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.