12/8/97 Octagon Challenge CMA-KPW Real Fight (shoot matches)
Megumi Yabushita vs. Yuu Jitai (or something). Yabushita comes close to winning with the jujigatame a couple of times before finally getting the job done.
Rieko Amano vs. Yoko Takahashi. Pretty good. Mainly a bunch of strikes because all these women are inexperienced in shooting, so their technique isn't too good at all.
Lioness Asuka vs. Cho Oto. Oto was no match, as Lioness just took her down and made her submit.
NEW YEAR FESTIVAL '98 1/11/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Yuki Lee & Esther Moreno vs. Ryuna & Fang Suzuki. Esther was the only one who did much, although no one was particularly good or bad. *3/4
Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Megumi Yabushita 7:15 of 11:43. A great effort, doing all they could to have a high quality match, even if it was above their means. Yabushita's offense wasn't very developed, she pretty much just used dropkicks and her judo submissions, but they did a really fast-paced, action packed match. Bloody did a good job of carrying her, and threw in some nice suplexes. Admittedly, they tried to do a little too much, but the effort was there and the experience is coming. *** range
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo vs. Cooga & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori & Sachie Abe. Pretty disappointing match that lacked flow. Cachorras had to lead the Jd' women through the brawl, but the Jd' women couldn't always follow and Cooga didn't want to take even a semi-hard chair shot. Match actually worked better when LCO weren't brawling because the opposition was more at home in regular pro style. Saya was better than all three of the Jd' women. Jd' team eventually got some offense in, but it never looked like they could win. Abe looked pretty good at the end, so that probably made her the best of the Jd' trio. *3/4
TWF World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka 15:29 of 17:11. This immaculate hyper paced, plunder oriented spotfest isn't exactly the match you'd expect from women in their mid to late 30's at this time, to put it mildly! These two have the utmost respect for one another, total trust. They know they can go as fast and as hard as they desire, that this is their chance to match spectacular with spectacular and deliver a wild workrate extravaganza. Along with LCO, Lioness was pioneering the workrate end of the hardcore wrestling style during this period. These matches were gimmick and weapon oriented, but able to maintain the same pace and high quality brand of wrestling they had been doing otherwise, simply adding props to the mix to get heat and make the moves seem more deadly. Lioness didn't generate the level of chaos LCO did, but made up for it by being a lot more precise. She's a lot more calculating, even a bit methodical in the sense that's she's confident that no one can stop her from having her way with them. This match was very frontloaded, with an awesome lightning fast technical burst start, but then Lioness shifted to the hardcore style, and Jaguar just couldn't compete in that realm. Unable to break free from the Lioness formula that kept their 10/22/97 match from reaching the heights it was capable of, the match once again wound up being far too one-sided because while Jaguar had her hope spots through athletic counters, it was really always one and done due to either another weapon spot or interference from Lioness' minions. There were many insane spots for the time, with Lioness' highlights including a Ligerbomb on the floor, hanging Jaguar off the balcony, a piledriver off the apron through a table, and an avalache style towerhacker bomb. Jaguar's highlights included a tope con giro off the stage, doublearm piledriver on the apron, and avalanche style doublearm suplex. A few of Jaguar's counters didn't quite come off though, particularly the avalanche style reverse Frankensteiner that was her finally big chance. It's interesting that while this match doesn't have quite the same impact 26 years later when we've all become desensitized to Tony Khan breaking a toy or two each week for no real reason, at the time these two were really ahead of the curve, continuing to modernize even though they were legends that didn't need to, especially when you consider the stuff they were incorporating was the roughest, toughest, and most athletic spots and bumps. Certainly, the big 1980's stars of the men's leagues such as Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami weren't updating their matchups from the early to mid 80's, much less the WWE guys who, at best, continued to be narrow and formulaic. It says a lot for Lioness that 9 years after she retired the 1st time, she was arguably in the 3 best women's matches of 1998. I used to prefer Lioness' 4/26/98 & 5/6/98 matches against Kyoko Inoue, but Jaguar brings a lot more to the table in 1998 than Kyoko does, even though Kyoko is still in her 20's. Still, this match never really felt like a Jaguar match, and Kyoko probably came off as a bigger star than Jaguar did. The biggest fault here is the match grew less dramatic as Jaguar just couldn't complete a comeback, and went down rather unceremoniously. It was one of those matches where you couldn't believe it was over because you kept waiting for Jaguar to somehow find an answer. Lioness did the style Jaguar taught her in the '80's when she wanted to, but she wanted to win brutally a lot more, and Jaguar just didn't have an answer for Lioness in Lioness' new style. ****1/2
Yuki Lee & Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Angie & Ryuna. 1/2*
Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW team). **
Cooga vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). *3/4
Sachie Abe & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Fang Suzuki & Shark Tsuchiya (FMW). 1/4*
Mima Shimoda (Neo Ladies) vs. Chikako Shiratori. DUD
TWF Tag Title Match: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody. ***1/4
Sumie Sakai vs. Fang Suzuki
Ryuna & Angie vs. Kazuko Fujiwara
The Bloody vs. Yuki Lee
Lioness Asuka vs. Megumi Yabushita
Jaguar Yokota & Cooga & Chikako Shiratori vs. Yuko Kosugi & Sachie Abe & Miyuki Sogabe
Note: First 5 matches are shown in highlight form
The Next Tournament Round 1: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW) vs. Hiromi Kato (GAEA) & Nanae Takahashi (AJW).
The Next Tournament Round 1: Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya (JWP) vs. Sachie Abe & Miho Watabe (LLPW). This was a pretty good, exciting, action packed match.
The Next Tournament Round 2: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Miyuki Sogabe & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Fast-paced sprint with good work, but too much of Emi's comedy
The Next Tournament Round 2: Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya vs. Fang Suzuki & Misa Okoda (SPWF). Looked pretty bad. Okoda is even worse than Fang, and it's not easy to be that bad. Yoko Takahashi vs. Megumi Yabushita. UFC rules type of match.
Yuki Lee vs. Kumiko Maekawa (AJW). Maekawa did a good job, carrying Lee as well as you could expect her to, but Lee is just plain bad. Maekawa looked like a star, and Lee looked like she belonged in A ball. This was supposed to be a stiff, realistic match, but Lee's kicks were much too weak. **
The Next Tournament Final: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya. Everyone held their own and looked good in this match. Kosugi & Sakai continue to improve. Sakai added hot flying moves and Kosugi is improving her matwork. They are also starting to play off each others move sets now. Sakai & Momoe win tournament. ***1/4
Jaguar Yokota vs. Cooga. Hall of Fame performance by Jaguar carrying the pansy Cooga to a very good match. Hot start and finish. Strong body and psychology with Cooga destroying Jaguar's bad knee. Superb selling by Jaguar. ***1/2
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo & Chikako Shiratori vs. Lioness Asuka & Shark Tsuchiya & The Bloody & Ryuna. Bad match that had no direction and went on forever. Why was this the main event over the Jaguar match that really delivered? *1/2
Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Fang Suzuki. 1/4*
Jd' Sekai Toso The Single: Chikako Shiratori vs. Sachie Abe. **1/4
Ryuna vs. Yuki Lee. *
Cooga vs. Leoga. 1/2*
The Bloody vs. Saya Endo (Neo Ladies). **1/2
TWF World Tag Title Match: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai 17:21. In 2 years, Jaguar has elevated her 3 top trainees to the point they can have a good semifinal with her that isn't all her doing. It was a fun action oriented match, even if a bit sloppy and rough around the edges. Kosugi was the most consistent of the proteges, but also the least dynamic. Best portion was when Yabushita hit an avalanche style armbar then when Jaguar escaped to the floor, she followed with another off the apron that led into a 4 dive sequence capped by Kosugi's footstomp. **3/4
TWF World Single Title Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue 17:29. Lioness was in top form and did a great job of carrying her now overweight to the point of limiting her opponent the best match she had since leaving AJW. These two aren't the best at structuring a match, but Lioness can sure work, and that's exactly what they relied on. It was a great action oriented sprint telling the simple story of the deck being totally stacked against Kyoko. Asuka hit her with a chain to start the match, and although it didn't do that much damage, Kyoko just seemed to be fighting her way back the entire time. They mainly only paused after the initial barrage so Lioness could injure Kyoko's knee to give her one of many obstacles to overcome. Asuka had the answer to most of what Kyoko tried, and when she didn't Bloody, Fang, and Ryuna were there to make up for it. Lioness took her hardcore brawling to a new level here, slamming Kyoko off the bleachers onto a table (Kyoko took a wicked bump because Lioness didn't throw her far enough), hanging Kyoko of the balcony, Ligerbombing her off a table on the 2nd, piledriving her on a table that just wouldn't break, and so on. Kyoko took massive punishment but kept trying to make fiery albeit hobbled comebacks only to be cut off quickly since she's mainly limited to lariats and powerbombs right now. Lioness understood what current Kyoko is though, and by allowing her to pick her spots, she seemed more like the energetic Kyoko of old. ****1/2
Jd' #27 7/10/98 SPRING STORM '98 taped 4/29/98 Osaka Bayside Jenny
Chikako Shiratori vs. Masami Iizuka 10:41. Standard vanilla match with veteran Shiratori controlling and roughing up upstart Iizuka. Passable stuff as Shiratori went through her routine, but Iizuka really wasn't any help at all. *
Sumie Sakai vs. Sachie Abe 11:00. Pretty bad.
Cooga vs. Kazuko Fujiwara 6:07. Cooga did just about everything, but didn't try anything. A lot of rest holds. Boring. 1/2*
Jd' Junior Title Match: The Bloody vs. Yuko Kosugi 13:04. They didn't do much early on because it was a small show, but it turned into a good match with Bloody being the better of the two. **1/2
Elimination Match: Jaguar Yokota & Yuki Lee & Miyuki Sogabe & Megumi Yabushita vs. Lioness Asuka & Ryuna & Fang Suzuki & Angie 17:31. The scrubs were eliminated first, but there were so many that it took a while to weed them out. Match got quite good in the second half when Lee and Fang weren't dragging it down. Jaguar & Lioness were pretty much the whole match. ***
Jd' #33 1/14/99 taped 11/22/98 Kyoto KBS Hall
Ryuna vs. Hiroyo Muto 9:25
Obatchi Iizuka vs. Esther Moreno 13:58
Yuko Kosugi & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody 20:40. ***
Jaguar Yokota Intai Countdown Vol. 12: Jaguar Yokota vs. Megumi Yabushita 13:43. ***
TWF World Tag Title Match: Cooga & Sumie Sakai vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Fang Suzuki 19:30. **
Cooga & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Lioness Asuka & Fang Suzuki. A decent spot oriented match due to Lioness. Cooga was ok. Fang & Sogabe sucked as usual. *1/2
Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai 15:45. A nice step forward as the match contained the usual excitement, but they supported their moves with a more focused and better built match. It started off with Bloody doing more of a technical match. The story was that Bloody injured Sakai's knee to set up the kneebar and Sakai injured Bloody's arm to set up the armbar, but of course Bloody's knee attack included bashing it with a chair. The gradually picked up the pace, and the final minutes were both frentic and desperate with near falls you could believe in. ***1/2
TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Yuki Lee & Chikako Shiratori 13:33. Jaguar let Kosugi sink or swim, and luckily this was a nice performance from Yuko as you figured most of the quality had to come from her team. Shiratori was pretty good doing her routine, but Lee was totally non descript. It was a bit sloppy and deliberate, but they pressed forward with the action. It never had the feel of a title match, and you pretty much knew Jaguar's team was retaining, but she didn't run through the opposition or anything, her role was simply to facilitate as much quality wrestling as they could muster. **1/4
Miyuki Sogabe retirement video
Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Obatchi Iizuka. Highlights.
Climb A Steep Cliff: Yuki Lee vs. Chikako Shiratori. Highlights
Judo Jacked Match: Fang Suzuki vs. Megumi Yabushita. Highlights. These two were both national judo players, along with Sakai, but Yabushita was the star of the three so you'd think they might want to put her over here, despite the size difference. Instead, it was declared a draw after 15:00 plus a 5:00 overtime.
Cooga & Abe vs. Ryuna & Hechicera (Yuki Miyazaki). 1/3 aired.
Sakai vs. Hiromi Yagi. Yagi's re-debut. Yagi had clearly trained really hard for this, but she was obviously rusty as she hadn't wrestled in 14 months. Still, she almost seemed like an alien because she was so much better and more advanced than everyone who worked on this card before her. A really cool battle of the Judo girls, with Sakai also having a good performance and probably topping her best ever singles match once again. It was a little sloppy, but it looked like it was one of the best Jd' matches of the year. ***3/4
TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar & Kosugi vs. Lioness & The Bloody 60:00. Overall, the matches in this feud just get better and better because Kosugi & The Bloody continue to improve. This one was possibly the best Jd' tag match, but they edited enough out it was still hard to tell just how good it was. Kosugi & Bloody used to need to be carried by Jaguar & Lioness, but now they work quite well together. This appeared to start slow, but everyone wrestled with a sense of urgency once they were deep into the match. Work was really strong. Jaguar's selling was really good. ****1/4 range
October 9 taped 7/19/98 Kyoto
Jaguar Yokota vs. Chikako Shiratori
October 16 taped 7/19 Kyoto
Lioness Asuka & The Bloody & Ryuna vs. Cooga & Yuki Lee & Yoko Kosugi
October 23 raped 7/19 Kyoto
Keiko Aono vs. Sachie Abe
Sumie Sakai vs Fang Suzuki
October 30 taped 7/22/98 Osaka Furitsu Gym 2
Yuko Kosugi vs. Chikako Shiratori
Arise Marvelous Respect: Megumi Yabushita & Kazuko Fujiwara & Obatchi Iizuka vs. Ryuna & Fang Suzuki & Hechicera. Match had a lot of action. The heels carried this and pretty much dominated this. They looked decent. Read Review.
Jd' Junior Title Challengers Match: Sumie Sakai vs. Keiko Aono (LLPW). Sakai was pretty good, but Aono was bad again. Read Review.
Chikako Shiratori & Yuki Lee vs. Yoko Kosugi & Sachie Abe
Jaguar Yokota vs. The Bloody. They did a poor job of editing this match, as it looked like Jaguar totally dominated Bloody when in actuality, Bloody lasting nearly 20:00 with Jaguar means she must have made a good showing. Appeared to be a good match, but only 3:45 was shown. Read Review.
Cooga vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy). Slow paced match. Cooga was very slow and deliberate. Her work wasn't fluid. Even Ozaki couldn't get any goodness out of her. Only decent because of Ozaki, and I'm probably being generous by giving it Read Review. **
TWF Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue. A very good match, but not on the level of their previous two. Lioness didn't take control like she did in their first match, and Kyoko didn't find some of her old ability like she did in their second match. Lioness dominated with brawling tactics. The match was at it's best when she was on offense, but it was hurt by Kyoko's weak selling and quick comebacks. Another problem was the gimmick spots took too long to set up. Lioness hung Kyoko off the balcony with a chord around her waist. She also powerbombed Kyoko off the 2nd through a table. She then debuted a powerbomb with the table draped across the top rope instead of the second. This should have been the finish, but the actual finish where Kyoko makes a ludicrous comeback and takes the title was one of the worst finishes of the year. Read Review. ***3/4
Obatchi Iizuka vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Obatchi actually looked a lot better, but her gimmick is way too goofy and some of her spots can only be described as bad comedy. Her new spot in this match was jumping off the top rope with a plastic bag filled with powder in her hands and popping it in midair, so it would get in Fujiwara's eyes. A basic match that was totally dominated by Iizuka. The match wasn't any good, but it wasn't as bad as expected either.
Fang Suzuki vs. Hechisera. Fang is just awful. Miyazaki tried, but it was quickly apparent that the only thing you can do with Fang is brawl. They did that, but still it wasn't any good. Fang dominated the match with her bad and boring offense. She didn't really make any mistakes, but she didn't try anything either. 1/2*
Megumi Yabushita vs. Yuki Lee. Yabushita's technique was good, but Lee killed the match, as she was missing her mark as usual. The match wasn't as fluid as it needed to be. Lee's last Jd' match.
Yuko Kosugi & Sachie Abe vs. Miho Wakizawa & Noriko Toyoda. You can't be putting Kosugi in this kind of match if you want people to take her seriously as a star. Wakizawa showed potential here, but she made a few mistakes. Toyoda has no offense and hurt the match, but logging too many minutes during the portion that aired. Kosugi didn't work enough and Abe was kind of a non factor. Not much of a match due to blown and mistimed spots to go along with the fact that Abe & Toyoda aren't much to begin with. *
Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai. This was the first time on a TV taping that these two were "the show," and they made it worth tuning in. These are two of the most improved wrestlers for 1998, Bloody coming out of nowhere, and Sakai growing as she gained experience. The work was good and being out there so long didn't expose them. Neither of these two are on the level where they can carry a long match yet, but they did a good enough job of working their spots in to get by. One thing I liked was that they worked all the undercarders into the match. Certainly, the heels have helped Bloody before, but the faces in turn helping Sakai out was a nice touch because it showed that the matches with faces and heels under Jaguar and Lioness are important these days. Both women's move sets could be improved, as Bloody relies too heavily on suplexes to not do any dangerous ones. She has expanded her senton offense to include a senton off the apron and a diving senton through a table though, which along with Sakai's plancha, were the highlights of the match. Bloody showed more mat skills than she had in the past, but she needs to tighten her locks so it's not so obvious that she's not applying much pressure. The match was hurt by some blown spots, most notably Sakai overshooting a moonsault and Bloody missing Sakai with a chair she threw at her. At points things looked too acted or didn't flow as well as they should have, but all things considered it was really a strong match given that they are up and coming wrestlers who are still learning their craft. Their finish showed their inexperience as Bloody got her feet up for Sakai's moonsault then went to the top, but Sakai recovered quick enough to run over and Frankensteiner her off the top. It was a quick comeback and it required a second to give Bloody an extra boost to take the bump. The fact that Bloody kicked out of Sakai's grip before 3, but didn't get her shoulders gave her an out for losing the title. ***1/4
7 Woman Battle Royal
TWF World Championship Tag Tournament Semifinal: Cooga & Sumie Sakai vs. Hiromi Yagi & Megumi Yabushita. Very good
TWF World Championship Tag Tournament Semifinal: Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. The Bloody & Ryuna. Below average.
Battle for the Next Jd' Queen: Lioness Asuka vs. Yuko Kosugi. **1/2
TWF World Championship Tag Tournament Final: Cooga & Sumie Sakai vs. The Bloody & Ryuna. ***1/4
Note: matches that don't have a rating are edited down to 2-3 minute clips
The Cart of Cart (?): Obatchi Iizuka vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Comedy match. I'm too serious for this kind of match, but some people will think it's hilarious. Obatchi actually tried to run Emi over with a bicycle at one point. She also tried rope walk daikon chop, but she slipped off and Emi no sold. Later on, Obatchi put pantyhose over Emi's head. Emi won with her version of the firebird splash called a nyan nyan press. 1/2*
Opening Sensation: Mika Akino (ARSION) vs. ZAP Isozaki (AJW). Isozaki has been wrestling longer, but the difference in their styles was tremendous. Isozaki still wrestles like a rookie, in fact, she was constantly going for those lame body press pins. Meanwhile, Akino wrestles like she's been wrestling for years. Her offense looked good, but Isozaki wasn't remotely in her class so overall the match didn't seem to be any good.
Little Girls The Big Fight: Sachie Nishibori (IWA Japan) vs. Miho Watabe (LLPW). I knew Nishibori was short, but I never realized just how short. She's only marginally taller than Watabe! Decent action, but the lack of familiarity hurt the match a lot.
Climb a Steep Cliff: Kayoko Haruyama & Yasuko Kuragaki (JWP team) vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Miyuki Fujii (AJW team). Haruyama was being featured in this clip, but she didn't look good. Momoe was barely shown.
Stand Up For Next Century: Megumi Sato (LLPW) & Yuka Nakamura (Neo) & Mika Hiragai (AJW) vs. Megumi Yabushita & Nanako Kanda & Hiroyo Muto. A poor match where Yabushita was the only one that showed anything.
Crush The Ideorookie (?): Fang Suzuki & Hechisera vs. Rina Ishii & Sakura Hirota (GAEA team). Ishii & Hechisera were alright, but Fang & Hirota are so awful that this was another bad match. It got better toward the end with Hechisera doing her spots and the fans getting into a few good near falls, but it was kind of deliberate and sloppy. *1/4
The Scramble 6 Woman: Nanae Takahashi (AJW) & Maiko Matsumoto (GAEA) & Erika Watanabe (JWP) vs. Momoe Nakanishi (AJW) & Megumi Yabushita & Tomiko Sai (JWP) 10:44 of 16:34. I'm not sure it was the greatest idea to put the big girls against the small girls, especially since it was worked as though size were irrelevant. In any case, it was a good effort, though a bit clumsily executed, particularly with Sai vs. Matsumoto. It started slow, but turned into a high energy match in the second half. They did a 4 dive sequence highlighted by Nakanishi's tope cone hilo. Momoe was definitely the standout, doing all her flying moves. Yabushita also did a good job. Takahashi was the best on her side, so it was AJW that was making the match. Watanabe did a nice avalanche style Russian leg sweep, but was otherwise typically undistinguished, and Sai was looking rather mechanical, so it wasn't JWP's finest moment. **1/4 range
All Japan Tag Champion Decision Match: Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi vs. Yuko Kosugi & Sumie Sakai 21:52. The Jd' team was mainly responsible for the quality here. They are the league that tends to get ignored, but they had 3 of the 5 wrestlers you'd expect to become something (Kosugi, Sakai, Yabushita, Momoe, & Akino). The match didn't build and it was dull in points, but they kept a high workrate and were running, jumping, and flying around to make up for their lack of overall ability. Sakai did all her flying moves here, and even some new moves like an in ring quebrada to both opponents. She was the star of the match, although Kosugi's execution was better. Execution was the main problem with the match, as their lack of experience working with each other made it difficult to be on the same page on how to move forward once something went awry. I was surprised that the fans didn't really get that into this match because this is a show where you value effort and potential, which were quite obvious, and aren't exactly expecting polish. **1/2
Jd' #27 7/10/98 SPRING STORM '98 taped 4/29 Osaka Bayside Jenny
Chikako Shiratori vs. Masami Iizuka 10:41. Standard vanilla match with veteran Shiratori controlling and roughing up upstart Iizuka. Passable stuff as Shiratori went through her routine, but Iizuka really wasn't any help at all. *
Sumie Sakai vs. Sachie Abe 11:00. Pretty bad.
Cooga vs. Kazuko Fujiwara 6:07. Cooga did just about everything, but didn't try anything. A lot of rest holds. Boring. 1/2*
Jd' Junior Title Match: The Bloody vs. Yuko Kosugi 13:04. They didn't do much early on because it was a small show, but it turned into a good match with Bloody being the better of the two. **1/2
Elimination Match: Jaguar Yokota & Yuki Lee & Miyuki Sogabe & Megumi Yabushita vs. Lioness Asuka & Ryuna & Fang Suzuki & Angie 17:31. The scrubs were eliminated first, but there were so many that it took a while to weed them out. Match got quite good in the second half when Lee and Fang weren't dragging it down. Jaguar & Lioness were pretty much the whole match. ***
Jd' #33 1/14/99 taped 11/22/98 Kyoto KBS Hall
Ryuna vs. Hiroyo Muto 9:25
Obatchi Iizuka vs. Esther Moreno 13:58
Yuko Kosugi & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody 20:40. ***
Jaguar Yokota Intai Countdown Vol. 12: Jaguar Yokota vs. Megumi Yabushita 13:43. ***
TWF World Tag Title Match: Cooga & Sumie Sakai vs. Shark Tsuchiya & Fang Suzuki 19:30. **
JWP Match: Tomoko Kuzumi & Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kanako Motoya.***1/4 range
AJW Match: Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi. *1/4 range.
Jd' Match: Yuko Kosugi vs. Shark Tsuchiya (Modukutai). 3/4*
Request Ni Yoru The Heel Taiketsu (showdown): Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (Oz Academy) vs. The Bloody & Fang Suzuki (Bukyogun team). ** range
ARSION Match: Ayako Hamada & Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida. ***
Request Ni Yoru Yume no Tag Match: Hiromi Yagi (free) & Sumie Sakai (Jd') vs. Tiger Dream (ARSION) & Chaparrita ASARI (Neo). ***
Jaguar Yokota Intai (retirement) Final Match: Jaguar Yokota (Jd') vs. Devil Masami. *1/4
Bukyogun Shuryo (leader) vs. Oz Academy Kocho (principal/headmaster) Chojo (top/climax) Taiketsu: Lioness Asuka (Bukyogun) vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy). **
Zenjo vs. Neo Ikon (grudge) Karyu (whirlpool) Ku Kaisen (outbreak of war): Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue (AJW team) vs. Kyoko Inoue & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita (Neo Ladies team). ****
Jaguar's Cup Ikkaisen (1st round): Yuko Kosugi vs. Hiroyo Muto. 1:24 shown
Jaguar's Cup Ikkaisen: Fang Suzuki vs. Megumi Yabushita. 3:01 shown
Crusher Maedomari vs. Ryuna. This was the end of Yuki Morimatsu's Ryuna gimmick. Crusher unmasked her early on. Fang tried to cover her face with a towel, but Ryuna pushed her away, picked up the mask and threw it at Crusher's feet, then attacked Crusher. Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful match. There was a long stretch where Crusher would hit Ryuna with a chair, wait for her to eventually get up, then chair her again. Crusher totally dominated, selling nothing. Ryuna bled. 1/4*
Jaguar's Cup Nikaisen: The Bloody vs. Yuko Kosugi. Finish was lame, but otherwise it seemed pretty good. 2:10 shown
Jaguar's Cup Nikaisen: Megumi Yabushita vs. Sumie Sakai. A bit sloppy. They sold a lot, but it was mainly the lying around variety. It was alright, but I was hoping for better. 4:19 shown
Midget vs. Woman Mixed Match: Tomezo Tsunokake vs. Obatchi Iizuka. Tsunokake isn't much shorter than Obatchi. Comedy match.
Jaguar's Cup Kesshosen: Yuko Kosugi vs. Sumie Sakai. Sakai was definitely the better of the two. She seemed to be dictating where the match would go, although in several cases her choices didn't make a ton of sense. The match was good, but it wasn't particulary well paced, didn't have a lot of direction, and had too many submissions that weren't really going anywhere. There was a notable improvement once they got away from the submissions. Sakai supplied most of the hot moves, with her flying being particularly impressive. ***
TWF Sekai Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kyoko Inoue vs. Cooga. Kyoko kept it simple. The match was fine when she was on offense, but Cooga is practically incapable of looking good offensively because of her weak strikes and imperfect execution. The fans didn't buy into Cooga, not that they had much reason to. Kyoko was far more than adequate, but Cooga was anything but. **1/2