Joshi Spotlight — page 9

JWP SAND WOMAN:
(03/06/1998)
* It’s time for more JWP action! And this one is a show on “WOWOW” with some pretty cool matches (on paper, anyways)- Hikari Fukuoka, the JWP Champion, takes on the next in line, young Tomoko Kuzumi! Devil Masami & Dynamite Kansai each take a rookie and fight each other. And devilish Mayumi Ozaki takes on her own stablemate, Rieko Amano! So this whole show is really keyed towards elevating the younger generation. You know, that thing smartass columnists are always telling bookers they should have done in retrospect! Here JWP is actually kinda doing it!

Of particular note, though, is that Ozaki is LEAVING JWP- she’s joining GAEA Japan mostly full-time after this, ending a major era (as she’s been with JWP since the late 1980s, and was a signature wrestler in the reborn promotion)

CUTIE SUZUKI vs. COMMAND BOLSHOI:
* Oh jesus, of course the interesting JWP shows always gotta start with a Bolshoi match XD. At least this one is JIP! Cutie’s in white & Bolshoi’s in tiger-print gear.

LADIES LEGEND PRO WRESTLING:
(Feb. 15th 1998)
* WOO IT’S TIME FOR MORE LLPW! Which is like… my LEAST favorite of all the joshi promotions, but still! Completion! At least to say I watched some of their stuff! This one is billed as “LLPW vs. Guren-Tai” as Eagle Sawai’s heel stable blasts forth. And it’s also Eagle combining her stable with those of Shark Tsuchiya & Lioness Asuka (from FMW & JD’, respectively) to form a SUPER stable! So we see matches from all three of them tonight, culminating with a 6-Woman Street Fight in the main event! And HOLY JESUS that one is a spectacular mess of non-stop action, and a total must-see! Like I was dreading watching this one, but that match alone is a reason to watch this.

We start off with a TV studio interview with Yasha Kurenai, hidden behind dark shades and a dark sweater.

MIHO WATABE (LLPW) vs. MAIKO MATSUMOTO (GAEA Japan):
* It’s Rookie Mayhem! Maiko is still pretty new and is developing some power-themed offense (so I hope you like atomic drops). I don’t know squat about Miho. She’s… jesus christ, she’s *4’9*!!?! She actually has a decently long career (1996-2005 as Baby-A) and is of similar experience to Maiko here. Maiko’s in yellow & brown, and Watabe’s in frilly orange.

Why did it take so long to do a Spotlight on Rie Tamada? Well, I forgot I hadn’t already done one! Which… really says it all about Rie Tamada, if you think about it.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- RIE TAMADA:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’2″ 125 lbs.
Career Length: 1991-2004

-Rie Tamada is… really one of those weird forgotten wrestlers who stuck around FOREVER, but never really left any kind of a defining mark. A wrestler for All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, then ARSION, he peaked at “just okay” to “pretty good”, never showed much charisma, didn’t have the physical credibility to be a bigger star in her era, nor was she fast enough to make up for being kinda small. Just one of those Eternal Midcarder roles you still actually need in a good, healthy company, but nothing to write home about. Like she doesn’t SUCK or anything, but she’s just never even in the top five most interesting wrestlers on a card.

Of particular note: Rie doesn’t develop any UNIQUE MOVES. It’s a standard thing in joshi for a wrestler to start to eke out their own offense, making up the occasional thing or having some “specialty” stuff. But she’s just using the Communal Joshi Offense in every single match I’ve ever seen her in- missile dropkicks, DDTs, etc.- ending matches with a Dragon Suplex, which is a pretty common upper-tier move. It’s not the WORST thing in the world, but it’s really notable when someone who is already pretty vanilla just does the same basic stuff that half the joshi industry is doing.

Rie is in a tough spot- she’s fast, but certainly not mind-blowing- her high-flying is not more impressive than Chaparrita ASARI’s, and not even moreso than Manami Toyota (who is four inches taller and far more physically credible and explosive). She can hit all the suplexes but they just look pretty basic. She’s not a botch machine, but nor is she super impressive in her execution. Like, she ends up peaking as a ***-***1/2 performer, with the latter end of the scale being so rare I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. So she’s never embarrassing but she’s certainly never that INTERESTING, either. And it seems like once she realizes that no push is ever really forthcoming, she just settles into that “midcard” role and never leaves it, dropping her effort level down. Notably, you can see stuff in ARSION where everyone is trying their asses off and there’s this brand new precision submission style going on, and instead of trying to learn that style she’s just doing the same basic Zenjo restholds as before.

Mikiko Futagami in the main event! And… it’s awesome?!? Read on!

https://archive.org/details/arsion-04-17-1998-starlet-98-487517522-456239306

Someone on Reddit gave me a link to the show! It’s free and I think not illegal! Hooray!

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- STARLET:
(March 17th 1998)
* Hooray! More ARSION! Someone on Reddit was good enough to send me a link to Archive.org’s copy of ARSION: Starlet. Of course now it’s out of order with the last show I did- I haven’t been this embarrassed since I learned the sit-out powerbomb and Ligerbomb were different moves. But ARSION doesn’t have any real continuity yet, so it doesn’t matter! This show goes from “meh” to FANTASTIC, as the main event is one of the best joshi matches of the year, and a true eye-opening performance by both wrestlers! Also come see just how hard they’re pushing Michiko Omukai!

The English-speaking voiceover says “Welcome to Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION- exciting, BEAUTIFUL, excellent lady fighters! Fighters for the new millennium- are you ready?!”. Everyone runs out in their street clothes which, because it’s 1998, looks like a scene from MTV’s Daria. Like, check Yoshida’s neon green belly-shirt with SUSPENDERS and baggy white pants.

Music is overplayed throughout, all of which is adorably “1998” as well, sounding like the songs from the Spice Girls that DIDN’T get singles or music videos. Or like the J-Pop mix-tape my host family made for me this year.

REGGIE & JESSIE BENNETT vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & YUMI FUKAWA:
* And immediately we finally get the Bennett “family” (they are not related) together, and the powerhouses are taking on the youngest Japanese women in the company in Omukai & Fukawa, both semi-experienced types who were near the bottom of the card and joined ARSION in hopes of a push. The Bennetts are in their black bodysuits, Fukawa’s in blue & Omukai’s in red & white.

JWP- NO GIMMICK:
(Jan. 23rd & Feb. 11th 1998)
* Holy shit! I found some JWP content! It’s from early in 1998 so I only missed it in the timeline by a little bit. I do NOT think 1998 was a good year for JWP at all, but let’s take a look-see at it. The big deal here is a pair of JWP Tag Team Title matches- starring JWP’s Ace & Champion Hikari Fukuoka as she defends JWP’s honor against the Zenjo duo of Kaoru Ito & Manami Toyota- the latter of whom Hikari spent years aping (she considers Toyota an inspiration). As Toyota has beaten Hikari twice in singles, there’s a bit of drama there.

Previously (via clips): Mayumi Ozaki, demon queen of JWP and the leader of OZ Academy, brained Cutie Suzuki with a chain-wrapped backfist strike and sent all the JWP wrestlers in out of concern. And so it’s a dramatic attempt at revenge, as a furious Dynamite Kansai challengers her to another Dress Up Wild Fight as they keep chasing that dragon from their original legendary bout. They trade big moves using a table, Kansai kicking out after two chain-assisted backfists, failing to win with Splash Mountain, but finally hitting SUPER Splash Mountain to put Ozaki down. Ozaki’s subordinate Rieko Amano is enraged and challenges Kansai, then helps Ozaki into an ambulance.

Note that these matches are showed on this video wildly out of order: the first one here is on the same show as the last one.

DYNAMITE KANSAI & COMMAND BOLSHOI vs. OZ ACADEMY (Sugar Sato & Rieko Amano, w/ Chikayo Nagashima):
(Feb. 11th 1998)
* So in revenge for Ozaki’s beating, Amano brings stablemate and GAEA Japan wrestler Sato with her against JWP stars- Kansai backed up by the clown. Bolshoi’s in white tiger-print (… clown gear), Kansai’s in black & white (she’s got new gear for 1998! Only a bit of yellow anymore!), Sugar’s in white & Amano’s in blue.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- ARS ’98 TOURNAMENT:
(May 5th 1998)
* Welcome back to Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION! I couldn’t find an April ARSION show on YouTube, but I did manage to get their May show- and it’s a one night tournament! This one has all the big stars of the promotion, most notably MARIKO YOSHIDA, who made her return from injury a couple weeks before! And in an all-new outfit, as she’s packed on a ton of muscle and looks like a comic book superhero in amazing Spider-Woman-esque gear (actually closer to Silk, but who’s counting?). The show, unfortunately, did a very poor house, getting only half full after some solid ticket sales for the earlier shows- the novelty wore off and people just weren’t into the style right away. WELL SCREW THEM THIS IS THE MOST FUN PROMOTION RIGHT NOW!

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

ARSION ran a show on April 17th that featured Mariko Yoshida, one of their expected top wrestlers, making her ARSION debut- she beats Rie Tamada, the eternal midcarder, in (12:29). Also, Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa, who just had a barnburner of a match in March, team up to beat Jessie & Reggie Bennett in (19:40), Faby Apache & Michiko Omukai beat Aja Kong & Lady Metal in (11:21) (long night for Michiko), and Candy Okutsu beats Mikiko Futagami, who is being built up as ARSION’s “Tough” wrestler, in (13:15) with the Kick of Fear in a surprise win. Mike Lorefice sings this one’s praises, giving it ****.

Other shows feature what looks to be smaller cards, though Cagematch could be missing stuff. I see Aja Kong, Reggie Bennett & Mikiko Futagami beating Yumi Fukawa in separate matches, Yoshida beating Jessie Bennett, and Aja Kong & Reggie going to a 15 minute draw.

TRIANGLE MATCH:
JESSIE BENNETT vs. FABI APACHE vs. LADY METAL:
* … okay, who the hell is Lady Metal? She’s dressed like a shitty Dollar Store Wolverine with a Wolvie torso bit but a weird mask. She doesn’t have much of a Wiki bio but has a LONG-ASS career judging by CageMatch, going from 1992 to today. ARSION booking a three-way match (one person has to stand on the apron) on one of their first shows is definitely interesting- I’ve yet to see that in any joshi. Jessie’s in black with some airbrushed designs on it & Fabi’s in black with a metal chestpiece a la Psicosis. As Fabi is horrendous and Jessie is green, I don’t have high hopes for this one.

GAEA JAPAN (April 14th 1998)
* It’s time for a BIG show from GAEA Japan, as the whole thing is uploaded to their YouTube channel! It’s the start of their Third Anniversary Tour, and features bigger matches than normal. We have a super-rare singles match between Devil Masami & Toshiyo Yamada, a match between Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagshima that REALLY emphasizes how great GAEA’s first class of trainees was, a cheating-filled match between an LLPW goon and GAEA’s favored rookie Sakura Hirota, and a tag match with Chigusa Nagayo once more defending GAEA Japan’s honor against OZ Academy!

MEIKO SATOMURA vs. CHIKAYO NAGASHIMA:
* CHIKAYO HAS NEW GEAR!!! She has yellow on but now a darker blue with three lines of tassels on it. Oh hey, Meiko’s red gear is also different- there’s a big gold & black symbol on the side.

GAEA Japan in March 1998:
* So here’s a batch of matches from March, plus one in April 1998! GAEA has a big show uploaded from April 14th so that’ll be a separate review. This one contains a bunch more Sakura Hirota matches (… yay), plus TWO Title matches- Meiko & Kato defend the AAAW Jr. Tag Titles against OZ Academy, and then Sugar Sato defends the WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Title (which is STILL BEING DEFENDED) against Sonoko Kato!

MEIKO SATOMURA vs. SAKURA HIROTA:
(March 15th)
* Sakura gets another solo match to shine, this time as a blood sacrifice to the craziest of GAEA’s upperclassmen. Meiko’s in red with white around the collar of her singlet, while Sakura’s pink gear has a bunch of red tummy ribbons on it.

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.