Unfortunately, they joined the match in progress. The work was good, but no one fired up, so it wasn't as good as it sounds on paper. Chikayo was featured and looked good, but Sugar once again didn't. Just about everything involving Sugar was slow and deliberate. Too much time was devoted to her working against the weakest member of the LCO team, Saya. This hurt the match, as did too little of Ozaki and Shimoda. Still, with Shimoda, Mita, Ozaki, & Chikayo in the same ring, the match basically had to be good. Sugar pinned Saya in a thunderfire powerbomb.

22:58

Rating:

AAAW Single Oza Jiki Chosensha Ketteisen: KAORU vs. Chigusa Nagayo Taped 7/19/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Talk about some huge egos. Well, I don't think KAORU has a big ego, but Chigusa basically does whatever she wants and apparently she decided this would be a no-sellfest. One wrestler would do a big move, but the other would pop right up and do a big move back, but the other would pop right up. Well, you get the picture. It was basically a really poor woman's version of Chigusa vs. Manami Toyota from 11/29/98. The work was only decent. The flow, psychology, and build were poor. Chigusa even popped right up after KAORU delivered her Excalibur finisher before eventually putting us out of our misery by pinning KAORU with the Death Valley bomb. What a turd.

10:39

The main point of the match was dissention in the ranks of Satomura & Kato. They had all kinds of problems, including accidentally hitting each other and fighting over who would get the winning pin. The finish saw Satomura on the top rope, and Kato was going to whip RIE at her. However, Kato turned the Irish whip into a running three for the win. Satomura just stood on the top rope while Kato left the ring.

15:21

Rating:

Chigusa Nagayo & Toshie Uematsu vs. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima Taped 8/10/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan 2 (1,500 sellout)

Chikayo was the star worker in this match. Chigusa did a really good job of directing traffic, and was easily the second best worker. Uematsu & Sato did a lot of weak looking spots to reduce the quality of the match. Sugar pinned Uematsu in her Ligerbomb.

13:27

Rating:

AAAW Tag Oza Jiki Chosensha Kettei Tournament Kesshosen: Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato Taped 8/10/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan 2

These teams didn't work together nearly as well as you'd figure. The match never really got hot. Actually, Aja dictated most of the time, and it was slow paced. Ozaki seemed a bit banged up and hardly logged any ring time. When she was in, the focus should have been on an ankle "injury" Satomura gave her in the middle of the match, but Kato didn't pick up on it beyond doing one ankle submission. Kato & Satomura once again couldn't get through the match without fighting, and it cost them. After Satomura got done stomping on her own partner, she walked right into Aja's uraken for the loss. Thus, Aja & Ozaki won a title shot on 8/23. Aja was solid and Kato was better than Satomura, but overall it was a very disappointing match that wasn't close to the level they'd reach on 4/4/99.

12:57

Rating: