JWP TV 2/11/1993

- (Sumiko Saito Retirement Match) Hikari Fukuoka vs Sumiko Saito

Sucks Sumiko didn't stick around longer and retired just as joshi was begining another boom period. The few times i've seen her in the past I was pretty impressed. Match is JIP with Fukuoka dominating things and getting in a big flurry of offense coming close to getting the W a few times but Saito isn't going down easy in her last match. Tide changes once Saito is able to grab an STF, followed up by a few suplexes and another STF for a near submission. They go back and forth a bit more with Fukuoka coming out on top, a couple of big powerslams including 1 off the top rope and a cross armed german get her the win. Good little match for Saito to go out on, about 10 mins aired. Your usual joshi retirement ceremony follows.

- Devil Masami & Debbie Malenko vs Dynamite Kansai & Plum Mariko

Always thought it also really sucked that Debbie got hurt shortly after this and had to retire before getting to mix it up with JWP girls like Plum. Quite excited when I found out this match existed as I didn't know it had even taken place until a couple of months ago. Pre match promo Debbie puts over everyone involved and says she's just happy to be thear. JIP with her locking in a Fujiwara arm bar on Kansai, once she escapes they blow a running headscissors spot but recover nicely. Debbie & Plum have a short section that sees Deb drop her with a few suplexes. Devil comes in and gets worked over for a while, long long boston crab spot from Kansai that goes no where. Things pick up when we get more Deb/Plum action and finally get to see them take it to the mat a tiny tiny bit. Devil comes back in and does that nasty spot whear she press slams folk onto the top turnbuckle which always looks like it sucks to take. Kansai comes in and eats a giant powerbomb to hell from Devil for her trouble as well. Match goes outside and we get a cool dive train starting with Plum climbing up Kansai's shoulders to hit a diving cross body and ending with Debbie doing her crazy suicide dive as a follow up. Back inside Debbie gets the armbar in on Plum as they go at it a little more, her & Devil hit stereo superplexes on both in another big highlight. Finish sees Kansai & Devil throwing bombs at each other, funny moment as Kansai tries to call out Debbie so Devil straight arm lariats her right in the face for ignoring her. Few moments later Kansai makes her pay with some stiff kicks and gets revenge for earlier with a big powerbomb of her own which backfires as Devil reverses the pin attempt into a cradle to get the win. Post match Debbie & Plum talk shit to hype up Dreamslam whear it was supposed to be Debbie in Ito's place vs Plum & Fukuoka. I was pretty disapointed we didn't get more exchanges between the 2 in this, especially on the mat as that's what I most wanted to see. I imagine it got left on the cutting room floor as while we got about 17 mins of this, in full it was 33+. Still, taking this for what it was instead of what I wanted it to be it was a damn good match, especially Kansai & Devil opposite each other, worth checking out for sure.

Quick thoughts on JWP 1/15/1993

Starts with 1 match from 12/27/92 :)

- Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai & Candy Okutsu

Very slow paced match early on, follows your standard tag formula with Candy getting worked over and Kansai makng the ocasional save. Really bland pedestrian stuff. Kansai's hot tag section is nice and things pick up for the last 4 mins but it's too little too late for this match. Cutie gets the win with a Dragon suplex over Candy in 20 mins. No clue why they included this other then to pad out the running time of this release.

 
- Hikari Fukuoka & Candy Okutsu vs Sumiyo Toyama & Yumi Tenma

Similar to the last match only a little more basic with less advanced moves except from Fukuoka who got to be the star in this one. 1st look i've had at Toyama & Tenma in exstended form and both looked pretty decent. Tenma's switched to working a kicker girl style pulled it off nicely with some cool strikes. For their experience lvl this was ok action. Fukuoka over Tenma with a german suplex.

- (Submission Match) Plum Mariko vs Commando Bolshoi

One of my favorite little hidden gem matches ever. First time around it was one of those "wow this is way better then I was exspecting" type reactions but i've re-watched it multiple times over the years and it still holds up. Things pick up a few mins in once Bolshoi targets the knee and the little clwon girl just goes to town with lots of nifty attacks and the bulk of the math is built aound that. Plum does an awesome job putting it over, really cool spot later in the match whear Bolshoi goes for a splash and Plum gets her knees up but which Plum sold as hurting her knee too which you rarely see but makes perfect sense. In the end it's Plum who gets the last laugh reversing Bolshoi's hold into a tricked out leg crank of her own for the win.

- Devil Masami vs Cutie Suzuki

After what happened the these two wrestled Cutie's a lot more fired up and out to prove herself. Cutie comes in a totall ball of energy but Devil cuts her off and starts tossing her around. Cutie goes on the attack again but things repeat and Devil again starts playing around with her. Ever persistent like a little bulldog Cutie fires off some really nasty forearms upside Devil's big head and that finally gains her the sustained advantage. Match gets really good here as Cutie starts stretching Devil on the mat and the little touhes Devil tosses in, the way she makes Cutie fight to get her into holds, the way she fights to get out of holds, just awesomely cool stuff that makes you realise why Devil's one of the all time greats. In a fun moment they go outside Devil gets whiped into the railing and she crushes like 5 fans who all seemed pretty amused. Finishing stretch is real nice as they get back in after that. Cutie gets in a giant release german suplex and a flying footstomp but can't get the win. Devil comes back and has to toss damn near everything but the kitchen sink at Cutie who survives a ton of big lariats and powerbombs before finally falling to an overhead northern lights suplex off the top rope. This is one of those matches that's gotten a lot better over time to me, something I thought was merely decent years ago but would easily call really good now. Also of note is that Bull Nakano was sitting ringside for this entire show and before the match started Devil came over to shake her hand as they've got a big upcoming singles match.

- Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue

One of the best joshi tags ever, the action is great and speaks for itself. Just a notch below Dream Rush in that department. What I picked up more watching it now was the little things and how well booked the story was. This was absolutely 100% designed to get you hyped for a Hotta/Kansai singles match, they went at it just enough to leave you satisfied and get you excited for it but held back enough as to not blow their wad. They also did a good job of setting up more OZ/Takako fun down the line. Also dug how well they kept to the heirarchy of things with Takako working as weak link of the match. It was subtle but they did a lot to further that aspect. Tak got a lot of offense in but almost none of it came by herself, almost every time it was because Hotta took down OZ or Kansai first ad then Tak came in and continued the beat down until. Also great job of keeping Kansai strong too with very few moments whear she was in significant trouble. After the events of the Fukuoka match last month Kansai was brought in to be the heavy hitter and that's pretty much what she did. For the finish it comes down to Takako & Ozaki with OZ reversing a suplex attempt into the Tequila Sunrise to pick up the win and JWP's 1st victory over AJW. Post match Kansai challenges Hotta to a singles match and they shake hands as the show ends.

JWP 10/7/1992

- Sumiko Saito vs Candy Okutsu

Again Saito looks good but only a couple mins out of 12 aired and you can only do so much working opening match vs a rookie like Candy who'd only been wrestling 2 months at this stage. Saito gets the win with the STF.

- Fatter Butcher Karate Girl & Green Gi Karate Girl vs Sumiyo Toyama & Flower Girl Tights Wearer

Hell yeah, more Karate army in the house. FBKG Kicks flower girl right in the fuckin eye and swells it shut to start the match. Rest of what airs shows FBKG and Karate Ranger Green throwing a million more kicks and the ocasional knee at her. Greeny catches her with an enzugiri and she gets knocked out and fails to make it back to her feet for 10. Only 2 out of 14 mns aired, no footage of Toyama doing anything was shown but looked fun.

- Devil Masami vs Mariko Kyoki

Another in a never ending parade of randoms popping up on these early JWP tapes. This show would be the only televised proof of miss Kyoki even existing. Devil was nice enough to let her get in a couple kicks and a leg bar, they looked nice. Devil then crushed her and took her head off with a couple of lariets to end this after 3 mins.

- Plum Mariko vs Commando Bolshoi

Was hoping this would be a nice little prelude to the awesome submission match they'd have a few months later but sadly they don't take it to the mat at all. Once I got over the disapointment of them not doing what I wanted and took this for what it was I thought they had a pretty rockin little match. They worked this as a big move, all action match, Bolshoi brought some nice dives and other highspots, Plum brought a big bag of suplexes, ending with Plum getting the win with her cross armed german, fun stuff. Went 14 mins, little under half aired.

- Devil Masami, Sumiko Saito & Mariko Kyoki vs Plum Mariko, Commando Bolshoi & Sumiyo Toyama

JWP crew isn't exactly rolling deep at this point so everyone's pulling double duty here. Main story is Devil playing monster and smashing everyone she gets her hands on. Sumiyo stands no chance, Bolshoi flat out runs from her in a funny spot latter on in the match only to get caught, and Plum gets the worst of it. Nasty spot whear Plum gets press slamed into the turnbuckle post gut first, she gets tossed into various other dangerous metal and wooden things along the way as well. When Devil wasn't in murdalizing folks the rest just kind of floated in and out, nothing to stand out too much just nice paced action. Match went 18, half aired, Devil saw drop Toyama with a powerbomb only to be gracious enough to allow Sumiko to get the pin after a top rope splash. Fun easy crowd pleasing match.

- (JWP Tag Titles) Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki (c) vs Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka

Heh, interesting diffrence during the 2 teams entrances. Kansai & Fukuoka just calmly walk out and get in the ring. Fukuoka oddly looking like the spitting image of Jaguar Yakotoa with her all black singlet. Cury & OZ enter and they get mobed by fans and have to push their way through while mother fuckers are tossing confetti in the air. Wonder who as the more popular team here? Before the match gets under way they splice in a LONG clip of original Tiger Mask Sayama who was a special guest for this show, training Cuty and one of the other youngsters at his dojo in the proper way to smash faces and snap limbs. NOT as exciting as it sounds. Then get footage of Sayama giving them a pre match pep talk earlier in the night in the locker room as Cuty & OZ act all star struck like "holy shit, Tiger Mask is here and he's our buddy and we're super cool pals, fuck yeah hehehehehe" Devil Masami randomly barges in and just sits down next to him and starts puttin on lotion like it's no big deal. Sayama has a great "WTF is this bitch doing" look in response. That certainly killed 15 mins. Back to the match, yay. This was a rare case whear I watched a match twice in a row, the first time around I ended up thinking that this was pretty good but nothing special but I was distracted a lot during the initial viewing and had to stop and pause several times so fig that maybe I didn't give it a fair chance. 2nd time through I loved this a lot more. Early portion sees OZ & Fukuoka taking turns playing whipping girl for exstended periods of time, bit slow but not boring as they do lots of little things to keep it interesting. Ozaki being a great person to have as a tag partner is something i've brought up in previous reviews recently but I noticed here that Cuty is also pretty darn good as well. As a team they really compliment each other, always have each others back, always ready to come in and boot somebody in the head to make sure their partner doesn't get in too much trouble, have a lot of cool double team spots, etc.. Fukuoka & Kansai more work as 2 singles stars thrown together for a night. Around 1/3 of the way in they kick things into high gear after Cuty gets frustrated and tosses Fukuoka outside leading to a 4 way brawling section. Back inside they Cuty & OZ dominate most of the rest of the match, they blitz Kansai for a while and then Fukuoka tags in and works most the rest of the match. They don't go full on sprint but for the last 15 mins or so they work at a pretty fast pace and while not the most rabid you'll ever see they really get the fans into things by the end (better lighting and crowd micing would have helped the atmosphere a lot). Last few mins sees OZ & Cuty double teaming Fukuoka but keep failing to put her away, Hikari looks to make her come back, getting in a rolling cradle on OZ but just as quick Cuty rushes in and kills her with forearms allowing OZ to to drop her with everyone's favorite move the JWP special #1, a powerbomb for the win. Ending felt a little abrubt the first time I watched it but I think that was because by then they'd been going for so long with near falls and stuff that I hadn't realised they were allready into the finishing stretch long before then. Anyways, yeah, a few flaws here & thear but overall great match. Another from JWP that goes really long, 27 mins, but doesn't feel it at all, a total breez to sit through a second time.

JWP 7/9/1992

- (Kickboxing Match) ? vs ?

Don't know what either person's name was but this appears to be a fight between a middle aged house wife and teenage school girl. Skillwise they both looked better then the usual girls AJW gets for these sorts of things. Wifeypoo bust the school girls nose open and appears to dominate but it ends in a draw after 3 Rounds. Only 2 mins of highlights aired.

- Commando Bolshoi vs Mitsuo Kobashi

You know, you can't really say you've lived until you've seen a midget female clown take on a skinny butch karate girl, now I can say i've lived. Kobashi throws kicks, a lot of them, not much else. Bolshoi alternates between punching karate girl square in the face, droping her on her head with suplexes and some sweet submission holds. She wins one for the good guys with a rolling cross arm breaker. Went 6 mins, about half aired, really fun actually. A 2nd unnamed Karate girl runs in post match and they put the bare feet to Bolshoi until Plum makes the save leading to...

- Plum Mariko vs Fater Butcher Karate Girl

Ref calls for the bell while Bolshoi & Kobashi continue brawling outside. FBKG gets in a few kicks but Plum catches her on one, locks in a leg bar and gets the immediate tap out win in 25 seconds. Post match Plum kicks her while she's down just because. OK, I gotta investigate this more now. JWP going to war vs an army of martial artist is something i'd 1. never heard of before and 2. must see more of now :)

- Sumiko Saito vs Hikari Fukuoka

Sumiko's someone i've seen a couple of times now and never thought much of either way, just another random girl on the show. Here she really opened my eyes though, turning in a very impressive performance. She was really good working a match around the simple basic stuff but she also had a lot of nice submissions, including a sweet Bryan Danielson like cattle mutilation and busted out a few cool athletic high spots too. Looking over matchlist for other JWP shows from this time i'm guessing she would be JWP's equivilant to a Mika Takahashi or Miori Kamiya. Good solid mid to upper mid card wrestler who would have been very well rememberd had most of her career not taken place during an era when no one was paying attention JWP. Def want to see more of her now after this match. Fukuoka for her part was real good here too, she brought a lot of nice looking flashy highspots, and you could really see the Toyota influence shine through. She doesn't spaz out and go a million miles an hour like her hero does but she was def aping a lot of her stuff move wise. Match went 24 mins and they aired a good chunk, around half. Enjoyed this a lot.

- Devil Masami vs Cuty Suzuki

Boy, every time I see Cuty rocking the all black outfit it just feels to wrong. Anyways, weird match, Devil doesn't squash Cuty at all, she gives her quite a lot of offense actually but for a good majority of things Devil more or less treats it as a joke. Cuty will try something and Devil will just talk shit on her, make faces or brush it off and not give you any sense that she's in trouble. Came across like she was just toying with Cuty and could have taken over and crushed her in seconds had she really wanted to. Cuty is a persistent little spitfire in this though and she keeps coming back and blasting away at Devil trying to beat some respect out of her. Eventually Devil caves in and finally starts looking vulnerable enough to be defeated but meh, I dunno. By that point it was so late in the match that it felt like too little too late. They did enough later on that overall I can still say this was a pretty decent match but yeah, the early portion left a bad taste in my mouth. Devil gets the win in 21 mins after a power bomb, about 10-11 aired.

Random side tangent, gotta say compared to what AJW was doing at the time, JWP's production was just embarisingly low level. On a Zenjo show if they would have to edit matches they'd mostly atleast still keep the flow of the match in tact and do things in such a way that you often wouldn't even know there were edits at all if you weren't paying close attention and they didn't air the match times at the end of the show. JWP on the other hand will just randomly chop shit up, jump around at weird moments and make it a lot harder to get a sense for what the real story of the match is. Everything else about the show from the lighting to the camera angles with little to no close ups just comes across 2nd rate too. I'm not one to usually harp on such things but it's really hard not to notice. There was a moment in the latter parts of the above match whear I thought Devil may have been busted open slightly for a few mins but never could figure it out because they shot everything from so far back.

- Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai

You can feel the tension in the air even before the bell rings. A really violent match, not in terms of brawling & blood and weapons and stuff like their more famous matches but just in the amount of intensity and stiffness they exhibit. They kind of take you on a roller coaster ride in this match though. Kansai brought the stiff kicks, just punting OZ as hard as she possibly could in the back of the skull at times, Ozaki brought it just as hard and wasn't afraid to hop up and boot Kansai in the Jaw. They'd punch each other, thorw elbows, throw each other into the railings, chairs and lots of other things but every time they'd have a brutal exchange like that one or the other would slow it down and grab a hold. Mostly pedestrian stuff, a headlock here, a camel clutch, a leg bar or something to break things up. Gave the match the feeling that chaos could erupt at any moment as you kept hoping for them to stop holding back and go full force. In the later part of the match it looks like they're going for just another rest hold spot but OZ decideds to really crank the fuck out of an armbar and that really picks things up. OZ keeps up working on it and Kansai does an awesome job selling the pain. Even after she makes her comeback she continues holding her arm for quite a while and puts over how much it hurts her to execute moves even if they don't involve the arm directly. Eventually they move away from that to go into the final stretch but by then enough time had passed that it wasn't a big deal. This is one of those cool matches that starts out good but you kind of wonder what the big deal is at first. By the end while I wouldn't call it one of the top matches of the year things just kept getting better and better over time as they built up to the final climax and by then you're loving every minute. Great stuff for sure. OZ wins after a surprise roll up counter to a powerbomb. Went almost 30 mins, aired in full and it just flew by.

JWP 12/1/1992

Show starts off with a flash back to 11/15 whear Toyota, Yamada, Hotta & Takako invaded a JWP event and got in a confrontation with OZ, Kansai & Fukuoka

- Commando Bolshoi & Candy Okutsu vs Sumiyo Toyama & Yumi Tenma

Just a couple mins of highlights aired. Bolshoi beating up on Toyama for the little it was shown looked fun but that's about all I got out of this. They pin Tenma after a nice looking Clownsault and ugly looking Candy splash.

- Masked Yawara vs Machiko Hioki

Odd aperance from 2 randoms. Yawara looks like a long lost ZAP only minus the talent. I can find no other matches for either of these 2 before or after this match. It went exactly 1 minute and sucked so i'm not complaining. Yawara wins over generic rookie #9000 after some judo throws and a cross arm breaker.

- Plum Mariko vs Sumiko Saito

Plum looked pretty decent, Saito was unmemorable, nothing bad, nothing good, just thear. Ok action, little on the slow side but I liked what I saw for the most part. 6 or 7 mins out of 25 aired. Plum gets the win with a cross arm german.

- (JWP Title Tournament Semi Final) Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami

Again clipped down to around 6 mins out of 17. A lot diffrent then their match a few months ago. Whear as that one seemed to be a sprint this has a lot more slower paced, old school build to it even though they had much less time to work with. Still good, just in a diffrent way. When they do pick up the pace there's some nice power stuff gettin thrown back and forth for the finish, especially from Devil breaking out diff suplexes & powerbombs. Devil goes for 1 too many and Kansai counters into a roll up to advance to the final.

- (JWP Title Tournament FINL - 2 count rules) Dynamite Kansai vs Cuty Suzuki

Yay, a full match. Cuty sprints down and immediatly jumps Kansai while she's still recovering from the last match. Kansai puts an end to that quickly, knocking her on her butt with a few kicks. Match then follows the pattern of Kansai wanting to slow things down and Cuty playing spunky little pixie who won't be beat and keeps coming back. Cuty gets a fair amount in and dominates atleast half the match actually but each time she gets a little run going Kansai cuts her off with brute force. Fun moment when Kansai jacks some dudes brifecase in the crowd and waffles Cuty with it. The 2 count rules really add to the drama too with Cuty especially milking it for all it's worth and kicking out with force each time at 1. Been a while since i'd last watched this match, liked it a lot more then I did previous viewings. Good stuff. Kansai folds Cuty in half with brutal powerbomb to take the win and become JWP's first champ.

- Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka

Story of the match is young Fukuoka wanting to step up, play with the big girls and prove herself and they certainly give her every oportunity as she works about 75% of this. One of those matches designed to get a kid over by showing how tough they are for surviving a massive beating, never giving up and still fighting back. Gotta say OZ stole the show however playing the role of protective big sister. Watching this I got the sense that she wanted Fukuoka to prove herself just as much as Fukuoka did so she gives her every opportunity but when needed she was always thear to step in and make the save, attack someone from behind, get in a cheap shot and generally even the odds, come in and kick ass when things got too overwhelming for Fukuoka. Great moment around 10 mins in whear OZ just says fuck it and has enough of watching Fukuoka get beat up so she goes nuts on Takako, getting in a crazy slap war, which she wins. Between this and Dream Rush I don't think i've ever enjoyed watching someone work from the apron more then Ozaki. A noticeable minority of AJW fans were in the house booing her and she tells them all to fuck off. For their part, dominating bully is a role Hotta was born to play and Takako is quite good here too. Last few minutes are awesome as Fukuoka gets to fight back finally & the JWP team go on a little mini run. Great near fall stretch, Fukuoka bust out some nice moonsaults and suplexes and everything else she can think of but the Zenjo girls are still too tough in the end. Takako gets OZ out of the way keeping her from making any more saves and Hotta drops Fukuoka with the Carribean Splash to win it. This wasn't non stop greatness like Dream Rush, it took it's time a little more but kept going and going and getting better and better and by the end was for sure one of the better matches of the year. Wasn't planning to but re-watching this single handidly made me want to go track down more 92 JWP just to see more of OZ.

JWP TV 10/22/1992

- Hikari Fukuoka vs Sumiyo Toyama

Clipped down to a few highlights mainly to show off Fukuoka. Toyama did get in a nice series of Russian leg sweeps but that's about all, Fukuoka had a lot of nice highspots and got the win after a back drop and flying press.

- Cutie Suzuki vs Commando Bolshoi

Heh, amused that Cutie's sporting pretty much identical gear to what Candy Okutsu would be wearing later on in her career. JWP always did love passing down gear/ recycling looks though so not surprising either. Another highlight reel. Mainly the finishing stretch shown which looked pretty rockin as they traded big moves back & forth. A lot of nice suplexes from Cutie & Bolshoi doing a little more flashy stuff. Lots of moonsaults from the little clown girl but when she goes for one more Cutie suplexes her off the top rope to win it.


As a bonus, there's a million commercials for Fire Pro Wrestling 3 - Legend Series on this show.

- Plum Mariko & Sumiko Saito vs Candy Okutsu & Mayumi Ozaki

And now here's the actual Candy looking all the world like a young Carlos Amano teaming with Ozaki....who looks like Ozaki. Slightly longer set of highlights. Looked like an awesome match, mainly they showed OZ & Plum taking turns beating up each others youngins. Candy got to shine a little bit too and Saito, well, she took a nice beating. Haven't watched young Ozaki in a while, forgot how freakin cool her discus dive was. Plum wins after taking out OZ and blitzing Candy with a sweet looking bearhug german.

- Devil Masami vs Dynamite Kansai

Hard to get a feel for how this really was. It went to a 30 min draw but they only aired less then 1/3. From the clips this essentially looked like a heavy weight sprint, they slowed it down in the middle a little bit as both got exstended sections of working over the others legs. But aside from that everything else shown was them throwing bombs at each other. Funny moment as Devil takes the worst choke slam bump EVER not even leavig her feet, essentially just standing on tip toe before falling back. That aside everything else they did looked great. Interesting compared to some of the time limit draws i've seen in AJW around this time as the pacing seemed a lot more natural and untelegraphed but that could just be the clipping. Reminds me that i've somehow never managed to see any of their really hyped singles matches over the years.


Post match Oz gets in the ring and makes the anouncement of her & Kansai challenging for the AJW tag titles while Kansai limps around, seemingly having got legit hurt during the match. JWP president "Glasses Guy" is fired up as always