Yumi Ikeshita, Mami Kumano, and assorted Joshi

[ohtani's jacket]

Bull Nakano vs. Mitsuko Nishiwaki (1/4/90)

 

Another anti-climatic match from this era of All Japan Women. You'd think a match to decide the vacant WWWA title would have a bit more drama than this, especially after they spent the past year building Nishiwaki up as the Grand Prix and Tag League champion, but in the end it was a pretty straightforward win for Bull, who hid her emotions during the title presentation. Nishiwaki bled, but it was pretty meaningless, and it looked to me like they screwed up the finish as Bull didn't hit her powerbomb cleanly and Nishiwaki had to balance herself for the three count. Bull was clearly The Woman at this point with all of the retirements and a few of the older girls jumping to JWP, but this was a disappointing effort from her and I expected more. Nishiwaki retired by the end of the year and made good on the talent circuit before marring the famous sumo wrestler Kaio, but what an odd little push she got around this time.

[ohtani's jacket]

Lioness Asuka vs. Madusa Micelli, WWWA title (5/6/89)

 

This was one of the few efforts AJW made in 1989 at putting on a big match. The premise behind the bout was ridiculously convoluted with the promoters claiming that it was a "unification bout" to determine the global women's wrestling champion despite the fact that Madusa didn't hold a title of any sort. Bockwinkel was on hand to both ref the match and serve as a witness for the "eight American promotions" w/ the idea being that the recognition of "global women's champion" would be absorbed into the WWWA title somehow. I'd have to go back and watch it again to make more sense of it than that. The match itself was fairly mediocre. They went through all the steps in working an epic, but I couldn't find an "in" and the action just seemed to plod along. Madusa wasn't a good enough worker to work within this framework and Asuka wasn't about to carry her. From beginning to end, it didn't seem like a good idea staging the match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto (3/15/92 TV)

Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto, cage match (7/30/92)

 

Man, these take me back. They totally remind me of the old Todd Yates and the old A1 board and how much we loved the Dangerous Queen. And now through the wonders of the internet, I can see them again.

 

The first match is from before Hokuto's transformation into the Dangerous Queen, but she shows the same sort of spirit. It's an excellent TV match particularly after watching the disappointing Bull/Nishiwaki match. Hokuto shows plenty of guts and determination simply to hang with Bull, and while she often has trouble lifting her, she manages to nail the Northern Lights Bomb, which gives Bull a fright. Bull's selling was so good. It's where I think she had it all over Aja. Aja could sell, but not in a compelling way. Bull is outstanding.

 

The second match is after Hokuto adopted the Dangerous Queen image and is a real watershed moment for her. Again, she's all guts and determination (and blood), but this time she won't be vanquished and fights tooth and nail to not only stay in the match, but win it. Both girls go beyond the level of danger you'd expect from a television cage match and in many ways it's a shame this wasn't done on a bigger stage, but nonetheless both girls try moves off the top of the cage and the finish is memorable.

 

1992 was a very good year for AJW and these are nice little additions to what was happening on the big shows as well as being important points on the Dangerous Queen's journey from promising youth to all-time great.

[Timbo Slice]

Really need to see that cage match. Heard great things about it. Hokuto and a cage just seem like a natural fit, and Nakano is great, too. Still remember the 11/90 cage match she had with Aja which was top notch.

[Loss]

I remember asking FLIK in a thread when Hokuto became the Dangerous Queen and he seemed to indicate that it was sooner than that. So it happened in summer of 1992?

[ohtani's jacket]

I don't recall when they began calling her Dangerous Queen, but the summer of '92 was when she adopted the look, dying her hair and changing her make-up. IIRC, she toured Mexico with Mita in April, and the changes happened shortly after that with Hokuto turning heel and forming LCO. In the March TV match she has her old Marine Wolves look.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto, CMLL Women's World Title (7/15/92)

 

I forgot there was a third match to this series. That's poor on my part as this is the match where Shimoda joins up with Hokuto. There's a pledging angle at the beginning that's not very well done then a sluggish match that's more of an angle than a title bout. Hokuto is injured as usual... Normally, it was the knee or sometimes the back or neck. This time it was the ribs. She takes a bunch of nasty shots to the mid section throughout the match w/ the coup de grace being Bull getting her knees up on a Hokuto splash attempt. From there, she manages to kick out of Bull's top rope guillotine leg drop, but when Bull heads back up for the moonsault, Mita and Shimoda panic and rush into the ring. The ringside doc checks if Hokuto is okay and calls for a stoppage, and the post-match is Hokuto crying and Bull cutting a promo on her. FLIK thought this was their second best match, but to me they were just progressing the storyline and the payoff was the cage match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Aja Kong/Bull Nakano vs. Dream Orca (Mita/Yamada), 4/27/89

 

The future continued to look bright here for AJW, but every match was a learning curve and unless you really like watching rookies get a bit of seasoning and in-ring experience there isn't much to enjoy about this one. Bull held off and didn't participate as much as she could have, and really gave the reigns to Aja, who was still really green here. The Dream Orca bumped and sold, bumped and sold, bumped and sold, and never mounted any sustained offence. With the action so one-sided, my mind started to wander a bit and I couldn't help but wonder if Bull really needed to gain all that weight and become a monster. They were clearly trying to replicate Dump Matsumoto and Monster Ripper with the hope that one of their young girl pairings would take off, but the company ended up going in a much different direction that Bull probably could have stayed lean.

 

As far as the yearbook goes, I can't see the need for much AJW footage past the last major Crush Girls matches, the retirement ceremonies and then a handful of matches to represent the promise that the late 80s classes had.

[Zenjo]

That cage match was so annoying. It looked really good but they only showed half of it. This is a year in which they have 16 comms released, and yet the blowoff to Nakano vs Hokuto somehow ends up on a C show and gets clipped up. Still I can't complain about not getting a great match from this rivalry. Their 1/4/91 battle was my 4th favourite match of 1991.

 

I've been wondering for years how they came up with the name 'Dream Orca' or what it possibly means.

[ohtani's jacket]

The cage match was only 13 mins long.

[ohtani's jacket]

Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada, AJW title (12/9/89)

 

I was really quite impressed by this. They went the full time limit, which was ambitious for such young wrestlers, and I was kind of dreading the match length, but apart from the down time during submissions, it was a well paced match with plenty of intensity. Toyota attacked Yamada before the bell and Yamada retaliated by whipping Toyota with her jacket, and that set the tone for an edgy bout that neither girl was prepared to lose. Toyota's selling was inconsistent and there were other problems you'd expect like repetitive spots (though the single leg Boston they kept going back to looked really good), but I loved the ongoing struggle over the waistlock, and again for young girls this was a hell of a performance.

[ohtani's jacket]

Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto (6/89)

 

This was apparently the first singles match between these two. It's a short bout, but full of energy. Manami Toyota has been hands down one of the most interesting things about 1989, though I suppose it helps that I ignore a lot of her short comings. Hokuto wasn't outstanding here, but she struck to her match strategy and it paid off. Nice prelude to one of the more underrated feuds in Joshi.

[Karl]

I have a huge hole in my knowledge of any Joshi outside the period 1990 to 1996. I was wondering what the are the classic matches, feuds, shows etc worth catching up on to fill this void?

[Badlittlekitten]

I have a huge hole in my knowledge of any Joshi outside the period 1990 to 1996. I was wondering what the are the classic matches, feuds, shows etc worth catching up on to fill this void?

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G-Cv_HjSmw

[ohtani's jacket]

I have a huge hole in my knowledge of any Joshi outside the period 1990 to 1996. I was wondering what the are the classic matches, feuds, shows etc worth catching up on to fill this void?

 

For the 80s, you should start with Chgusa vs. Dump and the Chigusa/Asuka rivalry. From there you can determine which style of wrestling you prefer, heated brawls or relentless workrate.

[ohtani's jacket]

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Lioness Asuka (1/22/89)

 

This was the Crush Girls' last big singles encounter before Chigusa's retirement. Not their best match, but it should make it onto the Yearbook fairly easily. Both girls had bulked up by this point and looked more like their post-retirement selves than their ultra-skinny bathing suit days. As always, they were pushing the form and borrowing elements from other styles. Chigusa, in particular, seemed heavily influenced by the UWF style. There was a real emphasis on the knockout as a possible means of victory, which led to some great strike exchanges by Joshi standards. Chigusa did a really cool counter to the giant swing where she punched Asuka in the eye, and a lot of the moves like the dueling pile drivers seemed designed to bludgeon their opponent into submission. The matwork was also fairly tight, however the UWF influence meant the match was a lot more narrow in scope than your typical Crush Girls clash. Depending on your viewpoint, that may be a good thing, but I prefer their sprawling encounters where things are a lot more epic (and messy.)

 

I didn't like the finish here either. Asuka kicked out of a german suplex from Chigusa and was able to counter into a backdrop suplex of her own which she held for a three count, but I thought there was a missing beat where Asuka did something to stun or daze Chigusa first; otherwise, why could Asuka kick out the suplex but Chigusa couldn't? They'd both sustained the same amount of damage, relatively speaking, so it didn't wash. Memorable enough match though, and the crowd heat was what you'd expect.

[ohtani's jacket]

Crush Girls vs. Calgary Typhoons (Yumi Ogura/Mika Komatsu) (3/4/89)

 

The version of this I watched was strangely edited even though it appeared to be from AJW Classics. This struck me as a terrible booking decision on All Japan Women's part. Why put the belts on the Crush Girls when you know Chigusa is just about to retire? With the void Chigusa is about to leave, the last thing you need is to undermine your unheralded midcard by having the Crush Girls make them look second rate. This bugged me.

[ohtani's jacket]

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Akira Hokuto (3/19/89)

 

This is raw footage without any commentary that lets you hear how over Chigusa was even at the end of her run. It's all in the past now, but I wish Chigusa had gone ahead with the Kandori match she flirted with. That would have been a great match if both participants had been willing to make the other look good. Hokuto didn't stand much of a chance here, but she gave it a real stab. Chigusa had to dig a little deeper than she would have expected and there was a bit more sting in her offence. The finish was especially great and really put over the effort Hokuto put in. One thing Japanese crowds love is someone who doesn't quit and they managed to portray that. A very effective veteran vs. young girl match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Crush Girls vs. Marine Wolves, 2/3 falls (4/27/89)

 

This was the last big Crush Girls match of the era (aside from their retirement match exhibition), so I suppose you could argue it needs to be on a yearbook for historical importance, but talk about a match that did nothing for me this time round. To my mind, the match bombs from the outset. The do the stock AJW opening of hitting a finisher straight away only this time it pays off. Hokuto pins Chigusa with a german suplex to take a shock 1-nil lead, which might have worked as a hook if they'd bothered to put it over more. Chigusa is ticked off, but Hokuto is nonchalant. With the amount of emotion in your typical Joshi bout, you'd think the Marine Wolves would be ecstatic, but it's not even understated. It's just badly under-sold. From there, Chigusa looks to get retribution, but the work never reaches the level of their singles match and neither partner adds much. Minami is sloppy and not only is she devoid of personality, she can't even channel her energy into a core motivation like trying to protect her partner. Asuka is just boring. Her work from '89 has reminded me of why I never liked her. What really kills this match, though, is the dueling headlock sequence, which is hands down one of the worst things I've seen in all my years of watching tapes. I don't even want to describe it save for it involves a continuing headlock among wrestlers tagging in and out and ends, IIRC, with the Crush Girls putting a headlock on Minami or Hokuto at the same time. It lasts for about five minutes and is just the worst thing ever.

 

And again, why did the Crush Girls win here? Why did they retire as WWWA champs? Why send a message to the schoolgirls that the next generation of girls aren't as good as your idols? This was just crap all round.