Eternal GAEA

     Chigusa Nagayo vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 12/9/2001

You know I should just sit down and watch GAEA all day long. This was a chaotic brawl with an insanely gory bladejob from Chigusa, so just what you expect. There’s comical amounts of outside interference from Police and KAORU, chairs are thrown, staffs broken, and Chiggy hits a full on Terry Funk style punch combo to comeback. Chigusa has the unique ability to make even mundane submissions like a sleeper or abdominal stretch look dangerous and they do get a ton of mileage out of that here, as of course Chigusa can drop Ozaki with some mad bombs but the focus was mostly on Nagayo doing nifty submission counters and trying to squeeze out a submission. Ozakis backhands and open hands looked good. Yes yes, they may overdo it a little on the outside interference and I maybe would’ve liked a moment where Chigusa goes full Stone Cold and beats the hell out of everyone, but what we got was pretty nifty, and felt unique, like a joshi take on a WWF Attitude Era brawl mixed with Villano III/Atlantis and a dose of Inokiism.

Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu vs Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 11/30/2003

Incredibly neat match where they basically packed as many nifty moments and transitions into a short match as they could. Nagayo has a bad leg and YuYu and Uematsu are like terriers trying to due further damage. An angry Chigusa would in turn try to snap their legs with some really fast dragon screws. There was also some brutality thanks to Yamada and YuYu, mostly. Uematsu and Ran are so mean here that it seems Uematsu busts out a foreign object, and YuYu keeps trying to strangle Yamada and throwing the refee around, which made for some unusual intensity. After the match Chigusa hits a downright criminal kick to YuYus face. A match where every second was interesting and nothing felt by the numbers. GAEA was wild.

Sakura Hirota & Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada & Ran YuYu, GAEA 10/25/2003

Pretty much the Sakura Hirota show. She was on fire here. Mind you, it was comedic, but the match still felt like competitive pro wrestling, and the jokes were funny, creative and displayed considerable skill especially the little lucha routine she did with Ayako, so it was fine by me. Basically Hirotas thing is that she’s a useless idiot, but she keeps on trying despite her failures and she is totally capable of putting someone down for the 3 with a roll up if she just gets things right, so that’s compelling. There’s like a 9 minute stretch or so in this that’s almost all Hirota antics and it’s exhilarating. When Amano is in there’s some pretty damn good straight up wrestling too. It all builds to a really good and quite intricate finishing stretch with Amano hitting flash armbars and Hirota upsetting people with her unique ways. Pretty damn fun and unique match that never missed a beat.

Mayumi Ozaki vs Ai Fujita, GAEA 4/4/2004

Ai Fujita in GAEA?! She was a really fun wrestler. Anyone who can do lucha exchanges and look athletic, bust out slick submissions and shoot punch people in the face has some real talent in my book. It’s a good showing from Ozaki too. Not everything she did landed perfectly but her palm strikes and backfists were pretty fun, really catching Fujita to the mush. She also busted out a cool rolling leglock. Match was going fun but really kicked into next gear once Fujita started punching Ozaki in the face. Her punch combo may be one of my favourite ever in wrestling, it was Takeshi Ono level. Match also had the GAEA-typical odd touches nifty moments. Good stuff, bit unfortunate Fujita retired just shortly after this, though I guess the joshi scene didn’t hold much more for types like her at this point.

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada, GAEA 4/10/2004

Tons of fun, even for a tag that’s kind of on a smaller show. Early goings were basic but engaging, as they put a ton of struggle and vigor even into things as basic as a test of strength or struggling over a top wristlock, and with the people involved there’s always the factor that someone might get kicked really hard. Yamada in her later days may be physically over the hill but I always find her interesting to watch. This stuff rules not because it's hard hitting (it is) but also because they display lots of creativity. Things kick up a notch when Satomura started getting into kick battles with Kansai and Yamada. You know these 3 are GOATs and they are breathtaking to watch even compared to GOATs, every thing hitting snug and they have a bunch of different interesting ways to land their kicks and strikes. Especially dug Satomuras out of nowhere mule kick from the corner. The finishing run is Kansai vs Nagashima and it’s more about Nagashima trying to pull off a tricky pin combination to take down the juggernaut but it’s also pretty great. Kansai is so good even late in her career, her strikes land hard and she knows exactly how to be a monster, these two have a cool dynamic together like a more hard hitting Rey/Psicosis.

GAEAISM continues

 

Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 8/17/2003

Another banger upload from GAEAISM, that channel is on a tear. This was just great as you had your high concept chaotic Ozaki brawl that stays in the ring + plenty of vicious kicks from the monster duo of Kansai & Yamada. Kansai especially was amazing here blasting people with brutal kicks and being a menace. Ozakis execution has worsend throughout the years, but she was pretty fun here with her backhands, cool jumping kicks and occasionally just hurling a chain at people. Police gets involved briefly but he gets his ass kicked pretty fast. And KAORU is as precise and on point as always. Badass finish and there were a number of unpredictable moments and everyone going for the kill from the start with nearly no downtime. I especially enjoyed all the work around Kansais splash mountain. 

Meiko Satomura & Chikayo Nagashima vs Carlos Amano & Ran Yu Yu, GAEA 8/17/2003

All-star match up that delivers. Just a blindingly great match with one awesome exchange after another and a lot of violent strikes, everyone here matches up insanely well. Just the first Satomura vs Ran YuYu is exchange is really intense as they start with a hard-fought lock up and then go into open handed kickboxing exchanges like a PANCRASE fight. I’m used to seeing later years Satomura sticking to her usual stuff, so the more unpredictable younger version is always a blast. Ran Yu Yu was awesome in this and may have been the best woman in the match. She was great with everyone and her elbow smash is one of the most awesome strikes ever. Amano was really coming into full bloom at this point too, really revelling in all her glory with the crazy headbutts and flash armbars and the occasionally cheeky eye rake. Nagashima doesn’t quite stand out as in-your-face spectacular as the other three, but she can go hard and she does have a few sick moments including her forward rolling double stomp that had to be the sickest move in the match. The finishing run is Nagsahima vs Amano and it’s really good nimble high end workrate stuff with relentless suplexes and submissions, some fantastic counters and Amanos reliable hard head. Breathless, exciting stuff, just what you hope for when you see 4 of the most talented wrestler in the world at the time in a match.

 

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 4/14/2002

Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU, GAEA 6/2/2002

Early 2000s were an interesting time. Sakura Hirota had started to find her calling as a comedy wrestler, and in this case she had started teaming with Chigusa Nagayo as ECCENTRIC. I am not going to pretend I understand the gimmick fully, but from what I can tell Hirota got really obsessed with WWF Attitude Era catchphrases and this somehow also infected Chigusa and they both started dressing really early 2000s Nu Metal fashionable, hitting bronco busters on people and Nagayo covering for Hirotas oddball tactics and overall ambitiousness. The first match is probably the quintessence of this. Semi-serious match where Hirota is in her full glory, all oddball tactics and antics that sometimes hit and largely backfire. It works because everybody else is treating this as a serious wrestling match, with Ozaki & KAORU being as befuddled by Hirota as everyone else and then walking over to kick her in the face. There’s some quite good wrestling, and all the jokes are extremely well timed and hit. Great comedy match, and culminates in probably the greatest finish ever that left everyone astounded, must see stuff really. However, the 2^nd match might be even greater. Basically here OZ and KAORU make it clear they have no interest in being foils for Hirotas antics, and the match quickly turns from an asskicking into a blood drenched massacre. There’s something about the fact that Hirota is basically a feel good comedy character at this point that makes the sadistic bloody beatdown OZ and KAORU put on her that much more evil, and it really drives the intensity up to the maximum when a bloody Hirota gets fired up and starts kicking ass in return. Really the kind of stuff you can only get in pro wrestling. Nagayo also looked really great here working as the protective big sister stomping mudholes in Policemans ratty ass and launching people around with powerbombs. The moment where she started to shrug off the blows and give people the death stare for hurting Hirota has to be Top 10 in wrestling ever. Ozaki and KAORU are also quite impeccable here with their knack for both bloody beatdowns and nifty cutoffs and transition spots, the intricate finishing run in this match was among the best in this genre. Truely kino stuff, nothing quite like this thanks to the unique character of Sakura Hirota.

Dynamite Kansai vs Mayumi Ozaki, GAEA 8/30/2002

It’s too bad this is JIP, because the couple minutes we get are really badass. I’m always impressed with how Ozaki is able to put in a beating on a larger opponent, in this case both using the chain and hitting some badass palm strikes. Kansai was a monster as usual here, all face kicks and freakish Splash Mountain setups, the last one with the multiple backbreakers was some Brock Lesnar stuff. Also dug Ozakis odd twisty rollups.

A Sakura Hirota Match

 

Mio Momono vs Miyuki Takase vs Sakura Hirota (WAVE 6/29/2021)

The ruleset for this match was really cool. Basically it’s like a gauntlet match where you just try to survive both opponents. It starts as a 1 vs 1 match, the loser goes out, the winner stays in and fights the next person, and the first to get two straight wins is the winner. I don’t really like 3 ways so just doing them as a series of singles matches with an overarching story is a win for me.

The first match up is Momono vs. Takase. I haven’t seen Takase before but she was a pleasant surprise. She doesn’t do any flimsy offense, she focuses on the more solid stuff like snug clotheslines and she has a really great leg drop. Momono is one of those really fast moving modern day workers with endless cardio who can go really hard. Thankfully she doesn’t do anything stupid either. The opening goings are very fast moving without being too much. Joshi often has the problem that they throw everything out right from the get go, that wasn’t the case her as they start dodging moves, battling over moves, eventually being able to take advantage and zone in on weak spots. That also avoided another typical problem in joshi – random offense. Very targetted offense by both of them. Even basic fairly basic stuff like a backbreaker or dropkick to the gut felt important because it was followed up. It made everything important especially in the context that this was going to be a long match and both of them would probably have to go again after the fall. Nothing mind blowing but it was a good warmup for what was to come.

However the main selling point of the match is the performance of Hirota. Sakura Hirota is 42 years old and she has been largely doing comedy for the past 20 years. However, in this tournament she got humiliated by rookie and that caused her to transform into a serious wrestler and kick ass. No imitation jokes from her at all in this, and man judging by her performance here you wish she’d wrestle like this more often. After some going here and there she basically challenged her opponent to a straight wrestling match and they grappled it out. It was compelling because while Hirota was game and motivated, she was still facing a much younger, faster and more athletic opponent. As a result Hirota had to give it her all and that she did. She busted out all these awesome suplexes, submissions and counters and had one awesome exchange after another. What I love about this match format is that everything can truly be a finish. The roll up stuff was really freaking good and really helped by the fact that you by a roll up as a finish in this context. Not that any finish done here was cheap, everything was extremely hard fought. Honestly some of the best exchanges I’ve ever seen, they were that fucking great.

So Hirota was absolutely amazing. She was the star of the match, no doubt, but the other two were fantastic also. I was amazed they went such a long time without going into overly dramatic overkill or dangerous spots. The match didn’t even have a dive and they kept pretty much the whole 40 minutes or so in the ring. I loved the constant focus on the roll ups and pin attempts. Momonos out of nowhere dropkicks ruled and Takases power based offense was crushing. Often in Japanese big matches you have a bunch of nothing for the first 20 minutes before the last 10 minutes turn into a dancy reversal fest. Here the opposite was the case as they started busting out the fire works pretty early, but kept them going in a believable way by focussing on slick pin attempts and submissions, before settling into an amazing 50/50 finish with both the last surviving participiants busting out some epic counters and battling for control while selling this like a battle on the last few hundred yards of a marathon.

So, there you have it. You basically had several awesome singles matches sandwhiched into one coherent narrative over a 40 minute stretch that never got boring and provided plenty of highly intricate wrestling, plus the amazing story of Sakura Hirota being the biggest wily veteran underdog badass you’ve ever seen. Execution was good, action was tight, no silly antics aside from one very well timed joke that only lasted 3 seconds and served the narrative. Best modern joshi match I’ve seen by a mile. Hell it’s one of the best matches in any era. This was absolutely fucking mental.

2021 MOTYCs

Assorted Joshi

 

Akira Hokuto & Chigusa Nagayo & Hiromi Kato vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota GAEA 2/22/1997

I think this may have been a GAEA match that didn't seem to air on TV, although I may be misremembering. Another really good upload, whoever is curating this channel is really doing a good job. Loved the opening, where first Satomura et all try triple teaming Kato, then Hokuto runs in to save her but they end up triple teaming her, which backfires to Hokuto and her team trying to reverse the numbers game only for it to backfire and Team Satomura triple teaming Kato anyways. The match plays out nice and story driven, as Kato takes a beating but whenever Hokuto or Nagayo tagged in the would destroy the rookies and send them into desperation mode. Hokuto almost kicked Satomuras head off with her big spin kick. I loved all the Satomura/Nagayo interactions, Nagayo blew off her strikes so Satomura later went for a bunch of great desperation armbars at her. As usual with peak GAEA the match had a few fantastic moments. Great finish aswell. Another piece in the fantastic year this company had.

Mariko Yoshida vs. KAORU, AJW 8/28/1994

Yoshida had been injured and out of the ring for over 20 months. This was her return singles match, and it‘s one hell of a show. Even though this was not spider lady Yoshida, she was at her a-game. The match resembled a MUGA match, with both girls doing some intense grappling and stretching, and the few strikes they threw were hard as all hell. There were also a few neat spots and smart counters and learned spots. KAORU came across as quite the killer in this, focussing on Yoshidas neck, either elbowing her or applying painful looking bends, with Yoshida doing a great job selling the increasing trauma. Yoshida came across as giving her all in the match. It made the last couple minutes feel even greater as Yoshida seemed on the verge of securing the win before KAORU nailed a tombstone piledriver out of nowhere, followed with a wiping out quebrada and then just crushed Yoshida with 3 moonsaults in a row before getting the victory. After such a competitive match such a non-even finish felt like a real exclamation mark and Yoshida was pretty emotional in her post-match promo. Such a unique match that really stands out against the usual AJW midcard stuff and an absolute banger. It foreshadowed how these two would go on to make other promotions so much more exciting than AJW.

 

Azumi Hyuga vs. Kaori Yoneyama, JWP 2/20/2005

Really great match that crosses the high-impact go-go style of these two with plenty of vicious rookie-veteran cut off spots. Plenty of Yoneyama smacking the shit out of Hyuga, and Hyuga in turn punishing her with mean stomps on her head and face. Hyuga can be questionable in lengthy workrate sprints but she was impeccable here cranking up the viciousness and doing some very tight wrestling, while knowing when to sell in order to put her opponent over as pushing her to the limit. Yoneyama looked great here, tremendous energy and working really stiff, elbowing Hyuga in the head, spin kicking her in the face etc. Plenty of cool details, such as Yoneyama starting to run when Hyuga was on the top rope only to eat a really fast missile dropkick. Yoneyamas blown Yoshitonic may have actually added to the match as it came across as a desperation move gone awry that knocked both of them loopy. Yoneyamas constant nastiness throughout the match kept building and building until she just exploded with an insane flury of elbows to a grounded Hyuga, by the far the highlight of the match. The ending run was pretty grandiose but really well executed with plenty of neat finisher teases and counters. By far one of the best singles matches of 2005.

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/2/1997

 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Rina Ishii

Usual good Nagayo rookie squash. Ishii has really good energy and survives some nasty punishment from Nagayo, who kicks and lariats her in the face and comes up with dangerous shoot submissions. Could've been something if Nagayo had sold anything that Ishii threw at her, but she just kept popping up. Valuable lesson for Ishii I guess.

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Makie Numao

This was JIP and looked like a really good match. Hokuto has her bad knee and does a bunch of really great desperation selling. You think Numao would get killed but she gets some nice bursts capitalizing on an injured Hokuto. In the end KAORU has to try and survive and it produces some neat exchanges. Yamada while not at physical peak anymore looks really good spin kicking people in the face and she and KAORU do some nice stuff working around her finisher.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Maiko Matsumoto & Hiromi Kato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota

8 very talented rookies tumbling around.  Solid exchanges throughout, but it was largely mindless. They just kept cycling through the matchups and doing their stuff. Things reved up a bit around the middle point as Kato and Satomura had a scrappy exchange with Kato trying to target Satomuras bandaged arm. The Matsumoto/Hirota exchanges were really fun, I get plenty entertainment just out of Matsumoto hitting weird Atomic Drops. The finish was Nagashima vs. Uematsu and it was kind of the least spectacular match up.

THE LIBRARY

GAEA DEAD HEAT 7/6/1997

 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Makie Numao

Surprisingly cool match. Pretty much shootstyle and Nagayo gave Numao a lot. Numao thought hard and they had some good exchanges as well as traded some gross kicks. Of course, they only shoed 10 of 20 minutes. Numao getting to go that long against Chiggy is impressive though.

Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Pretty much Kato and Hirota doing their best to annoy Hokuto by double teaming her. Hokuto pretty much took the night off and Matsumoto tried to make up for it by being more energetic. Another very clipped match.

KAORU vs. Rina Ishii

About 5 minutes of 16 were shown. Would‘ve liked to see more of this. Ishii hit her stiff well and KAORU once again busted out a bunch of submissions. Nasty crab finish.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato

Usual sprint action peppered up with some mean kicks and stomps from these girls. Once again, Only about 5 minutes of 17 were shown. Interesting that they let these girls get the main event over all the big stars on this show, though.

THE LIBRARY

GAEA Storm Signal #3 6/29/1997

 

KAORU vs. Toshie Uematsu

They show about 5 of 17 minutes. I hope this trend of clipped GAEA doesn‘t continue. KAORU was dominant and Uematsu made some aggressive comebacks. KAORU did lots of submissions here and had some slick transitions into the, for example hitting her springboard moonsault and moving right into an armbar. I wanna see more submission expert KAORU.

Sonoko Kato vs. Makie Numao

A match that was also clipped in half. Pretty fun BattlARTS approximation with both girls kicking each other in the face and fighting in and out of submissions. Some neat spots and stiffness level makes most current wrestlers look like absolute wusses.

Sonoko Kato vs. Rina Ishii

I don‘t know why Kato had to do another match against a fresh Ishii. I like Ishii and they had a decent go at each other here. Nothing stood out in particular though and it was hard to make sense of what was going on with the clipping.

Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Typical GAEA sprint work although clipped down from 17 minutes to like 4 so the whole thing made even less sense.

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Maiko Matsumoto

We get mostly Nagayo stretching Matsumoto and Matsumoto clumsily trying to defensd herself. Nagayo has some cool stretches and it‘s probably her best role. Matsumoto was Matsumoto and didn‘t stand much of a chance. I guess because Nagayo is the boss they showed most of this match.

Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto

Only 6 of 20 minutes!??! Damn you to hell TV editors, because this looked GREAT! Chigusa was at ringside and initially this was about Hokuto trying to piss her off by torturing Satomura, only for Satomura to catch her with some harder stuff than she expected. Looked like another great match with both of them selling big, but man…. 6 minutes??

THE LIBRARY

GAEA STORM SIGNAL 6/13/1997 + 6/22/1997

 GAEA 6/13/1997

Meiko Satomura vs. Hiromi Kato

This was a shootstyle match. Aw yeah! Pretty much 6 minutes of smooth grappling. Then they kick the shit out of each other for about 20 seconds, and then Satomura chokes Kato out. Short, but cool.

Sonoko Kato vs. Makie Numao

Another shootstyle match. This was a bit more aggressive than the previous match, so I guess it was better. These girls will really scramble for chokes and armbars. Numao kicks the shit out of Katos bandaged shoulder and then wins with a cool arm submission. Dig it.

Over The Top Rope Rule 5 vs. 5 Elimination Match: Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Hiromi Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato & Makie Numao

I wasn’t sure how this would play out considering one team was heavily lopsided with Nagayo and Yamada and nobody on the other team really being near their level. However they end up doing fine with Nagashima & Sato as leads. Fun match with some good exchanges throughout and good use of the over the top rope rule. It rules that kneebars and armbars were put over as deadly finishers in GAEA. I disliked how people that were eliminated kept interfering in the match and the match could’ve been a bit more focussed, but it was a good show, overall.

GAEA 6/22/1997

Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato vs. Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto

Hirota and Kato are about the two lowest ranked girls on the roster. You can imagine how much Hokuto sold for them. There was one cool moment where Kato was able to put her in a surprise Torture Rack and that was about it as far as offense they got in. This was about Hirota and Kato working together to survive and try to take out Matsumoto. Amusing match but went a bit too meandering. Dig Matsumotos Atomic Drops.

Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato

Solid stuff here, but the match went too long and had too many sections. It tired me out. Starts chaotic with a bunch of underlings jumping Chigusa and Ozaki. Then we got Chigusa and Ozaki bullying the others tag partner before their big face off. Chigusa brutalizing Oz was cool but got lost in the shuffle. Even Hokutos heel(?) turn where she attacked Chiggy felt like it got lost. Kato bled and gave a good performance being valiant and throwing kicks. Sato also participated in the match but left no impression.

THE LIBRARY

GAEA JUNCTION 4/12/1997

 

Sonoko Kato vs. Sugar Sato

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

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

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

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

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

KAORU vs. Akira Hokuto

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

THE LIBRARY

GAEA ZONE-X 3/15/1997

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

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

Toshie Uematsu vs. Makie Numao

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

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato

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

 KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Akira Hokuto & Sonoko Kato

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

THE LIBRARY

GAEA VICTORY ROAD 2/23/1997

 Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Hiromi Kato & Sakura Hirota

Fun beginning here with Kato and Hirota immediately starting to brawl with chairs etc. only for it to backfire on them. This was another rookie match going 15+ match. Most of the match was dropkicks and crossbodies and stomps, you‘d think it would get boring but they get a ton out of their crossbodies dropkicks and stomps. Once again really dug all the stuff around Katos argentine backbreaker.

Kyoko Ichiki vs. Rina Ishii

Ishii gets the rub by going even with veteran Ichiki in this match. I wish we had gotten a bit more of it, but what we got was fun. Ichiki mixes in some athletic moves and Ishii looks very polished.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Toshie Uematsu

Another extremely go-go type sprint that goes something like 20 minutes. The match was the usual back and forth, but I dug everyone here so it ended up being cool. I enjoyed Matsumoto hitting hard leg drops from all angles and making use of the atomic drop agai, and Uematsu was like a wrecking ball flying into the ring dropkicking people in the back of their heads. As always Satomura and Kato were feisty kicking the crap out of their opponents. It‘s funny to watch young Satomura bust out things like a twisting springboard splash. Match felt hard-fought, and had a neat finish. Full GAEA point, I guess?

Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

Every match on this show so far has been pretty much a sprint, but here we get a STORY~! As Numao and Nakano act all spunky and uppity and the veterans teach them a lesson by stretching and smacking them while also giving them appropriate time to shine. KAORU and Hokuto seem to be building a strong resume working these more story-driven matches in GAEA so far, and Nakano and Numao once again look great. Hokuto is especially good, as she acts like a badass who fucks shit up and takes no crap from anyone, but also will show ass at the right time. Loved her hobbling back to her corner after getting caught in a random kneebar. My only gripe is the clipped 6 minutes from this, although it‘s rather seamless clipping. Still, a 2 hour TV slot and they STILL had to clip?!

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo

(note: the linked video is clipped slightly compared to the original TV airing.)

Parts of this were very cool, I dig Chigusas kicks, Ozakis sudden assault with the wooden spikes looked grizzly, and there was some gnarly fighting going on with both ladies trading headbutts and stiff backfists. That said this was largely an overly long mess with way too much no selling. It’s weird how Nagayo had one of the smartest matches I’ve seen in a while just the month before but then completely blunders it here. There was also a weird moment where Ozaki ripped her pants and had to roll outside to put on a new pair, and it happened in the middle of the finishing stretch. Just really weirdly paced match.

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GAEA 2/16/1997

 

Sonoko Kato & Sakura Hirota & Hiromi Kato vs. Toshie Uematsu & Kyoko Ichiki & Rina Ishi

We get about 8 minutes of a 21 minute match. Hiromi Kato was playing underdog, and she is quite fun taking a beating and then randomly grabbing a torture rack. Thought Ichiki looked quite impressive acting like a gang leader for her team but also showing vulnerability after Kato had her in the rack. And the rest of the girls just have insane workrate. Wish we had more of this

WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Semifinals

Chihiro Nakano vs. Sugar Sato

Makie Numao vs. Meiko Satomura

We get about 1 minute each of these. Numao vs. Satomura looked cool as both just grabbed crazy submissions and counters left and right.

WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Finals: Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura

Yes yes, the WCW Womens Cruiserweight title. I liked this a lot. Satomura outgrapples Sato early, so Sato takes a chair to her. Sato is kind of the stepchild of the GAEA rookie crew, as she‘s not a cool shooter and not really a tremendous athlete, but she always does things that stick. They settle into this really cool finishing run with both them busting out crazy submissions and pin counters. Sato won the previous match with a kneebar and Satomura won hers with an armbar, so the fans were rabid for all the submission attempts. Really good shit, unfortunately only 7 of 11 minutes were shown.

KAORU & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Akira Hokuto

Damn great match. I‘m a fan of all 4 of these wrestlers, and I STILL didn‘t expect this to be so great. Virtually flawlessly worked underdog story match. Matsumoto has a knife in this gunfight of a match, and KAORU basically spends the first 5 minutes of the match saving Matsumoto from getting killed. Hokuto and Nagayo are pretty great launching an Anderson brothers like assault on Matsumoto here, cutting off the ring and acting all high and mighty. It‘s weird how joshi has this reputation for this go-go style with random moves and transitions happening by the minute and then you get hit with these ladies doing an expert job cutting off the ring and building to a momentum shift. Nagayo is established that she can end a match with any hold, so her putting all these shoot holds on Matsumoto garnered tremendous heat. Nagayo and Hokuto were treating KAORU like shit too initially, Matsumoto doesn‘t even get a hot tag, Hokuto just throws her to the corner and signals KAORU to come in, like she‘s tired of KAORU coming in to save Maiko, so she wants her to come in and kick her ass. Matsumoto helping out KAORU in turn was really great. I was also really impressed by Hokuto and Nagayo knowing exactly how much offense to give to their opponent. It can come across as dull when in Japanese wrestling a higher ranked wrestler no sells all of his opponents stuff, but in this case, when they acted unphased by Matsumoto it felt earned, and when Matsumoto was able to crack them it felt earned and accordingly great. Those Atomic Drops were great. Should also say KAORU looked great as an athletic, precise main player and had some great exchanges with Hokuto. It transitions to a finishing run where suddenly KAORU is getting destroyed and Matsumoto has to save her before the inevitable happens. Tremendous match that executed its story perfectly while delivering plenty of violence and heat.

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GAEA WAR CRY 1/19/1997

Rina Ishii & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

 

Only in GAEA will you see a bunch of rookies having an opening match this long and complex. This went about 17 minutes and they never slowed down, never let things get repetitive, and worked in a bunch of ridiculously fun transitions while displaying good sense of timing. Nakano and Numao continue to work very well as a team of kickpadded asskickers, and Ishii and Matsumoto look very good too. I love how something like Matsumotos Atomic Drop is still a hot nearfall. The match didn’t have much story, but I could see a lot of people watching this and be blown away. To say the raw talent GAEA had was amazing would be an understatement.

Hiromi Kato vs. Bomber Hikari

Fun debut match for Hiromi Kato, who would retire just the next year. She showed plenty of fire and caught Hikari in a damn argentine backbreaker of all things. Hikari didn’t do anything out of the ordinary but she was hitting her bodychecks and leg drops with extra oomph, and shut down Kato as needed.

Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima

This was pretty great. Nagayo and Ozaki held the match together and added the character moments, while the young girls were all fired up and fighting like mad. All the Nagayo/Ozaki exchanges felt akin to the Tenryu/Hashimoto interactions in a WAR/NJ tag. Plenty of violence with all the girls throwing huge kicks and stomps. They lost focus a bit in the second half, as they did some stuff like bringing in a bunch of tables, plus Ozaki kicked out of virtually everything that was thrown at here. Still, it was a pretty loaded match. Satomura almost pinning Ozaki worked and kept the fans on the edge of their seats. The finish was a bit unusual as there were a ton of big bombs thrown and then one wrestler succumbs to a basic submission, but I guess that was the GAEA philosophy.

Sakura Hirota vs. Devil Masami

Pretty insane squash. Basically Hirota can’t do anything to harm Devil, but she tries her hardest, and Devil just nukes her. One of the powerbombs seems to KO Hirota and Nagayo comes in, slaps Hirota, drags her up and throws her at Devil again only for her to immediately hit another nasty bomb. Harrowing shit.

Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs. KAORU & Kyoko Ichiki 

This was fantastic and instantly became one of my favourite joshi matches of the year. Lots of cool uncooperative exchanges throughout, and the match told a good story. You had Hokuto being two classes above both opponents (and making that very clear), Uematsu refusing to back down and wrestling a class above hers, and Kaoru and Ichiki trying everything to gain the advantage and topple their opponents. There were some basic spots such as biting, stomping eye rake or hair pulling toss which felt really violent here. There was also plenty of awesome receipt spots, especially whenever Hokuto felt disrespected, she would step up and show who's boss usually by booting someone in the face. There was also plenty of head droppin death moves and crushing diving attacks. Despite that the match didn't feel like overkill and ended at just the perfect spot. Little weak transitions here maybe, but yeah all things considered I enjoyed the hell out of this.  

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GAEA WRESTLING BIBLE 1/12/1997

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sakura Hirota

Hirota and Nagayo would later form a comedy team, but at this point Hirota was still a rookie with serious ambitions. I dislike Nagayos big matches, but she is quite impeccable working these rookie squashes. This was pretty great, as it was basically a constant battle of survival for Hirota while she did everything in her power to not get swatted. Loved Nagayos kicks and leg sweeps, and Hirotas spinning backfist as well as attempted Fujiwara were awesome. Great finish, too.

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Toshie Uematsu & Kyoko Ichiki

I‘ve enjoyed all these ladies before, but this was a big nothing. No heat and the match had no direction. It got a bit better towards the end as they started busting out some of their better moves, but this was a brutally long 20 minutes.

Bomber Hikari vs. Rina Ishii

Bomber Hikari was this powerhouse type worker. Hikari was working as some kind of monster in this with Ishii trying to hang on. I don‘t know why you would have two matches like this on a show especially when Nagayo is doing the other one. Ishii was quite athletic and interesting to watch. Hikari looked limited.

Bomber Hikari vs. Maiko Matsumoto

Why have Hikari do two matches in a row? This further exposed Hikaris one dimensionality. It could‘ve been good if there was some drama created by the fact Hikari had just done a match, but Hikaris wrestling was completely ignorant of that fact as she basically repeated her stuff. I‘ve liked Matsumoto before but she wasn‘t as interesting as either Ishii or Hirota.

AAAW Junior Tag Title Match: Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs. Chihiro Nakano & Makie Numao

Loved the opening section here which was basically a BattlARTs tag with all four girls hitting the mat and working really stiff. They move into a pro style match seamlessly, but I wanted a bit more shootstyle action. This also went 20 minutes but the GAEA rookies were so good they had no problem keeping it interesting. The match lacked structure, but they make up with double teams, surprise cutoffs and nearfalls out the ass. In fact there were so many nearfalls that I thought it was getting tiresome, but the crowd had a blast. I loved all of Nakanos knees, Numao for someone who I remember being pretty insignificant looked badass, and Satomura already stood out with her unique Billy Robinson influenced style.

Reina Jubuki (Akira Hokuto) vs. La Infernal (KAORU)

Weirdly subdued match that felt like a houseshow main event. They did their stuff, but there was never any heat, and the work was quite undynamic. Lots of just sitting in holds, and while there were some big moves and bumps there didn‘t seem to be a fight, unusual for a Hokuto match. I guess the point of this was to show the costumes.

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