MS: The first five minutes were pretty slow as they engaged in fairly weak and meaningless matwork. Kayo started fairly hot, but quickly went into stall mode. Momoe finally took over the work by focusing on Kayo's leg (which including a poor figure four attempt by her) and then back which saw decent to good selling on Kayo's part. Noumi did throw in some verbal comedy, but otherwise stayed away from the goofy faces and mannerisms.

ML: I thought the early portion was smart in that Momoe dumbed down to the point Kayo looked totally passable. The problem was to get to that point she had to do a boring match. They did fight seriously, but they pretty much took it easy during the first third.

MS: Around 10 minutes in Kayo regained control with a couple of dropkick variations and a monkey flip, which all looked good but to my disappointment she didn't bother to sell her leg or back even though that's were the last 5 minutes of the match went. But on the plus side when she went back to the submissions she did focus on Momoe's back and actually put some effort into making the holds look good. And in return Momoe briefly sold her back coming out of it. After some brawling outside, both women seemed to be gassed as they started to move very deliberately and were taking big gasps of air. Therefore even though the pacing picked up around the 16 minute mark, it was still rather slow since neither was moving that well. The heat may've played a part in this as Kayo seemed to be sweating a lot for not doing much and toweled off every time they went outside. But Momoe was actually the one who brought the match down as she was moving in slow-motion for the last half of the match and looked about as bad as I've seen her look over the last year and a half. But in giving her the benefit of the doubt, I believe she was injured coming into this match so that must've played the major part of her problems here because she's shown several times this year that she has no problems going long.

ML: I agree that something must have been wrong with Momoe because she didn't have her usual energy or burst. However, and I've probably written this every time Momoe or Maekawa did a long match with the exception of the great 2/24/02 match, those two just don't understand how to do a long match. I think what happened here is they started acting dead way too early, and certainly without the moves to justify it. The only thing to do was keep getting deader because otherwise you expose yourself as a phony and none of the selling is meaningful, like in a KAORU match. The last 17 minutes had every move you'd expect from these two and more, but for most of it they seemed like they were laboring rather than that they were ready to lose. Still, after a while you started believing they'd really been in a war, even if there was little reason to feel this way beyond their acting.

MS: Normally I like when a match ends with a long series of near falls, but here 7 minutes was way too long as both women kept repeating the same pin attempts over and over again and this elongated sequence really exposed Kayo's lack of offense and innovative thinking/ability. To his credit the play-by-play guy tried his best to put this over, but even being as big a Kayo mark as I am, this back-and-forth seemed to go on forever. Because of the lackluster way the match was built and the fact that there was no doubt that they were going to a draw, the last couple of minutes had no drama to them whatsoever even though a few of the covers looked good.

ML: The match would have come off better if there was anyone in the building (the attendance was far closer to 80 than the claimed 1,080). It was so obvious what was coming and where it was going that I'm not sure how much it would have mattered though. I liked some of the near finishes like when Momoe withstood the nadare shiki no doublewrist armsault then the doublewrist armsault then the German suplex hold, but they didn't allow me to believe in them.

MS: It would be hard for anyone to believe in Kayo coming in because she usually jobs in any "big" match she's in. That's why the near falls probably wouldn't have had heat in any building with any crowd.

ML: I'm a big proponent of this theory, but most companies have one or two exceptions to it. They are wrestlers that, for whatever reason, the crowd is into and they are vocal for them even though they expect this wrestler to lose. MihoKayo was a team that often got that kind of reaction, but it hasn't carried over to Kayo on her own even though they've theoretically tried to improve her standing since her partner retired.

MS: That's true. However, I don’t think anyone goes into her matches vs. Hotta, Ito, & Momoe expecting Kayo to win (or come close vs. the former two). Thus, they aren’t as vocal as they were for MihoKayo, who at least held the straps for a while so people could somewhat believe in them. Also, since Kayo has become a more “serious” worker, minus Wacky, she doesn’t do as much to try to get the crowd as involved as they use to be.

ML: They had the Zen Nihon tag titles, which are young girl belts. Their chance of beating any combination of Hotta, Ito, & Momoe is only marginally better than Kayo's chance of beating them in singles because tag jobs aren't as guarded. The reaction to MihoKayo was mainly for their act. I don't think many people actually believed they'd beat any top team, more like they were asking for a miracle. The lack of reaction to Kayo now is some combination of her not knowing how to get the crowd involved without reverting to the old goofiness, just not being good in serious matches, and being overexposed by match lengths that are well beyond her means.

ML: The basic problem with the match is Kayo simply can't do sequences and you can't just trade with someone that can't create the illusion of any impact (I was LOL when she was trying to strike and brawl). What Momoe has to do to get around Kayo's weaknesses (telegraphed basic sequenceless wrestling) takes her totally out of her own game and into stuff she's not that good at. It was worse here because Momoe seemed to have no faith in Kayo whatsoever. She was noticeably using hand signals to make sure Kayo both knew what to do next and was in the right spot to catch her. Momoe's health might have had something to do with it, but clearly she didn't have her normal confidence much less reckless abandon.

MS: I agree that her strikes are pathetic and hard to believe in as well, but part of being a great worker is being able to properly adjust yourself to the style of someone of lesser ability. I don't really fault Momoe for this because, while I've contended in previous reviews that I feel Kayo has improved (and still believe this) it obviously hasn't been to the point that she can make up for someone else's deficiencies like Momoe's health here.

ML: It isn't so much about the quality of the worker here; their styles just don't mesh. That can happen even when both wrestlers are high quality.

MS: Agreed but then it’s up to Momoe to be more committed to making Kayo work her style or more realistically and smartly work down to Kayo’s, which she usually does against her. It just didn’t work out here for the reasons we’ve outlined.

ML: If the person just can't work your style then it's not a matter of commitment or effort. WWE's latest racist angle could be Uncle Eddy shoving a hot tamale up Big Slow's ass, but Giant would still be big and slow and incapable of doing anything that resembled Lucha.

MS: Your premise is right, but I think your example is too exaggerated because the only logical thing Eddy could/would do is just bump his ass off for that big dummy. In the case of Momoe vs. Kayo, I agree that they couldn't do a fast pace for 30 minutes. Even at 15 minutes Kayo would be kind of hard pressed to keep up, so it would be better for Momoe to lower herself to Kayo s level.

ML: It might make for a more effective match and help Kayo, but I don't think it's realistic to ask Momoe to work down to Kayo's level because it's detrimental to her own standing. You can't have someone that's a few months away from holding the promotions two top belts doing a 30 minute glorified rookie match. I'm not a fan of short matches as everyone knows, but since they had to have this matchup it should have been under 10 minutes with them running around with the dropkicks and whatnot then getting into the suplexes and ending it.

MS: Again, I agree to an extent. I don't think it would be detrimental to Momoe to work an easier style for Kayo to keep up with because Momoe's never in a dominant position anyway. So I don t think it would hurt her going into the eventual title change with Ito (which probably wasn't even a consideration when this match took place) if she has dumbed herself down here. Momoe never dominates anyone and doesn't really have the offense to either since, as we ve both stated, most of her offense is counters rather than her being the aggressor. On the other hand, I concur with your point in her not treating Kayo like Ito because Kayo doesn't have the credibility or offense to put Momoe in danger. I guess it's a tough balancing act for Momoe because either way she can t totally win.

ML: Momoe dominating is a separate issue. If she dumbs her offense down to what Kayo can handle, that eliminates almost all her counters and flashiness. She could still do a few good moves, but there's no longer any element of surprise because instead of coming off a counter or coming out in a sequence it's just Kayo standing there or being told to run at Momoe so Momoe can do an aerial move.

ML: We both agree that Momoe should be able to take on a different role now. Momoe as big underdog that gets beat on most of the match doesn't make any sense now that she's one of the only stars in the company, and simply can't be used against the majority of the league. Momoe's offense is generated from counters or off comebacks, and she rarely has a sustained attack. Her lack of having methods of just taking it to her opponent is one thing that definitely hurts this match. We can't expect Momoe to change over night, so the question is what she could have done differently to make for a better match. Considering she tried everything from submission to brawling to flying to near falls back and forth, I don't really see any answer. I know their 1/18/02 match was a little better, but that had close to everything to do with the match not being way too long and Momoe wrestling on a much higher level before they rode her too hard. My suggestion would be to constantly thwart Kayo's running offense, but it's not fair to expect Momoe to keep pulling counters for dropkicks and Irish whips out of her hat for 30 minutes.

MS: Agreed. The bigger problem for Momoe though, which you pointed out, is that her best offense comes off of defense and aside from Hotta, Maekawa, and Ito there’s no full-timer in AJW that should realistically have her in peril because of their ability and positioning. I also agree with your point that she did pretty much everything she could to make this as acceptable as possible, but even had she been 100%, Kayo isn’t somebody you can go 30 minutes with and have a good match because of her lack of strong offense. The only way to do it would be if you basically put her in Momoe’s position as the underdog, which wouldn’t benefit Momoe since Kayo has the size advantage over her (though it’s not an unbelievable one) and that’s what Momoe is used to being.

ML: Size difference is only a factor if it's extreme or it's played up. It's the way you use your body that's important. Guys like Naohiro Hoshikawa & Low ki are ass kickers because they go out there with supreme confidence in their abilities and blow you away with the impact and athleticism of their kicks. I doubt either weighs 200 pounds, but they fight large. Momoe has yet to develop any of the attitude or offense that would make it believable for her to just punish someone. The only thing she could have tried here is a Sayama where she doesn't dominate with offense, but rather because you can't do anything to her. Realistically she doesn't have enough counters for that type of match and Kayo doesn't give you the kind of base or have the balance and body control that Momoe would need to pull it off, but I think there's still enough options that they could have improved the match by pursuing this area.

MS: Overall, I felt that Kayo had a decent showing and held up OK over the 30 minutes that this match went. I certainly place no blame on Momoe, but it was clear that she couldn't hold up her end of the match so it wasn't that good and certainly not on the level I was hoping it would be. *3/4

ML: I have no problem with the effort here. Early on it was not what I hoped for, but when they worked hard for the last 20 or so minutes it became understandably why they weren't going nuts early. I hate to look down upon long matches with strong effort, but one problem with women's wrestling is the lengths are dictated by the league rather than the individual wrestler's abilities. If you are in GAEA or ARSION, you'll do 7-15 minutes regardless of style, ability, and opponent, while if you are in AJW or NEO you'll do 15-30 for the same "reasons". I know this is a league match where some weird things might need to be done to make the standings come out the way you want, but Kayo should never, ever do a singles match longer than 15 minutes because it can only badly expose her. Even though Momoe is one of the couple best women, she's a ball of fire that has yet to learn how to develop her matches, so she's much better served at 15-20 minutes where her spark, athleticism, and ability to make her opponents moves look more impressive than they have a right to and make up for her mental weaknesses.

30:00

Rating:

Ayako Sato vs. Saki Maemura

MS: This wasn't one of their better showings. Sato looked decent, but Maemura looked fatigued very early on. She also took a couple of weird bumps off dropkicks. Basically, she fell backwards as if she was going to make snow angels. I don't think it was planned or intentional (and it certainly wasn't a comedy spot), but it was kinda funny nonetheless.

ML: I thought this was one of their better showings. Sato actually made a good comeback with a corbata from the corner (like ASARI), dropkicks, and high cross bodies. Sato's big run could have ended it, but at 2 Maemura suddenly bridged out into a standing position and followed through with a jumping snapmare. I don't like the way they do all their moves, with Sato having much more variation from try to try, but this actually had some dynamics and even a little explosion. I'm not going to get optimistic yet, but for once some recent AJW rookies gave me something to hang my hat on.

I totally hated the finish. Sato did a taigatame (lateral press) in the center, but Maemura slid and turned all the way to the ropes. When she finally got her foot on the rope, the ref decided to count 3. It's bad enough the refs always ignore them getting their shoulder up on these type of spots.

11:31

Rating:

Kumiko Maekawa vs. Mika Nishio

MS: Not much happened here. As you'd expect, Maekawa dominated and didn't give Nishio much. What little Mika did happened to look good, and she did kickout of a couple of decent pin attempts by Maekawa following good looking kicks.

ML: Maekawa made sure Nishio came off as no threat, but it's hard to fault her given how atrocious Nishio was (is) offensively. The backbone of her attack are the most pitiful dropkicks where she gets no elevation and doesn't even straighten her knees. Shit, forget backbone, that's like her whole offense. The worst was when she had Maekawa in the corner and she did a series of sideways ones where one leg touched Maekawa's chest and the other might have grazed her pants. Maekawa's kicks looked good as usual and Nishio made a better than adequate punching bag, but I actually enjoyed the previous match more because they were fairly equal. It was competitive, while this was the one person could win at any time but doesn't because they don't have enough wrestlers to support a 2 minute match.

9:07

Rating:

Tomoko Watanabe vs. Miyuki Fujii

MS: What you'd expect. Watanabe did as little as possible and Fujii doesn't have much to do. For what it was though it wasn't that bad because they were mistake free with what they did do. But the match came off as just a time filler (i.e. they did just enough to fill their their allotted time).

ML: You seem to try as hard as possible to look down on Watanabe these days. It seems like it's fine for the GAEA women to be shadows of their old selves, but not for the older women of any other league because they do the uninspired style of their own league rather than the uninspired spot sprint. This wasn't even what I'd call uninspired, as Watanabe was lively here, appearing to not be as hampered by the knee. In fact, I'd rate Watanabe's performance as the best on this show.

MS: I don't think I'm picking on her, but I also don't see much from her these days, which you've somewhat agreed with me on in other reviews and conversations. As far as the comparison to GAEA goes, I put GAEA over for being exciting more than have great matches for workrate. Whereas AJW has always been much more about workrate than storylines. And as you mentioned the two companies have different philosophies on how matches should be and are presented, so therefore it's more important for AJW's veterans to have better matches workwise. Watanabe's not awful, but her bad legs have made her a less quality worker. I don't kill her for being lazy, but on the other hand she normally isn't going out of her way to try and look good either.

ML: I'm just the opposite when it comes to AJW vs. GAEA. I think GAEA has to be spot on because all they are doing is throwing spots out. In AJW they don't craft matches nearly as well as they used to, but there is still some build and overall structure, so they can pick up points in other areas.

MS: True but I don’t necessarily agree that GAEA matches have to be close to flawless in build or execution because of the way they are booked. Since most of the matches come down to a few minutes of near falls, like AJW, they can make up in the end what may’ve been blown earlier if they build to the finish right. I guess that holds true for anyone though.

ML: GAEA matches are one-dimensional and formulaic. There's not a sense of build because, though some of their codgers are slower than others, the pace they are all trying to work barely ever changes and the spots seem totally random. A few gifted wrestlers are able to have top notch matches by seemingly just reacting to one another, for instance Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Volk Han and Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid, but in GAEA 99% of the time I think logicless and contrived. The main difference is the counter has to be believable and credible based on the starting point, and it has to be done quickly. Too often in GAEA it's like a move pops into someone's head, but to pull it off they both have to position themselves and by that time the cooperation is so apparent.

MS: But what makes GAEA more exciting in my opinion is that so many matches culminate “out of nowhere” or on moves that wouldn’t normally be considered finishers. So that it gives you a) the sense that a match can end at any time, with anyone winning and b) the “any given Sunday” mentality that the NFL and NCAA basketball love so much. Of course the problem with that is that usually when one of the younger/lower rung girls beats a Chigusa or Kansai it’s in a fashion that doesn’t help them climb up any.

ML: I can't make myself care about their finishes in the least. First, their selling is so poorly done (usually at best it comes and goes like something out of an annoying Girl George song) that it's not worth worrying about. There is no build up and no consistency. With their stunts like the wrestler kicking out of a finisher at 1 and then be pinned by it the next move or being pinned 30 seconds later by a nothing move, why rack your brain?

MS: I don't rack my brain or get overly dramatic about most GAEA matches because it's not like their feuds or matches are built like Kawada finally taking the Triple Crown from Misawa in '98 at the Big Egg. I do find them enjoyable nonetheless because the predictability factor isn't there as much. Granted, you can easily find out the results before the tapes hit our shores, but if you watch without knowing you usually get one surprise per show. I do agree that it s not good for GAEA's long-term future because Sakura flashing Kansai or Satomura surprising Chigusa isn't climbing them up the ladder, so in the end it doesn t mean much, but it's still fun to have one company that you can actually watch without knowing every finish before the opening is closed.

ML: I agree that GAEA results are less obvious. If you are into predicting, it's the league you'll do the worst on, though if you follow the flow of the show rather than doing it in advance your success should approach the other groups. All of this is irrelevant to me though because the results are something that are generally forgotten by the next show, with the few they keep replaying still having no effect in the grand scheme of things. AJW is far more predictable, but if there is an upset it will most likely at least effect some upcoming event(s) (too often they'll promote a certain wrestler/team for a league but then they won't follow it up once the league ends), so it's at least worth taking note of. They also have some sense of history to their programs, whereas GAEA doesn't acknowledge the wrestlers work in other leagues or really even what happened in GAEA before the latest reshuffling (probably because it would be ridiculous that all these "bitter enemies" are now "great friends" and vice versa).

ML: My reaction to the end of a GAEA match is is simply "fine, it's over."

MS: Valid points because the surprises are less surprising the more often they happen. And if they don t mean anything then that kills a lot of the reason for doing them.

ML: Secondly, the result has to be meaningful. In the NCAA tournament the win is the difference between being done forever (for the good guys that just go pro or the role players that run out of eligibility) or at least until next season and getting another chance to prove you're #1. In GAEA the partners change, but rankings never do (a group moves up when someone retires/gets injured or down when they buy a new veteran, but the relation to everyone that's still there remains unchanged). The younger wrestlers are allowed to beat the veterans sometimes, but they are not allowed to gain on them in any way (unless they are little Chigusa, but even then the key was big Chigusa's injury). Even if by some miracle the veteran doesn't make it look like a fluke or it's not quickly reversed through a rematch, in 6 months when they switch the teams up you'll still have that same number (if you are the 7th ranked maybe you'll be #4 on your squad behind 1,3,6 rather than 1,4,5). The situation would be a little more tolerable if they at least rewarded with title shots, but their title is a meaningless semifinal filler that's defended a couple times a year regardless of whether they've bothered to have anyone do anything recently to warrant the shot.

MS: I agree that the AAAW Title is largely a prop, but maybe Manami can legitimize it. The tournament counter is somewhat valid, but my point in bringing it up was more to say how the NCAA wants a 14 or 15 to occasionally knock off a 3 or 2 because otherwise unless you fill out a bracket you won't care until the Elite 8 or Final 4. The NFL reference maybe a better one on my part though. Because realistically Arizona could beat the Eagles, but it doesn't make the Cardinals any more credible or a serious threat in future games against the upper echelon teams.

ML: I don't support Bob Knight's antics, but he's right when he says the tournament should be 32 teams, all at large bids, and decided by people that know basketball because even if some of the second 32 win a game they're still just wasting everyone's time since they have no chance to go all the way. His point about the teams that get left out complaining no matter how few or many get picked is totally true, even if you take 128 teams the 129th and 130th will be crying to everyone that'll listen that they got screwed. As far as football goes, I thought the parity in the NFL was one of the things that added to your disinterest because there's hardly any good teams anymore? Either way, it's difficult to compare records in a team sport to individual sports because individual sports are more overall ability, while team sports in salary cap leagues are more effort and cohesion.

MS: Agreed on that point, but my problem with the NFL isn't as much the concept of parity. I enjoy that it largely exists in the NHL's Eastern Conference, allowing a team like Carolina to make a run to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, which made hockey important in that market until their total collapse this year. And the equality in hockey hasn't diminished the one-ice product unless you want shootouts, which isn't "real" hockey anyway. I increasingly grow less interested in the NFL because the parity has affected the on-field product to the point that, along with serious overkill and overly frequent and long commercial breaks, I didn't even care enough about the Super Bowl to watch it over reviewing a tape of that day's EMLL show. The NFL doesn't really have small markets because of the true revenue sharing and hard salary cap the league employs. I brought up the Hurricanes because they are a small market team that was able to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, like Buffalo in '99, because the parity in the East doesn’t allow a team like the Rangers or Toronto (who both teams beat in the Conference Finals their respective years) to easily win just because they have huge payrolls (you could argue that the West is a different story, however). A team like the 2001-02 Pats was different than Carolina in the sense that they could luck past Oakland and advance because it's just one game and you can get by like that on occasion. Luck can't carry you to win a best of 7 series, however, unless you're literally handed games like the Yankees. Which I guess makes it exciting because every game means life or death in relation to advancing, but the NFL system rewards you more for luck than actually building a good, cohesive team and sustaining it over time. How it relates to GAEA though, which makes GAEA more enjoyable for me, is that even if it doesn't mean much I'd still rather see Sugar beat Aja on a flash at Mega Ride than see Aja destroy her the whole match and still win. And since we'll never get elevation matches done right in GAEA, I'll take that over nothing. Because their in-ring product doesn't suffer from the surprise finishes since the matches are still laid out pretty much the same way they've always been.

ML: Considering what the opponent is capable of and where she is ranked, Watanabe laid out a good match here. It's true she isn't going out of her way to do anything exceptional, but she still does some things and those things she does are done well. She wasn't a spectacular or exciting wrestler in her prime, but what she was and continues to be is effective and efficient. If that can no longer lead to good matches when she should be having them then I'll write her off, but this year she hasn't been in matches I would have expected too much from if she was still on top of her game.

MS: I was pretty impressed with her work in the 6 woman tag on AJW’s 2/24/02 PPV, and gave her credit in my comments on AJW’s 4/30/02 Battle Station, but so many other matches I’ve seen her in from last year made me scratch my head as to what or if she had anything left. But maybe on some occasions what I saw as the effort not being there was more of her just not being able to do physically what she wanted to mentally.

ML: If it's a Korakuen or bigger show and there's two of their few remaining good wrestlers, the match will most likely be at least good. In all the other circumstances, no one in AJW is delivering this year.

ML: Yes, this match was a squash, but with that given I didn't feel Watanabe was at all selfish or going through the motions. I did feel she raised the level of her opponent at least a couple notches, especially compared to the matches Maekawa has with Fujii. It's hard for any veteran not to squash Fujii when she has so little to throw at them, but at least Fujii was allowed to stay in the match throughout even though she didn't have much success, especially sustained.

MS: I'm not faulting her for that because almost nobody can make Fujii look good. But I said it was what I expected, which was a one-sided match and there's no argument on that.

ML: It was one-sided, but Watanabe didn't just show Fujii was a chump, beat her up, and end it when she got bored. That Hotta/Maekawa method is time filler to me. I won't say Watanabe did as much as possible, but it was a lot closer to that than as little. There's a difference between overmatched and jobber, and to me that distinction generally runs parallel with watchable and waste of time.

ML: The thing with this match is everything they did looked good. This was the most professional looking match on the show, which says something given Fujii was involved. It was slickly worked with sequences that flowed well and were nicely executed. Watanabe did a good job of carrying Fujii, with Miyuki doing everything asked of her. Sure, I'd like to see better moves, but these are two wrestlers with smaller move sets that execute them well. Fujii was way outgunned, but the wrestling and effort were good, so Fujii even came out looking okay. If Fujii had any moves or any kind of standing, this would have been a good match.

MS: I agree with you, but I was more commenting on what aired than trying to speculate on what it may've been had other circumstances been in place. But I've done that on other matches, so I'm not faulting you for it here. Our only disagreement is on the quality of it, but I'll accept that maybe I expect more of Watanabe than I should at this point.

ML: I admit to partially responding based on your running down Ito in an e-mail, which I can't understand because the three times during the stuff you've commented on from 2002 that the opportunity was there for a top notch match she responded with three of the best matches of the year, and at least in the first two it was the way she laid it out that played a huge part in that being the case. Your point that almost nobody can make Fujii look good is what's the important thing to consider here. It might take a miracle for a Fujii singles match to hit ***, so either you write it off or you look at whether there was an attempt at quality.

MS: My frustration with Ito isn’t for her matches vs. Manami, but moreso that I was tired of seeing virtually the same exact matches every time out vs. Momoe. I understand she has the size over Momoe by a good deal and Momoe is the underdog, but to me it doesn’t make sense for a company’s champion to be knocked around by someone else for almost the entire match. That doesn’t mean Ito should all of the sudden be inferior to Momoe, but they should have more even matches. I’d say the same for Hotta too if she eventually finds her way to a title shot. But the problem with AJW is on a lot of the spot shows you’ll have Hotta, Ito, and sometimes Maekawa punk a Momoe, Kayo, or Nanae for 95% of the match and only get hope spots here and there. Ito can still be somewhat valuable to the company, but unless they want to be totally like JWP (which they aren’t far from at this point) and kill off anybody who had a chance of carrying the company they need the former 3 to be more giving in their matches.

ML: Your criticism of Ito would fly a lot better a decade ago when it was a disappointment if the tape didn't have an excellent match. I hate the continually declining standards in seemingly everything I like (or used to like) as much as anyone, but because there were only a handful in 2002, if I'm still going to enjoy this at all I have to be happy with someone that has actually proven she can still lay out excellent matches. At the very least, the issue is why all the supposedly capable wrestlers never got the job done. Since we are on Ito though, I need to point out a couple reasons why I don't think the blame should fall on her shoulders. First, the promotion is to blame because they greatly raised Momoe's ranking without any alteration in her style and through only two opponents hence the sameness even though as a whole there haven't been too many Momoe vs. Ito (or Maekawa) matches. The thing is by the time they started having them outside of the annual JGP match that we didn't see anyway, Momoe was already pushed higher than the logical role that she played in her first big match against the tough veteran Ito. The fairly quick ascension of Momoe since that match has greatly magnified the progression of their matches being behind the progression of the push. If Ito was turning back the clock by choosing to put Momoe in a role we'd seen her outgrow against other people then the fault would be on her, but it's the same role she's still playing against everyone it could possibly work against. Basically everything I said about how Kayo matches up with Momoe is the opposite with Ito. It is a great matchup because neither have to change their style or role for their opponent. Momoe does need to change though, to grow to a point where her offensive success is more in line with her ranking and ability. The league is the one that needs to urge that, to tell her she needs to develop her offense in ways that it will be credible for the big and/or tough girls not to dominate her. Ito should see this too, but Ito is not the one for Momoe to start against, she has to be rocking on Kayo's & Fujii's before anyone can believe she can do it to Ito.

MS: It s not even as much about the quality of Ito's matches in regards to snowflakes. It's more that she should be more giving to Momoe, Kayo, & Nanae because that's what's best for AJW's future. Granted, Ito was never on the level of Manami or Kansai (in her prime) as far as stature goes, but she's the most established worker AJW has left at this point since Hotta hasn't been a major title threat in a while.

ML: Momoe & Kayo don't have much in their arsenal that would hurt Ito. I always feel Momoe has a chance of beating Ito, and I don't see it as a fluke when it does happen, so Ito dominating the match isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. Ito just runs over Noumi, but with the huge difference in size, ability, and impact it's hard to fault her for that. I'm not sure what an Ito vs. Takahashi singles match looks like until I get to the 9/8/02 Battle Station, so the jury is still out. I'd be more critical of Ito if that's one-sided since Takahashi is similarly bulky.

MS: I accepted a while ago that **** matches will be few and far between for the foreseeable future, but I could better live with that if there was hope for the future. Right now I don't see any though because nobody is developing a great rookie or future star that hasn't already been around for a couple of years, and the girls we were counting on 4 and 5 years ago never were given a true shot to see what they could do. I think part of it is also Momoe's fault because she shouldn't need to be told how to revise her style in order to be a more credible (dare I say dominant) champion. Obviously selfishness will always rule the business, regardless of who and where it is, and I can't totally blame anyone for watching their own ass when the company doesn't, but I also worry that Momoe's reign will go down the same road as Tomoko Kuzumi s in JWP if a drastic change doesn't happen soon. Although I agree that Momoe needed to climb the ladder in a smarter fashion than the panicked way AJW gave her the title after Manami bailed, unfortunately beating up on Fujii and Kayo means very little to nothing going into a match with Ito. Her going over Watanabe and maybe Takako would've helped, but the Matsunaga s have never been ones to book with any intelligence so it's no surprise that we're second guessing them once again.

ML: Momoe as to improve her offense smartly because she isn't big or powerful enough to use a lot of the big impact moves. We don't need her nearly maiming people by adopting a Michinoku driver II like Kuzumi. A swinging DDT (or even DDT off the top) would be the kind of move she should adopt because it's something off the ropes with big impact that can be done to a wrestler of any size. Maybe the tornado DDT would be a better idea since it's more of an athletic move than the other variations. I don't understand why you never see the diving kneedrop anymore. That's way more damaging, especially if done properly, then all the overused body attack variations that at Momoe's weight would be lucky to even knock her opponent over. The reason I used Kayo & Fujii as examples is not because they mean anything, but because if Momoe can't do damage to them why would anyone believe she suddenly could do damage to Ito?

12:50

Rating:

Manami Toyota & Nanae Takahashi vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito

MS: The work here was good and everybody except Hotta looked good. Manami was the best, of course, but Nanae worked hard and Ito did what she had to do as well to carry her side. It was built like the usual AJW tag main events on these small shows. Starting with mostly matwork and building towards a hot finish. What hurt this match though was the lack of that hot finish. Nanae was just pinned with a footstomp off the top rope by Ito. There weren't any strong near falls leading up to the finish, so the match didn't realize the potential it showed over the first few minutes. **1/2

ML: They didn't waste any time. This certainly wasn't their best wrestling, but they kept things moving and Toyota & Ito are good enough that they are worth watching even when they are only going 3/4 force. No one was all that good here, but Takahashi was competent and Hotta didn't kill it by being the immobile object. This was the only match where the outcome was in doubt, though it certainly was no surprise that Takahashi turned out to be the job girl. My complaint with this match was not so much with anything she did, but that they did little to peak my interest in the upcoming big Toyota vs. Ito title match.

Special thanks to: Michael Smith

19:06

Rating:

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