Commercial Tape 6/15/93 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan
-1hr 35min. Q=Master
Utako Hozumi & Mizuki Endo vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yukari Osawa
Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai vs. Midori Saito & Rumi Yasuda
Shinobu Kandori in 5 consecutive singles matches vs. Harley Saito, Michiko Nagashima, Mikiko Futagami, Leo Kitamura & Miki Handa
Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo. 12:47 of 16:48. Real basic. Endo became a good wrestler, but she didn't show a thing at this point. I was amazed she won, as Nagashima was far more advanced. 1/2*
Yukari Osawa & Mikiko Futagami vs. Utako Hozumi & Leo Kitamura. 16:42 of 22:50. More action than the previous match, but also not particularly well worked. Hozumi was pretty good, but she was the only one. *1/4
Yasha Kurenai vs. Midori Saito. 14:46. Some decent moments, but too much in the way of time killing manuevers. *1/2
Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa. 13:15. Pretty well worked match. They kept it going, but never took it up a notch so the ending came as a surprise and the match wound up seeming on the short side. Eagle was far better here than in later yers. **
Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita. Superior interpromotional match. Super intensity with the women making you believe they wanted to hurt each other. As with the Dreamslams, you felt like everyone wanted to show each other up in a good way, their competitive nature driving them to excellence. The crowd was dead all night, but were jacked up for this. Fast paced AJW style match, but not a spot fest because they played on the rivalry and told a story. Kandori worked as hard as she ever did in LLPW, actually both of the LLPW women probably never worked this hard against anyone from their own league. They had to prove to their fans and everyone else they were in the league with the AJW wrestlers. Harley certainly did that, in fact she proved many times in '93 she could hand with anyone. Though a far inferior worker, it was the right setting for Kandori, who thrives on heat and generally the grudge setting. A perfect example of what an interpromotional match should be. 21:22. ****1/4
Michiku Omukai LLPW Mat Debut Match: Michiku Omukai vs. Mizuki Endo 1:11 of 8:07. You’d think LLPW would want to promote their new wrestler in some way, but they simply showed the finish. Thus, Omukai had no real offense, just two counters into pin attempts.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei (Recognized Single Crown Decision) Tournament B Block 1st Round: Yukari Osawa vs. Michiko Nagashima 1:10 of 19:02
Harley Saito & Utako Hozumi vs. Yasha Kurenai & Midori Saito 9:01 of 13:48. In 1993 there were very few experienced women who weren’t solid very competent workers. This was a very ordinary match for the period, with consistent quality action but lacking anything to make it notable or memorable. No one outshined the others, which in a sense is a bad thing given Harley was at least an excellent worker at this point. They didn’t bother with a finishing segment, and the end came off that much worse as Midori kicked out of what was called the finisher.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 1st Round: Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno 5:33 of 13:39. Good story match. Tateno had a giant brace on her right knee to go along with an ankle injury. She was either in really bad shape or doing the worlds best selling job as she wasn’t even moving at all. Futagami took the action to her, immediately attacking the bad knee, which prompted Tateno to ditch her right boot. This didn’t prove helpful, as Gami quickly put the boots to her foot and worked an ankle lock. Tateno’s only offense was countering Futagami’s la magistral for the win. I wish they showed more, as it appeared quite well thought out and executed.
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Eagle Sawai & Leo Kitamura vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 18:09 of 22:54. In these days leagues used to understand how to get mileage out of a matchup people cared about seeing. There was major heat for Aja vs. Eagle, so they had them do enough together to keep the audience from feeling cheated while saving everything of note for their future singles match on the 11/28/93 AJW show. Aja attacked her fiercely and mercilessly early on, putting quite a beating on Eagle for such a brief period. Eagle quicky came back when Kyoko tagged in. To even things out, Eagle controlled the second segment against Aja, and that was pretty much the extent of their involvement. This rendered Kyoko the crucial performer, as the lack of Aja vs. Eagle could have been a big disappointment. As Aja & Eagle weren’t going to sell much, and LLPW would be given most of the offense since they were losing, that meant Kyoko had to bear the brunt of it. Doing everything with urgency, Kyoko even dashed into the ropes to get crushed on the rebound. She delivered a peak performance to make the match, elevating both Eagle & Leo’s games a few notches. Leo was the obvious bump girl and jobber, but she made a good showing, using her quickness and athleticism to sneak a pretty good flying move in before succumbing to the latest pounding. Even when you knew she was about to be pinned, she made it difficult, countering Aja’s nadare shiki no suisha otoshi and Kyoko’s Niagara driver with sunset flips. ***3/4
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Miki Handa vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 11:24 of 18:05. A series of quick exchanges, rotating everyone in and out to keep the pace high. Though they weren’t overly familiar with each other, they worked a complex match built around repeated counters. Kandori was turning the opposition’s offense into a variety of submissions, including a few wakigatames that she put over as though she was trying to rip the enemy’s arm off. Kandori is a better seller than she’s given credit for, as she has an awkwardness to her reactions and falls that lend a less choreographed feel. Rumi got the push her, pinning the top AJW wrestler she was facing, and more importantly Akira Hokuto’s longtime partner, Suzuka Minami as part of her push to their hair vs. hair match on the 11/9/93 LLPW show. It’s hard to figure why they’d cut so much from a high quality interpromotional main event. ***1/2
6/29/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Michiko Omukai vs. Midori Saito 0:44 of 7:52
Harley Saito & Yukari Osawa vs. Mizuki Endo & Michiko Nagashima 2:18 of 15:30
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament B Block 1st Round: Utako Hozumi vs. Miki Handa 6:44 of 24:55. Hozumi is one of the marketable talents LLPW managed to completely squander. One would think a league where none of the stars had any sex appeal might do someone with one of the best looking women ever to compete, especially since she was also a good wrestler. Hozumi was a better worker than Cuty Suzuki, who was so crucial to JWP becoming the more watched promotion once the original league splintered into two. She kept herself in great shape to the point her strength and endurance were apparent, which not only bode well for this long match, but also would have against the larger headliners, as Hozumi could do her suplexes to them without them having to do the big exaggerated jump. Though Handa had yet to find her calling as an infuriating heel, she was already quite a capable wrestler in her own right. They did a good athletic match mixing flying with nice bridging suplexes.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 2nd Round: Shinobu Kandori vs. Yasha Kurenai 3:44 of 4:27. Yasha stood on the turnbuckle posing as Kandori came out, so Kandori threw her shirt at her and darted into the ring only to have Kurenai pounce on top, blinding her by covering her head with her red robe. Yasha had an early run to get over, but as they typically did with her early in her push since she wasn’t much good, she lost as soon as the star opponent went on offense.
Eagle Sawai & Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yoshika Maedomari 2:35 of 14:53. Shark Tsuchiya did a run in when Futagami had Tateno in trouble, breaking up a pin and delivering her powerbomb. Later, Shark took Eagle out so Tateno and her buddy Crusher could double team Futagami for the finish.
20 minutes of highlights of the champion decision tournament matches leading up to the final night
Leo Kitamura & Mikiko Futagami vs. Keiko Aono & Michiko Nagashima
LLPW Recognized Single Crown Decision Tournament Semifinal: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno
LLPW Recognized Single Crown Decision Tournament Semifinal: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito
Yukari Osawa & Miki Handa vs. Utako Hozumi & Mizuki Endo
Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai vs. Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda
LLPW Recognized Single Crown Decision Tournament Final: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai
LLPW 8/29/93
Clips of matches from LLPW Single Tournament
LLPW Single Tournament: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno
LLPW Single Tournament: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito
LLPW Single Tournament Final: Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori. Kandori becomes 1st LLPW Single champion.
AJW TV 2/15/98 taped 2/11
Manami Toyota v. Tomoko Watanabe
Yukari Osawa & Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima
Mikiko Futagami vs. Mizuki Endo
Harley Saito & Carol Midori vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa
Shinobu Kandori vs. Utako Hozumi
LLPW vs. FMW: Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai vs. Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato
Michiko Omukai vs. Yukari Osawa
Rumi Kazama vs. Mizuki Endo
Eagle Sawai & Utako Hozumi vs. Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori
Bull Nakano vs. Yasha Kurenai
Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Miki Handa & Mizuki Endo
LLPW 9/9/93
Mizuki Endo vs. Mikiko Futagami
Carol Midori & Harley Saito vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa
Shinobu Kandori vs. Utako Hozumi
Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda vs. Yasha Kurenai & Rumi Kazama
LLPW 10/25/93
Michiko Omukai vs. Yukari Osawa
Rumi Kazama vs. Mizuki Endo
Noriyo Tateno vs. Michiko Nagashima
Utako Hozumi & Carol Midori vs. Eagle Sawai & Mikiko Futagami
Megumi Kudo & Miwa Sato vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai
Sakie Hasegawa & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima 5:19 of 9:28. Exciting fast-paced match. Though LLPW was hosting the show, the crowd was largely behind the AJW team, giving them good pops. Young ASARI was treated well since she was getting pinned. ASARI displayed some of her hot moves, but also looked green.
~Sky Flower Rock~: Manami Toyota vs. Carol Midori 2:50. Literally half the match was the rolling cradle. Toyota just kept it going and going until pinning Midori in it after 1:25. A shame since Midori is a capable wrestler who could have had a good match with Toyota had that been the goal.
~Technical Flash~: Kyoko Inoue vs. Mikiko Futagami 4:01. As with the previous match, this should have been a chance for the LLPW wrestler to step up and allow the great AJW wrestler to carry them to a good match. Unfortunately, the LLPW wrestler was never taken seriously. Kyoko did nothing to help Futagami look good; it was simply AJW flexing their muscles.
~Dream Kickoff~: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Yukari Osawa 1:41. Yamada was fired up, wrestling with the passion we were always hoping to see from her post 1995. Osawa isn't in the league with Futagami or even Midori work wise, but at least this was an exciting squash as Yamada chose to make it more than simply quick.
Aja Kong vs. Miki Handa 4:16 of 6:38. As with her predecessors, Handa had little offense and was just a jobber. Aja was playing cocky heel and showing Handa up.
~Elimination Battle Field~: Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Numacchi vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo 17:34 of 26:49. Finally, another real match! Exciting fast-paced action with enough tags that even the weaker wrestlers, who wisely weren't leaned on, looked fine. If you know anything about how LLPW books you can guess this was going to be The Day of the Eagle as they typically allowed all their lesser stars be jobbed out in exchange for pushing their two major wrestlers, Sawai & Kandori. The bottom three LLPW women were quickly dismissed, so Big Bird Sawai could be the hero, propelling her league to an amazing comeback from 4 vs. 2 odds. Eagle actually did a diving body attack, taking out 4 AJW women on the floor before pinning the entire AJW team sans Suzuka in a 2 minute span. Again, this was all to make Eagle look that much more impressive, as it would have been far more dramatic to spread these last falls out, not to mention not saving Numacchi for last. Harley survived, working circles around Sawai as always, but getting none of the glory she deserved. ***1/2
Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi 14:30 of 14:38. Very heated and intense match. Daring match that risked pissing fans off today to build to the pay off when Bull finally had her singles match with Kandori on 7/14/94. What was rather unique is despite the match going almost 15 minutes, they kept Bull & Kandori apart to built anticipation for their meeting to the point they never officially squared off. At 5, Bull lariated Kandori off the apron in between beating on Hozumi. A bit later, Kandori returned the favor, elbowing Bull off the apron, leading to them brawling on the floor. Takako & Hozumi stepped up, so the wrestling was good when they were in even if no one cared as they were minor names who weren't involved in the storyline. Kandori's matches against AJW were by far her best, which isn't surprising given the quality of their wrestlers compared to LLPW's, but that's not the reason. AJW understood Kandori's gimmick worked when she maintained the aura of the dangerous threat who could take someone out at any time, more a mythical tough woman than someone who worked for long stretches (except against the best of the best) or sold. Kandori, of course took Takako out for the win. She also reapplied the wakigatame after the match to garner extra heel heat. ***3/4
Waisha Kamikiri Death Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama 13:47. Those who want to argue Hokuto as the greatest ever can point to a match like this where she was strapped with an average opponent, but not only made the match live up to its main event billing, she managed to make it at least somewhat memorable. Considering Kazama wasn't allowed to be seen as even a near equal, the match was about as dramatic as it could possibly have been. Hokuto injured Rumi's back right away with a backbreaker and slame on the table. Every subsequent offensive move focused on Rumi's back. Kazama came back attacking Hokuto's bad knee, wrestling a smart and effective match by sticking to her game plan throughout. Sure, Kazama can't work on Hokuto's level, but she can kick an injured knee about as well as anyone. As Hokuto could put injury storylines over with the best of them, by the 12-minute mark you started believing Rumi could take her out at any time. Unfortunately, the match really was nearly over, and to make things worse the knee and back injuries played a dramatically reduced role in the final few minutes. As per the stips, Kazama was sheared after the match. ***3/4
Michiko Omukai vs. Miki Handa
Combat Toyoda & Crusher Maedomari & Tsuppari Mack & Shark Tsuchiya vs. Eagle Sawai & Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai & Mikiko Futagami
Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi
Hair vs. Hair: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama
LLPW 5/29/94
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura
Mizuki Endo & Carol Midori vs. Yasha Kurenai & Miki Handa
Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito vs. Noriyo Tateno & Rumi Kazama
LLPW 11/29/93
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura
Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai
Utako Hozumi & Mizuki Endo vs. Noriyo Tateno & Rumi Kazama
Yasha Kurenai vs. Bull Nakano
Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo vs. Harley Saito & Miki Handa
Note: All matches are edited
2/7
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura. Clip
Michiko Nagashima vs. Mikiko Futagami
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Miki Handa & Mizuki Endo
Yasha Kurenai vs. Jenn Yukari
Megumi Kudo & Nurse Nakamura vs. Rumi Kazama & Utako Hozumi
Shinobu Kandori & Eagle Sawai & Carol Midori vs. Combat Toyoda & Shark Tsuchiya & Tsuppari Mack
2/20
Noriyo Tateno & Mikiko Futagami vs. Yasha Kurenai & Mikiko Nagashima
LLPW Nintei Single Senshukenjiai: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai
Highlights of the undercard matches
GAEA 2/16/97
Sakura Hirota & Sonoko Kato & Hiromi Kato vs. Toshie Uematsu & Rina Ishii & Kyoko Ichiki
Clips from WCW Cruiserweight Tournament: Sugar Sato vs. Chihiro Nakano, Satomura vs. Numao
WCW Cruiserweight Tournament A Block Final: Meiko Satomura vs. Sugar Sato
Akira Hokuto & Chigusa Nagayo vs. KAORU & Maiko Matsumoto
LLPW 3/6/94
Noriyo Tateno vs. Harley Saito
Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo vs. Carol Midori & Jenn Yukari
Michiko Nagashima vs. Shinobu Kandori & Yasha Kurenai
Michiko Omukai vs. Leo Kitamura
Jenn Yukari vs. Michiko Nagashima
Carol Midori & Mizuki Endo vs. Miki Handa & Yasha Kurenai
Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match, Utako Hozumi Retirement Match: Koji Ishinriki & Utako Hozumi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Shinobu Kandori
Michiko Omukai vs. Chaparita ASARI (AJW). Less than 1/3 aired, but what they showed was good action with lots of big spots.
Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo vs. Tomoko Watanabe & Rie Tamada (AJW team). Good fast-paced match with non-stop action.
Rumi Kazama & Carol Midori & Michiko Nagashima vs. Nurse Nakamura & Miwa Sato & Yukie Nabeno (FMW team). This tried to be a good match, but the FMW team and Rumi are just bad. All action including everyone doing a plancha. Average.
Jenn Yukari & Miki Handa vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (AJW team) 22:21 (16 or so shown). LLPW picked up the pace big time. Handa was largely up to the task, but Jenn was a bit sloppy. Still, the action more than made up for a few problems. LCO did a very nice job, elevating the quality of the opposition and delivering a fast-paced match with a lot of big spots. ***/12
Yasha Kurenai vs. Megumi Kudo (FMW). Yasha tries to work fast-paced, but she doesn't have the spots for that style. Then again, she's not good in any style. Average.
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue (AJW team). Workrate match. Kyoko & Harley are really good. Takako & Tateno don't take it down to much. Very good.
Eagle Sawai vs. Combat Toyoda (FMW). Slow and plodding. Decent.
Chain Death Match: Shinobu Kandori vs. Bull Nakano (AJW) 22:11. Brutal bloody brawl. Selling is actually quite good. The pacing is very slow because of the length, but the amount of blood lost (and Bull's lack of stamina) makes that logical. They could have done more actual wrestling and been more creative with the chain, it was very much an 80's chain match where the weapon was a novelty so they felt they didn't have to do too much beyond use it repeatedly. Bull, of course, used it for the guillotine leg drop, which Kandori sold magnificently acting like it destroyed her eye. Bull carried this and she was still good, but at this point was better with a more energetic opponent. Kandori provided some intensity, but disappointingly the rivalry stuff was largely at the outset. ***
Mizuki Endo vs. Jiyun Yamashita 2:45 of 6:07. Endo squashed the rookie, though judging by the plethora of bruises that fill her legs it was nothing compared to the beating Yamashita takes in the dojo.
Jenn Yukari vs. Miki Handa 12:00 of 20:18. They built the match up pretty well, doing enough early to maintain interest while saving everything of note for later. Keeping it even throughout, their best stuff was counters from and into suplexes. **3/4
Yasha Kurenai & Michiko Nagashima vs. Rumi Kazama & Carol Midori 20:00. A very active and energetic worker, Midori is something of a much lesser version of Kyoko Inoue at this point, even utilizing some of the same postures and mannerisms. Yasha is a character by necessity as she’s the worst wrestler in the league excluding the rookies. She takes adequately, but has almost no worthwhile offense. Luckily Nagashima works the majority of the match, but as she does the majority of the selling the match is more or less only as interesting as the opposition. Rumi cracked Kurenai with some nice kicks early, but her contributions were sparse. Midori was good, but not to the level she could make the match on her own. Nagashima helped, but could really use some better offense. **1/4
Harley Saito & Mikiko Futagami vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Omukai 11:32 of 15:54. Omukai had yet to figure out her strengths, and was rather aimless running around and trying some deliberately set up flying moves. Futagami was quite opposite, very sure of everything she wanted to do. She’s very technical, following the proper steps to execute each move rather than performing them in the half ass manner you see from wrestlers who see something they like and kind of fake their way through it. Omukai had a rib injury that Harley aggravated early on with stomps. She did a good job of putting it over, which garnered her some sympathy as she as the wrestler who didn’t belong in the semifinal even if she was at 120%. The pleasant surprise was Eagle, who was actually quite impressive. Much of this was due to the opposition, particularly a strong sequence from Harley, but Sawai did a good job every time she was in. ***
LLPW Nintei Single Senshuken: Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno 15:47. Tateno is somewhat similar to Tatsumi Fujinami in that she still uses most of the same moves she did in her 1980’s peak, but lacks the energy of her youth, and thus is rather uninspiring these days. What’s more pertinent is she’s not an opponent whose style plays into Kandori’s hands, much as Manami Toyota isn’t the most suitable opponent for Yumiko Hotta even if in their youth they did have some top notch matches together. Tateno used her athletic moves when she was on offense, while Kandori used her submissions when she had the advantage, which would have been great if they made an attempt to counter from one style to the other. The match started well with Kandori sidestepping Tateno’s jumping knee, catching her ankle in midair and applying an ankle lock, which she quickly released, preferring to scold her opponent. Unfortunately, this was one of the only times they used one style to set up the other. The wrestling was fine, it just didn’t fluidly mesh. Tateno actually pinned Kandori with a rolling cradle of all moves to capture the title. **1/2
9/27/94 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2
Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai 1:28 of 16:38. This match decided LLPW’s representative in the V*TOP tournament at AJW’s 11/20/94 Tokyo Dome supershow. Eagle scored a victory over the new champ, though Tateno kicked out so far before the 3 count one wondered how much she paid the ref.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Jenn Yukari 1:22 of 14:15. Kandori went from champion straight down to the opening match. She was in a foul mood, and when Yukari took her to the floor and rammed her face into a chair she snapped. Kandori proceeded to hang Yukari upside down from the ropes and use a table on her. When the ref tried to stop it Kandori put the boots to her then threw a chair on her for the DQ.
Michiko Nagashima vs. Hatsumi Tawada 0:34 of 8:23.
Zen Nihon Tag Senshuken: Miki Handa & Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori & Michiko Omukai 1:28 of 28:15. Omukai was cut on the forehead. Midori pinned Kurenai following a moonsault press to capture AJW’s titles.
Rumi Kazama & Mikiko Futagami vs. Harley Saito & Mizuki Endo 0:28 of 10:57
Shinobu Kandori vs. Mikiko Futagami
Michiko Omukai vs. Mizuki Endo
Miki Handa vs. Carol Midori
Rumi Kazama vs. Harley Saito
Noriyo Tateno & Yasha Kurenai & Michiko Nagashima vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & Jiyun Yamashita
Michiko Omukai vs. Jenn Yukari
Rumi Kazama vs. Michiko Nagashima
Noriyo Tateno vs. Miki Handa
Eagle Sawai vs. Yasha Kurenai
Handicap Match: Eagle Sawai vs. Yasha Kurenai & Michiko Nagashima
LLPW 6 Woman Tag Title Match: Shinobu Kandori & Carol Midori & Hatsumi Tawada vs. Harley Saito & Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo
LLPW taped 1/6/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Michiko Nagashima vs. Hatsumi Tawada 6:18 of 14:35
Leo Kitamura vs. Jenn Yukari 6:06 of 10:09
Harley Saito & Eagle Sawai vs. Carol Midori & Mikiko Futagami 17:20 of 17:56. Good match with Harley & Futagami shining.
11/19/94: Harley Saito & Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo vs. Shinobu Kandori & Carol Midori & Hatsumi Tawada 13:51. Good work and exciting match with heat on the Kandori/Harley and Endo/Tawada confrontations, but some spots were badly blown.
GAEA taped 4/15/95
Bomber Hikaru vs. Sumio Toyama 2:46 of 14:20
Mayumi Ozaki & Super Heel Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Chigusa Nagayo. The main event of the first GAEA show. Very good match with blood due to tons of brawling. The Super Heel gimmick really limits Devil, but Ozaki was real good carrying the team, and she took a hell of beating in the process. Lots of good false finishes, really making it look like Oz was jobbing, but she eventually pinned Chigusa with a Toyota roll after Devil hit her in the gut with her rod.
GAEA 4/15/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
GAEA NEO SOUL 3 on 3 MIX: Toshie Uematsu & Sonoko Kato & Yasuko Kuragaki vs. Meiko Satomura & Toshie Sato & Tomoko Kuzumi 5:34 of 14:44
Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura vs. Eagle Sawai & Keiko Aono 9:35
KAORU & Sonoko Kato vs. Michiko Nagashima & Miki Handa 19:37
LLPW 1/6/95: Rumi Kazama & Michiko Omukai vs. Shinobu Kandori & Mizuki Endo 14:41. Good match. Solid, but unspectacular.
LLPW 12/13/94
LLPW 6 Woman Tag League: Shinobu Kandori & Carol Midori & Hatsum Tawada vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & 0:26 of 30:00
LLPW 6 Woman Tag League: Rumi Kazama & Miki Handa & Michiko Omukai vs. Shinobu Kandori & Carol Midori & Hatsum Tawada 0:46 of 7:51
LLPW Single Title Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Miki Handa 18:02. Good solid match, but slow paced.
Leo Kitamura vs. Keiko Aono 2:25 of 6:24
LLPW Tag Titles: Carol Midori & Michiko Omukai vs. Mikiko Futagami & Mizuki Endo 9:23 of 21:42. What they showed was pretty decent, picking up in the second half with a series of near falls before Midori pinned Endo to retain.
1/15/95, LLPW Title Tournament A Bracket Round 2: Harley Saito vs. Eagle Sawai 9:39 of 20:36
LLPW Title Tournament A Bracket Round 2: Miki Handa vs. Mizuki Endo 12:23
LLPW 2/10/95
Michiko Nagashima vs. Jenn Yukari 9:41 of 19:44. Good match controlled and carried by Nagashima, who predominantly used heel tactics, which caused Yukari to juice.
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama 16:46. Good match, with solid work, but few ups and downs.
LLPW Title Tournament: Miki Handa vs. Eagle Sawai 8:14 of 14:59. Good match because of Handa, who was a rat-bastard heel from the outset, and Eagle actually trying to work helped things. Cool post match angle with Handa getting Kandori & Kazama pissed at her.
Champ Forum GAEA #11 COME ON HURRY! Xmas FIGHTING taped 12/23/95
Neo Energy Queen History '95: Chikayo vs. Chihiro Nakano 11:17. Green work. Dull and kind of sloppy.
Scramble Soul To Soul: Megumi Kudo & Kaori Nakayama & Yukari Ishikura (FMW team) vs. KAORU & Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu 16:12. The veterans were willing to sell for the youngsters. Pretty decent match with low level spots early building to the youngsters best spot or two at the end.
Wrestlism: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Combat Toyoda 13:44 of 23:11. Disappointing. Finish was good, but much of the rest of the match was slow paced and dull.
LLPW Flashback taped 5/23/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Harley Saito vs. Mizuki Endo 11:48. Good match. Crisp action. Stiff, believable, and solid work. Great job by Harley.
Shinobu Kandori & Carol Midori vs. Eagle Sawai & Rumi Kazama 11:51. Lots of near falls during the finishing sequence and the surprise finish of Midori pinning Rumi, but the match wasn't very exciting.
Leo Kitamura & Carol Midori vs. Harley Saito & Michiko Omukai 3:53 of 14:04
Kandori vs. Mizuki Endo 4:44 of 6:13. Designed to get Endo over as someone who had a lot of heart, and it worked. Endo keeps losing, 4 times in all, but keeps having the match restarted. Crowd gets behind Endo more and more as the match goes on for breaking Kandori's finishers and not wanting to quit even though she's getting her head handed to her.
Champ Forum GAEA #12 3/16/96 taped 1/14/96 Tokyo
Original Captain Fall Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Dynamite Kansai (JWP) & Bomber Hikaru & Bolshoi Kid (JWP) & Saburo (JWP) & Hiromi Sugo (JWP) vs. Devil Masami (JWP) & Mayumi Ozaki (JWP) & KAORU & Cuty Suzuki (JWP) & Hikari Fukuoka (JWP) & Makie Numao 20:15. Good match with cool tag spots like a 7-dive sequence and a quadruple diving headbutt. Finish was terrible.
Hiromi Yagi (JWP) vs. Toshie Uematsu 10:19. This was the Hiromi Yagi show. She made Uematsu, who was quite green, look like a good solid wrestler. Smooth transitions and sequences due to Yagi. Easily Uematsu's best singles up to this point and she hasn't exactly topped it often since.
Fight To The Last Young Generation One Night Tag Tournament Final: Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP) & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sonoko Kato & Yuki Miyazaki (JWP) 5:04 of 17:51. Fast paced match with a lot of spots. Pretty good work. Kuzumi & Chikayo win the tournament.
LLPW Flashback Taped 5/23/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Noriyo Tateno vs. Mikiko Futagami 10:02 of 13:31
Michiko Nagashima & Miki Handa 12:34 of 20:09
Chigusa Nagayo & Bomber Hikaru vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari 15:05 of 17:53
"The first Ultimate Championship fight for ladies all over the world."
6/23/95 Club Citta Kawasaki
Qualifying matches
Harley Saito vs. Mikiko Futagami
Harley Saito vs. Mizuki Endo
Mizuki Endo vs. Mikiko Futagami
7/18/95 Komazawa Taiikukan
Round 1
Yumiko Hotta vs. Mizuki Endo
Michelle Aboro vs. Svetlana Gundarenko
Shinobu Kandori vs. Liz Africano
Sandre Yurui vs. Fieni Klee
Round 2
Yumiko Hotta vs. Svetlana Gundarenko
Shinobu Kandori vs. Fieni Klee
Final
Shinobu Kandori vs. Svetlana Gundarenko
Champ Forum GAEA Collection #16 2/24/98 originally aired 6/22/96 Hustle Cup in Club Citta taped 5/12/96 Club Citta Kawasaki
Hustle Super Battle Royal 13:24 of 16:27: This was a cool match with good comedy and all kinds of spots where they picked someone to gang up on and all did the same spot to her. Good match.
Hustle Cup Junior Star Tournament Semifinal: Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sonoko Kato 7:25 of 11:05 . Bad match with both looking green.
Hustle Cup Junior Star Tournament Semifinal: Meiko Satomura vs. Toshie Uematsu 6:38 of 10:06. Good submission oriented match with a great finish.
Hustle Cup Junior Star Tournament Final: Meiko Satomura vs. Sonoko Kato 10:51. These two went at it hard and had a tough final. Match was solid, but the finish came too soon. Good match.
LLPW Flashback #42 2/23/98
Tateno Noriyo Pro Wrestling 15th Anniversary: Noriyo Tateno vs. Rumi Kazama 15:49 of 17:25. Boring due to the slow pace and execution of the spots and the typical dead LLPW crowd. Average match.
LLPW vs. GAEA singles match: Jenn Yukari vs. Bomber Hikaru (GAEA) 9:27 of 13:11. Kind of like the last match, but with worse talent. Average match.
Eagle Sawai & Rumi Kazama vs. Shinobu Kandori & Noriyo Tateno 9:40 of 17:16. This was faster paced and had more heat between the workers than the other matches on this show did. Good match.
LLPW Flashback #43 3/2/98 The 3rd Anniversary taped 8/4/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo 13:56 of 20:00. A brawl with gimmicks coming into play. Average match.
Karula (Harley Saito) vs. Carol Midori 7:06 of 10:21. Very good performance by Karula carrying Midori to a good match.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai 12:40 of 18:06. These two worked stiff together and had good facials to make it look like a grudge match. Solid work, but the crowd was even totally dead for this big match between the top two stars of LLPW.
Champ Forum GAEA Collection #17 3/3/98 originally aired 7/20/96 GOLD RUSH taped 6/16 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
WONDER FORTH: Mima Shimoda (AJW) & Toshie Uematsu vs. KAORU & Sugar Sato 13:00 of 20:01. Fast-paced match with good work and lots of spots. Exciting, but no storyline or psychology. Good match.
LLPW 6 Woman Tag League: Bomber Hikaru & Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori & Mikiko Futagami (LLPW team) 8:14 of 20:35. Exciting match with good work and near falls back and forth. Tons of spots and a cool finish. Very good match.
G's BLOOD PERFORMER III: Toshiyo Yamada (AJW) & Meiko Satomura vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Makie Numao 11:55 of 17:32. Solid work. Numao's kicks looked really good. Numao scores the upset on Satomura. Average match.
Jenn Yukari & Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Omukai & Keiko Aono. Futagami looked good, and raised Omukai's level. Young Aono was overmatched by the veterans, and it was basically a given that she'd do the job given LLPW booking. The effort was above average, but otherwise it was pretty typical. in a variation of what would become the standard ARSION post match, Futagami tried to shake Omukai's hand after the match, but Omukai hit it away and attacked. 8:08 of 19:18.
7/18/95 Saitama: Miki Handa vs. Noriyo Tateno. Handa would have been a great heel. Anyone can use weapons, but Handa had that ability to get under people's skin. She kept using objects including an umbrella. Tateno got on the mic and complained, but to no avail. Finally, she threw Tommy Ran and used one of Handa's objects on her. Ran was down when she wanted to pin Handa in her German suplex hold though, so Tateno lost it, attacking Ran again for the DQ. Interesting, maybe good stuff. 3:09 of 19:30.
7/18/95: Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai. Some kind of no DQ weapons match. They used chains, handcuffs, a Dump can, Yasha even loosened the turnbuckle (one pad covers all style) and tossed it at Nagashima. With the handcuffs, they actually had officials cut Yasha free rather than that found the key stupidity (why would you even bring it?). Yasha bled. These two have had some surprisingly good brawls, but ths was so edited you got little more than the gimmick spots. The desk bomb queen took the brunt of the table action in this one, with Yasha piledriving her on it and injuring her knee with a forward suplex from Tigerdriver position. Nagashima gained a measure of revenge by cutting Yasha's robe after the match. 4:49 of 23:58
Yasha Kurenai & Mizuki Endo vs. Miki Handa & Michiko Nagashima. Brawl. Good gimmicks spots, but they didn't set them up or perform them that well. The best was when Handa, who wasn't legal, choked Endo from the floor causing her to step on the first rope. That made her easy prey for Nagashima, who dropkicked her over the top to floor. Typical LLPW where it's pretty decent but would be good if not for the execution problems and faults. Kurenai beat on Nagashima, but Nagashima & Handa beat on Endo. Endo was much younger plus she isn't a brawler, but actually she wound up faring well and even scoring the victory. 16:32 of 20:09. **1/4
Noriyo Tateno Puroresu 15th Anniversary Memorial Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Rumi Kazama. Tateno got flowers from a few retired AJW wrestlers, with Lioness & Dump beating on her a little in good fun. They tried to have a good match, but lack the physical capabilities. Tateno has slowed down so much, and Rumi is so out of shape. Moves were good, but they didn't do them as well as they used to. It was too telegraphed because they don't have the athleticism and reaction time of their youth. Too many miscues, but at least they did try.15:50 of 17:25. **
Karula vs. Carol Midori. It figures the one match that is delivering winds up being the one that's inexplicably short. I guess they wanted to see how the Karula gimmick would go over or something, as I figured Midori would fare better than this. Harley wrestled just as well despite her ridiculous costume. There was one comedy spot where she came back by throwing "feathers" (her costume is some kind of demented chicken). They did some brawling too with the chair coming into play. This stuff didn't interfere with the good junior style wrestling though, and might have added to the match. 7:02 of 10:21. ***
Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori. These two aren't a good match for one another. Eagle doesn't do the submission style, so Kandori has to brawl. Kandori can be more effective brawling if she does the stiff type, but Eagle doesn't like stiffness and neither go out of their way to make the other look good. They have a hard time setting the moves up with Eagle being huge and Kandori not being very flexible. Below average match that never got interesting for me or the crowd. 12:42 of 18:06.
Champ Forum GAEA Collection #18 3/10/98 originally aired 8/24/96 RING ON THE BEAT taped 7/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
RING ON THE BEAT: Bomber Hikaru & Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato vs. Chigusa Nagayo & KAORU & Toshie Uematsu 10:09 of 12:52. Good match, but the important thing is that after the match Ozaki offered Sugar a spot in the Oz Academy, which, much to the dismay of KAORU, Sugar accepted.
WILD HEAT: Mayumi Ozaki (JWP) & Sugar Sato & Reiko Amano (JWP) vs. KAORU & Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu 16:01 of 34:31. Oz Academy mugged KAORU forever, causing her to juice. Oz had so much fun beating on KAORU that she was pulling her up at 2. Chikayo turned heel here. She stopped trying to help KAORU and just stood on the apron while Uematsu would try to make saves. When KAORU made a comeback and huracan rana'd Sato, Chikayo came in and kicked KAORU in the back to make the save. Very good match with real good work and a strong storyline.
SUCCEED TO THE GAEA SPIRIT: Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato 8:30. Work was fine, but the match was too short to amount to anything.
LLPW Flashback #44 3/9/98 taped 9/25/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Highlights of Yukari vs. Aono, Michiko Omukai vs. Michiko Nagashima, and Eagle & Rumi vs. Kandori & Endo
Super Handicap Match: Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito 6:43 of 10:12. Work was good, but it was pretty one-sided and lacked heat.
Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori 17:05. These two went all out to deliver a top notch match. The match had no heat though so all the near falls came off flat. Good match.
Highlights from LLPW's trip to Saipan.
Champ Forum GAEA Collection #19 3/23/98 originally aired 9/14/96 ENDLESS SUMMER taped 8/18 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
+9: Toshiyo Yamada (AJW) vs. KAORU 10:41. Good match with big spots back and forth and really nice execution of them. Kind of short though.
MIRACLE GIRL: Meiko Satomura vs. Bomber Hikaru 7:22 of 12:51. Nothing special. Satomura pins Bomber.
FIRE STARTER: Mayumi Ozaki (JWP) & Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima & Reiko Amano (JWP) vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu & Sakura Hirota 18:21 of 19:15. This was Hirota's first TV match and she couldn't do anything. Oz Academy just teamed up to destroy her. Good match.
LLPW FLASHBACK #47 3/31/98 taped 11/5/95 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo 13:05 of 14:00. Decent match, but Endo wasn't able to mount much resistance to Nagashima's heel technique.
Michiko Omukai vs. Jenn Yukari 5:32 of 13:58. Pretty good work though Yukari is a little sloppy. Average match.
Rumi Kazama & Karula vs. Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori 13:57. Very good work and faster paced than normal. Good match. Kandori vs. Tateno. Good solid match. Tateno "injures" Kandori's shoulder.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno 10:58. ***
Mikiko Futagami vs. Jenn Yukari
Michiko Omukai vs. Yasha Kurenai
Noriyo Tateno vs. Mizuki Endo
Eagle Sawai vs. Carol Midori
LL Cup '95 Tag Tournament Nikaisen: Karula & Rumi Kazama vs. Shinobu Kandori & Michiko Nagashima
Miho Watabe vs. Keiko Aono. *1/4
Yasha Kurenai vs. Sayori Okino. *1/2
Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Carol Midori & Mikiko Futagami. Midori & Futagami worked really well with Harley. ***1/2
Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Miss Mongol vs. Rumi Kazama & Mizuki Endo & Michiko Omukai. ***
Street Fight: Shinobu Kandori vs. Megumi Kudo. Heated and intense. Spot oriented match that was too far toward the garbage style. ***1/2
Mizuki Endo vs. Miho Watabe
Michiko Omukai vs. Keiko Aono
Triangle Match: Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori vs. Mikiko Futagami
Elimination Match: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Lioness Asuka & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino. ***1/4
3/6 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall
LLPW World Singles Title: Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori. Mainly on the mat. Kandori would have Eagle beat, but Eagle's cronies would save her. Pretty chaotic outside the ring with Kandori's cronies and Eagle's cronies going at it. These two could use some more offense. **
3/8 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Sayori Okino vs. Miho Watabe. Okino dominated this, but Watabe kept kicking out of everything. **1/4
Miss Mongol (FMW) vs. Keiko Aono. Mongol carried this, but Aono isn't good, and Mongol didn't look too good either. Highlights
Mikiko Futagami vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Emi put up a good fight. Futagami was willing to sell a lot. Several near falls. **3/4
Rumi Kazama & Mizuki Endo vs. Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori. Fast-paced, but somewhat sloppy. *1/2
Scramble Tornado 4 vs. 4 3/5 Falls: Eagle Sawai & Lioness Asuka (free) & Shark Tsuchiya (FMW) & Michiko Nagashima vs. Shinobu Kandori & Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito & Michiko Omukai. A lot of action, but not necessarily good action. Very heated though. Not really good or bad, with no one stepping up. **
Keiko Aono vs. Miho Watabe
Michiko Nagashima vs. Emi Motokawa
Yasha Kurenai & Carol Midori & Mikiko Futagami vs. Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno & Mizuki Endo
Harley Saito vs. Rie
Shinobu Kandori & Megumi Kudo & Michiko Omukai & Kaori Nakayama vs. Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya & Sayori Okino & Miss Mongol
Sachie Abe vs. Miho Watabe. All action spot match that was kind of sloppy because they lack polish. Abe looks better here than she does in Jd'.
Miyuki Sogabe vs. Keiko Aono. Pretty good match carried by Aono, who shows some polish. Aono has some talent, but lacks charisma. Sogabe also did better here than she does in Jd'.
Harley Saito vs. Noriyo Tateno. A good match with a terrible flash finish. Slow paced, but solid work and big spots back and forth. ***
Handicap Elimination Match: Rumi Kazama & Michiko Omukai vs. Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino & Miwa Sato. Bad FMW style heel destruction. Omukai was really over. Rumi & Omukai eventually eliminate all three heels.
Kandori & Mizuki Endo vs. Hotta & Maekawa. This match really works well with everyone playing their proper roles. It makes you want to see singles matches between Kandori and Hotta, as well as Endo & Maekawa. Well booked and worked shoot style match. ***1/2
Vacant LLPW/FMW/Jd' 6 Woman Tag Titles: Eagle & Shark & Lioness vs. Futagami & Yasha Kurenai & Midori. Surprisingly this was a pretty good match as Lioness decided to work. Shark even tried to work, but, of course, she still found time to carve Yasha up. Lioness and Midori worked particularly well together. Eagle & Shark & Lioness become the first champs.
Mizuki Endo vs. Keiko Aono. Highlights.
Endo vs. Aono. There were doing well, but then there was a couple spots where they weren't on the same page. *1/4
Carol Midori vs. Mikiko Futagami. All kinds of big spots back and forth for near falls. ***1/4
Harley Saito vs. Miho Watabe. Harley doesn't sell for little Miho and then sits down on her for the pin. DUD
Harley vs. Watabe. Miho was competitive for a little while in this one, but some of the spots were problematic due to her lack of size. Decent.
Harley vs. Watabe. Harley dominates this one throwing Miho around. Harley's offense is impressive, but this is just a squash match. It's doubtful these three matches helped Watabe at all.
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Noriyo Tateno & Michiko Omukai. Cachorras toned their style down a bit and worked a slower pace because they were in LLPW. Omukai took the brunt of their punishment, but the match worked because the fans got behind her. It was good when Omukai in, though it would have been better if they were used to working together, but at this point Tateno can't hang with Cachorras. ***
Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino. Very heated for LLPW. Heels used a lot of gimmick spots. Nagashima was the best in the match, and Okino was pretty good. Match was much too long, especially since the faces have no interesting offense. Eagle beats up and bloodies poor little Miho after the match. Safe to say that Watabe wasn't having a good day. **
12/5/97 Kanagawa Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan
Miho Watabe vs. Sachie Abe (Jd'). Highlights
Keiko Aono vs. Momoe Nakanishi (AJW). Highlights
Mizuki Endo vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Highlights
Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino vs. Manami Toyota & Miho Wakizawa (AJW). Good match, due almost solely to Toyota. ***1/4
Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori. Highlights.
Eagle Sawai vs. Takako Inoue (AJW). A good match because they threw bombs back and forth. It was like 3-1 as Nagashima & Endo constantly interfered. ***
Noriyo Tateno vs. Lioness Asuka (Free). Very good work due to Lioness doing a strong job of carrying the match. Short match, but due to Lioness got a lot more out of Tateno than anyone in LLPW does. ***
Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Mayumi Ozaki (JWP) vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP) & Harley Saito & Cuty Suzuki (JWP). For such a big interpromotional match, this didn't have much heat to the point it came off flat even though the work was good. ***
2/15/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Miho Watabe vs. Maiko Matsumoto (GAEA). This match was better than expected. A heated opener with good action. *3/4
Noriyo Tateno vs. Keiko Aono. Less than 1/3 shown. Looked a little below average.
Harley Saito & Mizuki Endo vs. Shark Tsuchiya & The Bloody (Jd'). Harley was really fired up here, and was mainly responsible for it being quality. **1/2
Carol Midori vs. Lioness Asuka (Free). Lioness carried the match. She dominated, but Midori wouldn't stay down. Nice work. ***1/4
No Rule Match: Shinobu Kandori & Yasha Kurenai & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino. Really heated. Good brawl, but it lasted too long. Yasha & Rumi juiced. Finish was lame. ***
Miho Watabe vs. Keiko Aono. Miho did some good things, but she looked green and wasn't fluid at all. Aono didn't really do anything. *
Mizuki Endo vs. Aono. Endo did a good job of working over the knee that Miho injured in the previous match. Aono did less than nothing. *1/2
Harley Saito vs. Carol Midori. These two went all out from bell to bell doing all kinds of high spots and near falls, but they still couldn't get any heat. ***1/4
Noriyo Tateno & Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai & Sayori Okino. Typical solid, but unspectacular LLPW match. **1/4
Rumi Kazama & Eagle Sawai vs. Lioness Asuka & Shark Tsuchiya. Shark cut Rumi up. Lioness was worse than normal and Eagle & Rumi were nothing special. *1/2
Double Title Match: Shinobu Kandori (LPWA Champ) vs. Yumiko Hotta (WWWA World Singles Champ). Kandori unifies titles. Reviewed in Quebrada #43. **1/2
4/27/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
LLPW World Single & WWWA World Single Double Title Match: Shinobu Kandori vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW). I said Shark getting a title shot was a disgrace to the akai (red) belt at the time, and this match only further reinforced that opinion. This was the single worst WWWA World Title match I've ever seen, by a wide margin. This match got everyone involved as Eagle, Lioness, and co. interfered on Shark's behalf and Tateno & Harley interfered on Kandori's behalf. So, it did help heat up the big feud, but boy did it suck in the ring. Part of the reason it sucked was that there was so much interference it seemed like they never did anything on their own, but then again, what good ever came of Shark doing things on her own? Shark was up to her old tricks, no selling and rather carelessly carving her opponent up with her kama. The no selling just doesn't work when Kandori is your opponent because it hurts her tough shooter aura. *
6/13/98 Toyohashi Sogo Taiikukan
Mizuki Endo vs. Yumiko Hotta (AJW). This seemed like a decent match, but it was shot with one handheld camera and the cameraman was BAD. Miko wrote, "Memorably bad camera work. On the plus side, we got a good look at the shoes both wrestlers wear, as well as a good view of the ref a few times while the wrestlers are off camera.J "
6/21/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Sayori Okino vs. Megumi Sato. Okino has lost weight, which has improved her athleticism. She has improved as a wrestler, as her execution was smoother. Match was above average when she was on offense. Sato relied heavily on jumping moves despite the fact that she doesn't have good ups. Match was worse than poor when she was on offense blowing seemingly every spot. Luckily, Okino dominated. *1/4
Rumi Kazama vs. Keiko Aono. Aono looked bad once again, especially on offense. She was slow, deliberate, and clumsy. Rumi isn't and wasn't close to good, but she looked great in comparison to Aono. 1/4*
Eagle Sawai vs. Carol Midori. This was a surprisingly good match. Midori was really good here. Eagle deserves a lot of credit because she totally left her gimmick, working a straight match without playing monster so Midori would be credible against her. All kinds of big spots and counters, but the selling and pacing were still strong, which certainly aren't Eagle trademarks. Eagle's best performance in quite a while and another strong showing from Midori. ***1/4
Michiko Nagashima Retirement No Rule Match: Michiko Nagashima vs. Yasha Kurenai. This was the best LLPW match I've seen in a long time. Nagashima has been their best wrestler for the past few years and she went out looking as good as ever despite her bad back. This was a fast-paced spot oriented brawl. It was really exciting, in part because Nagashima was so over, in part because it was something very different than the typical LLPW, and in part because it was simply a strong match. At one point, Nagashima used her desk bomb (diving body press to the floor where she puts her opponent through a table) then got another table out and had Okino put Yasha through it with the desk bomb as she was passing her big spot onto Okino. ***3/4
Harley Saito & Mizuki Endo vs. Shinobu Kandori & Noriyo Tateno. Seemed pretty good, but they chopped it up too much. NJ heavy like sprint with Harley being the best of the 4. This was Endo's farewell match with LLPW, which is a shame as she was at least becoming a good tag wrestler.
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/3/95 '95 Giant Series taped 10/25 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright. This was a MOTYC due to a great performance by Dangerous K. Gary was a lot better here than he is now, but even then only a great like Kawada, Takada, or Tamura could have a strong match with him by working to his few strengths and hiding his many weaknesses. This was like Takada vs. Gary, but in his first try, Kawada topped the best match Takada, or anyone else for that manner, had ever had with Gary. This match built really well around the udehishigigyakujujigatame of Kawada and the deadly suplexes of Gary. It was fast-paced, and maintained an incredible amount of heat and excitement throughout. It's almost amazing how much aura Gary had then because these days he has absolutely none. I can't say enough about Kawada's performance here. ****1/2
Highlights of Kandori vs. Gundarenko 1
Becky Levi vs. Teri Lepowski
Aya Mitsui vs. Yoko Takahashi
Junko Yagi vs. Flor Holman
Sayori Okino vs. Lee Unjya
Yumiko Hotta vs. Angel Amoroso (former ECW valet)
Lioness Asuka vs. Irma Verhoeff
Shinobu Kandori vs. Svetlana Gundarenko
Battle Station JWP 3/10/99
Kana Mizaki & Tsubasa Kuragaki vs. Yoshiko Tamura & Yuka Nakamura. *1/4
Undercard highlights
Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami vs. Commando Bolshoi & Carlos Amano. 4:13 shown
Highlights of the tournament to decide who would face Hikari for the title on 2/28
JWP Nintei Musabetsukyu Senshukenjiai: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Azumi Hyuga. Hyuga wins title. **1/4
LLPW 1998 Year In Review
Highlights of over 20 matches from 3/21/98-2/26/99
Note: Every match but the main event is edited down to 5:33 or less
LLPW vs. AJW Shinsedai Tournament Ikkaisen: Miho Watabe vs. ZAP Isozaki
Carol Midori & Sayori Okino vs. Nanae Takahashi & Miyuki Fujii
Zennihon Tag Senshukenjiai: Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi vs. Keiko Aono & Megumi Sato
Kakutogisen=Judo Jacket Match: Junko Yagi vs. Kaoru Ito
Power Heel Fighter: Eagle Sawai vs. Zap T
Zenmen Taiiko (oppose) Scrambe 8: Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito & Yasha Kurenai vs. Manami Toyota & Takako Inoue & Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi
WWWA Sekai Senshukenjiai: Shinobu Kandori vs. Yumiko Hotta. The first 10 minutes are pretty weak matwork. However, the last 8 are really strong, with tons of credible near finishes. The crowd heat, which is actually really strong for this whole show but easily peaks for this match, really helps make the finishers work. The actual finish was preposterious though. Counting for a KO (10 count) when someone is knocked to the floor instead of counting for a count out (20 count). What the hell was that, and what's the point if Kandori doesn't even care enough to argue? Hotta wins WWWA Title. ***
Yasha Kurenai highlights
Miho Watabe vs. Aya Koyama. Highlights
Carol Midori vs. Junko Yagi. Highlights
LLPW Nintei Single Oiza Chosensha Kettei A Block Ikkaisen: Rumi Kazama vs. Mizuki Endo. Highlights
LLPW Nintei 6 Woman Tag Senshukenjiai: Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito & Keiko Aono vs. Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya & Sayori Okino. Highlights
Yasha Kurenai Highlights
Yasha Kurenai Intai Jiai (retiremement match): Shinobu Kandori vs. Yasha Kurenai. *3/4
Yasha Kurenai vs. Carol Midori. **3/4
Obacchi Iizuka vs. Mai Ichii
Noriyo Tateno vs. Bachiko
Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito vs. Lee Hye Ran & Choi So Ra
Mako Ogawa Retirement 5 Minute Exhibition Match: Mako Ogawa vs. Rumi Kazama
Sayori Okino Debut 10th Anniversary Memorial: Sayuri Okino vs. Aiger
Dump Matsumoto & Zap T vs Shinobu Kandori & Takako Inoue