[2000-11-23-GAEA] Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura vs KAORU & Devil Masami

[soup23]

I liked the structure of this tag match which is not always a strong suit for GAEA in 2000. Satomura and KAORU start things out and set the stage giving way for the two legends to decide the match against each other. Satomura is really staking a claim as the best female wrestler in the world currently by being brutal when she needs to be but also vulnerable as well. The final moments felt dramatic and the ending lariat that rattles Devil allowing Chigusa to win felt justified and earned. A good tag match. ***1/4 (6.7)
 

[ohtani's jacket]

Aside from her MOYTC with Aja, Satomura has had a pretty quiet year for one of the young standouts in the Joshi scene. You'd have to say that Hamada has been the leading young star in the Joshi world with Satomura being a distant second. I still don't agree with the decision to partner Meiko with Chigusa. Chigusa may have been the banged-up, battle-worn veteran and Satomura the young gun about to enter her prime, but so long as Chigusa remained the figurehead of the promotion, Satomura and other young workers would continue to live in her shadow. I suppose Kato was injured by this point which robbed Satomura of a Crush Girls style partner. The highlight of the match was Devil's selling. You don't see Devil pinned that often and she made it clear it was gonna take a hell of a lot to do it. I loved the look on her face the final time she stood up. She knew her legs were gone but she gave Chigusa a delirious grin, challenging her one last time. Vintage Devil. 

[TheBean]

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.