Quebrada #36

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

2/21/98

All Japan '98 Excite Series

There are three main themes on AJ's '98 Excite Series, but only two are purposeful. The themes AJ is pushing are gaijins and Dome tryouts, but there's the third theme, which has been going on for over two years, bad Babas booking. The gaijins are getting a big push because they are in the title matches on 2/28 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan Hall. Johnny Ace is getting shot at the Triple Crown, so they had him pin Akiyama in tag on 2/14, Wolf Hawkfield in tag on 2/15, and his team won their tag match on 2/17 & 2/21. However, they dropped the ball with the 2/20 match, which I'll get to later. Steve Williams & Gary Albright are getting a crack at the tag titles on 2/28, so they had Williams pin Taue in tag on 2/14 and they teamed to beat Hansen & Duncum on 2/15. Williams pinned Smith in tag on 2/20, while Gary got the big upset pinning Kawada in Gary's typically short singles match on 2/20. Then they teamed to beat Akiyama & Mossman on 2/21.

The idea of pushing the guys heavy during the tour they are getting the title shots on is a sound one. The problem is, you need to push them before you announce their title shots. There should be a reason that they are getting a shot. We know that they are basically just using a rotation, but the average mark isn't supposed to be able to figure that out. Since wrestling is about perception, Ace still won't be credible for his title shot because nothing has been done to give anyone the idea he can beat Misawa. People aren't going to buy that he is a "new man" based on a couple wins at Korakuen. If Ace got big wins that were highly visible in recent series and then they got the title shot, things could be different. For instance, if Ace would have pinned Taue on 10/21/97 at the 25th Anniversary show, there would be a reason for this title match. However, the Babas booking is hideous and that would make too much sense. The main thing with Ace is that he has never pinned a member of the big 4 in singles. If he can't pin Kobashi or Taue in singles, then how can he beat Misawa for the title, and why are we giving him his first title shot right now?

Ace is a throwaway challenger and everyone knows it, no matter how many wins or pins he can get in tag matches on this tour. When I saw Kobashi & Ace vs. Misawa & Akiyama booked for 2/20, I thought, maybe if Ace pins Misawa here, and it airs on tv, it will help him a bit, though really not enough to make it worth your while. That result or Ace over Jun has to be the only reason they'd be booking this match. Ace was the one who jobbed to Misawa when these teams met in their great Real World Tag Team League bout on 11/23 at Miyagi Sports Center, so given what they are doing on the current tour, it makes no sense for Kobashi & Ace to not revenge this loss.

Certainly Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Ace has nothing to do with the other tag matches they are running on this tour. Certainly it's not to decide who the number 1 contenders to the tag title are considering the next defense is three to four months away. So, if it's not about Ace then why have it at all? You have Misawa & Akiyama coming off a loss in the great Real World Tag Team League final match on 12/5 at Budokan, and Kobashi and Ace coming off dropping the tag titles to Kawada & Taue on 1/25 at Yokohama Bunka Gym. Therefore, one team has to do two high profile jobs in a row, and for no real gain.

What I would have done is have Ace pin Jun. Ace has pinned Jun before, so this isn't giving anything away. Ace upsets Misawa by pinning his partner, Misawa gets his revenge by pinning Ace on 2/28. You work a storyline that Jun is trying to grow up and Misawa is giving him the room to by not saving him left and right. However, Jun keeps letting Misawa down by getting pinned, a continuation of what we saw in the tag final. Jun continues to job in the major tag matches until he scores the big pin, just like he did on 5/23/96 in Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center when Misawa & Akiyama captured the Double tag titles for their first, and only, time as a team. Jun would get his revenge over Ace by pinning him again in the Champion Carnival, so he wouldn't even be hurt by this loss. This would make too much sense though.

The Babas basically threw away what they had done with Ace early in the tour with their result of the 2/20 match. What they did was give away another first, Akiyama's first tag pin over Kobashi. If they had done this in the Real World Tag Team League, and then booked Akiyama's TC challenge vs. Misawa on 1/26 in Osaka Furitsu Gym, then I wouldn't have minded it so much. If Kobashi & Ace would have successfully defended the titles on 1/25, then Jun not only getting his first pin over Kobashi, but taking the titles in the process, would have been a big deal, a clear elevation of Jun. Without the titles, the meaning of the result is much less, and the result doesn't show that whether Jun holds up his end or not is what makes or breaks the team. Possibly the Babas stupid result will lead to something in the Carnival, maybe Jun takes Kobashi to a draw or gets his first singles win over him (the former is a much better idea than the latter). Given the way the Babas book, which in most cases shows that they aren't thinking past the current tour, if they are thinking at all, I'm guessing their logic in this finish is that Ace is getting the title shot, so we can't have him job in a high profile match the week before. That does make sense, but that's why Jun should have jobbed to Ace, not why Kenta should do Ace's job. Certainly this surprise finish will not lead to a business upswing. If you don't know this by now you haven't read to many of JDW's posts. Speaking of business, New Japan had a 5,300 sellout in the same arena, Hiroshima Sun Plaza, on 10/31, while AJ only put 2,400 in the building to see this tag match. If you think that match quality is the main thing that draws in Japan you are sorely mistaken. This match is case in point because the last Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Ace aired on tv and it was ****1/2 stars. New Japan's main event on 10/31 was Sasaki vs. Chono for the IWGP title. With a crappy matchup like that you pray for ***, and God doesn't listen.

At least your tag challengers, Williams & Albright, are coming in somewhat hot after finishing tie for 3rd in the Real World Tag Team League. They also have credibility based on holding the tag titles before. Although heating up Ace is too little too late, heating up Williams & Albright is worthwhile because, even though they suck, they are respectable challengers who could, though it's doubtful that they will, take the Double tag titles at Budokan.

The other gaijin that got a big win was Stan Hansen, who pinned in Kawada in tag in a mere 5:05 on 2/14. Kawada's partner in this match wasn't Taue, it was the goofy headbutt machine Tamon Honda. There seems to be two points to this win. First, you heat up Stan because the Champion Carnival is coming up and you still want him to be seen as a player so his jobs, hopefully his first to Akiyama, mean a lot. I really think you should have done this at a different time because you had Kawada, Taue, and Akiyama all getting pinned on the same night. The guy who's not in the title picture right now is the guy who got the biggest win, not that he hasn't beaten Kawada several times in the past, and the guy who is challenging for the TC is the guy who got the least important win, the one that could easily be lost in the shuffle due to the other jobs.

The second point is that Kawada is most likely going to be getting the Triple Crown on 5/1, so you job him now because you won't be able to job him in singles when he's the champion. With Kawada putting over Albright in singles, that heats Gary up for the Carny a bit as well. Figuring that you'll be needing a throw away chalenger for Kawada's TC soon enough, this puts Gary as a leading candidate. Even though Gary is just plain bad these days, Kawada is the guy in AJ who has had the best singles matches with him in the past. It would be worthwhile to run this title match, since AJ needs to do a lot of stalling. You just need something really good like Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Ace, which I think would draw at Budokan, for the Double tag titles (figuring that Kawada will not hold the TC and Double tag titles simultaneously by the time he gets around to defending against Gary) as the semi final.

The tryouts for the Dome have been disappointing to me, and I haven't even seen the matches yet. All these new matches that have been created so far haven't lead to any business upturn, which is no surprise at all. Really, the only match with the outsiders that is positioned so it's supposed to sell some tickets is Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara (free agents) vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama, which takes place on 2/28 at Budokan.

So far Jado & Gedo (Fuyuki-gun), Kamikaze & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo (Yume Wrestle Factory), & Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone (Satoshi Yoneyama) (Battlarts) have recieved tryouts. Jado & Gedo beat Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru on 2/14, lost to Takao Omori & Kentaro Shiga on 2/15, lost to Ogawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi on 2/20, and beat Asako & Shiga on 2/21. Basically they have just been splitting matches on the undercard. I totally hate these two these days because their matches are lousy and they are Kodo Fuyuki's tag alongs, so I don't want them in AJ. However, they do have a bit of credibility since they have held a bunch of titles in the Indy leagues, so the way they could help AJ is by jobbing to the juniors you are trying to push like Mossman. The job to Omori was a good idea since they are trying to elevate him out of necessity. The rest of the matches are basically uneventful. If the Babas really want to make any use of them, they should have them winning their initial matches, especially on all these small shows, and save their jobs for the shows that actually mean something like Sapporo Nakajima and Budokan. By just having them split matches, especially when it's done at the same place (Korakuen) on back to back nights, is it really going to impress any of the fans when someone wins or loses to them? Supposedly Jado & Gedo want to challenge for the All Asian tag titles. If they can't even beat Ogawa & Kikuchi then they don't pose much of a threat, but knowing the Babas they'd have them lose to those two about five times in a row and then announce they are getting the title shot instead of Ogawa & Kikuchi. For some reason, Baba is impressed with these stiffs and has said that Jado & Gedo are almost a lock to be appearing on the Dome show. *Big yawn* It's sad when the Babas standards are below Jd's. The only thing that could be less exciting is Yoshihiro Takayama, Undertaker, or Koji Kitao appearing on the Dome show. Oops, these guys are all in the running as well. We could look on the bright side though, at least Ryuma Go and Uchu Majin Silver X haven't been placed on the possibility list, yet.

Daisuke Ikeda, who belongs on the Dome show, & Mohammed Yone lost their first tryout match to Kikuchi & Mossman on 2/15. Ikeda also won a singles match from Kanemaru on 2/21, which is one of the only matches on the tour so far that I'd actually like to see (certainly Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kobashi & Ace is another). Ikeda is the best worker in Battlarts, but you could get a lot better guy than Yone from Battlarts. I'd rather have Alexander Otsuka because he's a better worker and seller. I'd rather have president Yuki Ishikawa because he's a better worker and he has worked in the Dome before. I'd also rather have Minoru Tanaka because he's a better worker and he's not really a true shooter. He's the best athlete in the promotion, and with his style he could easily be incorporated into the regular AJ junior matches. Takeshi Ono's name has been mentioned as a possibility for the Dome show, but I don't think that makes much sense. He's good, but he's too small to have a shooter gimmick in AJ. He might be an interesting opponent for Shiga or Kanemaru, but certainly not on the Dome show.

Kamikaze & Kotsubo lost both of their tryout matches so far, to Masao Inoue & Satoru Asako on 2/14 and to Ogawa & Honda on 2/17. Kamikaze's work was said to be good, but the team wasn't over at the Hall at all. I'm willing to give Kamikaze a shot in AJ, especially since spots are becoming more over in AJ and he's got the Kamikaze tornado, which is like Chaparita ASARI's sky twister press. However, anyone who would consider taking guys who are used to wrestling in front of 500, and throwing them out in front of a crowd that should be more than 100 times that is a moron.

What I am glad about is that The Gladiator will supposedly be on the AJ Dome show. The Gladiator will be good because he has two things that are really important in AJ, size and dangerous spots. He fits into the mold of Hansen and Williams as far as being an ass kicker, but he is a lot younger than these two and he has way more athleticism. He can do great high spots for his size, and again high spots are sadly becoming more important in AJ these. The problem with Gladiator is twofold. First, he's so used to working with gimmicks that he'd lose a lot when he couldn't use them in AJ, particularly his powerbomb over the top rope through a table. Second, he is only effective when he has a personal bump boy. With AJ totally lacking in quality Americans behind Ace, who has no singles credibility, and Smith, who doesn't even have tag credibility above All-Asian title level, Gladiator can only help the league.

The next series is the Champion Carnival League Series, the annual round robin singles tournament. It kicks off on 3/21 with the first of three Tokyo Korakuen Hall shows on the tour and runs through 4/16 in Tochigi. The final will be 4/18 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan Hall.

AJ '98 Excite Series Results

All Japan 2/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (2,100 sellout) Full Results

Masao Inoue & Satoro Asako (Inoue Argentine Backbreaker Kotsubo 17:03) Kotsubo & Kamikaze

Gedo & Jado (Gedo powerbomb then Jadoh flying bodypress and Gedo pins Kanemaru 14:36) Kanemaru & Ogawa

Wolf Hawkfield (Wolf Turbo Drop 13:38) Jun Izumida

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Haruka Eigen & Masa Fuchi (Kikuchi Samson clutch Mimota 12:17) Mitsuo Mimota & Rusher Kimura & Giant Baba

Stan Hansen & Bobby Duncam Jr. (Hansen lariat Kawada 5:05) Toshiaki

Kawada & Tamon Honda

Steve Williams & Gary Albright (Williams Doctor Bomb Taue 11:16) Akira Taue& Omori

Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Smith & Johnny Ace (Ace Cobra Clutch Suplex Akiyama 27:38) Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Manukea Mossman

All Japan 2/15 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (2,100 sell-out) Notable Match Results

Misawa & Akiyama & Izumida (Misawa Running Elbow Smash Honda 19:04)

Taue & Kawada & Honda

Kobashi & Ace (Ace Cobra Clutch Suplex Hawkfield 18:43) Wolf & Smith

Williams & Albright (Albright German Suplex Duncam 7:16) Hansen & Duncum

Ogawa (Fisherman Suplex 10:30) Kanemaru

Omori & Shiga (Omori Top Rope Diving Knee Gedoh 16:21) Jado & Gedo

All Japan 2/17 Ibaraki Prefecture (1,600) Notable Match Results

Ogawa & Tamon Honda (Honda Tamon's Power (?) Kamikaze) Kotsubo & Kamikaze

Williams & Wolf (Wolf Turbo Drop 2 Mossman 11:46) Mossman & Omori

Misawa & Akiyama (Akiyama Exploder Duncum 14:10)Hansen & Duncum

Kobashi & Ace & Smith (Smith DDT Inoue 21:18) Kawada & Taue & Masao Inoue

AJ 2/20 Hiroshima Sun Plaza (2,400) Notable Match Results

Misawa & Akiyama (Akiyama exploder (?) Kobashi 30:21) Kobashi & Ace

Albright (full nelson suplex 8:55) Kawada

Taue (nodowa otoshi 12:25) Wolf

Williams & Mossman (Williams Doctor Bomb Smith 12:56) Hansen & Smith

Ogawa & Kikuchi (Ogawa fisherman suplex hold Jado 10:25) Jado & Gedo

AJ 2/21 Yamaguchi Bofu Sports Center (1,850) Full Results

Ikeda (top rope moonsault presss 10:13) Kanemaru

Gedo & Jado (Jado suichoku rakka (verticle drop) brainbuster Shiga 14:41) Asako & Shiga

Baba & Rusher & Momota (Rusher lariat Eigen 17:40) Fuchi & Eigen & Kikuchi

Wolf & Smith (Smith reverse DDT Inoue 15:36) Izumida & Masao Inoue

Williams & Albright (Albright powerbomb Mossman 15:57) Akiyama & Mossman

Kobashi & Ace (Kobashi lariat Honda 13:32) Misawa & Honda

Hansen & Duncum & Omori (Hansen Western lariat Ogawa 13:41) Kawada & Taue & Ogawa

Hypervisual Fighting Arsion Debut Show

The latest women's promotion to enter the scene is ARSION, who soldout their debut show on 2/18 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. This group is headed by Aja Kong, who is the booker and top star, and President Rossy Ogawa, formerly the highest ranking official in AJW who's last name wasn't Matsunaga. This group looked promising when it was first announced because they were "headhunting" from other promotions. They took the superbabe Michiko Omukai & Mikiko Futagami from LLPW, but once Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi, who are better workers at this point than anyone in ARSION, turned them down, things cooled down and no one else jumped.

Their roster is really small, with only 8 wrestlers competing on the debut show, since Mariko Yoshida and two rookies, Ayako Hamada (daughter of Gran) & Kazuyo Takamatsu aren't wrestling yet. Thus, six of the eight women were double booked. Double booking has been a problem for JWP over the years, as they always had a small roster, and it can often shorten careers. Right off the bat you had Candy Okutsu, in her first match since retiring with a bad back on 8/17/97, going to a 15:00 draw with Yumi Fukawa, and then competing in the main event 6-woman tag. A few more nights of that and her miracle cure may be wearing off. I certainly hope it doesn't though, since there doesn't seem to be too many out there that have more desire to wrestle than Candy. So far ARSION is a rebel promotion, but it seems to me they are going to have to open up relations with at least one other group because they have nothing inside the company with any drawing power.

The style of ARSION is a bit different as it's more steeped in submissions. However, it's done in a Battlarts type of way, so Lucha moves and everything else can be incorporated. Supposedly everyone worked hard and pretty well, but the show itself didn't come off very well. I guess they kind of made more of it then it was. It wasn't done in this way, but I get the idea it was kind of like an old Wrestlemania in that they did a lot of things to make the show seem like a special event, but the wrestling itself wasn't on that level. Given that it's the debut show, it's certainly worth hunting down the video.

This show was a PPV show in Japan (only) for only people with Direct TV. Direct TV just started in Japan, so the universe for this show was incredibly minute. Right now it's basically that the satellite company dished out some cash to ARSION, and may have took a loss, in hopes that people would get the dish because that was the only way to see the show (without attending). The show cost 1,800 (about $15) yen to order on PPV, which means it cost about as much as two cups of coffee in Japan. You can bet the commercial tape will cost at least three times this price.

The booking for this show was pretty standard with no real surprises. The one debut was Jesse Bennett (Jessica Soto) who is Reggie Bennett's protégé from her gym in America. They are billing her as Bennett's cousin, which doesn't sound promising to me at all.

Arsion debut show 2/18 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (sellout) Full Results

Candy Okutsu (draw 15:00) Yumi Fukawa

Mikiko Futagami (arm lock 4:54) Jesse Bennett

Aja Kong (ref stop 12:23) Michiko Omukai

Reggie Bennett (7:25) Rie Tamada

Aja & Omukai & Fukawa (Fukawa La Magistral Okutsu 11:55) Futagami & Tamada & Okutsu

Neo Japan Ladies 2/15 Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium

Neo Ladies drew a disappointing 3,135 for a loaded show at the near 8,000 seat Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium on 2/15. This attendance is really miserable considering the main event was Kyoko Inoue vs. JWP Open Weight Singles Champion Hikari Fukuoka. Their are two reason to be really disappointed with this attendance, and I'm not even considering the fact that people aren't psyched for a main event that sounds like **** on paper. First, Neo hasn't run a show since 1/9, which means they had over a month to promote the show. Second, Kyoko faced just about all the big stars during the AJW 1992-94 interpromotional period, so this was the one kind of new match they had. Yes, Kyoko has faced Hikari in singles before, but when they met in the 1993 Japan Grand Prix, Hikari was still and up and comer. Hikari has now "grown up," so this isn't the same match. Thus, this match should have drawn better than the other matches JWP has to offer like Kyoko vs. Devil or Kyoko vs. Kansai because we've seen them before and they wouldn't come close to living up to their previous standard.

Hikari defeated Kyoko in the main event with her moonsault footstomp at 19:18. The basis of how the match was worked was that Kyoko dominated the match, so she would look strong, but Hikari seized her opportunity and scored the upset.

They brought in the legendary Jaguar Yokota (Jd') for a match against Chaparita ASARI. Basically the typical veteran vs. promising youngster stuff. ASARI flashed her hot moves and looked good, but jobbed to Jaguar's moonsault attack at 13:09. Unfortunately this was said to be mainly a showcase of their spots, so it doesn't look like ASARI is ready to take things to the next level yet.

JWP has a real problem, though it's not necessarily a bad one. The problem is that their youngsters are so far superior to the youngsters in Neo, AJW (other than Momoe Nakanishi), Jd', LLPW, Arsion, and the indies (other than Emi Motokawa). Thus, when JWP works with the other promotions, since their youngsters are never in matches with the Gaea youngsters, their youngsters are programmed with women who are about 1/15th as good. To make things worse, the other promotions still looking to get a split from JWP. It's hurting what is done inside of JWP because the youngsters are ready to be moved up, but you can't have Motoya pin Cuty then have her putting over the stinking Tannybutt machine. So, you need these other promotions to draw, but the top of your card is stale because Kansai, Devil, and Cuty have been there for over a decade.

There was a three match Neo Ladies vs. JWP series on this show. Basically these results should make you want to hurl because you had Kanako Motoya & Tomoko Miyaguchi, who are two of the better working women out there right now, put over the Tamon Honda of women's wrestling, Tanny Mouse, and the vaunted Misae Genki respectively in singles matches. Certainly I understand why these results have to happen, and JWP got a good deal with Hikari getting her first singles win with Kyoko, which really is a big deal, and their top youngster, Tomoko Kuzumi, didn't have to do a job in exchange. So, once you get past the initial horror, you have to be happy that JWP rules and working with Neo is helping them out. We even have a reason why it's good that the minky one, Mayumi Ozaki, is a free agent because she smart enough not to have the Academy involved in any program that Tanny & Genki are in. Supposedly the Neo youngsters have improved a lot since their AJW days, so they were able to compete well with the JWP youngsters.

The thing that makes JWP look bad on this show is that Las Cachorus took out Tanny, ASARI, Genki, & Shiina in an elimination match. The result doesn't bother me because I always call for Mima to be pushed, and let's face it, the only women in Neo other than Kyoko that really mean anything are Cachorus. Certainly you want your heels to be strong, but what you really need is a way to get heat on them, although I don't think there really has been any heels with serious heat on them since Jungle Jack. The thing that seems kind of dumb about this match is that it went 31:43, but it was said to be not competitive at all. Neo needs their youngsters to get over if they plan on having any future, and they should have helped achieve that goal to an extent by getting the wins over Motoya & Miyaguchi, but this, which went on after the 3 vs. 3 series, seems to have knocked them back down a bit. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had seen this match, but simply lasting a long time when you have a two women advantage doesn't sound like an elevation to me.

The opening match on the card was The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Saya Endo. Going in I thought this match looked pretty promising. Saya has been improving, and Glenn was telling me that The Goddess' wrestling was the best he's seen it during a tag match with Omukai against The Bloody & Sayori Okino, who both suck. I want to see any and all Shiratori footage, so I'm figuring this should at least be better than the typical stuff we see on Jd'. However, Neo accomplished something I thought was impossible. They created a match that will pair Shiratori with her idol Mima, and I'm not excited about seeing it. The reason for this is that to create this match, the lowest form of life Shark Tsuchiya and Lioness "I wish I were a Shark" Asuka ran in and caused the Shiratori vs. Saya match to be ruled a no contest. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the run in, but the result is a Shimoda & Mita & Saya & Shiratori vs. Lioness & Shark & Bloody & Ryuna match on the 3/8 Jd' show at Yokohama Bunka Gym. This match will be terrible because the Lioness won't attempt to work (she'll just do her bad heel ruitine) and her three partners couldn't work their way out of a paper bag. What's worse than merely a bad match is a bad match where there's a good chance that the lowest form of life will carve up The Goddess like she did in the beyond terrible Shark & Crusher Maedomari vs. Shiratori & Rie match on the 12/11/96 FMW show at Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium. What's worse than that? Well, nothing is coming to mind.

Neo Ladies 2/15 Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gym (3,135) Full Results

Hikari Fukuoka (19:18 Moonsault Foot Stomp) Kyoko Inoue

Handicap Elimination Match: Las Cachorus Orientales beat Tanny Mouse & ASARI & Misae & Shiina

1. Mita (11:51 Powerbomb) Tanny Mouse

2. Shimoda (13:37 Moonsault press) Yuki Shiina

3. Shimoda (25:17 Frankenstiner) Chapparita ASARI

4. Mita (31:43 Death Valley Driver) Misae Genki

*Mita & Shimoda win 4-0

Jaguar Yokota (13:09 Moonsault Attack) Chapparita ASARI

Neo Ladies vs. JWP single 3 vs. 3: Tomoko Kuzumi (13:23 Top Rope Double Arm Suplex) Yuki Shiina

Neo Ladies vs. JWP single 3 vs. 3: Tanny Mouse (12:28 Double-Arm Pile Driver) Kantako Motoya

Neo Ladies vs. JWP single 3 vs. 3: Misae Genki (17:49 Nodowa) Tomoko Miyaguchi

*Neo takes series 2-1. On 1/25 Kuzumi beat Genki and Motoya beat Tanny, so JWP still leads the overall series*

Shiratori (11:43 No Contest when Shark & Lioness run in) Saya

Gaea 2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Lineup

Chigusa Nagayo & Akira Hokuto vs. Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato

KAORU & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima

Handicap Match: Toshie Uematsu vs. Maiko Matsumoto & Hiromi Kato

KAORU vs. Rina Ishii

Yamada vs. Sakura Hirota

Chigusa vs. Makie Numao

This show won't sellout, as has been the trend of late for Gaea at Korakuen after selling out most of their Korakuen shows in 1997. It's a good show from a booking standpoint though, which has always been the case from Chigusa. Your three undercard matches are all veteran vs. youngster match, and based on everything Gaea has done in the past they are being run for the soul purpose of elevating the youngsters. Uematsu vs. Matsumoto & Hiromi Kato is kind of puzzling to me. Uematsu isn't that highly ranked that she should be in a handicap match. I guess it would be too much of an upset if either Matsumoto or Kato pinned her, so this way Uematsu can put one of them over without looking bad. If Uematsu wins it will be truly puzzling. The top two matches show that your four best youngsters are stars now and, as usual, are being counted on to draw. Both of the top two could easily be very good matches.

All Japan Pro Wrestling 30 7/27/97 taped 7/25 Tokyo Nippon Budokan Hall

Triple Crown: Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue. This was a 20 minute sprint. It was not incredibly different from their 5/24/96 Sapporo match where Taue won the Triple Crown, but it was shorter and more exciting due to the number of big spots they packed in. Really, this was more exciting than a Taue singles match has the right to be. The hot start was really effective because the crowd was popping like mad. This type of start was not something that was a nice change, it was something that absolutely needed to be done to give Taue credibility and to get heat. As has been the case so often of late due to the wretched booking of the Baba family, Taue was a victim of the why is he here syndrome. In other words, he came into this match with little credibility. Sure he was the only member of the big five that had taken the Triple Crown from Misawa, but that was over a year ago. He really hadn't done anything of note in singles in a year's time. His most noteable singles match in that period was his sub 5:00 job to Jun, making him to this day the only member of the big 4 to job to Jun in singles. Taue had to appeal to Baba to get the title shot, basically saying that he felt left out because he was the only member of the big 4 that didn't get to participate in the Carny final. Taue, who hadn't been in a Triple Crown match since losing the titles to Kobashi a year and a day earlier, wanted to prove to his fans that he was still a top player, and that was basically the storyline of this match. Unlike the Akiyama TC match from September that I'll get to when I ressurect some of these older reviews like this that I never got around to putting out, this had great heat, because Taue established himself immediately by hitting his nodowa otoshi finisher 20 seconds into the match. It was a big shock to see his finisher that quick, like being poked with The Mountie's cattle prod. It woke everyone who had just sat through three comatose inducing tag matches up. It got them pumped up for this match, and it was basically saying that we are throwing out the unwritten rule book of how an AJ match goes, so be ready for anything at any time. Taue walked away instead of going for the cover, which showed the crowd that he had strength and confidence, neither of which they figured he'd have coming in. The pop from the immediate nodowa otoshi carried over as Taue unleased a torrid offensive barrage. Taue hitting his tope at 1:40 didn't hurt as far as maintaining the pop went because that's a spectacular spot for him and he only uses it in big matches, but the crowd was basically into everything. I mean, Taue's dropkicks a minute into the match were getting good pops. They were pretty damn impressive because Taue kept his knees bent then extended and drove through Misawa who literally flew backward. A dropkick is a dropkick though. What they were into was fired up Taue taking it to the champ with uncharacteristic aggression at an uncharacteristically fast pace. Taue was building credibility and momentum with every move, and he was getting people to hop on his bandwagon. Taue kept Misawa out of the ring, with the focus being on whether he could nodowa otoshi him out there too. At first he had to settle for ramming Misawa into the security rail, which set up his powerbomb on the floor. He interrupted Misawa's great selling, dragging him up to the apron for the feared nodowa otoshi, but Misawa fought it off, so Taue had to settle for back suplexing him off the apron. With Misawa in bad shape from the beating on the floor, it looked like Taue was going to get the nodowa otoshi off the apron. Since this was not a tag match where his partner could work for upwards of five minutes while he recovered, Misawa was dead for sure. This move is not a regular Taue finisher, not because it isn't his deadliest move, because he's almost "never able" to execute it in a major singles match, and he never needs it in the rest of his singles matches. It's like Kawada's powerbomb off the apron, in that the spot is always there in the back of your mind and you think, "you know if he ever hits this move against Misawa, he damn well might take the TC," but then it turns out to just be a tease. This time it wasn't a tease though, I just saw Taue, holding Misawa by the throat, jump off the apron. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? COULD THAT REALLY HAPPEN? That was the thought in everyone's mind, after witnessing Misawa, known for his resourcefullness, pull out one of the greatest counters ever! While Taue had him by the throat in midair, Misawa backflipped, landing on his knees to twart Taue. Idol, who was in attendance, said the basis of the fans reaction was, "OHHH MYYYY GODDD! Spot of the year! Did that really happen?" How amazing was this spot? Idol, "So amazing that two hours later I was questioning whether it really happened the way I thought it did. I kept trying to imagine how he could have done the backflip, but it seemed physically impossible." Taue maintained control, connecting with a big diving high kick then hitting his nodowa otoshi for a 2 ½ count. Since this was a Triple Crown match, which everyone knows means it's going 20 minutes to an hour, the fact that the crowd was counting on that near fall was really impressive.

The main thrust changed to Taue's other main finisher, the Dynamic bomb (Liger bomb). The basis of this was that the nodowa's had proven ineffective, the jumping high kick isn't "powerful" enough to beat Misawa, the neckbreaker drop for a diving move is not a spot you can work to, and there was no other spot in his arsenal that anyone really thought had even a 1% chance of beating Misawa. Misawa blocked the Dynamic bomb, and came back with his elbows. After teasing Misawa released German suplexing Taue off the apron, Misawa Tiger drivered Taue on the floor, which Taue sold huge. Things were going well for Misawa until he tried his diving neckbreaker drop and Taue caught his throat in midair, spiking Misawa in nodowa like fashion. This was the finish of the 5/24/96 match, the spot Taue used to win the TC, so this got a big reaction from the crowd. It actually would have worked better had it came after a successful Dynamic bomb, as Taue's last ditch effort, but you can't have everything. Taue dragged Misawa up for the Dynamic bomb, but Misawa had enough in him to turn it into a corbata (twisting Frankensteiner) before collapsing. The pace slowed with Misawa playing it like he could barely move and Taue methodically taking him apart. In the move advancement department, in 1995 we saw Taue drop Misawa face first on the top turnbuckle. In 1996 Misawa caught himself and countered with the rolling elbow. In this match, Misawa caught himself and was looking for the rolling elbow, but Taue scooped him up and dropped him on the top rope, the "Jumbo Killer." Considering the crowd was so hot for this match, it's scary that the crowd didn't really pop when Taue suplexed Misawa on his head twice in a row. Those are typically key spots in the big AJ matches, not to mention hellacious bumps to take, but it seemed like the crowd has been desensitized to them after seeing the spots for so long. It's basically expected that Misawa will take any number of bumps on his head in a major match. The Misawa vs. Kawada TC match that took place at Budokan a month earlier may be part of the problem because it raised the bar with all the dangerous backdrops by Kawada. However, it may just have been that there were no build to those spots, and that everyone could sense that the Dynamic bomb was to be the make or break spot for Taue. Misawa blocked Taue's Dynamic bomb and it looked like he would turn the match around with his elbows, but Taue ducked the rolling elbow and caught him with the nodowa otoshi. However, Misawa did the requisite pop-up spot, putting Taue down with his elbow, and both sold. At the 16- minute-mark, Taue finally hit his Dynamic bomb. "Huge pop. Pop of the match. The crowd knew that this was it, win or lose. We had waited for the move. For three seconds we wondered if it would be enough to finish Misawa. It wasn't. Conflict over. Bring on the epilogue with one of Misawa's suitable closers," wrote Idol. At 18:00, Misawa turned the match around with his elbows. Taue took two lame bumps on a released German suplexes, with neither spot getting a pop. To say that Taue doesn't take the killer bumps like Misawa and Kobashi would be a major understatement. That fact seemed to limit what Misawa did on offense, and made his offense look a lot worse than normal. Surprisingly, the match was far more exciting with Taue on offense because the crowd was much more into him pushing Misawa, and Misawa's bump taking and selling is just far more interesting to watch than Taue's. Misawa used elbow after elbow. Finally he used a lame released Tiger driver then dragged Taue up and German suplexed him for the win. The finish came off as kind of flat, because there came a point, when Misawa kicked out of the Dynamic bomb to be precise, when everyone became sure that Misawa was going over. Had they redid the finish of the 5/24/96 match at about the 18:00 mark as Taue's last ditch effort, it would have helped maintained the heat for the finish. It would have said to the fans that Taue still had another chance. Taue could have done another couple spots, maybe a jumping high kick, before Misawa turned the tide and puts him away. It seemed that everyone was content with seeing a hell of a match with Misawa going over, as always, in the end. The build and psychology in this match were not as good as in some of their previous encounters. The main psychology was the teasing of the big spots, and the teases played well. The work was great, and the increase in the workrate balanced off the decrease in the build and psychology. The selling was not as good, but it was an even tradeoff of decreased selling for increased pacing, which made for a nice change, but should remain in the something different once in a while category. This was one of the more underrated matches of the year, because most people aren't too fond of Taue, but moreso because Misawa had off the charts matches with Kobashi & Kawada. This was definitely one of the top matches of 1997. It wasn't better than their major matches from 1995, but it was better than we thought it would be coming in. 20:25. ****1/2

I don't like using my columns to promote my tapes, but I must make an exception when I purchase an original because I'm not made of money and I know there are some people who are smart enough to know that you should purchase tapes from the person who has it in the best video quality. The latest original I purchased is All Japan's '97 Real World Tag Team League Special Highlight commercial tape. It's 95 minutes long and contains the entire 30:52 Misawa & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue tag league final from 12/5/97. This match was the requisite year end classic/match of the year candidate, which was rated ***** by Dave Meltzer. I'm not going to go into details on the match here because I will review it in an upcoming Quebrada. The tape also contains the finishing sequences from the tag league matches that occured on the nights the cameras were rolling. So it has 11/15 Korakuen Hall (Misawa/Akiyama vs. Wolf/Smith), 11/16 Korakuen Hall, 11/23 Sendai Miyagi Sports Center (Hayabusa/Shinzaki vs. Kawada/Taue, Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kobashi/Ace), 11/27 Sapporo Nakajima (Kobashi/Ace vs. Kawada/Taue, Misawa/Akiyama vs. Hayabusa/Shinzaki), & 11/28 Sapporo Nakajima (Kobashi/Ace vs. Williams/Albright, Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue). The highlights range from :45 seconds to 4 minutes (the best matches get more time), so you are actually seeing something (unlike on some of the History of the Junior Title tapes where they go crazy showing 6 seconds clips of the Super Junior finishes), but the main thing is the complete version of the final. I'm hoping to recoup some of the cost of this tape (originals of puroresu tapes are WAY too expensive, averaging $80 or so just to buy the tape), so I'm selling near perfect 1st generation copies. E-mail M.L.Liger@juno.com if you are interested.

The other originals I'm still selling copies of are:

Mayumi Ozaki Pure Wild

Mayumi Ozaki Fascination

Chikako Shiratori Naked

Mima Shimoda 10th Anniversary

Hikari Fukuoka Sunshine & Starlight

Zach Arnold purchased the original of the FMW vs. ZEN vs. ECW December 1997 Review commercial tape from the 12/19-12/22 tour. It's 2 1/2 hours and includes Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki & Masato Tanaka vs. Atsushi Onita & W*ING Kanemura & Mr. Gannosuke in the WAR GAMES Cage Match where Hayabusa does a moonsault off the top of the cage to pin Onita. It also has the full versions of Hayabusa & Shinzaki vs. Gannosuke & Kanemura for the tag titles, Sandman vs. Sabu, Masato Tanaka vs. Atsushi Onita, and so on. E-mail grape@Prodigy.Net if you are interested in purchasing a near perfect copy.

Zach's other originals are:

Megumi Kudo Squall

Megumi Kudo Anthology

FMW Megumi Kudo's Retirement 4/29/97 Yokohama Arena

Check out Zach's web page (http://pages.prodigy.com/onita) for the latest

Japanese news and ask him for a subscription to his recently restarted

newsheet Power Splash.

Special thanks to: Frank Jewett, Glenn Tsunekawa, Zach Arnold, & John D. Williams