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.
