[1996-12-13-GAEA-Straight Flash] Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura

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Talk about it here.

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And GAEA closes out the year in fine fashion, with a strong tag match involving four strong workers. And on top of that, they close out with the 100% correct result, as Kato & Satomura score a rare 1996 joshi upset. It feels like the first time all year that any of the major companies have pulled the trigger on anything besides the "safe" result, with the more established talent going over. Heck, we just saw that in the previous match where Nagayo singlehandedly defeated two of Ozaki's deputies. Kato hits her Super Kamikaze (Kennedy's Green Bay Plunge) on KAORU but it only nets 2...and at that point, it feels like she's fired all the bullets in her chamber and the inevitable "safe" result is happening again. But she soon cuts off KAORU's comeback and puts her away with a bridge suplex, while Hokuto is kicking the crap out of Satomura in the back of the arena. Hokuto going from celebration at hearing the bell to a shocked sell of the actual result is letter-perfect.

 

GAEA didn't produce a real Match of the Year candidate in '96, but it produced a lot of good to really good matches and really felt like a fresher product with fresher talent than AJW. It had enough star power from Nagayo, Ozaki, Hokuto, and some guest stars to keep casual interest while Meiko Satomura and Toshie Uematsu, among others, looked more like the face of joshi in the future than any of AJW's youngsters.