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.

Back to GAEA

 

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Ran Yu yu & Ayako Hamada, GAEA 10/13/2003

Not as good as the August tag with all the youngguns, but still pretty damn good pro wrestling. After a good opening exchange from Satomura and Hamada, Nagashima and Ran kinda flub something and Nagashima puts the pointless Figure 4 of doom on Ran. The match gets back on track fast though when Ran starts beating the shit out of Nagashima. Nagashimas headscissors and ranas give a different vibe to everyone else, some of her stuff looked a little clunky but its fun, and I liked when Ayako just chucked her to the mat like a piece of trash. Match gets awesome really quickly again when Satomura tags back in and everybody just starts teeing off on each other. Satomura vs Ran is especially great, just two badass wrestlers who hit like a truck squaring off. Rans elbows once again ruled and there were a handful of cool experimental moments. Really liked how there was a sense of going for the kill constantly, all killer no filler, and the finish is freaking sweet.

No Rules Streetfight Handicap Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU & Takako Inoue, GAEA 10/13/2003

No Rules Streetight, yeah! Takako had done a run in on a previous show, costing the Crush Gals a win with her goofy cattle prod. They had all kinds of props for this – barbedwire boards, a ladder, various weapons and that damn cattle prod, and they really got the most mileage out of it all. This could easily have been a total geek show if it was just a bunch of deathmatch guys but these are all talented enough to get serious drama out of everything. Chigusa in 2003 is so good that she makes even something like tugging on a chain compelling, and of course her crowd connection is just unreal. Asuka is good as you need a sidekick to be, being stoic, dropping bombs, spin kicking people in the head, bringing out her goofy tribal design table that she really likes. Right at the go Inoue - who's in a Playboy shirt - has her cattle prod but gets headkicked into dropping it. Later she ends up getting it back but seems to shock herself somehow when she touches the barbedwire. Awesome. And these legends are all not afraid to roll around in the barbedwire. Frantic pace, super heat, lots of chaos and fun unique spots and drama, all leading to a satisfying ending where they all get bowled into the wire, GAEA was on a roll with these crazy spectacle brawls in 2003.

Dynamite Kansai vs Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 10/24/2003

If I had to name a perfect big vs little sprint, I think this would be pretty close to it. Tremendous match which delivered hard all the way through. The more I watch late career Dynamite Kansai, the more I appreciate her. She is clearly marred by her health, but still totally works as a monster and can still pull off great stuff. Lot of great cat and mouse chases here with Nagashima being like an airplane trying to take down King Kong. Nagashimas offense being a mix of lucha rollups and really violent double stomps was pretty perfect. Of course, Kansai still has those violent kicks and can drop bombs, but she uses everything sparringly, which makes her one of the smarter wrestlers around IMO. A few mind blowing counters here especially the finish. Just a great 10 minute match.

Toshiyo Yamada vs KAORU, GAEA 10/25/2003

Frantic brawl with a lot of raw chaotic energy. This was all action, but they weren’t just doing moves, they were constantly creating moments, so it was intrigueing all the way through. Right away KAORU starts brawling. She goes for a moonsault off the top to the floor, missing but landing on her feet, which is pretty crazy. Yamada ends up kicking the guardrail, and there’s a lot of hard banging on metal in this match. KAORU proceeds to clobber her knee with a steel chair. Ozaki is also at ringside, interferring in a few ways including just tossing a steel chain at Yamada here and there. It could get grating but it doesn’t and I appreciate the referee for not counting a pin after Ozaki had just done a blatant run in to hit a 3D with KAORU in Yamada. Yamadas selling of the leg is just fine – acknowleding that damage had been done, limping a little, but not going too over the top with it and just working her way back into the match and moving on. She starts kicking the shit out of KAORU and there’s real heat here and it’s great. They just keep going relentlessly, and keep creating moments. KAORUs athleticism is really good, I also liked how she pretended that her bad knee gave out, and she has a lot of cool ways to get out of Yamadas finisher. Yamada still has badass kicks in 2003 and shows fire here. Selling in the last minutes wasn’t super important but I thought for this kind of hit and run brawl it works. Good stuff, and these two seem underappreciated.

In the beginning God created heaven and GAEA

Meiko Satomura vs Ran Yu Yu, GAEA 9/15/2003

Once again GAEAism delivers the goods. Ran Yu Yu is one of my favourites of all time, Satomura is obviously one of the greatest too, I had no idea this total dream match was filmed or that it even happened, and here GAEAism delivers it to us, for free. It’s not what we deserve but what we sorely need. This is not in Korakuen Hall, so the the match is not uber-heated or anything like that, but it’s exciting. Both these two are strong on the mat and can deliver some hellish strikes, so at baseline it will be a good match, and this had a few cool flourishes to elevate to the extra level. Really enjoyed the early build here, I wasn’t sure at their rankings at this point since Meiko has gone toe to toe with the biggest names in the company and Yu Yu is an outsider, but Yu Yu does a nice job working overdog and outclassing Meiko, until she takes a nasty spill which allows Meiko to capitalize and attack her weak spot. I enjoyed the little section where Meiko landed awkwardly on a backdrop and Yu Yu tried to capitalize locking in some cool spinning leglocks. There’s a pretty great palm strike exchange and some cool bits of dodging and outstriking. Rans selling was really good and her offense is so classy and cool, I loved her comeback with the nasty strangle into the perfect setup for her jumping enzuigir, and young Meiko while kinda overzealous and landing awkwardly on a few of her spots is a ton of fun as always. Really good match, says a lot how good this was considering they put it on for a quite crowd on a tour spot.

Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka & Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU & POLICE, GAEA 9/15/2003

An excellent, heated, exciting, blood-drenched match that is largely built around Policeman getting his scrawny ass kicked. Stone Cold Chigusa once again rules hard in this punching Police in his ratty face. The match is great because they stay in the ring, and they create just the right amount of chaos but also a lot of fast paced, cool exchanges thanks to KAORU, Oz and Kansai. Of course Kansai/Nagayo/Asuka is one might trio of asskickers and they all kick ass a lot in this. There’s also blood, biting, lots of clunky weapon hits with chairs and tables etc without over indulging. A few cool ECW style chair spots as well. And well the bits where Policeman gets his is some of the best comeuppance you’ll see in a wrestling match, I can’t overexaggerate how good this was. I mean, Kaoru getting her head shoved into POLICEs crotch got one of the biggest pops of the match, and if that isn’t pro wrestling done right I don’t know what is.

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Devil Masami & Aja Kong, GAEA 9/23/2003

It’s JIP : ( Doing that to a 2003 GAEA Korakuen Hall main event feels almost criminal. What we get is really good, though. Masami was questionable at this point but she could still engage in some great big vs little exchanges, especially against the ultra talented likes of Nagashima and Satomura. And the Satomura vs Aja finishing run was just tremendous stuff again. 2003 GAEA really feels peak level with creativity, fast pace, high effort and heat that the matches have going on, without getting too cute, there’s a lot of cool shit but everything still feels scrappy. Nagashima had also gotten quite great at this point with her cool agility and destroying people with those crazy rolling double stomps she’d do. Sick stuff, although some annoying no-selling was there.

Meiko Satomura vs Toshie Uematsu, GAEA 10/5/2003

A lot of wildly good shit juxtaposed in a frantic and sometimes overdone way, GAEA style. For example, Uematsu hit a big dive right into a kick from Meiko, which is barely acknowledged seconds later. Some silliness ensues with Uematsu teasing blowing a spitwave at the audience, then they both take turns throwing a bucket back and forth. Uematsu, whose spiked hair may have been at peak level here, hits a great dropkick and throws some sick punches. There are a few great submissions and counters and Satomura throws some great combos of her own. Worth checking out for the cool shit they do, although the layout could’ve been improved.

Toshie Uematsu vs Devil Masami, GAEA 10/13/2003

Way too fun. I’ll admit: This is almost a comedy match, and will probably mainly appeal to people who are already fans of the too. That said, I thought this was a great big vs little match that had a ton of uniqueness going for it. Masami tends to overdo her ‘invisible monster’ act and Uematsu while insanely talented didn’t quite seem to have it all together at this point. Against each other, I think they reeled each other in just about perfectly. Masami does an almost Fujiwara-ish amount of carny jokes and not taking Uematsu seriously here, and it pays dividends for the story of the match. Lots of unique spots, Uematsus stuff looks great, Masami is great shutting her down and doing all those ‘I’m a comically unstoppable force’ spots, the hair throw into the guardrail being the perfect example. Builds pretty well thanks to Uematsus intense selling. It works really well and makes for a super entertaining match. Ridiculous finish. Pretty great overall if you ask me.

It's a MARVELOUS day

 

2/3 Falls: Takumi Iroha & Rin Kadokura vs Mio Momono & Leo Isaka, Marvelous 4/29/2017

Intrigueing match up on paper, that ended up probably being even better than I expected. Momono and Kadokura are still in their rookie stage, tagged with two evenly matched higher ranked wrestlers. So whenever it was either of them vs Iroha or Isaka, there was immediate peril, and when it was them against each other they were fiercely competitive. Isaka and Iroha do a good job here, Isaka looks really polished with his cool kicks and big dropkicks, and Iroha is not quite the badass she is now but she’s already really good as the higher ranked kicker thrust kicking peoples head off. Thought this built to a bunch of really really good exchanges and the ranking difference was handled nearly perfectly. Kadokura is a lot of fun here building up to a basic body slam, and Momono was already busting out some slicker offense including lots of cool armbars. Lots of great ‘higher ranked partner helps out lower ranked partner’ spots which are always a favourite of mine. Because it’s two out of three falls pretty much everything is a plausible finish, which increases the tension when Kadokura and Momono are in because even something like a bodyslam or crossbody is a finish then. This had a bunch of great forearm smash contests that really felt closer to something like Mantell v. Lawler, fighting down to the knees and back up, way better than your typical 2017 era elbow exchanges. All 3 falls were super hard fought and I thought they did an amazing job keeping the pace of the match without getting repetitive or getting into overkill. Really impressive achievement and something of a hidden gem if you ask me.

Takumi Iroha vs Mio Momono, Marvelous 11/3/2019

Momono has ascended past swimsuited rookie status and is on the rise, but she can still hardly put a dent into Iroha. Personally, I prefer the Shinya Hashimoto-type demeanour ala ‘I’m gonna wipe you off the face of the earth’ over Irohas ‘smiling and laughing because my opponent is that pathetically weak’ bit here, but Iroha certainly is convincing when it’s time to chop and kick the hell out of Momono. It builds to a few increasingly great comebacks from Momono, up to the last couple minutes which are really good with Momono throwing absolute haymakers trying to knock Iroha out and Iroha putting more violence than usual into her strikes. Sick ending that harkened back to the likes of Devil Masami flattening some GAEA rookie. Quality underdog story with some really slick wrestling and some sick as hell strikes, thought Momono looked great here.

Takumi Iroha vs Chigusa Nagayo, Marvelous 12/8/2019

Yes 55 year old Chigusa takes on the tank that is Iroha! Really intrigueing match that ends up being compelling. Chigusa comes out with a ridiculous amount of sponsor logos on her attire (gotta get the most out of this packed Korakuen Hall crowd) and looks like someones grandma. But god damn Chigusa is pro wrestling incarnate and she knows how to make anything compelling. Lots of great staredowns. They do pad some time by doing a lot of chops on the floor, but once they are back in the ring it’s great stuff. Chigusa still throws vicious strikes, her forearms still look better than most guys forearms, and she can still kick Iroha in the face. It looks like there’s a glimmer of hope (or should I say, ego?) that Nagayo could put Iroha in trouble, but Irohas youth advantage soon becomes apparent and she starts demolishing Nagayo and not holding back. Some great, Hashimoto like selling from Nagayo here, really getting the most out of this. It goes a bit too long, but the crucifixion-like ending makes it all worthwhile. Really unique match, the kind that only a handful of personalities in wrestling history could craft.

Some more 80s AJW

 

Jaguar Yokota vs Devil Masami, AJW 9/7/1983

An amazing piece of new footage for the history, but also simply because it’s another Jaguar Yokota in her physical prime big match dropping on us out of nowhere. Watching this, it’s very much an early 80s AJW styled match. Serious, straight forward pro wrestling from before the Crush Gals melodrama took over. Starts with some fast paced moves, then they settle into hold-based groundwork before building up to another explosion. As much praise as Jaguar gets for being ahead of her time and insanely athletic, I always end up most impressed by the intensity of her basic wrestling. Just the fact she makes something like a schoolboy rollup look like an insanely forceful takedown or how she would pull back her opponent in the indian deathlock from the ropes. They work some momentum shifts that feel to happen at the drop of a coin but they still feel meaningful, loved how Jaguar immediately grounded the match again. Devil is as solid as you know her to be, hadn’t quite come into her character yet but her wrestling was credible and she made a fun powerful counterpart for the lighter Jaguar. However the big turning point was when Masami decided to hoist Yokota up and drop her straight on her head with probably the sickest ganso bomb I’ve ever seen. Yokota was able to slip out and hit Masami with a desperation suplex, and both of them looked like they had taken significant damage at that point. Something I miss about old school wrestling – the selling is not hyper-theatralic as it is now, but you can still tell damage was done and both of them were fighting for survival. This culminates in a brief but very memorable finishing run with some insanely intense pin attempts. Fairly modest compared to other AJW big matches, but memorable because they kept it intense and to the point. Jaguar looked liked a wrestling godess as she always does and the earnest challenger Devil Masami was really cool. A hell of a match to randomly drop on all of us.

Kazue Nagahori vs Yumi Ogura, AJW 3/20/1986

Another stellar match in the underrated careers of these two. This was both of them going hard for 30 minutes, with hardly a moment that dragged. No restholds or tentativeness, both of them go at it immediately, throwing explosive kicks and fighting like mad on the mat. Their kicks weren’t quite UWF-like yet either, so that made this pretty unique as you had the two of them spin kicking each other in the ribs and sometimes in the face. There is not a ton of overarching psychology, but there are some neat emphasized moves like the mirrored figure 4s throughout the match. Tons of cool moments of great struggle and some things that felt like a big deal. Heck, like 25 minutes into this match they would still scramble out of pinfalls before a 1 count like it was an amateur wrestling match, and that rules. Great last couple minutes with the repeated crashing and burning and both of them throwing the kitchen sink trying to win. Really unique to see a pure wrestling match in joshi like this and this ended up going down as one of the best bouts of the 80s.

Grizzly Iwamoto & Bison Kimura vs Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami, AJW 6/18/1989

Man checking out old AJW can be jarring. This was full-on in your face intensity, plenty of scrappy WAR-esque exchanges that would probably cause an uproar if they happened on US TV, borderline reckless brutality on display with girls slapping the shit out of each other, basic stomps and elbows executed with a real meanness, dropkicks landing flush in peoples face. First fall is pretty much an asskicking tour de force from Iwamoto and Kimura, who are in their badass military get up and there to stomp ass, with a few unpredictable babyface spots from Hokuto and Minami thrown in to keep things exciting. Minami getting punched in the face when she tried to go for a basic cover and then getting crushed by stomps and knee drops was another one of those basic but really violent moments that you seemingly don’t get in modern wrestling anymore. Minami and Hokuto won’t set your world on fire as a babyface team here, Hokuto is not yet Hokuto and Minami doesn’t have much personality at this point either, but they are energetic. Loved how Kimura and Iwamoto said ‘fuck this’ after the babyface started getting in some offense so they just grabbed some chairs and nightsticks to beat the shit out of their opponents some more. It does get a little meandering (30 minutes is long for an all out brawl) and there are some fuckups, though there is some more harrowing uncalled for kendo stick violence in the 3^rd fall, also blood because of course there’s blood. You really owe it to yourself to check this out just to see Iwamoto and Kimura kick ass.

Chigusa Nagayo vs Yukari Omori, AJW 1/5/1988

Insanely heated, bloody, clash of the titans match in Korakuen Hall, what else do I need to say to sell you on this? This was pretty fucking great, like the female version of Hash vs Tenryu but with more blood and bigger suplexes. I quite like Yukari Omori – she’s big, has a kind of understated charisma without trying to be dramatic, and her brain chops are a pretty fun different kind of weapon for joshi. She comes across like a force of nature, and Chigusa really feels that. Chiggy ends up getting chopped in the face which causes her to bounce out of the ring and bleed, which is awesomely old school. Chigusa hitting a desperation kick to Omoris face and then smashing her into a table was one hell of a comeback. After that both of them are gushing blood and it’s all desperation face kicks and shootstyle uncooperativeness. Omori is a great asskicker, and of course Nagayo is insanely good when its time to bleed and sell like you’re about to pass out. The finish was kind of beautiful as they are in kind of a stalemate and go into a test of strength – like they had done at the beginning of the match – only for Chigusa to hit a dirty headbutt and an angry Omori firing back with a swatting lariat. Kind of the pinnacle of Chigusas style, car crash violence, blood, drama, tinges of shootstyle, this may be one of my favourite 80s AJW matches I’ve seen because it doesn’t meander or waste your time. Just to the point, gory and awesome.

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.

80s AJW

 Yumi Ogura & Kazue Nagahori vs Mika Komatsu & Kanako Nagatomo AJW 6/21/1986

Crazy match that was over 30 minutes of straight wrestling with a ton of intensity and hard-fought chew-em-up style matwork. Really unique from a modern perspective. The match followed a simple formula, they would alternate between matwork and explosive standing moves, but the intensity at which they fought in and out of the holds was great. In terms of moves there was nothing mindblowing happening, but its 80s AJW so it feels somewhat familiar but different, and the real selling point is the struggle. They sold the match like a sporting contest that would occasionally come to a boiling point. The pinfall attempts and the struggle over getting out of them was fantastic – really nailed that amateur wrestling-like feeling of when a guy feels he is about to get rolled in his shoulders and gets into that “oh shit” zone to desperately scramble out. I really liked Kanako Nagatomo here, she hit these cool Zidane headbutts and knew how to work some mean indian deathlocks. Ogura & Nagahori would throw these wild kicks and solebutts, often out of nowhere, and they weren’t afraid to get chippy. At one point you had Komatsu and I think Nagahori going into this almost Lawler/Mantell style strike exchange on their knees with both of them throwing open hands. So the chippiness was great, the matwork was great, and the flying moves were cool (at one point one of them hit this awesome jumping victory roll that looked like the most beautiful flash pin ever). The match didn’t have a ton of limb selling or build to the transitions but they sold the whole thing as an intense sporting contest where either team could take the lead at the drop of a hat, so I didn’t care. Even something like a takedown into an ankle lock felt important, and the way they would elaborate on that really drives the point home. Matches like this that eschew traditional US style ring psychology but still work in their own way are really interesting to me. Really unique, great match that everyone should give a shot.

Chigusa Nagayo vs Lioness Asuka, AJW 6/13/1987

The match begins with a jump start. In the first minute, there's a suplex on the floor and then Lioness misses a crazy dive. Nagayo goes for the kill locking in a sharpshooter, but Lioness scrambles for the ropes. Lioness comes back with a shootstyle armbar and attacking Chigusas arm for a bit. Is Lioness gonna work the arm? No, they reset to a neutral position, working a test of strength before Chigusa takes over. After that the match becomes more focussed on grinding matwork with occasional outbursts of Lioness' kicks, with Chigusa always grinding her back down with headlocks etc. A flick is switched when a tombstone attempt is reversed and they work a 50/50 nearfall run with a lot of big moves. Lioness giant swing as a nearfall is a really cool spot, Chigusas much less energetic version less so.

A lot of cool wrestling on display here with both of them hitting some cool fireman carrys and suplexes. There was considerable struggle and a palpable sense of "grind her down". The UWF influence was really cool. Certainly made me wish this style would come back and be brought to its completion. This match felt a little random to be truely gripping for me but it was cool to watch.

Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs Lola Gonzalez & La Galactica, AJW 10/6/1984

Another really wild match from this era. What makes this stand out is the rudo tour de force from Gonzalez and Galactica. They both did a great job both bumping for their opponents and beating the hell out of them. Gonzalez especially stood out in a major way and I was surprised this match isn't more famous considering she doesn't exactly have a ton of matches on tape. Galactica was a bit more subdued but she got some good licks in. At one point she had this really awesome sugar hold on Chigusa tearing up her leg. Also, Dump Matsumoto and her gang is at ringside and she interfers liberally in this match, at one point jumping straight in the ring to beat on people with an iron rod. If you don't like liberal interferences you'll probably dislike this but I didn't mind it because the action still stayed in the ring and it was all part of the beatdown. In a way mid 80s AJW feels like this corrupt lawless land where all the referees are crooked and you might get stabbed by Dump Matsumoto at the drop of a hat. Of course the Crush Gals are generating molten heat by just existing in this match. There's a minute long Chigusa chant as she's exchanging basic knucklelocks. Any wrestler alive today would give their toe for these kind of reactions. They were super in the moment and feeding off the energy. Some things they did looked a little sloppy or blown, with Chigusas kicks not looking very good yet, and the comebacks felt pretty random (e.g. Chigusa gets her leg worked over and comes back just hitting a random tombstone piledriver), but it doesn't really matter when you have a pair of babyfaces this passionate. The escalating violence towards the end was really great with Asuka bleeding in a really grizzly way, and Gonzalez also getting bloodied with a bleeding Asuka hitting an amazing late match giant swing, fans pelting the ring with garbage in protest to the over the top heel antics etc. Both looked like they wanted to make the cover of an Apter mag. Great spectacle with the atmosphere being off the charts.

Assorted Joshi

 

Akira Hokuto & Chigusa Nagayo & Hiromi Kato vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota GAEA 2/22/1997

I think this may have been a GAEA match that didn't seem to air on TV, although I may be misremembering. Another really good upload, whoever is curating this channel is really doing a good job. Loved the opening, where first Satomura et all try triple teaming Kato, then Hokuto runs in to save her but they end up triple teaming her, which backfires to Hokuto and her team trying to reverse the numbers game only for it to backfire and Team Satomura triple teaming Kato anyways. The match plays out nice and story driven, as Kato takes a beating but whenever Hokuto or Nagayo tagged in the would destroy the rookies and send them into desperation mode. Hokuto almost kicked Satomuras head off with her big spin kick. I loved all the Satomura/Nagayo interactions, Nagayo blew off her strikes so Satomura later went for a bunch of great desperation armbars at her. As usual with peak GAEA the match had a few fantastic moments. Great finish aswell. Another piece in the fantastic year this company had.

Mariko Yoshida vs. KAORU, AJW 8/28/1994

Yoshida had been injured and out of the ring for over 20 months. This was her return singles match, and it‘s one hell of a show. Even though this was not spider lady Yoshida, she was at her a-game. The match resembled a MUGA match, with both girls doing some intense grappling and stretching, and the few strikes they threw were hard as all hell. There were also a few neat spots and smart counters and learned spots. KAORU came across as quite the killer in this, focussing on Yoshidas neck, either elbowing her or applying painful looking bends, with Yoshida doing a great job selling the increasing trauma. Yoshida came across as giving her all in the match. It made the last couple minutes feel even greater as Yoshida seemed on the verge of securing the win before KAORU nailed a tombstone piledriver out of nowhere, followed with a wiping out quebrada and then just crushed Yoshida with 3 moonsaults in a row before getting the victory. After such a competitive match such a non-even finish felt like a real exclamation mark and Yoshida was pretty emotional in her post-match promo. Such a unique match that really stands out against the usual AJW midcard stuff and an absolute banger. It foreshadowed how these two would go on to make other promotions so much more exciting than AJW.

 

Azumi Hyuga vs. Kaori Yoneyama, JWP 2/20/2005

Really great match that crosses the high-impact go-go style of these two with plenty of vicious rookie-veteran cut off spots. Plenty of Yoneyama smacking the shit out of Hyuga, and Hyuga in turn punishing her with mean stomps on her head and face. Hyuga can be questionable in lengthy workrate sprints but she was impeccable here cranking up the viciousness and doing some very tight wrestling, while knowing when to sell in order to put her opponent over as pushing her to the limit. Yoneyama looked great here, tremendous energy and working really stiff, elbowing Hyuga in the head, spin kicking her in the face etc. Plenty of cool details, such as Yoneyama starting to run when Hyuga was on the top rope only to eat a really fast missile dropkick. Yoneyamas blown Yoshitonic may have actually added to the match as it came across as a desperation move gone awry that knocked both of them loopy. Yoneyamas constant nastiness throughout the match kept building and building until she just exploded with an insane flury of elbows to a grounded Hyuga, by the far the highlight of the match. The ending run was pretty grandiose but really well executed with plenty of neat finisher teases and counters. By far one of the best singles matches of 2005.

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/21/1997

 Pancrase Rules: KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada

This was a straight UWF style match, which is something you don’t see much from the ladies. I wasn’t sure how KAORU would do in this, but she ended up doing well. Yamada looked badass as you expect. Some grinding matwork. KAORU initially forced her to the ropes and tried to upset her, but Yamada pushed back hard and almost obliterated her with a kick that would look brutal on a Maeda highlight reel. Exciting finish. Didn’t know KAORU had this in her. Really good stuff.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshie Uematsu

Really heated, fast paced tag. As usual Nagayo disciplining her students and acting invincible provided plenty of entertainment, but I was surprised by how good this was when Uematsu was in the ring. Seems she was turning into a really great worker at this point. Satomura and Kato fought like mad, making some real dents into Nagayo, shocking the audience when Satomura even dropped her with the Death Valley Bomb. Unfortunately, only the last few minutes aired.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Reyna Jabuki (Toshiyo Yamada doing Hokuto's gimmick) & Infernal KAORU

High end workrate match where they went pedal to the metal in 10 minutes. Fast exchanges, cool double teams by Jubuki and KAORI, chair coming into play… they did everything, and did it so fast almost nothing stuck. Weird choice to run this kind of match after the much more heated, story driven Nagayo tag. The finish was really nice as Nagashima and Sato tried to set up the doomsday device but KAORU took out Nagashima with a springboard dropkick and Yamada got the pin with an impressive reverse rana into a pin combo. Other than that this was forgotten as quick as it was to watch.

The Library

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/2/1997

 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Rina Ishii

Usual good Nagayo rookie squash. Ishii has really good energy and survives some nasty punishment from Nagayo, who kicks and lariats her in the face and comes up with dangerous shoot submissions. Could've been something if Nagayo had sold anything that Ishii threw at her, but she just kept popping up. Valuable lesson for Ishii I guess.

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Makie Numao

This was JIP and looked like a really good match. Hokuto has her bad knee and does a bunch of really great desperation selling. You think Numao would get killed but she gets some nice bursts capitalizing on an injured Hokuto. In the end KAORU has to try and survive and it produces some neat exchanges. Yamada while not at physical peak anymore looks really good spin kicking people in the face and she and KAORU do some nice stuff working around her finisher.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Maiko Matsumoto & Hiromi Kato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota

8 very talented rookies tumbling around.  Solid exchanges throughout, but it was largely mindless. They just kept cycling through the matchups and doing their stuff. Things reved up a bit around the middle point as Kato and Satomura had a scrappy exchange with Kato trying to target Satomuras bandaged arm. The Matsumoto/Hirota exchanges were really fun, I get plenty entertainment just out of Matsumoto hitting weird Atomic Drops. The finish was Nagashima vs. Uematsu and it was kind of the least spectacular match up.

THE LIBRARY

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.

FMW 1/10/1996

Ricky Fuji vs. Hayato Nanjyo

Two juniors you don‘t see work a lot. They did a RVD/Jerry Lynn like routine of dodging spin kicks and going for ground moves early on. Then they settle into slow, pointless, time killing matwork routine before they whip out their cool highspots. Nanjyos asia moonsault was pretty beautiful and Fuji spiked him hard with Tiger Driver style moves. Crowd popped huge in the last couple minutes. Both guys also had good fashion sense, Fuji rocking some tasteful tights with tassles and his glorious dyed mane and Nanjo a cheap but charming looking silver costume with a red scarv belt.

Bad Nurse Nakamura vs. Yuki Nabeno

A surprisingly heated little match. Nabeno laid a ton of spice into her moves, dropkicking Nakamura in the face. Bad Nurse looked like quite the badass tearing up Nabenos bandaged shoulder and then finishing her with a nasty STF.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Hisakatsu Oya

This was a truely mouth-watering match up. Ikeda vs. Ishikawa is one of the greatest matchups of all time, and Oya is the sleazy Fake Ishikawa. And they duke it out in a BattlARTS-before-BattlARTS style match here! Mostly gritty matwork in between Ikeda kicking the dogshit out of Oya. Oya took some manly ass kicks and then dropped Ikeda on his head with those big backdrop suplexes of his. 11 minutes of exactly what you want it to be.

Megumi Kudo vs. Chigusa Nagayo

Bomb-dropping sprint with some smartness displayed. I loved how they would put over the sleeper. Kudo was a bit sloppy here and there so I give Nagayo credit. She handled herself like a badass and put Kudos submissions over really strong, in between destroying her with kicks and throws. When she fought out of a sleeper, then collapsed, barely hit a counter move and tried to shake of the cobwebs it was like something that should be hammered into every aspiring wrestlers head on how to sell chokeholds. After a match a pull apart happens between all the girls in FMW and GAEA tracksuits and Nagayo bleeds and jumps on Miwa Sato like she is going to kill her because that‘s what Chiggy does.

Aja Kong vs. Combat Toyoda

Another sick ass match up on this card, what was Arai on when he put all this awesome shit together? These two could have an intricate epic match, but fuck that this is FMW, they chuck tables at each others heads and bleed. Opening brawling with Toyoda smashing things over Ajas head and then suicide diving right into an Aja trashcan shot was just great. Both women bleed, and then we get them both exchanging stiff blows and crushing each other with suplexes. I‘d say the lariat trading here was better than usual in Japanese matches because these two are supposed to be crazy monsters so you buy it more. Excellent build to the finish. This hit all the spots.

 

Hayabusa & Koji Nakagawa & Masato Tanaka vs. BADBOY Hido & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Kintaro Kanemura 

This had barbedwire ropes, spider nets and they brought in a ladder among other things. It was like a pretty typical multiman match involving all those things. At first guys try not to get thrown into the barbed wire, then they do get thrown into it, some highspots and a heel control segments happen before the bomb throwing finish. The brawling here wasn't super exciting although technically there was a cool matchup in Hayabusa/Matsunaga. The highspots were pretty good with some big dives over the barbedwire and a splash off the ladder to the outside. Bomb throwing was also gnarly but didn't go long. Overall this was a solid entry to the genre.

The Library

LLPW Dramatic Rhapsody ~ Beyond the Struggle ~ 5/23/1995

 Harley Saito & Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura & Carol Midori

They showed about 2 minutes of this. They didn't even show Harley doing anything! Travesty. Everything else looked generic and heatless. Putting on a pair of kickpads certainly did wonders for Omukai.

Noriyo Tateno vs. Mikiko Futagami

Futagami gets a rub going against Tateno who is supposed to be one of the big stars of this promotion. In reality, this was almost a complete Tateno squash with Tateno not really putting much sauce into what she was doing to Futagami. Just going through the moves. The most spice she added was stepping on Futagamis face at one point and biting. No heat. She had a cool roll up counter of Futagamis Russian Leg Sweep. Other than brief moment this was a waste.

Rumi Kazama & Kurenai Yasha vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima

This was the best match so far because it had a story and structure. Kazama and Handa were feuding, so the match built to a face off between them, but they also built up tensions between Kurenai and Nagashima. Kazama has fun violent kicks, and Handa and Nagashima did a good job isolating Kurenai. I always get a kick out of watching Handa working like the Andersons. There was a cool kendo stick duel between Kurenai and Nagashima at one point, and the finish with Kazama trying to survive while Kurenai was handcuffed was heated and had good drama. That said this went a little long and had a few pointless brawling segments.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Mizuki Endo

Endo tries to step up to the unstoppable machine that is Kandori. Fun match even though I hopped for a bit more shootstyle. Instead it was just Endo trying to get offense in on Kandori and getting smacked and countered a bunch. Great exchange of submissions at one point. Endo eats a pin at the 6 minute mark which looked unintentional and they ring the bell. Kandori has the match restarted and Endo gets to go her at her again only to eat another fluke pin 2 minutes later. Endo keeps attacking Kandori though so for some reason the match goes on until Kandori puts her away proper with a couple nasty powerbombs. Confusing endings aside the action was fun and scrappy here and they had good heat for Endo to topple Kandori. And Kandori is so charistmatic and good at her act that everything she's in ends up worth checking out.

Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari

Great interpromotional match. Nagayo deserves a ton of credit for essentially carrying this not just with her charisma but also working the mat, throwing people around with fast suplexes and finally busting out stiff kicks. Sawai acted as her foil and while she did extremely little (basically just hitting body checks and lariats) she did it well. The section where she tried to bulldoze Nagayo only to out an out of nowhere legsweep was great. Yukari and Hikaru were supporting players, but they were fired up and the crowd getting behind Hikaru while Nagayo was earning boos was awesome. Second half had some exciting twists and nearfalls as they paced the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when the finish was gonna occure. Good stuff and a great effort from Nagayo.

THE LIBRARY

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/6/1997

 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Makie Numao

Surprisingly cool match. Pretty much shootstyle and Nagayo gave Numao a lot. Numao thought hard and they had some good exchanges as well as traded some gross kicks. Of course, they only shoed 10 of 20 minutes. Numao getting to go that long against Chiggy is impressive though.

Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Pretty much Kato and Hirota doing their best to annoy Hokuto by double teaming her. Hokuto pretty much took the night off and Matsumoto tried to make up for it by being more energetic. Another very clipped match.

KAORU vs. Rina Ishii

About 5 minutes of 16 were shown. Would‘ve liked to see more of this. Ishii hit her stiff well and KAORU once again busted out a bunch of submissions. Nasty crab finish.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato

Usual sprint action peppered up with some mean kicks and stomps from these girls. Once again, Only about 5 minutes of 17 were shown. Interesting that they let these girls get the main event over all the big stars on this show, though.

THE LIBRARY

GAEA Storm Signal #3 6/29/1997

 

KAORU vs. Toshie Uematsu

They show about 5 of 17 minutes. I hope this trend of clipped GAEA doesn‘t continue. KAORU was dominant and Uematsu made some aggressive comebacks. KAORU did lots of submissions here and had some slick transitions into the, for example hitting her springboard moonsault and moving right into an armbar. I wanna see more submission expert KAORU.

Sonoko Kato vs. Makie Numao

A match that was also clipped in half. Pretty fun BattlARTS approximation with both girls kicking each other in the face and fighting in and out of submissions. Some neat spots and stiffness level makes most current wrestlers look like absolute wusses.

Sonoko Kato vs. Rina Ishii

I don‘t know why Kato had to do another match against a fresh Ishii. I like Ishii and they had a decent go at each other here. Nothing stood out in particular though and it was hard to make sense of what was going on with the clipping.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Typical GAEA sprint work although clipped down from 17 minutes to like 4 so the whole thing made even less sense.

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Maiko Matsumoto

We get mostly Nagayo stretching Matsumoto and Matsumoto clumsily trying to defensd herself. Nagayo has some cool stretches and it‘s probably her best role. Matsumoto was Matsumoto and didn‘t stand much of a chance. I guess because Nagayo is the boss they showed most of this match.

Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto

Only 6 of 20 minutes!??! Damn you to hell TV editors, because this looked GREAT! Chigusa was at ringside and initially this was about Hokuto trying to piss her off by torturing Satomura, only for Satomura to catch her with some harder stuff than she expected. Looked like another great match with both of them selling big, but man…. 6 minutes??

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GAEA STORM SIGNAL 6/13/1997 + 6/22/1997

 GAEA 6/13/1997

Meiko Satomura vs. Hiromi Kato

This was a shootstyle match. Aw yeah! Pretty much 6 minutes of smooth grappling. Then they kick the shit out of each other for about 20 seconds, and then Satomura chokes Kato out. Short, but cool.

Sonoko Kato vs. Makie Numao

Another shootstyle match. This was a bit more aggressive than the previous match, so I guess it was better. These girls will really scramble for chokes and armbars. Numao kicks the shit out of Katos bandaged shoulder and then wins with a cool arm submission. Dig it.

Over The Top Rope Rule 5 vs. 5 Elimination Match: Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Hiromi Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato & Makie Numao

I wasn’t sure how this would play out considering one team was heavily lopsided with Nagayo and Yamada and nobody on the other team really being near their level. However they end up doing fine with Nagashima & Sato as leads. Fun match with some good exchanges throughout and good use of the over the top rope rule. It rules that kneebars and armbars were put over as deadly finishers in GAEA. I disliked how people that were eliminated kept interfering in the match and the match could’ve been a bit more focussed, but it was a good show, overall.

GAEA 6/22/1997

Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato vs. Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto

Hirota and Kato are about the two lowest ranked girls on the roster. You can imagine how much Hokuto sold for them. There was one cool moment where Kato was able to put her in a surprise Torture Rack and that was about it as far as offense they got in. This was about Hirota and Kato working together to survive and try to take out Matsumoto. Amusing match but went a bit too meandering. Dig Matsumotos Atomic Drops.

Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato

Solid stuff here, but the match went too long and had too many sections. It tired me out. Starts chaotic with a bunch of underlings jumping Chigusa and Ozaki. Then we got Chigusa and Ozaki bullying the others tag partner before their big face off. Chigusa brutalizing Oz was cool but got lost in the shuffle. Even Hokutos heel(?) turn where she attacked Chiggy felt like it got lost. Kato bled and gave a good performance being valiant and throwing kicks. Sato also participated in the match but left no impression.

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GAEA PERFECT GAME 5/10 + 5/25/1997

 

KAORU & Chihiro Nakano vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao, GAEA 5/10/1997

Wish we had gotten more than 8 minutes of this. KAORU and Nakano were hellbent on taking down Chigusa here. In the end, KAORU kept coming back, but got blindsided and had to tag in Nakano. This lead to a Nakano/Numao finishing stretch with Nagayo and KAORU trying to help their girls. Very well done stuff with lots of neat, well timed moments and momentum swings. Once again TV editors prove to be GAEAs #1 heel stable.

 

Chigusa Nagayo vs. KAORU, GAEA 5/25/1997

This exceeded expectations. Basically a sprint where both ladies were hellbent on forcing the other to tap. Started like an Ikeda/Ishikawa match with Nagayo landing a running punt to KAORUs face before KAORU caught her in a rolling armbar. Nagayo is established that she can end a match with any submission so all the submissions felt important and there was some great counter work going on. KAORUs athleticism was also peak level. There were one or two ugly no-sells keeping this from being truly high end. Still, a great discovery.

Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu & Maiko Matsumoto, GAEA 5/25/1997

A wild 6 girl tag. Young girls were working hard, Satomura got her arm worked over and brought some great selling and fire, and I really liked how Matsumoto taunted her and then went straight for the arm. Uematsu got her ass kicked too and seemed to be falling apart. Hokuto and Yamada mostly let the youngins do their thing, with Hokuto coming in to torture Satomura and Yamada coming in to kick peoples heads off. I really liked how they basically stopped the wild pace of the match in the middle of it to do their showdown. In the end, and after some unpredictable momentum swings, it came down to Satomura vs. Uematsu, the two people who had taken the biggest beatings. Pretty great finish and and it got both of them over in a big way. I genuinely wanted them both to win.

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