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.

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 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

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

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.

2002 MOTY Project Update #19

 14. Toshiyo Yamada vs. Sugar Sato, GAEA 12/15/2002

I wasn‘t sure what to expect from this, but ended up being a really great match full of neat moments, cool exchanges and the kind of super hard fought style of wrestling that I really liked. Sato has always been kind of the stepchild of the GAEA crew, not being as flashy as the others, but her aggressiveness and body checks and shoulder tackles style really clicked for me here. Opening was pretty great and closer to an 80s or 90s New Japan match as Sato tried to ground Yamada resulting in some really great struggling over basic leglocks and Sato trying to pounce on Yamada. I‘d say Yamada was pretty great here too and easily outshining her 90s peers. She was working like an aging asskicker, vulnerable but able to kick you in the face and put you to sleep. The match eschewed a traditional structure but they told their story – Sato being aggressive with her tackles and knee attacks while Yamada was selling, timing her comebacks and nearly KO‘ing her several times with unexpected kicks. The match had a few great spots which were the right mix of rugged and pretty, you had the barfight moves like Sato tackling Yamada through the ropes as well as the more flashier moments such as Yamada countering Satos running powerbomb with a beautiful rana. The pace was fast but they timed their stuff in beautiful fashion. I also gotta say Satos back body attack had to be one of the most beautiful, simplistic spots I‘ve seen due to the way it was timed and executed. Finishing stretch was great with Sato trying to avoid Yamadas finisher only to end up ending an Ikeda style punt to the face but still fighting her damndest. Amazing shit, I‘m not sure if this wasn‘t pretty enough for the joshi fans at the time or if they had simply all quit watching GAEA at this point. 

 

2002 MASTER LIST

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

2002 MOTY Project Update #16

 13. Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar, WWE 10/20/2002

Slow paced, violent, triple juice hell in a cell match. Almost the ideal match for two monsters locked in a cage to have. The opening work around the cast was fun and things got plenty intense once Lesnar started smashing up his hand. I admit I dislike melodramatic overacting in wrestling so I was a bit annoyed by Heyman. Takers punches were weak, but he had a few badass moments such as the big boot that sent Brock into the cell and the weird kneedrop thing that almost killed Brock. Brock was great in the match. He wasn't yet the MMA guy but just this crazy beast and threw Taker around like a puppet. Match went long but ended at just the right time.

32. Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada vs. Aja Kong & Manami Toyota, GAEA 8/30/2002

Classic match built around a pair of rising stars trying to overcome some asskicking veterans. Lots of fiery fighting and great spots. I guess due to the match format Toyotas no selling didn't hurt match. And Aja was just a tank. And Ayako and Meiko - for two talented girls stuck in GAEA limbo - gave their all. Not much to say on this, it's just a straight forward, immensely enjoyable match.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

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??

THE LIBRARY

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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GAEA 4/29/1997

 Toshie Uematsu vs. Sugar Sato

We only get a couple minutes of this, which is a shame because it looked like a really good match. Largely built around tight pin combos and Uematsu overcoming a leg injury. Uematsu is certainly giving that WCW Womens Cruiserweight belt some prestige in 1997.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Chigusa Nagayo

Hey look, it’s Toshiyo Yamada. GAEAs top rookies run right into a brick wall in this match. Satomura and Kato tried, but they got blown off and ate an ass kicking. The two brief runs of offense felt lucky and were over as quickly as they arrived. Nagayo was definitely giving them the business in this one. Fun semi-competitive squash.

Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima

A match that was unsurprisingly centered around the animosities between Hokuto and Ozaki. I really dig Hokutos broken down but still arrogant badass act. Ozaki was fun when she was throwing hands and kicking people in the face, but I thought she was kind of no selling most of the time. Nagashima is a fun workrate partner to Ozaki but doesn’t really bring the heat. Matsumoto continues to be really effective as an underdog to her overdog partner. I didn’t love the whole match but it was good one overall.

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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.

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GAEA JUNCTION 4/12/1997

 

Sonoko Kato vs. Sugar Sato

We get about 8 minutes of a 15 minute match. As usual we got some unique counters and transitions, although it didn’t set my world on fire because Sato is just not very interesting. It didn’t help that the ending run was built around Sato trying to submit Kato who had a bad leg with her dreaded kneebar only to fall to a random rollup. Good for an opening match I guess.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sakura Hirota vs. Rina Ishii & Toshie Uematsu

Typical GAEA rookie sprint action. The more young Hirota I watch the more I am annoyed she retired to comedy wrestling later because she was quite good in her role. The match was built around Uematsu and Nagashima having to protect their younger partners. It didn‘t have a ton of depth and once again we didn‘t get the full match, but it was solid stuff.

Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato

Another really good hierarchy driven GAEA match. Nagayo had been crushing her rookies, including in 2 on 1 situations, so Satomura and Kato were frantic in trying to not get blown away. Really good heated fighting here, with both of them just firing away at the legend, with Nagayo retaliating with some precise and often extremely well timed kicks. Nagayo blowing off Katos dropkicks and Kato immediately putting on a sleeper was another great, clever spot. Numao didn‘t get in much offense and played underdog to Nagayos overdog, although she does get to look badass unloading kicks at Satomura. She was also great during the finishing run busting out rad lucha rollups into shootstyle submissions, something that was quite state of the art in 1997. I‘m stunned how perfectly laid out these GAEA tags are, as this is the kind of stuff that should warrant a ton of praise and interest even from joshi sceptics. Watching everything in order helps, I guess, but the action here speaks for itself. They just did a great job establishing both the Nagayo as ultra-dangerous as well as the Numao as vulnerable underdog dynamic. Regretably only about half the match was shown.

KAORU vs. Akira Hokuto

Intelligent bombfest. KAORU gave her all here, and Hokutos selling of initially putting her opponent down and then slowly falling apart was pretty great. It’s fascinating how KAORU turned from an AJW undercarder to an excellent secondary player in GAEA hanging and banging with legends. I would’ve liked the match to be more focussed, and there was some no selling (particularily the insane reverse northern lights bomb from Hokuto), but all in all, it was the quality match that all their quality interactions in tags so far in the year have been hinting at.

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GWE Watching #2: Devil Masami

 

Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka, AJW 4/5/1986

This was just a bomb throwing war all the way through. Bombs looked good, but I was hoping for a bit more depth. Most of this was just Asuka taking a move, then getting up and doing a move of her own. At least Devil did some reversals. There was a badass punch exchange at one point, but I was hoping for more depth. Heat was tremendous, at least. They do stupid double countout and then a lame restart into time limit draw.

Devil Masami & Akira Hokuto vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo, GAEA 5/14/2000

Really good beginning here with some unpredictable lariats being thrown and Hokuto running in to brain people with weapon shots at surprise moments. Asuka and Nagayo end up bleeding and we get a really good segment built around Hokuto stomping on them and Masami dropping bombs. Masami was acting like a monster in this and really solid. Of course, eventually it was time for the Crush gals to make their comeback, and after Hokuto got hit by a measly clothesline they took over. After that it was all bomb throwing as they rolled out random double teams and finishers by the moment. That was maybe a 10 minute stretch of nothing but 2.999999s. Even things like Devil Masamis Fire Valley felt like throwaway nearfalls. I was gateful when Masami hit a basic leg drop to give some breathing space between the bomb throwing. I mean, it was good bomb throwing, but completely ridiculous. Everyone entered the ring at will and then there was a spot where we were supposed to care for an attempted tag? Hokuto, to her credit, sold really well, even though she wasn‘t the one bleeding. Fun match but a reminder of how ridiculous joshi can get.

Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cutie Suzuki, JWP 8/16/1992

Excellent tag, in which everyone played their role and rank really well. Masami and Ozaki controlled the opening portions of this being a vicious heel team, and the Cutie/Dynamite largely relied on Dynamites juggernaut kicks and Cuties agility to make comebacks. There wasn‘t much of a story or epic transitions, but every section was good and it built to a really good, complex finishing stretch. Kansais kicks were brutal, Ozaki looked vicious booting people in the face and Masami gorilla pressing Suzuki around and working over her mid section was pretty sick. Ozaki also took an insane guardrail bump. Ending run was great with lots of well timed reversals. Pretty exciting stuff and everyone added to the match.

Devil Masami & Bull Nakano vs. Sakie Hasegawa & Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 5/22/1994

The first 5 minutes of this were amazing and made me think this was gonna turn out to be a hidden classic. Great opening exchange, followed by Sakie being really fired up, Masami looking great controlling her opponents and Nakano being just a bulldozer. Unfortunately, Fukuoka and Hasegawa mounted a weak comeback followed by a lengthy filler hold section and some botches crept in. Still, this was pretty great when Masami and Nakano were acting like the twin towers steamrolling their opponents. I thought Masami looked significantly better than Nakano, but it may have been due to Fukuokas and Hasegawas choices. Masami just destroyed these poor women. After Masamis epic rampage, Fukuoka making an easy comeback by connecting a weak crossbody followed by a sleeper hold that the crowd didn‘t care for was very weak. Hasegawas comeback felt more earned and I loved her running wild with the solebutts. Last moments of bomb throwing were spectacular. Give this a watch.

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

GAEA ZONE-X 3/15/1997

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Rina Ishii

They went hard for 1 minute, then Ishii got pinned from a roll up. It was a cool rollup, but I thought having this go 3 or 4 minutes longer still couldn’t have hurt. Still, the emotional reaction after the match proved this to be a stepping stone for Matsumoto and Ishii.

Toshie Uematsu vs. Makie Numao

Pretty cool match. Numao got Uematsu with some hard kicks, but mostly Uematsu was beating her down with boots to the face and hard as fuck dropkicks inbetween some mat scrambles. I really liked how Uematsu avoided Numaos Dragon Sleeper, and there were a handful of neat transitions and technical moves. GAEA rookies continue to impress.

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato

Nagayo has been quite the reliable rookie cruncher. Can Hirota and Kato do well in a 2 on 1 situation? No. No they can’t. This is about 40 seconds of Hirota and Kato flying into Nagayo (and Kato even trying to Torture Rack Nagayo!) before Nagayo takes them both out with Ikeda style running punt kicks to the face and then drops Hirota with another earth shattering powerbomb for good measure. A fun 56 second match if you are not Kato or Hirota.

 KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato

Another excellent match from the GAEA crew. This was centered around both the rookies trying to to prove themselves to the veterans aswell as Satomura and Kato fighting each other fiercely. All the Satomura/Kato exchanges felt BattlARTS worthy. As usual, all the exchanges involving KAORU and Hokuto were really fun, unpredictable and made sense. There was also plenty of violence with Kato and Satomura kicking hard, Hokuto trying to boot peoples heads off and at one point trying to shatter KAORUs eardrum. KAORU was also pretty vicious attacking Katos bandaged shoulder with nasty armbars. The finishing run was really extravagant and felt like an AJPW match. It was between Satomura and Kato with Hokuto and KAORU coming to drop bombs on one to help out the other. There were some great nearfalls centered around Katos wounded arm and it was just really excellently executed intricate stuff. Great ending to cap off a great match.

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