Carlos Amano 7 Match Gauntlet

     Carlos Amano vs Dynamite Kansai, GAEA 2/29/2004

I’m a fan of these two, so a match between them could never disappoint me – even that said, I thought this was really great, pretty much the perfect underdog vs monster undercard match with both of them bringing their unique styles to the table. Opening grapple was effective as you immediately had Kansai going for more power-based holds with Amano trying to lock in a shoot submission. As soon as Kansai started throwing kicks she started to look like a cat playing with her food. I also loved her use of the iron claw slam as it establishes that she can always snatch an opponent. In addition to the violent kicks there were also some pretty hard feeling slams with Amano getting rag dolled. Amano was pretty freaking godly here trying to take down a monster as basically everything she did was nifty shootstyle submission counters and several really well timed, really violent shoot headbutts. Her running face first into a Kansai kick was also pretty awe inspiring. Great match, clocking in at just a bit over 10 minutes but every second was worthwhile.

Carlos Amano vs. Aja Kong, GAEA 4/4/2004

Hem, let’s see… it’s Carlos vs. Aja. In Korakuen Hall. No filler, any move could be a finish type work. Of course this is great. Aja is good as usual being an unfuckwithable brickwall and crushing Amano with her superior size and hard hitting, though Amano is pretty much the one who raises this from a somewhat rote (but good) Aja performance to the next level. She comes up with all kinds of cool ways to stop Aja, mostly by trying to crack her skull with her own hard head. Lot of fun to be had just from Amano having so many different ways to smash her head into Aja, even cracking Ajas hand when she goes for the Uraken because Carlos skull is so damn hard, and there are a bunch of great moments in which Aja smacks her down like a fly. I love Carlos fire here, nobody has been so confident and spunky just to get swatted down. I’m not sure which is better – this or vs Kansai – but both matches were pretty different considering they had a similar set up with Carlos taking on a bigger powerhouse – but both were pretty great.

Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada, GAEA 12/14

More cool GAEA sprint action. This one’s from a one night tournament and for that I think it does a really nice job bringing lots to the table while still leaving something for the later round matches. We get some cool grappling that kind of forces Ayako to go back to her ARSION roots in testing herself against a slick grappler that is trying to armbar her. Ayako quickly goes to her kick variations that look insanely sharp – boy do I miss wrestlers actually having devastating looking worked kicks and cool ways to hit their worked kicks – the match seems to go to an early finish but Carlos keeps finding ways to go for the ankle lock. It culminates in Amano catching another kick and headbutting away at Ayakos knee, a really nice little bit of a continuous story. I really wish we had a bigger match between these two at their peak, talk about missed potential because the taste we got here was pretty sweet.

Carlos Amano vs Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA 6/29/2003

Carlos throws the god damn kitchen sink at Chigusa. There’s a neat moment early where Amano goes for a suicide dive, Nagayo sidestepping, and Amano sort of catching herself halfway in the ropes and then eating a hard european uppercut from Chiggy. But Carlos is a ball of fiery energy that won’t be contained. She keeps barraging Chigusa with elbows and her signature headbutts. Just when she’s raining forearms on Chigusa and I’m thinking “She looks like she’s about to bite her damn face off” Amanos headbutts start drawing hardway blood and Carlos starts biting the cut. Awesome. That’s the kind of ruggedness GAEA has along with the slick wrestling that made it pretty great. And Chigusa does hit her with the hardest god damn kick you’ve ever seen to come back. I wasn’t quite in love with Chigusa just kind of beating Carlos. Carlos does get to no sell a powerbomb but one lariat later she’s toast. It felt like a typical Chigusa thing, always keen to squish someone like this, even knowing that Carlos would go 18 minutes against Lioness Asuka next. Carlos looked so fantastic up to that point that it made me sad she was jobbing like this.

Carlos Amano vs Devil Masami, GAEA 6/14/2003

Devil Masami was embracing the Undertaker-isms lots around this time, so there were creepy glares and superhuman displays of strength in this. The match had a lot of great ideas and devastating offense, but it was kind of marred by both of them constantly popping up and no-selling everything. Also thought Masami spent a bit too much time lying in Amanos submissions, though she looked good otherwise. After spending like half the match surviving Carlos’ fully cranked armbars Masami takes the win with a basic figure 4 necklock. Shit just doesn’t make sense sometimes.

Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 5/25/2003

Very 2003 Mayumi Ozaki style match, so that means KAORU and Police interfer a bunch, there’s blood, weapons, lots of odd complexity. If you can get past all the shenanigans there’s some really sweet wrestling here, Ozaki looks great smacking Amano and she has a fun ragdoll-ish way of hitting jumping kicks, while Amanos slick submission counters look great. At one point Amano was just this juggernaut cracking Ozaki with one headbutt after another, landing a sick Honda-ish deadlift german and then going to eat her forehead, it was awe inspiring. She knew she was in a chaotic brawl and she had to work this like Kintaro Oki or Bobo Brazil, downtune the fancies and instead go to crush skulls. I do wish the shenanigans had been tuned back here or there but for this kind of chaotic attitude era style match it’s really good.

Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/6/2003

Fuck did this rule. We’ve seen Amano against a gauntlet of old time veterans, playing underdog to monsters. Now she gets to face a peer that she can go toe to toe with, and they really use the chance to cook up something good. These two could easily just hit spots and please the crowds but they went far beyond that. This was a match that really felt like it was being crafted as it went. Lots of really cool wrestling and struggle early on, Nagashima hangs on to a headlock, Amano takes her over with a beautiful hip toss from there. Then Nagashima does this cool bit where she refuses to be moved, there’s also a bit with Nagashima working guard and doing crazy legs and hitting Amano with a nasty upkick, to which Amano responds by jumping on her and raining some angry strikes. Just really cool, creative wrestling. Later we get another moment where Nagashima goes for an upkick but Amano is wiser and they reset into a really intense lock up. There’s a great bit on the ramp that’s as well done as any ramp bit I can remember, really putting maximum struggle into a potential suplex on the ramp. Match had great grappling and some insanely nasty offense, Nagashimas double stomps and Amanos headbutts being hellish, Nagashima at one point just punching her straight in the face, but still keeping the nifty technical stuff important. Great shit, the kinda match that can not be replicated, they were both totally in their own world here and killed it.

Eternal GAEA

     Chigusa Nagayo vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 12/9/2001

You know I should just sit down and watch GAEA all day long. This was a chaotic brawl with an insanely gory bladejob from Chigusa, so just what you expect. There’s comical amounts of outside interference from Police and KAORU, chairs are thrown, staffs broken, and Chiggy hits a full on Terry Funk style punch combo to comeback. Chigusa has the unique ability to make even mundane submissions like a sleeper or abdominal stretch look dangerous and they do get a ton of mileage out of that here, as of course Chigusa can drop Ozaki with some mad bombs but the focus was mostly on Nagayo doing nifty submission counters and trying to squeeze out a submission. Ozakis backhands and open hands looked good. Yes yes, they may overdo it a little on the outside interference and I maybe would’ve liked a moment where Chigusa goes full Stone Cold and beats the hell out of everyone, but what we got was pretty nifty, and felt unique, like a joshi take on a WWF Attitude Era brawl mixed with Villano III/Atlantis and a dose of Inokiism.

Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu vs Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 11/30/2003

Incredibly neat match where they basically packed as many nifty moments and transitions into a short match as they could. Nagayo has a bad leg and YuYu and Uematsu are like terriers trying to due further damage. An angry Chigusa would in turn try to snap their legs with some really fast dragon screws. There was also some brutality thanks to Yamada and YuYu, mostly. Uematsu and Ran are so mean here that it seems Uematsu busts out a foreign object, and YuYu keeps trying to strangle Yamada and throwing the refee around, which made for some unusual intensity. After the match Chigusa hits a downright criminal kick to YuYus face. A match where every second was interesting and nothing felt by the numbers. GAEA was wild.

Sakura Hirota & Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada & Ran YuYu, GAEA 10/25/2003

Pretty much the Sakura Hirota show. She was on fire here. Mind you, it was comedic, but the match still felt like competitive pro wrestling, and the jokes were funny, creative and displayed considerable skill especially the little lucha routine she did with Ayako, so it was fine by me. Basically Hirotas thing is that she’s a useless idiot, but she keeps on trying despite her failures and she is totally capable of putting someone down for the 3 with a roll up if she just gets things right, so that’s compelling. There’s like a 9 minute stretch or so in this that’s almost all Hirota antics and it’s exhilarating. When Amano is in there’s some pretty damn good straight up wrestling too. It all builds to a really good and quite intricate finishing stretch with Amano hitting flash armbars and Hirota upsetting people with her unique ways. Pretty damn fun and unique match that never missed a beat.

Mayumi Ozaki vs Ai Fujita, GAEA 4/4/2004

Ai Fujita in GAEA?! She was a really fun wrestler. Anyone who can do lucha exchanges and look athletic, bust out slick submissions and shoot punch people in the face has some real talent in my book. It’s a good showing from Ozaki too. Not everything she did landed perfectly but her palm strikes and backfists were pretty fun, really catching Fujita to the mush. She also busted out a cool rolling leglock. Match was going fun but really kicked into next gear once Fujita started punching Ozaki in the face. Her punch combo may be one of my favourite ever in wrestling, it was Takeshi Ono level. Match also had the GAEA-typical odd touches nifty moments. Good stuff, bit unfortunate Fujita retired just shortly after this, though I guess the joshi scene didn’t hold much more for types like her at this point.

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 4/10/2004

Tons of fun, even for a tag that’s kind of on a smaller show. Early goings were basic but engaging, as they put a ton of struggle and vigor even into things as basic as a test of strength or struggling over a top wristlock, and with the people involved there’s always the factor that someone might get kicked really hard. Yamada in her later days may be physically over the hill but I always find her interesting to watch. This stuff rules not because it's hard hitting (it is) but also because they display lots of creativity. Things kick up a notch when Satomura started getting into kick battles with Kansai and Yamada. You know these 3 are GOATs and they are breathtaking to watch even compared to GOATs, every thing hitting snug and they have a bunch of different interesting ways to land their kicks and strikes. Especially dug Satomuras out of nowhere mule kick from the corner. The finishing run is Kansai vs Nagashima and it’s more about Nagashima trying to pull off a tricky pin combination to take down the juggernaut but it’s also pretty great. Kansai is so good even late in her career, her strikes land hard and she knows exactly how to be a monster, these two have a cool dynamic together like a more hard hitting Rey/Psicosis.

Random Joshi

Yoshiko Tamura vs Emi Sakura, NEO 5/5/2009

Nearly perfect 15 minute war, I know both these two can be pretty great when they’re inspired, and they still surprised me with how great they were. A big part of why the match rocks is Emi Sakura, who brings a ton of spunk and clever spots outsmarting Tamura and doing damage to her higher ranked opponent. Tamura cutting off Sakura by viciously strangling her with a cobra clutch was pretty perfect. There isn’t a ton of groundwork but they do a few neat inventive holds that are well worked. Sakura working the back was brisk, pretty violent with Sakura dropping her body weight on Tamuras spine in nasty ways and sold very well by Tamura. Final minutes were really good high end workrate stuff with Sakura desperately trying to pull off a flash pin, some really good dodge and counter move stuff and Tamura just demolishing her with her awesome pummeling elbows, I think her spin kick also gave Sakura a bloody lip. Do yourself a favour and go out of your way to watch this match.

 

Dynamite Kansai vs Sonoko Kato, Oz Academy 9/11/2016

This is definitely something I should have checked out in 2016, because this was pretty awesome, hard hitting pro wrestling with no padding. It’s one of Kansais last singles matches, but she goes all out here and still has her moments where she looks like a monster and kicks her opponent in the face. Thought Kato was pretty great here, really giving Kansai a working over with badass kicks and staying on her with submissions. What was best about this was that they went out and delivered 20 minutes of straight up non-formulaic pro wrestling. Loved the opening second as Kato kept stubbornly going for a waistlock to hit the German Suplex on Kansai. Build to the big bombs was really good as there was plenty of facekicking and struggle. I loved how even with the bigger moves, a basic kick to the face from Kansai could be a near finish. Great match, made me think I should go back and watch like 200 Sonoko Kato matches.

 

Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi & Ran Yu Yu vs Misae Genki & Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano, JWP 10/13/2002

Insane 45 minute iron woman match with everyone going insanely hard right from the start and never really letting up, just busting out one great exchange after another. The stiffness her was outstanding, they all decided to put some extra oomph and hatred into every blow, things like a headstomp or dropkick were really cracking people her. They mostly stuck to your classic match ups of Hyuga/Tamura, Genki/Ran and Bolshoi/Amano, although they cycle through here and there so you get a little bit of everything. Hyuga is a reliable tireless dynamo as always and her jumping knees and face kicks were sick, Tamura hits some of the hardest elbows as always and it seems she had gotten the hang out of how to work a more meaningful pace. Yu Yu vs Genki is always reliable and gritty, just two tanks with awesome offense barraging each other. Bolshoi/Amano is an all time great match up and they were going hard as fuck here. Tons of slick grappling, at one point they both were in a leg ride and twisting each others legs up in ridiculous ways. Their later exchange in the match was completely awesome with amazing submission counters, Amano hitting a Honda-style deadlift German with Bolshoi desperately trying to resist, incredible stuff. For a long match I think they did a great job mixing up the offense without repeating their moves too often, everything still felt meaningful, and because of the rules and the length of the match you buy something random like a dragon sleeper counter 40 minutes in as a potential finish. For that they did a great job, and like I said holy fuck did they go all out guns blazing in this, just ridiculous wrestling. Crazy this was done for 200 fans and a shitty one camera production. The business may have been nosediving but these women were still pushing the envelope when it comes to in-ring action. Great shit, really a bit of a hidden all timer in the rubble.

GAEAISM continues

 

Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 8/17/2003

Another banger upload from GAEAISM, that channel is on a tear. This was just great as you had your high concept chaotic Ozaki brawl that stays in the ring + plenty of vicious kicks from the monster duo of Kansai & Yamada. Kansai especially was amazing here blasting people with brutal kicks and being a menace. Ozakis execution has worsend throughout the years, but she was pretty fun here with her backhands, cool jumping kicks and occasionally just hurling a chain at people. Police gets involved briefly but he gets his ass kicked pretty fast. And KAORU is as precise and on point as always. Badass finish and there were a number of unpredictable moments and everyone going for the kill from the start with nearly no downtime. I especially enjoyed all the work around Kansais splash mountain. 

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Carlos Amano & Ran Yu Yu, GAEA 8/17/2003

All-star match up that delivers. Just a blindingly great match with one awesome exchange after another and a lot of violent strikes, everyone here matches up insanely well. Just the first Satomura vs Ran YuYu is exchange is really intense as they start with a hard-fought lock up and then go into open handed kickboxing exchanges like a PANCRASE fight. I’m used to seeing later years Satomura sticking to her usual stuff, so the more unpredictable younger version is always a blast. Ran Yu Yu was awesome in this and may have been the best woman in the match. She was great with everyone and her elbow smash is one of the most awesome strikes ever. Amano was really coming into full bloom at this point too, really revelling in all her glory with the crazy headbutts and flash armbars and the occasionally cheeky eye rake. Nagashima doesn’t quite stand out as in-your-face spectacular as the other three, but she can go hard and she does have a few sick moments including her forward rolling double stomp that had to be the sickest move in the match. The finishing run is Nagsahima vs Amano and it’s really good nimble high end workrate stuff with relentless suplexes and submissions, some fantastic counters and Amanos reliable hard head. Breathless, exciting stuff, just what you hope for when you see 4 of the most talented wrestler in the world at the time in a match.

 

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 4/14/2002

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 6/2/2002

Early 2000s were an interesting time. Sakura Hirota had started to find her calling as a comedy wrestler, and in this case she had started teaming with Chigusa Nagayo as ECCENTRIC. I am not going to pretend I understand the gimmick fully, but from what I can tell Hirota got really obsessed with WWF Attitude Era catchphrases and this somehow also infected Chigusa and they both started dressing really early 2000s Nu Metal fashionable, hitting bronco busters on people and Nagayo covering for Hirotas oddball tactics and overall ambitiousness. The first match is probably the quintessence of this. Semi-serious match where Hirota is in her full glory, all oddball tactics and antics that sometimes hit and largely backfire. It works because everybody else is treating this as a serious wrestling match, with Ozaki & KAORU being as befuddled by Hirota as everyone else and then walking over to kick her in the face. There’s some quite good wrestling, and all the jokes are extremely well timed and hit. Great comedy match, and culminates in probably the greatest finish ever that left everyone astounded, must see stuff really. However, the 2^nd match might be even greater. Basically here OZ and KAORU make it clear they have no interest in being foils for Hirotas antics, and the match quickly turns from an asskicking into a blood drenched massacre. There’s something about the fact that Hirota is basically a feel good comedy character at this point that makes the sadistic bloody beatdown OZ and KAORU put on her that much more evil, and it really drives the intensity up to the maximum when a bloody Hirota gets fired up and starts kicking ass in return. Really the kind of stuff you can only get in pro wrestling. Nagayo also looked really great here working as the protective big sister stomping mudholes in Policemans ratty ass and launching people around with powerbombs. The moment where she started to shrug off the blows and give people the death stare for hurting Hirota has to be Top 10 in wrestling ever. Ozaki and KAORU are also quite impeccable here with their knack for both bloody beatdowns and nifty cutoffs and transition spots, the intricate finishing run in this match was among the best in this genre. Truely kino stuff, nothing quite like this thanks to the unique character of Sakura Hirota.

Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 8/30/2002

It’s too bad this is JIP, because the couple minutes we get are really badass. I’m always impressed with how Ozaki is able to put in a beating on a larger opponent, in this case both using the chain and hitting some badass palm strikes. Kansai was a monster as usual here, all face kicks and freakish Splash Mountain setups, the last one with the multiple backbreakers was some Brock Lesnar stuff. Also dug Ozakis odd twisty rollups.

Some Matches from GAEA STORM SIGNAL 7/14/2003

 

Ran Yu Yu vs Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 7/14/2003

Really uniquely great under 10 minute match. The problem with joshi is that often the execution of moves is too smooth and things start to feel like an exhibition of moves. This match was so so far away from smoothness and clean execution. Almost everything here was a gritty struggle, a car wreck of reckless strikes and misses, moves are struggled over and awkwardly taken when they hit, and this was never predictable. Ran Yu Yu is one of the most underrated wrestlers in joshi history, all her strikes are such bangers, the absolute monster elbows that she would hit Yamada in this and her awesome out of nowhere leg sweep and jumping enzuigiri, all great, I also loved the weird half-dive through the ropes. Yamada also still fits like a glove in this type match, with this and the Sugar Sato match I’m wondering if she was on an unheralded monster run in the early 2000s. Lot of this felt like a Stan Hansen match which is a very good thing. Check it out if you want to see an ugly fast paced fight.

Carlos Amano vs Lioness Asuka, GAEA 7/14/2003

Hard to watch this and not think Carlos Amano is the coolest wrestler ever. Barefooted, hard headed, and bringing this crazy powerful monkey energy that is really unique. I haven’t been a huge fan of Lioness Asuka in her later years, but I give her full credit as she just went out and had a great match with Carlos here. Asuka provides a serious obstacle for Carlos to overcome, she’s bigger, she’s stiff, she can grapple, and she’s also a megastar. It was really fun watching Carlos try to crack her and get the arm for the tap. Carlos has a million slick ways to get into an armbar and it’s just spectacular show. I also thought the more light hearted moments were really fun and added to the match. Even the obligatory crowd brawl had some good struggle. I was a bit worried when Asuka brought out her goofy early 2000s tribal design signature table but it didn’t hurt the match and it lead to some really painful looking spots. Last couple minutes with Asuka throwing bombs and Amano trying to tap her out with crazy armbar reversals were pretty damn great. This ruled pretty much.

Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada vs Chigusa Nagayo & Aja Kong, GAEA 7/14/2003

Also a really great match, probably even better then you expect it to be. This had the underdog story you expect of Hamada and Satomura stepping up to Aja and Chigusa, but surprisingly, there was a big focus on flash submissions and unpredictable strikes here, with an ‘anything can happen’ layout that made this really exciting cutting edge pro wrestling as Meiko and Ayako threw the kitchen sink at their opponents. I am so used to seeing Meiko as an established veteran badass beating down lower ranked opponents that her performance as the fired up athletic youngsters trying to chop down the heavyweights was exhilarating. Ayako also looks really sharp here, all her offense has such snap, and her match up against Aja is known quality from their ARSION days. Aja isn’t in the match a ton, but she looks great as usual being both an untouchable monster and very vulnerable with her bandaged shoulder. Surprisingly Chigusa was pretty much the best wrestler in this match, she was 100% on here and looked like the queen. Loved all the submissions and her palm strikes were epic. Tons of great moments mostly thanks to Chiggy and Meiko, and the finish was really unique and awesome. Probably the best match on a show packed with great matches.

Assorted OZ Academy

 

Carlos Amano vs Kaoru Ito, OZ Academy 1/22/2006

Fun match where they both show off their awesome offense. You’re not going to get a ton of psychology in Kaoru Ito matches, but there was some semblance of her selling the arm, and she will absolutely murder someone with double stomps. Amano was a dynamo in this match, here constant arm attacks and headbutt variations were great. I dug all the counters she had to the uranage slam, and the finish was the kind of nifty touch she is so good at pulling off. It’s always nice to get a match where Amano shines.

Dynamite Kansai & Jaguar Yokota vs. Aja Kong & Misae Genki, OZ Academy 1/22/2006

Very cool match. All these legends aren’t going to work super hard in a mid card match on a small show, but you will still get plenty of neat touches. Loved all the little things Aja did in the match, such as blocking a Yokota footsweep and stomping on her leg. Kansai looked spry, throwing good kicks and never slowing down. Her exchanges with Aja weren’t 1993 level but they were still good and would look good on anyone elses resume. Lots of cool offense from the bigger girls in this match, and Yokotas out of nowhere rolling kicks were awesome.

Carlos Amano vs. Amazing Kong, Oz Academy 8/8/2004

 

Cracking little under 5 minute match that is built around Amano basically trying to crack Kongs skull with running headbutts and chairshots. Kong definitely moved like a star at this point and gave back pretty good. The finish is pretty crazy as Kong takes a belly first bump through a Japanese table before getting clocked with another jumping headbutt off the apron. Gnarly.

GWE Watching: Ran Yu Yu

 Ran Yu Yu vs. Misae Genki, JWP 12/9/2001

This… this was absolutely awesome. I was notoriously down on their big encounter in 2000, but this… this was a whole world better. Basically they got everything right that the 2000 match got wrong, and on top of that they were downright evil to each other. Just a vicious hard hitting match with blindingly awesome transitions and intense struggle that was on the level of the best 90s NJ junior matches. Yu Yu is so, so good, she has style and grace, and she hits like a tank. And Genki is a big old beast. Early going was basic but really great fighting it out, with Yu Yu trying to ground Genki and zone in on her arm, and Genki hitting back really hard. Both were already brutalizing each other here, Yu Yu caught Genki with a sick looking thai knee and kept slapping her head on the ground, Genki had big thudding boots and a moment where she just wasted Yu Yu with a flurry of hard palm strikes. Even the crowd brawling felt unusually hate filled, there was another nasty knee to the face from Yu Yu here. I am used to Genki being kind of a no selling douche so her paying subtle tribute to Yu Yus arm work wearing her out was a nice touch. The transitions they busted out were great and organic, with each exchange feeling like a fight. There were a number of absolutely fantastic moments, some that stood out were Genki dragging Yu Yu over the rope to strangle her, something that often feels like filler in matches but felt like a murder attempt here and it set up one of the most devastating elbow drops I’ve ever seen. I also loved Genki busting out an awesome chokeslam counter, and her punching Yu Yu in the back of the head to break out of Yu Yus armbar felt straight out of FUTEN. I loved Yu Yu working her way back into the match after Genki had knocked her silly, first trying to slip into submissions or roll ups before she found the strength to swing back and try to KO the monster. Finishing run was amazing as well full of great desperation counters and Yu Yu trying to knock Genkis head off with her elbows. Tremendous, tremendous match full of fight and grit and fantastic wresting, they hit it out the park and they weren’t even the main event.

Ran Yu Yu vs. Carlos Amano, JWP 9/10/2001

I love both these two workers, how on earth did the fact they had TWO full length taped singles matches in 2001 elude me so long?? This was an excellent contest and pretty different from your typical joshi match. The first 12 or so minutes were almost all submissions and groundwork. There were a number of moments where they visibly slowed down to come up with some intricate counters and it was really cool. Amano tried to zone in on Yu Yu’s arm/shoulder but Yu Yu pushed back by almost ripping Amanos leg out with some spinny leglocks of her own. When they stood up they clocked each other with some super hard strikes. Yu Yus turnbuckle enzuigiri and that weird sternum elbow she throws have to be among the best strikes any wrestler has ever had. Amano wasn’t the headbutt machine yet, but her flying clotheslines and spinning elbows land really snug, and both these two time their stuff so well that you never know when their hits are coming. Also Yu Yus diving knee drops are sick. Finish was pretty technical and cool to see in a joshi match, just great stuff overall.

Ran Yu Yu vs. Carlos Amano, JWP 12/18/2001

Not as good as 9/10 match, the matwork wasn’t as good and there was an annoying part where they both started no-selling suplexes. Aside from that this had some excellent standing exchanges, awesome counters and a brilliant finish so I don’t want to call it a miss. I mean just something like Ran Yu Yu catching Amanos flying armbar and turning it into a torture rack is so impossibly cool. Check it out if you are a fan of these two.

JWP LIFE IN THE BATTLE 4/8/1997

Watch

Cutie Suzuki vs. Kanako Motoya

Oddly ornery technical match. Suzuki stretches Motoya a bunch, and then Motoya stretches Suzuki and hits these cool headbutts that felt like something a bald european technician would do. Motoya once again had really nasty sentons. The match didn’t seem to come together as a whole but it there were some fun bits.

Mayumi Ozaki & Carlos Amano vs. Megumi Kudo & RIE

This was a street fight with everyone dressed up in their grungy street clothes and it was just an absolute house of fire as they went full throttle over like 25 minutes. Amano and RIE bled like crazy and Oz and Kudo held up looking like absolute superstars throughout this match. They could’ve just done brawling and weapon shots and it would have been good as they worked in some really cool key transitions, but then they went all out in the second half delivering so much cool stuff and false finishes out the ass. They convince you that Oz and Kudo could end the match, then they introduce the more plausible possibility of one of the underlings getting pinned, then it’s underling vs. underling, then suddenly Oz and Kudo again… they did a great job mixing the weapons and chains with the 90s style puro big moves and something like a tiger bomb or half nelson suplex looks double cool in a bloody brawl with weapons strewn about the ring. Amano looked brave as fuck diving in to save Ozaki and while RIE had a shitty moment where she blew a move, she also had a really cool moment where she taped a bat to her knee and delivered a gross looking jumping knee to the head. The chain stuff was engrossing, remember chain chokes often end brawls in Japan either by ref stop or submission. Ozakis out of nowhere backfists were really cool. Tremendous stuff at a crazy pace that would light a fire if you ran it anywhere today.

Dynamite Kansai vs. Hikari Fukuoka

This was compared to Aja vs. Toyota, but honestly, I thought this was probably better. Fukuoka is so much better than Toyota it’s not even funny, her offense and comebacks are varied and way more interesting, and she actually sold her ass off, was struggling to get back on offense and milking things for drama, plus she can pull out some damn graceful moves and the moonsault stomp and rider kick are also cool than anything in a Toyota match. This was just a really good big vs. little match, with Kansai mostly controlling and Fukuoka making some great comebacks with Kansai then cutting her off in brutal fashion. Needless to say Kansais kicks were absolutely vicious. I loved Fukuokas desperation legsweep after Kansai started kicking the shit out of her in the ring. After Kansai hit the splash mountain, Fukuoka seemed extremely done, struggling to move or get to her feet, that’s how you sell after a big move. The final stanza with Kansai hitting super violent punt kicks and Fukuoka trying to pull out desperate counters was really great. Hell of a match, one of the best big matches of 1997.

The Library

 

JWP THE FIGHT 5/10/1997

 Watch (Really good card from top to bottom, check it out=

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sari Osumi

I mostly remember Osumi for dressing in a nazi uniform later. She played the role of anxious rookie here who's terrified of Ozaki. Probably for good reason. The match was just a silly little splash but it had one or two nice moments. Ozaki had a really nasty cutoff where she double stomped Osumi and there was a funny moment where Osumi teased diving from the top but decided against it.

Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Carlos Amano

I really like the later work of both these two, and they had a really really good basic rookie match here. Some really nice tight holds and scrambles on the ground, not really shootstyle matwork but just cool nifty exeuction on pro style headlocks and headscissors, Amano also had a really crafty escape twisting Miyaguchis ankle with her leg. Standup sections were fast and intense and they built to the few big spots they had at this stage really well. Amano already had her great flying armbars and there was a cool sequence where Amano hit a splash right into Miyaguchis outstretched legs and then Miyaguchi worked her over with Kitchen Sinks. I love a worker who makes use of the kitchen sink. Really good stuff.

 Dynamite Kansai & Sari Osumi & Emi Sakura vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Candy Okutsu & Command Bolshoi

 A 3 vs. 3 tag that had some really slick wrestling and good character work. Initially they focused on beating down Miyaguchi who had just done a match, but then they shifted to putting Sakura and Osumi and their silly ways in the focus. It made for some good underdog wrestling though, I especially liked Sakuras armbars and Magistral cradles. Kansai didn't do much but when she was in she was a monster, crushing people with her kicks. Bolshoi, Okutsu and Miyaguchi teaming up to take her down and hitting a huge 3 on 1 missile dropkick was impressive. Osumis hip attack stuff is funny and charming and Bolshoi basically palm striking her face off was one hell of a finish. One of those matches that won't win workrate awards but if wrestling didn't have character matches like this it would be a whole lot less fun.

Kanako Motoya vs. Tomoko Kuzumi

One of those 90s joshi matches that is best summed up as "two extremely athletic lunatics trying to crush each other". It was good though. Nobody brings up Kanako Motoya anymore, but she could go. Really dug all the rope climbing and springboard moves, really impressive stuff that they knew to time extremely well. Motoya also had the most god awful crushing senton in history ever in this, it looked like it just took 10 years off of Kuzumis life. Kuzumi took another absolutely lunatic face bump into Motoyas outstretched legs. There was some repetitiveness, for example Motoya hit like 7 flipping sentons at one point followed by Kuzumi hitting 5 butterfly suplexes in a row. And there wasn't much of a story. That said there was enough struggle and chippiness to keep this from being a trained monkey show so I just enjoyed the carnage. 

Cuty Suzuki & Plum Mariko vs. Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka

This is a really great match, but man it is hard to watch Plum get powerbombed and clutching her head.  There was a fantastic underdog vs. overdog story here, Masami and Fukuoka are basically a pair of monsters and Masami especially was killing everyone here, with Suzuki and Plum trying to work a smart match to beat them. Cuty is kind of a weirdly good wrestler, like imagine if Torrie Wilson threw absolutely sick suplexes and stiff open hands, the opening where she tries to step up to Fukuoka is really great already. I loved all the submission work and arm attack stuff by Suzuki and Mariko and they have a bunch of great big vs. little comeback spots. Fukuoka isn't as charismatic but she will absolutely kick right through you with her dropkicks and she always has that Moonsault Double Stomp which is one of the most menacing moves in wrestling ever, you don't even want her to hit that on anyone. The finishing run was a bit too much with Masami hitting the nastiest powerbomb series I've ever seen on Plum and a spot where Plum gets thrown headfirst into the guardrail. I try not to safety police matches normally but it's rough when you know the wrestler in the match died from head injuries.

The Library

2002 MOTY Project Update #21

 

Wataru Sakata vs. Yoshihito Sasaki, Z1 12/29/2002

Great BML style match. Sakata may have been the best junior in 2002 simply because he just goes for the kill all the time. You buy a random knee or low kick from him as knocking someone out, and on the ground he‘ll just start grinding the other guys face. Sasaki was just the right mix of cautious and aggressive. Him trying to control this dangerous shooter with headlocks and swinging away wildly with open hands and pro wrestling style crowbar shots was really great. Him randomly trying to grab an argentine rack has to be one of the greatest hope spots I‘ve ever seen. And Sakata was just a killer.

Carlos Amano vs. Meiko Satomura, GAEA 11/17/2002

These two only need about 5 and a half minutes to have an excellent match. Great constant scrappiness throughout, and there was some absolutely fabulous submission and counterwork throughout. Amano looked great busting out deadlift suplexes and some murderously stiff headbutts. Satomura fired back with her trademark kicks, and because of the sprint format every nearfall was great. Utterly brilliant finish. It annoys me to no hand there‘s no lengthy singles match between these two as veterans, as the stuff they do together is always so unique and undeniably great.

Osamu Nishimura vs. Yuji Nagata, NJPW 8/8/2002

At points this may have been even better than Nishimura vs. Takayama. Nishimura is this guy who just kind of gives everyone the same challenge, and Nagata was super game to grapple it out with him and threaten him with his dangerous submissions. First 15 minutes of this or so were a pretty sublime grappling epic as it‘s so fascinating to watch Nishimura control and counter his opponent. Nagata is really decent mixing it up by throwing some strikes and shoot suplexes into the mix. The match could‘ve been Top 10 level if Nagata didn‘t decide to complete bury Nishimuras legwork. Instead they went with Nishimura surviving Nagatas high end modern offense and countering with his 80s moves, which was still quite great. Nishimura was damn near superhuman in 2002.

 

2002 MOTY List

Unseen GAEA

 Meiko Satomura vs. Carlos Amano, GAEA 1/17/1999

I tried tracking this down years ago but the TV version ended up being quite clipped, so getting the full match after 20 years is really nice! And the complete version made a whole lot more sense than the clipped version as we get a bunch of really cool opening matwork and the story of the match unfolds. Basically Satomura thinks Amano is beneath her but Satomura comes in with huge disadvantages, as her shoulder is bandaged AND Amano has a bunch of hostile OZ Academy punks at ringside. These two are really tenacious wrestlers and they do a bunch of great wrestling really ripping into each other with submissions and hard shots and not letting go whenever they grabbed a limb, and the outside interference stuff was done in such a way that it didn‘t hurt the match but instead added to the story of Satomura having to fight through. The bandaged shoulder stuff was cool as there was never a point where Amano controlled Satomura for a long time working the shoulder, but she would tear into it here and there and it always came across as a nasty heel move. Great ending run as Satomura did her darndest and it really felt that if she just hit the Death Valley Bomb she could win. Amano wasn‘t yet the headbutt machine but her grappling and submissions were great as always and she did a nice job showing a mean streak being an asshole. Really really good match with some great wrestling and a they did a great job slowly escalating it and maintaining the emotional connection to the crowd.

KAORU vs. Yasha Kurenai, GAEA 4/15/1995

The GAEAISM channel continues to deliver, this match seems like it wasn‘t on the Comm. Release so this is another hit upload. Ultra heated spectacle match, the kind of thing Kurenai is so good at. Hot start with KAORU diving right into a chairshot and eating a big chokeslam. KAORU going back to her heel Infernal KAORU roots to combat Kurenai was fun, and the match ended up being about KAORUs skill vs. Kurenais rough style. Loved Kurenai busting out the staff, and the ending run was really good, KAORUs springboard moonsault may be one of the prettiest moves in wrestling history. And the heat was just off the charts.

Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & Michiko Nagashima vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru & Sonoko Kato, GAEA 3/25/1996

Sawai is a monster here and dominates Chigusa early, so Chigusa busts out a bullrope! The LLPW girls bust out a chain to counter! Everyone on the GAEA team wears the same outfit! Fun chaotic match. Unfortunately we only got about 5 minutes of 18, but it was fun to check out. Kato was fired up and almost choked out Yukari at one point which was cool. The Yukari/Hikari finishing stretch also doesn‘t suck.

Assorted NEO

 

Azumi Hyuga vs. Yoshiko Tamura, NEO 5/5/2003

These two had a more famous 60 minute draw in 2006 or so, this here is much shorter and livelier and more watchable. Opening exchanges were really mean and hard thought, submissions applied with full intent to tap the other person, and dropkicks landing right in peoples faces. I was getting ready to complain when they botched a couple moves and went into a marathon of kickouts and move exchanges (as these joshi big matches go), but then Hyuga hit a huge flying knee to Tamura outside the ring which was sold in a big way and they picked it up for an excellent finishing stretch that saw both women throwing brutal strikes. Real edge of your seat stuff with a killer finish.

Yoshiko Tamura vs. The Bloody, NEO 9/20/2004

Violent, scrappy big match. First 10 minutes of this were just great as it was like they decided to work a BattlARTSian joshi match. Just two ladies kicking the guts out of each other and scrambling for leg bars and chokes. Really nice, scrappy, uncooperative and hard fought stuff. They lost me a bit when they went for the extended outside tour, but it led to Bloody brutalizing Tamura with the chair which in turn caused a sick Tamura bladejob. Bloody continued to wail on her with nasty chair shots and trying to bend her in half with nasty crab holds while seconds jumped on Tamura when she was outside. Tamuras comeback wasn‘t the greatest as she basically no sold a bunch of chair shots but it felt gradual enough. The finishing stretch was neck spiking suplex mania peppered with exceedingly violent strike exchanges. Tamura has great looking elbows, and I also really dug The Bloody‘s double handed chops which she really blasted Tamura in the face with. Could‘ve done at half the length but it was a cool discovery.

Yoshiko Tamura & Carlos Amano vs. Misae Genki & Ran Yu Yu, NEO 5/3/2001

Ran Yu Yu in the early 2000s was a very special worker. Her exchanges with Amano here were fantastic. Tamura/Genki sections were solid, but a step down. They just go through their stuff, while Ran makes hers special. She was doing things no other joshi worker was really doing at the time, like busting out European style pin combos and turning her elbows and european uppercuts into brilliant moments. Her elbow to the sternum has to be one of the best simple strikes I‘ve ever seen. She even imprinted on the finish by hitting one of her signature elbows to set it up. They went for a big finish here but didn‘t overkill or go long, and so it was good. Amano also looked good as usual.

Yuka Shiina vs. Misae Genki, NEO 9/24/2001

Cool 5 minute sprint which had Shiinas unique style written all over it. I have no idea if this Shiina mini push ever went anywhere in NEO, it doesn‘t seem like it, but it was cool that she got to do her own thing for a while. This was Shiina dominating the bigger, higher ranked Genki by putting submissions on her left and right. Just when I thought Genki was gonna make an easy comeback Shiina viciously booted her in the face and went for the kill with another choke. Shiinas style, while basic, got tremendous heat. She even rabbit punched Genki in the back of the head. The finish was well done but I thought Shiina by all logic should have won. Eitherways, Yuka Shiina has my attention now.

Assorted NEO

 

Hiromi Yagi & Carlos Amano vs. Yuka Shiina & Chaparita ASARI, NEO 5/4/2001

This is the kind of joshi I love and miss dearly. 4 crazy grapplers going all out busting out crazy armbars and legbars left and right and fighting fiercely. My girl Yagi totally stole the show having some great exchanges. I was also super impressed with Asari. She is someone I usually enjoy, but she totally adapted to the others style and busted out some super dope shit including her awesome swinging rana into an armbar. I‘ve never noticed Shiina much but she was hellbent on choking someone out. Amano was her usual self. The finish was great with Yagi pulling out an incredible counter. It was something Fujiwara would do if he was a 95 pound lithe athletic girl.

Hiromi Yagi & Yuka Shiina vs. Tanny Mouse & Yuki Miyazaki, NEO 5/3/2001

Not a match people would seek out on paper, but there were some good standing exchanges here. Miyazaki and Tanny where kind of a workrate team in NEO while still doing some comedy. Some moments felt comedic but not like contrived jokes. And the rest of this was quite good, mostly built around flash submissions and cool hard head spots from Tanny. Shiina was once again working like a submission artist and I think she's becoming one to watch. She's really putting the Sleeper Hold to use and that's something that will always get a wrestler on my good side. The ending was built around her trying to choke Tanny out, finding various ways to lock in sleepers and Tanny desperately avoiding them until Tanny caught her in a her weird Pallo Special to get the submission herself. Fun match and an example of sprinty joshi done right.

Yuka Shiina vs. Chaparita ASARI, NEO 12/7/2001

Awesome match! Pretty much Shiina countering Asaris flying into her grappling moves, and Asari countering with surprising grappling skill of her own. I love a match where wrestler not famous for grappling reveals themself to be good at grappling, and this was that. And they stuck to this simple story and it really worked in getting me into all their exchanges. Once again Shiina was hyper focussed on the sleeper. It build to a great ending with ASARI trying to knock her out with shotais and Shiina going for Sleepers from different angles. It's kind of mind blowing how simple great matches can be sometimes. Add a neat finish and you have one of the best joshi matches of the year.

GAEA 4/21/1997

 Toshie Uematsu vs. Yuka Shiina

A surprising amount of stiffness and intensity in this. The moves and sequences they did were basic, but heated. Uematsu is higher on the totem pole and Shiina never mounts much offense against her, but she does give Shiina some nice token nearfalls including a great one where Shiina caught her with a missile dropkick to the back of the head. Pleasantly surprising match.

Akira Hokuto & Maika Matsumoto vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Reiko Amano

Amano is wee rookie here, but she is spunky, oh so spunky. Nagashima just betrayed GAEA and joined Oz Academy. They both want a piece of Hokuto, who is so hilariously unphased. Matsumoto acts like a big shot, then gets her shit pushed in! Hokuto makes no secret about how she could end this in 20 seconds but still takes glee in torturing these rascals! Amano gets a kneebar on Hokuto in what feels like a great moment! Hokuto kills Nagashima to death in the finish! Matches like this will never win workrate awards, but it was a super fun little piece of character driven pro wrestling and adances the GAEA/Oz Academy storyy. Ozaki is at ringside, and doesn’t care at all about Hokuto abusing her underlings. Cold.

Meiko Satomura & Devil Masami vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato

Another virtually perfectly laid out sprint. Numerous great spots here. It wasn’t the moves they did (although everyone whips out cool shit), but the moments of teamwork, assisting spots and surprising twists is what made this match. Masami was basically just a juggernaut here tagging in to drop bombs and kick people in the face. Chigusa vs. Meiko sections were just great. Chigusa can kill Meiko with just a few moves, so anytime she was mounting offense it felt like Meiko was desperate for survival. She also hit another Ikeda level punt to Masami. Kato sections weren’t as great, although her teamwork with Chigusa was stellar. The finish with Nagayo failing to drag Kato back to her corner before Masami just nuked the poor girl was also not only visually impressive but an effective payoff to the story. I think GAEA may have been the best promotion in the world doing these type of matches in 1997.

THE LIBRARY 

2002 MOTY #13

 Carlos Amano vs. Command Bolshoi (JWP 9/23/2002)

WELL!! These are two of my favourite female workers, and really two of the more unique wrestlers in wrestling history, despite the fact you have to kind of scour the earth to find their good matches. Due to the special makeup of japanese womens wrestling these two are rarely in a matchup that allows them to shine. And for some reason, their matches over the years have never been quite white they should be. The 1998 encounter went far too long, the 2000 ones ranged between solid and fun exhibtions... fortunately, they finally delivered what the matchup promises on this one. This is a submission match and really worked like Negro Navarro vs. Solar in Coliseo Coacalco. It even had the kind of playing to the crowd and jokes that sort of match would have. 90% of this was grappling, and it was good. What makes these two so cool is not just their submissions but the cool unique trips and transitions they will come up with to get them. Plenty of unique spots and submissions to keep you entertained, and the finish was decided on the mat in an intense scramble as it should be. Really this felt like a Virus match and that's exactly what their strength is. No idea what took them so long to figure it out, but this was worth seeking out.

 

Great Sasuke vs. Dick Togo (Michinoku Pro 8/15/2002)

The 90s are over, all your junior heroes are broken down and old, and instead of highspots they work gritty technical matches now. This was centered around Togos pretty great selling performance, he comes in with a bandaged mid section and Sasuke spends most of this match torturing him with kidney punches and ab stretches. Ultra simple match but with plenty of cool moments. I really liked Togo desperately preventing Sasukes dive by clutching his leg and pretty much dragging him down then just throwing a chair at him („Fuck you, here's a chair“ is always a favourite of mine), really liked his nifty pin combo and desperate crossface attempts etc. A ladder gets brought into play and this as usual spells Sasukes downfall.  

Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/14/2002

Even though there was one obnoxious fighting spirit spot, this had more than enough solid, inventive pro wrestling to keep you entertained. Good opening matwork with both girls aggressively trying to dislocate eachothers shoulder. Nagashimas double stomps actually lead to a damn good Satomura selling performance with her looking vulnerable and struggling to reach deep and hit that Death Valley Bomb. The spot with Satomura trying to catch a flying Nagashima only to collapse was damn good. Satomura was also absolutely walloping Nagashima with nasty kicks left and right. There was a brief moment of struggle in the second half with Nagashima clinging to Satomuras leg and trying to prevent a flying move, only for her to eat an absolutely disgusting axe kick. It's these kind of moments that set matches like this apart from your average bombfest. Nagashima looked sharp, not blowing anything, whipping out cool submissions and rollups. Her use of the Cavernaria felt damn epic thanks to Satomuras selling. The ending run was 2,99999ville, but they never went overboard. Not a MOTYC, but a fun little war.

 Bas Rutten vs. Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 5/2/2002)

  Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.

Manabu Sato (Manabu Hara/Suruga) vs. Hiroshi Shimada, Rainbow Promotion 3/21/2002

Really fun big vs. little grappling match. Shimada looked awesome here twisting up his opponent with amateur sugar holes. He also had some great violent looking knees on the ground. Talk about a guy who missed his calling as a shootstylist. Young Manabu, who seemingly could never decide on a last name, is more than solid here as a bantamweight grappler fighting a beast. 

 2002 MOTY MASTER LIST