Random top whatever list and 1990 thoughts
Not too much made tape from this year, 9 tv shows/comm tapes + a few random misc matches that surfaced here & thear, prob around 50-60 matches for the year total that i've seen (decided not to get the AJW Classics ep that has the 12/9 footage, for now atleast).
Top 10 matches
1. 11/14/1990 (Cage Match) Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong
2. 8/19/1990 Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamato
3. 8/19/1990 Akira Hokuto vs Manami Toyota
4. 7/21/1990 (3WA Title) Bull Nakano © vs Manami Toyota
5. 1/4/1990 Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita vs Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta
6. 9/1/1990 (Cage Match) Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano
7. 11/14/1990 (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami © vs Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue
8. 5/13/1990 (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami © vs Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
9. 6/17/1990 (JGP FINAL) Manami Toyota vs Yumiko Hotta
10. (Lucha Libre Rules Elimination Match) Hyper Cat, La Diabolica, Miori Kamiya & Mayumi Yamamoto vs Esther Moreno, Xochitl Hamada, Takako Inoue & Noriyo Tateno
Slim pickings this year, a lot of good but not a ton that was blow away great after the 1st few matches on this list. Both 89 and 91 were way better.
Top 10 Wrestlers
1. Bull
2. Hokuto
3. Aja
4. Toyota
5. Mitsuko Nishiwaki
6. Hotta
7. Mima Shimoda
8. Suzuka Minami
9. Bison Kimura
10. Mika Takahashi
Like 91 I found Bull to be easy choice for #1, was going to go with Aja as #2 again but thinking about it Hokuto really did have a much better year then her as outside of the Bull feud she didn't do that much this year while Hokuto had a lot more range. Toyota had a really strong year as well as this was kind of her breakout year. After that it's kind of a pick em. The lack of footage for a lot of people kind of sucks and kept them from being higher or in the case of people like Kyoko & Yamada, on the list at all as they only even had a couple of matches make tape this year.
1990 was a weird period for AJW, they'd lost Dump in 88 and then lost Crush in 89 plus several of the other big names who carried the company in the 80's were gone by then so they were in a clear rebuilding period. The 1st 1/2 of the year was all about establishing and putting over the rivalry between the Dream Orca, Tokyo Sweethearts, Marine Wolves, Fire Jets crew and featuring them as the new top stars to varying degrees with Gokumonto just kind of milling about in the background. The 2nd 1/2 of the year the promotion took a major turn when things switched to being all about the Aja vs Bull feud. Now Bull was the obvious successor to Dump but something I started thinking about as I watched more 90 stuff was that there really wasn't a clear cut choice for new top babyface(s) to fill the void left by the Crush Girls. Hokuto was close and back in 89 it looked like they might have been grooming her for that spot, making it a point to have Chiggy & Lioness feud with her on their way out but after that AJW seemed a little hesitant to get 100% behind her as the new "it" girl. Along the way in 90, like I mentioned earlier Toyota really broke out but I dunno if she was quite ready back then to be the top ace either Didn't help that she wasn't fully over with all the crowd back then either. You could really tell that this year was when the new generation of fans, many of which were males, started showing up to shows and while they loved Toyota she was hot & cold in the eyes of what was left of the shrieking school girl crowd who seemed more into the tougher, strong, butch girls like Hokuto & Hotta. Whatever you want to say about Yumiko, for a while thear she was over as fuck with that audiance and I always got the sense that AJW wanted to do more with her but when given the spotlight on a few (not all) ocasions, she choked and under-delivered which caused them to eventually sour on her push. Kind of a nobody in early 90, Kyoko had fully established herself as another one in the competition for the spot of future top star by 91 and while they never did get behind Yamada as more then an upper mid card wrestler (maybe they thought she was too much of a Chigusa clone?), she was atleast in the race for a while too among others. So yeah, back then there really was a feel of "shit, we can't decide who to push now, let's just throw a bunch of stuff out thear, see what sticks and let the cream rise to the top". Guessing that may have been what led to the non traditional pick of Aja getting the slot as Bull's main rival and them building the company around a monster vs monster feud for the 1st time which ended up being a great choice as it carried the company through their down period and gave them a couple extra years to further build up the other girls like Toyota & Kyoko.
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