Michael: The pre-match was pretty funny as Manami did her best Shirley Temple imitation (dress and curly wig included). Sato wrestled in a copy of the black outfit Manami wore in the early '90's, the one that had her name in yellow letters down the right sleeve. Manami's pink frilly dress made the match for me though.:) They wound up having four falls as Ayako only needed a 1 count to win and the first fall happened pretty quickly as Sato quickly covered Manami following a backdrop. Manami looked shocked and asked for a restart that she (not surprisingly) received. The 2nd fall took one minute and one second longer for Sato to get then the first one did. And while the match was fun and intended to be, and Manami enjoyed her role in it, I think it would've been better for Sato's progress if this was actually a straight contest from the start. Manami gave her a little offense once the match went straight, but she cut her off quickly and pinned her (with 3 counts) twice in 10 seconds. Not bad for what it was, but not something I'd want to see from AJW or Manami on a bigger show.

ML: This answered the question what ever happened to baby Manami? The problem with this match is Sato isn't an exciting or a good worker and can only do Toyota's lowest level signature moves like the dropkicks and the meaningless submissions. Thus, the roles didn't really help because Sato can't work and Toyota couldn't in this role. That said, this match was perversely entertaining as a one time thing because Toyota as a little girl was so absurd it was funny. She had a wig that Sato knocked off doing Toyota's signature dropkick opening. Toyota whined like a little girl after she was pinned with a shoulder sleigh because she forgot about the 1 count stipulation then jumped around when her demand for another match was granted. This first finish didn't help Sato, but since she soon pinned Toyota with a good corbata it at least restored whatever credibility she lost by the typical younger girl can only beat a veteran by a fluke finish.

There was a really lame spot where Sato totally botched Toyota's spot where she climbs the rope holding her opponents arm and jumps off for an arm drag. It turned good because Toyota showed Sato how to do it, but instead of trying it again like Toyota expected, Sato made a sly move almost pinning her with a small package. Toyota pinned Sato with a moonsault then surprised Sato with a missile kick to win the unofficial 4th match. Toyota was more than generous letting Sato botch her offense throughout the match, but the extra fall was unnecessary. A bad match by Toyota's standards, but I don't expect much from a garage match and it did have a certain charm with nonsensical spots like Toyota chasing after Sato with a picture of juice.

0:26, 1:27, & 6:06

Rating:

Kumiko Maekawa vs. Miyuki Fujii

Michael: Even though this was shorter than their 1/18 match it wasn't as good or competitive. Maekawa wasn't as generous here, and although she did give Fujii a succession of near falls you didn't get the feeling that she had a shot at the upset here. Maekawa's kicks did look better than usual, and overall I guess they did as good as they could in 7-1/2 minutes on a garage show.

ML: This was nothing more than a very watered down condensed version of their regular match, which isn't much to begin with. Nothing much happened then they went back and forth with a few near falls and it was over. It's bad enough that's there's no element of surprise to Fujii's flash pins since that's her whole offense, but they are useless in a back and forth situation because they can't even work as a hope spot. This was a real "gee, I wonder if the kakato otoshi will beat those deadly small packages" match.

7:16

Rating:

Cosplay Handicap Match: Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito vs. Nanae Takahashi & Mika Nishio & Saki Maemura

Michael: This was like a Sakura special as everyone was wearing a Halloween costume. The only scary one was Hotta dressing like a Playboy bunny, but I thought NanaSaki looked cool as little kids. I'm not sure what Nishio was supposed to be, but she did look kinda sexy as a repressed librarian (minus the glasses and hairbun). Even though they took it very easy here and relied mainly on comedy I enjoyed this match because it showed a different side of Ito and Hotta. Basically that Hotta isn't entirely just a selfish shell at this point and that Ito has a decent sense of humor and isn't always 100% serious. The youngsters won it on a fast count after they used the old mind control flip on both Ito and Hotta. This came after Hotta assaulted the referee with an attempted kissing barrage. And really, who can blame him for ending it as quickly as he did following that?

ML: Hotta as the Doughboy, er, Playboy Bunny was a sight I didn't need to see. Now that they've gone from natural beauties like Devin Devasquez to scientifically created freaks like Chyna there's probably hope for every woman but Gilbert Grape's mother. I think Nishio was a badminton player since she brought the racket with her? Ito looked funny as a man with a chrome dome, goatee, and glasses, but the other costumes did little more than impede their work.

I don't want to give Suckura any credit, but her stupidity is at least planned out so it does something that's her best approximation of working. This looked like it was all improv except, between the five of them, they couldn't think of a single joke. Eventually they just decided to do a few highspots. In a fitting ending to one of the worst matches of the year, Takahashi's team did some kind of pose that was apparently supposed to look like they put the hex on Hotta & Ito, who bumped for the phantom and were then pinned.

13:08

Rating:

Black Joker in the Garage: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi

Michael: I've been pretty tough on Takako and Watanabe this year because I feel that they have half-assed it through several matches, but to their credit they both put out a good effort here. Even though you'll find more players on a NFL training camp roster than people who attended this show, all 4 women worked hard and had a very solid match as a result. The last couple of minutes were pretty hot as Momoe kicked things into overdrive and Watanabe was mostly able to keep up with her. Kayo and Takako mainly played the spoilers during this portion, trying and failing to stop each other from breaking up pin attempts on their partners. The only thing that held this match down was the sloppiness towards the end. At least it occurred because all four were trying so hard to keep up the fast pace of near falls rather than being a result of the laziness Black Joker has shown in a lot of their other matches this year. **3/4

ML: The success of this match was largely due to Watanabe. I don't need to tell anyone who the best wrestler in this match was, but it's hard to do things alone. Watanabe was noticeably hampered by injuries, but her effort was good and a motivated hop along Watanabe is easily still in the better end of the women. Takako & Noumi were hidden as much as possible, both by Watanabe & Momoe carrying their team and even by the crew. We didn't see much of them when the wrestlers brawled outside and in the street, instead getting things like the funny image of Momoe walking around with an orange cone on her head. Takako, who showed nothing, was also selfish in selling almost nothing for Noumi. Noumi was generally inept, rolling sideways on her monkey flip and not even being able to jog on Watanabe's back for a few seconds without falling off, but she was sometimes effective during double teams. Takako & Watanabe are so slow though that she looked explosive when she did do something to them. The final minutes had the best stuff from Momoe & Watanabe, including near falls you could believe in. I was surprised that it was a draw because it didn't have the lazy pacing (of course, their regular matches are almost as long as the garage time limit) and they were coming so close to the pins.

Special thanks to: Michael Smith

20:00

Rating:

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