All Japan Women's Wrestling - 1999

I'm trying to work through my DVDs still! Most/all of these are from AJW Athena TV episodes. I think someone compiled the best of a bunch of episodes. These are a sort of consultation prize on my AJW 09/21/97 DVD that cuts off the end of the famous cage match. Zap I is Kaoru Ito and Zap T is Tomoko Watanabe for reference.

02/16/99

ZAP I & T vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Kayo Noumi - This is how you do a studio TV match! Fast, violent and entertaining! The ZAPs are on the warpath. Maekawa can put up a fight but Kayo is a lamb for the slaughter. Kumiko tries her best but Ito & Tomoko are their normal high impact selves plus with weapons too! This was great! LCO are in the stands & mix it up with them afterwards. Yay!

Zenjo vs. Neo SCRAMBLE BOUTS 5 X 5: Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi & Miyuki Fujii & ZAP Isozaki vs. Kyoko Inoue & Chaparrita ASARI & Misae Genki & Saya Endo & Yuka Nakamura - This was great!!! Takes a minute to figure out but, its a team elimination match. An each pair has a 5 minute time limit. There's really clever booking here as Toyota starts for the AJW team. What's really fun is that the other women can intervene like any regular tag match so we get double team moves, dive trains and brawling. And this gets heated! Heck Kyoko even throws around her former teammate Takako Inoue (who's not actually in the match!). This match is so much fun and has great wrestling in a relatively short amount of time. Definitely recommend it!

Yumiko Hotta & Miho Wakizawa vs. Shinobu Kandori & Junko Yagi - A teaser match for Hotta vs Kandori. I think it did a good job. It wasn't pretty as they actually seemed like they hated each other. I think Hotta actually was hitting Kandori in the eye on purpose. I got to say I'm liking this inter promotional feuding AJW is doing.

03/10/99

Manami Toyota & Takako Inoue & Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi vs. Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito & Kurenai Yasha - Ok there's two versions of this match. There's a version on YouTube which is great VQ but is edited and there's a version from AJW Athena TV which is also edited. I watched both and while I think both leave out good work, the Athena version is superior. It has a more forgiving edit since somewhere Rumi Kazama gets her bell rung and can't lift up for Toyota's JO Suplex...twice. This is graciously edited out from the Athena TV show.  Athena also keeps a longer segment with Momoe vs Harley & Noriyo. But I think whatever version you can see is worthwhile. 

ZAP T vs. Eagle Sawai - A chain, double blood, chairs, handcuffs, handcuffing to each other...this is awesome pro wrestling. Again, I have the Athena TV version which was sweet but I knew I needed to see the full version. Thankfully, the full version is online (with 700k views !?). Go see this if you are thinking you might like it...even just a little bit. ZAP T/Watanabe and Eagle put on a brutal classic here. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Shinobu Kandori vs. Yumiko Hotta - This was shown in full on Athena TV and, since it's for the red belt, it makes sense. Anyhow this was a great hard hitting fight. It reminded me of a Shinya Hashimoto title match. Kandori may have gotten hit in the face a dozen times. And it looked to me that she really wanted to break Hotta's arm a couple times! I dug this one. 03/10 was a great night of wrestling from what I saw.

04/11/99 

Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe - Edited by Athena TV but it might be the only version we have. This was a great wild brawl around Korakuen Hall. Ito did a stomp off part of the wall onto Shimoda who was in the stands. As a fan of ECW, FMW, BJW, I dig this match. I always will. Someone else could say that this was just garbage wrestling - with the weapons but also the spots, match structure etc. Others might say that all Mita/Shimoda matches are all the same. And I can't say that they're 100% wrong. Those would be valid points. I would say that the same could be said about most pro wrestling. To the folks who call this garbage, this isn't for you. It's not backyard wrestling but its not working a headlock for 5 minutes either. There's a real frenetic intensity as well as pride involved in matches like these. If you're interested in LCO vs Ito & Watanabe then this is a definite welcome addition to their feud...even if edited. 

05/05/99

Manami Toyota & Kumiko Maekawa vs. Nanae Takahashi & Miho Wakizawa - Holy crap! This kinda seemed like a nothing match on paper but in reality, it was great! It's really heated & nasty...old school women's wrestling - hair pulling & hair mares, biting etc. Then it's got that joshi level of nastiness with blind drop kicks, face kicks and such. Miho is bleeding from the mouth by the final third. It's not a brawl but a chippy tag match for damn sure. 

Kyoko Inoue vs. Takako Inoue (NEO match but shown on AJW TV? 05/05/99) You know I'm coming around on Kyoko here in the late 90's. I think this brawling smash mouth wrestling is more her style than the early 90's style. And I'm liking this gimmick for Takako...the striking emphasis plus the stun baton. She's a limited worker but she's a good talent in selling her bitchiness. This gimmick really leans into that (her outfit is awful). Anyhow, this was a very good match as Takako got to wail on Kyoko thus giving Takako a chance in winning. Nice spots, heated...it's what you want.

06/06/99

Yumiko Hotta vs. Manami Toyota - These two have fantastic chemistry. It's one of the big 90's AJW pairs that you don't hear about though. They are both technical wrestlers but Hotta is shoot style where Toyota is traditional pro wrestling. Both have a mean streak and in all of their encounters, you see it here. And I dug this one...it doesn't add anything new but it's a really good title match between the two stars of AJW and it's in Korakuen Hall. It has that extra something special from the venue. This was a nice way to close out the DVD...especially considering I didn't even know that these matches were on it!! 😄

***

I wanted to close this post out with a separate but interesting match. There's not a ton of 1999 AJW available online...or at least easily accessible. So I was happy to see that there was one more.

09/29/99 

Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi - Great LCO mayfalls tag falls tag match per usual for this era. I can't say there's selling or structure but these definitely feel like chaos in the best way. After seeing a fair amount of Mita & Shimoda, I think the quality and variety of their matches truly depends on their opponents. Here Momoe is a great opponent because she brings speed and agility to the table. Nanae is a suitable teammate because she's got a bit more power to her move set. LCO stick to their routine with certain spots and weapons. The interesting thing here is how Momoe & Nanae fit into that puzzle. The take away greatness of this match is Momoe. This is worth your time.

This was a pretty enjoyable bit of Joshi puroresu from 1999. I had generally written AJW off by this period but there's quality stuff here. At the very least, check out ZAP T vs Eagle from 03/10. You'll dig it!

Thanks for reading! Hope you dig the CRTV pics. I've been watching my DVDs on one and am enjoying the nostalgia 😋