JWP THUNDER QUEEN BATTLE IN YOKOHAMA Commercial Tape

7/31/93 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

The Queens Road Yokohama First AJ Junior Title: Numacchi (AJW) vs. Sumio Toyama. These two are more known for their "performance" style than their wrestling. Toyama hadn't adopted her Saburo gimmick yet, but she was already being programed against women with a comedic style in interpromotional matches (her other "big" interpromotional feud was against GAEA's Bomber Hikaru). There wasn't any clowning around in this match though, probably because the title was on the line.

These two were both below average at this point, so I didn't expect much. This meant I was pleasantly surprised because these two worked their ass off to deliver the best match they possibly could. It certainly wasn't great, but it was a solid match with a strong finish.

Both of these women had about the same basic move set. They had more moves than rookies, but neither had much beyond their Russian leg sweep and nodowa otoshi. The match was built around those two spots. Much of the rest of the match was submission holds. In that respect, the match was kind of dull because 15 minutes of submission holds to get to the hot final quarter is kind of a lot since these two aren't exactly giving Volk Han a run for his money. They did work their submissions though,(7319303) so it wasn't like they were just laying around in a ChinRock doing nothing. Both Numacchi (7319301)& Toyoma(7319302) did a good job of selling the submissions and making their crawls to the ropes somewhat dramatic.

The highlight of the match was Numacchi weathering a series of nodowa otoshis and finally turning one into a wakigatame. The fans were really into the match down the stretch, probably out of appreciation for the effort they realized they were getting more than anything else, even though the near falls were basic pinning predicaments such as the schoolboy. Eventually the time limit expired, so Numacchi retained her title. 20:00. **1/2

Miko: My finger kept twitching toward the fast forward for this time limit draw. Toyama doesn't suck, but some of her moves are pretty weak. Numacchi was pretty bad though. If you love Russian leg sweeps, this is your match.;^) Chock full of arcane offense. They worked hard, but that was about it.

The Stage of Trickings: Bolshoi Kid vs. Infernal KAORU (AJW). This match really didn't interest me. It was a mess because neither of these two can carry a match. It started out with some lame comedy that resulted in The Damn Clown crying because KAORU stole her flower and wouldn't give it back.(7319305) Don't you just hate seeing a grown clown cry?(7319307) It was almost as lame as the crotch chop.

Bolshoi attacked KAORU's bad knee, which was the only story of the match. I'm guessing KAORU really hurt her knee when she pretty much landed on her feet when she did her plancha because Bolshoi didn't really catch her. The reason I think KAORU was probably really hurt is that I don't have any faith in her continually remembering to sell an injury.

The match was mainly the typical clueless KAORU spotfest, but it was worse because Bolshoi instilled a bit of goofiness that only seems funny in comparison to Jim Carrey movies. KAORU eventually pinned Bolshoi after two consecutive moonsaults.(7319309)

As you'd expect, the match had some nice flying. However, it wasn't as spot intensive as most of KAORU's stuff, so it had even less to offer because these two have nothing else to offer. 13:18. *1/2

Miko: This match started in full comedy mode. I didn't mind Bolshoi checking the ref for weapons, that was kind of amusing. Unfortunately, the comedy, especially Bolshoi's, got worse and more annoying from there. To be honest, I expected more from this match. Maybe I'm just used to watching KAORU and Bolshoi now, but I expected a faster-paced match. Bolshoi in particular seemed slow to me. I expect someone so small to be really fast, but she never showed it in this match.

The Wrestle Queens Fusion: Devil Masami & Candy Okutsu vs. Suzuka Minami & Kaoru Ito (AJW team). This is the way to utilize quality veterans that aren't playing a prominent role on the big show. This is the way to showcase young wrestlers that can't carry a match. What you had here was the veterans, Devil and Suzuka, although really it was almost all Devil, carrying the match. They took the pressure off the younger wrestlers by placing the burden on themselves. They wrestled inteligently and made sure the younger wrestlers weren't forced to do things they don't do well. Ito & Candy only had to do the things they do well, so they were able to make an impressive showing. Ito was good by this time, so she didn't need too much help, but Candy was still a rookie.

This was the Devil Masami show to the point where she made it an excellent match on her own and was largely responsible for Candy making a good showing even though she wasn't working against her. One way she did this was through double team spots, which there were a lot of from both sides.

The match was fast-paced with all the big spots. At one point Devil press slammed (actually, it looked more like a throw from verticle suplex position) Suzuka on an unbreakable table, which had to hurt.(7319310) Devil powerbombed Ito then delivered her guillotine leg drop (7319315), but Suzuka got back in the ring in time to make the save. Later on, Candy tried to counter Ito's whip into the corner by jumping onto the ropes and delivering adiving body attack, but she had trouble getting her balance so Ito pushed her off the top to the floor. Devil was outside fighting with Suzuka, so Candy wound up giving her own teammate a plancha (ie the spot wasn't insane because Devil was there to catch Candy). Suzuka did missile kicks(7319317) to Candy while Ito took Devil out with her brutal diving footstomp to the floor. Ito then returned to the ring to fisherman suplex Candy and spike Suzuka's powerbomb, but Devil got back just in time to make the save. Devil saved Candy from Ito's Super fishermanbuster and tried to press slam Candy on Ito, but Suzuka clipped her knee so Candy fell on top of Devil.(7319318) Suzuka then tried to powerbomb Candy, but Devil revenged the previous spot by taking Suzuka's leg out so Candy fell on top of her. Devil powerbombed Ito then Candy & Devil consecutively used Ito's own diving footstomp on her.(7319320)

The turning point was Candy getting hit when Devil's lariat backfired. Suzuka then got rid of Devil, while Ito did her rolling senton then Suzuka held Candy up so Ito could hit a sky high body attack for the win.(7319321)

Candy did the job because she was the youngest, but this was the match that made a lot of people take notice of her because it was the highlight of a long segment devoted to her on the second JWP show on WOWOW. This match was better than it should have been, and the fans gave these four a big hand to show their appreciation. 14:28. ****

Miko: I had a positive feeling going into this match. This was a younger Candy before the injuries, a much younger and thinner Devil Masami, and one of my all time underated favs, Suzuka Minami. Kaoru Ito was even good. I especially liked her unleashing some AJW style whoop ass with her heavy hitting dropkicks. I really liked how Candy sold Minami's double underhook backbreaker because her body really bowed with the impact, making the move look nastier. I liked the mirror spots in this match, with Devil pummeling Kaoru to try and give Candy the win, then Minami doing the same to Candy to set things up for Kaoru. There weren't a lot of big spots and Candy's execution wasn't always smooth, but overall it was the best match so far.

Submission Queen vs. Hard Kick Queen: Plum Mariko vs. Yumiko Hotta. This was a good idea on paper, but in actuality, this match didn't work on any level. On the TV show, they showed some great training footage of Plum working with JWP's hard kick queen Dynamite Kansai. Plum was practing avoiding and countering kicks, as well as turning kicks into submissions. One problem with this match was that Hotta didn't give her opportunities to make the nice transitions from a kick to a submission. Instead, she mainly let Plum try to block her stiff kicks, which was kind of a losing battle when Hotta was only throwing kicks from the midsection up. Hotta's kicks in this match weren't good at all, rather they were wild and out of control. She missed way too many, knocked Plum senseless with one, and had no communication with Plum as to which kicks Plum would try to do something with. This made the transitions really weak for such a high profile women's match, and some of the kicks that were avoided were so deliberate with Hotta basically begging Plum to get out of the way.

Plum wasn't good in this match at all, so I shouldn't make it sound like it was all Hotta's fault. Hotta didn't seem to have any patience with her though. It was like she came into this match grumpy, and was just waiting for Plum to do something she didn't like. Plum didn't get off to a bad start, and wasn't bad until Hotta practically knocked her senseless with a kick to the face where Plum was on all fours and Hotta was standing on the side of her.(731jw09) Now, Hotta had her foot arched right so Plum's cheek wasn't shattered, but there's a reason this technique is illegal in most shoot leagues. What bothered me more than the fact the kick was insanely hard was that Hotta didn't even check to make sure Plum was alright. Daichi Murayama was right in there because he realized this was well beyond the level of stiffness you'd see from even a Kansai vs. Hotta match, but Hotta never even looked at Plum. Instead, she dragged her up and whipped her into the corner. Plum tried to jump to the 2nd, but she was way to dazed and groggy. She couldn't get her footing on the rope, so Hotta hit her a few times then pushed her off the top rope.(731jw16) What the hell is that? You push someone half senseless off the top rope, forcing them to figure out how to take a bump on their neck and back on the apron so they don't break their neck crashing onto the arena floor? Why not pull her back into the ring and do some "safe" things while everyone figures out if she's alright. It's hard to believe a big star who had been wrestling since 1986 could be so oblivious to an injury she caused. I mean, is her boot so thick that she couldn't feel how hard she kicked Plum? Hotta rammed Plum into the security rail then left her alone. Plum sat on the floor holding what was left of her face, appearing to be on the verge of tears.(731jw21)

Plum eventually continued, but she was a step or two slow and her offense was pathetic for most of the rest of the match, probably because she wasn't all there. Hotta had to no sell some of Plum's attack because her gimmick would be killed if she sold moves with so little impact.

Even before Plum was screwing up, Hotta was grabbing the ropes before she could apply most of the submissions, so it was like Hotta was showing all her kicks, but Plum was unsuccessfully attempting her submissions. The only spot where it looked like Plum could win was when she turned Hotta's high kick into a hizajujigatame. Hotta did a great job of struggling for dear life for 30 seconds before making it from the center of the ring to the ropes. Hotta won this disaster of a match with her pyramid driver. 14:17. *1/4

Chris: Hotta was a total bitch in this match. I liked her before, but I don't like her much now. I can't believe she would do something like that on purpose. Oh that was horrible what she did, punting Plum in the head legit then, when Plum was still too loopy from that to do the spot, pushing her off the turnbuckle to the outside. Plum was too out of it to grab the ropes, so she fell back head first. Luckily, she only hit the apron, not the floor. I can understand Hotta being pissed because Plum wasn't too good in the match, but that's not a reason to do that kinda stuff. Sure you can punt them or something like that, but there's no reason to go to extremes.

The New Dimension 8 Queens 60:00 Full Time Match: Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki & Cuty Suzuki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa (AJW team). Simply put, this is one of the greatest matches ever. Certainly when talking about gimmick matches, this should top everyone's list. The wrestling itself was incredible, but is actually overshadowed in my mind by the basically perfect booking, which produced my all-time favorite finish.

This was a one of a kind match. It had it's own special rules that to my knowledge have never been used again anywhere. It started off with the "first attack," which was four separate five-minute singles matches. There was no winner in these singles matches because if you beat your opponent (3 count pinfall, KO, or give up), your team got a point but you kept wrestling. Thus, they had a chance to get that point back and you had a chance to go up on them 2-0. After the first attack, it turned into an 8 woman tag match. The team with the most points at the end of 60:00 would be declared the winner.

There was some sense to the first attack pairings. Hikari vs. Sakie was the "Athlete" pairing, since they are both great athletes. They had been programmed against each other since the interpromotional period, so there was a rivalry there. The second pairing, Cuty vs. Takako, was "Super Idol" based on their good looks. The third pairing, Ozaki vs. Kyoko, was "Speed and Technique" based on their great workrate and wrestling ability. The fourth pairing, Kansai vs. Aja, was "Top Battle" based on these two being the champions of their respective leagues.

The match began with Hikari vs. Sakie. This made sense because it allowed the youngest wrestlers to set the tone for the match, rather than putting them in the unenviable position of trying to follow the marquee match of Kansai vs. Aja. That's what the fans were here to see, so you have to build anticipation for that, rather than reach the plateau in heat right off the bat and have it taper off until the tag match started.

The problem with having five minute periods is that these women never, EVER lose in five minutes. Thus, aside from the fact that we know that's how wrestling works, it's hard to believe they will start doing so today.

The most important part of Hikari vs. Sakie was Hikari pinning Sakie out of nowhere with a small package hold. This pinfall accomplished two things. First, it showed that any of these women could lose within the five minute period. Second, it pretty much evened Hikari vs. Sakie up in singles, as Hikari revenged her loss at Dreamslam II. The first point worked because people believed Sakie might even it up when she turned Hikari's gyakuebigatame (Boston crab) into a pinning predicament.

Hikari and Sakie were out there to not make mistakes. With a few exceptions, they attained their goal. Unfortunately, it didn't make for the best wrestling. One of the exceptions was Hikari making a break for her corner to tag. Of course, there was no one on the apron because there were no tags in the first attack. Althought not intented to be a comedy spot, it was funnier than anything Suckura has ever done.

When Ozaki and Kyoko squared off for the second period, the match went from 5MPH to 50MPH in a second, and that crowd got as hot as that car's engine. The purpose of Oz vs. Kyoko being on second was to heat up the match with some hot action. They were smart though, in that they soon took the pace down to a respectable level. The reason this was smart is that they knew they couldn't set a standard that Cuty and Takako couldn't come close to matching. If they had made it too fast, then everyone who followed them would have "had to" conform to that style, and that's just not the road you want to go down when you are in a 60:00 match, even with this many performers. Anyway, to the surprise of probably no one, this was the best period when it came to wrestling, so it didn't need a fall to make it "special."

Cuty vs. Takako was mainly designed to heat their rivalry up through their actions and mannerisms. These two slowed the pace down to some extent, but did enough fast action to maintain the momentum and get sizeable pops for their spots. One key spot was Cuty turning Takako's cross arm aurora special (which was one of her finishers at this time, but always got countered) into a a victory roll for a near fall. There were several other hot near falls. Cuty's lack of ability was still kind of exposed in this segment. However, she blended in during the tag portion well enough to make you forget her liabilies, so I'm sure this didn't leave a lasting negative impression.

One of AJW's main points was to solidify Aja as the top star and the most dominant female wrestler in the world. Her quick uraken KO of Kansai went a lot way toward ensuring people percieved her as being just that. In addition, the fact that even Kansai couldn't match Aja's stiffness showed Aja was the most brutal woman in the game. Now that the score was tied at 1 fall a piece, it was back to the next fall possibly being the deciding factor, although that was somewhat unlikely. Aja really bombed Kansai, but she was unable to beat her a second time, and Kansai made enough of a comeback right before the period ended to save face. Overall, it was an excellent segment, largely due to Aja, who was a couple of notches above Kansai. JWP was still about even overall in wrestler performance because Hikari and Ozaki outperformed Sakie and Kyoko, but not by the kind of gap that Cuty and Kansai were outperformed by. It's not like anyone was worse than good though.

One of the main things that made this match outstanding was the tremendous ring work. Everyone was out to make this a classic, so they just let it all hang out for the last 40 minutes. Kyoko would be accidentally bloodied, and Ozaki would have her eye swollen shut, but that didn't slow these two up in the least. The pace went up and down, so the match was at worst solid and at best incredible action.

They took all the necessary precautions to make everything and everyone look good. They made quick tags to keep everyone fresh. They did double, triple, and quadruple teaming so no one would run out of suitable offensive manuevers during this marathon. They kept the weak links apart unless they were doing finishers or submissions so it was exciting or solid when the weak matchups had to take place.

Kansai really wrestled the tag portion like she had something to prove. It was obvious that she was trying to erase that drubbing she suffered at the hands of Aja in the first attack from everyone's minds. In this match, Kansai was clearly the secondary star on her team for actual wrestling, where as Aja was the best on her side. Ironically, Kyoko was the secondary star on her team for wrestling, where as Ozaki was the best on her side.

Ozaki was really great here. She carried her team by logging more ring time than anyone in the match. Her execution was perfect. She excelled no matter what the pace was. Maybe more important than all of this was that she displayed true grit and determination. This wasn't a match where her natural ability outshined the rest, she was better because she wanted it more.

Aja was also fantastic though. She carried everyone she worked with. Her offense was so believable in an All Japan pulverize the opposition kind of way. Lastly, she really gave off the aura of being the top star that the match was designed to allow her to portray.

Kyoko was the other standout. This was her typical great performance from this time period. Her combination of work, workrate, and charisma was really hard to top.

The match really took off when it became a tag match. Aja was further solidified by pinning Cuty at 23:06 following a diving elbow drop. Ozaki was punished for a long stretch, including Aja kicking her lungs out when Kyoko had her in a camel clutch.

The standout segment was from 42:25 when Kyoko tagged in to 50:45 when Cuty came in. The focus was on the JWP team going all out to tie things up at two. This is where the pace and crowd heat peaked, and the drama really started to mount. Hikari was featured here, getting hot near falls with her rolling cradle, moonsault, etc. The segment also had several dives. Finally, Kansai redeemed herself to some extent by pinning Kyoko with her splash mountain at 50:09 to tie the score at two. Kansai tried another splash mountain, but Aja leveled her with a lariat to break it up.

It got to the point where the next fall would almost certainly be the last, so the stakes were incredibly high. Ozaki took a king sized beating from Aja, but weathered the storm and eventually made the tag to Kansai. Kansai couldn't get her retribution though.

They did all kinds of hot near falls down the stretch, but you got the feeling it would go the distance because matches almost never end right before the time limit in Japan. Takako used her cross arm aurora special, but Ozaki excaped then countered an Irish whip and tequila sunrised Takako. With only 8 seconds left, it was doubtful that there would even be time to go for another pin, but this was Ozaki's finishing move, so she had no better chance of winning than with this. The ref counted 1....2....3! Ozaki pulled it off! It was a storybook ending, a Hollywood ending, and those usually suck. However, it just worked perfectly here because it wasn't a storybook or a movie, and we pretty much never see a finish like this is puroresu. The underdog home team had managed to come from behind and defeat the force in women's wrestling. The fans screamed "Ozaki! Ozaki!" She looked like hell, but she was probably never more over in her life. That she looked like she was on the wrong end of a few Mike Tyson haymakers was part of the allure of the win though. It showed just how much she represented her company and their "Pure Heart" motto. The fans really marked out for this match and finish, and who could blame them? They hung around for a long time after the match ended to show their appreciation by yelling "JWP!" They knew they had just witnessed a classic. 59:55 (don't ask me why they never had the last 5 seconds). *****

Note: add Miko comments for this match

2 Fall Count 6 Woman Tag Match

Mayumi Ozaki & Cuty Suzuki & Plum Mariko

vs. Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami & Chigusa Nagayo

JWP TV 1/15/94 THE STARS '94 taped 1/9 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This is a great example of a gimmick match done right. One would think that these rules would cause the credibility of the finishers to take a big hit because they suddenly wouldn't even be good enough for 2 counts. However, these six went nearly 30 minutes of action packed, highly entertaining wrestling without killing off a single finisher. They did it by utilizing their submission skills, teasing big spots rather than rolling them out, and relying on their partners to make saves.

This match was rich in story, containing so many little points and subtleties that added to the match. The pairings basically pitting the large established women against the small up and coming women. Note that Chigusa was the lowest ranked member of her team. People tend to be unaware of the fact that things weren't so easy for Chigusa when she came out of retirement. Back in 1993 and 1994, it wasn't like AJW was begging her to come and no sell Toyota for 15 minutes before making her submit to a move that's not even her finisher. It was more like the leagues treated her as a star, but she had to sell a lot for the new stars and while she didn't do many jobs, she certainly did a lot more then than she did in 1998. The fans were certainly harder on her than the leagues, as the fan base had really changed since she retired in 1989. The schoolgirls were now grown up and could care less about wrestling, while the guys who resented Chigusa because she was the idol of the schoolgirls were now the ones buying the tickets. Getting back to the size part, this match was built around the fans hoping the smaller team could pull off the upset. For the most part, they were dominated, but they were given enough that with these rules the fans still believed they had a legitimate chance of winning. Actually, I think this would have been the perfect time for one of the smaller women to go over because the larger woman would have the natural out that she was only down for 2. Anyway, one of the reasons it wasn't hard to believe that Ozaki's team could win is that Ozaki displayed her typical fearless in your face attitude.(199418) Even though she isn't that much larger than the totally uncredible Damn Clown Bolshoi, Ozaki has never had a problem making you think she can take any opponent at any time. That fact was key here because they were building to the Ozaki vs. Chigusa street fight that was taking place two days later in Osaka. Cuty doesn't have this kind of attitude at all at this point and her offense was always weak, so, as usual, she didn't seem very credible even though she probably had more wins than Ozaki at this point. Plum, who was in the early stages of the biggest push of her career, which was, of course, cut short by injury, was still developing her more aggressive and intense attitude. This attitude didn't show up enough in this match, but probably peaked in the Chigusa match the next month because the opponent and the style of match they were doing gave her the best opportunity to act in that manner.

This match had an excellent opening, with Oz's team attacking right out of the handshake and trying to pin Chigusa, including Plum hitting her Frankensteiner. 45 seconds into the match, Kansai's team all hit lariats and simultaneously press slammed the opposition (199402) to make you think they were taking over already. However, Ozaki's team avoided simultaneous diving footstomps and German suplexed the opposition at the same time.

Kansai's team took over and tried to win already, but Ozaki's team was poised to jump in the ring at any moment to break a pin attempt. This built to a spot where Oz tried to save Plum from Devil's submission, but Chigusa was ready to jump in to prevent a save. Thus, she cut Oz off after one kick that failed to make Devil break and and leveled Ozaki with kicks. Later on, they did a similar spot where Oz tried to save Cuty from Kansai's sasorigatame (scorpion deathlock/sharpshooter), but again after one kick that failed to break the hold she was cut off by Chigusa. This time Chigusa put her in a sasorigatame as well, and when Plum came in to save Cuty, Devil picked her up in press slam position (199403) and dropped her on the metal turnbuckle. Chigusa finally couldn't punk Ozaki on a save because she was in the ring wrestling. However, Kansai came in instead and Oz ran away like a mouse running from a cat then they flipped each other off. Plum then came in to save Cuty, but Kansai gave her a blistering kick to the thigh and Plum just looked at Kansai then walked off kind of pouting while she held her thigh as if to say it's not worth it.

Cuty and later Plum started making little comebacks for near finishes, but still they were largely dominated. Chigusa and Ozaki had an argument while Kansai had Cuty in a facelock, so Kansai came over to kick Ozaki. It was hard to tell if Ozaki ducked the kick or Kansai just missed it, but, in any case, it just grazed Ozaki's hair. Ozaki pretended she was going to sell it by holding her head, but then Ozaki acted like she was alright, patting her head say it barely touched her.

Kansai fired up for her Splash Mountain at 18:30, but Ozaki did what would become one of her requisite counters and Plum missile kicked Kansai in the back. Ozaki's team was finally in control, and they mounted their offense through double and triple team spots.(199406) The problem with some of the double and triple team spots was that even though you could see Ozaki calling them, Plum & Cuty still didn't always perfectly time them.

Plum got her hiza jujigatame on Chigusa, and she was really working the hold and making the facials to show she was putting everything into it.(199409) Later on, Chigusa tried to crawl toward the ropes to escape Plum's ankle lock, but it was near the side Oz was on. Oz stood outside the ring right where Chigusa was looking to grab the ropes, poised for attack. Seeing this, Chigusa rotated 90 degrees so she could crawl toward the ropes Kansai was standing near. However, Oz entered the ring and made it a double ankle lock then Cuty sat on top of Chigusa and held her hair or something until Devil pulled her off.(199410)

The action picked up at 25:00. There was a flurry of triple teaming on Chigusa, but she avoided their mistimed triple diving headbutt and Devil almost pinned Ozaki with her powerbombs. Plum finally saved Ozaki when Devil had her up for a powerbomb by hitting her in the butt with weak punches/forearms, (199411)which miraculously caused Devil to back into the corner so Ozaki could stand on the middle rope. The problem for Ozaki was that Kansai came in and knocked Plum out of the way then pulled Ozaki off the second into Splash Mountain position. Plum recovered in time to make Kansai lose her balance enough by kicking Plum in the gut that she lost the hold.(199412) Kansai probably wasn't supposed to let Ozaki down here because she immediately got Ozaki up and did the Splash Mountain, but Cuty made the save. Kansai then Splash Mountained Cuty, but she wasn't legal so obviously she couldn't pin her. Devil followed by coming off the top with a guillotine leg drop where one leg landed on Ozaki and the other landed on Cuty.(199414)

The ring cleared with everyone other than Chigusa and Plum were fighting on the floor. The finish saw Plum kick out of a piledriver at one, and got up in time to cut Chigusa off on the middle rope. Plum was going to do her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner finisher, but Devil got back in the ring and helped Chigusa powerbomb Plum off the 2nd.(199416) To make the finish dramatic, Ozaki, who was hurting but had just gotten back into the ring, crawled over to try to make the save, but Devil got in her way enough that the ref counted to 2 just before Ozaki got there.(199417)

Chigusa started with Ozaki after the match, which gave Oz a chance to make some more great pissed off faces.(199419) The fans yelled Ozaki as she instigated a second shoving match that led to a heated pull apart. Chigusa called for Ozaki to fight her right now, and it looked like Devil wasn't going to hold Chigusa back if Ozaki could get free. Ozaki did get free, but Devil held Chigusa back and Ozaki was pulled out of the ring and back to the dressing room.

Kansai, Devil, and Chigusa were so much better at this point than they are now, and all had strong performances. Devil in particular was worlds better here than she is today, and she was the best of the six. Not surprisingly, Ozaki was by far the best on her side and Cuty by far the weak link in the match. The selling should have been better and I would have put Ozaki, Cuty, and Plum over more than they did, but it's hard to complain given the quality they delivered here. 29:50. ****1/2

Plum Mariko vs. Chigusa Nagayo

2/11/94

From JWP TV 2/19/94 SMASH HIT!!

This is one of Chigusa's best singles matches since coming out of retirement, and one of Plum's best singles matches, period. It wasn't that glamourous, but after starting out as an intense brawl, it was largely a very solid submission match. The work was very good. Plum was being much more aggressive and catching Chigusa in submissions left and right, so the match succeeded in creating the illusion that Plum could win. It would have came off better if Plum was stiffer, but that has always been a problem for her.

The beginning was really cool, as Plum dashed to the ring with this vicious look on her face like she was a police hound that was just let go to sniff for the scent of the lawbreaker and dropkicked Chigusa to the floor.(2119402) Plum did some mediocre brawling in the crowd, leaving Chigusa bleeding heavily (2119412)before she could even get her robe off. When Chigusa finally attempted to reenter the ring, Plum gave her a Thesz press off the apron. Everytime I see this move I here this voice in my head saying, "Perro, Perro, Perro!" Anyway, Chigusa made her first comeback to quick because while Plum had established herself, her early beating needed to have more effect on Chigusa if people were going to give her more than the slim chance of winning that she had in reality.

They began exchanging submissions in UWF fashion. I enjoyed this, but this style is not for those who think two memorable stunts make a ****1/2 match. Chigusa began dominating the match. The fans booed when she didn't respect a rope break, so Chigusa gave the fans the finger after she released the hold. They also booed Chigusa when she used a chair on Plum.

Plum finally came back with a nice transition into a chickenwing crossface.(2199408) Later, Mariko turned Chigusa's lariat into her stretch Plum. Chigusa eventually made it to the ropes, but Plum revenged the earlier spot by German suplexing her rather than breaking. Chigusa made a comeback, but Plum turned a Boston crab into a wakigatame. One thing about Plum is that her submissions always looked really good in the worked context because she always found glamourous ways to go into them or apply them. They didn't look so good in the shoot context because the chances of anyone being able to do the submissions the way she did in "real life" was pretty slim.

Plum tried for her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner three times, but Chigusa stopped it then nearly KO'd Plum with kicks. Plum blocked Chigusa's leg lariat and applied an STF. What I really liked about this spot was Chigusa was squirming like crazy as soon as Plum had her leg locked, which showed how dangerous this move is and also that Chigusa felt she might lose if Plum could get the facelock.(2119420) Plum rolled into her hiza jujigatame. Chigusa made it to the ropes, so Plum put it on again in the center of the ring as soon as she had the chance, but Chigusa once again made it to the ropes. Plum really worked both of these moves well, making it look like she was putting every ounce of effort she had into the hold.(2119422) Plum had just about exhausted all her submissions by now, so it was time for the turning point in the match.

Plum tried a move off the top, but Chigusa kicked her in midair. Chigusa then put Plum out with a sleeper hold for the win. What was great about this finish was how Plum "went out" when she was on her feet, so she could fall limp to the mat, taking Chigusa with her.(2119425) What sucked about this finish is that Chigusa weathered a storm of Plum submissions then beat her with one kick and a crummy sleeper hold. This finish took away some of what Plum had gained here. They did a post match angle where Chigusa was yelling at Plum, which caused Cuty to attack Chigusa. This angered Plum, so she pushed Cuty, and they all basically wound up mad at one another. 22:40. ****

Miko: Wow, heat! Plum attacked right from the start and just mugged Chigusa, which

I thought was cool. Even a Chi-gu-sa chant, just like the old days. Plum is relentless, not even letting Chigusa back into the ring. There were some really nice reversals and counters in this match, especially on the submissions. Plum ducking under Chigusa going for her sleeper and turning it into a crossface chickenwing was cool. I like how aggressive Plum was. She really went after Chigusa with

submissions and even made Chigusa pay for ropebreaks by standing on her hands, just giving her no rest at all. Chigusa got her shots in, mainly kicks (some good, some missing totally), but most of the match was Plum stepping up and pushing Chigusa with a series of submissions. The sleeper

hold submission was out of the blue, but this match would make me want to see more Chigusa-Plum at least.

Chris: I didnt't think this match ended too suddenly. It was an "out of the blue" finish, but not a bad one. This is probably my favorite Chigusa match. The only thing I even remotely didn't like was

Plums chiar stuff. She is no Balls Mahoney when it comes to chair swinging (or anything else thankfully), but I think that just the fact that she was using one got the point across well.

JWP TV 8/23/97 PURE HEART FESTIVAL taped 8/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This was going to be a sad day because Candy Okutsu was retiring way too soon, but the death of Plum Mariko really magnified the sadness. This show had every right to suck because everyone had to be distracted, but somehow they managed to focus on their matches and for the most part produce matches that were better than you'd expect.

The show opened with all the wrestlers standing at ringside facing the crowd while they had a moment of silence for Plum. Tears were just pouring down Kansai's face. In the studio, the announcers reflected on Plum's career and they introduced her now famous (ok, that may be a stretch, but it's one of the matches on the Plum Memorial commercial tape that I really need to get a hold of) match against Chigusa from 1/9/94. They edited the match down a bit, and it actually came off better in this format.

Aja Kong (AJW) & Cuty Suzuki vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Kanako Motoya. This looked like an excellent match, but time had to be devoted to other things so only 1/6 aired. The work and spots were great, and the match even had some heat. It was a treat seeing Aja vs. Hikari, one that made you crave a singles match between the two. You'd think that could be a great match since Aja reached a level where she could always carry Toyota to great match, but the prospects of them ever doing a singles match look really bleak at this point. Anyway, these two were throwing bombs back and forth. At one point, Cuty was holding Motoya in the corner and it looked like Aja might have Hikari beat with a backdrop. Motoya was reaching to make the save since Cuty had her legs, but she was too far away. However, Hikari bridged out just in time.(8179701)

Hikari came right back with a sunset flip powerbomb for Aja's nadare shiki no suisha otoshi. Motoya then gave Aja her diving senton then yelled at Hikari to recover and make the pin. It was cool seeing the normally quiet Motoya getting excited about the prospects of her team beating the real devil Aja to the point she was yelling at and gesturing to the senior member of her team.(8179702) Motoya hit a diving footstomp on Aja then went to hold Cuty off while Hikari hit her moonsault footstomp, but Cuty just beat Motoya and made the diving save.(8179706) Motoya got one near fall on Aja with her La Magistral before the tide turned.

Cuty took control of the match, but Hikari helped Motoya out by double teaming. Just when you thought the tide had turned in their favor, Cuty avoided their double missile kick. What was interesting about this missile kick was that they both jumped from the same corner, holding onto each other so the timing wouldn't be off like it usually is when people jump from different corners.(8179708) This was just about the end of the match as Aja took care of Hikari while Cuty did her Dragon suplex and Destiny Hammer for the win. I found the finish to be anticlimactic and predictable.

Aja was great. Motoya was really impressive. Cuty didn't hurt the match. Hikari's offense was tremendous, as always. Overall, a very enjoyable fast-paced match that appeared to be around 4 stars. 23:41 (4:45 aired).

WOWOW Special Match JWP Junior Title: Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. This match wasn't quite as good as I remembered it being. There was nothing beyond the work and the spots, which were choice. Even though it lacked diversity, it was still an excellent match that happens to be the best singles match in both women's careers. Everything in this match was done fast, the spots, the counters, the transitions, all lightning. They did all kinds of complicated sequences, mainly counter upon counter to show that they were equal. On a few occassions they would even counter the counter of the counter. Sometimes they got a little ahead of themselves, and overall the execution could have been a little better. The selling also needed to be better. They could have found ways to sell without slowing the pace down, but instead they pretty much disregarded that aspect. This was a one dimensional match, and I could write a page describing the cool moves because that is the dimension this excelled in, but it's better for you and less time consuming for me if you just sit back and enjoy this match for what it is. Miyaguchi finally pinned Kuzumi with her nadare shiki no blockbuster to become the 6th JWP Junior champ. She was really emotional about finally capturing singles gold.(8179715) 17:47 (9:47 aired). ****

Cuty Suzuki & Commando Bolshoi vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya. Kansai's stamina was down since whe was returning from her latest battle with collagen. Thus, Motoya carried the load for her team. She made another good showing, but it wasn't a nice day to wrestle two for Kana because she had of misfortune of doing the job both times.

This was the typical work oriented match. What they did was good, but they didn't do much to distinguish this match from the hundred other matches per year where they do this. Kansai did do the stretch Plum to Cuty and Bolshoi as a tribute to Plum. In turn, Cuty & Bolshoi put Kansai in a double stretch Plum.(8179716) The only other sequence that stood out was a comedy spot where Kansai imitated Motoya by doing a series of sentons off the ropes then they did a double senton.(8179717) 12:36 (5:41 aired). ***

WOWOW Special Match Candy Okutsu Retirement, JWP Open Weight Singles Title Match: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Candy Okutsu. This is not the match to show someone who isn't a fan of women's wrestling. Anyone who comes into this match without an understanding of the situation will tell you it's crap, and from a wrestling standpoint they would be correct. I mean, Candy, who was laboring through her matches in the last few months, actually outworked the worker Hikari in this match.

This was more a story than a wrestling match. We know the "real" fans don't want to be insulted by arcane things like faces and heels, but like mature, well thought out storylines like will a wrestler take the whores over the match or which near 40 looking freak with 100 pounds of makeup and $10,000 of surgery can rip each others clothes off first. This story isn't as "exciting and stimulating" as those, but it is based on "boring" things like real life things that aren't damaging or embarassing things brought up in "shoot" interviews to entertain and perhaps fool the smarks. Anyway, this is the story of two best friends that are so close they are said to be like sisters. They expected to be together for the vast majority of their careers, but life can be cruel and at the tender age of 22, one is too injured to continue. Now, anyone on the outside can easily say it's too bad, but they can still be friends. While this is true, I think that kind of misses the loss part that goes beyond a career. Sure they will still see each other, but wrestling in a league that runs regularly like JWP isn't a job, it's a life. Whether you like it or not, you are going to be spending a great deal of your time with the other members of your league. It's not just showing up at 7:00, wrestling your match, and being home by 11:00. It's constantly being on the road, training, making appearances, getting there early to set everything up, and so on. So it makes a huge difference to have someone you like as much as these two liked each other to spend most of your time with. You would think Candy would have had a harder time dealing with being retired than Hikari would, and based on how much Candy appears to love wrestling I'm sure she did overall which is probably why she came out of retirement in absense of a miracle cure. In any case, Candy was able to control her emotions during her retirement match and save the busting up for when it was over, but Hikari wasn't.

This wasn't scheduled to be a title match, but Hikari came out wearing her belt and said she was defending it. That's what friends are for, right? Of course, Hikari knew she was going over and I'm sure this was planned in advance, but at least Candy could say she had one shot at JWP's top title in her career. Hikari turned her back before the match started, so Candy attacked her and got off to a hot start. Candy was trying to put friendship aside during the match, which is what you have to do in a real fight although this obviously wasn't one. Hikari was unable to put friendship aside, and was soon overcome by the emotions she felt about Candy retiring to the point she burst out in tears(8179724) and just lied on the mat. Candy got on top of her and tried to slap some sense into her, I mean, here is the holder of the #2 women's belt in the world and instead of defending her title, she's lying defenseless on the mat weeping. Hikari just let Candy do things to her, kind of going with the moves like she normally would, but kind of too sad to even be paying attention to what was going on. Eventually Candy got tired of Hikari lying on the mat with her arm(s) covering her teary eyes(8179719) so she got on the house mic and said, "Fukuoka! Why do you cry? Aren't you a champion? Isn't this a championship? If you think you're the champ, do it right!" This drew the fight out of Hikari, so the match improved from here.

They did all their spots back and forth. Candy's mom and brother were in attendance, and her mom was looking on with her hands over her mouth as her daughter was getting the worst of it.(8179725) Candy made one last comeback, but Hikari dropped her on her bad back with a Tigerdriver twice in a row. Hikari refused to pin Candy though. Hikari walked around the ring to put off the inevitable then Tigerdrivered Candy again, letting her go at 2. Hikari certainly wasn't giving up the pin to inflict more punishment like a US heel. It was clear that the reason she wouldn't cover Candy was pinning her meant that was it for her career. Hikari was really dreading that moment,(8179727) but she had to do something or the match would be a farce and she wasn't doing Candy any good by planting her on her back over and over, so Hikari finally collapsed on Candy for the win after the fourth consecutive Tigerdriver.(8179728)

Hikari lay in the ring crying next to Candy. Candy cried (8178734)a lot during her retirement ceremony, as did her mom.(8179730) Candy's ceremony was really nice, although all of it (like Saburo presenting her flowers) didn't make it to TV. What was seen on TV was Candy getting showered in yellow streamers(8179738) and the wrestlers throwing her up in the air(8179739) and actually not dropping her in the end, probably because of her back. Candy cried heavily in her "final" interview then got up and hugged Hikari, who was still weaping heavily. Hikari's second title defense was far from her best, but probably her most memorable. 10:42

Devil Masami 20th ANNIVERSARY ACT 3 -FUTURE-: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Super Heel Devil Masami. This was a really good match aside from the fact that Devil did her no sell Mark Calloway wannabe routine. The work was strong, and they did a good job of mixing some brawling spots into a wrestling match. Ozaki got a lot of offense in for Devil not to put over. The match had a lot of nice counters, some of which made it look like Oz might beat the zombie, but probably more that made it look like it would once again be The Night of the Living Dead. The pace was obviously slow because Super Heel was involved, and the match lacked heat because no matter what they did it's still hard for anyone to believe Super Heel could lose.

Ozaki slipped out of a press slam off the stage and knocked Devil off with an uraken to set up a diving swinging DDT off the stage. Ozaki wasn't able to avoid getting press slammed with Devil standing on the 2nd rope though.(8179741) Devil jumped off the 2nd to the floor trying to hit Ozaki with her rod with a skull on the end, but Ozaki avoided it.(8179743) Ozaki teased a nadare shiki no Tequila Sunrise, but settled for a nadare shiki no backdrop. Ozaki used a series of urakens to KO Devil, and Devil did a great job with her eyes of making it look like she was in another world.(8179745) The ref was tapping her face to try to revive her, but Devil wouldn't respond.(8179744) Of course, she soon popped up and tried to Tigerdriver Ozaki, but Ozaki did a nice counter into a small package. Unfortunately, Devil rolled on top and pinned Ozaki in a crummy American finish. 11:48 (8:59 aired). ***1/2

Selected matches from JWP TV 9/27/97 The Footwork

JWP Korakuen Tag Title Tournament Final

Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Kanako Motoya

9/20/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

These four just tried to put on the best possible match, so the Oz Academy modified their style to work to the strengths of the opposition. It was basically a workrate match with choice spots from start to finish. This match was really exciting (to everyone except those in attendance apparently) and everyone gave a strong performance. It was, for the most part, one dimensional, but everything they did was well done and in a tag match like this it's a lot easier to get away with not working an all- around match. I wish Ozaki would have done some teaching here so Kuzumi & Motoya could move toward becoming more diverse workers, but you can't complain about the quality of ringwork this match delivered.

"Amano and Motoya were the best here, with Ozaki just playing it cool letting Amano do most of the work. Kuzumi was her regular 'Toyota #3' self doing all the cool spots, but not selling any damage. I guess that if you are going to be that type of worker you may as well emulate Toyota and Fukuoka," wrote Jason.

"Oz did a subtle but great job of helping this match be very good by contributing when necessary, but still letting Amano log most of the ring time to improve against her peers. There were a lot of cool spots. There could have been some great near falls, in particular Kanako using La Magistral on Amano after Amano hit Kuzumi with the diving lariat, but there were only 100 people that didn't lose their voice or whatever excuse can be made for yet another silent crowd at a JWP show," wrote Michael.

They joined this in progress, so it was high spots from the outset with Kuzumi catching both opponents with a plancha. However, the Oz Academy avoided Motoya's subsequent suicida, so she took out Kuzumi. Amano looked really good doing her series of jumping lariats, as well as some Toshiyo Yamada-esque suplexes.(997jwp01) She turned Motoya's diving body attack into a wakigatame. Amano then swung into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, but Motoya blocked it.

Kuzumi & Ozaki were tearing it up, with Ozaki getting her legs up for Kuzumi's rounding body press then doing one of her own. Kuzumi hit two missile kicks, but Oz just arrogantly walked out of the way of the third as if to say, "how many times do you think I'm going to fall for this same move?" Ozaki did an excellent job of working a sleeper hold.(997jwp06)

Amano missed Kuzumi with her sky high lariat and rolled right into Motoya's diving senton. In Toyota like go offense fashion, Kuzumi then made a quick come back using Sakie Hasegawa-esque rolling double arm suplexes. Kuzumi's selling, especially her carry over selling, was crap, but she was flying around the ring doing all kinds of cool spots, so that would make it okay to most people. On the other hand, Motoya's selling was quite good, the best of the four actually, although again she didn't really put over the previous damage.

After some double teaming, it looked like Motoya would pin Amano with her diving senton, but Amano bridged out.(997jwp11) Amano came back with her dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame. (997jwp12) Kuzumi broke the submission up tried her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex, but Amano knocked her off the top and hit diving lariat. Motoya then La Magistralled Amano for a nice near fall. Kuzumi & Motoya followed with a cool double missile kick (997jwp14) to Amano then Motoya rolling sentoned Amano to win the tournament and become the 2nd Korakuen tag champs.

A strong New Japan juniors style tag match. The work was great with every spot hitting. Unfortunately, the match was devoid of selling, psychology, and heat.

"Not every match has to have great selling and psychology. This match once again proved that a match based on workrate (although it had a purpose and they weren't just rolling out spots) can still be a solid ****, or better in some cases," wrote Michael.

The Oz Academy won the last tag tournament and were credible challengers for the regular tag titles, so it was time for JWP to elevate the other youngsters. Ironically, they chose Motoya, who had pinned Amano to win the one night tag tournament on 6/16/96. She was the one that needed the pin the most though, and Amano had been elevated earlier in the night anyway, showing great fighting spirit and refusing to give up despite taking a huge pounding from Kansai. Amano was verging on tears after the match, so Ozaki patted her face and head to console her. 17:15 (9:02 aired). ****

"I really liked this match because it was designed to move Kanako up to the level of Kuzumi, Miyaguchi, and Amano, and it worked. It can be argued that she was already there, but the other girls were ahead of her (and still are) when it comes to getting better matches on the cards," wrote Michael.

"I also felt that Motoya getting the pin on Amano was justified because they wanted to elevate her to the level of the rest of her peers, while Amano had already shown her heart earlier in the night," wrote Jason.

JWP Open Weight Singles Title: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Commando Bolshoi. This match had to majorly exceed just about everyone's expectations. I mean, The Damn Clown haters club probably thought about starting the Cult of Bolshoi to run hand in hand with the Cult of Emi that I've been "outed" as being a member of. The work was really good and they did plenty of spots, including some effective teases of the big moves, but this isn't really a surprise and wasn't what separated this match from Hikari's others. Most of Hikari's title defenses have been disappointing because she had opponents that she could have had a great match, or at least a **** match with, but her weaknesses in calling and carrying the match prevented the matches from reaching that level. This match, on the other hand, worked because they didn't just do their spots back and forth like in many of Hikari's matches. Instead, they went above and beyond what you would expect from them to make up for the fact that The Damn Clown was not a credible challenger even though she was coming off winning the Body Heat '97 tournament. In this match, Bolshoi was made credible, somehow, because she went through finisher after finisher. It wasn't so much that she pushed Hikari to the max, but that she usually caught Hikari off guard so it looked like she had a chance to score the unlikely upset. One thing this match shows is that a booking swerve seems so much more effective when it's done once in a while because you are "shocked" when it happens.

"Entering this match after a 'big' win that 'set up' this title challenge, Bolshoi knew she had to turn it up a notch. Honestly, as much as you can rag about Bolshoi's days as the annoying, puntable clown, this was a match that forced you to at the very least respect her. That was what she needed to do, get Hikari's respect. In the previous tag match, Bolshoi grabbed the microphone and emphatically told Hikari, 'Hikari, that belt is fucking coming here!' For the damn clown to use such expressions illustrated how much the belt meant to her (in Japanese Bolshoi said, "Hikari! Omae no beruto ni koi!' 'O-mae' is like 'you fucker' in Japanese or 'you homeboy.' In the past, it was used between close people to signify 'you.' Now, it is considered a mild expletive. 'Koi' is a rude form of 'kuru' used by men and drunks to tell their wives and wenches to bring more beer, etc. So having the damn clown going from goofy to dead serious signifies the drastic change from Kid to Commando). In fact, the interview segment prior to the match confirmed how much the belt meant to Bolshoi because she knew that she wouldn't have many more opportunities like this to prove herself. The problem with Bolshoi is that she's neither a draw nor someone that you can give credibility to as a serious challenger. She's someone whose role belongs as a second tier worker that puts the younger wrestlers over. Given the plethora of retirements and departures from JWP in the last two years, they had to push someone for Hikari to beat, and today it was Bolshoi," wrote Keith.

Bolshoi quebrada'd Hikari before Hikari even entered the ring. What was goofy about this was instead of Bolshoi continuing to attack and thus forcing them to ring the bell, she just let Hikari get into the ring and they had the ring introductions then started the match.

"I liked that Bolshoi attacked Hikari before the intros because it showed how she was willing to do whatever it took to win, but it was stupid to have them do the intros after the quebrada because it killed whatever 'momentum' that Bolshoi got in attacking Hikari," wrote Michael.

"When Bolshoi quebrada'd Fukuoka before the match it showed me that she was

going to do whatever it took to win. Then they killed that idea by going to the ring introductions, which showed that Bolshoi doesn't have the killer instinct to win the title," wrote Jason.

"This move was reminscent of how Hikari assaulted Sakie Hasegawa at the Dream Slam II in the beginning of the match with her headscissors takeover. It worked then because the crowd was hot that night and both workers were excellent. Unfortunately, in a time when the women wrestlers need to somehow build heat and sustain it, having Bolshoi refrain from continuing her assault was a dumb move. It showed respect and killed Bolshoi's initial momentum from going over completely that

night with the crowd," wrote Keith.

Hikari tried a plancha early, but Bolshoi got out of the way well before Hikari could jump and waved her finger "no." Hikari controlled the early portion, mainly working Bolshoi's leg, so there was focus, but this attack never really went anywhere. Bolshoi did a pretty good job of selling her leg, but it's hard to take anything she does seriously due to that ridiculous nose. She seemed kind of tentative early on, seemingly because she was a little nervous.

Bolshoi finally made a comeback, but Hikari caught her leg on a baseball slide and dragged her to the floor. Hikari them slammed Bolshoi on the floor and hit her Orihara moonsault. She tried her space flying Tiger drop, but Bolshoi returned the favor by pulling her leg out. The idea behind the spot was sound, but it looked pretty ridiculous because, in order for Bolshoi to pick Hikari's leg, Hikari had to make it look like she lost her balance after doing her cartwheel so she could hop close enough to the ropes for Bolshoi to reach her. Bolshoi then came back with a great ultra huracan rana.(997jwp15)

They went back and forth with Bolshoi trying to hit her shouda (palm blow) and Hikari trying to hit a high kick until Hikari finally connected, bloodying Bolshoi's lip in the process. Bolshoi rolled through on Hikari's released German and finally connected with her shouda, but Hikari was too close to the ropes for Bolshoi to get the win. Bolshoi tried to win with nadare shiki no uranage, but once again it wasn't enough.(997jwp18)

The title was of the utmost importance to Bolshoi, but her two best finishers had just came up empty. She knew she needed an edge. She realized that Hikari couldn't kick out if she turned her to stone, so she purposely removed her mask for the first time in her wrestling career. The horror! The horror!(997jwp21) Hikari was so petrified that she froze, allowing Bolshoi to clock her with a shouda, but once again Hikari was so close to the ropes that she was easily able to grab them. Hikari sold this like she was barely conscious, but when Bolshoi ran off the ropes she tried a shouda of her own. However, Bolshoi ducked this and used her pico buster (a variation of the German suplex where instead of locking your hands you put one across the opponent's chest and one across the opponent's waist) for a near fall.

"I didn't like that Bolshoi unmasked the way she did. To me it would have made more sense for her to have had Hikari nearly beaten, like after she barely kicked out of several big moves, and have her unmask to 'shock' Hikari then do a hope spot before finally losing. It made no sense that she'd be so exasperated with trying to beat Hikari that she'd unmask after Hikari kicked out of her top rope uranage (even though that's her finisher) because there was no reason to shock Hikari when she still had the advantage. It was pitiful that her unmasking a) barely got a response and b) didn't get the crowd into the match except for a decent pop on two near falls. Well, what Bolshoi looks like was one of the burning questions that plagued JWP fans for years and when she finally unmasked, it became one of those deals where the question was better left unanswered. Some of us thought there could be an attractive face under that mask, but man we were wrong (although it obviously has nothing to do with her ability as a wrestler)," wrote Michael.

Hikari blocked Bolshoi's second pico buster and her nadare shiki no uranage and came back with her zenpo (front) kaiten (revolving) shiki (style) missile kick, which both sold. Somehow, Hikari recovered first and used her big spots on Bolshoi, which led to a hope spot where Bolshoi turned her Tigerdriver into a huracan rana for a near fall.

Hikari "could have" pinned Bolshoi with her Tigerdriver, but she let her up so she could win with her moonsault footstomp. While Hikari was wasting time in a failed effort to get the crowd to pop for her big move, Bolshoi snuck up from behind and suprised her by Tiger suplexing her for a near fall. One way this spot would have worked better is if Bolshoi did her move as Hikari started climbing the ropes. It would also have worked better if Bolshoi did her suplex before Hikari made her move to climb the ropes, but instead stopped and played to the crowd while she was waiting for Bolshoi to finish selling the previous spot and come up from behind to deliver the suplex.

"This instance was one of the rare times that Hikari exhibited any personality in a match. However, she doesn't have the ring presence of Kong, Chigusa, Ozaki, or Hokuto nor the attitude to pull off a stunt like this. It was as if for one instant, Hikari remembered to draw the crowd's attention to what she was doing, but she can't sustain a crowd reaction the way the others can. When you see Toyota doing something similar, you'll notice how lightning quick and consistent she is. Like when she hits her moonsault press she'll climb the ropes really fast and point to the air, screaming

loudly 'ikuzoh!' ('Here I go!') before hitting it. She knows which points to draw the crowd's attention to, but does everything with intensity and accuracy (for the most part) so her screaming and 'same old' spots work. Hikari, for all of her talent, never picked this up which is why she failed in elevating herself to what her idol has done," wrote Keith.

"The fact that Hikari stopped going up the ropes after she started to was what 'got under my skin.' I would have felt the same way had Hikari got the hall rocking by playing to them, which obviously didn't happen even though she "begged" the audience to pop. I agree with Mike that some time for Bolshoi to sell was necessary, and certainly it was better than seeing Commando pop up like Super Koji, but it was still obvious that Hikari was stalling to allow Bolshoi one last hope spot. Had she climbed up and then played to the crowd or just played to the crowd without first grabbing the top rope, it wouldn't have bothered me because it wouldn't have been obvious stalling. When Misawa and Kawada (or anyone else for that matter) sell, they are stalling in a sense stalling, but it's not like they decide to put off doing the next move to get the crowd into the match. This spot would have worked better if Hikari had played to the crowd then climbed up and did the moonsault footstomp, landing on her feet when Bolshoi avoided it. This would have allowed Bolshoi to catch her from behind and suplex her, which would've been a great near fall. Mike says this would have eliminated the element of surprise they were shooting for in their hope spot, but the way they did the spot, they didn't surprise anyone anyway," wrote Michael.

The Tiger suplex was basically it for Bolshoi's offense. Hikari Tigerdrivered her for a near fall, but Bolshoi kicked out now that Hikari wanted to pin her with this move. Hikari then moonsault footstomped Bolshoi for the win.(997jwp25) 15:05. ****

"While I don't strongly disagree with Mike giving this match ****, I personally think it's closer to ***3/4. The match told a good story and did the best it could at trying to make Bolshoi look like a credible challenger, but the lack of heat probably (although JWP always seems to have disinterested crowds) showed that the crowd didn't buy it. The crowd can be overlooked a lot of times, but in this case I don't think it can because the whole purpose was to get the crowd to believe Bolshoi could score the upset enough that they'd pop, most likely for the underdog Bolshoi. Even Bolshoi's unmasking (regardless of whether or not it was at the right time because it's an arguable point even though I think it came at the wrong time) got little to no reaction, and at that point you knew nothing they did could get the crowd going. The Toyota vs. Hiromi Yagi from 1/14/97 that Mike underrated at ***3/4 and the Ozaki & Amano vs. Kuzumi & Motoya from earlier in this show were both better matches that deservedly garnered **** from me," wrote Michael.

"I thought the match was good in the sense that Fukuoka and Bolshoi did their job of making Bolshoi a legit contender, but the match didn't come off the way it was suppose to because the crowd seemed to be asleep," wrote Jason.

"I thought the core of the match, after re-watching it, was surpringly good. The transitions looked good and the moves looked slick. Unlike Yasha vs. Fukuoka, Bolshoi vs. Fukuoka came off well, probably because both girls are quite familiar with each other, but more importantly, their styles mix. What ticks me off about Hikari as a champion is that she never seems to make the matches more meaningful. Her challenge of Cuty Suzuki following this match came off really flat because it was 'too polite.' Cuty did nothing except acknowledge the challenge, which didn't help, but Hikari can't 'lay the smack down' the same way Hokuto can trash talks her opponents. Heck, when you look at Omukai challenging Aja in a teary eyed fashion, you can see what a fantastic actress she is, even if she isn't as close to a worker that Hikari is, because Omukai makes you feel her emotions with her expressions," wrote Keith.

JWP on WOWOW 10/18/97 SLY taped 10/10 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Kanako Motoya vs. Aya Koyama (Big Japan). Kanako worked really hard and carried the match, but it wasn't good at all because Koyama was so green. The match did get better as time went on, but Koyama just wasn't close to the level of Kanako. Kanako showed her new submission skills here, mainly focusing on Koyama's knee. She eventually put Koyama away with a hiza jujigatame, seemingly creating a new finisher for herself. However, JWP has done a really poor job of getting and keeping submissions over, so you can guess how far this went. 12:00 (8:56 aired). *3/4

Michael: Part of the submission credibility problem was Kanako's "fault" because she still has to be able to incorporate them into the match even if she doesn't win with them. Beating Koyama with the hiza jujigatame doesn't really establish it as a new finisher for Kanako because of the level of the opponent she beat with it. It does add credibility to her using it since people now see that she can win with it. However, I doubt people would've believed that she was going to win with it or even had a legit chance of winning to win with it if she had she used it on Cuty in the tag match that followed this.

Using a move you haven't really used before to beat Koyama obviously isn't like inventing a hot new move to beat Misawa. If you look at say the crappy WWF, up until jobbers were eliminated a few years back (well, they still have jobbers but now they pay them good money and give them a little credibility and some storylines), everyone debuted their new finisher by beating a jabronie, or maybe 3 or 4 in the same night, with the new move. Thus, while I agree that it would take more than just 1 win with the move to get anyone to believe she could beat Cuty with it, I don't think it's a reach to consider a move used on a TV taping to at least potentially be a new finisher.

Cuty Suzuki & Commando Bolshoi vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Kanako Motoya. They pretty much only concentrated on work, so the match didn't build at all. Hikari & Kanako looked good, but Cuty & Bolshoi didn't. Hikari used Bolshoi's own Pico buster on her, but at least at this point she knew enough not to pin people with their own move. 18:12 (14:07 aired). **

WOWOW SPECIAL MATCH THE FIRE SCRAMBLE TAG MATCH: Tomoko Miyaguchi & Tanny Mouse (free) vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Yoshiko Tamura (free). They didn't have much of a bridge to the spots, and it turned into spot wrestling once they began doing them. The match got better as it went along, but it didn't even reach the expected level when Tanny wasn't in. 17:11. **1/4

Keith: Get rid of Tanny and then the match could've been elevated a bit. The stupid comedy

bits that Miyaguchi followed with Tanny made me want to lock myself in my closet for a

week. Watching Kuzumi and Tamura sell Tanny's headbutts was equally horrid. The

problem with Tamura is that she tends to return to her AJW heritage and pull out three or

so dropkicks without any meaning. Her work is usually good and she has a good move set,

but she doesn't know how to make those moves meaningful. Again, you have to be a Toyota

to pull that style off. At least JWP did a another good job in focusing on their own girls by

having the final come between Kuzumi and Miyaguchi.

Michael: It seemed like they didn't really know what to do with each other due to the unfamiliarity. The video leading into this match focusing on Kuzumi and Tamura would've been better served had they had a singles match. Although they didn't gel that well as a team, I felt that they could have become a pretty good team if they had the opportunity to team more often. Tanny didn't drag the match down too much, but it wasn't as good as expected because it lacked continuity and sustained focused attacks.

Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs. Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami. This match was basically a learning experience for Amano. It was almost like her initiation in that she had to prove she was worthy of graduating from junior status by hanging with Devil & Dynamite. It was a solid match, but it was disappointing because it was slow and unspectacular with no one stepping up. Amano wasn't given much offense here. 16:08. **3/4

Michael: Amano didn't really look credible here. Her strikes were really weak, and overall her offense wasn't on the level where she could hurt Devil or Kansai enough to get them in a legitimate pinning predicament. Her lack of size, especially when compared to Kansai and Devil, didn't help her either. She did hang in there for awhile, but she got pushed better in the tag matches at the end of 1996.

JWP on WOWOW 12/5/97 SURE

Mayumi Ozaki & The Spirit of Plum Mariko vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki

Plum Mariko Memorial taped 10/30 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan

This was the main event of the first Plum Mariko Memorial. This match wasn't all that good, but it wasn't about being good or bad, and I think I was wrong to give this match a rating. This match was about paying tribute to a person that these women weren't just close to, but someone they have spent their entire career, and for that matter their entire adult lives, with. This match had and evoked genuine emotion. I'm not one to get emotional about what I watch on TV, but this was real life, or as close to real life as anything in that takes place in the wrestling business can be. I can't see how any Plum fan could watch this match without at least almost being brought to tears. I'm trying to hold them back now so I can find the words to describe this, but try as I might, I'm not capable of putting this kind of emotion to words.

"Too much time on my hands, I got you on my mind

Can't ease the pain, so easily

When you can't find the words to say it's to make it through another day

And it just makes me wanna cry and throw my hands up to the sky"

Adrian Smith, Iron Maiden

Wasted Years

" I still tear up everytime I see this match, and I've seen it at least 6 times. No matter how hard we try, there is no real way to explain the emotion you feel while watching this match to someone who isn't familar with the situation, or even to someone that is. Some things are just not able to be put into words, and watching this match is one of them," wrote Michael.

"This was a difficult match for me to write about. The process of viewing this match and trying to put it into words had me going through a lot of Kleenex. It was a wrestling match that was not about wrestling or any kind of angle. It may be interpretted in a number of ways, but for me this match was about loss. Every passing minute where Ozaki was pounded by the team of Kansai and Suzuki put more focus on just how alone Ozaki was out there. Everytime she looked to her corner and saw no one there was a reminder of what has been lost," wrote Miko.

Plum's parents were sitting in the front row holding a picture of her. Ozaki came out to Plum's music, carrying the outfit of her late best friend. The ring announcer introduced Plum Mariko as Ozaki's partner, and Ozaki held Plum's outfit up for a big pop. Kansai got booker and TV announcer Kotetsu Yamamoto, who was one of the people who trained the first class of JWP wrestlers (1986) which Plum and the women in this match were a member of, to come out and referee the match (one of the many things he did while in New Japan was ref). There was only one thing missing, but unfortunately it always would be.

Ozaki would have been an underdog in this match if she had Rieko Amano as her partner, so she didn't have much chance on her own. She was largely dominated, as the match was building to her making the hot tag to her partner. Unfortunately, only the uniform of her partner was in the corner, so Ozaki was obviously never able to tag out.

"Ozaki's heart didn't seem to be in this match as it usually is. Yet, she kept fighting

because that's how her friend would have wanted it. Mari-chan would have wanted everyone in JWP to continue for her. They cut to all the other federations' girls in attendance to show the importance of the show and of Mariko to her friends. Most fans sat demure, with the occasional shouts of 'Cuty' or 'Ozaki' radiating from the crowd. Plum's parents sat in solemnity, respectfully watching the girls wrestle while holding the portrait of their daughter. The end of the match was anti-climatical, the audience's sulleness overriding what normally would be a hot finish. Afterwards, the crowd politely clapped not simply for the match, but the spirit that was represented in the hearts of the girls performing and especially in the soul of the lost Mariko. The three competitors abdicated themselves of long held back tears, especially Ozaki whom Devil came to comfort with a smile. Finally, all the JWP girls came in to take a bow and the audience recognized all of their efforts by giving a final pop," wrote Keith.

What was somewhat scary about the match was just how much guilt Oz seemed to feel for delivering the Liger bomb that Plum never woke up from. You felt like she talked to a priest before the match and he said for your pennance take stiff kicks instead of saying Hail Mary's and Destiny Hammers instead of saying Our Father's. It was as if Ozaki felt she deserved this beating, and by some way her taking it would give her absolution. She was eventually "forgiven" when Kansai and Cuty did a combination Splash Mountain and Destiny Hammer to put her away.

"I though the match was a way for Ozaki to absolve herself in some way from the guilt of inadvertently triggering her friend's death. She didn't have much offense, since 'realistically' the match was two-on-one, even if Plum was there in spirit. Maybe she felt she could purge her guilt by getting more or less a public beating. I mean, I can't really find any other way to explain how 'her team' lost aside from the basic two-on-one aspect. Kansai standing in front of Plum's costume to prevent 'interference' seemed to be a symbolic gesture of how they remembered Plum's soul in the match. As far as the feeling of the entire show, I'd say it was really eerie and solemn, especially the last match. The Japanese have close ties with ghost that date back to their religious beliefs imported from Buddhism and Shintoism. In a way, the match reminded me of some Noh or even Kabuki dramas that I saw in my Japanese Ghosts class; the actors re-playing their deaths until finding enlightenment by a Buddha priest. In the ancient days, festivals would serve as a way of appeasing the ghost or Shinto spirits by attempting to have the folks forget the deaths of their loved ones. I wouldn't doubt that in some way this show was linked to those type of ceremonies, even though the specifics are obscure to me," wrote Keith.

"It was, in a way, comforting to see Plum Mariko in Ozaki's corner in spirit because it goes against the common theme in both Kabuki and Noh dramas of a female ghost returning for revenge. Due to this, it was more comforting than seeing everyone stand together in the ring after the match. There is no blame, just grief, loss, and for Ozaki absolution," wrote Miko.

Kansai & Ozaki both cried after the match. They all joined hands and held Plum's outfit up. Kansai got the picture from Plum's mom, so they could hold that in the air too. What more can you do when no matter how hard you try to do something fitting, what you really want to happen isn't humanly possible? I guess the only thing they could do was what Plum did for all her career, try her best, perservere, and strive to achieve her goals no matter how adverse the circumstances. I'm sure some people will take "we have to keep fighting for Mari-chan" as a b.s. line used to say something when there was really nothing you could say, but if Mariko didn't believe in it then she's probably still be alive because she would have quit pursuing her dreams a long time ago and rightfully ended her wrestling career early due to her health. If any of us see her on the other side I guess the question to ask is what would you have changed, if anything? 13:09 (8:15 aired)

"At the post-match interview, Kansai, trying to remain hopeful for the future, shared her

feelings and what she believed Mari-chan wanted, 'I guess Mari-chan would have liked it...you've

got to keep going on and continue to preserve (for) JWP." Cuty Suzuki added her view in that, 'This was for Mari-chan, and I think she would've been pleased." Ozaki seemed to be in the best spirits between the three in this segment, trying to get over the entire ordeal, commenting that, 'When I look at (Mari's) picture, and if I see her costume, not before long I feel that I have to keep on perservering.' Jokingly, Ozaki said, 'I guess it must get lonely on the other side.' Kansai summed up their feelings saying that she hopes the event will be remembered by the fans and everyone for Mari-chan." wrote Keith.

"Grief stricken faces from a tragic tale reveal all too clearly the dangers of wrestling. The claims of wrestling being 'fake,' 'choreographed,' and 'sports entertainment' seem irrelevant when the death of someone demonstrates the reality behind the thin line exhibited in wrestling. Unfortunately, that reality was one Plum Mariko. Yet, like life, the proverbial 'show must go on.' If there was to be a lesson learned from this show, from this match in particular, then it would be a saying that Megumi Kudo claims as her favorite word: akiramerarenai or don't give up," wrote Keith.

http://soda.CSUA.berkeley.edu/~keithyw/plum.mpg

11/7/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan #2

Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Kyoko Inoue (free) & Tomoko Miyaguchi. This match was somewhat sloppy and definitely worse than you'd expect. Kyoko added nothing. 19:51 (4:54 aired).

11/16/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs. Kansai & Kanako Motoya. This was a brawl that was dominated by the heels. Kanako was destroyed and she juiced. Motoya finally almost made a comeback, but Amano caught her in a wakigatame. However, Motoya rolled through and La Magistralled Amano for the win. This looked cool, but it was pretty hard to believe given what had happened during the rest of the match. 17:24 (8:38 aired). ***

WOWOW SPECIAL MATCH: Hikari Fukuoka & Commando Bolshoi vs. Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori (LLPW team). This was the second ever JWP vs. LLPW match, so for once a women's match had heat. It was basically ring work. The match was kind of dull early, but turned into a very good match as the better spots kicked in. The main focus was Yasha vs. Hikari since they had a big title match coming up on 12/6 at Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan. Yasha nearly beat Hikari several times before finally forcing her to submit. 19:41. ***1/2

JWP on WOWOW 12/13/97

J-HOLY BATTLE Yokohama '97 Taped 12/6 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

This was JWP's major year end show. It should have been more anticipated than some of their others because it was their first major show with interpromotional matches against LLPW. The problem is that, as you'd expect, the LLPW women did nothing to help the quality of the matches and Yasha in the main event wasn't exactly making people worry that the show would sell out in 15 minutes like the old UWF shows. As it turned out, the show drew 3900, which falls in their typical 3500-4000 range they would draw the one or two times they'd run the building each year. I'm sure LLPW vs. JWP and Kansai opposing Kandori had more to do with the crowd than Yasha, but this showed this fued had some drawing potential, especially since later interpromotional matches would have had Kandori in the main event. Of course, LLPW once again proved to be too hard to work with, so we never got to see Kandori vs. Kansai or Hikari.

Michael: Without question, J-HOLY BATTLE is the coolest name ever for a show.

ECW would have had that honor if they went with your name for the January PPV, Does ECW Suck? Yeah, They've Guilty As Charged.

3 vs. 1 Handicap Match: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Rieko Amano & Sugar Sato (GAEA) & Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA). Only Ozaki could pull this off. It was a good match that was hurt by the facts that the finish came too soon and the understudies looked weak because had to triple team Ozaki to get anywhere. The storyline was good, but Ozaki should have been pretty much dominated like she was by Kansai & Cuty on 10/30. Chikayo surprisingly took the match down, as she was as off as she's ever been. At one point, Ozaki knocked everyone out with urakens, but instead of pinning them she called for them to get up. Eventually Ozaki was pinned, and rightfully so, but I just question the purpose of this match because I don't think the understudies gained anything from this pin. After the match, Ozaki announced that she would go freelance, which was yet another huge blow to JWP. 12:05 (8:48 aired). **3/4

Jason: The finish almost came out of nowhere. After getting knocked out by Ozaki's uraken, the understudies wouldn't have been able to execute the finish even though Oz was triple teamed. Nagashima really did take the match down, especially after missing the footstomp off her partner's shoulders. They tried to cover it up, but it didn't help their credibility in the match.

Keith: I agree with the statement that Chikayo took the match down a notch. She missed a

chair spot and a few other spots. Sugar looked good, as did Amano. The thing that hurt the match the most was that having to manage the three-on-one aspect. Two-on-one is doable if the person is a monster like a Dump, Kansai, or Aja. Even though Ozaki has a tremendous amount of talent she isn't necessarily a "monster" in size, although she has the heart of a lion. The other problem is that when one of Ozaki's kohai's wasn't in action, she would look silly standing around with nothing to do.

There was more than one storyline being run throughout this match. Aside from the fact that this match represented the Oz Academy's "graduation," it also represented Ozaki's "sotsugyo-shiki" or "graduation/elevation" from JWP. To allow Ozaki to give Amano the pin was a good move since it rightfully would establish Amano's status in JWP. Whether Amano would be used with that pin is another question entirely. It took the unselfishness of an Ozaki to put up her reputation like that right before announcing she was going freelance.

Cuty Suzuki & Kyoko Ichiki (Shin FMW) vs. Commando Bolshoi & Cooga (Jd'). You know you are in trouble when Bolshoi is the best of the four. This was just spots, but even the work could have been a lot better. 15:58 (6:48 aired). *

Mixed Tag Match: Tomoko Miyaguchi & Gedo (Fuyuki Promotions) vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Jado (Fuyuki Promotions). The JWP women were obviously way better than Fuyuki's cronies. They did a bit of double teaming, but for the most part it was woman vs. woman and man vs. man (which is what the rules called for). It was a short match that was kind of sloppy and had no build to the finish. Kuzumi & Miyaguchi didn't work as well together as they normally do, but Miyaguchi was still the best of the four. 9:47. *3/4

Keith: The main heat segments of this match were on Gedo whenever he'd pull a move on

Kuzumi. Thus, the best and most gratifying move in the entire match was lifted from Chono and

the American promotions, Kuzumi employing a back kick to Gedo's nuts. I think everyone who saw that move applauded Kuzumi for something we've been waiting a long time to see. Even if the match wasn't good, the focus was in that the final pin came between the two JWP girls, rather than Fuyuki's boys.

Michael: Like you said, the work here wasn't as strong as usual from the dueling Tomoko's. However, I enjoyed this match alot more then the Battlarts mixed tag from 5/10 because at least this match was treated seriously instead of Gedo and Jado acting like horny little assholes.

Devil Masami vs. Sakura Hirota (GAEA). Suckura tried to work over Devil's arm to get a submission, which was good from psychology and focus standpoints, but obviously that wasn't going to happen. Devil made short work of Hirota, and neither looked good. 6:57 (5:15 aired). 1/2*

Jason: It was good that Hirota tried to work over Devil's arm, but she hasn't shown that she can be credible against here peers let only Devil Masami, so this match wasn't good at all.

Michael: I felt bad for Sakura at the end when she was throwing those weak urakens because she was acting like she couldn't even break a wet paper bag with them and you knew Devil was going to make her pay for it. Even by the standards of a Devil squash, this was really bad.

Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya vs. Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo. This match was pretty similar to the Kandori & Endo vs. Hotta & Maekawa match from 8/15/97 (the one that worked). It was a battle of the tough quasi-shooter women, although Motoya has never fit that bill. By all means Motoya should have been out of place, but instead she displayed a lot of submission ability that we didn't know she had. Motoya was almost shockingly good in this setting, which was one of the main reasons it wound up being a very good match. Motoya and Endo worked together a lot. Their segments were quite good, but even in this style with Endo doing well, it was more good because of Motoya, who was the best worker in the match. Kansai was, not surprisingly, the standout though as she dictated most of the match and everything she did looked great. She was very Hashimoto-esque here, but for some reason we wouldn't see any of this in 1998. The finishing sequence seemed off as Kansai was trying to call things, but Kandori wasn't on the same page. Kandori wound up choke sleepering Motoya on the apron. She soon put Motoya out and tried to save her partner Endo from being pinned after Kansai's kick, but the ref counted three. Kandori couldn't believe Endo was pinned, so it looked like this wasn't supposed to be the finish, and Kansai doesn't usually win with her kicks. An entertaining match where everything they did looked good, but they really burned through their spots. 18:41. ***1/2

Michael: I think a lot of Kansai's performance has to do with the fact that she was inspired to

put out as much as possible here for obvious reasons. In 1998, there wasn't much that would lite a fire under her like facing Kandori did. Beyond Kansai's and Motoya's performance and the spots being well done, Kandori's charisma and facials really helped to make this match. I can't believe that the finish we saw here was the planned finish. Kansai's kick that won it caught Endo right in the temple, so she may have hit her hard enough to be KO'd for a few seconds. At first, I thought Endo was waiting for Kandori to break the pin instead of Endo rolling her shoulder, but I don't think that's how it was supposed to be because Kandori would've gotten in there a second or two sooner. The look on Shinobu's face showed that she was shocked at this being the finish, and everyone else, including the ref, looked surprised too.

Jason: Motoya is getting better with every match I watch. It's great that she is showing her submission ability because it just makes her that much better. It is a shame that Kansai hasn't been great in '98, but this match was one where, as you say, she did standout. The finish took the match down somewhat, but overall it was a good match, especially when Motoya was in.

JWP Open Weight Singles Title: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Yasha Kurenai. Not surprisingly, neither woman could carry and it was mainly you do your spots and I'll do mine. Hikari's work was great, but nothing else about this match was close to that level. This didn't even have any heat. The beginning was weak. They tried to do some different things, but it was just falling flat for various reasons. One reason was that these spots often looked unconvincing. One such spot was Hikari lightly tombstoning Yasha on the floor and barely even touching the chair her head was supposed to be hitting. It's not a good sign when a spot reminds me of Mark Calloway, but apparently his retarded logic defying Undertaker gimmick alone is enough to make him a future Hall of Famer because the man himself isn't even worthy of being on the ballot. Anyway, another spot was Yasha gaving Hikari a really lame shot to the knee with the kendo stick only to go right into her Yasha lock, which has nothing to do with the knee. The main reason is that neither of these two are smart wrestlers. One dumb spot was Yasha accidentally taking the ref out with her kendo stick about 6 minutes into a match that everyone knew would be long. Anyway, this set up Hikari sticking her head through the ropes and seeing that the ref is down outside the ring. Knowing this, she moonsaulted Yasha and laid there holding Yasha's leg waiting for a ref she knew was down and out to start counting. At points they tried hard to sell, but their selling wasn't good so it was boring and hurt the pacing of the match. At points the pace of the match was too fast so it hurt the comebacks, which were too quick, and the carry over selling, which was largely non-existent. After not putting over the toll of the match, suddenly they both acted dead for the finish, which saw Hikari hit her moonsault footstomp to retain the title. The match was illogical on so many levels. It was mainly spot wrestling, so a lot of people will think it's very good, especially since they did some unpredictable things. Yasha, as usual, was mediocre at best. She really reduced this one, although Hikari is such an excellent worker that if she could carry a match this could have been very good in spite of Yasha. 19:36. **3/4

Michael: The ref bump was beyond dumb for a number of reasons. It was too obvious because Hikari really telegraphed it, hiding behind and sticking to the ref until Yasha was ready to hit her. It played no part in the outcome of the match like it did in Kudo vs. Aja from 12/6/93, so what was the point? Third, it was dumb because the ref got hit in the stomach which is the best place to get hit. Even if

you are skinny, you're more equipped to absorb the hit there. Had the ref been caned in the head, I could see her being out for several minutes, but they did nothing while she was out that they couldn't have done in front of her so the whole sequence made no sense at all.

Jason: The spots did take the match down because they didn't have any logic behind them. The lack of crowd heat didn't help either. I think the blame has to go to both of them. Hikari is the better worker, but Yasha could have stepped up a bit more since the match was supposed to be a pretty big deal.

Keith: Because this match was a rare interpromotional match, it should have been made more special. Having the top star challenge a star from a different promotion should mean more and garner some heat. Unfortunately, Hikari is not a person that can do heat segments. She lacks the attitude it took for a Hokuto, Kong, Chigusa, Ozaki, or Bull to generate heat in the interpromotional matches between '93-'94. Rather than slap Yasha, who plays a cult heel character (her fans do these rodent-like chants of "Yasha Kurenai!"), Hikari shook Yasha's hand, even crying in one of their previous matches. That match, which was on LLPW's territory, had some fans actually jeering Hikari, which brought up a rare

middle finger to them. But the direction was wrong. She respected Yasha because Yasha was part of her wrestling class and that lowered the potential heat for the match. The second problem with this match is that Yasha is a stiff. She didn't really bump, instead having Hikari take some chairshots after hitting nasty moves like her apron tope con hilo. What's the point of Hikari taking bumps like that if Yasha isn't going to get heat from them? Instead, the only person smiling was probably Rumi Kazama for getting Yasha an undeserved higher status. It demeaned Hikari's title reign since she only could challenge an LLPW "star" that was from her class level, but not above.

I think they would have had Hikari vs. one or both of the higher ranked LLPW wrestlers (Kandori and Eagle) if Kazama wasn't impossible to do business with. I'm sure JWP was willing to allow Kandori to beat Hikari 2-3 times, LLPW might have given Hikari one win over Kandori. That's just one of the many reasons they aren't worth dealing with.

JWP on WOWOW 1/17/98

Minna Nakayoshi taped 12/26/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

& That's The Way taped 1/11/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

12/26/97

Commando Bolshoi & Takako Inoue (AJW) vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Yumiko Hotta (AJW). This was a fast-paced workrate match. It was kind of helter skelter, but good for what it was. **1/2 range

Michael: This was a good match considering who was involved, but teaming Bolshoi and

Takako wasn't exactly the smartest way to take advantage of the AJW talent they had for this show.

Hikari Fukuoka & Manami Toyota (AJW) vs. Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki. Even Cuty's work was good here. Hikari & Toyota did tons of high spots, although their set up could have been a little better. Surprisingly, this match had some brawling too. This appeared to be a good to very good match, but it was totally ruined by the fact that only 6:52 of 30:00 aired.

Michael: This match was disapointing both times I watched it. Even though they

only aired about 1/4 of the match, it looked like they were wrestling in slow motion. It seemed like half of Hikari and Toyota's spots took forever to get off because someone was out of position, but otherwise it was ok.

Keith: This match seemed to have potential. Even though Toyota isn't the Toyota from '92-'95,

she still outclassed everyone in this match. Fukuoka tried to keep up, even though she's potentially best worker of the four, but Toyota is a dominant type that takes center stage because of how she motivates the crowd. She had the intensity to work her spot style, and it was interesting seeing how Fukuoka and Toyota teamed. This was on JWP turf so it should've showcased Hikari outclassing Toyota, but apparently that didn't happen.

Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai. This was also butchered, but because they cut the first six minutes out, but it appeared to be one of their best together. Ozaki was awesome here both for her wrestling and for her acting. Actually, her acting is so good that she came off as being tougher than Kansai. The selling was excellent. The ordering of the spots and the flow of the match was outstanding. These two just kicked each other's asses until someone won.

Ozaki was taking Kansai's leg out when they picked up the match, which lead to a great spot where she went right into a hiza jujigatame when Kansai kicked out of her 2 kaiten ibe gatame (Toyota roll).	The spot itself was great in it's own right, but Ozaki's facials made it that much better. Kansai would do a great job of putting her knee when she made her comeback with a running neckbreaker drop.

Ozaki took a king sized beating, getting punted all around the ring. Finally, she ducked a kick and caught Kansai in Splash Mountain position, but Kansai powered out so Ozaki urakened her then Tequila Sunrised her for a new fall. Ozaki got cocky, as she would taunt Kansai between urakens, but she became somewhat frustrated when Kansai just kicked out of her Liger bomb.

Ozaki survived a Splash Mountain. She would slowly recover, only to have Kansai kick her into unconsciousness. Kansai tried her Die Hard Kansai (Splash Mountain off the 2nd), but Ozaki fought her off and came back with a crappy punch off the top and was fairly ok, which was the weakest point of the match since she was just about dead a second ago. Kansai still quickly cut her Tequila Sunrise off with an uraken and tried for her Splash Mountain, but Ozaki turned it into a schoolboy for a near fall. Both women were the worse for wear. Ozaki had eaten enough kicks for one day, so when Kansai tried yet another kick, she swept heg leg. Kansai tried to kick again, but Oz caught her leg and held her while she delivered four urakens then Tequila Sunrised Kansai for the win. Both women were "unconscious" after the match for a little while. Great stuff. I've realized I should have rated the 8/96 Ozaki vs. Kansai ****1/4 or better because that was a better match than this and I had no problem rating this ****1/4. Rating matches will never be a perfect science. 15:54 (8:36 aired). ****1/4

1/11/98

DRESS UP WILD FIGHT TAG MATCH: Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima (GAEA) vs. Kansai & Cuty. This was still a little on the long side, but it was closer to the length these type of matches need to be and overall it was a well booked match. Cuty dressed up like she was attending a wedding or something. It was a very good brawl, with the strong wrestling to go along with it that Oz is known for. Chikayo was paired with Cuty, and she wrestled her like she was her equal. This was key because if the younger girls wrestle like girls then they'll never be seen as stars. Cuty bled, but not nearly as much as Chikayo, who juiced heavily. Chikayo took diving footstomps from Cuty then Kansai (who probably weighs more than twice as much as she does). Later on she took a "chain shiki enzui knee" (diving knee off the top with a chain wrapped around the knee) from Cuty, but again she refused to lose. Later, Kansai tried a high kick with the chain around her ankle, but Chikayo ducked it so Cuty got hit. Ozaki then urakened Cuty 3 times, the later two of which being chain urakens, and Chikayo covered for the win. This helped Chikayo a lot, but didn't really hurt Cuty because it was Kansai & Ozaki that led to her demise. 23:58 (16:00). ***1/2

Michael: I actually liked this match better then the Ozaki & Amano vs. Kudo & RIE DRESS UP WILD FIGHT TAG MATCH from 4/8/97. The near falls here were much better, and Chikayo getting the pin was big for her.

Hikari & Kuzumi & Miyaguchi vs. Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura & Tanny Mouse (Neo). Much of the time devoted to this match would have been better spent on the previous mathes, which were much better. This match didn't do much to make me want to see this fued, although Kuzumi & Tamura looked good together and I'd like to see them have another singles match. Miyaguchi & Kuzumi were the two best. Tanny was beyond awful and killed the match. The match was really good in points, but there were too many missed spots which could have been Heyman'd out. Eagle & Nagashima & Okino of the heel group that has had as many different names as Fuyuki attacked the JWP team after the match, which caused JWP President Masatoshi Yamamoto to go nuts. **1/2

Keith: The crowd was surprisingly (at least to me) against Kyoko Inoue in this match,

probably because it was pro-JWP. Still, I wouldn't have been surprised if some people were frustrated by Inoue's no-selling of the youngster's moves. Tanny should be working concession with Bischoff. Kuzumi and Tamura make a good team and better opponents.

Michael: It seems like everytime Yoshiko works against an outsider on the other leagues show we say her stuff was good. I love how Yamamoto does angles, as his reactions are so great. It was funny how he acted like he didn't know what to do when G-Max was punking the JWP girls. For instance, he'd hop on the apron then jump down and say something on the mic and walk around while the announcer held him back. I liked the angle, but it was obvious that everyone involved didn't know what to do. It would've come off better if G-Max got in Yamamoto's face and punked the seconds like Sari and Kanako instead of them just standing around for them most part. I also liked Kazama's concerned look when they showed her arrive in the back.

JWP on WOWOW 2/14/98 NO GIMMICK '98

1/31 Hakata Star Lanes Dress Up Wild Fight: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai. I was incredibly disappointed that they barely showed any of this. Based on what aired, it didn't appear to be as good as you'd expect. The highlight was Ozaki turning Kansai'd Splash Mountain into a DDT on a chair. Ozaki bled. Kansai pinned Ozaki with Die Hard Kansai to get her win back from 12/26/97. 19:05. (1:24 aired)

2/11 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Rieko Amano & Sugar Sato (GAEA) vs. Dynamite Kansai & Commando Bolshoi. This match was set up by the post match of the Kansai vs. Ozaki wild fight. A good match due to Kansai, and secondarily Amano. These two could only do so much to keep the match quality up though. Sato wasn't all that great, as she was involved in all the sloppy parts. Kansai was no selling Sugar's weak shots. You have to wonder why so many young girls can't figure out they need to hit Kansai harder. I mean, it's obvious to the women's wrestling fans I know that Kansai will no sell you if you don't hit her hard enough that it's credible for her to sell the blow, so why isn't it obvious to these women who know her and wrestle her? This match needed a hot finishing sequence, especially since it went on too long to begin with. 20:24. **1/2

Michael: Why Bolshoi got the pin here is beyond me. It's apparent that for whatever reason Sugar just can't get it done when she's in the ring with anyone other than her usual opponents. Maybe 1998 was like a delayed sophmore slump for her, but it'd be a real shame if it wasn't and this continues. I mean, it's not like she's having interpromotional matches against people like Tanny and Shiina.

James: I didn't think this match was quite as bad as **1/2. Amano and Kansai looked very good, Bolshoi was acceptable, and Sugar did have her moments, just not enough of them. On the topic of having to hit Kansai hard to make her sell, I had to laugh at a more recent JWP match where she just stood there and let Tomiko Sai dropkick her in the face. Of course, Sai couldn't hit her hard enough, but Sugar, who has been wrestling for nearly four years should be able to.

1/23 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan: Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima vs. Kanako Motoya & Tomoko Miyaguchi. A fast-paced match with a lot of spots when Nagashima was in. Nagashima was the best of the four, and it was a good match when she was in. On the other hand, it was a very one-sided match when Eagle was in. I understand that Eagle needs to maintain her aura, but this was one-sided to the point it was a detriment to the match. Eagle, of course, scored the pin, taking out Miyaguchi with a high angle powerbomb. 13:48 (8:07 aired). **

James: Nagashima, Miyaguchi and Motoya were good, but Eagle really dragged it down by either no-selling or barely selling. This prevented the match from going above the ** range. I was surprised to see Miyaguchi pinned. It shows how much better LLPW is at booking their wrestlers in other promotions than in their own.

Michael: Mike is being kind to Eagle here, as she totally wrecked this match, which isn't a first for her.

2/2 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan #2: Hikari Fukuoka & Kanako Motoya vs. Eagle Sawai & Sayori Okino (Heisei Guren-tai). Okino spewed mist in Motoya and Hikari's face. Hikari was handcuffed so she couldn't save Motoya from being pinned. 22:39 (0:42 aired).

Keith: Frustrating and pointless. This didn't spur anything new between LLPW and JWP, but

instead proved just how great a negotiator Kazama is. She can't manage her own federation worth jack, but she drives a hard bargain for outsiders.

Yeah, it reminds me of a line in The Negotiator (if you don't want watch a movie that has both Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson then you have no taste in actors) by the great Kevin Spacey, "I once talked a guy out of blowing up the Sears Tower, but I can't talk my wife out of the bedroom or my kid off the phone." Kazama can convince fools like the Yamamotos to have Kandori run over everyone and to make things worse Yasha win their #2 title, and Eagle and Shark destroy the supposed 6th best women's heel team of all time ZAP on AJW's biggest show of the year, but her own promotion has largely been the same boring old things and matches "Since 1992."

1/23 JWP Tag Titles: Devil Masami & Fukuoka vs. Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito (AJW). Lots of big spots here. This looked like it was **** range with strong work and cool spots. Unfortunately, only 1/3 aired. Toyota & Ito took the tag titles, making them the 9th overall champs. I have to ask what the point of giving Toyota & Ito the belts was if they were going to lose them on the same tv show? I know the idea was to shift the belt from Hikari to Kuzumi, but can't you get more out of Toyota & Ito's run than this? At least hold their loss off long enough that you can promote Hikari & Kuzumi vs. Toyota & Ito on this TV show. 16:49 (5:22 aired).

2/11 JWP Tag Titles: Toyota & Ito vs. Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi. This was a one dimensional spotfest, but it was one of the best spotfests of the year. The spots, in particular, the flying were awesome, but they were just rolled out. The work was great work, and the second half in particular was excellent. On the down side, it wasn't just that the match lacked build and psychology, but even the intensity was nothing special. You'd think that the three Toyota's would all be into wrestling each other and want to show each other up, but that just wasn't the case. Fukuoka & Kuzumi won the tag titles (10th overall champs) when Hikari pinned her idol Toyota for the first time after her moonsault footstomp. 18:37. ****

James: I really enjoyed this match. It was one of the better JWP tag matches of 1998. Toyota's selling could have been better throughout the match. In particular, I didn't like that she virtually laughed at Kuzumi's giant swing. She shouldn't have had that big smile on her face then, but Kuzumi did cover well by jumping straight onto Toyota and going to the arm submission. Seeing Hikari finally pin Toyota was good, but it should have lead to a singles match since Hikari lost all their previous bouts.

Keith: Good move on JWP to have Hikari go over her idol, but her idol is going to outlast

her.

JWP on WOWOW 3/14/98 SAND WOMAN taped 3/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This was the final JWP TV show on WOWOW, a premium movie channel that's something like the Japanese equivalent of HBO, ending nearly a five rear run on the channel. This was a huge blow to JWP, as the WOWOW deal provided good money and exposure. WOWOW's decision to not renew the yearly contract couldn't have come at a worse time. Joshi (women's) puroresu business was way down across the board, but more importantly JWP needed the exposure to create new stars to replace the all the women that had been lost and the women who were getting to the age where their days could be numbered. Of course, even if JWP was still on WOWOW the new stars wouldn't have gotten over as much as they should. I mean, JWP completely dropped the ball in 1998 when it came to pushing their youngsters. Kuzumi held the tag titles on two occasions, Amano won a singles tournament, and Motoya was elevated a little bit, but for the most part the "fab four" were completely misused by the promotion. One of the things that hurt was that the aging veterans, Kansai and Devil, were content to hold down the younger girls. I mean, even when they put them over they didn't really put them over if you know what I mean. I thought JWP was the best booked women's promotion in 1997, but this year they fell to the depths of the pit of dispair, joining the league that sold our soul to draw 1/4 capacity in Yokohama Arena on 11/29 and everyone's favorite Neo Ladies.

Cuty Suzuki vs. Commando Bolshoi. This looked better than expected, but I'm glad they didn't show any more than they did. 13:27 (1:32 aired).

Devil Masami & Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya. The main point of this match was Miyaguchi dominating Kansai, and eventually scoring her first pin on her. Devil had one of her best performances of the year, but Kansai & Miyaguchi were off so it turned out to be a disappointing match. Motoya was just kind of there. They would often take her out, so it would be 2- 1 against Kansai. 17:10 (7:34 aired). *3/4

Michael: To show how good this match was, the thing I liked the best about it was Devil's enthusiasm about Miyaguchi pinning Kansai.

Jason: I would have liked to have seen more of the portions that Motoya worked, but the most important thing was the Miyaguchi/Kansai portion, and it worked even though the crowd didn't pop too huge for it like you would hope. Their was enough pop to think that finish had the effect of

elevating Miyaguchi in the fan's minds, so the match worked the way they wanted it to. Even though it was huge that Miyaguchi pinned Kansai, I wish she could have gotten a little more of her own offense in to lead to the pin, rather than relying so much on Devil to bail her out.

Mayumi Ozaki JWP Graduation: Ozaki vs. Rieko Amano. This was a solid match that built well. The problem was that Amano didn't push Ozaki as much as she needed to. This match needed to show how much Amano has grown, and that Ozaki could "trust her" to be the top heel in JWP in her absense. Personally, I would have had Amano beat Ozaki in a double juice brawl to set this up. Instead, Ozaki beat Amano here and JWP became a promotion without heels because Amano only gets nasty on the rare occassions that Ozaki is present. Getting back to the match, it was excellent in points, but slow in others. Amano's nose was bloodied from Ozaki's uraken. The post match was cool with Kansai getting into the ring and presenting flowers to the departing Ozaki even though they were rivals and played it as such. During the post match, Ozaki started to cry. Amano tried to talk, but initially she was too emotional to get the words out. 16:11. ***1/4

Michael: I liked this match better than you did. I agree that the match didn't flow consistently, but Oz was great here. Amano should have pushed Oz more, you're right, but it was still better then almost any match since when it comes to moving Amano up the ladder.

Which shows just how badly they've screwed up with her push and role this year.

Jason: I think this match was better than ***1/4, more in the range of ***3/4. It was a solid match that for me had some great spots with great drama even though I knew that Ozaki was going to win. Amano really put the pressure on toward the end with some great near finishes, especially her submissions, although in one spot Ozaki was in Amano's jujigatame a little too long. One great spot was Amano trying to finish Ozaki with her own Tequila Sunrise, but Ozaki got all stiff with her urakens to show Amano who's boss. Overall, I really enjoyed this match even though as you wrote, the purpose should have been to make Amano the top heel in JWP, yet she doesn't really play the part unless Oz is around.

WOWOW SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH Queen vs. Queen: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. This was another disappointing match between the two, largely due to the fact that Hikari can't carry a match. It was just pathetic how little Hikari was able to get out of such a talented worker. Kuzumi is the kind of opponent a true great would dream of wrestling because she can work with the best of them, so you just have to figure out how to maximize that strength. It's why Liger will always have a great match with Koji if they are trying to, while Otani vs. Koji might be **** because of the work and spots or ** because they are goofy kids delivering illogically ordered spots and engaging in retarded no selling. The weak comebacks, as well as the lack of selling and psychology really took the match down. Basically when the did their high spots it was excellent, but the bridge too them was pathetic. Kuzumi got hurt during the match, seemingly from hitting her head hard on the floor taking Hikari's tope con hilo off the apron, which also hurt the hot portion of the match. Kuzumi desperately needs a veteran to show her how to take things to the next level, a Tsuruta to Misawa, but JWP at this point doesn't have anyone that can do it. This was supposed to be where they took it to the next level, but they couldn't even maintain their previous level. For that matter, this was couple notches down from their 6/8/97 match. ***

Jason: I was disappointed by this match due to the lack of intensity from both wrestlers. I didn't expect much in the way of selling or psychology. You would expect Fukuoka to be able to build the match in a logical fashion, but for whatever reason it doesn't happen. I did expect the match to take off in the fast-paced style that Fukuoka and Kuzumi use, but it didn't do so to the extent I expected. Kuzumi bumping her head didn't help because the match slowed down in the middle of a hot stretch. They never regained the flow after this point, so in my mind the match just kind of fizzled out. At this point in time, I think everybody expected more form these two.

Battle Station JWP 4/22/98 taped 4/12/98 Tokyo Korakuen

Kayoko Haruyama vs. Erika Watanabe. This was a pretty horrible match with Watanabe looking particularly bad. They tried to do some things, but pretty much nothing looked good. Watanabe's style of wrestling looks like it was partly derived from watching lineman in football. 14:02 (5:08 aired). 1/4*

Michael: Watanabe just doesn't have the talent to go anywhere, and seemingly only has a job because the promotion is that desperate for bodies.

Kanako Motoya vs. Masami Ikeda. Kanako didn't seem to know what to do with her incredibly green opponent. She wound up selling most of the way then putting her away with a few moves. This made Motoya look bad because Ikeda has no offense, so Motoya was selling all these weak moves. Ikeda was really bad. 13:11 (4:40 aired). *

Michael: This match was pretty funny, especially the spot where Motoya went over the top rope and landed on the apron and stood there (seemingly forever) waiting for Ikeda to hit her. Ikeda's strikes looked really weak, and Kanako looked bad by selling way too much. She should not have been expected to be able to carry a worker this green to any kind of a decent match.

Commando Bolshoi & Sari Osumi vs. Cuty Suzuki & Kayoko Haruyama. A sloppy, boring, low impact match with no flow. Cuty vs. Bolshoi wasn't bad, but the rest left a lot to be desired. The last 4 ½ minutes were more bearable than the rest, as the pace picked up for the finish. At least the first 10 minutes of this match needed to be left in the editing room. 15:23. *

Michael: Osumi improved a lot this year but you wouldn't know it by this match. Her strikes were so pathetic that I thought Cuty was going to fall down laughing when she was standing on the apron taking Sari's forearms while Bolshoi had Haruyama tied up.

Devil Masami & Dynamite Kansai vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Tomoko Miyaguchi. This match wasn't nearly as good as it should have been because Kuzumi & Miyaguchi didn't do their thing early. They looked bad because they weren't stiff enough with their larger opponents, so the opposition didn't/couldn't put some of their offense over. The match became quite good once Kuzumi & Miyaguchi started doing their high spots. Unfortunately, this match didn't really do anything to elevate Kuzumi & Miyaguchi. Much of the blame for this should be placed on Kansai & Devil, as they didn't seem too interested in putting the youngsters over. With the proper editing, this would have looked really good, but JWP couldn't show any more of the earlier matches. Being on Samurai TV was already hurting, as JWP didn't have the luxury of taping multiple dates for this TV show or doing any kind of video pieces to promote the good points of the product while at the same time masking the bad points like lack of depth. **3/4

Michael: I hated this match, especially the ludicrous ending. What the hell is the purpose of both Tomoko's getting pinned at the same time? We all know that Kansai and Devil are monsters, there was no need to kill Miyaguchi and Kuzumi to remind us of that. This match did nothing to further them and if anything it may've hurt them a little.

Hikari Fukuoka vs. Rieko Amano. This was a good match, but like the previous match, it didn't do anything to elevate Amano. I mean, she even lost to her own dobitsi udehishigigyakujujigatame. Amano looked good as always, particularly when launching her knee attack. The problem was that while the match was a mixture of both women's styles, even the woman who was doing her thing couldn't carry that portion of the match. Amano actually did a moonsault at one point, although it wasn't a good one. 17:14. ***

Keith: The core of the match worked in the beginning stage when Amano assaulted Hikari's leg,

demonstrating she had a game plan and would force Hikari to move into her style. Hikari

began the match in a defensive ground position, recognizing Amano as a shooter and realizing that she would need to change her strategy from a high-paced beginning to a ground attack. Of course, Hikari's main problem is that she doesn't have much of a ground attack to work against Amano's shooter style, so Amano would take control of that portion of the match. In assailing Hikari's leg, Amano effectively attempted to wipe out Fukuoka's main weapon: her moonsault stomp. Yet, the match seemed to fall apart when Amano broke her strategy to use one of Hikari's moves, the moonsault. Unfortunately for Amano, this move didn't work for her and would allow Hikari to make a comeback. Thereafter, it became the Hikari show, moving into high spots and transitions rather than

elaborating on the story of Amano's earlier work. Since Hikari pretty much forgot to sell the leg, the storyline was destroyed in favor of the Toyota-esque style. That point of Hikari's failure to sell the leg illustrated why Hikari can't carry (and simultaneously disproved Dean's theory of Hikari "upgrading her psychology like her peers") and exposed that her psychology is primarily Mike's theory of "you do your spot and I'll do mine." Even if Hikari did allow Amano to work her portion of the match, Hikari doesn't have the fortitude, charisma, and the type of spots Manami has to intensify a spot-like

match. Although I think Hikari's win with the submission was intended to show that "she

can work the shoot style," it didn't come off very well because of how the match degenerated into Hikari's high-paced style.

Michael: I agree with the rating, but I would've liked to have seen Amano get one last submission attempt on Hikari's knee before the match ended. It's like Amano abandoned the knee to go for near falls and to me it would've made sense for her to take one more shot at making Hikari tap (before

Amano had to tap). There was absolutely no reason for Hikari to beat Amano with her own

finisher, as all this did was to embarrass Amano. Being that Hikari wasn't going to adapt the jujigatame as her new finisher her winning with it here made no sense. I thought that Oz stayed in the jujigatame a little too long in her match with Amano from 3/6, but at least she sold it and didn't beat Amano with it.

JWP Official Release VOL. I JWP Fighting Video Tape Zensedai Tournament VOL. 1

This tape has some kind of awful production. A handheld is one thing, but couldn't they get a decent cameraman and give the person free reign to roam around the ring to capture the action? Furthermore, if they are going to charge $30 for it, couldn't they at least do a little post production? I mean, even a cheap Toastmaster for graphics would be a lot better than having one of the wrestlers hold a piece of paper that has the matches written on them. The fact that there are no edits really makes this tape look bush league. I mean, pauses on the camera are fine if the video is for your relatives, but you have to be starving for JWP action to look past the flaws in the quality of the video. Even then, there is only so much you can look past.

4/18 Kyoto KBS Hall 1st Round: Commando Bolshoi vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. This was all ring work, so Kuzumi looked really good. Bolshoi has a lot of faults, but ring work isn't one of them so she was fine here. The pro style work was, not surprisingly, better and more enjoyable than the submission style work. The problem with the match was that it was kind of short and they didn't go all out since there was nobody in the building. 8:46. **3/4

Miko: Maybe it's just the poor production, but it was hard for me to get into this match. In particular, a few of Bolshoi's transitions didn't make sense to me. At least the camera manages to stay on the wrestlers.

4/19 Minokano Shi Nakajima Taiikukan Plaza Chuutai 1st Round: Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Sari Osumi. What they did was fine, but Osumi wasn't very competitive and was pinned almost immediately. Miyaguchi was actually going for the pin 15 seconds into the match, but it wound up taking her a whopping 4:15 to put Osumi away with her suichoku rakka shiki brainbuster (verticle drop style brainbuster, which is the same move that is just called the brainbuster here or the Ghostbuster when Koko B. Ware used to do it). *1/4

Miko: This match came off better to me, but I still had quibbles. The camera angle was ok in a way because it's like you are a fan in the seats. The problem is, between that and the quality of the video, it means you miss alot. The match started with Osumi running at Miyaguchi and jumping up to be caught in a airplane spin, which was is an annoyingly blatent set up. The spot with both wrestlers on the top and Osumi doing mongolian chops also came off weak. However, from there the match picked up some, with some decent moves and reversals. I especially liked the diving Thesz Press.

4/19 Minokano Shi Nakajima Taiikukan Plaza Chuutai 1st Round: Devil Masami vs. Kanako Motoya. This was another one of those annoying Masami matches. I have no problem with Kanako doing the job here, but why isn't she allowed to push Devil and why is she only able to last 6 minutes? Motoya countered Devil's offense at opportune times, but never really got any offense of her own in. 6:01. *3/4

Miko: The best match so far. Devil doesn't do a wide variety of moves, but most of them looked devastating. In particular, her lariats and powerbombs looked nasty. Kanako bumped well and got in some offense, including headscissoring Devil off the top rope. Devil didn't no-sell as much as usual, which also helped the match. My big complaint was the finish. Kanako kicked out of Devil's biggest moves, the powerbombs and the rolling senton, only to lose to a Romero special into a Dragon

sleeper. It's a cool looking move, but I've never seen anyone in Japan actually win with it.

James: This was one of the worst matches Kanako has had in recent memory, although not as bad as the crap against Tanny Mouse on the 2/15 Neo Ladies. Given Devil's age, JWP should be using her like Aja Kong uses herself in ARSION, to put over the younger wrestlers. Of course, like Aja, she'll still always win the match. Kanako gained little to nothing from this.

4/19 Minokano Shi Nakajima Taiikukan Plaza Chuutai 1st Round: Reiko Amano vs. Hikari Fukuoka. This match had really strong work, but no psychology. I suppose that's not all that surprising given Hikari was involved, but these minute by minute rules that incorporated sections of submission only wrestling made her psychology seem even a notch or two below normal. Hikari's matwork dulled the match. In general, the submissions weren't all that good until the 20 minute mark when ironically then became excellent with udehishigigyakujujigatames back and forth. This was the longest and most hard fought match of the first round. Unfortunately, it was no better than good because it lacked direction. Amano scored the upset here. 27:37 (22:38 shown). ***

Miko: Another good match. Fairly fast-paced and with good action. Fukuoka destroyed Amano with a series of moonsaults, but didn't get the pin so she lay on her back and waited for Amano to come after her. Presumably Hikari did this because she felt she proved that she could beat Amano pro style, and wanted to show she could also beat Amano at her own game. I liked the variety of armlocks, mostly jujigatames, Amano pulled off. Fukuoka was in the holds too long sometimes though, and they went through too many submissions to the point that they started to lose their impact. Even so, the match worked for me. Amano came off as being competative with Fukuoka, so it wasn't just a lucky win.

James: Directionlessness is a big problem in many of Hikari's matches, with this one and many of her matches against Tomoko Kuzumi being examples. The submissions put Hikari out of her element, which kept this match from being anything more than good.

4/26 Kokawa 1st Round: Cuty Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai. This was good while it lasted, but it was way too short, especially considering Kansai was the one doing the job. The highlight was Cuty doing her Destiny Hammer off the top to the floor, which she almost never does. The finish saw Kansai try her Splash Mountain, but Cuty countered with a 2 kaiten ibe gatame (Toyota roll) for the win. 4:09. *3/4

Miko: A surprising match. Not only did Suzuki unload alot of offense on Kansai and manage for the most part to stay one step ahead of her, but she counteds the Splash Mountain for the flash pin. It did look an awful lot like Kansai's shoulder was up, which of course was the point. Kansai did the job, but in a way that kept her strong, especially since she kicked out of all of Cuty's big moves before the ending.

4/27 Takayama Round 2: Commando Bolshoi vs. Cuty Suzuki. This wasn't a bad match, but it was incredibly mediocre and very short. They weren't blowing spots, but too many spots didn't hit their mark. I guess I shouldn't except much given that the building was almost totally empty. 6:13. *1/2

Miko: I liked the ending on this match. Bolshoi uses the uranage off the top rope, but Cuty does the current sexy counter, reversing Bolshoi's cover into a submission. However, Bolshoi reversed it back into the crooked headscissors.

JWP Official Release VOL. 2 JWP Fighting Video Tape Zensedai Tournament VOL. 2

4/27 Takayama Round 2: Rieko Amano vs. Devil Masami. Devil's disinterest in putting over the younger wrestlers was all too apparent once again. She just wasn't into this match at all. She sold along the way and did the job in the end, but she didn't do it in a way that really made Amano look impressive. It was obvious that Devil took this match as something she was stuck doing rather than something that needed to be done for the good of the company. They stalled a lot early, and when they finally started doing something it was very slow-paced and deliberate. Amano was fine, but there isn't much you can do with Devil when she's in this kind of mood. Hikari put Amano over, but Devil just happened to lose this match. 17:03. *1/4

Miko: The camera angle was annoying. Why was it tilted? I liked the earlier Devil match better. Amano had trouble pulling off her different flying armbars on Devil. Devil's multiple powerbomb was way too slow. Amano won by pulling off an armbar out of a Devil powerbomb, one of the currently popular counters. Amano worked hard in the match, but the pace was slow and Devil just didn't seem as into the match.

Note: The other two matches from this tape, Amano vs. Miyaguchi and Amano vs. Bolshoi aired in full on Battle Station

Battle Station JWP 5/20/98 May Series Every Woman taped 5/10/98 Osaka IMP Hall

Erika Watanabe vs. Kayoko Haruyama. Watanabe won this with a diving elbow drop. 12:01 (0:54 aired).

Commando Bolshoi & Kayoko Haruyama vs. Sari Osumi & Erika Watanabe. Haruyama got her revenge here, pinning Watanabe with a diving body press. 9:14 (1:53 aired).

JWP & Battlarts Mixed Tag Match: Hikari Fukuoka & Alexander Otsuka (Battlarts) vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts). This was a cool mixed match because it was fairly serious and the men and women actually wrestled each other. Unfortunately, there was no heat and the pacing was way too even. 19:29 **3/4

Jason: It was very cool to see a mixed match worked mostly serious with the Battlarts guys actually selling for Fukuoka and Kuzumi. The only parts that weren't too serious were the comedy parts with Ishikawa trying to get Fukuoka in the ring, and after the match when Otsuka and Ishikawa were pummelling each other with smiles on their faces. The rest of the match was worked serious as far as I could tell. You are right about the heat. The fans came with their mouths taped up, again, when they should have been popping huge when the women were wrestling the men. The only thing that disturbed me was Ishikawa trying to pin Fukuoka. He had this sick smile/grin on his face when he pinned Fukuoka, and to me it looked like the same grin male dogs get when they are trying to hump somebody's leg. I can see a male wrestler being fascinated by Fukuoka, but I though it was too much for Ishikawa to try to pin her.

Keith: I disagree that this match was fairly serious. The look on Ishikawa an Otsuka's faces in

anticipation of stepping into the ring with the girls revealed the proverbial story. For me, the storyline was more comedic when it should've been more of a "teaching" their mat skills thing for the Battlarts guys. Hikari was the best in this environment because it allowed her to "develop" a personality for once in a match. One cool spot had Hikari dancing on Ishikawa's hands like a punk girl. Another one had her telling Otsuka "Ike! Ike!" which means "fucking go!" in Japanese (sidenote: "Ike" is

essentially the impolite command form of "iku" which means "to go." It's only used by men and drunks, so hearing Hikari to command a guy to "fucking go" demonstrates her strong personality in the match). For Kuzumi though who has been in "comedy mixed matches" before, she looked totally out of place, perhaps embarassed. It exposed her lack of personality. Comedy matches should really be used to develop a different side of a wrestler, something to enhance their identity either vocally or with bodily motions. Only Hikari performance was something I didn't expect in this match. She can't match the Toyota of old in terms of intensity, but she might have been able to outperform the current Toyota, doing gestures to involve the crowd, rather than soley relying on her high spots. It might've saved her neck and career in the long run. Heck, Austin and the Rock are able to get away with vocals and a few gestures to save their fading or lacking wrestling skills, why can't the women do the same?

Michael: Kuzumi and especially Hikari didn't look too comfortable here. Ishikawa being obsessed with Hikari didn't fly with me and turned parts of the match into a joke.

Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya. A non-descript match as it was decent, but nothing really stood out about it. 15:12 (6:38 aired). **

Michael: Kanako stood out in that killer yellow outfit. As far as the actual match goes, it was decent but not memorable.

Zensedai Tournament Semifinal: Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. This match was way too long. The work was good, but it was totally lacking in the mental aspects. I mean, the psychology, build, and storyline were pretty much non-existent. This was really disappointing because at this point an Amano vs. Miyaguchi match should always be *** or better. 30:00 plus 2:07 overtime. **1/4

Jason: There was virtually no selling or psychology in this match. Amano seemed to forget to sell her leg numerous times after Miyaguchi had worked it over for a significant periods of time. For instance, Amano just popped right up and ran up the turnbuckle at one point. She also kicked with her leg that was supposed to be injured. The only thing that they sold well was exhaustion, which isn't hard to sell in this long of a match. There was some slow points to the match, particularly the first five minutes where Amano just tried to avoid getting hurt by Miyaguchi's dropkicks and forearm strikes. Amano just waiting for the submission period made some sense, but she could have worked a little on Miyaguchi's arm in the first five minutes. As you wrote, the match was too long. They could have achieved *** rating by going half the time, speeding the match up, and using proper logic.

Michael: I like Amano, but seeing her in over 30 minute singles matches on this show and the next show was a bit much.

Battle Station JWP 5/28/98

JWP May Series Every Woman taped 5/17/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Sari Osumi vs. Tomiko Sai. This wasn't very good at all, although Osumi looked decent. They didn't really blow any spots, but as you'd expect they weren't smooth and the match didn't really flow. They did more spots than you'd expect in a rookie style match, but this led to some hesitation. Sai showed some Judo technique, but her spots looked very raw and rough. 9:21 (2:50 aired).

Erika Watanabe vs. Kayoko Haruyama. A really basic match with neither showing any kind of a move set. This was really bad even by rookie match standards. 12:05 (2:46 aired).

James: Watanabe would look better in a rugby scrum than a wrestling ring.

Sari Osumi & Kayoko Haruyama vs. Kanako Motoya & Erika Watanabe. Osumi tried to work a regular set of spots with Motoya, but they blew a few spots and Osumi was out of position for one of Motoya's flying moves. This was actually worse than the previous two matches in a way because they tried to do a lot more, but weren't able to pull the spots off. Motoya isn't close to the level where she could save this, but I'm not sure that Jaguar could have made this a good match. Watanabe did more of her defensive lineman shoulder attacks. I might be able to tollerate the facts that Watanabe is deliberate, awkward, and so far awful in the ring, if she didn't look like a cross between Yuki Nabeno and Akemi Torisu. 15:40 (6:33 aired). 1/2*

Jason: Nah, I don't think anybody can tolerate Watanabe being deliberate, awkward and awful in the ring. A hybrid of Nabeno and Torisu - "shudder".

Michael: The spot where Haruyama tried to do that sit down waist lock with Sari onto Motoya was pathetic since Haruyama collapsed trying to lift Sari and Kanako just laid there forever waiting

for them to redo it. This is where a veteran needed to tell them to kick Kanako or some needed to step up and do something so Kanako didn't look so bad just laying there forever while they reset the spot.

Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Miyaguchi & Tomoko Kuzumi. This match was worse than expected because no one was fired up (actually, in points they seemed to just be going through the motions) and Miyaguchi & Kuzumi strayed from what they do best. Cuty didn't look good here, as she wrestled like she was sick or something (no stamina, lack of power, etc.). The match was good when Hikari's team was doing their high spots, but what they did before the spots was not smart wrestling. For instance, you could make a case that doing someone else's signature move on them is good psychology, but if that move is a giant swing and you are half their size then it doesn't make much sense to try it. Both Kuzumi & Miyaguchi tried to giant swing Devil anyway, but the best results they got was Miyaguchi barely getting Devil around a few times. The highlight of the match was Kansai Splash Mountaining Kuzumi onto Miyaguchi then Devil Jumbo suplexing Hikari onto both. Kuzumi's Toyota-esque springboard tope con hilo was also pretty choice. Cuty pinned the champion Hikari with a Dragon suplex. 17:51. **

Jason: It looked like they were just going through the motions to kill time, with Cuty pinning Fukuoka being the only thing that came out of the match. You're right about the Giant Swing...it looked pathetic.

Zensedai (the whole generation) Tournament Final: Rieko Amano vs. Commando Bolshoi. All these Zensedai matches had these weird rules called "minute by minute rules" where there were 5 minute periods under "only give up" rules in between periods of puroresu rules. Amano carried this match and it was impressive that the work was this good for this long. The problem was they were out there a ridiculous for these two 34+ minutes, so they "had to" kill time by staying in submissions WAY TOO LONG. This was a submission oriented match, which was fine. The problem is that you simply can't do that style match if you aren't going to put the submissions over. What on earth made The Damn Clown think she should stay in legitimate finishers forever and barely puts them over? Can you imagine in RINGS if Maeda decided to just lay there in a submission for 2 minutes at a time because he might blow up if he expended too much energy jerking around and trying to make his way to the ropes? I give Bolshoi credit for being able to work a match that is totally out of her element, but anyone who would book someone who isn't remotely a shooter type in a 34+ minute submission oriented match has a few screws loose. I know that at least part of the problem is that JWP is running out of wrestlers and no one is going to attend their shows if they make their fans sit through an hour of Watanabe, Haruyama, Sai, and Osumi. However, taking the women who are capable of good matches so far out of their element by making the matches twice as long as they should be just isn't the answer. Amano eventually made Bolshoi submit in overtime to win the tournament. 30:00 plus 4:03 overtime. **

Smith: Amano had Bolshoi in the jujigatame so many times that I lost count, yet you wouldn't know it if you only watched the overtime and saw Bolshoi have no problem with her arm.

Jason: After watching this match you would think Bolshoi was the "Six-Million Dollar Clown". She finally submitted to Amano after 34+ minutes of a match where Amano had her in her jujigatame for a great portion of the time. It really made Amano look like she couldn't put Bolshoi away with her submission, and the jujigatame is a submission that should make anybody who gets caught in it submit very quick unless they get a rope break. Bolshoi just laid in the middle of the ring for too long, thus ruining the credibility of the hold.

Battle Station JWP 6/17/98 JWP June Series THE POWER UNIT

taped 6/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Sari Osumi vs. Tomiko Sai. What aired didn't look all that bad. Sai is really small, but she seems to have some potential. That said, Osumi was primarily responsible for the what little quality this match contained. 14:42 (2:27 aired).

Commando Bolshoi & Sari Osumi vs. Kayoko Haruyama & Erika Watanabe. This didn't look good at all, but it was probably better than the opener. 12:39 (2:53 aired).

Miko: The rookies looked like rookies, and Bolshoi didn't look all that sharp at times either.

Rieko Amano vs. Kanako Motoya. Amano carried the match. Kanako showed good submission knowledge, and did a good job of adapting to Amano's style. My main gripe is that the sequence leading up to the double knock down needed to be stiffer. This was another 30:00 Amano match, luckily under the typical rules, but since I actually wouldn't have minded seeing the whole thing they showed less than 1/3 of the 30:00 draw. 30:00 (8:52 aired). *** range

Miko: The theme of this e match was submissions, with Amano working Motoya's taped up knee and Motoya working on Amano's arm. I like both wrestlers, but this match did not do a lot for me.

They didn't seem to work up to the submissions, and not much variety was shown.

Dynamite Kansai vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. A very good match that suffered a lot from a completely dead crowd. I realize that almost every women's crowd is dead these days, but the fans needed to get behind Miyaguchi for this match to truly work. Instead, what we got was an indifferent response to Miyaguchi really pushing Kansai. The match could have been excellent, but pacing was too slow and Kansai's bump taking was weak because her athleticism appears to be way down. The selling was probably the strongest point of the match. Even though Kansai won with her Splash Mountain as always, the match seemed to just kind of end. 19:24. ***1/2

Michael: Miyaguchi's selling was awesome, but Kansai's selling of her arm sucked. Miyaguchi was using all kinds of armbars on Kansai, both in and out of the ring, and Kansai didn't even sell them once she went back on offense. Kansai did sell her leg well once Tomoko switched from attacking the arm tot the leg.

Miko: I liked this match more than Mike did. Tomoko attacked strongly before Kansai even had her

robe off, working a variety of armbar submissions as well as brawling outside the ring with Kansai. At one point when the were outside the ring, Tomoko had a step over armbar on Kansai, so Kansai used an umbrella to hook Tomoko's leg to break up the hold. Later, Tomoko hit the ref in order to keep attacking outside the ring. Overall, I liked the way the match built. Early on, Tomoko was challenging Kansai, but as the match wore on she had to counter more and more as Kansai picked up steam. Finally, on the third try Kansai got the Splash Mountain for the win.

JWP Tag Titles: Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki. This match got off to a hot start and stayed hot throughout. It was a strong match almost entirely because of the work and high spots. The execution was also quite good. Hikari has been way better in tag this year because she can get away with just doing her spots a lot better in that format. Hikari & Kuzumi were the stand outs because they have all the great spots, and Devil & Cuty didn't hurt the match. In fact, Devil was in the mood to work, and she's still no slouch on the rare occassion she fires up. Devil was clearly the dominant force, but she didn't go overboard with her no selling. The finish saw Cuty in trouble after being Dragon suplexed by Kuzumi. Kuzumi hit her Victory Star drop finisher, but Cuty rolled through and pinned Kuzumi to take the tag titles. Matches like this are what we should see from the top wrestlers in JWP all the time because it wasn't so good because of the story or psychology or anything like that. It was just work and spots, which when you are this familiar with the opposition is a matter of firing up and not screwing things up. Unfortunately, the only wrestlers who seem to be able to do this on a consistent basis are the NJ juniors. 19:41. ****

Miko: I usually like JWP tag matches like this, and I think this one was at least ****. The action was fast-paced with nice spots that were a lot more difficult than just simple double teams. There were some painful looking powerbombs, nothing like Nash's drop bombs. The facials of Hikari and Devil in particular were good. Devil was her usual overpowering self, but Cuty looked a step slow and seemed to be showing her age more.

Battle Station JWP 7/22/98

JWP July Series taped 7/12 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

JWP '98 New Faces War Blue Star Cup '98: Erika Watanabe vs. Kayoko Haruyama. A really bad match. It was extremely sloppy and the work was really loose. 14:26 (3:39 aired).

JWP '98 New Faces War Blue Star Cup '98: Tomiko Sai vs. Kayoko Haruyama. Sai looked decent doing her Judo, but Haruyama was bad. Haruyama once again blew a jackknife hold. Haruyama suffered a bloody nose, but she won her second straight match. 13:38 (3:34 aired).

Sari Osumi vs. Yoshiko Tamura (Neo). Tamura looked good here, and was largely responsibly for this being better than expected, although Osumi was decent. Who knows how good Tamura could be if she had good opposition to work with and was in a promotion that gave her some respect. Tamura used a nadare shiki no double wrist armsault then her regular double wrist armsault for the win. 12:45 (9:55 aired). **1/4

Michael: It seems like everytime Yoshiko works against an opponent from another league she's inspired to put on a pretty good match, and usually does. Too bad she's buried in Neo because she could really take off if given the chance. It's not that Yoshiko is lazy in Neo, but she isn't given the chance to shine like she is when she works outside of Neo. JWP would be the perfect home for her.

Now that I have caught up on everything, I think Osumi improved less then I had originally thought and this match was good due mostly to Tamura. Had Sari stayed around I don't doubt that she would've continued improving, but this match showed how good Tamura can be when given the

chance.

Miko: It really is a shame Sari retired, as she was just starting to show her potential. My main quibble would be the ending. Osumi does her round-the-world missle dropkicks and Tamura barely kicks out. It would have made more sense for Tamura to roll out of the way of a diving Osumi than to jump up and catch Osumi on the top and double wrist armsault her off.

Kanako Motoya vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. These two worked to their ability, so it was quite good even though neither are strong in the mental aspects. The match had more submissions then you would expect, as Kanako once again showed her "shooter" skills. The problem with the match was that it just kind of ended. It looked like they might have went home early because Miyaguchi could have hurt her neck when Motoya countered her suplex by planting her with a nasty DDT. However, it didn't look like Miyaguchi gave any signal to go home early and she seemed alright after the match. Still, it made no sense that Miyaguchi would get up and pin Motoya with her suichoku rakka shiki brainbuster right after Motoya came back with an incredible DDT. 14:13 (10:50 aired). ***1/4

Miko: Good match. Motoya is the one being surly now, and she played it better than I expected. I liked the spot where Kanako went for the cover, but Miyaguchi countered with a V-1 Armlock. Kanako sold it and got the rope break, then slapped Tomoko, which was a nice bitchy touch. Motoya worked her leglocks pretty well. They should give her a win with them sometime. The weak point was the selling. At one point, Miyaguchi screamed and sold an achilles tendon hold so much you thought she would have to get to the ropes or give up, but would up doing neither. I would have liked the ending better if Kanako had not planted Tomoko with a really nasty looking DDT because I would have believed Miyaguchi's flash comeback into the brainbuster a little more.

Michael: Nobody uses a DDT as a finisher, and it's not the first time I've seen somebody get up right after one. I think the finish was just supposed to be a "surprise" one so that Kanako wouldn't lose much by jobbing here.

As far as the DDT goes, I know it wasn't your point, but if you watch enough crappy US indy wrestling, which of course ECW is a part of no matter what some people will try to tell you, you'll find plenty of examples to "justify" everything bad, dumb, and/or wrong about wrestling.

Super Heel Devil Masami vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. A pointless match that seemed to be over before it began. Devil was at her no selling worst here. My least favorite spot was when Kuzumi revenged Devil by putting her in a sleeper on the floor, so Devil decided to no-sell it and run Kuzumi into the security rail. The Super Heel gimmick has to go because all it does is make for bad matches and hurt the opposition by showing they are no match for her. This booking was no better than what Nash & Hogan do to hold the quality WCW wrestlers down and keep their spots. It's probably worse because at least those two don't actually step in the ring with the guys they are holding down and make them job in a non-competitive squash. Another reason it's probably worse is that while Devil would have obvious motives for booking a match this way, Devil isn't the one who booked the match, so someone who wasn't involved in the match actually thought this was a good idea. Any booker that would job out Kuzumi in four minutes as this point in her career seriously needs to have their head examined. *

Miko: The Superheel gimmick killed this. Why they would have Devil squash Kuzumi like this is beyond me.

Keith: A total wash. The Super Heel gimmick is a terrible copy of a bad 'shroom dosage. This was a complete waste of Kuzumi's talents. You could see how desperate Masami was to get heat for her match. She resorted to old style heel tactics, even doing that lame Dr. Death shake the guardrail to "startle the audience." The fast sleeper hold finish sucked because it didn't seem like Kuzumi gave up. I kept wondering whether Masami would suddenly revert back to being plain old Devil if Kuzumi took a bottle of water and sprayed it on her paint covered face? At least it would make the gimmick somewhat humorous, redeeming it's utter stupidity.

Hikari Fukuoka & Rieko Amano vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki. This match had the work and the spots, but lacked the psychology and, of course, the heat. Hikari & Amano made the match. Cuty was actually good here. In particular, the timing of when to use her spots was right on. Kansai went with the flow instead of shaping the match, which is what she's been doing all year, but it makes no sense because she's the only one in most of these matches that has a grasp on psychology. Kansai was good here, but the point is that she could have been so much more. In KAORU-esque fashion, Hikari did an Orihara moonsault 20 seconds into the match. One cool spot was Cuty doing a diving footstomp off the shoulders of Kansai, who was sitting on the top rope. ***1/4

Keith: I wish Rieko would focus her attack more, but other than that I'm usually pleased with her work. They did an interesting storyline in the match at one point where Fukuoka & Amano essentially cut Kansai off from Cuty. This made sense because Fukuoka & Amano are smaller, and Amano doesn't have that much credibility against Kansai in a one on one situation. It allowed Rieko and Hikari to hit a variety of spots and look somewhat credible in double teaming Kansai. In turn, Kansai didn't lose credibility by selling for them. In addition, she didn't have to fill in her "share" of the spots, being that she's somewhat limited offensively. This portion of the match allowed us to give Rieko and Hikari a much better chance of defeating Kansai and Cuty. Hikari and Rieko did all the work, while Kansai and Cuty sold. Overall, it was a good booking strategy because everyone came out looking fairly strong, especially with Kansai and Cuty eventually getting the pin as the "veteran" team of the two, and the actual wrestling was better because Hikari and Amano got more offense in.

Battle Station JWP 8/12/98

JWP July Series taped 7/31/98 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan

Obacchi Iizuka (Jd') & Erika Watanabe vs. Tomiko Sai & Kazuko Fujiwara (Jd'). This wasn't good at all. Sai was the best of the 4, but no one was at all impressive. Obacchi once again used a vegetable on the opposition. 13:29 (3:42).

Sumie Sakai (Jd') vs. Kayoko Haruyama. Sakai looked good here, but Haruyama has yet to approach decent. 9:33 (2:24 aired).

Kanako Motoya & Yoshiko Tamura (Neo) vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita. This was a very good match with LCO adapting their style to meet the needs of the opposition. It was mainly work and spots, with surprisingly little brawling. The execution could have been a little better, but it wasn't what you'd call a problem. Motoya & Tamura were more competitive than you'd expect. ***1/2

Michael: I disagree with Motoya & Tamura being more competitive than expected. I expected them to get in a good amount of offense since LCO wasn't wrestling in Neo and Yamamoto isn't going to bring them in to just roll over one of his girls when he already has Devil to do that. One problem with the young girls spots that take a long time to set up is that they don't give the opponent a reason to sell long enough that they can't avoid them. The reason Motoya could stay down for veteran Shimoda's railing drop is that Mita rammed a chair into her stomach just before Mima came off the top rope.

Mayumi Ozaki (Oz Academy) & Rieko Amano vs. Dynamite Kansai & Tomoko Miyaguchi. This was really good because these four worked to their potential. Ozaki's inclusion made a striking difference because she is the only one that has worked in JWP this year who has instilled story and psychology on a consistent basis. Actually, no one else has even tried to instill story and psychology on an inconsistent basis. Anyway, Ozaki also added the edge that has been sorely lacking in JWP since she left. She did things to further the rivalry between her and Kansai and get heat, although once again there was no heat on the show. One thing that added to the rivalry and got the match started on a good note was Kansai offering Ozaki a handshake and Ozaki looking like she was going to accept it, but then offering to shake the hand of Miyaguchi, who she has no beef with, instead. Amano followed Ozaki's lead by also refusing to shake Kansai's hand. Unfortunately, Kansai doesn't innitiate storyline or psychology in tags this year, but she picked up on what Ozaki was doing here and played off of it. For instance, Kansai kept trying to punt Ozaki, but Ozaki would just stand there and block them, so Kansai had to come up with a different method to get her kicks in. Thus, she forearmed Amano off the apron and Miyaguchi put Ozaki in a camel clutch so Kansai could take free shots. Amano & Miyaguchi were just here to work, which was fine for this match because much of the story revolved around Ozaki vs. Kansai, but isn't fine overall because this is the case with all their matches from 1998. Miyaguchi was probably as stiff as she has ever been, which is kind of ironic since she was with Kansai rather than against her. Amano really dominated the mat, and looked quite good in doing so. However, the coolest spot was Miyaguchi's counter to Amano's matwork where she stood up out of Amano's attempted udehishigigyakujujigatame and did an inverted airplane spin. Ozaki was the best of the four, but it would be unfair to call anyone the worst. The match built pretty well and had good pacing. This didn't have the glamourous spots, but the spots were well ordered, well executed, and well sold. Amano pushed Kansai a lot, but Miyaguchi didn't really push Ozaki. Kansai was lying on her stomach after the match was over as she was really spent. The Oz Academy had lost the war when Kansai Splash Mountained Amano, but this didn't stop Ozaki from standing on top of her rival Kansai and posing to keep the program alive. 21:48. ****

Miko: I really liked this match. Ozaki and Dynamite were great, from the first snub during the handshakes to blocking each others moves early on. One thing I liked was Ozaki interacting with the crowd more. Kansai only really does that when she's getting ready for her finisher. It was annoying that Dynamite Kansai was in the jujigatame so long then didn't sell the arm after the rope break, but that's par for the course right now. I like Amano's jujigatame a lot because she gets the pressure around the wrist not the elbow. It's a little touch, but it makes it look a little more real. The finish was also very cool, with Ozaki so close to making the save.

JWP Tag Titles: Devil Masami & Cuty Suzuki vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi. This match was good for Fukuoka & Kuzumi's work and high spots. Even though the pacing was slower than they like, these two looked excellent. Cuty did next to nothing. Devil can't keep up with Hikari & Kuzumi these days, so she instilled a really slow pace. Not surprisingly, not much happened early, but it turned into a very good, albeit somewhat sloppy match. The highlight of the match was Kuzumi doing an unassisted springboard tope con hilo, which is really impressive considering her lack of size. Kuzumi not only pushed Devil, but she pinned her with her Victory Star drop, which Devil was, not surprisingly, unable to properly take the bump on. Hikari was shocked and elated that Kuzumi had pinned Devil to capture the titles (13th overall champions). 16:52. ***1/4

Michael: Far be it for me to defend someone who has been as selfish as Devil, but a lot of women have problems taking the bump on Kuzumi's Victory Star drop. In all honesty, Kuzumi should know better then to try it on someone as big as Devil. I know it's her finisher, but she used it on Devil before (not that she's won with it before) and Devil couldn't bump right on it. Kuzumi did recover enough to make the pin look good even though Devil popped right up after the 3. As far as Hikari being shocked goes, I think we were all shocked that Devil and not Cuty did the job.

Battle Station JWP 9/16/98

JWP & AJW Presents FIRE DAY, BURNING NIGHT taped 9/6 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

JWP vs. AJW sounds cool. However, the booking didn't utilize the AJW women well. The AJW women were also outshined in ring by the JWP women, but not in the manner you'd hope where AJW was great but JWP was greater. This was more like the AJW women were just there without much of a role, so they generally didn't put that much effort into it and just kind of fell back on their high spots.

FIRE DAY 9/6/98 Korakuen Hall Day Show

New Submission Queen Legend: Rieko Amano & Kumiko Maekawa (AJW) vs. Kanako Motoya & Hiromi Yagi (free). Ironically, the pro style spots in this match were actually better than the submissions. The work was good, although it was somewhat sloppy at least in part due to lack of familiarity (at least in recent times). Yagi was kind of off. She did work well with Amano, which isn't surprising since Yagi was the one that trained Amano in the submission style. This had tons of spots, but it lacked build and no one worked to their submissions. Actually, even though this was a "submission queen match," the two non submission queens, Motoya & Maekawa, seemed to go for pins every time. 18:04 (11:53 aired). **3/4

Miko: Exactly why they picked these teams for a match called "'New Submission Queen Legend" is a little mysterious to me. Maekawa wins with her kicks and Motoya with her german suplex. The mat work between Amano and Yagi was enjoyable, as they traded nice counters and reversals and seemed comfortable working together.

JWP & AJW Strongest Wars: Dynamite Kansai & Yumiko Hotta (AJW) vs. Devil Masami & Tomoko Miyaguchi. The match was alright, but no one was all that good. Miyaguchi, who worked stiff enough for the opposition to sell, was probably the best, and either Hotta or Devil was the worst. I wish Miyaguchi wouldn't have sold the strikes from Hotta that didn't hit her at all, as that always looks bad and this opposition doesn't even want to sell strikes that hit weakly. 17:15 (8:46 aired). **

Miko: My first impression was, "Wow, I really like everyone in this match except Hotta, so why does it seem really average?' I was hoping I just missed something or the editing was bad on the match, but no. Masami is just about done with her career except for those occasional matches when she decides to really work, and this wasn't one of them. I expect better from Kansai though, especially effort wise, as she's shown she can carry a match a lot better than she did here. JWP seems stalled because the younger wrestlers are stuck learning a lot of things on their own.

Cuty Suzuki & Hikari Fukuoka & Manami Toyota (AJW) vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW) & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW). Not surprisingly, this was a spotfest. Momoe was featured here because she was the one doing the job. Toyota & Kuzumi were the best of the six though. They both did unassisted swandive tope con hilos. Hikari & Momoe had some trouble working together, once again due to lack of familiarity with one another. Other than that they were good. Toyota' selling of Momoe's figure 4 was pathetic. For that matter, the selling on a whole was pathetic. Takahashi was, not surprisingly, outclassed. She isn't made for this style, so that only made things worse for her. Cuty is also outclassed by the others, but she was smart enough to blend in. She didn't do anything outstanding, but she kept the pace up and didn't hurt the match. Toyota and Hikari did a choice double team finisher where Toyota held Momoe on her shoulders so Hikari could do her kaiten shiki missile kick (somersault missile kick off the top). On impact, Toyota dropped Momoe into her Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex for the win. After the match Kuzumi apparently quit JWP and stormed off to the locker room. Cuty tried in vain to calm her down but Tomoko got away locked herself in a dressing room. This came off pretty well because this isn't something you'd expect to see in JWP. Everyone involved played their roles well; Kuzumi by acting genuinely pissed, Cuty in trying to console her, Devil and Kansai coming out of their rooms to see what was going on (Devil had a great look of bewilderment on her face), and even JWP president/owner Masatoshi Yamamoto in trying to downplay Kuzumi "quitting." This angle was quickly dropped, but they did a good job with it here. 20:41 (17:29 aired). ***1/2

Miko: I enjoyed this match alot. They kept the action moving, and the younger wrestlers got to get some offense in, though it was not always sold that well. There were a few miscues, but they were minor. Momoe looked really good for someone who just turned 18 not long ago. Manami still

can't sell submissions.

BURNING NIGHT 9/6/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Night Show

The Single 4 x 4 New JWP Announcement: Kuzumi vs. Cuty. Kuzumi attacked Cuty on the floor before the bell and they brawled on the bleachers to keep the heat in this new rivalry. Cuty did a her double footstomp off the stage, which was cool but she should not have comeback while they were out of the ring so the sneak attack could have been the excuse for Kuzumi making short work of her. The match length would have been fine if they did it right, but it was too short considering how they worked it. It was a pretty intense match, but that aspect went down several notches once they hit the ring. The main thing was that Kuzumi got the big win and they did another post match angle between Cuty & Kuzumi where Cuty slapped Kuzumi for something she said to her after the match. This led to a pull apart where Hikari, who is Kuzumi's regular tag partner, got in the ring and slapped Kuzumi. After they were separated Kansai went over to Kuzumi, seemingly to ask what was causing her to act this way, but Kuzumi pushed her away and stormed off to the locker room, leaving Hikari & Kansai in the ring with a puzzled look. 6:42 (5:16 aired). **

Miko: I don't remember seeing any sneak attacks like this since Ozaki was in JWP. It would be nice if they could push this edge with Kuzumi more. Oz Academy gave JWP a great heel edge, but with Ozaki in GAEA, that has been gone. A fun match to watch thanks to Kuzumi's intensity.

The Single 4 x 4 New JWP Announcement: Miyaguchi vs. Devil. Devil didn't seem to be into this match at all. She sold her leg big, but we don't see from what. What we did see was Devil no sell two of Miyaguchi's suichoku rakka shiki brainbusters in a row, which was horrible because Miyaguchi uses that move as a finisher. Miyaguchi scored the upset with a heel hold, which came off kind of flukish. Even though Miyaguchi beat the legend, no one seemed to care. 14:35 (7:29 aired). *1/2

Miko: I'm assuming Tomoko must really have been doing awful things to Devil's leg during the portion they edited out because it looks weird to see Devil selling her leg like it's about to fall off, but no selling two brainbusters, a move Miyaguchi uses as a finisher. Devil dragged this match down, but at least Miyaguchi picked up the win.

The Single 4 x 4 New JWP Announcement: Dynamite Kansai vs. Rieko Amano. Amano's work was really good. This should have been a really good match, but it was way too short and the finish came out of nowhere. Kansai stayed in Amano's udehishigigyakujujigatame way too long, like to the point she was killing off the move as much as The Damn Clown did in the tournament final on 5/17/98. Amano was incredibly determined, but it was not to be, and a fault of the match was that Kansai made this all too obvious. Kansai is putting much less effort into her matches these days. 9:55 (5:37 aired). **3/4

Miko: They never made you believe for a moment that Kansai was going to lose. Amano was what was memorable to me though, as she showed great determination and attacked aggressively.

The Single 4 x 4 New JWP Announcement: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Kanako Motoya. This got off to a very goofy start with each woman revenging each others trademark goofy spot by doing it right back. From there the work and spots got really good, and Motoya went La Magistral crazy. Hikari kicked out of 4 La Magistrals, and wound up beating Motoya with that move, which was really stupid because she's never used that before. It was the same crap she pulled on Amano earlier in the year. Both women showed good athleticism, and the match was very juniorish. It didn't flow all that well, and given it had Hikari, it was surely worse in unedited form, but in this form it was quite good. 15:37 (9:38 aired). ***1/4

Miko: Unlike Amano, Motoya doesn't have any big weapons that make me think she can beat Hikari, but the near falls from the La Magistral almost had me sold that Motoya had a chance.

Battle Station JWP 10/21/98 taped 10/11 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Rieko Amano vs. Yuki Lee (Free). Lee was making her first appearance on JWP TV, having left Jd', a company she was one of the original stars of, due to lack of push among other things. The match was better than you'd expect because Lee didn't screw up too much or too badly. Amano was as good as she always is, but she needs to focus her attack because the submission out of nowhere style doesn't work too well within a pro style match.

The match was basically a battle of the tough women, Amano using her shoot style submissions and Lee using her often unimpressive kicks. Not surprisingly, the spots were rolled out and the carry over selling was weak. At least the selling of the moves at the time they were being done was fine. Considering they weren't familiar with each other, they did a surprisingly good job of countering and blocking each others holds. I assume that lack of familarity, as well as the fact that Lee just isn't good, was the reason they kept this match short.

Lee actually did a few good things here. She did a surprisingly good job selling Amano's doushime sleeper.(1011jw01) She also did a sequence where she came right back with some type of a high back kick(1011jw05) after Amano had ducked her high kick then stepped over Amano's arm and rolled her into an udehishigigyakujujigatame.(1011jw06) The finish saw Amano stop Lee's nadare shiki move, and do a nadare shiki no udehishigigyakujujigatame for the first time in a TV match.(1011jw07) Lee did a great job with this, screaming in pain and tapping repeatedly from the second she hit the mat.(1011jw08) 8:45. **1/4

Cuty Suzuki vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori (Free). Shiratori made her JWP TV debut here (well, she'd actually been on WOWOW when she was a member of AJW, but that was two promotions ago, which is a ton for a Japanese wrestler that started out in the top promotion of their sex). I guess the main point of this match was shock value because it got off to a good start, but then logical booking was thrown out the window. No one expects, or probably wants, to see The Goddess or a highly attractive mere mortal like Cuty bleed, much less juice gushers, so that was the shock. The point of this match should have been to get Shiratori over as a heel because even though she's a free agent, she's basically only working in JWP, so it's like the same thing as her being a member of the league.

The match started off as it should, with Chikako dominating to get over in her new heel gimmick. The staple of her heel offense is beating her opponent with a kendo stick, which today was red so it would match her ring attire.(1011jw10) Shiratori is better off as a heel because she can kind of get away with being overly deliberate. Still, there were points in this match where it was obvious that both women had to think about what they were going to do next. Shiratori has the heel facials down to some extent, but again you can tell she still has to think about making them. Overall, she appears to be enjoying herself and has definitely improved, but she needs to hit people harder and look meaner because she's too divine and too skinny to be convincing as a heel unless she's tougher, nastier, or more arrogant than the rest. Anyway, Shiratori was kicking Cuty's tail, and it was a good brawl as far as the pacing and selling went. If anything, the pacing was too slow, but Cuty was doing a really good job of putting over the beating, so I'm not going to complain.(1011jw11)

Shiratori used a metal object on Cuty by the bleachers, and Cuty did a blade job that would make the great Hiroshi Hase proud.(1011jw12) Cuty was leaving a trail of blood as she slowly crawled back to the ring. After being dominated for the first 11 minutes, Cuty avoided two kendo stick shots, with the ref getting KO'd by the second. She came back with her Dragon suplex, but just like you've seen 10000 times too many in the US, for once in Japan there was no ref to count. Then came the part of the match I had a problem with. We know Cuty isn't too tough, so why have her beat Shiratori bloody? I know you are thinking here we go again with Lorefice complaining about how horrible it is to see Shiratori bleed, but this time it was uncalled for and bad booking. The problem with JWP booking as a whole is that they are too concerned with protecting the veterans and not concerned enough that their promotion is going to fold because the average fan doesn't see the Kuzumi and Miyaguchi's of the world as stars. Here you have a woman who is retiring in two months, and instead of having Shiratori beat her and become the new Super Idol of JWP, or having Motoya beat Cuty since Shiratori is a heel, they not only keep having Cuty beat all the women she always beat, but here they have her beating Shiratori at her own game. If you look at any pro sport, it's generally true that it's acceptable to let a star go and not sign another star to replace them if you have a prospect to replace them, but unacceptable if you don't. The fans won't expect the prospect to be as good as the star from day one, just to have the potential to be about as good if not better. JWP did the right thing by having AFKA Kuzumi beat Hikari for the title, even though it's not Hikari at 100%, because it's the passing of the torch. In this most other cases though, JWP has failed to make the young wrestlers look credible, either by having the veterans still continually beat them or by having the veterans lose in an unconvincing, flukish fashion. There's the old saying you live by the sword, you die by the sword, but Shiratori is just in the beginning stages of being a heel, so she needs to have that life last a lot longer before she's killed off. I mean, this wasn't even 15 minutes of fame. Now, I don't really have a problem with Cuty winning here since this was their first match, but let her win the way she always does, through clean wrestling, and then have Shiratori come back and beat her in December before Cuty is gone forever (or as long as retirements in wrestling last). Instead, if you take a look at the JWP results for December, you'll find that Cuty was not pinned once during her last month in wrestling.

The scene where Chikako was about to bleed was funny. Apparently Lee was going to be the one to cut her, and she kept going over to blade Shiratori, but Cuty wasn't finished with the attack that was "going to" leave Shiratori bloody. Thus, you had Lee preparing to cut Shiratori, but then Cuty would come in with a chair so Lee would hold off, then Lee would be ready again, but Cuty would use a metal object on Shiratori. Like I said, this whole sequence should never have happened because Shiratori should not have bled in this match. I mean, when was the last time Cuty made anyone bleed and what was the point of her starting now? Unlike Cuty's cut, at least Shiratori's cut was high on her forehead, so the chances of a visible scar are much slimmer.

The highlight of the match was Cuty avoiding Shiratori's kendo stick shot, and locking the kendo stick against Shiratori's neck on her Dragon suplex instead of locking the full nelson.(1011jw14) This doesn't read well, but it was a cool spot that I've never seen before. Cuty was not the least bit happy that the referee wouldn't count the fall because the kendo stick was involved.(1011jw15) The finish saw Lee pretty much hand the kendo stick to Cuty, who gave her a lame kick when she took it. Shiratori tried to cut Cuty off on the top, but Cuty pushed her off, so in the typical spot that for some reason always makes me think of the Otani vs. Ultimo J Crown semi, Shiratori got up and tried it again. Normally, the wrestler on the top rope doesn't have a kendo stick, but Cuty did so she Shiratori walked right into the stick then Cuty Destiny Hammered her for the pinfall. A good solid old fashioned brawl that WWF fans probably wouldn't like it because they don't have any Spanish announcers in Japan, so neither woman could take the Nestea plunge through their table. 15:55. **1/2

Miko: This match was really a bloody brawl with wrestling moves thrown in, and was presumably designed to help get Shiratori over more as a heel. It was a weird match for JWP, since both bladed, and at one point the ref got hit with Chikako's kendo stick and could not make the count after Cuty Dragon suplexed Shiratori. Also, the ref was more involved than usual. She refused to count when someone would go for the pin after a hit with the kendo stick. In addition, when the two wrestlers were fighting over the stick, she got in there and took it away from them.(1011jw13) I enjoyed this match. It was a nice change of pace, and Shiratori looked good.

James: This was a good match, but I could tell in advance the moment when they were going to blade. Surely if you are going to bleed in a match you should do it at the right time and in the right place so that the marks think it's real. Perhaps Shiratori should have sliced herself because the camera being pointed at Yuki when you could see that she had something resembling a blade in her hand rather gave away that Shiratori would be bleeding in a few seconds. Still, Shiratori's blading was still much better than that of the Big Boss Man in his pathetically bad garbage wrestling routine with the Undertaker at the last WWF PPV.

KANAKO OCTOBER ROAD "ONE:" Kanako Motoya vs. Jaguar Yokota (Jd'). Jaguar once again proved she's not selfish and conceited like some of the major stars, rather she's the comsummate professional who is more than willing to do what's necessary for the good of the genre. Even though she had "nothing to gain" because Motoya isn't in Jd', Jaguar sold a lot for Motoya. The wrestling in this match was on a different, higher level than that in the previous two. Jaguar, of course, carried the match and showed no signs of being over the hill even though she was retiring in two months. It's amazing that a woman her age is still as flexible as any woman in the business.

Motoya got off to a quick start with a cross body off the apron, but Jaguar took over almost immediately with a quebrada. I thought Kana needed to get a little more offense in initially, but it was alright that she didn't since they built to her comeback. They did a lot of solid submission wrestling in this one that both women put over. If anything, Jaguar put it over more than Motoya because she's just a superior seller.(1011jw20) Jaguar was really proficient in everything she did, really controlling all aspects of the match. It really looked like an old time match the way Jaguar would do things on the mat that forced Motoya to go with them, rather than the usual immediate voluntary cooperation you see in today's matches. It was kind of slow in points, but had fast action when it needed to.

Motoya really needs to start using some dangerous moves because no one is going to buy that the legendary Jaguar is going to get pinned in Motoya's La Magistral, or any other move in Motoya's arsenal for that matter. She added a new locomotion cross arm shiki Northern Light suplex,(1011jw19) which was really cool and would definitely be more credible as a finisher than anything she wins with. Jaguar finished Motoya off with her shuttle loop buster(1011jw22) followed by her fisherman buster. It was a good match even though I never believed for a second that Motoya would win, which is more her fault than Jaguar's. After viewing this match, I have even more respect for Jaguar, if that is even possible. Kanako, of course, went on to lose to Takako Inoue & Etsuko Mita in the other parts of her job to the veterans series. 14:12. ***1/4

Miko: A veteran vs. junior match with SELLING by the vet. Wow.;^) Jaguar made this match by giving Kanako a good amount of time on offense, and selling it well. Motoya only had one 'Just maybe...' moment, when Jaguar missed a top rope move and Motoya wrapped her up in a La Magistral, but that has more to do with Motoya's lack of credible finishing moves. Jaguar tried

some shoot submissions, but they weren't too good. However, this set up the section later on when

Motoya started countering and reversing them. Motoya uses shoot submissions more in her matches, so this match showed one area where she was better than Jaguar. Jaguar is far better at working junior matches than Toyota, and this match once again showed it.

Dynamite Kansai & Commando Bolshoi & Erika Watanabe vs. Devil Masami & Tomoko Miyaguchi & Tomiko Sai. The purpose of this match was to showcase the young talent. The problem was that the match made it all the more obvious that their young aren't that talented. Watanabe is severly lacking in athletic ability, and has yet to show any wrestling skill. Sai is just too puny for women like Devil & Kansai to credible sell for. In this match, Kansai no sold her missile kick,(10119801) and it was a credible no sell because Sai just doesn't have any power behind or impact on her spots. The match seemed to last an eternity because Sai & Watanabe logged most of the ring time. Miyaguchi was the only wrestler in this match that looked good. She scored the win here, pinning Watanabe with a diving knee drop. I assume the idea behind putting this match on after the Jaguar match was to make it seem like the Watanabe & Sai were in an important match, but it just further exposed their weaknesses. 19:52. *

Miko: 5'0", 90 lb Tomiko Sai is so much smaller and thinner than Kansai that Dynamite no-selling her spots doesn't bother me. Devil was not in the match much, mostly helping from the outside and playing off Dynamite. They gave the rookies a few moments where they could possible score a pin, mainly when Devil or Dynamite leveled their opponent illegaly, then said, 'Ok, pin them'.;^) The rookies still didn't look all that good, but the match itself worked for me.

James: Pretty bad match, but what do you expect when you have two people in there that nobody wanted to sell for? Even Bolshoi, who is barely any bigger than Sai, started getting mean with her when she tagged in.

SHE IS NEW "J:" Hikari Fukuoka vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. This series degenerated even further to the point that they are now deeply emersed in the dark realm of mediocrity. The beginning was as lame as always, but the reason the match wasn't anything special was that they didn't deliver the great spots to the extent they normally do. As always, neither could carry the match. The spots they did were terribly ordered. The match was somewhat sloppy, with way more weak looking spots than you'd normally get from these two, especially since both are very strong when it comes to execution. There also seemed to be some miscommunication between the two. The highlight was Hikari chasing after Kuzumi and eventually catching up enough to abisegeri her.(10119803) The lowlight was Kuzumi doing a nadare shiki no released German suplex where Hikari landed on her neck. I can't describe how nasty this looked, and you have to remember it's even worse for Hikari since the reason she is retiring is that she has a herniated disk in her neck from taking bumps on it for all these years. All I can say is the result of the bar constantly having to be raised is that people start trying to top everyone else by using spots that no sane human being would be willing to take. Some people would say how great it was that Hikari killed herself for our enjoyment, but what enjoyment is there in someone getting injured and how can I enjoy Hikari now that she's retiring due to a bad neck? A few minutes later, Kuzumi dropped Hikari on her neck twice with her Michinoku driver II, which couldn't have helped things. Hikari was unable to kick out of the second Michinku driver II, which meant Kuzumi scored her first ever singles win over Hikari. I thought it would be a triumphant occassion when Kuzumi finally got this win, but all I could think about was Hikari's neck and how disappointing this match was. 14:50. **1/4

Miko: A good match despite some missed spots. There was one sequence in particular where they were on the top rope facing each other and didn't seem to know what they were supposed to do. Kuzumi fell off the top, then they both raced over to another corner and got on the top rope again.

Kuzumi jumped over Fukoka to land in the ring then tried to run over to the opposite corner, but got caught by Fukuoka. On the other hand, there were some really great near falls that kept the suspense of the match up. At one point, Kuzumi caught Fukuoka on the top and did a weird German Suplex

off the top. Basicaly she ended up standing on the top facing the crowd, with her legs outside the ropes, so when she suplexed Fukuoka back in, Hikari practically landed on the top of her head. Kuzumi went to the top immediately, apparently to do a move when Fukuoka stood up, but Hikari wasn't moving, which left you thinking that Fukuoka may have really gotten hurt. Despite the loose moments, the finish made the match worthwhile. Good near falls and counters into pins that really had me wondering who would win.

James: It's just as well we won't see any more Kuzumi vs. Fukuoka matches because

they were in danger of reaching the pitfull level of Pinocchio vs. Chef Rockhead. I think these two were having an off day, which would help to explain why their spots didn't look as good as they normally would.

Battle Station JWP taped 11/15/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Tomiko Sai vs. Kayoko Haruyama. This was a definite improvement over what I've seen from these two in the past. Haruyama put some weight onto her already out of shape looking body, but her wrestling was better so I'm not going to complain. Sai's wrestling was also better. For the most part, this was a solid but unspectacular match. Both women showed much better offense than they have in the past, so I wouldn't really call this rookie style even though they are rookies. They tried hard, and the fans gave Sai a good hand when she would bridge out of pins. Haruyama picked up the victory with a spinebomb. 13:46 (6:35 aired). *1/2

Miko: Haruyama is showing a little more now than she did earlier, including a nice run up the ropes armdrag where she actually managed to keep the momentum going so it looked like the ropespring helped the move. Haruyama's spinebomb finisher looked pretty decent. I still dislike her double sitdown slam though. Basically both Haruyama and her opponent sit down from a standing position, and this is supposed to hurt her opponent yet not hurt her. Everyone else does the same thing when they do a Ligerbomb to their opponent, but they aren't hurt performing the move just, so it's unclear why taking the same bump would hurt Haruyama's opponent much.

Erika Watanabe & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori (Free) vs. Kanako Motoya & Yasuko Kuragaki. The Goddess vs. Motoya!!! The problem with starting my review that way is that I can only go downhill from here. This was one of The Goddess' best performances. She has really found her calling as a heel. Of course, one of the reasons she looked good was that she pretty much only worked against Kanako. Well, then again she would really look good if she only worked against Kuragaki, just in a different respect. Anyway, the problem with Shiratori being paired with Motoya was that meant Watanabe was paired with Kuragaki. Thus, the match went way downhill when the young wrestlers came in. On one hand, all the good that Shiratori & Kanako did was negated by all the bad Watanabe & Kuragaki did, but the opposite is also true, so the match was average overall. The wrestling was pretty basic even when Shiratori and Motoya were in. The highlight of the match was not basic though, as it was a series of La Magistral(1115jw04) counters where one would roll through and do the move right back to the other, but she would roll through and try a La Magistral of her own. Kanako put the opposition's offense over well. Toward the finish, Shiratori & Kanako had a cool little battle where they tried to hold each other off back and forth as their young partners would try to end the match. Finally, Kuragaki pinned Watanabe. Me want a Shiratori vs. Motoya singles match. 19:30 (12:18 aired). **

Miko: I'm liking Shiratori more and more as a heel. She's still not a great worker, but she seems to have more fun as a heel and it helps cover up her weaknesses. Kuragaki looks ok for her level of experience and has some moves, but Watanabe still is not showing me much of anything.

Rieko Amano & Yuki Lee (Free) vs. Devil Masami & Commando Bolshoi. Devil seemed to weigh more than ever. Bolshoi wore a new costume for this match. The mask is much cooler, but she looks even more ridiculous because she now what I guess you could call clown hair attached to her mask.(11159801) Bolshoi was decent here, but the match came to an abrupt halt when Amano was unfortunately injured taking the bump on Devil's botched Jumbo suplex. It's hard to believe the Jumbo suplex could be screwed up as much as it was here. In any case, instead of landing on her stomach, Amano was lucky to be able to tuck her head so she landed on the back of her head and her neck, rather than on the top of her head. Amano barely moved after this, and they soon carried her off to the back, ending the match. 5:34.

Rieko Amano & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Devil Masami & Commando Bolshoi. Shiratori replaced Lee, and they restarted the match. It was all impromptu, so it was terrible to the point that it was a mistake to have the match. It was only notable for Bolshoi doing the lamest kendo stick swing ever. Devil & Shiratori no sold some gimmick spots, although mainly it was Devil no selling. Bolshoi pinned Lee with her pico buster.(11159802) 4:57. DUD

Miko: This could be the worst Devil match I've ever seen. She's half comedy wrestler and half monster, which a combination that just doesn't work for me. Her goofy facials and really bad no- selling just got on my nerves.(11159803) JWP needs Devil, but I think she's pretty much reached the end as far as being able to wrestle.

Cuty Suzuki Final Road: Cuty Suzuki vs. Mayumi Ozaki (Free). This was reminiscent of the 8/2/98 match Ozaki had with Cooga. It was slow-paced with a lot of stalling heel spots that are designed to get a reaction, but it's women's wrestling in 1998.(11159804) These spots were even worse when Cuty did them to get revenge because they looked lame and she was unconvincing. (11159805) Ozaki's acting was great, but the wrestling was really disappointing, as it pretty much looked like the small house show walk through. Cuty had no stamina or athleticism, which didn't help things. Cuty injured Ozaki with her Destiny Hammer to the floor, which also didn't help things. They did a few of their vintage spots, but they certainly didn't break any new ground. Ozaki fired up for the finish, but Cuty still looked lethargic. Finally, Ozaki pinned Cuty with her Tequila Sunrise. 16:30. **1/4

Miko: This match wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. Ozaki looked good playing her usual heel role, but it just looked lame when Cuty turned the table.

Dynamite Kansai & Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kanako Motoya. Miyaguchi selected Motoya as her mystery partner, seemingly to replace the injured Hikari Fukuoka. This was a weird match because the wrestling itself was very good, yet I had a hard time getting into the match. The problem was that I couldn't believe that Miyaguchi & Motoya had a chance of winning due to the way Kansai acted. Kansai just steamrolled them when she faced them one on one, and still looked fairly dominant when she was taking on both opponents. She simply didn't allow us to think there was a 1% chance that Miyaguchi or Motoya could pin her. There was one spot where Miyaguchi got a 2 3/4 count on Kansai after her suichoku rakka brainbuster, but that was the only close call in nearly 20 minutes. The dead crowd didn't exactly make the match come off better than it was. Still, Kuzumi in particular did one great spot after another. The spot that stood out the most to me was actually a Motoya spot though, as she whipped Kuzumi into the corner then did a handstand on the bottom rope into a headscissors.(11159807) At one point, Kuzumi blew her springboard plancha, so she immediately did a swandive tope con hilo(11159806) where she landed right on the guard rail like the loon Sasuke. After seeing Amano carted off, Kuzumi getting injured as well was the last thing we needed to see. Luckily she was okay, so she held the ropes open so Kansai could do a suicida. Kuzumi did perhaps the fastest locomotion German suplex I've ever seen to for a near fall on Motoya. These four did several more nice near falls before Kuzumi pinned Miyaguchi with her Michinoku Driver II. The Michinoku Driver II is a really cool move, but I don't think Kuzumi is the JWP woman that should win with it because she's not very powerful. She seems to have trouble lifting the opposition, and it looks like she could injure someone because she seems to just kind of drop them because they are too heavy for her.(11159809) 19:11. ***

Miko: This was quite a good match, my favorite match of the card. Everyone worked hard, and they kept a decent pace. Kuzumi reminds me a little of Toyota when she gets caught in a camel clutch, as she's very flexible. Miyaguchi works the stiffest of the Fab Four with her forearms, but she threw a lot of weak ones when they were double teaming Kansai. Still, they might have looked better if Kansai got out of the habit of rolling her head to sell all the strikes to that area.

Kansai seems to have a problem timing the head turn. In addition, the opponents strike would look a lot better if Kansai jerked her head back more. That way, it would look like it was jolted back, which is a lot more realistic than having her simply turn her head to the left or the right like she does now.