8/15/92 IWA Title Hair vs. Hair match: Toyota vs. Yamada-You had two "best friends" and partners battling it out for the title and their hair. Incredible match with great emotion, drama, heat, and intensity. Started out fast, but no one could get the advantage then slowed, but picked up at the 10 minute mark for nearly 10 minutes of great near falls before Toyota Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplexed Yamada to retain her hair and the title. Great post match with Toyota cutting some of her own hair instead of Yamada's. She had to be restrained by the other wrestlers from breaking up the hair cut, but the teary eyed Toyota got free a few times to temporarily postpone it. Toyota & Yamada hugged after the shaving to a big pop and then a Yamada chant erupted. One of the best women's singles matches of all-time. My only gripe is that the execution could have a bit crisper. The amazing thing about this match is that it came right after Yamada had worked in the previous match, the finals of the Fuji Cup tournament. *****

AJW TV 1/10/98 taped 1/3 & 1/4 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

1/3 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Emi Motokawa & Sachie Nishbori (IWA Japan) vs. Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi. Toyota wore a new red outfit to start the year. She looked much better in the old black ones, as the new outfit makes her look like she's gained even more weight than she has. This was an exciting match with a lot of glamourous spots. However, it was far from the smoothest match you'll ever see and the youngsters looked green in points. Emi teased Toyota a lot. Toyota really outclassed the other three. ***

All Pacific Title Decision Match: Takako Inoue vs. Tomoko Watanabe. Both women claimed the belt because Takako never lost it, but Watanabe defeated Ito in a decision match that they had while Takako was out injured. The work was good and the match had a lot of high spots, but the pacing was very even. At times, it kind of seemed like they were wrestling at half speed. Takako pinned Watanabe following her Destiny Hammer/Takako Panic to take the title, or keep the title depending on your point of view. 8:51 aired. ***

Handicap Match: Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino (Heisei GUREN-tai, LLPW team) vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa. A really one-sided match with the LLPW team mainly using heel tactics to destroy the opposition. Nagashima handcuffed Maekawa's hands together and repeatedly hit her with the kendo stick. Hotta juiced. Finally, the AJW team came back and Hotta got some near finishes before putting Okino away with her wheel kick. 13:31 aired. *3/4

1/4 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Momoe Nakanishi & Emi Motokawa vs. Pork Warrior (Tomoko Watanabe) & Akira Hokuto (Free). This match had too much comedy for my taste. Watanabe did a good job of immitating a below average wrestler, Hokuto's husband Power Warrior Kensuke Sasaki. The match really picked up at the 10 minute mark, but unfortunately it ended soon after that. 11:48 aired. **

Chris: I really disagree with you on this one. It was supposed to be a comedy match, so there's nothing wrong with it being mainly comedy. This match was hilarious, especially the hula dance. The last thing you would expect from Hokuto was for her to do a comedy match, but she was good at it. I liked Watanabe as Pork Warrior, but I wouldn't to see her do that gimmick all the time.

AJW TV 2/15/98 taped 2/11 Tokyo Fuji TV Studio

Manami Toyota vs. Tomoko Watanabe. This was an exhibition of their high spots. It was a Toyota show, so as you would guess it was fast-paced with a lot of cool high spots that meant nothing within the context of the match. The selling and transitions were lousy. They basically hit all their spots until the finish where Toyota slipped and crotched herself while trying to climb off the top rope, but kept going and Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplexed Watanabe for the win. The highlight was the reaction of the celebrity announcer to Watanabe lariating Toyota out of her boots. 14:34. ***1/4

Chiharu vs. Noriko Toyoda. A short rookie style match. Chiharu's finisher, the Chiharu special, is a version of the crossarm German suplex. That is a cool move, but it was the only highlight of this poor match. 5:20. 1/4*

Force-4 Scramble Bout Zenjyo Special: Ito & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan) & Miyuki Fujii & Sachie Nishibori vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa & Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi. This was a series of singles bouts with a five minute time limit. The rules were that a draw eliminated both wrestlers and the losing team would be the one that ran out of wrestlers first. Noumi was pinned in 43 seconds after Ito's rolling senton. I know there isn't much time to score a pin, but why even have someone in need of credibility like Noumi in the match if you are going to have her job this quickly? Ito vs. Hotta was, not surprisingly, the best segment. Of course that was a draw. Emi vs. Maekawa was quite good as well, with near falls back and forth. Overall, it was a good match, but everything was rushed due to the time limit. 13:56. **3/4

Eagle Sawai & Sayori Okino (LLPW team) vs. Takako Inoue & Momoe Nakanishi. Even though Eagle was involved, this was a fast-paced match. The crowd was very pro AJW, which means Sawai was good for something. Michiko Nagashima interfered at will. Momoe, who juiced, was by far the best in the match. The highlight was the flip bump she took on a lariat. I didn't like that Momoe was pinned here, especially since it was by Okino. 13:25. ***1/4

10 Minute Exhibition Match: Toshiyo Yamada (GAEA) vs. Kyoko Inoue (Neo Ladies). Why this was headlining an AJW TV taping in 1998 is anyone's guess. Unfortunately, they couldn't flashback to 1993. They had a decent match, but probably the worst they ever had together that saw the light of day. 10:00. **

AJW TV 3/21/98 taped 3/1 Tokyo Korakuen Hall and 3/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

3/1/98

Manami Toyota vs. Kayo Noumi. This was a pretty good match. Manami sold for Noumi a lot so Noumi would have some credibility against her. The problem is that Noumi is really petite and Toyota, who was always one of the taller women in the league, has really filled out. Noumi had some trouble just lifting Toyota. Her offense didn't have much on it, so some of the spots weren't credible even though Toyota sold them. Noumi looked like she was wrestling in slow motion at times because she's inexperienced. The transitions were horrible, which isn't really that surprising given that Toyota was carrying and her transitions were never good. The good things about the match were the pace was pretty fast and there were a lot of nice high spots by Toyota, who was on today. Noumi got at least a 2 3/4 count on three occasions, so even though she was way out of her league they went a long way to give you the illusion that she had a chance of winning and it worked because the crowd actually popped. 13:28 (7:22 aired). **1/2

Kumiko Maekawa vs. Momoe Nakanishi. This was a battle of AJW's two best up and coming stars, albiet there is an 8 year age difference between them. This was Maekawa's best performance to date. She carried the match and she was the better of the two. Her offense was really explosive, and her kicks all looked great. Momoe's selling here was typically excellent, and she took a hell of a beating, in this Maekawa star vehicle. The match was fast-paced, and they hit all their spots, which wasn't always the case with Maekawa. There were two spots that were particularly awesome. One was a Maekawa kick that blew Momoe's chin away and the other was a Maekawa single leg dropkick that jolted what was left of Momoe's chin. In between the spots they did a lot of matwork, which was fine, but they were unable to tie it into the rest of the match. Momoe didn't get to flash much offense. When she did, it was all aerial spots, including a plancha and an awesome climb-up moonsault attack. Barring injury, Momoe will be sensational by the time she is 20, but this was Maekawa's match. 20:59 (11:23 aired). ***1/2

Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs. ZAP I & ZAP T. This was the ZAPs TV debut, and it was an inauspicious one at that. It was quickly obvious who the ZAPS were unless AJW figured the fans weren't going to notice that two of their top wrestlers just zanished overnight. The ZAPs wore their old outfits under their coats and did their old signature moves so nobody would wonder who they were. They wrestled the first half of the match in ugly green overcoats and had pants to match. They had to lose this getup because it hampered their movement to the point they really couldn't do much of anything. Luckily, they reworked their costumes as the year went on so they were actually able to wrestle in them. The stupidest part of the match was Hotta ripping Watanabe's mask and exposed her face. Even chimps should know you don't expose the face of one of your new top heels in their first TV match! I don't think this match accomplished what it set out to because I can't even figure out what it was trying to accomplish. All the ZAPS really did here was brawl around the arena and hit Hotta & Takako with objects. Their gimmick spots looked fine, but Fang Suzuki, hell, even The Lowest Form of Life Shark Tsuchiya, is capable of doing the same thing. What was good is that they established the heels by having them dominating the first nine minutes. What was bad was that a bloody Hotta then made a comeback and the ZAPS didn't get to do much more on offense. Thus, the ZAPS aren't striking fear into anyone's hearts because we've just "met them" and we already know that our "hero" Hotta can take their "best" stuff. The match did get most of the league involved, as there was all sorts of outside interference. The ref threw out the match when all hell broke loose in the ring including all the face seconds stomping Nana Nakahara, who became a full-fledged ZAP before quitting the league over the summer, while IWA Japan's Sachie Nishibori was holding her. After the match, Tomoka Isozaki joined the ZAPs. 22:54 (14:27 aired). *3/4

3/21 LLPW at Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Double Title Match: Yumiko Hotta (WWWA World Singles Champion) vs. Shinobu Kandori (LLPW Singles Champion). This was a UWF style bout. It was pretty good, but certainly not close to the quality you'd expect from a WWWA World Singles title match, much less a double title match. The rules of this match were that you couldn't win by pinfall, and that turned out to be the deciding factor in the match. They went back and forth with Hotta getting the better of the stand-up portions due to her kicking ability and Kandori getting the better of the mat portions. One really goofy spot was Hotta's head getting badly cut "from headbutting Kandori," who was kind of using the guard. Hotta did her Pyramid driver, but remembered there were no pins and went into a jujigatame. Later on, Hotta used a really lame piledriver then Pyramid drivered Kandori. This time Hotta forgot that there were no pins and when the ref didn't start counting she leaned over Kandori with her arm between Kandori's legs to attempt something, but no one will ever figure out what. The reason no one will ever figure it out was she was just purposely leaving herself exposed so Kandori could poorly apply the sankakujime to take the titles. Just a horrible finish. Kandori joined Dynamite Kansai as the only women from rival Japanese promotions to ever hold the akai (red) belt. 12:02 (10:20 aired). **1/2

AJW Athena #1 7/98

Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi vs. ZAP I & ZAP Nakahara. Ito is great here, but Nakahara is beyond awful. Nakahara is just incredible slow and unathletic and practically everything she does looks bad. At one point Nakahara did a series of horrible shots with the ZAPs rod (or whatever that thing is), and Ito cannot take it anymore so she comes in and takes the rod away from Nakahara, blisters Toyota with it several times to show the kid how it's done, then throws the rod at Nakahara. Momoe mainly sells and Toyota is hit and miss as far as playing her role. *1/2

Japan Grand Prix '98 League Bout: Takako Inoue vs. Yumiko Hotta. The ZAPs attack Hotta during the match and basically destroy her. They try to get Takako to join them and use heel tactics. At first Takako shuns them, but later she uses the rod and chairs. Storyline was good in that it allowed Hotta to challenge Hotta, but Hotta's selling and comebacks were horrible. **1/2

AJW Kawasaki "Shinku" (crimson) no Toso (struggle/conflict)

Commercial Tape 8/23/98 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

This was AJW's most successful show of 1998, drawing an overflow crowd of 4350. It's safe to say the main event sold almost every one of these tickets. The show certainly had it's positives and negatives. On the positive side, Toyota showed that she can still go when she wants to, firing up to deliver her best match of 1998 even though she was strapped with an opponent that's tough to have a strong match with. This match was selected women's match of the year in at least one of the Japanese media's awards, although generally those awards place way too much emphasis on the magnitude of the match, as shown by Kandori vs. Gundarenko winning in one of the other polls despite being terrible and obviously worked. The show had something rare for women's wrestling in 1998, a hot crowd. It was more that they were popping during the main event than during any of the other matches, in particular it took 15 minutes for the crowd to react at all to the tag title match despite everyone working really hard. Still, on one match alone the show had more heat than the vast majority of women's shows from 1998. The booking of the important young wrestlers was good for once. Momoe was given the chance to shine, and her team captured the tag titles. Wakizawa was put in the spotlight, although, as you'd expect, she was mainly a punching bag. They found a kickboxer so bad that Maekawa, who only does a kickboxing match once in a great while, was actually the better of the two. The most important thing about these women's shoot matches is the result, so it's better and safer to just find someone that the women can most likely beat. The problem is it makes for really low quality matches.

The main bad thing about this show was it really magnified just how lacking this promotion is when it comes to talent depth. I suppose you could say we've been spoiled by the days where Ito, Watanabe, Sakie, Yoshida, etc. were in the opening matches, but aside from the tag title match where the Jd' women were better than Takahashi and on the level of Momoe, there wasn't really anything promising or good. Takahashi's selling seems better, as does Wakizawa's, but overall they are not even average. The fact that they decided to make this an hour and a half tape with edited matches rather than making it a two hour tape with complete matches says something negative about this show, although obviously there were other factors involved in this decision. The heel style of Ito & Watanabe once again hampered their ring work more than anything else, and AJW just can't afford to not have these two delivering very good matches. The ironic thing about the ZAP name is, according to the sign they had up at this show, it stands for Zenjyo Afflict Purpose, while my thought on the gimmick and what AJW has done with it is is closer to, what's the purpose? The only match that was poorly booked was Takako vs. Nishibori. Unless Takako was sick or injured, there's no excuse for booking a match of this type on a major show. However, while I don't have a problem with Toyota doing the job here, she sorely needs to get this win back because she really hasn't had a major non- JGP singles win since she beat Aja on 10/6/96. Instead of seeing Toyota beat Kandori in the rematch later in the year, we saw Kandori sit on the belt for the remainder of 1998 and the first two plus months of 1999. This can only be described as a pointless waste of an object that is part of the draw on the bigger shows.

Noriko Toyoda vs. ZAP Isozaki. This was a really basic rookie match, but I liked what I saw from these two. Of course, it was a really short match that was highly edited, so don't get your hopes up overall. What I liked about Isozaki is she showed good athleticism. She mainly did dropkicks, of course. She did do a space rolling elbow that really wasn't all that great, but I think it's a move she'll be able to do well with more practice. Toyoda's execution was surprisingly stiff and crisp. It was similar to Ito's, although Toyoda's move set is obviously way tighter and simpler. Toyoda won with a body slam. 6:32 (1:50 aired).

Takako Inoue vs. Sachie Nishibori (IWA Japan). Takako didn't even sell one move in this match. A totally pointless squash that killed off any credibility Nishibori might have. I mean, this was shorter than early Goldberg, and at least there was a reason and point behind his early massacres. Takako won with a version of the powerbomb. 0:52 (0:41 aired). DUD

AJ Tag Title Decision Match: Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita (Jd' team). This was as good a match as you could expect from these four. They have better matches against women from their own league than they had here, but that's because they are much more familiar with them. In this match, the lack of familiarity was really apparent because they had to really telegraph certain spots so the opponent would know how to react. They also lack polish and experience, but that problem doesn't even register in this particular match when compared to the lack of familiarity. That said, Momoe's move set has probably expanded too much because too many of her flying moves aren't perfectly executed. This is hurting the quality of her matches.

The match started off slow with a beginning that was surprisingly solid, mainly because Sakai & Yabushita focused their submission attack on a body part. The highlight of this portion was Takahashi really putting over Sakai's ankle lock(823aw04) until Momoe made the desperation save with a dropkick. They did a lot of nice moves, but the execution could have been better. The crowd got into the match after 15:00, but it was more popping for the spots than any kind of sustained heat. Everyone did dives. From 17:00 on, they did all their big moves for several near falls. The highlight was Yabushita doing nadare shiki no (823aw05)ipponzeio to an udehishigigyakujujigatame, which looked like the finish, but Momoe went nuts punching Yabushita until she broke the hold. Takahashi eventually pinned Yabushita after a reverse body press off the middle rope. NanaMomo became 25 AJ Tag champions. An exciting match with a lot of nice spots, but very flawed execution wise. 21:42. **1/4

Miko: Not a bad match, but for some reason I just could not get into it. The match started off slow, but turned into a fast-paced match. It was a little sloppy in places, and not just because they have not worked together that often. The match had no heat, but the fans did occassionaly pop for the moves. My favorite spot was Jd's Judo girls getting Momo in a double jujigatame, which looked cool.(823aw02)

Kumiko Maekawa kickboxing match. 5 round decision. This was just awful. A dull match that was even more lacking in technique than it was in action. Maekawa won a 2-0 majority decision, with two judges giving her 50-48 while the other had it even at 49-49.

Miko: From the vantage point of a Bat style toughgirl brawl, this was not so good. However, if you wanted a technical boxing match, it was even worse.;^) A lot of grabbing and flopping. Maekawa pulled away in the last two rounds.

ZAP I & T vs. Yumiko Hotta & Miho Wakizawa. This was a very significant match in Wakizawa's career, as it was the first time she was this high on a card of a major show. It showed that her winning the junior portion of JGP '98 meant something as far as how they were going to push her. The problem with every league is that once they start working together, all the younger wrestlers are paired off and it's nearly impossible to escape junior status. It's almost like no matter how your own promotion pushes you, if you are young you are either going to be put against another junior or in a veteran vs. junior match where you'll lose and who knows how much the veteran will put you over. In Wakizawa's case, this isn't so much of an issue because she's not all that good yet and it's not like she's truly ready to graduate from junior level. However, there are plenty of women who are that good that still aren't being taken seriously by the veterans. In any case, Wakizawa was put in the spotlight tonight, but after this is was back to fighting over the AJ Tag Titles with the other juniors.

As you'd expect, Wakizawa was basically manhandled here, while Hotta, of course, more than held her own. The match was edited in such a disjointed fashion that it's hard to tell if it was any good. What aired was a series of well executed spots. In this format, I didn't find the match compelling at all. On one hand, it seemed good because there were a lot of nice spots. On the other hand, I was bored seeing seemingly every highlight of the ZAPs on offense revolved around the kendo stick. The fact that more than half of the semifinal was edited out doesn't exactly bode well for it's quality.

Hotta's stick shots were actually stiffer than Ito's. The key to the match was the outside interference. First, Momoe interfered on the behalf of Hotta's team.(823aw09) Later, Takako came out when the ZAPs were in trouble and beat the ref and mainly Hotta with the kendo stick. This took Hotta out of the picture and allowed the ZAPs to come back and quickly put Miho away after a double team and Ito's diving footstomp. Hotta grabbed Takako's hair as she was walking away after the match, but I & T pulled Hotta off and Takako walked back to the locker room, ignoring the interviewer. What stood out in my mind was Wakizawa being tied in the corner with the chain around her neck(823aw08) because it reminded me of something the lowest form of life Shark Tsuchiya would unfortunately do to Megumi Kudo. At least the ZAPs used the kendo stick on her rather than slicing her up with the kama. Thank god for small favors. 22:21 (9:19 aired)

Miko: This was not all that good. There was some decent wrestling, but a lot of poor brawling. I don't mind ZAPS as heels, but I dislike their lack of creativity. If they want to be garbage brawlers, they need to do use a wider variety of gimmick spots. Not -every- heel spot has to involve the rod. Still, the ZAPS were the only wrestlers other than Kandori to get boos.

WWWA World Singles Title: Shinobu Kandori (LLPW) vs. Manami Toyota. 18:08. I don't really have anything to say about the match itself beyond what I wrote in Quebrada #49. This tape had the post match, which I did like because Toyota really put over the finish and Hotta & Maekawa got in the ring and stared at Kandori to build up the rivalry. 18:08. ****

Miko: Wow, heat.;^) I liked this match much more than Toyota's match with Chigusa, and I'd rather see Kandori-Toyota II than Kandori-Hotta II. One thing that stood out was the mirror spots. In particular, the rolling cradle by Kandori would have been great if she had pulled it off. I also liked when Toyota knocked Kandori down with her own shoudas in the first minute. Kandori waited until the count of 9 then got right up, like 'Just kidding'.;^)

AJW Athena #3

9/15 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Mika Harigai vs. Miyuki Fujii. Highlights of Harigai's debut. Unfortunately she "ran away" from the league before I even saw her wrestle.

Emi Motokawa (IWA) vs. Sachie Nishibori (IWA). Highlights

Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Miho Wakizawa & Noriko Toyoda. Match was alright, but nothing special. Momoe was not surprisingly the best. Takahashi seems to have improved. Wakizawa was just kind of there and Toyoda was thankfully hidden by the editing. *1/2

STOP THE ZAP: Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota & Kumiko Maekawa vs. ZAP I & ZAP T & Takako Inoue. Hotta was mad at Takako for teaming with the evil ZAPs so she wrecked her before the match. Hotta juiced early. Work was quite good, although it was too heavy on the gimmick spots. At least the rod spots were very stiff this time since Nakahara wasn't around. This match got everyone into it as Momoe & Takahashi & Wakizawa all interfered on the behalf of Hotta's team. Selling was weak but everyone looked good doing their spots, which I suppose could be said for most good women's matches this year. ***

AJW Athena #4

10/10/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Tag League The Best '98 and AJ Tag Championship Tumbling Dice!: Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi. Momoe was the best in this match by a wide margin. She looked really good, but there was no way she could save the match. Wakizawa was alright. Takahashi is so slow, and she takes a year and a day to set up her moves. Noumi is so cute and has a great body to look at, but for wrestling she is too skinny. She simply had nothing on her spots. Takahashi was no selling her weak dropkicks. Momoe's work couldn't make up for the blown, mistimed, and weakly executed spots. This was NanaMomo's last defense, as they relinquished the titles to go after ZAP. 19:32 (10:15 aired). *3/4

L-1 Ultimate Challenge '98 10/10/98 Ryoguku Kokugikan

Becky Levy (America) vs. Terry Leposki (America). Levy is a monster, who looked to weigh as Don Frye. Her huge weight advantage alone made her too much for Leposki. 5:06 (0:41 aired).

Yoko Takahashi (Jd') vs. Aya Mitsui. This was something of an interpromotional match because Mitsui is a professional kickboxer who fights in ARSION sometimes. Mitsui seemed to have not mat experience, which meant you knew really quickly she had no chance. I thought this was a quick stoppage due to Takahashi's punches from the mount, but Mitsui didn't have the skills to get off her back so it was probably just as well. 1:54 (1:25 aired.

Junko Yagi (LLPW) vs. Flor Holman (Holland). Yagi's technique on her take down was terrible and by all means she should have been choked out, but it seems like everyone from Holland that fights in Japan sucks on the mat, so she excaped the weak guillotine and wound up winning with what looked like a forearm choke although it was listed as guillotine choke. 8:28 (2:48 aired).

Sayori Okino (LLPW) vs. Lee Unja. Okino has lost weight and was in the best shape of her career. She mounted Unja, throwing punches until the inexperienced Unja gave her back. Okino then locked in a doushime sleeper and the towel was thrown in. 2:00 (1:54 aired).

Yumiko Hotta (AJW) vs. Angel Amoroso (America). Angel, the ex-ECW valet, was so incredible inexperienced that even Taz could have beaten her. This was basically a joke. Hotta immediately took her down and mounted her. Knowing she was in with such a chump, she even paused at one point and raised her fist until the crowd popped, then lowered the boom on Angel. Hotta locked in a V1 armlock, but didn't have the leverage and released it when Angel was punching her. She threw punches and Angel covered her head with both arms, so Hotta pulled one arm into an udehishigigyakujujigatame for the win. 1:09

Lioness Asuka (Free) vs. Irma Verhoeff (Holland). This was the only match that looked like what you get when you have two skilled fighters. Actually, neither were all that good, but Lioness was very calm in the mount working for a submission. Eventually, she was able to apply her favorite V1 armlock for the win. 9:26 (5:59).

Shinobu Kandori (LLPW) vs. Svetlana Gundarenko (Russia). This was really awful. They pulled their strikes and didn't mind giving up their back. The technique was poor and even if you were sucker enough to believe you were watching a shoot, neither looked impressive. Really, there wasn't an impressive fighter on this whole show because almost everyone was so inexperienced in shoots (only the main event appeared to be worked) that they were limited in technique and strategy. This was worse than the rest though in a sense because in a real situation there might be a good reason for not trying the incredibly obvious technique, but in a work it comes off as dumb wrestling. Gundarenko was more out of shape than ever, and she lumbered around the ring trying to grab Kandori so she could fall on her. Kandori mainly tried to avoid getting squashed, so you had a little cat and mouse game. Gundarenko used two throws that were something of a uranage. They didn't look incredibly impressive, but on the other hand, if they did it Hase style it would have tipped everyone off that it was a work. After the first uranage, Gundarenko had Kandori's back, so she rolled her over rather than choked her out. After the second uranage, Gundarenko took Kandori down with a headlock, but Kandori wormed her way out. She had Kandori's back, so of course she went after the arm. Gundarenko stood up part of the way with Kandori on her back and tried to throw her off, but Kandori held on and won with a front choke sleeper. The post match was great with an overjoyed Kandori celebrating what in a way is the biggest win of her career, all the LLPW women rushing into the ring to congradulate her, LLPW President Rumi Kazama crying as she took her headset off and stumbled to get into the Octagon and hug her top star. To top it all off, everyone's favorite former Sumo wrestler, Koji Kitao, scooped Kandori up on his shoulders and carried her around the Octagon. 4:08

AJW 30TH ANNIVERSARY HALL OF FAME Commercial Tapes 11/29/98 Yokohama Arena

This show will go down in history, as the model of major interpromotional show gone awry. I hate to be the prophet of doom, but coming out of this show there's really nothing positive I can say about the future of AJW. I don't feel like I watched a 30th Anniversary celebration, I feel like I attended the burial of the former super power of women's wrestling. There was so much wrong with this show that it's hard to know where to start, but it really comes down to the fact that the Matsunagas no longer have a clue.

The Matsunagas biggest mistake was putting this show in Yokohama Arena. They don't have a match within their promotion that can sell 5,000 tickets in any arena in Japan, so the idea that they should book an arena that can hold 17,000 was simply a very bad one. Either the Matsunagas failed to recognize that they no longer wield any power over the other leagues or they were so desperate for a big gate that they were willing to pimp their league in exchange for the almighty dollar. Once they booked an arena that was way out of their league, any rival league with half a brain could see that it was finally AJW that had their back against the wall. AJW needed the help of these leagues or their show was sure to flop majorly at the box office, and with AJW still deep in the red, the promotion simply couldn't afford another major flop. When AJW was the top dog, the rival leagues needed to participate in their major shows for the exposure. These leagues couldn't draw big crowds on their own, so the best chance of opening people's eyes to their wrestlers was for them to make a good showing on the major AJW show, as that was the show with the most prestige, most media coverage, best wrestling, and biggest crowds. In 1998, AJW really has nothing to offer anyone other than TV exposure on the Fuji Television, which they were already giving away anyway. What basically appears to have happened was the other leagues said if you want our wrestlers on your show then you have to let us win the matches. If you don't let us win then we'll just stay home and watch your show fail. Well, I'm sure they didn't say it that way, but one way or another AJW was left with three choices 1) flop on their own 2) sell their soul to the other leagues in hopes of drawing a house or 3) cancel the show. The Matsunagas chose number 2.

Whether the Matsunagas comprehend the magnitude of this blunder is uncertain. What is clear is that LLPW swooped down like a vulture salivating at the site of a fresh carcass to ensure they were the promotion that reaped most of the benefits. GAEA was like a journalist who got scooped initially, but scored an exclusive on the follow up. Thus, they wound up gaining even more than LLPW because our last memory of this show was one of GAEA supremicy.

If this show would have drawn 15,000, AJW would have brought in money that they desperately needed, but all the fans would have witnessed AJW's last stand. What remained of the myth of AJW would have vanished before everyones eyes, and the promotion would have been dead because they'd no longer have any credibility with their fans. This example is basically a summary of NJ vs. UWF-I 10/9/95 Tokyo Dome. UWF-I was saved for the moment because the NJ Dome show was the most successful in the history of Japan, but they couldn't draw anyone after that because they had been exposed as not being what they purported to be. This show was even worse because it showed that there weren't many people left that believed in or cared about AJW enough to attend. AJW was not only exposed to their few remaining fans, but they almost certainly lost a lot of money in the process because the show only drew about 4,000. It was like most people forgot AJW was still alive, or just didn't care.

It's obvious that women's wrestling attendance is way down across the board, but the booking of this show was a failure on every level. As has often been the case, AJW relied on Manami Toyota to draw the crowd. It was a good move...two or more years ago. The problem with Toyota's drawing power, is the same problem with Aja's drawing power, and the same problem with Bull's drawing power. When these women had the WWWA World Singles Title, they ran over everyone and they put asses in the seats. Once they dropped the belt, AJW forgot how to book them and they just got lost in the shuffle. They had no issues and didn't get many major wins, so their aura and drawing power wained then withered away. There was no reason Toyota & Aja couldn't have been kept really strong when they didn't have the title, that is except the Matsunagas are stuck in their ways and they have this thing about brushing aside the "old" women when they decide their time on top is up. Can someone think of a good reason for Aja not getting a run with the WWWA title after 1995 or Toyota after 1996? I simply cannot. Can someone think of a good reason why these women that beat everyone there was to beat stopped getting major wins? I simply cannot. If the Matsunagas wanted Toyota on top of this show, they needed to have her take the title from Kandori on 8/23.

Speaking of Kandori, was there as worse possible way to use her on this show than to have her in a tag match that had no drawing power? What booker in their right mind would have their top champion in a useless midcard tag match on the biggest show of the year? By all means, Kandori needed to be defending the title on this show. She may be the best drawing woman there is, but if you don't use her in a match that has drawing potential then she's not going to draw. It's that simple. If you aren't going to use her in a title match then you have to get the title off of her because the title is part of the draw. I mean, this is not the NWA looking for anyone with a little name value and credibility to hold their title just so a few people still know they are alive. The whole point of an outsider holding your top title is it creates new world title matches that have more drawing power than having your same old matches, except this time with the title on the line. If Kandori was going to beat Takako, then it should have been in a title match. That match would be a new match and, while I doubt many people would give Takako a chance of winning, it has some drawing power. It doesn't have drawing power on this level, but it would have made a decent semifinal. The obvious match was to go back to Toyota because they "owed" her a title shot for winning the JGP, their first match was about the only hot AJW ticket of the year, and people would know it would be a trade wins deal. Normally, that works against you, but people knowing Toyota was going to win the title might have worked in AJW's favor since she is still very popular. Even if it didn't, the worst case scenario is people come out of the show with more respect for your top star, having avenged her loss over the one wrestler tough enough to beat Gundarenko (in a poorly worked match). Kandori is up 2-0 on Hotta, so that's the other option, especially since AJW ranks her ahead of Toyota and a Hotta win coming on the heels of Kandori beating Gundarenko means more than a Toyota win coming off the said match because Hotta is AJW's "shooter." I can see why AJW would want to keep Kandori as champ, but she's not worth it unless she's either successfully defending the title or dropping it on your biggest shows. To a Japanese league (since titles aren't something you throw in a garbage can or a river there), no one would be worth it for that matter.

Instead of having their own top title defended in the main event, they let Chigusa make her first successful defense of GAEA's top title. This was a really bad move because it shows your own belt is no longer the top belt. Consider how stupid it is to have a show that celebrates AJW history not feature the richest prize in company history. It's like AJW wanted to have the Pro Bowl be the highlight of it's year instead of the Super Bowl. To an upstart promotion, it wouldn't be a big deal if the world title wasn't defended because their belt isn't the top belt and has little history. All AJW has at this point is their history, and this was yet another admission that their standing has really plummetted. If Toyota would have won the title from Chigusa, then it would have been ok to have this match headline, but having your own wrestler not be able to take the fairly new groups title in the main event of your biggest show of the year is a no no. It can only work if you are a lesser promotion (which AJW may be in actuality, but it's kind of like if WWF were to crumble and ECW were to grow to the point they surpassed WWF and WCW. Certainly this is unlikely, but the point is that WWF is the name that's synonymous with US wrestling, so it would take a long long time for the general public to realize ECW was the league now). Usually it only works if you are a lesser promotion and it's a big deal that a champion from a larger organization is appearing in the area, but with everyone running in the same cities, these fans can see Chigusa several times a year without attending an AJW show.

What really made Toyota's loss to Chigusa a killer had nothing to do with the title. The idea of the match was that it was the top stars from two different eras finally meeting. AJW agreed to let a woman they put out to pasture more than 10 years before this show took place come in and beat the most successful wrestler that's left in the promotion, a woman they'd like you to believe is still in her prime. Now, you can argue it was a mistake to retire the likes of Chigusa, Lioness, Jaguar, etc, and I'd be the first to agree with you. You can also argue that AJW would be a lot better off if they saw the value in Chigusa, Jaguar, Lioness, & Bison when they came out of retirement and treated them better because maybe they would still be in AJW if they did. You can't change the past though. Chigusa's goal isn't to help AJW out, so there's no need for them to help increase her ego and current standing. As far as it being worth it for AJW to draw the gate, the mistake was putting a lot more stock in Chigusa's drawing power than Chigusa herself does. The idea that GAEA could draw a lot better than they do if they tried just doesn't hold water. Chigusa may be a lot of things, but her promotion has been around since 1995 and to my knowledge they've only had a paid attendance over 3000 once in their history, so currently a great draw she is not. While I expected Chigusa vs. Toyota to draw better than it did, you can't even consider justifying this unless Chigusa will be putting Toyota over on an equally large show sometime in the very near future.

Instead of putting Chigusa in the main event, I would have had in her the former WWWA title holders match instead of Hotta. Hotta should have went over Kandori anyway and Toyota could have split a series with Jaguar (perhaps Kyoko could take her place in the former title holders match if they could have paid her some of what they owe her?). I realize that would mean there were no AJW wrestlers in the match, but this would make it more like a legends reunion. The goal for AJW is to use this match to draw, but secondarily, anything they can do to show their wrestlers are the current stars and the women on top in the other promotions are a level below them because of their age is a good thing for the perception of their own wrestlers. On the other hand, it's not a good thing for the business overall, but the other promotions weren't exactly out to do things good for the business as a whole either. Chigusa may not have agreed to be in the match with Lioness because she had plans for their feud to be renewed in GAEA, but it also wasn't essential to have Chigusa wrestle on this show. I mean, she didn't help AJW out by giving them a win over a lesser GAEA wrestler in exchange, so why help increase her standing and validate her title?

It wasn't bad enough that Toyota lost the main event, but whatever they had gained from all these months of pushing the ZAPs as the top heels was pissed away when they were totally dominated by Eagle & Shit. I don't care that the ZAPs were badly outnumbered, you simply don't take the heel group you want to be considered the top heels and let them be obliterated by one of the groups they need to surpass.

As far as creating new stars, the one thing AJW did right was have MihoKayo regain the AJ tag titles.(g3) The problem when they began pushing the other young wrestlers, they forgot about the real new star, Momoe, who is by far the best of the bunch and the only one that can hang with the veterans. This show needed to give her an opportunity to really shine in a win or at least really shine in a win, but it did neither. Instead, she was lost on the undercard teaming with a stiff who shouldn't be booked on major shows. Of course, it was the stiff that was pinned, but it hurts a lot more that Momoe neither shined nor won.

The way AJW allowed themselves to be bullied by LLPW was ridiculous. LLPW is Kandori. No one else in that league is worth anything at the gate. If they were, then LLPW would run a lot more than1 or 2 shows per month. The few LLPW wrestlers who can work are ones that LLPW doesn't really care about, Harley and Carol. You probably could have got good matches out of them, and beat them. Eagle & Yasha just aren't worth dealing with. The don't draw and they cannot wrestle. All they do is ruin the show. Maekawa is one of the women AJW needed to get over on this show, so what do they do? They let LLPW take her title too. I'm glad Maekawa got the title back recently, but if they were going to split matches, why didn't they have Yasha take the title say last October and then lose it back to Maekawa on this show? Always have your wrestlers gain the title back on the big show and lose it on the small show if possible, especially when they are like Maekawa and are still struggling for exceptance as a star.

I could go on about what a debacle this show was, but it had no redeeming factors so I've run out of patience.

"I guess they should have called this show 'Nightmare Slam," wrote James.

If the matches would have turned out better than expected or even as good as expected, some people would have been happy. Unfortunately, it wasn't even a good show wrestling wise. The highlight of the night wrestling was the match Kansai got injured in. This match wasn't close to the level I expected, and in the long run might wind up costing us JWP, so it cannot be seen as a highlight.

Opening act: Yuki Lee (JWP) & Sachie Nishibori (IWA Japan) vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori (JWP) & ZAP Isozaki. This was one of the only pleasant surprises of the show. The match was definitely nothing special, but it didn't suck like I expected it to, and Shiratori's wrestling was the reason it didn't suck. She basically put on a one woman show. Of course, she's not all that great so it's not like she singlehandedly made this a classic. Obviously she's not even at the level where she can make a match from the wrestling standpoint, but I'm more than happy if her match is decent. Shiratori played really arrogant heel. You got the idea that she really enjoyed embarrassing Nishibori, which showed her acting is getting better. She used her kendo stick on the opposition.(1128aw01) Of course, she doesn't hit people with the stick as hard as Ito does, but the shots were more than acceptable. Shiratori is relying on the uraken as one of her main moves these days. Unfortunately, Shiratori was the only competent wrestler of the four, which is why this was wisely a short match. In one of AJW's "biggest" wins of the night, Isozaki pinnned IWA's Nishibori, who is almost like an AJW wrestler anyway, following the deadly sweet chin music, which they simply called a thrust kick. I think the reason I liked this match even though it wasn't anything special is that it was kind of innocent. It just went along in it's own merry little way and was better than expected. Even though it wasn't great or even good, we knew that going in, and there was nothing about what they did that would annoy you or make you want to complain. 7:27. *3/4

Michael: You know you're in trouble when Chikako is the best worker in the match by a sizeable margin. I didn't think the work was too bad here, but they barely did anything, so the match wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination. Any Chikako match is at least watchable because she is The Goddess of joshi puroresu. However, aside from Shiratori showing some flashes of becoming a decent heel, this match was useless.

Miko: A kinda cool match. Shiratori continued her heel reign, and looked pretty good doing it. Overall, the match was nothing special, but no one screwed up and everyone had at least a spot where they could show something. ZAP Isozaki even got to pick up a rare win.

A typhoon: Momoe Nakanishi & Miyuki Fujii vs. Rie Tamada (ARSION) & Mika Akino (ARSION team). It's too bad AJW forgot how to book Momoe because, aside from Tag League The Best'98, she was not elevated much during the entire year of 1998. You don't just roll your best young wrestler out in a nothing match when you are running a major show, especially when you currently have very few major shows.

This was a decent match due to Momoe & Akino, who are definitely two of the best prospects that have come along in this decade. The idea of this match was to build a rivalry between these two, although who knows how far that can go given that ARSION doesn't really want to work with the other leagues. In any case, the match focused on Momoe vs. Akino, and Akino challenged Momoe after the match. Their execution wasn't perfect, but they did some nice things including Momoe doing an Orihara moonsault (1129aw07)(although she came up a little short on it) and Akino doing a no touch tope con hilo (no touch means that she jumps clear over the top to the floor on the move instead of using the top rope for a boost like most wrestlers have to).(g6) The spot where Akino countered Momoe's bridging suplex with a wakigatame (1129aw08)was probably my favorite though. As far as spots you'd see in just about every match, Akino's reverse diving body attack where she then goes into an udehishigigyakujujigatame is one of my favorites. What makes it stand out is that it's done so fluidly and smoothly, as just about all Akino's spots are if you come right done to it. Beyond that, the thing that makes Akino's flying look so good is that she's so graceful, extending her arms while soaring through the air like a bird would extend their wings.(1129aw04) Unforunately, the match didn't have much to offer beyond the spots. Beyond that, even though the spots were nice, the main problem was that they didn't flow together all that well.

Rie wrestled like she'd never left AJW, which isn't a compliment. She blended in fine, but considering she has more experience than the other three combined, she really needed to step up here. Fujii showed nothing, but I think I've written this in my notes every time I've seen her wrestle, so it's certainly nothing new. Luckily, Fujii barely worked so she didn't convert the match to fodder. Tamada pinned Fujii with a missile kick. 8:52. **

Miko: One compliment I'll give this match is it made me want to see a Momo-Akino singles match. They worked very well together. Both are agile and can fly, but they aren't limited to just that. Momo uses suplexes more, while Akino works submissions, which adds contrast to their styles. I can't remember being as impressed by a rookie as I have been by Akino. I love the way she counters pin attempts with submissions. Very smooth and believable. Tamada hit her moves, and even the rolling forearm looked decent enough, but did nothing to stand out.

Michael: I really liked this match even though it was too short. Momoe was very impressive here, and they did a good job of building anticipation for a match between her and Akino. I thought the finish came out of nowhere, but I guess it worked.

James: This was a reasonable match but could have been a bit longer because with the exception of Fujii everyone is at least a decent worker. It's true to say that AJW have done little to elevate Momoe, but at least she didn't have to do the job here.

If Momoe had to do the job in this match that certainly would have "inspired" me to write another couple pages. I suppose by the standards of this show, ARSION did AJW a favor by pinning Fujii.

Men & Women & Midget Dangerous Super Mixed Match: Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts) & Gran Naniwa (Michinoku Pro) & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan) & Tomezo Tsunokake vs. Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts) & Yone Genjin (Michinoku Pro) & Kanako Motoya (JWP) & Little Frankie. As you are probably guessing, I didn't like this match. If you want to fully understand the horror, picture sitting through a match with eight Bolshoi Kids. This match had all kinds of style clashes, but it didn't matter because it wasn't the least bit serious or even a wrestling match. To make things worse, it had a ton of stalling and clowning around. Emi wrestled with a flower in her hair and flower wrist bands, the latter of which she raked Motoya's face with when the first locked up.(1129aw09) Ishikawa, who is supposed to be a shooter, actually sold midget Little Frankie's dropkicks. Still, it wasn't as bad as when he sold Don Arakawa's Baba chops at the Tokyo Dome.

It was a waste to put Motoya in a match with a bunch of jokers, but they needed someone really attractive for all the guys to want to wrestle against. She should have been used for some serious wrestling, as she is the best wrestler in this match, but instead her sole purpose was to be drooled over. One of the things the match built around was the guys fighting over who would be the one Kanako jumped on top of. Naniwa actually pulled Ishikawa up and laid there in his place, but Tsunokake got them both up(1129aw10) and was the one Motoya wound up giving the diving body press to. Otsuka gave Tsunokake a long giant swing,(1129aw13) but considering Tsunokake's size and weight, wasn't able to do it for as long as you'd think. The finish saw everyone pick Little Frankie up and drop him on Tsunokake with a body press for the win. A farce of a wrestling match and an unfunny "comical" piece of junk. Still, it was funnier than an Adam Sandler flick. 11:49. 1/4*

Michael: I enjoyed this match on a comedic level, but with the exception of one nice sequence between Kanako and Emi, there isn't much good that can be said about any other aspect of the match. I was very critical of Ishikawa's performance against Hikari on 5/10/98, and he once again showed that he is more desperate for a girlfriend then a lifer in prison.

Miko: The reason fast forward was invented.

J typhoon: Nanae Takahashi & Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP) vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Rieko Amano (JWP team). Amano really stood out with her recently bleached hair. Unfortunately she didn't stand out for her wrestling, not that she was bad. By all means, this match should have stolen the undercard, but it was a lot worse than you'd expect because no one was as good as they normally are. Takahashi logged too much ring time, and took the match down as she always seems to do. There were a lot of hot moves and the work was good, but it was kind of sloppy and very lacking in the mental aspects. They did a lot of near finishes that would have come off a lot better if the match had heat, but it's women's wrestling in 1998, so heat is almost out of the question. Kuzumi pinned Miyaguchi after the Michinoku Driver II. 15:54. **1/2

Michael: Takahashi isn't on the level of the JWP girls, but everyone looked good. Kuzumi's rolling german spot was seriously impressive, and her and Nanae's teamwork was decent. Some nice near falls, and a good finish.

Miko: I thought this was a good, but not exceptional match. Everyone did their spots well Amano found a lot of different ways to work into submissions, as always. Nanae is a step or two slower than the others, but at least used her bulk reasonably well. My only real complaint to this match is there was no real purpose to it. The wrestlers were out there to roll out their moves, but there was no real drama or story to it.

James: This really fell flat. In a way, this was a bit like some of the matches from early '98 when the JWP girls went to Neo Ladies in that they weren't performing anywhere near as well as they do "at home." The wrestling wasn't that great, but at least Tanny Mouse wasn't involved this time.

I think they had more of an excuse in the matches against Neo because they were often singles matches. The JWP girls can't carry and some of the Neo wrestlers, Tanny and Shiina in particular, can't be carried. This was essentially a JWP match except it had Takahashi there to ruin it instead of Kana there to help make it good. The others are good enough that they should be able to do *** in spite of Takahashi. Even though Takahashi is not too good, there are ways to work her spots into the match so they help it rather than hurt it, but the other three didn't find them.

AJ Tag Titles: Yuko Kosugi & Sumie Sakai (Jd') vs. Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi. Sakai was the best in this match and Kosugi was the second best. The AJW team just isn't on their level. Miho was sloppy, blowing "easy" things like running up the ropes ala Mariko Yoshida. Kayo's technique isn't clean. Still, it was a pretty good fast-paced match that had a lot of action, but didn't really build. Both teams tried to get under each other's skin (g1) and get the crowd involved early. From there it was basically spots back and forth. Sakai, Noumi, and Wakizawa did consecutive planchas. The match actually had a lot of flying, but Sakai is the only one that has any hot flying moves. MihoKayo regained the titles when Noumi pinned Sakai with a new inverted version of the doublewrist armsault.(1129aw14) MihoKayo became the 27th AJ Tag champs, making Kosugi & Sakai's reign defenseless. 11:45. **1/4

Michael: Good, albeit unspectacular match. This match again showed that none of these girls can carry a match. They weren't exposed badly though because the match wasn't very long. The work was pretty good, but the finish was really weak. I can't blame Sakai for rolling her shoulder before the 3 count because Kayo barely had her pinned.

Miko: A decent match. Both Miho and Kayo lacked a little spring, with Miho in particular having a few problems. Sakai and Kosugi both hit their high spots really nicely. I like Kosugi's diving footstomp. She doesn't just come off the top rope and stomp her opponent. Instead, she brings her legs up as she jumps then seems to kick down as she lands, which gives me the impression that it does more damage.

James: It makes sense for AJW to push MihoKayo as the junior cute team, but their wrestling is over-
rated. This was a good match because they weren't out there for too long, but the AJW girls need to show some serious improvement if they are to be elevated above AJ tag level, particularly Noumi, who at 22 should be much better than this.

I agree with what you are saying. The thing about Noumi is that she really hadn't been wrestling two years at this point, being that she disappeared in early 1996 and didn't come back until late 1997 when they were desperate for warm bodies. This means she has less experience than Miho, Takahashi, and Momoe even though she is older and debuted in 1995 along with the flash in the pan Mari Mogami, rather than 1996 like the other three. On the other hand, she hasn't done anything to make you think she'll ever be good, and her age just means there is less time for her.

All Pacific Title: Kumiko Maekawa vs. Yasha Kurenai (LLPW). This was a big mistake on AJW's part because Yasha has nothing to offer them and Maekawa needs wins on major shows. When LLPW wouldn't agree to have Yasha job to Maekawa, AJW should have just taken Yasha off the show and found someone else for Maekawa to beat. Even if they were stuck having her beat someone in AJW, it still would have been more benificial than this was. Yasha tried to carry the match, but didn't do a good job. The fact that she didn't rely heavily on her weapons further exposed her weaknesses. It started really slow, and was a dull match overall because it was overloaded with poorly utilized submissions. Yasha's offense was low impact as always, which is one of the many reasons she's not a good opponent for someone like Maekawa who is supposed to be a tough girl. Harley Saito would have been a much better opponent because her style is much more similar to Yasha's, and she's still good enough that they might have been able to have had a kick ass match in more ways than one. Anyway, this match just meandered along until Yasha won almost out of nowhere. Maekawa was kicking as the ref was counting, but she couldn't get her shoulder up or get Yasha off of her until just after the 3 count. This was horrible for an All Pacific Title match, mainly because Yasha is such fodder. The typically bad Matsunaga booking just made things all the more frustrating. Yasha took the title, becoming the 36th overall champion and ending Maekawa's reign after 1 successful defense. 16:29. *1/4

James: I really wish Kuzumi had challenged for the All Pacific title as they originally planned. Maekawa needed some credibility as champion, but her title reign wound up consisting of her sitting on the belt for nearly six months. She defended it only one time, and that was against an 18-year-old that she beats the tar out every time they wrestle. Nobody gave Momoe a hope in hell of winning the belt, so that defense didn't help Maekawa. In her first defence against a veteran, the lays the belt at Yasha's feet. Hardly the way to give Maekawa credibility.

If anyone ever decides to write a book on use and misuse of titles, AJW's handling of their belts in 1998 would make a great chapter...in the misuse section, of course.

Michael: I thought this was a good, passable match considering neither of these women can carry a match and they don't have alot of offense. Kumiko has her kicks, and Yasha her weapons, but that's pretty much it. In this match, they did do a decent job with their submissions though. Yasha did a good job of working over Kumiko's back, but it seemed like they were just doing submissions to pass time, rather than to build to something. It was weird seeing Yasha wrestle such a "straight" match, but she did an ok job.

Miko: This match simply did not work for me. I like Maekawa. She improved a lot in 1998, looking stronger and kicking better. She's one of few wrestlers flexible enough to pull off a good axe kick. While I don't consider Kurenai a great wrestler, I can be entertained by her matches. Unfortunately, Maekawa and Kurenai simply didn't work well together for long periods in this match. The selling was not all that strong, and all too often they seemed to hit lulls where they were just killing time.

L typhoon: Takako Inoue & Noriyo Tateno (LLPW) vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (LLPW team). This match got off to a hot start, but kind of died in the second half. Harley was a step or more above everyone in this match, but after the first few minutes, she never really had a chance to show it. As was the case with most of the matches on this show, the selling was weak. The execution could have been a little better, and the match definitely would have been better if there weren't so many rest hold submissions. The work was good though. The sad thing is, even with Kandori involved, they couldn't get any heat. You might say that's no surprise, but I attribute it to the failure to use Kandori in a match that sounded interesting. I know Takako cherishes the opportunity to team with her senpai (kind of like a mentor) Tateno, but they could have had Yasha or Carol or someone from AJW on the opposite team instead of Kandori. The highlight of the match was a submission sequence between Takako and Kandori where Kandori tried an ipponzeio into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, but Takako countered it with a jujigatame of her own. However, Kandori put Takako in a hiza jujigatame,(g7b) forcing a rope escape. Takako got a series of near finishes on Kandori including using La Magistral and the Teioh lock,(g7a) but Kandori turned the Teioh lock into her Kandori special II for the win. With three LLPW wrestlers, Takako had to be the one to do the job? Takako losing to Kandori in a singles match would have been fine, but it was terrible booking to have her lose in tag because it eliminated the possibility of Takako getting a WWWA title shot against Kandori. Takako's credibility on that level is questionable enough to begin with, but had she pinned Harley or especially Kandori, it would have been enough to validate the title shot she probably should have got in the first place. Now that we've seen Kandori beat her, no one is going to buy that she can beat Kandori unless she gets hot and starts beating a few of the movers and shakers in women's wrestling. 15:27. ***

Michael: I liked the near falls and submissions towards the end, but the body of the match wasn't that strong. In all their infinite wisdom, AJW caved into LLPW and let their three biggest stars (at the time), Manami, Hotta, and Takako, job to Shinobu in 1998 without even one of them getting a win over her. At least Takako and Kandori worked pretty well together.

Miko: The focus of this match was Takako v. Kandori, though I'm not sure why. Takako has not been treated as World title level for some time in AJW and there was no indication from this match she was going to be pushed up to that level. If anything, this match made it seem quite the opposite. Takako and Kandori had some good exchanges of moves and counters, but not for a second did I believe Takako was going to beat Kandori. She doesn't have the submissions, and I just don't see the Destiny Hammer doing it. It looked like the bell was called for before Kandori even fully got her submission locked on, which hurt the ending a little.

James: AJW booking is sooooo stupid at times. Here they give Takako some credibility by letting her get a ton of near falls on Kandori, then they kill it straight away by jobbing her in this match. Then, a month later they let Kyoko kill her dead in another inter-promotional match. AJW could have used this match to build up Takako as a WWWA title contender, but they screwed up again.

It's Wrong! Super Heel Tag Match: ZAP I & ZAP T vs. Eagle Sawai (G-Max) & Shark Tsuchiya (? group). This was such a mess that it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I should just state the obvious, that this was the worst incarnation of crap. I can't believe AJW would allow their top heels to be massacred on their own major show. I mean, I know the Matsunagas are old, out of touch, senile, etc., but this set a new standard of cluelessness. The ZAPs were attacked before the bell by all of Eagle's lackeys, which set the tone for the entire match. Basically the story of the match was that the ZAPs got destroyed because they were really outnumbered and had no friends in AJW to help them out since they turned their back on the promotion. It's a workable storyline if it doesn't involve other heels you are trying to portray the ZAPs as being superior to and advances the ZAP vs. AJW feud, but this, of course, did neither. As horrible as it sounds, the ZAPs would have been hurt less if they were destroyed by the new monster gaijin team of Nicole Bass & Chyna, setting them up for a reign of terror to all wrestling fans where they squash everyone in 2 minute -* matches that have the spots called very audible by second Captain Suck It. I know I've just ensured that all my readers will have nightmares tonight, but at least there would be purpose to this if they wanted to use those two awful roided up eunicks. Instead, AJW was totally embarrassed and whatever momentum or credibility the ZAPs built up was destroyed by Eagle in one fail swoop.

G-Max tried to unmask the ZAPs, but instead the ZAPs did so voluntarily when they regained the advantage. The "positives" of this were that there wasn't a sole in the audience that didn't know who the ZAPs were anyway, and neither young Tomoko nor young Kaoru had a mask vs. mask match scheduled against Psicosis in Tiijuna. They brawled chaotically all over the arena from start to finish doing almost no wrestling. In fact, Shit did no wrestling at all, but, of course, cut Watanabe up once again with her kama.(g13) Ito was good when she had the chance to be, but her chances were as rare as a seeing a current Rock PPV match that isn't overrated by the sheet writers. Midori has taken Michiko Nagashima's role as the G-Max member who does all the work and gets none of the credit. Eagle finally ended this disaster by pinning T with her Eagle cannon bomb. After this travesty, Eagle & Shark may as well have presented the ZAPs with a first class ticket on the nonstop to nowhere. This match could only have been worse for the ZAPS if Eagle hit her diving footstomp. 10:38. -*

Miko: At no point in this match is there even the pretense that this is a 2 vs. 2 tag match. ZAPS get jumped before the bell (Wearing those jackets with hoods does wonders for your peripheral vision;^) and spend most of the match getting pummeled 8-on-2. Given that this was basically a 8-on-2 beat down, I was disappointed no one came out to help the ZAPS. Not only would it have made for a better match, but it could have set up the ZAPS coming out to help AJW a little over a month later during the battle with Neo Ladies. I could easily have seen at least former U*TOPS friend Yumiko Hotta coming out to help. Or former partner Takako Inoue.

Michael: "It's Wrong" is the perfect title and summation for this match. The idiocy in the Matsunaga's booking reached an all-time peak here because I can't think of one viable reason or excuse as to why AJW's top tag team was sent out there to get squashed for 11 minutes. The Zaps were outnumbered 8- 3 (if you include all 10 seconds that Isozaki was involved), so realistically Ito and Watanabe should've been clobbered with those odds against them. The thing is, they shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. Simply calling this match was a complete waste and a farce is a gross understatement.

James: Bloody awful! Back in the days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks, British wrestling was better than this.

LEGEND OF WWWA Former Belt Holders 6 Woman Tag: Jaguar Yokota (Jd') & Devil Masami (JWP) & Lioness Asuka (Free) vs. Aja Kong (Free) & Dynamite Kansai (JWP) & Yumiko Hotta. This was yet another disappointing match. This match needed the storyline where each former champ was trying to prove they were the greatest of all-time or simply the best right now. The point of this match was that it pitted some of the best and most dominant women of the last two decades against each other, and it's no like all these matchups have been done much, yet nobody seemed to care. Instead it lacked intensity, as they fell back on the requisite work and spots with no real thought put into the match.

It seemed like all these women had aged a few years since I last saw them, and that was a month prior to this match. The execution certainly wasn't up to the standards of these wrestlers. Lioness was the best wrestler in this match, working particularly well with Hotta. The second best portions of the match occured when Jaguar was in even though she wasn't up to her normal standard of excellence, probably injured up. Aja was good, but certainly wasn't exceptional like she was on so many other major AJW shows.

The match started really slowly, but picked up with Kansai working over Lioness and nearly pinning her with her Splash Mountain just after the 10-minute mark. Jaguar almost slipped off the top when she tried a diving body attack to Aja, but she regained her balance on the top rope and did the move. Highlight was Kansai, Aja, and Hotta all doing suicidas.(aw30th05) Kansai tried her Die Hard Kansai, but Jaguar turned it into a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner where Kansai took the bump despite Jaguar never scissoring her neck.(aw30th07) Jaguar then severly injured Kansai with a fisherman buster. It was really obvious that Kansai was injured legit, but they kept beating on her anyway. Lioness made things worse by trying to Liger bomb Kansai, who was too hurt to take the bump right, so the spot was badly blown and Kansai was further injured. This time she was out cold. Finally Aja dragged Kansai to their corner, but the time limit expired soon after that. Kansai was taken off in a stretcher, but they didn't show anything on this tape from the post match to indicate just how badly she was injured.

This was the best match on the show. However, the price of not even coming close to attaining glory was Kansai suffering a serious concussion that kept her out of the ring for 2 ½ months. It may also have resulted in Hikari having to come back way too soon so JWP would have one draw on their shows, but supposedly she came back so she could wrestle against Cuty before she retired. 30:00. ***

Miko: I was looking forward to this match, but also was dreading it, since I knew Kansai was injured in it. While Asuka's Liger bomb knocked her out, it was apparent Yokota's Fishermanbuster somehow did the damage. I found the ending scene particularly disturbing. When Kansai was Liger bombed, her head hit the canvas and her arms looked like they tensed up and straightened. It was almost like a lesser version of the Matua brain seizure from the UFC. Aja Kong helped make the save then dragged Kansai's limp body to the corner to tag herself in for the finish.

I tend to agree with Mike on how this match should have been booked. It came off as a typical six woman tag match with a good amount of action and double/triple teaming. Unfortunately, it lacked a story and emotion between the wrestlers. Even arch rivals Lioness Asuka and Jaguar Yokota got along with no problems. The point of this match was all six ladies were former 3WA singles champions and I wish they had focused more on that and on the 'dream matchups' between champions of different eras that the match created. For instance, Aja Kong vs. Lioness Asuka and Dynamite Kansai vs. Jaguar Yokota. If the bookers don't care enough to showcase these matchups, it's no surprise that the fans also don't care. All the blame should not be placed on the bookers though because the performers themselves weren't even that fired up. Lioness Asuka was unquestionably the best in this match. She seemed to have more fire and intensity than the others. Both Devil Masami and Yumiko Hotta dragged the match down though. Devil is Devil, but Hotta surprised me. She seemed unusually off with her moves.

Michael: Going in, I thought this match had a legit shot at topping ****, but it seemed like the only woman really fired up about being in the match was Aja. There were some nice near falls and the action picked up towards the end, but for the most part the match seemed to lack any build or purpose outside of being a legends reunion of sorts.

THE DREAM CAME TRUE AAAW Single Title: Chigusa Nagayo (GAEA) vs. Manami Toyota. This was a really sad match to watch on a number of levels. Toyota has just been left behind because she refuses to move her style out of 1994 and into 1998. In 1992, she was the best flyer of all the Japanese women, but so much has changed since then. Many a great athlete has come along, moreso in the men's leagues, and made moves that were once unimaginable into moves you might see 5 different wrestlers do in the same week. Meanwhile, while Toyota may have seen immortal at one time, age and injuries have caught up to her just like they catch up to any athlete after over a decade in a sport, although women decline at an earlier age than men. The result is her athleticism has declined to the point where she can't do certain moves that were once staples of her offense. In her formative years, she was a great innovator, but in recent years she not only hasn't come up with new moves, but she hasn't altered her move set beyond taking a few moves out. The result of this is that her matches seem like the same old thing, except she blows more spots and the ones she hits don't look as good as they used to because she's simply not as athletic. Her disinterest in learning how to work in the newer submission style that other wrestlers are using, combined with the inability to properly sell submissions is really hurting the body of her matches. Furthermore, the total lack of her once incredible intensity is making it more obvious that she's not firing up for many matches these days. Don't get me wrong, Toyota could still be a great wrestler, but she needs to rededicate herself to being the best and make the necessary changes to get by with less athleticism. It comes down to whether she's willing to start using different cool moves that she's capable of hitting just about all the time and learn the mental aspects. As much as I'd like to say this is going to happen, I just don't see the desire or drive to make me think that things will get better rather than worse.

Speaking of worse, Chigusa did a great job of making this match worse than it had the right to be. Her ego seems to grow by the day, as these days she doesn't want to sell for more than a handful of veterans that she respects, and that not so coincidentally wrestle in GAEA at least some of the time. Toyota is not one of these veterans, so Chigusa was no selling her spots way too often. Toyota engaged in a lot of no selling as well because she was working Chigusa's style match. In a way, this match seemed to be more about showing the other up than about delivering a good match, but Chigusa was already being forced to really overexert herself by having to wrestle a whole 14+ minutes, so you couldn't expect that she'd use any energy actually selling the moves.

Toyota German suplexed Chigusa right off the bat. She wanted to go right to her missile kicks, but Chigusa "exposed" the move by standing there and telling Toyota to jump.(aw30th08) The rest of the first eight minutes were pretty useless unless you enjoy watching the figure 4 back and forth. It was basically weardown submissions with a few of Toyota's poor strikes and an occassional high spot thrown in. Chigusa did no-sell Toyota's dropkick, which had to endear herself to all the Toyota fans.

Toyota did a missile kick to the floor, which was great. She followed with a springboard tope con hilo, which was lame because she is only able to get one bent knee onto the top rope,(aw30th10) and she has to hold the rope with her hand for balance before doing the flip. This is what just doesn't make sense about Toyota's current offense. Most of what makes the springboard tope con hilo great is that the person is able to jump cleanly to the top rope. The vast majority of wrestlers can't do this, so there's certainly no shame in not being able to do it. Instead of just climbing to the top and doing the tope con hilo like Hokuto does, and the flip part can look even more impressive when it's done this way because you can jump out farther when you are standing in the corner because you don't have to jump immediately or worry about losing your balance on a shaky loose rope, she continues to do the same old spot that she can no longer perform well.

After they exchanged Dragon screws to continue their weak knee storyline, Toyota did one of the slowest rolling cradles she's ever done. At 11:15, they did a stupid no-sell sequence where Toyota no sold a freaking Death Valley bomb and Chigusa barely sold Toyota's Japanese Ocean drop. Toyota then no sold Chigusa's running three finisher, then Chigusa no sold a terribly executed Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex(aw30th11) that came on the heels of Toyota blowing the move. Of course, it was no surprise that Toyota's JOC suplex wasn't done well because Toyota has a lot of problems doing the move to women who weigh far less than Chigusa, yet she continues to use the move all the time in spite of her problems executing it. Anyway, after all these ridiculous no-sell spots, Chigusa did one of the weakest looking semi-botched super freaks in history, and they both sold this spot. Just terrible wrestling. To make things worse, Toyota cut Chigusa off in the corner and did the most debacled Victory Star drop, if it can even be called that, you'll ever see basically pulling Chigusa down right on top of her . Toyota tried another Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex, but Chigusa avoided it and went right into the manjigatame for the flash submission. If Chigusa was Inoki, I wouldn't mind this finish, but since she's not it was just awful. I can't believe AJW would agree to this finish, as it's ridiculous for a huge star to lose out of nowhere to a move that's not even a finisher in women's wrestling. I wouldn't even expect Chigusa to beat Numao or Matsumoto with this move, much less Toyota. Furthermore, it can't even be justified by anything that happened in the match because the body of the match consisted of leg and knee work with the sasorigatame and figure 4. This whole show was a debacle to the point that this turd was a fitting conclusion to it. This was the worst performance either of these women have ever had on a major show I've seen by a wide margin, as it really didn't even have one redeeming factor. 14:42. *1/4

Miko: This match hurt the perception of Toyota. Losing by submission to Kandori didn't hurt her, because it's Kandori. However, losing by manjigatame to Nagayo is weak. Even Hirota doesn't lose to that move.;^) Wrestling wise, it was a disappointing, mainly because it was such a Nagayo match. I'd give it **. On the positive side, there was some good work, especially by Toyota. On the negative side, there were too many rest holds and some of the no-selling was really annoying. The no selling got a reaction from the fans, which is not a bad thing, but I've never been a fan of no-selling finishers.

Actually, I think no selling getting reaction by the fans is a bad thing because that means it "worked." If the fans never reacted to it, then we might be rid of it. Instead, the no selling was one of the only things that got reaction, which probably means we are destined to see a lot more of it.

James: Even though Chigusa Nagayo has turned into Chigusa Hogan over the last few years, I hoped that she would at least work hard in this match. Unfortunately, Chigusa doesn't even work hard in GAEA anymore so it was too much to hope for her to work hard at another promotions show. The match started out well, but degenerated to a total waste of time when the no-selling crap started. I bet AJW wish they'd paid Kyoko her money now:-)

Michael: I'm sure I'm in the major minority here, but I actually liked and enjoyed this match. I thought Chigusa did a barely passable job of selling for Manami even though she did more selling then usual. The sequence where both no-sold big spots was nice, but it wasn't as effective or exciting as when Chigusa and KAORU did it on G-Panic! #11 because in that match it led directly to the finish.

The only effective thing about that no-sell sequence was it effectively killed off some credible finishers. It was totally pointless because the capper was the weakest move in the sequence. When they sold that spot, it killed whatever toughness and credibility they thought they gained from no selling the spots that looked deadly.

Michael: A lot of people probrably didn't like that Manami was beaten with a move that Chigusa doesn't normally use as her finisher. If you think about it though, it was ok because she did it right out of countering the JOC suplex (which Manami already had trouble executing her on earlier) and had Manami tied up and "surprised" at the same time. Manami was locked up enough to where she couldn't reach the ropes and had "no choice" but to submit.

Your justification for this flash victory could be used for any flash victory because it's always a "surprise" when your move is countered and you are always tied up to some typically lesser extent if you are in a submission hold or pinning predicament. Beyond the fact that this is a move that Toyota probably wouldn't even sell if it wasn't supposed to be the finish of the match, you have to look at the magnitude of the match and the country it's taken place in. This was like a screw job by the standards of world title matches in AJW because there was absolutely no build to the finish and the match not only ended early and out of nowhere, but it ended with a move that no one in this audience is going to see as a possible finisher in a women's world title match. Certainly Inoki could have acceptably won in this manner, and being Inoki's protégé, Fujinami probably could have as well, but Inoki made this move in an entirely different era. These days, a finisher has to be either glamourous, deadly, or legit, and this certainly is none of those. Toyota is too big of a star to get beat with a move like this, or at least she used to be.