OZ Academy at this point is a rather peculiar collection of some of the best talent from 3 generations of joshi. On the plus side, the majority of the roster consists of workers who could reasonably be rated among the top 25 joshi performers during many years of their career, and really everyone is still trying to do a serious style, this isn't a promotion where years ago we had good matches, now we specifically just clown around most of the time. I'm not a fan of the style of brawl they are presenting at this time, but for the most part everyone goes out and gives an effort and seems to actually be trying to win, there's not a lot of filler, stalling, posing, or pandering.

They follow the GAEA tradition of only running about 2 shows a month and keeping the singles matches short in order to preserve their performers, which although many wrestlers are appearing in other promotions in between, is one of the reasons they are still trying despite the majority of the roster being a decade or two past the old AJW mandatory retirement age. That being said, I've never seen a promotion that has a number of good workers, and certainly the talent is there with 9 regulars who might make the top 25, as well as an appearance or two from Command Bolshoi, DASH Chisako, Sendai Sachiko, Meiko Satomura, & Yoshiko Tamura, but delivered so few reasonable singles matches. The tag scene, on the other hand, has matches of reasonable length & high effort. It can be relied upon to deliver a good match in the workrate style, but there's also not a ton to differentiate these matches. Normally, I can draw easy distinctions in order to at least set up the outline of where I'd rank the workers & top matches, but outside of Chikayo Nagashima being #1, a reasonable case could be made for almost any ordering of the next 5 workers, and that's way more clear cut than determining the best matches, as they're basically the ones that have no weak links, and with everyone contributing and no one stealing the show, it almost seems to come down to whether you prefer the match where wrestler A is featured/more on top of their game or the one with wrestler B...

The good tag match is the style of the '90's generation of Nagashima, Sonoko Kato, Ran YuYu, & AKINO, all of whom can still work at a high level. They are mostly kept together, luckily, with Carlos Amano being the outlier. You'd think Carlos would have had a big year because she was in the midst of her second reign with the OZ Openweight Title, but that meant she was in singles matches & fought the '80's generation, neither of which were actually positives from a quality standpoint. The '00's generation is more fractured in that, not having seniority, they are often just kind of tossed wherever they are needed. The good workers Ayumi Kurihara, Tomoka Nakagawa, & Hiroyo Matsumoto often fill out the tags with the '90's generation, so while it may not be their match, they can grow through capable opposition. Kurihara is the best of this group, but still doesn't have a role at the end of the year, whereas Nakagawa seems the worst initially, but excels once her & Matsumoto begin to tag on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Yumi Oka & Hiren are stuck as Ozaki's henchwomen, and never distinguish themselves, choosing to mostly stick to the incredibly basic brawling style the one opportunity they have to do otherwise.

The downfall of this promotion is the '80's generation seems to have reached the point where they aren't going to deliver in this setting. They don't necessarily look bad, it's more that they don't really do anything wrestling wise. Aja Kong can still go, as we saw elsewhere in 2010, but even though she's mostly in brawls, they aren't the sort of dramatic & dynamic well constructed ones she carried in her heyday, the OZ Academy brawl at this point is basically one person stands/lays there & gets hit with an object or move, and this goes on for the entirety of the non-interactive contest, with not much changing beyond the number of people ganging up. She has moments, but they are through talent rather than being booked in a spot where she'll excel. Ozaki is a total non-factor in her own league to the point one wonders how healthy she is. While she's willing to actually wrestle on her very sporadic outside bookings, she pretty much avoids such things here, using her chain then letting Oka, usually, handle the opponent's comebacks. KAORU still does moonsaults, but the old cartwheel through the double lariat is the closest she gets to a wrestling sequence these days. Takako takes things less seriously than the others, jokingly weilding her stun gun. Kansai stands & kicks rather than standing & wielding an object, she's probably further gone but actually fits in more places as long as the opponent takes the fight to her, & can be passable by being smart & knowing to stay within herself. The outlier here is Manami Toyota, who still tries hard & attempts to work like she did in her heyday, but just can't keep up. She isn't boring, but her work is quite clunky; she's no longer quick & fluid enough be in the right spot without delay.

1/10/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato & Ayumi Kurihara vs. AKINO & Ran YuYu & Tomoka Nakagawa 12:55 of 22:53. Though the entertaining match often isn't the main event, this set the tone for the year to come, a high pace, good quality & effort workrate match that was pretty consistent no matter who is in. ***

2/7/10 OZ Academy Tag Title Match: Ran YuYu & AKINO vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato 16:23 of 23:15. This match is indicitive of the quality being based more on the number of quality workers than the stakes, as these women give roughly the same high effort in a midcard tag as they do in a title main event. While still good, they weren't able to maintain the pace or consistency of the 1/10 match with two less bodies to keep everyone fresh and make things a little more dynamic. Nagashima stands out more here as the speed wrestler amidst 3 more impact based wrestlers, but again there wasn't much difference in their levels, perhaps Ran was actually a little better? ***

2/21/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Ayumi Kurihara vs. Ran YuYu & Hiroyo Matsumoto 13:40 of 18:48. Stronger than the 2/7 tag title match. The pace is much higher, Chikayo & Ran are in a higher gear doing better sequenes & more big moves. Ayumi & Matsumoto also brought more than AKINO & Kato, though Nagashima & YuYu are doing more here to put a stamp on it as their style match even though everyone else is going along with them, as usual. At this stage, Matsumoto can still fit into an action packed athletic match, while offering some diversity with her power moves rather than having to force a change in the style to fit in with her dominant Gojira gimmick. Surprisingly, I feel she was more impressive early one when she was going along with the others than later on in the year when Nakagawa somewhat took over that role for her, allowing Matsumoto to became more of a featured power wrestler & change of style. Chikayo & Ayumi do a double footstomp off the bleachers. ***1/4

3/14/10: AKINO & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato 19:01. They tried to do a bit of a different match with AKINO & Matsumoto instilling a slower pace with some Otani style heel tactics early on, that Nagashima threw right back at them rather than take, before changing the pace with her speedy offense to help counteract their high impact. This is possibly the worst of the recommended matches, as it has more filler & takes a while to get going, but it's also one of the few TV matches that's complete, so perhaps it's actually the most representative? Nagashima is impressive, as always, and AKINO really carries her side, what's holding this match back is that Hiroyo is a noticable dropoff from all the others. Matsumoto eeks out a big win over Nagashima due to a timely save by AKINO. ***

5/16/10 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, The 15th Anniversary: Meiko Satomura & Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato & Carlos Amano 19:41. A hard fought tag match celebrating the 15th anniversaries of the 6 competitors. Amano & Miyaguchi debuted against each other in JWP on 12/4/94, while the 1st GAEA Japan show on 4/15/95 saw Nagashima vs. Uematsu & Kato vs. Satomura. Though the generations top worker, Azumi Hyuga, who retired the previous December, was nowhere to be found, original Oz Academy member Sugar Sato was in a neutral corner, delivering flowers after the contest. Uematsu has definitely had the least illustrious career of the 6, but she was perhaps the key here because, while consistency has been her problem, when she's in the mood to be serious & go hard, as she was here, she is certainly capable of delivering. Uematsu held up her end, carrying a heavy load for her side, and Kato was a standout for the opponents, renewing her old rivalries with Satomura & Uematsu, who she hasn't faced as often since GAEA folded. Nagashima, of course, did good things as well, getting Satomura, who was typically solid, to go out of her striking box for some counter sequences, but it never felt like Chikayo's match. This probably should have been the OZ Academy MOTY because it wasn't wrestled in a rushed manner, while consistently good they were actually building it, giving things a bit of time to develop & the moves a little more time to breath. The problem is they never seemed to get out of that developmental stage and into the finishing sequence. I was under the impression that the match was going close to a half hour & the best was yet to come, but then it ended up being around 20 minutes, which is the usual length. I enjoyed this match more than some of the others while I was watching it the first time, but once it was over, it felt like they left a lot on the table whereas some of the others may have less going on, but ultimately feel a lot more complete in their incompleteness. ***

6/13/10: Ran YuYu & AKINO & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Dynamite Kansai & Ayumi Kurihara & Sonoko Kato 14:48 of 18:55. Better than expected with Kurihara, AKINO, & Kansai giving their best performances so far. Kurihara is the standout. She gets AKINO to work more to her actual ability doing some more interactive sequences rather than relying so heavily on kicking. Kansai is spotted well, throwing some effective kicks & not being asked to be things she no longer is. Kato gives a strong effort, as always. Match isn't as fast paced without Nagashima, but everyone works together well. ***1/4

7/11/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato vs. Tomoka Nakagawa & Hiroyo Matsumoto 12:13. While the new generation of Matsumoto, Nakagawa, & Kurihara often appear in the tags with Nagashima, Kato, Ran, & AKINO, they are mostly doing a good job of filling a spot or two in the veterans match. This match feels different because it's just a tag, and with Matsumoto & Nakagawa now being their own, entire team, they always have input. Nakagawa really steps it up & makes her presence felt here, doing some nice gymnastic sequences with Chikayo, who shines even more here given a more athletic opponent to work with. Nakagawa shows a lot of offense we haven't seen here, while Matsumoto plays the change of pace power wrestler trying to slow the opposition down by throwing them around rather than trying to keep up with Nagashima & Nakagawa's speed, which she can certainly do, but not quite as well as wrestlers who are built for speed. Nakagawa & Matsumoto are really out to prove themselves, and though this is one of the least important of these tag matches in the sense that it's a somewhat brief undercard filler, it's actually the most urgent & creative one we've seen so far this year. ***1/4

8/22/10

Hiroyo Matsumoto & Tomoka Nakagawa vs. DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko 9:49. The emergence of the young members in the Jungle Jack 21 stable, Hiroyo & Nakagawa, is really enlivening the OZ undercards as they bring a slightly different style of high energy tag. I wish we saw more of these nice high effort matchups against other young wrestlers in OZ, but at least these two are usually involved with people who still can & want to go. Sendai's Jumanji Sisters are arguably an even better young team, certainly they feel more like a unit with cohesive teamwork. Nakagawa again gives a nice showing, working nice sequences & really facilitating the action for her team while Hiroyo comes in & cleans house from time to time. That being said, the best stuff is DASH not caring that she's taking on the much larger Lady Destroyer & totally taking it to Matsumoto, working nice speed vs. power sequences. Sachiko has a couple of spectacular athletic moves, but DASH is a much better mover who can manipulate her body a lot better when it comes to working sequences & taking bumps. JJ21 pick up a nice interpromotional win. ***

Aja Kong & Yoshiko Tamura vs. Manami Toyota & Carlos Amano 10:00 of 13:56. Amano has come to life of late, again topping her previous performances this year. This was mostly Tamura instilling some life, and a more technical rather than purely speed based style, but certainly her best work was with Amano, and they're mainly what made the match good. Aja was solid but not amazing, kind of just going along with Toyota. These two can still do their spots in their sleep, and Toyota, while not always in step with the others or exactly where she needed to be, was okay rolling out her signature moves. ***

OZ Academy Tag Title Match: AKINO & Ran YuYu vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato 22:39. The match you want to see from OZ, the generation battle of the most currently relevant generation, & arguably the 4 best workers in the league. AKINO has often been the least of these 4 thusfar, but she comes on in the 2nd half of the year. She has the extra gear for the big match, and is a standout here, along with, of course, Chikayo, who is the clear cut best worker in the league with the next five spots really being pretty debatable between the other 3 here, Kurihara & Nakagawa. I like how AKINO pretended to engage in a flatfooted kick exchange with Kato, but then leaped over Kato's kick & took over with a jawbreaker. This is the closest we've seen so far to an attempt at a match of the year. Though their general match is high effort & loads of offense to begin with, here they use a lot more big moves & have more of a sense of urgency. The match is pretty frantic, sometimes to the detriment as everything doesn't come off the way they'd like. While this is a little sloppier than usual, it's the match where Nagashima & AKINO go at it for extended portions, really trying to take it to the next level. They probably could have had a better match a few years ago, but not for lack of effort. We have to live in the present, and I think this is the best OZ match of 2010. ***1/2

9/19/10: Carlos Amano vs. Sonoko Kato 14:57 of 20:00. I was beginning to wonder if OZ Academy was going to go an entire year without a recommendable singles match. 20 minutes without a break must seem like a lot to Kato, who has just done tags all year. This starts much slower than her usual action packed match, but is good once it gets going. It's definitely not the best work they are capable of, and would likely have been better at 15 minutes, but there's probably a good 12 minutes of action & the early portion is passable enough. ***

1. Chikayo Nagashima. One of the top tag wrestlers in the world, Nagashima is one of those great movers and smart workers who will find a way to always look good whether she's in with an opponent who can develop the sequences with her or whether she's the speedy change of pace to the larger, more powerful opponent. While it's criminal that it's been 8 years since her singles run in GAEA, especially given Amano was the one from her generation to break through the hasbeens & get two lengthy runs, OZ is at least set up for her to succeed in that she's best equipped to excel in the workrate style match that makes these shows worth watching. She's the most athletic & fluid worker in the promotion, the most capable of delivering good sequences & counters, and generally a really consistent performer.

2. Sonoko Kato. Comparable to her former tag partner Meiko Satomura during their GAEA days in virtually all aspects except health. Having hardly wrestled from 2000-06, which should have been her prime years, it's remarkable that Kato is now one of the most reliable females in the game. Contrary to what this ranking would suggest, she's rarely the best wrestler in her match. Although I'd bet on a handful of others on the roster in a one match everyone going all out situation, she's really a solid, stabilizing force who can be counted on to give her all & deliver match in and match out. Being Nagashima's tag partner certainly helps her be in good matches, but ultimately, she was even in one more match that I liked than Nagashima was.

3. AKINO. AKINO is probably the best all-around talent in the league, though she feels a bit complacent and has settled into a style that has too high a percentage of strikes. I wish she would take charge & try to mold the style to the fullest of her abilities, or at least to something that keeps her fully engaged, but she has higher levels she can get to when she needs to, and she really came on in the 2nd half of the year.

4. Ayumi Kurihara. Kurihara is clearly one of the best talents in the league, but never had any sort of role. She was pretty much just tossed into whatever spot was vacant, and would give a quality performance regardless of whether the rest of the match was any good. Even though nothing revolved around her, she was able to both change these matches up some when she was in, and be a bright spot, particularly being the best opponent for AKINO because she would lead AKINO into submissions and directions AKINO wouldn't go unless prompted.

5. Ran YuYu. Ran started the year strong, but faded as it progressed. If there's a good OZ match, Ran is likely to be involved, but she played a lesser role in the quality as AKINO began to work more to her capability later in the year. While AKINO ultimately being the stronger half of the team is as expected, Ran's dropoff was surprising because the workrate style match they do here is probably closest to what she's done her whole career in JWP than other promotions various iterations of this style match, and she's always well positioned with a strong partner & opponents.

6. Tomoka Nakagawa. Started slowly not having a role, but finished really strongly being a standout in all the tags once she was regularly paired with Hiroyo Matsumoto. Early on, while her athleticism was apparent, she really seemed to just be filling in, and would do the same few spots, but working the majority of the match in her team with Hiroyo, she began to really put together some nice sequences, which were lacking in this promotion as a whole. Definitely the most improved wrestler in the promotion.

7. Hiroyo Matsumoto. Matsumoto works hard, and does a good job of doing other workers matches. She's surprisingly able to keep up with the pace & athleticism of the workrate oriented match, and helps provide some balance with her power. At this point, the promotion isn't set up for her to succeed to her fullest, but that begins to change later in the year, at least in the sense that she comes in and cleans house.

8. Carlos Amano. A big disappointment if you want to look at things from a title perspective, given she's singles champion for more than half the year & has a brief run with the tag titles. On the other hand, Amano at least manages to do some good things even though she's not really programmed with the wrestlers from her generation that are also actually in their prime, or the good younger wrestlers. She can still go when she wants to, and is not outclassed on the few occassions she has opponents who can go, but mainly working with the older wrestlers also makes her take things even less seriously. While she comes on in the 2nd half, sadly to say, her year is largely killed off by being so closely linked to Toyota.

9. Aja Kong. Aja is a big match singles wrestler, who despite being one of the biggest stars in the history of joshi & key players in this promotion, somehow never really gets any real chance to actually succeed. She needs to be programmed with wrestlers of her skill level, not her age. While Aja gives reasonable performances, and can look good when in there with someone who will actually move & try to put something together, even all-time greats can't do much if the parameters of the brawl are we just stand there & hit each other with our weapon of choice. It feels wrong ranking Aja so lowly, especially since she wasn't mailing it in as she probably should have.

10. Yoshiko Tamura. Tamura only worked 2 matches in OZ, but at least she was good in both. This should really be a top 9, but I'd rather give credit to someone who made a bit of a positive contribution, than someone who could kindly be described as treading water when things were going well.

1. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato

2. AKINO & Ran YuYu

3. Tomoka Nakagawa & Hiroyo Matsumoto

1. 8/22/10, OZ Academy Tag Title Match: AKINO & Ran YuYu vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato

2. 7/11/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato vs. Tomoka Nakagawa & Hiroyo Matsumoto 12:13

3. 2/21/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Ayumi Kurihara vs. Ran YuYu & Hiroyo Matsumoto

4. 6/13/10: Ran YuYu & AKINO & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Dynamite Kansai & Ayumi Kurihara & Sonoko Kato

5. 1/10/10: Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato & Ayumi Kurihara vs. AKINO & Ran YuYu & Tomoka Nakagawa