More Joshi

 Mariko Yoshida vs Momoe Nakanishi, AtoZ 11/9/2003

Cool match. I’m surprised it’s not that well known since Nakanishi is generally well liked by joshi fans and Yoshida is well liked by, well, how can anyone not like Yoshida. This was Nakanishis go go style vs Yoshida booting her in the face and punching her and tying her up in submissions. It makes for a cool match because all Nakanishi knows is to go hard and she just keeps flying into the spiders web. Eventually she figures it out by going for chairs and trashing her opponent. Yoshida was really good as always, doing a good job using Nakanishi as a punching bag as well as not letting her get her spots in and giving her just the right hope spots. You know it’s good when there is actual build to Momoes spots. At 13 minute it was just right, too. Very good sprint.

GAMI vs Kumiko Maekawa, AtoZ 5/4/2004

I just love this match up. Maekawa is one of the most high end pro wrestlers you’ve ever seen, she just has some of the most ridiculously sharp kick based offense and does 30 minute matches in her sleep. And GAMI is, well, GAMI. This is just a super fun match built around GAMI annoying Maekawa in her unique ways, tying her up in holds, spraying mist in her face etc. There is one moment where GAMI fakes an injury and they treat it super serious and pause the match just for GAMI to get up and clock Maekawa with a paper fan that Maekawa of course treats like the joke it is. GAMI then uses Maekawas rage to mist her in the face with out even blinking. Maekawa spending the rest of the match with that pissed off look in her green face was gold. GAMIs few big spots (rolling kick landing in Maekawas face, big palm strike) were also spectacular. Now don’t get me wrong if this was 1998 shooter GAMI it would have been next level, but for this kind of neat character clash it was really cool. GAMI~!

Kana vs Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 3/31/2013

Very cool match up, I’m surprised this eluded me because both these two are among my favourites. Kana has a reputation for being a bit of a crowbar but there was little striking from her early on and instead she focussed on catching Kuragaki in submissions. Kana using Fujiwara-ish counters to contain the beastly Kuragaki was great. Kuragaki had some nice moments of her own using her power, including hitting an absolutely awesome out of nowhere deadlift suplexes. Second half has more stiff including a few gnarly backfists from Kana and Kuragaki busting out her trademark big offense. I liked that they didn’t overdo it considering this was a midcard match even though they were going well over 10 minutes. They could’ve just gone braindead and hit their spots but instead they told a story and delivered some cool wrestling.

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

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

 

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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 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 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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