Joshi Spotlight — page 9

ARSION PRO-SHOT HANDHELD:
(April 11th 1998)
* It’s the second ARSION tape! Except this one is just a handheld show in some tiny-ass indie theater. But ehy! Come see Aja Kong work her hardest to put over ANOTHER “Jobber We’re Pretending Is Devastating Now”, as she takes on Mikiko Futagami and acts like she’s now a really tough super-shooter so ARSION can have their very own Shinobu Kandori/Dynamite Kansai-type wrestler! Reggie Bennett, Rie Tamada & Candy Okutsu get focus as they’re supposed to shore up the upper-midcard!

And HOLY SHIT do Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa haul ass to try and prove themselves to the fans that they’re NOT just “Pretty Girl” wrestlers who were on the bottom of the card for their whole careers prior to this! That one ends up pretty special.

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutso, Fabi Apache

CANDY OKUTSU vs. FABI APACHE:
* Fabi (aka Faby) is a Luchadora, only 18 years old here and in her very first year wrestling. According to Wikipedia, she is the daughter of lucha star Gran Apache and was to receive additional training from Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida. She actually sticks around for a good while, meaning she’s in the full roster of ARSION. Candy’s in the white & black “lingerie over wrestling gear” thing again, while Apache’s in all black. Oh, now Fabi’s taken the mask off.

YUMI FUKAWA PRETTY SOLDIER LEGEND: THE DARK ATTACK PRO WRESTLING!:
* Yes, this very Japanese-style title is from a set of comedy matches centered around rookie wrestler Yumi Fukawa in 1995.

We start off with (of course) a bikini photo shoot, and then show Yumi waking up at her apartment and then showing an x-ray of her broken collarbone, which delayed her proper debut by over a year. The next clip is her training with Aja Kong, Aja throwing high-angle kicks into pads held by Yumi, then she gets the young girl to attempt takedowns on her, schooling her on the mat.

FIRST STAGE:
WATER PARK FIGHT:
YUMI FUKAWA vs. MISAE WATANABE:
* The first match actually takes place at a waterpark. Yes, the “Rookie Swimsuits” are now ACTUAL swimsuits, as the gangly Watanabe, in black, takes on Fukawa, in orange.

GAEA JAPAN (Feb. 1998):
* It’s time to more GAEA Japan! Their February 1998 was packed with stuff, and also features a very interesting in-ring incident where Chigusa dresses down the 3rd-years for recklessness and teaches them a lesson in front of the paying fans that feels somewhat apt given the Moxley/Fenix mess from a couple weeks back. It also culminates the struggles Toshiyo Yamada & KAORU have been having for the past 6 months or so via a match against OZ Academy, but otherwise this is a LOT of Meiko & Kato in various matches.

MEIKO SATOMURA & SONOKO KATO vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU & SAKURA HIROTA:
(Feb. 10th 1998)
* It’s the two top Third-Years against a close rival (Uematsu) and the rookie they wanna focus on (Sakura), which means Toshie’s got her work cut out for her tonight. Meiko’s red, Kato’s blue, Uematsu’s green & Sakura’s pink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmo5aWfWGe8&ab_channel=%E9%A3%9B%E7%BF%94%E5%A4%A9%E4%BD%BF

AJW IN MARCH 2008- THE ZAP ERA BEGINS:
* Yes, we’ve finally reached THE ZAPS. So, the ZAPs are Zap I & Zap T, aka Kaoru Ito (“I”) and Tomoko Watanabe (“T”). AJW, with its business destroyed, has gone to a once-reliable standby- the brawling “blood & guts” monsters. With Las Cachorras Orientales having quit for Neo Ladies, it’s perhaps inevitable that a new pair of heels arrives. So from what I understand, they just showed up one day in these masks and we like “WE ARE HEELS NOW!” They are wearing full face-masks and have some symbols of hooliganism- the Wikipedia page for sukeban says “sukeban usually wore surgical masks, and often carried with them razor blades, bamboo swords and chains, which could be concealed under their skirts” and in the very first match I see, indeed both ZAPs have wooden swords and chains. Medical masks would be rough to wrestle in, but they have full face masks. I guess that’s more standard “evil heel” stuff, though.

And oh my god the AJW ring is an atrocity at this point- the paint is all flecked off the ringposts in close-ups, and the ring mat gave me a staph infection just from looking at it.

AJW Roster (1998): Yumiko Hotta (Champion), Manami Toyota, Kaoru Ito (heir), Takako Inoue (idol, upper-midcard), Tomoko Watanabe (tag star, rising singles), Kumiko Maekawa, Momoe Nakanishi, Nanae Takahashi, Kayo Noumi, Jobbers: Miho Wakizawa, Miyuki Fujii, Nana Nakahara & Noriko Toyoda.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YUMI FUKAWA:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’0″ 119 lbs.
Career Length: 1993-2001

-A somewhat notable name between the ’90s era and modern era of joshi is Yumi Fukawa, an “Idol Wrestler” (ie. does calendars and photobooks that I totally only ever saw on Google by accident) who turned into a helluva worker by the end of her career. She bounced from AJW to ARSION in the process and developed very well as a star before a bad injury caused an instant retirement. She’s also an interesting look at how SMALL wrestlers were starting to get- something joshi never quite reversed. Back in the day 5’5″ was virtually the minimum height requirement because they wanted top-tier athletes- even Takako Inoue (the preceding Idol of AJW) was pretty tall for a Japanese woman- Fukawa is only five feet tall! The pickings, shall we saw, had gotten slim enough that even short girls could get in without being super-athletes (like Jaguar Yokota).

Fukawa was like a lot of Idol Wrestlers- meant as a bit of a cute sympathetic “ideal pretty girl” for the fanboys and pervy uncles, and she had some good selling and moves. By the end of her run she’d actually developed really well into a full wrestler, being very carriable by others, if not a huge superstar on her own. Notably, she only ever held one belt, and it was the lowest-tier AJW Tag Title (meant for rookies) as part of TamaFuka, a fun underdog tag team with Rie Tamada that lasted a couple years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R72n0AOPQYQ&list=PLQOJdrIdqhW3SGh0BHbpW6JpizKCp46ER&index=8&ab_channel=sceduk

Unfortunately, the only video I can find of this show on YouTube is totally silent, which kind of wrecks a lot of the impact. I found the opener & Aja/Omukai with sound, at least.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- VIRGIN:
* And now it’s the start of ANOTHER new promotion, as the other third of the “AJW Split” takes form in Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION, which was formed when AJW office dweeb Rossy Ogawa and Aja Kong got some backers and formed their own company. Along the way, they decided to do something a bit unique, altering the traditional Joshi styles (which was quite varied, but typically went “Shoot-Style”, “Monster”, “Brawler” and “Traditional Style” by this point) into a more grappling-heavy one that was closer to what Mariko Yoshida, who was a rising wrestler in AJW, was doing. Yoshida was thus tapped to be quickly elevated as the new “Ace”, and here we are.

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu
(this means that ARSION effectively has only one top wrestler, and it’s the former Ace of AJW, whose own star power has taken a bit of a hit. Reggie was an upper-midcarder in AJW a couple years back, at least. Yoshida was mid-ranked and not even at the 1989 kids’ level, really. Tamada and Candy were at-best “pretty decent” sometimes and Fukawa has potential, but it’s really not a lot of stardom. Futagami & Omukai from LLPW and Candy from JWP, having “retired” months before this)

We get like 15 minutes of interviews, training bits and I think training in Mexico before the show opens, as I struggle to remember what everyone looks like without their gear (not helped by a lack of familiarity with Omukai). Everyone does the “Shield/Moxley” entrances, coming from all parts of the arena in their training gear. Nice to see Reggie Bennett again, and she’s brought a “Clone Buddy” in Jessie Bennett (Bionic-J/Jessica Soto, and no I don’t know who that is). Yoshida is… wow. Aja comes out last and thanks everyone for coming, bowing to all four corners.

GAEA JAPAN- WILD TIMES:
(Jan. 15th 1998)
* Back to GAEA Japan to see what they’ve got going on in January 1998. Las Cachorras Orientales shows up to wreck house on their top rookies, Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato! Chigusa faces her smallest first-gen trainee, Toshie Uematsu. We get KAORU & Yamada as “Wacky Tag Team Partners Who Hate Each Other”, and end with Mayumi Ozaki leading Sugar Sato against Meiko & Kato.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU:
* The smallest of the first generation of GAEA takes on the boss to see how she’s leveled up so far.

NEO JAPAN LADIES- SEVEN CHOCOLATES GRAND OPENING:
(Feb. 15th 1998)
* Yes we’re already into February for Neo’s second show, as I have nothing for AJW or any other company for January. And we’re already doing interpromotional shit, as Neo’s tiny-ass roster can’t really maintain entire shows by itself without Kyoko working three matches in one hour like LAST month! So we have mixed matches involving Jd’s Chikako Shiratori & Jaguar Yokota and a trio of Neo vs. JWP matches, then ending with ANOTHER one, as it’s two major stars- Kyoko Inoue vs. Hikari Fukuoka- the Ace of JWP! That one actually comes off as quite special and with some real mystique to it, as they haven’t locked up since Hikari was a try-hard up & comer, and never in singles!

The crowd seems decently full for the lower bowl, though you can see some empty seats around. And hey! This is that arena the one AJW/LLPW show happened in! I recognize the whole “the hard camera is a shot of a giant metal sliding door with lil’ staircases to the sides” thing.

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

SAYA ENDO (Neo) vs. CHIKAKO SHIRATORI (Jd’):
* Chikako quit AJW for greener pastures as one of the big stars of Jd’, but despite her best efforts didn’t turn into much of a worker. But here she’s against the low-end Endo, minion of Las Cachorras Orientales, probably being fed to Chikako. Chikako’s in white frilly idol gear and Endo’s in black & gold, a bit like Kaoru Ito’s look.

NEO JAPAN LADIES PRO WRESTLING- FIRST KISS (Debut Show):
(Jan. 9th, 1998)
* WOO FINALLY! It’s time for a BRAND NEW Joshi promotion to show up in my Spotlights! This one is “Neo Ladies”, a start-up centered around former WWWA Champion and AJW Ace, Kyoko Inoue! This is also where Las Cachorras Orientales end up before their freelancing career really starts up. Aaaaaaaaaaaand then it’s a bunch of scrubs! But some are pretty good! And improving! But really it’s one of three companies that have about “a third of a good roster” after the destruction following AJW’s bankruptcy (AJW, ARSION & Neo). Oh, and both Kyoko & Tanny Mouse are working more than once, which is never a good sign for effort.

Neo Ladies Roster: Kyoko Inoue, Las Cachorras Orientales, Chaparrita ASARI, Yoshiko Tamura, Tanny Mouse, Yuka Shiina, Misae Genki, Saya Endo (hooray, now I might finally start being able to remember which rookies are which on sight!)

All the wrestlers take their bows and do mini-interviews- an emotional Kyoko begins the festivities, thanking the fans for showing up. LCO, acting WWWA Tag Team Champions, brandish their former promotion’s belts as well.

TRIANGLE MATCH:
SAYA ENDO vs. YUKA SHIINA vs. TANNY MOUSE:
* Yes, the first ever match of Neo Ladies and it’s got Tanny Mouse in it. You just gotta love Japanese hierarchy-based show booking. So Saya Endo is LCO’s “Third Woman”- a rookie who follows them around. She’s in black & yellow. Shiina’s in white & red athletic gear, and is a very tanned prospect who was just rising in AJW. Tanny is a goofy-looking comedy wrestler with orange hair and another black/yellow outfit. And oh god dammit she’s still got the mouse tail.

RIP the AJW we knew- it becomes a shell of itself in 1997, losing 2/3 of the roster.

JOSHI IN 1997- JOSHI EXPLODES:
* Okay, so it’s big things afoot- 1997 is the year the joshi scene in Japan completely explodes, as All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW), the signature company of joshi, goes bankrupt. The owners’ bad business decisions (most notably, a restaurant chain) combine with fading business all over, and AJW stops paying its wrestlers partway through 1997. Some rookies stick around, Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe form the backbone of the loyalists, Yumiko Hotta steps up as the new Ace as she’s still loyal, and Manami Toyota is convinced to give up retirement and get a contracted gig… but they lose half the wrestlers and most of the stars.

From Evito:
It’s time to talk about the collapse of All Japan Women (briefly). The Matsunaga’s wasteful spending had led to them having major financial difficulties since 1996 (and possibly years earlier). Zenjo had been cold for some time which didn’t help things, but the reason was the Matsunaga’s losses in real estate, stocks and their other businesses. During the 1980s economic bubble, the brothers got heavily into real estate, and among many other investments, attempted to franchise a Ramen house restaurant chain. Once the bubble burst and the real estate market nosedived, they took out significant bank loans to prop up their business, racking up huge debt which they were unable to pay back.

Payments to talent and office staff had been late or unpaid since 1996, and no one had been paid since March. The only reason they could survive without being paid for so long was because they lived in the company building, but on the road, they had to rely on the venues to supply food. Their patience came to an end on August 20. Kyoko Inoue, Rie Tamada, and Yumi Fukawa announced they would be leaving the company after the show and it was clear to everyone that there were issues with management. After the show, the wrestlers went on strike in front of the office and demanded their unpaid salaries. The story broke days later, and a press conference was held by the company on September 12 revealing the extent of the financial problems. The company was one step away from bankruptcy, and ended up filing for bankruptcy in October.

… hey it was otherwise gonna be just a three-match review for the Joshi Spotlight this week, okay?

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YUKI LEE:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 150 lbs.
Career Length: 1992, 1994-1999

-Yes, YUKI LEE. What? I wanna cover everybody and I’ve gotten through most of the people who were big from 1992-95 that I was most familiar with, and now it’s just either the dregs or the people whose careers peaked after the era I’ve seen. I can’t do a Meiko Satomura bio if I’ve only seen her as a rookie spitfire and not Joshi Mom! So now it’s just losers who retired young!

So Yuki Lee was a big centerpiece of the JD’ promotion, which got started in late 1995- she was an AJW wash-out who got re-trained and for some reason was made a star of focus on JD’s shows, which started with a big dramatic opening with the faces and names of Bison Kimura, Jaguar Yokota, AJW “Pretty Girl” loser Chikako Shiratori… and rookie Yuki Lee. I guess a lot was expected of her, but god knows WHAT.

JWP IN SUMMER 1997:
(June 29th to July 6th 1997)
* Here’s another JWP I just found- the summer sees a pair of shows starring Akira Hokuto and others! Plus a bunch of Candy Okutsu’s “Final Running” series before she retires for the first time!

TOMOKO KUZUMI vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* Kuzumi’s a well-thought-off rookie champion at this point, while Candy’s in the midcard but just about to retire. Candy’s in black & Kuzumi’s in brown idol gear with lots of fringe.

Candy dominates the rookie to start, but Kuzumi uses speed and keeps Candy on the defensive with stretching. Candy finally catches her with a missile dropkick off a whip and DDTs her into a sleeper for a while. Seven minutes gone and Kuzumi mimics the same missile kick counter, then does a LONG set of rolling butterfly suplexes into a bridge for two. Candy one-ups her on a criss-cross, then counters her counter of the Rolling Germans for two. Candy knocks her to the floor but gets caught building her SmackDown! meter with a springboard enzuiknee and a Bridging German gets two. Kuzumi’s splash hits feet, but she manages a butterfly superplex after they re-set following Candy slipping. Straightjacket German gets two, but Kuzumi climbs and Candy catches her with a Northern Lights Superplex for a double-down- Kuzumi climbs and is caught again, but this time swings behind Candy and hits her top-rope Japanese Leg Roll Clutch for the shocker win at (11:20)- Kuzumi beats the midcarder! A true sign of her forward elevation, and Candy dropping falls on her way out.

GAEA JAPAN (Nov. & Dec. 1997):
* It’s more GAEA Japan! This time from a Nov. 30th show and a Dec. 13th show, then the Dec. 27th show, ending the year for GAEA! The first show takes place in what looks like outdoors, with big green panels behind the fans. NOPE, wait, other shots show it’s just a very brightly lit gym, with no seats sold on the upper decks.

MEIKO SATOMURA & TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. OZ ACADEMY (Chikayo Nagashima & Reiko Amano):
* A tag match with unusual partners, as Meiko (GAEA’s big ardent defender) teams up with Toshie this time, up against GAEA’s Chikayo and JWP’s Reiko. Meiko’s in red, Toshie’s in green, Chikayo’s in yellow/blue and Reiko’s in blue.

GAEA G-PANIC! TOUR:
(Nov. 18th 1997)
* The only GAEA stuff up from November 1997, but it’s a pretty big one, as the veteran squad of Yamada & KAORU take on Oz Academy, and *LCO* invades GAEA Japan to fight Chigusa Nagayo & her rookie partner Sakura Hirota! These matches all end up being great examples of what becomes known as the “GAEA Sprint”, as they cut down on visible match time and just fling all their stuff at each other non-stop.

KAORU & TOSHIYO YAMADA vs. OZ ACADEMY (Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima, w/ Mayumi Ozaki):
* Another “Veterans vs. Rookies” match, as the feuding KAORU & Yamada are teamed up against Ozaki’s goons, with the boss in tow in her street clothes. KAORU’s in light blue, Yamada’s in white/black, Sugar’s in white & Chikayo’s in blue/yellow.

JWP PURE HEARTS FESTIVAL- PART TWO:
(Aug. 17th, 1997)
* So a couple years ago, Rico Kasai uploaded a ton of JWP stuff to a YouTube channel, and I spent HOURS finding all of them (since dates weren’t included), searching Quebrada.net for who had wrestled whom and when… but some eluded me. But I decided to look up the “extras” at last… and sure enough, they’re mostly from the same freakin’ show! One I already kinda reviewed! It was a two-day show at the JWP Pure Hearts Festival. It would’ve been better to just include the “Day Show” and the “Night Show” separately, but for some reason I never realized the matches I hadn’t placed belonged there- I obviously didn’t cross-reference my lists, or missed when I searched last time (I swear I checked YouTube in two languages, lol). ANYWAYS I BLAME RICO KASAI FOR NOT DATING THEIR SHIT.

This is mostly a collection of random stuff that isn’t super-great, except for ONE match- Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi in maybe the best match you’ll EVER see featuring 2-year veterans! The two kids have one of their best matches for the JWP Junior Title!

DAY SHOW:

TOMOKO KUZUMI & SARI OSUMI (JWP) vs. COMMAND BOLSHOI (JWP) & EMI MOTOKAWA (IWA):
* It’s lowercard madness, with the best of JWP’s rookies (Kuzumi) teaming up with brand-new rookie Sari Osumi against Bolshoi (a midcarder at this point) and the future Emi Sakura, who wrestles for IWA in its tiny women’s division at this point. I imagine Bolshoi’s team is taking this rather easily. Kuzumi’s in neon splatterpaint in an “Idol” outfit (all the cut-outs & fringe is a dead giveaway), Osumi’s in the most hideous black singlet with green leaf designs ever, Bolshoi’s in the same gear as last match & Emi’s in orange/black.

GAEA JAPAN- G-PANIC! Critical Hit!:
(Oct. 18-19th)
* More GAEA Japan awaits, as a pair of matches are on their YouTube channel from late October, just after the last show I did. They’re in a teeny-tiny white gym, and starting off with Aja Kong coming to GAEA again to mess with Chigusa.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO & SAKURA HIROTA (GAEA) vs. AJA KONG & YOSHIKO TAMURA (Free Agents):
* An interpromotional tag! But it’s goofy ol’ Sakura doing her “training with the boss” thing again, taking on Aja (free from AJW) and Tamura. Chigusa’s in her black & yellow singlet again, Sakura’s in purple, Aja’s in green & black and Tamura’s in black & pink, looking pretty gigantic in there now. Sakura gets a good reaction for stepping in front of Chigusa when Aja taunts her- a “take ME on!” moment from the tiny kid.

Shark, like Dump Matsumoto before her, liked to use blades to cut up the heroic babyfaces.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- SHARK TSUCHIYA:
Real Name: Eriko Tsuchiya
Billed Hgt & Wgt: 5’7″ 194 lbs.
Career Length: 1989-2010

-Of all things, among the most constantly-uttered refains in all of Joshi fandom is “Shark Tsuchiya sucks”. Despite being FMW’s #2 or #1 heel depending on the year and a huge recurring rival of Megumi Kudo’s, there is NOBODY who has more universal disdain leveled at their in-ring skills than Shark. And hoo boy does she earn it. Apparently a nice lady, though!

So Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling had an issue: Women’s wrestling was part of its shows, but only two of the women- Kudo and Combat Toyoda- were well-trained. Everyone else was just kinda junk by comparison. Yet you couldn’t JUST run Kudo/Combat matches, so you had to elevate some of the others. And so this snarly brawler got to join in as well.

Shark wasn’t really physically dominant like the big Combat was- she was just kinda built like a regular American person (though as she’s Japanese, this made her a lot more bulky than the average person there). And she moved like she’d never really trained in athletics her entire life- a very plodding, stumbly style. Her use of weapons was to simply place the item against someone’s forehead and just stand there- I’ve never seen someone use such little perceived force. And her match flow was terrible, too. I’ve seen more Shark matches than I care to count that were borefests extended to sixteen minutes to kill time and featured her just wandering around, holding weapons against someone’s forehead, or taunting.

GAEA JAPAN- CRITICAL HIT!:
(Oct. 10th 1997)
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! I splice two shows together- small spot shows from Oct. 10th and Oct. 13th 1997.

Chigusa Nagayo has just recently lost the AAAW World Title to Devil Masami in a pretty disappointing match (unfortunately, Chigusa was forced to work twice on the show after Akira Hokuto got hurt, necessitating worse work in two matches). But this one half-focuses on Sakura Hirota, the rookie who is paired with Chigusa repeatedly on these shows.

GAEA-KAI RULES:
TOSHIYO YAMADA vs. MEIKO SATOMURA:
* Another match of the Chigusa Clones! Meiko is still in the “surprises veterans with her tenacity” zone, with Yamada being good enough to make anyone look decent. Both are in matching black shorts & sports tops, with Yamada in white kickpads and Meiko in red, making this a martial arts contest. You’re allowed two Downs and four Escapes judging by the rules that pop up later.

So one month before this, LCO have one of their all-time best matches (a month after their OTHER all-time best match, against Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue), losing to Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe in an absolute bloodbath of a Cage Match, Tomoko doing some of the best babyface selling ever, acting in complete agony as LCO tear her apart. LCO were at their whiny best, screeching every time they’re made to sell, while being as unsympathetic as possible because of the glee with which they tore into their opponents. But LCO were ultimately vanquished, Ito hitting the mother of all Flying Stomps to Mita from the TOP OF THE CAGE before escaping. Review here: https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2021/01/15/joshi-spotlight-violence-war-las-cachorras-vs-the-utops-steel-cage-deathmatch/

But LCO are still the World Tag Team Champions, and now one of the former champs (Kumiko Maekawa) is teaming up with a 17-year old girl to take on the still lethal, still chair-tossing savages of LCO.

WWWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. KUMIKO MAEKAWA & MOMOE NAKANISHI:
(Oct. 18th 1997)
* A pretty wild Tag Title match tonight, as LCO have beaten Kumiko’s team with elder Tomoko Watanabe twice this year already, and now Kumiko (herself debuting 4 years after LCO did, and thus being way lower on the totem pole) is allying with MOMOE? Momoe is green as grass at this point, being only a 1-year veteran- she is spectacular for her level of experience though, being a real prodigy. As AJW is being gutted by people quitting over the not being paid, it’s time to elevate some rookies VERY VERY QUICKLY, I guess! Though this should mostly be LCO destroying their opponents- Momoe is 17 years old and has no experience in big matches. The kids are in light blue & white matching gear, Kumiko in her sporty two-piece and Momoe in a singlet- the Champs are in purple & white, Shimoda now with Karen hair as she walks up to flick at Kumiko’s face just to be a snot.

JD’ IN 1997:
* So JD’ has some shit luck in 1997, as Bison Kimura breaks her arm in a trios match in the summer, and as she was aiming to retire anyways, just hung it up for good. She never wrestles again. Mike Lorefice says that JD’ never recovered from this loss, as Asuka (a Freelancer) and Jaguar (the trainer) were left to shoulder the entire promotion while the rookies gained reps.

BUT, they still have Lioness Asuka & Jaguar Yokota, who pretty much low-key become the best workers in all of joshi in 1996-97… despite being two of the very oldest to do it. Wrestling is weird.

TRANS-WORLD FEDERATION WORLD TITLE:
LIONESS ASUKA vs. JAGUAR YOKOTA:
(JD’, Oct. 22nd 1997)
* One of the greatest matches of the 1980s was Lioness vs. Jaguar, as Jaguar was essentially Ricky Steamboat at three times the speed and Asuka could hang with her the entire way, and they’ve had a match or two since JD’ began. This is allegedly one of their better ones, however. Jaguar’s in white and Lioness is in black & white. Asuka has her heel goons with her again, but draws applause just by shooing them away (wait- cheers for NOT CHEATING? That’s like… the literal minimum you should use for a polite response at best!)