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Zen Nihon Joshi Puroresu
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling

1/29/00:

1/29 Twin Messe Shizuoka 920
ZAP I & T beat Manami Toyota & Miho Wakizawa when I used her diving footstomp on Wakizawa at 18:06.
Yumiko Hotta beat Kumiko Maedawa with her pyramid driver at 13:38.

1/22: All Pacific & JWP Tag Title Matches To Kick Off AJW & JWP Series

AJW & JWP announced the main matches for their first interpromotional shows. 2/10 at Korakuen Hall show is a JWP show called LIVE AND LET DIE, which is kind of an ironic name because they'd be dead right now if the Matsunaga's had done that. Anyway, the Command Bolshoi & Carlos Amano try to defend the JWP Nintei Tag Senshuken against the ZAPs. Bolshoi & Amano are weak champions that aren't on Zaps level, which isn't really that high since they haven't got interpromotional wins, but Watanabe already has the AJW version of the tag titles with Kumiko Maekawa. I still expect the Zaps to win the titles here though.
"I think it'd just be smarter to just merge the two tag titles at this point because they don't need two different sets of champions in one promotion unless they are running an nWo-type angle, which I don't see from these line-ups. Obviously you build up to uniting the JWP and 3WA singles titles over a few months, but the secondary and tag titles should just be joined now," wrote Michael.
I disagree with this because the titles switching promotions adds to the interpromotional aspect of the feud that already isn't there nearly as much as it should be. Anything that makes it seem like on promotion is getting a point over the other should add to the "rivalry." Furthermore, we are dealing with the same amount of wrestlers and titles as we were before, so I don't see where getting rid of belts does any short term good. Combined belts don't mean twice as much, rather they mean either no more or only slightly more than if there was just one belt, so what is the benefit?

JWP's champion Ran Yu-Yu should get one of her only interpromotional wins in recent years since her opponent is only Nanae Takahashi.
"Is this a title match or just a waste of time? I mean, I'm not as down on the cow as most, but giving Miyaguchi a win over her means nothing and the match will probrably only be ** at best," wrote Michael.
It's just a waste of time, and if Lan can get ** out of her when they aren't familiar with each other at all then she really deserves to be the champion instead of Azumi.


Probably the most interesting match is the ass kickers Dynamite Kansai & Yumiko Hotta plus Tsubasa Kuragaki meeting the flyers Manami Toyota & Azumi Hyuga plus Miho Wakizawa. If Kansai & Hotta are willing to sell then this could be really good and help both companies, but that is a major if.
"I don't think you have them sell at all here. I really could care less for Kansai at this point, but her and Hotta would be the team I build-up as monsters leading to a tag titles shot sometime in the summer. I think it's obvious Miho is jobbing here, but for their first joint show you'd think they'd do a better job of booking the matches because these all suck as far as starting any angles goes because everything is too predictable," wrote Michael.
I don't see the benefit in showing Toyota & Azumi aren't on Hotta & Kansai's level when the point of showing that Toyota & Azumi are above their leagues respective ass kicker hasn't been fully seen through, especially in Azumi's case where she got one win but generally appeared to be well below Kansai. I would rather show these teams were equal because essentially you have the top two wrestlers in each promotion, so this should be one of the best series of matches you can present. If Toyota & Azumi aren't on Hotta & Kansai's level then Hotta & Kansai have no peers. If they have no peers then who is going to pay for matches like Watanabe & Maekawa or Clown and Amano against Hotta & Kansai, even if they were title matches?
"I don't think that one match is going to hurt Manami's standing. Kuzumi won't gain anything from one match either, so I can afford this one and then figure out how to rebuild her from scratch. As for Kansai and Hotta, alot of teams have been successful when they are unbeatable, so what you do is create someone who can beat them. I'd probrably use Amano and Maekawa but I'd be willing to sacrifice The Damn Clown and some others to get Kansai and Hotta to where I want them. I'd even bring LCO in to put them over (not in a squash but in under 15-20 minutes)," wrote Michael.
Having an unbeatable team such as The Road Warriors or Hellraisers generally kills the entire division because no other teams can function properly when they have to get demolished or close by the unbeatable team in every supposed big match. Also, I think you'd be better off pushing Azumi from the start than rehashing the Kyoko & Kansai debacle then working on rebuilding her.

As far as the predictability goes, I think most people can select the winning team in every match without giving it much thought. They could do a surprise or two, but I highly doubt it.
I'd personally rather see Azumi oppose Toyota because pairing them just makes Azumi a secondary figure since their wrestling style is so similar and Toyota will just outshine her due to all the charisma that she has and Azumi doesn't.
"Kuzumi vs. Manami would make Tomoko look a helluvalot more secondary then them being partners because there's no way Manami would be jobbing in that match. Besides Manami is Kuzumi's idol, so Smith says she turns on her and sets up a great angle that culminates with Kuzumi getting the red belt and the top slot in the company by the end of the year," wrote Michael.
Doesn't the first sentence contradict the second sentence?
People already know she is secondary, and I'd rather have her chasing Manami as a heel then straight up because making an angle out of it gives her a chance to get over and also gives her some character. You can't disguise the problem, so why try? Having Manami just beat her in an extremely close match isn't going to change public perception of Kuzumi. Just look at Genki vs. Kyoko if you need proof because that match did nothing for Genki after the fact, and you can't just blame her push on her not getting over," wrote Michael.
Genki had a good match or two, but that didn't get her out of the midcard jobber ranks. If she would have followed the performance in the title match up with a win over Mita instead of continuing to trade wins with ASARI and Tamura, she at least would have had a chance to get over.
The point should be to show that Azumi is close to Toyota. I don't think she should win the first match, but the main program should be Azumi chasing after Manami. Kansai is a short term fix that can pop a house or two, but the focus should be on bringing Azumi up to the point where she can credibly beat Toyota, and I don't think you need a US angle to do that.
"I disagree because nobody is going to care after Manami beats her without having a reason to. I agree that you build her up to where she can go over Manami, but you can't just do it by having her beat people she's already beaten," wrote Michael.
The whole problem is that Azumi's wins are over the same couple of wrestlers that also don't mean anything. She hasn't beaten anyone in AJW so there are plenty of options.
I think it's a much better idea to keep the promotions separate initially so it looks like there's an actual rivalry. Mixing the wrestlers up is fine as something to keep the shows going after the AJW vs. JWP matches have run their course, but they aren't going to draw as well if everyone is friendly from the outset.
"I agree somewhat, but you can't do this when everyone already knows that the Matsunaga's own the Yamamoto's. Of course, they could have done an invasion angle and had kept the financial situation secret, but it's too late to start expecting them to do what could've possibly avoided this in the first place and that's booking angles that could get asses in the seats," wrote Michael.
Next to nothing has been officially announced, so I don't see where this is really the case. AJW is giving JWP some money, but I don't even know for sure if the promotions are truly separate or not anymore (I think that they still are),and I doubt many people have a clue as to what concessions JWP had to make to AJW in order for them to give them the money.

Devil Masami & Acute Sae should get a win over Kayo Noumi and Miyuki Fujii after a bad match.
Finally, Kumiko Maekawa should beat Kayoko Haruyama.
"These last two are just SFW? matches. AJW totally missed the boat with Noumi and jobbing her team to Devil shows (imo) that they've given up on trying to push her," wrote Michael.
Miho got elevated when the began teaming with Toyota, while at the same time Noumi got reduced to a hair about Fujii level. Noumi really can't wrestle to save her life, but they should have done a lot more with her when it came to taking Takako's spot as the promotions idol. They could make more money off her than several of their better wrestlers if they did more to emphasize her looks and less to emphasize how weak she looks in the ring.
"Agreed because people care about wrestlers if they are 'told to' regardless of their talent level," wrote Michael.

2/11 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall is an AJW show TRANSFUSE "J" BLOOD. The main event is too one-sided. Like anyone is going to believe that Manami Toyota & Dynamite Kansai & Kaoru Ito will lose to Ran Yu-Yu & Carlos Amano & Miho Wakizawa. They could have at least put Wakizawa with her partner Toyota so there was a potential jobber on Manami's side.
"Of course, they could do the smart thing and have Miyaguchi pin Manami here but then there'd be more shocking here then a power plant in an ocean," wrote Michael.
Yeah, but would it be more shocking than a good worker coming out of the Power Plant? Seriously, I think you could get away with Lan pinning Ito because I don't think they should rush into a singles match between the two champions.
"I would settle for her pinning Ito since her singles time has come and gone, and she wouldn't be hurt by it. Also, it wouldn't be smart to have Lan go over Manami twice that quickly," wrote Michael.

The semifinal is the most important match on either show because if Azumi Hyuga can't take the All Pacific Senshuken from Kumiko Maekawa than JWP really has no value or bargaining power at this point. They are already in trouble with last year's supposed top star being relegated to going after AJW's secondary singles title, but that shows the level the JWP wrestlers other than Kansai are at on an interpromotional scale.
"I think Kuzumi wins this one because Maekawa doesn't mean much outside of tagging with either Hotta or Watanabe, and they'd be truly stupid to kill off JWP because then they'd be killing themselves off in the process," wrote Michael.
The thing that doesn't make this match bad is that Kansai & Lan should be the first to challenge Toyota for the WWWA Single since Kansai hasn't gotten a rematch since losing the title to Toyota on 12/4/95 and Lan is JWP's current champion, so Azumi could at least get some "important" wins in the meantime.
"Considering who's she's beaten (or hasn't) in the past any semi-big win like a Maekawa is important for Kuzumi. I don't think she's ruined yet, but she's a long-term project as far as image goes and you kill her dead if she loses here," wrote Michael.
Both women have the same problem in that they don't have much personality, but Azumi is a lot younger and more talented. Still, I have to admit that the more of Azumi and Lan I've seen lately, the more I think they are better off with Lan ahead of her because she got her fire back and is a lot tougher and spunkier than Azumi. If Azumi can develop a personality than she should be Toyota's successor assuming the promotions are still together at that point. The reason I'd put Azumi in with Toyota right now is that it's more of a natural matchup and Azumi could become what she needs to be if she can just learn to adopt what Toyota does as far as getting the crowd behind her.
"This leads to my angle of turning her heel though. She can learn from Manami but why let her be a face right off the bat when that could happen in their blow-off match when she finally goes over and gets the torch," wrote Michael.
She has no experience as a heel and she already has too much pressure on her without trying to do a totally different style in matches that should be much higher profile.

Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita should beat Tomoko Watanabe & Nanae Takahashi to set up a rematch against Watanabe & Maekawa for the WWWA Tag. Figuring LCO win here and win that rematch, that would mean Watanabe wouldn't have both promotions tag titles at the same time for very long.
Unless you're bringing back Mita and Shimoda full-time, I don't see the value in giving them the 3WA belts. As I mentioned above, I also don't see the point in having two (or 3 if the AJ Tag Titles are still around) sets of tag champions in what is basically one promotion unless you have a ton of young workers. If you could use one set like WCW used to use the U.S. Tag Titles then I could go for that, but given what these two companies have done to their under 25 year old workers that wouldn't be the case here," wrote Michael.
I think LCO are more effective when they aren't used full time. Even though they are still among the best, their act gets kind of dull if they wrestle the same wrestlers night in and night out. However, they are very effective when they come in for an angle that leads to them coming in for a big match where everyone will work really hard. That said, I have the feeling that AJW owes them for putting Watanabe & Maekawa over out of nowhere.

Yumiko Hotta & Devil Masami should beat Takako Inoue & Miyuki Fujii.
Michael wrote, "Fujii means nothing, but why bring Takako in for this match when it's obvious who's losing?"
They should keep Takako off the first two shows if they don't have a role for her. She's not going to feud with Devil and we really don't need to see anymore of her matches against Hotta. Even if we did, since Takako lost the last singles match (and basically all their others as well) it would make more sense to have her and Devil take on Hotta and Fujii so Takako could beat Fujii, in their mind giving them reason to prolong this useless series.
"I'd use Takako in an angle with Kana or Noumi, but otherwise I'd hold off on her until I needed a name to put over Kuzumi or Miyaguchi," wrote Michael.

Command Bolshoi & Kayoko Haruyama should beat Kayo Noumi & Acute Sae.
These shows aren't really loaded, which is good because they shouldn't give away too much too soon. I think there's enough here for them to sell the shows out even though aside from the two title matches, there isn't a lot beyond the novelty of full interpromotional shows.
"I can't see these shows selling out because having a bunch of meaningless matches doesn't get swallowed by the fact that they are interpromotional. Maybe I'm wrong, but if they do sellout then they still better realize that they'll need to do much more then this to keep people interested for the long haul," wrote Michael.
I think they are right in banking on 1000 fans of each promotion showing up the first time out, but you are right that these shows have probably bought this interpromotional series a one way ticket on the nonstop to nowhere.
"Do you think each promotion actually has their own audiences anymore (aside from maybe a few hardcores) or they just swim in the same pool? I'd think it would be the latter," wrote Michael.
AJW, JWP, Neo, and Jd' probably have many of the same fans because they have a similar style.

The first interpromotional matches are actually on 2/2 at Tokyo JWP Hall, but Yu-Yu vs. Toyota and Kansai vs. Wakizawa are 5 minute exhibitions so they will go the distance. Basically, these matches just give the women a chance to become more familiar with each other.
"If there's any sense with them whatsoever then Miyaguchi will flash Manami with less then 10 seconds left in that match, "exihibition" or not. I guess Wakizawa lasting 5 minutes with Kansai will help her somewhat but I'm hardly impressed with these line-ups," wrote Michael.
I can't see any benefit in giving away a result in a 5 minute match before 500 or however few people JWP Hall holds. I could see where you would want Lan to take it to Toyota to show she is "on her level," but giving away a first that should be so important here doesn't do them any long term good. The way Toyota probably won't put Lan over won't do them any long term good either, but if they were to do it right then Manami would have to show that Lan is someone we need to take seriously on the top level.
"I think it's safe to have Miyaguchi pin her either here or in the tag match because it wouldn't be a decisive win that would hurt Manami in anyway and you can have Miyaguchi dog her about it. What it would do however is the most important thing you can do, and that's get people talking and not knowing what to expect. That's usually what draws in the casuals. The hardcores will come no matter what, but my focus would be on getting as much buzz I could among the casuals and figure out how to get them in and keep them," wrote Michael.
As you know, the flash pins on Aja haven't done anyone a bit of good, and all the unpredictable results ARSION was doing didn't lead to any more fans attending their shows. I agree that these first two shows are WAY TOO PREDICTABLE, but you could get a lot more out of a real surprise win in tag like Azumi over Hotta or Lan over Toyota than a corny flash pin.

1/19:

1/19 Chiba Funahashi Shin Undo Koen Taiikukan 2,600 sellout
AJW & SPWF supposedly popped a big crowd for a show without any marquee matches. AJW's top match was the semifinal where Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito went over Yumiko Hotta & Miho Wakizawa when Ito pinned Wakizawa, of course, at 18:01 following a diving footstomp.
The main event saw Arashi & Tachihikari & Nobutaka Araya down Ichiro Yaguchi & Shinigami & Mongolman when Arashi used a diving body press on Mongolman at 20:34.

1/10:

1/10 Tokyo Meguro-ku Zen Nihon Joshi Puroresu Jimusho (office) Garage 200 sellout
Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta had their first rematch, but, of course, in a location this small, the title wasn't on the line and they went to a 10:00 draw.

1/4:

1/4 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,000 sellout
After 37 long months, Manami Toyota finally regained the WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken. Toyota defeated Yumiko Hotta with her Japanese ocean drop at 21:01 to become the 50th champion. The fans "wished for a revival of flying heavenly maiden Toyota," so they gave her a standing ovation. Going back to Toyota as champion is a good move because the promotion has totally stagnated since she lost the title. While Toyota isn't the draw that she used to be, Hotta was never a draw and never will be a draw. Kandori was a draw, but she had the title for a year and only drew two good sized houses for AJW. Of course, the problem for AJW is still the same as it's been for the past few years, no matter who the champion is there aren't really any challengers for her. Due to this, I expect Toyota to have her second long reign, which means Hotta's stock will fall like Toyota's did while Hotta was champion. This has always been a major problem for AJW. Most of the time the champions would have long reigns, but the promotion usually dispensed of them at the time the lost the title instead of having them fight hard to try to regain their former glory.
Kumiko Maekawa made her third successful defense on the All Pacific Senshuken, downing Miho Wakizawa at 16:12 following her kakato otoshi. It's good that Wakizawa was given two big matches coming out of the tag league, but she was pinned three times in them so they need to think about getting her a decent win on the next big show to avoid her falling back to her previous level of mediocrity.
Chaparrita ASARI lost to the other ZAP today, T, at 14:21 following the hell smasher.

1/3: Watanabe & Maekawa Avenge Tag League Defeat

1/3 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,920
Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa made their first successful defense of the WWWA Sekai Tag Senshuken, defeating the team the lost to in the final of Tag League The Best '99, Manami Toyota & Miho Wakizawa 2 falls to 1. The first fall was the long fall, with Maekawa pinning Wakizawa following her kakato otoshi at 17:07. Toyota evened it at one when she pinned Maekawa in her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold at 6:57. Watanabe then put Wakizawa away with her hell smasher at 2:57. I don't like this booking. Watanabe & Maekawa defending is fine, but why did Wakizawa need to lose two falls without even getting the pin for her team. We know Manami is winning the WWWA title tomorrow and we know that Wakizawa is not winning the All Pacific, so couldn't Wakizawa at least have scored a pin over Maekawa here. Toyota pinning Maekawa does nothing for her, but Wakizawa has a big credibility problem, even against Maekawa, so what doubt about her winning tomorrow did these results place in anyone's minds. After the match, Las Cachorras Orientales, the team Watanabe & Maekawa won the titles from on 12/8, confronted the current champions and challenged them to a Kanaami (cage) Death Match. On 9/21/97, three of the same four wrestlers had the best cage match ever. Although Ito is a lot better than Maekawa and LCO were better at that point than they are now, this would still be an excellent or better match.
Earlier in the show, LCO beat Miyuki Fujii & Kayo Noumi when the ref stopped the match at 17:58.
Aside from LCO, AJW used on other outsider, Chaparrita ASARI. ASARI put ZAP I over following a diving footstomp at 15:50. This is why she's better off in ARSION. ARSION probably wouldn't have ASARI beat a wrestler of I's size and calibre, but if she was never going to beat I, they simply would never have the match. That's why ASARI means something in ARSION, because they don't throw her out there as fodder for people like Aja.

12/26: 4 Is Manami's Magic Number

12/26 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,760
Manami Toyota should be nicknamed Mrs. AJW League because this year she won both of their annual leagues, the Japan Grand Prix & Tag League The Best, for a record 4th time. After being depushed in 1997 & 1998 coming off losing the WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken to Kyoko Inoue on 12/8/96, Toyota has finally bounced back somewhat of late by defeating Yumiko Hotta to win the Japan Grand Prix and finally avenging the title loss to Kyoko Inoue. Toyota's hot streak continued today, but as was the case with the Japan Grand Prix, it wasn't easy.
The final two Tag League The Best league matches were held today. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi beat Yumiko Hotta & Miyuki Fujii to finish with 5 points when Takahashi used her Nana rocker on Fujii at 18:22. Toyota & Miho Wakizawa and the current WWWA tag champions, Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa, went into the final league match tied with 4 points. The winner would have advanced to the finals, but the match went to a 30:00 draw, forcing a triangular final.
Toyota & Wakizawa won their first match in the final over last year's champions, Nakanishi & Takahashi, when Toyota pinned Takahashi in her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold at 4:47. This was an extremely unfortunate match because Nakanishi broke a bone in her right foot joint, so Takahashi had to go 2-1.
Toyota & Wakizawa defeated Watanabe & Maekawa to win the league in a really short match where Wakizawa took out All Pacific title holder Maekawa at 1:41 with a kubigatame (neck hold). This was the first time the 20-year-old Wakizawa has won the tag league. It looks like AJW is actually going to try to follow this up by continuing to push her. By beating the champs, Toyota & Wakizawa earned a shot at the WWWA Sekai Tag Senshuken on 1/3 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. Wakizawa's win over Maekawa also set her up to challenge Maekawa for the All Pacific Senshuken on 1/4 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. On the same day, Toyota will challenge Yumiko Hotta for the WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken. Having Toyota vs. Hotta on 1/4 shows how far AJW has fallen when it comes to drawing power because this show is held across the street from the Tokyo Dome and you have 60,000 fans waiting for the NJ show to start, so AJW only needs a small percentage of those fans to decide to attend two shows in the same day to sell this show out. In any case, I expect Toyota to finally regain the title here, and hopefully she can put on a good enough show to win back a few of the fans that are down to only attending the one AJW show a year before the NJ Tokyo Dome.
Before the tag league matches, Jd's The Bloody made Kayo Noumi submit to a henkei stretch at 13:58 and Takako Inoue drew Zap I

12/19:

12/19 Meguro-ku Zen Nihon Joshi Puroresu Jimusho (office) Garage 230 sellout
AJW had a two match show plus a crummy midget match. Manami Toyota & Miho Wakizawa moved up to 4 points in Tag League The Best '99 by defeating Kaoru Ito & Kayo Noumi when Wakizawa fisherman bustered Noumi at 18:51. Momoe Nakanishi won a 6 woman battle royal, pinning Tomoko Watanabe at 12:57 with a kaiten ebigatame. The other participants were Takahashi, Hotta, Maekawa, & Fujii

12/12:

12/12 Chiba Shonan Machi Sogo Taiikukan 820
Let's face it, this promotion is just hopeless. It took them all of 4 days to kill Ayako Seki off. She was pinned by Momoe Nakanishi in 6:57 with a kaiten ebigatame (sunset flip). When you lose to someone that isn't even 5 foot and in might not even weigh 100 pounds (they claim she weighs more, but I have my doubts), so much for your monster gimmick. It's not that I think she should be beating all the stars already, but let her beat Fujii, Takahashi, Noumi, and Wakizawa until she's ready for the bigger matches. Either that or put her in tag and have her partner get pinned. Momoe worked two singles matches today, getting pinned in Yumiko Hotta's pyramid driver at 13:57, The main event saw the tag champs, Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa beat Manami Toyota & Nanae Takahashi in a non-title match when Maekawa pinned Takahashi at 19:46 following her kakato otoshi

12/8: Toyota is QUEEN OF QUEENS, Can Seki Become Monster of Monsters?

Ayako Seki picture from Nikkan Sports

12/8 Tokyo Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo Dai-nitaiikukan 3,880:
When all is said and done, if things go the way AJW plans, the most important match of AJW's final big show of the year will have been the opener. The reason is AJW debuted their new monster, Ayako Seki who is 172cm tall and weighs 105kg (Nobuhiko Takada is listed at 96kg). Since she's so young, she's only going to get bigger. As publicity stunts to show off her power, Seki recently pulled four buses and tore a 1,360 page telephone directory as publicity stunts. In her debut, Seki made short work of Miyuki Fujii, pinning her in 4:23 following a diving body attack. If Seki is even half decent, I think she'll be out of the prelims fairly quickly because AJW is beyond desperate for a new star and her size should allow the good workers to mask her liabilities.

The match that drew the crowd was the final singles match of the century between Manami Toyota and Kyoko Inoue billed as QUEEN OF QUEENS ~90's FINAL BEST BOUT~. These two have had several great matches that are already legendary for their amazing work rate, including the fastest paced 60:00 draw in history on 5/7/95. Their two singles matches in 1996 for Toyota's WWWA Sekai Single drew AJW's best crowds that year, but they hadn't had a rematch since Kyoko won the title from Toyota on 12/8/96. Three years later, Toyota finally avenged that loss, pinning Kyoko at 23:03 in her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold.

In the semifinal, Yumiko Hotta not surprisingly defended her WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken, beating the non-credible challenger Takako Inoue in a mere 13:29. This was Hotta's first defense. The other title match saw Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa win the WWWA Sekai Tag from Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda in a 2/3 fall match. Mita pinned Watanabe with her Death Valley bomb in 1:57 to win the first fall, but Maekawa pinned Shimoda at 8:03 following her kakato otoshi (heel kick) and Watanabe pinned Mita at 18:57 after something known as a hellsmash (?). LCO had some excellent or better matches against the unit of Ito, Watanabe, & Maekawa in 1997, so like Toyota vs. Kyoko, it should at have at least been a very good match.

The rest of the results were:
Lioness Asuka over Nanae Takahashi in a mere 6:26.
In what should have been the match of the undercard, Kauro Ito & Momoe Nakanishi over Sumie Sakai & Megumi Yabushita in 15:40 when Momoe used her Dragon suplex hold on Sakai.
Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi beat Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi when ASARI used her sky twister press on Noumi at 12:56

Keith Watanabe's report:

This show was the shit! The undercard wasn't that bad, but that tag match between LCO vs Watanabe and Maekawa as well as the Toyota vs. Kyoko matches were awesome! Shimoda is probably one of the best performers I've ever seen live, and Toyota is the best. The tag match had a ton of brawling; went up the aisles like 4 times. At one point Shimoda took Watanabe up towards the merchandising area and brawled up there. Hard to see what happened, but Watanabe and Maekawa did blade jobs at some point in time. Match was unbelievably heated. I was ticked that LCO didn't win though. They are the best tag team around right now hands down. This is the 3rd time I've seen them wrestle live and they rule hard! The Toyota vs. Kyoko match was great because they did a lot of signature spots, but Toyota did this insane missile dropkick from the second story balcony! She was trying to go for a new move she was going to beat Kyoko with, but Kyoko is too heavy these days so she pinned her with the reliable JOCSH. Also, once she kicked out of the Victoria Driver (nasty move!) I knew she'd win, but it was even more special when she did win. Toyota is just the best performer I've ever seen, and she proved it once again. Afterwards she issued a challenge for the WWWA belt against Hotta and Hotta accepted the challenge. I expect Toyota to finally get what she deserves. Takako vs Hotta was disappointingly short, but I was really into it. Takako did a kind of shooter gimmick, but used her shock stick a lot to intimidate. Kosugi was petitioning to have a re-match against Shark during the show. So she, Abe and others were there promoting Jd'. Overall, awesome show.

12/5/99:

12/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,420
Yumiko Hotta & Manami Toyota defeat Momoe Nakanishi & Miho Wakizawa when Toyota pinned Momoe for seemingly the hundredth time this year in 17:54 with her Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold. Kaoru Ito & Kayo Noumi got their first win in Tag League The Best '99, defeating Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa when Ito pinned Maekawa in 18:31 following her diving footstomp. Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita got another win over Takako Inoue when Shimoda pinned Takako's lowly partner, Miyuki Fujii, with a Tiger driver at 16:28.

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