2025 Matchguide - Addendum #2: AWG Edition

 MARU vs Chii Aoba, AWG 12/15

After doing some matches in GLEAT, Aoba is now going for a shooter vibe, which I am all here for, and this match was a cool coming out party. I loved the opening here, with MARU going 'okay, you wanna be a shooter, let's grapple' and hitting the mat. As soon as Aoba got the advantage, MARU went straight to beating on her with a chain and roughing her up with some nasty face scrapes again. Aoba knocking Maru off the top only to be dragged to the outside was also a good moment. MARU was pretty great here as she usually is. The big stomp off the bleachers looked really sick. Aoba tackling MARU into the chairs as a desperation comeback was also great as it came completely out of nowhere and MARU had this reaction like she didn't know what just hit her. The match was basically about Aoba trying to find her inner badass and it was cool storytelling. There was this odd moment where MARU went to attack her with a bottle and Aoba grabbed the bottle and drank from it, but just keeled over. Aside from that, I loved the new holds Aoba busted out. Her dropkicks still need a bit more force, but I like how MARU mostly seemed annoyed by them. Finishing run was really good and heated with MARU adding cool touches and Aoba having a sole focus on hitting a backdrop suplex for the win. It was for the most part really good, hard fought pro wrestling that told a cool story and easily won me over.

Rico Fukunaga vs MARU, AWG 12/29

Rico Fukunaga has done it, she climbed to the top and won the AWG singles title. Her reward is to get the holy hell beaten out of her by MARU in her first defence. Surprisingly underdog showing from Fukunaga here as MARU tore into her like a mad dog. The set up works as you get some really effective cheating heel vs kicker stuff. I was ready to complain when Fukunaga took a nasty double stomp off the bleachers and kind of no-sold it but then an angry MARU proceeded to beat her down further. Lots of nifty moments here especially from MARU, things like catching a kick, her biting the leg and then trying to snap it over the rope just plain work. At one point she also straight threw the chain at Fukunagas face. 2nd half was pretty much flawless I thought with MARU providing her usual cool touches, such as some great stretch muffler counters and nasty stomps, and Fukunaga going for the kill by clocking her in the head with those big kicks that all looked great and were timed really well. Mostly importantly they didn't drag this match out. Top stuff and I thought one of the better AWG singles of 2025.

Mari & Ayano Irie vs Sakura Mizushima & Naru, AWG 12/20

Quite good undercard action I thought. Opening section had Mari working some fun and creative joshi-meets-lucharesu sections with Mizushima et al. The Irie vs Mizushima section is solid but won't blow you away if you've seen their stuff before. Mari vs Naru finishing stretch was quite good 'underdog trying to topple the bigger badass' stuff. There were some sweet exchanges with Naru busting out some slick spots to target Maris leg and Mari selling it in just the right way, while retaliating with her signature cool leg lariats etc, and a few unpredictable twists and turns being worked in. Mari keeps impressing me putting in good little peformances like this even in midcard matches and everyone else was also putting in the effort.

Mari & Ayano Irie vs Anri & Erisa Nagai, AWG 8/2

Really good slice of pro wrestling. They told a pretty impeccable underdog vs established heels story with Mari & Irie dominating initially and Anri and Nagai having to make gradual comebacks. They worked their butts off and there were a number of cool individual moments especially when Mari was involved. The ending may have gone a tad too long but I can't fault them for going out of their way to make Anri look like a tough little nut. This would've been a really decent main event in any promotion let alone for a midcard match.

Anri & Natsuki vs Rio & Yukina Uehara, AWG 6/22

A lot of hard hitting kicks here. This was the most inspired I've seen Natsuki in a while. Often she just runs through her offense, but her she did a few nifty things: working Rio over with stiff leg kicks, hitting a really precise dropkick to the leg when her opponent went for a kick, and helping out Anri at the right time. I also enjoyed Rio who's a feisty powerhouse type and brings a slightly different vibe, plus she makes things interesting because she's a rookie with some power. Most of the action here was Anri vs Uehara, clearly a match up that they had some stake in for the future. Uehara was still a bit awkward here and there but mostly brings it, her spinning back kick looked like it nearly took Anris head off. And Anri brought plenty of fire as usual. I love her thrust kicks. This was good stuff as a result and very well put together.

Haruka Ishikawa & Ayano Irie vs Erisa Nagai & Rico Fukunaga, AWG 3/9

Another midcard match that ends up being really interesting. Nagai is a rookie with 6 months experience, so accordingly she takes a beating early. This gets us to the more experienced Fukunaga evening things up with some pretty hard kicks to the heel team but taking damage herself. Thought the match was really good when Fukunaga was in the ring as she was dishing out really hard kicks while the heels chipped away at her and there were a number of interesting moments. Fukunaga vs Ishikawa sections especially hinted at a quite good singles match between them. It ends up coming down to Nagai vs Ishikawa, which while it was simple was about ten thousand times more interesting than the usual nearfall fest because they both displayed an absolute will to win the match and there were a few creative ideas, e.g. with Nagai immediately going for shootstyle submission and even a basic lift becoming a struggle for Ishikawa. Even Nagais cutesy leg drop seemed desperate and because she's so low on the totem pole I was biting even on the nearfalls for Ishikawas basic sentons. Pretty rad stuff with an unorthodox layout that delivered lots of good, believable wrestling.

2025 Matchguide 

Some early 90s AJW

   

Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue, AJW 1/24/1993

Excellent match, which I’m afraid may be a bit of an overlooked minor classic. After some scrappy, quick exchanges, Kyoko was quite great taking over the match with varied submissions. Whenever Takako would try to come back, Kyoko would put her back down quite aggressively, and often still establish herself as the superior, graceful wrestler. Stuff like both of them fighting over a headlock leading to Kyoko kicking Takako in the face is so good and the kind of thing you basically never see anymore even though it’s so simple. Also, Inoues flying headscissor rolls and springboard moves rule. Takako ended up having to scout Kyokos spots, which she does well, there is a legbar spot where she catches Kyoko that ends up being really great. Eventually Takako capitalizes by taking chairs to Kyoko and suplexing her on the floor, which Kyoko sold like death. Really exciting ending run mostly due to Kyokos great selling of the floor sequence, which had a few big moves and some awesome drama. KO punch finish was quite unexpected but great.

Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Toshiyo Yamada, AJW 10/10/1993

It’s 1993, so much of this was brutally violent, exciting and heated pro wrestling. My god does Aja Kong consistently look like just the greatest monster ever. Pretty much anytime she tagged in she would punt the shit out of people all over the ring and just try to crush people. Yamada is also pretty consistent at bringing the violence with her insane kicks. Hasegawa is fun as a plucky sidekick that needs Ajas help, though I thought the match dipped a bit in quality when she and Kyoko were in the ring as there were some meandering portions. Still eventually Yamada tags in and tries to rearrange Hasegawas face with a serious of super violent kicks and from then on it turns into really edge of your seat stuff with people getting their heads caved in and breakneck suplexes being hit. Hasegawa redeems herself by hitting a deadly solebutt and not being an obvious lost cause in the battle, and Inoue was hitting some jaw cracking lariats. Really exciting stuff as they created a sense of a swinging pendulum with various tags and partner help spots to maintain a sense of unpredictability, and the bombs they were dropping were pretty damn big bombs. Another minor gem in the pile.

Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko vs Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari, AJW 11/26/1992

This was from the Dream Rush show so obviously not the main attraction, and old joshi fans would tell you that Shark Tsuchiya sucked… but fuck all that, because this some awesome heated and highly uncooperative pro wrestling. Basically Tsuchiya and Maedomari are heat magnets, harkening back to the old Gokuaki Domei vibe that was mostly gone from AJW in 1992 with Bull and Aja turning quasi face. Tsuchiya goes at Malenko before the bell, and it’s just a heated fight from the go. There seem to be FMW fans in the building so the match had that kind of ridiculous heat. Hasegawa was like a rabid ferret in this, slapping the shit out of people, kicking her way out of holds, and absolutely looking like she was not willing to give an inch to these FMW punks. Even going over to kick people in the face when Debbie had them in a hold, or putting some extra meanness into some basic legwork. It was awe inspiringly uncooperative and evil and quite frankly, amazing. Her little exchange with Tsuchiya were Tsuchiya hit her with a tomoe nage on her face was great. Tsuchiya also has a bandaged arm/shoulder here (apparently from a legit injury) so anytime Debbie puts an armbar on her the crowd goes wild. Just a massive crowd of people going wild for Debbie snapping someones limb. A surprisingly amount of vulnerability from the brawling heels here as Team AJW keep taking them down and refusing to give them an inch, Tsuchiya even being unable to do much as she hurts herself applying a choke, until Maedomari was able to spike Hasegawa with a sick chokeslam. It continues to look like a blowout for the FMW team though until some chaos goes down and they are able to brawl on the floor for a bit. Back in the ring Hasegawa immediately double legs Maedomari and rains punches from mount on here because Sakie Hasegawa was a mean demon in this. The finish is is just Hasegawa finish Maedomari off with a series of kicks to the face and force pinning her with Maedomari struggling like she really 100% wanted to get out of the pin. Was this perfect? No, it probably was a little long, it may have been better with some blood and Team FMW getting a bit of more conventional heat, but fuck me, this was dripping intensity and heat and pretty unique, let alone for a midcard match. They absolutely do not make them like this anymore for that alone you should watch this.