Tomoko Miyaguchi

JWP IN MAY 1997:
* So “1997- The Year Joshi Was Cursed” is assuredly a thing, as not only does AJW go bankrupt, but JWP becomes one of the only companies to have an active wrestler die of an injury in the ring. This is three matches featuring what was going on in Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling in 1997! All with the standard “gotta go to 20+ minutes” JWP effect, but there’s good effort throughout, including a big Dream Match as Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami form an ’80s Superteam up against Dynamite Kansai & Candy Okutsu!

Also, tragically, this is the last Plum Mariko match ever recorded, as she wrestles in a very good tag match alongside Cutie Suzuki against the JWP Tag Champions, Hikari Fukuoka & Devil.

And AEW fans might get a kick out of seeing AEW star Emi Sakura in her rookie years as she joins a trios match!

DYNAMITE KANSAI, SARI OSUMI & EMI MOTOKAWA (IWA Japan) vs. CANDY OKUTSU, COMMAND BOLSHOI & TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI:
(May 10th 1997)
* It’s an interesting trios match, with the former Ace teaming with two barely-trained jobbers against Candy & Bolshoi, who are way beneath Kansai but far above the jobbers, and Miyaguchi (the future Ran Yu-Yu, which I keep having to remind myself). Also Emi, currently a second-year, is the future “Emi Sakura” and is currently an IWA-Japan wrestler. The psychology here will be interesting, as Kansai can annihilate anyone here, but her partners are weaksauce and can easily be beaten by any of the three opponents. Kansai’s in black w/ neon yellow, Sari’s in a jobber swimsuit with green leaves on dark green, Emi’s in black & orange (with a sorta-skirt), Candy’s in black, Bolshoi’s in an extremely elaborate pink/blue/black bodysuit & Miyaguchi’s in white with red.

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 MIRACLE NIGHT:
(08.05.1995)
* Whoops- I missed one in the GAEA list somehow! This one is from early August. I can only find a couple of matches on YouTube. We apparently miss Bomber Hikaru beating Toshie Uematsu (3:35).

KAORU (GAEA Japan) vs. CANDY OKUTSU (JWP):
* KAORU takes on another invader in a Dream Match- Candy is well below her on the pecking order, but it seems clear that JWP has high hopes for her. KAORU’s just the worker to reign in Candy’s slippy-sloppy flying, too. Both are in white with black, KAORU in her singlet and Candy in a tasseled thing.

GAEA WRESTLE OF DREAMS:
(06.18.1995)
* It’s another GAEA Korakuen show, featuring more of a lesser cast that the previous ones, though if features the #2 & 3 GAEA wrestlers paired off in a match, with KAORU taking on Bomber Hikaru. The Main Event is a peculiar one- Chigusa Nagayo taking on FMW’s Bad Nurse Nakamura of all people! I’ll also add in the next show they did, featuring KAORU vs. Candy Okutsu, and Chigusa, Meiko & Kato against Devil Masami and the two Tomokos from JWP!

This one’s missing a short Meiko Satomura vs. Chihiro Nakano match (2:41), and Chikayo Nagashima beating Makie Numao in (6:03 of 12:05 shown) in Makie’s debut match. She makes a real go of it, lasting about four years, but appears to be a job girl the entire time from a quick scan of CageMatch, almost always losing.

MOST FIGHTING G vs. J:
TOSHIE UEMATSU & SONOKO KATO (GAEA Japan) vs. TOMOKO MIYAGUCHI & TOMOMI KOBAYASHI (JWP):
* Rookie Mayhem starts us off, with Uematsu (green) & Kato (blue) representing GAEA against Miyaguchi (red) & Kobayashi (yellow) from JWP. Miyaguchi is the future Ran Yu-Yu and has looked okay in the past. These names are absolutely awful for my poor typing, lol- I can’t even switch to first names, because then it’s Toshie, Tomoko & Tomomi! Thank God this is clipped.