Joshi Spotlight — page 6

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.

Here’s the second a series of interviews Bull Nakano did on her YouTube channel with various women’s wrestling stars! These were recapped by my buddy MoskowDiskow (on Twitter) and posted here with his permission.

My Notes are in Bold, titled “Jab’s Notes” so you know it’s not me trying to take credit for his hard work, lol.

– They start off talking about Toyota’s retirement match, which was a “50 person gauntlet” match with 1 minute rounds. Bull can’t really remember how it worked despite taking part. Bull says it must have been hard, Toyota compares it to a public execution (lol). Toyota says that really, she just wanted to experience working with all the people who helped her along the way one last time. Bull says that for her one minute segment, she couldn’t really move around well so she just did some posing to let Toyota get some rest.

– When asked about why she decided to retire, she noted that the wrestlers in the scene were getting smaller while Toyota was getting bigger (Jab’s Notes: Despite looking in the ’90s like a slender “pretty girl” wrestler, Manami was 5’6″ 160-170 lbs.- she was MUCH larger than even the ’90s generations of rookies, much less the stick-thin idols common today). She felt that her unique style was based on running and jumping, and she couldn’t really do it anymore at her size. “I’ve just become a random fatass that can’t fly” is her direct quote. The smaller size of modern wrestlers also meant that there was nobody that could catch her safely even if she tried a dive or something, which created a significant injury risk (Jab’s Notes: catching people is actually one of the most dangerous routine spots in wrestling in terms of breaking bones and the like). Since it was her 30th anniversary, she decided the timing was right to retire.

Hey All! I have something totally different for you today- a series of interviews Bull Nakano did on her YouTube channel with various women’s wrestling stars! These were recapped by my buddy MoskowDiskow (on Twitter) and posted here with his permission. Why am I posting someone else’s work on here? Well I find this super, SUPER fascinating, and I want a more people to see it, in a more permanent spot. Also I’m doing a 2-week vacation and I need extra content without having to fall way behind, lol. This will feature all of his writing, with my additions (ie. notes on what’s been mentioned) in Bold.

BULL INTERVIEWS CHIGUSA NAGAYO:
Jab’s Notes: Chigusa is of course the all-time biggest star in women’s wrestling history. She was the big star of the 1980s joshi boom, as her “EveryGirl” persona drew legions of schoolgirls to Zenjo (AJW), as the evil Dump Matsumoto and her stable of bullies took advantage of contemporary issues in Japanese society (the bullying epidemic- Chigusa was a stand-in for the fans and the Gokuaku-Domei were stand-ins for the mean bullies they feared) and made bucketloads of money. Dave Meltzer idiotically stated that Rossy Ogawa was responsible for all of this, a blatant lie told to him by his Japan contact Fumi Saito (a friend of Ogawa’s).

– They start with some very polite introductions and Bull jokes that she’s nervous (Nagayo is her senior) (Jab’s Notes: This is super-fascinating to me, and reflects how serious the “Senpai/Seniority” system is in Japan- that a 55-56 year old retired woman would pretend to be nervous around a senior). Bull immediately goes into a story of when she was a rookie, and was excited to have been sat next to Nagayo on the team bus. They were passing by some apartments on the freeway and Chigusa told Bull to look carefully at the buildings. When Bull asked what she was looking for, expecting some wisdom, Nagayo told her “sometimes you can see people changing” and got a big laugh. Bull says that after that, she couldn’t help but look everytime they passed the same area “I got an eyeful”-Bull.

You know, I think joshi wrestlers may be nuts.

GAEA JAPAN IN JAN-FEB. 1999:
* Welcome to 1999 in the Joshi Spotlight! Starting with GAEA Japan! After a pretty boring 1998 the promotion suddenly starts HOT, with Lioness Asuka coming over to betray her former tag team partner and form Super Star Unit with heel main eventers Mayumi Ozaki & Aja Kong! Then LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES show up and begin their famous Freelancer Run of 1999 and beyond! This is actually what LCO are mostly known for from what I understand, so it’s great to finally see it start.

oh also KAORU ends up doing THAT spot up above.

GAEA Roster: Chigusa Nagayo, Mayumi Ozaki, Akira Hokuto (still hurt), Toshiyo Yamada, KAORU, (First Class) Meiko Satomura, Sonoko Kato, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima, Toshie Uematsu, (Second Class) Makie Numao, Sakura Hirota, Hiromi Kato, Rina Ishii, (Rookies) Mizuki Ishii

JAN. 8th:
* This is some tiny little gym with wooden walls and maybe a 30-ft. ceiling.

JOSHI IN 1998- THE MULTI-PROMOTION ERA:

And we’re here! The end of 1998! From here, I move onto 1999, but I’ll sum up the year first!

* Wonder of wonders- the already split, frayed joshi scene in Japan gets EVEN WORSE, as now we have two additional companies alongside AJW (Zenjo- Zen Nihon Joshi Puroresu, but I don’t feel like explaining that every review, lol), GAEA, JD’, LLPW & JWP. As several of these companies have similar identities, it’s a bit annoying to see the entire scene split up so. But now we have Neo Ladies (a Zenjo-esque promotion with Kyoko Inoue as the top wrestler and Las Cachorras Orientales as the top tag team, still being vicious heels most of the time) and ARSION (a grappling-focused promotion set up by Aja Kong & Rossy Ogawa). So now it’s AJW, JWP, LLPW, GAEA, JD’, ARSION & Neo Ladies. To say this is ruinous is an understatement, as some of these companies are just fading so badly that they might as well barely exist- JWP & LLPW, the vestiges of the 1980s “JWP” promotion, are losing money- LLPW loses TV entirely in 1998 and won’t get it back for like 5-7 years.

One wonders if 1-2 Superpromotions out of all this varied talent would have done better, but that it’s the puroresu way- it’s better to make promotions out of 1-2 stars and a lot of unready bullshit wrestlers clogging up the midcard!

HEELS RUN JAPAN:
* Of particular interest is nearly every promotion in Japan suddenly runs to the old joshi default: The Heel Army. In particular, three promotions combine their heels into one super-stable, as Lioness Asuka brings two goons from JD’, Shark Tsuchiya brings a couple from FMW, and Eagle Sawaii adds hers from LLPW. And this leads to a LOT of dramatic cheating, as nobody can wrestle a match against one member without sometimes 1-3 people running in constantly! This effectively turns everything into a handicap match since the heels can cheat and run in with impunity, and no DQs really exist in the scene. This makes things feel very “same-y” when EVERY MAJOR BOUT feels that way, but also helps build heat and puts over the heels. The heel army ends up nuking much of LLPW and Neo Ladies, even invading GAEA and JWP (where LLPW wrestlers rarely appeared, because the promotions had an acrimonious split in 1992).

Hey, remember when I said the GAEA show I just did was the last Joshi thing of 1998! Well I found an un-dated match and looked it up, and sure enough it’s from that December too, lol. So have a Friday Spotlight based around one match! Also I found the full version of the WWWA/LLPW Double Title Unification match from early 1998 so I’ll include that here!

YUMIKO HOTTA, MANAMI TOYOTA & TAKAKO INOUE (AJW) vs. KYOKO INOUE & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) (Neo):
(JD’ Together Women’s All-Star, Dec. 8th 1998)
* Because Joshi, I found an un-dated match that’s actually highly-regarded and from a late 1998 JD’ show. And it features Zenjo’s Big Three against the “traitors” who weren’t getting paid and formed Neo Ladies! Kyoko’s in purple, Mita’s in white, Shimoda’s in red, Hotta’s in black, Toyota’s in red & Takako’s in light purple.

Things get heated straight away with Double Inoue EXPLODING as Kyoko & Takako meet up to start and Kyoko gestures to Takako’s partners and completely disregarding her old pal, just tossing her and brawling with Hotta, the woman who took the 3WA Title from her. And then LCO charges and they take out the partners and lay a three-woman beating on Hotta! Team AJW lashes out and does the same and now they’re all fighting outside the ring in a very epic version of what’s usually a routine spot, featuring multiple momentum-shifts and Shimoda chasing Toyota around the ring until she runs into Hotta, and Mima gets launched into the chairs. Clipped to Toyota’s Running No-Hands Springboard countering Shimoda & Kyoko, and she dropkick spams Kyoko and Kyoko/Takako go at it. Takako gives as good as she gets, firing Kyoko off the top rope, but she gets wasted by three lariats and goes completely dead-weight, getting dragged out of the ring so Manami can charge in- Manami gets Ligerbombed out of a Manami Roll, but immediately gets the move next try in one of the most lightning-fast versions I’ve ever seen (Kyoko is an INCREDIBLE base for that move). But she backflips off a lariat bump and has to avoid Shimoda’s Tiger Suplex, going into a rolling cradle as things get a bit clunkier. Shimoda reverses the Japanese Ocean Cyclone for two, but Toyota gets a dive onto Team Neo.

GAEA JAPAN (November to December 1998):
* We’re clearing out to the end of the year! Time for some more GAEA Japan! And we end the year with a BIG angle, as the formation of a new Super-Heel Army occurs and Chigusa faces more and more heartbreak!

KAORU & RINA ISHII vs. MEIKO SATOMURA & TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* It’s the Class of 95 against a veteran and a comparative rookie- if Meiko/Toshie can single out Rina they’ll win, but KAORU can probably beat either, especially Toshie. Meiko’s in red, Toshie green, Rina orange & KAORU powder blue.

https://archive.org/details/arsion-carnival-arsion-december-18-1998

It’s on Archive.org! And my favorite thing- tag teams in matching gear!

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- CARNIVAL ’98:
(Dec. 18th 1998)
* It’s one more ARSION show before the end of the year! This one is called “Carnival ’98” and has eight matches, including a Trios lucha match, two “Shoot Style” ones, and the Twin Stars of ARSION Title Match between Hiromi Yagi & Rie Tamada and Michiko Omuka & Yumi Fukawa!

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

We start with the musical instrument most synonymous with pro wrestling, the harp, then the standard ARSION opening with the announcer introducing all the women- the roster is now quite huge with the addition of more luchadoras, plus the fighters. A veritable sea of empty seats can be seen on the hard cam, though, which has gotta feel dreadful. They drew about 1200 to a 5500 seat venue. Rossy Ogawa = GENIUS BOOKER! Remember that! Meltzer said it, not having at all been fed info by a friend of Rossy’s!

MIKA AKINO, MARY APACHE & FABI APACHE vs. ESTHER MORENO, JESSE BENNETT & METALIKA:
* A strange one for sure, as two luchadora teams add non-lucha talent, with the best rookie (Akino) teaming up with Gran Apache’s daughters to take on Esther Moreno (new to ARSION but an old hat working in Japan, often doing mini-tours here and there for AJW and other companies) & Metalika, plus the American rookie Jesse Bennett, here in a US-flag designed singlet. Moreno’s in brown, Metalika’s in orange, Akino’s in white & green, and the Apaches are in all the colors & tassels (Mary), and black (Fabi).