AJW TV (Jan. 26th, 1993): (Taped 04.01.1992)
* Yay, I found another AJW TV show! This show features the up & coming junior team of Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko up against established veterans and title-holders in Manami Toyota & Akira Hokuto! We start off with some year-end awards show, with the injured Mariko Yoshida tearfully accepting some trophy, plus Yumiko Hotta, Akira Hokuto, and more. Bull Nakano’s gold & black sparkly tux and headband is the mega-showstealer, here. Though Aja Kong’s “Peter Griffin” shirt & tie look is a close one. Manami’s inability to go through any interview without corpsing continues to be hilarious.
“TL;DR- What’s Good Here?”: A very solid TV show with some rare matches! Also, I add a ridiculously-good tag match between JWP & AJW blood-rivals!
* Welcome to Part Two! This is the part of the massive interpromotional show that sees Michinoku-Pro and All Japan put on their best stuff in 6-Man Tags, and then New Japan putting on… that match. The story goes that they were gonna put on a throwaway bout until everyone else brought their A-game matches, so they had to scramble and put their top stars in a bout to be a proper “Main Event”. But… oof. They also hit the YouTube video with an immediate copywrite claim over the Main Event, so it’s missing from the show above, but I managed to finagle an MP4.
“TL;DR- What’s the Deal?”: 4-5 all-time classic matches, the women showing up nearly everybody, worked shoots, bloodbaths, spotfests, comedy- something for everybody. Two more ****+ matches to go!
WEEKLY PRO WRESTLING “BRIDGE OF DREAMS” (02.05.1995):
* This is a semi-legendary, monstrous 6-hour pro wrestling event at the Tokyo Dome, made weird because of all sorts of vague Japanese political shenanigans that I only barely understand. So “Weekly Pro Wrestling” was a wrestling magazine with a lot of name value in Japanese wrestling, and they put on a massive Interpromotional Show at the Tokyo Dome on the same night as WrestleMania XI. The idea was to put on a match from every big promotion in Japan for a true “Supercard”. Wikipedia says that Dave Meltzer says that it was supposed to have 8 promotions, but 13 ended up applying. Notably absent is Genichiru Tenryu’s WAR promotion, as they had an event the same day at Korakuen Hall, which was reviewed by another mag called “Weekly Gong”.
The show was a big thing among tape traders because only two versions were ever made available- one was a fancam pointed at the arena’s big screen, and the other was a very low-grade recording (the All Japan match has no audio for most of it). It turns out that New Japan, who I guess had the rights to distribute the tape, was like “HELL NO!” for reasons that, if true, are absolutely hilarious. Read on!
“TL;DR- What’s the Deal?”: 4-5 all-time classic matches, the women showing up nearly everybody, worked shoots, bloodbaths, spotfests, comedy- something for everybody.
The main event- LCO vs. LLPW’s #2-4 stars!
AJW vs. LLPW- ARASHI NO KAISEN! (The Outbreak of the Storm): (24.01.1993, Korakuen Hall)
* And we’re back with the first big Interpromotional show of 1993- another “Rivals” show with an AJW card but an LLPW/AJW match in the Main Event! In this, it reflects the AJW/JWP “I Know You” show from December 1992 in that it’s mostly AJW at work, but with a main that’s all-new and would thus have a lot of drama attached to it. During the announcements of the wrestlers (who enter the ring and take their bows), they announce parts of the Dream Slam card! Debbie & Sakie are set up to take on the JWP team of Plum Mariko & Hikari Fukuoka, as all are around the same level… but Debbie would be swapped out for Kaoru Ito, for reasons we’ll soon see. Double Inoue (vs) Ozaki/Cutie only draws the same applause as that bout does, but the crowd is REALLY impressed to hear Dynamite Kansai (vs) Yumiko Hotta getting announced!
“TL;DR: Why Should I Care?”: The final two matches are really incredible Dream Matches, featuring 4 of AJW’s 7 best in a classic tag war, and then a 6-Woman tag that gets ugly in the best possible way.
MANAMI TOYOTA FIGHTS 20 PEOPLE (30 Match Gauntlet): (Christmas Day, 1995)
-So Manjiimortal shared this with the Joshi Boyz one day, and despite it being a bit out of the timeline, I figured I’d review it now since it’s kind of a funny anomaly.
So Manami Toyota is the newly-crowned WWWA World Champion of All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling, having defeated Dynamite Kansai to win her second title. And then they do this random thing where she has to wrestle a thirty-minute bout, but against TWENTY PEOPLE! AJW’s Jobbers and Main Eventers alike come out, and will alternate 1-minute matches against the Champion- if someone is pinned, they are immediately replaced. Since there’s 30 bouts and 20 wrestlers, some will get a second shot!
-Toshiyo Yamada is one of those weird wrestlers who’s usually the least-memorable part of some of the best matches of all time.
Yamada has an absolutely stacked list of ***** matches, yet all of them seem to have the peculiar caveat that they involve Manami Toyota, either as a partner or an opponent. I dunno what it is, but Toyota’s presence brings this incredible thing out of Yamada, who is never a hindrance in any of these matches, and never looks like she’s being carried. She’s a very stable, centered wrestler, which lets Manami fly around like a maniac and the match never feels like a “Spotfest” or anything. It’s peculiar because while both are obviously great, of the two, only Toyota has ***** matches with other top-tier opponents- Yamada’s ceiling felt much lower for whatever reason.
“Matsumoto actually pioneered the gimmick that the Road Warriors would later use to great fame in the United States, of being face-painted bikers with bizarre haircuts and monster heels who sold very little, if at all, for the smaller, under matched babyfaces. […] Matsumoto’s impact was so great that she often brought crowds literally to tears with her villainous tactics, and when she would merely walk down the street in any major city, people would scatter in fear” -Dave Meltzer
JOSHI IN 1992: * So here’s a thing I came up with to kind of sum up a bunch of Joshi Spotlights starting with the 1992 stuff- having seen everything I could find on YouTube (aside from a fancam or two). After reviewing almost all of the “Famous big shows”, I figured the next thing to do would be like Bayless, Tommy, Logan & the others, going year-by-year. With Joshi, being less-known to Westerners and with less backstage secrets known, I kinda had to gather what I could and infer some of the angles that were going on, but with some help from other Joshi & Puro experts, I’ve come up with a summation for the year.
THE RISE OF AJA KONG:
-Aja’s feud with WWWA Champion Bull Nakano had been going for ages, but here it reached its fevered pitch. At Wrestlemarinepiad ’92, Aja faced Bull in a huge epic move-fest that saw Bull not only fail to pin Aja with the Guillotine Legdrop, but the Somersault version, too! She managed to pick up the win with a Moonsault, but as one reviewer put it, “Bull had a look on her face like she suddenly knew how she was going to die, and who was going to do it”. You just knew the Ace was on borrowed time. And Aja made it clear as things went on that she was unstoppable- she defeated her own tag team partner, Bison Kimura, in a horribly-violent bloodbath that saw Bison lose the use of her arm, tons of weapon shots, and then Aja using a freaking SUBMISSION MOVE for the win. Aja slaughtering her own tag partner and then finishing her with a technical hold of all things was a huge part in building Aja’s mystique, I felt.
JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- JWP (vs) AJW- “I Know You”: 01.12.1992, Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan
– This YouTube video is taken from a JWP video with mostly clipped matches, two huge bouts, and some surrounding nonsense afterwards. This actually matches Dream Rush from a week ago slightly, in that it’s got the triumphant coronation of an Ace champion… but is the sub-main event to an interpromotional tag match. These interpromotional matches are SO BIG that they completely subvert the notion that the World Title matches go on last, and that’s reflected in the heat these bouts get.
Dream Rush itself was a really great card, featuring the retirement of Bison Kimura, Aja Kong finally becoming Ace of AJW by defeating Bull Nakano to end their years-long rivalry, and Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada being triumphant over JWP’s Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki in the first of their ***** trio of matches. My review here: https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2019/09/23/joshi-spotlight-dream-rush/
Since a lot of this is clipped, I threw on a couple of long JWP tag bouts I found as well.
“TL;DR: Why Should I Care?”: The two main matches are actually really fantastic bouts, with great heat. One of the tags at the end is really good, too! And anything where JWP & AJW wrestlers fight each other always draws a tremendous reaction.
AJW Tag League THE BEST ’92- Part Two: (02.11.1992)
* Taped about two weeks after Part One, Part Two of Tag League THE BEST involves an interesting batch of midcard bouts with obvious winners (if I hadn’t looked at the match time for one, anyways), LCO’s subordinates in a pair of them, and one hell of a Main Event on paper- Aja/Kyoko vs. Akira/Bull! This is the last “Tag League” show I can find from ’92. This takes place at Hakata Starlanes, which is a REALLY bright, very small set for something like this, giving it a whole different “look” than other AJW shows. I mean, it’s a damn gymnasium. This is like watching joshi cards after 1997, complete with a crowd that’s 90% male.
“TL;DR- Why Should I Care?”: Another night of fun wrestling matches- not as flashy or showy as a Grand Prix card tends to be, but with some fun midcard singles matches (actually a rarity in joshi) and two very good matches to end the show!
AJW TAG LEAGUE THE BEST ’92- PART ONE: (17.10.1992)
* Yes, it’s really called “Tag League The Best”. This is pretty much the tag team equivalent of the “Grand Prix”, with multiple teams operating in a round-robin tournament that gets released over three VHS tapes. The shows operate very much like the Grand Prixs as well, with a few random bouts, one or two big fights, and then some tournament matches. In this tourney, the tag champions (Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada) are naturally expected to do well, but their challengers include top-tier squads like Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue, plus Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami. Also, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) throws in its own candidates, as a team of their lower-tier stars has entered! The Interpromotional Era debuting with FMW is always very odd to me. Up & comer Mariko Yoshida has been injured, leaving a big gap in the midcard- now who’s gonna leap up and fill that slot?
NOTE: YouTube is apparently missing Part Three, so I only have two parts to post. Looks like the YouTube set is missing the WWWA World Midget Title Match between Little Frankie vs. Tomezo Tsunokake. I can only assume Frankie defeats his foe, like in 900 other matches.
“TL;DR- Why Should I Care?”: Ever wanted to see a bad, uncoordinated brawl get the Rock/Hogan reaction? Look no further. Also some interesting combinations of wrestlers having some good matches.
JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- NUMACCHI: Stats: Real Name: Saemi Numata (aka “Numacchi”, or “Numatchi”) Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″, 141 lbs. Career Length: 1990-1994
-Well, who better to write a Spotlight on this April 1st than All Japan Women’s joke wrestler, Saemi “Numacchi” Numata? Where else are you gonna see a grown woman running around in pajama bottoms, a plastic helmet, and a shovel?
JOSHI SPOTLIGHT: JWP MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: (17.08.1992)
* So I have no idea what the backstory is for this show, but this is one of the only extended shows I can find for AJW’s rival promotion, Joshi Women’s Pro-Wrestling Project, in 1992, so I figured I’d show what they were up to around this time. I believe the company has only recently split up at this point, continuing on after many women quit to form LLPW (including Shinobu Kandori, Harley Saito and others), so it’s a big show for a company that has to be a bit endangered at this point. And MAN is the setting weird- it’s like a High School gymnasium, with only four rows in the bleachers on the hard camera, and two rows on the floor on another side! Yeah, only two sides of the ring have an audience! I could literally count the paid attendance here- I’ve seen Nickelodeon Game Shows in front of more people.
This show appears nowhere on CageMatch, nor WrestlingData, so I couldn’t tell you anything else about it. Like why the YouTube video is a 2-hour show with an hour of dead air after it. Quebrada calls it “JWP Pre-Stage Studio Match” and mentions the setting as TV Asahi Studios.
“TL;DR- Why Should I Watch This?”: You get to see a whole ton of people work an ungodly amount of time in a single night- a truly remarkable case of stamina from all involved. And nearly every match is around ****.
-Hailing from the Morioka-shi Ice Arena, it’s another episode of the AJW TV show! And also, the first-ever Interpromotional Match, which exists online only in clipped form, I guess! So read on if you want to see how the most legendary era in Joshi began!
JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- JUMPING BOMB ANGELS & CRUSH GALS:
* Okay, for this Spotlight, I figured I’d do something a little different- just gather some random Gals & Angels matches I found and make a dual Spotlight between the two teams, whom I’ve already done bios for.
What’s Awesome Here: Two ’80s matches (one okay, one REALLY good), a fricking fantastic “War of the Gods” tag match that’s a total classic, a *WCW* Joshi bout from 1991, and then a look at a late-stage JB Angel.
Quickie Bios:
Chigusa Nagayo: Sporty-looking tomboy who turns into a pure ass-kicker. Always wears read. Total icon in Japan, and heroine to schoolgirls of the ’80s.
Lioness Asuka: Fights & dresses like Chigusa, but in blue. A better worker, but didn’t have as much of the “It” Factor; Still a huge star.
Noriyo Tateno: “Pretty Girl” wrestler turned ridiculously innovative in the ring, inspiring a generation of stunt-workers. Went on to LLPW post-1990 and became a big solo wrestler there.
Itsuki Yamazaki: Quicker, more slender high-flyer. Inspired Manami Toyota. Retired in 1991, pretty much for good.
AJW JUNIOR TITLE: NORIYO TATENO vs. CHIGUSA NAGAYO: (01.08.1984)
AJW GRAND PRIX 1992- FINALS: (30.08.1992)
-And now we FINALLY come to the end of the months-long AJW Grand Prix. The story thus far has been the dominance of Aja Kong & Manami Toyota (who shockingly BEAT the Ace-adjacent Kong in a big upset at Korakuen Hall), with Kyoko Inoue right behind them. Mariko Yoshida has also impressed very well, as despite being on the “lower rung”, sorta (she’s well below her rookie classmate Kyoko, who was given a mega-push first), she’s in high-profile positions all over the place, has been made to look good, took both Kyoko & Sakie Hasegawa to 30-minute draws in big showcases of her stamina, and more. It seems like she’ll be given a big push going forward. Toshiyo Yamada also did well enough in non-televised stuff, hitting the semis. All five women will wrestle tonight, with the winners hitting the finals immediately following. The rest of the matches are made up of other tournament wrestlers being paired up.
“TL;DR- Why Should I Watch This?”: One of the best multi-person matches I’ve ever seen is on this show, and you get to see just how much work everyone’s willing to put into their matches, as everyone goes to 15+ in the Grand Prix.
AJW GRAND PRIX FINAL STANDINGS: Wrestler: Points:——–Wrestler: Points:
Manami Toyota 9.0—–T. Yamada 8.0
Aja Kong 8.0————Mariko Yoshida 7.0
Takako Inoue 6.0——-Kyoko Inoue 7.0
Suzuka Minami 5.0—–Akira Hokuto 4.5
Etsuko Mita 5.0———Sakie H. 4.0
Mima Shimoda 5.0—–Yumiko Hotta 4.0
Bat Yoshinaga 4.0——Miori Kamiya 3.0
Tomoko W. 3.0———Debbie Malenko 3.0
Cynthia Moreno 1.0—-Terri Power 3.0
Bison Kimura 0.0——-Kaoru Ito 1.5
Semi-Finals: Manami Toyota (vs) Kyoko/Mariko; Aja Kong (vs) Toshiyo Yamada Finals: Toyota/Kyoko/Mariko (vs) Aja/Yamada
So there’ll be a tiebreaker between Yoshida & Kyoko tonight, then the two Semi-Finals- Aja/Yamada & Toyota/(winner of Kyoko/Yoshida), then the Final match. Of interest here is how closely this mirrors the standing in the company of the girls, save Hokuto getting a low score (injury?), and Takako being unusually high compared to Minami.
AJW MIDSUMMER TYPHOON: (15.08.1992)
* Time for a big Summer Event from AJW!! The booking for quite a few months has culminated right there, which is super exciting!! Though I already reviewed the Main Event, so I kinda just have to do the undercard and then do an abridged review of the Main (which is *****, by the way, and ends in the BEST POST-MATCH ANGLE EVER). Dave Meltzer apparently describes the Main Event to this day as the greatest match he’s ever seen live. A bout where merely his description of what happened had people on the Blog welling up with tears.
“TL;DR- Why Should I Watch This?”: The main event is one of the most famous Joshi matches in history, and the one Dave Meltzer says was the finest match he’d ever seen live (unsure if he changed that recently in the era of 7-star matches). The final three matches are all killer, but yeah- that main event, and the angle & ending surrounding it, is the reason everyone should see it- it’s Savage/Liz Reunion good.
AJW TV (Aug. 14th, 1992):
* The other AJW TV show I saw on YouTube. It features two matches from the Lethal Lottery-style “Fuji TV Network Tag Team Tournament”, plus a huge mismatch in Aja Kong vs. Takako Inoue. Wonderfully, it keeps the ads, though it’s hard to tell what they’re advertising- everything’s got song accompaniment. There’s a commercial for sake, one for a hotel with an onsen in it, and assorted mascot things. Oh, and a tree-trimmer that extends to 1.8 meters! And Lawson, the weirdly-ubiquitous American convenience store chain that exists on every single city block in Japan!
At the end of the show, they show some other match endings. Rie Tamada pins Saemi Numata in a 6-woman tag match after (11:53) before Tomoko Watanabe can break it up, Etsuko Mita beats Bat Yoshinaga with her Straighjacket Perfect Plex at (12:15), and Bull Nakano beats… someone in white with the Guillotine Legdrop in (13:44). Damn, the tape transfer sucks too much for me to tell who that is. They looked thin and had short hair.
BULL NAKANO VS. AKIRA HOKUTO- KANAAMI DEATH MATCH:
* Okay, so this review will be a little bit different, as I can’t find the whole AJW tape (mostly featuring a Fuji TV Tag Tournament of random partners) on YouTube featuring this match, and what DID make the tape was either cut to shreds or had some bad injuries wreck things. So instead I’ll take the one match I can find, and combine it with some AJW TV shows recorded by Roy Lucier’s YouTube account! Dude actually has a couple of AJW’s shows… OH MY GOD WITH COMMERCIALS!! Japanese commercials from the early 1990s!
The other matches in the show:
Fuji TV Tag Tournament: Etsuko Mita & Takako Inoue vs. Mariko Yoshida & Sakie Hasegawa (7:20 of 14:37 aired).
Fuji TV Tag Tournament: Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda vs. Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe (10:09). I would imagine Toyota’s team won. Shimoda apparently got a bloody nose.
The Kanaami Death Match goes here.
Fuji TV Tag Tournament: Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Marikyo Yoshida & Sakie Hasegawa (2:44). Stopped by a back injury to Sakie.
Akira Hokuto vs. Mariko Yoshida (0:23). Restarted as a singles match, which Hokuto immediately ruins by using a weapon.
Bull Nakano, Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Aja Kong, Miori Kamiya & Kaoru Ito (9:01). Bull pins Ito after Aja accidentally Urakens her. Despite their long-standing fued, the two titans apparently “buddy up”.
