AJW 1990 April - June

AJW TV 4/30/1990

Fire Jets Concert

- Miori Kamiya & Hyper Cat vs Mima Shimoda & Manami Toyota
Pretty decent. Dug Hyper Cat & her arrogant power style here. Only drawback is it ends a little suddenly when things finally started to get rockin Toyota gets a flash roll up on Kamiya for the win. Not taking it too kindly Miori attacks her after the match but it's quickly broken up.

- Bull Nakano, Grizzly Iwamoto & Bison Kimura vs  Yumiko Hotta, Etsuko Mita & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
Weird seeing Bison still with Bull's gang after watching so much 91/92 stuff. They come in looking quite pissed off and surley and you can kind of tell by the look on Mita & the others faces as they enter they know they're about to get messed up. Actual match doesn't wind up being quite as 1 sidded but it's largely dominated by Gokumonto, especially when Mita's in thear. The Fire Jets get their shots in here and thear but there was never any doubt on who was winning. Bull & the others press slam their opponents out of the ring post match then talk shit to Chigusa Nagayo who was hanging around this show as special guest commentator just to be bitches. Fun little match.
The AJW training footage I posted the other day airs

- (All Pacific Title) Noriyo Tateno (c) vs Aja Kong
Now THIS was a total squash. Aja jumps her to start in the isle and the Jumping Bomb Angel never has a chance. I think during the entirety of the match or atleast what was shown (about 5 mins got cut) Tateno only maybe gets 30 seconds total worth of offense. The rest is all Aja beating her down, tossing her around, smacking her with weeapons, throwing her into Chiggy just because and making her bleed. Aja finally puts her away with 2 brutal looking urakens. They sort of give Tateno a half assed "out" to save face as she slightly kicks out right after 3 to sorta make it look like crooked ref Shiro Abe screwed her even though he didn't. Tateno tries to protest to the comishoner but no dice and Aja is your new champion. Enjoyable stuff.
                          
- (2 out of 3 Falls) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi
Rare non title 2/3 fall match involving the champs. The Honey Wings are faster & more athletic but the Marine Wolves are tougher & smarter is the story they were trying to tell here. Not so much a squash but they definately wanted the people watching to clearly know who the better team were. Every time Kaoru or Mika would get a big spazzy flurry of offense Hokuto or Suzuka would counter it or dodge their attacks or outwrestle them or something to regain the advantage and continue beating them down again. Late in the 2nd fall it looked like Kaoru & Takahashi were finally going to turn things around but again their high flying gets shut down and the Wolves sweep them in 2 straight falls. Like the rest of the matches on this show, nothing mind blowing but a real good solid match.

AJW 5/13/1990

- (AJW Title) Manami Toyota (c) vs Etsuko Mita
Super clipped up match only showing quick highlights and then maybe the last min or so of the match. Work was sloppy but still looked like a damn good match from the little that was shown. Highlights being Mita press slamming Toyota to the floor near the start and later on in the match, Toyota spring boards off the refs back trying to do a dive to the outside. She fucked it up badly & missed by a mile but it was still cool in a Sabuish, holy shit you're nuts for even trying that, wipeout sorta way. Toyota retains her belt after a series of pretty nasty looking piledrivers.

- (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami (c) vs Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
60's Soldiers EXPLODE - Marine Wolves vs Fire Jets. 1st Fall is pretty good, they don't go all out but real solid work. Fire Jets mostly dominate to disapointment of the shrieking school girls in attendance who're all about them some Marine Wolf love. Minami & Nishiwaki have an awesome exchange near the end that sees Nish come out on top w a backdrop suplex to pick up win #1. Quick 2nd fall going only 4-5 mins. Starts w Hotta playing a game of kickball using Ms Minami as the ball but when she tags out to Nish Suzuka's able to make a come back. Hokuto comes in and cleans house and the Wolves go on a long stretch of offense throwing bombs against both girls until they finally put Hotta away to even things up. Fire Jets whine the entire break to the ref that it was only a 2. 3rd fall is more back & forth then the other 2 with Hokuto & Nishiwaki being the standouts this time. It comes down to them for the final stretch and it's a huge joy to watch. Really Nishiwaki period was the best of the 4 tonight, loved her in this match. She sadly losed though when Hokuto counters her powerbomb attempt into a cradle. Real good match. Dunno why, maybe just wasn't in the mood for a spazzy spot fest having watched this after like 6 & 1/2 hours sleep but I really dug the pacing of the match too. They weren't going at a snails pace or anything, just not so super fast that it made it hard for some stuff to register or remember or whatever. Fire Jets again prove to not be gracious winers post match and beg for a re-match after.

- (Kickboxing) Sakie Hasegawa vs Bat Yoshinaga
Legit shoot and thankfully cut to just highlights. Basically a squash as Bat beats the snot out of poor Sakie. In kind of a dumb moment she goes down with a leg injury, Bat keeps pounding on her and with some pretty brutal shots and the ref doesn't step in to stop it or check on Sakie. A few mins later Sakie goes down again due to her leg giving out and this time she's counted out.

- (Kickboxing) Madusa vs Aja Kong
Pretty clearly a work and thankfully it's aired in full. Atleast I think it's a work, I mean you can't work side headlocks, step up enzugiris, atomic drops and back suplexes in a real fight rite....RITE???? OK then. Anyways, for a fake fight they still threw some real ass punches and kicks, Aja goes most of the way with hugely bloody nose.  They jump each other before the bell even rings and it's a non stop hate fest till the end so good stuff. They go the distance and Madusa ends up winning via judges decision which Aja takes none too kindly and all hell breaks loose post match, ending with her getting drug to the back kicking & screaming. 

AJW 6/17/1990

- (Kickboxing) Bat Yoshinaga vs Mayumi Yamamoto
Pretty good as far as these types of matches go. No technique, no strategy, just 8 mins of wild swinging and kicking Mayumi ending up a bloody mess by the end of things. Not that she didn't get her licks in but Bat mostly dominated her and had she not won via TKO in the 3rd it was prety clear she'd have won on points were it to go to a draw anyways.

- (All Pacific Title) Aja Kong (c) vs Suzuka Minami
JIP 10 min in with Aja demolishing Suzuka and throwing her all around outside. Back in the ring the beating continues, Suzuka thorws in a suplex here & thear but largely continues to get her ass whooped. Once the K-hall little mateal door gets brought though the ref decides enough is enough and DQ's her awarding Suzuka the belt. A decision no ones happy with, Suzuka refuses the belt & vacates it and Aja goes nuts and beats down everyone, ref included. She then drags Minami out to the bleachers and then beats her with the turn buckle padding that someone hands her. Fun squash, wish we could have seen the full thing.

- (JGP R1) Noriyo Tateno vs Medusa
Ok enough match but nothing special. They didn't have overly good chemistry together and a lot of what they did seemed clunky and disjointed. A neat little sequence for the ending stretch but that was very short lived and it ends with a double pin as Madusa bridges back after a roll up. Kinda makes her look stupid too as the ref does a rare thing and goes out of his way to warn her that her shoulders are down as well before he makes the count but she ignores him. Post match Tateno begs for an overtime and Madusa grabs her from behind like she was about to give her a German which causes Tateno to hilariously spaz out and flail around before things are broken up and she's draged to the back screaming away and cursing the evil foreigner.

- (JGP R1) Yumiko Hotta vs Grizzly Iwamoto
Fun little quick match. Grizzly dominated things and was on offense for most of the match beating Hotta down with weapons & other brawling. Hotta stayed in the fight though and got her kicks in here & thear. A lot of them actually and in the end it paid off as kind of out of no whear Hotta connects with one straight to the side of Grizzlys head to get a surprise knock out win.

- (JGP R1) Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto
Toyota starts out fast attacking at the bell but Hokuto quickly shuts that down with a stiff ass clothesline to the jaw. Then spends the next few mins stretching Toyota on the mat. Should mention that at this point it becomes really noticable how much the crowd is split as all the dudes in the audiance boo the heck out of Hokuto which causes the shrieking school girls to rise up in support of her making for an awesome atmosphere. Toyota makes her comeback and they trade dives on the outside. Hokuto lands badly on hers, whacking her leg against the guard rail and cutting a gash in her shin when she comes down. Hokuto's in near tears from the pain but wants to continue anyways but the ref has none of it and calls for the bell as the parade of shit finishes continues. Was turning into a damn good match before things got derailed thear.

- (JGP Semi Final) Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs Yumiko Hotta
Fire Jets Explode. Wasn't feeling this one too much at first but after a while once I realised what they were going for I ended up really digging this match. Nish knows what Hotta's big strength is so she spends the 1st 1/3 or so of the match working over her legs. Once she focuses on other attacks and starts getting a little cocky it gives Hotta the chance to recover though so that strategy ends up not paying off. Hotta kicks the hell out of her to come back and then starts hitting a bunch of suplexes and sleepers. They moved into your typical back & forth stuff for the finishing sequence which turned out quite nice. Hotta finally gets her with a tiger suplex but Nish protest that she got her arm up at the last second. Real good match.

- (JGP FINAL) Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta
Toyota rushes Hotta at the bell, going completely wild and being maybe more agressive then i've ever seen her before. She tosses her over the guard rail and hits a giant dive off the top into the crowd. Hotta eventually gets up and is super pissed and the fights on. Somewhear in all of this Hotta starts bleeding from above the eye but it's not enough to stop her and she takes over on Toyota. Long long controll segment w Hotta slowly wearing her down little by little to the point whear when Toyota finally does change the momentum she can't make that much of an energetic come back. Instead Toyota just starts grabbing holds of her own to wear Hotta down. In the end I thought it made for a cool moment as they both really put over the fatigue factor real well I thought. The final stretch really did seem like a battle of attrition with both having to dig down deep to put the other away and it's Toyota who gets the win after out smarting Hotta and rolling her up. Really good match, best of the show.