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Joshi Spotlight: AJW Wrestling Queendom 1994

November 4, 2019November 4, 2019 by Jabroniville

AJW WRESTLING QUEENDOM 1994:
(27.03.1994)

-So with the rousing success of the first Wrestling Queendom event in Nov. 1993… comes a SECOND WQ show only five months later! The timing on AJW events is always so weird for that. This time, they’re hailing from the big Yokohama Arena, drawing 16,500 apparently! Generally, the same sort of stuff is going on- AJW is feuding with JWP and LLPW separately, there’s occasionally some FMW stuff, and people are trading titles between promotions. AJW finally won back their WWWA Tag belts from JWP, but lost the Japanese Tag belts in the interim, for example. Akira Hokuto finally traded her win back to Shinobu Kandori to “end” their epic feud, but now she’s… TEAMING UP WITH HER?!? Good lord this show is crazy.

“TL; DR- Why Should I Watch This?”- Two matches hover around the “Perfect Match” level, and that’s not even including the Manami Toyota bout. Lots of great interpromotional hate, big moments, and the Main Event has a ton of character and huge moves. Plus there’s a great Rookie/Ace contest.

Joshi Spotlight: AJW/LLPW Nagoya Super Storm

October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 by Jabroniville

AJW NAGOYA SUPER STORM:
(29.09.1993)

This show is placed just before Wrestlemarinepiad ’93 and the huge St. Battle Final, which “capped off” most of 1993’s Interpromotional Feuds. Instead of being all about the various companies, it’s themed around All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling vs. Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling, with almost every match being along those lines. Though this event’s a bit odd compared to the others, in that it’s not a mega-show featuring Main Eventers fighting each other- it’s instead a show of complete blow-outs! Okay, so that’s not ENTIRELY fair, but for the most part, every single match on here, I could tell you who was gonna win before they rang the bell, just by virtue of star power. Hell, even the Main Event is telegraphing the end, to me. That doesn’t mean the matches will be BAD, of course- plenty of great matches were foregone conclusions, and Japan is good about giving a “good showing” to the losing party. So let’s see what we got!

TL; DR- Why Should I Watch This?: It’s a fascinating look at some less-competitive “Dream Matches” of the interpromotional era, has a great “LCO Template” match, and one of those bouts that let you realize just why everyone was so high on Sakie Hasegawa for so long.

Joshi Spotlight- Grand Prix ’93 (Semi-Finals)

October 4, 2019October 4, 2019 by Jabroniville

ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S GRAND PRIX SEMI-FINALS 1993:
-I actually wrote this like 2-3 months ago, before I even submitted major events, but since it wasn’t as “important” I didn’t post it. However, doing Big Egg Wrestling Universe is taking some time, so I’ll throw this down- it’s got a few matches I’ve reviewed prior, but it’s actually really great matches throughout.

TL;DR- Why Should I Care?: There are four ***1/2+ matches on here, a huge establishing moment for one of LCO, and some of the most interesting “filler” you’ll ever see, featuring Main Eventers going at each other, a great Rookie/Veteran tag team match, and an honest to God SQUASH MATCH, which in all my time watching Joshi, I’ve never truly seen before! This show is really just incredibly fascinating. Also, I threw in a match at the end that’s also ****.

Joshi Spotlight- Joshi in the WWF (1990s Edition!)

October 1, 2019September 30, 2019 by Jabroniville

JOSHI IN THE WWF (1990s Edition):
-Six years after the Jumping Bomb Angels left the WWF, Joshi returned to the company in 1994, when Alundra Blayze was a bit of a lame-duck WWF Women’s Champion- the company had reintroduced the belt in 1993, using the former Madusa Micelli (a star in Japan & America) as the center of the division, which consisted mostly of just her. She won a tournament against a bunch of nobodies, defeated Leilani Kai (who wrestled at the FIRST WrestleMania!) at WrestleMania X in an utter throwaway bout, and was engaged in a feud with the heel Luna Vachon, but they didn’t wrestle much on TV. During a tour of Japan in mid-1994, Alundra called in on her old AJW (All Japan Women’s) partners to provide her some opponents, resulting in Sakie Hasegawa, Kyoko Inoue, and others losing to her on the tour. And one of these opponents (our own Bayless reviewed the bout just a week ago!) would actually join full-time, with BULL NAKANO, right out of AJW, becoming Alundra’s new opponent!

Joshi Spotlight- AJW Wrestlemarinepiad ’95

September 14, 2019September 13, 2019 by Jabroniville

Unfortunately, this one’s kind of all over the place on Hasegawayoshi’s channel. You practically have to search for them match-by-match. Here’s the main event!

WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’95:
(18.11.1995)

-And now we reach the 1995 Wrestlemarinepiad! This one feels quite a bit bigger than the last one (which was mostly Rookie vs. Veteran, with a big tag match on top), but now that we’re out of the Interpromotional Era by a bit, it feels a bit “diminished” compared in importance. This was kind of a shame, and a harsh result of that era spoiling the fans with fantastic “Dream Matches” on every single show. And also, Wrestling Queendom was now the big yearly show instead.

TL; DR- Why Should I Watch This?: Actually, this is more of an “okay” show than a GREAT one, but it’s got one of the best brawls ever between LCO, some “WTF?” one-offs like Hokuto wrestling in a mask, and the Sakie Hasegawa “Blizzard Yuki” push, too.

Joshi Spotlight: The Crush Gals

September 9, 2019September 9, 2019 by Jabroniville

Image result for crush gals

“Japanese crowds are usually respectful and quiet.”
-Chris Jericho (paraphrasing)

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- THE CRUSH GALS:
CHIGUSA NAGAYO:
Stats:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’5″ 192 lbs. (lighter in the ’80s)
Career Length: 1980-today (still active; retiring shortly)
Trained By: Unknown

LIONESS ASUKA:
Stats:
Real Name: Tomoko Kitamura
Billed Height & Weight: 5’7″ 172 lbs. (lighter in the ’80s)
Career Length: 1980-2005
Trained By: Unknown

“She’s [Chigusa] the single most popular and arguably the most historically important female wrestler who ever lived. To this day, in pro wrestling or MMA, not Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Kerry Von Erich, Dusty Rhodes, or Chuck Liddell could match the reaction I saw that woman receive live in her heyday.”- Dave Meltzer, who LOVED to point out how big the reactions the Crush Gals got compared to Hulk Hogan. If you write a Gals article, you have to mention them equaling Hogan in popularity. I think it’s a rule.

What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – September 24, 1995

September 5, 2019September 6, 2019 by LScisco

–Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for today’s broadcast. They focus their attention on the Giant using a monster truck to destroy WCW Champion Hulk Hogan’s Harley Davidson motorcycle.

–Okerlund and Heenan recap the Cobra-Sergeant Craig Pittman feud and how they love sneaking up on each other.

Joshi Spotlight- AJW Wrestlemarinepiad ’93 (Part One)

September 14, 2019August 19, 2019 by Jabroniville

AJW WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’93:
(09.10.1993)

It’s the fifth Wrestlemarinepiad! With the Dream Slam having happened earlier in the year, “Interpromotional Matches” are the new norm! This led to a series of increasing houses for the various joshi companies in a new age, though of course this had that issue you always run into- once you escalate things to that point, what are you going to do once the fans get bored… or worse, if you eventually stop co-promoting stuff and have to go back to regular shows? But tonight, we have a ton of Main Event-quality matches that are also Dream Matches in many regards!

Joshi Spotlight- Wrestlemarinepiad ’92

September 14, 2019August 13, 2019 by Jabroniville

WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’92:
(25.04.1992)

And we’re back to another Wrestlemarinepiad! Unfortunately, nobody can seem to find 1991’s show, but it looks pretty good. Bull Nakano fought Monster Ripper (Rhonda Sing/Bertha Faye) in the main event after teaming up against Aja Kong & Bison Kimura in a Steel Cage match, Kyoko Inoue & Toshiyo Yamada took on Akira Hokuto & Manami Toyota, and more. I’ll see if that ever turns up.

“TL;DR- Why Should I Watch It?”- This show features the Toyota/Inoue match that Dave Meltzer rated “*****+++”, which may in fact be the first time he broke the ***** scale- not a New Japan or NXT bout. And IT’S NOT BULLSHIT! The rest of the worked matches are at least good.

Joshi Spotlight- The History of AJW

August 8, 2019August 6, 2019 by Jabroniville

THE HISTORY OF ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S PRO WRESTLING (AJW):
Existence: 1968-2005

With enough reviews posted, and a better understanding of joshi, I figured I would post a full history of the top company in the genre.

-AJW, called “Zenjo” in Japan (“All+Women”) is pretty much where Joshi begins and ends- it’s responsible for all the peaks and most of the valleys. When Meltzer and his readers go on about ’90s Joshi, they’re almost always talking about something AJW did- most of the biggest stars of all time (The Beauty Pair, Crush Gals, Manami Toyota, Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto) are AJW alumni, and all the biggest cards feature them.

Joshi Spotlight- Wrestlemarinepiad ’90

August 2, 2019August 2, 2019 by Jabroniville

AJW WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’90-

-So with the success of the first Wrestlemarinepiad, comes the second one! It’s called “Wrestlemarinepiad II” in a lot of places online, but it clearly just has “90” written after it in the opening screen… which shows some of the finishes. GOD, JAPAN! This is like how the episode where Frieza dies is called “Frieza Dies in this episode! Goku’s heart is contentment!” or some shit.

What the World Was Watching: WCW Main Event – August 27, 1995

July 28, 2019July 29, 2019 by LScisco

–Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan are in the studio for today’s episode. They hype the Hulkamaniacs-Dungeon of Doom main event scheduled for Fall Brawl and discuss Meng’s acquisition of the golden spike from the Master.

–Okerlund and Heenan discuss the “fatal attraction” element of the Colonel Robert Parker-Sister Sherri relationship.

Joshi Spotlight- Wrestlemarinepiad ’89

July 26, 2019 by Jabroniville

AJW WRESTLEMARINEPIAD ’89:
The Day the Music Died (06.05.1989)

Joshi Spotlight- All Star Dream Slam II (Part 2)

July 8, 2019July 8, 2019 by Jabroniville

And now it’s the final part of the “Dream Slam” reviews, culminating with soem of the best matches fo the shows!

The Previous Parts:
Dream Slam I (Part 1)
Dream Slam I (Part 2)
Dream Slam II (Part 1)

Joshi Spotlight- All Star Dream Slam I (Part 2)

July 3, 2019July 1, 2019 by Jabroniville

And now for the final part of my All Star Dream Slam review! Last time, we’d only had a couple of ****+ matches- here’s where the show gets GOOD.

Here’s Part One: https://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2019/06/28/joshi-spotlight-all-star-dream-slam-i-part-1/

Up next: probably the greatest stretch of great matches any show has ever had. This show (taking place on the 25th anniversary of AJW and intended to be a super-show as a result- thanks Manjimortal!) is one of wrestling’s legends for a reason.

What the World Was Watching: WWF Superstars – September 23, 1995

March 21, 2018March 23, 2018 by LScisco

–Vince McMahon recaps how Henry Godwinn has been on a “slopping spree” in recent weeks and chronicles his battles with the Million Dollar Corporation.

–McMahon, Jerry Lawler, and Jim Ross are in the booth and concluding the tapings in Erie, Pennsylvania.

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night RAW – April 3, 1995

July 11, 2017July 11, 2017 by LScisco

–Vince McMahon discusses the events of WrestleMania XI, aided by pictures of the event. McMahon reveals that Lawrence Taylor defeated Bam Bam Bigelow, WWF Champion Diesel successfully defended his title, and Owen Hart won the tag team titles with his new partner Yokozuna.

–McMahon and Jim Cornette are doing commentary and they are live from Poughkeepsie, New York. Cornette compares the return of Yokozuna to the return of Michael Jordan.

What the World Was Watching: Monday Night RAW – March 13, 1995

May 31, 2017June 9, 2017 by LScisco

–Vince McMahon and Jim Cornette are in the booth and they are live from Stockton, California