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GAEA JAPAN- SECOND ANNIVERSARY SHOW (Part Two):
(April 29th, 1997)
* So a week after the April 21st show comes another “Second Anniversary” special. This one features yet another WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Title defense by Toshie Uematsu, Chigusa and the first “Chigusa Clone” (Toshiyo Yamada) against the best of GAEA’s first generation of rookies (Meiko & Kato!), and Akira Hokuto teaming with Maiko Matsumoto- a rookie just entering her second year- against Mayumi Ozaki and her best goon, Chikayo Nagashima!

Oh, and it’s the debut of Chigusa Nagayo’s heel character ZERO! So, uh, there’s that. For all you Zero fans out there. Wait am I supposed to capitalize her name now?

WCW WOMEN’S CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE:
TOSHIE UEMATSU vs. SUGAR SATO:
* Toshie now defends WCW gold against the OZ Academy turncoat. Sato’s now in a more elaborate version of her white gear, with lots of strings and cut-out bits. We’re JIP here.

Yes, current legend Meiko Satomura actually has WCW Nitro appearances. Wrestling is weird.

JOSHI IN WCW (1996):
* And now I take a look at a pretty weird time for WCW- that early 1997 period where they actually try to have a WOMEN’S DIVISION! This actually slips between the WWF’s two big ’90s attempts at it, as the “Alundra Blayze and one heel” era and “Sable and one heel, then pra & panties matches”- this is the time when Madusa showed up in WCW, dumping the WWF Women’s Title in the trashcan, and then acting as a central star in the WCW women’s division… in which she never wins the belt. Yeah, instead AKIRA HOKUTO is the champion, which creates a pretty strange situation.

Unfortunately since these matches are all WWE property now, I can’t post them here, but YouTube has them all! Alas, I’m missing the big PPV matches (all two or three of them, I guess?) so this and next week’s column will both be a tad incomplete.

The Women’s Division:
-So the women’s division was pretty much just the GAEA Japan promotion in WCW, mixed with Madusa and Japanese-American wrestler Malia Hosaka, plus Luna Vachon sometimes. Chigusa’s young charges Meiko Satomura (who is a WWE employee today, oddly enough), Sonoko Kato and Toshie Uematsu in fact made up the backbone of the division, alongside KAORU. However, nearly every TV match is under four minutes long, and the vast majority of them appear on the D-shows like Worldwide. I was watching the HELL out of WCW at the time and I only barely remember Hokuto and Zero (just wait), much less all these subordinates.

The style used in these matches was far less risky and crazy in the US as well- they seemingly knew to take it easy on American cards, because even Hokuto is ending matches with a basic bridging suplex in nearly every match- hardly one of her more elite finishers. That Madusa is a pretty horrible worker by joshi standards (she’s sometimes okay but mostly below-average, being clumsy, slow, hesitant and a bit flaily).