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 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.

 

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Assorted Joshi

 Some guy is uploading a bulk of old joshi to YouTube again, so that's a good chance to check out some forgotten gems.

Cutie Suzuki vs Chikako Shiratori, JWP 10/11/1998

Total out of nowhere bloodbath. Right away Shiratori blasts Suzuk with a big backfist and it's a hate filled brawl. I've never really noticed Shiratori as a worker, and I've never seen anyone talk about her aside from her looks, but she looked really impressive controlling the action here. When Suzuki resisted the hair toss, Shiratori make sure to shove her knee into her throat and then drive her face right into the mat. Pretty violent. The match also had plenty of face stomps, biting, hard slaps, and the right sense of escalating violence with chairs and a kendo stick being brought in. You don't expect these two to wrestle like Pirata Morgan vs Faraon but they totally rock it. Even something like a missile dropkick from Shiratori landed flush in Suzukis face. Kendo stick shots looked really grizzly and I dug how Shiratori would seemingly summon that thing out of nowhere. By the end Shiratori was bleeding too and getting dumped by Suzukis crazy suplexes, including one with the kendo stick behind her head, pretty insane. Both were on their way to retirement (Shiratori would quit joshi orgs and instead work Osaka Pro for a year) and this kinda had the feeling that they both didn't care about keeping their faces unscarred and decided to do something really grizzly.

Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa vs Michiko Nagashima & Sayuri Okino, AJW 1/3/1998

Absolutely insane wild match. Eagle Sawai is with the LLPW girls in her awesome track pants and shirt, and right away she goes wild brawling before getting on the mic, apparently talking some trash to Shinobu Kandori who is sitting at ringside (looking amazing with her bleach blonde hair and suit). Kandori who has her arm in a sling gets attacked too, then Hotta jumps into the fray, chairs are thrown and this is crazy. Back in the ring the first thing Okino does is bite Hotta in the face, and sure you know the first chance Hotta gets she tries to kick peoples faces in. Okino and Nagashima are really good here brawling and doing chain punches. They handcuff Maekawa and Maekawa ends up taking a big beating, taking bumps with her hands cuffed on that ultra stiff AJW ring while Eagle and Hotta are brawling on the floor again. Hottas tag in and everything that came after building to her finally getting that big run of offense was pretty amazing. Hotta kicking the kendo stick is up there with the wildest kendo stick spots I've seen ever. The heat was super too with the crowd for some reason booing everything Hotta did, I guess LLPW fans must have done an invasion or something. Totally chaotic, violent and unpredictable fight, these kinda brawls are probably the most underrated part of mid-late 90s joshi.

Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kanako Motoya vs Tomoko Kuzumi & Dynamite Kansai, JWP 11/15/1998

I have to say, while some people say Kansai was largely done after 1997, I find she adds a lot to every match she's in simply by bringing a ton of violence and being a big menace. Not as hard as in 1993 but this is still a veritable great match largely thanks to Kansais presence. The match is fast action stuff when Hyuga is in, and focussed on young Miyaguchi & Motoya trying to take down Kansai when she's in. It leads to this really great sequence where they finally get her prone on the mat and start rushing her with all they've got, with Miyaguchi cracking Kansais jaw with probably the greatest elbow smash I've ever seen in a match. Hyugas all action stuff was good, Kansai as a hard to take down dangerous giant story was good, last couple minutes were pretty damn great with big bombs, Kansai kicking everyone in the face etc. Well worth checking out.

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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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 Live Battle '97 8/15/1997

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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.

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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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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.

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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. 

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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.