Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 22

 Nanae Takahashi vs NORI, LLPW 4/14

When I saw this happened, I was intrigued. Not just because it's Nanae, but because it's an LLPW match! I had no idea LLPW was still around let alone that you could watch it. And yeah apparently they have put up a handful of recent matches on YouTube. I saw that apparently NORI has a decent MMA background, so she definitely fits Shinobu Kandoris mold. Don't get your hopes too high, because she largely wrestles a generic style. That said, this is quite the good little match and definitely worth watching. NORI is fairly generic, aside from a few kicks and some cool armlocks, but she makes up for it with intensity and passion. And Nanae is quite grounding these matches. It's smarter work than I recall her doing when she was in her prime, but better late than never I guess. Just Nanae grabbing a basic front headlock and snapping her opponent down was a really simple spot that immediately got me into the match. The same goes for her basic dragon screw later in the match. No rocket science here, just well executed basic pro wrestling with a good deal of struggle and urgency, and NORI occasionally connecting with some hard kicks or locking in a cool armlock to try and force a tap, with the veteran vs young upstart story being felt strongly. Absolutely give it a shot if you can get into modern joshi at all.

Seri Yamaoka vs Komomo Minami, Marigold 4/27

This caught my attention because it had some low ratings on Cagematch. A joshi match really has to be special when it gets low ratings on cagematch. The match I thought was a pretty cool showcase for all the cool shit Yamaoka can do, twisting her opponent around in Honda-ish ways. Minami didn't look bad either, she showed up in wrestling shoes and grappled a little, her offense wasn't entirely great, lots of slightly flimsy DDTs, but overall I thought there wasn't anything terribly wrong here, worth checking out to see Yamaoka against someone she can twirl around and put down for the 3 with a cool pin.

Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha, Marigold 5/24

Really good stuff I thought, that delivers pretty much what you hope with both of them doing what makes them cool, while also having a really sensible match layout. Obviously there is a world difference between them in ranking so Yamaoka is a huge underdog against Iroha. I thought they did a great job telling the story that Iroha is a nigh untouchable badass but Yamaoka could get her if she could just get ahold of her and start doing her wrestling thing. Iroha was very good here, she is one of the few modern wrestlers who when hitting stomps and kicks actually looks like she is stomping and kicking the shit out of someone, I also thought she did a great job giving Yamaoka just the right amount of offense and selling how Yamaoka was trying to sprain her ankle. Yamaoka still needs a dose of confidence but her potential is clearly enormous and she was sticking her neck out here taking an asskicking from Iroha and hitting cool suplexes and trying like hell to pin Irohas damn shoulders to the mat. I love that intense pinfall attempts are a big thing in 2025 now. I can definitely see Yamaoka tearing people apart in a years time if this continues and I look forward to it.

Ali Najima & Ryutaro Ohno vs Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 6/4

More good rookie action from Sportiva. It's basic, but these matches are proof that basic doesn't have to be boring. In this case we get some cool aggression between Najima and Watanabe, with all their forearms really hitting with a thud. Najima is now in the position where he has to defend his ranking against the younger upstarts and it makes things interesting. Shimizu is really reliable in his role as a old guy who hits like a truck and really cracks people with elbows. Ohno and Watanabe continue their journey into my heart, Ohno with his clunky lovable charisma and Watanabe by hitting some really hurty looking kicks to Shimizus shoulder and trying to submit him.

Yuta Oya & TORU vs Shinya Ishida & Enshu Hajime, Sportiva 6/4

Somehow Sportiva produces lots of good wrestlers on their own, but often bring in wrestlers who kind of suck into their shows. TORU isn't terrible, but he is kind of zany. Enshu Hajime is tall-ish and really skinny and kind of awkward, though he does come into his own a little when it's time to throw kicks. Oya is the glue in this match, since TORU isn't exactly treating this match too serious. It's all about Oya taking a nasty beatdown from Ishida with some hard stomps and a cool build to Oyas comeback. Then we get Hajime laying into Oya with more kicks and knees. Oya is a great gutsy wrestler, the struggle he put into his steamroller move was awesome, it was so simple but it made that whole basic ending run a whole lot better. Really nice finish with Oya absolutely spiking Hajimes skeleton-ish body with the Harai Goshi to pick up a really nice W.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

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.

The Library

LLPW Blooming Ultra Legend 8/14/1994

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Michiko Nagashima vs Yamashita

Yamashita is, I am guessing, another rookie from the 90s joshi scene who didn’t have much of a career. So you can guess how this goes: Yamashita hits some dropkicks, but can’t really do anything that phases Nagashima, and Nagashima gives her a minor beating before vanquishing her quickly. Nagashima is pretty nice to Yamashita here, not doing anything psychotic and letting her get in some roll ups and such.

First Round: Harley Saito vs Mizuki Endo

We only get about 3 minutes out of 5 here, but you still want to watch this for Saito kicking Endo in the face. Basically Endo tries to be annoying, and Saito would have none of it, leading to all these amusing moments where a pouncing Endo would get blasted. I really enjoy watching Saito smack and kick the shit out of someone, and Endo has fun energy. I really would’ve liked to see another 150 seconds of this.

First Round: Noriyo Tateno vs Eagle Sawai

They clipped the first two matches, so we could get more of this! If you know my general opinion of the LLPW roster, you will know that I don’t like Noriyo Tateno much because she is horribly dull and never gives much beyond just hitting her moves. This match was no exception. In theory, Sawai at least provides a challenge, but not much interesting comes out of it. To make it perfect, at some point Kurenai and Nagashima do a run in on Sawai but Tateno takes them out with a suicide dive. That was about the only real highlight in this one.

Mikiko Futagami & Jenn Yukari vs Michiko Ohmukai & Carol Midori

Typical joshi tag 101. Fast moves, resthold, wrestlers tag out whenever they are thrown near their own corner. Ohmukai & Midori controlled most of the action here and they aren’t all that great, unless you really like front dropkicks. Futagami shows some cool touches once in a while – she has a particularily great thrust kick, and her pump handle release throw was amusingly reckless. Yukari got to do almost nothing. Everyone here doesn’t have much of a moveset yet, so they kept repeating moves. This was clipped, and should have been clipped more.

Semi-Finals: Harley Saito vs Miki Handa

Kinda cool little match. Saito is higher on the totem pole and she has the dangerous kicks and submissions to give her the edge. Handa tries rushing her, which backfires and Saito wrenches a tight kimura. When Saito goes for the arm again, Handa is able to scramble out and lock in a surprise armbar of her own, and then using that to capitalize and get in a nice run. I really liked how they used a simple armlock like that to give Handa an edge. Handa also has great suplexes and the flash finish ruled. Pretty good stuff.

Semi-Finals: Noriyo Tateno vs Yasha Kurenai

Kurenai waffles Tateno with chairs and those wooden sword things some to make this entertaining. Tateno throwing someone into chairs and getting whacked is marginally more interesting than the usual Tateno match. Not that she does much selling or anything. Tateno steals the win with a flash pin at 5 minutes so at least this was short.

Shinobu Kandori vs Rumi Kazama

Pretty fucking epic match. As straight forward as Hashimoto vs Fujiwara. Kazamas kicks were vicious and Kandori at this point is a charismatic dynamo. Kandori gets so much out of so little, down to her facial expression, every single submission she gets locked in, she was also awesome escalating the violence punching Kazama in the face and throwing the referee around. I would have liked Kazama to throw more kicks in the second half of the match since her opening onslaught was so awesome. Still, it builds to quite the epic ending with Kandori levelling Kazama and Kazama having a handful of great hope spots. Few wrestlers do the ‘biggest badass on act’ as good as Kandori.

Finals: Harley Saito vs Noriyo Tateno

Harley Saito is one of the great 90s unheralded 90s workers and I’m always happy to see her in a big match, even if it’s against Tateno. The opening minutes of this were pretty cool as Tateno grounded Saito and attacked the legs. Tateno is hit and miss but she actually had a nifty rolling legbar, and a really cool leg trap and arm stretch. Saito is one of the workers around who will actually sell the leg and for a couple moments it was really good pro wrestling. You never really get Harley throwing the kitchen sink at Tateno but she does kick her in the face once. Of course, selling goes out the window in the second half of the match and it’s 2.9999 city. For that kind of match it was pretty well done although Tatenos checked-out-ness is jarring. She will hit her moves but really expresses very little with her body language, even after barely kicking out of a move she just walks over, hits a weak kick and then a powerbomb, it’s like she’s physically there but not mentally. There were some cool transitions but also some questionable ones. Still, I love me a Harley Saito match and this was pretty fun for what it was.

 

The Library

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.

The Library

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.

Assorted Joshi

 

Kaoru Ito vs. Junko Yagi, AJW/LLPW 7/2/1999

Cool, scrappy, unique match. Opening judo grappling was pretty cool, Yagi kept getting the better of Ito early on and there were some cool throws, until Ito absolutely spiked Yagi with a huge back suplex. Frustrated Yagi started hammering away at Itos head with fists, causing them both to take the jackets off. Ito comes across as such a murder machine that when she gave Yagi the death stare and threw her jacket and belt away it felt like a real „oh shit“ moment. Last few minutes were gritty with Ito hitting some lariats and dropkicks on Yagi that made me feel Yagi did something to piss her off. Nasty nasty double stomp finish too, but that‘s pretty much a given with Ito matches.

Takako Inoue vs. Kyoko Inoue, NEO 5/5/1999

This was the kind of insane and great spectacle that you pretty much only get with joshi. Takako has MMA gloves and she gave the kind of „kicks the shit out of you“ performance that gets you over with me as a badass. Kyoko starts right away trying to take Takakos head off with lariats but Inoue is able to get her with a taser. The taser stuff may seem goofy but they didn‘t waste much time with it and Kyoko sold the fuck out of that taster, and they got right back to Takako stomping on Kyokos face, throwing body shots and landing some insane solebutts. What I loved about the match was how they really worked this like a big time arena brawl, a lot of stiff matches feel seedy and back alley, which is cool, but this was clearly worked for the huge crowd they had and that‘s a pretty unique thing for this kind of violent brawl. And they just succeeded in giving everything the right amount of space. Second half had some psycho bumps, more fantastic striking from Takako and at one point Takako takes her gloves off to hit a punch that may have been one of the most insane punches I‘ve ever seen in a wrestling match. I didn‘t love Kyokos superheroine comeback but it was the kind of frenzied insane ending a frenzied insane match needs.

LLPW Blooming Ultra Wild Dance 8/29/1993

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 Semi Finals: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno

This was very ground based and alright. Tateno struggling to lock holds in on Sawai due to her large frame added some interest. Tateno worked this as the veteran star grounding and containing her beastly opponent. It was no Itsuki Yamazaki in JWP performance, but it was decent enough and I was into Sawai overcoming her. The spot where Sawai crushed Tatenos bridge looked downright murderous.

Semi Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito

This went 11 minutes and we got about 7:30 of it. We get pretty much the opening , and then the ending section, both of which are really great. Starts like a Choshu/Hashimoto match with Saito trying to blow Kandori away with her kicks and Kandori just being an impossible badass. I like while Saito is good enough to not get tapped out right away by Kandori, she still pretty much got her leg mangled. Also check out Saito selling her shoulder earlier. Ending had Kandori busting out several really great Fujiwaraish counters and Saito doing her best outmatched fighter trying to pull of an upset performance. I‘m salty about this missing 3 and a half minutes.

Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda vs. Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai

Opening minutes of this was the kind of hot interpromotional warfare your brain craves. Nakano is as good of a monster as you need shrugging people off and blasting them with lariats, Kazama kicks the crap out of her, Kurenai is an eye-stabbing trouble making fiend, and there‘s brawling and a staff and nunchakus getting brought in. Middle portion was a bit middling as I was annoyed by Bull and Mima kind of no selling their opponents, but the ending made up for it as we get Rumi and Yasha unloading their big moves on Mima, more staff-bashing and Yasha dramatically trying to survive Bull. This was plenty enjoyable.

Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai

This starts out great right away with Sawai going for the powerbomb and then spiking Kandori with a Randleman-esque slam. Pretty much every 1993 Kandori match is gonna be scrappy and full of bone breaking submission work and this had plenty of face kicks, smacks and nasty knee bars. Sawai isn‘t someone people rate highly but I enjoyed her as a big monster throwing Kandori around which is different from her usual opponents. Ending was great as Sawai seemed to be crumbling from Kandoris submission onslaught until Sawai started throwing her with those big uranages. Kandori can‘t put her away with powermoves so she has to come up with a Fujiwara-ish counter. Scrappy and good.

The Library

LLPW Burning Gaze ~Gateway of Passion~ 5/11/1993

Miki Handa vs. Mima Shimoda

Hey look, it‘s an interpromotional match! These matches are always super heated and everyone works urgent, so this ended up being fun. Both blocked each others basic moves to begin and that‘s totally enough to get me into a match. Shimoda looked good directing the action, and even Miki Handa can bring the heat given the circumstances. It was pretty clipped, but I think we got a good idea of the match.

Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha vs. Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo

Really great opening minute here as Tateno suicide dives into nothing. Kandori gets on the mic to shit talk her but Kurenai elbows her in the back of the head! Yasha follows up by trying to take Kandoris eye out, to which Kandori responds by getting up and punching Yasha in the face. Awesome stuff. Yasha was pretty great here in general, booting people in the face and really knowing how to be a pest at the right time. Kandoris shoot submissions were great and sent people into a frenzy to get to the ropes. The action was much more basic when Endo was in, although Tateno and Kurenai knew to put the heat on her. I‘ve been shitting on Tateno a lot but she was good here just flying into people with knees. It was a 14 minute match clipped in half and I really would‘ve liked to see the whole thing because what we saw was great.

Suzuka Minami & Bat Yoshinaga vs. Rumi Kazama & Yukari Osawa 

HOLY SHIT!! I LOVE PRO WRESTLING!!! This was absolutely awesome. Why nobody ever talks about how LLPW was the promotion that ran all these crazy heated, stiff main event brawls? This was the joshi equivalent to something like WAR vs. New Japan, really violent crazy match with a relentless pace where nobody holds back. Bat Yoshinaga is this scuzzy AJW undercarder with a karate gimmick and she has the night of her life here, holy lord she was awesome squaring off with the LLPW wrestlers and throwing kicks. She was getting massive face heat too so everyone in that arena that night knew she was awesome! 3 out of the 4 workers here throw kicks and they were all landing, there are a number of really violent saves where someone was going for a pin or submission and then got blindsided with a kick to the back of the head. Minami is the one worker who doesn‘t have much strike based offense but she does a good job tightening her stuff up and there are a few moments where she also kicked the shit out of her opponent. Kazama likes to play shooter so Minami frantically kicking her way out of her leglock was really cool. Most of the match was violent, scrappy standup interspersed with Minami and Kazama doing some cool wrestling and awesome Bat Yoshinaga character moments. There was one moment where Yukari tried breaking up one of Yoshinagas holds with kicks and Yoshinaga just give her this amazing disdainful look, totally not giving a damn about how hard Osawa was kicking her in the head. Later in the match it‘s Osawa who‘s putting a half crab on someone and the camera does a really nice job catching her glare over at Yoshinaga, who struts into the ring and pops Osawa with a single blow. That moment may have made the whole match, but I will also give credit to Yoshinaga putting on the single greatest iron claw in history on Kazama. The match builds to a flurry of big moves as many joshi matches do but they retain the aura of a crazy fight. I really liked how Minami and Yoshinaga initially dominated, but the match slowly began to slip away from their control. Kazama and Osawa seemed to have it in the bag until Yoshinaga made an awesome rally spin kicking everyone in the face. Everyone here fought hard but it was Yoshinagas night, and the ending really underlines that nicely. What a gem of a match.

THE LIBRARY

LLPW Live Battle '97 8/15/1997

Watch

Sachie Abe vs. Miho Watabe

Watabe is the future Baby-A. She is really short and stumpy legged and has some fun spots. Abe didn't look like a good base but Watabe had the crowd behind her making this fun despite some hiccups. They clipped a 13 minute match down to 4 or 5 though so not much to say on this other than it looked like a fun match.

Miyuki Sogabe vs. Keiko Aono

 Forgettable clipped match between two no name workers. Aono would go on to put on kickpads and be better in JWP.

Harley Saito vs. Noriyo Tateno

 I was wondering how good of a match you can have with Tateno. Saito immediately went to batter Tateno with her kicks, but Tateno stood up and slapped the taste out of her mouth. The rest of the match was decent fast moving action, but that slap promised a more heated battle than what we ended up getting.

Handicap Elimination Match: Rumi Kazama & Michiko Omukai vs. Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino & Miwa Sato

Really good, heated match considering this was the middle of the card. The heel trio played the numbers game and turned this into a  brawl from the get go and brought chains, kendo sticks and biting. They isolated Kazama & Omukai and worked a few great cut offs creating tremendous heat. Kazama got choked out with a chain, which made the subsequent chain chokes feel more dangerous and also added even more heat when Omukai got beaten down while Kazama was laid out. Omukai wasn't yet the supermodel kickboxer, but she had serious fight in her and got insane crowd reactions. Everyone on the heel team looks good, and I loved the out of nowhere mist spot. Really good stuff that could've main evented other cards.

Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa

 This was pretty great and if you added 10 counts you'd have a high end BattlARTS match. Hotta & Maekawa were just ruthless here as they would attempt to pulverize their opponent with kicks aimed at the face and head whenever they found an opening. And they really emphasized the striker vs. grappler matchup here as the LLPW team used almost no strikes. The beginning is 100% already, Endo rushes Hotta and tries to land punches from the mount, but a few seconds later she eats a punt to the eye and gets just destroyed from there. Kandori was in the Tenryu role as the tough asskicking boss, drawing amazing reactions with STARES and GESTURES. There were also plenty of great reversals courtesy of her, including turning a sleeper hold into an STO. Also, Kandori choking Hotta unconscious after she made repeated saves was such a simple, great spot that really should be used more often. This was also the best I've seen Maekawa look as she was basically all flashy kicks that landed. I liked that when she missed an especially flashy kick, she just immediately kicked her opponent in th face. Endo didn't look too great but proved she was worth her salt by grappling it out. Awesome match, pro wrestling isn't the same these days anymore.

Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya & Lioness Asuka vs. Mikiko Futagami & Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori

These heated LLPW main event brawls may be the best thing from the 90s that nobody talks about. Futagami, Kurenai and Midori wore matching outfits and tried to take down the monster trio of Tsuchiya, Lioness and Eagle. Tsuchiya and Lioness had their working boots and, they kept the match in the ring and worked a few fantastic cut offs mostly dominating the action and doing a great job creating heat. Yasha Kurenai was the star of the match once again, she got Sharks sickle to the face and the rest of the match lived off of her bleeding and showing awesome babyface fire. She got kicked and punched in the face a bunch during the heat section and knew exactly to show the right amount of fight before getting cut off to the keep the crowd engaged. When she tagged back in and went crazy with her staff beating the bricks off of the heels the crowd went nuts and it felt like the roof was about to fly off the building. Futagami and Carol played supporting players to Kurenais story, but they did a nice job. I liked how Carol, after getting the hot tag tried for a flash pin on Asuka, it was a small detail but it made sense to go for that kind of move on a megastar, you can hardly get a straight pin on her but a random flash move might work. I also really liked Sawai, who is basically Vader sized compared to everyone on the face team, so whenever she ate a move it felt huge, even though she actually bumped her ass off. Sawai and Lionesses double team moves were brutal, these two had a kind of HDA chemistry, I wonder if they have more great performances like that. Really a tremendous match, and just the second best on this card but still really great, I cannot recommend this stuff enough.

The Library

GWE watching: Shinobu Kandori

 

Jackie Sato & Miss A vs. Harley Saito & Shinobu Kandori, JWP ?/1987

Super cool find from the mysterious 80s JWP era. This was just a year into the company so everyone besides Jackie was green here, but they could all bring it. Saito was quite fiery here, lighting everyone up with stiff kicks and shoot submissions. I‘d love to see more Jackie Sato from this time period as she seems to have reinvented herself completely doing slick grappling sections against Kandori and Saito. Kandori wasn‘t quite herself yet, but engaged in some stiff exchanges with Miss A. A also looked green, but was already quite the crowbar having some brutal exchanges against both opponents. Her hot tag looked too easy but it lead to a heated Sato/Kandori exchange. The finish isn‘t what you want, but the action was good and most of all really interesting in this.

Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Choi So Ra & Lee Hye Ran, LLPW 10/31/2004

Choi and Lee are a pair of Korean girls. I have no idea what their backstory is, did they come from the Korean wrestling scene or where they just a pair of Korean idols who ended up doing Japanese pro wrestling for a bit? Lee Hye Ran had really nice kicks and she had a really cool kick battle with Harley Saito. Choi So Ra didn‘t look bad either. She mostly just got ripped apart by Kandoris submissions but was able to lock in an impressively smooth Fujiwara armbar of her own. She also took some Tenryu level violent kicks to the face from Saito. Kandori was not really in top shape here anymore but she was still quite charismatic and produced some good moments. This was short and neat.

Harley Saito & Mizuki Endo vs. Shinobu Kandori & Noriyo Tateno, LLPW 6/21/1998

More Kandori being a charismatic badass grapppler. This was all about Endo trying to step up to big bad Kandori, and Saito trying to help her in the process. Kandori was trying to snap limbs and not taking shit. There were also some brief, good Saito/Kandori exchanges for old times sake (where is their big nostalgia singles?) including an awesome moment where Endo gets a nice nearfall after Saito landed an Ikeda esque kick to Kandoris face. Endo is a fun plucky grappler, and probably would‘ve been a minor legend if she had joined ARSION or something.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno, LLPW 10/30/1992

I can‘t decide whether or not Tateno sucks. Her moveset is so generic, she really has no charisma and she doesn‘t sell on a deeper level, but this ended up being solid due to Kandori being Kandori. Kandori is just a beast who will pummel you with open hands and throws and submissions that force anyone to the rope fast, and that makes for a an entertaining match against nearly anyone. Tateno just kind of barrages her with offense – I liked the two diving knees – and I gained a bit of respect for her when she gutted it tthrough Kandoris brutal subs and slams in the finishing run. She also took a pretty big bump. She was no Itsuki Yamazaki as a singles wrestler, but few are. And Kandori is Kandori.

A few Matches from LLPW The Kageki Renaissance! Grand Opening 2nd 9/24/1992

 

Watch

 

Harley Saito vs. Leo Kitamura

This was a clipped match I would‘ve loved to see in full. Kitamura had some serious fight in her in 1992. She want at Saito all fired up and then Saito would brutalize her with kicks and shoot submissions. Saito looks unstoppable for a minute and hits one of the craziest punt kicks to Kitamuras face I‘ve ever seen in a match in this. The match ended up being about who could weather the others storm first and it ended up being a nice little fight. I have no idea if Kitamura landing on Saitos legs with the moonsault was intentional but her following up with stomps to the legs was nice.

Utako Hozumi vs. Rumi Kazama

About everything you want from your 10 minute joshi match. Both these two are better than history gives them credit. Really nice aggressive fighting early, I really liked Hozumi working over Kazama with open hands and Kazama landed a hard open hand shot of her own to shut it down. I also enjoyed Hozumi landing a splash with Kazama pulling up her knees and Kazama then working over her stomach with more nasty kicks and stomps. A really simple bit that they moved on from quickly but it made the whole more entertaining. These two know how to hit their stuff in a bit more interesting ways than most girl workers and the finish was really nice with Hozumi moving into her suplexes from unusual positions and trying to catch Kazamas kick combos. Hozumis suplexes were cool, and Kazamas kicks looked brutal. I miss 90s wrestling.

Shinobu Kandori & Midori Saito vs. Noriyo Tateno & Mikiko Futagami

Interesting match up here as they paired the stars with rookies. Futagami trying to stand up to Kandori was fun and Kandori is just a walking badass in 1992. She will make even a bodyslam look brutal and her submissions are great. Tateno is too limited to really be a good antagonist to the mighty Kandori, but their exchanges still had a few cool moments. I thought they would go the cheap routine at the end by having Saito job to Tateno, but instead Kandori tagged herself in and slapped on a perfect armbar that stopped the match. Tateno got up and pulled a Gracie match claiming she didn't give up. And... that's it? Not even a post match brawl? Maybe it was clipped out. This only went 10 minutes and I wonder if they did that because they knew the commercial tape would only be 1 hour. Regardless, Kandori is great.

THE LIBRARY

LLPW Battle Winter 2/13/1992

 

Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo

Rookie match with some basic moves and lots of stretches. Really nothing match here. Both these two turned into good wrestlers later but they had nothing going for them at this poitn.

Yukari Osawa & Mikiko Futagami vs. Utako Hozumi & Leo Kitamura

16 out of 22 minutes where shown. Pretty dull match without much heat until they started doing nearfalls. Hozumi and Kitamura controlled most of the action until Futagami pulled out a surprise win. Good for GAMI.

Kurenai Yasha vs. Midori Saito

Kurenai seems like a fairly underrated worker. She dominated most of this and she knew how to beat on Saito for 10 minutes and make it not boring. She did cool things like drop elbows on her face, bust out a bottle or throw a row of chairs at Saito out of nowhere. She also made some nice cutoffs and it was a cool seasoned rudo performance which was impressive considering she was still pretty early in her career. Saito had one nasty boot to Yashas chin but didn‘t impress me much otherwise. Yasha takes it with the chokeslam and this came across as almost a squash.

Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa

 Pretty decent match worked at a medium pace. Kazama, Handa and Sawai all looked good. Tateno is usually pretty boring but Sawai was fired up, just running over her with body checks and lariats, and that got Tateno to show a bit of fire of her own. Kazama had her working boots on and was working stiff as usual. And Handa did some pretty good work too working over Tatenos spine with nasty looking knees and elbows. The finish was really good - Handa rolled up Tateno into a boston crab. Kazama landed a kick to make the save, but the resulting force pushed Handa further into the hold and actually forced a submission. Nice win for Handa and felt like something that should happen more often.

Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita

Okay, wow. The opening of this was like a bomb going off. Super heat, intensity to the max, scrappy fights breaking out, everyone trying to kill each other. They had a bunch of AJW fans attending this cheering for Minami and Mita so this had the kind of insane heat these interpromotional matches have. The first 10 or so minutes were pretty damn amazing and up there with any WAR/NJ tag. Kandori is such a damn superstar, outgrappling everyone while making jokes and then snapping, buckling people against the ropes and mauling them with nasty lariats and elbows. And Mita and Minami brought the heat. The sequence where Kandori choked Mita out and Minami cleared house to safe her was another level of urgent and badass. Makes you wonder why that kinda stuff doesn‘t happen more often. Harley Saito is also quite the effective plucky sidekick to Kandori. The second half this was more of a typical joshi match but still, it was a damn hot ending run that the crowd went crazy over. And all I want from a match with a hot ending run is a hot opening that gets me into it, and they did that here. Real gem, and another piece in Kandoris amazing string of 1993 performances.

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

LLPW Ichi Mouda Jin 10/9/1994

 

Shinobu Kandori vs. Mikiko Futagami

This was totally awesome. It easily could‘ve been a bullshit squash, but we get little Futagami stepping up to Kandori, and Kandori letting her shine while retaining her on status as the ultimate badass. Starts out great with Futagami fucking slapping and spitting on Kandori. Obviously there were gonna be beatings in this match, but both girls also hit the mat and Kandori allows Futagami to look on her level. GAMI is such a cool stoic grappler, and Kandori really sets herself up as a foil for that stoic charisma by amping up her own presence, she‘s like The Rock reacting to Futagami trying to blindside her. The grappling was super cool with Kandori using her shoot submissions and Futagami mixing in lucha holds and pins in seamless fashion. Along with that there were some serious beatings in the match, Futagami tries to cut down Kandori with some vicious running boots and Kandori pays her back with some super gnarly boot scrapes (the kind of simple thing which Kandori has a knack for making it look really violent). Fantastic finish too. I was shocked when this ended and the graphic showed it only went 9 minutes, it felt like a much bigger match with a ton of content to it.

Mizuki Endo vs. Michiko Ohmukai

Hey look, it‘s Michiko Ohmukai. This was fun due to how into it the crowd was. As a match it was just two young workers running through their offense – with Endo having little high impact offense and mostly grounding Ohmukai with holds. Ohmukai had some cool knees to the back of the head and some really cool bridging. Endo picks up the win with a cool double stomp, though, which surprised me.

Miki Handa vs. Carol Midori

Extremely generic match between two generic workers. Surprise suplex to start, then half crab a bunch to kill time before somebody hits a random move. Add a bunch of pointless legwork and you have yourself a bonafide nothing match! The finishing sequences were well executed, but again, nothing that will stick in your mind.

Harley Saito vs. Rumi Kazama

Kazama doesn‘t have much of a rep, but time and time again she proves that she could go. I was surprised they started this out with a bunch of lucha armdrags and counters. It felt like two veterans trying to prove they were on a different skill level, and it was cool. Harley though soon reminded everyone who she was by blindsiding Kazama with an absolutely rotten kick to the face in the middle of an exchange. The following kick battle as awesome. Kazama fired back with some ringers of her own and Saito just wasted her with high kicks in the corner. After that series of BattlARTS level near Kos they settle down into a pro-style finishing run which was a bit disappointing but still cool. Kazama does some cool Dragon Sleeper work and whips out a spinning wheel kick from the top. I like that Harleys tiger suplex was protected. Really good little match overall.

Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha & Michiko Nagashima vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & Jun Yamashita

This is not something people would seek out on paper, but it ended up being pretty fun. Basically an escalating violent tag. Jenn Yukari is Yukari Osawa who I didn‘t like much but she was fun here kicking people hard. Yamashita is some rookie who debuted just 2 months before and played the underdog taking a beating. Kurenai was super cool as usual. It‘s remarkable how she doesn‘t do martial arts kicks or anything but stays vicious looking and interesting on offense. Sawai played the Tenryu role having staredons and always looking like a big deal when she stepped into the ring simply by running people over with her size, and she‘s fun in that role. I expected more brawling and blood and the finish was a bit sudden (although cool) but this was a good main event overall.

THE LIBRARY

LLPW DREAM TARGET 1/4/1993

 

Utako Hozumi & Mizuki Endo vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yukari Osawa

Match was clipped nearly in half from 20 minutes to about 10 minutes. Hard to make a sense of what was going on, and looked like a typical undercard sprint. Tateno landed some nasty boots to Endos face.

Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai vs. Midori Saito & Rumi Yasuda

Another pretty clipped down match. Saito and Yasuda just got their asses kicked pretty much due to the difference in rank.. Kazama dished out stiff kicks and the ending was brutal with a spike tombstone piledriver and Sawai dropping her opponent with a nasty fire bomb.

5 vs. 1 Gauntlet Match: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito & Michiko Nagashima & Mikiko Futagami & Leo Kitamura & Miki Handa

Yes, it‘s Kandori taking on 5 girls in a row. It may sound preposterous on paper, but it ends up totally working in practise. You can talk about how this may have buried half the LLPW roster, but realistically only Saito and Handa have a chance of lasting longer than 5 minutes against Kandori here, and both are smartly placed at the beginning and end of the match.

This first match up is Kandori vs. Saito. I was worried about this, thinking Kandori might squish Saito, but they had a fierce competitive match. Both went for the kill right out of the gate and it was intense stuff. Saito belted Kandori with her signature hard kicks and Kandori fired back with her stiff offense and flash submissions. It was reminiscent of their classic 1990 encounter, not quite on that level, but it was damn good shit. Saito ends up pushing Kandori to the limit and Kandori wins on a fluke.

Pretty interesting way to start the match. Instead of a power start Kandori just went through a fierce 18 minute match against Saito and she looks pretty beaten up already. Nagashima comes in next. She‘s a rookie at this point so she does rookie stuff. She flies right at Kandori with a big dropkick and gets in some hip attacks, but Kandori snatches a half crab and almost rips her in half for the tap after about 1 minute. So now everyone remembers Kandoris submissions are really dangerous, and in retrospect Saito looks tougher for surviving them.

GAMI comes in next. It looks like Kandori wants to be nice to her and challenges her to a grappling match. They do about a minute of cool grappling before GAMI decides to stomp on Kandoris face and hit a pretty nasty knee slide. Big mistake as Kandori flips out and beats the shit out of her. GAMI lasts a bit longer and can get in some offense on Kandori – making you respect her – but falls to a nasty powerbomb pretty fast.

Leo Kitamura is #4. And Kandori is looking pretty spent now. I don‘t think Kitamura has ever looked threatening in a match, but damn she looks threatening now. She has the night of her life taking it to Kandori, trying to roll her up and hitting nasty looking elbows. Kandori catches her in a sleeper and she‘s fighting for dear life, and – the bell rings? Oh, this match had a 30 minute time limit? Kandori says she‘s done here, call it draw, but Leo is pissed off. Kandori seems to leave, but Kitamura gets on the mic and says something that causes her to come back. The match is restarted and Kitamura is going even harder at Kandori now, but Kandori keeps surviving until she‘s able to lock in a nasty chickenwing that fucks up Kitamuras shoulder. You did your best, Leo Kitamura, but Kandori was in beast mode that night.

The last one in the match is Miki Handa, and she goes for the kill out the gate dropping Kandori fat missile dropkicks and germans. Kandori looks done, but Handa misses an elbow. Now Kandori is all hitting crazy Fujiwara armbars from angles and just working like a wounded beast trying to tear someones shoulder out. Handa isn‘t much special but she can drop bombs and sell desperation. 44 minutes in and Handa ends up losing on a technicality and Kandori just walks away not giving a fuck while Handa looks on the verge of tears.

Post match Hokuto and her crew come in to wreak havoc, and we get a face off between her and Saito. This match was pretty unique and honestly great, if you can stomach watching something different. But Kandori looked like an absolute monster here destroying people left and right hich is what you want to see, and while she looked beastly she had to work hard for her wins, so you end up respecting everyone coming out of this. 

THE LIBRARY

LLPW DANCING HEROINE 5/29/1994

 Michiko Ohmukai vs. Leo Kitamura

Hey look, it‘s Michiko Ohmukai. Kitamura has been around a while, but Ohmukai squashes her completely smacking and stretching her and connecting some nasty knees to the back of her head.

Jenn Yukari vs. Michiko Nagashima

Pretty bad match. There were some attempts at armork and some violent kicks, but the whole thing as pretty sloppy and directionless. Blew the finish, too.

Carol Midori & Mizuki Endo vs. Miki Handa & Yasha Kurenai

Bigger and better match than you expect from midcard joshi. This was quite scrappy and all 4 beat the hell out of each other. I‘m used to kickpadded girls bringing the stiffness in joshi, so this kind of WCWSN style snug ork was a nice surprise. Some big forearms, back elbows and hip drops. Kurenai and Handa mostly kicked ass, with Midori and Endo fighting back valiantly. Midori had some fun athletic moves and Kurenai looked really good. Girl who wrestles like a pissed off, staff wielding Akira Taue adds some nice grounding to a joshi match. Add in some cool 90s nearfalls (people flipping out for a Vader Bomb or running powerslam) and you have yourself a fun little discovery.

Harley Saito & Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno & Rumi Kazama

This started out very good. It was pretty much a total slobberknocker from the Saito & Sawai tandem. Sawai was just running over people with body checks and lariats, and Saito was killing it throwing stiff kicks and slipping into shoot submissions. They ended up picking Kazama leg apart in Anderson bros fashion. Tatenos hot tag was kinda lame – she just hit two moves, then tried a surfboard hold on Kazama, failed and then tagged out. I was fine with Kazamas selling initially, she stumbled around, hit some cool one legged kicks to Sawais face – but then her leg was never brought up again. Kazama and Tateno dominated way too much of the ending section. There was a badass moment where Sawai stormed into the ring and went Steve Austin on everyone with the chair, but I wanted Saito and Sawai to be put over more as the dangerous unit they had been through the first half of the match. Instead Kazama and Tateno did some lame outside brawling. The finish was a nasty move, but the match ended in kinda weird fashion. Eh, I grew new respect for Sawai from this.

Shinobu Kandori & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Ishinriki & Utako Hozumi

Hozumi is Ishinrikis bride, so that makes for a fun dynamic. This was a light hearted match that was worked competitively and never exposed the business. Fujiwara sells pretty much how you expect for Hozumi. The Fujiwara/Ishinriki sections were fun, with some cool wrestling and a surprising amount of stiffness. There was one moment where Ishinriki palmed Fujiwara pretty hard on the ground, and then stomped on his head. Another singles match between the two would‘ve been amazing. Hozumi was sloppy here and there but the finish was between her and Kandori and really cool. This was kinda more like a 2nd match on the card comedy tag than a main event but I had fun.

THE LIBRARY

LLPW The Kageki Renaissance! Grand Opening 8/29/1992

 Leo Kitamura vs. Mizuki Endo

Clipped down match which looked like solid rookie action. Kitamura attempted some more elaborate moves and slipped up. Endo looks nearly unrecognizable. Really liked when Endo powered out of a full nelson and Kitamura hit this neat jumping headbutt to her shoulder. It‘s little moments like that which really get me even into a brief rookie match.

Midori Saito & Rumi Yasuda vs. Mikiko Futagami & Yukari Osawa

Osawa is a JWP veteran from the original class of 1986. This was pretty much your typical joshi undercard action, lots of moves done in quick succession. Futagami looked spunky. Things got heated for a minute when Osawa got busted open and ate some elbows to her cut, but it didn‘t build much further.

Eagle Sawai vs. Michiko Nagashima

Pretty much a clipped down squash with neither of them looking all that impressive.

Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito vs. Miki Handa & Utako Hozumi

They went 36 minutes here, full bore. I enjoyed the opening going a lot with Saito and Tateno working together to cut off and isolate their opponents. A bunch of limb work happens that doesn‘t go anywhere and they lose me a bit in the middle, since nobody except Saito here is very interesting, really. Saito was fun running in to kick people hard. There was a section where she just destroyed Hozumi with kicks. Hozumis big comeback was supposed to be a dive but she got caught on the rope and landed on her face. Tateno doesn‘t do much interesting on offense but she was in he position to bring some character to the match and for someone who really doesn‘t have much charisma or character she did a fine job. Handa and Hozumi doing everything to edge out the win towards the end was really fun and the crowd reactions to the nearfalls were amazing. I could see people enjoying this because it‘s a slower paced, different type of joshi match, but temper your expectations.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Rumi Kazama

Badass match. Basically what you want from two wrestlers trying to establish their new promotion, just two ladies swinging for the fences, working cool grappling exchanges and mauling eaching other in violent fashion. Kandori looked like the baddest woman on the planet as usual, and Kazama was quite the fine Hotta stand in throwing absolutely rotten kicks to Kandoris face. I like how Kazama challenged the grappler Kandori to a wrestling exchange and Kandori just punted her. Middle portion was slightly meandering although the work was good and everything made sense. Ending was just a brutal onslaught with Kandori surviving several suplexes, then mauling Kazama on the ground before clocking her with a sick lariat, it was straight out of the BattlARTS playbook. 

THE LIBRARY

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 3

  The List

232. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masahiro Chono, NJPW 5/31/1991 

Damn, I didn't expect to like this so much. Any Fujinami big match is guaranteed to have a ton of wrestling, and there was a lot of that here, but there was also a ton of disdain right from the opening which has Chono spitting Fujinami in the face. Chono is far from a great matworker, but he was game here, busting out an awesome calf slicer and a flying clothesline that was like something Necro Butcher would do. He also wasn't afraid to get into stiff slap battles and I liked his headbutts and mafia kicks he would use to combat Fujinami's mat prowess. Fujinami on his side had one of the most brutal dropkicks I've ever seen and an epic dive. This was a very typical NJPW style match, there was no grand finishing run with a ton of big moves to be kicked out of or something, instead it was about avoiding the other guy's finisher when push came to shove. That and the fact both guys sold a ton of exhaustion made the second half of this pretty great. Little bit of a lucha title match influence here with some dramatic bumps for momentum shifts and that sick guardrail dive from Fujinami. Great stuff, glad that this was brought up as the 232nd best match of the 90s

241. Meiko Satomura vs. Sugar Sato, GAEA 10/11/1998

Leave it to a pair of 18 year old girls to have an excellent lengthy match in 1998. The cool thing about the mat stuff they did here was that it wasn't shootstyle stuff, but closer to NWA-ish legbars and kneedrops, executed in really vicious fashion. Sugar doesn't have the high end offense of Satomura, but I thought she did well enough to mix it up and keep the match going. Everything made sense and built really well to their respective finishers (Death Valley Driver vs. Liger Bomb), and while there wasn't any super-focussed extended selling they worked hard to put eachother's offense over as devastating. Plenty of neat spots, including Sato finding ways to counter Satomura's arm attack stuff. Best GAEA match of 1998?

246. Bull Nakano vs. Shinobu Kandori, LLPW 7/14/1994

I was disappointed to see this not holding up quite well. I remember feeling there was something fishy about this when I first watched it years ago and now I remember why. This had the lamest crowd brawl in the middle. I enjoyed them punishing eachother with the chain and there were some great visuals here, but this could have been so much more. Outside distraction was crap, so was Kandori's armbar. I liked Nakano avoiding Kandori's feeble punches and just kicking her in the face. Finish makes up for the dragging parts. Good match.

Assorted LLPW

 Shinobu Kandori & Yasha Kurenai & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino, LLPW 2/15/1998

Amazing match, which on first watch I thought was seriously fucking with some of the absolute top brawls in history. This was insanely heated and everyone was brutalizing each other, but even more they succeeded in conveying real desperation on the babyface side without going into hammy territory. Whole match was violent to the core and they never let up, these girls didn't hold back with chairs, kendo sticks, other plunder and just straight up kicking eachother in the face, and the heel team of Sawai, Nagashima and Okino was great at working cut offs, isolating their opponents and swarming them. Of course Kandoris superstar charisma is outstanding, and she will do cool things like look in flash submissions during brawling exchanges or counter a chain attack with a judo throw, but the stars of the match are somehow Yasha Kurenai and Michiko Nagashima. Eagle Sawai is also good her as just a big monster crushing people with body attacks and power moves, and Rumi Kazama is solid as a veteran lady wrestler who can kick hard. Nagashima looks damn good punching people in the face with her fist wrapped in a chain, hitting unexpectedly violent offense and taking nasty bumps. Kurenai is fierce booting peoples heads off and the heat segment on her ended up being seriously great due to being smartly laid out (in such a way that when you'd guess the hot tag would happen, it doesn't). It sets up a tremendous second half where Kurenai keeps running in, being a bloody mess and looking half dead, and going fucking crazy on the heels with kendo sticks and even a scissor, trying to take chunks out of Eagle Sawai. You really end up wanting her to get to win but also dreading her getting pinned due to how sympathetic she is set up to be. Shark Tsuchiya and Lioness Asuka interfere in the match along with like a dozen tracksuited ringside girls from LLPW and JD' trying to jump into the free, and while I normally dislike liberal interference in joshi matches, it felt like a frantic gang war here. I could see some folks being irked by them teasing some hot nearfalls and then doing an elaborate chain spot followed by another heat segment, although I thought everything worked and it was a suitably crazy moment. Finish was completely unexpected but great. I think the match would have moved into all-time territory if we had gotten Kandori choking some people out and Kurenai being involved in the finish to pay of her story more, but those are very minor criticisms for what was a damn great unpredictable brawl.

Yasha Kurenai vs. Michiko Nagashima, LLPW 6/21/1998

These two looked great together in that 6 man, and this was another wild workrate brawl. Great start with the floor brawling and both ladies punching each other in the face. We got lots of fast transitions, big bumps and both of them beating the hell out of each other with chains, chairs, tables and trash cans. In some ways this is an ECW brawl with more savage fighting. I loved Kurenai repeatedly burying Nagashima with the chairs, and Nagashima busting out a spike and stabbing the shit out of Yasha was sick. After she got stabbed Kurenais selling performance became a lot more desperate and exhausted. Great punch-out in the finish followed by sick chain strangulation finish. Apparently this was Nagashimas retirement, while retirement matches can often feel like exhibitions that absolutely wasn’t the case here, crazy fight through and through.

Yumiko Hotta vs. Mizuki Endo (LLPW 6/13/1998)

Cool little match which showcases Endos unique flash submissions and Hotta stomping on her face. Unfortunately only 5 minutes where shown and the camera men missed some of the action. Still worth seeing if you wanna see the cool shit Endo can do.

Shinobu Kandori vs. Shark Tsuchiya, LLPW 4/27/1998

I imagine this is the kind of match smarks haaaated at the time but I liked it. Basically, Kandori is the WWWA and LLPW unified world champ and Tsuchiya desecrates the title by using all kinds of foul tactics instead of having a noble workrate match. Shark is full blown comical evil here, taking a sickle to Kandoris face, having about a dozen minions jump into the match to take Kandori. I also thought Shark was effective trying to put some holds on Kandori early on with Kandori mocking her lack of skill. Kandori bled big and her eventual comeback was awesome. This also didn't overstay it's welcome. Better than a lotta Toyota WWWA title matches.