Articles by Jabroniville — Page 4

KING OF THE RING 2002:
-So we’re in the 2002 era now- the InVasion was a crushing disappointment, the nWo is here, and most of the big stars have slowed down and Triple-H rules much of the company. The product was ICE FREAKING COLD at this point, with the fans acting like their souls had been cut out. This is also famously the reason Steve Austin bailed on the company for a year or so, as he was booked to job in a short, unhyped match with Brock Lesnar in a Qualifier. Disgusted with the company (and acting COMPLETELY paranoid about his position on the card- he’d been embarrassing all three nWo guys in angles a few months beforehand), Austin went home without notice.

X-PAC vs. GOLDUST:
(WWF RAW, June 3rd)
* X-Pac is in the nWo here, but comes down solo (wearing a Kane mask, because they have an issue AGAIN?), while Goldust has a fake X-Pac goatee stuck onto his face and isn’t over in the slightest, despite being paired up with Booker T, who was an nWo member disliked by the others at this point.

GAEA JAPAN- GAEAISM GRAND OPENING 1ST ANNIVERSARY:
(April 29th 1996)
* GAEA Japan is now one full year old! With the greatest inaugural rookie class ever but shows still dependent on other companies to fill out the card, it’s maturing quickly. This set of matches is all clipped, but it’s got the final ten minutes of a BIG one- LLPW’s most credible wrestler, SHINOBU KANDORI (aka the woman who fought two classics with Akira Hokuto) comes calling, bringing rookie (and future terror) Michiko Omukai up against the biggest women’s star in history- Chigusa Nagayo and her own rookie, Sugar Sato. The match proves fun mostly for Kandori’s antics as an elitist shooter- she’s a truly underrated character.

The GAEAISM channel is missing a few matches:
HIKARU FUKUOKA (JWP) d. BOMBER HIKARU (GAEA) (15:45): this seems oddly padded and kinda long for Bomber to last, but that’s the style of both companies at this point.
WONDERFUL FREE: KAORU d. Carol Midori (10:52)

GAEA NEO SOUL BATTLE NEW FACES:
RINA ISHII vs. MAIKO MATSUMOTO:
* Holy shit, NEW wrestlers! This is the first I’ve seen of either one, and is Rina’s debut. She lasts two years and Maiko three, so they’re not GREAT successes but at least stuck around a bit. They have to pick unique colors, as enough of the early crew are still around in their Arena swimsuits- Maiko’s in an ugly brown one, and Rina’s in a light… puce? Salmon? Google says that’s “coral”, I guess. It’s pink, I dunno. Rina is TINY and super-thin, probably around 5 feet tall, and Maiko is comparatively bigger and thicker.

JWP IN MID-1996:
* Hey look! More JWP! Because… okay I forgot to post the one below, and then I had an undated match I figured I’d find a place for! So it’s only a two-match review! The first one is really good, though! Eventually!

CUTIE SUZUKI & HIKARI FUKUOKA vs. ESTHER MORENO & HIROMI YAGI:
* The two top idols in JWP take on rising star Yagi and Mexican talent Moreno, who was also in AJW around this time- maybe doing a full tour of Japan? The latter are in black gear, Hikari’s in her leopard-print & Cutie’s in white.

When you make a deal with a nostalgia act and stick a Power Plant nobody in Gene Simmons’s gear. Then set up a deal for a PPV Main Event without knowing how it’s gonna get over. The most “Because WCW” thing ever.

Welcome back to more “Dream Matches”! Today, we take our first look at the infamous WCW run of “The Demon”, Dale Torborg wrapped up in KISS gear and made to be an official “KISS Wrestler” in a giant failure of a gimmick. Here he’s a speedbump for Jeff Jarrett during his never-ending WCW Main Eventer run. Then it’s a hilariously bad match where The Disciple cuts an impassioned promo to beg the fans to cheer for him, then goes out and flubs horribly in a match against Kenny Kaos! I find one more Super Assassins match, as Warlord & Barbarian (in masks) go out against the Nasty Boys!

One more “PG-13 in WCW” match, as they try to take the WCW Tag Team Titles from The Mamalukes! Then it’s a pair of Essa Rios vs. Funaki matches, as they fill time on all the lower-end shows with Light Heavyweight Title defenses! And finally, I end my “Los Cowboys” run by finally slotting in their trios match with Tigre Canadiense (a forgotten white guy who got unexpectedly over in lucha) against Dr. Wagner Jr. & The Headhunters!

U.S. TITLE:
JEFF JARRETT (w/ The Harris Twins) vs. THE DEMON:
(WCW Saturday Night, March 11th, 2000)
* UGHHHHHHHHHH I forgot the Harrises were in the last-ditch “nWo”. And Jarrett is saying they’re in “Slapnut County” to get crowd heat and cuts this rambling, boring promo about putting Sid’s career “on life support systems”. He’s in silver shorts, up against the KISS Demon in a US Title defense, and poor Dale Torborg has to do his giant entrance, brandishing his cape like a doofus, all so Jeff can jump him from behind.

JWP IN APRIL 1996 (Part Two):
* I split these up because some matches are IMMENSELY long. This one features the retirement of Hiromi Sugo, Candy Okutsu vs. comedy wrestler Saburo, Mayumi Ozaki vs. Hiromi Yagi, and a rematch between Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato of GAEA and Devil Masami, Tomoko Kuzumi & Tomoko Miyaguchi of JWP! So comes see what JWP was doing in early 1996 (the answer: Lots of excessively-drawn out matches with aimless stretching! But some are okay!).

RETIREMENT MATCH:
FUSAYO NOUCHI vs. HIROMI SUGO:
(Thunder Queen Light up the Night, 07.04.1996)
* Here’s a match between two lower-level wrestlers, with Sugo calling it quits after only two years in the business, retiring to become a referee. Nouchi has really long hair here, while Sugo has the ugliest suit this side of Kaoru Ito- bright yellow with green designs… but with shorts for the legs.

JWP IN APRIL 1996:
* We’re back to more JWP stuff! Their YouTube presence is a bit odd, as it’s mainly limited to one guy’s account- Rico Kasai is the name. None of it’s dated, so it took a hell of a lot of work to find out when all of this happened. Some in my “Can’t find” pile should just be mass-reviewed at some point too, I guess. We last left off with them in September 1996, but also had the Tag Title change in December, but the last stuff of Kasai’s was a ways before that, so I haven’t gotten to his in a while. In any case, we have SIX matches from April 1996! One is an absolute BANGER that I’ve reviewed before in a Takako Inoue vs. Mayumi Ozaki spotlight- it’s a fantastic Interpromotional Tag Match between Dynamite Kansai & Takako vs. Kyoko Inoue & Ozaki- and in it, they go all-out and very clearly attempt to replicate the success of the famous Toyota/Yamada vs. Kansai/Ozaki series from 1993.

COMMAND BOLSHOI vs. RIEKO AMANO:
* Miracle rookie Amano (who gets good FAST- I’ve seen a **** match from only a couple years after this, tops) goes up against Bolshoi, who’s on the low end of the pecking order for “name” wrestlers, and is thus a good gatekeeper and “test” against the kids. Amano’s in a white & blue jobber singlet, while Bolshoi’s in the rad blue & green gear.

The Barbarian was a big, strong, legit-tough dude, but a WORLD TITLE CONTENDER? On PPV? No wonder WCW lost so much money.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week I have a sequel to last weeks’ Jake/Koloff match, as it’s Jake & Barbarian vs. Nikita & Ron Simmons, the WCW World Champion! Then, it’s one of the stranger “two guys you didn’t think ever met” contests, thanks to Erik Watts’ run in late ’90s WCW, where he takes on Disco Inferno on TWO separate occasions! Then it’s a giant Hoss Match as The Giant takes on Roadblock on WCW Nitro, in a match with a remarkable ending that’s stuck in my mind for 25 years! More Essa Rios content, as he & Funaki take on the Hardy Boyz back when Rios was “Papi Chulo”! Then it’s a shockingly very good Wrath match, as he & the underrated Mike Enos fight like hell on a filler WCW Thunder bout! With some commentary you really have to hear.

JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS & THE BARBARIAN (w/ Cactus Jack) vs. RON SIMMONS & NIKITA KOLOFF:
(WCW Power Hour, Oct. 17th 1992)
* By recommendations, here’s Jake & Barbarian as WCW heels vs. Ron Simmons (the WCW World Champion!) and Koloff. Jake’s in blue, Barbarian’s in black, Ron’s in green and slapping hands with the fans, and a very bored-looking Koloff is in a black singlet. Nobody seems nearly as over as they should be considering this has the World Champ and the guy he’s wrestling at Halloween Havoc in a week.

Bison Kimura: The world’s most photogenic kaiju!

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- BISON KIMURA:
Real Name: Nobuko Kimura
Billed Height & Weight: 5’6″ 165 lbs.
Career Length: 1986-1992, 1994-1998
Trainer: Jaguar Yokota/AJW Dojo

-If you’re like me and got into joshi around 2000, and mostly kinda focused on the Interpromotional Era with all the major companies sending their stars against each other, it’s easy to miss Bison Kimura, as her career took place mostly AROUND that major part of joshi history. She was mostly known as “Aja’s #2” back in the day, having started in the same Rookie Class as her (along with Megumi Kudo & others), then missed 1993-94 due to either injury or being forced out by AJW bookers (I’ve heard both), and so if all you got were the Dream Slams or the big AJW/JWP/LLPW/FMW cards of that era, you’d have missed her completely, and when she finally DID come back, she was relegated to “midcarder”, often being flattened by mid-tier acts in AJW. And then she switched off to Jaguar Yokota’s JD’ promotion, which was one of the least studied joshi promotions of the time, and peaked early and disappeared from the mainstream.

Imagine this look, minus about 20 lbs. of muscle, and you have 1992 Nikita Koloff.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! I found another Jake Roberts match I never knew existed, though I guess he & Cactus Jack had a feud against Sting & Nikita Koloff in WCW when I wasn’t watching! So come see Jake versus a “just here for the paycheck” Koloff, as well as another Ron “H20” Waterman match, as he takes on The Prototype (aka John Cena on ALL THE STEROIDS)! Also a big pile of WCW D-Show nonsense, as we see Marty Jannetty vs. Horshu! The Wall vs. Rick Fuller, as the Wall’s weird WCW push continues! Bobby Eaton winding down his WCW run fighting BUZZKILL of all people! The Public Enemy take on the legendary Disorderly Conduct! And finally, Scott Norton versus El Dandy! Will we see Norton’s famously generous selling against smaller men? Wait and see!

JAKE “THE SNAKE” ROBERTS vs. NIKITA KOLOFF:
(WCW Worldwide, Aug. 25th 1992)
* !!! Okay, now THIS is interesting. I didn’t realize Koloff was still around back then, but he’s feuding with Jake & Cactus Jack alongside Sting . It’s fascinating, because without steroids and his “Just a guy in good shape” look, you realize that Koloff is noticeably smaller than Jake, which makes me think a Hogan/Koloff feud wouldn’t have QUITE the visuals Vince would want. Jake is wearing some weird patchwork tights while Nikita’s in a jobbery-looking singlet.

GAEA- WAR IS A FRIDAY NIGHT:
(Feb. 16th, 1996)

* With possibly the greatest show tagline of all time, we’ve got an interesting mixed batch here, as I found the first GAEA vs. *AJW* match I can find, as Sakie Hasegawa gets to go to GAEA Japan on her retirement road and face Chigusa Nagayo!! And Chigusa leads her girls against heel invaders from LLPW, with Eagle Sawai’s GUREN Corps showing up to act as ANOTHER “Evil Girls Group” against mega-babyface Chigusa.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO, BOMBER HIKARI & SONOKO KATO (GAEA) vs. GUREN CORPS (Eagle Sawai, Jenn Yukari & Michiko Nagashima) (LLPW):
* So what looks to be LLPW’s big heel stable at the time (Eagle had recently been LLPW Champion) invades GAEA, with Chigusa shoring up a lame “veteran” and a rookie against Eagle & midcarders Jenn Yukari (a person so minor I could barely find squat to focus on in a Spotlight just for her, haha) and Nagashima. Chigusa appears to respond to a GUREN invasion and taunt-job simply by asking two people to join her for an impromptu match. Chigusa’s in red/yellow/black, Bomber’s in black/green/white & Kato’s in blue, while Eagle’s in black, Yukari’s in red/green/white & Michiko’s in a black “Manami Toyota”-esque outfit with cut-outs.

AJW DOCUMENTARY- “LES DIABLESSES DU RING”:
* So in 1991, the “La Une” channel in France decided to do a documentary on All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling. They were invited to go on tour with the, interview the wrestlers, and see the day-to-day operations of the show. It’s about 55 minutes long, and focuses on a small handful of people: Highly-ranked Bull Nakano & Aja Kong, rising star Manami Toyota, and American trainee on an excursion Debbie Malenko. Thankfully, YouTube has an English subtitled version.

Despite pretty well everyone knowing the secret of pro wrestling by 1991, this whole thing is in kayfabe- rivalries are treated as real, people want to win matches to make more money, etc. Curiously, the promotion’s owners, the Matsunagas, are not really given much attention.

We start with Aja Kong & Bison Kimura doing a rad “Jungle Jack” theme song that sounds like it should be being played at the Foot Clan’s headquarters in the Ninja Turtles movie. The host speaks to the audience directly about how women’s pro wrestling is extremely popular in Japan, but it’s a harsh world where “The losers get no pay”, and while the top star is a Queen, everyone else are “like monks”, unable to have love affairs and have to do all the drudgery work like cleaning.

We start with Bull Nakano, then the Ace and WWWA World Champion- “The Blue Queen” makes 48,000+ yen per fight (like $409 in 1992 U.S. dollars?) and weighs 260 lbs. (she’s big, but that seems high- she’s only 5’8″! Are they using “Adam Cole pounds”?). Half-Black, Half-Japanese Aja Kong weighs 242 lbs. and makes 31K yen per fight. Glamorous Manami “Cinderella” Toyota weighs 138 lbs. and makes only half that. Okay, that’s news to me that either used those nicknames (unless the doc just invented it- the subtitles keep using “Manami” while the narrator repeatedly says “Cendrillon”- Cinderella’s French name). And they use that as Manami’s ONLY name during the advertising for one show! She hadn’t even won major singles gold at this point, so I have no idea why they decided to focus so much attention on her.

Randy Orton in 2002- ready for his Crazy Town cover band.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This time, I have a fascinating dark match from RAW where four of OVW’s seemingly most promising guys perform… while also proving just WHY Brock Lesnar & Randy Orton made it, and why their partners, Ron “H20” Waterman & Rico Constantino did not.

And also I have some requests- Wildo & Ingus Jynx vs. The Grimm Twins! This is the only TV appearance of Wildo & Ingus Jynx and one of two appearances of the Grimm Twins! The Jynxes, of course, Matt & Jeff Hardy in weirdo one-off look, against the Harris Brothers in the second of their three WWF gimmicks. Also let’s take a look at Jake “The Snake” Roberts in 1987, taking on Moondog Spot, whom I’m seeing for the very first time! Also the wildest squash ever, as f*cking VINCENT of the nWo gets to look like a shooter against poor Tokyo Magnum! Plus a main event in any gymnasium in the country- VAN HAMMER vs. MIKE ENOS! And finally, the “Dream Matches” debut of Sick Boy, as he faces The Renegade!

As always, all these matches are available on YouTube.

BROCK LESNAR & RON “H20” WATERMAN vs. RANDY ORTON & RICO CONSTANTINO:
(RAW Dark Match, Feb. 4th 2002)
* oh SNAP! Some of the Pillars of OVW, back during their “touring RAW in Dark Matches” days. Nobody was really known to the fans yet, but Brock had been mostly teaming with Shelton Benjamin in OVW, and Rico was a very pushed guy over there (I remember Scott giving one bout of his a **** review and being excited to see him). Ron was a failed MMA fighter and has a great look, but never even made WWF TV. Brock & Ron are in black trunks, Ron just walking down stoically while Brock is actively flexing and talking smack- jeez, no wonder only one got called up. Randy… my god I forgot how young he was back then. He’s just a BABY. Oddly lacking today’s muscle-tone. The blue shorts are a weird look given how long he’s been in tiny trunks. Rico’s in long black tights and is just a normal guy, not the fabulous hairdresser yet.

AJW TV (Feb. 1996):
* Aaaaaand everyone who saw me about to enter 1996 AJW warned me “I hope you like rookie matches”, so here’s one of those dreaded bouts. And also Tomoko Watanabe’s education continues, as she takes on the World Champ, Manami Toyota! That one’s not bad!

YUMI FUKAWA, MISAE WATANABE & MARI MOGAMI vs. NOBUE ENDO, KAYO NOUMI & MINA TANIYAMA:
* Rookie mayhem! AJW tries to push up some of their kids with another trios match, with established Fukawa on one team and bottom-tier Mogami & Kayo on opposite sides. Kayo’s in white, Mina’s in blue, Endo’s in black/red, Mogami’s in blue, Misae’s in black/white (and is the tall, gangly one), and Fukawa’s in blue/white. I think Fukawa’s the only success story of this bunch, unless you’re a huge Tanny Mouse (Taniyama) mark. My apologies to her legions of fans. (Edit- according to Manji they ALL did pretty well! Except Mogami, who quit right away)

KING OF THE RING QUALIFYING MATCHES (2001):
* Hey, I finally remembered to do another set of these! Except I’d done a bunch before realizing that it was KOTR *2000* that was next on my list, and so I’ve had to wait a month or two before posting any of these, but oh well! We were still in the “RAW matches are 2 minutes long” era, but most KOTR matches were like that anyhow, so let’s see what the company was like in the early “InVasion” era.

The tournament itself isn’t that notable, but served its purpose well- “Elevate Another Midcarder”. There’s some high-end names in here (Angle, Kane, Big Show), but it’s mostly midcard guys fighting over everything, with a lot of young acts mayyyyyyyyyyyybe on the precipice of stardom, if they’re handled right: Matt & Jeff Hardy, Edge & Christian, Test & Rhyno, plus the newly-debuted ECW alumnus, Tajiri. JTTS guys include Steve Blackman, Perry Saturn, Crash Holly, Tazz & Raven, some of whom are at least kept a LITTLE strong.

MATT HARDY (w/ Lita) vs. JEFF HARDY (w/ Lita):
(RAW, June 4th)
* Oh, magnificent. Throw both Hardy Boyz against each other in the Qualfying round to draw some interest and drama- apparently Commissioner William Regal has set up the brackets this way. Matt’s in a black shirt & Jeff’s in white, both in the same baggy “Hardy pants”, while Lita’s still in the “thong visible outside the jeans” era. Matt is the European Champion at this point.

Joshi is full of the wildest costumes designs you’ll ever see in wrestling, and wrestling’s most innovative moves… and then the crazy chick in red pants comes in and beats everyone with a stick.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YASHA KURENAI:
Real Name: Rumi Yasuda (note: “Kurenai” is Japanese for “deep red”)
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 143 lbs.
Career: 1989-1999

-One of the weirder “I don’t get it” things I find when I research joshi comments made back in the day is the whole “Yasha Kurenai SUCKS!” thing. I’ve mostly seen it from Mike Lorefice, but I’m sure I’ve seen it elsewhere, too. Her & Command Bolshoi got a lot of hate from old reviewers, arguing that they’re both horrible and ruin matches, and seeing their stuff I don’t get the hate. Bolshoi at least is a comedy wrestler, which has always been a controversial thing among “serious workrate” fans. But Yasha? Yasha seems FINE. Entertaining, even. Like, any healthy wrestling company has room for a Yasha Kurenai.

Yasha’s whole style, though, is a bit contrary to a lot of “MOVEZ!”-loving fans. Where most everyone else is doing “GO GO GO!” stuff and pulling out all these huge moves, here’s this squat, frowning brawler hitting people with a damn staff for a ton of her offense. Not just a “signature spot” like with Bull Nakano and her nunchucks, but using the weapon as a full-on part of her offense. Also, her brawling style is anathema to those who want more and more suplexes and/or flips. And granted it’s not MY preferred style, either, but if it’s only one wrestler, and she’s mostly a midcarder, I don’t mind it. It creates variety! Plus, it makes her look like a huge shitstain when she’s doing it to a babyface, and makes that wrestler seem a lot better for surpassing it and getting a win. And it’s not like Yasha was particularly dominant- she was never much more than a midcard worker!

Another Dream Matches column this week, mostly because I FINALLY got to this match, and it’s pretty long so could be its own review… but I figured I’d toss some of the weirder “Dumpster Fire” Saturday Night matches onto it just for the hell of it. And also because I’ve had them finished for ages but couldn’t think of a column that needed room to fit a match as huge as Jim Neidhart vs. Roadblock or a superteam like Mike Enos/Chris Adams on it.

LADDER MATCH:
NWA INDEPENDENT WORLD TITLE:
AL SNOW vs. SABU:
(Indie Fancam, July 23rd 1994)
* This is another in the endless Snow/Sabu Indie Tape Trader series, with them ripping off the Ladder Match concept only months after WrestleMania X. This is back when a shot from a CHAIR was a game-changer, so ladder shots were like nuclear weapons in the Shawn/Razor bout, mind you. I can only assume that every indie on Earth started using “Ladder Matches” to sell tickets around this point, but I wasn’t a tape trader so I’m not sure. Anyone familiar with that era?

Al comes down to the song they always play at sports arenas- it’s literally on YouTube as “The Hey Song” but is I guess “Rock & Roll Part 2” by noted kiddy-diddler Gary Glitter. Al’s in blue trunks looking like a total goober again, and Sabu’s in shiny silver pants. The belt up for grabs is the NWA Independent “World” Title- a belt invented solely for Sabu to defend on his travelling indie tours- a pretty smart gimmick, really. It looks like they just use half a hockey rink as their “arena” here, cutting it in half with curtains. This match looks excruciatingly long going by YouTube, but I’ve had this on my docket for like six months, so let’s finally get to it!

Because WCW: A worker as respected as Jerry Lynn, and he’s in “Player 2” Rey Mysterio gear and jobs on the D-shows.

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This time we get a couple of double-whammies, as Chris Jericho takes on Jerry Lynn back when he was jobber “Mr. JL” on the WCW D-Shows! Then it’s Marty Jannetty vs. Pat Tanaka on WWF TV, but from two years apart- 1991 (when Tanaka was on a tag team) and 1993 (when he was a glorified jobber)!

And I also found a match from that odd period where Mona (Molly Holly) was suddenly able to get work for her indie buddies as WCW randomly had a women’s division again- she takes on Little Jeannie. Finally, another weirdo “Wait, THAT happened?” match, as Papi Chulo (Essa Rios) shows up on Super Astros… and his opponent is the fourth TIGER MASK!

CHRIS JERICHO vs. MR. JL:
(WCW Saturday Night, Aug. 31st 1996)
* Yes, it’s more of Jerry Lynn as a Rey Mysterio-like purple-clad Power Ranger, and Spunky Babyface Chris Jericho. Jericho’s got the bright, curly blonde locks and black & yellow tights here.

Manami Toyota: Now Ace of the promotion, but the fans are gonna let her have it on this one.

AJW OTA-KU CHAMPION LEGEND ’96:
(Jan. 22nd 1996)
* Our first big AJW event of 1996, and it’s a doozy. Manami Toyota defends her newly-won WWWA World Title against longtime rival Yumiko Hotta, who set this up by beating Manami during the “Manami vs. 30 People” Gauntlet last month! There’s also a weird one as the former Dream Orca team up with Chaparrita ASARI to take on Mariko Yoshida, a rookie, and a random Mexican lady. Unfortunately I can only find those two matches.

The Rest of the Card:
ELIMINATION MATCH: KAYO NOUMI, KUMIKO MAEKAWA, MARI MOGAMI & YUKA SHIINA d. MINA TANIYAMA, MISAE WATANABE, NOBUE ENDO & YOSHIKO TAMURA (12:39): Mogami d. Taniyama (5:45), Tamura d. Noumi (7:02), Misae d. Mogami (8:02), Kumiko d. Misae (9:14), Kumiko d. Endo (10:19), Shiina d. Tamura (10:19). Kumiko & Shiina survive.

REGGIE BENNETT d. TOMOKO WATANABE (11:20): Tomoko’s getting a bit of a push, but not THAT big- Reggie way outranks her.

AJA KONG d. KAORU ITO (16:05): Wow- Aja should absolutely be beating Ito at this point, but it speaks wonders for Ito that the match goes 16 minutes.

SAKIE HASEGAWA d. BULL NAKANO (11:47): Sakie Hasegawa’s retirement tour continues as she takes on BULL NAKANO of all people in one of Bull’s final AJW matches! Shockingly, Sakie DEFEATS Bull, likely a parting gift from the former Ace.

WWWA TAG TEAM TITLE: DOUBLE INOUE (Kyoko & Takako Inoue) d. AKIRA HOKUTO & MIMA SHIMODA (29:47): Hokuto pins Kyoko at (10:30), Kyoko pins Shimoda at (19:53) and Kyoko pins Akira at (29:47). Thus ends the reign of Shimoda & Akira, the latter of whom actually leaves AJW after a very odd 1995. Seriously, she wins the V*Top Tournament at the Tokyo Dome in late ’94 and is then “just another wrestler” for 1995 until having a ***** match against Toyota and winning the Tag Titles for a run. Hokuto leaving the company kicks a MASSIVE hole in the match quality, too. Meltzer went ****1/2 for this, so I really wish it was on YouTube (looks like an older one was deleted).

GAEA JAPAN (January 1996):
* I’ve found a bit of stuff from the early part of GAEA’s 1996 shows- Jan. 14th & 28th. Most of this is “Rookies Getting Their Reps In” but we see more of Chigusa/Combat, plus Hiromi Yagi enters GAEA for a show!

HIROMI YAGI (JWP) vs. TOSHIE UEMATSU (GAEA):
* Yagi is getting a semi-decent midcard role in JWP by this point, so is well above the rookie Toshie, but Yagi’s good enough with her judo stuff to make this fun. Toshie’s in the usual green, while Yagi’s in a black top & shorts.

“Plucky Babyface Eddie Guerrero” is kind of a forgotten era for the guy. Also a reminder of the time WCW tossed the U.S. Title on a lot of pretty new acts in the company.

It’s time for more Dream Matches! With more of a big WCW focus again, but I throw in a WWF tag match from the weird early days where “Cool Dad” Michael Hayes was managing the Hardy Boyz, and they were in a throwaway match with Funaki & Papi Chulo (the future Essa Rios)! But our main event of the evening is Lord Steven Regal doing another one of his technical clinics against a new hire named Eddie Guerrero!

Also come see CIMA up against Perry Saturn, when the former was still a rookie trainee in WCW! A weird “Late WCW is more like Early TNA” match as Psychosis fights Shark Boy in 2000! And another shocker- PG-13 made WCW TV in 2000! They take on the much-maligned 3 Count! Then come see Bobby Eaton’s time on the WCW job squad continue as he’s set up against Fit Finlay in a match of the short, stocky veterans. And finally, a TRUE main event and the kind of match I was born to review- SCOTT PUTSKI vs. MEAN MIKE OF DISORDERLY CONDUCT! Smell the ratings!

LORD STEVEN REGAL (w/ Jeeves) vs. EDDIE GUERRERO:
(WCW Nitro, Jan. 9th 1996)
* Regal takes on the relative newcomer Eddie, here a a dorky babyface with a white & red singlet, a HUGE mullet, and a pretty generic persona. However, he was getting pretty great reactions at this point- I believe I read that a focus group test actually showed he was one of their more popular wrestlers, which led to some emphasis on TV. This was the “WCW Special” of just throwing two good workers out there with 8 minutes of TV time and seeing what happens.