Dynamite Kid - Hall Of Talent

6/11/76 AJPW Kuramae Kokugikan, 2/3 Falls NWA World Heavyweight Title Match, Jumbo Tsuruta 10 Match Trial Series #3: Terry Funk vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 27:07 (15:45 of 15:50, 6:01 of 6:05, 5:06 of 5:12).
ML: A great example of a fundamental technical wrestling match that works despite a relative lack of successful high spots because they were able to fend them off in a compelling manner. Within the pacing of the era, they are able to keep this teacher vs. student match entertaining by knowing when to counter or transition, and often when to simply stifle the opponent's movement by pulling them back into the original hold. A serious version of Terry Funk actually shows up for this 1st fall that's a simple, extended struggle of arm locks. Incredibly basic stuff, but done with admirable focus and conviction. After Jumbo takes a largely stalemated first fall where the prodigy's advantages in strength and agility led to his victory via sunset flip, the escalation occurs, as veteran Funk shifts to neck work for a more lively second fall that requires Tsuruta to answer more quickly on the fly. It culminates in one of the few successfully utilized rolling cradles, coming off Funk outmanuevering Jumbo in a cobra twist battle. Jumbo gives a more spirited performance in the third, disgusted with himself for letting his lead slip away. He fearlessly returns to the cobra twist to start the fall, and is able to take a lot out of Funk even though Funk ultimately hip tosses him to the floor, setting up a decider where the fan favorite underdog is on the ascendancy throughout. Funk's hokey overselling only shows up hurting his back landing from a leapfrog, but the great thing is it's actually a ploy, and while the leapfrog was his undoing in the 1st, now Funk is able to bait his overconfident student into taking a risk to go for the kill, and Funk wins by countering the Thesz press into the hotshot to retain. Funk is the mastermind here, and this is clearly one of his very best performances. ****

1/4/79: Monster Ripper & Mami Kumano vs. Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda.
PA: Monster Ripper’s debut was one of the most memorable debuts you’ll ever see (it was confirmed by her shortly before her death that this was indeed her first professional match). There’s nothing pretty about it, it’s a fight with an electric atmosphere. Kumano did a really good job of carrying the match. Only a couple of things Ripper did actually looked good, but she played her role effectively enough, which is all she needed to do. They mostly brawled and used weapons, always finding ways to get the heat going. Beauty Pair provided exciting comebacks, mainly Ueda, who really stood out. Jackie was just okay. It’s a shame there isn’t more footage of Ueda. ***1/2

1/79 AJW: Victoria Fujimi & Nancy Kumi (Golden Pair) vs. Seiko Hanawa & Rimi Yokota (Young Pair).
PA: Young Pair were the pair of nasty juniors. They weren’t gimmick heels like Black Pair, and they’d play the babyface role in other matches at times, they just weren’t shy about illegal double teams and using underhanded tactics to take and retain advantages. Yokota was just doing basics in these days, but she had a vicious edge to her that was fun to watch, and Hanawa was the same. Kumi and Fujimi just wanted to teach these young punks a lesson, and the result was a good hate-filled scrap. The Young Pair displayed aggression by attacking before the bell and securing victories whenever the action spilled outside the ring. Yokota tossed Fujimi into a fan's lap at one point. Fujimi notably stood out. She had plenty of fire hitting hip attacks, a seated senton, and a diving body press amongst other moves. The Young Pair’s answer to the barrage was to take the fight outside, rush their opponents all the way to back of the building and run back to the ring to beat the count out. Their plan almost worked, but they were prevented from making it back in the ring. ***1/2

2/27/79: WWWA World Single Title Loser Must Retire Match: Maki Ueda vs. Jackie Sato.
PA: The famous match. The crowd were so loud and emotional that you could barely hear the music, and they stayed that way for the entire match, which was 48 minutes total (about half of which aired, shown over two weeks on the prime time TV show). While the bulk of the match is technically sound, and you can find a degree of psychology because they wrestle in a logical manner, there isn’t really much here other than meaningless matwork for the first 2/3 of the match. The final third is a lot better, turning into an exciting match hitting some spots, dives, brawling and really looking to try to put each other away. At the end Ueda seemed to have the momentum, but Jackie caught her a Boston Crab position, but instead of turning over, she drove her knees into Maki’s shoulders to get the pin. Beauty Pair performed one last song together, but their voices were nearly drowned out by the screaming schoolgirls (probably for the best, these two couldn’t hold a note when they were the fresh, much less after a 48-minute long wrestling match). ***1/2

7/31/79 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Titles: Black Pair (Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano) vs. Queen Angels (Lucy Kayama & Tomi Aoyama).
PA: This was peak Black Pair. Kayama was coming into this with an injured knee. The match started competitively enough, and Kayama managed to make it through her first run, but it turned into a catastrophe for her once she re-entered. The Black Pair ruthlessly went after the bad knee, tearing off the knee pad, and turning that into a weapon. It was a vicious and dramatic mauling, made all the more so by Kayama’s selling of it, while Aoyama could do nothing but watch, and Black Pair were more than happy to draw her in because it would serve as a referee distraction. After the first fall, Kayama was unable to continue. Aoyama went at it alone, and gave a great babyface performance. It was just enough to make you believe she could do something while being plausible. The Black Pair don’t play fair though, and squashed her comeback with a chair, double teaming to complete a 2-0 route. Great performances from everyone, and about as good as you could expect a match this one-sided to be. ***3/4

9/13/79 AJW WWWA World Single Title Match: Monster Ripper vs. Jackie Sato.
PA: This was a return match from 7/31/1979 where Monster Ripper won the WWWA World Single Title. The match there was nothing, but is worth watching for one of the legendary Zenjo moments, as Jackie Sato bled a gusher, and thousands of schoolgirls in the crowd were in tears (I suppose you could describe it as that eras Dump vs. Chigusa moment). This match, however, was actually good. Despite a few poorly executed spots, Sato delivered a standout performance. She struggled well, and made it look like this was the biggest fight of her life. She didn’t really know how to take the monster down, she just tried for desperate takedowns, and would go all in any opportunity she got. It was simple but effective, and it had all the crowd heat with the schoolgirls losing their minds, fearing for Jackie’s life one moment and then jumping for joy when she did the impossible. ***1/4

12/11/79 AJW WWWA All Pacific Title: Tomi Aoyama vs. Lucy Kayama.
PA: Queen Angels fight now. The opening exchange was great from the lockup, Aoyama jumped onto the top rope within 30 seconds, and she went back to it a few times, with it eventually coming back to bite her. When Aoyama was able to burst, she was in control, but Kayama was able to ground her and control the bulk of the match. It ended up with a car crash finish. Aoyama leaped onto the top rope again, and fell to the outside., Kayama tried a tope and injured herself, then Aoyama missed a pescado, but Kayama prevented her from beating the count. Very exciting match, and even the non-finish was satisfying. ***1/2

1/4/80 AJW All Japan Junior Title: Rimi Yokota vs. Chino Sato.
PA: This was a real junior barnburner to kick off the new year. Yokota got frustrated early and decided to use the bucket to gain an advantage, so Chino responded with a chair and went after the leg, which she mostly stuck to. There's a great spot where Yokota slips out of a Boston Crab, so Chino hurls her with a Giant Swing. Yokota hadn't reached her peak yet (that wouldn't be until 1982), but she was already the second best worker in the company (after Yumi Ikeshita), and this match was a great showcase of why. Sato didn't have the explosion of Yokota, but could do a few things well, and was able to keep up with what Yokota was doing, which is all Yokota needed. I thought Sato had a lot of potential, and with maybe 18 months experience at the time of this match, she was well ahead of curve. They basically threw out everything they knew, went all out, and stuck to the right roles for the match. This is a rarity in junior matches, as junior matches are basic by design, and in these days were contested with legit shoot pins at the back end, which did affect how much they were paid and their ranking amongst the other girls. They typically wanted to do what was expected to entertain and fill in time in the early portions of matches, while conserving energy for when it mattered (though sometimes the referee would just rig it anyway). The shoot pins, with the girls really fighting to get off their backs and onto their stomach, adds a lot to the urgency the match had already build up. ***3/4

1/4/1980 AJW: Jackie Sato vs. Tomi Aoyama.
PA: Not a match where you’ll find much in the way of interesting offense, more notable for the significant heat and atmosphere than anything else. It’s largely a mat battle, with the odd athletic spot thrown in, which didn’t always come off well. Aoyama focused on Sato's leg, with the schoolgirls losing their minds when Aoyama applied the figure four, and even more so when she attempted it again. Sato fought back and attempted to finish Aoyama, but couldn’t secure the victory. Eventually, Sato flew out of the ring, and Aoyama followed with a pescado, taking a ridiculous knee first landing and injuring herself in the process. She made it back into the ring, but only for a double knockout. This match was to set up Aoyama challenging Sato for the red belt on March 15, but due to her injury, she couldn’t make the match and they had to bring back Monster Ripper to challenge Sato. ***

2/21/80 AJW All Pacific Title Decision Match: Lucy Kayama vs Yumi Ikeshita.
PA: If there were more matches available or if she had been around for a few more years, I have no doubt I'd put Yumi Ikeshita's name up there with the great women's wrestlers of all time. For her time, she was so far ahead of everyone else technically, and not only that, she was the best heel, with her street fight brawling style and constantly coming up with new and creative ways to cheat in all of her matches. This is mostly a clean match from Ikeshita, and it's a joy to watch her work this way. Kayama could be hit or miss with her performances, but she was good here. Ikeshita started out with really nice work to Kayama's arm. Kayama found her opening, and went after her leg. There was a neat spot where she's trying to apply a figure four, but Ikeshita rolls to her stomach, and Kayama eventually gets annoyed and kicks her out the ring. Ikeshita wasn't thrilled with with Kayama being competitive, so she stole a pen from the announce table and started cheating with it to get the advantage back. The back end of the match was mainly brawling with lots of big moves thrown in. It ultimately ending up with both going for dives, with Kayama crashing and burning, allowing Ikeshita to throw her corpse back in the ring and take the title after a pair of piledrivers, though a rare Fuji TV screwup meant the pinfall was missed because they were focusing on Tommy Aoyama. ***1/2

8/80 AJW: Rimi Yokota vs. Yumi Ikeshita.
PA: The two best wrestlers of the year, just a few weeks after their 60 minute draw in Denen (which is unfortunately unavailable). This was Black Pair Ikeshita vs. babyface Yokota, and it’s a good match, but I’d have loved to see them have a match with Ikeshita in wrestling mode. They got off to a slow start with Ikeshita on heel offense, Yokota got a run and went for Ikeshita’s arm, so Ikeshita went for the knee. Yokota was able to get a burst in, but Ikeshita cheated more. Yokota got a big reaction when she stole her weapon, and they were solidly behind her for rest of the match, as they both went for wins, but it was a time limit draw. ***

8/?/80 AJW: Mimi Hagiwara vs. Rimi Yokota.
PA: This was from the Guam tour in August 1980. It's the only televised singles match I'm aware of these two having, which makes it fascinating by default, and it was a good one too (there is one other match from a spot show from January 1984, which is a fan-cam, also a good match, and actually watchable, which can't be said of many 80s handhelds as most are just perv-cam). Yokota played heel and was a lot of fun to watch, with vicious stretching, working over Mimi with disdain and being more than happy to bite and pull hair (there was still some Young Pair Yokota left in her after all). She was nasty, and Mimi sold well, being sympathetic and making admirable attempts at comebacks, which usually wouldn't go anywhere. The layout was about as basic as you could imagine, but I'm not one who thinks wrestling is rocket science, and they worked what they were doing very well. ***1/4

11/5/80 AJW Fuji TV Cup WWWA World Single Title Tournament: Nancy Kumi vs. Yumi Ikeshita.
PA: This match went to the 45 minute time limit (plus about two minutes overtime), and they showed about 25 minutes of it. Ikeshita was wearing black shooting gloves, potentially loaded, and used illegal striking and gouging. She eventually discarded the gloves, and the match went to the mat. Kumi took control, dragging Ikeshita outside and throwing her into the chairs. Back in the ring, Kumi won another round. Ikeshita then introduced a weapon, but the referee intervened and removed it. Kumi focused on Ikeshita's legs, attempting submissions, but couldn't secure a victory in the ring. The action spilled outside for another brawl, with both wrestlers giving their all until the time limit expired. They were granted a 5-minute overtime, continuing the brawl outside, and Kumi managed to make it back into the ring for the victory by count-out. Of all the ways to finish a 47 minute match, that was certainly one of them. If Kumi winning wasn’t required, the draw would have actually been the better finish. The match was really good though, with very good wrestling and cheating, and a good example of how good Ikeshita was. ***1/2

12/16/80 AJW Fuji TV Cup WWWA World Single Title Tournament Semi Final: Jackie Sato vs. Rimi Yokota.
PA: Not a flashy match by any stretch of the imagination; this was a scrap with a lot of intensity that's my pick for 1980 AJW Match of the Year. Yokota was incredible with all of her burst and fire, and it was the best match I've seen from Sato, who I do think was a better wrestler than she gets credit for and got to show that here (she was technically good, but takes some getting used to because she looks awkward and stiff). In the early going, Yokota couldn't take Sato head on, so she was trying to take down her down with trips and rolling takedowns, which was fun, before inevitably getting stretched. Yokota took over, and Sato just burst on her, but Yokota was able to match her. The whole thing ended up in a mad scrap on the outside, which resulted in a count out. They were given 5 more minutes (a good move, as if the result stood, it would have meant Nancy Kumi walking out with the title), and Sato won with a crab. Sato defeated Kumi in the finals to win the belt, but Yokota would have the last laugh winning the title from Sato two months later. ****

1/6/81 AJW: Jackie Sato & Rimi Yokota vs. Nancy Kumi & Ayumi Hori.
PA: Energetic match that was probably the best AJW match of 1981. A hard working, fast paced action packed match for its time with everyone contributing. Yokota was the best, and provided most of the highlights. Her and Kumi's exchanges were the highlight. Sato was good, while Hori was the lesser of the four. There were plenty of neat spots, the coolest one being Yokota dropkicking the turnbuckle and deflecting it into a body press. Sato took the first fall with a backbreaker. The second fall slowed things down a bit. With Yokota being set to challenge champion Sato, there was no chance of their opponents taking a fall properly. Therefore, it ended up in a brawl with a count out levelling things 1-1. They were back to top speed for the third fall, with Kumi showing a lot more energy than she usually did, and Yokota hitting some of her trademark bursts. The finish was great with Hori going for a fireman's toss on Yokota, and Yokota landing on her feet and finishing with a leg-roll clutch, complete with Sato charging full boar at Kumi so she couldn't interrupt the pin. A quality all action match. ***1/2

2/25/81 AJW, All Pacific Title Match: Yumi Ikeshita vs. Mimi Hagiwara.
PA: The first of two historic matches on this show saw Mimi Hagiwara defeat Yumi Ikeshita to become the All Pacific champion under somewhat dubious circumstances to put it nicely. To add even more history to this show, at the beginning of it we had Chino Sato's retirement, which saw the first use of Soleado as the retirement theme song, which would become the standard for the next decade. This was contested under the weird Zenjo rules (like their junior matches) where the two wrestlers would wrestle a regular match to kill time and entertain the audience before switching into trading pin attempts back and forth legitimately. The Matsunaga brothers wanted Mimi to win, and she was better in sparring than you might imagine, but while they didn't just book the title change, Mimi definitely got quite a bit of help here. The match itself had enough to like to keep things entertaining. It's not one of Ikeshita's better efforts; she mostly just keeps things basic and does a solid job, but there's none of her legendary Black Pair style cheating or eye catching technical wrestling we've seen from her previously. Mimi was the one who made the match. Early on, she does it with her scrappy desperate attacks, and once Ikeshita starts working submissions, it's her selling and brutal screams putting them over the top, almost making it uncomfortable to watch. The business end didn't last long here, and as I mentioned at the start, was dubious to put it nicely. Ikeshita took the first pin, but Mimi rolled over to escape, and the referee didn't even bother to get into position to count. Mimi took the second pin with a small package, and that was the end of it, as the referee counted three despite Ikeshita being on her side. I think the brother just wanted Mimi to win, and got overexcited. It was so bad that the wrestlers themselves had no idea what had gone on. Mimi looked shocked at the result, as if she thought she may have been the one counted down, which would have been just as plausible in the position that they were in. Ikeshita just looked disgusted and stormed out of the ring. This wound up being Ikeshita's last televised appearance in the company before retiring at age 22 in June, presumably due to losing the title to a junior. ***1/4

2/25/81 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Team Title Decision Match: Nancy Kumi & Ayumi Hori vs. Devil Masami & Mami Kumano.
PA: With the two matches surrounding it being contested with shoot pinfalls, I suppose the company thought they better have a conventional match in the middle (it shows where we've gone if we're considering Black Pair style matches “conventional”). Devil and Kumano were supposed to carry on the Black Pair legacy before the whole thing was scrapped and Devil got her Devil corps group. This was just a good Black Pair style match that follows their formula. The babyface team gets the early run and thwarts a lot of the brawling, gets the first fall, and the heels resort to dirtier tactics to take the second fall. In this case, they took Hori out, so Kumi was stuck fighting both heels for the third fall. She was able to have some success using a chair, but the odds were too much for her, and she got put down. Hori came back in at the end because, as the young girl, it was her job to eat the pin, so Kumi bailed and Hori got mauled with the wrench and pinned to close out the match. There's some fun spots in here, like Devil trying to steal the house mic but not being allowed to grab, so she threw Kumi into Maki Ueda's lap, and Kumano wildly swinging around her comically oversized wrench and then nailing the ref in the arm with it (luckily not his counting arm). Overall, it was entertaining, but it wasn't one of the higher end matches of this style. ***

2/25/81 AJW, WWWA World Single Title Match: Jackie Sato vs. Rimi Yokota.
PA: The best way I could describe this match is sparring disguised as pro-wrestling. The early portion saw some pretty standard matwork. Yokota hit a couple of her spots, and was competitive, but it was usually Sato in control. Jaguar took over going for Sato's arm and worked her over. This was some quality filler, solid work even if it wasn't designed to go anywhere. The worst thing was Fuji TV spending as much time focusing on the former champions on commentary as if they were the match. They introduced the pinfalls with Sato slamming Yokota into the mat three times, but Yokota immediately got off her back. They never dropped their mat wrestling, so it doesn't come off as completely alien, but if you know what you're looking at, you can see how back and forth it is. Jaguar's first attempt was actually off a rana, but under these secret rules you weren't allowed to use your legs to hold the shoulders down, which is why I presume the referee didn't start the count. She opted for something more conventional, with a pair of butterfly suplexes, but Sato was immediately onto her side. They spilled out for a brawl outside before restarting. Sato's next pin attempt came after a backbreaker, but she had no more success than her first try. Yokota's next attempt is the interesting one in the match. She gets Sato into position and Sato gets out, but she can't get off her back, allowing Yokota to continue trying to pin her. Because Sato couldn't get out of the pinfall, Yokota was able to continue trying to pin her. On the second last attempt the referee stopped at two, even though Sato's shoulders were down to a point that the referee would have counted them in any other match and the Matsunaga brothers wanted Yokota to win, but he was worried about repeating the Ikeshita vs. Mimi debacle, and wanted to show he was the better referee than his brother. It didn't matter though because she still couldn't escape, so Yokota was able to keep trying and got the three count with the next attempt. She wasn't impressed about the refereeing, but keeping her opponent on her back for almost 20 seconds unable to escape is about as definitive an ending as you could ever get under these rules (although the double edged sword is that if you don't know what's actually going on, it just looked like a bad, anti-climactic finish). This was pretty good and interesting, as they did a good job of keeping it a serious pro wrestling match while working their shoot rules into it. However, it's lacking any real excitement, and it's very restricted in terms of keeping things 50/50 (Hagiwara vs Ikeshita also suffered from this, but I found their work a bit more interesting). This is fascinating, and arguably the most important match of the decade, but their 1980 match was a lot better. ***1/2

/81 AJW: Nancy Kumi vs. Mimi Hagiwara
PA: I could only pin down this match to have taken place sometime between May and August 1981. Kumi was quite happy dominating her junior with the usual stretching and tossing, and Mimi's selling was on point, as always. Mimi made a comeback, shitcanning Kumi with a butterfly suplex, but following it up with a better one, and looking to take over. It mostly only frustrated Kumi though, so after avoiding a body press, she just gave her a thrashing on the outside. Kumi went after her knee from there, but switched back into the power moves. Mimi decided to return the favor on the outside, but that backfired. She had more luck in the ring as the two scrambled to finish with the time limit beating them. Good work and plenty of fire. ***1/4

8/25/81 AJW, All Pacific Title: Mimi Hagiwara vs. Leilani Kai.
PA: Mimi basically dominated this whole match and destroyed Kai, which was a real change from her usual role of getting beaten on for 90% of the match and making a few comebacks. From the start, Mimi exploded, and they worked at a good pace. The good thing about Kai, unlike the rest of Moolah's girls, is she could bump around and had more than one gear. Mimi worked the arm a bit, and then took Kai for a walk and hit her boxing moves. Kai escaped out of the ring and Mimi followed her and stayed on the attack again. She was so aggressive in this, and not giving Kai anything. Kai was able to avoid a dive and get something going, hitting a brainbuster, but then missed a diving body press. They ended up back in a crowd brawling and didn't make it back, with the match ending a double count out. Seeing Mimi kill Kai like this was a lot of fun. ***1/2

1/4/82 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami & Wild Kazuki.
PA: This was the match that kicked off the Mimi vs. Devil feud, an entire year of Devil attempting to murder Mimi at every opportunity. They got off to a good start with the babyfaces jumping Kazuki until Devil turned the tide. From there it's pretty standard heeling, for most of the fall the heels were just using a weapon and the referee was trying to bust them in the act but couldn't actually do it, while Mimi and Omori just got more and more frustrated. This wasn't the first time Mimi would lose her temper with Jimmy Kayama, though she wasn't beating him up yet. Angry Mimi was money, but she had good psychology and played multiple roles well. The end of the fall saw Kazuki accidentally nail Devil with a missile dropkick to take her out, and Omori and Mimi double teaming Kazuki to take the first fall. I wouldn't say the first fall was particularly good, but it did a good job to set things up. If the first fall lacked action, the second made up for that. Mimi got mauled. Devil sent her running for her life chasing her with her bokken before trapping her in the ring with it. Devil destroyed her with a press slam and then dumped her over the top. After a few shots from Kazuki, Devil pinned Mimi with a foot to the chest. Mimi's selling of the injury was great, and they carried her out, leaving young Omori to face her demise. The heels just attempt to bully her two vs. one, and Omori couldn't do anything, she simply fended them off and was able to keep them at bay for a while. If you're looking for smooth wrestling and big spots, there's none of that to be found in this match. This is archaic stuff, but it's plausible and frantic when it needs to be. Omori eventually got caught and mauled, but was able to hold out long enough for Mimi to make a heroic return. Mimi was still selling death, and it didn't look like she would be able to save the belts. Then her life was made worse with Masami bringing the bokken back in to finish off the job. The whole thing turned into chaos on the outside with Kazuki and Omori brawling. Mimi somehow got Masami down off camera and threw a row of chairs onto her. Masami took over again in the ring and looked to finish off Mimi, but Mimi pulled out a Mimi Special, and Omori assisted for a double suplex to get the win. Devil gave Kayama a beating after the match because it wouldn't have been complete without it. ***1/2

1/26/82 AJW: Jaguar Yokota vs. Devil Masami
PA: The tag title match on 1/4/82 set Devil up as the top heel, while this match set her up as a challenger and major threat to Yokota. It's a risky proposition beating the champion cleanly in a singles match, particularly when Yokota, despite being the champion for 11 months at this point, was still finding her feet in the top role. In this case, it worked and gave Devil the credibility to challenge later in the year, while doing nothing to hurt Jaguar. They got off to a hot start, with Masami attempting to mug Jaguar with a chair, but Jaguar avoiding that. Devil took over in the ring with the help of her cronies at ringside, and worked Jaguar over slowly, giving her a thrashing on the outside when she got tired of that. Jaguar made slick comebacks and hit her spots, but Devil's cheating or interference continued to turn the tide. Jaguar's speedy burst offense was always incredible to watch and a great contrast to Devil's methodical, power style. Devil was able to thwart her though, and hit a run of big moves to get the shock pin in a definitive way. Jaguar made the match with her fiery burst comebacks and provided most of the highlights. Devil was improving a lot, and quickly, but she was still learning and had some clunkiness at this point. What she did have down was her heel persona, coming off like a complete maniac who could fly off the handle at any time. ***1/2

3/7/82 AJW, Fuji TV Cup WWWA World Single Title Next Challenger Tournament 2nd Final: Mimi Hagiwara vs. Devil Masami
PA: This was the final match of the tournament that would set up the big July WWWA World Single Title match. This was Devil's second match of the night, as she had the first final earlier against Yukari Omori. This was the second time Devil and Mimi had met in the tournament, their earlier match on 2/26 had promise, starting out well, but falling apart with too much interference, and turning into a mess before ending in a double count out. We had a classic start with Devil on a rampage. Before the match even started she grabbed the bokken and chased after Mimi. Mimi grabbed a chair to defend herself, and they duelled with their weapons. Mimi got some offense in to start, but Devil ground her down and took over with the usual headbutting and hairpulling with a little assistance from Masked Yu at ringside. Mimi made a short-lived comeback with her boxing moves, but Devil ground her again and worked the arm. Mimi's expressions and screams were on point, as always. Mimi got a desperation figure four, but it was broken up by the heels. This was finally enough for Mimi to get some help via a bodyslam, which set up her diving knee drop, though the referee refused to count the fall because of the interference. Mimi kept trying, but Devil ended up mauling her on the outside with the bokken. The heels prevented Mimi from making it back into the ring, giving Devil a count out victory. ***

4/7/82 AJW, WWWA World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Monster Ripper
PA: Jaguar had a date with the Devil for July, but before that she had to get past Monster Ripper, who had made her return to Japan. Ripper was never a particularly talented wrestler. She was very limited with what she could do. The good thing about this match is that she didn't have to do a lot, and just had to stick to the limited things she could do. She was fine, aside from being a bit too cartoony and some general clunkiness. Jaguar was used to doing one woman shows against Moolah's girls since she usually had to be the Japanese defender against the evil gaijin, and Ripper, by simply being a monster, gave her a more to work with than she usually had. The match is mostly just Ripper tossing Jaguar around, overpowering her or trying to smother her while Jaguar is constantly looking for ways to bring her down, using her speed and agility. Ripper was able to go with her on most spots. There was some miscommunication, but they just move on and not let it detract from the match. Jaguar would launch herself at Ripper, while Ripper would just stand there and take it. She did the old stomp to the foot to gain an advantage, suckered her into a test of strength only to flip her out. She was trying everything, and though she could take her down, she couldn't really get anything going, as Ripper would just swat her away or power her down. The simple dynamic that allowed Jaguar to stand out was her great burst offense. Ripper busted her open on the outside, and went for the kill with her power moves, but she injured her knee doing a backbreaker, which gave Jaguar the opening she needed. Jaguar was right on the knee from there, and Ripper was less effective. Jaguar hit a tope. Ripper was able to overpower her again, but she tried to hit a body press from the top rope, which Jaguar avoided. Jaguar finished her off with a missile dropkick and an airplane spin. An excellent match that showed how great Jaguar was, and I can't imagine Ripper ever had another match even close to the quality of this. ****

7/19/82 AJW, WWWA World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Devil Masami 21:16.
PA: Jaguar Yokota had won the World Title from Jackie Sato on 2/25/81. Her first year as champion was lackluster. She didn't have the confidence yet, which was understandable given she had to follow the most beloved wrestler in the history of the company up until that point, and houses were dropping. She didn't have any really memorable matches in 1981 except the match where she won the belt (but that wasn't a regular match), but she gets better later in the year, and in '82 she's something else. 1982-85 is peak Jaguar GOAT level. The champion was always put into the role of defending against the evil gaijin, a role no one has ever done better than Yokota (her matches against Monster Ripper from 4/7/82 and Wendi Richter from 10/5/82 being two such examples), but here she had the chance to go with the second best wrestler in the company. Devil Masami was a juggernaut that had been pushed into the top heel spot, and had taken to the role as effectively as anyone I've ever seen. Her feud with Mimi Hagiwara had produced a lot of highly entertaining matches in both tags and singles matches. She also claimed a singles victory over Yokota in January, and won a no. 1 contenders tournament in April (defeating Hagiwara in the finals). In fact, Devil was so cool and had been built up so strongly that she was more popular than Yokota here, and while this wouldn't seem out of the ordinary in modern day wrestling, it's something that just didn't happen in 1982 (and probably foreshadowed her babyface turn the following year). While I won't go so far as to say this was the first great match in the history of All Japan Women (at least from what's available), it was a level above anything up to this point technically. Jaguar is so smooth and fast, yet believable. Masami is a brute powerhouse, and everything she does looks mean and nasty. They didn't work a complex match, they just played to their strengths and weaknesses. Masami is capable of bullying Yokota if given the chance, but like a bull seeing red, she's too aggressive for her own good. Yokota is the more wily, skilful and speedy one. The early going is well done, basic wrestling with Yokota's trademark speed bursts keeping you on edge. She looked to work Masami down on the mat, and at her first chance to overpower her, Masami simply dragged Yokota outside and mugged her. Jaguar used the breather to regain her bearings, and got some revenge on the outside, going after Masami's leg with a figure four after regaining control. Masami's regrouping efforts weren't as simple as Jaguar's due to her knee being injured, and Jaguar had a bullseye on it as soon as Masami returned to the ring. Jaguar was relentless and vicious until Masami was able to fire up and headbutt her way out. This portion was so effective you'd be forgiven for thinking they turning Masami babyface here. They got into the big moves afterward with the intensity and action picking up. They exchanged tombstone piledrivers. Masami began dominated with her power offense, and looked like she was sure to claim a second victory over Yokota. Yokota slipped out with her trademark bridge up and hit all of her trademark moves, but couldn't put Masami away either. This eventually led to Masami getting dropkicked out of the ring, and Jaguar hitting a big dive over the top. From that point, the match descended into chaos, with the two brawling outside again. Yokota started wailing on Masami with a chair, and they ended up having a chair vs. bokken duel. The whole thing ended up in a count out. I suppose the finish was a bit disappointing, but I wasn't too bothered by it. The chaotic brawl looked chaotic and was memorable, and tempers were flaring by that point. No matter your thoughts on that, the action throughout the match was tremendous, and it was easily women's Match of the Year for 1982. ****1/2

8/10/82 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami & Tarantula
PA: It took eight months to get to part two with these teams. By this point Devil had gotten a lot better, Omori wasn't completely inept, Mimi was still Mimi, and Wild Kazuki put a mask on a became Tarantula. I'm not sure the last part was an improvement, but it did give her more confidence (apparently the real reason was she had bad anxiety and was too nervous before the matches, so they put her under a mask to make her feel more comfortable). This is a much better wrestling match from a technical standpoint with more interesting work than their 1/4/82 match, though that match was superior in terms of drama, with bigger climaxes at key moments and the third fall theatrics. Take the first fall here for example, the standard of the wrestling is good, there's more variation and babyface comebacks, but the finish, coming after the typical heel miscommunication followed by a Mimi diving knee drop and Mimi Special, was fine, but came off a little flat if you compare the two. The second fall saw a couple of bursts from Mimi, but was mainly Devil kicking the heeling into overdrive, going for her arm and biting. After both Mimi and Omori took piledrivers, it all culminated with Devil destroying both of them with a bokken on the outside to take a count out, levelling it a 1-1. Mimi looked dead in the third fall, and the heels just picked her apart, stomping all over Mimi's arm when she stretched out for a tag while Omori could only protest. The only problem with it was, what could Omori even do about it? Devil eventually just headbutted Mimi into the corner and let her tag out, and then looked to kill Omori with the bokken as well. Omori did thwart a double team and get a run of offense, though she still didn't have a moveset so it was just backdrops and slams, though heel tactics put a stop to that. Another mugging on the outside to both Omori and hapless Mimi. Tarantula did a body press off of Devil's shoulders and Devil finished Omori off with a Romero Special, while Tarantula held Mimi back. Mimi wasn't at all happy with Jimmy Kayama's useless refereeing, so she took her anger out on him after the match, giving him a well-deserved thrashing. ***3/4

9/82 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Tarantula & Devil Masami vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori
PA: The final match between these teams. While the lesser of the three, and I wouldn't quite call it a good match, it did provide a couple of great moments. It's just a heel mauling to start with, and although paid off with an all-time classic Mimi moment, it wasn't particularly good or interesting. It's just the heels choking, fighting outside, Masami using the bokken and Jimmy Kayama making half-assed attempts to keep control of things. After getting enough of that, Mimi completely lost it, yanked the bokken away from Devil and laid into everyone with it, including Kayama when he tried to stop her. Apparently, Kayama was a bigger problem than the heels were, so Mimi threw him around and beat him up with a chair, resulting in her getting DQ'd. This beating was hilarious, and Mimi's shock over getting DQ'd made it even funnier, though one could understand her frustrations at the incompetent refereeing. The second fall was pretty short, and mainly just Omori and Mimi getting their offense in and squaring things up. I probably wouldn't have bothered though, since the story was Devil and Tarantula being too much for Mimi and Omori, and Mimi needing to upgrade to a more experienced partner, they might as well have just had it be a 2-0 sweep. Although in saying that, Omori looked better here than in the previous matches, and it was Mimi's temper that cost them the first fall, and her miscommunication in the third fall that stopped Omori's run of offense, but never mind the details. The third fall was the best of these, with good action and gave us the second highlight of the match, which was Devil doing a rare tope on her way to picking up the win over Omori. Mimi tried to protest the result to Commissioner Ueda at ringside, but he wasn't having any of it, so she took it out on Kayama again. **3/4

10/5/82 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Devil Masami & Tarantula vs. Jumbo Hori & Mimi Hagiwara
PA: Mimi upgraded from Omori to Jumbo Hori in order to challenge Devil and Tarantula. This made for a better dynamic, as Omori was a junior who wasn't able to really stand up to Devil, and didn't have the ability or offense to add a lot to the matches. The first fall was heel dominated with the usual good stuff, this time a lot centred around hair pulling, which they kept going back to while trying to keep the referee from seeing it (as usual, it was Jimmy Kayama, so they didn't have to try too hard), and then complaining about Hori to divert his attention so they could continue cheating. Mimi almost caught a pin on Masami, but later missed a crossbody, landed outside and got mugged out there. She made another comeback in the ring, but made the mistake of jumping on Devil's shoulders, only to get dropped and pinned. Hori dominated the early part of the second fall until Devil brought in the bokken and nailed everyone with it. Brawling and chaos eventually saw a DQ after Devil brought in a chair to even things up. Mimi protested to Ueda and Hori threw Kayama around. This time it actually accomplished something because he refused to start the third fall until Devil turned over the bokken. The third fall saw good action from everyone, and Hori further showed she was a good addition since she was able to actually stand up to Devil, working well with both opponents. Unfortunately for them, Tarantula pinned Hori with a sunset flip, the only problem with it was Hori's feet were all over the ropes. So, Kayama was Mimi's undoing yet again, and as you'd expect, he was beaten up for his incompetence. This was about the same quality as the 8/10/82 match, perhaps a little better due to having Hori instead of Omori. But with another failure, there was only one partner left for Mimi to turn to for a final challenge, and that would be Jaguar herself. ***3/4

1/4/83 AJW, All Japan Title Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo
PA: The early years of Chigusa Nagayo's career weren't a happy time for her, struggling to stand out amongst her peers, being among the lowest ranked of them, and not showing much if any potential. Lioness, on the other hand, was a prodigy, the perfect junior and an absolute freak athlete. From day one, she looked like she would be the one to succeed Jaguar or Devil once she came of age. After being embarrassed, losing to her junior Noriyo Tateno on 8/10/82, Chigusa decided she was done with wrestling and this would be her last match. She still wanted the chance to show ‘her' pro wrestling and Lioness agreed. Rather than the technically precise, smooth matches they'd have in later years, this was scrappy fight, though the stiffness was already there. Lioness worked most of the match in control, which was the best thing for the match, as Chigusa wasn't yet on her level and her strong suit was drawing the crowd in with her selling. Lioness won the brawling, hit some moves and worked over Chigusa before Chigusa made a comeback with her own matwork. While Lioness was clearly more skilled and Chigusa's work was on the rough side, she understood the psychology she wanted to show and was getting little things right with her intent and showing the crowd how much she wanted this. She worked Lioness' knee over, injuring it, giving us the funny visual of Jimmy Kayama yanking on her knee to pull it back into place. I suppose it worked because Lioness completely stopped all of her selling once she got back in the ring, and they went hard at each other to the finish. Lioness, at one point, did a crazy backdrop suplex where Chigusa rotated and landed on her head. Lioness won convincingly and Chigusa's reaction in the post-match was perfect, she showed her disappointment at the loss, but had a look of fire in her eyes. This was a very good match, particularly for their experience level, and it worked to convince the Matsunaga's there was something there with Chigusa. The following day she went to Kunimatsu to tell him she was quitting, but before she could, he started praising the match and telling her that she showed the crowd who she was, and to keep doing it. And with that, instead of it being the end, it was only the beginning. ***1/2

1/4/83 AJW, 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Devil Masami & Tarantula vs. Jaguar Yokota & Mimi Hagiwara
PA: Mimi's last shot at Devil and Tarantula. She had the best partner this time. Jaguar made her presence felt at the start and Mimi was on fire, though it wasn't long before she got mugged by Devil on the outside and put into the face in peril spot. This time Devil was going for the throat with some good heel work. Jaguar got the hot tag though, and a run of her great burst offense, ending the first fall after a brainbuster on Tarantula. The second fall saw Mimi getting mugged, choked with a microphone cord and double teamed with Devil and Tarantula steamrolling the fall. Jimmy Kayama's incompetent refereeing drew the ire of Mimi again, and Jaguar was more than happy to lend a hand giving him a thrashing as they turned tossed him around and threw a table on him. They looked to give Devil and Tarantula some of their own medicine, and Devil got busted open. That really only pissed her off though, and she completely destroyed Mimi and Jaguar with a pair of press slams, throwing both of them from the ring to the outside. They got them both back in the ring and hit stereo brainbusters with both getting pinned at the same time to win the match in an emphatic way. Rare enough in these days for a feud to end, much less the heels winning in such a dominant way. The work here was a higher level than the other matches over the previous year, the only thing missing was a hotter third fall, though what we got was certainly memorable. ***3/4

5/7/83 AJW, WWWA World Single Title Hair vs. Mask Death Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica
PA: There's a lot to like about this match, and a lot to hate, or more accurately, one thing to hate, but it's a constant occurrence. The wrestling was actually really good, Jaguar was brilliant as always, and although Galactica didn't have a great deal of offense, she could do what she needed to and was better than most of Jaguar's opponents. The problem was Monster Ripper was in La Galactica's corner and constantly interfered any time Jaguar took over to the point where it just became tiresome. Sure, it was done this way so Jaguar wouldn't look bad in losing, and the match layout was faultless in that regard, even if it was cheap, but it didn't make the match more enjoyable. I'm all for some interference when it's warranted (and it was here), but it would have been better had it been kept to handful of key moments rather than done to the point of repetition. Jaguar eventually got enough of it and went after Galactica's mask with scissors, and went after everyone with a chair, including the referees. Afterwards, she went for a tope and crashed and burned, the sound of it was brutal as she crashed into the announce table. Jaguar got killed by both Ripper and Galactica after that with dives and Galactica picked up the win. The haircutting drama followed, and Jaguar would be sporting a new haircut for the foreseeable future. Jaguar won the belt back a few weeks later on 6/1/83 in a rematch, but sadly, the taping of that show has never surfaced. She also got revenge on Monster Ripper on 6/14/83, which we do have footage of, but it was a pretty lousy match and not worth watching. This is a tough one to rate, part of me says 3 stars, another part says 4, so I'll split the difference. ***1/2

6/14/83 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Champion Decision Match #3: Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami & Tarantula
PA: This was the final match of a three match series (though due to the finish it would effectively become a four match series, but infuriatingly, we don't have the fourth match available). The first match on 4/11/83 got things off to a bit of a wobbly start. It turned out to be a pretty good match due a quality third fall, but the first two falls weren't particularly good. The Dynamite Girls got the victory in that one. The second match on 5/7/83 was a 2-0 sweep for Devil and Tarantula. This was an improvement over the first match by cutting out things that didn't work the first time. It also took things in a different direction, despite losing 2-0, the Dynamite Girls looked more dominant, and Masami looking vulnerable in order to subtly turn her babyface. This third match continued that story. Things were squared 1-1 going into the third after Tarantula was destroyed and carried out, leaving Masami to fight all alone against both Dynamite Girls. Masami never really turned babyface, but the seeds were planted, and it was impossible not to get behind here. She had some help from Masked Yu and certainly wasn't afraid to cheat and use underhanded tactics. It ended up in a wild brawl to a count out. The match was restarted, but the Dynamite Girls still couldn't put Devil away. Devil made comebacks, and was too stubborn to stay down, even looking like she might able to win, but the time limit expired ending things in a 1-1 draw. This was a really good match, though perhaps not as good in a vacuum as it is with the context of the previous two matches. The overall series was excellent, better than the sum of its parts, and it's best experienced that way. It may be disappointing there was no conclusion to it, but it was probably the right call. If Devil had won the Dynamite Girls would have looked pretty weak losing a 2 vs. 1, and if they'd won it would have likely turned them heel while they were supposed to be the babyface team. In any case, the fourth match just three days later on 6/17/83 was won by the Dynamite Girls, kicking off the second longest WWWA Tag Title reign in Zenjo history. ***1/2

7/83 AJW, All Japan Junior Title Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki
PA: A match that's a favorite among the thirsty subset of Zenjo fans due to Tateno getting her wardrobe wrong and almost falling out of her top. This was some time before these two became good, but they had one hell of a fight here in a match that really showed what junior matches were all about and how much the belt meant. It's mostly basic junior stuff with a few more advanced moves thrown in. It's not always the most graceful match, but it's an intense scrap between two juniors keen to show they were the best of their class. They went hard at each other here from start to finish, which may not have been the best idea since the building was a hotbox and they both got tired a lot faster than normal, but it made for a really exciting and memorable junior match. The ‘shoot pin' portion was something else, they never stopped or let up and settled for simple bodyslams and takedowns, they just kept going hard. They were so exhausted they could barely even execute a takedown by the end of the match, but neither one was willing to stay down, and they both hung on for the time limit draw. This was pretty much the definition of leaving it in the ring. ***1/2

8/21/83 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno vs. Crush Gals (Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo)
PA: If you want to see the birth of the go-go style (or whatever other name it was christened as) that would become the trademark of Japanese women's pro wrestling as everyone knows it for decades to come, this is it. It's the first time we see the Crush Gals named as such on TV and wearing their trademark colors. Much of this match was contested at a super-fast pace generally only seen in bursts previously. The constant in and out tags that would soon become commonplace were showcased as well. This was undoubtedly the style of match Jaguar always wanted to do, but never had opponents capable of it. Jaguar herself was the standout and miles above everyone else, Lioness was able to go with her and did some great stuff in the third fall. Chigusa didn't stand out much and wasn't a particularly smooth worker at this point, but she was game, and able to keep the pace. Tateno, despite being a junior with limited offense, wasn't a passenger either, she was also game and had a lot of energy (and Jaguar wasn't dropping any falls, so someone had to eat two pins). The first fall was short, only clocking in at around three minutes (all of the falls were on the short side with the other two going around five minutes each). Chigusa and Jaguar started things off, but they all had a go within the short amount of time. Jaguar took the first fall after a couple of seated sentons and suplexes to Lioness. The second fall was the slowest of the three, with the Crush Gals generally in control. At the end of the fall, Jaguar took over and brought Tateno in, but Tateno accidentally whipped Chigusa into her, sending her crashing out to the announce table (making sure it made a loud band for the microphone to pick it up so it sounded nasty), while Chigusa took advantage and quickly finished Tateno off. Chigusa started the third fall with Tateno in a gutwrench position and canned her on her head, which looked horrible in more ways than one. There were loads of tags in and out and we had some terrific fast exchanges between Lioness and Jaguar here, with Tateno and Chigusa being more junior-esque with theirs. Tateno got caught in a Giant Swing at the end, which spelled her end. Jaguar gave referee Jimmy Kayama a beating after the match like always. Historic match from a stylistic perspective, really well worked with tons of action t hough perhaps not one that will necessarily stand out if you're comparing it to matches that took place in the 20 years that followed. ****

1/4/84 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Yukari Omori & Jumbo Hori vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo
PA: Just four months into their partnership, the Crush Gals were already garnering the biggest crowd responses since the Beauty Pair. Their first challenge for the tag team titles resulted in a 60 minute draw, with approximately half of it broadcasted. The first fall was okay, fairly pedestrian, but did serve its purpose. Dynamite Girls established themselves in the heel role and worked most of the first fall on top going after Chigusa's arm. Chigusa got a break and had it taped up outside before we got the exciting Crush Gals comeback, with Lioness taking the first fall after a backdrop suplex on Hori. The match kicked into high gear in the second fall, starting with Hori taking a spike piledriver, and dives from both Lioness and Chigusa, looking to end things early, but Omori saved. They worked over Hori's knee for a bit, but Omori continued to save her partner and the Dynamite Girls took over again. Omori did a dive on the outside and in the ring, Chigusa took over after a diving elbow from Hori that didn't work, so Omori did a diving legdrop from the top rope, except she overshot it and her ass landed on Chigusa's head. Chigusa survived the onslaught and hot tagged Lioness. Lioness was trying to finish Hori with a sharpshooter and Omori came in and started slapping her, but Lioness refused to be moved. Chigusa came in to put a stop to Omori, and they all ended up all fighting and slapping each other on the outside. This was great! Dynamite Girls had the upper hand after that, and Hori looked to finish off Chigusa. She wouldn't stay down, but accidentally took out Lioness trying to dive on Omori. Omori hit her Avalanche Fallaway Slam, which probably should have been the finish, but Chigusa kicked out. The next move was Hori hitting a vertical powerslam from the top rope to finally put her down. This fall was tremendous. Chigusa was putting over the toll of all of those big moves at the start of the third fall, stumbling around looking half dead. Lioness got worked over for a while before they started pulling out all the big moves, dives and near falls. It looked like anything could have ended the match at any time, and it was exciting stuff, but no one was able to get the win, and with everyone getting more tired, they were unable to hit anything big enough to finish, so the time expired. Lioness brought the best offense, Chigusa brought the sympathy, Hori did a good job, I can't say the same for Omori (I did like her frequent run ins during Hori's heat segments, but that was about it). There were some rough patches, but the match really hit hard when it mattered in those climax moments and there were a lot of those in here, even if some of the stuff they were kicking off was getting to be a bit too much. ***3/4

1/8/84 AJW: Jaguar Yokota vs. Mimi Hagiwara 20:00
PA: A rare match between Jaguar and Mimi, captured on handheld just weeks before Mimi's retirement, does not disappoint. The atmosphere is great, with constant dueling chants. The male segment of the audience chanted for Mimi, while the schoolgirls rallied behind Jaguar. They kicked off with a hot start, Mimi hit her boxing blows and made a run before Jaguar took control with her hip attacks. The match followed a familiar pattern, with Jaguar giving Mimi a good stretching and working her over while Mimi sold and screamed. Despite Mimi's attempts to break free and make a comeback, Jaguar tenaciously held onto the advantage. Opting for a change in strategy, Mimi seized the opportunity to drag Jaguar outside, which worked but also gave Jaguar a moment of reprieve. Upon restarting, Mimi tried to catch Jaguar off guard, but Jaguar overwhelmed her with kicks to the leg. Mimi, however, managed to take control on the mat and worked over Jaguar's knee. Momentum shifted a couple more times as they attempted to quicken the pace, leading to fast running moves that backfired, before both tried to put each other away. Mimi executed a tope and rammed Jaguar's head into the post, drawing horrified screams from some of the girls in the crowd. Mimi nearly secured a count-out as Jaguar made it onto the apron, only to be posted again by Mimi. Jaguar returned to the apron, prompting Mimi to pull her over the top rope and deliver a piledriver. Mimi went in for the kill, attempting to put Jaguar away. Jaguar tried to create an opportunity by leaping onto the turnbuckle, but Mimi countered with an Electric Chair from the rope. However, her luck ran out when she attempted a dive and missed. Jaguar capitalized with a crossarm German, struggling her way to an underhook from the top rope, but Mimi survived, and the time ended up running out on them. This was the best Mimi match I've seen, and she did as much to make it so as Jaguar did. Tremendous action with lots of good and interesting twists. You could really buy Mimi as a threat when she pulling out all of those big moves. This match was a real gem. ****

3/17/84 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Dump Matsumoto & Masked Yu
PA: Kaoru Matsumoto was one of Devil's cronies along with Masked Yu. On 1/4/84, she came out as Dump for the first time and got more heelish, using weapons and cheating whilst Devil was on a different path, in her match on the same show with Mimi Hagiwara, the two actually shook hands after their match. On 2/28/84, things came to a head during the Crush Gals vs. Devil Masami & Dump Matsumoto match, with Devil wanting to wrestle cleanly (commissioner Ueda had put a ban on weapons) and Dump showing defiance. Their discord resulted in them fighting more than their opponents as the match progressed, and ultimately led to Dump and Yu parting ways after the match, which effectively disbanded Devil Corps. Devil was left with Itsuki Yamazaki, while Dump was forming her own group with Yu. All of that set the stage for this match, where Dump and Yu, aided by a masked manager (Rossy Ogawa) and biased referee Shiro Abe (who actually turned heel during this match) faced the Devil & Yamazaki. The heels used their weapons and cheating as much as they wanted to keep control, but the babyfaces overcame that to catch the first fall. The second fall was mostly chaos and Yamazaki getting annihilated. She got taken to back afterward, leaving Devil to fight alone. Devil was armed with her bokken, and the heels didn't want any part of that. Devil got some help from the Crush Gals, but eventually got overwhelmed. The heels ended up tying her to the ring post with a chain to win by count out. A wild and entertaining spectacle. ***1/4

6/28/84 AJW: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 30:00
PA: On July 9, 1984, All Japan Women made a comeback to prime time TV, featuring this match as the highlight of their debut show. The focus was on showcasing the four main stars of the league, giving viewers a taste of what the league was all about. While primarily an exhibition match, it was structured around short segments to highlight the Crush Gals' spirited comebacks to elicit big crowd reactions. While they succeeded, they were doing a lot of different things that didn't always flow on as well as they could have, with things introduced but not followed up, most notably, a prolonged focus on Lioness's knee that was abruptly abandoned when it was time to move onto the next portion. Despite this, the match succeeded in delivering tremendous action over for the 30 minute duration, and showcased the wrestlers in the way it was designed to. Jaguar was the standout and carried the match, not only showing all of her great offense, but during slower moments, she kept the energy high even in basic holds so it looked there was lot happening when there really wasn't. Devil's style had changed by this point, she was still a power wrestler, but a lot smoother and more refined since the babyface turn, dropping the brawling she was mainly known for. They worked the subtle heel role well, just doing enough and never going overboard. Crush Gals did their usual thing, their comebacks were always hot, though they didn't contribute much outside of that. This was all Jaguar and Devil. Chigusa was still the lesser of the four, but had gotten a lot better by this point, and was more capable of working with Jaguar, whereas a year ago she couldn't do much other than try to keep up. The action escalated as it went along, and the moves got bigger and bigger with plenty of possibilities for a result. It helped that the crowd were buying into everything they did, but ultimately, it ended with Lioness bridging out of Devil's final pinfall attempt to hang on for a draw. ****1/4

8/25/84 AJW, 84 Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu vs. Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami 17:47
PA: Evil referee Shiro Abe was in fine form at the start of this, coming out with shades on and trying to kick the assigned referee out to take over. He was unsuccessful despite a long protest to Commissioner Ueda. Dump and Crane mainly worked over Jaguar in the opening minutes with basic stuff. Jaguar took over on Crane with a burst. Once Devil came in to continue, the shenanigans began, with Dump blindsiding her with a metal rod. Devil and Jaguar got mugged on the outside. There was hilarious spot where Shiro started hammering Devil, so she rolled outside and blasted him with a chair. Jaguar, never one to be outdone, followed up by ramming him into the post, causing him to juice. They actually mostly wrestled cleanly for a while after that. Shiro ran in again when Devil and Jaguar had stereo figure four leglocks on, but got chased off by the referee. After a restart, Jaguar looked to go against Dump, but she didn't want to fight fair, so she set her up for Crane to blindside her with a rod, and Dump took over. Double teaming followed, but Masami and Jaguar managed to turn it around and go for the finish. Masami hoisted Crane onto her shoulders, and Jaguar executed a missile dropkick. Dump introduced a bucket into the chaos, and Devil had seen enough. Bokken time, and it all culminated with a big weapons fight ending in a disqualification. I'll assume both teams were DQ'd. This was a good quality match, particularly for a semi-clean match involving Dump and Crane. Jaguar and Devil kept them moving, and the action, while obviously nothing comparable to their matches with the Crush Gals, was good stuff and Shiro added to things with all of his nonsense. Good match. ***1/4

8/25/84 AJW, 2/3 falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka 11:04, 2:31, 5:39
PA: Rematch from the 60 minute draw on 1/4/84, and the Crush boom was in full swing. The schoolgirls changing their chants in mid-air, seamlessly going from “Chi-gu-sa”, to “As-u-ka” is something to behold. Compared to their previous encounter, this match was a lot more refined and well structured. Omori's performance notably improved, although Hori was still the better of the two. The Dynamite Girls used their size advantage to bully and ground the Crush Gals initially. They were successful for a while, but ultimately the Crush Gals made their big comeback with a run of double teams on Hori, pinning her. In contrast to the slower first fall, the second fall was the short fall filed with big moves. Chigusa took an onslaught of them, allowing the Dynamite Girls to square things up for the third fall. They seemed to be working Lioness having a knee injury to explain why the Dynamite Girls were able to destroy Chigusa. Both Crush Gals were injured going into the third fall, but sustained selling isn't Lioness's forte, so that didn't quite work. They continued the story in the third fall, and the Crush Gals couldn't get anything going. They'd make comebacks, but be thwarted, and take each other out, leading to a Chigusa getting hammered with all kinds of big moves again, though this time she survived them. The match reached dramatic heights, but went into overkill with all the punishment Chigusa survived, and the finish itself was quite weak, with Chigusa winning from a single German Suplex hold (after a very brief comeback from Lioness that consisted of exactly one move). I've mentioned where this match falls short, but despite that, it's still an excellent match and a little better than the 1/4/84 match overall due to better work and being more cohesive. ****

9/4/84 AJW, '84 Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 9:35
PA: Terrific match between the two teams destined to meet each other again in the finals. Jaguar's taped shoulder became a focal point, leading the Crush Gals taking a heelish role (not that their fans minded). The opening was rapid fire action before Lioness started targeting Jaguar's injured shoulder. Jaguar showed her resilience, managing intermittent comebacks despite the pain she was in. Her selling was impeccable, constantly protecting her injured shoulder on both offense and defense. Devil asserted her dominance, but still had to tag out after Crush Gals comebacks, forcing Jaguar back in. As the match progressed, Jaguar's condition deteriorated to the point where she could no longer continue, prompting the Crush Gals to put the exclamation point on it by ruthlessly hammering away at her injured shoulder, resulting in a referee stoppage while Devil could only attempt to shield her partner. Devil wasn't happy at all with the actions of the Crush Gals in the post-match, but you couldn't blame the Crush Gals for doing what they had to. After heated scenes, Devil ended up shaking hands with Lioness (who was the main villain of the piece), but it was clear there'd be another fight, and we wouldn't have to wait too long to get it. ***3/4

9/17/84 AJW, Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu
PA: Two versions of this match exist. There's one from a comm tape with bad English commentary over the top of the TV audio, it's good for a laugh, but it quietens down the crowd noise as well, and that's half the appeal of these Dump matches. There's a version on Samurai TVs Classic series (the second run), which has the proper Japanese audio and several minutes more action, thus making it the superior pick, although they didn't show the entrances in that version. This was the two teams second try. They had their first match in February, and they were still figuring what the Dump formula was, resulting in a mess that contention for worst match of the year. Seven months later, they'd figured it out, and the answer was to make it as out of control and exciting as possible. That's just what they did from the start. Everyone had energy (even Dump was moving around well when she had to), the drama was high, and the action was good. Chigusa got mauled heavily with weapons and her knee was targeted. Lioness made a really hot comeback early, but tagged Chigusa, and Crane ran through her. Chigusa actually got the better of Dump, and got a sharpshooter on her, while Lioness tied up Crane. She laid out Dump with a couple kicks, but then Dump just tagged out and Crane took over, as if they forgot to transition to it with anything. Crane took over until Chigusa was caught with an enzuigiri, and Lioness and Crane had an intense slapping fight, which led to Lioness hitting a Giant Swing. Crane survived that, but a spike piledriver was clearly going to finish Crane off, except Dump forced crooked referee Shiro Abe to stop counting. A backdrop suplex from the second rope also saw Dump make him stop counting. Dump took over using a can, and they went on a little longer, trying to finish off Lioness, but she kept surviving, so Dump nailed her with a bucket Chigusa went crazy. This was great. She punched the bucket out of Dump's hand and assaulted her with it while Lioness dragged Shiro out and assaulted him with a table. Chigusa managed to tie Dump and Crane together, and then the camera went back to Lioness, who was throwing a row a chairs on Shiro, and low blowing him. The fun came to an end though, as he disqualified them. This was a great example of what those Gokuaku Domei vs Crush Gals matches were all about. The wrestling is nothing to write home about, it's about the crowd engagement, drama, excitement and all kind of shenanigans that create entertaining spectacles, and this was a good one. ***1/2

9/17/84 AJW, WWWA & UWA World Title Unification Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 13:09
PA: Jaguar might have gotten her belt back a few weeks after their hair vs. mask match, but hadn't taken anything from Galactica to truly claim revenge. She finally had the chance almost 18 months later in the form of the UWA World Title. Galactica was in fine heel form here, jumping the gun with a foreign object before the introductions and cutting up Jaguar's leg, forcing her to start the match injured. Galactica went straight after the leg, and while Jaguar didn't always inspire that much support from the schoolgirl audience, she had it here due to due to the work they were doing and being against a foreigner who was actually menacing. Jaguar hurt Galactica's arm to even things up once she took over. After catching a reset on the outside, both came back in tentatively looking for an advantage. This portion culminated with an excellent spot where Jaguar tried a bridge out only to get dumped outside and toped, which seemed to take about as much out of both. Galactica controlled, but couldn't put Jaguar away with submissions, so she went for big moves. Jaguar reversed a tombstone piledriver and then rammed Galactica into the ringpost. Galactica juiced with the blood flowing through her white mask, which was an amazing visual. They both had the same idea, criss crossing in the ring, but collided with each other for a double down, but Jaguar at this point had more left in the tank, finishing with her run of big moves to capture both titles. This match was excellent. Dramatic and heated match that blew their 1983 match away. ****1/4

9/26/84 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Fuji TV Cup Tag League Final: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Crush Gals 6:16, 3:17, 3:45
PA: This was not only the best match of the tournament, but also the clear women's match of the year. Devil and Jaguar still proved to be the masters of their juniors, but the Crush Gals wrestled with more confidence after their victory on 9/4/84. Yokota and Devil would try to control and bully them, but the Crush Gals were always able to fight their way back. Jaguar and Lioness were doing a lot of state of the art stuff, while Chigusa was more scrappy, and Devil was the most menacing with her power. At one point, Devil threatened to press slam Chigusa out of the ring, but decided she wouldn't attempt to kill her on this day. Perhaps she should have, because soon after Chigusa survived, took Devil down with kicks, and hot tagged Lioness, leading to the Crush Gals taking the first fall. They almost took Devil out in the second fall, but due to double teaming Jimmy Kayama refused to count the fall that would have won them the match, and Devil came back. Yokota took over, but the Crush Gals were hellbent on not being denied, taking over on Jaguar and hitting double team moves. They went for broke with Chigusa hitting a tope, but taking out Lioness. This time Devil grabbed Chigusa and threw her out of the ring onto Lioness, and it was academic from there, with Jaguar throwing Lioness' corpse in for Devil to finish. They slowed things down a bit at the start of the third fall, with both Lioness and Devil tiring out and putting over the toll. They tried to put Jaguar away with a German, Belly to Belly, and a Giant Swing, but she wasn't staying down. She exploded back, but couldn't follow up on Lioness. Chigusa got the tag in, but Jaguar countered her, and with Devil holding Lioness at bay, Jaguar was able to finish with an underhook suplex from the top rope. The first two falls were all time greats, with the third being a little below. This match was just about everything you could have hoped for from these two teams and then some. It's only unfortunate that Samurai TV never aired the match in the original run of classics when they were showing matches in full. Amazing match. ****3/4

10/6/84 AJW: Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami 16:44
PA: This was a somewhat rare ‘heavyweight' style match. Omori was a solid wrestler at this point, but not the most exciting to watch, nor much of a threat to Devil. Devil crafted a good and interesting match, letting her have extended periods of control and selling well for her to make her seem like a threat. It was generally slow, but always moving, and they did quicken things up at times. They executed well, and everything they did looked impactful. Omori's game plan was good, and she always seemed to have an answer to Devil. Devil would try to quicken things up, and resort to biting and brawling, but Omori managed to stay ahead of her. In the end, Omori almost had Devil almost beat with an Avalanche, but followed it up with a dive and missed, allowing Devil to put her in the Romero Special to escape with a win. Although Omori wouldn't become a big deal until 1986, this match gave her some credibility in singles matches that she didn't really have before. This was also the first good singles match I've seen her have. ***1/4

10/6/84 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. La Galactica & Lola Gonzalez 10:06, 6:26, 8:38
PA: This match was pandemonium. Crush Gals popularity was so overwhelming the schoolgirls wouldn't let them get to the ring. They actually had to stop the music so they could proceed and get the match going. There was a heated Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu vs. Crush Gals match on 9/17/84 (the second televised match between the two teams, and the first one that didn't suck), but this one was another level. There was some solid wrestling here through the first fall, Galactica was alright, although Lola didn't add much, but that wasn't really the point of this. Dump and co were interfering as much as they wanted to. Crush Gals were taking their beatings, but kept coming back, and took the first fall. The carnage began in the second fall, with Dump using scissors on Chigusa, and the Mexicans getting some major heat tearing apart her knee and stomping all over her hand in the ring, while Lioness could do nothing but watch. Dump ran in with the wrench to help out, nailing Lioness with it. There wasn't much of a comeback due to Dump dragging Lioness away, leaving Chigusa to get double teamed and pinned. Crush Gals fought back at the start of the third fall, but the mugging caught up with them again. Lioness went for Galactica's mask, but was unsuccessful, and Dump stabbed her with scissors. Lioness juiced, and Mexicans were going after the cut, biting at her head. The fans were livid, throwing those cones into the ring, and the match was chaos until the Crush Gals made their comeback. They hit dives, and Chigusa took over on Lola, who bled as well, and Lioness got the win with a giant swing and backdrop suplex to send the crowd home happy. This was nothing but pure heat and drama, but it was off the charts, and made for a great spectacle. ***1/2

10/21/84 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori 11:39, 2:34, 4:02
PA: Another quality match between these two teams, though this match wasn't for the belts. This one didn't attempt to be an epic, and it didn't have the big moments of the first two matches, but it was a consistently very good match with an overall faster pace and more frequent tagging in and out. The Crush Gals exhibited more control of the first fall than in the previous matches, which displayed they were becoming a stronger tag team who didn't just fight from behind, although they were beaten quite convincingly in the last two falls. The first fall was back and forth. It was usually Chigusa vs. Hori and Lioness vs. Omori, and they all worked well together. Omori ended up falling to some double teaming from the Crush Gals. The second fall was the usual short one, this wasn't particularly good, but the finish was neat where the Crush Gals set up for another double team, this time on Hori, but she caught Chigusa diving off the top into a fallaway slam, while Omori got rid of Lioness. The third fall was better, mostly big moves and attempts to finish. The Dynamite Girls dominated, and the Crush Gals were only hanging on, but it wasn't enough as Omori finished Lioness off. The belts weren't up for grabs, but the Dynamite Girls got some pride back, leaving their trilogy of matches in 1984 at 1-1-1. ***1/2

1/5/85 AJW, UWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 19:27
PA: In contrast to their previous matchup, this one kicked off at a more measured pace, featuring somewhat tentative exchanges on the mat. However, it didn't take long for Galactica to gain the upper hand, at first by mugging Jaguar on the outside, and later escalating to weapons and outside interference. Jaguar endured the assault and made some comebacks, eventually hitting a tope and tombstone piledriver on the floor. Galactica resorted to desperate measures, initially targeting the leg and later resorting to a foreign object, causing Jaguar to bleed. Galactica continued to dominate with a straightforward heel beatdown and a few spots thrown in. Jaguar's exceptional selling elevated the entire match. She put over the toll, with her comebacks never reaching full speed so they didn't have the same impact they would have normally. It was subtle, but made gave the match a lot of added drama. While not on the same level as their 9/13/1984 match, this was another quality match between these two. ***3/4

1/6/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno 10:31, 3:21, 3:00
PA: The first tag team title shot for the unnamed team of Yamazaki and Tateno (they would, of course, become the JB Angels, but they never actually got that name until 1986). They'd mainly battled each other in junior matches, as they had no other peers from their own class to wrestle (there were only three members of the 1981 class, and the third one quit very early), until they were thrown together as a tag team in 1984. The early portion was really good, with competitive matwork and in and out tags, with the challengers showing they could go with the champions. Yamazaki decided to switch things up doing six dropkicks in a row to Lioness (though, these were of the weak first-year junior variety rather than the high impact ones Yamazaki was known for). Tateno eventually got dominated, but was able to catch a break to regroup. Things went a little downhill from there. After some brawling, Chigusa and Tateno were legal, but weren't doing much of anything, so Lioness tagged in to get things back on track. Crush Gals eventually looked to put Yamazaki away, but she avoided Chigusa's diving headbutt and then did a primitive version of a springboard plancha, capturing the first fall after a piledriver. At this point, the goal of the match to give Yamazaki and Tateno some credibility and move them out of the junior ranks was complete, so the last two falls were little more than a Crush Gals steamroll. The challengers got in a little offense, but were no longer really competitive. Crush Gals retaliated in the second fall, overwhelming Tateno to even the score, and the third fall was even swift, with Yamazaki being the victim this time. Yamazaki and Tateno simply didn't have the offense at this point to match them, with sunset flips and missile dropkicks being their big moves. This match was a little rough around the edges at times, but overall, it was very good. It was an important stepping stone for the future JB Angels, elevating Yamazaki and Tateno out of the junior ranks. ***1/2

1/10/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota, Yukari Omori & Mika Komatsu vs. Lioness Asuka, Chigusa Nagayo & Yumi Ogura 11:18, 3:46, 2:38
PA: This was a typical Zenjo tag match for the era, except it was wrestled twice as fast as normal. The first fall was mostly all matwork with some quicker stuff to break things up, while the last two falls were short and action packed. They never let the action settle at any point with consistent tags, switching their holds up constantly, and the work was generally at a high level. Ogura and Komatsu took turns getting worked over. The four seniors were good, with Jaguar and Lioness providing the best exchanges. Ogura did pretty well here, but it was beyond the pace Komatsu was capable of, and she struggled to keep up. Ogura dropped the first fall to Omori, but got to pin Komatsu in the second fall. Komatsu was pinned again in the third fall by Chigusa. Although it was almost a foregone conclusion that the juniors were going to be the ones taking the losses, they did a good job of making it seem like Chigusa might lose the third fall before she put Komatsu away. ***1/2

2/25/85 AJW, All Japan Title Match: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Bull Nakano 18:33
PA: Keiko Nakano was rechristened as Bull Nakano, and was sporting a half shaved head with blue hair. This was a wild junior fight. Bull didn't do much other than grind down Yamazaki with basics and lot of heel tactics with plenty of help from Dump and co. Yamazaki would frantically try to fight back, and they'd scrap it out usually with interference putting Bull back in charge. The action might not sound appealing, but it was compelling because of Yamazaki's fire, and the two being of them being out of control in the scrap. Yamazaki went for a springboard to the outside and injured her knee, which Bull went after. Yamazaki came back with an impressively well placed missile dropkick taking out both Bull and referee Shiro Abe, which allowed Noriyo Tateno to give her some help double teaming Bull, though it was a short-lived comeback because her knee was injured. Yamazaki kept fighting back, hitting some hot moves, but all the heels ran in and Shiro threw the match out, giving Yamazaki the DQ win. Yamazaki vacated the belt afterward. It was a little strange that they weren't using the usual rules for this match, I can only imagine they didn't want either to lose, so they went with this instead. In any case, this is exactly what I love to see from junior matches – frantic, fiery, scrappy action. ***1/4

2/25/85 AJW: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori 10:37
PA: Quality action-packed match with everyone going all out. Ten minutes of non-stop action with frequent tags and momentum switches. Jaguar and Devil controlled things. Jaguar would hit her fast-paced bursts, while Devil would slow it down. The Dynamite Girls were always competitive with them, and were in fine form as well. It escalated nicely to an exciting finishing run. Being that they were facing the top two stars in the league, it was a bit of a stretch to think the Dynamite Girls had much chance, but they did manage one convincing near fall when Hori landed a pair of powerbombs on Devil, who managed to get a foot on the ropes. The only downside is it was only ten minutes (or at least ten minutes shown – who knows how much Samurai TV clipped) but those ten minutes were all quality. ***1/2

2/25/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu 11:55, 0:53, 4:51
PA: Dump and Crane mugged the champions before the match started, leaving Chigusa bleeding. Shiro Abe was thrown out as referee and Jimmy Kayama was given the job. Crush Gals outwrestled the heels early until they were cut off with weapons and interference. Dump teed off on Chigusa with a metal rod and scissors to the horror of all the Crush Gals fans, while Lioness was powerless to help her. Chigusa kept fighting her way back and tagged Lioness, but they all ended up fighting outside, with Crane being legal and in the ring, so she got the count out to take the first fall. The second lasted less than a minute, with Crane receiving a barrage of big moves, and the Crush Gals levelling the match with a spike piledriver. The third fall was just total chaos. Chigusa put Crane in a sharpshooter until Dump came in wielding a bucket, taking out both Chigusa and Lioness. Lioness bled as well. Chigusa took a piledriver from Dump, but it proved insufficient, so Bull and Crane intervened, contributing to a spike piledriver, but Chigusa survived that as well. Chigusa came back, and tagged Lioness, pandemonium ensued as everyone rushed into the ring again. The heels had now decided Jimmy Kayama was the problem, so they took him outside and mauled him, allowing Shiro to take over. Dump started cutting Chigusa's hair with the crowd screaming in horror. The Crush Gals got pummelled, and Shiro counted the fall. You sure don't watch these matches for great technical wrestling. This was all spectacle, with great drama and crowd reactions, Dump style carnage at its best, and easily the best match these teams had. ****

2/27/85 AJW, UWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 21:55.
PA: This was worked more like a bitter grudge match than their previous matches. Jaguar had more of an edge to her, immediately going after Galactica's mask and initiating a brawl on the outside. Galactica was more vicious in response, and had help from the usual suspects. Because they went in this direction, it was a slower paced match than their previous two, with less spots. Galactica eventually targeted Jaguar's arm, cutting it open and going for full vampirism points, biting and licking the blood. Galactica relentlessly focused on the arm while Jaguar struggled, unable to use her right arm but found ways to fight back. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, her selling was amazing, and once again made the match, with logical comebacks and only using her injured arm in a limited fashion (had Lioness or another great talent been involved who don't put this much detail into their selling, the match wouldn't have the drama and thus, fallen flat). Jaguar ended up skating through with a count out. She desperately dropkicked Galactica off the apron and hit a plancha, struggling back into the ring to beat the count while Galactica was down. I liked the count out finish here because it was done in a dramatic way, and there was no logical way for Jaguar to actually beat Galactica in the ring in the state she was in. This was an excellent and dramatic match, taking their previous bouts to their logical conclusion. ****

3/15/85 AJW Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka 15:16.
PA: This marked the opening contest of the inaugural Japan Grand Prix, a memorable way to begin featuring the tournament's two standout wrestlers and prime contenders for victory. Lioness delivered a slap to Devil's face in the early going, awakening a semblance of the old heel persona in Devil. Devil retaliated ruthlessly slamming Lioness onto the mat and reciprocating with a slap of her own. Devil attempted to dominate, but was never able to keep Lioness at bay for long. The match was highly competitive all the way through. Devil strived to assert control, but was unable to fully dominate with Lioness always being able to retaliate before she could settle in for too long. With each thwarted attempt, Devil's frustration escalated, resorting to nastier tactics, from a simple backrake to trying to choke the life out of Lioness, eventually going after the eyes. It worked enough for Devil to hit a series of big moves on Lioness, but she was unable to finish her off, so she opted to take a risk, going for the rolling senton from the top rope. Lioness avoided it and unleashed a barrage of kicks to knock Devil silly and finished her off with a Giant Swing. Lioness winning here was actually a pretty big upset, and this match was tremendous way to kick off the tournament. ****1/4

4/6/85 AJW Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Jumbo Hori 17:23.
PA: This was the first day of a Korakuen Hall double header with two big matches for Lioness Asuka. Today she wrestled Jumbo Hori, and the following day she'd have a huge match against Chigusa Nagayo. Hori carried the match, and it was similar to the Devil match, in that Hori had a lot of control using her power, but couldn't overcome the resilient Lioness and became frustrated by the comebacks, which eventually brought about her downfall. Hori almost seemed to take Lioness lightly at the start after thwarting some kick attempts, but Lioness caught her with a headkick when she had her guard down. She started targeting Lioness's knee. Hori had some control after that, but was eventually outwrestled by Lioness. Lioness's selling here was a lot better than it came be, as she never let you forget about the damage Hori had done to her while she was fighting back. Hori overcame Lioness to hit a pendulum slam, but was frustrated, pulling Lioness outside and attacking her with the ring bell hammer. She got a couple of shots in, but Lioness managed to pry it out of her hands, and nailed her in the injured back with it, which spelled the end for Hori. She wasn't right after that, and although she fought back briefly, Lioness put an end to her in the ring pretty quickly. Another excellent match from Lioness in the Japan Grand Prix, and the best singles match of Jumbo Hori's career. ****

4/7/85 AJW Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 17:57.
PA: The theme of the 4/7/85 show was tag team partner battles, with these two and then the Crush Gals fighting each other. Tateno and Yamazaki rarely ever had good matches together, there was the highly entertaining 1983 match where they went all out in junior competition, but they often went through the motions and didn't click together in the way that Lioness and Chigusa did when they battled. This match was the exception though. Yamazaki had her heel edge in this one, prompted by Tateno stomping on her foot during a test of strength causing her to lose it. They worked hard with intensity, even if they weren't particularly smooth all the time. Yamazaki was great in the heel role, nasty, vicious and relentless. Although her fiery, flashy babyface work was always excellent, particularly in tags, it's a shame that she hardly ever worked heel again until she went to JWP. The crowd still loved Yamazaki, and popped big for a high spots, but it was effective enough that Tateno got a bigger reaction when she made the comeback and got the crowd in a frenzy. Tateno couldn't finish Yamazaki off, and Yamazaki came back again. Yamazaki took it up a notch, leaping onto the top rope and executing a plancha. Tateno fought back again in the ring, kicking Yamazaki off the apron when she tried her vaulting kick, and following up with a tope. They had a back and forth finish with Tateno's downfall coming from Yamazaki boomeranging out of the corner. She did it once, but Tateno made the same mistake a second time, and fell victim to a sunset flip. This match was brilliant! Loads of great action and hard work, and mean Yamazaki was always a win. I'd initially thought they'd peaked around the 10 minute mark, as they seemed to lose a little steam, but I was wrong, as they rebuilt to an even bigger peak with a really exciting finishing run. ****1/4

4/7/85 AJW Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo 30:00.
PA: The Crush showdown ’85 is not the high end match they'd later deliver, but nonetheless a fascinating encounter where Chigusa finally turns the corner and goes from an adequate worker to a good one. It was quite a tentative match between partners, built around teases more than anything else, which worked because the crowd were so invested they would go ballistic for anything. It was heavily matbased with very solid matwork. They had been training with Akira Maeda, and the shoot style influence was on display. Though they were shown as equals, Lioness was a little stronger than Chigusa by virtue of being more vicious, trying to take Chigusa’s head off with kicks on multiple occasions when she got the chance. This was enough to put them into their more naturals roles of Lioness being the aggressor and Chigusa on defense. Chigusa’s wrestling was much improved here to what we had seen in the past. She always had the crowd psychology down, and worked that to perfection, but previously she had been more of a scrappy wrestler, as you see from juniors where they can do things, but they often look out of control (which has its own charm, but isn’t always pretty). Here she was smoother and far more technically sound, even if she still wasn’t in Lioness’s league in that department. It was paced out well, albeit it was very slow compared to what we normally would see from them. The match was most intriguing during the build up because you sensed the escalation was coming and the teases were extremely effective. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off in any meaningful way, as the escalation was little more than the two trading moves back and forth toward the end, with neither looking like winning, or dare I say, really trying to, thus is all wound up feeling a little flat. ***1/2

5/12/85 AJW 2/3 Falls WWWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Pantera Surena 13:39, 4:49, 13:41.
PA: This is from a bullring on the Mexican expedition at a UWA event. Pantera Surena is La Galactica without the mask on, as she had been unmasked in Mexico for many years. It also answered the question of how a clean wrestling match between these two would look, with the answer being inconsistent. It was a very long match, totalling over 30 minutes, and it felt it, as they paced it very slowly. Surena was solid. She did some nice work, but it was so slow paced that it got tedious at times, particularly in the first fall. After taking the first fall, Surena dropped the second fall to a figure four, which wasn't doing much damage to her, but she elected to drop the fall and take it to a third rather than risk damage. The third fall was the good one here, and redeemed the whole match. Jaguar started a run, and the crowd rallied behind Surena's comeback. They went hard for pins and big moves, tiring each other out. By the end, they were almost too exhausted to lock up. There were some great falls in the final portion, the best of which being a tombstone piledriver reversal spot, which almost saw Surena get the win. Jaguar found a final burst soon afterward, and took the win after a piledriver. The first two falls were pretty lousy and didn't contribute much other than providing match length for the toll they showed in the final fall, but they got there in the end with a terrific and dramatic final fall. ***

5/16/85 AJW Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Devil Masami vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 9:44.
PA: A really fun teacher vs. student match. Yamazaki opted to dive on Devil within the first 30 seconds and refused to let her in, so Devil just dragged her outside and choked her with the microphone cord. Devil worked over her protégé, using every heel tactic short of weapons, and appeared to be enjoying every second of it. They were both very good in their roles, with Yamazaki making spirited comebacks, and fighting well from underneath. There was a great spot where Devil was going for a Romero Special and Yamazaki was trying to claw her way to the ropes, with Tateno trying to help her get there, though it was to no avail. Yamazaki made a decent comeback at the end, but she didn't really have much chance against Devil. ***1/4

5/16/85 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA Tag Title Match: Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 4:48, 7:47, 8:09
PA: Crane Yu was the referee for this, which made Gokuaku Domei none too happy. This is one of the more bizarre wrestling stories. A few weeks earlier Dump and Crane battled in a Japan Grand Prix match. Crane was of the impression they were going to have the typical Dump brawl, but without interference because they were equals. Dump had other ideas, and went to Bull and the other members of the group, telling them they were all going attack Crane during the match. So, that's what they did. Crane was so angry over the whole thing that she got on the mic after the match and quit. Legitimately! So, that was the end of Crane Yu (at least until she returned under a mask a few years later). The tag team belts were vacated, and Crane dropped out of the Japan Grand Prix. The Matusnaga's must have liked her enough to convince her to stick around as a referee, and it made sense for this match when you consider the way the match in February unfolded. What's funny is Crane took more bumps in this match as the referee than she did when she was wrestling. Bull was a much better partner for Dump than Crane, as she was more athletic and able to do the Crush Gals faster paced spots better. She was also Dump's junior so the roles between the two were clear, and there was no power struggle. Though, the double-edged sword is that it made it more predictable because you knew that Dump was just doing to dominate, while Bull was going to be feeding all the comebacks whenever she was in the ring. Crane tried to enforce the rules, but she kept getting distracted by Shiro while Dump and Bull wreaked havoc. The Crush Gals were still able to take the first fall. The start of the second fall was cool, as Bull got the nunchakus out, so Chigusa brought in a chair to fight fire with fire. Crush Gals ended up getting mauled though, with Crane having no chance to keep control as the match got chaotic. Dump levelled things up after delivering a bucket shot with Chigusa on Bull's shoulders. I suppose Crane was new to refereeing, so she didn't know the old rule that you don't have to count falls directly off double teams or weapon shots. Amid the chaos in the third fall, Lioness seemingly had the match won with a piledriver, but Crane was pulled out of the ring, preventing her from counting the fall in time. The Crush Gals mounted comebacks, only to be dismantled by weapons. Shiro played a disruptive role, mostly engaging with Crane, but also interfering with Chigusa's sharpshooter. Dump attempted to eliminate Crane with an outside beating, the same tactic that had worked with Jimmy Kayama in February, but this time, she left Bull alone in the ring. Lioness capitalized with a Giant Swing, and Crane managed to get back to count the fall, giving the Crush Gals the belts for the second time. ***1/4

6/25/85 AJW Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 Playoff: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto 16:40 of 30:00.
PA: This was Japan Grand Prix finals day. Lioness Asuka needed to defeat Noriyo Tateno to move onto the finals, which she did in pretty short order. Had she lost, this Dump vs. Chigusa match would have been the final, but with Lioness defeating Tateno, this was made a playoff match with the winner going onto to face Lioness afterward. It was the first one on one match they'd done since Dump became Dump (they had one other match in 1983). I definitely wouldn't want to see the full 30 minutes of this one, but what they showed was a pretty enjoyable Dump match. As a wrestling match, it was way better than their hair vs. hair match. It's mainly lots of Dump using weapons, interference, grinding Chigusa down, Shiro Abe antics, the usual. The heat was off the charts. Chigusa made her spirited comebacks. After so much interference, Yamazaki and Tateno decided to assist Chigusa, though after that Dump started nailing her with scissors, busting her open. She kept making comebacks though, fighting fire with fire, blistering Dump with a chair and actually busting her open. They built some excellent near falls later in the match with Chigusa coming close, and the action was excellent in the final portion, though it kind of fizzled out in the last minute as the time expired. I'm not sure how they actually determined who went onto the finals to face Lioness. Chigusa was on the mic when they returned from the break. I'm not sure if she gave it up (which wouldn't make much sense) or if they drew straws (which was the common thing at the time to determine things like this). In any case, it was Dump vs. Lioness in the final. They tried, but the match was just okay. They never had good matches together to begin with, but with Dump just going 30 minutes with Chigusa, there wasn't much chance. Lioness won the match with a German Suplex hold to take the Japan Grand Prix, setting up her challenge of Jaguar Yokota for the Budokan show in August. ***1/2

8/22/85 AJW 2/3 Falls: Noriyo Tateno & Itsuki Yamazaki vs Bull Nakano & Dump Matsumoto 11:53, 6:31.
PA: Tateno and Yamazaki never had a chance here, but they put up a good fight. Tateno took the early beating, and once she was able to tag out, Yamazaki cautiously locked up with Bull, only for Dump to jump her from behind. Yamazaki and Tateno were able to hit their hot moves on Bull, but the comebacks were never more than a couple of moves. The first fall ended up in a double count out after a lengthy brawl with no one able to make it back into the ring. Yamazaki and Tateno wanted to fight fire with fire, so Dump tossed away her weapon, and they wrestled cleanly for a while. Of course, Dump only took one move, but they got a run of offense in on Bull. Dump had seen enough of that, and nailed everyone with a bucket to put a stop to that. After another mauling, a spike piledriver to Yamazaki assisted by Bull and Condor Saito put an end to the match. This was a good Dump brawl with the usual carnage, enough drama, and great comebacks from Yamazaki & Tateno when they got the chance. The only issue was you couldn't really buy them as much of a threat. ***1/4

8/22/85 AJW Tokyo Nippon Budokan, All Pacific Title Match: Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo 36:52
PA: The first part of famous Budokan double main event. This was a battle for best bout of the year. Lioness and Jaguar were technically superior to both Chigusa and Devil, and came up with the strategy to have an athletic match with new moves that Devil and Chigusa had no chance to compete with. Devil and Chigusa, knowing they couldn't compete with that, opted to focus their match more on putting meaning behind everything they could and teasing big moves they'd deliver later to create a more dramatic match, which Devil was the master of. Before the match, Chigusa had made the rather bold promise to her fans that she wasn't going to lose to Devil despite doing so in every match they'd ever had together dating back to 1981, the majority of those being one-sided slaughters (their most recent on 5/18/85 in the Japan Grand Prix was more competitive, but Chigusa was still unable to get the better of Devil). The introductions set the scene with their contrasting body language. It was another title defense for Devil, but Chigusa was completely zoned in on Devil, didn't move from the centre of the ring and barely reacted to her introduction. It was the biggest match of her life. Chigusa was able to take Devil down, but couldn't get anything going, and Devil controlled the early portion while the crowd rallied for Chigusa's comebacks. Devil tried to hit suplexes, but Chigusa blocked them all, with each one drawing horrified screams from the schoolgirl fans. Chigusa caught a suplex and looked to work the mat, but Devil resorted to biting to cut that off, and put Chigusa in a Romero Special, which was probably the biggest spot in the first 10 minutes. That didn't work, so Devil attempted to ramp up the viciousness, aiming to ram Chigusa's head into the ringpost, but Chigusa reversed that and took advantage of by unleashing a barrage of kicks. Chigusa only had a brief control segment before Devil was back in the ascendancy, but she was able to do some damage Devil's arm. Devil escaped, and continued looking to hammer away, but Chigusa came back with her kicks. Devil blocked Chigusa's piledriver and Devil hit one of her own. She just tried to grind Chigusa down, but Chigusa fought back again, catching an octopus hold and then a piledriver and superplex. These were big spots in the context of the match that shifted the balance of power towards Chigusa, if she wasn't ahead, they were at least equals. Chigusa continued her assault, but Devil cut off a kick and desperately applied a figure four to shut her down. After escaping, Devil took her outside and dove off the top turnbuckle onto her. In the ring, she tried to kill off Chigusa with backbreakers, but Chigusa escaped a third one and quickly went for a sharpshooter, but Devil blocked it. They struggled for suplexes, blocking and reversing each other, but Chigusa ended up on top and had Devil in a position where she was no longer able to break the sharpshooter. Devil bailed out, looking in serious trouble, but Chigusa wasn't letting her regroup, and hit her with a tope. Devil was at her limit, and her response was to grab the bokken and stab it into the ring apron to pull herself up. This was tremendous with, Devil having that evil look in her eye and the old Devil almost returned, though she decided in the end not go there. After the restart, they took boxing stances and threatened to throw hands, but Devil overpowered Chigusa and went in for the kill with big moves. She was unsuccessful, and Chigusa caught her with an enzuigiri. Then they did start throwing hands, Devil looked to get the advantage, but Chigusa slipped behind and hit a German Suplex for a great near fall. They were both done at this point. They continued exchanging blows, but were in no position to block the big moves anymore, though neither were able to finish. Their dramatic exchange ended with Chigusa landed the decisive blow on Devil, but she also collapsed. Chigusa was able to crawl toward Devil, but never made the cover, and neither one could make it up, resulting in one of the more satisfying draws you'll ever see. The belt remained with Devil, but Chigusa fulfilled her promise that she wasn't going to lose. The word ‘epic' is so over-used these days, lavishing praise upon the pretenders, but this was a truly epic match, and one of the greatest women's matches of all time. Devil called the match, and they didn't plan anything ahead of time, not even the finish, they didn't know whether Devil was going to win or it was going to be a draw, the only agreement was that the belt would stay with Devil and that both main events had a 30 minute time limit, although they went 7 minutes long (Chigusa said she lost track of time after being knocked silly by one of Devil's punches). The finish wasn't decided until the 25 minute mark when Chigusa told Devil “let's make the end of the match exciting by punching and kicking”, which Devil agreed with. This was normal for All Japan Women; they never pre-planned anything. It's sad to think that, all these decades later in the days of everyone ‘scripting' their matches to every last detail, what they did here is such a lost art. In the battle of the main events, Chigusa and Devil were victorious. Fuji TV aired 18 minutes of their match on the TV show the following day, while Jaguar vs. Lioness received only 6 minutes of coverage. The overwhelming crowd response, and the emotional reactions of the special guests left Fuji TV with no choice but to feature Chigusa and Devil's match prominently. Despite Lioness initially being infuriated and attempting to protest to the director of Fuji TV, after watching the match again with a calmer mindset, she acknowledged it was a match like she had never seen before. *****

8/22/85 AJW Tokyo Nippon Budokan, WWWA World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs Lioness Asuka 23:46
PA: The second part of famous Budokan double main event. Jaguar Yokota's dream was to be a main eventer at the Budokan, and here her dream came true. Jaguar was the most talented female wrestler of all time, and she was proud of her wrestling ability, but despite being the champion and leader of the league, she was also aware that she wasn't the reason this show was possible. The call for generational change was getting louder, and Jaguar was all too aware of it. She secretly made her decision under the bright lights of the Budokan, that this would be her last big match. Lioness Asuka was her opponent and her favorite disciple. She was the best athlete after Jaguar, and was the perfect opponent for Jaguar to have the match she dreamed of where she could show everything she had. Jaguar didn't have any time to take it all in though, after Chigusa and Devil had gone 7 minutes over their scheduled time in their match, Lioness and Jaguar were asked to cut their match down to 20 minutes, which they weren't going to do, so they had to get through the introductions and get straight into it. As soon as the bell rang, they were off at an insanely high tempo, countering each other at a speed only these two were capable of. In contrast to this afterward, while featuring some bursts, the match was largely contested on the mat, with the two countered each other there too. Jaguar focused on wearing down Lioness's knee initially, but the tables turned when Lioness managed to injure Jaguar's knee while reversing a Figure four leg lock. Lioness relentlessly targeted Jaguar's injured knee, dropping knees until Jaguar found an opportunity to escape to the floor. Although Jaguar attempted a brief comeback upon reentering the ring, Lioness kicked her knee out and got back on top. The speed picked up again afterward, with Lioness thinking she might be able to go in for the kill, but Jaguar kept fighting back. The pace quickened again, though not quite as fast as they were at the start due to the toll of the match. Lioness stopped Jaguar with a powerbomb, but Jaguar caught a dropkick and an underhook piledriver. Lioness reversed a tombstone, hit an airplane and a giant swing, but that wasn't enough. Frustration was beginning to set in. Lioness attempted to gain an advantage by grabbing Jaguar's back, only to find herself reversed. Jaguar hit the ropes, but in the most brutal looking spot of the match, Lioness caught her in a brainbuster position and launched her over the top rope the outside. You'd think Jaguar was dead, but she wasn't, and avoided Lioness's tope attempt that followed. Lioness was still ahead of the match, but did some damage to her knee. She still went in the for win. A fter a brainbuster and two German Suplexes, they fought on the top rope, with Lioness hurling Jaguar down, but she missed a diving knee drop, allowing Jaguar to capitalize on the mistake and put her away with a new variation of a backdrop hold. Chigusa and Devil had the epic, dramatic masterpiece. This match was the technical, athletic masterpiece. The former might have won the day, but the latter was nothing short of the second-best women's singles match of the 80s. ****3/4

8/28/85 AJW Hair vs. Hair Death Match: Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo 11:38.
PA: Six days after the two greatest singles matches of the decade comes the greatest spectacle. This had the classic “Shadow” Dump Matsumoto entrance where Kahoru Kage played the role of Dump, while the real Dump followed behind dressed up as the masked manager. There isn't much to speak of with this match, it's a complete Dump massacre. Chigusa made some comebacks to keep the fans hopeful and fight fire with fire, but as far as she got was applying a sharpshooter to Dump, only to give up her only real advantage when she got suckered into thinking Dump gave up. Dump just mauled her with everything. There was even a wrestling move or two amongst the weapons. As always, the scissors drew those horrified screams. They were used to bust Chigusa open, and cut her hair. The heat was nuclear, and though it would have been anyway, they did a masterful job of working the crowd through the whole thing - another lost art, just watch the way Chigusa runs to all four sides of the ring after juicing to make sure the entire crowd can see it. By the end, it was all futile, someone tossed in a towel to call it off, but Chigusa defiantly threw it back. A chairshot from Dump put her down for the KO though. That was the end of the match, but the drama was only just beginning. The scene leaves all the babyfaces and fans in utter dismay. The heels drag Chigusa into the ring and the haircut begins. 10,000 schoolgirls simultaneously traumatized, crying and screaming at the sight of their hero being shaved in the middle of the ring, and Dump made sure to drag Chigusa around so they could get a closer look. Content, Dump departed, wielding a shinai just in case any schoolgirls wanted to make the jump. This is more of an angle than a match, but it's the most legendary angle in the history of women's wrestling.

9/26/85 AJW Tag League The Best '85: Jaguar Yokota & Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka 12:10.
PA: Unlike the Japan Grand Prix, the Tag League didn't provide too many good matches. This was probably the best and most interesting of the league matches (there was a pretty good match between Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Jaguar Yokota & Yukari Omori, though only for Jaguar vs. Yamazaki). This was last time Jaguar would go up against the Crush Gals. Unfortunately, she was not in a good way for this match. She had an ankle injury, and it looked badly blown up. She clearly shouldn't have been wrestling, looking in serious pain even just walking to the ring. Though forced to work almost entirely on the mat, she gave an outstanding performance, and still managed a few spots. It helped that Chigusa and Lioness were both excellent matworkers as well. Omori didn't feature much until later. Lioness eventually gave Jaguar a Giant Swing, and then looked to put an end to things by targeting the injured leg. Jaguar passed out and had to be taken out. The match should have ended there, but Omori wanted to fight on, so she went at it solo. She was a house afire, slugging Lioness down, getting a big run on Chigusa. Lioness got avalanched, but Omori succumbed to double teaming, and Lioness finished her off. ***

10/10/85 AJW Tag League The Best '85 Semi Final: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano 10:27.
PA: The winner of this would face the Crush Gals in the finals. Dump and Bull wrestled semi-cleanly for a while, though that all went out the window after babyface comebacks. This was mostly a solid match. Bull and Dump did their thing, though Dump took a few more bumps than she usually does. Yamazaki and Tateno made it good with their exciting comebacks. They have pretty good chemistry with Dump and Bull. They were fired up, and had some good hope spots and near falls, but much like their Budokan match, it was hard to buy them as a threat no matter how much the schoolgirls willed them on. Yamazaki was eventually caught coming off the ropes and put away with a lariat from Dump. She may have kicked out before the three, and tried to debate with the referee, but it was too late, and the finals were set up for later in the show. ***

10/10/85 AJW 2/3 Falls Tag League The Best '85 Final: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano 11:09, 3:18, 11:04.
PA: Another chaotic spectacle unfolded in a spectacular way with the members of Gokuaku Domei entering the ring wearing masks. All five of them jumped the Crush Gals, and it settled down to Bull vs. Lioness. Lioness ripped the mask off. Chigusa and Dump went at it next, except it wasn't Dump, it was Shadow Dump again (Kahoru Kage). So, with that plan backfiring, the real Dump came in to get the match started. Chaos ensued, with the Crush Gals on the receiving end, inside and outside with the all the usual weapon and interference. Chigusa got dismantled. Dump started going after her knee, and then undid her bootfaces. Bull accidentally allowed Chigusa to tag out, and Lioness made a big comeback, but outside interference put a stop to that. The Crush Gals got completely dismantled, though won the fall via a DQ. Chigusa was done for though. The second fall was the typical short one. Lioness took over on Bull and Chigusa rejoined. She did well for a while, hitting a piledriver on Dump, but that was all she had. Lioness got some near falls on Bull and Dump, but was put down with a lariat, and a doomsday device with Dump getting the pin to even things up. There was drama between falls, as Masami and Yamazaki got into a pull apart with all the heels. Lioness was out in the corner injured, and Chigusa had to go alone. That one didn't make too much sense. Considering what she usually survives, Lioness being injured off a somewhat gentle flying lariat was really weak, and Lioness's selling wasn't the most convincing either. They would have been better off going with Dump and Bull destroying her with weapons. In any case, it was up to Chigusa to start alone in the third fall. Chigusa started cautiously, but it wasn't long before Dump nailed her in the knee with a trash can, and then nailed the referee with it for good measure. Lioness came back to life to protect her partner. It turned into chaos again with the babyfaces and heels all jumping in, but Chigusa's bad knee was still getting worked over, and the match came to a halt. It was restarted, but there wasn't much for Chigusa. She made a comeback, but was too weak to really do anything, and Dump and Bull just picked apart her knee until the match was stopped. Crush Gals vs. Gokuaku Domei delivered again with another entertaining and dramatic match. ***3/4

12/4/85 AJW 2/3 Falls: Noriyo Tateno, Itsuki Yamazaki & Yukari Omori vs. Lioness Asuka, Yumi Ogura & Mika Komatsu 7:57, 1:06, 4:06.
PA: This was wild from start to finish, a total action packed hyper-speed match. Yamazaki was head and shoulders above everyone else here, working as fast as I've seen her. Lioness also excels in this sort of a match, but everyone was good. The younger girls, Ogura and Komatsu, weren't as smooth as the others, but tried and actually did pretty well, particularly Ogura. There was some matwork at the start, but it wasn't long before it was all running and moves with fast tags. In the third fall, Lioness and Yamazaki had the best exchange of the match. It wasn't until the end that things slowed down a little again, with Omori's knee being targeted by Ogura, though when Lioness came in, they slapped at each other, and Omori scored a couple of power moves to fight back. Yamazaki and Tateno almost finished off Lioness with their double teaming, but were unsuccessful, though when Ogura came back in Tateno finished her off pretty quickly with a pair of neckbreaker drops and a tombstone. Fantastic little match from start to finish. ***3/4

12/12/85 AJW WWWA World Singles & All Pacific Double Title Match: Devil Masami vs. Dump Matsumoto 19:16.
PA: Jaguar Yokota was supposed to wrestle Devil Masami here for the title, and this would have been her final match - win or lose (it was scheduled to be a serious match using the hold down rule, ala Jackie Sato vs. Yokota from 1981). But, the day before, she dislocated her shoulder, so the match with Devil was cancelled, and she dropped the belt. Commissioner Ueda came out to give the update and Jaguar surrendered the belt, the retirement announcement would follow in the coming days. Masami would have to face either Lioness Asuka or Dump Matsumoto (the hold down rule was cancelled and the agreement was Masami was going to win the match). And how do you pick the one who gets the match? Draw straws! Dump won, and the main event was set. They started out with a standoff with their weapons, but handed them off and started wrestling clean. Dump ground down Devil with basic blows and holds while the crowd chanted big for Devil. Dump played hide the weapon for a while, and went for Devil's eyes. Dump just dominated the match while Devil sold huge for everything to make it dramatic. Devil did give a classic babyface performance here, and the match was effective. When she made her babyface comebacks the crowd popped huge. When they hit their big moves, the near falls were dramatic, and there were a number of them. While it started out slowly and Dump's beatdown was nothing interesting or even really brutal enough to warrant the kind of selling Devil was giving, it turned into an exciting match as it went on. The finish saw Yamazaki take out Bull, and then Yamazaki and Tateno assisting Masami with an Electric Chair from the second rope, but because of Dump's size, they had trouble setting the spot up, and it took forever. Devil eventually nailed it, and got the win and both belts. Dump matches thrive on chaos and spectacle, and this was probably the best match you could have hoped for with those things at a minimum. A smart match with a great babyface performance from Devil. ***1/4

9/21/91 TWA: Owen Hart vs. Takayuki Iizuka 21:40
ML: One of the important early 1990's American junior heavyweight matches, along with the GWF Lightning Kid vs. Chaz and Lightning Kid vs. Jerry Lynn series, and then, of course, the next level WCW Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Brian Pillman series, transitioning the style of American wrestling from the remedial 1980's dropkick and high crossbody brand of so called "high flying" only performed by the faces to something that felt like a genuine Japanese junior style match. It's not a match that ages tremendously because the style has become so prevalent in the past two decades, and the attitude is always top this, so the high flying isn't exactly what El Hijo Del Vikingo can provide, but this was during the period when the Japanese junior style finally started to stick in the States (more because the afformentioned matchups were series that got ESPN and PPV exposure, as this was the only time either appeared in TWA), as opposed to just being one of those random one off New Japan special attraction junior matches like Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid 8/30/82 or Black Tiger vs. Cobra 12/28/84 that happened to take place at Madison Square Garden, but otherwise just fit into what New Japan was doing at the time and wasn't followed up upon in America. Owen was so far ahead of the curve as an athlete and an innovator. His gracefulness and generally the way he was able to move and control his body never get old, though despite his backflips and general slickness, most of his matches somehow feel oddly unsatisfying because he has so much more natural talent and athletic ability than pretty much anyone else of his era, but generally has a hard time putting it together into something that really works as something beyond a low intensity exhibition. Iizuka isn't nearly as good a worker here as he would be in 1993, and ultimately, he was better as a undersized tag team wrestler making heavyweights look good than as a true junior heavyweight, but he puts up competent strike oriented offense while setting Owen up to be the star at every turn. Iizuka is definitely just here to facilitate the flashy moves of his opponent, but Iizuka brings credibility to what little offense he actually does, and isn't just there to stall and get heat by being annoying like the heel normally would be in American wrestling of the time. Despite the typical Owen problem of there being too many rest holds, which gives the match too much of a stop and start nature, rather than having a consistent flow, it's one of Owen's more cohesive matches. I don't enjoy it like I did 30 years ago when I was simply amazed to see Owen have an actual legitimate and substantial back and forth match, rather than the brief spectacles I'd been impressed by during his WWF run, but it still feels like good stuff for the era in general, even when removing the fact that American audiences hadn't seen many matches of this style from the equation. I think I rated it 4 stars when I originally saw it in the early 90's, now 3.5 might be pushing it, but it's definitely considerably better and more advanced than just about anything else that was passing for a junior/cruiser/light heavyweight match in America during this period. ***1/2

8/21/93 AJW Japan Grand Prix '93 Semifinal: Manami Toyota vs. Akira Hokuto 16:36
ML: Toyota has been trending downwards with me for a long time because the early portions of her matches are routine and/or uninspired, leaving me somewhat indifferent once she starts throwing shit at the wall because it just feels like she's there to show off rather than to actually win. This was anything but that sort of match, largely because Hokuto was perhaps the only one who could get Toyota to care about the submission portions after her junior days, and Toyota also really wanted to outshine Hokuto in any or every way possible. In their 1/11/91 match, Toyota was working Hokuto's bandaged arm. Today, it was the blown out knee, and she did a shockingly good job of it, with genuine energy, urgency, and intensity on display. This was actually an exciting, all around performance by Toyota, as the action was spirited whether they were doing big dives or working each others appendages. Both women poured their hearts into this, and while there were still some holes in the logic, they did everything with passion and enthusiasm, and thus it was easy to become invested in their actions. Despite some dives and piledrivers on the floor, this wasn't as big a spotfest as Toyota's normal big match, but they mixed enough flashy stuff in between the well done knee work that you were into everything they were doing, rather than just waiting for the finish spam. The climax was quite impressive, though I would have loved Toyota countering Hokuto's whip into the ringside table with a boomerang body attack then 3 dives a lot more had this not been an immediate comeback after 2 piledrivers on the concrete. Goofiness aside, this was one of Toyota's best babyface performances because she displayed so much fire and exhilaration throughout that it was hard not to root for her, even against the beloved injury riddled Hokuto. There was a great near fall where Hokuto had the northern lights bomb set up, but Toyota twisted out into the Japanese ocean suplex. They had to keep the length down somewhat since Hokuto had to work another match, so the went home with the DQ bomb after Hokuto got her legs up for the moonsault. Stylistically, this might have been the most exciting junior heavyweight match of 1992 because they did enough to make you care about the great action they were going all out to deliver. ****3/4

12/10/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93 League Match then Final: Akira Hokuto & Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Kyoko Inoue 15:36 + 14:49
ML: The Matsunagas created some wacky teams for this tournament, with the regular pairing of Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota reclaiming the WWWA Tag Title in the final all-time classic against Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki on 12/6/93 in the midst of opposing each other in this Tag League. Kyoko & Yamada needed to win this last league match to tie Hokuto & Toyota for first, forcing a playoff match directly afterwards. This matchup had all the makings of an all-time classic, with every top worker in AJW but Aja Kong, but it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a Toyota style workrate match or a Hokuto style drama, though definitely leaned more towards the former. The good news is there was so much talent involved that it kind of didn't matter, as 4 top workers giving their all at a crazy pace was enough. The 1st match had tons of action and lot of cool things, even if most didn't mean much, and then it grew more story oriented in the 2nd, with Yamada & Kyoko working Hokuto's injured knee, but they waited too long to truly get going on this, and never fully fleshed it out. Given this was simply a Korakuen Hall show a few days after their big year end final at Ryogoku Kokugikan, it's important to point out that this is more toward what made AJW's house show style at the time so great, the frantic pace, the high effort state of the art spot oriented action, with some drama when the right people were involved. These two matches never quite seemed to be as impressive as they should have been on paper, as Yamada & Hokuto were the ones who were great, but it was less Yamada's style than anyone else's, and Toyota was the main worker for her team, so it was less Hokuto's style than it needed to be. While neither portion fully comes together, they are exceptional efforts, and arguably more interesting for managing to be two somewhat different strong variations of what AJW delivered so well in these days. As good as the action was, when taking that this was the interpromotional era into account, it distinctively lacked the intensity and urgency Mayumi Ozaki or some of the other outsiders would have brought to it. The 1st match was an excellent energetic spotfest, though the submission work was typically indifferent because Toyota expectedly put no effort into doing anything on the bottom beyond screaming. Given they were doing something most of the time, it's certainly an impressive match in it's own right, an excellent sprint with some nice dives and teamwork that builds momentum anytime Yamada or Hokuto are in, and climaxes well. Kyoko managed to faceplant her way out of Toyota's JOCS, and Niagara driver her to force the playoff match. Yamada destroyed Toyota with suplex after suplex to start the final. Hokuto had to bail Toyota out, but her knee wasn't in great shape to begin with, and once Kyoko decided she really wanted to win and went after it, the favorites quickly turned into the underdogs. Despite some fantastic selling from Hokuto, slowing the match down this dramatically at this point when submissions have already been established by Toyota to be meaningless was something of a questionable layout. Toyota tagged Hokuto back in too quickly, and Hokuto was hopping around on the good leg. Things were looking bleak for them when they tried for tombstones on the floor, only to have both get reversed. The action was definitely at a much higher level than the transitions, which were not particularly evolved, so really they were just trading runs a big offense more than telling the story of a smarter or healthier Yamada & Inoue trying to exploit advantages to overcome the odds. It was much more about Hokuto once again overcoming, a fitting climax to the greatest, and unfortunately last great year of her career. Though technically two different matches, I'm personally going to rate anything where the wrestlers never return to the locker room in between as one because the whole point of booking something like this is that the second match becomes that much greater by playing off the 1st, and it should be where the real emotional payoff lies. The Hokuto & Toyota win was more of a feel good than something truly convincing, but everyone loves Hokuto, so it's doubtful many people noticed or cared. ****1/2

1/24/94 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title: Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 38:37.
ML: Shimoda and Mita were trying to finally strike out on their own with their senpai Akira Hokuto confined to part-time duty. They were huge underdogs, and the point of the match was to try to get them over. The problem was that it was abundantly clear they were nowhere near Yamada & Toyota's level, and Yamada, the best wrestler here by far, and the only one who was capable of carrying it to something exceptional, wound up logging the least ring time of anybody. Toyota has her moments, but was mostly along for the ride, selling to try to get LCO over. LCO were able to control much of the first fall working over Toyota's back. Shimoda still couldn't pin Toyota with an avalanche style double arm suplex though, and once Yamada was able to prevent Mita from interfering, Toyota was able to take Shimoda out with the Japanese ocean cyclone suplex. After a strong last few minutes to a good first fall, they really ratcheted up the workrate and intensity. Shimoda was really determined here, immediately locking a sleeper after Yamada hip tossed her. LCO were giving their all, but were having trouble making people believe they could actually score the upset in a match where a sweep wouldn't have been out of the question, if AJW ever actually booked them. Mita managed to catch Toyota with her Death Valley bomb out of nowhere, and followed with a second one to even things up though. Toyota was still down when the time between falls elapsed, and LCO took it to the floor for some of what would become their signature brawling. Things were becoming quite dramatic, as Yamada lay on top of Toyota to shield her from the stomps after Mita took her out with a piledriver on the floor. Shimoda introduced Yamada to a table for her trouble, and they dragged Toyota back into the ring where they hit their piggy back drop into a diving body press combo for what needed to be the finish because Toyota was dead, Yamada couldn't save her, and there was really nowhere for the match to go from here. Granted, this wouldn't have been an amazing match had it ended here with a quick third fall, but it would have accomplished the actual goal of making people believe in LCO, which was far more important. Instead, the crowd barely even reacted to the near fall because they didn't believe it could possibly end here, and that either threw the workers, or there was just no logical follow up to begin with. The match only slowed down briefly, but a lot of the wind was nonetheless taken out of the sails, and they just seemed to kind of restart, building things up again from the foundation. Yamada's hot tags were by far the most crisply executed and technically impressive portions of the match, and she got the crowd back into it. Shimoda's near fall rolling through Yamada's diving body attack now got a strong reaction, but unfortunately, little was done to follow up on that, or create any kind of a dramatic 3rd fall where LCO were actually coming close. As the fall progressed, Yamada & Toyota got to get some of their stuff in, including Toyota hitting a missile kick to the floor before Toyota picked up the pin over Mita with her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex after Yamada hit the diving enzuigiri. The 2nd fall here was by far the best stuff, and given the length of the match overall, the 1st would have been good enough if they had figured out how to make the third fall work, but in the end, while and excellent match, this had you thinking more about what could have been. ****

7/17/94 WAR, UWA World Middleweight Title: Ultimo Dragon vs. The Great Sasuke 22:23
ML: I loved this match so much when I was a kid. It's such an incredibly athletic match, with Sasuke at the height of his worship at the church of suicidal. Looking at it again all these years later, there's definitely a few spots I'm still in awe of, but overall, it seems very indyish. They never quite seemed to actually get in step and on the same page until the final minutes, resulting in more of an enjoyable car crash than something that actually worked as a wrestling match. The junior parity stuff early on isn't it particularly impressive, as it's kind of telegraphed and deliberate. The match really takes off with Sasuke missing the senton atomico, but connecting on a wild quebrada over the guardrail. From here, the stunts are so impressive that you might be able to distract yourself from the rest. Sasuke blocks Dragon's superplex, so Dragon dropkicks him to the floor, and hits his own beautiful quebrada over the guardrail. The spectacle then peeks, as Sasuke answers with a tope con giro into the guardrail entrance. The match never became dramatic, but they did right the ship work wise for the finish spam, culminating impressively with Dragon dropkicking Sasuke out of the air to stop his quebrada, then hitting a corkscrew senton for the win. These two were definitely doing their best to push the boundaries athletically, but because a large, and generally the more entertaining portion of 21st century wrestling has become top this athletic exhibitions, even if this had been better worked, I'm not sure how well it would have aged. ***3/4

AJW 11/20/94 Tokyo Dome, V*TOP WOMAN Nippon Senshuken Tournament Round 1: Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong 17:19.
DC: Big Egg Wrestling Universe was quite a unique show, as it was the first time that a joshi puroresu event was a top attraction at the Tokyo Dome (a.k.a. The Egg Dome). It was a somewhat odd event, as it was a day long event that was roughly 10 hours. While probably not as good as the Dream Slam shows of 1993, Big Egg Wrestling Universe will always be remembered as one of the most unique shows in (joshi) puroresu history. The event took a while to get really interesting, and then peaked about halfway through, only for the remainder of the show to become gradually more anticlimactic and disappointing. This match between Manami Toyota and Aja Kong was definitely the best match on this show, and it was actually a true MOTYC. Toyota started attacking Aja right away with her flashy offense. Aja was initially overwhelmed, but she would soon turn things around, and use her size and strength advantage in order to give Toyota a rough time. Aja’s approach was exactly the opposite of that of Toyota. Aja, who obviously had a big size and strength advantage, wanted to keep Toyota grounded, and wanted to try to do enough damage to the point that Toyota’s speed and flashiness would be compromised. Toyota had something completely different as a game plan, as Toyota used her ability to fly and hit surprise flash attacks in order to overwhelm her bigger opponent. One of the coolest moves was Toyota’s running springboard plancha, which she followed up with a missile dropkick off the top to the floor onto Aja. Toyota really displayed a huge level of sincerity in her quest to beat Aja, as Toyota decided to place Aja on a table, and then leap onto Aja with plancha off the top onto Aja, which subsequently made the table break (in spite of the table being a high-quality Japanese table). Toyota was on a roll, and as the action returned into the ring, Toyota hit a moonsault and a tiger suplex variation. Aja was finally able to do something back, and stopped Toyota in her tracks with a big powerbomb. This was only temporary, though, as Toyota continued to display her amazing ability. We got to see several near falls at this stage of the match. The action went back and forth. Aja almost pinned Toyota with a banzai splash. Aja then hit the uraken and a brainbuster for the win. Toyota had lost, but what a great effort and performance she gave in this match. Aja deserves credit for staying calm and kind of preventing this match from purely devolving into a spotfest thanks to her great timing and sense of drama, which allowed for better storytelling. Great match. ****¾ 

AJW 3/26/95 Yokohama Arena: Lioness Asuka vs. Yumiko Hotta 22:54.
DC: This was an oddly fascinating match, and it was definitely a surprisingly great match. This was a shoot style match influenced by the UFC rather than the old U-Style of pro wrestling, with almost no display of cooperation. They wore MMA fighting gloves, which enhanced the shoot style-esque feel of the match even more. Yumiko Hotta got her mouth bloodied early on. Lioness Asuka was relentless, as she insisted on stiffness and virtually no selling. Hotta eventually started giving Lioness a taste of her own medicine, as she started giving as rough of a beating as she had been on the receiving end of earlier in the match. The match was quite brutal at times, with some really stiff moments taking place. Even the matwork looked like they were trying to stretch the hell out of each other. Even though this wasn’t the most spectacular match in terms of fancy moves and things like that, what really made this match so special is that there was never a moment in the match that looked like they were taking it easy on each other. The only real downside of the match is that towards the end of the match, they start having a bit too many moments with the ref coming close to a 10 count after one of them was knocked down, which kinda took the momentum out of the match. In the end, the match did end in a KO, as Lioness wasn’t able to answer the 10 count after getting knocked down one too many times. This is yet another match featuring Hotta that ages well. Hotta wasn’t exactly a truly great worker, but somehow her very best and most interesting matches from the 1990s have been holding up really well when rewatched through present day eyes. Lioness was so awesome in the 1990s, even more so than she was as one half of the legendary Crush Gals back in the 1980s. Great match. ****½

AJW 12/4/95 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, WWWA World Title: Dynamite Kansai vs. Manami Toyota 22:37.
DC: On 6/27/95, Manami Toyota had lost the Red Belt back to Aja Kong, who then would end up losing the belt to Dynamite Kansai on 8/30/95. That brings us to 12/4/95, as Kansai was ready for a big title defense against Toyota, who was looking to become the champ for a second time. The match started off in an exciting way, with a lot of back-and-forth type action. Fortunately, they were able to maintain this quality for the majority of the match. Even when things weren’t super spectacular all the time, they at least were able to display a level of eagerness to either dish out punishment or survive the taking of punishment. Toyota really came across as the more versatile and resourceful of the two. Kansai did a good job of bringing strength and stiffness. This was a bit similar to 3/26/95 Aja Kong vs. Toyota in the sense that the larger wrestler was trying to keep the quick and daredevil-like Toyota on the mat. However, in this 12/4/95 match, Kansai and Toyota were able to keep things more interesting than Aja and Toyota did on 3/26/95. Part of the reason is that in the 3/26/95 match, Aja was not particularly in a rush to beat Toyota, and only started becoming more urgent when Toyota had already gotten too much momentum. While Kansai certainly showed confidence, she didn’t show overconfidence. Kansai seemed very determined to try to beat Toyota whenever possible while still realizing Toyota could hit a spectacular move out of nowhere, which meant Kansai had to be very focused. This was a very competitive match that saw both participants give a very strong effort. It was this strong effort that really made this match so memorable. This match truly had the vibe of two competitors really trying to reach for an extra bit of energy just to try to overcome the attack and find the strength to do something effective back. Great match. ****½

CMLL 9/8/95 Mexico City Arena Mexico: Negro Casas & Emilio Charles Jr. & Satanico vs. Ultimo Dragon & Hijo del Santo & Corazon de Leon.
DC: About a month prior, Hijo del Santo had left AAA and returned to CMLL. His interactions with Negro Casas were particulary interesting. Santo certainly was a strong addition to the CMLL roster, and this match was significantly more lively than most of the CMLL matches that year. Ultimo Dragon gave an energetic performance, and was arguably the best worker, with Santo and Casas being second and third best in this match. Corazon de Leon (Chris Jericho) was decent, as he started showing signs of improvement around this time, since he was able to work faster and crisper. Emilio Charles Jr. was okay considering his limitations as a worker. He mostly bumped and sold for the tecnicos. Satanico was the least impressive one in this match, and he contributed least to the match. The tecnicos won the first fall after quite a bit of exciting action. In the second fall, the heated action continued. Santo and Casas, old rivals, continued to beat each other up in an intense manner. The heels got a bit more aggressive towards the second half of the second fall, as the tecnicos were running out of steam a bit. Unfortunately for the rudos, they got a bit too aggressive, with Charles and Satanico holding Santo while Casas was kicking the living daylights out of Santo. The referee deemed this to be too barbaric, and disqualified the rudos. This was a fun, action-packed match, and it truly served its purpose of making Santo’s arrival and his renewed rivalry with Casas memorable. The rematch the next week was unfortunately just decent. Very good match. ***½ 

IWC/CMLL 11/25/95 Los Angeles, California Sports Arena: Negro Casas vs. Hijo del Santo.
DC: The early minutes had solid lucha matwork, but it kinda felt like they were just doing their typical stuff. Things started picking up roughly around the halfway point of the match, as they did some more fast-paced sequences that saw Santo do stuff like flying headscissors and Casas do some bumping around. Santo also executed a cool-looking tope suicida after Casas took a bump off the top to the floor. This match was definitely more interesting than their disappointing 9/29/95 and 12/1/95 matches, which were only decent. Still, even this match was somewhat disappointing, and not anywhere near the level of their best matches together. Good match. ***   

AJW 12/8/96 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, WWWA World Title: Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 24:52. 
DC: After having a relatively disappointing match on 3/31/96 that was ‘only’ very good, Manami Toyota and Kyoko Inoue delivered the great classic match you’d expect from two of the best joshi workers of the year 1996. What stood out right away was the combination of urgency and spectacle. They used spectacular moves in an urgent manner, which was done convincingly. Of course, to some it might seem unrealistic that going for fancy-looking moves is the way to approach an important title match. However, for these two, it’s simply how they communicated with each other on a deep level. They were very familiar with each, which at this point had culminated in a combination of being proud of their own ability as a worker and having respect for the other as a top rival. This meant that they wouldn’t just try to beat the other on simple terms, as they wanted to beat the other in the most memorable and spectacular way. They wanted not only the fans to remember their performance, but they also wanted to outdo the opponent. This resulted in some of the most spectacular action of the year 1996, which says a lot, since 1996 was a particularly strong year in the history of this great sport. The excitement level was high, partly due to the effective usage of the large amount of well-executed near falls. This was basically a no-nonsense high-workrate spotfest, exactly the type of match needed from these two. The end result was certainly a memorable one after all of the amazing action. Great match. ****¾

9/21/97 AJW Kawasaki City Gym, Cage Match Violence War: Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe 26:52.
PA: If one were to consider the 1990s era of All Japan Women to have begun the day Bull Nakano dropped the legdrop off of the top of the cage onto Aja Kong, getting on the cover of Weekly Pro Wrestling and setting the stage for the two year interpromotional boom period, you'd have to consider this match to be a fantastic end of that era. AJW was in major financial trouble, having lost over half of its roster when former world champions Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue each decided to form their own companies, ARSION & Neo Ladies respectively, taking as many of their friends as possible with them, with the last of them leaving after this show, and AJW downsizing to what could be described as a micropromotion afterward. However, all the problems in the company didn't stop LCO from having an incredible year in 1997 with multiple all time classics. This was the best of them, and arguably the greatest cage match of all time. Though AJW was traditionally a promotion that put a lot of emphasis and heat on their brawling heels, with Dump Matsumoto, Bull Nakano, and Aja Kong being among the biggest stars in company history, Aja had never truly been the focus of the league despite having a historic 2 1/2 year reign during one of their most popular periods. She won the belt on 11/26/92, the day the interpromotional war kicked off, and the title was secondary to all of that throughout 1993. In 1994, all the focus was on Akira Hokuto's "retirement" road, so they didn’t give Aja anything earthshattering to do, and then she lost to Hokuto at the 11/20/94 Tokyo Dome show, and dropped the red belt in 1995 twice. Manami Toyota's workrate style became the focus of the promotion during her title reigns. LCO had turned heel in a no contest against Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada at WRESTLING QUEENDOM 3/23/97, and no one else was drawing that much interest, so they just let them cut loose and try to bring back some of that heel heat, which the group had basically been void of since the interpromotional era started. LCO's style was something of a throwback to Dump, or what Bull and Aja were doing in 1990, in the sense of using weapons to wreak havoc. At the same time, they did things differently because they were able to incorporate it into exciting matches with the work rate at 10 the whole time, rather than utilizing the traditional heel weapon style of just standing around gouging the opponent endlessly or distracting the ref so someone could get the big cheap shot in. The other leagues were going in a more hardcore direction as well, LLPW, GAEA, Ozaki's street fights in JWP, but no one was doing brawls like LCO in 1997. Watanabe had been feuding with LCO all year, and getting the worst of it. Adding to her woes, she had a bad shoulder injury, highlighted by the comical football pads she was wearing for protection (I jest at it, but it actually was a great choice). At least Watanabe had her strongest tag partner here in Ito, who was there to protect her and get revenge. Meanwhile, LCO wanted to finish the job on their way out. Shimoda gave Ito a slap in the introductions, and Ito returned the favor. This was such a great way to set the tone before the bell rang. LCO assaulted straight away with chairs and mauled the U*TOPs team, used a chain and the cage, bloodying both Ito and Watanabe in the process. Shimoda attempted to remove Watanabe's shoulder pads. The facials throughout were great from everyone, but you could feel what Ito and Watanabe were going through. The U*TOPS team made a comeback with Watanabe catching a dragon screw on Shimoda then applying a leg lock, which Shimoda bit her way out of, and then went after Watanabe's shoulder. Ito worked Mita's leg, but Shimoda saved and then they switched for a bit. Mita put Watanabe in a jujigatame, which had Watanabe screaming, while Shimoda added some boots to the head. Shimoda continued on Watanabe's arm, with Mita keeping Ito incapacitated and coming back for double teams. Shimoda came off the top rope with a basic punch to the shoulder, which was a spot that sums up much of the bout , it's not flashy, but it adds to the match because it's done with malice and Watanabe sells it perfectly. Mita twisted Watanabe's arm and Shimoda chaired it. After about 14 minutes, LCO were happy enough with that and tried to escape, but the U*TOPs team had recovered and threw them down. Ito showed a ton of fire going after Shimoda. Watanabe couldn't do much with her shoulder, and Mita was about to take over, but Ito saved her with the chain. Watanabe shoulder blocked Shimoda and choked her with a chain, but Mita had cut off Ito and made the save. Mita went for Watanabe's shoulder again. Watanabe let out a shriek, and Ito frantically saved her. This was another great small moment. She was successful, but again, she was cut off as Shimoda hit a German, and then a Death Lake Driver. Shimoda had Saya Endo tie the security rail to a chain so they could get it over the cage for Shimoda's rail drop. Maekawa was out there trying to stop her, and the spot took an eternity to set up, which is my biggest nitpick on the match. Maekawa and Endo fighting did help things, but the spot still wasn't any good. LCO tried to escape again, but U*TOPS recovered in time to prevent them. Things still looked bleak, but they caught a break when Shimoda's chair shot backfired. Ito used the chain on Shimoda, and Shimoda bled. Ito put Shimoda in a jujigatame, and Shimoda sold huge. Mita couldn't save her because Watanabe hit a Cannonball Buster on her. Shimoda tapped out, but it didn't matter because there were no submissions, so she was just at Ito's mercy. Ito & Watanabe both tried to escape. Watanabe made it over the top, but Mita recovered in time to cut Ito off, and electric chaired her down. The fans came to life, getting behind Ito, as she tried to recover. Ito got chaired by Mita. Mita tried a Death Valley Bomb, but Ito got out of it and uranaged her. Ito tried to escape and knocked both LCO down and gave them diving footstomps. Ito tried to escape again, but LCO pulled her down. They held Ito against the cage so Endo could spray a fire extinguisher in her face, just like Aja had done in the great 8/9 brawl where she teamed with Kyoko Inoue against LCO. It created a smokescreen for LCO to escape, and this time they tried to escape from opposite sides, so Ito couldn't stop both. However, this proved to be their fatal error. Ito let Mita escape, and stopped the injured Shimoda, taking her down with a jujigatame. Ito tried to escape, and Mita's mistake seemed to finally dawn on her, but it was too late. She climbed the cage to stop Ito, but Ito tossed her into the ring. Ito could have escaped right at this point, but she wanted revenge. She'd gotten revenge on Shimoda by crippling her. Now it was Mita's turn, so she stood on top of the cage and delivered the mother of all diving footstomps, and then escaped. The finishing sequence is legendary and paid everything off. The post match just kept it going. Hotta, leader of the U*TOPs, was hugging her partners. Mita was in the ring holding Shimoda's shoulder. Shimoda was in so much pain she was in tears (done so well that Shimoda still came off as a heel and not at all sympathetic), and LCO walked out of the ring for the final time as full time Zenjo roster members. Yumiko Hotta gathered the remaining members of the roster after the show, effectively marking the end of All Japan Women's 29 year reign as the leaders of women's wrestling. As sad as that is, it at least ended on a high note with one of its greatest matches ever. LCO had truly peaked during this brief period at the end of their AJW tenure, and were the best thing about 1997 joshi in general, having three of the years four great matches, 8/9, 8/20 vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa, and this classic in just a six week period. AJW didn't really even feel alive until they came back in 1999. Aja & Kyoko vs LCO was probably the most wild brawl of the period, and that worked too in a different way. The cage match was just built around a few big spots, but all were done to perfection, and things actually happened in between to advance the match and make those key spots so meaningful, rather than just being somewhat isolated set pieces that distract the audience from the fact that otherwise nothing of actual significance happened over the 20 or 30 minutes. This match would still be an excellent match without any of the stunts, whereas the Hell in the Cell matches are only “great” because of them. *****

AJW 11/23/00 Tokyo Yoyogi National Stadium 2nd Gym, Cage Death Match: Kaoru Ito & Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Kumiko Maekawa 22:12.
PA: After finishing up with All Japan Women in 1997, LCO made a big return as freelancers in April 1999 to reinstill some life into the promotion, restarting their feud with Watanabe and Ito in a tag match that looked like a potential MOTYC for 1999, but tragically, only heavily clipped versions ever surfaced. LCO not only picked up where they left off with their rivalries, but also were the highlight of the league as a whole. They had multiple matches against Watanabe and Maekawa, and while they never hit the levels they had in 1997, the matches were generally of high quality. The only problem was that there had been so many of them it was hard to get excited for them anymore. The league made a good decision to switch things up and have Maekawa turn on her loser partner Watanabe to join the winning evil side in order to freshen things up (although the less said about the heel turn angle itself the better, because it was horribly botched). Ito had finally captured the WWWA World Singles Title from Manami Toyota on 9/17/00, and presumably the reason Watanabe wasn't in the match was that it was really designed to make Ito into the world beating champion of the company once and for all, so having the two young partners helped put more focus on her, while getting NanaMomo credibility as well. This match was essentially the big blowoff to everything since 1997, and it certainly delivered everything you could have possibly wanted from it. A six woman cage match is probably the hardest match to book because it would be so easy to become uncontrolled chaos that you can't follow (war games matches eventually have more wrestlers obviously, but you at least have a long time to set up for that portion), but they got it perfectly right here. It was easy to follow, while delivering all the expected hatred, brutality, and violence. The heels busted Nanae open within about 90 seconds. One would have thought Momoe would have predicably got this treatment, but it's a good example of how thoughtfully put together this match was. Nanae had never been put in this sort of environment, and despite being the powerhouse and the ‘strong' one of the NanaMomo tag team, was in over her head in this sort of a match, and was quickly found out. Regardless, it didn't take long for Momoe to get the same treatment anyway. Ito, on the other hand, was the rock of the team, trying to hold things together, but not getting much help from her young partners. The first two escape teases were just there to establish things, but we had a phenomenal sequence after where the babyfaces looked to escape. Nanae and Momoe made it out, but Ito got caught, leaving the rock of the team in a 3 vs. 1 position getting destroyed and bloodied as well. Obviously it wasn't Ito's fault that she didn't make it out like her partners, but it was a reversal of the big turning point from the 9/21/97 match. LCO were generally smarter this time when it came to looking out for each other, having learned from what cost them the 1997 match. LCO tried to escape after they were done, but only Shimoda made it out, with Maekawa and Mita falling victim to the footstomp from the top of the cage, while Momoe added a missile dropkick and a moonsault from up there. Momoe got out of the cage again, and it looked like the babyfaces were going to finish in the same manner as 1997, but Shimoda had other plans, using the old fire extinguisher to halt Ito's escape. Mita escaped, leaving Maekawa vs. Ito. Ito got restrained with a chain and axe kicked, but Maekawa pushed her luck and ate a lariat. Maekawa came back and tried to escape, but Momoe held her up and Ito powerbombed from the top turnbuckle, then hit another diving footstomp. Ito tried to escape, but Shimoda stopped her with a fireball. Momoe once again stopped Maekawa from escaping, but Maekawa axe kicked Ito down. LCO had Nanae and Momoe restrained so they weren't going to stop her. This match appeared done, but the heels had more tricks up their sleeves. They had outsmarted the babyfaces throughout the match, and were now set to end it, but there was another twist in the drama left. A very pissed off Tomoko Watanabe came out for one of the all time great run ins to help her friends and get some revenge on the judas, Maekawa, before Ito really made her pay with diving footstomp from the top of the cage, finally escaping to get the win. And all was right in the world, for at least a day, as the young NanaMomo tag team had proven themselves, Ito had defied the odds and now looked the part as the strong champion and leader, revenge was had, and LCO had been slayed. No one does a cage match like All Japan Women, and this was another example of it. And to repeat myself from the 1997 cage match, this was another epic, violent, dramatic war and well worthy of the same rating. *****

Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki - Greatest Wrestling Rivalries Match Reviews Dragon Gate 2004-2024

NOAH 3/1/09 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, GHC Junior Heavyweight Title: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. KENTA 25:45. 
DC: This was the third singles meeting between Katsuhiko Nakajima and KENTA. Right from the start, they were constantly staying on top of each other by dishing out punishment in an intense manner. For those who are only familiar with Nakajima’s work in the 2020s, back in those days, he was a lot more of a fast-paced junior heavyweight style worker compared to his current slow but hard-hitting heavyweight style. KENTA had been one of the very best workers in the world since the mid 2000s. These two kept showing a good amount of urgency, and they were willing to take risks in order to get an advantage. Since both workers were similarly sized strike oriented workers of high quality, in the story of the match, they had to constantly try to outsmart their opponent in order to really get anywhere in this match. The high effort combined with the high quality of work resulted in what was truly a great match that is certainly highly recommended. The tremendous explosiveness and athleticism of these guys was off the charts. What they presented here was basically an upgraded and juniorized/modernized version of the great AJPW heavyweight bouts from the 1990s, which were the predecessors of virtually all great NOAH bouts. By the way, this match was a lot better than their Kensuke Office 2/11/09 match, which was quite good, but nowhere near as good as this classic. Great match. *****

7/5/09 NOAH: Go Shiozaki vs. KENTA 28:43
ML: It's not surprising that this fantastic match has managed to fly under the radar, as by 2009, people were well aware that NOAH was a big show main event title match league. Go vs. KENTA should not have lived up to its potential because it was the heavyweight champion taking on the junior champion with neither title on the line in a random, one-off semifinal of a random, one-off small Differ Ariake show booked by Takeshi Morishima of all people. This was one exceptionally rough, hard-hitting contest though. The opening striking exchanges were really cool because they were both trying to strike at once, to mixed results. You never really see this because it doesn't look as clean, but it's so cool to see an unpredictable mix of both men sort of hitting one another or one guy getting intercepted trying, rather than the routine dull cooperation of just standing around taking turns. Later, KENTA caught a chop and turned it into a wakigatame, which began his focus on arm work, as he followed by repeatedly running Go into the guardrail. Go tried to come back with his chops, but I wish they would have followed up on the idea that the more KENTA kept kicking his arm, the less effective Shiozaki's attacks became, rather than kind of just endlessly beating the shit out of one another to fill almost half an hour. KENTA kind of escaped to the floor after a superkick, and Go misjudged how damaged he was, trying for a tope, only to have KENTA intercept him with a jumping front kick. As always in these heavyweight matches, KENTA was fearlessly going toe to toe with a much bigger, stronger man. He may be the best ever at making you forget just how much size he is giving up because his heart is giant, but at the same time, there were also some impressive small vs. large spots, such as Go countering the swinging DDT by just tossing KENTA to the floor out of the fireman's carry, which allowed Go to hit a no touch tope. The downsides to the match were that it was a bit sloppy, with Shiozaki having some issues with the more athletic portions despite being the one who was doing the high flying, and it was more a match where they just killed each other than one where they gained a lot of traction from doing so. The final third was much faster and more dynamic than the slug happy first two thirds, doing their best to put this into the great match pantheon. Shiozaki eventually even had to bust out a new variation of his finisher, the henkei Go crusher, to finally put KENTA away. It probably wasn't easy for them to get out of bed the next day, but it was certainly a pleasure to watch them incapacitate themselves. ****

6/14/15 PCL: Flamita vs. Volador Jr.
ML: This was mostly Volador setting up 20-year-old Flamita for his spectacular flying, trying to raise his credibility to his level to set up the future title challenge. Volador Jr. did a dive and a standing avalanche Frankensteiner, but for the most part, it felt like Volador was actively trying not to show Flamita up or take any of the shine off him, in the sense that he was using more standard kicks and controlling stuff. This wasn't nearly as urgent as the best Volador, as he was content to work the knee and feed for Flamita's exciting comebacks. Flamita looked impressive here, doing a lot of spectacular stuff. He did a back flip into a kneeling pose when he was announced, which is exactly when I want to see that sort of thing, not when he should be busy trying to win the match. Both hit dives early after an impressive gymnastic display, but Volador slowed things down after shooting Flamita into the air backfired when Flamita caught him in a cutter. Unfortunately, Flamita got stuck in the ropes trying a tope con giro, and the match came to a halt, as Volador decided the safest thing to do with wait to see if Flamita was able to continue. They eventually just continued Flamita's comeback with his quebrada. Later, Flamita came back with a big moonsault to the floor. The finish saw Volador narrowly survive the first Flamita fly, but then ran into a second one after hitting his back cracker, resulting in the Flamita upset. ***1/2

6/5/19 NJPW Best Of The Super Junior XXVI Final Match: Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi 33:36.
ML: Two of the most talented wrestlers in New Japan trying to deliver a match of the year, but unfortunately delivering a big overlong mess, hampered with more issues than simply being forced into the BS road epic style normally entails. Granted, Gedo imposing his nonsensical lengths was particularly hampering to both, as Takagi's biggest strength is his relentless aggression, and Ospreay has some of the coolest moves imaginable when they aren't telegraphed, but once you put them in something so ridiculously overlong that they have to keep stopping then going back at it half speed the majority of the time, you wind up eliminating the forward drive that makes Takagi great and any plausibility to Ospreay's spectacular offense because it's continually set up by standing/laying around rather than an actual setup or transitional move. They did a ton of normally impressive moves, but they rarely felt earned because the match lacked credible setup, sustaining the pattern of doing nothing then eventually doing some big bomb or flying move. Ospreay was supposed to be relying upon speed to get his crazy athletic spots in, but he almost never actually chained anything together because he was either selling or posing or both in between virtually everything he did. There was one great sequence after the initial feeling out period where the match took off momentarily and actually felt like a junior match with one of those amazing bursts of creativity we used to see from Ospreay in these days before he was demanding more offense because he's a star, and just doing all the same stuff people expect on rails. Beyond just being breathtakingly spectacular athleticism, it accomplished teasing both Takagi's sliding bomber and Ospreay's oscutter in an interesting manner. For the most part though, there were more stops than starts until the finishing sequence. At least in storyline, that was partially because Takagi, who in his Dragon Gate days generally wanted the match to be as fast-paced as possible no matter what great athlete he was taking on, felt the only way Ospreay could beat him was taking advantage of his superior athleticism. Shingo was indeed able to bully Will at points in the slow paced portions. If the match was mostly Takagi destroying Ospreay to set up his desperate spectacular comebacks, this pace would have worked, but it was incredibly difficult for me to feel any sort of urgency during Ospreay's all too frequent comebacks because he insisted on posing, doing some odd spastic gyration, or somehow playing to the crowd between every move. The more he screwed around, the more I wanted Takagi to just cut him off, but they both got a far too similar amount of offense in for Will's flying to ever become believable in a match of this pace. There were some impressive individual spots to be certain, such as Ospreay's space flying Tiger drop, but after a point I'd lost interest even in oohing and aahing. There was a funny and effective spot where Shingo caught a kick, and Will thought he was going to do a fancy backflip to free himself, but Shingo threw him with so much power that he rotated 90° too far and landed on his back, allowing Takagi to nail him with the sliding bomber. The setup for Takagi's avalanche Death Valley bomb was among the most ridiculous nonsense I've ever seen. He elbowed Ospreay off the top rope then just sat there with Will lying on the apron, pulling him up by his arm when he began to recover. Will countered with a high kick and set up a swandive avalanche huracarrana, only to instead just walk into Shingo's fireman's carry position because Shingo still hadn't bothered to move from his perch. They finally tried another actual sequence, but Will missed a reverse spinning high kick and then Takagi was unable to catch him on his back to counter the oscutter, so Ospreay just jumped onto Takagi's back from a theoretic backslide and hooked his own legs in order for Takagi to finish the sequence the way they intended with his noshigami. Then there was a great spot though where Ospreay backflipped with the pumping bomber to land on his feet, then hit a big Ligerbomb for the near fall. Ospreay took a ridiculously brutal bump into the turnbuckle pad on Takagi's wheelbarrow suplex. Had the match maintained some sort of pace up until this point, this would have been a really effective double sell because both had just taken a killer move, but because the general course of the match was laying around more or less this long after everything else they did, it ultimately didn't really stand out in the dramatic manner it should have. Takagi tried his noshigami on the apron, but Will took him out with the oscutter on the apron instead for the near count out. From here, they went into a lengthy finishing sequence with both men kicking out of each other's favorite moves, but as is typical with modern New Japan, I was too frustrated by the time they got to the good part to care. Ospreay's big poison rana counter for Shingo's last of the Dragon didn't work right, looking like it could have broken Takagi's neck with him going off to the side at a dangerous angle. Ospreay eventually won with the stormbreaker to end Takagi's 96 match undefeated streak since joining New Japan. I wanted to like this match rather than some individual highlights, and can't totally fault the performers because again, as usual, if this were 15, maybe even 20 minutes, it would likely have been better in almost every possible way, especially because there would have been more potential to suspend disbelief given truncating the 30 seconds between cool moves would have made them less implausible, feeling like they came off nothing and out of nowhere. This match wasn't particularly juniorish, but it didn't have to be a sprint to work, they just needed do to a more fundamental match with actual setup moves replacing the stalling. ***1/4

2/2/20 NJPW, RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Will Ospreay 27:04
ML: One of the best examples since Gedo's reign of snoozefests began of what a New Japan match can still be. It has one of the best the openings we've seen from the promotion in ages, their best version of the old World of Sport style, and since the submissions, locks, and counters actually matter in that style, they were busy jockying for position. Every little movement was meaningful toward alleviating pressure or escaping the hold, and since they have the skill and drive to fill the time doing something actually useful, there's no reason for stalling or nonsensical overselling. There were lots of cute, creative, and clever little counters here, including a couple variations of utilizing their foot to break the lock. Zack was obviously much more interested in maintaining a hold. Will was normally on the defensive since this was Zack's style, but he was able to use his tremendous athleticism to keep countering, and stay out of too much trouble. Zack did a great job of reigning Will in here so most of his stuff made some semblance of sense. Will temporarily freed himself by using the old trick of using the refs shoulder as an extra point of balance to backflip out. The only real downtime in the match was when Zack would choose to take a break on the outside as a strategic move. Will figurated if Zack is on the floor, he might as well dive at him, charging but cartwheeling into the ropes as a flashy feint when he saw that Zack was ready for him, but Zack pulled his left arm out from under him. The first half of the match was mostly Zack schooling Will, but Will increasingly got loose in the second half, and was able to get more and more of his junior offense in. Zack wasn't just letting Will posterize him though. For instance, when Will tried the standing shooting star press, Zack got his knees up and fought for an armbar. Will had to go back to a submission hold because it's much easier to counter one lock with another than to break free and then find a way to reasonably hit some running move. This style isn't Will's specialty, but he was able to gain traction on Zack's right knee targeting the few kick, submissions, and power moves he was able to use. Will was able to hit the standing shooting star press after temporarily incapacitating Zack with a kneebreaker and a low kick. There was a good bit of selling where Zack was able to roll to the floor for a break after Will finally hit the Oscutter. Will followed Zack out and threw him back in the ring, but Zack rolled out on the other side, so Will got him with the space flying Tiger drop. When Will started to get goofy, doing his hidden blade pose, Zack immediately countered into a knee bar. The vast majority of moves that were actually locked or hit came off some kind of counter, making this much more believable than the typical New Japan match where they sell everything like a shotgun blast until they're right back up like a video game charging at the opponent with no resistance whatsoever. Because they were actually fighting each other off, there were a couple times where I think things didn't go exactly as they were actually hoping, but it blended in with a general struggle. I wasn't overly thrilled with the finish where Zack countered the stormbringer twice with the cobra twist, but at least there was an actual ref stop when a fighter was unconscious. ****1/2

STARDOM 3/4/23 Tokyo Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2, High Speed Title: AZM vs. Starlight Kid 17:05.
DC: These two have been rivals since late 2015, which was when they were only 13 and 14 years old respectively. After having shown on many occasions that they were extremely talented, for example in their really good 10/3/20 match, their first truly excellent match together took place on 2/23/22. It is good to see that despite all of STARDOM’s flaws as a league that could be delivering a better overall product, that at least they are not forgetting about the potential that lies in each and every AZM and SLK meeting. AZM and SLK continue to prove that they are two of the main reasons to not completely ignore STARDOM. Compared to their meeting a year prior, it felt like this time around, on 3/4/23, the intensity level and the confidence level was a bit higher. What was truly impressive about this match was that they never went through the motions, as they truly showed that they cared about delivering something of high quality that was still somewhat different from their previous encounter(s). It’s great to see that these two care about presenting something unique, as opposed to simply rehashing the same match over and over. This time it felt more like they were out there to really show their rival and everyone else what they were capable of, instead of worrying about having to deliver a particular type of match (which was a potential trap they could have easily fallen into considering this was a High Speed Title match). They felt more mature than last year, as they weren’t just there trying to impress with spectacle, and they were more interested in having a good strategy to put over the idea that they were trying to win the match. In other words, the storytelling was superior this time around. Of course, since they are talented athletes, there were still enough spectacular moves to make sure the viewer wouldn’t feel like something was missing from this intense battle. It wasn’t as fast-paced of a match as initially expected, but they kept things moving at a nice pace, as they never gave the impression that their approach lacked any urgency. SLK’s performance was just as excellent as in their 2/23/22 match, but AZM arguably delivered a performance that was even better than her performance in the 2/23/22 match, as her work appeared to be more crisp and focused. It will be interesting to see in years to come how these two will approach their future matches, as it remains to be seen if they’ve now hit their peak or if they are capable of delivering something that’s even more impressive. Depending on what you’re looking for in a high-quality match, this match was arguably slightly better than their 2/23/22 battle. This match was also the best joshi puroresu match of 2023, and it was arguably one of the seven best pro wrestling matches overall in 2023. Excellent match. ****¼  

STARDOM 5/4/23 Fukuoka International Center, High Speed Title: AZM vs. Mei Seira 10:46.
DC: STARDOM has become very sports-entertainment like when it comes to changing people’s names. For some reason, Mei Hoshizuki is known as Mei Seira in STARDOM. This match was so much fun to watch, though. Hoshizuki had spent most of her career, which started in 2018, in Marvelous before joining STARDOM in 2023. AZM is one of the most enjoyable women’s wrestlers in the world today, and she continued to show why she’s one of the main reasons to not completely give up on STARDOM just yet. The fact that she holds the High Speed Title, which is pretty much the workrate title of STARDOM, is perfect. On one hand, it would be nice if AZM would be the main World of STARDOM Champion, but I wouldn’t want to see AZM water down her style in order to start working the BS Road Style Epics that STARDOM requires from their top main eventers. Hoshizuki was certainly the right opponent for AZM, as Hoshizuki is quite similar in high speed/high workrate style. AZM seems to have become more vicious and more mature as a worker, with more of an eye for detail. Hoshizuki showed a lot of playfulness and enthusiasm, which are elements that certainly help make joshi puroresu fun to watch. The final minutes of this match were particularly exciting, as things became even more urgent. The fact that these two were so well matched in terms of speed and size made for quite an even contest. Of course, AZM’s experience and overall status was higher than that of Hoshizuki, and that turned out to be the determining factor in the end result, as AZM turned out to be just one step ahead of Hoshizuki. Very good match. ***¾  

STARDOM 7/23/23 Tokyo Ota General Gymnasium, 5STAR GP Red Block: Hazuki vs. Mayu Iwatani 13:02.
DC: The action was enjoyable, but despite a somewhat flashy first minute, the first few minutes were kinda hit-and-miss. It looked like this was just going to be just another decent STARDOM match, but once they got warmed up and started increasing the pace and focus, the match became gradually more dramatic, and they went for more and more spectacular moves to the point that this match turned into truly an action-packed bout worth watching. Hazuki hit two tope suicidas in a row after she avoided Mayu’s tope suicida. Because they had a bunch of girls at ringside ready to catch them, they could really hit the dives with full intensity. Mayu almost won via a moonsault, but Hazuki kicked out. Hazuki also kicked out of Mayu’s dragon suplex. Mayu then finally won via a beautifully-executed modified dragon suplex. It’s good to see that Mayu is finally resembling her old self more again and leaving the BS Road Style Epic stuff behind. In fact, Mayu was arguably one of the three or four best women’s wrestlers of 2023. Hazuki wasn’t the most consistent performer in 2023, which was partially due to the matches she was booked in, but this was an excellent example of Hazuki being capable of being in something worth talking about. If you really want to see more Hazuki from 2023, her match vs. Sayama Kamitani from 3/4/23 was pretty good and worth watching once if you can get past the overacting in that match. Either way, this match against Mayu saw a high effort from both participants, and it was Hazuki’s best match of the year. It was all just very straight-forward. There wasn’t much storytelling going on, but the action was fun to watch. This was basically just two of STARDOM’s more enjoyable workers simply working hard and delivering one of the best matches of that year’s 5STAR GP tournament. Very good match. ***½   

STARDOM 9/3/23 Hiroshima Sun Plaza, 5STAR GP Red Block: Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri 12:30.
DC: This was slightly better than their 10/3/20 and 3/27/22 BS Road Style Epics, which both lasted over 28 minutes. The 10/3/20 match was good, and at times very good, but it lacked urgency due to being overly long. Their 3/27/22 match was good, but it particularly lacked energy, and was overly long as well. Part of the reason of this 9/3/23 match being slightly better was that here, in the middle of the card in a 5STAR GP match of quite a reasonable length, they could just deliver some really good action without having to worry about having to wrestle a certain ‘epic’ main event style in a match with lots of down time and dragged out sluggish action. The action in this 5STAR GP match wasn’t very high paced, but it came at a steady pace and was well executed, and at least they showed a little bit more energy than in their previous matches. However, considering the talent and reputation of these two, one could definitely conclude that this match didn’t quite live up to its expectations. While at least this time around these two weren’t in an overly long match, the work could have used a bit more urgency. By the way, luckily for everyone waiting for these two to finally have a match that lives up to expectations, they would finally end up having a really good match on 1/4/24. That being said, this 9/3/23 match was arguably still one of the ten best STARDOM matches of 2023 and one of the better matches of this 3STAR, err… ‘5STAR’ GP tournament. Syuri gave quite a solid performance, but Mayu was the better performer here. I definitely wouldn’t say this is a highly recommended match, but it’s worth watching at least once. Good match. ***¼ 

NJPW 11/4/23 Osaka EDION Arena, IWGP US Heavyweight Title: Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino 40:16.
DC: Having debuted in 2017, Shota Umino is beginning to rise in the NJPW ranks, but Will Ospreay had defeated Umino in their three previous singles encounters. The match started off at a slow pace, which was to be expected (especially if you knew the match length before watching this), since they were going to go 40 minutes. But, at least they were able to show some intensity, and they showed that they cared about what they were doing, even during these early stages of the match that were just there to slowly build things up to what presumably would end up being a memorable match. There wasn’t a lot of urgency shown early on, but that was acceptable, since both respected each other’s ability and knew what the other was capable of, so they knew that it was unlikely this would be a quick and easy victory. This meant that they were being somewhat cautious in the early portions of the match, while still always trying to make some sort of progress. One of the good things about the early portion of the match was that they tried to do something back whenever the time was right, so there wasn’t a long period with anyone in particular in control during the first several minutes. The main problem with this match was that it was somewhat unnecessary to go this long, but the same could be said for pretty much every really long match in NJPW. It’s a good thing that these two were trying to not have a boring moment at any time, as they were careful not to fall into a mode where they would go through the motions. They certainly deserve credit for showing passion all the way through. At some point, Umino was having some decent momentum, but it felt he was showing a bit of overconfidence. For someone who had never beaten Ospreay, who is one of the top stars in wrestling today, Umino didn’t show enough urgency to really try to beat Ospreay. However, at least Umino showed a decent amount of viciousness when he was having his way. At some point, Umino was beating up the champ on the floor. It wouldn’t be a big and important title match at a major show in NJPW if a table didn’t get involved, so Umino used the ringside tables to his advantage. Luckily for the sake of the excitement of the match, Ospreay didn’t just endlessly sell for the overconfident Umino, as Ospreay quickened the pace of the match once he was able to bring the match back in the ring. After some interesting back-and-forth action, Ospreay executed a tiger driver on Umino off the apron through a couple of rock-solid Japanese tables that were positioned next to each other. Once back in the ring, there was at some point an interesting little spot that saw Umino go for a punch, but Ospreay simply moved his head, which resulted in Umino missing the desperation punch and falling on the mat. It’s a small and simple spot, but it somehow helped add to the idea that this wasn’t simply an exhibition, but more like something of a grudge match. Ospreay then started showing more aggression, as he started feeling he was coming closer to victory. Jon Moxley showed up at ringside to have a closer look at this excellent bout. They were now roughly 30 minutes into the match. It started feeling like we should now start seeing some sort of finishing sprint, and this is what we got, as both men were now showing a lot more urgency, and they were both now trying harder to actually beat each other, as victory now felt like a possibility for either one of them. Ospreay once again proved that he’s quite a reliable big match performer. Umino showed growth as a big match performer, and it obviously helped that he was facing Ospreay, a top-notch opponent he was very familiar with. Even though it wasn’t likely that Ospreay would lose, it never felt like Umino wasn’t treated like a serious threat. Overall, this was quite a memorable and satisfying match. Especially after watching the match in its entirety, the pacing of the match was quite excellent once you look back at what they started with and what they ended up with. The selling and in-ring storytelling aspects of the match were also really well done. This is probably just nitpicking, but perhaps they should have trimmed off at least a couple of minutes of the match. Also, Umino kicking out of the tiger driver ‘91 seems like something that shouldn’t have happened. Even though it’s not quite a true MOTYC, it’s absolutely a match worth recommending for those who want to see what’s arguably one of the 10 best matches of 2023. Excellent match. ****¼ 

8/25/23 SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Title: Arisa Nakajima vs. Sareee 27:32

10/1/23 AEW: Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 23:12

1/3/24 AEW: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Darby Allin 12:50

1/4/24 STARDOM IWGP Women's Title Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Syuri 19:06

DC: This was their fourth and best singles match together. Two of the main reasons this was significantly better than their previous battles was that they were more focused and more urgent in their approach here. The action was intense at all times, and it was pretty much non-stop action. It’s the type of high-impact puroresu you’d like to see in a big main event, much better than the previous times these were put in the main event, since they were thrown into BS Road Style Epic scenarios on those occasions. After a hard-fought battle, Mayu Iwatani managed to defeat Syuri to retain the IWGP Women’s Title. It’s nice to see that these two finally had a match that could be called a highly recommended one. Very good match. ***¾