This was more toward Satomura's submission oriented style early on, which saw Meiko use some innovative arm bars. They went to their high spots as the match progressed. Most of my problem with Satomura this year is, unlike the other members of her class, her mannerisms are still very childish. She also seems to have too much energy for her own good, as she gets too cute instead of just doing her spot. She seems to be under a lot of pressure, although much of it could be self-imposed. Anyway, Chikayo did a good job here. The match had a lot of action, but it was sloppy in points, particularly the ones revolving around Satomura's Death Valley bomb finisher. The highlight was Nagashima doing an ultra corbata for a near fall. Chikayo's rise in the ranks of GAEA's class of 1995 continued as she pinned Satomura with her fisherman buster.

13:48

Rating:

Toshie Uematsu vs. KAORU Taped 4/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This was a worked shoot under Pancrase type rules. Uematsu was fiery, as always, and looked better than KAORU in this style although that doesn't really say much. As you'd expect from GAEA, that meant that KAORU won the match, in this case a rare submission win with a hizajujigatame. The match had its moments, but it generally wasn't all that good. What was a shame was that they went home just as the match was starting to get good. Overall, because of the last few minutes, it wound up being decent, which isn't bad considering their lack of experience in this style. It could have been used as the foundation of what could eventually be turned into a good match, but for whatever reason GAEA got away from the shoot style stuff after this.

6:09

Toyota was up to her usual antics against the younger wrestlers. She smiled too much, made it obvious to the fans that she didn't take them seriously, didn't put them over enough, and didn't make it look like they really had a chance of beating her. Still, she was working on such a high level that the match was good even though it didn't serve its "purpose" nearly as well as it could have. Even though the outcome was never in doubt, it was still an exciting match to watch because of the high spots. Uematsu looked good here, and even pulled out some nice counters for near falls. The heat was disappointing, and even though the crowd wasn't too big and most women's matches in 1998 had no heat, some of the blame for this has to be placed on Toyota for not allowing the fans to give Toshie a chance. Uematsu, who wasn't able to withstand much of Toyota's offense, was put away with the Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold. This is one match where I won't complain about the editing because for what it was it was completely enjoyable in this form, and neither of these two showed that they could properly use the early portion of their matches this year.

16:14 (8:04)

Rating:

KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima (LLPW/G-MAX) Taped 4/29 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan (3,100)

A spot brawl. Everything seemed to happen really fast, but it was more toward being chaotic than fast-paced. The selling should have been better, but I've probably noted that about every match KAORU has ever been in. I found myself getting bored with this match because there were just so many spots that had so little meaning. Yamada juiced heavily, as Nagashima just destroyed her. Nagashima needed to work stiffer, especially when she was hitting Yamada with the chain. Eagle was, not surprisingly, the worst of the four (or maybe five if you count Okino, who was interfering on Eagle's behalf). Once again, that meant Eagle was the one who scored the pin, putting Yamada away with a powerbomb.

14:34 (11:49 aired)

Rating:

High Spot 600 Tournament Kesshosen: Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura Taped 4/29 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

The winner of this match got a spot in the main event on Chigusa's team against the new team of Aja & Ozaki. This meant the match was much more important to Satomura because she wanted to team with her idol, while Sato may not have been "too thrilled" about teaming with her enemy against her leader. This was a Nitro rush job, as the match had no build and they pretty much just tried their big spots on each other. It's pretty sad that they would do the final in this manner, but it's happened before and will happen again. Beyond the lack of diversity, some missed spots hurt the match. Satomura used her Death Valley bomb to score a rare pin over Sugar and take the tournament.

6:36

Rating:

Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura Taped 4/29 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

This should have been a special match with formation of the dream team of Aja & Ozaki. Unfortunately, it was another disappointment because there was nothing to distinguish it from all the other short Chigusa spotfests. The work was good, but not even at the level you would expect. The main problem was that, once again, Chigusa wasn't particularly impressive. The fact that her athleticism is almost completely gone doesn't help things. Satomura, working her 4th match of the night, still carried the load for her team. Satomura vs. Ozaki was the highlight of the match, which makes you wonder why they didn't have Satomura win a program over Ozaki before going against her higher ranked teammate Aja. Ozaki pinned Chigusa with her uraken.

9:25

Rating: