AJW Wrestlemarinepiad 1990 (11.14.90) review 

 

Oh, fucking yes, mate. Finally, we’re at the era of joshi making tape properly. Not just the odd match here and there. We’re going to be getting whole shows. Just in time for it to get really fucking good too. I think I’ve seen this before but I’m not sure so let’s go! 

 

We’re in Yokohama, Japan at the Bunka Gymnasium. 6,200 (roughly) here for this show. The show is clipped so we lose stuff like Bat Yoshinaga vs Kaoru Ito. This is the sub two-hour VHS cut. Back when keeping something under two hours meant you could spend less money on video tape. I yearn for the day of two hour long wrestling shows. And movies.  

 

 

VICTORY THROUGH GUTS! 

 

 

Japanese Tag Team Championship 

Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi (c) vs. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita 

Takahashi helpfully wears yellow to help me distinguish between her and Maeda, who’s in pink. They have the same basic gear, but the colour schemes are inverted. It’s very cool.  

The immediate first observation is the pacing on this thing. They go 100mph out of the blocks. It’s more athletic and exciting than what the chaps were doing at the same time. It’s not as clean, unfortunately. Shimoda gets isolated and draws a lot of sympathy. Maeda’s hot tag involves a lot of screaming. I don’t like that Shimoda comes straight back in. She was worked over for ages and doesn’t sell that.  

 

They have some miscommunication, and the challengers attempt some failed double teams that don’t work at all. Takahashi flies around the ring at quite the rate and she’s my favourite worker in this match. She energises proceedings when they’re sluggish and has nicely high impact and cool looking moves. A big contrast to Maeda who cannot bump properly.  

 

More failed double teams occur. Every double team in this match has sucked. Takahashi pops me again by getting pissed off with Mita on the apron and slapping her in the face. Mita then picks Maeda off with a Northern Lights for the win. Huh. An abrupt conclusion. Shimoda & Mita would continue to be a top tag team as LCO (Las Cachorras Orientales). Maeda would become a hardcore wrestler under the name KAORU. Takahashi would retire in 1991, presumably to start a family, and never returned. A shame, as she was great.  

 

We get some backstage interviews and Madusa thinks she can cut a promo here. “We are invincible, we are defeatable”. What?  

 

Bison Kimura & Madusa Micelli vs. Mariko Yoshida & Yumiko Hotta 

Madusa is close to departing at this point. With a huge future in WCW of wrestling Paul Heyman on house shows. Hotta has a bodysuit while Yoshida prefers a lilac one piece. Yoshida is very good already. Madusa still seems to be suffering from being shit. She rubs Yoshida’s head on the top rope here and it’s like “what are you doing?”  

 

She also does a wind up punch like a cartoon character. I was the biggest Alundra Blayze mark in the world in the mid 90s but fuck me, this is dire. Some of her mat work is much better than last year but that’s the only obvious improvement. As with the opener, the pacing is great here. We whip through proceedings. Yoshida is the obvious stand out with her bumping and athleticism. Madusa fairs better on offence against her and the heels double teams are much better than the ones in the opener. 

 

Madusa does a spot where she Flair corner bumps onto the apron. Then stops to pose for the crowd and gets pushed off. She literally turned and looked at Hotta beforehand too. Like a gigantic dumbass. I also get pissed off by them changing what corners they stand in for tags. Both teams move to different buckles. You can’t do that! Foul! FOUL!  

 

The finish is disgustingly bad. Madusa is supposed to grab Hotta to break up a double team and she doesn’t. So, Hotta has to go backwards to get caught unnaturally. Bison then catches the unsuspecting Yoshida with a chop (!!!!) for the win. A chop. Yeah, this wasn’t good, was it? Poor structure and everything felt rushed. Madusa really struggled and neither Bison nor Hotta looked good at all.  

 

The backstage interviews continue and it’s so weird seeing this timid young version of Manami Toyota. She’s SO softly spoken too. She almost whispers in her promos.  

 

WWWA Tag Team Championship 

Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami (c) vs. Kyoto Inoue & Manami Toyota 

This is two out of three falls.  

Look at the body language on Toyota here. She’s so apprehensive. Like the other matches tonight this starts fast and furious with Hokuto looking particularly strong. Toyota is a completely different beast when she’s wrestling. It’s like wrestling is her natural state and she feels uncomfortable in real life. She takes a piledriver in this and it’s SWANK. The way she goes limp in the bump right into an ‘I am knocked out momentarily’ sell is beautiful. Not everything is that clean and some of her bumps are messy. She is still a youngster, only three years into her career here. 

 

This is the first time I’ve seen her work, where she looked like she was going to be a big star though. Her bumping and general movement around the ring are elite already. She’s just missing a bit of confidence when working with more experienced wrestlers. Inoue and Hokuto do some nice counter wrestling, showing familiarity with each other’s work. Poor Inoue takes a German suplex at such a high angle she lands right on top of her head. Giant swing, with lousy press afterwards, gets Inoue a three count. 1-0 challengers. 

 

Fall two commences with Toyota looking testy. I wonder if that first fall was a botch. Things continue to go adrift as Toyota goes for the Ocean Cyclone and Minami has trouble taking it. Inoue then accidentally hits her with a chair. Manami takes a phenomenal powerbomb off Suzuka and a moonsault finishes. 1-1. Toyota took these bumps like a god damn champ. Outstanding stuff. The match isn’t quite clicking but it’s close to greatness. 

 

The final fall begins with Toyota again in a bit of a mood. She’s so good though. There’s some delightfully stiff business in fall three, including Hokuto clocking Inoue in the side of the face with a roundhouse. It’s a shame there are so many sloppy bits and pieces in this. Mostly involving Suzuka. She is really good at roll ups though. Toyota gets heat on her for most of the final fall before hot tagging Inoue in. They miscue AGAIN with Toyota being at fault this time and the DQ Bomb finishes for Hokuto. 

 

This was really good. It had issues, yes, but the overreaching theme of the match was good. The pacing was good. There were just a couple of problems where Inoue and Minami were not on the same page. Otherwise, I had a lovely time. ***¼ 

 

Oh, wow. Like, be still my beating heart. Nakano and Aja Kong get into a ruckus backstage and that’s YOUR main event.  

 

WWWA World Championship 

Bull Nakano (c) vs. Aja Kong  

FUCK (and I can’t state this strongly enough) YES. This is a cage match and there’s weapons and shit. We don’t even get into the cage and Bull gets stabbed in the head with a fork and is yeeted into the seats. The hatred here is PALPABLE. I love it. Bull CLOCKS Aja with a forearm. Just fucking leathers her with it, across the face. Sometimes being all clumsy and shit works. Nakano gets plonked onto the top buckle and just falls off, sliding down the cage into a neck bump on the apron. Sick.  

 

It’s really untidy though. Like borderline unforgivably untidy. Aja does a lot of backfists and not many of land well. Bull then gives her a receipt though and that’s FLUSH. It feels like an actual fight for 70% of the time. It’s so scrappy. Various plunder gets thrown in during the match and they whack each other with it. Aja blades after Bull smacks her in the face with nunchucks.  

 

Kong works the leg over, which pisses Nakano off. How much? She grabs some scissors and starts wildly stabbing at Aja Kong. Like….FUCK. Kong ends up bleeding from the arm and not content with that, Bull traps her arm (by stepping on it) and stabs away at the wound. Kong takes the term ‘death match’ literally and tries to HANG Nakano with a length of rope.  

 

Incidentally, this is a GREAT cage match. They stop and try to escape at times, but the opponent is never injured enough for it to work. Plus, you have seconds trying to climb in and the other guy’s seconds stop it. It works. It’s such a chaotic mess but EMBRACE THE CHAOS. Nakano gets badly cut so now both are bleeding profusely.  

Nakano dumps Aja on her head and looks like she can easily climb out but WAIT. HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE LADS.  

LEG JAM OFF THE FUCKING CAGE. FUCK OFF. Then she calmly climbs out with a broken tailbone while Aja Kong thinks about her choices in life. It’s mad that Aja Kong’s backfists, normally the highlight of many of her matches, were barely the start of this madness. Absolute carnage and it peaked perfectly and then they got the fuck out of there. Outstanding. Maybe the best cage match I’ve ever seen, honestly. ****½ 

 

Now, I’m sure people will call me inconsistent for this because the first 5 minutes are real messy BUT this match fucking rules and I won’t be told otherwise. You can get away with being a bit sloppy if you’re taking big risks and this match took some god damn risks. Definite MOTYC. Great finish to a good show. 

 

Post Match: Bison Kimura gets on the microphone to scream abuse at Bull Nakano. Bull is all “I just wrestled a cage match but fuck you”. Everyone keeps stealing the microphone and screaming at each other. We end up having an eight woman pull apart brawl. Bull leaves the cage and screams as she does so. THIS IS VISCERAL.  

What a fucking badass. My hero.  

 

The 411: 

Halfway through, I was wondering what the hype was all about. However, they finish strong and that cage match feels like a main event to a big show. It feels important. It’s so good I’m mentally rearranging my end of year awards. Bull Nakano fucking rules. She rules.