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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GAEA VICTORY ROAD 2/23/1997

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

Fun beginning here with Kato and Hirota immediately starting to brawl with chairs etc. only for it to backfire on them. This was another rookie match going 15+ match. Most of the match was dropkicks and crossbodies and stomps, you‘d think it would get boring but they get a ton out of their crossbodies dropkicks and stomps. Once again really dug all the stuff around Katos argentine backbreaker.

Kyoko Ichiki vs. Rina Ishii

Ishii gets the rub by going even with veteran Ichiki in this match. I wish we had gotten a bit more of it, but what we got was fun. Ichiki mixes in some athletic moves and Ishii looks very polished.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Toshie Uematsu

Another extremely go-go type sprint that goes something like 20 minutes. The match was the usual back and forth, but I dug everyone here so it ended up being cool. I enjoyed Matsumoto hitting hard leg drops from all angles and making use of the atomic drop agai, and Uematsu was like a wrecking ball flying into the ring dropkicking people in the back of their heads. As always Satomura and Kato were feisty kicking the crap out of their opponents. It‘s funny to watch young Satomura bust out things like a twisting springboard splash. Match felt hard-fought, and had a neat finish. Full GAEA point, I guess?

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

Every match on this show so far has been pretty much a sprint, but here we get a STORY~! As Numao and Nakano act all spunky and uppity and the veterans teach them a lesson by stretching and smacking them while also giving them appropriate time to shine. KAORU and Hokuto seem to be building a strong resume working these more story-driven matches in GAEA so far, and Nakano and Numao once again look great. Hokuto is especially good, as she acts like a badass who fucks shit up and takes no crap from anyone, but also will show ass at the right time. Loved her hobbling back to her corner after getting caught in a random kneebar. My only gripe is the clipped 6 minutes from this, although it‘s rather seamless clipping. Still, a 2 hour TV slot and they STILL had to clip?!

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo

(note: the linked video is clipped slightly compared to the original TV airing.)

Parts of this were very cool, I dig Chigusas kicks, Ozakis sudden assault with the wooden spikes looked grizzly, and there was some gnarly fighting going on with both ladies trading headbutts and stiff backfists. That said this was largely an overly long mess with way too much no selling. It’s weird how Nagayo had one of the smartest matches I’ve seen in a while just the month before but then completely blunders it here. There was also a weird moment where Ozaki ripped her pants and had to roll outside to put on a new pair, and it happened in the middle of the finishing stretch. Just really weirdly paced match.

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IWA Japan GET THE GLORY & FUTURE TRIAL 4/29 & 5/18/1998

 4/29

Perseus & Hidetomo Egawa vs. The Great Takeru & Akinori Tsukioka

Emi Motokawa vs. Chihiro Nakano

The Great Kabuki & Arashi vs. Keisuke Yamada & Shigeo Okamura

I'm an IWA Japan fan now, because every IWA Japan card is great in it's own unique way which can not be expressed in conventional measures of quality, this being an outdoor show in front of a picturesque setting just being the icing on the cake. This was a nice three-piece, as you had the junior opener, which was basically all these guys throwing a slew of big moves and occasional BattlARTSian intermission touches from Egawa including hitting some huge belly to bellys which you do not expect from a tiny insignificant guy like him. Perseus (a guy the internet knows nothing about), for a guy who is all about Dragon Suplexes and Triple Powerbombs and all that also hits a really great powerslam. It's all pretty senseless and really fun.

Motokawa/Nakano was a shockingly good match, everything you can hope for from sleaze indy undercard girl wrestling. Nakano is former GAEA and a kickpadded alternate universe Satomura. She almost KO's Motokawa with her opening barrage and from then on it's on. Everything she does is either a nasty kick or a cool shoot submission. She rules, and why have I never heard of her? Motokawa likes to indulge in silly spots but straightens herself out her after getting kicked in the face 3 or 4 times and starts dropping Nakano with suplexes that would do Otsuka proud. They don't indulge in too many nearfalls and I am left thinking the world needs more of this mysterious Chiharu Nakano.

The main event was a stupidly good sleazy WAR battle with Arashi basically walloping everyone with stiff lariats all the time and not bumping ever and crusty old Kabuki ruling it doing you know exactly what, hitting the worlds greatest punches and superkicks. Yamada basically gets the shit beaten out of him and eats the fuck out of every lariat and superkick he gets, just drilling himself into the mat with enthusiasm. Okamura is pretty blah but he and Yamada are EAGER and Kabuki is totally carrying this by bumping like a motherfucker and getting chairs chucked in his face and making me give a shit for his nerve hold AGAIN. He teases the fist drop and eats a flying lariat in a sequence that wasn't athletically impressive or anything but awesome in context of the match. I was totally a Kabuki fan before getting into IWA Japan, but seeing him crusty, old and broken down as an improbable but determined company ace who throws fists and gets spin kicked in the face is an enlightenment.

 

5/18

The Great Takeru vs. Perseus

Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato vs. Shoichi Ichinomiya & Tomohiro Ishii

The Great Kabuki & Gran Hamada vs. Keizo Matsuda & Takashi Okamura

Not as good as the 4/29 card, but still really fun indy action. Takeru/Perseus was the same deal as usual, hit all your big spots for pops and be done with it, but they actually seem to be gaining a bit in polish. The Ishii match was a motherfucking Ishii match, as Tomohiro Ishii – dressed in improbable 90s colors – throws down chucking chairs and kicking the lowly IWA Japan punks in their faces. All the Ishii interactions were gold as he gets the boys to show some piss and vinegar, nasty headbutt exchanges and kicks to the spine ensue. Some gritty legwork is there aswell, with using the old Jumbo kneebreaker over a table/chair and it's all great. Ichinomiya is a future comedy character and you can tell he is not very good at the pro wrestling. Funny moment where Ishii tries the spot from his future Shibata matches where he puffs his chest after getting kicked by Sato and Sato just flattens him. Atta boy! Now I need more 1998 Ishii too, god dammit.

The main event was as fun as it sounds on paper, with Hamada working fun sequences and hitting big high spots, and Kabuki again in the sleaze Tenryu role. Matsuda & Okamura are quite suck ass and bland, but they do a decent job ripping up Kabuki's leg and isolating the vets hitting some double teams. Match went quite long and they kept it interesting and I would've liked to see the thing in full. Best moment of the match was easily Kabuki kicking Matsuda in the face and decking him with punches from let and right.

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GAEA WRESTLING BIBLE 1/12/1997

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sakura Hirota

Hirota and Nagayo would later form a comedy team, but at this point Hirota was still a rookie with serious ambitions. I dislike Nagayos big matches, but she is quite impeccable working these rookie squashes. This was pretty great, as it was basically a constant battle of survival for Hirota while she did everything in her power to not get swatted. Loved Nagayos kicks and leg sweeps, and Hirotas spinning backfist as well as attempted Fujiwara were awesome. Great finish, too.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Toshie Uematsu & Kyoko Ichiki

I‘ve enjoyed all these ladies before, but this was a big nothing. No heat and the match had no direction. It got a bit better towards the end as they started busting out some of their better moves, but this was a brutally long 20 minutes.

Bomber Hikari vs. Rina Ishii

Bomber Hikari was this powerhouse type worker. Hikari was working as some kind of monster in this with Ishii trying to hang on. I don‘t know why you would have two matches like this on a show especially when Nagayo is doing the other one. Ishii was quite athletic and interesting to watch. Hikari looked limited.

Bomber Hikari vs. Maiko Matsumoto

Why have Hikari do two matches in a row? This further exposed Hikaris one dimensionality. It could‘ve been good if there was some drama created by the fact Hikari had just done a match, but Hikaris wrestling was completely ignorant of that fact as she basically repeated her stuff. I‘ve liked Matsumoto before but she wasn‘t as interesting as either Ishii or Hirota.

AAAW Junior Tag Title Match: Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

Loved the opening section here which was basically a BattlARTs tag with all four girls hitting the mat and working really stiff. They move into a pro style match seamlessly, but I wanted a bit more shootstyle action. This also went 20 minutes but the GAEA rookies were so good they had no problem keeping it interesting. The match lacked structure, but they make up with double teams, surprise cutoffs and nearfalls out the ass. In fact there were so many nearfalls that I thought it was getting tiresome, but the crowd had a blast. I loved all of Nakanos knees, Numao for someone who I remember being pretty insignificant looked badass, and Satomura already stood out with her unique Billy Robinson influenced style.

Reina Jubuki (Akira Hokuto) vs. La Infernal (KAORU)

Weirdly subdued match that felt like a houseshow main event. They did their stuff, but there was never any heat, and the work was quite undynamic. Lots of just sitting in holds, and while there were some big moves and bumps there didn‘t seem to be a fight, unusual for a Hokuto match. I guess the point of this was to show the costumes.

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