Jd' NEW YEAR FESTIVAL '98 1/11/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Yuki Lee & Esther Moreno vs. Ryuna & Fang Suzuki. Esther was the only one who did much, although no one was particularly good or bad. Some of Lee's kicks at the end missed completely, which is nothing new for her. 15:04 (10:37 aired). *3/4

Miko: One of the Mistresses of blown spots gets to show her stuff. At one point, Esther nearly

piledrives herself after losing her footing while trying a spingboard armdrag. Yuki Lee cleanly missed several kicks, but at least Suzuki had sense enough to ignore them until there was at least a little contact. Overall, it was pretty sloppy, but Moreno did hit a few cool looking moves.

Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Megumi Yabushita. A decent match where they probably tried to do too much because they were sloppy in points. The effort was there, but they are still inexperienced and lack polish. 11:43 (7:18 aired). **1/4

Miko: This was just a little better than the previous matches, although they also missed moves and the psychology was confused at times. Even so, this was better than I had previously seen from The Bloody.

Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo vs. Cooga & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori & Sachie Abe. This was a pretty disappointing match that lacked flow. LCO tried to lead the Jd' women through the brawl, but the Jd' women couldn't always follow them. To make things worse, Cooga didn't want to take even a semi-hard chair shot. The match actually worked better when LCO weren't brawling because the opposition is more at home in a straight match. The Jd' team eventually got some offense in, but it never looked like they could win. Saya was better than all three of the Jd' women. Abe looked pretty good at the end, so that probably made her the best of the Jd' trio. This match seemed to go on forever and it was quite disappointing by LCO standards, although it wasn't even remotely their fault. 25:36 (23:02 aired). *3/4

James: This was just BAD! You have to wonder if there is any kind of match that Cooga can work properly. She has deteriorated so much. If it had lasted ten minutes, maybe fifteen, they might have got something good from this.

Miko: Sloppy seemed to be the theme for the night. To make things worse, Shiratori injured her shoulder legit during the match, and from that point on it was a 3 on 2. Mita & Shimoda pretty much kicked the faces ass, so the good girls only got a chance to do much offense when Saya was in. At least Shimoda seemed to be having alot of fun out there.

TWF World Singles Title: Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka

These two really cut loose here. This match was a lot of fun because they set out to top their previous match by making this one a little wilder and adding some fresh spots. It was a traditional style match, but it was steeped in work and high spots to the point that the traditional storyline that Jaguar has done in big matches against heels going back to her days as the top star in AJW could almost be overlooked. We have come to expect that Jaguar will get largely dominated and probably bloodied to put the heel over big before making her comeback win, but we don't come into her match expecting to see her hung off a balcony. You have to give a ton of credit to Jaguar & Lioness when it comes to work and spots (and pretty much any other for that matter) because they were way ahead of their time in these aspects in the early to mid 1980's, and even now at 37 and 35 respectively, they are still among the best workers in the world and have move sets that will be more than viable well into the 2000's should they choose to wrestle that long (which for Yokota doesn't seem likely, but we'll see if she doesn't come out of retirement to save a sinking Jd' ship).

They are capable of doing a better all around match than they did here, but the more I watch this match the less problem I have with it. I wasn't all that thrilled with the selling and comebacks initially, but the match played off their previous match, which helped this make sense. When Jaguar won the title on 10/22/97, Lioness pretty much dragged her all around and destroyed her the whole match, but, as always, Jaguar refused to lose. She would counter some of Lioness' big moves, and one of these counters, a huracan rana off the top rope for Lioness' diving Liger bomb, was enough to take the title. This match follows the same basic pattern, but Lioness raised the bar with her high spots. She knows Jaguar will never give up, so she initially tried to use her shooting knowledge (she had recently won a match on the Octagon Challenge) to put her to sleep. However, it's way too early, so she changed her focus to trying to incapacitate Jaguar so she can no longer resist the choke. Jaguar made some big comebacks because that was the only way she could get any offense in. One of these was a quick come back that really annoyed me because she knows much better than to not put over the previous damage at all. Still, the basis of the match was that Lioness was knocking a couple bricks off Jaguar's wall with every big move, and Jaguar's recovery time became progressively slower to show this. It was obvious that it was going to come down to whether Jaguar could get a win with a big counter for one of Lioness' spots. It should have been better established that Lioness really wanted to put Jaguar out with the choke. They planted the seed early, but then they totally left it and focused all their energy on Lioness trying to incapacitate Jaguar. This was done to give Jaguar her out because like their previous match, even though this had the opposite outcome, it once again established that she was someone who refused to lose. The selling and comebacks would have been very strong if it wasn't for the one sequence, the finish would have come off a lot better if Lioness had thrown one or two failed attempts at the choke in during the body of the match, and the match would have come off better if the crowd didn't sit on their hands the whole night. Other than that, it was a hell of a match that continued Lioness' streak of topping the best match in Jd' history and the best TWF Title match with each new TWF Title match that was televised or released on commercial tape (by Neo).

Keeping with tradition, referee Tommy Ran went over to the challenger Lioness before the match to show her the title, but Lioness put her hand up before Ran got very close as if to say "Don't bother, I know what the belt looks like quite well." Lioness sent her cronies to the back and offered a handshake, but Jaguar wasn't so quick to buy into the idea that Lioness would wrestle a clean match for once. Jaguar was eventually dumb enough to accept, only to have Lioness pull her into a choke sleeper. Jaguar quickly got a rope escape, so Lioness immediately tried to reapply the move. However, Jaguar countered twice then German suplexed Lioness for a near fall. This was a really hot start, but I'm not sure why they thought (or did they fail to think?) this was enough to tip people off about Lioness' strategy. I think it was more like the Toyota vs. Kandori 8/23/98 match where they had some good ideas, but they left them in favor of doing cool spots. The difference was that in this match they went back to one of the ideas so the result was minimun effectiveness rather than totally wasting the ideas like Toyota and Kandori did. That being said, minumin effectiveness isn't really acceptable, especially for wrestlers who have been around as long as these two.

"The match had the effective storyline of just how much punishment could Yokota take before she had nothing left to give and dropped the title? It worked because you knew Jaguar was capable of reversing one of Lioness' big moves like she did for the sweet finish of their 10/22/97 match. The more I think about what they did in this match, or failed to do, the more sure I am that the finish should have been the towerhacker bomb off the top," wrote Michael.

After failing to put Jaguar away with the choke sleeper, Lioness began brawling, including choking Jaguar with a chair.(111jd01) Jaguar eventually came back, twarting Lioness' chair shot by dropkicking the chair into her. Jaguar didn't sell the previous damage at all, although it was very early so I can't kill her for that. They immediately blew a spot where Jaguar jumped off the second like she was going to do a hip attack, but she never really did anything while she was in the air and Lioness never countered it. On the positive side, there might not be a wrestler who is less bothered/affected by a blown spot than Lioness. As usual, she was on to the next spot so fast that you could almost believe the previous spot had went as planned.

Lioness used an umbrella on Jaguar. She Liger bombed Jaguar on the floor right in front of Kosugi, who had to be taken to the hospital after Lioness did this spot to her about 7 months earlier. Lioness tried to take things on step farther and Liger bomb Jaguar off the stage, but Jaguar shifted her weight to stop it(111jd05) then did a tope con hilo off the stage. Jaguar, again not selling the previous damage, delivered her doublearm piledriver, but for perhaps the first time she did it on the ring apron.(111jd07) Jaguar brought Lioness back into the ring by nadare shiki no doublearm suplexing her for a near fall. Lioness stopped Jaguar's doublearm piledriver and tried her Liger bomb, but Jaguar turned it into a huracan rana for a near fall. Lioness tried a kick, but Jaguar caught her leg and fisherman bustered her for another near fall. Jaguar climbed the ropes to deliver her moonsault, but Lioness cut her off and nadare shiki no backdropped her.(111jd11) Jaguar avoided Lioness' moonsault, but she was unable to capitilize because Lioness' cronies, who had returned to ringside, jumped in and put the boots to her.

Lioness dragged Jaguar up to the balcony and hung Jaguar off it, which was pretty crazy even though Jaguar had the cable under her arm so she could safely hold onto it above her head with her other arm while still giving the illusion to the big time marks.(111jd12)

"The balcony spot wasn't as effective as it could've been. The problem with the spot was that Jaguar was slowly lowered to the bleachers in a manner that removed most of the aura of danger from the spot, and thereby killed its effectiveness. Obviously I don't want or expect her to leap off the balcony or do anything that could/would injure her legitimately, but the way this was done, it didn't appear to injure her in the worked sense. I give a lot of credit to Jaguar for even doing the spot because an incredibly small number of wrestlers have ever gone completely over the balcony to the floor. Jaguar certainly showed she had the guts to do the spot, but the way it was done it took too long and really added nothing to the match as far as doing damage to Jaguar and furthering Lioness' chances of regaining the title," wrote Michael.

To top it off, Lioness dragged Jaguar back to the ring and did a jumping piledriver off the apron throught a table!(111jd16) Jaguar was down a while after this one because she was blading. At this point she should have been on her death bed, but she was still a long way away from being pinned.

"How the hell does no one react to the piledriver off the apron through the table? This spot isn't even something that's been done to death by ECW, much less done often in any of the Japanese leagues. Lioness was throwing out all these big moves, but other than the ten or fifteen fans who weren't "sleeping," the hall was silent. Even when Lioness got back in the ring and tried to drum

up a response she got nothing. I respect the Japanese fans alot, but sometimes I wonder what the hell it takes to get them into a match or even to get them to pop for anything. Tommy acting outraged at the movet was a nice touch at least," wrote Michael.

The match became truly excellent as Jaguar remembered how to sell with the best of them and began putting every move over huge and acting like she indeed was one step away from her death bed. It started with her selling of the kicks Lioness was knocking her down with and continued with a hope spot where Jaguar slipped out of Lioness' towerhacker bomb and went into a schoolboy for a 2 count. Lioness got right back up because she was in much better condition and threw a chain in the face of Jaguar, who was still down selling all the previous damage. This was more like it! Lioness again tried for her towerhacker bomb, but Jaguar turned it into a huracan rana for a near fall. Once again Jaguar in the worse condition of the two by far, so Lioness got up first, pulled Jaguar up, and delivered her excellent high angle version of the Liger bombed her for a near fall.(111jd22) Lioness pulled Jaguar up by the hair, and Jaguar did a really good job her of acting limp, and Liger bombed her once again for a near fall. Jaguar's weak kickout on this spot was excellent. She turned a little bit to one side and her momentum just kind started slowly rolling her limp carcass over. To make Jaguar's chances of retaining the title look even slimmer, Ryuna began interjecting herself.(111jd25)

Lioness did nadare shiki no brainbuster and tried nadare shiki no piggyback drop, but Jaguar turned this into a reverse Frankensteiner for a near fall.(111jd28) The counter really didn't work at all because the body just doesn't the bend the right way for Lioness to take this bump, and trying to take it while balancing two people's weight on the middle rope probably balances off the fact that you can pretty much moonsault off the second to take the bump. In any case, this is a hit or miss spot that missed, but Jaguar still "would have" pinned Lioness if it wasn't for The Bloody making the save. Once again, Jaguar was too hurt to comeback, so Lioness Liger bombed her off a table her cronies set up on the 2nd rope.(111jd32) Jaguar was still able to feebly kick out of this, so Lioness locked on a hadaka jime (rear naked choke). The finish was done incredibly well as everyone including Tommy Ran, who may be the best ref at getting over a submission spot when it's key to the match, played this to perfection. Lioness making it look like she was squeezing as hard as she could, Jaguar lying still with her eyes closed, and Ran tapping Jaguar all over to try to Jaguar get to respond. Jaguar was out like a light, so Ran was forced to stop the match.(111jd34) The finish showed that Jaguar wouldn't never surrender, as she only lost because her body gave out on her.

Michael wrote, "I agree with what Miko had to say in Quebrada #48 about the dangerous moves needing to be finishers. I can understand that Jaguar losing to the sleeper establishes it as a finisher, but how does the towerhawker bomb maintain any kind of aura when even the Super towerhawker bomb can't put away an incredibly worn down Jaguar who had already taken a Liger bomb on the floor, as well as several other big moves?"

Lioness captured the TWF Title for the second time (4th overall champion), regaining it from the woman she lost it to on 10/22/97. That match had the better heat, selling, and comebacks. It also had a much better finish that made more sense based on what had been done in the match. Both matches were fairly similar in style with Jaguar getting destroyed, but I feel this match warrants and extra 1/4* because the work and moves were a few notches better and there was more back and forth. There still wasn't much back and forth, but there was more than in their previous match, which was one of the reasons I found this match to be more compelling. 17:11 (15:29 aired). ****1/4

Jd' on Gaora #24 4/11/98 BREAK THROUGH Series taped 2/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Yuki Lee & Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Angie & Ryuna. This was Angie's first TV match. She's definitely gigantic and not very talented. The heels dominated this one. The spots weren't blown, but it was just bad wrestling. 5:44 (2:56 aired). 1/2*

Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW team). This match was very hit and miss. It had it's moments, but it was obvious that these four are inexperienced. Momoe was the best of the four, while Takahashi was the worst by a mile. In particular, her setup wasn't good because she's so slow and unathletic. Momoe is beginning to use flying moves as her main offensive weapon. She did a great moonsault attack here, but the highlights of the match were her beautiful jackknife holds. She did one to Sakai while Takahashi was bridging on her German suplex. Sakai was even more reminiscent of Yagi here, as she's added the Schoolboy buster to her arsenal. The match itself was good, but the lack of polish took it down to only average. 15:58 (6:08 aired). **

Cooga vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Emi has let her hair grow and she wore a metallic silver and white outfit instead of that horrid tutu. Cooga called and carried the match, so obviously this wasn't going to be all that good. The spots looked good, but the work wasn't fluid. Emi had problems because she isn't used to working with Cooga. Thus, there were some moments of hesitation and indecision. The highlight of the match was Cooga catching Emi, who was trying a high cross body, in midair, but Emi then turning it into a really nice DDT. Emi looked decent, but of course did the job when Cooga Tiger drivered her. This could have been better because Emi didn't get to show all of her signature spots, but it's not Jd's job to get Emi over as a promising youngster. Thus, it's not surprising that Jd's veteran didn't go above and beyond the call of duty to get Emi over. 11:58 (7:15 aired). *3/4

Sachie Abe & Miyuki Sogabe vs Fang Suzuki & Shark Tsuchiya (FMW). Shark carried this match, so that should tell you how good it was. Of course, she took her usual amount of bumps, though that was less annoying than usual because of the ranking of the opposition. Abe was the only one of the four that is even half decent. Sogabe stunk up the joint. This was filled with spots looked bad. 9:59 (5:02 aired). 1/4*

Michael: I thought Abe looked good here considering the crap...er Shit she was in the ring with. Of course, Sogabe sold more of Abe's offense than Shark did, but why should Shark actually try to work and let all of her fans down? Normally I'd agree on Sogabe stinking, but she didn't look as awful as usual. That probably has to do with the fact that she had virtually no offense, but I'd save that line for the blown spotfest she had vs. Cooga a couple of months later.

Mima Shimoda (Neo Ladies) vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori. Incredibly disappointing match. It was a given that Shimoda was going to win this match, but Shiratori absolutely needed to push her. Instead, she was jobbed out and as a result, it was obvious that Jd' had given up on The Goddess.

This "match" was just a backdrop for the postmatch angle where Lioness Asuka, Shark Tsuchiya, The Bloody, and Fang Suzuki attack Las Cachorras Orientales and Shiratori to set up the car wreck that headlined the biggest show in Jd' history on 3/8/98 at Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan. If Shiratori had lasted 15 minutes with Shimoda and pushed her, then she could have earned her pink chair so to speak and the angle might have made some sense. Instead, the result of the whole angle was that Las Cachorras took on a jobber who can't hold up her end of the bargain as a partner. Why a league would relegate their only face in the main event of their biggest show into a jobber and try to draw based on the undercard and heels from another promotion being faces is incomprehensible. 2:27. DUD

Michael: I guess the rule of thumb in Jd' is that when you elevate someone (Bloody) then you have to bury someone else to make up for it, and instead of burying someone like Chikako's buddy they buried her. We talked enough about how stupid this match was, not only for burying your own worker against someone from another company, but by eliminating any logic there would be for LCO to choose The Goddess as their partner for Yokohama Super Break. They could have done a screw job ending so The Goddess wouldn't even have been pinned. Being that they never showed what Shimoda did to get the BWO to attack her, they might as well have just had them run-in during the match so Chikako would've been able to push Shimoda and prove herself without losing.

James: I can't understand Jd' burying Shiratori when they have so many people that deserve to be buried more than she does. Shiratori isn't that good, but she should have at least looked competitive against a great worker like Shimoda.

TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody. A good match with strong execution. The Bloody & Kosugi looked polished. Due to The Great Yokota, this was most likely the best performance of Naomi Kato's up to this point uneventful career. It came at an opportune time because the finish would have fallen flat if The Bloody didn't look good. Kosugi juiced after Asuka hit her with a piece of the broken table she piledrivered her through. Lioness also juiced. 19:03. ***1/4

Michael: I was so happy that the table spot actually got some fan reaction. I think Lioness almost fainted because she was as shocked as I was.

Battle Station Jd' 4/98 Yokohama Super Break taped 3/8 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

This was the biggest show in the history of Jd' up to this point. They drew an announced crowd of 3,400 in the 4,900 seat gym, which was more than I expected and wound up being one of the biggest crowds of 1998 due to the sad state of Joshi Puroresu.

The Next Tournament Round 1: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW) vs. Hiromi Kato (Gaea) & Nanae Takahashi (AJW). Based on the little that aired, Sakai & Momoe looked good. 13:43 (2:58 aired).

The Next Tournament Round 1: Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya (JWP) vs. Sachie Abe & Miho Watabe (LLPW). This was a pretty good, exciting, action packed match. Motoya was worlds better than the other 3. 11:04 (3:02 aired).

Chris: Motoya was the best here, but I didn't mind the other three at all. Miho needed a little help to get herself powerbombed. As always, Miho had trouble with her execution, but she is still getting better. Working with better workers like Motoya can't hurt either. It's certainly better than being stuck in LLPW and jobbing to a stiff like Aono on every show. This was the only tag match that Miho was in during 1998 where she didn't do the job. It's a stretch to call it good for Miho, but at least she wasn't the token jobber in this one like she usually is.

The Next Tournament Round 2: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Miyuki Sogabe & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Fast-paced sprint with good work, but too much of Emi's comedy. 8:27 (3:04 aired).

Chris: I don't mind Emi or Sogabe's comedy,but in this case it was a waste. This wasn't a comedy match, and Momo and Sakai weren't there to goof around. Keep the comedy to the comedy matches...

The Next Tournament Round 2: Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya vs. Fang Suzuki & Misa Okoda (SPWF). This looked pretty bad. Okoda is even worse than Fang, and it's not easy to be that bad. 14:00 (2:53 shown).

Yoko Takahashi vs. Megumi Yabushita. UFC rules type of match. Very little happened during the portion that aired, so it probably wasn't too interesting. Takahashi won with a heel hold. 16:07 (2:53 shown).

Yuki Lee vs. Kumiko Maekawa (AJW). Maekawa did a good job of carrying Lee, but Lee is just plain bad. Maekawa looked like a star, while Lee looked like she belonged in A ball. This was supposed to be a stiff, realistic match, but Lee's kicks were much too weak. 11:15 (7:13 aired). **

The Next Tournament Final: Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya. Everyone held their own and looked good in this match. Kosugi & Sakai continued to improve. Sakai has added hot flying moves, including debuting a kaiten shiki missile kick, while Kosugi is improving her matwork. They are starting to play off each others move sets now. For instance, Sakai, as always, concentrated on beating Kosugi with her udehishiggyakujujigatame, so Kosugi added some depth by going from her springboard arm drag right into the udehishigigyakujujigatame. Sakai then did a totally awesome diving udehishigigyakujujigatame to Kosugi for the win. Great finish! This was the best match Sakai & Kosugi have been involved in. 15:48. ***1/4

Chris: I love this match even after watching it many many times.

Jaguar vs. Cooga. This was a Hall of fame performance by Jaguar carrying the pansy Cooga to a very good match. It was a lot better than it should have been because Jaguar called the match so that Cooga's liabilities would be hidden as much as possible. The body of the match was strong with Cooga destroying Jaguar's bad knee. Jaguar's selling was superb. It started and finished hot, with Jaguar doing all kinds of cool spots. The highlight was Cooga turning Jaguar's fisherman buster into a DDT, but Jaguar countering it by handspring out before her head hit the mat! 17:13 (13:26). ***1/2

Shimoda & Mita & Saya & The Goddess Shiratori vs. Lioness & Shark & Bloody & Ryuna. Bad match that had no direction and went on forever. Everything seemed indifferent because there was basically no psychology or storyline. Lioness & Shimoda didn't work nearly long enough, and didn't do much when they were in. Shiratori played the in between role of wanting to be an LCO member, but not wanting to be a heel. This had a really lame finish where Tommy Ran tried to untie Shimoda & Mita from the ropes, but Shark blew the fireball before Tommy got them undone, so Tommy took most of it and DQ'd Lioness' team. 26:47. *1/4

Keith: This match made me want to tear my hair out. Honestly, the match should've been Lioness/Bloody vs. Shimoda/Endo. Ryuna did nothing and Shit sucked the match right out. Shiratori, for all intents and purposes, was eye candy there. Etsuko did some good work and brawling, but the main story seemed to be the other four. Endo took a major beating and Lioness and Shimoda looked

great. The Bloody's work wasn't spectacular, but everyone else on her team, save Lioness, stunk. The ending really pissed me off with Shit torching Shimoda and Mita. It's not like I want to see a feud develop between LCO and Shit so that part seemed pointless and frustrating.

Jd' on GAORA #26 6/3/98 taped 4/26 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Fang Suzuki vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. My notes say Fang carried this and it was better than you would expect, but not close to average. Sounds hard to believe, but I guess it must have been good editing or something. 7:28 (2:28 aired).

The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Sachie Abe. Shiratori has finally assumed the role of a veteran. She did a better job of carrying the opposition and worked stiffer than normal, but her setup was still way too slow. Shiratori worked hard, but she wasn't having a good night. There were just too many spots that didn't look good or were really telegraphed. The crowd got into the storyline of Abe pushing The Goddess. 9:51 (4:21 aired). * range

Ryuna vs. Yuki Lee. Lee was screwing up left and right. This looked to be negative stars. Just awful. 7:33 (2:32 aired).

Cooga vs. Leoga (Miyuki Sogabe). Leoga was horrible, as always. Her bulldog was one of the most disgraceful spots I've ever seen. Terrible. 11:14 (3:16 aired).

James: Suckabe is probably the worst worker I've ever seen outside of the WWF, WCW

or ECW. It would take some incredible video editing to make her matches look good.

Right, but a video editor with that much talent, if one even exists, wouldn't be working on low budget Jd' shows for a cable sports channel.

The Bloody vs. Saya Endo (Neo Ladies). Since both women are heels, there was cheating back and forth, but there was no one in Saya's corner to help her out. Both women looked good without any veterans in the match to carry them. Bloody's facials could be better, but overall, she has really shown a lot of improvement this year. Almost anyone can be carried by Jaguar, but Saya is not exactly a magician. 16:36 (6:34 aired). **3/4 range.

TWF World Tag Title: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai. This was Yabushita & Sakai's first shot at the tag belts. As is the case with every Jaguar match, it was better than it should have been. However, Jaguar let Kosugi carry much of the load, and the match wasn't that much better when Jaguar was in because Kosugi has improved and Jaguar was subpar. The story of this match was the vast improvement of Yabushita, who has copied the majority of Sakai's spots, which makes sense because they both have the same judo background.

17:21 (8:21 aired). ***1/4

TWF World Singles Title: Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue. This looks to be the second best women's match of 1998, behind their 5/6 rematch. Lioness delivered a Hall of Fame performance here, showing she is the best woman in the world when she picks her spot. Lioness did a masterful job of carrying this match, basically putting on a clinic of how to do a great match with a bloated wrestler that has limited mobility. The pacing of this match was great. This was the best match in Jd' history, and Kyoko was only good, so that tells you how much of this was due to Lioness. This was a little sloppy and Kyoko's comebacks could have been better because they were rather sudden, but it was definitely a match of the year candidate. Kyoko took the title. 17:29 (16:44). ****1/2

Jd' #27 7/10/98 SPRING STORM '98 taped 4/29 Osaka Bayside Jenny

The Goddess Shiratori vs. Masami Iizuka. Shiratori was decent, but Iizuka was awful. 10:41 (5:40 aired). *

Sumie Sakai vs. Sachie Abe. This was pretty bad, as neither looked decent. It's becoming apparent that I've overrated Abe in the past. 11:00 (2:43)

Michael: I don't know how much you "overrated" Abe in the past, but I wouldn't go by this match as far as judging how good she is. Both girls had a bad night, plain and simple. Abe's not at the level of Bloody and Kosugi, but she isn't bad either.

Sakai was much better than this at this point. Even if you want to argue she wasn't at her best her, it was clear that most of the problem is that Abe is working at a much lower level than those two and Emi.

Cooga vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Cooga did just about everything, but didn't try anything. A lot of rest holds. Yawn. 6:07. 1/2*

Michael: Cooga's main problem is that she tries to hard too get the crowd into the match, which usually winds up hurting her matches. I'm not saying she's a great worker, but in nearly every match she'll do something like put her opponent in a rest hold and fish-hook their mouth or pull at their nose to try and get the crowd into it. It just doesn't work. The Emi match from 2/2 was a perfect example of that.

Cooga has so many problems that it would be hard to single out any one as being the biggest. Obviously, I agree that doing crowd response spots doesn't work unless you can get the crowd to pop. You'd think Cooga, especially at her age and experience level, would have figured out by now that she's not going to get a reaction so she should just replace those spots with something else.

Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Yuko Kosugi. They didn't do much early on because it was a small show, but it turned into a good match about 8 minutes in. Bloody was the better of the two. 13:04. **1/2

Michael: This wasn't a great match, but it did show that these two could have good matches without having Jaguar and Lioness there to help them. Like you said, it was slow early on, but they should be able to hit at least *** to ***1/4 when they want to.

Jaguar Yokota & Yuki Lee & Miyuki Sogabe & Megumi Yabushita vs. Lioness Asuka & Ryuna & Fang Suzuki & Angie. The scrubs were eliminated first, but there were so many that it took a while to weed them out. Match got quite good in the second half when it wasn't being dragged down by Lee's and Fang's. Jaguar & Lioness were pretty much the whole match. 17:26. ***

Michael: I thought Yabushita looked good here, and the finish was really cool with her swinging around on Ryuna to catch her in the jujigatame. It would have been better if they did something between the double count out of Jaguar and Lioness and the finish, but it didn't hurt the match since it was like a flash submission. In Sogabe and Fang's defense, the were finally in a match where someone actually sucked more then they do/did.

James: The best thing that happened to Jd' in 1998 was Sogabe, Lee leaving the promotion and Angie no longer working there (not sure whose choice that was). If only Ryuna and Fang follow their example.

Jd on GAORA #28 8/16/98 taped 6/5 Club Citta Kawasaki

Sachie Abe vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Surprisingly, the 3 minutes that aired were pretty decent, as Abe flew around a lot. Execution was alright, but not all that clean. 16:03 (3:05 aired).

Michael: I think you just have to be patient with Abe. She hasn't really been given a push yet, so it's hard to tell how good she can get if given the opportunity.

I know that in the last few years, some of the best young women (Sakai, Yabushita, Akino) are debuting at the age they would have been forced to retire at in previous decades, but Abe is already 24 so the window of opportunity is closing. Abe debuted in 1995, and it's not like Jd' is chock full of talent, so I can't imagine that Abe is showing she's worthy of a push, but Jd' is holding her back.

Angie vs. Megumi Yabushita. Pretty bad match, as Angie is really awful. 6:25 (2:51 aired).

Cooga & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Lioness Asuka & Fang Suzuki. A decent spot oriented match due to Lioness, who was good. Cooga was ok. Fang & Sogabe sucked, as usual. 21:23 (6:28 aired).

Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai. A great indy match. The match was exciting. They wrestled smart, incorporating their holds well with effective teases and counters. The problem was their lack of being smooth and crisp was all too apparent, and it took the match down a lot even though there weren't any totally blown spots. Bloody's rolling German suplex finisher looked really good because she was throwing Sakai down hard. During the presentation of the belt, Bloody attacked the Jd' president, took the belt from his hand, and left. 15:45. ***1/4

TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Yuki Lee & The Goddess Shiratori. This was a disappointing match as no one stepped up. Jaguar was the best, but almost by default as the other three didn't show much. 13:33. **

Michael: I came away from this match with a totally different view of it then you did. Chikako and Lee looked very good here. They showed alot of intensity, like you could tell there was some heat between Jaguar and them backstage (which became obvious soon after when they quit Jd'). The

first few minutes with Lee and The Goddess on offense were strong, with Yuki even doing a good job of selling her knee. The match wasn't as exciting or good as Bloody vs. Sakai, but considering who was in it this was a good match. Kosugi didn't show much, but Jaguar was in for most of the match anyway. When Kosugi was in, she looked like she was mainly just trying to match Yokota's intensity. I'll even give out a rare rating for this match because I felt it was **1/2.

Jd' #29 9/5/98 DEPARTURE~Summer Presents 1st~taped 7/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Obacchi Iizuka. A poor match where neither showed anything. Iizuka came off the top rope and broke a vegetable over Fujiwara's head. 6:41 (2:57 aired).

Michael: I like Iizuka's crazy grocer sorta gimmick, but she's way to green to be anything but a comedy figure at this point. Fujiwara hasn't shown me anything in any of the matches I've seen her in.

Obacchi definitely falls into the category of "comedic" gimmick oriented women they call "performance" wrestlers, but she's got to be the least interesting and humerous of the whole lot. Well, then again, at least she doesn't wear a tail and do nothing but Tannybutts.

Keith: Obacchi is basically an honorific form of "bacchi." Kinda like when you go up to your teacher you say, "O-haiyo gozaimasu!" (good morning) in the morning. Bacchi is basically a "curse from the Gods." No, kidding when you get a character like Fujiwara in there. She's basically someone who messes up matches with her antics like the carrot or other vegatables. The thing I don't get is why she's popular with the crowd. She seemed to receive a few pops on the two shows I saw her on.

Yuki Lee vs. The Goddess Shiratori. This didn't look too good. ½ the match aired and it looked to be *1/2 or perhaps a little worse. 8:45 (4:12 aired).

Michael: Hey, Chikako has improved, but no should expect her to carry her ugly friend to a watchable match. Actually, scratch that, every match with The Goddess is at least watchable.

Jason: This wasn't very good. Lee's kicks were missing badly yet Shiratori still sold them. Maybe she should have taken a cue from one of the veterans and no sold them to a point, then kicked her back harder.

Judo Jacked Match Fang Suzuki vs. Megumi Yabushita. This must have been booked by chimps because Yabushita was on the national Judo team, yet she couldn't beat a colorless and talentless vampire wannabe in her own style match. Thus, it was declared a draw after 15:00 plus a 5:00 overtime. 5:56 aired.

Jason: From what was shown it was just some weak body blows and judo throws leading up to the end of regulation. The overtime was just more of the same. Not good.

Cooga & Abe vs. Ryuna & Hechicera (Yuki Miyazaki). Miyazaki is still really skinny, and appeared to be the best of the four. Abe did her typical flying moves. This looked decent. 15:21 (5:05 aired).

Jason: The finish looked good with Abe hitting Hechicera with everything she had, but Fang kept breaking up the pin. Hechicera won with a nice Toyota-esque roll up from the corner.

Sumie Sakai vs. Hiromi Yagi. Yagi's re-debut. Yagi had clearly trained really hard for this, as she was in top condition. Obviously she was going to be rusty, as she hadn't wrestled in 14 months. Still, she almost seemed like an alien because she was so much better and more advanced than everyone who worked on this card before her. A really cool battle of the Judo girls, with Sakai also having a good performance and probably topping her best ever singles match once again. Yagi, of course, carried the match. It was a little sloppy, but it looked like it was one of the best Jd' matches of the year. Unfortunately, so little aired. The highlight was Yagi doing the best ever wakigatame out of an attempted German suplex. 15:00 draw (5:26 aired). ***1/2 range

Michael: The spot where Yagi flipped the crowd off was cool, as was shown by some guy in the crowd getting up and pumping his fist like he was watching Arsenio or something. Based on what aired, this was very good, but who knows how good the first 10 minutes were.

Jason: An excellent match that would have played out well in an ARSION ring. This had strong matwork and some great counters out of submissions. The finish was great with near falls back and forth even though they went about 5 seconds over the time limit because Sakai was slow on her suplexes. The only problem I had with this match was Sakai didn't really sell her leg or arm when they came toward the finish, while Yagi sold her arm that Sakai had hurt. After seeing the whole match I would give more a ***3/4 range or close to a ****.

TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar & Kosugi vs. Lioness & The Bloody. This was a very good match, but they edited so much out that it was hard to tell just how good it was. It seemed like it was probably the best tag match in the history of the company. The matches in this fued just get better and better because Kosugi & The Bloody continue to improve. Kosugi & Bloody used to need to be carried by Jaguar & Lioness, but now they work quite well together. This appeared to start slow, but everyone wrestled with a sense of urgency once they were deep into the match. The work was really strong, as was Jaguar's selling. Unfortunately, after the match Jaguar announced that she would retire at the end of the year.

Michael: The one thing I didn't like about this match was that after being out there for 60 minutes, Lioness and Bloody had "too much" energy during their post match attack on Jaguar and Kosugi. The best tag match in Jd' history? I'd bet my ass on it.

Jason: Another excellent match, from what was shown it was very fast paced from where they started. Lioness and Bloody dominated Jaguar for the most part who juiced after being piledrived on a chain. One great spot was Jaguar countering Lioness's Liger Bomb off the table with a hurcanrana. I couldn't

tell you if this was the greatest tag match in Jd' because I haven't seen much but it was probably in the ****1/4 to ****1/2 range. Kosugi was very emotional after Jaguar annouced her retirement.

Jd' #30 10/17/98 FIREWORKS~Summer Presents 2st~taped 8/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Megumi Yabushita & Kazuko Fujiwara & Obacchi Iizuka vs. Ryuna & Fang Suzuki & Hechicera. Match had a lot of action. The heels carried this and pretty much dominated, especially when Obacchi was in. The heels looked decent. 10:37 (3:02 aired).

Michael: I've got to somewhat disagree with you here. Hechisera looked good for like the 2 seconds they allowed her in the ring and Ryuna looked alright. Fang still is Fang though. Personally I thought this match was a waste, as it should have just been Yabushita vs. Hechisera.

Jd' Junior Title Challengers Match: Sumie Sakai vs. Keiko Aono (LLPW). Sakai was pretty good, but Aono was bad again. 12:16 (2:28 aired).

Jaguar Yokota vs. The Bloody. They did a poor job of editing this match, as it looked like Jaguar totally dominated Bloody when in actuality, Bloody lasting nearly 20:00 with Jaguar means she must have made a good showing. This appeared to be a good match. 19:14 (3:45 aired).

Michael: They would have been better off showing more of this and editing the Cooga vs. Oz down. The way they presented this match was stupid because Bloody didn't even look credible here. Bloody wasn't even allowed to kick out, as Fang & Hechisera had to interfere so she could escape defeat. Bloody did kick out of that sick doublearm piledriver on her own, but literally the only offense

they showed from Bloody was her cool senton.

Cooga vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy). This was really disappointing for an Ozaki match, but it was only decent because she was in it. It was a slow-paced match. Cooga wrestled very slowly and deliberatly, and her work wasn't fluid. Even Ozaki couldn't get any goodness out of her. 13:20. **

Michael: At least Cooga didn't do her routine were she nearly begs the crowd to get into the match.

TWF World Singles Title: Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue. This was a very good match, but not on the level of their previous two from this year. It was like the first one in that almost all the goodness came from Lioness and Kyoko was just along for the ride. However, Lioness didn't take control like she did in that match, and Kyoko didn't find some of her old ability like she did in their second match. The match was at it's best when she was on offense, but it was hurt by Kyoko's pitiful selling and quick comebacks. Lioness totally dominated this with brawling tactics, including several spots using props. The gimmick spots helped the match to some extent because they looked cool, but they hurt the match to some extent because they took too long to set up. Lioness hung Kyoko off the balcony with a chord around her waist. She tried to powerbomb Kyoko off the apron through a table, but Kyoko countered it by lariating Lioness off the apron through a table. Lioness powerbombed Kyoko off the 2nd through a table, which was especially nasty because Kyoko came up a little short so she broke the table with the small of her back. Lioness Liger bombed Kyoko off the 2nd, which was the finish of their 5/6 match. The setup of that spot was ridiculous though, as Kyoko just willingly climb up on the table to meet her doom. Lioness invented a powerbomb with the table draped across the top rope instead of the second, which was killer. This should have been the finish, but the actual finish where Kyoko makes a ludicrous comeback and takes the title was one of the worst finishes of the year. Kyoko captured the TWF title for the 2nd time. 26:52 (24:28 aired). ***3/4

Michael: It appeared that Kyoko's weight problem caught up with them this time. She tried in certain areas, but she just didn't have enough energy to go all out for 27 minutes. I don't like that they are starting to set a precedent with these crazy table bumps. The two bumps Kyoko took in the 5/6 match were sicker than either of the ones here, but this shit should be reserved for the ECW jabronies. There could be a real problem if some of the smaller girls start trying this because they don't have all that padding that Kyoko does.

Jd #31 11/20/98 taped 8/24 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall

Obacchi Iizuka vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Obacchi actually looked a lot better, but her gimmick is way too goofy and some of her spots can only be described as bad comedy. Her new spot in this match was jumping off the top rope with a plastic bag filled with powder in her hands and popping it in midair, so it would get in Fujiwara's eyes. A basic match that was totally dominated by Iizuka. The match wasn't any good, but it wasn't as bad as expected either. 10:57 (4:07 aired).

Fang Suzuki vs. Hechisera. Fang is just awful. Miyazaki tried, but it was quickly apparent that the only thing you can do with Fang is brawl. They did that, but still it wasn't any good. Fang dominated the match with her bad and boring offense. She didn't really make any mistakes, but she didn't try anything either. 16:44 (6:55 aired). 1/2*

Michael: Other than the fact that Yuki jobbed to Shark Jr. the worse thing about this match had to be the length. How anyone, let alone Hechisera, could be expected to make Fang even look passable for over 17 minutes is beyond me. What the point of this match was is also beyond me because everyone

knows what Fang is regardless of who she beats.

Megumi Yabushita vs. Yuki Lee. Yabushita's technique was good, but Lee killed the match, as she was missing her mark as usual. The match wasn't as fluid as it needed to be. 20:53 (5:36 aired).

Michael: UgLee going over Yabushita could be called the 8th blunder of the world I guess with the

first 4 or 5 going to the Shimoda vs. Goddess match. I would've loved to have been there when Megumi was lacing up her boots and Jaguar came over and, in her best Dustyism, stood there and explained why she was going to job. The bottom line is Yuki sucks. Like you said, Yabushita tried, but Lee is about as accurate with her kicks as Stevie Wonder is shooting skeet.

Yuko Kosugi & Sachie Abe vs. Miho Wakizawa & Noriko Toyoda. You can't put Kosugi in this type of match if you wan't people to take her seriously as a star. Wakizawa showed potential here, but she made a few mistakes. Toyoda has no offense. She took the match down, especially since she logged too many minutes during the portion that aired. Kosugi didn't work enough and Abe was kind of a non factor. Not much of a match due to blown and mistimed spots to go along with the fact that Abe & Toyoda aren't much to begin with. 16:11 (7:45 aired). *

Michael: Apparently I'm going to have to lay the almighty smack down here because this Abe bashing has gone far enough. Was this match good? No, but that's mainly due to the fact that these are all young girls who haven't really been pushed or taught right except for Kosugi. Toyoda hasn't really

shown me anything the few times I've seen her, but Abe could be good if she was taken under someone's wing like Kosugi and Bloody were. To say she isn't much though isn't fair to her because she really hasn't been given the chance to be. The match suffered because there was no one here to guide the match. Miho is getting better like I've been pushing on you, but she's still learning. Overall the fact that the girls weren't familiar with each other probably hurt as well, but to be fair this match did nothing to help anyone in it.

I think it's fair to say Abe isn't much because she's not showing much at the moment or at any moment in 1998 for that matter. Whether she could be something if used differently is a whole different story. Wakizawa has improved, but has yet to prove that she's an average worker.

Michael: Abe's shown that she might be a decent worker one day, but has yet to show anything outside of a few nice spots. Whether she could improve remains to be seen, but the fact is she hasn't been given the chance to blossom like The Bloody, Kosugi, and Sakai have.

Jd' Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai. This was the first time on a TV taping that these two were "the show," and they made it worth tuning in. These are two of the most improved wrestlers for 1998, Bloody coming out of nowhere, and Sakai growing as she gained experience. The work was good and they weren't exposed by being out there so long. Neither of these two are on the level where they can carry a long match yet, but they did a good enough job of working their spots in to get by. One thing I liked was that they worked all the undercarders into the match. Certainly, the heels have helped Bloody before, but the faces in turn helping Sakai out was a nice touch because it showed that the matches with faces and heels under Jaguar and Lioness are important these days. Both women's move sets could be improved, as Bloody relies too heavily on suplexes to not do any dangerous ones. She has expanded her senton offense to include a senton off the apron and a diving senton through a table though, which along with Sakai's plancha, were the highlights of the match. Bloody showed more mat skills than she had in the past, but she needs to tighten her locks so it's not so obvious that she's not applying much pressure. The match was hurt by some blown spots, most notably Sakai overshooting a moonsault and Bloody missing Sakai with a chair she threw at her. At points things looked too acted or didn't flow as well as they should have, but all things considered it was really a strong match given that they are up and coming wrestlers who are still learning their craft. Their finish showed their inexperience as Bloody got her feet up for Sakai's moonsault then went to the top, but Sakai recovered quick enough to run over and Frankensteiner her off the top. It was a quick comeback and it required a second to give Bloody an extra boost to take the bump. The fact that Bloody kicked out of Sakai's grip before 3, but didn't get her shoulders gave her an out for losing the title. 20:01. ***1/4

Michael: As far as the blown spots go, Sakai did hit her hand on Bloody's back with the moonsault and footstomped her before going for the pin. So, she covered her mistake as well as she could, which is something that some of the JWP girls don't always do. As far as showing inexperience, the finish to the Jaguar vs. Bloody match on Jd' #30 was no better than this finish and Jaguar has more experience then Bloody and Sakai combined. Actually, it looked like this might not have been the planned finish because the ref looked confused for a second.

Chris: I hadn't seen The Bloody in a long time, but today I saw this match and her 6/5/98 match against Sakai. I know Sakai is good already, but both were a lot better than they looked on paper because I wasn't expecting what The Bloody gave me. There were some questionable spots, but you wouldn't know this was a "Junior" title match by the wrestling. The moonsault that Sakai missed didn't ruin it for me either, as it's not like other women such as KAORU haven't done the same thing before. The few other problems weren't enough to spoil it either. I wouldn't have predicted it, but these were probably my two favorite matches on the last Sakai & Momoe compilation tape I got.

TOGETHER '98

1ST ALL STAR WOMEN'S WRESTLING IN ARIAKE

Commercial Tape 12/26/98 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum (5800)

There are two ways of looking at this show. On one hand, it was the best collection women's talent we saw in 1998, and seemed to be one of the better shows. On the other hand, the show was not as good in actuality as it looked on paper, and even if it was the multipromotional of years past still would have smoked it like a cheap cigar.

This was not as bad, but as far as Jd' was concerned, it reminded me of the 11/29/98 AJW show in a lot of ways. Jd' was the host and they got the fans to come by putting Jaguar's retirement match on this show instead of one that was Jd' only. However, they were repaid by one key loss after another. It's not like their future didn't look bad enough with one of their two stars retiring, but their new stars, Kosugi, Bloody, & Sakai all lost their matches, with two of the three getting pinned. The original plan may have been for Devil Masami to beat Jaguar in exchange for Lioness Asuka beating Dynamite Kansai. This would have been a good scenario for Jd' because Kansai is above Devil and Jaguar is retiring anyway, so her losing is not that important. Well, that is if you can look beyond the fact that it's pathetic for the queen of women's wrestling to lose her retirement match, especially when it's to the old wrestler that should be retiring.

JWP Match: Tomoko Kuzumi & Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kanako Motoya. The battle of the fab four. I felt bad for JWP that this was the opening match because it insinuates they are prelims.

"Kuzumi, definitely, is a top star, but her positioning in JWP is so weak on the interpromotional shows. Considering that these four as the top of the JWP crop right now, you'd expect them to receive higher status on a show like this, which could've easily been used as a

transition moment that lead from the old stars (e.g. Jaguar's retirement) to breeding a

few new stars," wrote Keith.

In JWP, these girls are anything but prelims. The reality though, is that right now a top star in JWP is not translating to a top star in women's wrestling. So we have four women that not only are pushed as (along with Kansai and Devil) the stars of JWP, but also smoke every wrestler on the first half of the card, yet they are in the friggin' opening match. It's not until Aja & Yoshida go out there in match five that you find even one better performer, but JWP can't get by on work alone at this point. They absolutely need to do whatever it takes to convince people that their wrestlers are the real deal.

"Aside from exhibiting the JWP talent and providing good filler material, I

didn't see a point to this match. There were several points on this show which were used

to plant the seeds for some future angles (e.g. Ozaki and Aja confering with Asuka, AJW

vs. Neo), but there seemed to have been very little going on for this match to really

help elevate the positions of these future stars on an important interpromotional show

like this, except to say, "Hey, here are some talented young ladies. Let's just show

them off," wrote Keith.

This is where GAEA and even LLPW and Jd' do a better job than the other leagues. I don't need to see a bunch of outside interference by talentless stiffs like Fang Suzuki, but you can't just go out there and just work in every match. Unfortunately, since Ozaki left and Devil and Kansai gave up on any semblance of storyline and psychology, that's all you have in JWP right now. The problem starts with Hikari (before she retired) and goes right on down to Sai, with no exceptions. Every match can't have two people acting as if they'd like to kill each other, but when you have literally no rivalries (since the whole Kuzumi wanting to become a freelance bit was ended in stillbirth), it's hard as a fan to not think "what's the point."

As far as match quality goes, it was about what you'd expect from these four. As usual, it was steeped in work and spots, but was weak in the mental aspects. These four have so much experience against each other at this point that they are doing some excellent counters of each others big spots. In addition, they really have their timing down of their double teams, simultaneous spots,(tog9801) and saves.

"If you could ignore the dead silence of the crowd, this was a hot opener. The spots were

really good, typical of what you'd expect these four to be putting out these days. As

Mike said, the mental aspects involved here were weak; the structuring of the match was

very simple, one hot spot going into a bigger one, leading to a series of near falls at

the end. But as Mike pointed out, these four are at the top of their game," wrote Keith.

In this truncated version, the match was a real highlight reel. The only spot I didn't like was Kuzumi's nadare shiki no doublearm suplex because it took forever to set up. This brings to mind that Kuzumi had the best moves in this match, but also the worst execution. The best high spot was Kuzumi doing the Hokuto tope con hilo.(tog9803) Another spot that stood out because it's always good to see people figure out various ways to counter the opponents finishers was Miyaguchi turning Kuzumi's Michinoku driver II ino a cradle for a near fall. Later on, Miyaguchi was unable to counter the Michinoku driver II, so that was all she wrote for her. I know I've said this before, but I cringe everytime I see Kuzumi do this move because she always has trouble lifting her opponent(tog9804) and I'm afraid that one of these days her opponent is going to wind up with a neck injury. 15:53 (6:16 shown). ***1/4 range

AJW Match: Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Nanae Takahashi & Kayo Noumi. This certainly couldn't follow the JWP match, and really would have had a hard time following anything decent because it was not very good at all. In my mind, the teams were all wrong. Why split NanaMomo up for no good reason? Not only didn't it make sense from a pairing standpoint, but it doesn't work to put the two scrubs on the same team unless the opposition is good enough to carry them. Unfortunately, while Maekawa & Momoe can be good, they are not close to that level. Thus, instead of seeing some good Maekawa vs. Momoe stuff like we saw in their singles from March, we saw them struggle the whole night because they were always in the position where they had to try to carry a weak opponent.

Noumi really made it tough on everyone because she looked lost out there. Of all the wrestlers with some kind of a push, Noumi has the most trouble lifting the opposition. At one point, Takahashi got sick of waiting for her to nadare shiki no brainbuster Maekawa, so she pushed Noumi aside and did the move herself.

"This move seemed more like a comedy point, or rather it turned into one because

Noumi is pretty weak. For all of Noumi's cuteness and popularity, one major problem for

her is that she's so skinny and light that she'd probably make a better swimsuit model

than a wrestler. I recall her having some problems executing her double wrist armsault

as well, and that's her finisher," wrote Keith.

The basic thing with Noumi is that for looks, it's incredibly hard to argue against her body, but for wrestling, it's incredibly hard to argue for her body.

Takahashi was no bargain herself though because she was her typical slow unathletic self. Even though Maekawa is the only legitimate star in the match and Momoe is clearly the young wrestler they need to give the megapush to because she has talent, spunk, and is exciting(tog9805), Takahashi pinned Momoe with her nasty Nana rocker.(tog9807)

"The Nana rocker looks so indy-ish in Nana's execution. I don't know an easier way to

state it," wrote Keith.

This was a very frustrating match to watch, but then again, it's current AJW. Their hope was the match would showcase the young talent, but by not really thinking things out, the match did nothing but make the young talent look like they should be hidden in the back corner of the gallery. 16:53 (5:23). *1/4 range.

Jd' Match: Yuko Kosugi vs. Shark Tsuchiya (Modukutai). Megumi Kudo was the color commentator for this show because a condensed version was airing on Samurai TV. I wonder what she thought of seeing the lowest form of life "do her thing" to Kudo #2?

Keith wrote, "The announcer actually asked Megumi Kudo #1 what advice or thoughts she had for Kosugi in going against Shark. Kudo frankly responded, "Ganbette ne!"

This match sucked because Shark was up to her old tricks, not selling anything or taking any bumps, not using any actual wrestling holds (she did a couple backdrops, but that was about it), and mainly carving the opposition up with her weapons.(tog9808) What they did was well executed, but it's kinda hard to blow a lariat (although Luger can usually find a way) and you can't really tell if she screws up with the weapons until the scars start showing up. Still, even if you give it well done, it was totally uninteresting to all but the most sadistic fans.

"The real 'excitement' (if you can even call it that) occurred when Shark wasn't doing

anything, but her 'buds' on the outside were bumping for Kosugi. Obviously Shark

couldn't even make putting her own finger in an exposed electric bulb exciting (maybe it would answer a few people's prayers, but still it wouldn't be exciting)," wrote Keith.

What purpose did this match serve for Jd' when their new top face is destroyed for 12 minutes and then pinned following a lariat?

"I'm beginning to like Kosugi more and more these days, but a match like this is just FFd

material for me. It's too discouraging seeing a future star like Kosugi get massacred on

a "big" interpromotional show like this. I wished that Kosugi had been used on a match

against Kuzumi or some other interpromotional setting where she's billed with her contemporaries and exhibits her potential as a future star rather than being wasted on

boneheaded Shark," wrote Keith.

Someone will probably bring up that Ryuna was helping Shit out, so Kosugi was outnumbered. Still, even though Kosugi got all her offense in during the first couple minutes before Ryuna helped turn the tide, nothing made me think Kosugi would have won if it wasn't for Ryuna. This was just a total waste of time because what they needed was for Kosugi to pin Shark the first time (she did eventually beat her) so she'd have some credibility, but instead they let her be massacred. Seeing Kosugi lose in this manner to the #2 heel in Jd' (well technically Shark is not a member, but then again, neither is Lioness) did not make me think she had any chance against the #1 heel, Lioness. I have to ask, who is going to come to see Jd' when it's obvious that without Jaguar, the heels are going over every night? 12:10 (7:36 shown). 3/4*

Request Ni Yoru The Heel Taiketsu (showdown): Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (Oz Academy) vs. The Bloody & Fang Suzuki (Bukyogun team).

"I liked the fact that Oz Academy was providing some cross talent matches here. I think

they could've had a very interesting issue type of match if they had Oz Academy vs. Asuka's army,"

I think it would have been an interesting program. It didn't make much sense that they started Oz Academy vs. Bukyogun team, but then after two matches, Ozaki and Lioness decided it was more fun to team up against Chigusa, or something like that.

This match was alright in spite of Fang. Sugar did nothing to hurt the match, but she's gained too much weight and is longer doing anything to help it. Chikayo & The Bloody were quite good, as usual, though.

Both teams did several heel spots, including Bloody & Fang using a chain to double lariat Sugar. This set Sugar & Chikayo up for a revenge spot where they wrapped the chain around Bloody's throat and posed. I liked that, but it brings to mind that the acting in the rest of the match should have been better. Sugar was taped to the top rope, so it was 2-1 against Chikayo until Amano cut Sugar's tape, allowing her to make a last second save after Bloody & Fang had given Chikayo a nodowa otoshi/German suplex combo. Later on, Chikayo had Fang in trouble, but she pulled Fang up after a move that I think was supposed to be a diving guillotine leg drop (if so, she came up a little short so it looked more like a footstomp except she wasn't standing on top of the opponent).(tog9810) Chikayo then won with a daruma shiki no German suplex (cross arm German suplex). I enjoyed this match for all the heel spots and it was cool seeing Chikayo against Bloody, but overall, this was not particularly well wrestled. 14:51 (4:58 shown). ** range

ARSION Match: Ayako Hamada & Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida. This match is a perfect example of why ARSION is my favorite league. On paper, it had every right to be as one sided as the Shark vs. Kosugi match, but pretty much all Aja did when she was in is sell for the rookies. Yoshida wasn't nearly as giving, but she let the rookies be even with her, which is more than enough for them given their combined experience is less than a year. The sad thing was that as far out of their way as they went to make it look like the rookies would win, not a creature in the arena was stirring, not even a Tanny Mouse.

"This was one of the better matches on the card, but the audience was about as dead as when a ChinRock is applied for 8 minutes in a 'gruelling' 2/3 falls WWF match. The difference

between an 8 minute ChinRock and what ARSION does is that there's actual movement in the

holds," wrote Keith.

The other difference is the WWF wrestlers need curtains because enough light shines through their "tightly clamped locks" to wake me up in the morning.

"Seriously, considering that ARSION is one of the few leagues to really progress

women's wrestling style in integrating the submission techniques, I thought it was sad

that the audience didn't pop more for the difference in style that was displayed in this

match compared with the other matches," wrote Keith.

That is the most annoying thing. Fans that hop on the bandwagon are usually annoying, but the one time they are good is when a league is doing something "new and different." It has to be very discouraging to the wrestlers when they try to not do the same old thing every day for 10 years, but in turn, the fans react to it less than they would to the same tired old things. It's sad. I'll never understand why most people seem to want to shut their brain off when they are being entertained. Life should be more than one ritual after the other.

"But going back the paper issue, I doubt anyone honestly gave Ayako and Akino a chance for that reason alone. So even if there was a bunch of near fall attempts or excellent

points where say Yoshida would sell her arm for Akino's ude jujigamate hold, the arena

was heatless," wrote Keith

The rookies were still rookies, so everything didn't look perfect. In particular, Ayako was only partially hitting some of her high spots. Akino looked sad once when she jumped before Yoshida was ready to do her (thankfully not Big Papa) pump handle suplex, so she then had to jump again a second later so Yoshida could do it this time. Akino generally looked really good though, particularly by working smooth mat sequences with Yoshida.

To show you how far Aja went to put over Hamada, she even did a Lucha sequence with her. Aja actually looked good doing it to, especially the arm drag. The problem was that Aja looked pretty lame standing there while Ayako was doing her rope walk. Even though the flip that Hamada does out of it looks cool,(tog9815) it just doesn't seem right for someone like Aja to wait around for her to get her balance on the top rope to do it. I liked it better when she was much nastier.

The highlight was Hamada doing a quebrada to both then Akino doing her no touch tope con hilo to both.(tog9816)

"This was one of the best spots of the night, imo and the crowd actually woke up to give

kudos to Hamada and Akino," wrote Keith.

Yoshida really needs to get some advice from Phil LaFon (I'm sure he has plenty of free time these days) on how to do a finishing sequence because just about every one of her matches just ends. The finish of this match was even worse than usual though. In part, that was because the crowd was totally dead when she applied her henkei sleeper hold. I recognized it as her finisher, but nothing said to me, this is going to be it.

"I agree about the finisher. It came out of nowhere, there wasn't much lead up to it.

The heatless crowd certainly didn't help things though," wrote Keith.

My interest in seeing the Yoshida vs. Akino title match peaked when they worked so well together during the match, but dipped when they did the obvious result, showing us that Akino can't even beat Yoshida in a tag match. 12:24 (6:53 shown). ***

Request Ni Yoru Yume no Tag Match: Hiromi Yagi (free) & Sumie Sakai (Jd') vs. Tiger Dream (ARSION) & Chaparita ASARI (Neo). They did every great spot they know, but the match was marred by all kinds of execution problems. Yagi was pretty sharp, but the rest weren't up to the normal standard. Basically an indy looking spotfest that was strong moves wise, but really weak in the mental aspects.

ASARI wore her mask to the ring, so her and Tiger Dream could do a super heroine pose before the match.(tog9817) Sakai wore a Jaguar outfit because they are pushing her as the next Jaguar. She was featured here, doing all her cool flying moves, because she was the one doing the job. Her Orihara moonsault would have been the highlight of most of the matches on this show, but it doesn't even register in comparison to the breathtaking dive ASARI did. The incredible move ASARI did was her sky twister press to the floor, which may well be the best move in wrestling.(tog9819) Of course, nothing can match the unbelievable skill it takes to bounce off the ropes twice and deliver the corporate elbow. Thus, even though my grandmother could do it, we should vote for that move because....well...my grandmother is also a better cook than the chef, repeats herself much less, and it's said that there was less light shown when she'd hit my mother, so I can't really think of a good reason. Anyway, ASARI only uses the sky twister to the floor on occassions like major interpromotional shows, which is smart because that makes it special. It's not a move you'd want to do ever day anyway because it's so dangerous for both wrestlers. Certainly it's a lot harder to get in the right spot to catch someone that is quickly spiraling in the air. In fact, Sakai came up a little bit shaken up, appearing to catch a knee to the head.

"Definitely the spot of the night. The crowd reacted very strongly to this move, even

though ASARI has done it in the past," wrote Keith.

The other really cool thing ASARI did was a moonsault where Tiger Dream stood on the second rope and helped propel her over.(tog9820) The problem was that they lost their balance on the ropes, so poor Yagi had to lie there forever.

"I thought conceptually this was an interesting double team spot, if they could've

maintained the momentum by not slipping. However, another part of my mind asked, 'What

does this do?' I guess if they could've retained the momentum, I might've reacted differently, but the move came off a little silly because the assist doesn't look that strong," wrote Keith.

The spot is no different than any number of athletic spots used these days. They don't do any more damage, but they are supposed to look better or cooler than if the spot was done the "normal" way. Just look at any Rob Vam Dam if you want to see a bunch of wasted motion.

Tiger Dream eventually pinned Sakai with a Tiger suplex. 14:29 (7:42 shown). ***

Jaguar Yokota Intai (retirement) Final Match: Jaguar Yokota (Jd') vs. Devil Masami. I don't understand what the point of this match was. I mean, it was to draw the house, but the choice of Devil as an opponent was kind of questionable. I know they are friends for over 20 years, Jaguar trained Devil, and all that. Devil is also someone that has beaten Jaguar in the past, so Jaguar probably has a lot less of a problem losing to her. Still, if Jaguar claims she is retiring because the young girls will never be the stars if she is around to overshadow them, then why not show us that one of the young girls should be considered a star by giving her the gig? If she wanted Jd' to survive in her absense from active wrestling, she should have put one of the top faces over, either Kosugi or Sakai, because they need credibility so bad it's not even funny. I don't think Onita's retirement match did a lot for Hayabusa because Onita wouldn't put him over, but at least he was in the main event of a major show, which opened a lot of people's eyes to him. If Jaguar was going to lose to someone outside of Jd', why not give us a dream match like Jaguar vs. Toyota, Aja, Kyoko, Hikari, or someone like that? That certainly would have been a much better match, which is the way Jaguar should go out, and it would have drawn more fans. You would think Jd' could get a lot in return for Jaguar losing to someone like that, but again if Lioness was to go over Kansai, that was a huge win for her. The thing is, Lioness is the only person in Jd' that doesn't need a big win.

Keith wrote, "Once they announced who Jaguar's opponent was for this show, I hit my head against a glass window. This match seemed to be more 'personal' for Jaguar than anything else. The problem about making something personal is that there's a chance that it isn't marketable. Here, that problem arose. If Jaguar wanted to have a final match with Devil, why not do it at Korakuen Hall where Jd' only needs to fill 2100 as compared to a 12000+ arena?

It would have been a waste to have Jaguar's retirement at Korakuen Hall. Sure, Ariake Coliseum is too big an arena for women's wrestling in 1998, but it's one of those arenas that never sells out, so it's not like it was a total disgrace that Jd' didn't come close or anything like that. Given that the real attendance of the 10/10/98 L-1 was said to be more like 4,000, this may well have been the best attended women's show of 1998. From that perspective, it's hard to fault the decision. Without knowing the costs of renting the various arenas, I can't really make a statement about how much they gained or lost by running one arena over the other, but I have to think "5800" at Ariake Coliseum must have made them more money than 2100 at Korakuen Hall. I mean, the building can't cost that much more to rent, can it?

"The booking on this show was extremely weak considering the arena that they needed to fill, the positioning of the future stars, and having matches that lacked heat because of seemingly non-existent issues (issues here being defined as some kind of intense rivalry that draws interest)," wrote Keith.

The booking was terrible from Jd's standpoint because they didn't do anything to help themselves. That JWP and AJW did nothing with their little matches should not be their concern, but The Bloody, Kosugi, Sakai, and Yabushita all needed to be positioned as the stars of the company. They fell flat in each case.

"Second, considering this was a 'Jd show and that one of the feature matches was going to be Jaguar's retirement, why was it scheduled third from the top of the card? Yeah, probably few people didn't expect a great match from these two and that they needed the AJW vs. Neo event to help draw and provide the "finale", but if that was the logic, then surely they could've realized that the booking for this show was weak," wrote Keith.

I don't think it made that much difference where the Jaguar match went on because that was the one that drew the crowd. The same could be said of Inoki and Choshu's retirement matches, among others. The mistake made by Jd' was not having any of their own wrestlers in the final. If you look at the NJ Tokyo Dome shows, you had IWGP Heavyweight Title matches going on last, so you leave the fans with the direction the company is going in for the next few/several months. This show left the fans wanting to attend AJW vs. Neo shows, rather than Jd' shows, especially since Jd' showed people that they "didn't have that much left." This is one of the main problems of doing an all-star show instead of it just being a Jd' show that had some interpromotional matches. Jd' brought the drawing card to the table, but they didn't play their cards right, so their other wrestlers weren't positioned or elevated like they needed to be.

Jaguar is still capable of having an excellent match, but Devil caused the match quality to decend to hades. I was getting more and more depressed as each minute passed, knowing the greatest would soon be gone and there was a better chance she was going out with a DUD than going out with a bang. Devil seems to expand by the day, so she has next to no stamina. I don't think she can sink any lower than she already has. I mean, beyond the fact that this was the biggest crowd she's performed before in ages, she didn't even fire up for her friends retirement match. The song says "God made the Devil just for fun, when he wanted the real thing he made Aja Kong." Well, I was really wishing we were seeing the real thing in this match because god may have been enjoying himself, but I sure as hell wasn't.

This match got off to a really slow start, with nothing really happening for seemingly ages. Jaguar got most of her offense in early, but she didn't get to showcase most of her big spots because Devil was too big or didn't feel like selling or whatever lame excuse she has for herself. Devil then took control and dominated the rest of the match. Jaguar was never really able to mount a comeback, just one move and then Devil would cut her off, so the match didn't build any kind of drama.

They did some big spots, but the set up was so incredibly slow that due to Devil that they weren't very impressive. The highlight was Devil standing on the 2nd rope and hoisting Jaguar up like she was going to do a verticle suplex, but instead throwing her over the top rope to the floor. Luckily, Jaguar was caught by the seconds, but it still had to suck.(tog9826)

"This was scary. Jaguar had a lot of guts for doing something like this, even on a

retirement match. If she wanted to make a statement about quitting permanently, then she

certainly risked it in this spot," wrote Keith.

Toward the finish, Jaguar kicked out of Devil's Liger bomb at 1. Devil followed with another Liger bomb, but this time Jaguar didn't kick out until 2 3/4. Jaguar almost turned Devil's powerbomb into a huracan rana, but Devil held on to her and brought her back up for the powerbomb. Jaguar appeared to be "out," so Devil gave the finish sign(tog9828) then did her fire valley for the win.(tog9830) It would be hard to come up with a more anticlimatic finish to Jaguar's career that didn't involve her getting "Sable" bombed. You have to wonder what they were thinking with this one. Like Choshu, Jaguar wrestled one match too many.

"The difference between Choshu and Jaguar's retirement matches was that Choshu, in lacking ability, had picked the perfect final opponent in having Liger fight him and carry him.

Heck, Choshu got to do a plancha for a memorable spot. On the other hand, Jaguar had old

Devil and provided a memorable bump rather than a satisfying finish. The whole match was

a waste of Jaguar's time considering that she seemed willing to provide a few exciting

bumps and still had enough to give a final good performance," wrote Keith.

She still has enough to give several more good to excellent performances. You have to really suck to not have a good singles match with Jaguar, even in 1998.

"Jagur really should've fought Manami Toyota, who still has enough talent to provide a good performance when motivated, and could've helped position Toyota and AJW in a better spot. Toyota wouldn't even have had to won, she could've drawn or even lost, but just make both of them look good, especially Jaguar in her finale. Instead, I felt empty by the ending. There was very little that was said to solidify a moment like this after the match was complete," wrote Keith.

I would have rather had Jaguar put Toyota over, but in turn, Toyota put someone that was still with Jd' over. The problem is, like JWP, Jd' hasn't positioned Kosugi or Bloody as stars, so when you see a match like Bloody vs. Kyoko, it's not like you think Bloody has a chance in hell of winning. The only thing they probably would have had a chance to do is Toyota over Jaguar for Lioness over Toyota, and that would have provided two excellent matches that both would have drew.

Jaguar didn't want them to do anything special because it was her second retirement, so she just gave a speech after the match and some of the girls carried her to the back on their shoulders.(tog9835) She is still working behind the scenes training the Jd' women, and she now has a new on camera role as one of Jd's referees. 19:33 (13:36 shown). *1/4

Bukyogun Shuryo (leader) vs. Oz Academy Kocho (principal/headmaster) Chojo (top/climax) Taiketsu: Lioness Asuka (Bukyogun) vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy). MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT! Ozaki vs. Lioness in their first ever singles match as the semifinal of a major show and it only goes seven minutes? What the hell?

Basically a GAEA match with bombs back and forth for the whole seven minutes. Ozaki didn't seem to have it on this day, and Lioness was below her typical standard as well. The wrestling didn't seem as natural as always does in Ozaki's matches. It surprised me that this was the case, but being unfamiliar with each other hurt this match a lot.

Lioness not assisted by any of her understudies, while the Oz Academy often teamed up on Lioness. This just made it seem even lamer that Ozaki faired so poorly.(tog9839) Lioness used every powerbomb in the book, including her freebird bomb.(tog9841) She finally knocked Ozaki out with her towerhacker bomb, but she pulled her up and locked Ozaki in tequila sunrise position. Ozaki made this great face like, "oh shit, this is my own move," (tog9842)before Lioness did it to her for the win. I thought it was pretty degrading that Ozaki lost so fast and to her move. After the match, Lioness, Aja, & Ozaki shook hands, which lead to their alliance in GAEA as the SSU (super star unit). 7:10. **

"The only thing that came out of this match was the ending. But it's kinda like Nitro

where they leave you in the dark wondering. The announcers made the same Clueless

Schiavone fuss about the alliance between Aja, Ozaki, and Asuka. What made the situation

even more bizarre was that Oz Academy had just been feuding with Asuka's group then you

had this. Okay, so Ozaki respects Asuka, but I would've liked them to had some in ring

post-match interview to keep the crowd informed. You just end up getting this image of

these three top stars shaking hands," wrote Keith.

Zenjo vs. Neo Ikon (grudge) Karyu (whirlpool) Ku Kaisen (outbreak of war): Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue (AJW team) vs. Kyoko Inoue & Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita (Neo Ladies team). This is an example what an interpromotional match should look like. The performers showed great intensity and the crowd was really heated. The match was a spot fest, but that kind of made sense becase they did such a good job of making it look like they resented each other. Basically, it worked because the match came off as a former coworkers throwing bombs in a battle for league supremecy. It was this aspect that made the match seem like something "new" even though we've seen all of these matchups so many times before.

"I definitely agree with Mike's statement on how 'this is an example of what an

interpromotional match should look like.' The main thing that differentiated this match

from the others is that you had a focus. Sure, a few other matches had a rivalry going into the show, but they didn't quite exploit it in terms of a heated war the way AJW vs. Neo was handled. One of the things that really helped the match seem like a heated war was the 'pre-match' brawl that went through the crowd. It really livened things up and made each teams seem to genuinely

hate each other. Since it lasted longer than your standard, run of the muck 'take opponent and hurl them into a bunch of chairs crowded to get cheap, quick heat,' it provided a hot, interesting start to the match," wrote Keith.

These six are so used to working with each other that they pretty much didn't miss a beat even though it had been 14 months since they had really worked together. That said, the spots didn't look as good as they used to because so many of these women have really declined. Of the bunch, Mita and Shimoda have declined the least. They were really sharp here, particularly Shimoda, so they were the best of the six. Toyota was also excellent because this is her style. No matwork and no build makes Manami a happy woman. Toyota and Kyoko both stayed within themselves, and when they do that they are still among the best. Hotta's facials were much better than normal, but she was the one that was unimpressive in the ring. In particular, her transitions were quite weak. The segments where it was her against Kyoko were really the only ones in the match that didn't do anything for me.

"I might be in the minority, but after seeing the pre-match brawl, I wanted more.

Personally, I thought that the brawl should've been the entire match for some reason.

The spots were good during the match but the intensity tappered off after the brawl, so it

didn't have that same excitement factor for me, especially because the spots were the

'normal' ones they used. I kinda hoped that they were going to try some new things, or

re-build the intensity level they started off with in the beginning of the match, but

overall everything worked out for this match and it did translate into the Neo vs. AJW

feud (which should've happened before the splintering occurred because it would've given AJW a really interesting focus)," wrote Keith.

The match probably should have been Cachorras style all the way. When you start thinking about it, I agree with Keith, it didn't make much sense for them to start being "nice." The problem was likely that you have these AJW women that don't want to do anything different and always have to get their way (well, Takako doesn't fit into this category).

"One of my big complaints was that there were some continuity problems in the match or just odd spots. Like in the beginning brawl, at one point you can see Manami Toyota running away from Shimoda. WTF is that? It wasn't like she was running to her corner, but just trying to escape. Another bizarre moment happened when Toyota had been beating Mita (I think) and Shimoda was just standing there in the ring. If this was any 'normal' tag match, I could accept

that 'small' flaw, but these two teams are supposed to really hate each other. Shimoda

should've made an attempt to kill Toyota at that moment when Toyota was in the Neo

corner," wrote Keith.

The match got off to a good start with Kyoko wanting to start against one of the AJW aces, rather than Takako. Takako took exception to this, and decided to DDT Kyoko to get even with her. However, Kyoko no sold it to make Takako look weak, then threw her into the corners, thus "tagging in" Hotta. This seemed to piss Hotta off because she came in looking like the enforcer she should be, and started unloading on Kyoko.(tog9843) Hotta got Kyoko down, so Toyota & Takako joined her in kicking Kyoko(tog9844) until Shimoda & Mita made the save.

Kyoko & Takako went at it for a stretch that further established Takako as being no match for her former partner. Kyoko soon delivered "1-2-3" lariats for the "Knockout." Gotta love how AJW allows their wrestlers to be killed off by the other leagues. In this case though, Takako getting taken out kind of worked in their favor because wrestling half the match two against three gave them an excuse for losing. That storyline plays a lot better when the team that was at the disadvantage comes back and wins., but that's not to say that it's bad when it's the other way around. One of the greatest matches of the 80's was the 1988 Real World Tag Team League final, and in that match a young Kawada was repeatedly taken out by Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy, causing Tenryu to eventually succumb to them. Takako's "injury" was right out of the All Japan playbook and they played it up really well. If it wasn't for the fact that it came from a lariat, I might have believed it.

"Yeah, ever since Kyoko began to rely more and more on her lariat, they really have tried to put that move over. So, I guess it worked in terms of having Takako 'sell' the efficacy of that move, but it was lame," wrote Keith.

Hotta just dragged Takako to the corner and Manami took over for her, mainly getting beat on, while Takako lay still on the apron. Later on, Takako was lying still on the floor(tog9845) with Maekawa looking concerned for her well being.

Toyota finally made a comeback, but Shimoda quickly turned her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex into a victory roll. Hotta got involved to help Toyota out, including holding everyone so Toyota could do her move that used to be a springboard plancha. Toyota tried her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex again, but Shimoda countered it and they just kind of froze momentarily. Shimoda then ducked Toyota's lariat and Mita hit Toyota with her blazing chop. Shimoda thought she could end it with her deathlake drive, but this was how they finally worked the Japanese ocean cyclone suplex in.(tog9846) It's much better when Toyota does with her opponent in the corner off a counter because she doesn't have the burden of so much weight on her neck. This "would have" been the finish, but Kyoko made the save.

"This spot is good in particular when Toyota's opponents utilize a corner type of

finisher. It was a very interesting counter to Shimoda's Death Lake Drive," wrote Keith.

Shimoda & Mita teamed up on Hotta, culminating with Mita delivering her Death Valley bomb, but Toyota made the save. Toyota missile kicked Kyoko and tried to double team her, but Kyoko lariated them both. They tried to escape to the floor, but Mita gave them her suicida (tog9849) and Shimoda followed with her tope con hilo. Back in the ring, Kyoko Niagara drivered Hotta for a 2 3/4. Kyoko tried another Niagara driver, but Hotta came back with a lame leg sweep into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. Toyota took Shimoda & Mita out with a double missile kick to the floor,(tog9855) but Kyoko was able to kick out of Hotta's pyramid driver on her own. Hotta & Kyoko redid the lame finish of their 8/20/97 WWWA title change, but this time Shimoda & Mita made the save.

"Once I saw them do the Niagara Driver into the ude juji gatame (with Kyoko's arm sticking out again), I groaned almost as loudly as when I found out that Anakin's mother didn't

have sex. I don't mind re-doing finishes, but goddamn it was lame that Kyoko had her arm

sticking out the first time, so you'd think she would've figured out a better transition by now," wrote Keith.

Mita then took Toyota out with her Death Valley bomb,(tog9856) but Takako was finally up to the apron. Kyoko gave Hotta her Niagara driver, but Takako, who still looked out of it, just made the diving save.

"This actually was a good moment because the crowd recognized that Takako was out and had finally made her re-appearance, so they popped pretty wildly for this save. It was simple, but it conveyed the story very strongly," wrote Keith.

Takako ate another lariat from Kyoko. Since Toyota was still down with Mita on top of her, Shimoda was free to take Takako out of the equation. This allowed Kyoko to deliver her deadly Victoria driver for the win.(tog9857)

"Essentially, Neo got a symbolic three person pin where all three Neo girls had hit their

finishers or were already in a pinning position. On top of that, having Kyoko pin Hotta

was an interesting move because Hotta has pretty much become AJW's top dog. Now, in

retrospect with Kyoko getting the title match against Hotta, there's definitely an issue

there, one that I didn't see prior to this match," wrote Keith.

To build heat for the first interpromotional shows between AJW and Neo, Kyoko said something on the mic that caused Takahashi to attack her. This led to a melee involving seemingly half of each league. When things finally settled down, all the Neo women joined hands and walked over to the AJW women with their hands raised in the air to rub in their victory.

"This is what they needed to do for these interpromotional shows. Have some kind of

massive fight scene to provide a strong image of hatred. It wasn't your run of the mill

pull apart either. You actually had both federations that looked like they were going to

kill each other," wrote Keith.

The whole thing worked because both promotions sold out Korakuen Hall in January for their respective AJW vs. Neo shows. In the past, that would not have been a big deal, but Korakuen sellouts are a rarety for the women's groups thusfar in 1999.

"I really liked the pre-match brawl and the post-match brawl. The match, I guess, can be said to be good these days for both groups, even though it was mainly everyone hitting their key spots. The storyline with Takako being taken out was great though. Her comeback, though shortlived, worked well, even though I would've prefered her to have done a lot more in the match,"

That's what things have become. This was one of the only women's matches of 1998 where you had heat, intensity, and a storyline to go along with the work. Still, it could have been a lot better, I agree, but to me this match was a ray of hope. 19:26. ****