which includes her former best friend and partner (Asuka). And this sets up a REALLY big match for the April shows!

SUPER STAR UNIT (Aja Kong & Chikayo Nagashima) vs. MEIKO SATOMURA & SONOKO KATO:
(March 20th)
* So Chigusa’s two most loyal students take on an SSU leader and her own subordinate, Chikayo (part of the same class as Meiko/Sonoko, but a longtime traitor who joined with Ozaki early). Aja’s in that black/dark brown version of her gear, Chikayo’s in neon yellow, Kato’s in blue & Meiko’s in red.

If you’ve any familiarity with GAEA, you know the deal- Meiko/Kato can beat on Chikayo, but Aja will methodically take them apart. Aja’s like “lol I don’t respect you” and Meiko’s like “YOU WILL RESPECT ME!” but the interesting bits quickly take a house show cadence as they do an arena brawl. 12 minutes in Aja uses her oil can to smash Kato after she dodges Chikayo’s flying stomp, setting up a German for our first near-fall. Aja comes in to mop up, but misses her flying elbow and Kato Germans HER with Meiko’s help, and a flying forearm/guillotine legdrop combo gets two. Kato tries BULL’S POSEIDON of all things on Aja and gets powerbombed for it, but dodges the can shot so Chikayo takes it, doing the move to her instead for two. Chikayo eats a splash & Pele kick as Aja keeps saving her, but Chikayo gets a slingshot rana for two on Meiko. Kato saves after a Fisherman’s Buster and after Aja assists in some Chikayo double-stomps. Meiko gets a good reaction for “Fuck YOU!” bridging out of a vicious Aja lariat, then another, and gets a desperation sleeper while Kato holds back Chikayo on the floor to put it over, but no dice. Aja gets a desperation Backdrop Driver when Meiko goes to tag out, but ends up in the Death Valley Driver for a dramatic two-count after missing her Uraken. haha two girls on the right side of the hard cam were marking out hard for that one- Meiko’s persistence got ’em. Meiko tries again, Aja tries and fails the brainbuster & uraken again, but finally gets the Brainbuster… and Kato saves while those fans mark out again. An angry Aja just bludgeons Meiko to death and Urakens her at (21:15 of 22:13 shown).

It’s time for another of MoskowDiskow’s recaps of a Bull Nakano interview! This time one with Akira Hokuto, one of the biggest stars in joshi puro history, and one of Bull’s closest friends & supporters in the business. Hokuto was a legit main eventer and the biggest draw of the early to mid-90s, but kept teasing retirements, quitting, etc., and was constantly injured, to the point where her box office diminished and she ended up in GAEA Japan. Notes from me will say “Jab’s Notes” and be in bold.

– They start off by talking about Hokuto’s stint as the president of Bull’s fanclub before joining Zenjo herself. Hokuto says she chose Bull because among the 1983 rookies, the other three (Ogura, Komatsu, Nagatomo) were small and/or cute, and Bull stood out for being big and chubby. Hokuto says she saw Bull trying hard during her matches, and started off by making cute homemade gifts and sending them to Bull. Bull brought one to the shoot and shows everyone.

– Bull says that as soon as Hokuto arrived at the Zenjo dojo, her level of athleticism was apparent – Bull says it was among the highest she’s ever seen in wrestling. Hokuto credits her hometown for this, as there was an enormous agricultural field in between her house and her school, making her choices a daily 2+ hour walk/run or a 50 minute bike ride. She says that this helped sharpen her natural physical gifts. Bull says that she immediately saw potential in Hokuto, and could see her as a future main eventer from the start.

(Jab’s Notes: This is a bit funny to think about, given how Hokuto wrestled the entire 1990s wrapped up like a mummy and relying on charisma, character and timing because her body was shot, but she was legit an amazing super-athlete before all the injuries)

– Bull tells an extended story about Hokuto being knocked out in training, and saying she saw flowers and happy children singing on the “other side”, and talks about crossing the Sanzu River, which is an afterlife thing in Japanese buddhism. I didn’t catch all of this as Bull tends to go on a bit, but TLDR is a near-death experience. Hokuto responds with “I don’t remember that…sounds heavy” while laughing.

– They talk about the broken neck Hokuto suffered during a match in 1987, and how she was told she would never wrestle again. Hokuto says that she’s thankful that Bull came to hang out often while she was bedridden during recovery. Hokuto talks about the difficulties of eating a meal while laying prone with an immobilized neck. Hokuto says it was like this for about two and a half months until the halo was ready to come off.

Akira Hokuto continues wrestling with a BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK
byu/sangjade inSquaredCircle

(Jab’s Notes: The match is horrifying to watch, as Hokuto is legit standing there on the apron holding her head steady with her own hands, then going in and wrestling some more. Absolute insanity and the kind of thing that shows you the lack of care towards bodies in that era. It makes AEW’s disastrous shit with the Hardys look minor. And of course I’ve heard it’s like some “start of the legend” thing in Japan, lol)

It’s time for another Bull Nakano interview recap by my buddy MoskowDiskow. And yes I’m so far behind on stuff I need to pump out a week of these to have any hope of not falling back, lol.

(As before, Jab’s Notes- ie. mine, are in bold so you know I’m not just swiping his stuff)

(Jab’s Notes: So Kyoko Inoue was Bull’s “kouhai” for years- a subordinate who was both part of Bull’s stable on TV but also a student of sorts in real life, taking advice and stuff like that. Bull actually had her kouhais doing literal work for her as well- the French AJW documentary shows Kyoko & Tomoko Watanabe feeding Bull’s pets while Bull played Super Nintendo. They actually ran a few Bull vs. Kyoko matches during the ’90s, with Kyoko coming ever-closer, until Bull was close to retirement and finally put Kyoko over once and for all- every match was tremendous)

– They start off with introductions and explain that they are close friends in the real world, and talk all the time. Bull says her nickname for Kyoko is “Adamo-chan”, which is based off a comedian’s character from the 80s. Kyoko did an impression on the bus once, and she was “Adamo-chan” forever after (Jab’s Notes: I bet 90% of wrestling nicknames have origins like this). She says only Bull, Aja and Hokuto still call her that – (“3 evil people!”-Bull).

-Bull explains that when rookies get on the bus to go the matches for the first time, they’re expected to show some kind of “talent” to the seniors, like singing a song, telling a joke, doing an impression, etc. “People who do something weird will definitely be made fun of”. She says that if they do something boring, they won’t get over with the seniors (“That’s the first gate to success..”) She says some rookies go nuts with it and give memorable performances – Kyoko was one of these.

-Kyoko laughs and says that at the time Aja was the wrestler that was ribbed the most, and once thanked Kyoko because “You showing up took the heat off me.” Kyoko says her immediate seniors (1987 group) (Jab’s Notes: Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda) were all “serious” minded and didn’t let Kyoko get away with much. Bull says Aja was ribbed for two years instead of the usual one due to the 87 group being so serious (Jab’s Notes: It’s so weird to think of AJA KONG being ribbed by people- her aura in the ’90s was so tremendous). Kyoko says that being the primary target for ribbing is a role passed down from class to class, and says that Bat Yoshinaga was the one who followed her. Bull says if anyone has the mentality needed to handle it, it’s Kyoko. (Jab’s Notes: It’s very interesting how “Tormenting the newbies” has been a thing on both sides of the pond for ages- Japan’s system was more based around sumo hierarchies and stuff like that- it’s probably just a bit of human nature and the kind of things jocks get up to- test the newbies to see if they can hack it… to the point of abuse sometimes)

https://archive.org/details/arsion-01-17-02-18-1999-1st-anniversary-stardom-99_202102

Another show only on Archive.org. Here’s the Main Event, though.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- FIRST ANNIVERSARY (STARDOM ’99):
(Jan. 17th & Feb. 18th 1999)
* It’s more ARSION! And the promotion celebrates its first anniversary, and finally has a top champion (Mariko Yoshida)! And she’s gonna be a “take on all comers” champion, taking on rookie Mika Akino, then Hiromi Yagi in separate months! The former is a masterwork in carrying a rookie to a long match, and the latter is considered one of ARSION’s best matches! There’s also a Survivor Series-style 8-woman tag! We also have the debut of Emiko Kado, who … oh. Oh no.

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Hiromi Yagi, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu, Esther Moreno, Mary Apache, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada, Emiko Kado

The first show takes place at Club Citta in Kanagawa, drawing “600” (yeah, sure). These are pretty much entirely clipped, often with only 20-30 seconds of footage.

REGGIE BENNETT & MARI APACHE vs. AJA KONG & FABI APACHE: Fabi whips Mari off the top with a forward roll in a big spot, pinning her at (16:27).

MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI: Gami, billed as kind of a powerful striker/grappler, easily absorbs the tall, lanky idol’s kicks in a taunting manner, but is begrudgingly forced to sell for two, then Omukai gets a near-fall with a good roundhouse kick. Gami has to pin her with a La Majistral-type cradle at (11:11) with about a minute shown.

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. YUMI FUKAWA: The Ace takes on the tiny grappler to give her a good show. Yoshida nearly puts her away with a Million Dollar Dream & powerbomb, then Fukawa nearly gets her with a couple flash submissions, but a pumphandle German into the Air Raid Crash (inverted over-the-back DDT with the leg cradled) pins Fukawa at (1:58 of 14:35 shown).

It’s time for a huge AJW/LLPW show! With a single match I’ve found set before it! So come see a ton of AJW/LLPW matches, headlined by Eagle Sawai vs. Tomoko Watanabe in a bloodbath, a wild 8-woman tag where Manami Toyota brings “acting like a shit during a match” to a whole new level, and the main event, featuring Yumiko Hotta attempting to win the 3WA Title back from LLPW’s Shinobu Kandori!

YUMIKO HOTTA & MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. SHINOBU KANDORI & JUNKO YAGI (LLPW):
(AJW, Feb. 16th 1999)
* Oh hey! I FINALLY found a Zenjo match from 1999! I’ve been digging but even typing names into Japanese is usually producing squat. This one features an old rivalry- Shinobu Kandori defeated Hotta for the WWWA Title in early 1998 and has been carrying it around ever since, and now they’re meeting up once more, but with rookie tag partners! Junko is someone I’ve never heard of… looks like she’s six months into the business and soon left LLPW for NEO and wrestled until 2002? Hotta’s in black, Wacky’s in yellow & red, Kandori’s in a brand-new yellow singlet with red lines across it and Junko’s in yellow and looks positively ENORMOUS for a rookie. At 5’7″ she’s not THAT big, but she looks huge even next to Kandori. This is at the Athena TV studios, which is a great set-up for wrestling, as it’s both intimate (small crowd) but looks great on TV with all this futuristic nonsense around the ring and the outdoors make it less claustrophobic than a gym.