KUSHIDA - Hall Of Talent

Dynamite Kid vs Mark "Rollerball" Rocco Great Wrestling Feuds Joint Promotions Match Reviews 11/26/80-11/30/81

AJW 1/29/89 WWWA World Single Title Decision Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo 29:28.
PA: With the Crush Gals career drawing closer to an end, this was final big match they'd have (or at least that anyone would want to remember). There were about as many streamers as in their August match. As opposed to their previous matches, the title matches were paced out a little slower, with this being by far the slowest paced of the two, which was likely in part due to the girls naturally slowing down as much as wanting to work a different type of match. This was the slowest of all of their matches in the '80s. The atmosphere was the same as always in Crush Gals matches. They started cautiously when they got on the mat, with Chigusa taking over and going for arm submissions, and then moving to a headlock. Like in their last match, she clung onto it through Lioness's suplex attempts, but this time she was a successful in breaking it with a backdrop suplex. Lioness opted to go for Chigusa's leg. Instead of using the matwork to get into a position where they could dominate in bursts, they were more trying to really wear each other down. Around 8 minutes in, they had their first big kicking battle. There wasn't really a winner though, and they both scored lariats on each other for a double down. Chigusa recovered first, hit another lariat and went for the sleeper. She wasn't trying to win with it yet, but here chose to set up for a top rope leg lariat and a missile dropkick, but Lioness forcefully kicked out of the pin, so Chigusa went back to the sleeper again. She again broke to get another impact move, a leg lariat, but Lioness blocked it and went back to the leg. She too, went for a dive, landing a missile dropkick, a piledriver, and then up again for a diving lariat. She was slow to follow, and Chigusa got a close near fall with a backslide. They exchanged armdrags, but Lioness was more fresh. She wanted to grind down Chigusa more, but got reversed on the mat, and Chigusa took over again. She caught Lioness with a kick to the midsection and threw a few more. Chigusa fought for a piledriver, which Lioness held off of for as long as she could, but Chigusa got it in the end. More holds came, sharpshooter and a leglock, and this is where the matwork started feeling a little tedious and drawn out. Chigusa had to keep grinding down Lioness though, and then she delivered more kicks. Lioness looked like she was out of it at this point. Her selling was good. She managed to fire back with kicks and got Chigusa in trouble. A German Suplex got near fall, but Chigusa immediately latched onto a sleeper. Lioness backed into the corner, so Chigusa kicked her in the head. They began moving towards the finish line with Chigusa pressing initially, but Lioness caught in a dragon sleeper. Chigusa gave a classic, dramatic sell of reaching out for the ropes while she was fading, but she made it. Failing that, Lioness kicked her and went back to the piledriver and a backdrop suplex. A brainbuster followed and an amazing Giant Swing spot, where Lioness did the Giant Swing, but lost her grip enough to stall it and Chigusa popped up with a shot to the mouth to break it. Chigusa got a run going with kicks and hit a German Suplex for a big near fall, and then another one. Lioness came with a German Suplex on her own and won. This was the same level of quality of their 1988 match. It would have benefited from 5 minutes being cut from it, and a finish that wasn't a one move comeback with Lioness surviving two German Suplexes and then winning with one. The match itself was excellent though. ****

JWP 2/12/89 Shinobu Kandori vs. Miss A 19:44.
PA: Kandori had just defeated Devil Masami on 1/16/89 and moved onto the top of the homegrown talent, Miss A (Dynamite Kansai). The second match with Devil (after their bloodbath in 1988) was a disappointment, very slow and drawn out, and although Kandori looked more experienced, Devil seemed to have far fewer ideas the second time around for them to do, and was unable to keep things as interesting. It got a lot better towards the end, and probably would have been recommendable had it been under 20 minutes (for that matter, the first one may have been the very good match had it been under 20 minutes as well). Miss A immediately gave Kandori a piledriver and northern light's suplex to start, wiping her out. Kandori lay dead in the middle of the ring for a while. So, A wins? No, the match hadn't actually started yet. Kandori got up, so A kicked her in the face and the bell rung, then did a tope after Kandori bailed out. Logic holds aside, that was a great start. Kandori took her time returning and caught A in a crab when she tried an enzuigiri. Kandori jumped on her submissions, but A got out of them. A would take over on the mat, but was more looking to pound Kandori, and get into places she couldn't be countered from. Kandori would still get some submissions on, but never for long. Her transition to offense was dumb though, with A selling a small package so Kandori could take over. Kandori put on a couple of submissions that didn't add much, and then tried her running kick. They exchanged crabs, and Kandori got some offense in after. A came back with a German Suplex and a sharpshooter. This submission portion felt like it ran on a bit too long, and never had the same urgency as the earlier ones. After that, A set about slaughtering Kandori with lariats, but Kandori came back with a missile dropkick when A put her on the turnbuckle. They exchanged flash pin attempts, and Kandori put a half crab on, but Kandori put it on her again. They tumbled outside and A missed a tope, smashing her knee into the guardrail. Kandori hit a backdrop suplex and went for a rear naked choke, but A was too close to the ropes. A hotshotted her in return. Superplex, diving lariat and northern light's suplex all made for very good near falls. Kandori blocked a lariat and went for a jujigatame, but A was too close again. Kandori pounced, hitting three German Suplexes to win the match. This was a really good match for the most part, and far superior to the Devil vs. Kandori matches, but it did drag in the middle. Kandori was there, but Miss A did an outstanding job, particularly when you consider the experience level, and they had people biting on the near falls at the end. ***1/2

AJW 3/4/89 AJW Tag Title Match: Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda vs. Miori Kamiya & Reibun Amada 10:34.
PA: There were a lot of genuinely good juniors matches in 1989. They all seemed to be working extra hard trying to get noticed. Amada and Maeda couldn't seem to decide who was taking offense, so they had a spat to sort it out, and their fiery exchange ended in a stalemate as Maeda cartwheeled through Amada. Takahashi and Kamiya had a go too, and then they brawled on the outside. Kamiya's knee was taped up, so that the obvious target, and she got isolated. Maeda was good with the spots and holds, but she couldn't stomp a knee to save her life. Kamiya made the hot tag by simply waiting for Takahashi to tag out and then quickly crawled to her corner before they could drag her back. It didn't go to plan though, with Maeda taking over immediately and Amada walking straight into Maeda's handstand headscissors. Amada was by far the most basic of the four, sticking to her hair tosses, backdrops, and other things she could easily do. Kamiya and Maeda had a good, fast exchange. They all ended up fighting in the ring and then brawling outside. Amada and Kamiya won in, but then Maeda and Takahashi did vaulting body presses to enter the ring on them. They couldn't follow up with stereo dropkicks, as both their opponents pulled up short. Amada hit a flapjack and a gutbuster on, then dropped Kamiya onto Maeda. Maeda wouldn't stay down, so Kamiya came in with a flying knee and Amada hit a diving elbow drop for the pin. This was quality junior action. Maeda got hurt in the match and Takahashi wasn't happy afterward. ***

AJW 3/4/89 WWWA Tag Title Next Challenger Decision Match: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki 9:29.
PA: A short, fast paced tag team match. The mat portions were very brief and competitive with no one gaining anything, so they'd look to quicken it up, and no one was gaining there either. Hokuto worked a sleeper on Nishiwaki and reapplied it after Nishiwaki made the ropes. The tactic was working, so Minami followed. Nishiwaki's answer ended up being kneeing Minami in the head to break free. Hotta took over after the tag was made, and put a crab on Hokuto with Nishiwaki dropping elbows. Minami ran in to break up the crab, and slapped Hotta, so Hotta dropped the hold and the two had a spat between each other before Hotta realized she was supposed to be on Hokuto. A Fisherman's Buster from Hotta made for a great near fall. Nishiwaki came in and had good exchanges, hitting bigger moves. The action never stopped moving in this match, and it was all good stuff. Nishiwaki ended up hitting a diving body press on Hokuto for a near hall. She tried to follow up, but Minami cut her off. Hotta and Hokuto exchanged pins, but the referee was out of position for both of Hotta's attempts, and she wasn't happy about it. Hokuto survived a German and tried her own on Hotta. Hotta blocked it, so she rolled through and flash pinned. This was quality sub-ten minute tag match. Plenty of fire and both teams throwing all they had at each other. This win set up the Marine Wolves challenging the Crush Gals. ***1/2

AJW 3/4/89 2/3 Falls, WWWA Tag Title Match: Yumi Ogura & Mika Komatsu vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 7:23, 5:59.
PA: The Calgary Typhoons attempted to go hard against the Crush Gals, but their efforts backfired, leading to them eating suplexes. The Crush Gals dominated until Ogura grabbed Chigusa's leg during a high kick attempt and went for a submission. Komatsu ran in for a stomp to Chigusa's head and kicked her hand off the top rope. This would be a running theme in the match. Chigusa sold it all huge, as usual. Chigusa managed a snap suplex and Komatsu did a great job of urgently diving over Chigusa to cut off the tag. She then made a mistake of dragging Chigusa too close to Lioness, which allowed the tag, and Lioness immediately hit a Giant Swing. A Crush Gals double team elbow was cut off and Typhoons hit dives on Lioness. They were doing a great job of evening the odds, as they had no chance one vs one, but the quick double teams and run ins were keeping them alive, though it was only a matter of time. The end of the first fall saw Komatsu get a near fall with a rana, and then she tried a Victory Roll, but Lioness prevented her from completing it and pinned her. Ogura hit an ugly knee on Lioness early in the second fall, and seemed to do some damage, causing a break and Chigusa had to take over, taking a receipt for Lioness by giving Ogura a high kick. Chigusa went for revenge for the earlier submission on Ogura as well. Komatsu ran in multiple times, kicking Chigusa while the referee got her out of there. She wasn't successful in breaking anything up, but she pissed off Chigusa enough that Chigusa broke off herself to attack her. Chigusa kicked Ogura, and dared Komatsu to come in. This didn't seem like part of the match, so she just gave her a few strikes and got back on Ogura. Chigusa applied a sleeper hold on Ogura, and Komatsu ran in yet again. This time Ogura was able to take advantage of Chigusa's loss of concentration, and applied a wakigatame. Komatsu was in again and applied one to the other arm. She was a such a tremendous little shit in this match, and this was the icing on the cake. Lioness had seen enough of this, and sorted it out. Chigusa fought back, hitting a piledriver and going up top. Ogura pulled her down, but Chigusa landed on her for a near fall. Komatsu disrupted the Crush Gals' momentum once again, dropkicking Lioness when she tried to throw Chigusa on top of Ogura. Ogura hit a German Suplex for a great near fall, and tried to follow up with a second, but Lioness came off the top with a diving clothesline, and Chigusa got the pin. The second fall is probably the only instance where the match inside the ring was good, yet the wrestler who was illegal for 99% of it was the best one in it. The first fall was great, the second fall wouldn't have been that special, but Komatsu made it with her constant disruptions. It got tedious and that was the point. It would have been even better if they gave the Typhoons the second fall due to Komatsu's constant interference, and then the Crush Gals could have gotten revenge and killed her in the third. But since it was a 2-0 sweep, it's the best 2-0 sweep I can think of. ****

AJW 3/19/89 Chigusa Nagayo vs. Akira Hokuto 17:28.
PA: For most fans of women's wrestling, '80s Chigusa vs. '90s Hokuto is the biggest dream match they can imagine. This is closest thing that was ever realistically possible, and it actually happened. This was Chigusa's final Korakuen Hall show before her retirement on 5/6/89, and the crowd were as loud as any you'll hear, staying that way through the entire match. It was a sleeper hold battle from the start. They exchanged suplexes and Hokuto slipped away from Chigusa when she went for it and applied her own, but Chigusa made the ropes. Hokuto switched between the arm and the sleeper, and everytime Chigusa would break it up with anything, Hokuto would tenaciously jump back on her and regain control. Chigusa was able to damage her with an enzuigiri and hit a lariat, and then went for the sleeper, but Hokuto was straight into the ropes. Chigusa got her to go for a test of strength, which resulted in Hokuto landing some nasty kicks and a piledriver, and then some leg submissions. Hokuto screamed in pain and tried to kick her way out. She finished her torture run with a Romero Special. Hokuto tried to fire back with fists, but tenacious as she was, they didn't do anything, and Chigusa gave her a hard slap and snap suplex back before getting back on the leg. Hokuto almost managed a pin while Chigusa had her in an Achilles hold, but she had to make the ropes to break it. Hokuto managed a takedown and a sharpshooter, then head up top and hit her somersault dive for a near fall, following up with a Northern Light's Suplex. They were both slow to get up, and Chigusa struck with a spin kick to the chest and hit a body press from the top for a near fall. Hokuto avoided a charge and hit a suplex and missile dropkick, but couldn't put Chigusa away. Chigusa had more life left in her though and took back over. Hokuto avoided a corner spin kick and kept countering. They went for flash pins, all of which seemed like they might end the match. Chigusa ended up on top, but couldn't put her away with a German Suplex, so she went back to the sleepers they started with, and put Hokuto down. This was a tremendous match with a ridiculously hot crowd from start to finish. Both were on fire. Chigusa gave an excellent performance and set it up for Hokuto to stand out, and Hokuto did that and then some, showing all of her urgency and tenacity, trying to maintain her advantages with everything she had. Easily Hokuto's best match up to this point in her career. ****1/4

JWP 4/26/89 Mayumi Ozaki vs. Cuty Suzuki 14:17.
PA: This was from the JWP Best Match Collection tape. It took about a minute for the torture to begin with Ozaki pulling hair, choking her in the ropes, grinding the boot in, savagely ramming her head in the mat, walking on her, stomping away, all while Cuty screamed for her life. She eventually started working actual submissions, though the goal was just to make Cuty scream, Ozaki had no actual interest in ending the match yet. Cuty scrambled to the ropes off a leglock, so Ozaki bit the leg. All of this was quality from Ozaki, the problem was Cuty had the Mimi Hagiwara screaming down, but none of Mimi's fire, and didn't really attempt to work her way out of anything. It didn't matter to the JWP crowd though, they just wanted the Cuty comeback, and chanted for her. She countered a backdrop suplex to comeback, but got caught on the top rope, and Ozaki dragged her down. Cuty hit a flying clothesline afterward and put a half crab on Ozaki, and ran through some more basic holds. This was the bad part of the match, after what Ozaki had built up, Cuty sitting in holds wasn't the right payoff. Ozaki took back over, tripping Cuty and putting her in an Achilles hold. Now she actually wanted the submission, but Cuty wasn't giving up. Ozaki went back to torturing her briefly. They went through the spots they knew at the end, Ozaki's diving sunset flip, Cuty's diving clotheslines, the Cuty Special, Cuty even did a tombstone. There were plenty of suplexes, one of which got Ozaki the win and most of them made for good near falls. Due to Ozaki's brilliant torture act, this was a good and fun match. Cuty could do all the moves just fine and sold the torture well, but her lack of fightback, fire and the ability to pull a good babyface comeback left it a bit lacking. ***

AJW 4/27/89 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami 0:06, 12:04, 16:54.
PA: This match marked the final defense of the Crush Gals' WWWA World Tag Titles, and it was also the last proper tag team match featuring Chigusa Nagayo before her retirement on May 6, 1989. This also served as the farewell to the classic '80s ring mat, at least on TV (they used the old mats on spot shows for years afterward), which was replaced by the half red, half cream design used until 1993 (easily the best mat design they ever used). The first fall began with Chigusa getting embarrassed and defeated within 6 seconds, falling victim to a Dragon Suplex from Hokuto. Chigusa was pissed off about that. She hit a leg lariat to start the second fall, but handed it off to Lioness to wear down Hokuto. Chigusa got the tag and hadn't calmed down, and Hokuto hitting a dropkick soon after she entered didn't help things. She took it out on Minami after she tagged in. Minami's leg got worked over. She made the tag and Hokuto decided to slap Lioness, which earned a pasting, but she fired back with a sunset flip. Lioness gave her a brainbuster and tagged in Chigusa to get some revenge for the first fall, but again, Hokuto evaded her. Minami hit a knee from the top rope and a particularly frantic display with Chigusa trying to hold off Hokuto followed, she managed to grab an arm submission, and held onto it. Chigusa looked like she was trying to rip her arm off while Hokuto sold it huge. Hokuto made the ropes twice, but Chigusa kept reapplying it, and she didn't have much more fun when Lioness came in. Crush Gals, without actually doing anything heelish, were giving a great ‘clean' heel performance while Hokuto was selling and trying to fight back, not that the fans were ever going to switch allegiance. It took Minami dropping an elbow on Chigusa to get the switch. Minami tried a tombstone, but Chigusa reversed it on her, and then kicked her with disdain. Lioness hit a Giant Swing. The point was well and truly proven, and the pin was anticlimactic. Lioness continued the brutality from the second fall. Minami, however, scored a backbreaker, and Hokuto added her somersault dive. Hokuto delivered big suplexes for near falls, displaying her determination. Despite Minami taking over, Chigusa stopped her momentum with an elbow, a powerbomb, and a brutal jumping piledriver. Lioness followed up with an even harder powerbomb, and then Chigusa assisted with a Crush elbow. Lioness made Minami wait for the sharpshooter, and despite Hokuto's attempt to intervene, she couldn't stop the submission hold. In response, Chigusa entered the ring, kicking Minami in the head. What followed this was a classic sleeper battle. Chigusa started it on Minami, Minami got one on Chigusa, then Lioness. Both of them sold it like they were really going out. Lioness tried to sandwich Minami to get out of it, but had to walk her over to Chigusa to tag out. Then Chigusa got a sleeper on Hokuto. Hokuto walked over to the corner and tagged Minami, who got a sleeper on Chigusa. Next the Crush Gals went for Dragon sleepers. Minami was almost finished, but scored some knees on Lioness, they mostly just annoyed her but caused her to break the hold. Chigusa and Hokuto exchanged German Suplexes. Marine Wolves got a double sleeper on Chigusa. Chigusa was wobbly, and ate a dropkick, then Minami came off the top with something, and it didn't look good, as she also landed on Chigusa's head. It appeared Chigusa was supposed to move but didn't. Hokuto kept stomping Chigusa, but Chigusa managed to throw her. Lioness then entered the ring, delivering some kicks before Chigusa tagged back in. Chigusa finished the match with a Northern Lariat. If there was a one tag team that deserved to go out as champions it was the Crush Gals, though I don't know why the Matsunaga's decided to put the belts on 3 /4/89, knowing Chigusa only had a few months left if they weren't going to switch them over the Marine Wolves here (mind you, Komatsu retired on this same show, so leaving the belts on the Calgary Typhoons wouldn't have been any good either). This felt like a huge match, and it lived up to it. This was the best use of the short first fall. The third fall felt like a collection of ideas thrown into one fall, but the ideas worked, and they didn't feel totally out of place. Everyone stood out in different ways, aside from Minami, but Hokuto didn't leave her with much of a role. ****1/4

AJW 6/18/89 AJW Tag Title Match: Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita vs. Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda 18:30.
PA: Dream Orca vs. Tokyo Sweethearts III. The 5/6/89 match was a rock solid tag match, this one felt like the best they were capable of at this point in their career. Dream Orca gave the legs of Shimoda a working over. Toyota took over on Yamada, and there was a nice spot where she hit the Yamazaki crosschop and then quickly dropkicked her in the head to prevent her tagging out. She was back to the armwork from the previous match, and Shimoda followed along. I loved when Shimoda went to some basic stretching, Toyota ran in and started stomping Yamada's arm, as if to remind her partner what she should be doing, and swiftly enough, Shimoda was back on the arm again. Toyota came in fully aggressive, kicking at Yamada, and hit a body press. Yamada tagged out and Mita hit her airplane spin and the Jumbo Hori throw from the turnbuckle. Mita ended up getting bored of Toyota, and threw her away to have a go with Shimoda. Shimoda went through her offense, and went for a pin, but Mita survived. Toyota hit a run of dropkicks and a missile kick, and it was back to Yamada. They were all quickening the pace, and Mita dumped out Shimoda. Toyota dragged Yamada out and gave her a thrashing by the announce table, while Mita and Shimoda fought. Both teams were wrecked and regrouped, but Mita wanted revenge on Toyota for her partner. She dropkicked Toyota off the apron and lifted Yamada presumably to toss her on Toyota, but Shimoda hit her with a dropkick to stop that plan. Shimoda and Toyota hit Yamada with a sandwich dropkick, then Toyota hit a flying crosschop and a dropkick. Double arm suplex for two. Shimoda came in, Yamada was initially one step ahead but avoided a charge and got a roll up a near fall. Mita hit and airplane to Shimoda. Both teams went for it with double teams and dives, all done with a ton of urgency. Toyota got a run on Yamada, but missed a flying body press, and was pinned after Yamada hit a backdrop suplex. The best way to sum up this match is it was like a really good all-action seniors match done with a junior moveset (though they had a little more than just basic moves), but it didn't feel repetitive, and they didn't run out of things to do. All of the urgency, intensity and work was there and it was a very exciting match. ***3/4

JWP 7/13/89 Shinobu Kandori vs. Miss A 15:51.
PA: This was from the JWP Best Match Collection tape. The rematch from February, and this time they got the match length right. This started as explosively as the first one, with Kandori firing off a slap and two going at full speed off the ropes (you've never seen Kansai move this fast), but it ended in a stalemate. A ran through her with kicks and a body attack, but Kandori grabbed a wakigatame, and then they slapped the piss out of each other. One of the best things about JWP's best matches is how uncooperative they looked, and a lot of what they were doing early on here had that same element. Kandori got A down and tried to work submissions, but A was blocking them to at least some degree. Kandori was relentless, but A was far bigger and more powerful. After A made the ropes, Kandori stiffed her with those boot scrapes and slaps, A wasn't selling it, so Kandori just hit her harder. When she started throwing her weak punches, A came back. A went up top, but got dropkicked down, and Kandori followed with a pescado. Despite her brief offensive in the ring, Kandori was taken down by A's powerful lariat. A applied her sharpshooter, stomping away when throwing kicks. However, Kandori seized an opportunity when A threw a kick, taking her down and applying another submission. A fought back with a lariat, a dropkick, and a tope to the outside. They brawled outside, with A winning the exchange, but she returned to the ring visibly worn out. A kept Kandori outside the ring, but her injuries were apparent, with a noticeable limp and damage to her arm. In the ring, A pressed on, hitting suplexes, including a superplex that resulted in a dramatic near fall. Frustrated, A attempted to go back to the half crab to further soften Kandori. Kandori countered but A made it to the ropes before any damage could be done. A hit a piledriver, but Kandori booted her when she charged to the corner, following that up with a missile dropkick. She hit a backdrop suplex, but was too slow to follow up. A threw some kicks, surprising Kandori with a small package for a close two-count. A executed a tombstone, and went up top for a diving headbutt, resulting in another great near fall. A sloppy rollup followed, which Kandori reversed to get the victory. The start of this was great stuff, and although they couldn't maintain that level throughout, it was an excellent match that fixed the things I didn't like from the February match. ****

AJW 7/19/89 WWWA World Tag Title Match: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki 8:55, 3:09, 4:53 of 6:18.
PA: This was a really exciting, urgent and action-packed tag title match. The Marine Wolves took turns getting worked over early, largely through a mixture of armwork and running moves. They kicked it up a gear when Minami returned, hitting her backbreakers, and Hokuto followed up with a dropkick and two missile dropkicks. Minami added in a diving headbutt, and then Nishiwaki scrambled to her corner to tag Hotta. Hotta countered Minami's body press into a Fallaway Slam, but Minami was at the ropes. Nishiwaki hit an elevated dropkick double team, missed her dive, then got killed with dives before Hokuto finished the first fall with a German Suplex. The second fall was the familiar formula, but ended in exciting fashion. An early burst from the Marine Wolves to try to finish, but Fire Jets took over, and Minami got hit with all the big moves. She made a comeback, and as Nishiwaki was thwarting it, Hokuto came steaming in with a dropkick. Double teaming from the Fire Jets backfired, but Nishiwaki managed to roll up Minami to take it back. Minami shifted her focus to Nishiwaki's leg, putting her in a figure four leglock, and Hokuto dove onto Nishiwaki. Hokuto came in with a German Suplex, and then Nishiwaki scrambled over to Hotta. Hotta didn't get a chance to get started with both Marine Wolves hitting suplexes. After a double dropkick, Nishiwaki tagged back in, but she ate a backbreaker from Minami and a missile dropkick from Hokuto. She hit a suplex, but Hotta broke up the pin. The onslaught was broken up when Minami took Hokuto out with a dive by mistake. Nishiwaki powerbombed Minami, but Hokuto broke up the pin. The Fire Jets got on a role now, and Minami took the big moves. Jumbo Suplexes from Hotta and a powerbomb and a double arm suplex from Nishiwaki. She caught Nishiwaki in a backside, and the Marine Wolves set up for a double team, but Hotta interrupted it. Nishiwaki quickly hurled Hokuto off, and Hotta finished her off with a double arm reverse tombstone and a tiger driver to win the tag belts. This was another choice tag team match between these two teams. Same quality as their March tag, but longer and more exciting. ***3/4

AJW 8/24/89 5 Minute Exhibition: Lioness Asuka vs. Jaguar Yokota 5:00.
PA: This was Lioness's retirement. She had a nice exhibition match with Noriyo Tateno, but she really wanted to do one with Jaguar Yokota, who at this point was the trainer of the young girls and one of the commentators, so Tateno got on the mic after her match and called her out for Lioness. This was just an incredible. They worked it like a proper match, just condensed down to 5 minutes (they actually went about 5:20). Jaguar did all of her spots like she always did. They slowed it down in the middle with some holds while still bursting in quick with kicks and takedowns. The end was another burst where Jaguar hit the rest of her spots she didn't do at the start, and then Lioness did hers, finishing with a Giant Swing, the time ran out and Jaguar let her pin her after the match. Jaguar was knocked out legitimately towards the end of this, and has no recollection of the last minute or so, but you couldn't tell until after the match where she's wobbly. I don't rate retirement exhibitions, but this was legitimately good, even at the condensed length.

AJW 9/28/89 2/3 Falls: Bull Nakano & Aja Shishido vs. Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami 6:05, 5:23, 5:27 of 6:35.
PA: Bull had a strange 1989. On TV she had to play the role of Dump Matsumoto, with all the chaos and weapons, which made for some wild scenes. On the house shows, she was allowed to wrestle, and she was also allowed to wrestle Mitsuko Nishiwaki on 6/18/89, where she won the All Pacific Title. This show was from Taiwan, and there aren't many people in the crowd. Bull liked bullying Miyake, who was the announcer with glasses, any time she saw him, so he got a beating before the match. This was a mixture of the Dump carnage and wrestling. It started out with a brief mugging outside as the heels dragged the Marine Wolves out there. Then it was some really fast-paced wrestling from Hokuto and Minami until the heels took over. Bull mixed her heel tactics with wrestling and worked over Minami, while Aja mainly just heeled. Hokuto came back and quickened it up. Minami came back in with jumping kicks and Hokuto set Aja up for a diving senton, but Minami missed, and Aja pinned her with a foot on her chest. The second fall saw Aja laughing through a test of strength at the start, but the Marine Wolves would take over soon enough, hitting dives. Bull introduced the nunchakus. Marine Wolves got roughed up on the outside, and Bull stabbed Hokuto in the head with a pen once they were back in the ring, causing her to juice. Minami tried to intervene, but had no luck. Aja continued that carnage on with a bucket. When Hokuto hit a missile dropkick, Bull intervened with nunchakus. Aja accidentally hit Bull with the bucket, and looked scared to death after doing so, and that prompted Minami to run in with a chair. Minami nailed Aja with some incredibly weak shots, while Hokuto pounded Bull with Aja's bucket considerably more forcefully. Then Hokuto hit a missile dropkick to win the second fall. All the chaos backfired, so Bull and Aja had a rethink, and wrestling was the answer. The third fall started with Aja hitting headbutts on Hokuto. Bull came in with suplexes and a bicycle kick. Minami came back at her with her backbreakers and German suplexes. Aja was kicking the ref to break the falls, so Minami handed Bull off and got on Aja. The German Suplex got a near fall. Hokuto put a figure on with Minami diving on Aja, so Bull busted it up by misting her. Bull missed the guillotine legdrop, and Hokuto tried a couple of pins, then a diving sunset flip. Bull put her in a sleeper, and then misted her again while she had her in a raised chokehold. The way Hokuto got the tag to Minami was dumb, with Bull attempting to catapult her towards the corner. Hokuto did her neat counter of it, and was in the corner for the tag to Minami. It didn't matter because Bull ran through both with a double lariat anyway, and then finished with a backdrop suplex. This was a good match with both of Bull's styles mixing well, the chaos didn't work, so they went back to wrestling and were victorious using underhanded tactics that didn't backfire. The work was good all round. Aja was even adequate here. Hokuto was the standout like always, both in the ring, but also from the apron, showing sheer desperation as watched Minami get mauled. ***1/2

AJW 12/9/89 AJW Title Match: Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada 30:00.
PA: This won the best bout in All Japan Women's end of year awards. Toyota wanted to kill Yamada at the start. She went straight for her before the match started and wouldn't relent, having to be retrained. Yamada responded by nailing her with her ring jacket. The hot start continued with Toyota trying a dive and tumbling out, with Yamada kicking the hell out of her. They took turns controlling the mat with their quicker running spots mixed in. Yamada ended up winning the battle, but Toyota was working and struggling her way out to get out of it. They had a really good exchange when they were back up, with Toyota hitting a series of dropkicks. They fought over a piledriver, and Toyota backdropped her out of it. Yamada was holding onto the arm, and Toyota kept bridging her way out. Yamada hit a sidewalk slam on a high angle, kicked the hell out of Toyota, and went to a Texas cloverleaf. She stuck with the legwork for a while, but Toyota escaped a crab and went with leg submissions of her own. They weren't done particularly well, and Yamada probably sold more than they were worth, but Toyota was actually putting effort into the matwork, so it's an improvement to where we'd be with her a few years later. Once Yamada took over again, she whipped Toyota off the ropes, but got slapped and suplexed for it. She responded by delivering strikes to Toyota's neck, hitting her own suplex then going back to the leg with an Achilles hold. Toyota fought and tried to kick her way out of it. Yamada stuck with the submissions. These were obviously filler submissions, but they were putting effort into putting them over. I can't be critical of them for killing time when they're tasked with going 30 minutes, but they probably put them over too much. The funny thing with submissions is that if they're undersold, people rightfully criticize them, but if they sold them forever and are sold huge, they get praised, despite the submissions and selling losing all their meaning and effectiveness. Toyota made her comeback, and hit a run of dropkicks then leapt up for a diving body press. She hit a double arm suplex and Yamada caught her with a kick coming out of it. Toyota dumped her outside and did hit a weak plancha to the outside. They brawled, but had to scramble back in to avoid the count out. Toyota was getting tired by this point, and Yamada had slowed down a little as well. They were getting into desperate measures, with the strategies out the window and just taking whatever they could land. Toyota got a crab on, and then managed another run of flying crosschops and dropkicks. A diving crosschop got her a near fall. They exchanged flash pins and more suplexes. Yamada had a little more left than Toyota, who's gas tank was just about empty. Yamada managed a burst. Toyota had it within her to block a German Suplex, and wildly elbowed her way out of it. She mustered up the strength for a Dragon suplex, which was a great near fall. Yamada small packaged her to come back and hit a Dragon suplex. Yamada had enough left for a dropkicks, and some kicks in the corner. She dragged Toyota back for a snap suplex. Toyota latched onto her back, but Yamada blocked her. That was about it for them, as the time ran out moments later. This match was excellent at the start and the end. They were getting really sloppy at the end, and though it made some of the exchanges look rough, it made them look more like they wanted it and were willing themselves through. The crowd didn't seem particularly into it early on, but they were invested by the end. The problem was the middle with all the submissions, which was simply them having to stretch the match out to 30 minutes. This wasn't MOTY, or even close to it, but they tried and they succeeded. This was a legitimately good match for anyone to have. ***1/2

1/4/90 AJW: Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita 16:32.
PA: 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

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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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.
PA: 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

6/17/96 NJPW, British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Dick Togo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 15:56

3/22/99 RINGS: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara 20:14.
ML: Kanehara was UWF-I's most talented rookie, but due to their notoriously dreadful booking, he somehow never worked his way up to challenging the natives from even the Newborn UWF. Finally, 3 years after UWF-I folded, we got the dream match in RINGS that we should have been seeing in UWF-I from 1992 or 1993 onwards. Unfortunately, times had changed, and RINGS was now in the process of converting to becoming an MMA promotion, so their worked fights had shifted a lot more towards realism. That can obviously be good, for example Tamura's famous 6/27/98 match with Tsuyoshi Kosaka, but it kept these two from delivering the sort of bout that distinguished their earlier great work. We didn't see Tamura's amazing speed or Kanehara's relentless pace and aggression. This was certainly very technically proficient, but it didn't take advantage of how fast, skilled, and exciting either can be. There were none of Tamura's signature sequences, and we didn't see the great counters back and forth we were expecting. This is not to say the match was bad by any means, but they were really staying disciplined, and picking their spots. This was a match about anticipation, rather than a match about flash. In fact, they went so far in the other direction that they kept almost all their actions small and subtle. Rather than big explosive movements, they did slow slight progressions. Rather than near submissions, there were near submission attempts where there wasn't actually a catch. There wasn't much stand up here beyond what was necessary to set up the takedown. Most of the strikes landed were the fighter on top using punches to the ribs or midsection to try to open up the arm bar, and this ultimately finished the match in Tamura's favor. While Kanehara was competitive, it always felt like he was struggling to work his way into the match, and in the end, he lost 3 points before submitting, while Tamura lost none. Kanehara seemed to finally get a big opportunity after catching a Tamura kick and taking the top, but that control was relatively short lived, just as his reversals were. This was one of the better minimalist RINGS matches, but it's appeal will mostly be to the hardcore fans of the style. ***1/2

1/20/02 Jd': Megumi Yabushita vs. Sumie Sakai 15:33 of 19:23.
ML: The expected submission oriented match, but they had a little more time than they needed, so early on they were kind of passive, utilizing low activity abdominal stretches and crabs. As the match progressed, they shifted to be more developed sequences and artistic counters into shoot submissions. It seemed like the first 9 minutes were kind of pedestrian, but then it started getting really good when Sakai rolled through a wakigatame attempt, then turned a German suplex into a victory roll. Later, Yabushita was able to counter a diving body attack into a wakigatame. There's was a nice spot where Sakai ducked a lariat and hit the quebrada. The match definitely could have used more focus and less meandering, but when they did a sequence or counter, it was very explosive and impressive. ***1/4

4/7/02 Jd': The Bloody vs. Megumi Yabushita 13:48.
ML: They kept this to a reasonable length, so they were able to go hard and bring junior style action from start to finish. Bloody isn't as technical as Sakai, but she has a much better idea of how to construct a match and keep things moving. Bloody was strategically trying to stay away from submission wrestling, bringing big action and chaos as usual, but Yabushita would still find a way to get her technical wrestling in, even if it meant countering with a flying armbar. This was a little sloppy, but a fast paced and exciting match with several big moves, including avalanche versions of the dragon suplex and armbar. There was a cool spot where Bloody tried to counter Yabushita's swandive move with a forearm, but Yabushita caught the arm and did a rope hanging arm bar, which didn't seem contrived and jokey like Tajiri's tarantula. Yabushita then used a swandive sunset flip, but rather than trying for the pinfall, went right into a knee bar. ***3/4

8/31/02 Jd': The Bloody & JYAGIE (Hiromi Yagi) vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai 10:27 of 10:48.
ML: These are the four best workers in the league by a wide margin. This should have been the company's match of the year, but wasn't booked or wrestled with that purpose in mind. The main problem was there was absolutely no need a reason to have TSUNAMI or Sachie Abe getting involved, and instead of building to an interesting finish, the match built to that silliness. The match started off strong with the sort of technical wrestling you want to see from Yagi versus Yabushita, and good as Bloody as, this is a match where she should be outnumbered stylistically, and it should build by mixing high spots into progressively more tricked out matwork. The first 5 minutes were strong, but they begin to lose the plot when Sakai taunted TSUNAMI after hitting a dive. They recovered nicely, but just when you started thinking again that this was going to be an excellent match, TSUNAMI jumped in and the heels started randomly using sticks, prompting Abe to come in to even things out. Yagi ducked Abe's lame running elbow and gave Sakai a backdrop into an arm bar for the win. ***

5/24/03 ARSION 5min 3R: Mariko Yoshida vs. Megumi Fujii 3R 3:30

1/16/05 TNA X-Division Title Ultimate X Match: Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Sabin 20:01.
ML: A fun car crash. It was very contrived, between being a three-way, which always entails one guy twiddling their thumbs, and being an Ultimate X match, which leads to a lot of slow climbing, rope work, and silly hanging within inches of the belt but not actually just grabbing it. Though it was messy, and sometimes felt more like an obstacle course, the effort was really good, and it was pretty creative. There were several good spots incorporating the rope overhead, including an atomic drop, a doomsday frankensteiner, an avalanche style frankensteiner. Styles was several notches ahead of the others, with everything he did looking really impressive. This might not have exactly worked as a wrestling match, but there were enough stunts to keep my attention. ***

2/13/05 TNA X-Division Title 30 Minute Iron Man: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels 31:42.
ML: This had a lot more going on than their rematch. It was sloppier and goofier, but an overall better match, with more intensity and story. The problem was that it was all so poorly ordered. They were predominantly telling the story of Styles against the odds comeback, but he dominates the 1st half of the match, drops a fall to a rib injury that kind of didn't wind up going because most of the considerable focus on it was after the actual pin. Instead, they shift to a new injury that allows Daniels to suddenly become a major heel in the final 5 minutes, squishing the blood out of Styles forehead, when he instead should be finishing Styles off. This doesn't go anywhere either, and Styles manages to survive long enough to get the win in overtime. The match was interesting, had some drama, a number of good moves, good ideas that could have been laid out better, and too much filler because they payoffs didn't necessarily elevate things that could have been more useful. The first 10 minutes were on the slow side because this is too long for the X Division, but had its moments with chain wrestling and a few good athletic spots. They certainly did enough to keep it from dragging, and establish Styles as the superior physical specimen that Daniels had to be crafty or mean enough to counteract. It picked up considerably from there with the most exciting portion of the match with Styles getting his high flying going, but Daniels got his legs up for the 450 splash, and embarrassed AJ by pinning him with his own Styles clash. Though this was a grudge match with jaded, jealous Daniels harboring years of frustration over losing to Styles, I'm still not sure that you want your best moves to be the ones you borrow from your opponent. I'm definitely sure that you don't want your ironman match peaking less than halfway through. They continued to chew up time with Daniels working the injured ribs, both with good moves and with offense that became relevant due to the injury. Styles would make brief comebacks with his big moves, but couldn't score the pin. He was almost able to even things up by using Daniels own angels wings on him, but Daniels just kicked out. After all his big moves failed, Styles just got lucky, countering a backdrop into a flash pin to tie it up with 6 minutes left. This just felt off too because Styles did a number of things that could reasonably have scored a non decisive fall, but they had to make up some b.s. of him being out of position to pin or whatever, only to just randomly give him a fall out of nowhere. Styles was busted open getting posted with 5 minutes left. Now that it was time for them to be making a big push for the finish, instead Daniels was just standing around punching the cut like the Butcher. The cut wasn't that bad (at the outset), and with this little time left in the match, the ref wasn't going to stop it and Styles wasn't going to quit, so this heat portion was just out of place, taking up what should have been the finishing portion. Had it happened about 10 minutes earlier, that would have been a good way for them to kill time in a somewhat useful fashion. At this point though, Daniels would have been better off keeping after the ribs rather than forgetting about them, or just finding his way to the angels wings. Daniels did manage to open up the cut quite a bit, but that left no time for a final push, which was sorely lacking. They instead wound up with a very overdramatic Koji clutch for the last 30 seconds, with some dreadful spastic fighting spirit selling from AJ, who then passed out at the bell, but they ruled it a draw because he didn't tap and refs seemingly aren't allowed to protect the fighters in wrestling. There was a really cool counter in the overtime where Daniel's went for the avalanche style Frankensteiner, but Styles shot Daniels up and over, making him do a moonsault out of the corner. Styles then lept off the second with a tijeras, and hit the Styles clash for the win. This wasn't the most convincing finish after all AJ had survived in the 2nd half, but they protected his finisher. The overtime was finally more exciting again, but it was very brief. Not that it should have been longer, but the exciting portions being 10 and 30 minutes in wasn't ideal. Individually, there were a lot of good ideas and portions, I just think you could have gotten a lot more out of even the same material without too much effort. Though this was their superior ironman match, it was almost in spite of themselves. ***1/4

10/23/05 TNA X-Division Title 30 Minutes Iron Man Match: AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels 30:00.
ML: Though 30 minutes is the better length for an Ironman match, it's still too long for a junior style match. They did their best to be consistent here, and keep things as even as possible. Daniels tried to tell a story so it didn't drag, working over Styles ribs again, though to a lesser extent, to neutralize him after Styles was a step ahead in the early portion due to being the superior athlete. The first half didn't feel much like a junior style match because they were building a long match, focusing more on physical and technical aspects. There were too many rest holds even though they were reasonably well done so it felt like they had some purpose and intensity, and even though the action picked up considerably in the second half, it was still somewhat all over the place. The rib story was in and out, with Daniels hitting a huge backdrop off the apron with 6 minutes left, but being unable to capitalize. There were some really good back and forth sequences, both countering big holds and exchanging flash pin attempts. With no falls having been scored, Styles managed to hit the Styles clash with eight seconds left to retain. ***

2/20/05 JWP Openweight Title Match: Azumi Hyuga vs. Kaori Yoneyama of 18:55 of 19:55.
ML: This was voted 2005 Best Single Bout in the Lady's Gong 2005 Joshi Puroresu Awards issue, but that seems very wishful, as it's hard to discern why it was considered anything beyond the standard good Azumi match. Yoneyama's 771 day year reign JWP Jr. champion ended in August, and her 263 day second run with the JWP tag titles ended in September. Unfortunately, these good stepping stones didn't result in her being competitive enough against Azumi to be taken seriously. Yoneyama showed some heart and fire early on, but by the time she fought her way to a certain amount of credibility, the audience had likely long since dismissed any notion of her potentially winning. Also, nothing we saw from this match suggested she deserved to win. Azumi brought the action, and fought with confidence and crispness, moving smoothly and fluidly. She kept the match entertaining, but it was ultimately one of her sloppier matches because Yoneyama made some mistakes. When things went well, Yoneyama was a good opponent to work with because she tried hard and is athletic. Overall, this was a fun match, but it felt more like an elongated squash than a competitive title match. ***

3/27/05 JWP: Azumi Hyuga & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Command Bolshoi & Kaoru Ito 21:25.
ML: Everyone was quite good here, and made a solid contribution. All the pairings were quite good, to the point it would be difficult to say pick the best worker or pairing. It was all very professional, and everything was very well done. Having the outsider Ito added a bit of intensity and urgency, but that was the main problem. Even though JWP is a proud league that takes things seriously and has arguably the best work ethic, this was still just a very small show main, so it wasn't the excellent match their talent made them capable of. It was always at least good throughout, and they definitely amped it up for the final third. ***1/2

5/15/05 JWP Openweight Title Match: Azumi Hyuga vs. Kaoru Ito 20:31.
ML: JWP picked this as their Best Single Bout of 2005, but it's more a great win for Hyuga than a great match. They did a nice power vs. speed match that looked like you'd expect, with all their signature moves. I was hoping for a little more from this. Ito seemed a little sluggish, and was having a hard time keeping up with Azumi at points. There was something of a loose knee storyline Azumi was using to slow Ito down, but in actuality, Ito just didn't seem to have the conditioning she had a few years earlier. She still executed really well, and had bursts of energy, but wasn't consistently moving from spot to spot as quickly or efficiently as she used to. The Ito vs. Momoe Nakanishi matches from 2001 and 2002 had the feeling of both being elite workers, while this felt like Hyuga was doing her thing, and was capable of a better match, but Ito just wasn't the worker Azumi was tonight. The match was good from the outset, but it never picked up enough speed or urgency to move beyond that level. ***

4/14/05 01-MAX WORLD-1 Junior Heavyweight & NWA/UPW/ZERO-ONE International Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Super Crazy vs. Ikuto Hidaka 13:31 of 14:00.
ML: I really like the way both of these guys move. They did a fun Lucha Libre style match, starting with some nice gymnastic rolling and tumbling. I could have lived without some of the walking around the arena, but it developed into a high flying match with Hidaka hitting tijeras off the stage and off the entrance way. Hidaka hit a tornado DDT onto a chair when they went outside again, and later Crazy hit a quebrada, but they spent way too much time on the floor for what they did there overall. There was 10 minutes of very good, slick action here, plus some meandering because Crazy has to have some brawling. ***1/4

10/9/05 01-MAX NWA International Lightweight Tag Title Match: Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm 14:25 of 23:16.
ML: This match was all flash and spectacle. The British team were doing their best to add height and/or some kind of twist or turn to everything they did. It wasn't really practical, of course, and led to some unnecessary errors, but it was a wild gymnastics display of athletic creativity and insanity. If you don't like the flippy lucha oriented style, you will hate this doubly, but since it's not realistic to begin with, I prefer something like this that's decked out to the absolute max. Storm was even more nuts than Fleisch here, daring to dive off the high balcony at Korakuen Hall long after it did Mr. Danger in. He did some really cool arm drag variation of the avalanche Spanish fly, as well as an avalanche reverse Frankensteiner. Another fun spot saw Storm German suplex Fleisch off the middle rope so he could moonsault Fujita. Fleisch did his springboard shooting star press and his wall moonsault. Hidaka & Fujita weren't as spectacular or wild, so they wound up more in the rudo role of facilitating, feeding, and bumping, despite technically being the faces due to being the natives and home promotion wrestlers. I wish this match were complete, but what we saw was much more exciting than just about anything that took place in 2005. ****

9/3/05 wXw World Heavyweight Title, European Rules: Robbie Brookside vs. Chris Hero 36:07.
ML: If you enjoy watching the old World of Sports stuff, here's a match from two decades after the style died that is actually worth watching. It's by no means as good as the better original stuff, especially when it comes to tumbling, but Hero actually learned something from studying the World of Sport tapes, and Brookside is one of the last holdovers from the end of that era. This isn't the bum's version of nostalgia, where some feeble flat-footed strike exchanges and an exploder are supposed to pass for All Japan's heyday. There's still more jawing with the rowdy crowd than I would like to see, but unlike the painfully mediocre Brookside vs. Danielson match from 5/7/05, they didn't get too distracted, and actually did a serious technical wrestling match. I don't think this has a lot of appeal beyond its niche audience though, as it's one of those long matches that's consistently good, but not a lot major or really different from what it starts as ever happens. ***

12/17/05 wXw 2/3 Falls: Mike Quackenbush vs. Chris Hero 48:00.
ML: They wrestled this match on what I swear was a giant garbage bag for a canvas, complete with all the bends and fold marks Gladm is famous for. Quackenbush supposedly had a very severe back injury, but that wasn't apparent from anything he did, all of which was very athletic, fluid, and smooth. The best portions were the Lucha Libre segments, which were mostly showcases for Quackenbush obviously, but Hero was able to go with better than I expected. Hero did a backwards roll where he twisted into a senton, which was kind of neat. The big problem with this match is it was way overlong, with much of the early portion spent screwing around with the crowd. There was a lot of good stuff here, but there wasn't much sense of urgency, and they struggled to ever gain momentum. Even if Quackenbush was healthy, there was no reason for this match to go longer than 20 minutes based upon what they were doing. ***

KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima Great Wrestling Feuds NOAH KOPW Match Reviews 6/13/08-10/27/13

12/29/13 STARDOM, JWP Openweight & World Of STARDOM Double Title Match: Arisa Nakajima [JWP champ] vs. Io Shirai [STARDOM champ] 25:18 of 30:00

12/18/16 JWP: Arisa Nakajima vs. Command Bolshoi 30:00.
ML: Their last match together where both were members of the JWP roster, as Arisa finished up dropping the title to Hanako Nakamori at the end of the year, the final death knell for JWP. They went really hard for 30 minutes despite the building being almost empty. There wasn't much in the way of story, but it was a really well worked match, with a lot of great moves. I thought the technical level would be much higher though. The standing sequences were definitely better developed then the mat sequences, which didn't have a lot of interplay, unfortunately. Bolshoi got the best of the submission work, injuring a Nakajima's arm, but by this point, she opted to try to finish with shining wizards rather than continue going after the appendage. The draw wasn't exactly surprising, but they definitely didn't work this in a manner where it was obvious that the match was going to last all night. ****

3/3/24 AEW: Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita 21:57

3/8/24 ONE: Yau Pui Yu vs. Lara Fernandez 3R UD
ML: This is the sort of really fun all action fight we seem to only get from the female division, a little less skilled, but more heart, desire, and determination. The pace of this match was completely ridiculous, just a relentless, completely suffocating performance from Yu, who didn't slow down a bit. Neither woman really did. Yu just kept charging forward, alternating the left and right hand, forcing Fernandez to do something to slow her down. The more Fernandez backed up, the more Yu just claimed that space. Fernandez figured out that wasn't going to work after Yu dominated the first round, and tried to make changes in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, though none of them really worked that well. When Fernandez tried to clinching, Yu would shift to knees. Fernandez really had trouble timing Yu, but finally caught her coming in early in the second, busting Yu open around the left eye. Fernandez was soon cut outside her left eye as well, and they continued to just batter one another. Fernandez tried circling out, but she basically had to be punching while circling to hold Yu off even a little, otherwise Yu followed her just as quickly, so Fernandez still never actually managed to create any space. Fernandez showed a lot of determination, and had some success with elbows in the 3rd, but Yu was simply the more talented fighter. Yu won a unanimous decision. Very good match.

3/29/24 CMLL Torneo Incredible De Parejas 2024 Final: Mascara Dorada & Rocky Romero vs. Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. 17:58
ML: A big time chaotic spotfest from two teams of rivals that was a lot of fun, but kind of messy. Everything they did was highly athletic, with multiple shooting star presses, but the timing wasn't always great, between footing issues and just trying to get everyone in the right place in a match where all 4 were often going at it after the early stages. Soberano and Rocky were technically the heels, but Atlantis Jr. was the one being booed because these fans don't like his family. Everyone was quite good, with Dorada being the flashiest. Rocky was clearly the worst, as he's the least athletic and the only one who was hamming it up. Eventually Atlantis took a fall countering Dorada's shooting star press with a cutter. The finish then saw Soberano double cross Atlantis, unmasking him so his regular partner, Romero, could get the win with a schoolboy. ***1/2

4/12/24 PFL: Clay Collard vs. Patricky Pitbull R2 1:32
ML: This matchup of volume vs. power turned out to be the typical entertaining Collard fight where he won with his persistence and stamina as much as his relentless boxing. Collard just kept coming forward as usual, but early on, Pitbull was doing his best to maintain distance, backing then timing Collard coming in. Pitbull would then briefly press forward with the low kick or the jab to set up a power punch, but while he was giving up the reach, he decidedly didn't want to fight inside with Collard. Pitbull dropped Collard with a left hook/right straight combo 2 minutes into the first. Pitbull followed with some big hooks and got the take down, but Collard rolled him through, and got back to his feet. Collard seem to gain confidence here, combined with Pitbull already being winded. Now Collard was able to much more effectively stalk Pitbull behind his jab. Pitbull's nose was bloodied, but he landed a nice left hook, and followed with a right straight then a knee to the head. Collard definitely lost the 1st round, but for the most part, the action trended very much in his direction in the second half of the round. Collard continued to work his body punches, which, along with his high volume, were really sapping the energy from the increasingly sluggish Pitbull. Pitbull's footwork increasingly broke down, and he was began standing in front of Collard, way too much. Beyond that being a big advantage for Collard because he has the faster hands and more technical boxing skill, it made it a lot less work for him to just keep throwing his combos because he didn't have to chase. Collard backed Pitbull into the cage with a right straight, and was just picking his shots against the cage with Pitbull standing around covering. He mixed the uppercut in between Pitbull's block and the hook around the block. Pitbull eventually tried to move forward, but still wasn't throwing anything, and by the time he finally got around to answering, the ref stopped the fight due to the one way traffic. This was a nice comeback win for Collard after getting quickly squashed by A.J. McKee on 2/24/24. Good match.

4/13/24 UFC 300: Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic R2 3:17
ML: Rakic has a lot more technique, but Jiri has the power and speed, and will keep putting himself in harm's way until someone goes down. He's a great fighter to watch because it's kill or be killed. Rakic has never been known for his entertainment value, but Jiri's determination kept forcing a fight, and turned this into Rakic's most entertaining match, even though Rakic still did his best to keep exciting things from happening. Jiri tried to use his movement to make something happen, but wasn't getting inside or throwing enough to create much disturbance for most of round 1. Rakic tried to stay back and use his jab to maintain distance, and then time the low kick when he had Jiri backing or when Jiri was taking his first step forward. Following in the footsteps of Alex Pereira, Rakic's real game plan was to beat up the lead calf, and by midway through the first round, Jiri was already having trouble putting weight on it. Luckily for Jiri, Rakic's strikes aren't early as lethal as Pereira's. Jiri stuck with his game plan of pushing forward even though he wasn't really able to get any attacks off, and was really just getting picked apart throughout the first round. Jiri finally landed a good right hand off a left high kick fake, although Rakic connected at the same time. Jiri then stunned Rakic with the right hook on the inside. Rakic stayed disciplined, fighting a responsible fight behind the jab, and Jiri was very reticent to fight southpaw to protect the worse leg because it hamperes his offensive capabilities. Jiri seemed to care less and less about what Rakic was doing even though it was working for Rakic, and was finally able to turn it into more of a brawl after landing a left high kick. The more they swung big, the more it favored Jiri, who has the speed advantage, and is way more creative. Jiri hurt Rakic with a big right hand, and Rakic tried to run away, but Jiri just kept landing while chasing him down. Rakic seemed to accidentally cause a head butt lunging forward, and then stumbled, which allowed Jiri to push him down and flurry from the top for the stoppage. This was a really exciting comeback from Prochazka, who never gave up on himself despite getting no results early, and getting physically hampered in the process. Good match.

4/17/24 AEW: Will Ospreay vs. Claudio Castagnoli 14:28.
ML: Reasonable length, fast-paced, spot oriented match designed to make AEW's only useful new star, Ospreay, look strong going into his big PPV match with Claudio's stablemate, Bryan Danielson. Claudio is remarkably athletic for his size, and was typically great at tossing the opponent around, and working all the big man vs. small man spots. This wasn't so much about trying to go above and beyond to have a match of the year because they didn't want to risk injury before the PPV. The purpose was to get Will's core offense over, and show that he can overcome adversity. Claudio had a big run of offense after catching Will in mid-air on the pescado, and slamming him hard onto the ring apron, but it felt like he was mostly trying to be the solid one, leaving all the spectacular stuff for Will. They had some big counters for each other's favorite moves, including Claudio countering the Oscutter with a burning hammer, and Will countering the giant swing with a DDT. The post match where Moxley rather than Danielson saved Claudio from the Callis Family made no sense other than the aspect of Will not being down with the ganging up for no reason setting up his eventual departure from the Callis Family because the goal should be promoting Danielson vs. Will on the PPV Sunday, not the throwaway Moxley vs. Hobbs next Wednesday. ***1/2

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