LLPW Kageki Survival 9/25/1995

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Jenn Yukari vs. Keiko Aono

Aono would become an interesting kickpadded worker later on, but she was just a generic rookie here. Yukari is generous giving Aono some credible offense where Aono is able to doge Yukaris attacks and get in some moves before Yukari goes back to squashing her. Though Yukari also almost kills Aono dropping her on her head with suplexes, and spin kicking her in the chin really hard. Apparently the whole thing lasted 11 minutes and Aono probably wished it had been shorter while we only get 4 minutes.

Michiko Omukai vs. Michiko Nagashima

LLPW baby. Insanely gritty and bloody match. Ohmukai, in her fancy dress, goes right after Nagashima banging on her with a chair and they take to the outside. The tide turns quickly though as soon Nagashima is bashing Omukais face. Nagashima spends like a good 5 minutes dropping Omukais face into chairs, banging on her face with what looks like a metal bolt, hitting her in the face with a chain etc. Omukai is soon bleeding like mad and spitting blood. They work the rest of the match like a lucha bloodbath with narrow turns of events, Omukai trying to slip behind Nagashima and catch a roll up, big epic missed diving moves etc. There’s also some high end joshi moves such as Omukais knees to the back of the head, the suplexes etc. Nagashima was really good when in control, never letting things get stale, kicking ass like a Villano, and I loved the psychotic decisiveness of the finish. This felt like the pro wrestling version of some violent teen drama, really had the vibe of a quiet grungy girl having enough and deciding to stab the prom queen.

Eagle Sawai & Rumi Kazama vs. Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo

 

Short match but they gave their all to make it memorable. Kazama kicks Kandori in the face really hard right at the bell and from that point they are in survival mode. Sawai was like a freight train going after people here. Underdog Endo was great, she was bumping like crazy for Sawai who hits like a truck, and she might actually drop the fall quickly in a sprint like this so whenever she was eating moves it felt like they could actually be the finish. Kandori had her share of trademark badass Kandori moments. I liked Kazama kicking Kandori in the head before trying a flash pin. Finish was great. Really nice stuff.

Super Irregular Handicap Match: Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito

Uhm… it’s Futagami in an unwinnable handicap match. Futagami got maybe 30 seconds of offense in total, though she actually makes the crowd believe towards the end that should could score a megaupset. Mostly they just kick GAMIs ass though. Tateno was unusually pissed off here, even hitting a nasty knee to the back of the head, she rarely showed that kind of intensity in bigger matches. They continue the beatdown post match laying an unusually violent beating on poor GAMI. More of a test of spirit than anything.

Kurenai Yasha vs. Carol Midori

I like Kurenai a lot and Carol has been fine but this wasn’t a match that holds up super well. It was mostly just your typical joshi stuff, one girl does some moves then the other does some, with a story or epic momentum shifts never really occurring. Yasha would do some moves and control a little and then Midori would come back usually with a single reversal and then do some moves of her own without much hardship. Midori had the more technical/high flying moves while Yasha was the more rough edged one though the match never became an all out brawl. It had some hints of chippiness here and there but nothing to push it to the next level. The finishing run was exciting with both of them busting out some bigger flashier moves though nothing that will blow you away if you are familiar with them both. I imagine this would’ve looked cool on a random 90s joshi comp if you’ve never seen them, but the Kurenai superfan in me wanted her to just bust Carol in the head with her staff.

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LLPW Single Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament 1/15/1995

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LLPW Single Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament A Block: Eagle Sawai vs. Rumi Kazama

Kazama is an offensive slaughterhouse here, kicking Sawai really hard in the head, keeping her grounded with some cool wrestling, and hitting impressive suplexes. Sawai kind of doesn’t fire back enough considering the asskicking Kazama was giving her, which is a bit weird, though Sawai does sell very well and remains credible as a monster when coming back with her body attacks and lariats. Kind of a one woman show from Kazama, but it was spectacular, just taking her opponent apart in impressive ways.

LLPW Single Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament B Block: Mizuki Endo vs. Carol Midori

Not a flawless match but it was kind of fun to watch two greenish young wrestlers put a longer match together and win the crowd over. The surely style of Endo vs. Midoris highflying made for a nice contrast. There was some nice legwork where Midori really put on some nasty leg stretches on Endo and Endo fought back in interesting ways. It didn‘t mean much but it was good filler weardown type work to set up a finishing stretch that had lots of nearfalls. Not super great or anything but it felt like a well executed hard fought basic match and I enjoyed it.

Shinobu Kandori & Leo Kitamura vs. Michiko Omukai & Hatsumi Tawada

Apparently Tawada was/is part of „a famous comedian duo“. I‘m not sure if that was her gig at this point already or if she was just trying to be a wrestler. Anyways, about a minute into this Tawada takes a body slam which seemingly knocks here out legit and she doesn‘t kick out of the pin. After the match everyone looks pissed with Kandori immediately kicking her in the head, lots of yelling and even her own partner slaps her. And Tawada was never seen in LLPW again.

LLPW Single Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament A Block Semifinal: Eagle Sawai vs. Harley Saito

It‘s too bad Saito didn‘t get much to do in LLPW because she could still go hard. This was a lot like Sawai vs. Kazama from earlier, with Harley throwing the kitchen sink at Sawai and brutalizing her, and Sawai not being quite the monster that she should be. Sawai did hit an absolutely disgusting powerbomb early on, which made the whole match, as Saito spent a long time selling how fucked up she was from that powerbomb and desperately trying to cut down Sawai. Harleys head kicks, arm attacks were all great. It needed more fire and creativity from Sawai but it ended up being a good match thanks to Harley.

Noriyo Tateno & Mikiko Futagami vs. Jenn Yukari & Michiko Nagashima

Fun tag due to Tateno showing more energy than usual and Yukari kicking the crap out of people. Nagashima annoys Tateno so Tateno looked pissed firing back at her. Later Nagashima refuses to back down from Tateno in a really cool moment. Futagami had good underdog charisma. Things were a bit inconsequential – there is a segment where GAMI gets her leg worked over which ends up meaning nothing – but they move quickly through the match and deliver a good finish where they keep guessing which loss post will go down, so it was an easy watch.

LLPW Single Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament B Block Semifinal: Miki Handa vs. Mizuki Endo

Really good match and kind of a coming out party for Endo. Handa is higher on the totem pole, so Endo controlling her early amps the stakes of the match. When Handa comes back she really feels pissed off that this nobody showed her up and they start fighting hard. Tempers flare, Handa kicks Endos ass, and when Endo starts coming back the crowd is absolutely on fire for her. The wrestling early was basic, simple, tightly executed, but they story they told got it to the next level. I really liked Handas elbows to the head and booting Endo in the face, and dropping knees on her back, Handa is small and not particularily intimidating but she can step up and kick ass. The ending run was kicked off by Endo landing a super nasty double stomp and after that they were off to the races with a frantic ending run that had molten heat. It was Handas suplexes and technical moves vs. Endos power moves and lariats, with Endo having the factor that she was fighting like it’s the night of her life going for her, and they both threw down and went all out in just a few minutes. Very good stuff and an example of how basic opening action can set up a hot second half.

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LLPW Kageki Violence ~ Time of the Wave ~ 11/5/1995

 Mizuki Endo vs. Michiko Nagashima

See this is why I watch LLPW. You put on a random match like this and just turns into a gritty violent brawl. Endo socks Nagashima in the back of the head to start and soon they are chucking chairs at each other. Loved the uncooperative early goings, even the joshi staples like a hair pull snapmare or dropkick looked hatefilled, and soon it turns into a Nagashima asskicking as she brutalizes Endo with chains and kendo sticks. It wasn’t the ECW kind of violence where do you really showy hits and stunts and wait for the audience to cheer, Nagashima came across as a psycho genuinely trying to kill Endo with the kendo stick. Even when a table was brought in that feeling remained, there was no theatrical build to a big fancy table spot, Nagashima just decided to punish Ende some more so she set up a table and smashed Endo into it. Some nasty as hell chain punches and knuckle face grinding. Endo came across really gutsy hitting big suplexes and really wanting to win while Nagashima was just a violent psycho. The finish was a bit weird as Nagashima beat the heck out of the referee and then hit a victory roll where the referee counts the 3, maybe he really didn’t want to piss Nagashima off after that. Anyways for an inexplicably violent opener I enjoyed this a lot.

Jenn Yukari vs. Michiko Ohmukai

Ohmukai was just your standard dropkicks and suplexes pretty girl wrestler at this point, but Yukari is a pretty fun worker. Yukari really blisters Ohmukai with kicks which makes you wonder if this made Ohmukai put on kickpads later. I really liked how Yukari would headbutt the shoulder before locking in a nasty arm stretch. The last few minutes had some nice back and forth and a neat spot where Yukari caught Ohmukai who was coming down with a flying knee with a kick to her leg. Pretty good although only 7 minutes of 13 were shown.

Rumi Kazama & Karula vs. Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori

Karula is Harley Saito in a silly crow mask. But as soon as she steps into the ring, holy fuck she is just Harley Saito in a silly mask because she is immediately kicking the shit out of people. Futagami and Midori control early on with some basic ground stuff but soon Kazama and Karula start potatoeing the hell out of them. There was a moment where Kazama was kicking Midoris head like a football. This surely has to be a contender for the most violent to feature somebody in a silly crow mask. Futagami and Midori don’t stand a chance in hell but they make a nice rally at the end getting some decent nearfalls over the badass veteran team. Futagami even teased hitting a tombstone off the top but Kazama reversed it with a big headscissor in a cool spot. I really liked that when Karula did a ninja pose Midori just ran over and kicked her. That’s the spirit. Fun match all things considered.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno

Basic match, but does it really matter when they are getting great reactions by staring at each other? Traditional wrestler Kandori is not quite as exciting as shooter Kandori, but she did a solid job carrying the notoriously dull Tateno. The ending was quite great as Kandori sold the fuck out of a shoulder injury and survived Tatenos onslaught.

Eagle Sawai vs. Yasha Kurenai

Wow, I didn’t think this would be so good. These are two of the most unfairly scolded by joshi fans wrestlers ever and I’m a fan of them, but they still blew me away here. First half was about as perfectly worked as you can work an extremely simplistic big vs. little match. Sawai would stick to her clotheslines and body charges which she would run Kurenai over like a truck with. Kurenai was outgunned, unable to even sweep Sawai or do much of at all. There are a number of neat spots, such as Kurenai trying to pull off Sawais kneepad to attack her leg, and a number of moments where Sawai just shrugged off Kurenais attacks and it was really cool. Kurenai would try to taunt and hit a throat chop but was met with even more brute force. Kurenais Ogawa-like eye poke actually slowing down Sawai briefly was really cool. Still Kurenai couldn’t do much against Sawai, until Kurenai got her staff and hit Sawai in the shoulder in a very well timed moment. After that it was a bunch of really great Kurenai armwork. Kurenais arm locks and attacks came across as really scrappy which makes sense since she's basically a rowdy street brawler, not a slick shooter. The sequence where Kurenai kept ducking Sawais clotheslines until she got caught in the face was outstanding. The rest of the match was built around Sawai trying to reestablish herself as a monster while selling that armwork for every bit it was worth. The character moments and especially the charisma of Kurenai were great, as when she had decimated Sawai to the point Sawai had to roll outside the ring which is Kurenais domain it really felt like a big moment and Kurenai accentuated it perfectly when she grabbed her staff and looked ready to move in for the kill. The simplicity was great and made this feel like a Tenryu or Choshu match, especially the bit where Kurenai kept landing running boots to Sawais shoulder while Sawai seemed to be falling apart. The last couple minutes saw both of them rolling out all their moves with some extremely well timed hope spots for Kurenai. Sawai being a monster was always a factor but I really liked how something like Kurenai kicking out of a move seemed to break her confidence. Perhaps the ending run was a bit standard but fuck it when you have this great of a buildup I don’t really care. Awesome match which was about as sensibly worked as you will ever see a 90s big match from a joshi promotion. Great story told in beautiful way, plenty of cool character work, whiplash-inducing hard moves

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Assorted LLPW

 

Bull Nakano vs. Yasha Kurenai, LLPW 10/25/1993

I‘m willing to bet this is the best 3 minute match you‘ll watch for a while. Kurenai was in a really famous squash against Hokuto, but this may have been even better. Nakano just punts the shit out of her, full on lariats to the face and all and smacking her around. There was especially brutal lariat that turned Kurenai briefly into a stiff. Kurenai gave all she got and got some bigger spots in on Nakano than you‘d expect. Nunchuks and a staff come into play, plus a memorable sick KO finish. Pro wrestling was so on fire in 1993 even a random squash like this could be legendary.

Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo vs. Harley Saito & Miki Hanada, 10/25/1993

As far as „badass teams with underdog matches“ go, this was really good and just felt like a crazy fight. We start hot right off he bat with Endo getting nearly KO‘d by Saitos BattlARTS level kicks. I never thought much of Handa, but her elbowing Kandori in the back of the head and then bowling her into the chairs was just the right thing to do in this kind of frantic battle. Love how Saito is consistently one of the few people who can step up to Kandori. Her throwing Kandori and then just blasting her with a face kick was badass. Endo barely has offense at this point, but she sold like crazy and had good fire. Kandori is so fucking great going from being an absolute menace to selling that she‘s taking danger and staggered. Finishing run looked great as it had a number of neat moments, plus face stomps and hits to the back of the head. Too bad about the clipping but what was shown looked like one of the best joshi matches of 1993.

Rumi Kazama vs. Jenn Yukari, LLPW 1/4/1994

This was UWF rules, but they pretty much worked it like a regular slightly more groundbased LLPW match. These two don‘t have much of a rep but they can sure hit the mat and bust out neat transitions. No pinfall rule made for some surprisingly interesting psychology, and there were some hellish suplexes and kicks thrown. I wish we had the full 10 minutes instead of just 5 but what was shown was a pretty great BattlARTS Velocity match.

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.

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.

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