AJW 3/20/1993

- Saemi Numata vs Masami Watanabe

Really really didn't need to see a re-match between these two. Slightly better then their match a week earlier, the early matwork was a little nicer atleast but still a pretty worthless matchup. Numata won with a shoulder block...yup....

- (3WA Midget Title) Little Frankie (c) vs Mr.Buddhaman

Why the freakin division that consisted of the same 3 midgets rotating in an eternal hellish loop is beyond me

- Mima Shimoda & Suzuki Minami vs Kaoru Ito & Terri Power

Terri was the weak link here, she's focused more on the basic stuff she can do well but in a long match like this it gets a bit repetitive after the billionth lariat or power slam. Still, that's a minor fault in an otherwise damn good match. 1st half was made up of the other 3 all working long FIP sections and the 2nd half was all action with Ito steping up for her team to carry the majority of the load. Another great showing vs Shimoda and she worked really well with Suzuka too as it came down to them for the last few mins with the others running interferance. Crazy sit out powerbomb from Suzuka on Ito ends it.

- Miori Kamiya Retirement Ceremony

Pretty big send off for someone who never rose past mid card status, you could def tell the fans & the promotion really had a lot of love for Kamiya. Kamiya gives a teary eyed farewell speach then the usual stuff that happens at these things follows. Lots of old faces show up including Mika Takahashi (looking like a 12 yr old with pigtails), Crane Yu, Lioness & Jaguar. Hokuto & Bull who were on tour in Meixco sent letters to be read. Hotta, Suzuka & Aja also give short speaches. Ito's last up and she nearly breaks down in tears too. Everyone else on the roster gives her flowers her way up the isle. Whole thing goes about 20 mins.

- Sakie Hasegawa vs Tomoko Watanabe

Really good match when it was just them trading holds back & forth. Dug the contrast as Sakie had the more skillful technique, lots of manuvering around from hold to hold whear as Wat was more raw and and simple in her approach. Down the stretch things fall a part a little bit as Sakie seems out of it for some reason, like either she got hurt or gassed out. They get back on track a bit once Sakie starts going for a bunch of STFs that the anouncers make sure to point out is in tribute to her partner Debbie. Fun spot a little later on as Wat teases superplexing her to the floor but Sakie reverses it. A few kicks and suplexes later she gets the win. Good match overall despite a few rough moments.

- Manami Toyota vs Takako Inoue

The big follow up from last months tag title match. Takako waste no time and jumps Toyota in the isle and they fight into the crowd. Toyota tries to take her out with a diving cross body off the stage but wipes out Numata instead, back near ringside Takako tries a dive of her own but takes out another young girl instead. Tak recovers quickly and follows by hauling off on Toyota with a big series of punches then just to be a jerk starts stomping on her hands and pulling hair once she's down. After that Tak makes the mistake of falling back into her old comfort zone, instead of continuing with more aggressive offense she goes back to her old standard of trying to controll the match with a bunch of submissions. She has some success at first but ultimately it fails her. Toyota gets controll of the match and we get a long stretch of her busting out a bunch of holds of her own and when I say her own I mean exclusively her own. At least 4 times during this part Toyota cranks on some strange hold i've never seen anyone do before and that I have no way of describing other then they look hurty as hell. I'm sure Toyota is a pretty clean living woman but if someone told me before some of her matches she liked to pop mushrooms injected with cafine and sprinkled with acid I wouldn't doubt them. It would explain so much :) Anyways, Tak eventually has enough of being made into a human pretzel and kicks Toyota in the chest a bunch of times to transition back in controll. Doesn't last long as Toyota counters a lariat attempt into the rolling cradle. Toyota hits a bunch of suplexs to follow up and Takako counters with a tombstone for 2 counts. Takako catches Toyota with a top rope choke slam for a mega near fall that wakes up the crowd who thought she had the win. Big Takako chant after that. Toyota getting desperate gets in string of suplexes, cradles and a moonsault all for 2. Last burst of offense from Tak sees her drop Toyota with a big backdrop suplex and then attempt a dragon but Toyota mule kicks out of it, hits 2 more moonsaults and then the JOCS to finally win. Awesome awesome match, between this, the Kyoko match in Jan and the big tags w Hotta, Takako has by far been the standout wrestler of the 1st quarter of 93 as her evolution continues to be one of the most interesting things to follow in joshi. Match had myself and the fans thear really hoping she'd FINALLY be able to get that big win to prove herself but again, she comes close only to fails and be left looking dejected.

- Bat Yoshinaga & Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita

Cool to see Dream Orca reuiniting for the first time in a while here, Hotta & Bat teaming on the other hand always feels wrong, like they really should have been booked as mortal enemies for all eternity. Early portion of this sees Mita getting brutalized with kicks by both. The beating goes on for a while until you're just begging for her to fight back. When Yamada finally does come in she can't do much either. Eventually Mita & Yamada get their act together and start showing some fire. Funny bit sees everyone trading the camel clutch - punt spot back & forth. Finishing stretch is fun, the usual stuff you'd exspect from these 4. Mita eats an accidental kick from Yamada and a Hotta pyramid driver finishes her off. Nothing special overall but a pretty good match.

- Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue

So apparently this isn't a title match afterall which it's mistakenly listed as on a lot of tape trading sites, guess this does explain Kyoko getting jobed out a week ago. Still, even as a non title this feels like a really big affair. It's the first major singles match of Aja's reign and the first major singles between these two. Amusing bit early on as the crowds cheering on Kyoko so Aja just glares at them until they shut up. Kyoko tries to start fast but Aja shuts her down pretty quick then goes into her usual routine of grinding ppl down. Kyoko learns the very very very valuable lesson that you shouldn't slap Aja Kong in the face or she will short arm punch you so hard you'll almost cry. Aja's strategy of wearing her down pays off once Kyoko starts to fight back as she's visibly worn down and can't really put a string of stuff together allowing Aja to easily counter attack. Aja smells blood and goes for the kill at this point and turns the match into a brawl, Kyoko tries whiping Kong into the crowd but that only really seems to piss Aja off more and she quickly gets revenge for that. Down the stretch Kyoko continues to do an awesome job putting over the fatigue of the match. She fails to get Aja up for the romero stretch, she goes for a suplex and can't pull that off either. Kyoko tries to do one of her springboard elbows off the ropes but Aja catches her mid move and dumps her with a release german in one of the coolest moments i've seen in a while. Kyoko still keeps fighting back and uses all her strength to get Aja up for the Niagra Driver but only gets 2, she trys for a 2nd but has no energy left. A big uraken and diving elbow from Aja later it's over. Really great match, even though most of what i've talked about was the beating Kyoko took she got in enough of her fair share. Really good job of putting over Aja as an absolute monster without making Kyoko look so bad you couldn't buy her at this lvl or think she had no chance of winning. Post match Aja calls everyone in the ring for a big team rally as they get ready for war vs the world at Dreamslam.

AJW Fancam 3/13/1993

- Saemi Numata vs Masami Watanabe

5 minutes of the most excruciatingly boring wrestling you could ever see followed by 2 minutes of kind of ok decent stuff. Entirely skipable match. Numata wins with something I can't remember after watching 1 minute earlier and don't care enough to re-wind and check.

- Terri Power vs Etsuko Mita

Slightly better then the previous match in that it was more bland then boring. Simple match, mostly Mita in controll with the ocasional Terri stretch of offense from Terri who pins her win with a frankensteiner in 13 mins.

- (Midget Match) Mr.Buddhaman vs Tomezo Tsunokake

I was almost curious enough to check this out just to see if them working a house show match could possibly be worse then them working on the major shows but thankfully logic prevaled.

- Mima Shimoda vs Kaoru Ito

Ito vs any one of LCO is always a good pairing so the show finally picks up with this match. Goes to a 20 minute draw but manages to avoid many of the pitfalls most other matches that go to the distance avoid. There was a lot of mat work but it all felt organic and focused and both sold the submission atempts really well. They also did a good job of knowing when to pick up the pace with bigger highspots and nearfalls and then slow things back down without making it seem like they were stalling for time. Mita was especially fun playing the more agressive, cheating heel. Overall just a really good match that never draged or telegraphed the ending.

- Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe

Guy taping things seemed a bit distracted during this so some stuff gets missed making it a bit hard to follow at times. Looked like a pretty decent match though, mostly Bat & Watanabe getting beat on. If nothing else Hotta & Bat kickin the snot out of each other always rules and there was a fair amount of that atleast and it's Hotta who takes her down w the Tiger Driver in the end.

- Suzuka Minami vs Kyoko Inoue

Pretty interesting match. The 1st 10 mins is almost entirely Kyoko stretching Suzuka almost to the point of overkill. It pays off however once Minami finally starts fighting back. She continues to put over the fatigue of the match but you also get a unique sense of intenisity from her, really cranking down on the holds and putting an extra little something behind the other moves as she goes for revenge on Inoue for everything that happened earlier which I got a kick out of. They rinse/repeat the 1st half of the match after that before going into the usual run of near falls at the finish ending after Kyoko misses her running back elbow setting her up for Suzuka to hit the diving senton to win. Pretty surprised at the result, by this time Suzuka was clearly on her way down the card and Kyoko had been getting pushed higher up top for a while but neither neither was at the point whear i'd call this an upset yet but with Kyoko getting a 3WA title match in a couple of days I thought for sure they'd protect her here. Really annoying fan in the crowd who was screaming "ME NA MEEE" for almost the entire time so i'm sure she was happy atleast. No particular part of this individually was anything special but by the end it all came together to form a pretty good match.

- Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa

All about Aja playing unstopable monster. Sakie would get beat up for a bit then Aja would come in to save her, punting ppl in the jaw, stiff chops, tossing bodies all over and all around smashing folks. Then after that Sakie would come in and pick the scraps, cool submissions and her usual bag of spin kicks and suplexes. Wasn't until the match turned into more of a brawl that Toyota & Yamada get the upper hand for a prolonged period of time. Yamada hauls off on Sakie with a bunch of kicks of her own, taking her out then tries to do the same to Aja with less success. They double team Aja and almost get her down but Sakie recovers enough to make the save. She ends up eating an accidental back fist from Aja however which knocks her out enough for Toyota to drop her with a suplex to win. Fun match to end the night. Aja smash always = enjoyable wrestling and Sakie was good in her role trying to keep up.

AJW TV 3/11/1993

- Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita

Really nice sprint, full of all the usual fast paced, big move, near fall goodness. Suzuka got to play heavy hitter for her team and wipes out Kyoko on a couple ocasions in this but the story of the match is W Inoue having better teamwork. Every time Suzuka or Mita would get a little something going one of the Inoue's was right thear to cut em off and take back controll of the match. After a nice string of stuff leading up to the finish the Inoues eventually get the win with their combo choke slam/niagra driver on Mita. About 10 mins out of 18 aired. Good stuff.

- Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta

Interesting match, full of all the things you'd exspect. Lots of hard hitting strikes, brawling and smash mouth action. At the same time, a bit more one sided then you'd think as well. We only get to see 7 mins of 16 and what airs is largely Aja kicking ass, pounding Hotta down, draging her all over the building, etc.. What small bits of offense Hotta gets in only comes after either attacking Aja from behind or being able to dodge one of Aja's moves and counter with her own. Finish comes when Aja blocks a Hotta kick & coming back with a stiff uraken right to the forehead and followed by her diving back elbow to end the match. Not as great as what they'd do a year later but this was still pretty enjoyable. Not a total squash but still did a good job putting Aja over as a monster.

- Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko

Things started out quite nicely, their tag league match a few months back was one of the better matches in 92 and it seemed like they were on course to have another really good one until Debbie gets injured 7 or 8 mins into things. She was catching Toyota on a dive, nothing special, your standard cross body but Debbie plants her foot wrong and snaps her ankle badly on the landing. Bit hard to see if you're not looking for it because it happens so fast, I re-wound the dvd to see if I could spot what happened and I actually really wish I hadn't now. The angle Debbie twist & then snaps her ankle at was nearly as bad as what happened to Sid. Really uncomfortable to watch. Toyota tries to continue the match but Sakie quickly realised something wasn't right and gets her off her pretty fast. After what felt like forever but was probably only a few mins they get Debbie to the back and they decide to have the match continue 2 on 1. They go another 5 mins or so a good portion of which ends up being a disaster with tons of blown spots and awkwardness but you honestly can't blame them for not being into it after what happened earlier. Yamada puts an end to things with the diving enzu kick. It'd be over 8 years before Debbie would show up in wrestling again, making a 1 time return for Sakie's retirement show in ARSION.

Undercard Highlights

Shimoda over Numata in 12:30
Bat & Watanabe over Ito & ? in 20:30

Hamada's UWF Vol 7 Comp - 1990 - 1993 Joshi

11/10/1990 - Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno

Bit of a weak follow up to the match the day before. More just a standard tag match with Moreno & Hamada going for fast paced flippy stuff and the Honey Wings slowing it down with mat work. Near the end team luchadora have a bit of miscomunication and get in a shoving match after accidenly hitting each other. Kaoru & Takahashi take advantage and are able to finish off Xochitl pretty easyily after isolating her. Takahashi gets the W with a big superplex.

11/12/1990 - Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno

A mix between their previous two matches. Like the first match it starts pretty hot with Kaoru & Mika again running out to jump them then when things settle down we get a long matwork section. Bit hard to focus at times due to the camera angle but this is a 21 year old fan cam so beggers can't be choosers. Moreno & Mika are really good during this part. The action picks back up once the lucha girls get in a big series of highspots , they miss a pair of dives outside which leads to some pretty nice brawling around the building for a while. Back inside we get a little more matwork before going into the finish which is a bit of a repeat of the last match only this time it's Moreno eating a giant double superplex. Post match Hamada goes nuts on Moreno beating her down with a chair, the Honey Wings leave at first not caring but Hamada keeps beating her down, including giving Moreno a tombstone on the chair until finally Kaoru & Mika begrudgingly make the save. Damn good match, bit of a toss up between for which is better, this or the first but I slightly lean towards 11/9 however. Sadly there's no footage of any Hamada vs Moreno singles matches that may have come out of this as i'm sure that'd be a great pairing opposite each other.

3/7/1991 - Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa

This was ok. They only got 8 mins so kind of a cliff notes version of what they could do as they run through the usual. Little sloppy in a few spots which hurt the momentum of the match too. Near the end Sakie goes for a diving cross body and somehow catches Yoshida in the nose on the way down busting it open so they go to the finish pretty soon after that. Sakie goes for a suplex combo but Yoshida reverses out and hits one of her own to win.

3/7/1991 - Noriyo Tateno vs Kaoru Maeda

Crowd was hyped to see Tateno as this was a little over a week before she was set to retire. They did a few nice spots in this, crazy suicide dive from Kaoru and Moreno dead lifting Kaoru up by the hair into a big slam were two of the highlights. Beyond that and a few other things they didn't do much else of interest. They went to a draw and even at a measly 10 minutes it still suffered from a lot of the same issues that plauge those types of matches.

3/8/1991 - Noriyo Tateno & Sakie Hasegawa vs Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Maeda

Bit better then either or their individual matches the day before. Kaoru & Yoshida get the early advantage and I dug the leg work with them going after Sakie's knee. When Tateno & Sakie gain control they don't fare quite as well. They get Kaoru in for an exstended beat down but every time it looks like she's gonna be in any real trouble Yoshida is thear to watch her back and make the save. All through the rest of the match Sakie keeps selling her knee from earlier which was a nice touch and eventually they go back to attacking it. Tateno gets the win out of nowhear with a surprise cradle on Yoshida. Fun match up until then.

3/9/1991 - (Special ref Kaoru) Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa

No clue why Kaoru is on ref duty tonight, bigger mystery is why the heck they had her wearing a garbage man's uniform to do it in. Essentially they do 5-6 mins of really basic low level stuff then all of a sudden Yoshida nearly kills herself on a suicide dive outside, landing bad as her head goes splat on the concrete floor. Miraculously she appears to be ok, enough to continue the match atleast which wakes the crowd up and a big Yoshida chant ensues. They don't go too much longer however and back inside they imediatly switch it into high gear with a bunch of counter sequences that sees Yoshida come out on top, again reversing something of Sakie's into a pin for the win. Last few mins were good but before that pretty average.

5/24/1992 - Mariko Yoshida vs Mima Shimoda

K, this is more like it as we skip ahead a year and are now in the middle of Yoshida's run as one of the best wrestlers in the world. Story early on sees them take it to the mat with Shimoda focusing on Yoshida's arm. As always, Yoshida does a great job putting it over not only while on defense but continuing to do so while on offense. She drops an elbow but it only serves to injure her own arm, she goes for a boston crab but doesn't have the strength to hold on to both legs so has to switch to a half. Great little things like that make her stand out as one of the best. For a while the match turns into a Yoshida showcase as she goes on the attack for a bit. Shimoda hits a lot of really nice flying clotheslines during the comeback which she always does but tonight they looked better then usual. Switching things up she starts going for a bunch of leg lock submission attempts now. In another cool little touch she locks in an ankle lock and when Yoshida tries to push up out of it Shimoda reaches over and punches her in the gut to shut that shit down. Like a lot of Yoshida matches that i've noticed, in the end things come down to them dodging and countering a lot of each others moves, lots of athletic back and forth stuff. Really puts over Yoshida as the type of wrestler who wins by outsmarting her opponents. Damn good match, i'd say this is just a notch or so below the great match Yoshida would have with Shimoda's partner Mita a month or so later. Really played to both girls strengths well.

5/7/1993 - (CMLL Women's Title) Xochitl Hamada (c) vs Kaoru

Skipping ahead another year, Kaoru had droped the last name by now and had started working in the mask as "Infernal Kaoru". No major highlights in this, just a good solid match with Hamada mostly dominating and Kaoru fighting back ocasionally. Not enough in the end as she gets powerbombed to hell as Hamada retains.

JWP TV 2/11/1993

- (Sumiko Saito Retirement Match) Hikari Fukuoka vs Sumiko Saito

Sucks Sumiko didn't stick around longer and retired just as joshi was begining another boom period. The few times i've seen her in the past I was pretty impressed. Match is JIP with Fukuoka dominating things and getting in a big flurry of offense coming close to getting the W a few times but Saito isn't going down easy in her last match. Tide changes once Saito is able to grab an STF, followed up by a few suplexes and another STF for a near submission. They go back and forth a bit more with Fukuoka coming out on top, a couple of big powerslams including 1 off the top rope and a cross armed german get her the win. Good little match for Saito to go out on, about 10 mins aired. Your usual joshi retirement ceremony follows.

- Devil Masami & Debbie Malenko vs Dynamite Kansai & Plum Mariko

Always thought it also really sucked that Debbie got hurt shortly after this and had to retire before getting to mix it up with JWP girls like Plum. Quite excited when I found out this match existed as I didn't know it had even taken place until a couple of months ago. Pre match promo Debbie puts over everyone involved and says she's just happy to be thear. JIP with her locking in a Fujiwara arm bar on Kansai, once she escapes they blow a running headscissors spot but recover nicely. Debbie & Plum have a short section that sees Deb drop her with a few suplexes. Devil comes in and gets worked over for a while, long long boston crab spot from Kansai that goes no where. Things pick up when we get more Deb/Plum action and finally get to see them take it to the mat a tiny tiny bit. Devil comes back in and does that nasty spot whear she press slams folk onto the top turnbuckle which always looks like it sucks to take. Kansai comes in and eats a giant powerbomb to hell from Devil for her trouble as well. Match goes outside and we get a cool dive train starting with Plum climbing up Kansai's shoulders to hit a diving cross body and ending with Debbie doing her crazy suicide dive as a follow up. Back inside Debbie gets the armbar in on Plum as they go at it a little more, her & Devil hit stereo superplexes on both in another big highlight. Finish sees Kansai & Devil throwing bombs at each other, funny moment as Kansai tries to call out Debbie so Devil straight arm lariats her right in the face for ignoring her. Few moments later Kansai makes her pay with some stiff kicks and gets revenge for earlier with a big powerbomb of her own which backfires as Devil reverses the pin attempt into a cradle to get the win. Post match Debbie & Plum talk shit to hype up Dreamslam whear it was supposed to be Debbie in Ito's place vs Plum & Fukuoka. I was pretty disapointed we didn't get more exchanges between the 2 in this, especially on the mat as that's what I most wanted to see. I imagine it got left on the cutting room floor as while we got about 17 mins of this, in full it was 33+. Still, taking this for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be it was a damn good match, especially Kansai & Devil opposite each other, worth checking out for sure.

Hamada's UWF Vol 6 Comp - 1990 Joshi

So a few years back Jeff Lynch put together a 7 volume comp of Gran Hamada's Universal Wrestling Federation and I ended up picking up the last 2 volumes which focus exclusively on the women's matches that took place in the promotion. AJW & UWF had a working relationship at the time so they would trade talent back & forth, mostly AJW girls appearing on Universal shows but a occasionally you'd see the UWF men wrestling on an AJW card too. Don't know how well it worked out for UWF but it exsposed the AJW girls to a lot of new fans and i've always heard it credited as being 1 of the things that helped eventually grow their audiance and led to more male fans showing up at shows as opposed to the school girl dominated crowds of the 80's. Anyways, i've never seen any of this footage before and only maybe 5 or so UWF matches period so this will be interesting to take a look at.

3/1/90 - Xochitl Hamada & Mika Takahashi vs Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto

This is from UWF's debut show. Ah Xochitl, Ayako's lesser known but just as talented older sister, glad to see more footage of her. You can really tell this is def a diffrent audiance who doesn't usually watch much joshi based on the crowd reactions. A lot of stuff that's routine on AJW shows like the screaming and certain other spots gets a lot of laughter and bemusement from the audiance, at the same time, they also pop for a lot of the big moves and seemed into it by the end. Mostly a by the numbers formula tag. The Outsiders Bison & Grizzly mostly dominate things with their rough, heel style with Hamada & Mika making the ocasional comeback only to get cut off and the beating to continue. Of the 2, when they did get on offense Hamada got to shine the most and really looked like the star of her team. Ending comes when Mika & Hamada get a hold of the Outsiders Kendo sticks and start caning the crap out of their opponents and the ref who happens to be Wally Yamaguchi of WWF Kaientai "Choppy choppy your pee pee" fame. Kind of funny since in AJW this wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary but apparently UWF has stricter "rules" so the ref calls for a DQ. More chaos follows but eventually gets settled down. Nothing special but a pretty decent match.

3/2/90 - Xochitl Hamada vs Bison Kimura

Based on how the last match ended you'd exspect a heated follow up but no. Sadly they just have a low end house show match. Lots of basic mat work mixed in with a couple bigger moves. Didn't help that this took place in a darker building with a quieter more subdued crowd too. Hamada again looks good with a few nice highspots at the end including a crazy out of control plauncha but not too many highlights besides that. Match ends in a double countout shortly after.

3/5/90 - Xochitl Hamada & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong & Bison Kimura

Starts out a little bit similar to the 3/1 tag. Kaoru & Hamada get in bigger stretches of offense then Mika & Hamada did but the early going is still largely heel dominated. Hamada & Bison really clicked here for the 1st time and had some great exchanges and a nutty Flair/Garvin level chop war. Ending comes when all 4 get in the ring and they go for one of those complicated lucha sequences whear everyone's doing mirror spots at opposite ends of the ring and there's a bunch of heel miscomunicaion stuff. Sorta falls apart a little at this stage but they recover nicely and bodies go flying all over in a cool dive train. Back inside Kaoru & Hamada score the win with tandem roll ups on their opponents. Overall a damn good match and the 1st to really show off how good the AJW girls could be.

6/4/90 - Manami Toyota, Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto

They switched things up and brought over an AJW ref to handle things, nothing against Yamaguchi but that's def a wise move. You can tell the girls had really started to get over with the new audiance at this piont as the crowds hyped for this one. Funnily enough it's the Gokumonto heels that are the one's who have the biggest cheering squad too with Aja especially being crazy over. In a funny bit they chant her name in tune with every offensive move she hits or when the ref counts a pinfall for her like the ECW fans chanted Shaw for Hack Myers. Hilarious stuff I really can't do justice describing. On the opposite end, the crowd doesn't dislike Honey Wings DX either, they'd ohh, ahh and applaud when they'd do a big move or cool spot but they're not as into them as they are their opponents. Match itself follows the previous pattern of the heels kicking all kinds of ass and the faces having to bravely fight back. All 6 really busted ass in this one and near the end Toyota & Kaoru are getting big chants as well after making their comeback. Near fall exchange is really good down the stretch and ends with Aja & Toyota going at it. After escaping a suplex attempt Aja backfist Toyota and puts her down with a huge german suplex of her own to win. This wouldn't crack my top 10 for AJW in 1990 but i'd say this is def somewhear in the top 20. Great great match with a hot crowd, nothing not to love about this.

6/7/90 - Madusa, Mika Takhashi & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto

3rd Show in a week Universal had run at K-Hall so the crowd's not as hot at this point though still into things a good bit. Compared to the previous tag this has more back & forth stuff with no team getting controlling for too long. Aja & Madusa were in the middle of their feud at this point so there's a big focus on them well.

The stuff between them is pretty good as they had decent chemistry together. Madusa working with the others is a bit hit & miss so thankfully Honey Wings do a majority of the work in this. Last few mins are a bit odd. Goku are in controll and go for what I can only describe as a traingular belly bump of doom but it backfires and leads to everyone fighting outside. Big dive train follows and in the midst of all the chaos Madusa & Bison end up going at it in the ring. A small USA chant of all things breaks out for Madusa and after accidently running into Aja, Bison gets pinned out of nowhear with a rollup. Def a step down from the previous tag and the finish was pretty anticlimactic but overall still a good match.

6/1/90 - Bison Kimura vs Kyoko Inoue

Not much to this as they have a pretty by the numbers match. Kyoko was still a no name with a bit of potential at this point as she didn't get her big break until the end of the year. She got to get in just enough offense to not make this a total squash but never really looked competitive enough that you ever thought she had a chance of winning. Bison wins with that weird drop to your ass backslide she was doing for a while.

11/9/90 Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno

More Esther Moreno is always great in my book. Somewhear along the way Honey wings seemed to have developed some bad blood with the luchadoras as they rush the ring and attack before the intros even start then throw their oppenents out into the crowd. Back inside both Kaoru & Takahashi run through some cool highspots with Moreno before things slow down and the Moreno/Hamada team gains controll. Only last a couple mins as they go right back to fast more fast paced back & forth action. After a couple double teams including a pretty sweet stereo elbow drop on Moreno, Kaoru gets the win over her with a german. Damn good match, whole thing only last maybe 10 mins but they packed a lot in. Excited to see the 2 rematches they have a couple days after this. Kaoru & Takahashi get in a few exsta punts to Moreno's head as they leave just because. Moreno & Hamada give ref Yamaguchi a giant back body drop before making their exit...just because :)

AJW 2/28/1993

- (5 Min Exhibition) Sakie Hasegawa vs Masami Watanabe

Why this is a 5 min exhibition instead of a normal match, no clue. Bigger question, why Chaparita rocked the Canadian flag on her tights in her rookie days, still no clue. They go the distance, Chaparita got maybe 30 seconds of offense in, the rest was all Sakie trying to break the young punk in half with various submissions, suplexing her around and laying in the kicks. Fun times.

- Tomoko Watanabe vs Chikako Hasegawa

Horribly boring match, i'm all for slower paceed exchanges of simple holds and stuff but they put no passion or energy behind any of it so it just came across like they were killing time. Finish was sorta cool in an unintentional way as Chikako takes the judo throw wrong so Watanabe stiffs the hell out of her in retaliation. Few seconds later she drops her with some weird arm/leg cradle hook german for the win. Looked pretty cool actually. Too little too late for this match tho. So moving on...


- (Midget Match) Little Frankie vs Tomezo Tsunokake

...and still moving on...wait STOP, Frankie ain't rockin the Afro WTF??????? That's just wrong. No Afro no peace.....

- Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita vs Mima Shimoda & Saemi Numata

Really liked this a lot, one of those matches that goes long, almost 20, so we get a lot of back & forth with everyone having atleast 1 mini FIP segment. All 4 were on and Numata really steped her game up for this one. She's not on the lvl of the other 3 but she atleast didn't look like she was leauges below either. Mostly played whiping girl but had a few nice stretches of offense too minus a moment whear she went all nutty with the shoulder blocks which were kinda ugly. For a few minutes in the middle Mita goes all psycho on her which was quite fun and in the other big big highlight of the early portion there were a few Mita vs Shimoda segments in this that were really good as well. Down the stretch Shimoda & Numata actually look like they're going to win but Numata blows it by accidently nailing her partner with a clothesline allowing the Dream Wolves to get in a run on Shimoda. A tombstone, suicide dive, nasty double team powerbomb and giant suplex later and it's over with Suzuka getting the W on Mima. Good stuff

- (AJW Title) Debbie Malenko (c) vs Terri Power

Debbie the Wise "Let me tell you something. This belt right here is what it's all about" :) Both promise a sportsmanlike friendly contest, boo to that but it doesn't last long. A few mins in they go outside and Terri misses a lariat nailing the ringpost and Debbie just goes nuts after that. She smells blood and starts grabbing chairs and ring bells and whatever else she can get to whack Terri in the arm, really agressive attacks from her which you don't usually see. Rest of the match is centered around Debbie continuing to destroy the arm and go for the submission win. Terri fights back ocasionally, a few power slams, the rana, etc... nice little battle of the superplexes later on with Deb hitting her northern lights and Terri hitting a standard one. Despite her best efforts Terri couldn't pull out the win and Debbie finally gets her to tap out reversing out of another suplex to lock in the cross face chicken wing for the tap out win. I'd heard a lot of hype about this match going in but still wasn't exspecting it to be as great as it turned out to be. Easily Terri's best match ever, she did an amazing job putting over the arm work and her offense looked great too. For Deb this isn't her best match or anything but it's up thear as one of her best performances. You could really tell both saw this as a really big opportunity being two foreign wrestlers getting to have a title match in Japan. Even if it is for the #4 singles belt in the company they really treated this as something special and really went all out to have the best match they possibly could.

- Kyoko Inoue & Bat Yoshinaga vs Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito

Starts out pretty pretty average, Ito gets isolated and beat up for a bit then Aja & Bat tag in and all hell breaks loose. Big intense staredown between the two then Aja just hauls off and battering ram head butts her. Bat surprisingly does not get knocked out by this and even more surprisingly actually wins the exchange as things turn into a wild striking contest. Kyoko tags in and her & Aja continue pounding on each other but Inoue isn't as lucky as Bat was. Ito back in tries to get in on the fun but she's out classed in this area so things go back around to whear we started with her getting whoped on some more. This time around Bat & Kyoko are more amped up however which sees Ito end up with a bloody nose from the encounter. More Bat/Aja fun and boy, considering Kyoko's the one getting a title shot next month this match sure is doing a hell of a lot more to make me want to see Bat take on the champ in singles. Eventually things do get paired down to Inoue & Aja as they exhchange a bunch of near falls. Aja back fist everybody to hell but Bat recovers at the very last second to make the save, Aja then hits Ito on accident which spells her doom. A few minutes later after Bat makes sure to occupy the champ, Kyoko puts away the young Jungle Jacker with a modified rita romero special for the submission win. Another great match on what's turning out to be a really good card.

- (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (c) vs Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta

1st fall starts out hot with Takako jumping Toyota, doesn't last long tho with Manami getting pissed and just blasting the hell out of Tak in retaliation with a punt to the forehead and a follow up series up stiff kicks. Jeez, pre show they had to have had a big roster meeting whear the Matsunaga's were all like "ok girls, we don't have Bull & Hokuto on the show tonight so our brutal ass whoop quota is going to be a little low, think you could step it up?" because everyone's been super amped up on this show. When you're in a match with Toshiyo Yamada & Yumiko Hotta and it's Toyota who's laying in the skull crushing blows you know someone's spiked the water. Things settle down a bit after that into a more routine back and forth match and and it ends with Hotta getting the duke over Yamada afer 3 powerbombs. 1st time in a long while that Yamada's been the one to eat a pin for their team. 2nd Fall we get start with more Hotta/Yamada kick exchanges which are always a highlight. Takako tags in and all of a sudden a boxing match breaks out which she loses getting droped on her ass by a straight Yamada punch to the dome. More Toyota/Tak follows and it degenerates into a hair pulling war with Inoue fairing better this time around. Really angry violent match this is. Hotta kicks around Toyota for a bit then Tak comes back in and ups the bitchyness factor going for revenge and really heeling it up on her. Things settle down a little bit again until the finish, funny botch as Toyota goes for a dive on Hotta but slips and falls right on her face. Shook her up a little bit as Toyota flubs another move or 2 but nothing serious and she recovers well enough. Few double teams from the champs and then Toyota drops Inoue with a double chicken wing suplex to even things up. 3rd fall Toyota & Yamada try to blitz Inoue and score a quick win but it's no go and then things break down into an ugly chair swinging brawl for a little bit. Back inside Takako starts tossing out lariats and then goes for a few leg bar attempts. After that the match becomes a war of attrition with everyone wearily going all out. By this point they're nearing the 30 min mark and given they weren't working a lot of time killing rest holds you can tell they're starting to feel it. Finally in the end it comes down to Toyota & Yamada again busting out a big array of double teams, they nearly kill Hotta with their fliping backdrop off the top rope, ironic given how many times the situation has been reversed. Finally after 32+ Yamada gets her win back from earlier and finishes off Hotta with the Gory bomb. Post match Takako gets on the mic and issues out some singles challenges, don't know what gets said back by Yamada but i'm sure it was nothing nice as Tak walks away dejected and in near tears. Not a great match, there were def some flaws. Went a little longer then it probably should have and if you're the type of person who's gonna be all "they didn't execute this or that to perfection - minus 1/4 *" then this may not be for you. Still, I thought the good far far outweighed the bad, this was a war and felt like it, ugly & nasty & gritty. For her part, Takako has been turning that corner from mid card technical wrestler into bad ass butt kicker with an attitude problem for a while now and for me this was the 1st time whear it really felt like she'd finally finished turning and was fully heading straight down that road. She may not have won every exchange but she gave as good as she got and dind't look outclassed, a step below or like the weak link here at all. A damn good match to end the night.

AJW TV 2/10/1993

- (AJW Title) Kaoru Ito (c) vs Debbie Malenko

Interesting match up. What little is shown of the early portion sees Debbie going after Ito's bandaged up leg but it doesn't appear to amount to too much so Debbie switches things up and goes for more agressive stuff. They go back and forth a bit with Deb getting in a series of flash Fujiwara arm bar attempts but each time Ito scrambles to make the ropes really quick in what I thought was a nice touch. So far all very basic standard fare, the typical decent low level match you'd exspect. Ito starts making her big comeback and it looks like the finish is coming, Ito gets in a few footstomps but then makes the mistake of attempting one off the top rope to the floor which she misses and tweaks her allready bad knee on the landing. Debbie goes into kill mode after that, bulldog on the floor, northen lights superplex and a standard nother lights follow, all the while Ito still limping around due to her messed up knee. Ito tries to fight back a little but Debbie catches her leg, locks in an STF and the pain is too much so she gives up. I actually had no clue Debbie ever won the title so I was legit surprised at the finish here. Last few minutes after the footstomp to the floor is what really put this over the top for me, took it from being a nice solid match into becoming a real damn good one. Sadly only 8 of 25 mins aired.

- Suzuka Minami & Mima Shimoda vs Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta

Funny moment early on as they zoom in on Takako's boot while she's standing on Suzuka's head and we get to see she's in desperate need of a new pair as it's being held together with duct tape. Anyways, this follows your standard tag match formula. Suzuka was a workhorse as always, some solid stuff in the first part and really shining in the last. Shimoda was in full on spaz mode but also did a nice job playing FIP mid match. Hotta & Takako by now are a regular team and have a 3WA tag match coming up later in the month. Interesting comparison to the previous Hotta/Tak matches we've seen so far, vs OZ & Fukuoka they were working on top, vs OZ & Kansai they were working from underneath and here they're pretty much evenly matched. Hotta was fired up for this one, mostly did her usual thing but had a lot of energy and passion behind it, Takako too who especially looked good beatind down Shimoda. Can really tell her confidence is growing over time as far as working a more agressive/dominant style goes. Final few mins of this are pretty rockin with everyone scramblin to get the win before time runs out. Match goes the distance and ends in a 20 min draw (about 11 aired), kudos to them for actually not telegraphing the finish here too. I really liked this a lot, one of those matches that particularly good enough you need to go out of your way to see it but something i'm sure most would enjoy if they got the chance to watch.

- Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Bat Yoshinaga

No matter their partners any time Bat is opposite Toyota in a tag it's always been fun and Aja & whoever vs Toyota/Yamada always rules too. First time seeing Aja & Bat team up and they make for a cool team to go against them given their history. Bat & Aja playing monster made for some good stuff early on beating up Yamada. Fun kicker vs kicker moments with her & Bat. Finish was real hot too with some great near fall moments. The "Toyota's the weak link" storyline made for some added drama as it made me actually buy that she might do the job here. Cooler heads prevailed though as even they're not nutty enough to have the champs drop a fall to a team with Bat Yoshinaga at this point so Toyota gets a rare win for her team pinning the mid carder with a sort of cross armed tiger suplex. Real good based on what aired but that was only 9 of 22:30.

Undercard highlights at the end of the show
- Tamada & Chaparita going to a time limit draw
- Mita & X over Watanabe & Shiratori in 14:30
- Kyoko over Terri Power in 15:30

Quick thoughts on JWP 1/15/1993

Starts with 1 match from 12/27/92 :)

- Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai & Candy Okutsu

Very slow paced match early on, follows your standard tag formula with Candy getting worked over and Kansai makng the ocasional save. Really bland pedestrian stuff. Kansai's hot tag section is nice and things pick up for the last 4 mins but it's too little too late for this match. Cutie gets the win with a Dragon suplex over Candy in 20 mins. No clue why they included this other then to pad out the running time of this release.

 
- Hikari Fukuoka & Candy Okutsu vs Sumiyo Toyama & Yumi Tenma

Similar to the last match only a little more basic with less advanced moves except from Fukuoka who got to be the star in this one. 1st look i've had at Toyama & Tenma in exstended form and both looked pretty decent. Tenma's switched to working a kicker girl style pulled it off nicely with some cool strikes. For their experience lvl this was ok action. Fukuoka over Tenma with a german suplex.

- (Submission Match) Plum Mariko vs Commando Bolshoi

One of my favorite little hidden gem matches ever. First time around it was one of those "wow this is way better then I was exspecting" type reactions but i've re-watched it multiple times over the years and it still holds up. Things pick up a few mins in once Bolshoi targets the knee and the little clwon girl just goes to town with lots of nifty attacks and the bulk of the math is built aound that. Plum does an awesome job putting it over, really cool spot later in the match whear Bolshoi goes for a splash and Plum gets her knees up but which Plum sold as hurting her knee too which you rarely see but makes perfect sense. In the end it's Plum who gets the last laugh reversing Bolshoi's hold into a tricked out leg crank of her own for the win.

- Devil Masami vs Cutie Suzuki

After what happened the these two wrestled Cutie's a lot more fired up and out to prove herself. Cutie comes in a totall ball of energy but Devil cuts her off and starts tossing her around. Cutie goes on the attack again but things repeat and Devil again starts playing around with her. Ever persistent like a little bulldog Cutie fires off some really nasty forearms upside Devil's big head and that finally gains her the sustained advantage. Match gets really good here as Cutie starts stretching Devil on the mat and the little touhes Devil tosses in, the way she makes Cutie fight to get her into holds, the way she fights to get out of holds, just awesomely cool stuff that makes you realise why Devil's one of the all time greats. In a fun moment they go outside Devil gets whiped into the railing and she crushes like 5 fans who all seemed pretty amused. Finishing stretch is real nice as they get back in after that. Cutie gets in a giant release german suplex and a flying footstomp but can't get the win. Devil comes back and has to toss damn near everything but the kitchen sink at Cutie who survives a ton of big lariats and powerbombs before finally falling to an overhead northern lights suplex off the top rope. This is one of those matches that's gotten a lot better over time to me, something I thought was merely decent years ago but would easily call really good now. Also of note is that Bull Nakano was sitting ringside for this entire show and before the match started Devil came over to shake her hand as they've got a big upcoming singles match.

- Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue

One of the best joshi tags ever, the action is great and speaks for itself. Just a notch below Dream Rush in that department. What I picked up more watching it now was the little things and how well booked the story was. This was absolutely 100% designed to get you hyped for a Hotta/Kansai singles match, they went at it just enough to leave you satisfied and get you excited for it but held back enough as to not blow their wad. They also did a good job of setting up more OZ/Takako fun down the line. Also dug how well they kept to the heirarchy of things with Takako working as weak link of the match. It was subtle but they did a lot to further that aspect. Tak got a lot of offense in but almost none of it came by herself, almost every time it was because Hotta took down OZ or Kansai first ad then Tak came in and continued the beat down until. Also great job of keeping Kansai strong too with very few moments whear she was in significant trouble. After the events of the Fukuoka match last month Kansai was brought in to be the heavy hitter and that's pretty much what she did. For the finish it comes down to Takako & Ozaki with OZ reversing a suplex attempt into the Tequila Sunrise to pick up the win and JWP's 1st victory over AJW. Post match Kansai challenges Hotta to a singles match and they shake hands as the show ends.

AJW 1/24/1993 Outbreak of War, Zenjo vs LLPW

During the opening ceremony they announce the JWP vs AJW matches for Dreamslam I on 4/2, interesting to note that Kansai vs Hotta got by far the loudest pop from the audiance.

- Chikako Hasegawa & Masami Watanabe vs Rie Tamada & Sachiko Nakamura

Chikako & Tamada we all know by now. Watanabe is the future Chaparrita Asari making tape for the 1st time after having debued in Nov last year. Nakamura is one of the countless footnotes in joshi history who came and went quickly without leaving a mark. I'm 99% sure this isn't the same girl with that name who was around in the late 80's with the same name (who's biggest claim to fame was being Manami Toyota's debut opponent) which would make this match the only footage available of this Nakamura her. She's a pretty tall girl, not 6ft or anything but decent size and in thear with tiny folk like Watanabe & Tamada looks like a giant in comparison. Would be interesting to find out why she never stuck around, based on this match she had a decent enough grasp of the basics and looked ok in the ring so maybe injury or something else was the reason? Dunno, mystery for the ages I guess. Match itself was decent as far as rookie matches go. It's been several years since I last watched this show as it was 1 of the 1st joshi VHS tapes I got way back when. My original impresstion was that this was pretty boring but my taste have changed a lot since then and I found this pretty easy to sit through now. Chikako looked the best and got to pick up the win over Nakamura with a standing back body drop, not even the running kind.

- Tomezo Tsunokake vs Mr. Buddhaman

Like usual I skiped this, Budda won if anyone cares.

- Saemi Numata vs Bat Yoshinaga

Numata attacks early, gets in a few moves. Bat gets her down, starts laying in the kicks and toys with her for a couple mins. Bat makes a mistake and Numata gets in a small mini comeback but Bat cuts that shit off and cracks her jaw with a spin kick to end things. Easy fun, only went 4-5 mins. I love Bat & always liked Numata more then most but so did not need to see them going 10 or 15 so i'm fine with this. Pretty much the perfect match that could have been done between these 2.

- Suzuka Minami vs Yumiko Hotta

Match follows an easy pattern. Short bit of Hotta dominating to start, Suzuka taking over for the next 8-9 mins, Hotta comes back and takes over for a while and then a few mins of nearfalls before ending in a 20 min draw. Suzuka's section was awesome as she goes after Hotta's injured left leg and and puts on a clinic, running through various holds to stretch her out and even gets in a chair shot to the knee or too. Things kinda fall apart after Hotta regains controll, she gets sent to the outside and after a short rest they essentially reset the match and Hotta immeditly begins dishing out kicks with both her good and bad leg, killing off the previous 8 mins of the match. Then she goes on a really unfocused string of offense, at first looking like she wanted to take out Suzuka's arm but then forgeting about that plan to toss in a suplex or more kicks but then going back to the arm before giving up completely. Even with only 20 mins to work with this still falls into a lot of the same trappings many other TL draws do as Hotta is clearly wasting time as late as the 18 min mark trying to work camel clutches and shit. Match picks up for the last stretch and they have a cool back and forth near fall stretch, only wish they'd have started it a little sooner. The good outweighs the bad in this but it's nothing special.

- Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs Terri Power & Kaoru Ito

Debbie the Wise pre match promo "Ito's a hell of a wrestler. Teri...you never know what to look for from her. We've got our work cut out for us". Really cool moment to start with early on, Sakie & Deb attack first but get sent outside quickly, Terri then forms a catapult with her arms and launces a running Ito up over into a dive onto both outside. Magical moment follows as Terri gets redemption for her botch of all botches a few months ago and hits the slingshot plauncha perfectly this time wiping everyone out. Rest of the match has everyone sticking to their comfort zone, Ito gets beat up for a while, nice double team STF from Sakie & Deb. Terri gets taged in and does...power stuff. Most of it looked fine actually and outside of 1 or 2 small awkard moments this was a really good match for Terri, maybe the best she's ever looked thinking about it. Debbie tries to take out her arm a little later on but Terri rolls out of the arm lock into the Backlund lift in a fun spot. Finishing run is pretty cool too as we some more nifty double team stuff. Ito doing footstomps off Terri's shoulders, Doomsday Bulldog from Sakie & Deb, etc.. Debbie gets the big win with a top rope norther lights superplex on Ito. Real good match.

- Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue

They do some fast paced highspots to early on, lots of arm drags and lucha style stuff, then Kyoko gains controll and goes into her usual array of wear down holds, dominating for a while. A little pedestrian but good stuff. Match goes to another lvl once Takako comes back and goes into submission queen mode, Kyoko makes her fight for every little hold early on which is a nice touch but Tak perseveres and goes to town on her leg. This is a strategy that has always been something Takako is good at, something that she can dominate with, something that gives her a fighting chance. Following her journey in 92 against bigger name opponents she always failed when she deviated from this, always failed when she tried to act tough, always got her ass kicked when she tried to stand toe to toe with an Aja or Bull or Hokuto. Here, the same thing looks to happen but Takako has other plans. Tak abandons the leg work and starts booting Kyoko upside the head, not enough to hurt, more in an insulting cocky way. Kyoko looks at her like "are you kidding me?" and elbows her in the face in retaliation, Tak fires back but it gets her nowhear and Kyoko regains the advantage for a bit. Awesome moment as Kyoko goes for her running back elbow and Tak catches her mid run and seamlessly rolls into a leg bad. Again though, Takako has something she needs to prove and she turns things back into a brawl again and the match goes outside. Takako surprisingly wins this encounter being really agressive and hitting Kyoko with her shoulder drop suplex on the floor. Nice bit of applause for Takako from the crowd in apreciation as if to say "holy shit we didn't exspect that, awesome, fuck her up". Of course, the Kyoko clap clap clap chants start soon enough as well so they're still with her. With a little help from a slow ass counting ref Kyoko milks the 20 count for all it's worth really putting over the pain. After getting back in Tak gets in another shoulder drop suplex, a top rope arm drag and a top rope superplex all for 2 counts. Kyoko counters Tak coming off the ropes with a powerslam to turn the tide and then signals for the Niagra Driver and I have never ever ever seen someone convery the look of desperation, the look of "please god let me end this" like Kyoko is here. Having taken so much damage Kyoko strugles to lift Tak and drops her on the 1st attempt, the 2nd attempt Tak escapes and they battle over a backslide which Kyoko wins. Still fighting out of desperation Kyoko gets in the airplane spin power bomb and Tak kicks out at fucking 1 with her near last bit of energy. The ref begins a standing 10 count which allows Kyoko to regain her composure and now starts looking less desperate and more like "come on bitch, i'll show you". Tak uses her very very last bit of energy to make it up by 9 and is met with a simple but stiff slap from Kyoko to knock her out and get pined to end things. Post match barely celebrates and doesn't check on her opponent either, she just walks away stoicly, she won but only just barely. Takako died a warrior's death and proved her point, proved she can hang with the big dogs afterall, proved she won't be a pushover any longer. I remember 1st watching this years ago and thinking it was a real good match but nothing special, re-watching it now, knowing more of the backstory I apreciated it a lot more. The finishing sequence is up thear with Aja/Bull as one of my fave endings to a match ever and overall this is an awesome match, great blend of story & pure workrate action. Def Takako's best ever at this stage.

- Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Bull Nakano

Follows your basic tag formula. Toyota & then Yamada both have exstended sections getting beat down and Bull & Aja are quite fired up on this night. Bull especially but Aja too are having a grand old time torturing their poor opponents. Lots of Bull lariating folk in the jaw, crushing ppl with splashes, Aja smashng skulls in, punting ppl in the back, fun double teams, general stiffness and stretching goodness. Bull even bust out the running cross body ala Aja early on for kicks. In between Toyota & Yamada's butt whopins Yamada does manage to take down Bull for a while and her & Toyota get a little bit of revenge in but it doesn't last long as they piss off Bull and she takes back over. Later in the match once they make their comeback it's again Bull who's on the recieving end of a bigger batch of offense. A lot of speed & technique based stuff leads to their success and Aja accidently waffling Bull with a uraken helps too. Fun dive sequence sees Toyota wiping out on her quebrada attempt hitting Yamada instead and then Aja crashing and buring on a freakin diving cross body to the floor which takes out Bull, Kyoko & Bat. Toyota & Yamada get in a bunch of double teams on Bull but Aja recovers enough to save and they regain controll. Toyota eats a Bull leg drop but Yamada saves at the last second so Bull decides she's done playing around and goes straight to the moonsault to kill Toyota off and win it. Interesting to see they're continuing the Toyota as weak link story. Dug how they went out of their way to protect Aja as at no point was she allowed to look weak, she just kicked a lot of ass and looked like a monster with Bull being the one who took the majority of the punishment for their team with Aja having to come to her rescue a few times. Bull for her part even though she was the more vulnerable one, she's always been smart about being able to maintain her aura of toughness, making sure you know even when she's down she's not out. Toyota & Yamada even though they were fighting from underneath most of the match never came across like they didn't have a chance and this was far from a squash. Great great match all around.

- Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Harley Saito, Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa

Not as much of a pure brawl as I remembered it being. There's a few moments whear things get out of control and all 6 end up fighting all over. People get thrown into chairs, bodies fly all over, the usual. Shimoda gets bodyslamed on the anounce table by Harley right in front of Kandori & Rumi Kazama who were sitting near by, looked nasty too as Shimoda only hit the edge. Later on Shimoda piledrives Handa on the same table which doesn't break and didn't look fun. Aside from that the match mostly took place in the ring but still reamined nothing less then a total hate filled war. From moment 1 there's death stares all around before the bell even rings, no one's taking their eyes off each other with things ready to explode at any second. Handa slaps Shimoda during the introductions and gets held back by Hokuto from going nuts on her, instead she sends Mita in after Eagle to start and it's all go from thear. You'll rarely see matches so intense & emotional. With JWP & FMW the rivalry was always a tad more respect & pride based, with LLPW things just felt more personal. Every little thing they do in this match from a simple arm bar or a roll up to a suplex or kick has something extra behind it, every change in momentum feels important and every moment feels like a struggle. You get the sense that both teams came with the attitude of "losing is not an option". Too many highlights to single anything out, just great action from start to finish with an insane K-Hall crowd living & dying with every move & cheering on the hometown Zenjo team. Match comes down to everyone in the ring going at it, LCO gain the advantage long enough for Mima & Mita to lift up Handa for a doomsday missile dropkick from Hokuto, Shimoda goes for the pin but it gets broken up, Eagle & Harley quickly get dumped outside again and Hokuto swoops in with a quick NLB on Handa that allows Shimoda to pin her for the 3 count. In a year of amazing matches this isn't quite MOTYC but it's up thear among the best matches of the year. Post match is almost as awesome as the match itself. Harley gets on the mic 1st to talk shit and provoke things, Hokuto tells her to shut up and then turns her attention to Kandori. Kandori runs in sporting an awesome white sweater and what appear to be plaid zubaz or sweat pants which I didn't know they made. Kandori throws her freakin shoe at Hokuto and after doing some yelling of her own a big pull apart brawl breaks out. As things settle down, Suzuka Minami gets on the mic says she wants in on this and more challenges are laid down. In the back Hokuto not happy to have just won slaps the ever loving hell out of her 2 deciples and screams at them for not doing better in the match, laying down the law and telling them that this war is just getting started. Show then ends with 1 more confrontation between Kandori backed up by Harley & Hokuto backed up by Suzuka as they meet in the locker room and build up their singles match some more with about a million press & photographers looking on.