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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 21973--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar’s PPV of the Week; Hard Boiled Egg
By: SheriffLonestar Date: January 4, 2014, 12:55 am
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This week we go back nearly twenty years to the biggest night in
Joshi history. A card so big it could be considered certainly
the longest wrestling show of all time, and definitely the
biggest women’s card of all time. It’s Big Egg Universe All
Japan Women’s massive show with ten hours of presentation, WWE
with 4 hour Wrestlemania’s are just playing at it. The concept
grew out of its apparently endless working opportunities with
its own rosters of four other companies; GAEA , JWP, LLPW, and
FMW. This card featured all four as well as representatives from
Michinoku Pro, WWE (WWF as it was then) and some amateur
sporting organisations in Amateur wrestling, Judo and Kick
Boxing. In fact it was a celebration of all things female, some
male, and fighty. In all there 23 bouts, including a WWF Women’s
title bout and the V*Top 5 tournament, ambitious is not the
word.
The show has an opening ceremony for a start across its million
dollar set. I am not making this up. This attempt to build the
event as a pro wrestling Olympics was smart. It makes the event
look like something even bigger than it actually is. Thanks to
the video tape releases of this show being in one and half hour
slots, the youtube version greatly condenses things, but the
overall effect is impressive. That is one thing that always
impresses me about Joshi even today. It looks like a sporting
event. There is a feeling that those track suits the wrestlers
wear are a little more than being comfortable clothes. Those
track suits are well earned. If you watch the last ever GAEA
show, the girls all throw their track suit tops into the middle
of the ring to signify the end of the promotion and their
suddenly Ronin state, that they no longer had a master. Here the
effect is of each set of athletes being proud of their
organisation and proud to represent on the biggest stage of all.
The wrestling proper starts with some inter promotional efforts
between on JWP and GAEA, what amazes me in these inter
promotional matches is how well the styles mesh. Essentially
though the other promotions where largely staffed by former AJW
wrestlers who all went through the same Dojo. However the styles
of each company would diverge over the years to the point now
where there are very different styles in each promotion.
The first oddity comes along in Great Little Muta and Buta
Genjin vs Tsunokake X in a midgets handicap match. It may seem a
little odd but AJW where merely paying their respects to their
past. AJW started out as a promotion that also featured midgets
back in the late sixties and early seventies. Further research
tells me they actually did a Midget Mania later the next year.
With a Double Hell Death No Rope Exploding Barb Wire main event
at Korakeun Hall. I am not making this up. The next thing you
wouldn’t expect to find on a wrestling card would be a kick
boxing match; well we get quite a nice one between Kumiko
Maekawa and Sugar Miyuki. We also get in this block of none
booked matches are two amateur competitions between Japan and
France. Doris Blinal vs Kyoko Hamaguchi, and Miyu Yamamoto vs
Ana Gomez, the only down side to this being you don’t realise
how much space an amateur wrestling contest needs and it was
little unfair for on them to get to work in an environment that
was half the normal size. Sadly from my copy that I ripped from
these films I do not think the shootboxing match that followed
is on here, nor is the inter-promotional bout between Chigusa
Nagayo and Reggie Bennet. It is a shame as Bennet work so well
a monster and Chigusa was really at the top of her game helping
to develop GAEA into the power house it would become.
Of the opening single matches on the card Candy Okutsu (JWP) vs.
Rie Tamada is a fantastic match to kick things off in the
opening half. But it does have historical interest. You know the
rolling Germans made famous by Kurt Angle? Well he didn’t invent
it, he got it from Chris Benoit, who in turn got it from this
match, the first time rolling Germans where used as a finisher.
The inter promotional match that is on here that really kick
starts the show is the tag match between Shinobu Kandori and
Mikiko Futagami and Toshiyo Yamada and Tomoko Watanabe. Kandoru
and Yamada lead the way in this intense brawl. They were
probably both a bit pissed off at not making it into the V*Top5
Tournament which would feature the 8 best workers in the world,
I would have put both of them on that list at the time, but
because they were not they took it out on each other. Make no
mistake Futagami and Watanabe are along for the ride. The
genuinely dangerous Kandori had had a short but violent feud
with Akira Hokuto the year before at the Dream Slam events that
resulted in Dream Slam I’s perfect singles bout. Yamada was
clearly trying to bring some of that magic back and this kick
and grapple, hard case special is a sight to behold.
The UWA Tag Title match between Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda and
Yasha Kurenai & Michiko Nagashima is also a bit of a corker. The
excellent team work and brawling heel tactics of both teams set
this apart in a more traditional pro wrestling style and
highlight the variety on offer on this card. In somewhat of a
legends match, Lioness Asuka and Yumi Ogura wrestled Jaguar
Yokota and Bison Kimura. Yakota was the head of the AJW Dojo at
the time, and former Crush Girl Asuka who had retired in ‘89
before being reborn as a mega heel in GAEA in the late 90’s.
This seemed little patronising to all concerned, especially when
you get to the finish, of them especially when you consider that
Jaguar is still an active wrestler at the age of 52. Her
trainees include Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, Megumi Kudo,
Kyoko Inoue, and Takako Inoue so it was nice to see her
contribution to Joshi being recognised with a slot on the big
show despite her advancing years by AJW standards that had a
mandatory retirement age of 26. After Blizzard Yuki takes on
Mariko Yoshida we are into the tournament portion of the show.
As always not wanting to spoil it for you I shall list up the
participants and point to the highlight matches. Combat Toyoda,
Yumiko Hotta, Akira Hokuto, Eagle Sawai, Aja Kong, Manami
Toyota, Dynamite Kansai and Kyoko Inoue took part in what must
have been the stiffest showdown in wrestling history. Some of
these matches are career shortening brawls and for those who got
to the final they paid a heavy price. I would point you to the
Manami Toyota Aja Kong battle to start with. Kong was WWWA
champion at the time and top draw, Toyota was next in line. By
putting this match in a non title tournament, AJW where showing
their confidence in both of them to be able to run them again at
a later date without ruining their draw. Hotta and Toyoda tear
the house down in the opening round on quite possibly the
toughest match you will see between two women. Hotta was built
to kick people and Toyoda to take punishment and it lived up to
AJW’s premise; Victory Through Guts.
In an interesting aside and as an added bonus and some blessed
light relief, the boys from Michinoku Pro make their first, but
not last, appearance in the Tokyo Dome. Their six man pitting
Great Sasuke, Sato, and Shiryu against Super Delphin, Gran
Naniwa, and Ginsei Shinzaki was a light Jap Lucha moment that
was a perfect complement to the things that had been going on
all day. The AJW super stiff style needed something to break it
up and the Michinoku guys could deliver what was needed. They
had the added advantage of not being huge and therefore looking
less out of place on the show. Before the Tournament Final we
have the co main event Bull Nakano vs Alundra Blayze for the WWF
women’s title. By that time Nakano was a WWF employee but she
still had plenty of friends in Japan; 42,000 of them where very
vocal. Blayze was no stranger to Japan as under her original
ring name Madusa Micelli she had had an enviable run in the
promotion. One of the few gaijin’s to be able to not just cope
but excel in this environment she slotted in and was right at
home. The longer match time gave them some more canvas to work
with and it was a switch to Nakano as a face while wrestling
Blayze who was the quintessential female hero in the WWF. All
that was left was the final after the end of a very long day.
While I won’t tell you the result, I will tell you that the
match itself is a roller coaster ride of emotions, as stiff as a
brick wall and will leave you exhausted as main event of a show
this big should do.
Enjoy the show;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiyFKwJvsOQ
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