Joshi Spotlight — page 7

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).

AJW 30TH ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL HALL OF FAME:
(Nov. 29th 1998)
* AJW is finally back on TV! They made a deal with Athena TV for a timeslot and everything! And it’s their 30th Anniversary show! Granted, the gutted company needs to fill the entire card with Interpromotional Matches to draw some interest (and there isn’t much- the show doesn’t draw well), but it’s a pretty big assortment of stuff- a JWP/AJW rookie tag, an AJW vs. ARSION rookie tag, the ZAPs vs. Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya in a big heel vs. heel tag, and most importantly, CHIGUSA NAGAYO, Ace of GAEA Japan and the AAAW World Champion, heads back to her original promotion to defend it against the Ace of 1995 AJW, Manami Toyota! It’s legend vs. legend! Sure to be an amazing match and not an infamous shit-show! RIGHT?

The arena is very weirdly set up, with people sitting at round tables with dinner and everything, like they’re just holding the matches right in the celebration hall. But importantly, AJW FINALLY, at long last, has swapped out their hideous, faded ring mat for a fresh new one! This one has the classic Zenjo logo but in red.

The Stuff We Miss:
Chikako Shiratori (JD’) & ZAP Isozaki (AJW) d. Sachie Nishibori & Yuki Lee (JD’) in (7:27).
Midget & Mixed Tag Match: Alexander Otsuka, Kanako Motoya, Little Frankie & Yone Genjin d. Emi Motokawa, Gran Naniwa, Tomezo Tsunokake & Yuki Ishikawa (11:49)
Eagle Sawai (LLPW) & Shark Tsuchiya (FMW) d. ZAP I & ZAP T (10:38)

A TYPHOON:
RIE TAMADA & MIKA AKINO (ARSION) vs. MOMOE NAKANISHI & MIYUKI FUJII (AJW):
* Oh dang- Akino, the best rookie trainee of ARSION, teams with former AJW wrestler Rie (who is BY FAR the most experienced person here) against two AJW rookies. Momoe is already fantastic but I haven’t seen Fujii much. Momoe’s in powder blue, Fujii’s in yellow & blue, Akino’s in grey sports clothes and Rie’s in animal print.

GAEA JAPAN IN SEPTEMBER 1998:
* It’s more GAEA Japan time, this time with some interpromotional matches, then a new idea featuring a lot of “chain/catch-wrestling” style matches (called “Roman”-style).

This time it’s the bottom quarter of the year. Chigusa’s the AAAW Champion at last, Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki are the tag champs, and now we’ve got FMW’s Bad Nurse Nakamura running around doing interpromotional matches. Oh, and MANAMI TOYOTA shows up, here to do her “LOL this rookie SUCKS!” act with Meiko Satomura of all people! That’s right- it’s the first ever match of the joshi legends- Toyota vs. Satomura!

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

BAD NURSE NAKAMURA (FMW) vs. MEIKO SATOMURA (GAEA):
* Bad Nurse, a white-faced ghoulish heel from FMW (her babyface persona is RIE), has been moving through GAEA in much of September, beating Sakura Hirota with green mist and a dragon sleeper Sept. 19th, and Chikayo Nagashima with a rollup the next day. Man, these are some SPARSELY attended shows. Sonoko Kato does much better on the 23rd, taking red mist a lot, but using a chain to counter Nakamura’s stick, then using her Dragon Suplex for the win. And… now we see Sept. 5th’s show. Why are they showing the other matches first, lol?

It’s time for a two-match Spotlight review! But it’s a big one, as one of Zenjo’s top wrestlers tries to bring the title back from the LLPW interloper who took it! The other… is Manami Toyota vs. Emi Sakura back when the latter was rookie doofus Emi Motokawa, and that one ends up being Botchamania material. Read on!

WWWA TITLE MATCH:
SHINOBU KANDORI (LLPW) vs. MANAMI TOYOTA (AJW):
(23.08.1998)
* Kandori is now WWWA Champion, having defeated Yumiko Hotta earlier in the year, and two-time champ Manami has come to bring the title back to AJW! Oh hey, I’ve seen this arena before- it was home to a lot of those “House Show”-tier AJW matches… apparently it hosted a lot of former main events when it was darkened, but the house lights make it look cheaper. Manami’s now in her read gear, which showed up a lot more in the late ’90s & early 2000s, while Kandori has her hair bleached blonde and is wearing one of those ultra-garish, super-detailed LLPW singlets, this time all purple, orange, white & gold. Like, who PICKS these color schemes? In any case, the two get into it as soon as Kandori hits the ring, with their ultra-flashy robes still on. Always like to see that.

https://archive.org/details/arsion-08-31-1998-zion-tournament-98

It’s on Archive.org! 

ARSION- ZION TOURNAMENT:
(Aug. 31st 1998)
* Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION returns with a one-night 8-woman TOURNAMENT! The announcement- in English- states that the ZION (pronounced “Sheown”) tournament is to determine the strongest. Oh, and Candy Okutsu is being repackaged as we see the debut of TIGER DREAM, the amazing PINK variant of the Tiger Mask legend, as one of ARSION’S bigger stars gets her biggest push yet!

This is a LONG two-hour show with tons of matches so I’m gonna try to do a less-recappy version for some of it. I tend to be long-winded naturally though, so no promises, lol.

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu/Tiger Dream, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada

THE PARTICIPANTS:
AYAKO HAMADA: Oh crap, HAMADA debuts! So Ayako is the daughter of wrestler Gran Hamada with a Mexican woman, and her looks are quickly going to get her a LOT of attention. uh, but she’s only like 17 here, so easy, fellas! As a rookie, she’ll probably be toasted but made to look good.
MARY APACHE: A luchadora, probably brought in as a jobber. She does a lot of ARSION shows, though.
MIKIKO FUTAGAMI: Quickly rising up the company as a “tough-girl” shooter-type who hits hard. Put over strongly by others.
REGGIE BENNETT: The big powerhouse from AJW, reintroduced in ARSION as a top-tier threat.
YUMI FUKAWA: An undersized Idol-type who’s nonetheless put in the most work of anyone and does the “ARSION House Style” of submissions. Has just recently picked up a decent win.
MICHIKO OMUKAI: A tall, skinny attractive girl given an incredulous push as a deadly striker. Awkward, but seems to be trying hard.
MARIKO YOSHIDA: One of ARSION’S top “gets”, having redone her style to be a superior “Worked Shoot” wrestler with lots of cool grapples. Chokes people out with a Modified Sleeper (double-arming their necks against her bent leg and choking them out that way).
RIE TAMADA: Career midcarder in AJW now kinda-sorta being given a push to the next level to see where she ends up.

GAEA JAPAN IN AUGUST 1998:
* Here’s more GAEA Japan! And the entire thing but the first match is from an August 23rd show that sees both the AAAW World & Tag Team Titles up for grabs! It’s JWP’s Devil Masami defending against Chigusa Nagayo, primary star and booker of GAEA, and the tag titles are defended by GAEA First Class members Sugar & Chikayo against their mentor Mayumi Ozaki, and ARSION’s Aja Kong! A main event squad against two kids? Uh-oh. Plus it’s a LONG Meiko Satomura/Sonoko Kato match, as GAEA tries another “New Idea” in a series of them that they’ve been doing all year!

CHIGUSA NAGAYO & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. OZ ACADEMY (Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima):
(Aug. 10th)
* Ozaki’s brats take on the boss and the boss and one of their classmates, the struggling Uematsu. Chigusa’s in yellow/black/blue, Toshie’s in green & white, Sugar’s in white & Chikayo’s in yellow & blue.

NEO LADIES- STAGE THREE:
(Aug. 14th-16th, 1998)
* It’s time for more Neo Ladies! I can never remember if Neo is supposed to be capitalized at this point yet (the corner pads say “Neo Ladies” so I guess not). The compilation is made up of Korakuen Hall shows over three nights, interspersed, and much of it looks to be Interpromotional. And… my god, NICOLE BASS is on this one! This isn’t long before she becomes part of the Attitude Era in a short-lived run that ends with her accusing the WWF of sexual harassment (WWF? Sexual harassment? Who’d ever believe THOSE charges?). The first-ever match of Neo/NEO mainstay Yuka Nakamura! AND the second match of Hiromi Yagi’s comeback to joshi from her 1997 retirement! And a “Tournament of Neo Stage 1998” deal.

We start with J-Pop singing over a compilation of moves from this show (Nicole Bass looks to fuck up a powerbomb near-fatally on Kyoko, so that’ll be fun to see…). This is an hour and a half with a billion matches, so I can only imagine it’s going to be heavily clipped, but we’ll see (Edit: YUP- gonna do quickie recaps of those).

Neo Ladies Roster: Kyoko Inoue, Las Cachorras Orientales, Chaparrita ASARI, Yoshiko Tamura, Tanny Mouse, Yuka Shiina, Misae Genki, Saya Endo, Yuka Nakamura

MIMA SHIMODA vs. YUKA NAKAMURA:
* It’s Yuka Nakamura! Who looks to be about twelve, and dressed up in bright pink. She turns out to be a big NEO mainstay, wrestling from 1998-2006 all in Kyoko’s companies. And of course they send her against the nastiest heel in the entire promotion. Shimoda’s in red, and at 5’5″ absolutely towers over her tiny opponent.