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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 26618--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; The end of the Beginning
By: SheriffLonestar Date: May 17, 2014, 1:29 am
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Last week we looked at FMW's women in their fight to prove
themselves just as tough (or as mentally disturbed) as the men.
They were joined in that quest by fellow non complier in common
sense Chigusau Nagayo and this week we look back at another of
her headlining experiences against Manami Toyota.
All Japan Women in 1998 was reaching its 30th Anniversary and as
such put plans in place to celebrate its legacy and the people
that made the company famous. This show is intermingled with
names from the past and highlights those women who changed the
path of female wrestling. Held in Yokohama, always a hotbed for
AJW and women's wrestling generally, it was a great way to
celebrate those folks and put together a wonderful card. Thanks
to the always useful cagematch.com I can now actually figure out
who was wrestling because a lot of them have fallen by the
wayside into family life, and a lot of others are unrecognisable
from this time period. Also this video is Japanese, with
Japanese messages, so thanks Cagematch :).
Chikako Shiratori & Zap Isozaki vs Sachie Nishibori & Yuki Li
A cracker of an opener. Zap Isozaki currently wrestles for Pro
Wrestling Diana as Kaoru Ito, she's the one in the brown. It is
exactly what you expect from a AJW fast paced and hostile. There
was a lot of competition in the AJW junior rankings just because
getting to the main event was so tough in this time period. The
retire at 26 rule had been relaxed and it meant that you had to
be really good to get up there. So a lot of effort and a lot of
speed and toughness.
Miyuki Fujii & Momoe Nakanishi vs Mika Akino & Rie Tamada
We know AKINO now better as the Oz Academy Openweight champion,
or maybe for her time in ARSION, here she is the prototype of
what she became. Hard hitting, technical and tough with no
nonsense MMA shorts and sports bra, she doesn't really look like
the glamour girls of the promotion at the time. She would take a
different path for sure. Everyone else in this match has sadly
retired, I liked this one because its a bit of a slow build barn
burner and well worth a watch.
Eight Man Tag Team Match
Alexander Otsuka, Kanako Motoya, Little Frankie & Yone Genjin
defeat Emi Motokawa, Gran Naniwa, Tomezo Tsunokake & Yuki
Ishikawa (11:49)
Inter division madness as the men of Michinoku Pro (AJW always
featured them on their big shows) team up with a the women and
the midgets (always part of AJW's legacy they held midget
hardcore cards in the 90's as well). This one is notable for
FMWs Emi Sakura, then known as Emi Motokawa, who is still going
strong as a freelancer having just left Ice Ribbon last year.
She was the Ace of Ice Ribbon for so long its easy to forget
what a career she had before she got there, and she is still
only 37.
Nanae Takahashi & Tomoko Kuzumi vs Rieko Amano & Tomoko
Miyaguchi
Speaking of company Aces Nanae Takahashi, no stranger to this
column, the current world Wonder Ring Stardom Ace is heavily
present n this bout. So is Rieko Amano, better known to us now
as Carlos Amano they barefoot firecracker from Oz Academy that
has been on such a comedy run lately. Though she still gets
chance to have matches like this. Stiff as nails grappling
bouts. This was back when they were both early in their careers.
Takahashi building her reputation as a great tag team wrestler.
WWWA World Tag Team Title Match
Sumie Sakai & Yuko Kosugi © vs Kayo Noumi & Miho Wakizawa
The most notable name to come out of this match up would be
Wakizawa, still going strong in World Wonder Ring Stardom as
“Wacky” Wakizawa. Her love of scrubbing brushes as foreign
objects unabated. This is a pretty gruelling match, though they
had a lot to live up to. The WWWA Tag Team Titles, thanks to the
work of Bull Nakano, Kyoko Inoue, Toshi Yamada, Manami Toyota,
Dyanmite Kansai, Megumi Ozaki and The Crush Girls had become
the premier tag title in all of wrestling. Best of three falls
as is traditional for these title belts.
All-Pacific Title Match
Kumiko Maekawa vs Yasha Kurenai(c)
The All-Pacific singles title also had a sterling reputation to
protect, thanks its former champion;s Manami Toyota, Aja Kong
and Akira Hokuto. Defending that honour to a very high standard
is Kurenai and Maekawa. Both now retired.
Tag Team Match
Noriyo Tateno & Takako Inoue vs Harley Saito & Shinobu Kandori
(15:27)
This one pits LLPW wrestlers Saito and Kandori vs AJW legends
Inoue and Tateno. Tateno began her career in 1981 and didn't
retire until 2010, she proves she can still cut it at the
highest level in this match. Inoue is still going strong as a
freelancer between, um, interesting movie roles and modelling.
Saito and Kandori are just two of the toughest wrestlers you
will ever, ever see just absolutely shoot driven tough as nails
wrestling. The pro style of Tateno and Inoue giving a wonderful
contrast.
Tag Team Match
Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya vs Zaps (Zap I & Zap T)
This one is an unholy alliance of forces and is a drama and
blood filled brawl. If you read last week's column you will know
what hark Tsuchiya is all about. Eagle Sawai was LLPW's monster
wrestler who was great in that role made famous by Dump
Matsumoto honoured for her contribution to Joshi on this show.
The younger Zaps make a great showing for themselves but in a
race to be more evil, I'm going with The Shark every time.
Six Man Tag Team Match
Aja Kong, Dynamite Kansai & Yumiko Hotta vs. Devil Masami,
Jaguar Yokota & Lioness Asuka
This one celebrates everything AJW had to offer in its 30 years.
Everyone of these wrestlers was a WWWA World's Champion and AJW
brought them together to put on a one off match. Kong, Hotta and
Kansai representing the 90's, Masami Yokota and Asuka
representing the 80's. Its a thing of beauty as you realise that
all that 80's offence still matches up with the kick orientated
90s, and that in any era all of these wrestlers would have shown
anywhere. Especially Yokota, arguably the finest in ring
technician of all time.
AAAW Singles Title Match
Chigusa Nagayo (c) vs Manami Toyota
How do you top this card off? Well you put together the two
greatest Joshi of all in a title match, noticeably GAEA's top
belt. Nagayo and Toyota have a great match, not as spectacular
as it would have been five years before when Toyota was at the
very top of her game and churning our 5 star matches on a
nightly basis, but still very good for what it is. Nagayo had
reached the point were she was working hard when she wanted to
and is a little sloppy for my tastes, but this is a draw none
the less and it filled the house. The match was a little flat in
crowd reaction too. It also signified the way Joshi as a whole
was going. It seems to finally be digging itself out of the
whole it created over the following sic years as it split into
three companies, then six then the full gamut of offices we have
today. Now they are finally working together they are getting
somewhere and with the return of Nagayo to full time promotion
soon it will be filling arenas once again. This is the last
example of when Joshi was truly a great communal experience for
all of Japanese wrestling fans.
Enjoy the show;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9NWDEbqm1E
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsVVn_S0kU
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