AJW REAL EARNEST:
(Dec. 8th 1996)
* And so we reach the end of the year for AJW, as the company seems to be falling apart creatively, and then Manami Toyota’s disappointing year as Champion culminates with a match against her longtime rival, Kyoko Inoue. This arena is blacked out all to hell, which really makes it look bad. I mean, how bad DID this draw?

Though to be fair, this card seems INCREDIBLY dire. Chaparrita ASARI defends her Super Lightweight Title against low-ass JWP wrestler Fusayo Nouchi? AJW feeds their lowest-end jobbers to JWP & JD’ teams? Rie Tamada vs. Chikako Shiratori in a singles match? What IS this?

PS here’s a list of my full Joshi Spotlight archives: https://www.echoesofthemultiverse.com/viewtopic.php?t=2086

The Skipped Matches:
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR MATCH:
MOMOE NAKANISHI d. MIHO WAKIZAWA (5:06): Momoe becomes a big star in the 2000s so it’s nice to see she wins this one.
EMI MOTOKAWA & TOMOKO KUZUMI (JWP) d. MISAE GENKI & TANNY MOUSE (AJW) (15:38): A horrifyingly long match for people this green, but JWP’s team gets the lowest-tier jobbers fed to them.
BLOODY PHOENIX, CHIQUITA AZTECA & PEQUENA AZTECA (JD’) d. YOSHIKO TAMURA, YUKA SHIINA (AJW) (13:31): Once again, AJW jobs its greenest rookies to another company. Pequena is Cynthia Moreno, and way above everyone else here, though Tamura is the hottest rookie AJW has right now.

AJW JUNIOR TITLE:
RIE TAMADA (AJW) d. CHIKAKO SHIRATORI (10:27): Kept about as short as it should be, as Rie defeats her old Class of 1991 classmate.

WWWA WORLD SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE:
CHAPARRITA ASARI (AJW) vs. FUSAYO NOUCHI (JWP):
* Oh, THIS is where that damn match goes, lol. I found it in an old recap and the original video of the full match is gone. The tiny ASARI defends her trophy belt against the rival promotion’s tiny Nouchi. All we get is the last 4 minutes, which really come off well as it’s the classic “try anything you can to win” AJW style.

JWP 5TH ANNIVERSARY THE RYOGOKU BIG PROJECT:
(Oct. 13th 1996, Sumo Hall)
* And now we’re back to more JWP! They’re fairly absent on YouTube for 1996 for some reason, but the promotion has some very strong rookies now, so can hopefully provide a bit more than the usual “12 minute match drawn out to 22”. And this is the 5th anniversary show, so it’s a big one with a huge JWP/AJW Interpromotional Dream Match in the main- Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs. Kyoko Inoue & Devil Masami! And Aja/Devil NEVER happened during the initial Interpromotional Era so this is a real rarity!

This one features a pretty solid stretch of matches- Mayumi Ozaki’s OZ Academy vs. a trio of babyface JWP wrestlers, a wild 8-Person Tag between JWP wrestlers and Michinoko-Pro guys, a rookie match, and Manami Toyota of all people as a bullying elite heel crushing a rookie with no chance- future superstar Azumi Hyuga! This is the first of her “LOL nope- you suck, rookie!” bullying style, apparently, and against Tomoko Kuzumi, JWP’s hottest rookie, and an incredibly bizarre Mixed Tag Match as Michinoku Pro gets involved- Great Sasuke, Tiger Mask IV, Hikari Fukuoka & Hiromi Yagi vs. Super Delfin, Gran Naniwa, Candy Okutsu & The Bolshoi Kid!

Though really, you’re not gonna top Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask trading moves with Hikari Fukuoka and other joshi.

KANAKO MOTOYA (JWP) vs. YUMI FUKAWA (AJW):
* AJW’s newly pushed Fukawa takes on Motoya, who… I forget how hard she’s being pushed. Like I feel Yumi will win, but I haven’t seen JWP in a while. Motoya’s in a black & orange get-up, while Fukawa’s in a goofy white one with poofy green frill and is half a foot shorter.

GAEA JAPAN- BREAK OUT!:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan, with a combination of tag matches as the Chigusa Nagayo vs. Toshiyo Yamada mini-feud continues! Yamada of course was an early “Chigusa Clone”, always giving these bouts intrigue, though the boss of GAEA seems to be way above her in the pecking order at this point. This also features a GAEA vs. OZ Academy match that’s one of the first big chances the rookies have had to prove themselves, and has been considered the first truly great all-rookie match for the company!

You gotta love it that they’re advertising clips with the “Angry Baby Meiko Satomura Face” image.

CHIGUSA NAGAYO & MEIKO SATOMURA vs. TOSHIYO YAMADA & SONOKO KATO:
* More of the Chigusa/Yamada series, as they take each other on in a tag bout with their color-coded rookie tag team partners.

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.

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.

Most North Koreans are relatively small, compact, and conservative in how they handle themselves. When it was time for the Japanese women to wrestle, they didn’t know how to react.

“These female wrestlers were just completely from another planet,” remembers CNN correspondent, Mike Chinoy.

“Bull Nakano had hair dyed blue, and it went straight up about six or eight inches. She was wearing a white sleeveless shirt over a leotard with half-calf boots. Manami Toyota sported a black leotard with partly opened arm coverings and looked like a dominatrix from some S&M movie. And these North Korean men were sitting there staring. Whether they had any idea what this was about is entirely beyond me.”

–https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/collision-in-korea/

COLLISION IN KOREA:
(April 28-29, 1995)
* So today I’ll be doing a double-whammy, as we’ve hit the point in my reviews were they stars of AJW and other Joshi promotions hit both the Tokyo Dome’s Bridge of Dreams show, and go to North Korea for the WCW/NJPW dual-show, Collision in Korea! This is AJW’s contribution to the Collision in Korea double-show, as they apparently stuck to themselves and quietly went out there and wrestled. Though I think this is how Kensuke Sasaki met Akira Hokuto, his future wife.

AKIRA HOKUTO vs. BULL NAKANO:
* So they’re teaming up the next night, but today they fight each other- AJW’s top two stars, even then. Bull’s in all-black, with her giant blue hair, and Akira’s in green & white.

This damn match has 3-4 “Holy fuck, who agreed to THAT?” spots in it.

JWP HARD CORE GIG:
(Feb. 25th, 1995)
* Welcome to another set of JWP matches, this time from the first three months of 1995! This features a handful of throwaway bouts to start, but ends with the absolute best goddamn Street Fight I’ve ever seen save Triple-H/Foley. This match is INSANE, as diminutive Mayumi Ozaki pulls out some of the most Satanic evil shit in wrestling against the bigger, stronger Dynamite Kansai. It’s proof of how weirdly good JWP can be, where hordes of matches that “go way too long” or “Matches that would be ****+ but they wanted to give the rookies lots of match time” will suddenly be capped off with one of the best matches of the entire year.

JWP STARS ON TOUR:
(Oct. 30th, 1994)
* As we continue through the last part of 1994, here’s a set of JWP bouts from a VERY dark arena, with a bizarre set-up- it’s an elevated stage in an auditorium like how you watch lectures and live theater, so the fans can only see one side of the ring (you can only see this in the final bout). It has two AJW/JWP Junior League matches (where rookie wrestlers fight each other), and is capped off by an 8-woman tag from people who’ve already wrestled that day.

So it’s an interesting look at tiny rookies putting in 10-minute sprints (a welcome change from “20 minutes, but half is padding”), and leads to some very good matches, especially considering the last one is everyone’s second match of the evening! So come take a look at Joshi’s #2 (or #3 if you REALLY like Megumi Kudo’s FMW stuff) promotion when left mostly to its own devices!

AJW/JWP JUNIOR LEAGUE:
CANDY OKUTSU (JWP) vs. RIE TAMADA (AJW):
* An interpromotional rookie match, as the lower-card wrestlers get more shots against each other. Candy’s in black & white, and Rie’s in white & blue.

Rapid-fire stuff to start, as they jockey for position and Candy hits rollups, but Rie controls with a chinlock and stretching. Candy comes back with her own, and the camera bounces around a lot, doing random close-ups. Candy tries Manami’s Running No-Hands Springboard move again, but overshoots her feet and falls- Rie covers for it and Candy soon hits a Run-Up Cross-Body out of the corner instead for two. Backslide gets two for Rie, but Candy slips AGAIN on a Run-Up, then tries again and Rie simply dodges. Rie hits two missile kicks for two, then two spinning cross-bodies for the same. Candy does her corner-dodge missile kick, and another big one gets two. Flying Splash… Rie “Fuck YOU!” bridges out! Candy tries and tries for a German, finally hitting it for two. She aims for another, but Rie rolls forward and wraps her up for the three (10:45).

JWP IN 1994 (May-July):
* So here’s a short collection of JWP bouts from that YouTube channel I found, mostly timed to spring 1994. August 1994 is VERY well-represented, and so will have its own review a couple weeks from now. Some of these I’m not EXACTLY sure on, as the tiny promotion often had the same people wrestle a lot. Tonight, there’s a handful of filler, and then a pair of VERY good tag matches, one of which features AJW’s Suzuka Minami teaming with Hikari Fukuoka against a demon team of Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki!

MAYUMI OZAKI vs. FUSAYO NOUCHI:
(May 1994)
* High-ranked Ozaki takes on the rookie Nouchi in a shorter match. Ozaki’s in red, and Nouchi’s in that white/red/cyan one. And it’s that cool arena with the big theatre stage and curtain on it!

Ozaki, a real pro, jumps Nouchi early and drags her up the steps to the stage (inching them both past an obstacle), and bodyslams her on it, then strikes a pose. She beats on Nouchi in the ring and does a submission that’s equal parts casual and fucking painful-looking, holding it for ages, even biting Nouchi’s hands and tauntingly holding her hands close to the ropes. They bite each other’s feet and Nouchi mounts a mini-comeback, with Ozaki selling the holds more with disgust than with pain, like this is some sort of nuisance to her. Ozaki SLAMS her into the mat for two, demanding the audience’s applause for it, then counters a tornado headlock takeover with a backdrop, but misses the Cannonball Senton- Nouchi gets a victory roll for two, but Ozaki stuffs her comeback and hits a backdrop suplex hold for three (9:16).

Rating: ** (Ozaki’s so great- a completely one-sided bout, but she makes both her stretching and Nouchi’s seem fun with good character bits)

JWP in 1993:
* Happy New Year! Here’s the second half of my look at the JWP stuff from 1992-93 in Rico Kasi’s YouTube videos! Time to see what JWP was up to in the second half of ’93, when left to their own devices! This features a lot of matches between their top stars, plus a couple of Dream Matches of a sort when a pair of construction worker gimmicks show up from AJW for some matches. One of them features proof that Mayumi Ozaki may be the greatest carry artist of all time- going nineteen minutes with NUMACCHI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Xiw_37m8g&t=5s

CUTIE SUZUKI vs. HIKARI FUKUOKA:
* The Battle of the Idols! Hikari’s slowly moving up, but this is a rare opportunity to see Cutie in the role as “experienced elder”. Cutie’s in white with some black bits, while Hikari’s in her goofy pink cone-bra gear.