Bull Nakano won the vacant WWWA World Single Title on January 4, 1990 after beating Mitsuko Nishiwaki to a bloody pulp, and a new era was ushered in. Bull didn't have any credible opponents in 1990, and spent much of the year getting her monster gimmick over while others built themselves up. As the year progressed, an unexpected challenger revealed herself; her underling, Aja Kong, who along with her tag team partner, Bison Kimura, left Bull's Gokumon-to group in August and Bull and Aja began their legendary rivalry. In March, Aja Kong and Bison Kimura, who had been in the shadows, were sent to participate in the launch of the men's lucha libre organization, the Universal Wrestling Federation, run by Gran Hamada. This turned out not only to be the turning point for them, but a turning point for women's wrestling as a whole. Aja and Bison, as well as others who made appearances in Universal, shattered the prejudice of women's wrestling, and the male audience who had never given the Crush Gals a second thought, started coming to All Japan Women shows. Aja and Bull would compete in two tag cage matches, which were memorable for very different reasons. The first one was such a disaster it had fans demanding refunds. The second one was such a success that it caught the attention of "Weekly Pro Wrestling" who featured the match on its cover, making another major turning point in women's wrestling (more details can be found in the review).

Manami Toyota was the rising star of 1990, finding popularity from the growing male audience. Toyota went on to win the Japan Grand Prix and challenged Bull for the WWWA World Single title the following month, though she was far out of her depth, and Bull ran through her easily. She went on to win the All Pacific Title on October 7, defeating Bison Kimura for the vacant belt. Akira Hokuto herself, continued on her way from 1989, she was the second biggest name in All Japan Women after Bull, and they were the two best wrestlers in the company. She was likely to have won the Japan Grand Prix, but she suffered a serious knee injury when she did her somersault dive in the semi-final match with Toyota, smashing her knee on the guardrail. The wound was so severe the bone could be seen. On August 19, in the semi-main event, she faced Toyota again, and wanted to humiliate the junior, but was unable to as the match went for a 30-minute draw. Hokuto, along with Suzuka Minami, were WWWA Tag Team champions for the majority of 1990, but lost the belts to Aja and Bison on December 9.

Although there were some matches featured in previous years, this is the "real first year" of JWP, due to the fact that it wasn't worth it for the 1987 handhelds, and there were very few tapes from 1988 and 1989 available. For match quality, JWP was at least on par with All Japan Women, and may have even eclipsed it. Their roster was actually deeper than All Japan Women's, featuring an uppercard made up of Devil Masami, Itsuki Yamazaki, Shinobu Kandori, Miss A (Dynamite Kansai), Harley Saito and Eagle Sawai, to go along with a good group of underneath wrestlers like Mayumi Ozaki, The Scorpion, Plum Mariko and Rumi Kazama, all of whom were good workers at this point, even Cuty Suzuki was a pretty good wrestler by this point.

1/4/90 AJW: Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita 16:32. Plenty of action to start, with Yamada rushing in early and going after Hotta with kicks, Hotta withstood that and gave Yamada a harder kicking in response. Mita didn't have much to do here other than play face in peril, getting stretched. Chigusa Nagayo popularized the sleeper, before her retirement, so everyone used those at some point in the match. Mita came back in, and got some offense later in the match. At one point, she seemed to forget what spot she was going to do next, so she started slapping Hokuto (in case a girl didn't know what to do next, they always had a default reaction, and slapping was a common one). Hokuto had steam coming out of her ears, and responded by cracking her twice across the face as hard as she could, and then dropkicked her, leaving Mita with a bloody mouth. The action picked up again at the end, with everyone switching in and out, and going back and forth. There were good near falls. Yamada accidentally took Mita out with a dive and Hokuto and Hotta hit dives of their own to put her away. Yamada and Hotta were the standouts here, they were setting up their kakutogi fight the next day (which Yamada won easily by decision). ***1/4

1/4/90 AJW WWWA World Single Champion Decision Match: Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs. Bull Nakano 13:37. This isn't a particularly good match, but it's worth a look at due to being the match that ushered in the Bull era. No idea what the actual match time was, as the end credits on TV say this match went 12:30, but classics showed 13:37 of it, and that had noticeable clipping when they were on the outside. A somewhat educated guess would be 15:30, but there's no way to tell. Four months following Lioness Asuka's retirement, Zenjo finally decided it was time to crown a new champion. The point of this match wasn't to be a good match. It was to make Bull into the unstoppable monster by killing Nishiwaki, though it was somewhat hit and miss in that regard. Nishiwaki jumped Bull before the bell, but that didn't work, and she got busted open before the bell even rung. For what they were doing, this was good. Nishiwaki showed a ton of heart and fire, but Bull was a monster, sold nothing, and was vicious with her beatings. Nishiwaki started a run almost too easily. This was the part I didn't like. She didn't need to be sitting in a crab after a weak backdrop, she needed to be making fired up bursts to try to get the monster off her feet. She broke it and then Bull went back to killing her. After a human hanging, Nishiwaki got some respite on the outside, and then she did try the running burst I wanted, but Bull thwarted her. Bull followed her outside, but Nishiwaki psyched her out by getting back in the ring first and waiting. Bull came back in, and started kicking her, so Nishiwaki did it again. Nishiwaki tried headbutts, and ate a lariat in the face for it. Bull followed her outside when she bailed, and Nishiwaki finally got somewhere when Bull struck the ringpost with a lariat. Nishiwaki worked the arm in the ring. Bull tried a lariat, but it did nothing because her arm was damaged. Bull managed to turn a short arms scissors into a sharpshooter. She hit the guillotine legdrop for a near fall. Nishiwaki got one more run, hitting a missile dropkick and a powerbomb, but then missed a dive. Bull hit a German and Nishiwaki responded with her own, but Bull got up first and hit a powerbomb to win the title. The goal was mostly achieved, but I'd have gone with a very simple approach for this. Bull dominates and sells nothing until that wears out its welcome. Nishiwaki finds a reprieve and gets to regroup. They do that good portion where Nishiwaki keeps taking breaks trying to figure out what she can do, leading to the ringpost lariat and Nishiwaki's armwork. After that, Nishiwaki hits a few spots, which should generate one believable near fall. She misses her dive to end the run, Bull comes back, destroys Nishiwaki and wins convincingly. What they went with felt disjointed. Regardless, this was still a pretty good match, though not up to red belt standards, it's still better than those horrible Lioness Asuka vs. Madusa matches. **1/2

3/18/90 AJW 2/3 Falls: WWWA World Tag Title Match: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Manami Toyota & Etsuko Mita 5:07, 3:13, 5:14. This match was something else. The Marine Wolves looked ridiculous in their bright yellow swimsuits. Hokuto had a rough exchange with Mita at the start, and then just pasted her and tossed her away like she was garbage, and not worthy of fighting her. The same thing happened when Minami and Mita started to go at it, but Minami put her in the corner and demanded Toyota, so Mita just shouted at her, and Toyota came back in. Hokuto did a piledriver to Toyota, and Mita came in to interrupt the pin, so Hokuto broke off Toyota and nailed Mita with a forearm. Toyota got worked and tagged Mita. Minami actually worked with her this time because Mita had to take the pin. Mita was really sloppy in these exchanges, but ended up taking a bunch of moves, and Minami pinned her in the most nonchalant way. Second fall started with Minami throwing Mita away, getting Toyota in again. Toyota did some spots with Hokuto and Minami, and then tagged in Mita again. Hokuto no sold a body attack and cracked her with another slap, but gave her a few moves after that, and Mita actually fired up now. Miscommunication from the Marine Wolves allowed Mita to scamper to the corner, and Toyota got the pinfall with a flash pin. Mita sat in an armbar for a while that wasn't applied particularly well. Toyota was back in soon enough. She'd been really good through the first two falls, but started botching a bit here. Her worst crime was screwing up Hokuto's spots. She stopped short on the ropes when she was supposed to come off for something Hokuto wanted to do, so Hokuto flew off the handle, and pasted her while she was in the ropes. Minami had to come in and put a stop to it. Hokuto did the Hokuto dive from the apron. Toyota took a while on the outside to recover, while her face was blowing up from Hokuto's punches. When she was ready to return, Hokuto set her up for Minami's diving senton, which missed, and Toyota got a near fall. Minami switched and hit a German suplex, a second one was countered, and Toyota hit a dodgy suplex, then Mita entered with an ugly diving body press where she managed to knee Minami square in the face. Minami was feeling that one, and quickly got out of there. Hokuto came back in with a missile dropkick, but got caught in an airplane spin afterward. Mita Northern Light's Suplexed her for a two count. Toyota came in, and they had an exchange of suplexes. Toyota went up for a missile dropkick, but missed, and Hokuto sat right back on a crab, almost breaking Toyota in half for the immediate submission. It didn't get any less heated after the match either. This was Hokuto madness, a highly entertaining train wreck, and a good, heated action-packed match all in one. ***1/2

4/22/90 JWP Korakuen Hall: Plum Mariko vs. The Scorpion 11:24. Good back and forth juniors match. The stretching didn't last too long, they were mainly going back and forth. They worked some fast transitons and Scorpion got to work in some of her lucha moves. They worked in everything they knew, the Scorpion had an impressive movement, they all looked good, they were flashy and they looked good. Plum moved really well and had good burst, she just didn't have a vast moveset. It was easy to see the potential in Plum and she was easy to work with, which is why when experienced veterans, such as Itsuki Yamazaki and Chigusa Nagayo came to JWP, they chose to work with her in their first matches. The match just had a nice pace and flow to it the whole time and never got bogged down like many JWP matches. The finish saw Scorpion hit a moonsault for a big near fall, and the two landed on their feet to counter their backdrop suplexes, Plum had the back and quickly hit a German to secure the victory. ***1/4

5/13/90 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki 6:39. 4:48, 8:21. This was the last battle between the Marine Wolves vs. Fire Jets. They shared victories in 1989, with the Fire Jets winning the tag titles in their last match. Both were very good, action packed matches. By 1990, there weren't many schoolgirls coming to the shows anymore, but the ones that turned up here were loud, and they were all about the Marine Wolves. It started hot with a brief, uncooperative segment between Hotta and Hokuto. Nishiwaki jumped Minami, and they went down to the mat. The good thing about the matwork was that they weren't holding back on anything, Hokuto was nasty, and Minami wasn't far behind. Hotta got the tag in, kicked the hell out of Minami, and took it to the mat again with a figure four where both Hokuto and Nishiwaki added illegal dives. Out of that, they moved into a hot finish, that ended with Nishiwaki escaping Minami's backbreaker with a backdrop suplex. The finishing run felt premature. They didn't move through the gears, they just went from 1st to 4th, and it was over. Hotta kicked Minami around for a while, and then it was Hokuto all over Nishiwaki with a completely fired up run. Minami kept it going, hitting big moves and looking for near falls on Hotta. After about 20 two counts from moves, Minami got the pin with a roll up. Again, the timing was off, the last few moves were really hot, but the rest of it was like one of those 1-2 movespam minute falls, stretched out to 5, which became tedious. They got it all right in the third fall, which was great. They worked over Hotta's arm, and she ended up bolting to the corner to make the tag. It kept slowly building from there at a much better pace. Minami dumped Nishiwaki, and the Marine Wolves hit dives on both Fire Jets, then they brawled. In the ring, Marine did stereo sharpshooters and tried another double team, but The Fire Jets hit stereo German Suplexes. Hotta did the old Crush Gals elbow. Hokuto tried a dive, but missed. Nishiwaki gave her a series of slaps and tried a powerbomb, but Hokuto countered it and got the win. There was a lot of really good stuff throughout this match, but the pacing of the first two falls dragged it down a bit. The third fall was excellent. ***1/4

5/25/90 JWP: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko 14:09. Itsuki Yamazaki, along with just about everyone else remaining from the pre-1985 classes, retired in 1989, making a return to the scene in JWP a year later and having a great 19 month run before retiring again. Unlike many who retire and join other leagues, Yamazaki's motivation and effort were always at a maximum. She worked just as hard in JWP as she did in All Japan Women, but she was a different worker, more like her mentors Devil Masami and Jaguar Yokota. She still had her high spots, but used them more sparingly. She worked the veteran role, smarter and having the heel edge that we didn't see a lot of by the mid-80s. This match was about getting back into it after a year off. She was working with a good young wrestler in Plum Mariko, who could keep up with her and was easy to lead. The opening saw Plum deliver a German Suplex, catching Yamazaki and doing some damage to her neck, so Plum looked target it, but it wasn't long before she was outskilled. Yamazaki lifted her up while she was in a body scissors and slamming her down. Yamazaki utlilized a sleeper and later, a headlock, but not in the common way. Here she would apply it briefly as set up, then quickly deliver a move before reapplying it. Plum didn't have an answer, but got a reprieve when Yamazaki dragged her outside, and threw her into the guardrail. They restarted, and Yamazaki hit her flying armdrag, and then Plum made a hot comeback. Plum made a good comeback, firing up and hitting a running attacks. The flying knee looked great, then Plum took some revenge for the sleeper, which she had some success. Yamazaki tried to knee her in the head to get out of it, but Plum held on, crossed her legs over Yamazaki's so that wasn't an option, but Yamazaki still worked her way out. Coming off that, Yamazaki hit her diving sunset flip from the second rope, then looked to go for the arm, but Plum took her down into her kneebar. Yamazaki escaped it, but Plum kept finding ways to come off the ropes and reapply it. Yamazaki didn't mind bending the rules to get out of it, and managed to do so. The first thing Yamazaki did after getting out was a big kneebreaker, and then limped over to other side to hit a great missile dropkick. She looked for her vaulting kick, but Plum kicked her off the apron. Plum gave her a piledriver out there, and went for a plancha, but Yamazaki avoided it. They both went for dropkicks in the ring, and Plum got a couple of suplexes, including a superplex. Yamazaki was just one step ahead of her, escaping her crab attempt and hitting a rolling attack. Then Plum leapt over Yamazaki and went into the corner looking for a body press, but Yamazaki walked straight into it to roll through it for a near fall. Plum avoided Yamazaki's missile dropkick. Yamazaki was exhausted. Plum went for a corner charge, but Yamazaki kneed her, and finished with a diving headbutt. Any idea that Yamazaki had come to JWP to coast was dispelled immediately. She pushed herself with Plum, and went until she was exhausted, giving her a very hard working, competitive match. Plum was in top form, keeping up every step of the way. While the result was never in doubt, there was enough drama. It was compelling to see how far Plum could push her and close she could get. ****

6/4/90 UNIVERSAL: Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Grizzly Iwamoto vs. Manami Toyota, Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi 16:59. All Japan Women had been sending wrestlers over to Universal since their first show, usually wrestlers they weren't featuring themselves such as those from the 1986 class (five of which were featured in this match). These appearances were an important turning point for Zenjo because the Universal audience, primarily male fans who hadn't paid attention to women's wrestling before, really took to the matches and specifically, Aja, and these fans started coming to see the women's shows. Here, they added Manami Toyota into the mix as well. This was the best of the matches up to this point. They'd come in, do a couple of spots and get out. Everyone was good in this, and it was all action, all the time. Toyota was the standout here, hurling herself around hitting every running move she knew at this point, and all of them looked great. She did a flying headscissors at one point, which I hadn't seen her do before. Aja got a huge reaction everytime she came into the ring, and came off like a really big star. The drunken fans were annoying early, they created some atmosphere but were lukewarm to the match itself initially, but got into it later on. The exchange that seemed to really turn them was when Aja got sent outside, Maeda hit a tope, Takahashi a plancha, and Toyota did a pescado but got caught. Aja and Toyota had an exchange in the ring, and the crowd chanted for Toyota. She survived all of Aja's big moves with the pops and chants getting louder. It settled down again, and heated up again when Toyota and Aja went at it. Toyota this time got a near fall German Suplex, but ate a Uraken trying to follow up and Aja put her away with her own German. ****

6/14/90 JWP Junior League Match: Mayumi Ozaki vs. The Scorpion 14:29. This was an interesting match with Ozaki slowing Scorpion down to work more methodically, mainly centering the match around holds with bursts of speed and spots mixed it. They put effort into the holds and selling. Ozaki's sadistic touches on everything always help, though there isn't a lot to it beyond that. They mixed in their spots at the right times, and it helped to carry along and make the match feel exciting. They picked things up for the finish after 10 minutes, which was the best part of the match. They threw all the big moves out there, suplexes, dives, tombstones, jackhammers, Scorpion hit a moonsault. Scorpion wanted to use her flashy offense, while Ozaki was content to go with whatever worked, simply using knee strikes or boots if that was the best option. It was all good until the goofy finish, which saw Ozaki block a dropkick, but Scorpion got her into a pinning predicament for a two count, then re-pinned her from the same position, which got a three count despite Ozaki getting out at two again. ***

7/19/90 JWP: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito 18:54. This was the pinnacle of the intense, uncooperative mixture of shoot style elements and traditional pro-wrestling. There was nothing but seething hatred on display here, from the opening staredown, shoving and slapping each other as they circled each other. Kandori asserted dominance from the start, violently flinging Harley to the mat twice, with Harley defiantly popping up just as quickly as she was flung. Kandori went for her submissions early, for Harley getting to the ropes to cause a break wasn't an issue, but it also wasn't good enough because Kandori would just drag her back to the middle and reapply. Harley needed to create separation, whether it be clinging on the ropes so Kandori couldn't pull her back, or better, working her way out via kicking or reversals. Submissions weren't all Kandori had though, she was the stronger of the two, and could easily grab a suplex or simply rush Harley with violent slaps. Harley was very reminiscent of Chigusa Nagayo in this match in terms of her selling, her spurts of offense, and her timing. While Harley was largely brutalized by Kandori, she made her comebacks count, viciously kicking her every chance she had, hitting a move she could get or a submission she could latch onto, but Kandori usually had her number and didn't feel too threatened. This all changed after a sequence where Harley caught her with multiple head kicks and a German Suplex, escaped Kandori's powerbomb into an exchange of flash pins, which caused controversy as Harley got a three count, but Kandori's shoulder was up at two, so the referee didn't call for the bell. The match got going again despite protests from Harley and Miss A, and now Kandori was irate. When the match restarted, Kandori mauled her with strikes and threw Harley into the guard rail. Harley came back with a leg lariat and got a huge near fall with a Tiger suplex. Kandori retaliated with a lariat in the corner and a brainbuter. Harley reversed a backdrop suplex and climbed the turnbuckle, only to be pulled down by Kandori, who in turn went up and was superplexed by Harley. Harley got a small package, but fell into Kandori's heel hook. She made the ropes again, but once they got to their feet, Kandori nailed her and hit her with a filthy Tiger Driver, as brutal as anything else that was done in the match, to take the win. Miss A immediately jumped in the ring and nailed her. At no point did this match cease being compelling. From start to finish, from the submissions, the kicks, the run of two counts towards the end, there was always a level of unpredictability and everything managed to fit within what they were doing. ****3/4

7/21/90 AJW WWWA World Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Manami Toyota 9:06. Hokuto smashed her knee on the guard rail during her match with Manami Toyota at the Japan Grand Prix, literally cutting through the bone. I believe she was supposed to win and challenge Bull here, but she was unable to continue, and Toyota was awarded their match, leading to her defeating Yumiko Hotta later and getting the title match here. Toyota was a junior, she had no chance against Bull. She was walking into a slaughter, and was going to get squashed, it was just a case of whether she'd get in a few good shots before she became roadkill. For what it was, this was brilliant. Toyota was the plucky, and showed a ton of heart throughout. She came out at a million miles an hour throwing dropkicks that weren't phasing Bull, and Bull crushed with a brutal lariat. Bull was a juggernaut, and brutalized Toyota the whole time, but Toyota kept throwing herself at her and trying. Toyota attempted different things. She managed to trip Bull, but she couldn't do anything once she had her on the ground, so that was a dead end too. Bull tossed her around and suplexed her, becoming unamused when the crowd chanted Toyota during a Dragon Sleeper. Toyota frantically kneed out of it, and threw shots at Bull, which only pissed her off, and Bull responded in kind. Toyota managed one flash pin, but it was unthreatening. Bull kept dominating, but Toyota wouldn't die. She managed to take Bull down in a wakigatame, which might have done some damage had she held it. She instead opted to run up the turnbuckle and hit a missile dropkick, and a flying body press, but got caught in a backdrop suplex afterward. Bull climbed up herself, and did a leg attack from the top, but missed the guillotine legdrop. Toyota went for broke, dumping Bull outside and going for a pescado, but Bull avoided it. Toyota fought off a superplex and dove in, but was caught and then Northern Light's suplexed. Toyota came back with a German Suplex for a two count, but then Bull clobbered with a nasty lariat. Toyota slipped out a powerbomb for a two count. Then Bull killed her with the nastiest of them, and folded her with a powerbomb of equal brutality to finish off the kid. This wasn't pretty, it was sloppy at times, but you wouldn't expect it to be clean with a junior wildly hurling herself at the champion, and Bull's sloppiness just makes what she does look even more brutal. It was short, but it didn't need to be artificially made longer just because we might have an expectation that title matches go for 20+ minutes, and it didn't need phony fighting spirit spots and a big run of implausible near falls for Toyota to make the crowd pop for her. They kept it within the realms of what was plausible, and both of them played their roles perfectly, so the match worked. Toyota showed she was one for the future, and it enhanced Bull's reputation and aura. This was exactly what it should have been. ***1/2

8/12/90 JWP Tag Tournament Final: Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Miss A & Harley Saito 24:34 of 30:00. Properly built long match that really had only one problem with it; they booked a tournament with the final going to a time limit draw. Devil and Yamazaki were reunited, and this was before the days where all Miss A and Harley wanted to do was kill each other. Everyone was in and out early, not wanting to give anyone anything or let anything settle. They all fought for their advantages, but couldn't maintain them. They settled in with Yamazaki and Devil working sleeper holds on Harley and grinding her down. A got the hot tag and worked over Yamazaki's knee. This portion was a little better than the previous one because Yamazaki was trying to fight her way out all the time. She was unable to, though she kept glancing over to Devil, who eventually got the hint and came in, solving things by powerbombing Miss A. Devil worked a choke on A, and when A worked her way over to the rope, Yamazaki dragged her outside and mugged her. They worked in a neat spot where Devil did the Romero Special and when Harley ran in to stop it, Yamazaki dove over A and onto Harley. While the middle section of the match remained compelling, with little mini-battles going on all the time which kept it interesting, it was undeniably slow, even with the 5 cut minutes taking place during this period. Another neat battle was Devil putting the Romero Special on Harley, which A broke up, so she just did it again and Yamazaki did a flying crosschop to Harley while she was in it. Devil started going in for the kill on Harley with a giant superplex, but was accidentally taken out by Yamazaki's missile dropkick. Harley tagged out, and A and Devil clobbered each other with lariats for a double down. The final minutes were excellent, with everyone going for the big spots with believable near falls. Yamazaki caught A with the nastiest missile dropkick, smashing her in the mouth. Harley tried to tombstone Devil, and Devil fell back on her. Devil was probably supposed to reverse, but her amused, prideful reaction to it made it better. It got frantic at the end, with Devil and A going for pins, but the time expired, and it ended up a draw. This was a very good match, but would have benefit from being more like 20 minutes, and obviously, having a winner in a tournament final is preferred to a draw. ***1/2

8/19/90 AJW: Kaoru Maeda, Esther Moreno & Mika Takahashi vs. Kyoko Inoue, Hyper Cat & La Diabolica 13:01. Hyper Cat was Yumi Ogura, who'd come out of retirement under a mask. Kyoko was in black and yellow. This was a hyper-speed lucha style match, driven by Esther, she was really impressive and stole the show. Maeda and Diabolica did a good job too. There was some sloppiness, but they all contributed. After they all wiped each other out, it came down to Esther and Hyper Cat, which certainly wasn't the best exchange in the match, but saw Esther win with a moonsault. ***1/4

8/19/90 AJW Kakutogi: Yumiko Hotta vs. Mima Shimoda. This isn't the most skilled fight you'll ever see by any stretch, but it's probably the most entertaining kakutogi fight the league ever put on. They tried to throw Shimoda to the wolves to give ‘shooter' Hotta an easy win, but no one told Shimoda that, and she gave Hotta as much as she could handle. Of course, her success didn't exactly come by playing by the rules, and most of her best shots weren't legal, but that's a minor detail. She was even winning the fight for a while, but Hotta was better later in the fight, and ended up retaliating by smashing Shimoda with a uraken when she was in the ropes to win, which was probably a fitting end. It got even better in the post-match when Shimoda woke up, she wanted more, and kept trying to fight Hotta.

8/19/90 AJW: Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto 30:00. This was a rematch of their Japan Grand Prix match where Hokuto injured her knee on the guard rail and the match was called off. This got off to quite the start, with Toyota slapping the hell out of Hokuto and Hokuto responding, Toyota hit two suplexes and Hokuto went for a flying body press, which was so off target she hit Toyota's knees. Toyota then scrambled and went after Hokuto's bad knee, and they restarted. Toyota made her intent clear that she was going for Hokuto's knee, but Hokuto frantically got to the ropes. Another nice early spot was Hokuto locking a crab, which had Toyota frantically going for the ropes – normally a pedestrian hold, but the crab from 3/18 that Hokuto applied certainly wasn't. Toyota went back to the leg submissions, cycling through the ones she knew, though none were actually convincing, and she'd have been better off sticking to a few simple ones she could apply properly that targeted the knee. Hokuto salvaged them with her selling though, so it wasn't that bad. The ones that got the best reactions was her Indian Deathlock and the simple Figure Four Leglock. Hokuto didn't do much better with her loosely applied sleeper that went on for a while. After getting through the early mat phase, Toyota dumped Hokuto and missed a tope, and Hokuto followed with her somersault dive off the apron. Toyota reversed a tombstone attempt and tombstoned her on the floor, which Hokuto popped up from and gave Toyota a piledriver in a spot that felt overly unnecessary. Sure a piledriver in Japan isn't treated like the big deal it is in the U.S., but one on the wooden floor you'd think would at least do some damage. Toyota entered with a sunset flip and fired off her dropkicks. Hokuto had managed to get Toyota to stop thinking about her knee for the time being, though she got back to it. Hokuto came back and got to apply a half crab. Though she didn't try break Toyota in half this time, it still looked painful, and she switched it into a stretch, then a dragon sleeper. Toyota hit the flying crosschop and a run of dropkicks afterward. She missed a flying bodypress, then ate a missile dropkick. She went outside, and Hokuto hit a plancha. Hokuto perched on top and missile dropkicked Toyota in the back of the head for a near fall when she returned. Northern Light's Bomb hit, but Hokuto only got a near fall. Hokuto went up for a fourth time, and this time she missed. Toyota went up herself, and despite almost losing her balance, hit a diving body press. Hokuto came off the ropes, and they seemed to be on different pages, leading to an ugly collision that got Hokuto a near fall. She didn't fly off the handle, so I'll assume she made that error, but things were getting sloppy in general, as Toyota went for a body press, while Hokuto wasn't even up and just flew over her. At least the flying armdrag that followed was done well. Another missile dropkick from Toyota, but this was countered into Hokuto's brutal crab, but she actually sat back so far that she overshot it, which gave Toyota a reprieve. I'm not sure that that was the goal, but it worked to make sense given how quickly Toyota submitted to it previously. Hokuto hit a Dragon Suplex, which Toyota barely survived. The time was running down, and Toyota hit a German for a near fall just as the time expired. This match can be described in many different words ranging from frustrating, all the way to brilliant. It was many things at times. While a lot of the match was submission based, and they had the story around that, they didn't do them very well, and it all ended up being essentially just something to kill time with, while the bursts of quick action and final portion were excellent. ***1/2

8/19/90 AJW: Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto 25:48. This match marked the beginning of the great Bull vs. Aja rivalry. Bison and Aja left Gokumon-to sometime before this match. Bull didn't like what was going on in Universal, said it was ‘fake wrestling' and told Aja and Bison not to get carried away with their popularity there due to fans not taking it seriously. Bull later admitted these words were said with a great deal of jealously. They were coming to All Japan Women shows regardless, while the ‘traditional' teenage girl audience didn't look like it ever would. Bison told Aja she didn't want to be in Gokuton-to anymore, and told the Matsunaga's as well, then she came to the ring for a match without her heel makeup on, so Bull said “if you want to go alone, go alone and do it” and Bison was out. She wanted Aja on her side, though Aja didn't actually leave the group, she was told by the Matunaga's afterward she'd be joining Bison. Aja thought about it, and knew it was the best thing. She didn't want to be Bull's #2 forever, and knew she would be if she stayed in the group. The Matsunaga's were certainly pulling the puppet strings, and had created a real tension and bad blood that would all come out in the match on 8/19, which would be one of the most savage matches in the history of the league. Bull and Grizzly were the aggressors from the start, with both being particularly vicious, holding nothing back. Bull wasn't holding back either, especially with Bison, who got destroyed for virtually the entire match. It was on Aja and Bison to do the same, or they'd get eaten alive. After dominating Bison, Bull tossed her away like she was garbage, and we were to have the first Aja vs. Bull confrontation of the match, except it didn't happen. Aja came in, they glared at each other and then Bison attacked Bull, and kicked the hell out of her. Aja, intimidated by Bull and not really knowing what to do, just drifted off while Bull destroyed Bison some more. Bison and Aja found their edge soon after on Grizzly, hitting her full force with Aja's trash can and a chair. Bull and Aja did go at it, with Bull hitting a lariat and guillotine. A couple more spots and it was back to Grizzy and Bison. Now Grizzly had a shinai, and was nailing Bison as hard as she could with it, so Bison came back with her tonfa. Grizzly had been busted open early in the match, and now Grizzly was bleeding as well. Bull put a sharpshooter on, and the classic moment followed where Aja starts nailing Bull with a shinai and Bull doesn't even react to it because Aja doesn't hit hard enough. Bison joined in, and Bull looked unimpressed, took the shinai and hit Aja as hard as she could until it was broken. Aja fired up after that beating and hit a series of headbutts. They all brawled again outside. Bison won the battle against Grizzly, but Bull won hers against Aja. The tag match continued on with Bison faring better, getting the best of Grizzly with her Bison chops. She couldn't do anything to Bull though. The ending with Aja and Bull fighting out while Bison hit a German Suplex on Grizzly to get the win, was anticlimactic, but by this point the finish was almost irrelevant. Bull continued going after Aja after the match, and they ended up screaming at each other with tears in their eyes in the ring. This was less of a match, and more of a war. Bison and Grizzly carried the workload here, and did a really good job. They maintained the intensity working what I could describe as a violent and vicious catfight, while getting killed whenever Bull or Aja were in with them, as the match was always building to the rare Bull vs. Aja confrontations. ****

9/30/90 JWP: Rumi Kazama & Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki 15:15. Devil and Yamazaki controlled much of the action through size, skill, and using underhanded tactics and double teams when needed. Kazama mostly got beat on, but made it count when she'd get her offense in, unleashing a barrage of violent kicks when the opportunity arose. Kandori got dominated a lot more than usual by the veterans, but would always fight back, and it was always clear the match could end anytime if she hooked on a submission. Yamazaki picked up the speed and intensity whenever she was in the ring, while Devil was in full giant mode. After getting destroyed for most of the match, the best exchange came when Devil thought she could wear Kazama's kicks but got rocked by one, then Kazama kept laying them in and took her down. Devil ended up winning the exchange, which hurt it's impact, but Kazama at least softened her up so Kandori could get a nice near fall with a Tiger Driver. Towards the end, the match broke down with all four in the ring, and then they had a big brawl on the outside. It appeared Devil was having her way with Kazama, but she didn't put her away. The finish itself was a creative one where all the saves the veterans were making came back and cost them. Devil tagged Yamazaki, who missed a dive coming in. Kandori came in to take over, but Devil cut her off with a lariat. Kazama tried to thwart Devil's interference while Yamazaki gave Kandori a piledriver for a two count. As Yamazaki was pulling Kandori up, Devil shoved Kazama into Yamazaki by mistake, and Kandori capitalized with a small package to win. ***3/4

10/10/90 JWP: Harley Saito & Miss A vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama 21:35. The JWP monthly that featured the 10/10/90 only showed the finish of this match, but the whole thing was released on the best collection. Kandori and Harley picked up where they left off in July, but this time she had Miss A to save her when she got in trouble. Kazama fared better here than she had against Devil and Yamazaki because she could be competitive with Harley. Miss A was more of a challenge, but at one point she gave a thunderous kick to the face, which put her down for a while, then Harley for the same treatment. Kandori applied a sleeper to Harley and once she got out of that, she caught Kandori with a kick to the head to put her down. Kicks were the answer to move questions here. The match just maintained a steady mid pace throughout with constant action and momentum switches. The two on the apron often made their presence felt. Things escalated later in the match, after a good exchange between Kazama and Harley, which was ended by Miss A storming the ring and delivering a heavy lariat to Kazama. Kazama came back and tagged in Kandori, who looked to set up a Tiger Driver, but Harley hit a leg lariat, sending Kandori outside and leading to dives from both Harley and Kazama, and a brawl outside. They worked in a good finish, with Kandori vs. Harley, and the partners making their presence felt, It seemed that they'd be the difference, and whoever could cut them off held the best chance. Another brawl outside saw both Kandori and Harley roughed up, but Kandori stayed ahead in the ring. Kazama missed a dive when tagged in, and the same happened A. A neat spot where Kandori and A both struck each other with lariats almost secured Kazama a pin. Kandori recovered to assist with a suplex. Kazama went for a dive, but Harley held her in place for a superplex from A, and a diving headbutt, which was sure to end the match, only got two, and now the crowd really wanted Kazama to win. Kandori got the tag in and hit her Tiger Driver, but A interrupted it. She charged Kandori down a lariat, and Harley captured a rare there count on Kandori. ***1/2

11/11/90 JWP: Miss A vs. Devil Masami 14:49. This was a hard hitting, intense hoss fight. The start of it looked like it was going to be a great match. The charged at each other with lariats. Devil got hotshotted and put on a Romero Special. They brawled out. Miss A tried to slow it down and work a sleeper, but Devil bit her way out it, and continued powering through. The main part of the match was mainly just A working over Devil's knee, but it went nowhere and was all forgotten about after A took her outside and slammed her on the floor. Devil finally came back and they had a great exchange at the end, going for big bombs. The finish was one of those dodgy finishes where A won with a German Suplex, but Devil's shoulder was up before three. ***

11/14/90 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA Tag Title Match: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue 8:24, 1:54, 11:14. Yamada was supposed to be Toyota's partner, but she was injured, so Kyoko replaced her. Toyota and Kyoko were enemies, so they couldn't get along, even getting into spat over who would start. Kyoko had a really nice opening with Hokuto before it settled down and she got her leg worked over. Once Toyota tagged she hit a fiery burst and worked over Minami's legs. Action picked up as the fall went on, with Hokuto and Toyota having a competitive section next. Kyoko struggled against Minami and Hokuto, but managed a couple of suplexes on Hokuto. Hokuto did her own in response, but missed a missile dropkick. Kyoko followed with a Giant Swing, and it wasn't pretty. She hadn't figured that one out yet, but it was good enough to get the pinfall on Hokuto because Yamada didn't see, or ignored, Hokuto getting the shoulder up and counted three. Kyoko jumped Hokuto to start the second. Toyota was doing fine after tagging in, but Kyoko tried to assist with a chair and accidentally nailed her, leading to the Marine Wolves levelling the match. Kyoko and Toyota had another spat between falls over it. Toyota got beat down in the third fall before making the tag to Kyoko, who held her own better here than in previous falls. But it was also the Marine Wolves teamwork that put them in stronger positions no matter how competitive Kyoko and Toyota were, so they always ended up on the receiving end. Things went bad again towards the end for the makeshift team when Hokotu pulled Kyoko into Toyota's missile dropkick, and Kyoko went down soon after. Toyota wanted another match for the tag belts with Yamada, but the Marine Wolves lost the belts on 12/9 to Aja and Bison, so that wasn't going to happen. This match had good flow and pacing, with plenty of good work. Toyota and Kyoko weren't much of a threat though, and even less so since they couldn't work together, though that may have made them seem stronger than they were since the Marine Wolves were using their superior teamwork and smarts all the time. ***1/2

11/14/90 AJW Cage Death Match No Referee Escape Rule: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong 20:59. On 9/1/90 at Omiya Skate Center, Bull and Aja had their first cage match. The match wasn't particularly good to begin with, but the ending of it was so bad that it had fans requesting refunds. Bulldog KT (Gedo) from Universal was the referee, and got beat up throughout the match whenever he'd try to enforce the rules. However, he was noticeably more lenient toward Aja, and the ending of the match saw him blocking Bull in the corner while Aja simply climbed out of the cage (Aja had helped him in the Universal, so he was helping her here). The finish was the worst they could have come up with, but more than that, Aja was injured, so she took forever to get out of the cage and KT did little to even restrain Bull. It was such a disaster that the event was basically erased from history, and a rematch was set up for the Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium. To guarantee this wouldn't happen again, there'd be no referee this time, and the stakes increased, if Bull couldn't win, she'd quit. The league might have erased Omiya, but Bull didn't. She took the blame for the whole thing, and had personally decided that if she couldn't deliver a match that would satisfy the fans, she'd have no choice other than to quit. She knew the same fans would be watching the rematch, so it wouldn't have the same freshness, therefore the rematch needed to up the violence. The other thing it needed was a finish, and once she came with that, despite thinking it might kill her, she was able to sleep easy. The match began with an explosive start as Aja met Bull outside and they brawled. Bull juiced early from Aja's onslaught, but retaliated with a vicious lariat once they got into the ring. Aja bounced back spamming Bull with wild urakens and wearing her out. Bull introduced gigantic nunchakus (more like a flail) and struck Aja, followed by a stiff uraken, lariat, and bicycle kicks. Aja's oil can was thrown into the mix, but Bull intercepted it and struck Aja. Aja was defiant and fired up, so Bull relentlessly kept striking her in the head until she crumpled down to the mat. Bull's nunchakus became the next weapon of choice. Aja was still defiant, but battered, bleeding, and struggling to withstand the onslaught. She desperately needed a comeback, and made brief ones, but Bull kept regaining control. Aja kept getting up only to get knocked down again. Bull's first mistake of the match was trying to escape too early. Aja countered by using the flail, but it didn't look good, so she switched to the oil can, targeting Bull's leg. That had been her gameplan in the first match, but here, Bull had something nastier to put a stop to it. Bull grabbed a pair scissors reminiscent of the Dump Matsumoto days, though she wasn't going for Aja's hair, she instead viciously stabbed Aja's arm. Aja had a look of sheer terror at this, and Bull continued stabbing her, leaving her arm bleeding, and with a scar she still carries to this day. This nullified the uraken, which had brought Aja the most success in the match. The seconds (who were the ones handing them the weapons) starting fighting amongst each other, among them the main two were Kyoko on Bull's side and Madusa on Aja's. Madusa tried to enter the cage, but didn't get in. The seconds contributed to the chaotic feel of the match as well, and especially helped the next sections. A rope was introduced, but nothing really came of it, just some choking and a lame attempt from Bull to tie Aja up that went nowhere. They used a chain afterwards, which they got more mileage out of. They probably should have just gone home after the scissors though. After they got done with all of that they did go home. The final potion saw Aja fight back with a superplex, leading to a failed escape attempt. They even exchanged a couple of wrestling moves here before Aja utilized a giant bokken. She wanted to come off the top turnbuckle with it to put Bull down, but Kyoko climbed up and prevented that, which is basically what cost Aja the match. Bull dumped Aja off the top, then lifted her up for a piledriver, but instead of a piledriver, she just shitcanned her headfirst. Then came the finish, the guillotine legdrop from the top of the cage, and the rest is history. Aja and Bison were irate after the match, Kyoko was responsible for Bull winning and wanted to be her tag team partner, which Bull accepted, leading to the hair vs. hair tag team match on 1/11/1991. They well and truly made up for last time, delivering a legendary match. It was incredibly stiff, violent and chaotic, and their sloppiness usually added to it. Nothing in the match was meaningless violence either, the attacks were targeted towards Aja's arm, Bull's knee, or just straight up headshots for knockouts, and aside from the rope, it always escalated to something bigger. A photo of the match made the cover of Weekly Pro Wrestling (the biggest pro wrestling magazine in Japan). It was the first time the women had ever made the cover of the magazine, and the first time an image of a wrestling match had made the cover by itself. This marked a significant turning point in the revival of women's wrestling with attendance increasing immediately after the magazine was released. ****1/2

11/17/90 UNIVERSAL Elimination Match: Aja Kong, Bison Kimura, Madusa, La Diabolica & Xochitl Hamada vs. Manami Toyota, Mika Takahashi, Kaoru Maeda, Mariko Yoshida & Esther Moreno 25:32. The match was mostly fast paced Zenjo style with some lucha flavor. They worked in a couple of heat segments, with the one on Maeda being particularly good. Aja and Bison came off like superstars with the crowd fully into anything they did. Esther stood out the most. Her best segment was where she was trapped in the ring with Aja, but everything Esther did here was a highlight. Hamada stood out on opposite end of the spectrum, she was awful, and although she was the first one eliminated, that came after 15 minutes in, which made it 15 minutes too late. Surprisingly, Madusa wasn't bad in this match. She was doing her ridiculous wild woman gimmick though and constantly screaming, which made her even more annoying. Esther was eliminated at the 17 minute mark, and the match turned into a more frantic one. The only real complaint with the match is that it needed another 10 minutes with the way they paced it (it could have even been twice the length), or they needed to get rid some of the deadweight early because the eliminations ended up being too rapid fire at the end. Yoshida was fun when she came in for a run, hitting her monkey flips and surprisingly getting an elimination, pinning La Diabolica. When she returned with Bison later, she was getting chants from the crowd, though she didn't fare as well, and was eliminated. Madusa tried to have a fast-paced exchange with Toyota, which looked weird because they were both going at different speeds. You can probably guess which one who couldn't keep up. Toyota eliminated her pretty quickly though. Everyone did dives to the outside, and the crowd went crazy wanting one from Aja, who didn't disappoint them. With the rapid fire eliminations, it seemed Takahashi was going to eliminate Bison afterward, which would have put Aja in a 3 v 1 position, but Aja used her oil can to stop that. Maeda got the can, but hitting Aja in the head doesn't accomplish anything and it was no sold. The referee didn't much care who was legal, he'd pin people who ran in, which led to Takahashi pinning Bison when neither one were legal, and seconds later Aja pinned Toyota. It came down to Takahashi & Maeda vs. Aja, and they tried to double team her, and even piled up on her for a pin, but she powered out. Toyota tried to help them set up a superplex, but Aja knocked them both off and hit them with a diving body press, pinning both at the same time. ****1/4

11/23/90 JWP: Miss A, Rumi Kazama & Cuty Suzuki vs. Eagle Sawai, Mayumi Ozaki & Sachiko Koganei 15:09. JWP six woman tags were generally better than the Zenjo ones in 1990 because they'd work the all action pace with fast tags and constant switching, but instead of just doing a few spots or grabbing a hold and then switching, you'd see a bit of everything, and there was more urgency shown within the brief encounters. Everyone was good here when they were in, Kogenai the least of them. Miss A was the standout. When she was in, she was barrelling through people. When she wasn't in, she was making her presence felt from the apron or rushing into the ring if someone taunted her. The finish was another good JWP finish, here, A had taken a cheap shot on Kogenai, and then got the tag in, so Eagle and Ozaki double teamed her. A avoided their double lariat, nailing Kogenai, who was behind them with one and getting the pin. ***1/2

12/24/90 JWP: Devil Masami & The Scorpion vs. Miss A & Itsuki Yamazaki 17:53. This appeared to be going in the direction of Devil and Miss A having a slow, heavyweight, hard hitting power match between them while Yamazaki and Scorpion would work fast and more technical, but only lasted a couple of exchanges. It was mainly a slower paced match from there with Yamazaki or Scorpion occasionally quickening things up, but with the match they worked, it meant Scorpion was too small to really fit in, though they gave her plenty of chances to shine, and she did. A and Yamazaki were good, but it wasn't either of their strongest performances of the year. Devil was the one holding things together because of her timing and the micro-stories she works in. It did build up well, and got really good by the end. The first finish was a bit odd though, coming at the 13 minute mark. Miss A hit a lariat on Scorpion and she just didn't kick out of it. That wasn't supposed to be the finish, either Scorpion was supposed to kick out or Devil was supposed to break it up (I think Devil was supposed to break it up, but Yamazaki's attempt to stop her was little more effective than it should have been, knocking her off balance so she wasn't unable to). They just restarted the match with a 5 minute time limit, and this was a really good and urgent phase, with poor Scorpion getting pinned again, this time after a piledriver from Yamazaki and a diving headbutt from A. ***1/2

1. Itsuki Yamazaki. From her first match in May with Plum Mariko, which was one of the best matches of the year, Yamazaki was JWPs best worker. She came into the smaller league and kicked off the best run of her career. Yamazaki worked as the savvy veteran at only 24 years old, putting electric matches with everyone she worked with. She didn't have a bad match, and a lot of them were really good.

2. Akira Hokuto. Hokuto was All Japan Women's best, but that's arguable due to the fact that, whilst she would always give you a good match and she was always the reason those matches were good, she lacked standout matches she could have been having. The two main ones here was the final Fire Jets vs. Marine Wolves match, which suffered from pacing issues, and the Toyota match in August was as frustrating as it was brilliant.

3. Bull Nakano. Bull was the opposite of Hokuto in terms of match quality. Whilst Hokuto would always give you a good match, Bull was wildly inconsistent. She had three of the best Zenjo matches of the year, and was the reason for their quality, but to go along with these matches, she also had some high-profile disappointments, such as her title win against Mitsuko Nishiwaki on 1/4, and an outright stinker with the first Cage match against Aja Kong on 9/1.

4. Harley Saito. Harley achieved something special with Shinobu Kandori 7/19 with their classic match of the year where both of them showed how great they could be. Unfortunately, aside from a couple of tag matches, she didn't have many opportunities to shine. Kandori had even less, but with her, the focus was always on getting her gimmick over and building her aura so that matches like 7/19 and the later ones with Hokuto were even possible.

5. Manami Toyota. Toyota's final year as a junior. She wasn't close to the best wrestler, but she might have been the most exciting to watch. She made the most of her chances with the seniors, such as Bull and Akira, whilst standing out in tag team matches such as the 6/4/90 six woman tag in Universal.

6. Miss A

7. Devil Masami

8. Shinobu Kandori

9. Aja Kong

10. Suzuka Minami

1. 7/19/90 JWP Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito ****3/4

2. 11/14/90 AJW Cage Death Match No Referee Escape Rule: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong ****1/2

3. 11/17/90 UNIVERSAL Elimination Match: Aja Kong, Bison Kimura, Madusa, La Diabolica & Xochitl Hamada vs. Manami Toyota, Mika Takahashi, Kaoru Maeda, Mariko Yoshida & Esther Moreno ****1/4

4. 8/19/90 AJW Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto ****

5. 5/25/90 JWP Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko ****

1. JWP

2. All Japan Women

Saemi Numata (Numacchi)

Akemi Torisu

Yuki Lee

Shiho Nakamigawa

Hirasuine Sonteitam

Bonteipu Sonteitam