AJW 1991 July - September

AJW 8/18/1991

- Bat Yoshinaga, Tomoko Watanabe & Hirosuine Sonteitam vs Miori Kamiya, Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Ito
Jungle Jack Jobbers vs the Gokumonto C squad to start the show. Typical lower card match. Fun, enjoyable, fast moving action but nothing of any importance until the last few mins and nothing you'll remember a week from now. Most interesting part happens after the match with Bat & Miori getting into a pull apart afterwards, kinda wouldn't mind seeing that match.

- Yumiko Hotta, Mima Shimoda & Sakie Hasegawa vs Debbie Malenko, Esther Moreno & Cynthia
Moreno
During the pre match interviews, Sakie shows off a pretty nasty looking scar/set of stitches on her forearm, no clue what from. Malenko standing next to the Moreno's really highlights how short they are, Debbie looks like Andre the Giant next to them. Also just wanna mention that Debbies promos were always such an awesome highlight of every show with her "aww shucks, I gotta nother good partner, i'm sure we'll win" attitude. Match itself is pretty good though not as much as you'd hope looking at the lineup on paper. Kind of a better version of the previous match as they work it similarly. They keep the action moving with everyone coming in, hiting a few moves then getting out without anyone getting too much of the spotlight though Hotta & Esther managed to shine a little more then the others. As is usually the case in these things, future tag parters Debbie & Sakie have another nice exchange during the match as well

- (AJW Title) Takako Inoue (c) vs Mariko Yoshida
Really really good match. Similar to the Kyoko one from a few months ago. Takako goes to work on the leg and Yoshida puts on a fucking selling clinic. Putting over the pain long after she takes over on offense, she can't even muster the leg strength to put on a body scissors or squat on both legs for a full boston crab. While in control Yoshida desicdes to focus her attacks on the back and Inoue does a damn good job of putting that over as well but she's still able to pick up the win following a series of suplexes that looked sorta like Toyota's JOCS but w/o the arm cross and then going back to the leg for the submission win. Scary moment along the way as Yoshida does a diving tope outside and lands rite on her face which had to suck ass but she was able to get up and keep going none the less. Be interesting when I give their 92 match a re-watch as I recall that one being not as good but it was quite a while ago that I first watched that one.

- (JGP) Toshiyo Yamada vs Kyoko Inoue
They start off throwing bombs before settling down for a matwork section. Yamada is all full of piss, vinegar and ruthless agression during this match and she comes out on top for this part of the match. She doesn't focus on any one particular body part, just going from hold to hold but Kyoko does an amazing job of getting over that all the wear down holds are, ya know, wearing her down. When they entered finishing stretch she didn't suddenly pop up with a burst of energy, acting no diffrent then she did in the 1st few mins of the match. She was still able to bust out some big moves sure, but it really came across like she had to dig down deep to find the strength to pull them off. Really felt like both girls were treating this like the big match that it was. Great great stuff, one of the better matches of the year.

- (JGP Semi Finals) Aja Kong vs Bison Kimura
2 months before House Party 2 - The Pajama Jam was released Aja has grown her hair back and is sporting a full on Kidd style high top fade. She must have been a big fan I imagine. Bitter friends stiffer enemies. Booking long time tag partners against each other has been a long running theme throughout AJW's history. Of all the teams they've done this with, Aja & Bison may be the ones who've held the least back against each other. Hell, if anything, wrestling each other makes them usually up the brutality a significant amount which is certainly the case here. They brawl all over the building to start this one out, stiffing the piss out of each other along the way but then the match takes a unique turn. Bison, being Aja's good buddy and tag partner and all knows that she has a bad ankle and she does what any good friend would do in this situation. She vicsiously attacks it, ripping off Aja's boot, ripping off the bandage, biting her foot & beating it with the police baton she likes to carry around. She works it over for a good while but unlike 99% of all wrestling matches ever, there's no comeback, Bison just beats her down and beats her down and beats her down, Aja gets a few minor licks in here & thear but it has no long term effect. Bison continues her attack, suplexes her, puts her in a leg lock, fucks her ass, makes her humble and causes her to submit. Then to boot, Bison gets on the mic to talk shit afterwards as well. Good stuff

- (JGP Semi Finals) Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue
Not a bad match but i'd certainly rank it in the bottom portion of all their singles stuff i've seen. Built simiar to the Yamada match from earlier with a hot start followed by a long stretch of exchanging holds. The matwork section here isn't as good or interesting though. More just something that comes across like they're killing time. You start thinking this may end up being a long one then they bust out a short section of hot moves and go to the finish almost out of no whear with Kyoko putting her in a combo Romero Special, Camel Clutch for the 3rd submission win of the night. Kyoko's so overjoyed at winning she dang near breaks down in tears.

- Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto
Judging from how this match went i'm guessing Mita must have done something REALLY bad beforehand. Like maybe she let out a giant fart on the tour bus during a hot summer day or something. Suzuka gets on the mic before the match starts, possibly adding "hey Bull, Hokuto, Mita also said your mother's were whores too". Dunno. Either way, Bull & Akira are pissed off like i've never seen before and beat the fiznuk out of poor Mita here, like so bad that by the end i'm concinvced I was witnessing a legit atempted homicide. Minami for her toubles tries to put up a fight but Bull & Hokuto are having none of that shit tonight, treating Suzuka like a mere speed bump traveling down on their road of violence to the dark side of hell. There was also something going on with Sakie Hasegawa & 1 of the other seconds at ringside i'm not sure about. Times like these whear getting to see the previous shows or atleast having results or some kind of context would come in handy as there was clearly a larger backstory/angle surrounding this match of some sort.

- (JGP Finals) Kyoko Inoue vs Bison Kimura
Fight & War are the 2 words that best describe this. Simple story, Bison jumps her to start, beats & bloodies her up but Kyoko who's allready gone through 2 other matches shows too much heart, won't be denied and keeps fighting back. A little screwyness with the ending as Kyoko blows the finish the first time she tries it but they cover for it nicely and it sort of helped add to the story of the night in it's own way. Great match, best one on the show which is saying something. Crowd is going insane with joy after Inoue wins. Really comes across like a huge deal and career defining, break out moment for her.

AJW 9/7/1991

- Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe vs Mayumi Yamamoto & Kazue Saito
A competitive squash. The other girls got a little bit of offense in but WatBat largely dominated things and this was mostly an excuse for them to show off a little bit with Watanabe looking quite impressive and Bat not being treated as a jobber for a change.

- Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Mariko Yoshida vs Mika Takahashi, Miori Kamiya & Kaoru Ito
Jungle Jack Black & White in the hizouse. A few sloppy spots here & thear but otherwise a real good match. Scary moment when Yoshida lands on the top of her head taking a bulldog from Mika off of Miori's shoulders but it doesn't shake her up too much and she continues on fine. Ito got to be the star of this one. You knew going in based on seniority she was most likely the one getting pinned but she really made LCO & Yoshida work for it putting up a hell of a fight & nearly winning herself during the final stretch. After the match Takahashi anounces her sudden retirement will be happening next month.

- Suzuka Minami & Takako Inoue vs Aja Kong & Bison Kimura
Ah, you know it's a stacked show when the Jungle Jack Red & Black's working 3rd from the bottom. Decent match but could have been better. Similar story to the Suzuka/Toyota match from Jan. Takako is the weak link who gets smashed whenever she's in but Minami is able to stand up to JJ & out werestle them. Mainly against Bison but she gets the better of Aja too. Problem with the match is the Takako torture fest goes on a little too long with Minami mainly being limited to short burst of offense. When she does get in she's able to also do a good job of avoiding being hit with any of JJ's big moves until the end when they finally catch her use their power to put her away rather easily

- Manami Toyota vs Toshiyo Yamada
So this is the 7th singles match i've seen between these two and if you've ever seen even a few of their matches before you should have a good general idea how this one went. On this night Yamada was on offense for most of the mat work section working over Toyota's leg which I think Toyota did a good job of putting over. She doesn't exactly do it in the traditional "ow my leg" hobble around sort of way but she still gets across that Yamada's attacks are taking their toll as when she does go back on offense she can't put the same speed or strength behind her stuff anymore. Yamada while not taking as much punishment suffers in that department as well, perhaps being "rope a doped" into using up a lot her energy dishing out the beating. Turns into an interesting battle for the final stretch with each one delivering what the other can't. Toyota has a lot of big moves but can't put much energy behind them, Yamada has a little more energy but can't deliver a big enough blow to grab the win so things end in yet another 30 min draw between them. Not the best one in their feud but still a great match and a fine addition to it

- (All Pacific Title) Akira Hokuto (c) vs Yumiko Hotta
Hokuto has custom tights that say "WWWA APC", awesome. Really hyped for this going in but it ended up being a complete and total 1 woman show. I'm a long time Hotta fan but she brought NOTHING to the table tonight and completely looked like she did not belong on this level. Watching Hokuto take a beating = good, watching Hotta give a beating = not so good. Watching Hokuto beat Hotta's ass = Yay, watching Hotta taking the beating = Meh. Watching Hokuto sell the leg = great as always, watching Hotta work the leg = ZZZZZ. Hokuto could have proably had a better match wrestling Yoshihiko, the blow up doll certainly would have brought more energy, passion & personality to the table. To top it off, Hotta even botched the finish, messing up a roll up before getting mercy killed with the NLB.

- (3WA Title) Bull Nakano (c) vs Kyoko Inoue
Not sure what to exspect going in, i've had seen these 2 have really great matches (94) and really boring ones (95). This one was easily my fav of them all and by far one of the better matches of the year. Bull starts out strong as usual before Kyoko gets the advantage. There's very few people in the world that were gonna stand up to Bull in a fight but she can be outwrestled, either by really speedy girls who hit & run and or on the ground, taking it to the mat. Course, the problem with either strategy is Bull will eventually catch you if you run around and Bull will eventually get back up if you take her down. Here, Kyoko uses her speed to her advantage and is lucky enough to bust Bull open really early off a post shot, making her a bloody mess for the rest of the match, then she goes into a long section of trying to wear down Bull with diffrent holds which she's pretty succesful at actually. Like I said, Bull eventually came back and regained controll but she was clearly weakened by then. Bull decided to return the favor and really tortures Inoue with diffrent stuff, stretching her to hell. Ending sequence sees both really fatigued, desperat to pick up the win. In funny moment, Kyoko tries to go for a german while Bull is holding onto the ropes and if you look in the back ground the ref is just shaking his head like "nope, don't even try girl". Bull has to dig DEEP into her move set to try and win this, again, busting out a lot of stuff i've never seen or atleast rarely seen her do. In a true holy shit moment, Bull counters being whiped into the ropes but doing a fucking picture perfect cartwheel out of it and in one motion, the second she lands on her feet grabing Kyoko for a belly to belly suplex. So the coolest thing EVER. Still, this looks like it's gonna be Kyoko's night, she's able to keep coming with the high speed attacks & get Bull up for a lot of her power moves as well. Things finally go bad for her when she makes the mistake of trying to do Bull's own flying leg drop on her and because Kyoko was still super skinny back then she didn't have enough ass cushion so she hurts her own butt doing it. This allows Bull to grab her in a reverse DDT and hit a giant moonsault to retain her title in what actually felt like a lucky win for her. This truely was Kyoko's year though as far as star making performances and she gets a huge ovation anyways post match.