Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2011
Hamada's UWF Vol 7 Comp - 1990 - 1993 Joshi
11/10/1990 - Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno
Bit of a weak follow up to the match the day before. More just a standard tag match with Moreno & Hamada going for fast paced flippy stuff and the Honey Wings slowing it down with mat work. Near the end team luchadora have a bit of miscomunication and get in a shoving match after accidenly hitting each other. Kaoru & Takahashi take advantage and are able to finish off Xochitl pretty easyily after isolating her. Takahashi gets the W with a big superplex.
11/12/1990 - Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno
A mix between their previous two matches. Like the first match it starts pretty hot with Kaoru & Mika again running out to jump them then when things settle down we get a long matwork section. Bit hard to focus at times due to the camera angle but this is a 21 year old fan cam so beggers can't be choosers. Moreno & Mika are really good during this part. The action picks back up once the lucha girls get in a big series of highspots , they miss a pair of dives outside which leads to some pretty nice brawling around the building for a while. Back inside we get a little more matwork before going into the finish which is a bit of a repeat of the last match only this time it's Moreno eating a giant double superplex. Post match Hamada goes nuts on Moreno beating her down with a chair, the Honey Wings leave at first not caring but Hamada keeps beating her down, including giving Moreno a tombstone on the chair until finally Kaoru & Mika begrudgingly make the save. Damn good match, bit of a toss up between for which is better, this or the first but I slightly lean towards 11/9 however. Sadly there's no footage of any Hamada vs Moreno singles matches that may have come out of this as i'm sure that'd be a great pairing opposite each other.
3/7/1991 - Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa
This was ok. They only got 8 mins so kind of a cliff notes version of what they could do as they run through the usual. Little sloppy in a few spots which hurt the momentum of the match too. Near the end Sakie goes for a diving cross body and somehow catches Yoshida in the nose on the way down busting it open so they go to the finish pretty soon after that. Sakie goes for a suplex combo but Yoshida reverses out and hits one of her own to win.
3/7/1991 - Noriyo Tateno vs Kaoru Maeda
Crowd was hyped to see Tateno as this was a little over a week before she was set to retire. They did a few nice spots in this, crazy suicide dive from Kaoru and Moreno dead lifting Kaoru up by the hair into a big slam were two of the highlights. Beyond that and a few other things they didn't do much else of interest. They went to a draw and even at a measly 10 minutes it still suffered from a lot of the same issues that plauge those types of matches.
3/8/1991 - Noriyo Tateno & Sakie Hasegawa vs Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Maeda
Bit better then either or their individual matches the day before. Kaoru & Yoshida get the early advantage and I dug the leg work with them going after Sakie's knee. When Tateno & Sakie gain control they don't fare quite as well. They get Kaoru in for an exstended beat down but every time it looks like she's gonna be in any real trouble Yoshida is thear to watch her back and make the save. All through the rest of the match Sakie keeps selling her knee from earlier which was a nice touch and eventually they go back to attacking it. Tateno gets the win out of nowhear with a surprise cradle on Yoshida. Fun match up until then.
3/9/1991 - (Special ref Kaoru) Mariko Yoshida vs Sakie Hasegawa
No clue why Kaoru is on ref duty tonight, bigger mystery is why the heck they had her wearing a garbage man's uniform to do it in. Essentially they do 5-6 mins of really basic low level stuff then all of a sudden Yoshida nearly kills herself on a suicide dive outside, landing bad as her head goes splat on the concrete floor. Miraculously she appears to be ok, enough to continue the match atleast which wakes the crowd up and a big Yoshida chant ensues. They don't go too much longer however and back inside they imediatly switch it into high gear with a bunch of counter sequences that sees Yoshida come out on top, again reversing something of Sakie's into a pin for the win. Last few mins were good but before that pretty average.
5/24/1992 - Mariko Yoshida vs Mima Shimoda
K, this is more like it as we skip ahead a year and are now in the middle of Yoshida's run as one of the best wrestlers in the world. Story early on sees them take it to the mat with Shimoda focusing on Yoshida's arm. As always, Yoshida does a great job putting it over not only while on defense but continuing to do so while on offense. She drops an elbow but it only serves to injure her own arm, she goes for a boston crab but doesn't have the strength to hold on to both legs so has to switch to a half. Great little things like that make her stand out as one of the best. For a while the match turns into a Yoshida showcase as she goes on the attack for a bit. Shimoda hits a lot of really nice flying clotheslines during the comeback which she always does but tonight they looked better then usual. Switching things up she starts going for a bunch of leg lock submission attempts now. In another cool little touch she locks in an ankle lock and when Yoshida tries to push up out of it Shimoda reaches over and punches her in the gut to shut that shit down. Like a lot of Yoshida matches that i've noticed, in the end things come down to them dodging and countering a lot of each others moves, lots of athletic back and forth stuff. Really puts over Yoshida as the type of wrestler who wins by outsmarting her opponents. Damn good match, i'd say this is just a notch or so below the great match Yoshida would have with Shimoda's partner Mita a month or so later. Really played to both girls strengths well.
5/7/1993 - (CMLL Women's Title) Xochitl Hamada (c) vs Kaoru
Skipping ahead another year, Kaoru had droped the last name by now and had started working in the mask as "Infernal Kaoru". No major highlights in this, just a good solid match with Hamada mostly dominating and Kaoru fighting back ocasionally. Not enough in the end as she gets powerbombed to hell as Hamada retains.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Hamada's UWF Vol 6 Comp - 1990 Joshi
So a few years back Jeff Lynch put together a 7 volume comp of Gran Hamada's Universal Wrestling Federation and I ended up picking up the last 2 volumes which focus exclusively on the women's matches that took place in the promotion. AJW & UWF had a working relationship at the time so they would trade talent back & forth, mostly AJW girls appearing on Universal shows but a occasionally you'd see the UWF men wrestling on an AJW card too. Don't know how well it worked out for UWF but it exsposed the AJW girls to a lot of new fans and i've always heard it credited as being 1 of the things that helped eventually grow their audiance and led to more male fans showing up at shows as opposed to the school girl dominated crowds of the 80's. Anyways, i've never seen any of this footage before and only maybe 5 or so UWF matches period so this will be interesting to take a look at.
3/1/90 - Xochitl Hamada & Mika Takahashi vs Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto
This is from UWF's debut show. Ah Xochitl, Ayako's lesser known but just as talented older sister, glad to see more footage of her. You can really tell this is def a diffrent audiance who doesn't usually watch much joshi based on the crowd reactions. A lot of stuff that's routine on AJW shows like the screaming and certain other spots gets a lot of laughter and bemusement from the audiance, at the same time, they also pop for a lot of the big moves and seemed into it by the end. Mostly a by the numbers formula tag. The Outsiders Bison & Grizzly mostly dominate things with their rough, heel style with Hamada & Mika making the ocasional comeback only to get cut off and the beating to continue. Of the 2, when they did get on offense Hamada got to shine the most and really looked like the star of her team. Ending comes when Mika & Hamada get a hold of the Outsiders Kendo sticks and start caning the crap out of their opponents and the ref who happens to be Wally Yamaguchi of WWF Kaientai "Choppy choppy your pee pee" fame. Kind of funny since in AJW this wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary but apparently UWF has stricter "rules" so the ref calls for a DQ. More chaos follows but eventually gets settled down. Nothing special but a pretty decent match.
3/2/90 - Xochitl Hamada vs Bison Kimura
Based on how the last match ended you'd exspect a heated follow up but no. Sadly they just have a low end house show match. Lots of basic mat work mixed in with a couple bigger moves. Didn't help that this took place in a darker building with a quieter more subdued crowd too. Hamada again looks good with a few nice highspots at the end including a crazy out of control plauncha but not too many highlights besides that. Match ends in a double countout shortly after.
3/5/90 - Xochitl Hamada & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong & Bison Kimura
Starts out a little bit similar to the 3/1 tag. Kaoru & Hamada get in bigger stretches of offense then Mika & Hamada did but the early going is still largely heel dominated. Hamada & Bison really clicked here for the 1st time and had some great exchanges and a nutty Flair/Garvin level chop war. Ending comes when all 4 get in the ring and they go for one of those complicated lucha sequences whear everyone's doing mirror spots at opposite ends of the ring and there's a bunch of heel miscomunicaion stuff. Sorta falls apart a little at this stage but they recover nicely and bodies go flying all over in a cool dive train. Back inside Kaoru & Hamada score the win with tandem roll ups on their opponents. Overall a damn good match and the 1st to really show off how good the AJW girls could be.
6/4/90 - Manami Toyota, Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto
They switched things up and brought over an AJW ref to handle things, nothing against Yamaguchi but that's def a wise move. You can tell the girls had really started to get over with the new audiance at this piont as the crowds hyped for this one. Funnily enough it's the Gokumonto heels that are the one's who have the biggest cheering squad too with Aja especially being crazy over. In a funny bit they chant her name in tune with every offensive move she hits or when the ref counts a pinfall for her like the ECW fans chanted Shaw for Hack Myers. Hilarious stuff I really can't do justice describing. On the opposite end, the crowd doesn't dislike Honey Wings DX either, they'd ohh, ahh and applaud when they'd do a big move or cool spot but they're not as into them as they are their opponents. Match itself follows the previous pattern of the heels kicking all kinds of ass and the faces having to bravely fight back. All 6 really busted ass in this one and near the end Toyota & Kaoru are getting big chants as well after making their comeback. Near fall exchange is really good down the stretch and ends with Aja & Toyota going at it. After escaping a suplex attempt Aja backfist Toyota and puts her down with a huge german suplex of her own to win. This wouldn't crack my top 10 for AJW in 1990 but i'd say this is def somewhear in the top 20. Great great match with a hot crowd, nothing not to love about this.
6/7/90 - Madusa, Mika Takhashi & Kaoru Maeda vs Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto
3rd Show in a week Universal had run at K-Hall so the crowd's not as hot at this point though still into things a good bit. Compared to the previous tag this has more back & forth stuff with no team getting controlling for too long. Aja & Madusa were in the middle of their feud at this point so there's a big focus on them well.
The stuff between them is pretty good as they had decent chemistry together. Madusa working with the others is a bit hit & miss so thankfully Honey Wings do a majority of the work in this. Last few mins are a bit odd. Goku are in controll and go for what I can only describe as a traingular belly bump of doom but it backfires and leads to everyone fighting outside. Big dive train follows and in the midst of all the chaos Madusa & Bison end up going at it in the ring. A small USA chant of all things breaks out for Madusa and after accidently running into Aja, Bison gets pinned out of nowhear with a rollup. Def a step down from the previous tag and the finish was pretty anticlimactic but overall still a good match.
6/1/90 - Bison Kimura vs Kyoko Inoue
Not much to this as they have a pretty by the numbers match. Kyoko was still a no name with a bit of potential at this point as she didn't get her big break until the end of the year. She got to get in just enough offense to not make this a total squash but never really looked competitive enough that you ever thought she had a chance of winning. Bison wins with that weird drop to your ass backslide she was doing for a while.
11/9/90 Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther Moreno
More Esther Moreno is always great in my book. Somewhear along the way Honey wings seemed to have developed some bad blood with the luchadoras as they rush the ring and attack before the intros even start then throw their oppenents out into the crowd. Back inside both Kaoru & Takahashi run through some cool highspots with Moreno before things slow down and the Moreno/Hamada team gains controll. Only last a couple mins as they go right back to fast more fast paced back & forth action. After a couple double teams including a pretty sweet stereo elbow drop on Moreno, Kaoru gets the win over her with a german. Damn good match, whole thing only last maybe 10 mins but they packed a lot in. Excited to see the 2 rematches they have a couple days after this. Kaoru & Takahashi get in a few exsta punts to Moreno's head as they leave just because. Moreno & Hamada give ref Yamaguchi a giant back body drop before making their exit...just because :)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
AJW 1990 Thoughts & Top 10 List
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.
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.
AJW 1990 October - December
AJW 10/7/1990
- (Mistuko Nishiwaki Retirement Match) Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs Yumiko Hotta
As a match nothing special but these things rarely are, especially since during this time frame they only gave you a 5 min exhibition for your retirement match. Funnily they went over by like 15 seconds but hey who's counting. They go back and forth for a bit and Nish gets to hit a lot of her big spots and gets to go out a winner after a couple power bombs (she always did one of the best looking ones i've ever seen) buts Hotta away. Long, emotional hug between the Fire Jets post match and your typical joshi retirement ceremony follows. Streamers, 10 count, speach, etc...If you've watched joshi for any length of time you know the deal. Haven't seen enough Nishiwaki matches to be emotionally invested in this to be honest but from what I have seen since I started this project of revisiting the early late 80's & 90's stuff she was really damn good and is someone i'll continue to look forward to watching any time I see her name pop up on a matchlist in the future.
AJW 11/14/1990
Originally watched this show several years ago, re-watching it now it'll be interesting to see if my opinion changes on anything.
- (AJW Tag Titles) Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda (c) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
Honey Wings in charge to start, lot of flashy offense at 1st then they take it to the mat working over Mima for several minutes. Kaoru stupidly leg rolls her into her own corner allowing Mita to hot tag in and go crazy. LCO dominate for a while, beating up both Honey Wings before settling in on working over Kaoru. Mika returns the favor, going nuts when the tag finally happens and I really just can't say enough how much of a highlight she is during this time period. Kaoru kept up with her very well but Takahashi was the star of this show and together they bust out all kinds of cool highspots & double teams including a sweet double flying elbow off the top. Not enough to get them the though as they go for the move a 2nd time but get pushed off the ropes allowing Mita to get the pin over Kaoru with a Northern Lights Suplex to with the belts. Liked this about the same as I did when I 1st saw it, only difference now is that I have way more love for Takahashi. It was missing a little something to put it over the top, maybe an extra couple minutes, I dunno but still a real good match to start the show.
- (Lucha Libre Rules Elimination Match) Hyper Cat, La Diabolica, Miori Kamiya & Mayumi Yamamoto vs Esther Moreno, Xochitl Hamada, Takako Inoue & Noriyo Tateno
Essentially just one giant long fast paced high spot which is fine if done well and this was great. Doesn't go super long but they pack enough in that you don't even notice and nothing feels overly rushed or anything. Comes down to Kamiya vs Tateno for the finish at which point things switch from being a lucha sprint to a joshi sprint but it still fits well with the rest of the match. Kamiya gets the big win after 12-13 mins. This was my 2nd favorite match on the show originally and while I wouldn't call it that anymore it still holds up really well.
- Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida vs Madusa & Bison Kimura
The only thing I ever remembered about this going in was Madusa's ridiculous Ric Flair strut at the end. Match itself is pretty fun, an exstended squash for the most part. Hotta & Yoshida get a little bit in and manage small run of offense near the end but the majority of this is the Jungle Jack team beating ass like they're the joshi Road Warriors or something. And years later Madusa's strut and other over the top heeling is just as ridiculous as it was the 1st damn time I saw it.
- Los Brazos vs Gran Hamada, Kendo & Yoshihiro Asai
Lucha invasion continues. Gran Hamada was awesome, Ultimo was really good and Oro & El Brazo were fine too but this match was the fucking Super Porky & Kendo show. Kendo was allready like the most over guy going into the match and is one of the most spectacular wrestlers i've ever seen and by the end Porky won them over huge as well with his fat guy flying. Still blown away by some of the stuff they manage to pull off here, perfect blend of comedy & serious action and a great match period.
- (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls - Special Ref Yoshiyo Yamada) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami (c) vs Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue
This is the match my opinion has changed the most of after re-watching. Originally I thought this was just an ok - decent match but this time around I got a lot more out of it and found it to be really good. It's not a work rate, blow away, movez type of match. Not to say that there isn't a lot of great action but the thing that puts this over the top is the story of the match. Yamada was out injured thus unable to team with Toyota so instead she's made ref and Kyoko Inoue is booked to team with Toyota. Even back then the 2 were rivals so we've got whacky mis matched tag parters, something way way over played in main stream US wrestling but rarely ever done in AJW or Japanese wrestlng in general. Things go well for the new pairing early on, Marine Wolves prove to be a better unit, doing a lot of team work and mostly dominating the 1st round but Kyoko & Toyota are still good enough wrestlers that they can come out on top so long as they coexist. With a little help from Yamada "mistakenly" not seeing Hokuto get her shoulder up at the count of 3 Kyoko gets the pin on her. Funny moment as even she wasn't sure it was really 3 and acted all surprised when Yamada gave it to her. 2nd round things look to continue but it goes bad quickly as Kyoko decideds to bring a chair in and accidenly nails Toyota causing her to lose. Shit breaks down after as Toyota decideds she in fact does not enjoy getting smacked in the head by heavy metal things and her & Kyoko get into a fight with people having to rush in to break it up. The soldier on for the 3rd fall which sees Toyota getting beat down by The Wolves for quite a while before finally making the big tag to Inoue. Soon after things go bad again though as Hokuto & Suzuka prove to also be a smarter pair and after getting Kyoko again attack Toyota on accident Hokuto gets her win back, pinning her with the NLB. Post match Toyota gets on the mic, talks shit and says her & Yamada want their shot. Course, a month later Jungle Jack won the titles so moot point.
- (Cage Match) Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong
Just based on my initial few viewings of this I allready had this on my list of the greatest matches i've ever seen. That was before i'd seen very much of the Aja/Bull feud and only a small amount of 90-92 AJW in general. Watching it again now I had an even greater appreciation for it. The over all work is still unbelievably great but now I got a lot more of the little things that were going on and dug how they played off their earlier cage match. Since that one had a screwy finish with Gedo, it makes sense why this one is escape only and has no ref. In the previous match Aja cut open Bull's leg really bad so here Bull puts it over huge when she goes after it again and as retaliation she stabs Aja in the arm with a pair of scissors which is an aspect i'd never thought of before, originally just thinking she did it just to be a bitch. Also never got why Aja jumps her at the start and cuts a chunk of Bull's hair off till I realised they were setting up for the hair vs hair tag next Jan. The other thing I dug a lot more was watching what was going on outside of the cage with each girls seconds. While Aja vs Bull was always the main focus, the feud itself was a lot more then just that as it was about Jungle Jack vs Gokumon-to in general. Got a big kick out of watching how hard Bison & Madusa were fighting it out with Kyoko & Bat ringside and how hard they were trying to help their friends inside the cage, tossing in weapons, Madusa & Bison going nuts and trying to scale the cage once Bull cut Aja's arm open, Kyoko & Bat doing the same when Aja had Bull in serious trouble at times too. Really cool stuff, matches like these are why I love wrestling.
AJW TV 12/1/1990
- (AJW Singles Title) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Miori Kamiya
Funny moment to start as Miori fakes a handshake then punts Kyoko in the head. Go back & forth with highspots for a bit and then things turn surprisingly brutal. It breaks down into more of a fight then a wrestling match as they go to town swinging fist. They take it outside and Miori ends up bleeding after being whiped into the rails and back inside Kyoko works over the cut which is a little weird since she isn't usually that vicious of a wrestler. Another funny moment as Kyoko takes these ricidulous flipping somersault bumps off punches to the gut and then the fight goes outside again. Miori bust Kyoko open this time, cracking her head with a chair. A few more mins of brawling and then Kyoko finally gets the win after Kamiya misses a kick and gets droped with a spining power bomb. They shake hands after all post match. Fun match, not at all what I was exspecting but in a good way, most of it aired too which is always a plus.
- Bull Nakano vs Akira Hokuto
Bull kicking ass rite from the start and soon in she press slams Hokuto over the top to the floor in a nasty looking Holy Fuck moment. Hokuto appears to have banged up her arm on the landing and Bull laughs at her pain. Bull continues the beat down and Kyoko Inoue runs in to his a double team spot just for the heck of it. Bull breaks out the nun chucks too and chokes away all the while seeming to have the time of her life. Hokuto would make an attempt to fight back here and thear but it mostly got shruged off until she's finally able to hit a big dive on the outside and follow it up with some suplexes and other big moves, she even gets the NLB in but it's not enough. Bull regains controll and a couple of suplexes and power bombs onto Hokuto's head and it's over. Match didn't last very long, 12 mins total and like 1/2 aired so it couldn't compare to some of the stuff they'd do in the future but what we got was still damn good and a nice preview of things to come. Since Bull won this one fairly easily for the most part, kind of weird that Hokuto got the next title shot a month later.
- (2 out of 3 Falls) Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Madusa vs Manami Toyota, Suzuka Minami & Mika Takahashi
Madusa once again rocking the bad ass pink Zubaz. Jungle Jack attack to start and start tossin fools left & right, they settle on beating the snot out of poor Mika before switching to Toyota for a bit until Bison slips on a banana peel and Toyota cradles her to win the 1st fall. 2nd fall Bison is pissed off and out for revenge and thus procedes to murder Toyota, bring her back to life via voodoo then murder her again. With a little help from an Aja trash can shot to the head Bison avenges her loss after a couple of minutes. 3rd fall is a little more evenly fought as the the 3Ms switch strategies and take it to the mat which works out well for them for a while but things go bad again when they decided to take things outside and try hitting a bunch of dives. Soon after chairs start swinging and bodies get tossed all over and Aja tries to show up Bull, wining with a nasty power bomb of her own on Mika. Suzuka didn't get involved as much as the other 2 in this match but Mika & Manami are one of the more fun tag teams that never was and this was a cool match. Much like the Madusa/Bison tag from Marinepiad, really enjoyable in a monster heel glorified squash sort of way.
- (Mistuko Nishiwaki Retirement Match) Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs Yumiko Hotta
As a match nothing special but these things rarely are, especially since during this time frame they only gave you a 5 min exhibition for your retirement match. Funnily they went over by like 15 seconds but hey who's counting. They go back and forth for a bit and Nish gets to hit a lot of her big spots and gets to go out a winner after a couple power bombs (she always did one of the best looking ones i've ever seen) buts Hotta away. Long, emotional hug between the Fire Jets post match and your typical joshi retirement ceremony follows. Streamers, 10 count, speach, etc...If you've watched joshi for any length of time you know the deal. Haven't seen enough Nishiwaki matches to be emotionally invested in this to be honest but from what I have seen since I started this project of revisiting the early late 80's & 90's stuff she was really damn good and is someone i'll continue to look forward to watching any time I see her name pop up on a matchlist in the future.
AJW 11/14/1990
Originally watched this show several years ago, re-watching it now it'll be interesting to see if my opinion changes on anything.
- (AJW Tag Titles) Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda (c) Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda
Honey Wings in charge to start, lot of flashy offense at 1st then they take it to the mat working over Mima for several minutes. Kaoru stupidly leg rolls her into her own corner allowing Mita to hot tag in and go crazy. LCO dominate for a while, beating up both Honey Wings before settling in on working over Kaoru. Mika returns the favor, going nuts when the tag finally happens and I really just can't say enough how much of a highlight she is during this time period. Kaoru kept up with her very well but Takahashi was the star of this show and together they bust out all kinds of cool highspots & double teams including a sweet double flying elbow off the top. Not enough to get them the though as they go for the move a 2nd time but get pushed off the ropes allowing Mita to get the pin over Kaoru with a Northern Lights Suplex to with the belts. Liked this about the same as I did when I 1st saw it, only difference now is that I have way more love for Takahashi. It was missing a little something to put it over the top, maybe an extra couple minutes, I dunno but still a real good match to start the show.
- (Lucha Libre Rules Elimination Match) Hyper Cat, La Diabolica, Miori Kamiya & Mayumi Yamamoto vs Esther Moreno, Xochitl Hamada, Takako Inoue & Noriyo Tateno
Essentially just one giant long fast paced high spot which is fine if done well and this was great. Doesn't go super long but they pack enough in that you don't even notice and nothing feels overly rushed or anything. Comes down to Kamiya vs Tateno for the finish at which point things switch from being a lucha sprint to a joshi sprint but it still fits well with the rest of the match. Kamiya gets the big win after 12-13 mins. This was my 2nd favorite match on the show originally and while I wouldn't call it that anymore it still holds up really well.
- Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida vs Madusa & Bison Kimura
The only thing I ever remembered about this going in was Madusa's ridiculous Ric Flair strut at the end. Match itself is pretty fun, an exstended squash for the most part. Hotta & Yoshida get a little bit in and manage small run of offense near the end but the majority of this is the Jungle Jack team beating ass like they're the joshi Road Warriors or something. And years later Madusa's strut and other over the top heeling is just as ridiculous as it was the 1st damn time I saw it.
- Los Brazos vs Gran Hamada, Kendo & Yoshihiro Asai
Lucha invasion continues. Gran Hamada was awesome, Ultimo was really good and Oro & El Brazo were fine too but this match was the fucking Super Porky & Kendo show. Kendo was allready like the most over guy going into the match and is one of the most spectacular wrestlers i've ever seen and by the end Porky won them over huge as well with his fat guy flying. Still blown away by some of the stuff they manage to pull off here, perfect blend of comedy & serious action and a great match period.
- (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls - Special Ref Yoshiyo Yamada) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami (c) vs Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue
This is the match my opinion has changed the most of after re-watching. Originally I thought this was just an ok - decent match but this time around I got a lot more out of it and found it to be really good. It's not a work rate, blow away, movez type of match. Not to say that there isn't a lot of great action but the thing that puts this over the top is the story of the match. Yamada was out injured thus unable to team with Toyota so instead she's made ref and Kyoko Inoue is booked to team with Toyota. Even back then the 2 were rivals so we've got whacky mis matched tag parters, something way way over played in main stream US wrestling but rarely ever done in AJW or Japanese wrestlng in general. Things go well for the new pairing early on, Marine Wolves prove to be a better unit, doing a lot of team work and mostly dominating the 1st round but Kyoko & Toyota are still good enough wrestlers that they can come out on top so long as they coexist. With a little help from Yamada "mistakenly" not seeing Hokuto get her shoulder up at the count of 3 Kyoko gets the pin on her. Funny moment as even she wasn't sure it was really 3 and acted all surprised when Yamada gave it to her. 2nd round things look to continue but it goes bad quickly as Kyoko decideds to bring a chair in and accidenly nails Toyota causing her to lose. Shit breaks down after as Toyota decideds she in fact does not enjoy getting smacked in the head by heavy metal things and her & Kyoko get into a fight with people having to rush in to break it up. The soldier on for the 3rd fall which sees Toyota getting beat down by The Wolves for quite a while before finally making the big tag to Inoue. Soon after things go bad again though as Hokuto & Suzuka prove to also be a smarter pair and after getting Kyoko again attack Toyota on accident Hokuto gets her win back, pinning her with the NLB. Post match Toyota gets on the mic, talks shit and says her & Yamada want their shot. Course, a month later Jungle Jack won the titles so moot point.
- (Cage Match) Bull Nakano vs Aja Kong
Just based on my initial few viewings of this I allready had this on my list of the greatest matches i've ever seen. That was before i'd seen very much of the Aja/Bull feud and only a small amount of 90-92 AJW in general. Watching it again now I had an even greater appreciation for it. The over all work is still unbelievably great but now I got a lot more of the little things that were going on and dug how they played off their earlier cage match. Since that one had a screwy finish with Gedo, it makes sense why this one is escape only and has no ref. In the previous match Aja cut open Bull's leg really bad so here Bull puts it over huge when she goes after it again and as retaliation she stabs Aja in the arm with a pair of scissors which is an aspect i'd never thought of before, originally just thinking she did it just to be a bitch. Also never got why Aja jumps her at the start and cuts a chunk of Bull's hair off till I realised they were setting up for the hair vs hair tag next Jan. The other thing I dug a lot more was watching what was going on outside of the cage with each girls seconds. While Aja vs Bull was always the main focus, the feud itself was a lot more then just that as it was about Jungle Jack vs Gokumon-to in general. Got a big kick out of watching how hard Bison & Madusa were fighting it out with Kyoko & Bat ringside and how hard they were trying to help their friends inside the cage, tossing in weapons, Madusa & Bison going nuts and trying to scale the cage once Bull cut Aja's arm open, Kyoko & Bat doing the same when Aja had Bull in serious trouble at times too. Really cool stuff, matches like these are why I love wrestling.
AJW TV 12/1/1990
- (AJW Singles Title) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Miori Kamiya
Funny moment to start as Miori fakes a handshake then punts Kyoko in the head. Go back & forth with highspots for a bit and then things turn surprisingly brutal. It breaks down into more of a fight then a wrestling match as they go to town swinging fist. They take it outside and Miori ends up bleeding after being whiped into the rails and back inside Kyoko works over the cut which is a little weird since she isn't usually that vicious of a wrestler. Another funny moment as Kyoko takes these ricidulous flipping somersault bumps off punches to the gut and then the fight goes outside again. Miori bust Kyoko open this time, cracking her head with a chair. A few more mins of brawling and then Kyoko finally gets the win after Kamiya misses a kick and gets droped with a spining power bomb. They shake hands after all post match. Fun match, not at all what I was exspecting but in a good way, most of it aired too which is always a plus.
- Bull Nakano vs Akira Hokuto
Bull kicking ass rite from the start and soon in she press slams Hokuto over the top to the floor in a nasty looking Holy Fuck moment. Hokuto appears to have banged up her arm on the landing and Bull laughs at her pain. Bull continues the beat down and Kyoko Inoue runs in to his a double team spot just for the heck of it. Bull breaks out the nun chucks too and chokes away all the while seeming to have the time of her life. Hokuto would make an attempt to fight back here and thear but it mostly got shruged off until she's finally able to hit a big dive on the outside and follow it up with some suplexes and other big moves, she even gets the NLB in but it's not enough. Bull regains controll and a couple of suplexes and power bombs onto Hokuto's head and it's over. Match didn't last very long, 12 mins total and like 1/2 aired so it couldn't compare to some of the stuff they'd do in the future but what we got was still damn good and a nice preview of things to come. Since Bull won this one fairly easily for the most part, kind of weird that Hokuto got the next title shot a month later.
- (2 out of 3 Falls) Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Madusa vs Manami Toyota, Suzuka Minami & Mika Takahashi
Madusa once again rocking the bad ass pink Zubaz. Jungle Jack attack to start and start tossin fools left & right, they settle on beating the snot out of poor Mika before switching to Toyota for a bit until Bison slips on a banana peel and Toyota cradles her to win the 1st fall. 2nd fall Bison is pissed off and out for revenge and thus procedes to murder Toyota, bring her back to life via voodoo then murder her again. With a little help from an Aja trash can shot to the head Bison avenges her loss after a couple of minutes. 3rd fall is a little more evenly fought as the the 3Ms switch strategies and take it to the mat which works out well for them for a while but things go bad again when they decided to take things outside and try hitting a bunch of dives. Soon after chairs start swinging and bodies get tossed all over and Aja tries to show up Bull, wining with a nasty power bomb of her own on Mika. Suzuka didn't get involved as much as the other 2 in this match but Mika & Manami are one of the more fun tag teams that never was and this was a cool match. Much like the Madusa/Bison tag from Marinepiad, really enjoyable in a monster heel glorified squash sort of way.
AJW 1990 July - September
AJW 7/21/1990
- (Kickboxing) Sakie Hasegawa vs Mayumi Yamamoto
Some cool highlights, at the start of the last 3 rounds they come out swinging like crazy. In the middle of the 3rd round Yamamoto
tries a freaking Jushin Liger style rolling koppo kick only she does it in super slow motion, looking ridiculous. Sakie pounds her head in for her trouble. Sadly, all of the above amounts to about 1 mins worth of action and the other 11 mins this thing goes is boring as hell, total FF material. Goes the distance, Sakie wins via judges decision.
- Miori Kamiya, Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Kaoru Ito
Totally digging Miori's bad ass green ninja body suit here. Stylistically your typical joshi sprint, non stop action from bell to bell. As far as these types of matches go though I thought this was on the higher end and a real good match. A sloppy moment or 2 but for the most part everyones on their A game, especially Kyoko & LCO. Mima gets the win after around 10 mins of action which surprised me when I looked at the clock since they cramed so much in it felt like 20.
- Mitsuko Nishiwaki, Mika Takahashi, Kaoru Maeda & Esther Moreno vs Grizzly Iwamoto, Bison Kimura, Hyper Cat & La Diabolica
Starts out similar to the last match with a lot of back & forth. Moreno who I dunno if this is her debut but it's her 1st time making tape for AJW, gets to shine early busting out some beautiful lucha high spots. Things then settle down for a bit with La Ruda's taking over and beating down Nish & Kaoru. Funny, possibly uninentional moment as Grizz blocks a head scisors attempt by stepping on Kaoru's hair as she's trying to roll through. La Technica's make their come back with Mika coming in and clearing out then things break down with every one fighting all over allowing Nishiwaki to pick up the win over Bison, rolling her up after she takes a nasty looking missed cane shot from Grizz right to the jaw. A little shorter then the last match, only maybe going 8 total sadly so nothing majorly great but this was damn good while it lasted.
- (Kickboxing) Bat Yoshinaga vs Akemi Torisu
Didn't look at the match listing before I watched this show, going in I knew the main & semi but that's it. When I saw Bat pop up for her backstage interview in Karate gear I went "fuck, not another one of these". My sadness quickly disapeared when I saw her opponent was Torisu so i'd be getting a...pre match to the awesome fucking spectacle they put on in 91. And holy cow this match was everything I could have hoped. Bat MAULS her from the start, she gets knocked down about 4 times in less then a min from blows to the head, knocked down again after a leg kick at the 90 second mark and the ref is like "fuck it, yer done kid" and calls for the bell. Torisu cries in shame post match and begs to continue but no go. I think she may have gotten in like 2 punches during this match...maybe. Makes her performance the following year vs Bat all the more impressive and amazing.
- Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs Noriyo Tateno & Yumiko Hotta
Jet Bomb Angels in the house. A lot of back & forth between the 2 teams but at a slower paced build. Tateno & Hotta had some good chemistry together and Tateno vs The Wolves produced some good moments. Wouldn't have minded seeing this team continue with Nishiwaki soon to be retiring. Just as the match is getting going though around the 9 min mark it ends with Hotta falling prey to a Hokuto missile drop kick to the face. Another to add to the good but would have been better with 5 more mins pile.
- (Street Fight) Aja Kong vs Madusa
The backstage anouncer has the bright idea of having them do a face to face interview pre match and after Madusa does her best Luna Vachon shrieking grrr angry promo inmitation things shockingly break down into a fight but it's quickly broken up. Back in the ring Aja comes out being carried on a podeum, old school Macho Man style lookings pissed as hell and ready to murder. Then, sadly, the actual match starts and it's all down hill from thear. Angry pre match backstage brawl + "Street match" billing + girls in ripped jeans and cammo gear you would THINK = bad ass wild crazy brawl but NOPE, not tonight. This is instead, I dunno really how to even describe it. There were some brawling elements involved sure, a table was hurled at someones head, people were smacked upside the head with boots. At the same time they were also wearing large open fingered boxing gloves and they sorta but not really did some, a lot of actually fake mma stuff but not the good kind. The 1st 1/3 or so of this didn't start with heated angry exchanges it was wimpy looking punches and LONG head lock & leg bar sequences. Then atleast another 1/3 of this worked like your average joshi wrestling style with irish whips and pile drivers and flying drop kicks and shit. For the finish it delved back into kickboxing mode with a lot of punch exchanges and Madusa eventually falling prey to 1 too many urakens. No clue WTF they were going for in this match, not enteriely sure THEY knew WTF they were going for in this match. It got 21+ mins, longer then the last 3 matches combined. It definately wasn't bad, it had it's moments but I couldn't call this good either and was quite disapointing overall. And sigh, after all the hatred and anger and swearing death upon each other's heads, they hug post match.....let's move on...
- (3WA Title) Bull Nakano (c) vs Manami Toyota
A total power vs speed match. At the begining none of Toyota's attacks work. She runs at Bull, eats a lariat, runs at Bull, gets tossed asside like garbage, runs at Bull, gets slamed down. She tries a new strategy of trying to take it to the mat but that doesn't work so well either as Bull stretches her to hell instead. Like at the JGP last month the crowd is again split but this time it's around 70/30 in favor of Toyota so whenever a Bull chant breaks out it's quickly drowned by the larger Manami cheer squad. Toyota makes her come back and goes back to spazzing out like a mad woman, this time to more success. She's able to hit a lot of fast moving dives and other attacks and escapes a lot of Bull's power stuff either moving out of the way to hit a move of her own or countering into a roll up or cradle for a near fall. Crowds going nuts at this stage hoping for a title change but as is often when people try & play the speed game with Bull it ends badly because eventually she will catch you and all it takes is one monster lariat or flying leg drop or in case of the finish a nasty looking power bomb droping Toyota on her head for the win. Entire match only goes like 9 minutes but it's one of the best sub 10 matches i've ever seen and a damn great match period. Proving it's not always how much time you get but what you do with it that counts.
AJW 8/19/90
- Etsuko Mita vs Miori Kamiya
- (Kick Boxing) Sakie Hasegawa vs Kaoru Ito
Too cliped to really coment on, the Mita match looked decent from what was shown, Ito/Sakie, not so much
- Coolie SZ & Bulldog KT vs Masa Michinoku & Monkey Magic Wakita
Only quick highlights show. Nothing impressive and some sloppy looking stuff. Still neat seeing super young Jado & Gedo and an unmasked Sasuke & Super Delfin
- Kaoru Maeda Estelle Moreno & Mika Takahashi vs Kyoko Inoue Hyper Cat & La Diabolica
Good little lucha sprint. Moreno's have been rocking it on all these early AJW shows i've been watching. Diabolica was impressive too. Anyone know who Hyper Cat was? Seems kind of familiar, like it might have been one of the AJW girls under the mask
- (Kick Boxing) Mima Shimoda vs Yumiko Hotta
Hmm, Mima Shimoda in a shoot fight, that's odd.
Hmmm, Mima Shimoda in a shoot fight not only holding her own but dominating at times, that's odd.
Hmmmm, they're busting out dragon screw leg whips & step up enzuguris in this shoot fight, interesting.
Hmmmmm.....INDEED!!!!!
- Madusa & Noriyo Tateno vs Suzuka Minami & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
They're billing this as 2000th match of Tateno who debued a little over 9 years earlier as is on her (1st) retirement road. Madusa in the pre match promo claims herself & Tateno are the new breed. I know AJW used to run quite the heavy schedule back in the day but I think they're may be a lil bit of fuzzy math going on here. Madusa also claims her opponents have million dollar bodies & 10 cent brains...yup. Match itself was nothing special.
- Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto
Even better version of the match they had a few months later. Actually this may be the best singles between them i've seen period. Starts off super hot and then switches gears as this time Hokuto, the imortal mummy goddess goes in with a bad leg that Toyota goes to town on and the selling & drama that results is just off the charts. There was such an awesome air of desperation to everything they did as well, with it feeling like it was a true war to get any move in on the other, no one wanting to get caught in any hold w/o a fight and every big move being treated like it could be the end. A true joy to watch. I made the comment on the Yamada/Toyota match that it never seemed like they were going to a draw because they'd often work a little bit of a slower paced, long matwork section in most all their matches, here it's the opposite, this never appeared like they were going the distance either but it was because it was just non stop action the whole way through with never a dull moment.
- Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Bull Nakano & Grizzly Yamato
Everything I want out of wrestling & so much more. If I still gave out star ratings this would get 5. Legit one of the greatest matches i've ever seen. At it's best, great wrestling matches allways garner 1 of 2 responses from me. Either i'm jumping up & down going "fuck yeah, whoo, this is amazing" or i'm sitting thear deathly silent, intensely concentrating, not wanting to blink and miss 1 second. This match falls into the latter category. I couldn't turn away by the end, just staring with my mouth 1/2 open in disbeliefe at how damn fuckin great this was. This wasn't just good in your standard "oh they did a b & c, I like all those things, toss in a blender & mix for yummy goodness" sorta way. This was special, they did a through z then invented a 27th & 28th letter because they're just that good. Everyone was so perfect playing their roles, especially Bull as the unstopable dominant monster. Watching Bull just stand thear as Aja & Bison tried with all their heart to beat the shit out of her with Kendo sticks and Bull just had this "come on, is THAT all you've got" look on her face is one of those iconically cool moments in wrestling that you know you'll never ever forget.
AJW 9/1/1990
- (Cage Match - Special Ref Bulldog KT) Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano
The version I have is from the original TV broadcast not the AJW Classics episode that came out earlier this year. Sadly for some reason this is the only match from that tv ep that exist today and whatever earlier stuff that aired on the same episode got cut off/no one taped/isn't in circulation. They do air a highlight package at the end of the show showing briefe clips of what else took place on this show and among other things this card also had a lost Kyoko vs Toyota singles match, ending with Toyota going over with the rolling cradle in 18+ so f u to whoever forgot to set their VCR to record the rest of this show 20 years ago. I think Aja agrees as she infact has "Fuck U" shaved into the side of her head...yup.
Much like the Madusa match a couple months ago, they have Aja & her opponent do a face to face pre match promo and shockingly, it again breaks down into a crazy brawl backstage. Madusa actually seconds Aja here so I guess the post match hug during their street fight is what formed their alliance. Would have been interesting to see whear her as a member of Jungle Jack had played out long term had she not bounced in 91 to go to WCW.
Match itself is worked a little diffrently then your usual AJW cage match and thinking about it, as far as I can tell this may infact be the 1st cage match AJW ever did. To start with, this one has a ref and not just any ref no, Bulldog Fucking KT who would be better known today as Gedo who'd been in wrestling like 1 year at this point. Why in the blue ass hell he of all people is the ref for this match I have no clue. He ends up playing a big part in the match though. He won't let either wrestler use weapons which is obviously weird since it's a freakin cage match and so he's always taking them from them and getting in their face for it. Last man standing rules are also in effect so you can win via some other means then escape which doesn't even play a factor until the end. Intense hatred rite straight off the bat as they get to beatin the crap out of each other. Bull gets the early advantage but it doesn't last long and they go back and forth for a while. They alternate between brawling and trying to wear each other down with holds and power stuff and I thought they pulled off the mix well. Things get interesting when Aja decides to go after Bulls leg and goes nuts attacking it with a trash can. She opens up a pretty fair sized gash on Bulls leg and once Aja smells blood she goes to work on that for a while and while Bull tries to fight back but never fully regains control. Along the way I should mention that Gedo bets whacked a few times by both for his troubles of trying to enforce rules in this cage match and he ends up a bloody mess as well. For the finish he also ends up playing a big part as after Aja nails Bull a few more times in the leg she goes to escape and though Bull manages to get back to her feet, Gedo is standing near the ropes fully in the way preventing Bull from getting thear in time and allowing Aja to get the win.
Bull cries foul post match leading to screaming & yelling and all hell breaking loose post match with them brawling some more and having to be sperated. For what this was designed to do I thought this did a perfect job. No whear close to their more famous cage match a few months later but it was great as a set up for the re-match and just as a stand alone still really damn good.
- (Kickboxing) Sakie Hasegawa vs Mayumi Yamamoto
Some cool highlights, at the start of the last 3 rounds they come out swinging like crazy. In the middle of the 3rd round Yamamoto
tries a freaking Jushin Liger style rolling koppo kick only she does it in super slow motion, looking ridiculous. Sakie pounds her head in for her trouble. Sadly, all of the above amounts to about 1 mins worth of action and the other 11 mins this thing goes is boring as hell, total FF material. Goes the distance, Sakie wins via judges decision.
- Miori Kamiya, Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Kaoru Ito
Totally digging Miori's bad ass green ninja body suit here. Stylistically your typical joshi sprint, non stop action from bell to bell. As far as these types of matches go though I thought this was on the higher end and a real good match. A sloppy moment or 2 but for the most part everyones on their A game, especially Kyoko & LCO. Mima gets the win after around 10 mins of action which surprised me when I looked at the clock since they cramed so much in it felt like 20.
- Mitsuko Nishiwaki, Mika Takahashi, Kaoru Maeda & Esther Moreno vs Grizzly Iwamoto, Bison Kimura, Hyper Cat & La Diabolica
Starts out similar to the last match with a lot of back & forth. Moreno who I dunno if this is her debut but it's her 1st time making tape for AJW, gets to shine early busting out some beautiful lucha high spots. Things then settle down for a bit with La Ruda's taking over and beating down Nish & Kaoru. Funny, possibly uninentional moment as Grizz blocks a head scisors attempt by stepping on Kaoru's hair as she's trying to roll through. La Technica's make their come back with Mika coming in and clearing out then things break down with every one fighting all over allowing Nishiwaki to pick up the win over Bison, rolling her up after she takes a nasty looking missed cane shot from Grizz right to the jaw. A little shorter then the last match, only maybe going 8 total sadly so nothing majorly great but this was damn good while it lasted.
- (Kickboxing) Bat Yoshinaga vs Akemi Torisu
Didn't look at the match listing before I watched this show, going in I knew the main & semi but that's it. When I saw Bat pop up for her backstage interview in Karate gear I went "fuck, not another one of these". My sadness quickly disapeared when I saw her opponent was Torisu so i'd be getting a...pre match to the awesome fucking spectacle they put on in 91. And holy cow this match was everything I could have hoped. Bat MAULS her from the start, she gets knocked down about 4 times in less then a min from blows to the head, knocked down again after a leg kick at the 90 second mark and the ref is like "fuck it, yer done kid" and calls for the bell. Torisu cries in shame post match and begs to continue but no go. I think she may have gotten in like 2 punches during this match...maybe. Makes her performance the following year vs Bat all the more impressive and amazing.
- Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs Noriyo Tateno & Yumiko Hotta
Jet Bomb Angels in the house. A lot of back & forth between the 2 teams but at a slower paced build. Tateno & Hotta had some good chemistry together and Tateno vs The Wolves produced some good moments. Wouldn't have minded seeing this team continue with Nishiwaki soon to be retiring. Just as the match is getting going though around the 9 min mark it ends with Hotta falling prey to a Hokuto missile drop kick to the face. Another to add to the good but would have been better with 5 more mins pile.
- (Street Fight) Aja Kong vs Madusa
The backstage anouncer has the bright idea of having them do a face to face interview pre match and after Madusa does her best Luna Vachon shrieking grrr angry promo inmitation things shockingly break down into a fight but it's quickly broken up. Back in the ring Aja comes out being carried on a podeum, old school Macho Man style lookings pissed as hell and ready to murder. Then, sadly, the actual match starts and it's all down hill from thear. Angry pre match backstage brawl + "Street match" billing + girls in ripped jeans and cammo gear you would THINK = bad ass wild crazy brawl but NOPE, not tonight. This is instead, I dunno really how to even describe it. There were some brawling elements involved sure, a table was hurled at someones head, people were smacked upside the head with boots. At the same time they were also wearing large open fingered boxing gloves and they sorta but not really did some, a lot of actually fake mma stuff but not the good kind. The 1st 1/3 or so of this didn't start with heated angry exchanges it was wimpy looking punches and LONG head lock & leg bar sequences. Then atleast another 1/3 of this worked like your average joshi wrestling style with irish whips and pile drivers and flying drop kicks and shit. For the finish it delved back into kickboxing mode with a lot of punch exchanges and Madusa eventually falling prey to 1 too many urakens. No clue WTF they were going for in this match, not enteriely sure THEY knew WTF they were going for in this match. It got 21+ mins, longer then the last 3 matches combined. It definately wasn't bad, it had it's moments but I couldn't call this good either and was quite disapointing overall. And sigh, after all the hatred and anger and swearing death upon each other's heads, they hug post match.....let's move on...
- (3WA Title) Bull Nakano (c) vs Manami Toyota
A total power vs speed match. At the begining none of Toyota's attacks work. She runs at Bull, eats a lariat, runs at Bull, gets tossed asside like garbage, runs at Bull, gets slamed down. She tries a new strategy of trying to take it to the mat but that doesn't work so well either as Bull stretches her to hell instead. Like at the JGP last month the crowd is again split but this time it's around 70/30 in favor of Toyota so whenever a Bull chant breaks out it's quickly drowned by the larger Manami cheer squad. Toyota makes her come back and goes back to spazzing out like a mad woman, this time to more success. She's able to hit a lot of fast moving dives and other attacks and escapes a lot of Bull's power stuff either moving out of the way to hit a move of her own or countering into a roll up or cradle for a near fall. Crowds going nuts at this stage hoping for a title change but as is often when people try & play the speed game with Bull it ends badly because eventually she will catch you and all it takes is one monster lariat or flying leg drop or in case of the finish a nasty looking power bomb droping Toyota on her head for the win. Entire match only goes like 9 minutes but it's one of the best sub 10 matches i've ever seen and a damn great match period. Proving it's not always how much time you get but what you do with it that counts.
AJW 8/19/90
- Etsuko Mita vs Miori Kamiya
- (Kick Boxing) Sakie Hasegawa vs Kaoru Ito
Too cliped to really coment on, the Mita match looked decent from what was shown, Ito/Sakie, not so much
- Coolie SZ & Bulldog KT vs Masa Michinoku & Monkey Magic Wakita
Only quick highlights show. Nothing impressive and some sloppy looking stuff. Still neat seeing super young Jado & Gedo and an unmasked Sasuke & Super Delfin
- Kaoru Maeda Estelle Moreno & Mika Takahashi vs Kyoko Inoue Hyper Cat & La Diabolica
Good little lucha sprint. Moreno's have been rocking it on all these early AJW shows i've been watching. Diabolica was impressive too. Anyone know who Hyper Cat was? Seems kind of familiar, like it might have been one of the AJW girls under the mask
- (Kick Boxing) Mima Shimoda vs Yumiko Hotta
Hmm, Mima Shimoda in a shoot fight, that's odd.
Hmmm, Mima Shimoda in a shoot fight not only holding her own but dominating at times, that's odd.
Hmmmm, they're busting out dragon screw leg whips & step up enzuguris in this shoot fight, interesting.
Hmmmmm.....INDEED!!!!!
- Madusa & Noriyo Tateno vs Suzuka Minami & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
They're billing this as 2000th match of Tateno who debued a little over 9 years earlier as is on her (1st) retirement road. Madusa in the pre match promo claims herself & Tateno are the new breed. I know AJW used to run quite the heavy schedule back in the day but I think they're may be a lil bit of fuzzy math going on here. Madusa also claims her opponents have million dollar bodies & 10 cent brains...yup. Match itself was nothing special.
- Manami Toyota vs Akira Hokuto
Even better version of the match they had a few months later. Actually this may be the best singles between them i've seen period. Starts off super hot and then switches gears as this time Hokuto, the imortal mummy goddess goes in with a bad leg that Toyota goes to town on and the selling & drama that results is just off the charts. There was such an awesome air of desperation to everything they did as well, with it feeling like it was a true war to get any move in on the other, no one wanting to get caught in any hold w/o a fight and every big move being treated like it could be the end. A true joy to watch. I made the comment on the Yamada/Toyota match that it never seemed like they were going to a draw because they'd often work a little bit of a slower paced, long matwork section in most all their matches, here it's the opposite, this never appeared like they were going the distance either but it was because it was just non stop action the whole way through with never a dull moment.
- Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Bull Nakano & Grizzly Yamato
Everything I want out of wrestling & so much more. If I still gave out star ratings this would get 5. Legit one of the greatest matches i've ever seen. At it's best, great wrestling matches allways garner 1 of 2 responses from me. Either i'm jumping up & down going "fuck yeah, whoo, this is amazing" or i'm sitting thear deathly silent, intensely concentrating, not wanting to blink and miss 1 second. This match falls into the latter category. I couldn't turn away by the end, just staring with my mouth 1/2 open in disbeliefe at how damn fuckin great this was. This wasn't just good in your standard "oh they did a b & c, I like all those things, toss in a blender & mix for yummy goodness" sorta way. This was special, they did a through z then invented a 27th & 28th letter because they're just that good. Everyone was so perfect playing their roles, especially Bull as the unstopable dominant monster. Watching Bull just stand thear as Aja & Bison tried with all their heart to beat the shit out of her with Kendo sticks and Bull just had this "come on, is THAT all you've got" look on her face is one of those iconically cool moments in wrestling that you know you'll never ever forget.
AJW 9/1/1990
- (Cage Match - Special Ref Bulldog KT) Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano
The version I have is from the original TV broadcast not the AJW Classics episode that came out earlier this year. Sadly for some reason this is the only match from that tv ep that exist today and whatever earlier stuff that aired on the same episode got cut off/no one taped/isn't in circulation. They do air a highlight package at the end of the show showing briefe clips of what else took place on this show and among other things this card also had a lost Kyoko vs Toyota singles match, ending with Toyota going over with the rolling cradle in 18+ so f u to whoever forgot to set their VCR to record the rest of this show 20 years ago. I think Aja agrees as she infact has "Fuck U" shaved into the side of her head...yup.
Much like the Madusa match a couple months ago, they have Aja & her opponent do a face to face pre match promo and shockingly, it again breaks down into a crazy brawl backstage. Madusa actually seconds Aja here so I guess the post match hug during their street fight is what formed their alliance. Would have been interesting to see whear her as a member of Jungle Jack had played out long term had she not bounced in 91 to go to WCW.
Match itself is worked a little diffrently then your usual AJW cage match and thinking about it, as far as I can tell this may infact be the 1st cage match AJW ever did. To start with, this one has a ref and not just any ref no, Bulldog Fucking KT who would be better known today as Gedo who'd been in wrestling like 1 year at this point. Why in the blue ass hell he of all people is the ref for this match I have no clue. He ends up playing a big part in the match though. He won't let either wrestler use weapons which is obviously weird since it's a freakin cage match and so he's always taking them from them and getting in their face for it. Last man standing rules are also in effect so you can win via some other means then escape which doesn't even play a factor until the end. Intense hatred rite straight off the bat as they get to beatin the crap out of each other. Bull gets the early advantage but it doesn't last long and they go back and forth for a while. They alternate between brawling and trying to wear each other down with holds and power stuff and I thought they pulled off the mix well. Things get interesting when Aja decides to go after Bulls leg and goes nuts attacking it with a trash can. She opens up a pretty fair sized gash on Bulls leg and once Aja smells blood she goes to work on that for a while and while Bull tries to fight back but never fully regains control. Along the way I should mention that Gedo bets whacked a few times by both for his troubles of trying to enforce rules in this cage match and he ends up a bloody mess as well. For the finish he also ends up playing a big part as after Aja nails Bull a few more times in the leg she goes to escape and though Bull manages to get back to her feet, Gedo is standing near the ropes fully in the way preventing Bull from getting thear in time and allowing Aja to get the win.
Bull cries foul post match leading to screaming & yelling and all hell breaking loose post match with them brawling some more and having to be sperated. For what this was designed to do I thought this did a perfect job. No whear close to their more famous cage match a few months later but it was great as a set up for the re-match and just as a stand alone still really damn good.
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.
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.
AJW 1990 January - March
AJW 1/4/1990
- (AJW Jr Title) Mima Shimoda (c) vs Kaoru Ito
Only goes like 4 mins, 2 of which aired. Ok enough action that Mima wins easily. If nothing else I atleast always get a kick out of seeing pairings like this, knowing the brutal death feud they'd go into later on in their careers.
- Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto vs Madusa, Noriyo Tateno & Kaoru
Whacky shenanigans with Shiro Abe during the introductions. So weird seeing him post Dump, love his act but it just never worked as well with others as it did her. Match itself is just kind of your average Gokumonto vs random baby face squad tag, a lot of brawling and cheating and kickin butt while the good girls make futile come backs hoping not to die a death too bad. The biggest highlight here was actualyl Aja randomly going nuts and beating the shit out of one of the anouncers mid match for no reason. Kaoru hits a dive on Aja but Grizz reverses them and Abe fast counts for the finish.
- Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita vs Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta
Love matches like this. Starts out merely ok but then slowly builds and builds and by the end they've created something truely great. At 1st they just kind of go back and forth for a while with Hotta & Akira having the slight advantage. Things finally turn awesome once they start building the match around a game of my sleeper is deadlier then yours. Yamada's 1st up as her & Hotta have heated exchanges every time they go against each other here. Yamada gets her in a sleepr and they work a long section around that with Hotta putting it over huge, one of the best jobs i've seen someone do actually. She near passes out from it and once released, stumbles around and can barely stay on her feet for quite a while after. Mita tries her hand as well at the sleepr game to decent success but Hotta's able to tag out to Hokuto. Akira decides she wants in on this game and after kicking Mita's butt works the hold on her for a while. Hotta not wanting to be left out and having recovered tags back in, tosses Mita aside and bum rushes Yamada. She franticly fights to get the sleeper on Yamada and when she does they'd done such a great job of getting it over in the match that it gets a monster pop from the crowd. Turns into a war of attrition after that as all 4 girls are selling fatigue and desperately trying to win which finally comes after Hokuto puts away weak link Mita with a missile kick. Didn't go in with any kind of high hopes for this. Figured it's be good but not this good. One of the better matches of the year for sure.
- (Vacant 3WA Title) Bull Nakano vs Mitsuko Nishiwaki
Little disapointment as these 2 could probably have a great match but instead they merely had a decent one. Nish attacks to start but Bull side steps her attack and she goes flying outside, jump cut and back inside she's busted open and getting beaten down. Rest of the match is Bull dominating with Nishiwaki only making small come backs, enough to whear this isn't a total squash but really this was all about getting Nakano's reign off with a blast and putting her over strong as the clear winner.
AJW 1/5/1990
1 match show though we do briefly get highlights of Hotta/Yamada from 11/13/89 which looked really good and some of the undercard stuff, Kyoko (not yet rocking the face paint) vs Miori, Honey Wings vs Suzuka & ??? and Madusa vs I think Noriyo Tateno all of which looked decent too.
- (Kick Boxing) Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada
Pretty clearly a work which is always best when it comes to these things because fuck the bullshit, wrestling does MMA better then MMA. They don't really take full advantage of it though as they kind of hold back on each other for the 1st 5 rounds. Only turning it up here & thear and tossing in a few cool suplexes but never getting overly agressive or coming across like they were trying to win. 6th round they finally start trying to kill each other but too little too late on this one. Yamada wins the judges decision though personally I thought Hotta looked better. Enjoyable enough as far as these things go.
AJW 3/2/1990
Interesting dynamic to this tape. They spend like 10 mins hyping up the new stable alliances of Dream Orca/Tokyo Sweethearts and Fire Jets/Marine Wolves and then naturally of course after establishing those 2 allainces have them fight among themselves instead of each other.
- (AJW Tag Titles) Etsuko Mita & Toshiyo Yamada (c) vs Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda
Dream Orca vs Tokyo Sweethearts. For the most part a good solid match but not with out it's flaws. They go the distance and this suffers from the same flaws a lot of other time limit draws do. Not so much that it felt like they were killing time, it was never boring as they always kept things moving. But there was no major story to the match, just a lot of back & forth action which never really picked up like you'd hope even for the final stretch. Like, the way they were wrestling at the 25 min mark wasn't much diffrent then how they were going at it at the 7 min mark. The Sweethearts prove to be sore losers and try to keep the fight going attacking DO after the bell.
- Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs Suzuka Minami & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
Fire Wolves vs Marine Jets.... no one has cool team names like that anymore. Now all we get is this overplayed hybrid crap. Hi i'm piptiy po, hi i'm ooopty op, hi we're team poop, HUZZAH. So lame, so sad. A slightly better version of the last match. A bit more focused whear each team got to have long control segments as opposed to non stop back & forth. Hokuto/Hotta (who both looked really good, Hokuto's bright ass clown suit aside) early on in the match and Minami/Nishiwaki in the latter. They weren't going to a draw so the pacing was a little better too. That said they still were going really long, 32+ so there were still a few issues. Seemed kind of like they peaked in the middle as they did what seemed like a normal 18ish min match and then realised "fuck we got way more time to fill" so they sort of restarted from the begining almost before picking things up again big time around the 28-30 min mark and instead of a draw we get a double count out instead.
- (AJW Jr Title) Mima Shimoda (c) vs Kaoru Ito
Only goes like 4 mins, 2 of which aired. Ok enough action that Mima wins easily. If nothing else I atleast always get a kick out of seeing pairings like this, knowing the brutal death feud they'd go into later on in their careers.
- Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto vs Madusa, Noriyo Tateno & Kaoru
Whacky shenanigans with Shiro Abe during the introductions. So weird seeing him post Dump, love his act but it just never worked as well with others as it did her. Match itself is just kind of your average Gokumonto vs random baby face squad tag, a lot of brawling and cheating and kickin butt while the good girls make futile come backs hoping not to die a death too bad. The biggest highlight here was actualyl Aja randomly going nuts and beating the shit out of one of the anouncers mid match for no reason. Kaoru hits a dive on Aja but Grizz reverses them and Abe fast counts for the finish.
- Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita vs Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta
Love matches like this. Starts out merely ok but then slowly builds and builds and by the end they've created something truely great. At 1st they just kind of go back and forth for a while with Hotta & Akira having the slight advantage. Things finally turn awesome once they start building the match around a game of my sleeper is deadlier then yours. Yamada's 1st up as her & Hotta have heated exchanges every time they go against each other here. Yamada gets her in a sleepr and they work a long section around that with Hotta putting it over huge, one of the best jobs i've seen someone do actually. She near passes out from it and once released, stumbles around and can barely stay on her feet for quite a while after. Mita tries her hand as well at the sleepr game to decent success but Hotta's able to tag out to Hokuto. Akira decides she wants in on this game and after kicking Mita's butt works the hold on her for a while. Hotta not wanting to be left out and having recovered tags back in, tosses Mita aside and bum rushes Yamada. She franticly fights to get the sleeper on Yamada and when she does they'd done such a great job of getting it over in the match that it gets a monster pop from the crowd. Turns into a war of attrition after that as all 4 girls are selling fatigue and desperately trying to win which finally comes after Hokuto puts away weak link Mita with a missile kick. Didn't go in with any kind of high hopes for this. Figured it's be good but not this good. One of the better matches of the year for sure.
- (Vacant 3WA Title) Bull Nakano vs Mitsuko Nishiwaki
Little disapointment as these 2 could probably have a great match but instead they merely had a decent one. Nish attacks to start but Bull side steps her attack and she goes flying outside, jump cut and back inside she's busted open and getting beaten down. Rest of the match is Bull dominating with Nishiwaki only making small come backs, enough to whear this isn't a total squash but really this was all about getting Nakano's reign off with a blast and putting her over strong as the clear winner.
AJW 1/5/1990
1 match show though we do briefly get highlights of Hotta/Yamada from 11/13/89 which looked really good and some of the undercard stuff, Kyoko (not yet rocking the face paint) vs Miori, Honey Wings vs Suzuka & ??? and Madusa vs I think Noriyo Tateno all of which looked decent too.
- (Kick Boxing) Yumiko Hotta vs Toshiyo Yamada
Pretty clearly a work which is always best when it comes to these things because fuck the bullshit, wrestling does MMA better then MMA. They don't really take full advantage of it though as they kind of hold back on each other for the 1st 5 rounds. Only turning it up here & thear and tossing in a few cool suplexes but never getting overly agressive or coming across like they were trying to win. 6th round they finally start trying to kill each other but too little too late on this one. Yamada wins the judges decision though personally I thought Hotta looked better. Enjoyable enough as far as these things go.
AJW 3/2/1990
Interesting dynamic to this tape. They spend like 10 mins hyping up the new stable alliances of Dream Orca/Tokyo Sweethearts and Fire Jets/Marine Wolves and then naturally of course after establishing those 2 allainces have them fight among themselves instead of each other.
- (AJW Tag Titles) Etsuko Mita & Toshiyo Yamada (c) vs Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda
Dream Orca vs Tokyo Sweethearts. For the most part a good solid match but not with out it's flaws. They go the distance and this suffers from the same flaws a lot of other time limit draws do. Not so much that it felt like they were killing time, it was never boring as they always kept things moving. But there was no major story to the match, just a lot of back & forth action which never really picked up like you'd hope even for the final stretch. Like, the way they were wrestling at the 25 min mark wasn't much diffrent then how they were going at it at the 7 min mark. The Sweethearts prove to be sore losers and try to keep the fight going attacking DO after the bell.
- Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs Suzuka Minami & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
Fire Wolves vs Marine Jets.... no one has cool team names like that anymore. Now all we get is this overplayed hybrid crap. Hi i'm piptiy po, hi i'm ooopty op, hi we're team poop, HUZZAH. So lame, so sad. A slightly better version of the last match. A bit more focused whear each team got to have long control segments as opposed to non stop back & forth. Hokuto/Hotta (who both looked really good, Hokuto's bright ass clown suit aside) early on in the match and Minami/Nishiwaki in the latter. They weren't going to a draw so the pacing was a little better too. That said they still were going really long, 32+ so there were still a few issues. Seemed kind of like they peaked in the middle as they did what seemed like a normal 18ish min match and then realised "fuck we got way more time to fill" so they sort of restarted from the begining almost before picking things up again big time around the 28-30 min mark and instead of a draw we get a double count out instead.
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