12/16/01 Kawasaki-shi Taiikukan
Miho Wakizawa Intai Jiai Wacky Final Smile: Miho Wakizawa vs.
Kayo Noumi 15:30. A good match for them. They kept it simple early on then Wakizawa
started going to her "big" moves at 8:00. Wakizawa got the majority
of the offense in since she was losing, which boded well since even an injured
up Wakizawa has far better moves and execution than Noumi. Everything was
well executed for Noumi. Well there was a lot of repetition since neither
are capable of doing much, I'd certainly rather see more missile kicks, fisherman
busters, and doublewrist armsaults and the usual goofiness. Actually, this
was probably as serious as MihoKayo gets. Although it had surprisingly little
atmosphere, especially for a retirement match, this is probably the best
match they've had against one another. Noumi pinned Wakizawa with her own
fishermanbuster. During Wakizawa's retirement ceremony, Rumi & Takako
made it look like they were going to have Eagle beat Miho up. However, they
"doublecrossed" Eagle with a double DDT and had Wakizawa pin her
with a diving body press. **1/2
Michael Smith: The match started out slowly being that they were using very
basic moves. The first few minutes were very reminiscent of a "green"
girls match from say '94 or '95. That and the strategy of using eardrum piercing
screams to make each other deaf took away from this match a bit. There were
however a lot of nice near falls (which unfortunately were hurt by the lack
of heat) over the last few minutes including Kayo rolling through on a top
rope hurancanrana for a two count and another two count off Kayo's rolling
doublewrist armsaults. It's a good thing this was Miho retirement match in
the sense that Kayo surviving 5 fisherman's busters killed Wakizawa's finisher
dead. Noumi eventually got the win with a fisherman's buster of her own that
came off more like a regular fisherman's suplex (minus the bridging pin attempt).
They kept the goofiness down in this match which helped it be better than
I had expected going in. As I said before, the lack of heat hurt them but
overall I feel they still put out a **1/2 effort. Miho got alot of streamers
before and after the match, which makes you wonder why the crowd couldn't
support her during it. I think she could come back though and be successful
if she recovers from her injuries and decides she wants to wrestle again.
She never was or will be a great worker but she and Kayo both have a lot
of charisma as a team and since standards aren't as high as they were in
the mid-late '90s, she certainly has a solid place in today's era. **1/2
Kanaami & Waisha Kamikiri Death Match ~Final Conclusion~:
Kaoru Ito vs. Yumiko Hotta 45:37. Only in AJW do they have someone with very negative
stamina go 45 minutes in a cage match. In their previous moronathon all the
brawling around the building helped mask Hotta's lack of ability and stamina,
but limited to the confines of the cage it was so painfully apparent. Hotta
hit Ito with a ladder, leaving Ito bloody before the match even began. Ito
bled all over the place, but that was one of the only "highlights."
The reason Ito is a good brawler, while ZAP I for the most part isn't is
that Ito brawls with fire, flair, and charisma while I is just a masked goon
that hits you with a stick 100 times. At least ZAP I has an excuse since
AJW strapped her with this ridiculous gimmick and never even gave them any
legitimate credibility. Hotta's brawling is just a joke though. She's expressionless
and inert. A chain can be interesting, but not if you just lean around once
you wrap it around your opponent's neck. Too look at Hotta wrestle these
days, you have to think she considers it a chore. Anyway, the match was absolutely
endless. If you like nothing but chains, ladders, and fire extinguishers
this was an instant classic. As the match "progressed," they added
climbing since it was the usual escape rules. Even the haircut at the end
was unsatisfactory; Fujii's normal hairdo is about the same length. Ito did
a decent job, but she had to sell way too much for it to be a quality match,
and even when she was on offense there wasn't a lot she could do with such
a flat opponent. *
MS: This match was not as bad as I was led to believe, but it wasn't that
good either. 50 minutes (including the pre-match brawl) was WAY too long
for either of them to be out there, and as a result both women were blown
up 20 minutes in. The positives about this match though were that despite
the repetition of escape attempts, both women worked their asses off and
as a result the crowd was into the match when they needed to be. Both women
took a lot of punishment here (especially Hotta landing on her the back of
her head after being pulled off the top of the cage and the several brutal
footstomps Ito gave her), which made the fact that they were blown up acceptable
in that it put over the toll the match was taking on them. Flashing back
4-1/2 years, Ito did the footstomp off the top of the cage and while not
as dramatic as when she planted Shimoda with it, it was still a very impressive
and awesome spot. They did a nice tease following this where Ito's leg was
caught in the chain and she initially couldn't get over the top of the cage
but was eventually able to. The cutting of Hotta's hair following the match
came off as anti-climatic, but the show of respect between them (though expected)
was nice to see after the war they had just gone through. *3/4
1/4/02 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
2/3 Falls WWWA Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Tomoko Watanabe &
Nanae Takahashi vs. Rumi Kazama & Takako Inoue 9:08, 13:36, 7:36. Watanabe hasn't been
as good of late. She seems less motivated and more about self preservation,
probably because her knee is pretty bad. This was a lot better than Watanabe
& Takahashi's title match against MihoKayo, but still seemed kind of
flat and lacking in emotion. Everyone was decent, but no one really stepped
up. **1/4
MS: Although this match went too long for these 4 it really picked up midway
through the 2nd fall. Surprisingly the first 2 falls were completely held
in the ring and lacked any brawling or interference (which I'm certainly
not complaining about). The work wasn't bad, but it was nothing special either
as nobody really did anything noticeable here. The one exception to that
was a pretty cool spot where Takako slid down the drapes by the high balcony
which drew a decent reaction from the crowd. Otherwise it was a good, solid,
match but nothing you'd be hurt by missing.
#189 taped 12/16/01 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan
Miho Wakizawa Intai Jiai Wacky Final Smile: Miho Wakizawa vs. Kayo Noumi
Kanaami & Waisha Kamikiri Death Match ~Final Conclusion~: Kaoru Ito vs. Yumiko Hotta
#190 taped 1/3/02 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1/4/02, All Japan Single Title: Kayoko Haruyama vs. Kayo Noumi
Tomoko Watanabe vs. Kumiko Maekawa
Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi
1st Round
Manami Toyota & Chiemi Kitagami vs. Kayo Noumi & Mika Nishio
Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Tomiko Morii
Semifinals
Yumiko Hotta & Fumiko Yamane vs. Manami Toyota & Chiemi Kitagami
Tomoko Watanabe & Miyuki Fujii vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi
Final: Manami Toyota & Chiemi Kitagami vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi
MomoKayo vs. NabeNana New Year's bowling showdown
Nakanishi & Watanabe vs. Takahashi & Noumi New Year's ping pong
Fumiko Yamane vs. Ayako Sato
Handicap Match: Kaoru Ito vs. Mika Nishio & Saki Maemura
Kumiko Maekawa vs. Miyuki Fujii
Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kayo Noumi
bonus lifestyle segments
Manami Toyota & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Yumiko Hotta & Nanae Takahashi
Kaoru Ito Perfect Revive x 4 Handicap Match: Kaoru Ito vs. Kayo Noumi & Fumiko Yamane & Ayako Sato & Saki Maemura. A tuneup match for Ito. The first 3 segments were DUDs. She took out Maemura with one lariat and Sato with a lariat and a Boston crab. Noumi vs. Ito could have been interesting if the rookies had slowed Ito down some, but since she ran over them it was almost as one-sided looking as if Ito just had a singles match with Noumi. Still this portion was pretty good.
Kiss of the World music video
Manami Toyota & Miyuki Fujii & Mika Nishio vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kayoko Haruyama & Kaori Yoneyama. Toyota was very good, but had little support. She gave Yoneyama a wicked dropkick. Yoneyama certain fares better in more of a fast paced match like this with a lot of wrestlers than in a singles match because she's kind of like a young Kaori Nakayama. Fujii fares worse because the match is more above moves than solid work. The JWP girls were more impressive than the aside from Toyota. Pretty good match even though somewhat sloppy and uneven. **1/4
Black Joker's Turbulence in Korakuen: Takako Inoue vs. Tomoko
Watanabe. A good mix of brawling and wrestling helped mask Takako's limitations
and keep the match interesting. Takako has been hitting harder lately, so
her urakens are now acceptable. The match should have been better than it
was because Takako's offense didn't hold it down even though she was on offense
the vast majority of the match. What sucked is that after taking just about
everything Takako had, Watanabe beat her with two moves. **3/4
MS: A very banal and lackluster match. They did nothing you'd remember by
the time the show ended, which was disappointing. I certainly wasn't expecting
a classic here, but they basically went through the motions and I guess at
this point Watanabe's injuries over the years have caught up to her because
she moves like a glacier most of the time. She did a nice job of selling
the stun gun, like she was barely concious as a result of getting shocked,
but aside from a nice running springboard back elbow from her off the middle
rope she didn't do much while in control. After some chair work (nice to
see no blade here), Takako decided to forego any offense that wasn't an uraken,
which killed this match because her strikes border on pathetic. She's always
been one of my very favorites (for her attitude as much as her ability),
but she seriously needs to find something more effective looking if she's
going to rely mainly on strikes at this point in her career. The constant
pin attempts off them and Watanabe kicking out might've drawn the crowd into
the match if they actually looked decent, but they were horrible so no one
believed she'd actually win with one. She finally did a nice Takako panic,
but Tomoko escaped the 3 again. Finally Watanabe decided to stop selling
the urakens and clotheslined then TigerDrove Takako for a merciful end. DUD
Video of Kiss of the World recording session
NanaMomo Road to Perfect Revive: Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi
vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Misae Genki. Another match that would have benefitted
from being 10 minutes shorter. The final 11 minutes were very good, but they
certainly didn't kill themselves during the first 20. The match did build
up pretty well. Momoe was by far the best. Despite how great her matches
with Maekawa are supposed to be, it was about equal whether she worked with
her or Genki. The big dropoff was either of the two working with Takahashi.
I liked the part where Genki tried to elbow and kick her way out of a German
suplex, but Momoe kept dodging. ***
MS: Basically this was the Momoe and Kumiko show. This made sense though
as they were heading into their 2/24 PPV match. Genki has become a good solid
worker, but she was pretty much non-existent here which makes you wonder
why they brought her in. Momoe shone throughout and Nanae was competent for
most of the match. However she was clearly blown-up over the last several
minutes, which led to it getting very sloppy. Kumiko seemed to get winded
as well leading to her missing a few kicks over the last 3 minutes (though
a couple of them were on purpose). There were still several great near falls
towards the end and Momoe & Maekawa's interaction thoughout the match
was good enough that it made you look foward to them facing off again two
weeks later. ***
Tag Tournament Round 1
Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Nanae Takahashi &
Fumiko Yamane 15:58. The problem with this match wasn't that Yamane was so ridiculously outclassed, although she was, but rather that the match wasn't that much better when Takahashi was in. Yamane looks like she could be a cousin of Bat Yoshinaga, but hasn't developed a style yet. Toyota & Momoe had to work down to Yamane's level because she's so green she barely even knows how
to bump yet. I didn't mind Toyota joking
around here because her totally dumbing down her real offense to Yamane's
level is too ludicrous to suggest. In fact, that the match was as good as it was is to Toyota & Nakanishi's credit for having a good attitude and work ethic. The match was way too long given the mismatch, the limitations it entailed, and the fact Toyota & Momoe still had two more matches to work that night. It wasn't like seeing Toyota & Momoe because
they couldn't and/or wouldn't do anything until the last few minutes. The execution
was fine, but match wasn't compelling because it didn't pick up when whipping girl Yamane finally made the tag. *1/2
MS: The best segments were between Manami and Yamane. Not for the work, but
because Manami had a lot of fun teasing the former rookie. Yamane was funny
as well, bouncing around the ring like a pogo stick on soggy grass. To their
credit Manami and Momoe worked to make this an adequate match. Nanae looked
about as good as she can as well, and the 16 minutes they worked really flew
by. There really weren't any negatives here because, although she was a joke,
Yamane wasn't embarrassed by Manami or Momoe or put in a position where she
could drag things down. Manami and Momoe were smooth and nearly flawless
though, and that's what made the match. *1/2
Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Ayako Sato.
Watanabe took most of the match and did pretty well. Hotta was sluggish as
ever and Ito didn't bother. No one denied Sato was way out of her depth,
but it was funny when Watanabe would come in and push Ito down after she
caught Sato's high cross body. *1/4
MS: At least it was short at 7 minutes. As you'd expect, Hotta gave Sato
absolutely nothing. Watanabe looked okay, and actually had the hottest sequence
of the match with Hotta. Hotta being sloppy as hell killed it though because
she could barely get off the ground during her spin wheel kicks. DUD
Tag Tournament Semifinal
Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Mika Nishio & Miyuki
Fujii. Pretty much the same story as the 1st round, another non-competitive
match. Fujii & Nishio were inept, failing to even do a good dropkick.
Toyota & Momoe laid back until the final few minutes to drag it out for
17. *1/2
MS: Manami and Momoe took it easy here to rest up for the finals. They mainly
dominated with submissions, but didn't have any focus or direction to them.
For example, Manami had Fujii in a prolonged figure four that Fujii sold
well after it was broken, but Manami didn't care to follow it up so Fujii
wound up dropping the knee pain after a minute or two. Nishio and Fujii were
given very short spurts of offense here and there, but obviously neither
has nearly enough to even slightly challange Manami or Momoe (though I think
Mika will one day, Fujii has already shown that she's a perennial low-card
caliber worker at best). There was one good near fall when Fujii rolled through
on a Japanese ocean cyclone suplex attempt by Manami. However, there was
no doubt at anytime that ManaMomo could put them away whenever they felt
like it. *1/2
Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta vs. Kayo Noumi & Saki Maemura.
Ito & Hotta actually took "a lot" from Noumi & Maemura
even though their offense is weak and it isn't credible for Ito & Hotta
to sell for them. Still, it was readily apparent that Hotta could have pinned
Maemura after the 1st move. Noumi was allowed to get some flash pins on Hotta.
Would have been a better match if Noumi & Maemura showed they could take
because no one was going to buy them beating either of these two with their
uncredible offense. *1/4
MS: Hotta hit a nice spin wheel kick to start the match that dropped Saki
like a stone. She didn't get up or even move, and appeared to be knocked
out for a few moments. Finally, Hotta was able to get her up and into the
corner so Kayo could come in. And to my shock, Yumiko actually took some
bumps for Kayo before letting Ito tag in. This was the best part of the match
as Ito sold for Kayo and eventually a double-team from Maemura as well. However,
as soon as Kayo tagged out Ito sent Maemura into unconciousness again with
a running forearm to the top of the head. Even though this led to the match
being about 5 minutes long it wasn't bad because of the pacing of Ito and
Kayo and the fact that Hotta wasn't involved much after Ito came in. *
Tag Tournament Final: Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi vs.
Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta 20:15. A solid match with Hotta & Ito controlling Momoe, mainly by working her right knee, with some nice moments when Momoe used her speed and athleticism to evade them or Toyota made hot tags and did her flying. It was kind of slow, and Hotta wasn't really there, but they did enough to maintain our attention in between the high points. I would have liked to have seen some more inspiration to the submissions, and probably a few less of them and instead some more stiffness from Hotta and Ito, who were a bit light. That being said, Toyota, Momoe, & Ito certainly did enough
to make it an acceptable final. **1/4
MS: Coming into this match ManaMomo had worked nearly 3 times as long as
Ito and Hotta had (34 minutes to 12), so it was a major let-down that Hotta
and to a lesser extent Ito partially dragged this match down because they
appeared more worn out then ManaMomo. The work was fairly good, but way too
one-sided in favor of Ito and Hotta. This wouldn't have bothered me if they
were losing, but since they were going over it was a joke how Manami and
Momoe couldn't get any sustained offense on either of them. Momoe was given
virtually nothing by Hotta and not much more from Ito, so she basically got
beat on 99% of the time she was in there. Even Manami wasn't allowed to do
much as Hotta was selfish as usual and Ito wouldn't sell much for her. This
surprised me because I while I somewhat expected them to pull that shit with
Momoe, I didn't expect Manami to tolerate it happening to her. There was
one strong near fall where Momoe got the latch on Hotta, but otherwise they
just meandered through the match and to the finish which had virtually no
build to it. **1/4
First Turbulence: Saki Maemura vs. Fumiko Yamane. 1/2*
Zenjo vs. JWP Tag Match: Miyuki Fujii & Mika Nishio vs. Komina Ichikawa & Kaori Yoneyama. *1/2
Black Joker's Turbulence: Tomoko Watanabe & Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi vs. Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue. **1/2
All Pacific Title Decision Match: Kumiko Maekawa vs. Momoe Nakanishi. ****1/2
Dream Tag Match ~super collaboration~: Shinobu Kandori & Yumiko Hotta vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda. **
WWWA Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Kaoru Ito vs. Manami Toyota. ****
Black Joker's Turbulence: Tomoko Watanabe & Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi vs. Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue. **1/2
All Pacific Senshuken Oza Ketteisen: Kumiko Maekawa vs. Momoe Nakanishi. ****1/2
Dream Tag Match ~super collaboration~: Shinobu Kandori & Yumiko Hotta vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda. **
WWWA World Single Title: Kaoru Ito vs. Manami Toyota. ****
Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi & Mika Nishio vs. Eagle Sawai
& Takako Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe. Watanabe is obviously a big improvemt
over Rumi, but it weakens this matchup as a whole because Nishio is worse
than Rumi and now there's no one to carry the AJW side. Match was mainly
one person running at the other and knocking them over. Good effort, but
not much skill. **
MS: AJW seriously needs to bring Mariko Yoshida in full-time to lead the
faces against Black Joker. The four members of Black Joker (including Rumi
Kazama) are all established women while the faces side is filled with younger
women who'd be very low on the card if AJW had more depth. Of course, if
AJW actually knew how to book you could look at this fued as a chance to
elevate the 3 faces. However, the Matsunaga's don't know how to do this and
they'll probrably let Joker run all-over Nanae, Kayo, and Mika. Realistically
none of those 3 has much in the way of offense anyway, so it's tough to ask
women with the resumes of Takako and Watanabe to sell 4 straight dropkicks
every night, but bringing in Yoshida could eleviate much of this problem.
She could teach her teammates how to work and give them some credibility
(unfortunately not much because of how ARSION's buried her). Nanae is already
being moved up by winning the WWWA Tag Titles again, but she needs to eventually
try an establish herself away from Momoe. Back to the match itself, nobody
did much here though Watanabe took a couple of good bumps for Nanae and buried
her with a couple of strong looking screwdrivers. **1/2
Saki Maemura vs. Ayako Sato. They tired each other out throwing dropkick after dropkick. 3:20 shown
WWWA Sekai Midget Senshuken "Tsunokake's Final Smile" Midget Puroresu Tomezo Tsunokake Intai Jiai: Tomezo Tsunokake vs. Little Frankie. Thankfully it only lasted 59 seconds.
Kaoru Ito vs. Kumiko Maekawa. These are two of the promotions best, but that doesn't make this a good matchup. Both women kick their opponents ass, but here someone had to sell. Maekawa was supposed to be the one doing this, but she's never done this well. The match was pretty strong when they used their offense that doesn't require much help from the taker, and granted that's much of their move set. They didn't have good chemistry though, nor did they put any thought into structuring or building the match. What aired could be on the low end of good, but that they cut so much out is likely telling since the live report I got said it wasn't that great and the reasons why were certainly apparent. 7:44 shown
Manami Toyota vs. Miyuki Fujii. They showed close to half the match, but there were so many edits to cut out 30 seconds here and a minute there that it killed whatever flow the match might have had. I'm not thrilled with these matches where Toyota makes fun of her lesser opponent, but her making it jokey does allow it to last a lot longer than she should need to beat them. 8:34 shown
Zenjo vs. ARSION Taikosen Road to Starwars: Yumiko Hotta &
Momoe Nakanishi vs. Rie Tamada & Miyuki Fujii. Got off to a nice start
with Momoe & Fujita's flying, but Hotta & Rie quickly sucked the
life out of it. Compared to Momoe & Fujita, these two were in super slow
motion doing incredible deliberate sequences. Rossy was sitting in the back
initially, but by 7:30 Hotta had hit him and Rossy took a seat at the timekeepers
table. I hate unentertaining non-sport more than anyone, but I at least expected
the Japanese to do a less disgraceful version of it. I can't even begin to
describe how bad the segments involving Rossy were though. He made Leno look
like Kanemoto in his prime. The spot where he tripped Hotta was so lame it
was laughable, but nothing could top Hotta having to make like someone was
restraining her while Rossy took a minute to get his suit off, not even Rossy's
deadly offense of tickling Hotta's face with a piece of paper! I never thought
I'd stick up for Satan, but at least Vince is in shape. Rossy looks like
the type that at 17 was the last pick in a game with a bunch of 8 year olds,
and now he can't even move or bend. The fans were throwing drinks at him.
When he finally got his suit off, a fan behind him dumped a glass of water
on his back. To top it all off, the ref threw the "match" out after
Hotta "tackled" Rossy and "ripped" some of his clothes
off. In the midst of all this nonsense, Fujita did more of the best wrestling
she's ever done against Momoe. She's the better flyer of the two, but that's
really her whole game. What makes Momoe amazing is how she uses her athleticism
to make her opponents look so much better than they are, whereas Fujita doesn't
make anyone look better. DUD
MS: I realize that hate is a very strong word, but I don't know another more
fitting for my feelings towards Rossy Ogawa. It was bad enough that Momoe
had to sell a lot for that load Tamada, and that Hotta was moving so slowly
that she was traveling back in time. Those two totally dragged this match
down, but having that old dirty bastard completely ruin the outstanding work
of Momoe and Ai had me wishing that someone would throw something stronger
than water at him. Momoe and Ai were easily **** range with their work against
each other until everyone else decided to piss the match down the drain.
I'd recommend checking it out just to see the rematch segments between Ai
and Momoe, but prepared to see it get buried by the egos of a glorified scrub
in Tamada and a walking piece of refuse named Rossy. **3/4 solely due to
Nakanishi and Fujita's work.
Toyota dresses up as a little girl and lip synchs
Manami Toyota vs. Ayako Sato. 4 matches. *1/2
Kumiko Maekawa vs. Miyuki Fujii. *
Cosplay Handicap Match: Yumiko Hotta & Kaoru Ito vs. Nanae Takahashi & Mika Nishio & Saki Maemura. -**
Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi. **1/2
Miyuki Fujii & Ayako Sato vs. Mika Nishio & Saki Maemura. 4:59 shown
Black Joker vs. Queen Bee: Takako Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Manami Toyota & Nanae Takahashi. 6:04 shown
Japan Grand Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Rie Tamada vs. Yumiko Hotta. -***
Japan Grand Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Kaoru Ito vs. Momoe Nakanishi. ****
Japan Grand Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Kayo Noumi vs. Kumiko Maekawa. *
Japan Grant Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kayo
Noumi
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 a
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. Around 10 minutes
in Kayo regained control of the match with a couple of variations of dropkicks
and a monkeyflip 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
everytime they went outside. But Momoe was actually the one who brought the
match down as she was moving in slo-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. 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. 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
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.
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.
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).
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
Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta vs. Kaoru Ito & Takako Inoue
MS: This was a weird match in that they wrestled it like they were on a small
house show instead of Korakuen Hall for a TV taping. The pacing was very
methodical and there were numerous rest-holds killing the faster pace Manami
normally tries to establish. Nobody looked bad, but aside from Manami nobody
did much either (and even she had a very paired down set-list tonight). Hotta
was competent and didn't drag things down as she normally does, but Takako
and Ito seemed to be in slow motion for the majority of the match. There
did seem to be an undercurrent of legitimate heat between Manami and Ito
(obviously some being worked) which would've made things more interesting
had they faced-off more often. Instead Takako spent most of the time in the
ring vs. Manami, and a lot of that had her putting Manami in long submissions
that neither tried to make look good. Even the finish had nothing going for
it as most of their "A" offense was left unused. **1/2
Ayako Sato vs. Miyuki Fujii
Saki Maemura vs. Mika Nishio
Japan Grant Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Kayo Noumi vs. Rie Tamada
MS: This wasn't too bad though it was hindered by Tamada spending most of
the time on offense, despite the fact that she was going over. Not that Kayo
has an incredible or even solid arsenal of her own, but being that she was
the home girl and was losing it would've been nice to see her challenge more
than she did. The last couple of minutes were pretty good though with some
cool near falls that got the crowd into it (though Kayo was getting reactions
throughout). Before the match they shook hands and after the match Rie helped
Kayo up and showed her respect by raising her arm (i.e. like a wrestler normally
does when they win), so apparently she's a tolerable wrestler and nice person
on her own and only a horrible heel when Rossy is around. **
Japan Grant Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Nanae Takahashi vs. Tomoko
Watanabe
MS: It's hard to make 13 minutes seem like an eternity, but they certainly
tried to here. A very banal match that was about as boring as it gets. Nanae
worked hard and did her best, but she's not good enough to carry anyone,
especially a slug like Watanabe has become. Tomoko looked pretty washed up
here with the exception of a couple of good looking screwdrivers. It was
too bad that Nanae lost because her going over would've been the only saving
grace this match could've have. *1/4
Japan Grant Prix '02 Koshiki Leaguesen: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kumiko
Maekawa
MS: I wasn't expecting this to be as good as their 2/24 match of the year
candidate, but it was still a big let-down nonetheless. Continuing the theme
of this show, they worked a very deliberate pace for the majority of the
match. Alot of this had to do with the fact that Kumiko seemed to be on offense
for 21 or 22 of the first 25 minutes. It was totally one-sided for the main
body of the match but she didn't do enough to make you think that Momoe was
in any danger of losing. Maekawa mainly relied on various submissions and
a few kicks that were ok but nothing special. They went outside a couple
of times as well but since it was obvious that they were going long, a lot
of what they did came off as stretching. Things finally picked up about 26
minutes in with them going to back-and-forth near falls. The problems though
were that Maekawa appeared to be blown up and Momoe was either hurt, tired,
or selling so much that her execution wasn't nearly as fluid as usual. And
as a result there was no drama at all for the last few minutes and nobody
believed that they weren't going to a draw. Overall a pretty good match but
a disappointing one. ***
Yumiko Hotta & Kayo Noumi vs. GAMI & noki-A.
MS: Surprisingly the crowd was totally into the sports entertainment aspects
of this match. I guess this was good in the sense that the Zenjo vs. ARSION
program is working. The bad news though is that it's killing the quality
of the matches associated with it. On paper this wasn't a great match anyway,
but I was looking foward to see Kayo vs. noki-A. Unfortunately, the main
focus of the match was the flip-flopping of the referee from ARSION's side
to AJW's side after the :49 second screwjob pin and not the actual wrestling.
Both Hotta and GAMI were out of position a couple of times each when taking
moves, and overall there was noticeable miscommunication between all four
women. Akino did look good with what little she was allowed to do, which
was the only highlight here. After the "second" match Kandori came
out to a huge pop, which was cool, but her and Hotta looked bad because they
toyed with punking Rossy but just let him escape unharmed. And it came off
looking very lame as a result. *1/4
Rena Takase vs. Ayako Sato
Saki Maemura vs. Mako Ogawa
Mika Nishio vs. Emi Tojo
Miyuki Fujii vs. Rie Tamada
Tomoko Watanabe vs. Kumiko Maekawa
WWWA Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Manami Toyota vs. Kaoru Ito 27:48 of 29:06. The Toyota vs. Ito series was Manami's last notable program, so it was only fitting that Toyota ended her career as a serious performer firing up one last time against her greatest remaining rival. Though both women lacked the speed and flexibility of their youth, and sometimes it appeared the brutality stemmed more from this in addition to their excess weight, Ito at least was still able to reach a pretty high level. The match was almost entirely Ito, I'd say she was responsible for 80% of the quality. In Toyota's defense, she was asked to sell the whole way, mainly laying on her stomach, and put over the challenger, but you felt as if that was a strategy to keep things from going awry. The story of the match was Ito debilitating Toyota's back. The focus was excellent, with the entire first half plus devoted to this theme, although the 1/2 crab has never been more than 1/2 interesting for long. Toyota did a nice job of selling all Ito's back stretching, and would make brief flashy comebacks to give her fans hope, but Ito would either pick on the back or lay her out with a brutal power move. Both took to the air from time to time, but the match was more of a slow building heavyweight style bout with many of the big moves being bombs. They pulled off what they tried, but it was a very one-sided match that lacked the spark of their best stuff together. It was one of the best AJW matches of 2002, but nowhere near Momoe vs. Maekawa from 2/24/02, or even that Toyota vs. Ito. Toyota shocked the audience after the match by announcing her departure to Chigusa's retirement home. It was the day the Zenjo died. ***1/2
MS: This was a weird match to watch because of the natural tendency to try
and pick out things that would denote whether or not it was obvious that
this would be Manami's last match in AJW (at least for the time being). Ito
totally dominated the match, but she didn't make Manami look bad or go overly
stiff on her either. And to Manami's credit any problem she had with the
company coming into this match didn't affect her performance at all. This
was one helluva performance by her that featured some of her best selling
ever, certainly the best she's done since the culmination of her fued with
Kyoko in '96. She did appear to torque her back a bit when Ito put her in
a reverse chinlock, but I believe the majority of the pain she was showing
was her selling as opposed to a legitimate injury. But the last few minutes
is what really made this match excellent. It was very much like an old AJ
main event with one big move after another building to an awesome finish,
though there were a lot of dangerous looking head dumpings by both women.
After Ito literally knocked out Mika Nishio with a suicida (she caught Manami
with her arms but Nishio caught the main impact of the move with Ito mistakenly
wiping her out. It wasn't that Manami moved at all, Kaoru just missed her
spot with the jump), Manami finally took over on offense for a sustained
period. This is what I found most interesting about the surroundings of this
match. Manami wound up pushing Ito to the limit before getting pinned as
opposed to the challenger pushing the champion before either winning or succumbing
to a pin. Manami rolled out every big move in her arsenal and some I've never
seen her do before including a brutal looking double armed DDT that was one
of the most dangerous looking I've ever seen. Although it was ironic that
the champion was pushing the challenger, it worked here because it was obvious
how desperate both women were not to lose and since Ito was the #2 in the
company at the time it wasn't like they threw someone without merit into
this match. And no one was happier than me to see how amazing Manami can
still be when she wants to, disspelling some of my comments in Quebrada 81.
Before the match both women were literally flooded with streamers, and Ito
was again after the match. During the match though, the crowd was totally
pro-Manami as she was by far the most important wrestler there in the fans
eyes. During the post-match, it was surreal watching Manami announce her
leaving Zenjo as the crowd was totally stunned with disbelief. Half the crowd
was chanting her name, half were standing silently by not knowing how to
react, and some of each group were crying as well. There was also a small
percentage that appeared to think it was a work, but I'd say 99% knew it
wasn't. Probably the match of the year right now slightly edging out Nakanishi
vs. Maekawa from 2/24. ****1/2
2/3 Falls WWWA Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Rumi Kazama & Takako Inoue vs.
Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi
MS: A pretty disappointing match on every level. Takako looked the worst
I've ever seen her look. The urakens were as weak as usual, but she moved
like she was either sick, resentful for having to drop the titles, or like
she couldn't care less. NANAMOMO got their asses kicked for 98% of the match
that aired, barely getting any offense in on two women who are hardly known
as being dominant wrestlers. The worst part of the match though was Nanae
abandoning Momoe (who was getting killed in a 2 on 1 by Takako and Kazama)
to tie Eagle and Watanabe to the ring post. It was nice to see Kayo finally
interfere on her behalf (after watching them face a 4 on 2 for most of the
match), but it was stupid for Nanae to leave to for a few minutes to deal
with the rest of Black Joker when Momoe was in an easy position to get pinned
for the 3rd fall. Granted, Eagle and Watanabe needed to be stopped from intefering
at will, but after she hit them with a suicida she could've left Kayo and
Fujii to rope them so she could help out Momoe, who was actually one of the
participants in the match. Instead, she again came off as not overly bright
for potentially costing her team the match. I'm sure Momoe was by far the
best of the 4, but since all she did was get pounded it was hard to tell
(though she did a great job selling her injured neck early on). **
7/6/02
All Japan Junior Title League: Rena Takase vs. Ayako Sato. Digest
Miyuki Fujii vs. Rie Tamada. Digest
Tomoko Watanabe vs. Kumiko Maekawa
Yumiko Hotta & Kayo Noumi vs. GAMI & noki-A
2/3 Falls WWWA Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Rumi Kazama & Takako Inoue vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi
WWWA World Single Title Match: Manami Toyota vs. Kaoru Ito 29:06
7/9/02
Japan Grand Prix ’02 League Match: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Tomoko Watanabe 6:10
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Semifinal: Nanae Takahashi vs. Kumiko Maekawa 5:53
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Semifinal: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Rie Tamada 6:57
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Final: Nanae Takahashi vs. Momoe Nakanishi 6:20
Kayo Noumi Photobook CAT Making
Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Tsubasa Kuragaki & Miyuki Fujii & Saki Maemura
Rising Generation League Match: Ayako Sato vs. Mari Kuwada
Rising Generation League Match: Mako Ogawa vs. Mika Nishio
Japan Grand Prix ’02 League Match: Nanae Takahashi vs. Kayo Noumi 19:12
Japan Grand Prix ’02 League Match: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Tomoko Watanabe 6:10
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Semifinal: Nanae Takahashi vs. Kumiko Maekawa 5:53
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Semifinal: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Rie Tamada 6:57
Japan Grand Prix ’02 Final: Nanae Takahashi vs. Momoe Nakanishi 6:20
Day Show
Ayako Sato vs. Miyuki Fujii
AJ Junior Title Tournament: Mika Nishio vs. Mari Kuwada
Momoe Nakanishi vs. Saki Maemura
Kumiko Maekawa vs. Yumiko Hotta
Kayo Noumi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Zap I & Zap T
Night Show
Momoe Nakanishi vs. Ayako Sato
Nanae Takahashi vs. Saki Maemura
Takako Inoue vs. Kumiko Maekawa
AJ Tag Title Tournament Final: Mika Nishio & Miyuki Fujii vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Kayoko Haruyama
Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Kayo Noumi & Yumiko Hotta
Zen Nihon Junior Oza Kettei Leaguesen: Ayako Sato & Kaori Yoneyama
Zen Nihon Junior Oza Kettei Leaguesen: Mika Nishio vs. Saki Maemura
W EXPLOSION SUMMER JUNGLE: Yumiko Hotta & Miyuki Fujii & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. noki-A & Bionic J & Melissa
W EXPLOSION SUMMER STORM: Kumiko Maekawa & Rie Tamada vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue
All Pacific Title Match: Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kayo Noumi
WWWA Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Kaoru Ito vs. Nanae Takahashi
Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Saki Maemura 10:59
All Japan Junior Champion Decision League Match: MARU vs. Ayako Sato 10:43
All Japan Junior Champion Decision League Match: Mika Nishio vs. Emi Tomimatsu 13:10
Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Kayo Noumi & Miyuki Fujii 13:00 of 16:06
Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta vs. Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi 21:34
Mika Nishio vs. Saki Maemura 6:11 of 10:24
Miyuki Fujii vs. Saki Maemura 5:24 of 11:05
Tag League The Best ’02: Kumiko Maekawa & Genki Misae vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai 14:54 of 20:44
Kaoru Ito vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki 13:02
Tag League The Best ’02: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida 5:33
Tag League The Best ’02: Nanae Takahashi & Fang Suzuki vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi 21:01
Blizzard Yuki #2 (Mika Nishio) vs. Miyuki Fujii. 2 min shown
MARU & Saki Maemura vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Rena Takase. 4 1/2 min shown
All Pacific Title Tournament 1st Round: noki-A vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki. 7 min shown
All Pacific Title Tournament 1st Round: Kayo Noumi vs. Fang Suzuki. 6 min shown
Mega Power: Nanae Takahashi vs. Eagle Sawai. 4 min shown
Vale Tudo Match: Yumiko Hotta vs. Amazing Kong
Tag League The Best '02 Koshikisen: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Misae Genki. 4 min shown
All Pacific Title Tournament Final: noki-A vs. Kayo Noumi
WWWA Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Kaoru Ito vs. Momoe Nakanishi
Chaparrita ASARI vs. Saki Maemura 9:24
Tag League The Best ’02: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Miyuki Fujii & Mika Nishio 12:33
Tag League The Best ’02: Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai 17:03
Tag League The Best ’02: Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Nanae Takahashi & Fang Suzuki 23:27
Tag League The Best ’02: Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Misae Genki 30:00
All Japan Single Title Match: Miyuki Fujii vs. Kaori Yoneyama 9:32 of 13:37
Bionic J & noki-A vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Saki Maemura 15:33
Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Kayo Noumi & Mika Nishio 15:11
2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: NANA (Nanae Takahashi) & MOMO (Momoe Nakanishi) vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 26:11
Cage Death Match: Amazing Kong vs. Yumiko Hotta 15:37
All Japan Junior Title Match: Mika Nishio vs. Reina Takase 3:48 of 12:12
Miyuki Fujii vs. Saki Maemura 3:05 of 12:50
Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Mari Kuwada & Hiroka Yaginuma 1:22
Eagle Sawai vs. Kumiko Maekawa 3:38 of 9:51
Tag League The Best ’02: Fang Suzuki & Nanae Takahashi vs. Takako Inoue & Tomoko Watanabe 17:40 of 20:40
All Pacific Title Match: noki-A vs. Kayo Noumi 18:42
Cage Death Match ~survivor of a war 2~: Yumiko Hotta & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Amazing Kong & Shark Tsuchiya 15:52
Yoshimi Shioya Debut Match: Kaoru Ito vs. Yoshimi Shioya (Hikaru) 0:06
Kaoru Ito vs. Yoshimi Shioya 4:37
Amazing Kong vs. Saki Maemura 4:08
Tag League The Best ’02: Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai vs. Miyuki Fujii & Mika Nishio 7:17 of 12:51
Tag League The Best ’02: Nanae Takahashi & Fang Suzuki vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Misae Genki 17:43 of 23:39
Tag League The Best ’02: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita 8:25 of 9:26
Tag League The Best ’02: Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mariko Yoshida 8:30
Tag League The Best ’02 Semifinals: Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita 4:31
Tag League The Best ’02 Semifinals: Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue vs. Nanae Takahashi & Fang Suzuki 4:47
Tag League The Best ’02 Final: Momoe Nakanishi & Kayo Noumi vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Takako Inoue 4:19