Weekly Watchlist 073 - A Joshi Dream

What's new, aficionados of affected aggression?

Stumbles across a real "dream card" this week and decided it should get the spotlight! Fantastic from top to bottom, with an utterly amazing back half of the card, I don't know why I haven't watched this sooner! I don't want to bore you guys with too much right off the top, cause there's a lot to get through, so let's get right to it, shall we? 

AJW

Weekly Roundup

Here's what I watched for the week;

AJW Dream Slam 1

Similar in many ways to the "Bridge of Dreams" show I reviewed all the way back in Weekly Watchlist 023, this is a multi-promotion show featuring wrestlers from four of the biggest promotions in Japan. Three of which are all women's promotions, All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project (JWP), Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling-X (LLPW), and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW). From what I was reading, people were propping this show up on a similar level to "Bridge of Dreams" as being one of the very best wrestling shows out there and, I'll be honest, it ticks a lot of boxes! Maybe it's just due to a distinct difference in my mental health since I watched "Bridge of Dreams," but I was very, very giving with my five star ratings for that show. This one, on the other hand, only got one 5 out of me, but the entire back half of this card were easily 4 star, maybe even 4+ if your rating system works in such a way. So as far as joshi wrestling shows are concerned, you'll be hard pressed to find something as exceptional as this. 

Also! A kind soul on YouTube has gone ahead and uploaded the full.... I'm sorry, am I seeing this right? I am? Oh dear lord... 5 hour and 20 minute broadcast, complete with english subtitles! Not everything on this show is subtitled, such as introductions and commentary, but promos from the wrestlers and teams both before and after their matches are subtitled, so it really helps to paint a better picture about what these ladies are fighting for. Honestly, so many of these classic matches would be so much more approachable if just the promo's were subtitled. But that's a lot of work and Duolingo is free, so who should we really blame here, eh?

 

Kaoru Ito & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Hikari Fukuoka & Plum Mariko

This card is absolutely filled with tag matches, some better than others, but this one was a great way to start the show. All of them are filled with exactly what joshi wrestling does best, high speed, intense exchanges, heavy drops and solid fucking strikes. There were multiple moments in this match where I had to rewind a couple seconds to make sure I saw something right, the stuff these ladies were doing was nuts and all over the place, and I loved all of it. A fantastic way to open a show like this one. 

Saemi Numata & Terri Power vs. Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari

Terri Power (brother?) comes into this match with her arm in a sling, a sever disadvantaage no matter who you're up against. But, considering her opponents are two larger women from FMW, I'd have every right to be pretty scared about my odds here. They spend a good portion of the match beating the tar out of Power and her partner who, to her credit, puts up a good fight, , but Tsuchiva and Maedomari do an excellent job wearing them down and keeping the pressure on good and heavy when they're in control. It's unuremarkable at the very worst and good at best, a perfectly average match, honestly. I can't help but feel like the injury is what hinders this match, honestly. I don't know how real this shoulder injury was, but if it was a work, maybe selling it a bit less and holding it at your chest like it was shattered to bits less often would have made this match a bit more compelling. But that's just my two cents. 

 

Mima Shimoda & Tomoko Watanabe vs. KAORU & Ultima Tigrita

 This match set out to highlight two joshi women that specialize in lucha libre style wrestling, with the team of KAORU and Tigrita coming from EMLL, the promotion that would turn into the current day CMLL. Stylistically, these women gel pretty well with Shimoda and Watanabe, relying more heavily on rolls, flips, and slick transitions into and out of moves to give themselves the advantage. Given that all four women are on the slender size, they are all able to work fantastically well together and flow from move to move, hold to hold, exceptionally well. The styles are close enough that they work well with each other without feeling like they're trying to fit a square piece into a circular hold, while also having enough differences that, when they are on top with offence, they provide you with something new and engaging to watch. The AJW women were coordinated and worked fantastically well together, doing everything they could to minimize the threat posed to them by an unfamiliar style of wrestling. A very, very fun match.

 

Etsuko Mita & Suzuka Minami vs. Miki Handa & Rumi Kazama

Kazama has been given the spotlight on the Watchlist before, squaring off against Akira Hokuto in a short but sweet match that didn't really do a great job at highlighting Kazama's strengths. This time, featured alongside fellow LLPW wrestler Miki Handa, she gets more of a chance to shine in another fantastic, hard hitting tag match, There's another level of intensity in this match that is felt right off the bat, both teams are out with something to prove and aren't willing to give the other side any chance to breathe. Mito and Minami are fantastic in their aggression, really taking it to the LLPW tandem. Every time they are on offence, you feel the heightened aggression and intensity that they bring to the table. Great stuff all around from all four women involved. 

Bat Yoshinaga vs. Susan Howard

Far and away the weakest match on this entire card, I found myself watching my phone for more time than I watched this match. And when I was watching, I found myself getting upset at what I was watching. Sure, I've never been in a fight, I've never needed to wear mitts for 5 full rounds, I've never been actually beaten on by another human being before, but I've spent my fair share of time sparring when I was practising Taekwondo to know that this did not look good. Susan Howard kept throwing the weakest looking and sloppiest backfists in history, never once hitting Yoshinaga, and they were both pretty well tapped out of energy after the first round. It really led to this match, or fight, rather, being dragged out longer than was even remotely necessary. Did not enjoy but, thankfully, the show picks up big time from this low point. 

Chigusa Nagayo vs. Devil Masami

This, I feel, is the point where the show really steps it up a notch. From here on out, there are no bad matches, everything is stellar. This is a match between friends, with Nagayo not wrestling since 1989 and Masami in the best years of her career. A battle-hardened Devil vs. someone who, by their own admission, was out of shape coming into this match. They've squared off before, with Masami always coming out the victor, so Nagayo has something to probe with this one tonight. It definitely feels like a fight between old rivals, they aren't trying to be too flashy or pretty with what they are going for, everything is deliberate and with intent, using the knowledge from their previous encounters to try and gain the upper hand in this match. Their strikes are vicious and their holds are tight, both women doing whatever they can to try and wear the other down, but they're both on pretty damn near equal footing for the whole match. Which is surprising, given Nagayo's time away. The action keeps ramping up more and more, with everything hurting more and more the longer this goes. In the end, Masami maintains her perfect record over her friend and rival in one of the most impressive matches of the evening. I'm gonna be digging to find more of Masami's work, shes a captivating wrestler. Big fan. 

Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs. Cutie Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki

The team of "Double Inoue" square off against a tandem from JWP, another tag match on this tag team heavy card. You'd think that by this point in the show, nearly three hours in, you'd be tired of seeing so many tag matches. But when they're as good as these ones are, it's hard to complain. I mean Kyoko does a giant swing that literally lasts a few seconds shy of a full on minute, they're coming out of the gates swinging in this one. The team of Suzuki and Ozaki tie the Inoue's up in some brutal looking submissions early on as well, bending and twisting them in holds that look horrendous to take. This match was a bit slower paced and submission heavy at times, but it didn't take away from the action we did get to see, always crisp and hard-hitting when they did decide to swing for the fences. Really fun stuff from all four women involved. 

Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito

Well, this sounds like a terrifying match, doesn't it? Bull Nakano and Aja Kong on the same side of the ring is a terrifying proposition, but made even scarier when you are the ones standing across from them. The LLPW tandem has at least brought some heavy firepower in the form of Eagle Sawai, someone who is able to match Kong and Nakano's power head on. It really doesn't do her a lot of good here, despite he glimmers of hope, with Kong and Nakano largely dominating this match. Sure, Sawai and Saito have their moments of brilliance and find moments to gain an advantage, but there's a stark difference in intensity when Kong and Nakano are on top. Weapons are introduced in this match and the referee doesn't seem to mind, with the smaller Saito even going so far as to steal Nakano's signature nunchucks to use them against her. This is one of the most brutal matches on the card, with the weapons adding a touch of variety to this match, but their involvement is almost unnoticed in the wider scope of the match. Eagle and Saito work well together,. but they are simply no match for Nakano and Kong. After picking up the victory, Nakano goes as far as gifting one of her nunchucks to Saito, a sign of respect and a way of saying "this isn't over between you and me." Great stuff all around. 

Dynamite Kansai vs. Yumiko Hotta

The weakest match in the back half of the card, but in no way is it a bad one. But when you compare it to everything else, it's hard to say it stands on equal footing with some of the others. This is a very strike heavy match and is something that wouldn't be too out of place in UWF-I, in all honesty. They spend time rolling around on the canvas exchanging holds and submissions, but the majority of this match is a striking exchange, with heavy, precise kicks doing the majority of the damage. It's for this exact reason that this match isn't quite as good as everything else in the back half of the card, but it's also why it's still enjoyable. You get my meaning? I liked it, but they could have done a bit more to really make it more memorable and exciting. Not a bad showing from either of these ladies, it was a nice palate cleanser before the rest of the matches. 

 

Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Combat Toyoda & Megumi Kudo 

The main event of this show seemed destined to be a tag match, honestly, given everything else that we'd already seen. Manami Toyota and Yamada team up against the FMW pairing of Kudo and Combat Toyoda. D vs. T in this one, folks, make sure you don't get them confused. Toyota and Yamada are fantastic as a pairing, with Kudo standing out from the FMW side with Combat acting as the heater, being the largest woman in this match by a considerable margin. She's not overly agile and kinda slows the pace down when she is in the ring, but she's a fantastic wall for her smaller opponents to run against and try and break down, a tale as old as time. You should know that a match featuring Manami Toyota will be an exciting one, given her history, and this match does not disappoint. It may not be the very best thing on the card, but it's exciting and not a bad fit for the main event. I can think of one match that may have been a better fit for the main, but what we got wasn't bad at all. Thoroughly enjoyable and fun to watch.

 

Here’s what we’re reviewing for the Watchlist;

Match	Event	Date
Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori	AJW Dream Slam 1	04/02/1993

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Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori - A Violent Battle For the Violent Crown

Two women with a reputation for violence a mile long square off to try and see just who the meanest is. It's brutal, gritty, and violent in all the right ways. It's everything you'd expect out of a match between two joshi legends that share the title of "The Dangerous Queen."

The Queens are prepared for war. AJW

Basic Breakdown

Message sent. AJW

Thanks to the kind so who went through the trouble of translating this show, we're able to get some extra backstory for the matches during the pre-match interviews! Normally, I need to result to reading other reviews to try and piece the story together, but Hokuto and Kandori do a pretty concise job doing that for me before the bell even rings. 

We're joined by Hokuto first, with the interviewer asking for her general thoughts and feelings about this match as well as her opponent. Hokuto doesn't mince words, saying "who calls her the strongest woman wrestler? Only she calls herself that. But finally, the day has come. I'll blow her cover." When asked what the match will be like, she's similarly concise, saying "no matter what it's like, I'm gonna kick her ass. That's all."

Much like Hokuto, LLPW's Kandori has little to say, but gets her point across rather well in very few words. She starts her interview off pretty bluntly, stating "she really pisses me off, so tonight, I'll destroy her to ensure she never speaks annoying words again." When pressed about Hokuto's words regarding the title of "best woman wrestler" and how the match will go, she responds "oh, she's so sassy! I don't know how far I'll go. People may say 'stop! That's too much!' I have nothing more to say." 

If that doesn't set the table for what's about to come, I don't know what does.  

Bell to Bell

Right from the word go, this match seems to be well in hand for Hokuto, cracking Kandori with a vicious forearm shot that drops her flat out. She even gets on the mic and calls her out, asking if that's all she's got! This proves to be a big mistake, with Kandori firing back up to her feet and wrenching at the arm of Hokuto, sending her rolling to the floor to nurse the freshly injured left shoulder. When Hokuto tries to get back inside, Kandori kicks her out to the floor, with Hokuto barking at her from ringside, challenging her to try and break her arm. She's as fearless as she is tough, and neither of them are willing to give an inch here. 

Back inside, Kandori and Hokuto go back and forth with heinous strikes, with Kandori countering knees to the gut by snatching the leg of Hokuto for a quick ankle lock attempt. The early moments of this match set the tone perfectly. When they are inside the ring with each other, they are trying to tear each other apart. It's a mad scramble of limbs and strikes as they jockey for control and positioning. Strikes giving way to submissions that are either broken or countered into further strikes and holds, there's very little chance for either of these women to find chances to breathe without the other right on top, trying to wear the other down. 

Dragging Kandori to the floor, a move that would prove to be her own undoing, Hokuto pulls her by the hair and leads her over to the ringside tables. Dribbling her face first, she attempts a piledriver, but Kandori counters into one of her own, spiking Hokuto into the table so hard it leaves an indentation in the table. Nasty, nasty work. Jesus. 

Just drilled her. AJW

 Kandori returns to the ring as Hokuto is tended to at ringside, and she is significantly worse for wear after that, busted open wide and leaking crimson. She struggles to stay vertical, but refuses to give in, stumbling like a murder victim back to the ring, only for Kandori to seize on her immediately with vicious kicks, targeting her crimson cranium. Hokuto is able to fight back, dragging Kandori out to ringside and into the crowd, throwing her into the seats and up into the stands further. The referee is pretty lenient here, letting these ladies brawl pretty far out from the ring for a good chunk of time. This really lends creedence to just how violent these women are and how badly they want to prove that one is more violent than the other, with a bleeding Hokuto refusing to be bested this quickly, busting Kandori open as she staggers back to the ring, her blonde hair beginning to be stained red.

Back in the ring now, Hokuto keeps Kandori down with running boots over and over again, stomping her out against the ropes as she uses the ropes on the opposite side to stand. After fighting to her feet, Kandori dismissively pulls Hokuto up as if to vertical suplex her, but she instead just drops her over the top rope and down to the floor. She follows her out with a springboard crossbody, keeping the pressure heavy at all times. 

Back between the ropes, Kandori goes back to the left arm of Hokuto, trying to remove the limb from her body, just like Hokuto dared her to do. Flailing about in the hold, Hokuto makes it to the bottom rope and grabs on for dear life, breaking the submission in the process. Free from the hold for barely any amount of time, a slap across the face stuns Kandori long enough for Hokuto to pull her in for a snap piledriver, a shred of revenge for the one that's left Hokuto bathed in crimson. Whipping Kandori off the ropes, Hokuto cracks her in the face with a spinning heel kick, leaving her out on her feet as she stumbles back into the ropes, falling down like a boxer in the final moments of a fight. 

She got caught! AJW

A DDT allows Kandori to float over into a cover, with Hokuto escaping before the three. Wasting no time, Kandori goes right back to the arm, this time creating a head and arm triangle hold as she tries to sap the life out of Hokuto. She fights through the pain, able to twist and turn Kandori over and grab a single leg crab, with Kandori doing the same to Hokuto, only for her to be left close enough to the bottom rope to grab hold and break the submission, but she guts it out! Striking at Kandori once vertical again, a vertical suplex leaves her flat out for a pinfall attempt, but she survives. 

Bodyslamming Kandori smack in the centre of the ring, Hokuto risks it all and climbs to the top rope, soaring with a splash and crashing right onto Kandori. Climbing to the top again, Hokuto soars for a second splash, but gets caught chest first with double boots! Fuck, that had to hurt. Taking advantage while she's doubled over, Kandori pulls Hokuto in and drills her with a powerbomb, nearly folding her completely in half for a cover attempt, but Hokuto survives!

Folded like a sheet. AJW

Dismissively slapping Hokuto across the back of the head, Kandori climbs to the top rope herself, flying for a crossbody only for Hokuto to swat her out of the sky, leaving her to crash in an empty pool.  A gorgeous bridging german suplex stacks Kandori high on her shoulders for a pin, but she manages to escape the clutches of the hold. How Hokuto is able to execute a move like that when she's as badly beaten up as she is, I'll never know. She's not human. 

 

⚡Move of the Match⚡

Pulling Hokuto off of the top rope as she tries to ascend again, Kandori snatches her in a rear naked choke and spins her around in a swing. Round and round she goes, the choke sinking in deeper and deeper with each rotation. Sitting out with Hokuto in her clutches, she wraps her up tightly, but Hokuto breaks free by kicking Kandori in the face! I've been in my fair share of choke holds before; hell, I've passed out in them before, they're no joke. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be swung by your neck as that choke gets sinched in deeper and deeper. Lord help me, that's terrifying. 

This is horrific. I love it. AJW

 

Breaking free for only a moment, Kandori pulls her back in for a choke, with Hokuto dragging herself to the bottom rope to eventually, mercifully, break the hold. A move I've never seen done in all of my years watching wrestling, is after the hold is broken and the referee forces the break, he beats Hokuto across the back to get her to breathe. He's literally hitting her on the back like if you've got a child who's choking on a piece of food, it's nuts! Once he confirms that she's still drawing breath, the match continues.

A powerbomb from Kandori is countered into a headscissors and a pin attempt, but she escapes. Hokuto reverses a whip attempt and, instead of sending Kandori into the ropes on the opposite side, she pulls he back in and knees her in the back before drilling her with a powerbomb. Another pin attempt, another escape. A spinning heel kick sends Kandori to the floor before Hokuto flips off of the top rope with a springboard senton, crushing Kandori on the outside! She struggles to stand on the floor, being helped up by some of the ringside attendants, with Hokuto using that time to get to the top turnbuckle and soar with a missile dropkick, flattening Kandori on the floor once again!

Slowly, Kandori returns to the ring with Hokuto waiting, looking to put her away for good. She tries to pull her up, but she gets caught instead, with Kandori snatching the left arm of Hokuto again. Desperate, Hokuto flails about like she's just been set on fire, doing everything she can to ensure Kandori can't put any amount of pressure on her already weakened arm. She grabs the bottom rope and hooks it with her leg, holding on for dear life. Kandori pulls her to the middle and tries for another hold, but Hokuto is too slippery, escaping her grasps in desperate self-preservation. Kandori keeps her advantage pressed by going for a Tiger Driver instead, but Hokuto escapes the pin attempt just before three. 

A lariat to the back of the head and a slap to the face knock Hokuto down time after time, but she refuses to stay down and give in, fighting to a vertical position again and again. Catching a lariat from Kandori, Hokuto twists her around and spikes her with a backdrop driver, holding her for a pin but it's still not enough! Going for broke, a Northern Lights Bomb spikes Kandori tough, with Hokuto going for another cover. It's good for one, then two, then th- no! She escapes! 

She attempts it again, but this time, Kandori lands one of her own! She holds her down for the pin, and Hokuto escapes! Resorting to what worked in the opening moments, a desperate forearm shot from Hokuto drops Kandori, with Kandori responding with one of her own for good measure. Both women are back vertical, but only barely, with both going for a forearm shot in the middle, only for Hokuto's strike to land flush with the jaw of Kandori. They both drop, but Kandori is out for the count. Hokuto crawls, her body nearly failing her, but she makes it, covering Kandori for three. The one true Dangerous Queen prevails. 

One shot, one kill. AJW

Overview & Final Rating

🟢⭐ A dangerous recommendation

Good lord, what a match this is. It's not often you can consider something so violent so beautiful, but this match ticked so many boxes, it's hard not to. I love the callback to the opening moments of the match with the finish, both women trading forearms as one final test of each others might. Their best shots weren't quite enough, but one solid strike was truly all that stood between victory and defeat, and they proved that with the ending of the match. If you're going to seek out anything from this monstorous card, this is the match to watch. Nothing else on the show compares, it's a stellar performance and sits high atop the pile as one of the best joshi matches ever, in my opinion. 

 

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Until next week, friends, you know the routine by now. Email your hate (or love, I suppose) to the email down below. Send whatever ya got, I promise I don't bite.

Until next week. Be well, stay safe, and love one another.  

 

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