We're almost at the end of the year and we're going to take a look at the first part of 2000 in the GAEA promotion. 1999 was great so let's hope that they keep it up!

Lioness Asuka & Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (01/16): Great start to 2000! 10 minute sprint of chaos. Heel team has their gang, face team has there's, all kinds of crap is going on. This isn't what you would expect if they met in '95 but it is still super enjoyable and exciting wrestling. The fans were going crazy for this and for good reason. Oh Sonny Onoo was there as part of Hokuto and Ozaki's gang 'Nostradamus.'

KAORU vs Mayumi Ozaki (01/30): We get almost all of the match here. It's a really good one too. Very much a hardcore match with your tables, chairs, weapons, some interference, double juice and eventually a little something more. I liked it quite a bit as K was in Ozaki's world and for her to win she would need to push herself. Ozaki was tremendously giving here. KAORU looks great, Ozaki is vicious and we get a very good match as a result. This is perhaps the most vicious match I've seen KAORU in.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (02/13): Great match and absolutely loved the beginning. It was bananas FMW-style Korakuen hall brawling and in the ring table and chair spots. The flaw is that the last couple of minutes didn't need to happen. They repeated moves and spots... a flaw of youth perhaps? (Lioness wasn't involved) We basically already saw the finish two times beforehand so why does it work at the end? Additionally Sugar Sato brought the quality down a little as she flubbed a couple moves at key moments.. not absolute botched but the ECW fans of years past would have not been kind. And that's what holds this back from being a classic match. I think if the youngsters could have cut a couple minutes, Satomura gone for simplicity, this would have been a near classic. But it really is a great match nonetheless... there's so much good stuff that I have recommend it. Ah what could have been though...very good still.

Aja Kong vs KAORU (02/13): Remember how the Ozaki match above was the most vicious KAORU match ever? Yeah... it's this match. This is an Aja Kong war...don't believe me? KAORU gets her fucking tooth knocked out. Kong gets beat to hell too..the first spot of match, KAORU does a awesome tope that sends Aja crashing backwards and hitting her head on the bottom cross piece of the guard rail. Later on both of her arms are cut up and bruised from KAORU. I haven't seen a brutal Aja Kong match like this in awhile. Big praise goes to KAORU for doing a match like this...they are wearing their pain on their faces for most of the match. I was not expecting this to be so violent and competitive of a match. It's really sticking with me as I write this. All time classic Kong match...again Kudos to KAORU for this as well.

I'm pretty sure the YouTube channel is the official GAEA channel (due to the abundance and quality of the videos) so I'm going to link this here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=He_JguAdKKU&list=PL1H0xznHtMkx7283qLqT2zGS6MO1y7TSl&index=10&pp=iAQB

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Aja Kong (03/12): Finally a great Sato & Nagashima match!! I've enjoyed their matches but invariably someone screws something up but not here! So everything look really good plus they can't get too cute because of the size of Aja & Lioness. I am really stoked on their performance (there were a couple close calls from Sugar) and Lioness & Kong brought the goods as usual. Recommended stuff!

Aja Kong & KAORU vs Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (04/23): jip. This was some good stuff. Very neat spots that honestly looked very natural especially Yamada spin kicking the board back into KAORU's face. That was sick!! I watched this one a few weeks/months ago so this was all I had but, yeah I dug it. Re-watch: KAORU is wearing clothes more appropriate for a dance club than a wrestling match. Yamada has blonde hair and is wearing something more appropriate for a Master P music video circa 2000. But yeah this was pretty good stuff... the ending keeps it from being a great match as it devolves into Aja testing Satomura's mettle. Neither KAORU or Yamada intervene to either stop it or actually finish the match. It is definitely a helluva scene and a great lead in to their next encounter (below) but in all honesty they had a pretty great match going...much better this second time since I knew Meiko & KAORU better and such. I would have liked a more traditional end but this ending was probably better for business.

Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (05/14): The rematch from their '99 fight. I liked this one as it was shorter than that match BUT that one was still better than this. It's a good match perhaps a really good one but they didn't really tread any new ground here. Additionally the pacing was much slower than other GAEA matches. It's like an AJPW pace but I didn't really think any of the the stories they tried to tell went anywhere (Satomura hanging onto the head lock, Satomura going after Kong's arm). Some call this a great match but not to me. Both have had much more interesting & exciting matches.

I'm copy/pasting this from my Crush Gals post earlier in the year. This was THE match that convinced me that I should give GAEA a chance (so very glad I did):

Crush Gals vs Akira Hokuto & Devil Masami (GAEA 05/14/2000): Gaea 5th anniversary main event. Nostalgia? Yes, I'll take it. This was a great match even without it though. Devil & Akira are cheating heels, this is 2000's Joshi so from its pretty close to 80's Joshi...weapons are pretty much allowed in moderation As an ECW fan at heart, I can never say no to a couple chair shots thrown in for good measure. Crush Gals are bleeding but they won't go down without a fight. Tons of great moves, very chaotic in a good way... tons of charisma as well. I really liked this.

Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima (06/13): Nagashima has gone baby face and turned her back on her mentor Ozaki. KAORU in the meantime has gone heel. And that's what they should be. KAORU doesn't bitchy very well and Nagashima is the physical equivalent of Momoe Nakanishi in AJW. So yeah this is a great frantic 6-woman tag match. Any sourness on Satomura went away here...this is where she shines as Chigusa's spunky protege. But she's much more than that now and imo works much better with competitors her size. Aja is twice as big as her...but that's not for here. Anyway, everyone shines. Akira Hokuto gets her arm attacked and sells it! That really helps at the end of match when she definitely looks in peril. Awesome finish too...wanted to take a pic for the blog but that'd spoil it.

Lioness Asuka vs. KAORU (07/22): I took a chance on this one because it's gotten bad reviews. Well I disagree! If you're an FMW fan, then I think you'll really want to see this. It absolutely is the Joshi equivalent of 2000 FMW: Lots of fighting in the stands & ringside, tables & chairs, really exciting reversals, counter attack spots...stuff like that. A couple of the spots don't go off 100% but they absolutely work in the context of the match. I mention this because that's where some of other's criticism comes from. I just don't care about perfect levels of execution anymore but also I've seen worse looking moves every single match on Smackdown. There's no problem here. Sure you could say they didn't sell enough but I don't think that's what this was about... it was about being tough. And frankly they sol enough to get across that they were banged up. This is a great 2000 hard-core "garbage" match. If that's not what you like then skip it The fans loved it and so did I.

Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai (07/22): We haven't seen Kato in awhile (since Feb. here) as per her Wikipedia page she was out due to injuries. If you watch that February tag match, you'll know where she got a couple of them (Sato basically does a Phoenix-plex on Kato). The fans shower her with blue streamers in ring. A helluva team to face right away. Chigusa and Kato are ready for a fight. A it's a really good one too! Short (8-9 minutes) but there's plenty of action. Kato is awesome here as she shows no fear. Dynamite Kansai is great too by bringing the intensity... her facial expressions are priceless. There's a fun & exciting post match segment too...especially if you're a Crush Gals fan like me.

Meiko Satomura vs. Sonoko Kato (08/20): Anyhow this is a really really good to great under 10 minute match. The only problem is that if Satomura can take a bunch of Kong's best shots then surely she can take Kato's. And I mean Kato hits a couple really good ones. That's the downside to booking the Kong- Satomura stuff that no one mentions. Perhaps storyline wise, Kato is not 100% etc. Also to note Kato has buzzed hair... not sure if its because she has a bandage on her head (stitches?) and they needed to shave it, if it was a wager, or a stylistic choice. She had a pixie cut in the above match but this is much shorter. Honestly I think I preferred this than the Kong match...as I was getting at in the 6-woman match...Satomura is a smaller wrestler and in a 1 on 1 she works better with folks her size.

So all in all the first part of 2000 GAEA has been great! Clearly I'm disappointed in the Kong vs Satomura match but everything else was fantastic. And you know, you might like that match & hate the rest...this is just how I'm looking at it. Part #2 of 2000 is next and should probably be the last review post of 2023. The final one of the year will be my Best Matches Watched of 2023.