Joshi Spotlight — page 6

GAEA JAPAN IN FALL 1999:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! All the Zenjo content I found was concentrated in July & September, so now I’m back up to where GAEA was. And the first match is a BIG one- an 8-woman tag featuring Super Star Unit going up against Chigusa’s GAEA loyalists, with the added factor of Lioness Asuka’s new trainee, Sonoko Kato, shoring up the SSU side against her GAEA origins! This one ends up with big repercussions for GAEA as a whole with regards to the future of Super Star Unit- what was once the biggest heel stable in joshi pro!

Then we have a “600 Spurt” tournament of matches intended to be under 10 minutes- these are fluke-heavy sprints, so prepare to have expectations torn asunder! The finale has a big impact on what’s expected of GAEA in the future, I would think.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO, KAORU, TOSHIYO YAMADA & MEIKO SATOMURA vs. SUPER STAR UNIT (Lioness Asuka, Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita & Sonoko Kato):
(Sept. 22nd)
* Ohhhhhhhhhhh shit, this seems like a big one. Chigusa has been feuding with her ex-Crush Gals partner all year long, and Lioness recently took Chigusa’s second best trainee, Sonoko Kato, away! And now Kato’s teaming up with LCO & Asuka against the top four people still loyal to GAEA! Chigusa’s in black & red, KAORU white, Yamada xxxxxxxxxx and Meiko red, while Asuka’s in black & silver, Shimoda black & red, Mita black & yellow, and Kato blue.

AJW IN SEPT. 1999:
* It’s time for some disparate AJW shows from September! Some feature actual stars vs. rookies, while one pays off the big Kyoko Inoue vs. Yumiko Hotta title switch from July! There, Kyoko was unknowingly helped by her friend Takako Inoue (no relation), who used a STUN-GUN to zap Hotta and leave her vulnerable to Kyoko’s finishers. Manami Toyota, a Zenjoy loyalist, hit the ring to talk mad shit on Takako for cheating in a Red Belt match (something that’s usually HIGHLY frowned upon, as the wrestlers take that belt very seriously), and now they’re gonna fight each other!

But the big selling point in this one is the GREAT Las Cachorras Orientales Tag Title defense against the rookie upstart duo of NanaMomo- the kids put on a hell of a fight and show a ton of heart against the big, cheating bruisers! Actually a lot of this review is just “here’s how good Momoe is getting”, which I’ve heard will be quite important for the future.

Sept. 20th:
* This show is from the Sept. 20th ATHENA TV show at Odaiba.

YUMIKO HOTTA & KUMIKO MAEKAWA vs. NANAE TAKAHASHI & MIYUKI FUJII:
* So the top two kickers in Zenjo take on midcard goobers Nanae & Miyuki. Probably a “put the kids in their place/show how much they’ve grown” match. Fujji’s got short hair and an LLPW-esque singlet that’s white/yellow/blue in a lot of bold angular patterns while Nanae’s wearing a weird white/purple singlet with triangles across the chest. Hotta’s in black & Kumiko’s in white/blue.

AJW ODAIBA EXPLOSION:
(July 10th & 11th, 1999)
* Hey look! Even more Zenjo stuff from the summer of 1999! I’ll never be able to escape this month! This one, however, features the famous “Match in the Rain”- though it rained a LOT on these rooftop shows at the Fuji TV building, this crazed 6-woman tag really takes the cake. I’ve reviewed it before, so I’ll slap that one in here as well. And there’s also MULTIPLE Title matches featuring invaders from other promotions, including Yumiko Hotta’s WWWA World Title being defended against Neo’s top dog Kyoko Inoue! Kumiko Maekawa defends the White Belt against the giant Misae Genki! There’s also the WWWA Super Lightweight Championship being fought for once again!

Note that almost all of these are massively clipped. And some of them happen the same day as matches I’ve already reviewed- these came undated so I wasn’t aware of when they happened until I watched them and checked my notes (ps YouTube uploaders who don’t post match dates should be drawn & quartered). And rain hits on both days of this show, resulting in an iconic mess of a match and then a disappointing World Title match.

ALL PACIFIC TITLE:
KUMIKO MAEKAWA (AJW) vs. MISAE GENKI (Neo):
* It’s Interpromotional mayhem, as White Belt holder Kumiko takes on Misae, who was three years behind her in Zenjo training classes (1991 vs. 1994). As Genki is getting a big push in Kyoko Inoue’s Neo Ladies as a rising powerhouse, she’ll probably do well but lose a “hard fought match”. Kumiko’s in white & Genki’s in her black shirt & shorts.

NEO LADIES IN 1999 (Part One):
* Hey look! I found some Neo stuff! Which… last time it was called Neo Ladies and was a Kyoko Inoue-led mini-promotion with her and some of All Japan Women’s rookies, plus Las Cachorras Orientales & Chaparrita ASARI. But wait! Neo Ladies did not do well, and so LCO and ASARI moved on to becoming Freelancers, leaving a very top-heavy group. Neo is actually two different companies, mind you- the backers shut it down (in 2000, according to Wikipedia), leaving Kyoko with a lot of debt, but it rebrands a tad and forms a new company that lasts ten more years. I keep thinking only one is in all-caps but this is all labeled that way on YouTube, probably by mistake, but I dunno. This is in the midst of a feud with Zenjo (AJW)- promotions did these little feuds to prop themselves up and fill out cards a lot of the time.

KYOKO INOUE (NEO) vs. TAKAKO INOUE (AJW):
(May 5th 1999)
* Double Inoue EXPLODES as Kyoko once again takes on her former partner, Takako. Their levels are leagues different at this point so I can’t imagine there’s any drama here. But Takako has maxed out her “cheating” skill-tree and is now sporting an actual STUN GUN as a weapon (remember that in joshi nobody ever gets DQ’d).

Is anyone ready for some shamelessly topical pandering!? I am!!

So WWE’s YouTube channel just released a bunch of content of Japanese girls hitting the WWF in the 1980s, in response to the Queen of Villains series that was just released to Netflix! This features the American tour of the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka) and their rivals Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano! Near as I can tell, the two teams didn’t interact, fighting only American rivals. This generally meant that someone had to act as a cheating heel. On commentary throughout is Gorilla Monsoon, who is only vaguely prepared for what he’s about to watch- he has the names of “Chigooza” and “AhSOOKa” mixed up throughout, often changing halfway through the match and isn’t corrected. One of the funnier bits is he always thinks a slam is going to be a suplex because in joshi puro they always do a front-facelock to set up a bodyslam instead of the crotch-scoop.

All four girls were of course MASSIVE stars in Japan at this point, with Chigusa being a household name and a goddess to her schoolgirl fanbase. None of which applies to the U.S. audience, so it’s interesting to see how the Gals get over- usually it’s via the heels cheating to put over the comebacks, and some natural selling from the Gals. The style of Dump & Bull was so mayhem-related, with tons of weapons and open cheating, and that can’t be done in the U.S. style which has more stringent rules- so they’re left with regular-ass selling instead of bleeding and acting near-death. Thankfully in almost every match is a woman trained in Zenjo (AJW’s nickname- ZEN Nihon JOshi Puroresu)- both Judy Martin & Leilani Kai did LONG tours there and know the style (note that when the Jumping Bomb Angels did their famous tour in the WWF, they were almost never paired up with anyone BUT the Glamour Girls, who were the only ones who could take their state-of-the-art flying offense).

All of these matches seem to be around the same couple of dates- in fact, they ran a Crush Gals match and a Dump/Bull match on each card! That’s quite a lot of show real estate to use on total unknowns who aren’t going to be coming back, either.

This is actually missing one match, so I’ll post that one first:

THE DEVILS OF JAPAN (Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano) vs. VELVET McINTYRE & DAWN MARIE:
(WWF, March 8th 1986)
* WHAT THE SHIT?!?! DUMP MATSUMOTO and BULL NAKANO made WWF TV in the late ’80s? This is friggin’ crazy. Dump is swinging around a chain and dressed like a dark samurai, while Bull has her hair in its mid-80s phase, blonde and shaved on one side, which is hilariously prescient to the hairstyle that became super common among women about ten years ago. They look like a Japanese, female version of Demolition or the Road Warriors, and I’m amazed somebody didn’t try to push them over here. Lord Alfred is agog (“That is a big UGLY lady!”) when Dump takes off the samurai helmet. The barefoot McIntyre had traded the WWF Women’s Title with Moolah in ’86 (and had a SPECTACULARLY bad match at WrestleMania 2). Dawn Marie (not that one) is a Moolah-style woman who was largely a JTTS. Velvet’s in white, and Dawn Marie’s in pink/purple.

ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S PRO WRESTLING:
(July 1999)
* So mere months ago, a NEW joshi channel popped up on YouTube, spamming out a bunch of content from the era I’m covering! This allows me to fill in some bases! Most of this is from the absolutely incredible ATHENA TV set-up on the Fuji Broadcasting Center building, which is on a rooftop on Odaiba Island. It’s an amazing set-up for wrestling, as it has good acoustics, is small so a smaller crowd doesn’t seem horrible, and is outdoors so you get that “windswept hair” effect and stuff.

The matches here are largely some Japan Grand Prix stuff, a good Manami/Momoe “Veteran vs. Rising Star” match, and then a mother of a tag match featuring Las Cachorras Orientales vs. The ZAPs in a Cheating Heel vs. Cheating Heel match with tons of crowd brawls, blood, huge spots on the commentary stand, and more! This is also a good showcase for just how many people used the ATHENA lighting rig for their spots, as you see this nearly constantly, haha.

JAPAN GRAND PRIX:
KAORU ITO vs. TAKAKO INOUE:
* Ito has gravitated into a much heavier, bulkier fighter since I last saw her, with her push corresponding with her squatness. Takako has become a freelancer at some point in 1999 but remains in good standing with the Zenjo office. She’s in black, with the shorter hair that she kept for a long time, and the black idol outfit that she pretty much wears to this day. And some dumbass-looking boxing gloves to put over this “Takako is a STRIKER” gimmick they sadly keep working into matches, as if she’s at all a believable puncher. Ito’s in a black & blue bodysuit with shorts.

MANAMI TOYOTA vs. YUMIKO HOTTA:
* Hey look! I found a Toyota/Hotta match from 1997 I’ve never seen before! And also one from 1999! So I can do a two-in-one deal! Their chemistry has always been very interesting, and has produced both classics as well as slogs depending on effort, nerves, and injuries. Hotta is depicted as a tough, nigh-invincible shooter who can submit or knock people out, while Toyota’s specialty is incredible speed and acrobatics. Thus, Hotta is generally expected to dominate their matches (as the senior, she’d certainly be calling the matches, too)… though Toyota can have iffy selling at points and just fly into her comebacks as if no accumulated damage was done, particularly if she’s in a mood to show off. I’ve seen them have a ****3/4 match before, and I’ve seen some bad ones where Hotta won’t sell at it seems to piss Manami off and cause her to act out, throw tantrums or try to match stiffness, and then they get increasingly clumsy as the match goes on. It’s fascinating but makes me dread seeing things like the 30-minute runtime of the first match here, haha.

YUMIKO HOTTA vs. MANAMI TOYOTA:
(Sept. 21st 1997)
* This one has been uploaded semi-recently, which explains how I missed it. This is shortly after Zenjo nearly went bankrupt and the entire roster was gutted. After a weak show in which Kyoko Inoue announced she was quitting BEFORE her Red Belt match against Hotta (thus ruining any drama as to whether or not Hotta was going to win), this is probably their biggest shot to show what they have to offer from an in-ring perspective. Manami and Yumiko were seen as the “Mom & Dad” of the promotion as the two highest-ranked wrestlers left according to others. Both are in black & white here. Hotta is the Champion but this is not for the title. Also holy god look at that ring mat. DISGUSTING. So flaky and faded, haha.

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.