Search the Community

It's been said before, but parts of AJPW felt pretty old hat by 1999. Case in point: matches like this. Misawa no sells a few moves, parts of the Kawada/Misawa sections came dangerously close to current NJPW elbowfests, and the build and sense of escalation seemed to be lacking overall. It picks up here or there, but it speak volumes to me that 2 minutes before the finish in this match Misawa and Kawada were still working fairly standard exchanges that didn't feel like they were preceded by a 20 minute match at all. It was a pretty stiff match, so even if it wasn't exciting, it was atleast painful. Shinzaki didn't really add much besides a few different moves. He threw a few uppercuts, so I guess that makes him the stand-in for Great Kabuki.

Let's just jump right in! LCO vs Hokuto and Ozaki (09/15/99): This is one I hadn't seen recommended. It's a battle of badasses...it's worth a try, right? Oh yes, its so very worth it. Oz & Akira ambush LCO at the entrance way. And it is mayhem from that until the finish. Chairs, blood, guard rails, no actual tagging, 16+ minutes long...if you're a FMW, ECW fan then this exactly what you want. It isn't always pretty. Everyone looks legitimately beat up. It's '99 so if definitely is more reliant on spots than 1994. They don't go for "epic wrestling,"they go for fight. They succeed and we get a near classic in my book. I have seen this get a poor rating from a reliable source but that rating seemed pretty severe so I gave this a shot. Really glad that I did. Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura (09/15/99): Aja Kong was amazing on offense and defense. There were times she reminded me of Stan Hansen - always fighting. Satomura was in the fight of her life. She's much smaller than Kong, less experienced and Aja is angry. Meiko is tough as any of the GAEA wrestlers and has a ton of heart too. So this is a punishing match with Aja beating the crud out of the youngster at seemingly every turn. But you're ecstatic once Satomura gets Kong reeling. The problem here is Satomura really only uses (or tries to use) the same 3-4 moves towards the end of the match. Her lack of variety is excusable because 1) she's young 2) Aja varies her offense/defense enough for both. I felt her mid-match stuff was excellent though. Some think this is a classic but I don't (although I think it's a classic performance by Aja Kong who was giving off best Joshi of all time vibes here). This is a great match though and one you absolutely need to see if you want to watch GAEA. This is another chapter and step forward for Meiko Satomura. Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (09/15/99): There were some really great high spots with tables in the beginning. In fact they did some painful looking stuff on and off the ramp as well. I also liked the grappling here. I liked this match but it had a strange layout. Each of those parts were pretty much separate from each other. There's the high spot middle then the old school grappling and kicking and the final third returns back to the hard-core wrestling stuff. I guess there were no real nuanced transitions. Additionally I felt they went back to the old days of Chigusa getting beaten up most of the match. Or it seemed that way. This isn't a story in 1999 for Chigusa although I think it's the one that they were trying to tell. I liked this though and am a fan of both so this was fun. Their 07/18 was better if only because it was organized better... but it was probably just better overall if I remember correctly. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (09/22/99): jip 9 minutes or so (we've been lucky with a good streak of full matches until now). The was pretty good stuff. Lotsa action, some neat spots..Nice to KAORU and Yamada. As you can tell Sonoko Kato has aligned herself with the heels. Yeah this is fun stuff Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (10/03/99): joined in progress and a little clipping (but maybe a minute is missing overall). This was a small show but a big time effort from Hokuto and Kato. This was pretty good stuff and looks to make Asuka & Kato babyface as Akira, Oz and her underlings the true heels. Chigusa even comes out to try and stop them. Kato bleeds...yeah this is enjoyable stuff. High Spurt 600 Tournament Final: Sonoko Kato vs. Meiko Satomura (10/11/99): Fuuuucckk...that was an awesome match! This is an absolute under the radar classic battle in my opinion. Two rivals meet...Satomura is Chigusa and Kato is Lioness in the story of GAEA. There's more there but that's what you need to now. And this is intense, competitive, dramatic stuff from bell to bell. It's only 11 minutes or so but everything is so fierce and stiff. It's been awhile since I watched Yoshida in Arsion but if you dig that you want to see this. This shorter match definitely benefits the youngsters while on their own. This is a classic. Also, I watched this after Kong vs Meiko and this is a better match to me because of the speed, intensity and story. Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada (10/23/99): 7 minute match but a few minutes of scrapping afterwards. I'm really digging the heel team of Ozaki and Hokuto (and gang) since it's a bit of something different. Fun stuff! Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato (11/13/99): At this point I'm just tacking on matches I want to watch. The tag scene is super strong. This is jip a couple minutes but this is really good. I really dug Chikayo Nagashima with Ozaki. She's tempered by the veterans here. Kato is awesome as ever... I may like her more than Meiko..or at least I dig the Asuka/Kato a bunch. We get some outside interference here but that's Oz's thing and if you understand GAEA is like ECW/FMW type rules then you will have no problem Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto vs. Chigusa Nagayo & KAORU (12/12/99): Fun match...again more shenanigans from the heels. These last three matches I wouldn't say are the "very best of GAEA" but I'm enjoying them. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Chikayo Nagashima (12/12/99): Jip and only 8 minutes long. These matches are all pretty short and I feel like that's where they're going in terms of match length. I think shorter contests are beneficial to the younger girls who don't know how to fill a 20 minute match and for the veterans, its a bit easier on their bodies. Lioness is 40 years old here for instance... and they're not doing head locks & abdominal stretches... getting hit in the head, kicked etc. has got to wear on ya! Anyway, this was a very good all action match. There were some really cool spots with Nagashima . I definitely like her paired up with a vet like Kong or Ozaki. Asuka & Sonoko Kato continue to be a great pairing. So I have finally finished my GAEA goal for 2023 but, 1999 has been so good that I am going to keep going into 2000. 1999 was definitely a really strong year and did not disappoint. Again, at my core I'm a ECW/FMW/BJW/W*ING/Attitude Era etc. fan. That's the stuff that made me love wrestling as a teenager and GAEA in '99 definitely speaks to that. I mean this is contemporaneous with that. It is a product of the time (although in all fairness GAEA was always a brawling heavy company). If you're not looking for that then this might not be for you. If it is then all of these matches are available on YouTube so if you're interested, go check'em out. Mita/Shimoda vs Ozaki/Hokuto and Kong vs Satomura from 09/15 are worth your time as is Sonoko Kato vs Meiko Satomura (10/11). These matches exemplify the brawling & shoot style that is GAEA '99. Thanks for reading folks! Hang in there!

We're FINALLY on to 1999 which has some of the best matches in the company's history according to many fans. I've got access to all of those but there are a couple others that are right out of that top tier that I can't seem to locate. Therefore I'm going to do my best to find some reasonable replacements. It's been so long since I made my watch list that I'm not sure which these are though Also I'm at my busy season with work so I'm going to break it up into two parts. Lioness Asuka & Mayumi Ozaki vs. KAORU & Meiko Satomura (02/11/99): Oh man what a welcome back to GAEA! This was an awesome 15 minute tag match...never a dull moment. It's so badass that Lioness is working here now. Her & Ozaki make a really great heel team. KAORU was impressive offensively and Satomura is as tough as ever. Sonoko Kato even gets in the mix a little bit here. I definitely could rate this higher but I'll be conservative and just say this was a great match! Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki (04/04/99): Classic GAEA tag match right here. So brutal... Aja & Oz weren't pulling their shots. Kato & Meiko were in the fight of their lives. And keeping that glimmer of hope throughout the match was really what made this brilliant. For a time, it looked like Aja could beat both of the GAEA girls on her own. Red & blue were just so damn tough! I got to also say some of the moves/sequences were really interesting/surprising which is always a boon. Don't wanna say more. If you're interested in GAEA or are fans of the parties involved, go watch it! Lioness Asuka vs Chigusa Nagayo (04/04/99): Holy crap this was a crazy hardcore match. It mainly became spots as it went on but it had a really good beginning with stiff kicks and actual wrestling stuff. Asuka is a badass heel at this point in her career uses tables, chairs etc to punish her opponents. Chigusa doesn't need those things but she's not afraid of them either. So we get some blood and some nutso spots... or at least are nutso because they involved those indestructible Japanese tables. A couple of the set ups are a little obvious and that is a complaint but I'm only thinking of two in particular. These are greatly overshadowed by a really enjoyable and punishing fight. Remember the Crush Gals were wrestling classic matches in the mid 80's and 15 or so years later they are having a ECW/FMW style bout...that's like an alternate history British Bulldogs doing this in '99 WCW (That would have been great and in the same way so was this!). Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima (07/18/99): Kong and Oz were extremely giving here. Sato and Nagashima are very good wrestlers but are of the mid card variety in my opinion. They are not polished enough to be in this match as believable threats. They are doing some Rey Misterio Jr. shit but not as flawless as him. That said this is a really good work rate match and some of spots are pretty darn cool (99 is the year for cool spots across Japan and the U.S.). I just don't agree with the finish for a variety of reasons. The first being the aforementioned but also this didn't really tell that good of a story to justify the conclusion. But it is exciting from an athletic standpoint so there's that to like about it... and Ozaki and Kong are solid as ever. So you might really enjoy this one more than me Akira Hokuto & Aja Kong & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Toshiyo Yamada & Meiko Satomura (08/15/99): I'm watching this thinking, "OK this is a pretty good match..not great but pretty good." Then the last few minutes really elevated this to a great match (especially if you watched the 04/04 tag)...yeah the Kong/Satomura feud is palpable. If you're an Aja Kong fan, you've got to watch this! Also if you've mainly seen AJW 90's stuff (and liked it), this is a excellent place to dip your toe in with GAEA. It's essentially a continuation of what they were doing there Glad to be back watching GAEA! A big goal of mine for 2023 was to get back to Joshi. I think I did accomplish that and am glad that I'm ending the year how it began, watching women's pro wrestling. I'll be back next week with part #2 of 1999. Thanks for reading! Also a shout out to anyone else who is working retail, customer service, in a warehouse pulling and packing orders, anyone working at USPS, FedEx, UPS, etc. etc. We're going to get through the bullshit soon enough!

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Talk about it here.

Another forgotten match that is actually some damn good story driven pro wrestling. Well, it may not have enough wrestling for some people's taste, but I give them credit for selling their butts off. The early going was really nice joshi style work: unpredictable exchanges where they didn't do anything stupid, and there was a good amount of struggle. Then, an overconfident Hyuga got caught and crushed by Fukuoka's brutal double stomp finisher. This transitions into second half which is mostly built around Hyuga's pretty epic selling. Fukuoka follows up by working over her stomach area with nasty stiff toe kicks and knees. Pretty brutal and awesome stuff, and we get these almost Hogan/Andre like spots of Hyuga trying to body slam lift Fukuoka into position for her Michinoku Driver II. All the MDII spots where pretty great and the second half of the match felt like classic puro stuff built around simple moves, both wrestlers gutting it out and struggling for control. Really good stuff and another hidden gem.

Talk about it here.