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  1. Early JWP seems to be the biggest mystery of joshi along with LLPW. There's so little discussion about it, even though there is plenty interesting to it: it had future stars like Kandori, Ozaki and Kansai, and veterans such as Devil and Itsuki Yamazaki. Gran Hamada trained the girls, and they used a unique style while still bringing the workrate. I've aquired quite a bit of this old stuff recently, so I think it's time to settle this and discover things such as: - What are the good matches involving pre-interpromotional blowup Kandori, Kansai, Ozaki, etc. that is relevant to their GWE case? (Stuff that was not brought up in the GWE discussion) - How close were those workers in their early state to their later, more famous versions? - Who is the lost great worker among the lesser knowns? (SPOILER: It's motherfucking Harley Saito, god bless her) - Are there any hidden gems/all time great stuff that stands up to the best stuff AJW was putting out? (SPOILER: Yes there was) I'll be posting my reviews in this thread and use it to document my findings. Recommended Matches: (ongoing) Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami (Original JWP, 7/14/88) --- 1988 MOTY Rumi Kazama vs. Plum Mariko (2/12/89) Shinobu Kandori vs. Miss A (7/13/89) Mayumi Ozaki vs. Cutie Suzuki (4/26/1989) --- 1989 MOTY Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko (JWP 5/25/90) Mayumi Ozaki vs. The Scorpion (JWP 6/14/90) Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito (7/19/90) --- 1990 MOTY Rumi Kazama & Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 9/30/90) Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama (JWP 10/10/90) Rumi Kazama vs. Mayumi Ozaki (12/24/90) Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Kazama vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (JWP 1/6/1991) Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Miss A (Dynamite Kansai) (JWP 1/6/91) (UWA Tournament First Round Match) Miss A (Dynamite Kansai) vs. Eagle Sawai (JWP 1/13/91) (UWA Tournament Semifinals) Miss A vs. Harley Saito (UWA Tournament finals) (2/1/91) Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Rumi Kazama & Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 4/23/1991) Devil Masami & Rumi Kazama vs. Miss A & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 4/26/1991) Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Cuty Suzuki (JWP 5/25/1991) Utako Hozumi vs. The Scorpion (6/30/91) The Scorpion vs Cutie Suzuki (JWP 08/30/91) Harley Saito vs. Eagle Sawai (7/14/91) Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito (8/4/1991) Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion vs. Harley Saito & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 8/8/91) Cuty Suzuki vs. The Scorpion (8/11/91) The Scorpion vs Cutie Suzuki (JWP 10/10/91) (Mask vs. Hair) Harley Saito vs. Dynamite Kansai (JWP 11/2/1991) --- 1991 MOTY Harley Saito & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Madusa (JWP 12/7/1991)
  2. I'm back with JWP 1991. Thank you to the folks who have posted these matches online. I've got the dates in an irregular order but you still be able to find these for your own enjoyment. Hopefully you find something you'll want to check out. Let's get going! 01/06/91: Miss A vs. Itsuki Yamazaki A great bout pitting veteran technician vs the young powerhouse. I think they told that story wonderfully. Yamazaki's leg work on A/Dynamite was masterful. A eventually found the opening she needed to mount a meaningful offense. It wasn't as precise and thoughtful as Yamazaki's though. It was good nonetheless and Yamazaki continued to target As knee when she could as well as go for quick pinning maneuvers. The finish wasn't as strong as I would have liked but it's part of a tournament so its OK. It doesn't hurt the match which was pretty great. 01/07/91: Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori Simple but effective match with Eagle's power vs Kandori's technique... until shit breaks down and Kandori is throwing chairs in the ring. Really spirited good stuff 01/08/91: Harley Saito vs. Devil Masami Wonderful little match as Devil mauls Harley for the majority of the match (to the delight of the few Americans in the audience chanting and cheering the whole time). Harley will not quit and as a result you really start to get behind her (every though its fun watching Devil on offense). 01/13/91: Miss A vs. Eagle Sawai Greatest whip into the steel barricades ever. Eagle kinda forgets wrestling physics and full speed runs/whips Miss A into the railing and it flies! It never recovers and each subsequent whip knocks it further apart. This was a great WAR-style battle. I loved it! The 3 count is suspect but that happens in JWP as they kind of just keep going which is reasonable. This was a 2 count but screw it, this wasn't about the finish it was about the violence! 02/11/91 Miss A vs. Harley Saito I should say this is UWA final and the preceding singles matches were tournament matches. This was good. Miss A showed moments of brutality with her strikes. Harley showed moments of technical prowess but there was not enough of either to make this a great final. I would have liked more parity to be frank. It felt like many other JWP matches where sometimes the actual match is negated by a quick count or perhaps a great pinning maneuver at the end. If Harley's character is that a technicians and perhaps an underdog, I understand this match. But I don't know how much of an underdog she is as shown in her great match with Shinobu Kandori in 1990 where she takes the #2 of the company to the limit. But that underdog story is what we got and it's just not that compelling. But what hurt this for me were the "submission" attempts by Miss A. The Scorpion deathlock was good but the sleeper segment and the figure 4 were boring to me. I'm so tired of seeing meaningless figure 4's. I think I liked every match before this. This was good but not great and the final should either be a great work rate match, a great story match or both. I like them as teammates more than opponents. Miss A/Harley vs Rumi/Ozaki 04/23/91 Very good tag match. Oddly A & Harley were sorta the heels here by dominating most of the match. Harley was especially stiff to the point where I really did feel bad for Ozaki & Rumi. This really picked up in the final third as they were doing all kinds of neat suplexes, double teams and saves. I don't recall anyone touting this but so glad I checked it out. 04/26: Eagle Sawai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito What an awesome intense battle! Everyone was in top form and there was so much hate from bell to bell. If the UWA finals helped push Harley and Miss A then this bout helped Ozaki. Near classic Joshi tag match, rough around the edges in the best ways and highly recommended for sure. Devil/Rumi vs Miss A/Yamazaki 04/26/91 Oh man tough act to follow but this was also pretty damn great! It had an awesome start but dip in the middle with some legwork but then picked back up for a great final segment. I shouldn't poo-poo the legwork part as it was acceptable and a means to control Devil and they never just laid there. Rumi did a very good job breaking stuff up as best she could. Yamazaki was excellent as usual and hope I get to see more of her in part #2. Yeah go see this one as well. Both 04/26 tags are worth your time if you're into old school Joshi. Lots of really enjoyable stuff here! Eagle Sawai was kind of the standout since all 3 of her matches were off the hook That's not to say anyone was a disappointment.. her performance here was a pleasant surprise. If you are low on time then, I suggest sticking to the tag matches. Those might pique your interest to make time for the others. I'll be back with Part #2.
  3. I decided to take a little break from JWP. No way I was going to meet my self imposed deadline. Instead I thought I would switch stuff up and watch the best of Megumi Kudo. As an FMW and joshi fan, it's a bit crazy that I've only seen like 2 Kudo matches and some clips. I skipped the one's I've seen 04/02/93 AJW and 05/05/96 Combat Toyoda retirement match. Oh I have seen the first inter-promotional match with Toyoda vs Bull & Bonito in 1992. That's covered in my 1992 FMW post from a couple years ago. I watched her other most highly recommended stuff as well as some other matches that may have been overlooked. If you're unfamiliar with her, she's Jaguar Yokota trained and AJW dojo grad. She wrestled there for a couple years until they gave her the boot as they just didn't think she'd be popular or have anything for her. Along comes Onita and FMW a couple years later. Same for her friend Combat Toyoda. Kudo's style reminds me of a baby face Mayumi Ozaki. Her move set also seems influenced by Misawa but those things are observations on my part. Megumi Kudo vs Combat Toyoda - Street Fight (08/04/1990): 7 minutes of beating the crap outta each other followed by like 3 minutes of wrestling. I'm all for that! This is very good stuff. In contrast to what JWP was doing in 1990, this was pretty crazy shit. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (05/05/93): Fierce fight in Kawasaki Stadium! The rematch from their 04/02/93 fight. All kinds of great action with Combat being spoiler since she's so much bigger than the AJW team. They did a great job containing Toyoda and beating the crap out of Kudo. If it was anyone else I'd be concerned but I knew she could withstand the pain until she could get Combat in there. Great match with a great final third for sure. The outdoor atmosphere was awesome too! Aja Kong vs Megumi Kudo (AJW 12/06/93): Great title fight! The opening mat wrestling was pretty awesome. After that Aja dominated Kudo until she finds an opening mercilessly attacks the champ's arm. It's a smart way for the smaller wrestler to get an advantage. Aja sells it all beautifully throughout. It's a slower paced match even towards the end as they are milking the drama of the FMW joshi not just surviving but defeating the baddass AJW WWWA champ. Again this was a great match and in my mind shows Kudo's skill as a singles wrestler beyond just death matches. I wish I knew why they showed Jaguar Yokota... Aja references her post match I assume... perhaps it is in reference to her training the both of them. Jaguar seems to get a little emotional. Later Kudo cries which I think is her thing like Onita. She seems pretty sincere here. Megumi Kudo & Aja Kong vs. Combat Toyoda & Bison Kimura (FMW 12/21/95): Great tag battle between class of 1986 AJW. This might be as good as the Toyota/Yamada match above as these teams are similar in size & styles and of course the familiarity and backstory are greater. The 05/05/93 match was probably a smoother fight but this felt grittier and more FMW. Bison was great and I've missed her..just blazing choppin' the fuck outta people. I would've like to have seen an Aja/Kudo tag run in either FMW or AJW. They are great together! Gladly could have gone a couple more minutes. I liked it a bunch. Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW 12/22/95 -First Ever Women's No Rope Barbed Wire Death Match): This was first No Rope Barb Wire joshi match but on 09/05/95 there's a handicap joshi tag match where they wrap wire around the ropes and boards on the floors. I could only find shaky zoomed in hand cam stuff otherwise I would have watched it. Kudo refers to Sapporo in her pre and post match interview (thankfully subtitled) so I was to find that out if you're interested. This match started out a little slow with Shark dominating Kudo but eventually things pick up when she makes her comeback They did a couple really great spots with the wire. Shark's seconds interfered during the match which annoyed me at first but once Kudome's friends helped her, it evened out. Excellent spot with the sickle, super dangerous. Of course it was best when Kudo was in control. Very good match. I'm guessing this was super gnarly at the time. It would have flipped my lid had I seen it back then -Cobra clutch with a barb wire kendo stick still is pretty awesome. Brutal finish too. Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori (FMW 12/11/96) : About 15 minutes of all action...you know they could have gone longer. Kudo was the standout for sure. Kandori's performance was good and it got the job done. The story is about Kudo overcoming the badass that is Shinobu Kandori. She was indeed a badass who turned quite a few of Kudo's routine holds/moves into pretty intense submission holds. There were some really great moments too. I dunno, I thought this was a great match. Maybe I appreciate Kandori more after watching JWP 1990 stuff. Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (Street Fight - LLPW 01/05/97): Almost missed this one but caught it thanks to BAHU's Megumi Kudo bio. This takes place in LLPW. A great match. Very much an FMW type match with good wrestling and spots with tables & chairs and even a chain. The finish was pretty awesome and involved that chain. My only gripe is that it was very much a tale of two matches. Kandori controlled one half and Kudo controlled the other. I think the Kandori half on a whole was not as exciting from an action standpoint. It made sense though so I can't fault it too much. I think this had potential to be a near classic and that's what I am commenting on. It was 20 minutes and maybe this would have been a classic if it were closer to 15? It was really chaotic and I think that helped keep my interest when things slowed down towards the end. Megumi Kudo vs. Bison Kimura (Jd' 01/16/97): Yup next day. No gimmicks just Bison vs Kudo. And this was a great match! I think what makes this a better match fundamentally than the street fight above is that it felt more natural. There's transitions from offense to defense. There are little windows where one might get an advantage that get closed as soon as they're opened. We get brawling on the floor, we get some chair and table stuff but more importantly, we get a match that has a good layout and pace. Awesome finish too. It's a simpler, shorter match and doesn't have the memorable spots like the street fight but is just as great. Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (No rope Barbed Wire - FMW 03/14/97) : This was super exciting at the beginning with both wrestlers trying to avoid the wire. After Kudo went into it though it was dreadfully dull. This again was kind of like each person controlling 1 half of the match. Things did pick up when Kudo did a dive over the wire to the outside. This set up the list part of the match. This part was pretty good actually but that should be a given, right? It didn't help matters that the crowd was very quiet. I think Kandori's control section was about her trying to get heat by stomping, cutting Kudo but it didn't work really. It just didn't have a lot of energy, spots or anything to spice it up. I think Kandori felt the novelty of her being in a barb wire match would be enough? Don't get me wrong, Kandori gets the wire pretty good a few times and this is the way to end the feud but I thought this was the weakest of the three matches. This needed more wrestling in the middle. Folks doing the 1997 yearbook liked this more than me so, check it out nonetheless. Megumi Kudo & Bison Kimura vs. Lioness Asuka & Shark Tsuchiya (Bunkhouse Death Match - FMW 03/28/97) - This OK but Bison is chained up for a good portion and Lioness and Shark beat up Kudo. Kudo makes some comebacks and eh its not worth your time considering the line-up. Megumi Kudo vs Mayumi Ozaki (Double Hell Barbed Wire - FMW 04/18/97): Argh! If only there was a full version of this out there! Little clips don't matter too much but there's a big clip where suddenly Ozaki is not only in control but she's power bombing Kudo. Yet a few seconds earlier on the tape, Kudo is rolling Oz back in the ring after doing a diving splash onto the barb wire boards on the floor. Anyhow the 3/4ths of the match that's shown is awesome! They are just flying into the wire trying to dish out as much punishment as possible. And they are actually wrestling and bumping the whole time as well. Their styles are pretty similar where both are athletic, tough and not afraid to take bumps. It actually feels like competition. They are not going for drama as much as danger. Who knows what was actually omitted but some key transitions must be on the cutting room floor. What's shown is great though. This would probably be a classic if shown in full. That said, you should check it out! Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW 04/29/97): This was a very good and sometimes great exploding/electric barb wire death match. I think it was a fitting retirement match for Kudo. This features one of the best uses of the sickle by Shark who actually attempts to slash/stab Kudo while she's down on the mat. Shark is pretty limited in her offense but what she did got the job done as Kudo provided most of the good stuff but also took some nasty bumps. She's seriously tough. The finish is kinda cheesy as they did similar stuff during the Attitude Era, later WCW but, hey they didn't get blown up during their matches! It works here so I'm not complaining it's a nice end to this post and her active wrestling career. This was a pretty cool project. It's something that I didn't plan on. It just sort of came together on its own. I'm definitely a fan of hers now. I think if she were to have gone to JWP, she would have eventually had a good clutch of classic matches with Dynamite Kansai, Ozaki, as well as had those inter-promotional matches too. I just don't think the caliber of opponents in FMW was up to her standard other than Toyoda. All that said, in FMW she is the queen of the joshi and a star right up there with Onita and Hayabusa. So one cannot fault her one bit. I was going through an old post and I think there was a rumor that some women from AJW wanted to go to FMW back in the early 90's. I feel like they were appeased by the inter-promotional stuff throughout the early & mid 90's. Thankfully! For Kudo's & our sake we got a bunch of great memorable battles. I'm going to take a little break from Joshi in February and focus on watching FMW. This Megumi Kudo post acts as a segue into that. But I'm definitely not forgetting JWP 1991 or the couple other projects I have planned. Thanks for reading!
  4. This is a project I wanted to do for a good while now. When I decided to watch all Joshi this month, this it the one I've been itching to start all month. Jetlag has done an awesome overview and Quebrada.net's reviews are really great as well. I've used those as my guide. As Jetlag has said, so little is talked about this era. I hope to add a little bit to the conversation. For reference here's Jetlag's Microscope topic: https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/topic/39849-early-jwp-pre-splitinterpromotional-era/#comment-5816331 I have the dates first because that's how I organized the matches originally. This started out pretty small but mushroomed because I enjoyed the neck out of this stuff. Some stuff I watched in chronological order but there are some I skipped ahead to or snuck onto my watch list towards the end. So sorry for any confusion you might come across! 04/22/90: Plum Mariko vs The Scorpion Not sure what to make of Scorpion beforehand but I like her and the masked gimmick. She displayed a lot of spectacular lucha type moves. Plum was just sort of there to make those moves look smooth. But hey, she did an awesome job in doing that. This was a fun match. A very nice start! 05/25/90: Cuty Suzuki & Oscar Tomo vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Yukari Osawa Really glad that I checked this one out. It was a good tag match. Ozaki and Osawa are heels with Cuty and Oscar as baby faces. What's great is that the heels don't really get into brawling and using weapons as you'd see in AJW around this time. They take shortcuts in the ring but when the action picks up down the stretch they have the wrestling skills to rely upon. Ozaki is already on her way to being awesome. She has a ton of personality and her moves are immediately identifiable as her own. 05/25/90: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko I really dig Yamazaki from the Jumping Bomb Angels so its cool to see that she went to JWP. Really good match that's veteran vs up and comer. Everything looks really good and builds very nicely. They wanted to put on a really well wrestled match that makes sense and gets the fans pumped to see Plum get an upset victory. Much more competitive than the above match. 06/14/90:Eagle Sawai vs. Maiko Tsurugi Only have seen Eagle a couple times and Maiko is new to me. Anyhow, the moves and action is a little simpler than the match above but the story is much stronger. Maiko is getting the advantage on Eagle. But Maiko gets hurt due to outside interference. Eagle then goes to work on that injury. Can Maiko survive? Very good stuff. 06/14/90: Plum Mariko & Cuty Suzuki vs. Miki Handa & Utako Hozumi A good fast paced match that got more interesting with a restart and a hot finish. Plum and Cuty are a pretty fun team to watch. I wouldn't mind seeing more Handa & Hozumi as they develop. 06/14/90: Mayumi Ozaki vs. The Scorpion Another very good match! Closing in on a great one actually. I think in part it just had those big moves towards the end or something. I mean Scorpion does a moonsault and Ozaki does a springboard cross body block for instance. That said there is a good portion of quality matwork as well. Scorpion seemed at Ozaki's level. 07/19/90: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito This is stylistically UWF meets 80's Inoki Strong Style. Nothing has been like this at all so far in JWP. Later 80's Crush Gals would do the shoot kicks but nowhere as stiff as this and not this type of grappling. It is tremendously intense and nasty at times. I think if the filming was more than fixed camera, this would be even nastier. Harley is just soccer kicking Kandori in the head for instance. It very rarely feels cooperative. One thing I've noticed is the frequent use of pinning moves in JWP at this time. That is the case here as well and I appreciate it as its going for the win by any means. I also appreciate the refs who actually count the shoulders on the mat. That plays a part here. I don't know if I could call it a classic match but it's certainly memorable, influential and highly recommended stuff. A great match without a doubt. Post match stuff is sick too! 08/12/90: Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Yasuda & Yukari Osawa vs. Cuty Suzuki & Plum Mariko & Miki Handa Haven't heard great stuff about this but I wanted to see a 6 woman tag in JWP. One of the others I was looking for cannot be found. Plus I know all of the wrestlers at this point and it has potential. And yeah this lived up to the potential. Fast paced stuff with Plum & Ozaki being the most impressive. Plum gives Ozaki a dangerous looking backdrop also. Really fun stuff, good match. I really like the pacing and competitive nature of these JWP matches. 08/12/90: Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Miss A & Harley Saito Pretty darn good match. Devil and Itsuki did all kinds of cool stuff here. This is a longer match but I think they filled the time very well. Miss A and Harley weren't necessarily putting the other team in constant danger however Devil and Itsuki couldn't put them away either. That would give the younger wrestlers and opportunity to find an opening with their kicks. I think a faster paced match would have been more exciting but they wanted to go longer. They even snipped a few minutes from the footage. I'm not sure it needed that because it didn't drag at all. The veteran team knew how to control the excitement even when the pace slowed down. 09/30/90: Rumi Kazama & Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki Oh this was a great tag match! Shinobu & Rumi are not necessarily heels in deed but the fans are against them. Devil & Itsuki might be heels but the fans like them especially against Rumi and Shinobu. Or that's my point of view. Nonetheless, this is a match that pits the shooter style against the entertainment style of Joshi more than above. And Devil and Itsuki are old guard entertainment style and I imagine the tension is real in ring. It's great because everyone is professional about it and it makes for a really exciting & intense back and forth match. Seeing Devil toss around Rumi is pretty enjoyable. Some might find the finish corny but it works! 10/10/90: Plum Mariko & Cuty Suzuki vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Yasuda A clear face vs heel match which is a lot of fun. Hair pulling, biting, running the face along the ropes etc. Everything was well executed and honestly Cuty Suzuki actually wrestled well here. I'm not a big fan as we go further into the decade but perhaps the simplicity of the matches is in her favor? I wouldn't say this is a need to see bout but its fun. Also online this is listed as from 12/12/90 but double checking Quebrada as well as the finish of the Miss A/Saito vs Kandori/Kazama match, this is 10/10. Same with the below. 12/12 must just be either the tape or TV episode date. I've listed it accordingly. 10/10/90: Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Eagle Sawai & Moon Ayako So yeah, Devil and Itsuki are the best tag team in the promotion. I shouldn't be surprised but this was almost a squash in that no way were Eagle and Moon going to win but this was really fun stuff. That enjoyment was pretty much all from Devil and Itsuki. They just have so much charisma and great ideas on how to work little matches. 5 minutes was cut from the footage but no matter. It was a blast! 10/10/90: Miss A & Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama I watched this the following day after the great 07/19 match. I look to this as the follow-up to that battle. I definitely think is the case or the way to watch it. This was great and perhaps a near classic with the story of that singles match (and aftermath) giving this some depth. This is more like a traditional tag match despite both teams being shoot wrestling but the intensity and stiffness is still there. Miss A/Dynamite is really laying in her kicks. Like Shinya Hashimoto, they thud. I just thought everyone was great here. There were a few callbacks to the 07/19 bout that really made this something special. I'm a tag wrestling fan and I think I liked this better but certainly the singles match needs to be seen to fully appreciate this. 11/11/90: Miss A vs. Devil Masami Whoa! This was a great match! Stiff intense battle from two of the larger wrestlers. There were less pin attempts and more power moves as a result. Therefore it felt like a big-time match with the established star Devil fighting the up and coming Miss A. Miss A/Dynamite Kansai already looks like a star in '90. There's no underdog story here. Its Miss A challenging Devil head on. The middle portion might put some folks off as they settle into some mat work but its purposeful and aggressive enough to keep things going. Again this is more like a heavyweight men's match than a hyper Joshi fight with reversals, roll ups etc. And this is only 15 minutes long, so even if you're not feeling it, the mat work transitions to the exciting conclusion rather quickly. That said, this section didn't bother me in the slightest. I'm just responding to criticism that I have read. I thought it was a good way to bring the match pace & energy down a little bit in order to have the end ramp up into something truly exciting. Works for me! Its on the JWP Best Match - Single matches compilation for a reason. 12/7/90: Plum Mariko & Cuty Suzuki vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Kazama Had trouble finding this but its on the JWP Best Of Tag Matches 1990 tape and you should be able to watch it searching for that tape title. Anyhow, this was a great match on its way to being a near classic. They never got into top gear but everything looked great. Constant action, always going for an reversal or an escape of some sort. I don't get hung up on joshi mat work as any more than a way to slow things down while putting a hurt on your opponent. Same thing goes here. Plum's different leg lock moves were awesome so I'm not going to complain that they didn't end the match. For a 13 minute match this was a blast! 12/24/90: Rumi Kazama vs. Mayumi Ozaki Great match that I haven't seen any praise for. Ozaki is already a bad ass and Rumi is definitely more than just Kandori's lackey. I just thought that JWP is like an alternative to AJW. It doesn't seem as polished as AJW but makes up for it in grit and hate. That's what makes JWP great in 1990 really. It all feels like a honest athletic competition. This match is a great example of that but also goes into high gear with great action and moves in the end. Really glad I went out of my way to watch this. Overall, this has been a fantastic project. Part of that feeling is not having super high expectations. In actually only the Kandori vs Harley match had a real must-see vibe. I think it lived up to that as it is so intense and unique. But I really took a liking to JWP's stuff in 1990. I'm always skimming the cream off the top because I have a bunch of other stuff to watch but this stuff made want to search out stuff not talked about or, if talked about, it wasn't recommended. Even those matches I enjoyed to different degrees. I think in some part this just seemed very Indie Japanese wrestling. Everyone was busting their asses to put on entertaining matches. What many lacked in technique, experience or pizzazz, they made up for in heart & fight. As I said in a few reviews, matches felt like competition with wrestlers always trying for a quick pin or for a chance to get another stomp in. It reminded me of my fondness for W*ING, IWA Japan, WAR, Michinoku Pro and FMW from the 90's. I definitely put JWP 1990 in that category of excellence now. I'm going to go onto 1991 next! Thanks to Jetlag for paving the way and thank you to the folks who have posted these matches online. As always- Thanks for reading!
  5. Basically a tale of two matches. When Yamada and Kandori are in the ring, it's gold--tremendous heat, and the action lives up to one's expectations of these two badasses going at it. The partners add very little other than making saves and taking up space, and things die off when they're legal. It's more like a singles match with two assist characters than a straight tag. Yamada throws kicks and Kandori twists her limbs in various directions, before Shinobu catches Yamada coming off the top in a Fujiwara armbar for a tapout. Somehow in the middle of a 10-hour show this match still felt rushed, but the action was good while it lasted and has you wanting to see these two women go at it again.
  6. The original JWP is painfully underexplored. This is probably it's most prolific match, and it's more interesting than a great match. You may theorize that this is Kandori, the dangerous shooter putting the pro wrestler under fire and setting the blueprints for Kandori/Hokuto... which is a good formula, but in reality it was Devil dragging a green Kandori by the nose through a long match. Kandori looks good on the mat, and not very good doing anything else. Devil is as mean as you can want a hardened veteran to be carrying this and brings the goods, downing Kandori with a huge punch, almost ripping her in half with a surfboard, dishing out clubbing blows to make up for Kandori's weak kicks and so on. The biggest problem with the match is that it's needlessly long, as the iconic moment - where they both start bleeding all over the ring - only comes about 30 minutes into the match, and before that, there's a lot of meandering. It felt a bit like Devil redoing the Chigusa match against a far lesser Chigusa with nice submissions. The actual bloodbath was kind of underwhelming too, honestly. There's always charm to watching a rookie and a veteran going along for a lengthy match and this had enough good moments and nearfalls to keep you satisfied, but I gotta say this wasn't as good as I've seen it hyped up. Also, I'll never understand what was up with that restart/overtime they did.
  7. Kandori's entire persona is that of someone in a huge hurry who's stuck in a line at Subway behind a person taking 5 minutes to decide what type of cheese they want--just a perpetual grump. It makes for a great contrast with the eternally bubbly Kyoko. This is a marvelously well-built match, with Inoue really working outside of her comfort zone. There are some fantastic reversals and counters, like a more intense version of the Kawada/Taue CC match. After a few heart-rendering near-falls, we got a finish that I actually really liked, and was built to just as well as the rest of the match. Some of the most dramatic rope escapes you'll ever see, which sets up the winning submission pretty spectacularly. Kandori may have been involved in the two best joshi singles matches of the year.
  8. Yes, it‘s Kandori taking on 5 girls in a row. It may sound preposterous on paper, but it ends up totally working in practise. You can talk about how this may have buried half the LLPW roster, but realistically only Saito and Handa have a chance of lasting longer than 5 minutes against Kandori here, and both are smartly placed at the beginning and end of the match. This first match up is Kandori vs. Saito. I was worried about this, thinking Kandori might squish Saito, but they had a fierce competitive match. Both went for the kill right out of the gate and it was intense stuff. Saito belted Kandori with her signature hard kicks and Kandori fired back with her stiff offense and flash submissions. It was reminiscent of their classic 1990 encounter, not quite on that level, but it was damn good shit. Saito ends up pushing Kandori to the limit and Kandori wins on a fluke. Pretty interesting way to start the match. Instead of a power start Kandori just went through a fierce 18 minute match against Saito and she looks pretty beaten up already. Nagashima comes in next. She‘s a rookie at this point so she does rookie stuff. She flies right at Kandori with a big dropkick and gets in some hip attacks, but Kandori snatches a half crab and almost rips her in half for the tap after about 1 minute. So now everyone remembers Kandoris submissions are really dangerous, and in retrospect Saito looks tougher for surviving them. GAMI comes in next. It looks like Kandori wants to be nice to her and challenges her to a grappling match. They do about a minute of cool grappling before GAMI decides to stomp on Kandoris face and hit a pretty nasty knee slide. Big mistake as Kandori flips out and beats the shit out of her. GAMI lasts a bit longer and can get in some offense on Kandori – making you respect her – but falls to a nasty powerbomb pretty fast. Leo Kitamura is #4. And Kandori is looking pretty spent now. I don‘t think Kitamura has ever looked threatening in a match, but damn she looks threatening now. She has the night of her life taking it to Kandori, trying to roll her up and hitting nasty looking elbows. Kandori catches her in a sleeper and she‘s fighting for dear life, and – the bell rings? Oh, this match had a 30 minute time limit? Kandori says she‘s done here, call it draw, but Leo is pissed off. Kandori seems to leave, but Kitamura gets on the mic and says something that causes her to come back. The match is restarted and Kitamura is going even harder at Kandori now, but Kandori keeps surviving until she‘s able to lock in a nasty chickenwing that fucks up Kitamuras shoulder. You did your best, Leo Kitamura, but Kandori was in beast mode that night. The last one in the match is Miki Handa, and she goes for the kill out the gate dropping Kandori fat missile dropkicks and germans. Kandori looks done, but Handa misses an elbow. Now Kandori is all hitting crazy Fujiwara armbars from angles and just working like a wounded beast trying to tear someones shoulder out. Handa isn‘t much special but she can drop bombs and sell desperation. 44 minutes in and Handa ends up losing on a technicality and Kandori just walks away not giving a fuck while Handa looks on the verge of tears. Post match Hokuto and her crew come in to wreak havoc, and we get a face off between her and Saito. This match was pretty unique and honestly great, if you can stomach watching something different. But Kandori looked like an absolute monster here destroying people left and right hich is what you want to see, and while she looked beastly she had to work hard for her wins, so you end up respecting everyone coming out of this.
  9. This is an amazing match; not just by far the best JWP match I've seen probably ever, but in the top 5-10 of the finest women's single matches I can remember. What made this outstanding was that what they did was stylistically state of the art, mixing 80s NJPW-like shootstyle/wrestling hybrid with something resembling a classic title match, and emotionally captivating: right from the get go there is a ton of disdain, uncooperativeness, and another fantastic underdog performance from Harley. So this is like a joshi version of Fujinami/Maeda, without the blood and more outright hatred. Kandori is naturally really good at grabbing flash submissions and they use their holds really well, while Harley was bringing the violence with her kicks – there are a few moments where she is contorting her body to get out of Kandori's holds and then proceeds to kick Kandori in the face and ear repeatedly. It was awe inspiring. Kandori gives her back some raining angry shots down on her smaller opponent too, and with some of the uncooperative moves, stiff shots and flash subs here I was thinking I was watching some sort of Tenryu/Hashimoto/Fujiwara showdown. Another cool thing is how they interweave their shootstyle stuff with more traditional wrestling, they were working shoot kicks and flash armbars one minute, and then neck bridges and small packages. The rollups make really good nearfalls because JWP was booking a lot of rollup finishes, and thanks to that they can build to big section of 2,99999s for the ending run that doesn't have that big move spam. Some incredibly well timed spots, and there is one false finish that is executed in a way I can't recall seeing in many other wrestling matches, which sets up another angry Kandori comeback to the keep the crowd behind Harley. I mean, watching what they did here felt like the stuff that is missing from so many wrestling matches, they had the folks at Korakuen hall flipping out for a small package or fall-on-top counter. Really great match that delivered beyond expectations, considering this is Kandori years before coming into Superstardom and Saito who was almost completely under the radar (RIP, you magnificient gem). Mindblowing that you can still find shit as good as this in 2017 that has apparently never been talked about.
  10. I had no idea what to expect going into this, since it's Kandori close to her last hurray, this being the finals of a 1 night tournament, and I've never heard of anyone mentioning any great Kandori performances in the 2000s. This ended up being just awesome though and exactly what it should be. It's basically Satomura brutalizing Kandori from the get go with the kind of nothing-held-back kicks you wouldn't expect a 43 year old lady to take. Kandori was damn great here as the aging legend trying to pull out one last trick. She came in with a bandage over her forehead with a cut and bruises underneath and takes some absolutely disgusting kicks to the skull. The spot where she goes for a headbutt only to end up hurting herself was a pretty great "aging warrior is surprised at her lost toughness" moment. This was obviously striker vs. grappler, which can be predictable, but that wasn't the case here as they timed and milked all the submission spots really well. Satomura is basically all kicks here, just trying to put Kandori down for good, basically coming forward constantly until she got trapped, she also he some great selling of her damaged equilibrium after eating some nasty lariats and palm strikes. I'm honestly amazed I haven't ever heard this brought up before (it didn't even come up in Ditchs Best of Japan poll IIRC), I thought this was really both these legendary asskickers working a great 11 minute sprint up there with the best of them in wrestling history.
  11. Another quality Kandori/Hotta tag from the depths of japanese YouTube. The pretty girls Handa and Inoue do a lot better in this match than you'd expect. Early on there's a weird long outside brawl which is largely missed by the cameras, but Inoue comes up bloody, which gives Kandori ample opportunity to kick and punch her in the bloody face while mugging and posing for Hotta. Hotta is a great hot tag as you'd expect as she just destroys Handa with brutal kicks. We also get some pretty great retaliation from Inoue on Honda, which was mostly her smashing Handas head into the ring apron and tables which was so much better than the usual move fest. Inoue also hit a pretty boss apron fist drop which was unexpected. The Inoue/Handa sections continue to be way better than you'd expect as they make some kneebars actually compelling. Things get a little over elaborate for this kind of match, but they get it back on track with some great Kandori/Hotta streetfighting exchanges. The bomb throwing finale was really well executed aswell with Handa catching Hotta in some nice rollups, Kandori helping her along before Hotta just destroys her with big darn moves. Could've used a little fat trimmed but on it's own this was pretty great, gritty pro wrestling.
  12. Much more compact, better version of the previously reviewed match. Kandori was so fun as a dominant force here, and you got the sense Ozaki & Kazama were pushing hard to contain her. The Kazama/Kandori interactions were foreshadowing the future Kandori/Hotta matches. Kazama is no Yumiko Hotta, Daisuke Ikeda, Koki Kitahara level ass stomper, but when it was time to be a woman she stepped up and kicked Kandori in the face. Kandori was using a half crab as a finisher at this point, which sounds lame but the way she cranks in that half crab you buy it forcing a tap. Ozaki looked good doing some slick wrestling and while Saito was subdued but she is more than solid in her „run in and kick the hell out of whoever is in the ring“ role. Some nifty spots and a funny finish. 
  13. Well you look at this matchup and you go „These are 4 ladies who are not afraid to hit hard and get hit hard in the ring.“ And you are correct. This had plenty of asskicking, but I would've liked them to fire it up a little more and bring that trademark intensity Kandori is famous for. Maybe it was cause they were working a title match so they wanted to keep things cool. Anyways this had enough good stuff to keep you entertained and they delivered another strong finish. They worked the match in such a way that you couldn't tell when and what the finish was gonna be and it paid off with that ending. Not as epic as it could have been, but then the baseline for JWP matches is fairly high and this would be a standout match on any other promotions card.
  14. Very good tag which was mostly built around the veteran team of Devil & Yamazaki rudo'ing it up and cutting off their younger opponents who were firing back with plenty of spunk. This was probably the best Devil has looked as she was quite the thrashing machine here throwing stiff headbutts and punches and dropping the girls with massive Gorilla slams and powerbombs. She did some cool „monster“ selling aswell and reminded me a bit of Andre. Yamazaki wasn't in the match much but she did work a few cool exchanges and she once again acting like an even girlier Takeshi Ono, running in to kick people in the head and stomp on their hands to break up submissions. Kazama was laying into folks with brutal kicks again and there were plenty of violent exchanges in the process. Kandori was probably the most subdued but it was established that she could end the match at any time so that resulted in a few neat moments. Really effective match with some strong double team work from Devil & Yamazaki and a clever finish.
  15. The first half or so of this was just amazing and easily the best JWP tag I've ever watched. They basically did away with all the cute stuff and just went for the kickpadded joshi version of a Choshu/WAR tag. The Kansai vs. Saito/Kandori interactions were just magic. Stiff blows, lack of cooperation, flash submissions, general frantic pace... this may be my favourite style of wrestling. Kandori had superstar written all over her here as she had amazing presence, disdainfuly kicking Scorpion in the face and standing toe to toe with Kansai. The second half drifted more into a different territory, whichwas still solid, but I was hoping for the sparks to fly a little more of that opening. It was basically a WAR tag that turned into an AJPW tag, and I like the WAR style better. Still, they pulled through with a good story as Saito and Kandori worked a good underdog+major badass team. Saito and Kansai kept brawling after the finish, keeping me excited for their further interactions throughout the year. Ah screw it, this is still the best JWP tag by a landslide so far.
  16. Two highly skilled judokas work a Battlarts match and it rules. I’m not usually a fan of 90s joshi pacing, but a five minute sprint is much more digestible than a half an hour one, especially when it serves as a showcase of legit techniques and not missile dropkicks and half nelson chickenwing suplexes. Kazunina makes me a fan by doing a beautiful O-goshi five seconds into a match, and not that I wouldn’t have liked this if this were just a million hip throws-but they really do a fantastic job of structuring things in such a way that always keeps you guessing by also utilizing hand techniques, sacrifice throws, Kosen/BJJ-like sweeps, creating neat grappling sequences around fighting for chokes and armbars by using legit counters as well as fluently entering into them from standing. Kandori hitting a Seoi Nage could be “just a thing that happened”, but after teasing it and having her be the one thrown a bunch in such a short time the contrast makes it a gigantic, momentum shifting turning point, even if the actuality of the match being a five minute sprint worked in the vein it was forces them to be exchanging maneuvers and not truly be one sided for a longer period of time, that it cons you into feeling like that regardless is a testament to the power of pro wrestling. ****1/4
  17. They follow a silly spectacle with a badass heavyweight war. Good one. These are the two biggest meanie asskickers JWP ever produced; can they deliver a goodie even in their baby form? Yes they can. Kandori was full on Kandori, completely different from the worker she was the year before, while Kansai was learning the ways of working stiff and exciting. This had a pretty great opening – as they go right at it with the fast submissions, slapping the taste out of eachother's mouth, throwing lariats, Kansai making a comeback by punching Kandori in the face repeatedly etc. The second half was a little more generic and more like a wrestling match, but still interesting enough with some very well timed spots and nearfalls. Whenever Kandori looks in a submission there's automatic drama, so that's really nice. Strong bout, proof these two could go from very early on.
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