GAEA G-Panic! #5 2/7/98

taped 1/15 Tokyo Korakuen Hall & 1/19 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan 2

1/15: Toshie Uematsu vs. Chigusa Nagayo. The work was quite good, but the match was nothing more than a very good Nitro sprint. It needed to be longer because there wasn't enough time for Uematsu to really push Chigusa. Uematsu, who cried before and after the match, did look good doing the spots she was able to get in at least. 5:40. **1/2

1/19: Chikayo Nagashima vs. Chigusa Nagayo. This was basically the same as the previous Uematsu vs. Chigusa match except Chikayo is a heel and a much better worker. I liked Chikayo double crossing Chigusa on the pre match handshake, as it was a very Oz like manuever. Chigusa, of course, one this match as well. 5:00. **3/4

1/15: Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori (LLPW team) vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada. The wrestling here was mediocre. The match continued the dissention in the ranks of KAORU & Yamada storyline. Yamada wound up refusing to tag in, leaving KAORU to be pinned by Midori. Not a bad match, but certainly nothing special. 16:04 (11:01 aired). **

1/19: Devil Masami & Sakura Hirota vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada. KAORU & Yamada had more problems here. At one point, Yamada tried to drag KAORU over to their corner so she could tag in, but KAORU pushed her. Yamada then enzuigiri'd KAORU, and would have done it again had Hirota not stopped her with a dropkick. Devil & Suckura didn't look good. Devil doesn't bump like she used to, not that she was ever any great bump taker. Overall, it was probably a poor match, but only about 30% aired so perhaps it was a little better. 22:00 (6:10 aired).

1/15: Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. This match was way too one-sided. Satomura & Kato bloth bled, with Kato really juicing heavily. The work was quite good. Everyone knew their role, but I think the GAEA teams role should have been better than it was because this was too much like the way Neo has the veterans squash the youngsters. The thinking was that Satomura & Kato could get over just by taking this kind of beating from LCO for so long. Whether it worked or not is anyone's guess because you can't gauge a crowd that you know is never going to pop. Shimoda & Mita did a good job of carrying this. It eventually turned into an excellent match since Satomura & Kato had no quit in them. I mean, they were still coming at LCO after 15 minutes of getting destroyed, so to me the match worked the way they intended it to. Shimoda eventually pinned Kato with her moonsault. 20:59. ***1/2

Jason: I liked the fact that Satomura and Kato showed great heart in this match, not giving up and really staying in the match longer than any of the youngsters in Neo. I think this match was much better than the two LCO matches from the first Neo-Ladies show. You eventually have to sell for

the youngsters. Otherwise, what's the point?

1/19: Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Earlier in the night, Ozaki got to look on as her protégé was defeated by Chigusa. This time the table was turned, as Chigusa watched her proteges lose to Ozaki. This match was more along the lines of what I think the previous match on this show should have been like. The work wasn't quite as good, but the match was better overall because it was far more competitive. Ozaki & Sato opened up Kato's cut from the LCO match. Sato had a rare good performance this year. Ozaki didn't steal the show, but she was smart and her timing was excellent. Ozaki & Kato were really good together simply because they knew how to play it. For instrance, when Ozaki came in she had this devilish grin like, "I'm gonna kick your ass, and enjoy it," and Kato was just like, "come on, I can take it." Later on they did a spot I've never seen before where Kato avoided Ozaki's lariat in the corner and tried a dropkick, but Ozaki used the ropes to lift herself up to avoid the kick then let herself down onto Kato for a footstomp. Satomura & Kato were about equal, but Satomura was featured more because she was the one doing the job. Satomura's elbows were really impressive, particularly for such a young wrestler. 20:37. ***3/4

Jason: I think this match was better than the previous match because Ozaki is simply much better with the youngsters than Shimoda and Mita. In this match, Kato and Satomura show that they belong at the top of the card. I like that Ozaki never tries to steal the spotlight in this type of match, she just sits back and lets the youngsters go at it, coming in at the appropriate time to help move the match along. This match impressed me so much that I think it could even be rated ****.

GAEA G-Panic! #6 3/7/98

2/8 Tokyo Allen Hall: Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Everyone worked hard to deliver an exciting match. Satomura, Kato, and Uematsu all showed a lot of fire. There wasn't much of a bridge to the high spots, but it got quite good about six minutes in when they started doing them. Uematsu carried her team, which was definitely a good thing considering who her partner was. Uematsu was making last second saves, but finally Satomura held her off and Kato Dragon suplexed Hirota for the win. 18:26 (12:37 aired). ***

2/21 Saitama Honkawagoe Pepe Hall Atrium

Rina Ishii vs. Meiko Satomura. This match shouldn't have been as good as it was, or probably even close since Ishii has never been pushed at all. I've never really understood why Ishii is buried on the undercard and never shown on TV. While I realize she is green and may not be all that great, she can work circles around that joker Suckura, who they have always shoved down our throats. Anyway, Satomura did an excellent job of carrying this match, and both women had their best performances of the year.

"Ishii was really good in this match. You're right about Ishii being way better than Hirota. It boggles the mind why Ishii is not in the spotlight more. The match showed that Satomura has really devolped into a great wrestler. Not to take anything away from Ishii's performance here, but I think Satomura should be given the credit for making this match what it was.," wrote Jason.

The style of this match was most similar to ARSION's. It started out really fast with Ishii space rolling elbowing Satomura before the bell so she could get a few of her athletic spots in before Satomura caught her in a wakigatame. Much of the match was solid matwork that added to the match and occassionaly looked beautiful. Ishii appeared to be a lot more technically sound than you would think. We don't know if she has any arm moves she can win with, so her arm attack was questionable, while Satomura's wasn't. They always kept the pace up and kept it "interesting" by doing athletic spots to bring it back to the mat. No matter where the action was taking place, they did nice counters back and forth. Eventually they began working at a rabid pace and it got high spot intensive, but it still that wasn't easy to get the spots off.

It was clear the match was going to come down to who could properly execute a legit finisher first. Satomura was crying because she couldn't finish Ishii off, which was kind of lame considering how low Ishii is on the totem pole. It reminded me of Kobashi crying during the 1997 Carny when Akiyama kicked out of his powerbomb, but at least Satomura is a way younger and not a world champion. The highlight of the match was Ishii doing a nadare shiki no neckbreaker drop. The finish saw Ishii go for her huracan rana finisher for the first time, but Satomura caught her and turned it into her Death Valley bomb finisher, which had been teased a few times earlier, for the win. Really impressive showings by both women, but the fact that they were a bit sloppy holds the star rating down. 11:08 ***1/2

Sonoko Kato vs. Chigusa Nagayo. The typical Chigusa sprint. The match was exciting, but it was way too short with Kato not getting to push Chigusa at all. In one of the weirder scenes of the year, Chigusa disciplined Kato after the match, seemingly over not liking her execution, including hitting her several times. Satomura eventually tried to come to Kato's rescue, but she got the same treatment, including getting a bloody mouth. Both Satomura & Kato cried. Maybe if I could understand what Chigusa was saying this would have come off better, but it looked like a scene out of her dark Ring, Ring, Ring movie, which isn't a complement. 4:59. **

Jason: You'd think, given what Kato has displayed in the ring before this match, that she would be able to push Nagoya some. Instead, it was almost like Nagoya was pushing Kato down a notch or two. The end seemed really disturbing to me.

2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Akira Hokuto & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura. This match was kind of helter skelter. It was a sprint with way too many spots rolled out. It actually reminded me of an ECW match except they weren't using gimmicks and there weren't degenerates and low lifes in the audience yelling for the women to "show their tits." Satomura, and especially Kato, took it to Chigusa. 10:13. **1/2

Makie Numao vs. Chigusa Nagayo. This was a decent match, but it was very short. Nothing really special or noteable about the match. 4:51. *3/4

Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada. Once the heels got themselves over the match was mainly spots. The work and spots were quite good at least. Yamada bled. Oz was outside the ring and she got involved a few times including preventing KAORU from nadare shiki no brainbustering Chikayo. At one point, Oz whispered something in Hokuto's ear, which led to Hokuto hitting KAORU with a chair when she tried a swandive move. Yamada got into it with Oz, so Hokuto attacked her. Chikayo then tried to run KAORU into the ropes so Oz could uraken her, but KAORU ducked it and Chikayo got clocked. KAORU then Excalibured Chikayo for the win. 16:03. ***1/2

GAEA G-Panic! #7 4/18/98

3/15 Club Citta Kawasaki

Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sonoko Kato. Kato mainly used UWF style offense, including injuring Chikayo's arm with an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Chikayo put this over by selling her arm when she tried to comeback with forearms. The match was surprisingly sloppy, falling apart when Chikayo went on offense and uncharacteristically blew a few spots. The match just kind of ended with Chikayo pinning Kato with a German suplex. Really disappointing. 13:16 (9:52 aired). *3/4

Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura. This was an experimental match that fell flat because it was too great a departure from what they do well. They did a lot of strikes back and forth, which Satomura was obviously better than Sugar at. Another disappointment. 10:26. **

Tag Tournament 2nd Round: Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao. The typical Chigusa sprint. A workrate match where everyone looked good, but Ozaki was still the best by a wide margin. Sugar's interference was key here, as she saved Ozaki from Chigusa's Super Freak. Later on, she held Chigusa off while Ozaki put Numao away with the Tequila Sunrise. Way too short. 6:15. ***1/4

Tag Tournament Final: Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada. This continued the storyline of Yamada wanting to kick Ozaki's butt. However, this time KAORU & Yamada worked as a cohesive unit. It was a junior style match, although the spots weren't as glamourous. The work was as good as you'd expect, but, unfortunately, it was another sprint. It's too bad Chikayo was injured because the match probably would have been a little better if the suddenly lackluster Sugar didn't have to take her place. In any case, the match would still have been considerably better when Ozaki was in. Yamada was fired up and KAORU is made for this type of match. The key spot was KAORU taking the brunt of Yamada's thrust kick when Ozaki ducked it. KAORU wasn't angry that Yamada kicked her, which showed that they had gotten over their problems. Finish saw Yamada try her reverse Gori special bomb, but Sato urakened her then Ozaki urakened Yamada to take the tag tournament. 9:51. ***1/2

Sakura Hirota vs. Meiko Satomura. Typical Hirota goofiness, although thankfully she kept it under 1000 hip attacks. The technique wasn't clean due to Hirota. Any comparison of this match to Satomura vs. Ishii really leaves you scratching your head as to why Suckura is pushed on TV and Ishii's matches aren't even televised. 7:45. *

3/29 Osaka IMP Hall

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sakura Hirota. The execution was fine, but the match wasn't interesting becaue there were too many rest hold submissions. It seems like when Ozaki knows there is little hope for match quality, she pretty much takes it easy out there. Hirota was typically awful on offense, and ruined the match as always. Hirota thought she could match urakens with Oz, but to show you how good Hirota's urakens were, most were actually back arms. Ozaki pulled Hirota up after a high angle powerbomb. Later, she pinned Hirota with her Liger bomb. 13:08 (10:23 aired). *3/4

AAAW World Junior Tag Titles: Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura vs Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima. Another match that was mainly ring work. This went longer than the other mathces on the show, but still had no storyline. Hot action in the last 4+ minutes really made the match. Chikayo was the standout, and she used her fisherman buster to score the upset pin on Satomura. These teams have been having very good matches for a while, but you'd think they would have improved on the level they reached in 1996 by now. 19:13. ***1/2

G-Panic! #8 5/12/98

This show was a compilation of matches from GAEA's 3rd Anniversary Tour. Considering this company was built around a bunch of rookies, it's hard to believe Chigusa made it three years without putting any of them over in singles. That said, she'll easily make it to four years without Sato, Satomura, Kato, or Nagashima seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

4/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Chikayo Nagashima vs. Meiko Satomura. This was more toward Satomura's submission oriented style early on, including her using some innovative arm bars, but they went to their high spots as the match progressed. Most of my problem with Satomura this year is, unlike Sato, Chikayo, & Kato, her mannerisms are still very childish. She also seems to have too much energy for her own good, as she gets too cute instead of just doing the spot. She seems to be under a lot of pressure, although much of it could be self imposed. Anyway, Chikayo did a good job here. The match had a lot of action, but it was sloppy in points, particularly the ones revolving around Satomura's Death Valley bomb finisher. The highlight was Nagashima doing an ultra corbata for a near fall. Chikayo's rise in the ranks of GAEA's fab four continued as she pinned Satomura with her fisherman buster. 13:48. ***

Toshie Uematsu vs. KAORU. This was a worked shoot under Pancrase type rules. The match had it's moments, but it generally wasn't all that good. Uematsu was fiery and looked better than KAORU in this style. They went home just as the match was starting to get good. A decent match, especially considering their lack of experience in this style, but it was really nothing more than a foundation of something that could eventually be good. 6:09.

4/24 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2

Toshie Uematsu vs. Manami Toyota (AJW). Toyota was the same as always against the younger wrestlers, smiling too much, not really taking them seriously, not putting them over enough, and not making it look like they really had a chance of winning. Still, she was working on such a high level that the match was good even though it didn't serve it's purpose nearly as well as it could have. Even though the outcome was never in doubt, it was still an exciting match to watch because of the high spots. Uematsu looked good here, and even pulled out some nice counters for near falls. The heat was disappointing, and even though the crowd wasn't too big and most women's matches in 1998 have no heat, some of the blame for this has to be placed on Toyota for not allowing the fans to give Toshie a chance. Toshie, who wasn't able to withstand much of Toyota's offense, was put away with the Japanse Ocean Cyclone suplex. It's almost definitely a good thing that only half the match aired because in 1998, neither of these two have shown that they can properly build a match. 16:14 (8:04). ***1/4

4/29 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima (G-MAX). A spot brawl. Yamada juiced heavily, as she was was destroyed by mainly Nagashima. Nagashima needed to work stiffer, especially when she was hitting Yamada with the chain. Everything seemed to happen really fast, but it was more toward being chaotic than fast-paced. They selling should have been better, but I've probably noted that about every match KAORU has ever been in. I found myself getting bored with this match because there were just so many spots that had so little meaning. Eagle was, not surprisingly, the worst of the four (or maybe five if you count Okino, who was interfering on Eagle's behalf). Unfortunately, Eagle was the one who scored the pin, putting Yamada away with a powerbomb. 14:34 (11:49 aired). **

High Spot 600 Tournament Final: Sugar Sato vs. Meiko Satomura. The winner of this match got a spot in the main event on Chigusa's team against the new team of Aja & Ozaki. This meant the match was much more important to Satomura because she wanted to team with her idol, while Sato may not have been "too thrilled" about teaming with her enemy against her leader. This was like a Nitro rush job, as the match had no build and they pretty much just tried their big spots on each other. It's pretty sad that they would do the final in this manner. Beyond the lack of diversity, the match was hurt by some missed spots. Satomura used her Death Valley bomb to score a rare pin over Sugar and take the tournament. 6:36. *3/4

Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura. This should have been a special match with formation of the dream team of Aja & Ozaki. Unfortunately, it was another disappointment because there was nothing to distinguish it from all the other short Chigusa spotfests. The work was good, but not even at the level you would expect. The main problem was that, once again, Chigusa wasn't particularly impressive. The fact that her athleticism is almost completely gone doesn't help things. Satomura, working her 4th match of the night, still carried the load for her team. Satomura vs. Ozaki was the highlight of the match. Ozaki pinned Chigusa with her uraken. 9:25. **1/2

G-Panic! #9 6/23/98

5/18 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan #2: KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Good work here, but that was about all the concentrated on. Yamada gave a strong performance. KAORU pinned Satormura with a huracan rana. 12:49 (7:34 aired). ***

Jason: A great thing about GAEA is when they go to highspots, they know how to do it. If they could mesh that with a good opening portion of the match, it would be even better. We just saw the last 7+ minutes of this match though, so that wasn't really a factor here. What aired was good with nice near falls and saves even though Satomura, Kato and KAORU were a little slow on some of the saves. KAORU's flip out of Satomura's Death Valley bomb looked cool.

5/31 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada. This was a HUGE disappointment. It was another match where work was about all they concentrated on. The execution wasn't close to the expected level. Aja & KAORU dind't work well together, and were largely responsible for the mediocrity. The match ended way too soon when Aja urakened KAORU. 7:13. *3/4

Jason: It's not an understatement to say this match was a HUGE disappointment considering who the wrestlers in this match were. There wasn't enough time to properly build a story in the match, even though it looked like they weren't trying. There wasn't even anything coming out of the Ozaki

vs. Yamada feud that they hyped at the beginning of the program.

What really frustrates me about GAEA is most of the time they just go to the spots without even trying to do a good opening or build the match in any way.

6/13 Niigata Phase AAAW Tag Title Tournament Round 1: KAORU & Yamada vs. Satomura & Sonoko Kato. Surprisingly, and as it turns out luckily, this was better than KAORU & Yamada's match with Aja & Ozaki. It was a pretty slow-paced match because they were going "long" for GAEA. The wrestling was fine, but the action never kicked into high gear. Satomura turned KAORU's Excalibur into a huracan rana for the upset win. 16:42. **3/4

Jason: Once again, the last seven minutes of this match was its saviour. Once again, the highspots at the end didn't mean much because there wasn't any build to them. As with their 5/18 match the near falls and saves were good, but I think they were better in this match. Satomura pinning KAORU got a nice reaction from the crowd.

5/31 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mizuki Ishii vs. Chigusa Nagayo. This was Ishii's debut. I couldn't tell you if she has any potential or not because she was totally squashed. I don't understand why they did the match in this manner. I realize Ishii shouldn't be able to last very long with Chigusa, but that doesn't mean she should be massacred. Why not give her a chance to show a move to two before she gets pinned? I mean, in all this time that she was training, didn't she learn one hot move she could have flashed? Instead, Chigusa didn't hold anything back on her kicks, and quickly pinned the rookie after a lariat. 3:45. *

Jason: Ishii showed some guts when she bridged out of the pin after Nagoya had super-kicked her very stiff twice. Other than that, Chigusa's reasoning for squashing her in this manner was mind boggling.

5/18 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2: Toshie Uematsu vs. Mayumi Ozaki. This was a brawl. The problem with this match is that they weren't always on the same page. Uematsu let Ozaki do too much at points, but countered at the wrong time at other points. Ozaki wasn't in close to top form, and Uematsu was pretty bad. Ozaki pinned Uematsu with her Liger bomb. 12:15 (7:47 aired). **1/4

5/31 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Toshie Uematsu vs. Sugar Sato. Another brawl. Sugar didn't look good, again, as she was missing her spots. Sugar's urakens were very good today, so she did look good during the finish, which saw her pin Uematsu the same way Ozaki did, with the Liger bomb. Overall, it was another disappointing performance by Sugar though. 9:59 (6:40 aired). *3/4

Gaea G-Panic! #10 7/98

6/21 Club Citta Kawasaki: KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato. This match got off to a slow start. It's clear that all these sprints are hurting because no one in GAEA has any bridge to their high spots, which is especially necessary when they are asked to work a longer match. Nothing really happened for the first 6+ minutes. Kato then said enough of this, and transmogrified this into an excellent match by picking up the pace dramatically. Yamada looked sharp once again, throwing a lot of crisp kicks and working well against her regular partner KAORU. Unfortunately, even though the work was excellent after the slow start, they still didn't put any thought into what they were doing. Given that KAORU was involved, it should come as no suprise that the selling was weak. One particularly annoying spot was Kato kicking KAORU off the ropes to stop her swandive moonsault to Yamada. KAORU "sold" this by getting right up and turning Yamada's kick into a fisherman suplex. Satomura & Kato did more spots than normal here. The highlight was Satomura doing the Shiryu counter for the German suplex where she lands on her feet. It wasn't quite as good as when he does it though because she had to use her hands to help herself over. Unfortunately, no one in this match got anything out of their spots. This match had no psychology and it didn't build, but it was still nearly four stars on work alone. Kato pinned Satomura when she rolled through on Satomura's huracan rana. 17:16. ***3/4

6/27 Nagoya Shi Taiikukan: KAORU & Makie Numao vs. Meiko Satomura & Maiko Matsumoto. This was all hacked up in the editing room. The main point of the match was to build heat between Satomura and KAORU. Satomura got KAORU in an udehishikigyakujujigatame about the same time as Matsumoto hit her gutwrench suplex that beat Numao (Matsumoto & Numao were legal). However, Satomura refused to release the hold after the bell was rung. Satomura & Matsumoto then taunted KAORU, rubbing in the fact that their team won. 16:21 (2:11 aired)

6/28 Osaka IMP Hall: Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato. This was the typical Chigusa sprint. Work and spots for 9 minutes, as always. You'd think that Chigusa would be a lot better at telling stories in the ring than she is, but these days even when Ozaki is the opposition, she's rarely even interested in trying. Still, wrestling wise Ozaki made Chigusa look good as only she can. Sugar was, unfortunately, the worst of the 4 again. Ozaki was, of course, the best. She wrestled a smart match given the circumstances, but again there really needed to be more story here since it was Chigusa vs. Ozaki. Satomura vs. Sugar was a big step down from Ozaki vs. Chigusa. Everyone's execution was a little off. Chigusa pinned Sugar with a Death Valley bomb. Chigusa & Satomura celebrated their win, taunting the Oz Academy by making their own bonzai pose. 8:43. ***

6/27 Nagoya Shi Taiikukan AAAW Tag Title Tournament 1st Round: Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota vs. Aja Kong & Ozaki. I should wise up and just cut and paste this was the typical Chigusa sprint into the review of every Chigusa match so I wouldn't have to keep retyping it. This was worse than normal because Suckura was involved. It is normal for her to take the match down a lot though. Hirota was typically goofy here, constantly trying to use her lame uraken on Aja and Oz. At one point, she urakened Aja then Chigusa Death Valley bombed Aja, but Aja still kicked out. She also wanted to use Ozaki's tequila sunrise on her, but Ozaki reversed it. Aja having to sell Hirota's lame spots was really hard to take. It just goes to show how unselfish Kong is. Chigusa dropped Ozaki bad knee first on top of Hirota to break up Aja's pin, which didn't do wonders for Oz. They did all the big spots, but it was a little sloppy. Finally, Ozaki held off Chigusa well Aja urakened Hirota for the win. 7:09. **1/2

6/14 Nagaoka Shi Kosei (public welfare) Kaikan (assembly hall): KAORU vs. Toshiyo Yamada. This actually wasn't a spotfest, which would be a good thing, except it meant KAORU was lost early on. The match was deviod of build and psychology, and even the work was disappointing. KAORU was off here, as even her execution was worse than normal. Still, she won with her Excaliber. 16:03. **

GAEA G-Panic! #11 8/20/98

Alpha Plus 7/19/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima. This was, unfortunately, joined in progress. The work was good, but no one fired up so it wasn't as good as it sounds on paper. Chikayo was featured and looked good, but Sugar once again didn't. Just about everything involving Sugar was slow and deliberate. Too much of her against Saya hurt the match, as did too little of Ozaki and Shimoda. **3/4

AAAW Singles Title Challenger Match: KAORU vs. Chigusa. The work was only decent. The flow, psychology, and build were poor. The selling was horrible, as they no sold left and right. Chigusa even popped right up after KAORU delivered her Excalibur finisher. Turd. *

AAAW Tag Title Challengers Tournament Semifinal: Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Toshie Uematsu & RIE. The main point of the match was dissention in the ranks of Satomura & Kato. They had all kinds of problems, including accidentally hitting each other and selfishness when it came to who would get the winning pin. Finish saw Satomura on the top rope, and Kato was going to whip RIE at her. However, Kato turned the Irish whip into a running three for the win. Satomura just stood on the top rope rope while Kato left the ring. *3/4

8/10/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan #2

Chigusa & Uematsu vs. Sugar & Nagashima. Chikayo was the star worker. Chigusa did a really good job of directing traffic, and was easily the second best worker. Uematsu & Sato did a lot of weak looking spots. **

AAAW Tag Titles Challenger Tournament Final: Aja Kong & Ozaki vs. Satomura & Kato. These teams didn't work together nearly as well as you'd think. The match never really got hot. Actually, Aja dictated most of the time, and it was slow paced. Ozaki, seemed a bit banged up and barely worked. When she was in the focus should have been on an ankle "injury" Satomura gave her in the middle of the match, but Kato didn't pick up on it beyond doing one submission to it. Kato & Satomura once again couldn't get through the match without fighting, and it cost them as Satomura walked right into Aja's uraken for the loss after she got done stomping on Kato. Thus, Aja & Ozaki won a title shot on 8/23. Aja was solid and Kato was better than Satomura. Very disappointing. **1/2

GAEA G-Panic! #12 10/5/98

8/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall AAAW Tag Titles: Sugar Sato & Nagashima vs Aja Kong & Ozaki. This was a very exciting match, but it was more notable for the fact that the crowd was actually really into this. The problem was this had more than it's share of blown spots, mainly from Sugar. Chikayo got her feet stuck in the ropes on a tope, but had the two highlights of the match, German suplexing Aja and giving her a footstomp off the top to the floor. Ozaki was really good with the exception of blowing one powerbomb spot with Chikayo. Aja & Ozaki took the titles. ***1/4

Martinez: Once again, Aja showed what a true pro she is. She could easily have no sold and

squashed Sugar & Chikayo. At their size, it would have been perfectly reasonable if she did. Instead, Aja used this match to totally put the younger girls over, even in their loss.

Michael: For once I can praise a crowd for adding to a match instead of sleeping through it.

Aja selling some of Sugar's weak urakens didn't help things, but the blown spots didn't really hurt the match for me. In fact, Ozaki's powerbomb still looked credible since Chikayo landed well on it. The Liger Bomb towards the end that Oz pulled Sugar out of to set up the Tequila Sunrise bothered me more because it wasn't like Sugar kicked out of the Liger bomb only to succumb to Ozaki's true finisher. It was more like Oz pulled Sugar up to dole out more punishment, so Sugar didn't gain

anything from it.

8/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall AAAW Singles Title: Chigusa vs. Devil Masami. In the past, these two have had very good matches, but they are just too big and unathletic to have much of a match together at this point. This was a terrible match with no redeeming factors. It was slow-paced and very deliberate with a ton of no selling. Chigusa even no sold a nadare shiki no Northern Lights suplex. The comebacks sucked because they all seemed to be off no sell spots. Devil wrestled like Super Heel even though she wasn't billed as such. Easily the worst match these two have ever had together. 3/4*

Martinez: I was looking forward to a match that would be much better than the horrid Zero/Superheel match from 9/20/97. They might as well have gone with those gimmicks because they worked the same way. It would not have made for a better match, but at least it would have made a little more sense because no selling is part of the Zero & Super Heel gimmicks.

Michael: It was like they were too lazy to sell so it was predictable rather than exciting. The match was even worse the second time I watched it because the first time I held out a little hope that it would get better, whereas the second time I knew it would be bad throughout.

8/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Satomura vs. Kato. These two usually have very good matches, but this wasn't one of them. As feared, the result of all these short spot fests is that these two didn't have the stamina to go this long or the experience in putting over the toll of the match. This actually got off to a hot start and was a good match for the first 25 minutes, but they just hit the wall at that point. The last 5 minutes were very weak with sloppily executed or blown spots because they both blew up. Satomura's acting needed to be better as she seemed to remember to have to remember to sell, which meant it wound up looking pretty fake due to a slightly delayed reaction. The purpose of this match was to show that they were even, and that was accomplished, but this wasn't exactly conjuring up memories of the draws Toyota & Yamada had in 1991-92. **1/4

Michael: Alot of the stamina problem stems from the fact that they normally wrestle in matches that are, at most, half as this long. The rest of it is that they don't know how to pace a match regardless of length. Chigusa being out there probrably put more pressure on them as well, so they may have been trying too hard and expended too much energy too soon.

Martinez: I got the impression toward the end that they were selling their fatigue. In fact, I thought they sold it too much.All the staggering around and acting blown up looked too melodramatic to me, like they REALLY wanted you to think that they were spent but they tried to hard.

I agree that the acting was not on the level, but I must ask, if they really weren't blown up then why did they all of a sudden look like they were about to keel over, if not drop dead? I mean, they had been putting over the toll a little bit, but it was like 25 minutes of not being all that bad and then suddenly 5 where they were on their death bed. If it was all acting then it was as coherent a storyline as when the Dukes of Hazzard are going over a cliff when they go to commercial, and then 2 minutes later they come back from the break and instead of being at the bottom of the cliff, they are pulling into Uncle Jesse's.

Martinez: I think this makes my point about them not really being *as* tired as they look. They wrestled 25 minutes where they were fine. Then, almost as if on cue, they became tired and worn down, each trying vainly to finish the other off before time ran out. They could have easily done a finish where they got a surge of energy and finished hot, but this way it shows that they can fight each other to a standstill. They wore each other down, but couldn't finish each other off, which shows that they are equally matched. I'm not saying the story was well done here, but that is how it looked to me.

9/5 Kawagoe Pepe Hall: Bad Nurse Nakamura vs. Satomura. Bad Nurse was similarly "Great" to Muta, which meant she was truly Bad. Nurse used a fork to bloody Satomura, and Ran had to literally rip it out of Nurse's mouth to get it away from her. Boring brawl. *1/2

Martinez: Okay, Bad Nurse is still bad yes, but she was a lot more interesting gimmick wise. She really played up her freaky girl gimmick a lot more than I saw her do in FMW, and she looks to be in much better shape. She also stuck to what she could pull off rather than doing moves that she might blow horribly. Boring, but still better for Bad Nurse.

9/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Manami Toyota (AJW) vs. Satomura. This was typical of Toyota against younger wrestlers. Her work was good and she did all her spots, so the match was entertaining, but it didn't serve any purpose at all. Toyota once again didn't respect her younger opponent, so she didn't really put Satomura over and the outcome was never in doubt. We saw some good moves, but who cares? The point was for Satomura to challenge, yet all this match showed was she wasn't even remotely close to Toyota's level. **3/4

Martinez: Exactly. Who cares? When Satomura fought Kyoko on 9/20/97, you thought maybe, just

maybe, it would be possible for her to beat Kyoko. Sure, it was obvious she wouldn't, but that little bit of hope that Kyoko gave by putting Satomura over so well made that match great, IMO. This, on the other hand, was just a glorified squash by Toyota, which is nothing new for her.

Michael: Since Manami doesn't work for GAEA, I can't blame her for not letting Satomura show that's she's close to her level. When Manami wants to she can make a young opponent look as credible as possible (see the Noumi match from the 3/98 AJW TV show), but why should she when her opponent isn't from AJW? I know you can bring up the same point that you did for the Yagi match and say that she's getting paid to make her opponent look close to her level or whatever, but I'm sure if Chigusa

told Manami to work the match similar to the way that Kyoko did her match vs. Satomura then she would have. The mentality is not to let the younger girls look that good against you, which I agree is wrong, but that's the way it is.

The mentality is one of the main reasons none of the leagues can draw, and everyone is making less money than they should be. You can make all the excuses you want, but Manami wasted Chigusa's money and everyone's time. I certainly wasn't surprised that she did this because we've seen her do it before. Chigusa's ego is holding her young wrestlers back and the more veterans she lets run over them the less chance they have of ever being taken seriously as stars or becoming draws. This was on the same level of badness as any number of blunders the leagues have made in the past few years, but you love Toyota so you defend her rather than admit she went 180 degrees against what the point of the match should have been. If you want to say Chigusa deserves much of the blame for still booking matches involving herself and other veterans where her young wrestlers that should be stars are punked then that's fine with me. The point is this shouldn't have happened to Satomura in 1997, and certainly shouldn't have happened to her in 1998. As much as I hated the Matsunagas forcing people to retire prematurely, at least they were successful in creating new stars. Matches like this piss on whatever progress has been made toward people seeing Satomura as a star.

GAEA G-Panic! #13

10/3/98 Sapporo Tyson Hall: Sonoko Kato vs. Chigusa Nagayo. This was a really old style bout with some elements of original UWF. They worked slow on the mat and did poor strikes when standing. This had absolutely no heat, not that any women's wrestling these days does, but in this case I think it was because the fans didn't know what to make of this. It was different, but different doesn't mean good or interesting. The highlight for everyone but Sono, was Chigusa Kato with a lariat. 12:20. *

10/4/98 Takaiwa Shi Seinen (youth)Taiiku Center: Sonoko Kato vs. Maiko Matsumoto. This was the same dull style as the previous match. It was pretty much all submissions and strikes, but it wasn't cool like UWF was nor was it in any way intended to be a worked shoot. A great match for those who are fans of headlocks, but I don't know anyone like that. It picked up in the last third, and turned into a sligtly less boring match than Kato's match against Chigusa. 17:57 (14:54 aired). *1/4

10/10/98 Osaka IMP Hall: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Maiko Matsumoto. This was the same style again, but without Kato it was all the more boring. A short match where they didn't do or try anything. 5:58. 3/4*

10/11/98 Kyoto KBS Hall Premium League Bout: Toshie Uematsu vs. Sonoko Kato. This had elements of the previous three mathes, but it was closer to the typical GAEA goodness, especially as the match wore on. Kato is beginning to imitate Chigusa more and more, in particular she kept going for Chigusa's choke sleeper here. There was nothing bad about this match, but it wasn't close to an all out effort. 10:52. **

GAEA G-Panic! #14 11/30/98

11/12/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan #2 Premium League Match: Sugar Sato vs. Sonoko Kato. Kato continued her new, more Chigusa-esque style here. The match started out slow, but it turned into a good match with big spots and near falls back and forth. Kato used Sato's urakens on her, but eventually was taken out by a series of urakens by Sato. Kato was good, and Sato was decent. 17:15 (9:52 aired). **1/2

Michael: Sato used way too many urakens to the point it was like her only offense besides a couple of Liger bombs. Half of the urakens looked weak, which made her overuse of the spot worse.

11/12/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan #2 Premium League Match: Chikayo Nagashima vs Toshie Uematsu. This was an exciting, all action match. The focus was on the work and high spots, like so many other women's matches this year. Uematsu debuted (at least on TV) a new move, Kuzumi's Victory Star drop. 13:00 (7:30 aired). ***1/4

Michael: This was easily one of the best singles matches Uematsu has ever been in, but just another strong showing from Chikayo.

11/23/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: KAORU & Rina Ishii vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu. Unfortunately, this was a KAORU style match. Ishii was a bit outclassed so she was the worst of the four. No one really stood out on the positive end. After the match KAORU & Uematsu had a pull apart, but Satomura was the one who wound up attacking KAORU first. 17:24 (8:42 aired). **1/2

Michael: I was glad to see Ishii get some TV time. She looked good here, but I agree she wasn't on the level of the other 3. Overall, it was a pretty good fast-paced match.

10/29/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Mayumi Ozaki. The reason someone can be called the best is that they are so well rounded and put so much into a match. Anyone who looks better when the matches are edited is either a stiff, a spot machine, just a worker, or a one dimensional wrestler. On the other hand, you can't see only 1/3 or ½ of even 2/3 of a major match from a Misawa, Kawada, Liger, or Ozaki without losing a lot. This match was pretty well ruined by TV, as they picked it up so late that it was almost all big moves. They both threw a lot of bombs, with the finishing sequence revolving around the same couple of big moves that are the only thing they have good enough to put the one another away. They did a really good job of using all their big moves to make it a hot match, but saving the big finishers so the focus was on these two moves and they were strengthened while the others were weakened. The match was built so it was fairly obvious either Ozaki's Tequila Sunrise or Yamada's reverse Gory special bomb was going to be the finisher, but the way they did it made it a good thing. Ozaki was using urakens left and right looking to at least knock Yamada silly enough that she could do the Tequila Sunrise, but, of course, a knockout would be accepted too. Some would wrongly take this as she's been reduced because her move set is smaller, you know, like the infamous Liger is relying heavily on palm blows that seemed to appear in the review of all his singles matches. However, it's more that the weaker moves were edited off TV and this is a way of putting the opposition over. If you have over big moves that you have to repeatedly use against the top opposition (because the rest will go down from 1 or 2), the fact that they can take a bunch, I don't mean no sell them like Norton and hopefully they won't sell them great for two seconds and then get back to their superman routine like Koji, means they are pretty damn tough. Ozaki put Yamada over huge here because she took uraken after uraken, she took the Tequila Sunrise, and eventually she came back and put Oz away with a spinning version of her reverse Gory special bomb. Yamada hasn't really been a singles player since 1995, so she badly needed some credibility against upper tier competition. This win allowed her to headline nexts months Korakuen Hall show against Ozaki's partner Aja. Knowing what Ozaki is like and seeing her in similar matches before, I might be rating this a tad bit low, but I'm probably going high on what little aired. 17:15 (6:42 aired). ***3/4

11/23/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Aja Kong. This match showed that Aja really still has it. She did a really good job of dragging Yamada along and pulled out all the stops to make this seem like a lot bigger deal than their matches together were during the last few years they were in AJW. Yamada has been really good this year in tag matches, but reality set in here since she had to try to work a long grueling singles match instead of 6-7 minutes of a tag match. The Yamada we once knew would have pulled off a great match here, but, unfortunately, injuries made that Yamada disappear a long time ago. It was all too apparent just how much she has slowed up, and her execution being somewhat off didn't help things either. Yamada did pull out a Hokuto style tope con hilo, but we've seen her do that before so it wasn't as shocking as Aja doing La Magistral. Yamada put up a fight, but Aja, not surprisingly, won this with her uraken. I was hoping Aja would incorporate some of the things she does in ARSION, but this was just a rehash of their AJW matches. 19:02. ***1/2