Spotlight: The Very Best of GAEA - Part 4- 1999
We're FINALLY on to 1999 which has some of the best matches in the company's history according to many fans. I've got access to all of those but there are a couple others that are right out of that top tier that I can't seem to locate. Therefore I'm going to do my best to find some reasonable replacements. It's been so long since I made my watch list that I'm not sure which these are though 
Also I'm at my busy season with work so I'm going to break it up into two parts.
Lioness Asuka & Mayumi Ozaki vs. KAORU & Meiko Satomura (02/11/99): Oh man what a welcome back to GAEA! This was an awesome 15 minute tag match...never a dull moment. It's so badass that Lioness is working here now. Her & Ozaki make a really great heel team. KAORU was impressive offensively and Satomura is as tough as ever. Sonoko Kato even gets in the mix a little bit here. I definitely could rate this higher but I'll be conservative and just say this was a great match!
Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (04/04/99): Classic GAEA tag match right here. So brutal... Aja & Oz weren't pulling their shots. Kato & Meiko were in the fight of their lives. And keeping that glimmer of hope throughout the match was really what made this brilliant. For a time, it looked like Aja could beat both of the GAEA girls on her own. Red & blue were just so damn tough! I got to also say some of the moves/sequences were really interesting/surprising which is always a boon. Don't wanna say more. If you're interested in GAEA or are fans of the parties involved, go watch it! 
Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (04/04/99): Holy crap this was a crazy hardcore match. It mainly became spots as it went on but it had a really good beginning with stiff kicks and actual wrestling stuff. Asuka is a badass heel at this point in her career uses tables, chairs etc to punish her opponents. Chigusa doesn't need those things but she's not afraid of them either. So we get some blood and some nutso spots... or at least are nutso because they involved those indestructible Japanese tables. A couple of the set ups are a little obvious and that is a complaint but I'm only thinking of two in particular. These are greatly overshadowed by a really enjoyable and punishing fight. Remember the Crush Gals were wrestling classic matches in the mid 80's and 15 or so years later they are having a ECW/FMW style bout...that's like an alternate history British Bulldogs doing this in '99 WCW (That would have been great and in the same way so was this!).
Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (07/18/99): Kong and Oz were extremely giving here. Sato and Nagashima are very good wrestlers but are of the mid card variety in my opinion. They are not polished enough to be in this match as believable threats. They are doing some Rey Misterio Jr. shit but not as flawless as him. That said this is a really good work rate match and some of spots are pretty darn cool (99 is the year for cool spots across Japan and the U.S.). I just don't agree with the finish for a variety of reasons. The first being the aforementioned but also this didn't really tell that good of a story to justify the conclusion. But it is exciting from an athletic standpoint so there's that to like about it... and Ozaki and Kong are solid as ever. So you might really enjoy this one more than me
Akira Hokuto & Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (08/15/99): I'm watching this thinking, "OK this is a pretty good match..not great but pretty good." Then the last few minutes really elevated this to a great match (especially if you watched the 04/04 tag)...yeah the Kong/Satomura feud is palpable. If you're an Aja Kong fan, you've got to watch this! Also if you've mainly seen AJW 90's stuff (and liked it), this is a excellent place to dip your toe in with GAEA. It's essentially a continuation of what they were doing there
Glad to be back watching GAEA! A big goal of mine for 2023 was to get back to Joshi. I think I did accomplish that and am glad that I'm ending the year how it began, watching women's pro wrestling. I'll be back next week with part #2 of 1999.
Thanks for reading! Also a shout out to anyone else who is working retail, customer service, in a warehouse pulling and packing orders, anyone working at USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc. etc. We're going to get through the bullshit soon enough!
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