Search the Community

Talk about it here.

Michiko Ohmukai was this skinny girl with supermodel looks who worked like Daisuke Ikeda. I have no idea why she's not famous. She threw all those reckless kicks and impressive suplexes and was like a magic ingredient for matches that made everything crazier. Here she slaps Aja right at the bell and Aja just smirks at her and then Ohmukai starts dropping her with those 50 yards football kicks. Hell of an opening for a match. They get into a slugfest like this fucking BattlARTS or WAR and I am in love with this. Then they settle down a little with Aja dominating on the mat through size and Ohmukai trying to topple her. I think Aja was kind of mailing it in in Arsion which is such a disappointment but this match hit all the right spots and was really good stuff like it always is when Aja has someone to work with who brings the fight to her.

This was for the Openweight title that Kong held at this point and time. Historically Amano has always taken L's to Kong. Didn't matter the promotion or the stakes, she always got her ass kicked. She's gotten her ass...less kicked mind you (especially between their 2002/2005 matches where her stature as a rival to Kong becomes closer) as the years have went by but she's always lost anyway. To ratify this we have her meet Fujiwara for presumably more submission training. Amano's "training" with Fujiwara (seemed more like it was just getting her ass kicked over and over, but I guess that's how they did it back in the day) basically spells out that she's going to work on Aja's limbs to neutralise her strength advantage and maybe survive a potential Uraken. Of course the match is still her getting beat up for a good stint as per Aja matches go with some fairly brutal kicks to the head early on though she does get the advantage briefly with a nice dive to the outside, before course Aja quickly taking it back with a brainbuster and a safe (but brutal looking) sit-out elevated piledriver. I guess one issue with this is that the selling is a bit dodgy; it makes sense for the early match but there's a lot of doing moves right after the other person. It makes sense for Aja given her monster status, Amano less so. She covers for that by mostly trying to grapple or throwing epic headbutt combos as said moves so it at least feels more palpable as a immediate comeback as opposed to doing fancy spots. Eventually she catches her opponent out with a cool rolling Fujiwara armbar modification and this opens Aja up for more punishment as she struggles to pick up steam with only one proper good arm as she either gets countered trying to do stuff or can't hit nearly as well due to said arm. It's fairly basic work on the surface, Aja's just mastered it to the point where it feels a lot more natural than many give it credit for. She never feels like she's "acting" hurt with theatricals or Hogan-level facials, it's more like her battling with her own pain and very sparingly showing it as a result. Amano did a good job of still making this feel really desperate despite that fact with solid frantic selling and consistently trying to rip the arm off in holds, snapping on roll-ups or just ramming-speed headbutts that looked like murder; there was no real sophisticated stuff here, just loads of things that felt like they were trying to be killshots. The finishing stretch had some good drama around Aja finding her own counters to Amano's wacky headbutts, but struggling to finish due to her usually dominant Uraken arm being, well, crappy. It's the classic Aja Kong monster in peril structure and credit due, it's pretty solid, even if I think Amano surpasses her here in sheer intensity. The bit where she jumps on Kong's back to stomp her in sheer animalistic frustration after she got a rope break off a armbreaker just spelled out how desperate things seemed for her as her chances for success kept slipping away with every chance she missed to finish this as soon as possible. It gets better after watching their 2002 match where Amano tried the same arm-attack plan and got wrecked trying, so seeing her succeed but just stop right next to the finish line was understandably tense. Kong does slow near the end due to her smashing the back of her head (off a O'Connor Roll, if you can believe it) still pulls through for the numerous wacky Amano headbutt spots that ends with her going over clean. Not as perhaps good as prior versions of this match as the finish isn't really as tense or exciting (perhaps because it was overcooked with too much, I'd say) the match as a whole is still a real solid sprint (only clocking in at 13 minutes!) that never really had any downtime and kept pushing the action all the way to the end. Generally Amano matches tend to be better the shorter they are and this, I'd say, is a good indicator of that being factual.

This is a big post today so let's get going! Kyoko Inoue vs Lioness Asuka (04/29): So these two have had a couple/few acclaimed matches in other companies. I think it was fun but definitely not up to standard set by the others (or so I've heard). Where the best GAEA matches remind me of the best that FMW/ECW offered, this one felt like a TNA match. It was like half the match was Lioness on offense and then the second half was Kyoko. And honestly I don't this Inoue did that much whereas Lioness did some great hardcore style offense. And let's be real, this is a match all about offense and cool spots. Asuka definitely delivered but we got a kind of lazy (or maybe just old & banged up) Kyoko Inoue. It was good but not as good as it could have been. Akira Hokuto vs Meiko Satomura (04/29): Well this one lives up to the hype. Holy cow, the last classic Akira Hokuto singles match? What I liked here is that 1) It was very stiff...Hokuto set the tone that she wasn't going easy on Satomura and she wasn't done yet. 2) This was a straight match...No interference or weapons which Hokuto hasn't done in like 3-4 years in GAEA. That's significant because she's showing she doesn't need that. 3) Much of this match is focused on wrestling holds...this is very much in the classic late 80's early 90's AJW style. A steady pace with a story based on working holds, wearing the opponent down and going for the kill at the end. 4) Satomura didn't spam her moves...she hasn't done this as much in 2001 (but certainly did enough in '99 vs Kong). Wonderfully Hokuto wouldn't let her. Whether kayfabe or legit (in the middle is usually the truth), Hokuto reigned Meiko's bad singles match habits. Instead of not knowing what to do and rely upon going bicycle kicks and Death Valley's, Satomura was kicking Hokuto in the leg and head ala Yamada, Hotta, Kong Kansai. She finally seemed ready for big time longer singles bouts (she's always been fantastic in tags & shorter fast pace matches... her vs Kato matches for instance). I'll share the link for GAEAism's video below. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dOu0JySr8jA Next 3 are from 05/13 and are interrelated: Aja Kong & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu: Well that was absolutely badass! For the folks that don't like any of the brawling/weapons stuff - this one is for you. 14 minutes of fantastic wrestling. In some way it was one long sequence but I can't imagine that is the case. I think the familiarity between Aja & Satomura is indeed that good now. Uematsu has levelled up and she definitely belongs in these matches. This was one of the best straight tags I've seen from GAEA in awhile. Near classic-classic match. Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu vs. Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU: You have to know there's weapons and stuff in this one I don't tire of it because they always keep it interesting. In fact there was a ton of great stuff with KAORU's table halves that I've never seen before. Having the two junior/lucha oriented GAEA girls made for really great spots and sequences... stuff you'd see like in Hardy Boyz, Young Bucks, MCMG, Briscoes etc tags. Another recommendation from me. Great match for sure! Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs. Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima: And another great match! The youngsters had their work cut out for them as not only is it their 2nd match each but Kong and Kansai are twice their size. Satomura was on some next level shit with Kong here especially at the start... and frankly this whole series was. This could be considered one match if you want.. like an endurance series or something. If so this is absolutely classic stuff. These 5/13 matches in a way prove just how advanced these 3 GAEA originals are. To me its a shame Sonoko Kato is pretty much out of the picture as she was the best... better than Satomura. I'm not sure if Kato comes back in any capacity (I know she returns to wrestling) but it makes me want to check more of her earlier stuff out. But I'm talking about something else and should be focusing on this match. So yeah this match is great and unique compared to the previous ones. I think that is what makes these so awesome is the mix of match ups. Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU vs. Lioness Asuka & Sakura Hirota (06/17): Hahaha! Hirota comes out looking like Strawberry Shortcake so KAORU blasts her with her table piece. Hirota drops like a sack of potatoes immediately Even KAORU is laughing afterwards. But soon its all business as Lioness is handcuffed to the ring and Sakura is bloodied. Eventually they get bored with the youngster and toss Asuka the keys. This is really good dramatic stuff with the heel team being ferocious. It was a great little story and Asuka was absolutely amazing especially after they handcuffed her again! Just awesome visuals throughout the match as well. (This sets up a KAORU vs Lioness match but I've heard it just goes on WAY too long so I'll skip that). Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu (06/17): Awesome high energy match! The start with Aja & Satomura is what I'd hoped their previous singles encounters would be like. Everyone looked pretty good. Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu were especially exciting going up against the heavy hitters. Aja Kong was great as ever, trading pinning moves with Uematsu despite her greater size. Speaking of Uematsu, her being in another match like this really means she's getting a good push. This was a great match! Another one to see with these teams. Meiko Satomura vs Mayumi Ozaki (08/19): A great match with a fantastic opening few minutes. They bordered on overly ambitious but all in all they stayed in the lines and pulled off some really interesting stuff. This felt like pretty darn fresh match up. Satomura is very close to A-level talent in '01. Ozaki brought her A game (this was a relatively straight up match) so this was way better than I expected. And for that I think I may like it more than the Kong vs Satomura singles bouts. Satomura in 2001 has definitely matured as a singles wrestler in the marquee matches. Mayumi Ozaki vs. Aja Kong (10/28): They cut out a few minutes but this was very good stuff. No new ground was broken but lots of exciting action. This would be a good random GAEA match to watch as an ice breaker. Like, "oh shit they're not over-the-hill" and "this doesn't suck" in contrast to what popular opinion may have been at the time. This is still really good stuff! There's blood and everything Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura (12/15): Yeah OK that was pretty good stuff but it felt like their other bouts. Satomura seems to have taken a step back here from her Hokuto and Ozaki bouts. Again there were probably 4 (or more? DVDs)...it's basically a fucking scoop slam at this point Is this Satomura or Kong...I have to think it's Kong calling the shots. Just like it was most likely Oz & Hokuto calling most/all of their matches with Satomura. Arsion and GAEA are known for their shorter matches so really wonder if Aja is rusty on how to layout a long (25 minute) match? There's like 5 minutes that just didn't need to be there. But honestly this was so similar to their other bouts, I'm not sure this whole match didn't need to be more than 10 minutes. There was good ground wrestling and injury story potential that would have made this great or at least different. They just don't seem to do that anymore. It just felt long because there were few surprises. Only the beginning felt fresh and awesome...This was just a cookie cutter long title match..much like their 2000 match. I'd rather they just do a 15 minute sprint and keep the good things like the quick beginning, stiffness, the mat wrestling, a couple of the surprising spots. Even if its only "very good ***1/2+" at least we're not sitting through a half hour very good match, right? I think back in the day this was clipped down to 16 minutes so I could see calling this a great match in that form but not knowing what happened in the missing 10 minutes. Some folks have said the full version helps as it sounds like it might be a real bad clip job. I know this is a rant now. But I think it should be said Kong is not Satomura's best singles opponent contrary to popular opinion. Their tag stuff is top notch and Kong is probably her #1 foe but their singles matches just don't do it for me. Again, this may be Kong plugging Satomura into a "big match formula" that worked against others in the late 90's- 2000s. This may be Meiko afraid to deviate from the plan or just not have enough experience/seniority to mix things up in a 20+ minute singles match. That energy we see in shorter bouts is really what's lacking. I'm watching bits while writing this and it reminds me of a Muto match where there's no urgency between attacks. Kong's best bouts are one's where it looks like she & her foe are trying to kill each other. Don't get me wrong its pretty stiff but there's too much dead air at times. It feels like a trip amusement park train...it's moving at a speed so you're aware of toward motion but not enough that you feel a thrill. There's no real ups and downs. Its amusing but not exciting. And Satomura needs some mid level offense (a suplex, body kicks, a DDT for instance)...I'm watching this and Meiko stops Aja's offensive run by axe kicking her from up on the apron (Aja is standing on the floor) - this is one of the awesome surprises! It's brutal as Meiko has so much force as her foot/heel is traveling like 100° and coming crashing down on Aja's head and neck. But then she has Kong stunned on the floor and can follow up. She could throw her back in ring and capitalize on this massive attack. She could do a diving stomp from the apron onto Kong on the floor. She hops down and does a fucking Death Valley Driver!? It's sick but doesn't she want to win the match in the ring? Now if she wants to inflict max damage but still eventually get the pin that's when you have a mid level move like a vertical suplex, a DDT, a back drop/back suplex. I think a piledriver would be good here for instance. She has no mid level offense in these Kong matches. Kong sells this but then Satomura follows this up (her finisher on the floor) with throwing chairs on her. Kong essentially brushes this all off and goes back to offense I looked at Kong's face and I really think she was frustrated. They're only half way through and she just took a finisher on the concrete... 'what the hell!? We've got 10 more minutes to go and you (Satomura) have no idea where to go now.' I'm making a point here because the Satomura vs Kong singles stuff is what GAEA is known for in the community. And it's not even GAEA's best stuff. It's not Kong or Satomura's best stuff in GAEA. It actually seems like their worst stuff in a way. They are in the position to work a 25 minute match in a company that does 10-15 minute matches. Satomura does not have the experience to logically work a match this long. She needs guidance. With guidance she can do excellent work (see Hokuto & Ozaki matches above). Kong either cannot or does not want to guide Satomura. As in, "you're in the big time now Meiko, you need to figure this out on your own." There's a few instances where Satomura is making decisions in real time and Kong vetos in response. Like, "wtf are you thinking"...Hopefully I made my point. And hey I'm just speaking for myself. You check it out! There is still a lot to like...you might see things differently. I can't end this post like that though... Chigusa Nagayo & Aja Kong vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (12/24): Joined in progress. Not sure how much we missed but a nice return to form. Quick pace, nice assortment of moves, plenty aggressive.. it's a very good tag match. Maybe its too quick not enough selling etc. but it doesn't overstay it's welcome & there are nice surprises (we get that in tags of course). About 9 minutes shown. Obviously I'm comparing this to the above match because I'm making sure I'm not burnt out or mistaken. I feel much better wrapping up with this. 2001 is definitely the year Chigusa wants to really push the homegrown stars to the top of the company. Satomura really knocked it out of the park even though she still needs work to be the ace. GAEA absolutely kills it with their tag matches and continues to do so in 2001. So there we have it for GAEA for now! GAEAism YouTube is currently loading up more 2002 stuff and while I don't have a ton in store for 2002, 1) I'm always adding more as I go 2) They don't even have all of the few things I have on my to-watch list. So I'm going to have to give them some time So very thankful that they are posting all of this stuff! I might check out some stuff from 95-97 GAEA that I overlooked earlier. We'll see Thanks for reading!

I am going to keep going with GAEA for the New Year. As I've done for the past few posts I'm going to split the wrestling year up. So let's look at early 2001! Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka (01/27): This was a great under 10 minute match. The energy of the bout is what makes this so enjoyable. Its in Korakuen Hall, its noisy, there's blood, chairs flying, dives etc. Its not out of control but there's that energy. And even when the match is over, that energy is still there with Chigusa yelling on the microphone. And when Hokuto is shouting back with her addressing the camera, splatter of blood on her face, I got chills. This is badass stuff. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (03/11): A rip roaring good time! Everyone was at the top of their game (for '01 at least). Nice little bit of wrestling at the start. The opening with Oz & Meiko makes me want that match in this style...heck even Chigusa gets in with Oz, its still pretty cool. However this was a lot of brawling type action... I mean ECW/FMW stuff - weapons, spots etc. The babyfaces break down and engage in the chair swinging too.Also this is a match I would point to when making the claim that Satomura is an awesome tag wrestler. She is a fantastic #2 to the veteran Crush Gals and a fantastic #1/big sister when teamed with lower ranking partners. Anyhow, I watched this twice and it's a near classic GAEA tag. The pacing is excellent as they are fighting non stop for 13 minutes. On top of that, the execution is exceptional. There's only one moment where Satomura whiffs on kick but Ozaki didn't really sell it. She staggers back to avoid the chain which swings off Meiko's leg. But that gives Satomura the chance to try again and she makes sure she connected this time. Also lots of nice borrowing of moves and little things I noticed on the second watch. Aja Kong & KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Lioness Asuka & Toshie Uematsu & Chikayo Nagashima (03/11): Not to be out done, they start this off like FMW, in the crowd, chairs, dive off the little stage, Uematsu being hung from the balcony!?! Holy cow! Things eventually get back in the ring and it becomes a more traditional match (not 100%). Lioness does an awesome spot with her table for instance. The real highlight and reason this is a great match is Aja vs Nagashima...or really when Aja & Nagashima are the focus. Nagashima was on fire here throwing 'ranas like Rey Jr. or Dragon Kid (maybe not as quick and smooth but you get my point). The assists from their partners are really on point too. Excellent finish to boot! Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagoya & Lioness Asuka (04/08): Great 15 minute match between the two top teams. A bigger match than their January bout but similar as both teams used weapons and the action was pretty non-stop. I think I preferred that one but this was still awesome. They really have the mix of brawling and pro moves down pat. This was a big stakes match and it felt big but not big enough for me. That doesn't hurt the match but it holds it back from being a (near) classic. There was an Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Lioness Asuka & Meiko Satomura (04/15) match that I wanted to see. I doesn't appear available online on the GAEAism YouTube Kyoko Inoue & Aja Kong vs Crush Gals (04/22): Really fun 11 minute match. Everyone was was just doing their big stuff right from the start seemed. A little more so than most GAEA tag matches. But it worked! It was one of those crowds/matches where the fans were happy to see the matchup and the big moves...and that's what we got The Crush Gals actually out worked Aja and they didn't use any weapons (tables/chairs). Kyoko was having a lot of fun in the best way. Nice to see her back in GAEA. Heck of a week of wrestling! Chock full of tag matches... I love it! One thing I'll mention is that these mainly focus on the veterans and not the GAEA homegrown talent as much. Sonoko Kato's absence is definitely being felt. That said Crush Gals 2000 and Ozaki & Hokuto are kicking butt!

I'm just jumping right in: Sonoko Kato vs. Akira Hokuto (09/15): Waaayy too short of a match but it was fun. Seems like more of an angle than a match. I dig it though. Meiko Satomura vs. Devil Masami (09/15): I liked this pretty well. They did a good job telling the story that Satomura couldn't go toe to toe with Devil. So she uses her quickness and technique to weaken Devil's arms. Masami sells this pretty well and although she's able to power bomb Meiko, we can tell there's some effort. This is emphasized when Meiko is able to counter a couple bombs.**spoiler** They had me right up until the end where Satomura spams her Death Valley Driver...get another finishing move! This would have been the time to debut something new or a modified Death Valley Driver...A running one like Masato Tanaka or maybe one off the bottom rope. Instead she does it 3 times in a row and 5 times in the match. Those first two were a waste... and maybe the 3 in a row would have meant more if those earlier ones weren't done. The post match was interesting as Devil wouldn't respect Meiko despite just losing to her. Meiko tries to DVD her but Devil goes deadweight and hits her Steiner Screwdriver and cackles. I actually liked this because its almost like she let Satomura beat her...or at least Satomura just got lucky. Other than kinda killing off the impact of the DVD as a one maybe two hit finisher, showing us arm bars aren't going to win a big match, this was pretty good. Chikayo Nagashima vs. Mayumi Ozaki (09/15): There's a theme here with these matches. See if you can spot it But this has the most back story as Ozaki is Nagashima's mentor and she was a former member of their heel stable. This was very good stuff. For a minute I thought this might be a repeat of the previous match but this was fast and sometimes frenetic enough to be its own thing. Ozaki was as giving as ever and really let Nagashima shine here. I think if they had more time or teased more this could have been a great match. Still its probably the best out of the three. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai (09/15/00): So this match is a result of the 07/22 Sonoko Kato return post match segment. And it's a dream match come true. Sure everyone is getting long in the tooth but GAEA is smart keeping things under 20 minutes. This way everyone can do their thing and still keep it intense. I thought this was a great tag match full of big moves, believable false finishes and spectacle. Because, this was a match about spectacle more than anything... Crush Gals continue their reunion tour taking on the baddest of the bad asses of the 90's. I think if Chigusa and Kansai were in better shape (health re: Kansai) then this could have been a classic. But that's taking nothing away from this match. This is just simple big time wrestling done right. Tag Tournament Semifinal: Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (11/23): Really fun stuff! No it's not 1993 level at all but they still excel at putting on an exciting tag match. Not everything was pretty but dammit they went for it here. I think at ten minutes and going pedal to the metal the whole time, I can say this was very good stuff. Tag Tournament Semifinal: Devil Masami & KAORU vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (11/23): Another really fun match! KAORU's sequence heavy opening was best. I'm not usually a fan of this kind of stuff but it came off pretty well. Everything wasn't ultra clean so it seemed spontaneous. As the match went on it seemed to lose direction but kept up the pace. The kicks were really cool in this one. I really like Satomura as the underdog tag partner to Chigusa. The Devil/KAORU team had a great power/agility/heel dynamic. Yeah fun stuff. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura (11/26/00): Sprint pace but Hokuto still sells! She is awesome. Also hits Satomura with a drop kick that looks like Meiko was shot out of a cannon. For an under 8 minute match, this was really packed full. They managed to throw a bit of drama in there as well. Sonoko Kato & Saika Takeuchi vs. Toshie Uematsu & The Bloody (12/17): Wanted to see more Kato and its been a long while since I've seen Toshie Uematsu who is a talent. About 6 minutes shown on a 13 minute match but from what was shown it was as good or better then the big time tag matches above. KAORU vs Chigusa Nagayo (12/17): You will either love this or hate it. I loved it as it felt very Joshi does "attitude era" with all of the weapons (including a bat). What I liked was Chigusa's attitude to stick to her skills rather than rely upon weapons. There were lotsa neat spots and at ten minutes it was a lot of fun. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki (12/17/00) 21 minutes of a 24 minute match. And it was a great one too! They really gave everything for this one. One of the best Sugar Sato performances as she came with fire and didn't bungle anything. The absolute highlight was Nagashima & Ozaki battling it out like their 09/15 match. This match was full of action (not always the prettiest) and exciting double teams and false finishes. The drama was there too as this was for the tag belts plus Sato & Nagashima were pupils of Oz and a big part of Hokuto and Ozaki's heel stable. The end of 2000 was all about the tag matches and this, the culmination of those bouts, was the best. A great way to end the year too! 2000 was another excellent year for top shelf matches in GAEA. There was a variety of singles and tag matches that were absolutely awesome. Aja Kong vs KAORU is by far the best of the year and is definitely an all time classic for GAEA and Joshi in general. Sonoko Kato, who I like more than the more popular Meiko Satomura, has been relegated to the under card due to her injuries. Had this not have happened, I'm sure this year would have been even better. Her 12/17 match is proof. I'm not done with GAEA but the best stuff looks to be less frequent as I look ahead to 2001 & beyond. But you know, I have found that I'm digging it way more than I thought. And I'm digging it more than others have in the past. Ohtani's Jacket makes a good point on the 11/23 Oz/Hokuto vs Kansai/Yamada match discussion archive/yearbook post, "if there's one thing I've learned about 2000 Joshi it's that the broken down 90s stars weren't as bad as we made out at the time." I think my GAEA viewing confirms that notion for me. GAEA was presented by some folks to be the Joshi retirement village but that is not true at all. In some ways it reminds me of when the guys from WCW (Jericho, Guerrero, Benoit, Saturn, Malenko, Misterio Jr.) and ECW (RVD,Tajiri, Super Crazy etc.) were in WWE together in the 2000's...their best work-rate matches were behind them BUT they were able to adapt with age & circumstances and continue to put on excellent matches. Anyway, next post will be my end of the Best Match Watched of 2023...which really is about the best matches watched. I never seem 100% committed to a #1 and just off the top of my head, this year should be no different Then I'm feeling I'm going to go ahead with more GAEA for Joshi January.

This was perfectly decent as a match with some occasional really great bits when it got going. Mostly involving Amano and Kong who have naturally great chemistry from their series of matches with each other. We get a lot of structure built around dragging this out artificially with stuff like a vintage Korakuen messy brawl and a lot of interaction with the younger talent here as they either got in their shit or bumped for the more established acts. Devil was thankfully only in for very limited sections, but was still really game to bump around and her signature big bombs like the Jumbo Suplex are still as good as they've been for a while. It really felt like she put her working boots on here for her final outing as opposed to a lot of her 2000's material, was a good change all things considered. Ran and Toshie were very energised and obviously out to impress given the conditions, but I wasn't really all that into what they were doing here; lots of wiffed offence and a general unconvincing style of wrestling out of the pair as they ran around a lot without really doing a whole lot impactful to justify such a thing. Dynamite mostly just stuck to her usual assortment of stiff kicks and whatnot, though she does land a lovely Splash Mountain on Aja near the end. The lead for the finish being Devil surviving a onslaught of moves and near falls to claw back into the match with big beefy lariats and other old moves was fun through: a real solid throwback to her JWP stuff where she was throwing weight around with ease. The finish is relatively anticlimactic as Devil beats everyone up for a bit before getting pinned out of nowhere off a Uematsu Dragon Suplex that gets sold as more of a random fluke than Devil actually getting properly beat given her lack of selling afterwards. The bump itself was really smooth, it just made no real sense how someone who was getting their ass beat just a minute earlier is now magically not just up and running but winning off relatively little by comparison. I get they wanted the shock upset to get that big pop here but said pop wasn't even THAT big so idk, it just felt a bit goofy. This was about as good as a match as Devil was going to have in 2008 through so one cannot complain that much; she was used well and kept sparingly to either big bumps to get over the younger talent or her going back to her old ways on occasion, even if it's nowhere near anything she remotely touched in the 80's. The small little bits between her and Kong definitely showed that probably could've had a barnburner Everyone else filled their roles fine, Kong/Amano in particular just stealing the show with some epic back and forth work, watch for that mostly I'd say if you're looking for good quality stuff that aren't just inferior rehashes pulled from better matches.

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.

Let's just jump right in! LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (09/15/99): This is one I hadn't seen recommended. It's a battle of badasses...it's worth a try, right? Oh yes, its so very worth it. Oz & Akira ambush LCO at the entrance way. And it is mayhem from that until the finish. Chairs, blood, guard rails, no actual tagging, 16+ minutes long...if you're a FMW, ECW fan then this exactly what you want. It isn't always pretty. Everyone looks legitimately beat up. It's '99 so if definitely is more reliant on spots than 1994. They don't go for "epic wrestling,"they go for fight. They succeed and we get a near classic in my book. I have seen this get a poor rating from a reliable source but that rating seemed pretty severe so I gave this a shot. Really glad that I did. Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (09/15/99): Aja Kong was amazing on offense and defense. There were times she reminded me of Stan Hansen - always fighting. Satomura was in the fight of her life. She's much smaller than Kong, less experienced and Aja is angry. Meiko is tough as any of the GAEA wrestlers and has a ton of heart too. So this is a punishing match with Aja beating the crud out of the youngster at seemingly every turn. But you're ecstatic once Satomura gets Kong reeling. The problem here is Satomura really only uses (or tries to use) the same 3-4 moves towards the end of the match. Her lack of variety is excusable because 1) she's young 2) Aja varies her offense/defense enough for both. I felt her mid-match stuff was excellent though. Some think this is a classic but I don't (although I think it's a classic performance by Aja Kong who was giving off best Joshi of all time vibes here). This is a great match though and one you absolutely need to see if you want to watch GAEA. This is another chapter and step forward for Meiko Satomura. Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (09/15/99): There were some really great high spots with tables in the beginning. In fact they did some painful looking stuff on and off the ramp as well. I also liked the grappling here. I liked this match but it had a strange layout. Each of those parts were pretty much separate from each other. There's the high spot middle then the old school grappling and kicking and the final third returns back to the hard-core wrestling stuff. I guess there were no real nuanced transitions. Additionally I felt they went back to the old days of Chigusa getting beaten up most of the match. Or it seemed that way. This isn't a story in 1999 for Chigusa although I think it's the one that they were trying to tell. I liked this though and am a fan of both so this was fun. Their 07/18 was better if only because it was organized better... but it was probably just better overall if I remember correctly. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (09/22/99): jip 9 minutes or so (we've been lucky with a good streak of full matches until now). The was pretty good stuff. Lotsa action, some neat spots..Nice to KAORU and Yamada. As you can tell Sonoko Kato has aligned herself with the heels. Yeah this is fun stuff Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (10/03/99): joined in progress and a little clipping (but maybe a minute is missing overall). This was a small show but a big time effort from Hokuto and Kato. This was pretty good stuff and looks to make Asuka & Kato babyface as Akira, Oz and her underlings the true heels. Chigusa even comes out to try and stop them. Kato bleeds...yeah this is enjoyable stuff. High Spurt 600 Tournament Final: Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (10/11/99): Fuuuucckk...that was an awesome match! This is an absolute under the radar classic battle in my opinion. Two rivals meet...Satomura is Chigusa and Kato is Lioness in the story of GAEA. There's more there but that's what you need to now. And this is intense, competitive, dramatic stuff from bell to bell. It's only 11 minutes or so but everything is so fierce and stiff. It's been awhile since I watched Yoshida in Arsion but if you dig that you want to see this. This shorter match definitely benefits the youngsters while on their own. This is a classic. Also, I watched this after Kong vs Meiko and this is a better match to me because of the speed, intensity and story. Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada (10/23/99): 7 minute match but a few minutes of scrapping afterwards. I'm really digging the heel team of Ozaki and Hokuto (and gang) since it's a bit of something different. Fun stuff! Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (11/13/99): At this point I'm just tacking on matches I want to watch. The tag scene is super strong. This is jip a couple minutes but this is really good. I really dug Chikayo Nagashima with Ozaki. She's tempered by the veterans here. Kato is awesome as ever... I may like her more than Meiko..or at least I dig the Asuka/Kato a bunch. We get some outside interference here but that's Oz's thing and if you understand GAEA is like ECW/FMW type rules then you will have no problem Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & KAORU (12/12/99): Fun match...again more shenanigans from the heels. These last three matches I wouldn't say are the "very best of GAEA" but I'm enjoying them. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Chikayo Nagashima (12/12/99): Jip and only 8 minutes long. These matches are all pretty short and I feel like that's where they're going in terms of match length. I think shorter contests are beneficial to the younger girls who don't know how to fill a 20 minute match and for the veterans, its a bit easier on their bodies. Lioness is 40 years old here for instance... and they're not doing head locks & abdominal stretches... getting hit in the head, kicked etc. has got to wear on ya! Anyway, this was a very good all action match. There were some really cool spots with Nagashima . I definitely like her paired up with a vet like Kong or Ozaki. Asuka & Sonoko Kato continue to be a great pairing. So I have finally finished my GAEA goal for 2023 but, 1999 has been so good that I am going to keep going into 2000. 1999 was definitely a really strong year and did not disappoint. Again, at my core I'm a ECW/FMW/BJW/W*ING/Attitude Era etc. fan. That's the stuff that made me love wrestling as a teenager and GAEA in '99 definitely speaks to that. I mean this is contemporaneous with that. It is a product of the time (although in all fairness GAEA was always a brawling heavy company). If you're not looking for that then this might not be for you. If it is then all of these matches are available on YouTube so if you're interested, go check'em out. Mita/Shimoda vs Ozaki/Hokuto and Kong vs Satomura from 09/15 are worth your time as is Sonoko Kato vs Meiko Satomura (10/11). These matches exemplify the brawling & shoot style that is GAEA '99. Thanks for reading folks! Hang in there!

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!

This is a fun match; which is kind of a disappointment, because there is no reason for these two not to produce a minor classic together, or atleast something close to as good as Aja/Ohmukai. Especially since it's one of a small handful of televised singles matches between the GAEA veterans of the year. I'm as big of an Aja Kong as the next guy but her approach was pretty bread and butter here as she kind of no sold Yamadas kicks early on and went to her standard brawling. They worked hard in the 2nd half including lots of great finisher teases and a big dive from Aja. Still I would've liked something with a deeper story.

From the opening lockup, the energy between Sareee and Momono is unparalleled. The match quickly turns into a brawl, with Momono having the audacity to charge after Kong and getting thrown face-first into the barricade for her efforts. Back in the ring, Momono frantically tries to pin Sareee as if her life depends on it. There’s nothing quite like wrestlers getting chippy with each other, and this match has it in spades. Sareee & Kong are fueled by hatred. Momono is the consummate plucky underdog, whereas the usually cool, calm, and collected Iwata is up against two bitter adversaries and has to adjust her usual strategy. Kong draws Momono’s ire by going to her corner and kicking the life out of Iwata. Momono sneaks in a cheeky dropkick, only angering her opponents further. Momono gets the hot tag and tries to get fancy with her high-speed techniques, with Kong countering with a mere slap. Sareee comes in and attempts a dive to the outside, but Iwata sidesteps it, allowing Momono to land one of her own. Back inside, Sareee hits a dropkick with Momono hung up on the ropes, and Mio’s body folds. Often in matches, German Suplex exchanges can feel like the wrestlers in question checking things off a big match checklist. With Sareee and Momono, however, they felt defiant. Momono knew she faced two unstoppable forces, but she couldn’t let Iwata, and perhaps more importantly, the crowd, down. The Iwata and Sareee sequences that followed weren’t nearly as strong, but they still had plenty of the trademark pettiness that both bring to the table. Momono desperately clung to Kong’s body to keep her from breaking up a pin and predictably got bounced off. She finally landed a German Suplex on Kong, and it felt momentous, but it was sadly all for naught as Iwata would eat an Uraken in short order. Reviewers often discuss how legends “aren’t what they used to be.” In some ways, that’s true. However, Kong remains a force to be reckoned with and one of wrestling’s great mountains to overcome despite her limited mobility of late. This match succeeds on the strengths of quite possibly the best wrestler in the world in Momono. She’s lovable, fiery, and everything a babyface should be. It just so happens that she had three strong dance partners.

Here we are with Part #3 of the very best of GAEA. We are looking at '98 which features a lot of Meiko Satomura and not so much Chigusa Nagayo. Don't think that's intentional just Meiko along Sonoko Kato seem to be the featured in the best stuff. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (01/15/98): Great match with Satomura and Kato getting plugged into the LCO vs young team equation. So this is very much Mita and Shimoda's match with the youngster team hanging on for dear life. They do really well down the stretch and get a couple great near falls. Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato (01/19/98): Good to very good stuff but I only saw 10 of 20 minutes. I thought Ozaki was best here. Quebrada rated this higher than the LCO match but, I think I preferred the other one. Although Ozaki is the best overall performer in the 2 matches. Satomura and Kato have a good team going but in some ways they're a little too similar in size, speed and style. Maybe Chigusa wanted a new Crush Gals but I think I would prefer a little more variety from them. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada (02/22/98): 13 of 16 minutes. This was a real good one with the girls having help from Oz and Hokuto on the outside. I like the teams because each one brings a little something different. Kaoru and Yamada both bled but had tons of fight in them. So the intensity was appreciated. One small complaint is that this didn't seem to have a ton of structure and that could be said of all of the tags so far. The brawling style seems to have taken over GAEA. But the first match was LCO and these other two were Ozaki and her crew so that's to be expected. Yamada was a badass here. Sugar Sato vs Meiko Satomura (03/15/98): Intense as all hell. No commentary so you can really hear how hard they're hitting. 10 1/2 minutes of Joshi WAR-style. Really dug this match. Shown in full. Nice to see a singles match again Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA 3/29/98): 7 of 14 minutes. This was a good little tag match. I question their judgement on a couple spots because I really don't think they made sense. Sugar Sato had a couple moments where I had to rewind the video to see what happened and why. I'm going to have to disagree with this being a great match at least for what I saw. This is one where I'm like " they needed a veteran in there with them." KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato (06/21/98): Shown in full. Under the radar great match! The story of Kato vs Satomura is a good one and is at the heart of the match. They kept this simple but it kept building up incrementally that by the end they had something really special. The pairings work out much better as Kato and Satomura need a veteran to be anchored to even though they've become real stars in their own way. Yamada gets hit hard in the face by Meiko and just teaches her a lesson (without going too far)_the rest of the bout. And no brawling here, yay! Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato (GAEA 08/23/98): We get a couple jumps ahead and are missing a little under a third of the match but this is awesome stuff. An intense and grueling fight between GAEA's two top homegrown stars. This is proof that these two should be in opposite corners. Absolutely wish we had the full thing as I'd be more confident calling this a classic but I'm going with that rating. As you've read, it's been the focus of the first half of the year, the tag above sets this up wonderfully and we get a excellent match with great action, fantastic exhaustion, selling and Chigusa at ringside has a smirk of reserved happiness at the end. Shit if she's happy then I'm happy too! No one liked it as much as I have but, I bought what the wrestlers were selling. Having focus on GAEA these past few weeks, the significance of a battle like this is not lost upon me. I think this is a good example of how GAEA is different than AJW. In some ways this feels more organic. This match especially. I think where this match loses people is that it doesn't tell the story the way they would have wanted it. This fight was more about a rite of passage and growth than "may the best woman win." This could have been that traditional classic empty the tanks match but the story they are telling is based around how young these two are and how they have fought against and alongside one another. It is more about their evolution. Or that's how I'm looking at it Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada (11/23/98): They went absolutely all out for this and it paid off! They were pulling out moves I don't know if I've ever seen them do. And not in a cheesy way like you see nowadays Both wrestled this match with a purpose. I like that Kong did not take Yamada lightly while also not necessarily treating her as an equal. Similarly Yamada knew that Kong was dangerous but not someone she couldn't handle as long as she stayed ahead of. Mainly a traditional match but there's some fighting in the crowd but Aja does it right. She uses this to try and hurt her opponent and not do signature "brawling spots" like we see Mita & Shimoda do on occasion. Overall this was pretty special and Yamada and Kong feel like old friends to me so it was great to see them put on a battle. Near classic match. Definitely watch this AFTER the tag match. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (12/27/98): About 11 minutes of a 16 minute match. This was pretty good especially when it looked like Yamada and Satomura had a shot. This was dominated by Aja & Ozaki for the most part but it was just so entertaining. I watched this before the above Aja vs Yamada match as I felt like it sets that up but you watch it in what ever order you like! Big post match moment that sets the stage for 1999 and beyond. I don't think '98 had any big time match recommendations. If anything I think a lot of what I read had a middle of the road vibe. 1998 was excellent to me and more of what 1997 GAEA delivered. I really dug the Kato/Satomura stuff and their singles encounter was fantastic and an excellent bit of storytelling. I'm liking KAORU despite others opinions so that's been a nice surprise. She adds a bit of the high flying in a promotion that is more on the Chigusa-shoot-brawl side of things. Thanks for reading folks!

I'm back with part #2 of the Very Best of GAEA. This time we're looking at 1997 which is a big year in Joshi. The whole landscape changes and you'll see that here with more familiar faces from AJW. Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (01/19/97): Wow! That was awesome! For a good portion there they had a classic match on their hands. Things got a little loose with the younger wrestlers towards the end (disruption to the flow and not so much unforgivable sloppiness) but I'd still say a near classic. Akira Hokuto was indeed the Dangerous Queen. It felt like a lost AJW upper midcard match from 1995 in all of the best ways. Thanks to Jetlag for adding it to the Match Discussion Archive! Shown in full. KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato (03/15/97): The poster on YouTube has this as 04/29 but that's the date it aired and not the event date. 17 minutes long and shown in full. This was a,great tag match and another one for these four (12/13/96) and Hokuto & Jr. partner vs KAORU & Jr. Partner is a winning combination. This told a great story with Kato getting her arm injured and having to tough it out. KAORU and Satomura isolated her but there's no way either could fully handle Hokuto. But all it takes is one solid arm bar. Excellent timing and build again from these ladies. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Rieko Amano (Oz Academy) vs. Yuka Shiina (AJW) & Kanako Motoya (JWP) & Yuko Kosugi (Jd')(07/19/97). What started out as just a fun up-and-coming 6 woman match turned into something really good. For a period it felt like one of those Dragon Gate 6 mans in ROH. Just so much stuff was happening! I think that also hurt it as I'm not familiar with everyone and wasn't necessarily rooting for any team of even remembering who is on each team at times. That said there were a couple clips and maybe only half was shown. So it's hard to say what this would be like in full. Toshie Uematsu vs Yoshiko Tamura (07/19/97): Great match for the WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title. Remember that title? Me neither. Doesn't matter because they wrestled like this was for something way more prestigious. Toshie Uematsu has grown on me and she is really good here just selling her ass off. She is an excellent spunky babyface. Tamura who is from AJW has some good submission moves and essentially is the a heel here if only because she's from another company. The fact that they are wrestling at such a high level is quite surprising given their few years of experience. That's what really drives this into great match territory. It reminded me of early JWP at times with its sense of urgency, turning one move into another on the mat, great selling, and great action. I do recommend watching a little Toshie Uematsu beforehand as it helps you understand her as a babyface. With that dynamic, her selling of the story excels and match really delivers.Thankfully shown in full. Folks doing the year book for '97 loved it and a few probably had this as a classic. Independently, Quebrada gave it ***1/2. I won't go that high or that low but if you're reading this then you probably should check it out! Chigusa Nagayo & Akira Hokuto vs KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada (08/30/97): Great under 10 minute match shown in full. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada jump their opponents at the the bell and have an awesome offensive flurry. Chigusa and Hokuto weather the storm as they've been through ring wars. The mount their counter attack in equally exciting fashion. Yamada and KAORU have had her own battles so this is no walk in the park for either team. This is just a bomb throwing blast. Meiko Satomura vs. Kyoko Inoue (09/20/97) : Here Kyoko has left AJW but isn't with NEO. Also her outfit is neon rainbow colored and I had to look away a couple times as it was giving me a headache! Anyhow this is joined in progress but we seem to get 9 of 16 minutes. It's good stuff too. Satomura does a great job going after Kyoko's arm. It's unfortunate that Kyoko doesn't really sell it as much as she could have and there's not much drama for me as a result. That said this isn't a battle of peers. Kyoko hits a killer lariat and the finishing couple of moves are brutal but I can't say this was a great match. Having the first 7 minutes skipped is probably what did that. There's no introduction to the story. It's like coming into a movie after missing nearly the first half. It did seem to have a great atmosphere and both wrestlers put in the work. Satomura definitely looked like she belonged in the ring with Kyoko due to her intensity and toughness. Inoue in turn helped sell that and took a lot of punishment to show Meiko is a young force to be reckoned with. Chigusa Nagayo vs Aja Kong (09/20/97): Shown in full. This was an under 10 minute match. It was very good stuff as they did a heavyweight sprint with Aja opening with her spinning back fist. Everything was fought with intensity and heart. I really enjoyed their work together. They are very similar in size, ability and standing so it feels like a clash of titans. Had this gone on a minute or two longer, it would have been a great match. I felt the finish came too quickly but it is better business to leave'em wanting more, I suppose. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs Aja Kong & Toshie Uematsu (11/18/97): Oh shit! That was great! One thing I appreciate about these GAEA matches is the intensity. Satomura and Kato have to straight up stiff Aja Kong to even get her to slow down. The seeds for the much praised Aja vs Satomura program may be laid here. Kong knocks Meiko silly at ring side but the youngster won't quit. In general that everything else felt very competitive and organic. I really dug how moves were cut off midstream but then became something completely different. If they were planned sequences then they were very subtle choices and well executed. Unfortunately only 9 of 17 minutes were shown but unlike the Meiko vs Kyoko match you don't NEED to see that first half to "get it." It's like never seeing Terminator 2 but then jumping in midway. You can pick up the vibe right away and enjoy it until the end. Just wish we had this in full. I'm not sure I've seen this recommended elsewhere. Hokuto & KAORU & Nagashima vs. Chigusa & Yamada & Sonoko Kato (12/27/97): What started out as just a fun match turned out to be a very good one! Nice interactions but Yamada vs KAORU felt like the focus. It was weird having the teams as they were since what I saw in 1997 had some of the folks in different corners. Something storyline wise must have gone down. Very nice end to the year! Shown in full. 1997 is a really good year in my view. As I said in the previous post, I don't think it'll unseat AJW in terms of high end match quality but it sure as hell is an excellent promotion. I really dig the homegrown talent mixing it up with the veterans. And its just a lot of fun finding all of this "new" stuff.

All Japan Women's Wrestling in 1997 is something I've been interested in from a far. It features many matches that have been favorably reviewed but there's something very different than '92-'96 AJW. The roster is pretty similar but they're finally pushing some of their younger wrestlers to the top. Mima Shimoda and Etsuko Mita (Las Cachorras Orientales) go full heel and become the chair swinging baddies. Kaoru Ito and Tokoko Watanabe were always great in mid card tags and 6 mans are elevated as the baby faces along with the youngster Kumiko Maekawa...under the leadership of Yumiko Hotta who goes from sometime main eventer to champion. AJW needed some invigorating and this was how they did it. Aja Kong was retiring, Kyoko leaving and both starting their own promotions (Arsion & NEO). Their departures were the catalyst for a mini exodus (most notably Mariko Yoshida) and others including LCO would opt to become freelancers. Zenjo gives a great summary on the [1997-09-21-AJW-Wrestlemarinepiad IX] Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (Cage) entry in the Match Discussion Archive/Yearbook. So there's a little background and really the reason I was so hesitant to get into 1997 AJW. That's to say, hesitant to make the financial commitment to buy (and wait for) DVDs at the height of my Joshi interest. Unlike '92-'96 AJW, there weren't those blockbuster events with multiple great or classic matches. The last solid good-old-days chunk of AJW shows appeared to be the summer of 1997. With the magic of the internet and couple of the DVDs I did buy, I finally want to take a look. The first few matches are from the 06/17/97 show. In some ways I'm not sure why I bought this DVD based on the above. I think I confused it for a commercial DVD that featured 06/17 & 06/18... CMLL World Women's Title: Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada: Good match where the excitement really came from the near falls. It wasn't a long match or anything but they packed a good bit in. Aja Kong & Takako Inoue & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yumiko Hotta & Tokoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa: Pretty good match but the quality took a little drop when Takako was in there. Aja and Momoe was a pretty cool team.Tokoko Watanabe is pretty darn underrated and this match is a good example of that. She put in a ton of effort and put on the best performance overall. ----- Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada: A violent chaotic match. It started and stayed in top gear all match. This was good because it felt like a real fight with actual stakes. As a con this didn't maximize the drama. I believe this was a decision match to challenge for the tag titles so in that regard they needed to hold back a little and not empty their tanks like you know they can. Nevertheless this was a really good match between two of the best tag teams in AJW history. Their '95 match (iirc) is a classic and features less of the weapons/brawling that LCO are known for. ----- Kyoko Inoue vs. Kaoru Ito: This is for the vacant red belt. And they definitely bring it for the big title. Ito is coming into her own and is not to be taken lightly which Kyoko does early on. Once Ito starts with her stomps Inoue is in real trouble. Her selling of the pain has got to be legitimate. This is what makes this great as the former champion is in danger wherever she goes. She has got to find a way to stop the upstart Ito. I'm not always high on Kyoko but this is a strong performance from her. As a Kaoru Ito fan, I dug this Toyota & Yoshida vs. Hotta & Ito (06/18/97): Whew doggy! This was a great tag match. They just had such a good pace going. They kept building and building with great action. I felt Toyota vs Hotta was the very best stuff though. They were just so nasty with each other! Ito certainly tried her best to match her mentor. Mariko got better as the match went on as she didn't seem to gel with Ito this evening. Things eventually meshed and they were doing great stuff at the end. Las Cachorras Orientales vs. Watanabe & Maekawa (06/18/97): What a first fall! 9 minutes of joshi perfection..just telling a brutal story. Everything was on the beat so to speak. 2nd and third falls keep it up. It looks like bedlam. The bottom rope is broken, the one corner padding is off, sections of the guardrail are missing, 3 of the 4 women are bleeding. It is just so competitive & intense. It is absolutely captivating. This Joshi tag title fight is classic that hasn't gotten the praise it deserves. Seeing 06/18, I'm pretty sure I thought both nights were on the DVD. That would have been one of awesome no-doubt DVD purchases. I think my disappointment that 06/18 wasn't on there is what motivated me to pack the 06/17 DVD away for 7 years. I'm not going to re-watch and review the following but, I highly recommend both as they are classics. The tag match is an all time classic to me. The singles match might be the best singles match of AJW '97. This was one of those must buy DVDs... Kaoru Ito vs Manami Toyota (08/09/97) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue (08/09/97) Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota (08/20/97): This starts out as a very good match that in some ways is a bit light hearted and nostalgic. Don't get me wrong. They are still going at it but there's moments of humor and it's just fun to see two great rivals in the ring. They aren't trying to top their 11/94 classic. However, shit kicks into high gear and this isn't Aja & Toyota phoning it in. It's a great match with a super strong final 3rd. That final portion really kicks this into that near classic territory. We get some down right "Holy Shit!" moments. This looks like Aja's final match in AJW, it's a worthy swan song. LCO vs Maekawa & Watanabe (08/20/97): Super quick first fall. Fall #2 is the real start of the match. It's very good action. A good mix of LCO brawling/chair shots but mainly traditional joshi tag wrestling. Maekawa is off the hook with her kicks. And fall #3 has a similar vibe with some allusions to their awesome 06/18 bout. I've seen this rated in the classic ****1/2 range but it was a more tame version of the June match. I thought it was very good and if you've not seen 06/18 then I could see having a higher rating. Or maybe this is more your preference. Kyoko Inoue vs Yumiko Hotta (08/20/97): This was a great match! They told an excellent story. Kyoko has her usual power & high energy moves where Hotta is all about her kicks and submissions. You' ve seen this match up but Kyoko really sells the hell outta everything. It may be her best sell job that I can remember. She is selling everything that hurts- arm, legs, back. And Hotta is just vicious but not in a sadistic way. Now she is focused and measured in her strikes. It reminded me of Hashimoto to an extent. Clocking in around 15 minutes, this was the perfect amount of time for Kyoko & Hotta. There's no filler - this is all quality wrestling. And all that put together, this is a great title fight. Shoot, it's probably a near classic. Maybe it was just a different style than the typical AJW title bout but I just really appreciated the storytelling and excellent action that went along with it. 08/20 was one DVD on my "maybe buy one day" list. 03/26/95 Aja vs Toyota was such a letdown for me, I think I was very wary of assuming it was a sure thing. And then you have Maekawa & Watanabe vs LCO which was an untested/unproven match up and finally Kyoko vs Hotta which on paper could be all wrong. I'm pretty darn happy that I finally saw these and my expectations were exceeded. Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue vs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita (08/22/1997): So from what I can tell this is Kyoko's final match as an AJW wrestler. And its a great one! Mima & Etsuko have their work cut out for them facing two former Red belt champions. They hold their own pretty damn well (those chairs seem to help!). As this is only one fall things do not get as crazy as it could (or its a non title match). It's a bit more of a match that Toyota would have... so no scissors or too much fighting in the crowd...but LCO still do their thing...I mean they have to try and put either Kyoko or Toyota down with something, right? The wrestlers don't go for broke and Toyota does kinda brush some stuff off a little too quickly, otherwise it could have been another classic. As it is though, it is a great match. 1997 Kyoko may renewed my good opinion of her. Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta (09/21/97): This is a great title fight that demands your patience and attention. It is slower paced, there are actual wrestling holds, and this is not just a long sprint or a few holds in the beginning then we run into fireworks. This reminded me almost of a shorter version of Inoki vs Fujinami 08/88..or maybe Inoki Strong Style. I think that's Hotta's style as champ. I can see not being down for that back in the late 90's when we all wanted the envelope to get pushed in terms of moves, stunts etc. But it's been 20+ years of that. Maybe because I am getting older but I appreciate these slower burning matches more. Here we have two with a history but not necessarily rivals fighting for the Red belt. It is sorta showing that the heart of AJW is still beating. ----- The culmination of the summer (of LCO) is the cage match vs Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe (09/21/97). This is one you definitely need to check out if only the last 5 minutes. I have like 70% of the match on DVD which I watched but was super bummed when the video from the VHS just runs out...not that I didn't know how it ends. To be honest,I am not a fan of this match as a whole however I think it's a fantastic way to blow off the feud plus the last 5 minutes are absolutely wild and worth you seeing. Some folks consider it an all time classic and you may too so don't just listen to me I can't end it there though so we're going to dip into October '97. I believe this is the final LCO as AJW roster members. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi (WWWA Tag Titles) 10/18/1997: You've got a great story baked into this match. Momoe is an underdog just based on her size but in '97 she's not made any big waves just yet. But never ever count her out. Momoe's speed and body control adds a whole new dimension to the LCO match formula. Maekawa on the other hand is very familiar with LCO and she's got a pin on one of 'em. She doesn't offer a ton of variety in her attacks but her kicks are absolutely dangerous. Someone in the YouTube comments said that they're no match for Mita & Shimoda but I disagree. And this match is the fucking' proof. This 2/3 falls match is a sneak peek of the awesome stuff they would do in 2000 & '01. Near classic match. Here are my quick thoughts on some the wrestlers for the summer of 1997. Aja Kong: Awesome as ever. 3 matches, 2 are must see. Kaoru Ito: Absolutely agree with her getting pushed. Kumiko Maekawa: Very surprised how good she was in 97. Maybe better in 97 than later? Kyoko Inoue: Redeemed herself w/ these matches. The excesses of '96 tag matches are gone. Momoe Nakanishi: Is already very exciting to watch. Surprisingly not squashed this early. Tomoko Watanabe: Sort of a poor man's Kyoko yet no ego as a result. Just a ton of fight. Yumiko Hotta: Perhaps Aja and Yamada had to leave to have the aura/match style she needed? Definitely feels like a champ. In terms of big match quality, AJW could still deliver. The under card I can't speak much about. That in mind, a big thanks to the folks that have posted these online for everyone to enjoy. It has been really fun to finally be able to watch this stuff I've been wanting to see for well over a decade. If you're like "WTF dude!? It's not that hard to come by." Then I say "Screw Off buddy! I got my own way of doing things. " Maybe you're the same if you're reading about 26 year old Japanese women's wrestling Thanks for reading!

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

I decided to take a little break from JWP. No way I was going to meet my self imposed deadline. Instead I thought I would switch stuff up and watch the best of Megumi Kudo. As an FMW and joshi fan, it's a bit crazy that I've only seen like 2 Kudo matches and some clips. I skipped the one's I've seen 04/02/93 AJW and 05/05/96 Combat Toyoda retirement match. Oh I have seen the first inter-promotional match with Toyoda vs Bull & Bonito in 1992. That's covered in my 1992 FMW post from a couple years ago. I watched her other most highly recommended stuff as well as some other matches that may have been overlooked. If you're unfamiliar with her, she's Jaguar Yokota trained and AJW dojo grad. She wrestled there for a couple years until they gave her the boot as they just didn't think she'd be popular or have anything for her. Along comes Onita and FMW a couple years later. Same for her friend Combat Toyoda. Kudo's style reminds me of a baby face Mayumi Ozaki. Her move set also seems influenced by Misawa but those things are observations on my part. Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda - Street Fight (08/04/1990): 7 minutes of beating the crap outta each other followed by like 3 minutes of wrestling. I'm all for that! This is very good stuff. In contrast to what JWP was doing in 1990, this was pretty crazy shit. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (05/05/93): Fierce fight in Kawasaki Stadium! The rematch from their 04/02/93 fight. All kinds of great action with Combat being spoiler since she's so much bigger than the AJW team. They did a great job containing Toyoda and beating the crap out of Kudo. If it was anyone else I'd be concerned but I knew she could withstand the pain until she could get Combat in there. Great match with a great final third for sure. The outdoor atmosphere was awesome too! Aja Kong vs Megumi Kudo (AJW 12/06/93): Great title fight! The opening mat wrestling was pretty awesome. After that Aja dominated Kudo until she finds an opening mercilessly attacks the champ's arm. It's a smart way for the smaller wrestler to get an advantage. Aja sells it all beautifully throughout. It's a slower paced match even towards the end as they are milking the drama of the FMW joshi not just surviving but defeating the baddass AJW WWWA champ. Again this was a great match and in my mind shows Kudo's skill as a singles wrestler beyond just death matches. I wish I knew why they showed Jaguar Yokota... Aja references her post match I assume... perhaps it is in reference to her training the both of them. Jaguar seems to get a little emotional. Later Kudo cries which I think is her thing like Onita. She seems pretty sincere here. Megumi Kudo & Aja Kong vs. Combat Toyoda & Bison Kimura (FMW 12/21/95): Great tag battle between class of 1986 AJW. This might be as good as the Toyota/Yamada match above as these teams are similar in size & styles and of course the familiarity and backstory are greater. The 05/05/93 match was probably a smoother fight but this felt grittier and more FMW. Bison was great and I've missed her..just blazing choppin' the fuck outta people. I would've like to have seen an Aja/Kudo tag run in either FMW or AJW. They are great together! Gladly could have gone a couple more minutes. I liked it a bunch. Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW 12/22/95 -First Ever Women's No Rope Barbed Wire Death Match): This was first No Rope Barb Wire joshi match but on 09/05/95 there's a handicap joshi tag match where they wrap wire around the ropes and boards on the floors. I could only find shaky zoomed in hand cam stuff otherwise I would have watched it. Kudo refers to Sapporo in her pre and post match interview (thankfully subtitled) so I was to find that out if you're interested. This match started out a little slow with Shark dominating Kudo but eventually things pick up when she makes her comeback They did a couple really great spots with the wire. Shark's seconds interfered during the match which annoyed me at first but once Kudome's friends helped her, it evened out. Excellent spot with the sickle, super dangerous. Of course it was best when Kudo was in control. Very good match. I'm guessing this was super gnarly at the time. It would have flipped my lid had I seen it back then -Cobra clutch with a barb wire kendo stick still is pretty awesome. Brutal finish too. Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori (FMW 12/11/96) : About 15 minutes of all action...you know they could have gone longer. Kudo was the standout for sure. Kandori's performance was good and it got the job done. The story is about Kudo overcoming the badass that is Shinobu Kandori. She was indeed a badass who turned quite a few of Kudo's routine holds/moves into pretty intense submission holds. There were some really great moments too. I dunno, I thought this was a great match. Maybe I appreciate Kandori more after watching JWP 1990 stuff. Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (Street Fight - LLPW 01/05/97): Almost missed this one but caught it thanks to BAHU's Megumi Kudo bio. This takes place in LLPW. A great match. Very much an FMW type match with good wrestling and spots with tables & chairs and even a chain. The finish was pretty awesome and involved that chain. My only gripe is that it was very much a tale of two matches. Kandori controlled one half and Kudo controlled the other. I think the Kandori half on a whole was not as exciting from an action standpoint. It made sense though so I can't fault it too much. I think this had potential to be a near classic and that's what I am commenting on. It was 20 minutes and maybe this would have been a classic if it were closer to 15? It was really chaotic and I think that helped keep my interest when things slowed down towards the end. Megumi Kudo vs. Bison Kimura (Jd' 01/16/97): Yup next day. No gimmicks just Bison vs Kudo. And this was a great match! I think what makes this a better match fundamentally than the street fight above is that it felt more natural. There's transitions from offense to defense. There are little windows where one might get an advantage that get closed as soon as they're opened. We get brawling on the floor, we get some chair and table stuff but more importantly, we get a match that has a good layout and pace. Awesome finish too. It's a simpler, shorter match and doesn't have the memorable spots like the street fight but is just as great. Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (No rope Barbed Wire - FMW 03/14/97) : This was super exciting at the beginning with both wrestlers trying to avoid the wire. After Kudo went into it though it was dreadfully dull. This again was kind of like each person controlling 1 half of the match. Things did pick up when Kudo did a dive over the wire to the outside. This set up the list part of the match. This part was pretty good actually but that should be a given, right? It didn't help matters that the crowd was very quiet. I think Kandori's control section was about her trying to get heat by stomping, cutting Kudo but it didn't work really. It just didn't have a lot of energy, spots or anything to spice it up. I think Kandori felt the novelty of her being in a barb wire match would be enough? Don't get me wrong, Kandori gets the wire pretty good a few times and this is the way to end the feud but I thought this was the weakest of the three matches. This needed more wrestling in the middle. Folks doing the 1997 yearbook liked this more than me so, check it out nonetheless. Megumi Kudo & Bison Kimura vs. Lioness Asuka & Shark Tsuchiya (Bunkhouse Death Match - FMW 03/28/97) - This OK but Bison is chained up for a good portion and Lioness and Shark beat up Kudo. Kudo makes some comebacks and eh its not worth your time considering the line-up. Megumi Kudo vs Mayumi Ozaki (Double Hell Barbed Wire - FMW 04/18/97): Argh! If only there was a full version of this out there! Little clips don't matter too much but there's a big clip where suddenly Ozaki is not only in control but she's power bombing Kudo. Yet a few seconds earlier on the tape, Kudo is rolling Oz back in the ring after doing a diving splash onto the barb wire boards on the floor. Anyhow the 3/4ths of the match that's shown is awesome! They are just flying into the wire trying to dish out as much punishment as possible. And they are actually wrestling and bumping the whole time as well. Their styles are pretty similar where both are athletic, tough and not afraid to take bumps. It actually feels like competition. They are not going for drama as much as danger. Who knows what was actually omitted but some key transitions must be on the cutting room floor. What's shown is great though. This would probably be a classic if shown in full. That said, you should check it out! Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW 04/29/97): This was a very good and sometimes great exploding/electric barb wire death match. I think it was a fitting retirement match for Kudo. This features one of the best uses of the sickle by Shark who actually attempts to slash/stab Kudo while she's down on the mat. Shark is pretty limited in her offense but what she did got the job done as Kudo provided most of the good stuff but also took some nasty bumps. She's seriously tough. The finish is kinda cheesy as they did similar stuff during the Attitude Era, later WCW but, hey they didn't get blown up during their matches! It works here so I'm not complaining it's a nice end to this post and her active wrestling career. This was a pretty cool project. It's something that I didn't plan on. It just sort of came together on its own. I'm definitely a fan of hers now. I think if she were to have gone to JWP, she would have eventually had a good clutch of classic matches with Dynamite Kansai, Ozaki, as well as had those inter-promotional matches too. I just don't think the caliber of opponents in FMW was up to her standard other than Toyoda. All that said, in FMW she is the queen of the joshi and a star right up there with Onita and Hayabusa. So one cannot fault her one bit. I was going through an old post and I think there was a rumor that some women from AJW wanted to go to FMW back in the early 90's. I feel like they were appeased by the inter-promotional stuff throughout the early & mid 90's. Thankfully! For Kudo's & our sake we got a bunch of great memorable battles. I'm going to take a little break from Joshi in February and focus on watching FMW. This Megumi Kudo post acts as a segue into that. But I'm definitely not forgetting JWP 1991 or the couple other projects I have planned. Thanks for reading!

I was psyched to find this inter-promotional JWP show online. It's from right around the era I want re-explore. Having watched a ton of full Joshi shows, I skipped the following: Kumiko Maekawa & Rie Tamada vs. Fusayo Nochi & Hiromi Yagi, Command Bolshoi vs. Bolshoi Kid, and Cutie Suzuki vs Takako Inoue. Chigusa Nagayo vs. Mayumi Ozaki - Well, that was a war! I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the hate in this match was off the charts. It wasn't the quick burst of hate type match but more of a smoldering hate. Shit talking on the mic, stare downs, nasty looks and gestures and of course blood and kicks to the face. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't a fast paced match but I thought that it was wonderfully laid out. The match was almost a series of escalating encounters of violence. I could see some fans of more modern wrestling not liking this. In my book though this was a classic. Very distinct and memorable for sure. Kyoko Inoue vs. Candy Okutsu- From what I could tell, Candy was going to face a mystery opponent. Well here comes Kyoko! This was my favorite version of her - pulling out creative submissions, limited but energetic bursts of offense and using her strength/size while still being vulnerable. Candy I'm not too familiar with but I'm sure I've seen her before. She was really exciting here and I could draw comparisons to AJW stars, I think she's really her own wrestler. She reminds me of Mariko Yoshida at this time though. You can tell she's physically proficient, and can wrestle however she likes (at least in this match). Really cool near fall from Candy as well. All that said this was a great match. Bull Nakano & Devil Masami vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Sakie Hasegawa - Good match. I think it was a little bloated in the middle but overall it was enjoyable. I think if they could have stayed more focused after they went into the crowd (for some reason), this would have been very good stuff. The last third was pretty fun with lots of neat double team moves and that's what really saves it from just being an OK match. I don't think the outcome was in doubt so I question the booking a little bit though. Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai - I've seen this rated as just an OK match. I disagree. I think it is great! It's at a pace that really requires patience with the story they are telling. It was different from what I've seen them in AJW and if you're going in with expectations based on that, I could see one's disappointment. When Kansai makes her move and shifts the direction of the match, it happens at just the right time. Had they waited one more move or done it in a less memorable way, I don't think the first part of the bout would have been worthwhile. You could just say 'well they were killing time.' Instead we get an awesome moment where Dynamite Kansai just pops Aja Kong right in the face and derails the momentum she had worked so hard to build up. Everything really just came together and happened at just the right time. The pacing reminds me of a Dory Funk Jr. match to be honest. If you're patient and stay invested in what they're doing then you'll be rewarded. I might even call this a near classic...or even classic in terms of timing and pacing. This show was a excellent example of the classic 90's Joshi period but with a twist. I'm not sure if it's a stylistic difference but these matches especially Chigusa vs Ozaki and Aja vs Kansai were more reminiscent of the slower early 80's AJW style. They focused much more on atmosphere and wrestling holds than speed and athleticism (think about AJPW 70s & 80's vs 90's style for instance). I enjoyed this quite a bit and plan to watch more JWP as a result. This is easy to find and totally recommend watching a couple matches if you're so inclined. Thanks for reading!

Talk about it here.

Really great interpromotional match that's seems to have slipped under the radar. A big dynamic is that Aja treats Eagle Sawai relatively respectfully. Kyoko Inoue on the other hand, is totally contemptuous of Leo Kitamura. Maybe she's offended at Leo having a similar aesthetic with the facepaint, right from the start of the match Kyoko refuses a handshake and beats the hell of her. It's about as sadistic as I've ever seen Kyoko in this era. The Aja vs. Eagle segments are the best part of the match and what the crowd are really hot for. They do a great job of doing enough to make the match satisfying without feeling like they're giving away a singles match. ****1/4

The Big Stupid List of Great ARSION Matches 1998 Yumi Fukawa vs. Michiko Ohmukai (4/11) Mikiko Futagami vs. Rie Tamada (8/31) Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada (4/17) Rie Tamada/Hiromi Yagi vs. Tiger Dream/Ayako Hamada (Twinstar Tag Final, 12/7) Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (8/31) Mariko Yoshida vs. Ayako Hamada (8/31) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (6/21) Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (2/18) Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy Okutsu (Queen of ARSION Title, 12/18) Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (2/18) Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (5/5) Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (5/5) Candy Okutsu vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/17) Michiko Ohmukai vs. Rie Tamada (8/9) Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai (8/31) Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (7/21) Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (12/18) Rie Tamada vs. Candy Okutsu (5/5) Yumi Fukawa vs. Rie Tamada (7/21) Best ARSION Matches of 1999 1. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (2/18) 2. Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (12/11) 3. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/14) 4. Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida (9/26) 5. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (5/4) 6. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mika Akino (1/17) 7. Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa (5/4) 8. Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (8/6) 9. Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (5/4) 10. Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache (7/25) 11. Mari Apache vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) 12. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Yumi Fukawa/Rie Tamada (7/25) 13. Mika Akino vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) Comprehensive list of the Best ARSION matches of 2000. The really good stuff is in bold. Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (Queen of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Chapparita Asari vs. Mika Akino (Sky High of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Arsion ZION Tournament Finals 10/17) Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (ZION Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mika Akino (SKY Tournament II Final, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Mika Akino vs. Mary Apache (SKY Tournament II Semi-Finals, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (8/18/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask IV (P*MIX Grand Prix Semi-Finals, 6/29/00) Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask vs. Chapparita Asari/Great Sasuke (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/24/00) Yumi Fukawa/Minoru Tanaka vs. Mariko Yoshida/Alexander Otsuka (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/7/00) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARS Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 5/7 Tokyo) Michiko Omukai & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 04/07/00) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Faby Apache/Gran Apache (4/7) Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong/Mariko Yoshida (2/18) ARSION is such an interesting fed. Pretty much the joshi equivalent of BattlARTS with it's crossover style and tiny roster that they had to use efficiently. With this fed you get the ace run of the mighy Mariko Yoshida, a period of the work or Aja Kong or Lioness Asuka that doesn't get talked about much, and a handful of unexplored workers like Futagami or Rie Tamada that deserve some recognition. For this project I will go through the Best Of Arsion comp that is floating around and post my Top Matches for each year after finishing. Yes I know that's cherrypicking but for now I want to get the essence of it (judge a style by the best matches it produced etc) and compare to high end BattlARTS/RINGS/UWFi etc. If you know any essential ARSION that's not on the comp feel free to drop a comment. Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (2/18) The first ARSION match. It is a very appropriate debut match. They mix the traditional joshi with lucharesu and tricked out submission work, and the whole thing has the flair of two overzealous young workers going all out to show the world especially with the bomb throwing at the end and Fukawa hitting those face-shattering moonsaults that nearly KO'd Candy. I give them a ton of credit because they really delivered a good match that sets the tone. They kept going back to the submissions and really had a hard fought battle to the very end that the crowd got into. Can't remember the last time I watched a „young workers showing the world“ match on this level. Side note, a Cagematch user mentioned that he went to a few ARSION shows and he felt that many guys there went for the pretty workers and the „product“ (apparently Arsion had lots of quality mags, posters etc. for sell) and not the wrestling, so Arsion matches had not as much heat as GAEA. It's not hard to see why especially with Okutsu wearing a ridiculous outfit that made her butt look gigantic but to their credit the wrestling was top notch and on the level of the presentation. Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (2/18) Michiko Ohmukai was this skinny girl with supermodel looks who worked like Daisuke Ikeda. I have no idea why she's not famous. She threw all those reckless kicks and impressive suplexes and was like a magic ingredient for matches that made everything crazier. Here she slaps Aja right at the bell and Aja just smirks at her and then Ohmukai starts dropping her with those 50 yards football kicks. Hell of an opening for a match. They get into a slugfest like this fucking BattlARTS or WAR and I am in love with this. Then they settle down a little with Aja dominating on the mat through size and Ohmukai trying to topple her. I think Aja was kind of mailing it in in Arsion which is such a disappointment but this match hit all the right spots and was really good stuff like it always is when Aja has someone to work with who brings the fight to her. Aja Kong/Yumi Fukawa/Michiko Ohmukai vs. Candy Okutsu/Rie Tamada/Mikiko Futagami (2/18) They end the debut show with a chaotic fast tag team match where everyone runs in and hits their stuff. Kind of pointless main event as the previous matches had done a good enough job to establish everyone, but I guess they had to work around having such a tiny roster to work with. Everyone has had matches before that evening so the execution wasn't at 100% anymore. Fukawa almost fell on her head doing an asai moonsault and then hit another reckless one inside the ring like a lunatic. Aja had solid interactions with everyone and I always get a kick out of watching Futagami work, but this wasn't much. Mariko Yoshida vs. Rei Tamada (4/17) WOAH! Apparently this was the debut match of Mariko in ARSION. I was expecting something good, but this was far more than a formative bout. Rei Tamada, for a name that never gets dropped, looked damn impressive. The bout was built around establishing Yoshida's new, signature style, and her focus was to take it to the mat no matter what. Tamada was far more than a piece of luggage for Yoshida to chuck around, however. Tamada could roll on the mat and I really liked her determination to get the match into standing position. I want to emphasize the standing exchanges here were also really good. Tamada hit a mean elbow and tried her darndest to cut Yoshida of, who rolled one submission counter after another out of her sleeve. Even some of the fancier lightweight moves landed as if to shut a door. It created a kind of intensity that I really love in a wrestling match and this was just an absolutely fabulous contest. 3 real hits out of 4 so far. Pretty damn good start for the project. Stay tuned & maybe come out of the woodwork and comment if you are an old ARSION superfan.

Talk about it here.

This is a decision match for the tag titles after Aja and Bison vacated them, only to try to win them back right afterwards. I have no idea why. I think this is the best Aja & Bison tag I've seen, Bison's performance in this is particularly good, probably had a better night than Aja actually. ****1/4 Note, if you want to watch this in almost complete form, see the version on AJW Classics 54 that aired on 8/22/11.

This is a fantastic hidden gem. Aja and Sakie seem like an odd team at first, Monster Heel/Ace and the loveable underdog midcarder, but they make it work as the story of their partnership is Aja trying to bring out a killer instinct out of Sakie so she can elevate herself. There's nice spots like Aja chopping Kyoko super hard in the corner when Sakie is being half-hearted about it, or get Sakie to hold someone in a camel clutch so Aja can boot her in the chest. Sakie looks a bit "omg I can't believe I did that" afterwards but then rolls with it. Kyoko and Toshiyo are very good as well, Kyoko especially murders Sakie with a lariat when it's her time to take control. ****1/2