The original JWP closed down in January 1992 after five years and five months. The new JWP launched in April, followed by LLPW in August. JWP delivered consistently good matches at the top of the card thanks Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai. They wrestled a different style to Zenjo, slow gradual builds that would hopefully all pay off at the end. Due to their tiny roster size the matches were always stretched out as long as possible, which always made the undercards a drag with juniors being sent out there to work 20 minute matches. LLPW started later, and got off to a disappointing start. I liked what they going for, with less emphasis on high spots and trying to inject some hatred into the matches, but it didn't translate into any particularly good matches in the three LLPW shows I watched from 1992. The league had the talent with the likes of Harley Saito, Miki Handa, Shinobu Kandori and Noriyo Tateno capable of having good matches, even, Utako Hozumi, Eagle Sawai and Rumi Kazama could be good with the right opponent but in the three shows I watched, the matches were at best, decent.

All Japan Women continued to on from 1992. Everything seemed better; attendance numbers, booking and match quality. Mariko Yoshida became the breakout star, the new Korakuen favorite. She was a lot of fun, had flashy high spots, charisma, could sell sympathetically and created the most exciting near falls. Unfortunately, just as she seemed like she was about to break out of the micard, she got injured and would spend the next 2 years on the shelf. Kyoko Inoue was just as popular as she was in 1992, and she started to hit her peak as a wrestler. Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada had a successful rivalry with each other whilst being the tag team champions. Their singles match in June and August were amongst the best singles matches of they year, but even they pale in comparison to the classic on November 26 interpromotional WWWA Tag Team title match against JWPs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki. On March 20, 1992 in Korakuen Hall, Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota defeated Aja Kong & Bison Kimura for the WWWA World Tag Team Titles, and Akira Hokuto announced an expedition to Mexico. In Mexico, Hokuto formed Las Cachorras Orientales with Etsuko Mita. Hokuto changed up her look accordingly to become more feminine. On May 24, Hokuto returned to Japan and astonished everyone with her new look. Hokuto was fighting as a “free woman”, removed from the roles of babyface and heel. On July 15, Mima Shimoda became the third member of the group.

Also on July 15, FMW's Eriko Tsuchiya and Yoshika Maedomari challenging All Japan Women, kicking off the interpromotional rivalry. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto entered FMW's Yokohama Stadium event in September and faced Combat Toyoda & Megumi Kudo. Bull & Hokuto won the match, and everything went fine. The post-match was another story, however. The relationship between Zenjo and FMW deteriorated immediately when Bull made a microphone appeal, “If you want to see more of us, come to the Zenjo ring”. The reason was that FMW forbade anyone except Onita to make microphone appeals to the audience. Zenjo was planning a big All-Star event in Yokohama Arena for April 1993 to commemorate the 25th anniversary, and held a Pre-All-Star event at the Kawasaki City Gymnasium on November 26. FMW and JWP participated in the event, LLPW were undecided but agreed to come and watch the show as invited guests. The main event of the show saw a classic match with Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki of JWP challenging Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada for the WWWA World Tag Team Titles. The JWP team came up short, but the match put them on the map and set the stage for the big show in April. In the semi-main event, Aja Kong finally defeated Bull Nakano to win the WWWA World Single Title with her retiring ally, Bison Kimura in her corner. Meanwhile, Akira Hokuto defeated Kyoko Inoue on the undercard to win the All Pacific Title for the second time. The match was one of the best of the year, but completely overshadowed by the post-match challenge to LLPW Shinobu Kandori who was sitting in the crowd.

1992 was an incredible year in joshi puroresu, most specifically, All Japan Women, and with the interpromotional matches kicking off later in the year, and the build to the 25th Anniversary, All-Star Dream Slam in full swing, things were only just heating up.

1/4/92 AJW IWA World Women's Title Match: Kyoko Inoue vs. Akira Hokuto 24:53. Kyoko was wearing a mask for this, similar to the Vader mask so at least it didn't hide her facial expressions. She ditched it during the match, and it was never seen again, which was a good choice. This match had one of the best openings salvos ever, just an intense and frantic scramble at the start, with stalemates and a dive tease from Kyoko before she got outsmarted and dumped outside, with Hokuto scoring the first big blow with a plancha. Kyoko hurt her leg and sold it, which led to the mat phase where Hokuto worked over the knee for a while. There was opportunity to work the knee angle throughout the match, in favor of the usual sleepers and stretching later. Kyoko came back with her usual holds, and even managed to do the Romero Special properly. Her second control segment was better, although short, because she had some focus, going for Hokuto's arm. Hokuto came back, and had a couple of attempts at a piledriver, which saw Kyoko almost pin her before she hit one. Hokuto used a diving body attack, which Kyoko rolled through. Kyoko did a fallaway slam to dump Hokuto outside, and hit a slingshot to the outside. Kyoko maintained control in the ring, hit her run up elbow drop and put Hokuto in a sharpshooter. Kyoko continued trying to grind Hokuto down, but struggled to hold her down. Hokuto ended up slapping her way out of the situation. A pair of nasty kneel kicks, and missile dropkicks got a near fall. Hokuto went back to stretching to wear Kyoko down some more. Kyoko came back though, and used her slingshot, but changed it to a kick this time. It was less effective, as she missed her run up elbow afterward, and Hokuto's timing on the move was late as possible, which looked amazing. Hokuto went up and tried something, but Kyoko hurled her down and gave her a giant swing. She couldn't finish with that, so she went for the Niagara Driver, but Hokuto got a reprieve on the ropes, and fired back with a German Suplex. Kyoko tried the slingshot elbow, but got dropkicked and bailed outside. Hokuto quickly followed up with her somersault plancha. Both sold that one and struggled their way back in. Kyoko was in second, but gave herself enough time to recover to get a burst in. She dove over the top rope and hit a German Suplex for a near fall. She tried to follow it with her Mongolian Chop, but Hokuto clutched onto her and belly to belly suplexed her. Hokuto did one of the nastiest Tiger Driver's you'll ever see. A powerbomb followed that wasn't any less vicious. Kyoko somehow survived both. Hokuto followed up with a Tiger Suplex, but Kyoko didn't really go over for it. Hokuto hit her somersault dive in the ring, but missed a second one. Kyoko did a Texas cloverswing and hit the Niagara Driver to get the win, which was a little out of nowhere, and somewhat anticlimactic given how it was set up, and the viciousness of Hokuto's big run that preceded it. That minor complaint aside, this was an exceptional match with great pacing. Hokuto led another classic, and Kyoko was more than up to it. She got a win over the company #2, and now her work was finally catching up to her popularity (I say finally, but Kyoko was still a junior here technically, and was already one of the best workers in the league already). ****1/4

1/5/92 AJW All Japan Tag Title Match: Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs. Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko 10:03 of 18:44. This was good junior action. What they lacked in skill, they made for with fire and urgency. Sakie and Takako were the lesser halves of their teams, but had some memorable encounters, particularly when they got into a spat and slapped each other. Though it was a fast paced spot match, Malenko's submission work was really good, and put over well, particularly the kneebar she put on Takako. They did all kinds of big near falls at the end with the partners making frantic saves. Malenko was mostly good, and certainly game to try anything, but couldn't pull off everything, most notably blowing an assisted dive over the top rope which saw her crash into the apron. I wish they just let her do stuff she was good at instead of trying to turn her into a spot machine like everyone else, or worse, the lucha stuff they had her doing later. They did bring it back to her submissions though, and she submitted Yoshida with a sleeper hold. ***1/2

1/5/92 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Kyoko Inoue & Toshiyo Yamada 7:10 of 9:13, 5:33 of 8:04, 8:52 of 14:37. Kyoko and Yamada won the tag league, defeating Jungle Jack, so they got a title shot at them. Aja was in a mood, hurling chairs around and throwing one of the announcers as she made her entrance. They didn't waste any time jumping Kyoko and Yamada as they were making their entrance either. They didn't let them get out of the blocks, and Yamada got isolated and thrashed in the ring. She finally caught a kick on Bison and made the hot tag. Kyoko was a house afire with the crowd chanting for her. She killed her own momentum by putting her holds on Aja though. Aja powered out eventually, and Kyoko got worked over as well. Yamada and Kyoko next found their advantage double teaming Bison. Yamada hit her kick from the top rope, but Aja interrupted the pin with an oil can. That took the fall into a great finish where Kyoko got the oil can and laid into Aja with it while Yamada drilled her with head kicks. It took some time, but they eventually knocked Aja out long enough to finish Bison with a double team powerbomb. Bison came back on Kyoko with Bison hitting a diving headbutt, which had a good touch with Aja making her way into the ring in case it failed. It didn't, but Kyoko bailed out, which wasn't a good idea since Aja met her on the outside and slammed. Bison went for some sort of dive and splattered herself on the floor as Kyoko moved. Aja was mauling Yamada in the crowd while this was going on, so Kyoko dragged Bison in the ring and tried to capitalize. Bison made it back though, and chained together Bison chops. Aja finished killing Yamada and poured some water on her, then came back to help Bison finish of Kyoko. Kyoko survived one double team, but fell to a flying headbutt. Aja continued to dominate into the third fall, and Kyoko tried to come back with a slingshot elbow where she slipped and Aja nailed her in the back. Yamada was next to her, and assisted her by softening the blow, but they tumbled out together, leaving them both open for Bison and Aja to both hit a planchas. The outside beating continued briefly until Yamada and Kyoko reentered the ring. The best part here was Yamada teeing off on Aja with kicks. It looked like she'd put the monster down, and her and Kyoko set up for Yamada's kick from the top rope. Kyoko thought it was too easy though, and took her eyes off Aja to check Bison wasn't coming in. Aja blocked the kick, and then wiped out Kyoko with a uraken, Bison did come in, and they double suplexed Yamada. She survived that, and they went into the actual finish, which was a powerbomb from the top turnbuckle that took two attempts to complete. This was definitely a match that was too long, but that didn't matter because with Fuji TV editing 10 minutes off it, it seemed right for them. While not always the most interesting match, each fall built logically and nicely and each of them had great finishes, even if they third fall finish was blown. Signifantly better than their TLTB '91 matches, and Yamada and Kyoko used their good double teams and left the goofy ones at home. This was the end of the two as a regular tag team anyway (just as I was beginning to enjoy them). ****

1/26/92 JWP (Original): Mayumi Ozaki & Harley Saito vs. Dynamite Kansai & Eagle Sawai 13:06. The final JWP match is a reminder of how good the promotion was. Lots of good action, plenty of good stuff from everyone. Eagle got a chance to shine in this one since she had the smaller Ozaki to beat up, and both were really good. Kansai was having a great time kicking the crap out of Ozaki. The highlight was Kansai vs. Harley, as it usually has been, sadly it's the last time, as they went in opposite directions when the new companies formed. They all hugged and cried after the match, with the whole roster joining for a final bow as “Bye, Bye, JWP” flashed across the screen. ***1/2

2/1/92 AJW: Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano. No match, I don't think the bell even rang until they were trying to break it up. They just fought for 7-8 minutes. It's an angle worth watching if you're interested in their rivalry or just want to see a building get trashed. They did a great job of making you want to see them in a proper match again, and the message was clear, Aja was ready to surpass Bull. This was just a violent brawl, they went all over the building and demolished all of the seating they came across. They eventually got in the ring and hit each other with weapons. If the referee got in their way, they just laid him out. They both went for dives and missed. Everyone eventually piled in when Aja started biting Bull's face to put a stop to it.

3/7/92 AJW: Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto 8:06 of 14:33. This was a condensed Nakano vs. Hokuto match, but only just disappointing given that these two could have a match of the year contender if given the time. This was when the Matsunaga's had pretty much given up on Hokuto, and she was way down the list as far as popularity with the fans went. Bull used a lot of submissions and ground Hokuto down early. Hokuto came back with her fiery hot moves, and ended things strongly with some really good near falls. Hokuto hit the Northern Light's Bomb. Bull finished with something I've never seen before, she did a dragon sleeper and Hokuto tried to spring off the ropes, so Bull basically turned it into a reverse DDT and won with that. ***1/4

3/7/92: AJW UWA World Tag Title Match: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Suzuka Minami & Yumiko Hotta 22:47. This one took a little while to get good, but never really got full. Each team had a control segment. Yamada and Toyota didn't bring much to the table, unless you like watching Toyota blow through every leg submission she knows. The one with Minami and Hotta working over Yamada was quite good and fun to watch, with tempo switches and interference spots. The match really picked up when Toyota got the hot tag. She was in at a million miles an hour, injecting her excitement into the match with her dropkick spam on Minami, and hitting suplexes and a rolling cradle. Yamada followed up with her kicks, nailing her in the face with one. Minami superplexed Toyota and Hotta took over with kicks, at least one potato, which had Toyota checking on her teeth, and high impact moves. Minami followed up with a flying knee and a flying kick. Toyota came back on Hotta, and tagged Yamada, but Hotta got the better of her. They all hit spots on each other, and from here they went wild. Toyota and Yamada did the double backdrop suplex from the middle turnbuckle. Toyota missed the moonsault and Yamada saved Toyota. Hotta fought them off both, but ended up outside with Toyota hitting a plancha, Minami missing a tope that hit Hotta, and Toyota doing her quebrada, which Hotta avoided. Toyota tried to superplex Hotta, but got thrown off, then Hotta missed a dive. Toyota got a near fall with her Japanese Ocean Suplex. Minami cut Toyota off, and Hotta did a Jumbo Suplex from the middle turnbuckle, which didn't quite come off. Hotta hit a Tiger driver with Minami adding a flying headbutt. Toyota came back with a backwards dropkick, and hit a moonsault. Then Yamada added a flying kick, and that finished Hotta. This was quality, the heat section on Yamada in the early going was really good, and it the final third was wild with all kinds of spots and exciting near falls. ****

3/20/92 AJW 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title & UWA World Tag Title Match: Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota 11:13, 10:01, 15:59. The first fall was really solid, good action. The challengers needed to hit and run. When they did, they found success with their bursts, but Jungle Jack overmatched them, slowing things down, and working them over. Everyone was good here. The big moment saw Aja using her oil can, which got her booed, until it backfired, and she wiped out Bison with it. This led to a hot finish where Toyota was able to get a Manami Roll and they did a double sideslam. Jungle Jack recovered, attempting the double team Toyota, but Bison missed her flying headbutt, and Toyota hit her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex to take the first fall. Jungle Jack's response to losing the first fall was to drag the challengers all over the building and unleash a beating using tables and chairs. Destruction. Bison tried to finish Toyota in the ring while Aja had Yamada at the back of the building, but Toyota wouldn't die. Aja did a piledriver to Toyota on a chair, and the referee wouldn't count the fall, so she just plundered her with it. This was a massacre. Toyota hit a German Suplex on Bison and scrambled to make the hot tag. Yamada scored some kicks on Bison, and kicked her teeth out while she doing it. She was also competitive with Aja until she walked into a uraken. Aja caught Toyota running in, and broke off the pin to slam her, which was neat, but that only ensured the Toyota and Yamada would get crushed some more. They both got stacked in the corner and avalanched before Aja finished with a super Ligerbomb on Yamada. Yamada was at Aja's mercy, and Aja worked her over. Toothless Bison came in to continue with a little extra aggression on Yamada, but Toyota was the one who made her night even worse. She tried to give Toyota a superplex which Toyota countered in midair, but landed on her face. Toyota hit her dropkick spam, and it was back to Yamada. Bison received another kicking, it was either whiff or potato. Bison caught another bad one to the head, and was noticeably trying to block the blows with her hand. Yamada put a stretch muffler on, and Aja drew some more boos for breaking that up, but this was getting needlessly long. They didn't need another control segment, they needed to go home. Toyota followed it up, and did sloppy transition with Bison, where Bison put her in a half crab. Aja and Toyota lifted things, but their segment was filled with execution problems. Bison and Yamada followed them with a good exchange of kicks and chops. Yamada evaded an Aja dive, and the challengers took over again. Aja ate kicks from Yamada from the top rope, and avoided a moonsault from Toyota, but she recovered to rolling cradle Aja. Aja kept fighting back against the double teams and dives. Yamada took Bison out with a plancha, which left Aja and Toyota. Toyota tried to finish with German Suplexes, and Yamada came back in to help. The missed a sandwich lariat, but recovered to place Aja in the corner, albeit it took two attempts, to hit their double backdrop suplex to win the tag belts. This was a case of a brutally long match that was great for two and a bit falls, and then turned to garbage in the closing minutes, dragging along and getting sloppier until they finally limped to a (blown) finish. Toyota and Yamada celebrated like it was the biggest day of their life, while Aja was a good sport about the whole thing, trying to smash up one of the tag belts and attacking the new champions with a chair. ***3/4

4/3/92 JWP: Mayumi Ozaki & Cuty Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Hikari Fukuoka 23:09. This was the main event of the new JWP's first show. They had the right people in the match in terms of it being the two best homegrown wrestlers from the original JWP (Kansai and Ozaki), their popular idol wrestler (Cuty) and their future star (Hikari). Ozaki and Kansai were the best, holding the match together and providing most of the interesting moments. Cuty was there. She wore black instead of white. She was good with picking her spots and helping Ozaki. Hikari was eventually exposed. She did a good job throughout most of the match, and showed improvement since the original JWP. She contributed some good spots here, such as a corner sunset flip, the Yamazaki armdrag (which she did from the middle of the ropes), the cartwheel counter, but lost the plot towards the end when she failed to execute the dumb rolling cradle move and screwed up much of the finishing sequence with Ozaki. The match started out hot. Fukuoka hit a dropkick off Kansai's back to start the match. Ozaki did her springboard body press outside. Kansai threw her into the guardrail to eventually even the exchange. The slow build was good in the way that kept things interesting, and there was some loose focus even if it was never maintained for long. Kansai was the highlight, either steamrolling through her opposition or working them over, and when they got her down it felt like a big deal. She wasn't as intense as we saw in the Original JWP, particularly against Harley, but there was no reason for her to be when she was wrestling Ozaki and Cuty, who were junior ranked wrestlers coming into this. They worked to a hot finish with Fukuoka and Ozaki. Fukuoka wasn't up to pulling the finish off, but it was still alright thanks to Ozaki. Cuty and Kansai were outside fighting while Ozaki got the pin with her diving body press. Kansai got in Ozaki's face after the match, so Ozaki spat water at her, kicking off their rivalry. ***1/2

4/11/92 JWP 2 Count Fall Match: Dynamite Kansai vs. Plum Mariko 16:10. JWPs second show saw the first two count fall match. The rules worked to give Plum a chance against Kansai, and made the match feel more urgent. Kansai generally dominated the match, grinding Plum down or brutalizing her with kicks. Plum kept getting up, and would find a way back, whether it be a fast paced fight back or grabbing Kansai's foot to get a submission on. Later in the match, she got on roll. She hit a fisherman's suplex for a one count, and Kansai quickly got up and looked to continue mauling her, but Plum dumped her and hit a planch, then a dropkick off the apron to the floor. She was able to dump Kansai over the guard rail and blasted her with chair shots. A missile dropkick in the ring that followed made a close one count. Kansai got back on top and Plum got another run in, and they both looked to put each other away. Plum survived the flying headbutt, and kept trying, but her runs would get cut off, and Kansai had something stronger to come at her with, eventually catching her with a backdrop suplex and a sidebuster to get the win. ***3/4

4/25/92 AJW All Japan Tag Title Match: Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Mariko Yoshida & Takako Inoue 18:13. Rematch from 1/5/92 where Malenko & Hasegawa won the All Japan Tag Titles. This was another hard working, quality match. Takako and Yoshida mainly dominated Sakie early, and Malenko would come in and take over on the mat now and then. In the second half, it turned into a hot match, starting with Malenko and Takako slapping each other and firing up. Lots of exciting spots towards the end. Malenko was the most solid of the bunch here, the best technically, while Yoshida was the most exciting. Sakie struggled. She tried hard, and had the most ring time, but was blowing spots, which extended to missing the finish. Takako and Yoshida regained the belts. They hit a double DDT from the second turnbuckle, and Sakie was supposed to kick out but didn't, so the ref stopped counting anyway. Takako finished her on the next move with an Aurora Suplex. ***3/4

4/25/92 AJW IWA World Title Match: Kyoko Inoue vs. Manami Toyota 24:36. This was the first of the supposedly great Kyoko vs. Toyota matches from 1992 – 1996. The TV version, which showed 9:13 of the 24:37 duration, made the match look like a mindblowing spotfest that never slowed down. I've said before, and will say again that Fuji TV were untouchable when it came to clipping matches for TV. Unfortunately, the full version wasn't that. The queen of spot blowing thankfully disappeared for this match and a good version of Toyota, who could execute, turned up. Kyoko still badly outworked Toyota because she actually put thought into what she was doing. She could match speed with Toyota, but always did it to outsmart Toyota and counter her, follow up with her own offense or try to wear her down with good submission work. Toyota busted her ass like she always did, but just came off like she trying to blow Kyoko away with no real game plan in mind, and that's eventually what happened. She went a million miles an hour and made her typically horrible comebacks that were too predictable and too fast. Toyota's selling on the mat wasn't bad while she was in the holds. She put over what Kyoko was doing, but she just counters Irish Whips, and in the process, gets regenerated back to 100%, which nullifies the matwork as even a temporary weardown. It's so predictable that, I suppose Kyoko is the stupid one for Irish Whipping her. The bad traits of Toyota had been on display throughout 1992, but none more than in this match because there was no senior to keep her under control. What redeems the match is the spots, and a great final five minutes. Starting with yet another Irish Whip comeback from Toyota, and then Kyoko getting her knees up on a Body Press, leading to the Giant Swing. Toyota kicked her way out of a Texas Cloverswing, and then killed Kyoko with dives to the outside. A tope, a plancha, and the quebrada, which was an incredible run of moves, probably overkill, but that's Toyota. In the ring, she partially blew a Tiger Suplex, which worked out for the best because it made the Kyoko comeback plausible after all those huge dives she'd been hit with. Kyoko set up the Niagara Driver, but Toyota countered it. Kyoko kept coming, and was able to hit it on the second try for a two count. Toyota came back off an Irish Whip (how else?), and hit a Japanese Ocean Suplex for two. Kyoko managed to chokeslam her, but when she tried to follow up, Toyota caught her in the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex to win. ***1/2

4/25/92 AJW WWWA World Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong 22:02. The classic battle of the two monsters. Their first major singles match since the cage match in 1990. Aja wasn't ready for Bull at that point, but she was now. The beginning was the hard hitting, no-sell opening with lariats and charges typical of these two. Aja got the upper hand with a quick dropkick, and won a brawl on the outside, busting Bull opened and proceeding to completely dominate her in the ring. Aja worked the cut and wore down Bull. She fought back a little, but Aja shut her down, eventually delivering three piledrivers. Aja's offense was slow and punishing. Bull was great at looking vulnerable, and played the underdog well, making this look 9 minutes of agony. She came back into the match and mounted a comeback. She pounced when Aja took too long to follow up after ramming her into the turnbuckle. In contrast, Bull delivered a better beating on Aja, but Aja wasn't as vulnerable. Bull hit a brainbuster and a pair of lariats, then took some revenge on the outside, which saw Aja juice as well. Bull worked her over and went for the cut in the ring. Aja fired up while Bull was throwing kicks and wildly lashed out with a pair of urakens, but they were easily avoided with the first outright missing, and the second one barely connecting. Bull just stayed on her with a lariat and a backdrop suplex. Aja kicked her way out of a straightjacket hold and immediately went for the oil can, flattening it over Bull's head. The referee wouldn't count the fall on that, but that wasn't the point. Aja was desperate to regain control, and that tactic worked. She hit a diving splash and a suplex before hitting three urakens, with Bull getting up slower after each one. Bull kept struggling her way up, but Aja kept knocking her down. Bull managed to reverse an Irish Whip and clobber Aja in the back. She knew she had to finish, so she went for the guillotine legdrop and got a near fall with it. Another one, this time the somersault version missed. Aja German suplexed her for a two count, then sliding kicked her out of the ring and hit a plancha. Aja looked to continue in the ring. She missed something, and then a waterwheel drop, which Bull tried to counter but didn't quite manage it, giving Aja another near fall. Aja went up and Bull shoved her outside, then went in for the kill with a tope, which hit. Somersault guillotine legdrop hit and only got two, leaving Bull in shock with a classic facial expression that said more than words ever could. There was only one thing left to do, and that was the moonsault to give Bull the win. Every bit the brutal war expected, with some great high spots thrown in. Bull carried the match and gave her best performance since her title defense against Hokuto. Aja wasn't that great here, but did what she needed to. The story came across throughout, and was put over in the post match. Bull was more of a survivor than a winner, and didn't celebrate the win. She just held her head and wanted to get out there to lick her wounds. ****1/2

5/13/92 JWP: Dynamite Kansai vs. Mayumi Ozaki 17:54. Their first match against each other, which was set up from the debut JWP show. Ozaki tried to take Kansai head on at the start, which only resulted in her eye getting swollen up when Kansai unleashed her kicks on her, and followed her outside to throw her into the guardrail. She was able to take Kansai down in the ring and grind her down a little, and get some revenge on the outside. Ozaki stayed in control until she gave Kansai enough room in the corner to land a kick, and then Kansai was back to kicking Ozaki around. Ozaki desperately went for a takedown, but Kansai shrugged her off and put her in a sharpshooter. Ozaki broke out of the Romero Special and turned it into a pin, which you don't see often, and fought back again, stomping at Kansai's head until she had to bail outside. Ozaki hit some nasty jumping kicks when Kansai returned. These were vicious, and there were a few potatoes thrown in. Ozaki had control, but only briefly. Kansai delivered a brutal short arm lariat, and then pulled up the mats outside to give Ozaki a piledriver on the exposed floor. Kansai tried her Splash Mountain and Ozaki armdragged her way out of it, only to get hit with another lariat. Kansai tombstoned her and missed a flying headbutt. Ozaki looked out of it, but struggled her way up, and hit her twisting dive for a near fall. Kansai looked for more kicks, but Ozaki avoided them, hit a missile dropkick and a Tequila Sunrise for a near fall. Ozaki kept trying, but go caught charging in, put on the top turnbuckle and superplexed down. Kansai backdrop suplexed Ozaki, and then appeared to whip her, but pulled her back in to deliver the Splash Mountain to put her away. These two would have better matches, but this was a good, stiff way to start. Ozaki fought hard, and had Kansai in trouble a few times. She wasn't afraid, but Kansai was a wrecking ball and overmatched her. ***1/2

5/24/92 AJW: Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Kyoko Inoue & Mariko Yoshida 16:00. Despite what people may think today, Kyoko was the most popular wrestler in the company at this point, and Yoshida was just about the second most popular. Kyoko insisted on Toyota starting with her, and they picked up where they left off from the previous month. Sakie and Yoshida slowed it down a little, with Sakie going for Yoshida's bandaged arm in a really good segment. Toyota tagged in and couldn't have cared less about any of that. She came and went off at a million miles an hour hitting her dropkicks. Kyoko and Yoshida were on the same page tying up Sakie in their holds. Toyota tagged in again, and was back to a million miles an hour, but now everyone conformed to her match. Toyota got stuck on the top rope and dumped out, and Yoshida hit a plancha. The remainder of the match was an all action classic spotfest to the end. Yoshida got double teamed, and Sakie and Toyota did stereo dives on her, then Sakie slaughtered Yoshida with a ton of rolling savate kicks. Yoshida managed to get out of there and Kyoko did the giant swing. Yoshida and Kyoko got their double teaming started on Toyota, but Kyoko got dumped outside, Yoshida kicked Toyota off the apron and went for a tope. Toyota moved, and her and Sakie did planchas. Toyota did her rolling cradle and a moonsault to Kyoko. Sakie hit Yoshida with a rolling savate kick from the second rope. Sakie wasn't whiffing her kicks here, which was a positive, though Yoshida probably wasn't feeling great from the potatoes. Yoshida tried to come back with her monkey flip, but got powerbombed, though she managed to get the best of Toyota. Sakie got lost on where they were in the match, and ended up standing in the corner waiting for Kyoko to do the Niagara Driver to Toyota, and when she tried to break it up with a lariat, Kyoko ducked it. Toyota Manami Rolled her way out of it. Sakie and Toyota tried double teaming, but Kyoko thwarted them. Yoshida gave the assist, and Kyoko pinned Sakie with a Niagara Driver. This was easily the best of the spotty Toyota tags up to this point in 1992. They were generally executing well, and it didn't overstay its welcome. ****1/4

5/24/92 AJW CMLL World Women's Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Toshiyo Yamada 15:26. This was the match Bull needed after the Aja match the month prior. A match where she could be the monster, against a lesser name who could give her enough of a fight. Bull methodically dominated Yamada for much of the match, bullying her on the mat, clubbing away, mauling her outside, standard Bull with a few spots thrown in. Yamada got some shots in early with her stiff kicks, but from there mostly just made minor comebacks. Yamada fired up after the outside mauling, and made a hot comeback on Bull, mainly utilizing her kicks. She used her stretch muffler and an octopus hold, but Bull just shrugged off the latter. Bull used the nunchakus when she made the comeback, but Yamada regained control and went back for a kicks. Bull levelled her with two lariats and a guillotine legdrop. She went up for another guillotine, but Yamada kicked her off. Yamada kept trying with her top rope kicks in the ring, but again got levelled with a lariat to the back of the head. She made Bull dig deep enough into her arsenal to pull out the tope, and then she finished her in the ring with a powerbomb and a second guillotine legdrop. Bull did her thing here, and did a solid job, but Yamada really made the match with an excellent underdog performance. ***1/2

5/24/92 AJW AKIRA & MITA vs. Aja Kong & Bison Kimura 19:30. AKIRA & MITA returned from Mexico with new gear, tans, warpaint, and makeup, apparently at the cost of half of their names. Though the AKIRA & MITA part wouldn't make it past this first match, the Las Cachorras Orientales name would. Aja wasn't much impressed by these two idiots, and didn't care what they did in Mexico. They announced themselves by dragging Jungle Jack outside and assaulting them with chairs, but the first control segment was Jungle Jack working over Mita. Not much beyond the usual Jungle Jack beating, Aja seemed to be taunting Hokuto with her heeling, and Mita added in some nice touches like screaming just before Aja would drop an elbow on her. Hokuto tagged in and started tearing up Bison with piledrivers until Aja saved her. Hokuto did the LCO pose with Mita and clawed at Aja's face, and Aja responded to that with a usual heel beating. The best part of the match was a little while after this when Bison had worked over Mita for a while. Mita avoided a Bison chop and knocked Aja off the apron, with Hokuto taking her out with a springboard dive. Mita was able to wear down Bison with some big moves for Hokuto to take over and put here away, but Aja was back by then, despite Hokuto hitting a great hammerlock backdrop suplex. Mita dragged Aja outside, and gave her a piledriver on the outside to neutralize her again. Bison fought back on Mita with a Bison chop, but there was no Aja to tag. Mita got a great near fall with a Fisherman's suplex, which everyone was buying, and for Mita to get any convincing near fall in this match was a great effort. Hokuto followed up with a savage missile dropkick, but Aja was back again to break up her pin. Mita kept Aja under control, and it looked like Hokuto was going to hit her Northern Light's Bomb, but Bison was able to slip around to her back and hit a German Suplex. Aja wasn't held back for long, tagged in and that put an end to Hokuto and Mita's chances. The finish was okay, but nothing special and pretty sloppy. Aja ran through Hokuto when she came in. Hokuto tried to rana out of the big powerbomb from the second rope, but it was mistimed. Aja did enough to force the tag and pummelled Mita, then legitimately knocked her silly with a uraken. Hokuto tried to dive in, but got swatted away. Aja tried the waterwheel drop, but it took two tries to do it, which didn't result in the most climactic of victories. It's a shame the finishing was such a mess, but it was quite the ride to get there, and fun to see LCO in their first match back in Japan. ***1/2

6/21/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92: Mariko Yoshida vs. Sakie Hasegawa 30:00. Yoshida was the most exciting wrestler of 1992, and it's no surprise that she was Korakuen's new favorite. She'd been having quality All Japan Tag title matches throughout the year, and in the Japan Grand Prix, was getting the chance now in singles matches. Yoshida and Sakie were both wounded, with Yoshida's elbow and Sakie's knee bandaged, and this is where the focus was during the first 10 minutes. They didn't do a lot in the first 10 minutes, it was mostly kept to the mat with some transition spots, but they put effort into their matwork and kept it interesting by varying their holds. The match really kicked off about 10 minutes in when Yoshida kicked Sakie off the top rope and started taking some risks. Yoshida wanted the big air attack, but her tope missed. Sakie went the other way, kicking Yoshida in the face with her rolling savate kicks. Yoshida managed to dump her outside and she wanted the tope again, but changed her mind and did a springboarded off the middle rope, and Sakie couldn't avoid it. In the ring, she did a run up dropkick and a fisherman's suplex. The crowd were firmly behind Yoshida, and you could have been fooled into thinking they were in a finishing sequence only 13 minutes in. The best part was they never overdid it, so when Yoshida slowed it back down by grabbing a headscissors, it didn't feel unnatural, just that she needed to do some more work to Sakie before she could try to put her away again. This was the pattern they followed throughout, and it worked effectively. They were getting strong pin attempts and keeping you from ever thinking about a draw. After some more time on the mat, Yoshida looked to increase the pace again, and they countered each other, and Sakie landed some more of her kicks, including a ridiculous one from the turnbuckle and tried to finish with suplexes, but Yoshida wouldn't stay down, and Sakie returned to grinding her down on the mat. Sakie hit a plancha as her next big spot, and once Yoshida came back in, she levelled her with multiple kicks in the ropes. These two, Sakie in particular, didn't have a vast array of moves like Kyoko or Toyota, but they used what they knew effectively, and the repeated spots always had drama because of they way they sold for each other. The 20 minute mark saw them exchanging pin attempts until Yoshida went back to Sakie's knee. Yoshida had a great ability of making every near fall against her look like she barely survived and she milked her kick outs for all they were worth. With five minutes left, both were getting too predictable for each other, tired and not setting things up, so they were more easily avoiding each others attacks. They tried a lot of things in the closing minutes, and it was mostly back and forth, grabbing what they could to try to put the other away, but it wasn't to be, and the time expired on them both. I won't say this match was too long because it wasn't, they filled their time really well, and got the pacing right. There was no point where I could say ‘they should have gone home here'. However, this match probably would have been a genuine classic with a 20 minute time limit, but it doesn't fall far short of that anyway. ****1/4

6/21/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92: Aja Kong vs. Bison Kimura 16:33. Jungle Jack fights again in the Japan Grand Prix, and Aja hadn't forgotten about their 1991 match. Aja gave Bison a brutal beating, as savage as she ever did. From the start, she hit an extremely nasty headbutt hat left Bison bleeding, mauled her on the outside with chairs and anything else not nailed down. Bison's selling was tremendous, of not only the beating she was taking, but the look on pain and anger etched on her face. She fought back just as aggressively, but she couldn't do any damage to Aja. Aja hit three piledrivers in the ring, and the way Bison tried to flail and frantically kick out of one of them was a neat touch that you never see anyone do. It was over halfway through the match before Bison even knocked Aja down and got some offense in. After some Bison chops, she went for revenge on the outside. The beating seemed to piss off Aja more than anything though, but Bison kept control once they returned to the ring, hitting more Bison chops. She got carried away though and did a German Suplex, which she hit but Aja landed on her head, crushing her and ending her run. Aja seemed to have an answer to most things Bison could do, but she needed to neutralize the chops, which she did when Bison tried to deliver one from the top rope and Aja kicked her in the chopping arm and put her in a submission. At that point, Bison was done. She found herself in a position to potentially get the upper hand, but couldn't use her chop so she had nothing, and Aja finished her off with a uraken, a chokeslam and a jujigatame, which saw the referee stop the match. Perhaps not the most dramatic brawl, due to Bison not being much of a threat, but this match wasn't really about that. It was about Aja destroying her tag team partner on the road to winning the JGP and ultimately challenging Bull again. It was a smartly worked stuff and a violent brawl. Aja let the hold sit for a while, but eventually pulled Bison up and raised her arm, which was a great moment as well. Sadly, this was Bison's last match until 1994. ****

6/21/92 AJW Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto 16:19. Entertaining glorified squash. Takako was too weak to be any threat and got massacred with piledrivers, suplexes, spin kicks and lariats until she was able to make a hot tag to Kyoko. Kyoko was stronger, and fared better with Hokuto, but once Takako tagged back in they crushed her and Kyoko on the outside. Bull did a cool shotgun lariat spot with Hokuto holding Kyoko on the ropes for her. Takako wasn't able to do much, but she showed fight and made some really good saves. Kyoko came close with her Niagara Driver on Hokuto, too close for Bull who interrupted the pin. Hokuto kicked Takako off the apron and Bull threw Kyoko outside. Hokuto hit her somersault plancha and a Northern Light's Bomb on Kyoko, which appeared to be the finish, but Takako somehow managed to save the match. However, Bull followed up with a guillotine legdrop while Hokuto got rid of Takako with a Northern Light's Bomb. ***3/4

6/21/92 AJW Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada 26:17. These two had held the WWWA World Tag Team championship for three months, yet their singles rivalry was still unresolved after two previous encounters ending in draws - first on 9/7/1991 and then on 1/4/92. Toyota's initial burst saw the Rolling Cradle before things slowed down a bit, that's the best way to start it because it gets the crowd going. The start was evenly contested with regular transitions back and forth. Yamada seemed to be taking control when she was laying in some incredibly stiff kicks until Toyota grabbed her foot and went for an Achilles Hold, refusing to release it even when Yamada reached the ropes, resulting in both wrestlers tumbling outside the ring, where Yamada had to kick and slap her way out of it. Toyota threw her into ringside chairs to put the exclamation point on it. In case it wasn't clear before, Toyota is ultra-competitive, and this was not a friendly match. Upon Yamada's return to the ring, Toyota executed a Manami Roll and spammed dropkicks looking to blow Yamada away. Yamada retaliated with another kick to the head, and laid in several more. Yamada fought back on an Irish whip where they both tried to lariat each other, and while Toyota was dazed, she was levelled with a kick, and several more followed. What was noticeable was that Toyota's comebacks here made sense, and they were paced properly. She fought back wildly with anger and pain etched on her face, instead of the mindless machine-like comebacks we had seen from her before, particularly in the Kyoko match in April. The next Toyota comeback came after Yamada had worked her over a little and fired off more kicks while Toyota was in the ropes. Toyota threw a wild right hand and launched an assault. Yamada tried to choke her from the apron to put a stop to it and Toyota fought and kicked her off, following up with a plancha, though she missed it. They countered each other in the ring, the best of the sequence saw Toyota landing on her feet from a top rope backdrop. Yamada caught the top rope enzuigiri, but she was unable to regain control yet with Toyota hitting a perfect quebrada and a moonsault. A missile dropkick ended up with Toyota in a Texas Cloverleaf, and then she just wore out Toyota with kicks while Toyota looked like she was in pure agony. The only real befuddling spot was Yamada going for a sleeper just before they started the final portion, which broke the escalation until Toyota made a quick comeback to get it back. I suppose it underscored Yamada's approach of wrestling with a safer mindset, while Toyota wrestled with raw emotion, however this had been established more effectively earlier. They did get into a great final segment from there though. They countered each other, Toyota hit German Suplexes as the toll of the match was starting to show. The fought on the top turnbuckle with both tumbling outside. Toyota recovered first and hit her top rope quebrada. Yamada blocked Toyota's subsequent Japanese Ocean Suplex attempt in the ring, and got her knees up on a moonsault. Yamada rallied with two flying enzuigiris but couldn't finish. Yamada went up the turnbuckle and Toyota did a full nelson suplex from that position. She tried the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, but Yamada slipped out and hit her Reverse Gory Bomb to finally get the win. Despite the defeat, Toyota refused to concede and demanded a rematch, setting the stage for a hair vs. hair showdown. Going from their lackluster match on 1/4 to this is an astounding turnaround. This time they got things right and delivered the match they were capable of. The pacing, the execution, the storytelling, all capped off with a great finish and the result was one of the best matches of the year. ****3/4

6/21/92 UNIVERSAL: Mariko Yoshida vs. Debbie Malenko 13:16. This was Yoshida's second match of the day after the 30 minute draw with Hasegawa. She wasn't short of energy though. They did what you'd expect from them and worked well together. They were working two different styles with Yoshida's high flying against Malenko's submissions. Malenko targeted Yoshida's injured arm and frequently went back to it, trying to keep Yoshida from doing her high flying, while Yoshida was always looking for her opening to quicken the pace to do her lucha spots. It wasn't always the smoothest match, but they worked well together. Because Yoshida can sell and convey pain well, and doesn't forget about it while she's making her comebacks, she made Malenko seem more threatening than she might have against some of the other girls who don't sell as well. Malenko did a couple of flying moves, but she wasn't trying to be a luchador here as the Matsunaga's had been trying to make her in All Japan Women - in fact, since it wasn't her strength, it was a high risk move that ended up costing her the match. This was rather by the numbers for Yoshida (though, by the numbers for Yoshida at this point was very good), but a worthwhile showcase for Malenko. ***1/2

6/27/92 AJW All Japan Title Match: Mariko Yoshida vs. Etsuko Mita 18:26. Despite being a great tag team wrestler, Mita had very few singles matches of high quality. I'm not sure this was her best, but it was her first. This was a mix of brawling early and wrestling, carried by Yoshida, who was on fire in 1992. Mita was okay by this point, and the heel persona she was embracing helped her along, but she was coming into this match with an injured knee. The start of the match saw Yoshida go after it, so Mita dragged her outside and used a chair on her. Yoshida got a great revenge spot later after hitting a plancha and going after Mita's knee with a chair in response. Yoshida's arm was bandaged so Mita went after that. Mita gave a fine heel beating and put over the knee well enough. Yoshida's sympathetic selling, as well as her ability to turn any regular near fall into a big near fall, made the match. The latter part of the match was a war of reversals, with neither being able to string together more than two moves before they'd get countered. Mita did a superplex and straightjacket fisherman buster, while Yoshida was hitting her cartwheels and flying attacks. Yoshida ended up winning with a DDT from the top and run up body press. Mita wasn't too happy, and attacked her with a chair after the match. ***3/4

7/5/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92: Kyoko Inoue vs. Mariko Yoshida 30:00. There were two Japan Grand Prix matches on this show from Korakuen Hall, and both were different, more light-hearted matches. The main event with Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota was the worst match they ever had together, with a lot of half assed action in the ring and wandering around every part of the building, but did serve as an interesting tour of Korakuen Hall. This match, on the other hand, was excellent. It started out light-hearted with a lot of playing up to the crowd and comedy spots. The crowd were firmly behind Yoshida at the start, which hurt poor Kyoko's feelings, so she left the ring until they started chanting for her. They worked fast paced exchanges with a lot of lucha flavor and comedy spots thrown in, which worked because they always fit the exchanges, as opposed to the stupid prop and gag comedy we see from ‘comedy' wrestlers incapable of doing anything else, and they had the charisma to be able to pull it off. The silliest spot they did saw the referee take a monkey flip from Yoshida by ‘accident', and when she was checking on the ref, Kyoko kicked her on top and counted a three count, and even that just seemed normal. It's impossible to watch the first 10 minutes of this without smiling. Kyoko was the technically brilliant clown, while Yoshida was the youngster who didn't really have a chance. Since Kyoko was taking her lightly, it allowed Yoshida opportunities to threaten, and as soon as she started threatening Kyoko, Kyoko became more serious and the comedy elements disappeared. Yoshida hit her flying splash and DDT from the top to get the ‘real' match going. Instead of telegraphing the draw, they hit most of their big stuff in the middle, so the draw wasn't really on your mind, then they slowed things down before coming back for a big finish. It was oddly structured, but it worked. They executed everything well, and it was an exciting match with a lot of great counters and near falls. With the time running out, they did a lot of quick cradles, roll-ups, and any other desperation moves. Kyoko took the upperhand hitting her giant swing and Niagara Driver, but the time ran out while she had pinned Yoshida. ****

7/9/92 JWP Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai 25:11. This was their second singles match of the year after their 5/13 match. There, Ozaki was fearless but overmatched. However, she learned a few things along the way that she'd build upon in the rematch. They built up great tension before the match even began. Ozaki tried taking it to Kansai at the start, but couldn't hold her for long. Her next tactic was to bait Kansai into a test of strength and kick her the face. Four of those and a one legged dropkick to the face did some damage, enough for Ozaki to start working over the arm, which along with opening up the potential submission, would be the key to her counter for the Splash Mountain. Kansai regained control, and launched a brutal barrage of kicks. The kicks were nasty enough, but Ozaki getting in fetal position and trying to cover up, only to have Kansai continue kicking her in the head made it look so much worse. Not just that, Kansai also hurled into the guard rail, trashing the ringside area, and after the brutal exchanges she'd grind down Ozaki with holds. Ozaki got annihilated for a third time. She might have been better equipped to wrestle Kansai, but those kicks were just too powerful. She managed to ground Kansai when Kansai took her foot off the gas, and this time, she tried to tear Kansai's arm off with a wakigatame, putting it on a dramatic angle that had Kansai screaming. Suddenly a submission seemed not only possible, but likely. Kansai further injured her arm while powering out of Ozaki's hold, and Ozaki remained relentless, stomping on her, and even getting some revenge for the earlier assault outside the ring. The way Kansai sold the arm was excellent. She couldn't hide the pain she was in, selling as if it was dislocated, but was never helpless, nor ceased looking dangerous. It was enough to make it a more even fight now. When Kansai re-entered the ring, she showed how dangerous she still was, snatching Ozaki up in a nasty powerbomb, and unleashing another barrage kicks, but this time she was slower due to the damage on shoulder damage. It was just enough for Ozaki to get enough of a reprieve and dump Kansai outside when she ascended the ropes. Ozaki hit her springboard dive, but Kansai caught her in mid-air while attempting a cannonball to once again snuff out Ozaki's charge. In the final segment, Ozaki had answers for two of Kansai's big moves, the Splash Mountain, which Kansai went for first was countered with an armdrag. The Northern Light's Suplex was countered into a DDT. The latter gave Ozaki the chance to fire everything she could at Kansai, but Kansai had answers of her own. They ended up fighting over a suplex, which saw Kansai thrust kicking Ozaki when she slipped behind her, leading to her second Splash Mountain attempt, but on the second one, Ozaki was able to turn her armdrag into a pin and get the win. The finish was so well built up that it didn't feel like Ozaki got lucky, as you do you with most flash pins, it felt like she thoroughly deserved the win. The only other plausible Ozaki victory would have been by arm submission, but I like the finish they went with. It was unique, and left more intrigue. One of the reasons it worked so well was because they didn't fill the finishing run with too many big moves. They did just enough. Had they overdone it then Ozaki's win would have felt like a fluke. This was an excellent slow burn match, and though putting on a long, gruelling match was part of the story, some of the segments may have taken a little too long to get going and could have been improved had some of the filler been trimmed from it. I liked that they kept repeating things that worked though, and building on them with everything paying off in a satisfying way. What they did here worked to the point of legitimizing Ozaki through the match alone in a plausible way, and making her a credible rival for Kansai going forward. ****

7/15/92 AJW All Japan Title Match: Sakie Hasegawa vs. Mariko Yoshida 15:56. Yoshida had just wrestled in a 15 minute match directly before this, defending the All Japan tag titles. Yoshida did another great job of leading Sakie through a really good match. It was better than their Japan Grand Prix match in that sense, and also assisted by being half the length, which suited them. Yoshida made all aspects of the match with her selling and flashy burst offense. Both went for the same targets as last time, Yoshida's shoulder and Sakie's leg. Sakie did some good work to Yoshida's shoulder, her holds were good, and she was throwing savate kicks to it. She had intensity. However, her lack of offense was more apparent here, and she was out of control with her savate kicks, either completely missing them or potatoing Yoshida, which resulted in Yoshida's mouth getting busted. That extended to the finish, which wasn't so great either, as Sakie won with a single rollng savate kick, which was overshot, that came not so long as Yoshida had survived five of them. Despite this, it was another memorable match for them. ***3/4

7/15/92 AJW CMLL World Women's Title Match: Bull Nakano vs Akira Hokuto 11:59. Notable pre-match with Mima Shimoda invading the ring during the introductions, getting on her hands and knees begging to join Hokuto's group. Hokuto didn't seem much interested in this but let her join, and with that, the Las Cachorras Orientales, LCO is born for real. Hokuto was coming into this match with injured ribs, and it's a shame this match was derailed because Bull was properly motivated for the first time since the Aja match in April. They just went all out at the start, but it only took one bump off a lariat about two minutes into the match for Hokuto to reinjure her ribs. Bull tried to buy her time, and looked vicious enough while she was doing it while Hokuto writhed in pain. Hokuto did mount a comeback, and used a bokken to assist her. Hokuto hit a tope, then her somersault plancha, first off the apron and then off the top turnbuckle, but her run ended up fizzling out a few moves later when she went for a dive and crashed into Bull's knees. Bull was merciless, powerbombing Hokuto then hitting a guillotine legdrop. Hokuto kicked out, so Bull attempted to kill her off with a moonsault, but Shimoda jumped in, trying to hold Bull off while Mita protected Hokuto. The doctor called the match off. Hokuto gave an impassioned promo afterward and burst into tears wanting the match to continue, but Bull wasn't having any of it and dismissed her, telling her she loves pro-wrestling, to take care of herself and try again when she's healed. I don't know how good this was as a match, but they got everything they could have out of it, and then some. It was one hell of a drama, and gripping all the way until it was called off. This led to the cage match they'd have on 7/30. ***

7/15/92 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 15:09, 5:51, 12:30. Aja didn't have her Bison anymore, so she needed a new tag team partner, and picked Kyoko. Kyoko wasn't expecting that, but she jumped at the chance. Aja even held the ropes for her to enter. Kyoko and Aja couldn't decide who was going to start, so Toyota jumped them both to get things underway. They tried to have Kyoko and Aja work as the heels during this, but it was never going to work, so there was no heat in the heat segments. Aja was getting popular anyway, while Kyoko was the most popular wrestler in the company, and people love oddball tag teams. Loose ring ropes caused all kinds of havoc, with just about every move off them being blown. In spite of this, it was still a really good and enjoyable match with lots of fun spots, like Aja doing a rapidfire combo that felt like it was about 50 strikes, and a good build in the first fall, which saw the superior teamwork of Yamada and Toyota appear to have the first fall locked up until Kyoko saved Aja from the avalanche double backdrop. Aja and Kyoko winning after a diving elbow/body press combo on Toyota. The second fall had a lot of sloppiness, but was a good, short fall where Aja and Kyoko's lack of experience together ended up costing them, with Aja accidentally taking Kyoko out when she dove off the apron. Toyota took them both out with a sloppy quebrada, and Kyoko was at Toyota and Yamada's mercy with Toyota securing the pin with her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. The third fall was the best, with some brawling, Aja going after Toyota's taped up ribs which had been ignored all match and really brutalized her. This was a good heat segment, and Toyota's selling was actually good enough that she got a Toyota chant while she was in Kyoko's crab. They once again built up a good finishing run, but the finish with Yamada and Toyota getting Aja on the top rope for the backdrop wasn't well done, and Kyoko took out Toyota, leaving Yamada to finish the move herself, so it was somewhat anticlimactic. Still, for all the issues this was a really good match. The post-match saw the interpromotional rivalry era get underway with Shark Tsuchiya and Crusher Maedomari from FMW running through the crowd making a challenge to Toyota and Yamada. The angle was really well done, and felt chaotic and real, with Bull coming straight out to confront them. This set up the first interpromotional match that would take place in FMW on 9/19/92, although that would end up changing to Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto vs. Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda. ***1/2

7/30/92 AJW Cage Match: Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto 14:04 of 18:16. Classics version of this match is the one to go for here, it shows 5 more minutes than the TV version did. Bull passed the torch twice in 1992. Aja eventually got the big prize, but Hokuto beat Bull at her own game, the cage match. This is another excellent cage match. Bull gave a great, stiff beating, and Hokuto brought so much urgency and intensity to the match, fighting the wild aggression she needed to be able to overcome Bull. The early exchange had a few lariats and other moves in there, but was mostly focused on the two grinding each others head into the cage to draw blood. They were both successful. Hokuto was a force, any opening Bull left for her she relentlessly pursued, and she was happy to introduce a bokken into the mix to grind down the monster. Bull was never down for long and was able to control Hokuto, that's all she had to do and she would eventually grind down Hokuto so she couldn't come back anymore. Bull wasn't particularly concerned about Hokuto's injured ribs, she didn't need to target them, but she did a lot of damage to them when she delivered two powerbombs, after which she seemed content to exit. Hokuto wasn't gong down so easily, and frantically pulled Bull back in. Bull continued her assault, but Hokuto kept firing back. Hokuto delivered three missile dropkicks that did almost as much damage to herself as they did to Bull. Hokuto climbed the cage, but Bull pulled her down and hit the guillotine legdrop, then Bull went for it all with the big one from the top of the cage and missed. That spelled her end. She was at Hokuto's mercy. Hokuto could've just escaped, but she wanted to defeat Bull, she didn't want Bull to defeat herself. She delivered two Northern Light's Bombs. Bull couldn't do anything except clutch onto Hokuto's leg, but Hokuto just gave her a third. Hokuto could have escaped, but that wasn't good enough either because Bull made it up to her feet, so she went for the big dive herself, a missile dropkick from the top of the cage, which knocked Bull out, and Hokuto escaped to win. This was Bull's 5th and final cage match, and the most action packed of all of them. It just never gets talked about because until recently, the only version available showed about half of the match, and doing five cage matches in less than two years was probably too much. It seemed the Matsunaga's realized that also because this was the last cage match until 1997. ****1/4

8/9/92 JWP 2 Count Fall, JWP Tag Title Match: Cuty Suzuki & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Sumiko Saito 18:37. Sumiko Saito was a really promising young girl from JWP who looked sure to be JWP's star once her experience caught up. Sadly, she retired in early 1993. This was a fun, high quality JWP tag team match. Ozaki and Kansai were good as always, and picked up where they left off from the their singles match. Cuty was good later on with her run ins and being the bitch heel against Saito. Whenever she was in with Kansai, it couldn't be competitive, so she just got worked over, but she could be useful as the illegal partner assisting Ozaki. While the early portion had some good action, the match didn't really pick up until the long heat section on Saito, which saw Ozaki and Cuty give her a good working over, using double teams and good cut off spots. It built into a hot finish that saw Kansai receive enough damage that she had to tag out. Cuty and Saito went for near falls, and while it wasn't Cuty's best day execution wise, it was enough to get the crowd chanting for Saito. It ended perhaps, a little quick with Ozaki switching and finishing her with a Tequila Sunrise, which left Kansai fuming again. ***1/2

8/10/92 AJW Bull Nakano & Bat Yoshinaga vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota 20:03 of 22:09. Very good Bull tag that worked the basic formula. Bull was motivated and delivered a good, stiff beating, particularly to Toyota. Those two worked well enough together that it would have been interesting to see another singles match between them since Toyota was more credible than she was in 1990, but the only other match on tape is a 5 minute butchering of a match they had in 1994. Bat got more offense than she normally does when she tags with Bull, so she was able to make a good contribution. Yamada and Toyota provided hot bursts in between them getting worked over. Toyota got busted open hardway, and her getting beaten on was probably the best part of the match until the final portion. It was well-paced with the usual hot final five minutes. Toyota hit her hot moves and used Bull's nunchakus at one point. Yamada and Bat had a good run against each other. Toyota ended up pinning Bat with a moonsault. ***1/2

8/13/92 AJW Fuji TV Tag Tournament Mid Summer Typhoon '92 Semi-Final: Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Mariko Yoshida & Sakie Hasegawa. No match, or at least not one that counts. This was just total carnage from Hokuto, and an important angle for the 8/15 tag tournament finals. The ‘match' only goes for around 2 minutes, with Sakie spamming as many rolling savate kicks to Yamada as she could before Hokuto came in and killed her with a nasty backdrop suplex. Then she went after Yoshida with a bokken before the goody-good Yamada stepped in to protest. Hokuto and Yamada fought, and the match got called off because Sakie was injured from the backdrop suplex (this may have actually been a legitimate injury, Hokuto injured a lot of people in 1991/92. Sakie didn't work for the next month, and the Matsungas never gave anyone time off because of angles). Yoshida demanded to fight by herself, and they did it as a singles match. Yamada tried to start, but Hokuto threw her out, and it only took one violent slap and a Northern Light's Bomb to end it. Yamada got in Hokuto's face again, and got assaulted with a bokken, and there was no backstage interview because they were still fighting. In contrast, at the conclusion of the Bull Nakano, Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe vs. Aja Kong, Miori Kamiya & Kaoru Ito match that followed this, Bull and Aja (the other finalists in the tournament) shook hands and put their differences aside in order to win the tournament.

8/15/92 AJW Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Cynthia Moreno 15:40. Exciting, fast-paced Zenjo six woman tag, with a good injection of lucha. Kyoko and Yoshida provided the best spots. They basically split the lead role for their team. Mita was the workhorse of the match overall, and she gave a strong effort. She did most of the work for her team, handled Yoshida without too much hassle, and gave Kyoko a run later on before Kyoko put her away. The other three were just in and out, and contributed a few things here and there. The highlight of the match was Kyoko doing about 30 revolutions to Cynthia with her giant swing. ***1/2

8/15/92 AJW Fuji TV Tag Tournament Mid Summer Typhoon '92 Final: Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada 19:22. Hokuto stomped Yamada during the pre-match interview just in case we needed a reminder they couldn't get along. The monsters hate each other too, but they put aside their differences, buddying up to actually win the thing. These teams were more even than you might think, Hokuto had just beaten Bull in a cage match, and Yamada pinned Aja to win a tag team title match, so everyone knew it was possible for them to lose. The match was going to come down to cooperation, and that didn't look good for Yamada and Hokuto. Aja and Bull just mauled them to start, working as a team, while Yamada and Hokuto simply worked as singles and watched the other get worked over. After a thrashing on the outside, Hokuto wanted to use her bokken, but Yamada refused to allow it, so Hokuto instead went after Bull's knee, and used vicious heel tactics, although no outright cheating. Yamada also went after Bull's leg with a barrage of kicks and a stretch muffler. Bull was able to tag Aja and get out of there though. After another round of Hokuto getting beaten on, highlighted by Bull's great shotgun lariat spot, she got the bokken again and assaulted Aja with it, leading to Yamada stopping her. The were about to start fighting, but they had bigger problems because Aja hit them with a plancha and Bull followed up with a tope. Another thrashing outside followed with Aja piledriving Hokuto through a table. Yamada did come back in to save Hokuto, but continued to be too concerned about the bokken, intercepting it, while Aja didn't care and nailed both with her oil can. Back inside, more fighting between Hokuto & Yamada leads to Aja cracking them both with trash can shots. Yamada even short armed Hokuto on the tag, refusing to get in, and making Hokuto go alone. Hokuto dropped Bull with a Northern Light's Bomb and almost got the win. She would have if Yamada had prevented Aja from interrupting the pin instead of continued with her hissy fit. They actually did get on the same page after that, but Yamada accidentally took Hokuto out with a flying enzuigiri. Bull hit the guillotine legdrop, but Yamada broke up the pin, and just to hammer the whole point of the match home, Bull got Aja to do the guillotine legdrop to get the win. Great dissention story with quality wrestling to back it up. And the best post-match on this show with the two monsters embracing and celebrating to a huge pop, while Hokuto and Yamada brawled to the back. And before Aja reminded Bull that she was coming for the WWWA World Single title. ****1/4

8/15/92 AJW IWA World Women's Title Hair vs. Hair Match: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Manami Toyota 19:45. Yamada came into this match fatigued, which offered all the drama they needed before you even consider the hair vs. hair stipulation. Yamada just needed to take down Toyota as quickly as possible and stop Toyota from blowing her away too early. Toyota tried to pounce right away with a Japanese Ocean Suplex, but Yamada quickly scrambled to the ropes. The opening exchanges were sloppy and frantic, and they weren't going to bring either any advantages, forcing a rethink. Toyota still tried to burst down Yamada, while Yamada took control on the mat and was able to wear down Toyota with some holds. Later, she unleashed her kicks, and it was clear that she had overcome her disadvantage. Between the barrages of kicks, Toyota tried to mount a comeback, resulting in really awkward counters, as the two didn't seem to be on the same page. Toyota went for a cross chop which it appeared Yamada was supposed to take, while they couldn't get a Manami roll spot together, resulting in a weak powerbomb. There were plenty of things that went wrong in this match, that exchange being the biggest example, but unlike their match on 1/4 where this sort of thing wrecked the match, here, they never tried to follow through on whatever they had planned and make it look worse, they just moved on, so it didn't detract much, and at times made it feel more urgent. At the 10-minute mark, Toyota avoided a dive and followed up with her dropkick spam. Now, she was able to get on a roll and would no longer be contained. Yamada either had to match her now, and do it fast, or she'd get blown away. The remainder of the match was big move after big move, hot near fall after hot near fall, with every one feeling bigger and being brought to a logical conclusion at the end. There was really no story here they were telling; they just went for every big move they knew and tried to win, while avoiding the finishers. They barely slowed down, but they did take a brief moment to sell the toll of the match, and it was much welcomed. They'd already had a ton of hot near falls, but once they sold just a little, you knew the end was coming. The best spot they did was Yamada's brain kick; it was her big chance to win but Toyota managed to roll out of the ring. Yamada hit a plancha, but it still gave Toyota the brief recovery time she needed. Soon after, they did a great finishing sequence where Toyota got out of the Reverse Gory Special and won with her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex. The famous post-match followed. Yamada accepted her defeat and prepared for the haircut. Toyota had been sitting in the corner, regretful, realizing what she'd condemned her partner to do because of her own hot-headed competitiveness. This was supposed to be a punishment for your most hated rival, not your best friend. Toyota grabbed the scissors, cut a piece of her own hair, and bowed, showing respect and love to Yamada, which is where Yamada broke down herself. They hammered the point home by having Toyota try to stop the haircut and being restrained by a bunch of people, which was a bit over the top. ****1/2

8/17/92 JWP: Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki 24:54. This was JWP's bizarre TV debut. TV Asahi had the idea to do a one off special that aired live from the studio from 1:30am – 5:00am. There were about 100 people there, and the presentation was like studio wrestling. The studio was like any TV wrestling studio you'd have seen in the territories in the 70s and 80s, which made it a unique presentation for women's wrestling. They had about 30 minutes of commercials between the matches, and there was even a feature on LLPW (which was hosting their opening show 12 days later). With the benefit of being able to skip all of the commercials, this is probably the most enjoyable JWP show of the year as a top to bottom card. It didn't have any 4 star matches, but all of the matches were good, even the battle royal they ended with, and it has better production values than the commercial tapes, which also helps. This opening match was the best by far. They sent there four biggest stars out there and let them tear the house (or the studio) down. Everyone interacted well together, and they went with teams that were going to provide a better match, rather than the more regular teams we'd been seeing on the JWP shows (where Cuty and Ozaki were the tag team champions). The control segments were done well. They were constantly working and building, with a few brawls outside. The first control segment saw Kansai demolish Ozaki and tear up the guard railing, whilst Devil press slammed Cuty on the announce table in front of her old rival Chigusa Nagayo, who was doing commentary. Kansai and Devil built to their confrontation. Kansai won it in the ring and hurt Devil's shoulder, so Devil retaliated with a chair on the outside. That led to an excellent final portion where Ozaki and Devil were trying to put Kansai way. She finally managed a desperate lariat on Devil, then she had to tag out, leaving Cuty to try her luck with Devil. She had no chance, but she survived, and even almost scored a flash pin, hanging on long enough for Kansai to get a breather. Ultimately, it ended with Kansai returning after Cuty had hit a fallaway slam. Ozaki armdragged her way out of one Splash Mountain attempt, but fell to a second attempt. The only problem was Cuty missed her queue, so Devil was just standing in the corner watching her partner get Splash Mountained, but at least Cuty got there in time to prevent her from interrupting the pin. ***3/4

8/30/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92 Blue Zone Playoff Match: Mariko Yoshida vs. Kyoko Inoue 15:24. These two were tied on 7 points, so the winner would go into the semi-final to face Toyota. Unlike the league match, this was serious business. Kyoko gave Yoshida a good working over early before trying to beat her record giant swing from a couple of weeks earlier, but she got tired before she made it to 30 revolutions, and ended up collapsing. Yoshida got barely any offense in during the first 10 minutes, she was just given hope spots so that she was still in the match, while Kyoko mostly just worked holds and didn't want to take any risks. It all paid off spectacularly later, and Yoshida's selling is so great that all of this makes her look so much more spunky with her hot comebacks. Kyoko dumped her with a lariat, and did the springbroad back elbow, but Yoshida got a break reversing a brainbuster on the floor, then followed up with her dives, run up plancha, and a springboard body press. Kyoko came back, springing off the ropes. The finish was exciting with Kyoko trying to put Yoshida away with the Niagara Driver and Yoshida finding ways to slip out of it. Kyoko stayed in control, and it was only a matter of time, but she still couldn't put Yoshida away, and was more getting more frantic as she went. The finish was a little sloppy but cool nonetheless, where Kyoko whipped Yoshida and she did her run up. Kyoko, expecting the bodypress, put her head down and Yoshida did a sunset flip, which wasn't executed well at all, but was good enough to pull out the upset win and move into the semi-finals. There were a few ugly spots in there, but this was a whole lot of fun. The way it was worked really put over Yoshida's underdog win. It's all capped off with the great post-match scene with Yoshida, ecstatic and the fans with all the way with her, until they see poor Kyoko is crying in the middle of the ring and chant for her too. ***3/4

8/30/92 AJW: Bull Nakano, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs. Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 17:53. FMW's Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyoda were in the crowd scouting All Japan Women for the upcoming interpromotional tag team match, so everyone went extra hard in this one, presumably to let them know what they were getting themselves in to. But no encouragement was really required. Hokuto defeated Bull in a cage match, and decided that her and her new group ‘run this show' now, and this was her chance to prove it, facing her rival, Bull, and her two former tag team partners with whom she had won the WWWA Tag Team Titles. Hokuto easily stood out, injecting additional chaos and doing the work of three, as neither Mita nor Shimoda could hang with anyone on Bull's team. Minami was the workhorse of her team, Bull was her usual brutal self, and Hotta was a complete wrecking ball. Everyone worked at full speed, fired up, and added something different to the match. This just reeked of hatred from the start and took no time to spill over, immediately erupting into a chaotic brawl. Once the tag match was under control, LCO were mostly on the receiving end of the punishment. They set a good pace, and everyone was in and out quite quickly, usually delivering a few high-impact moves and then switching. By the time the second brawling segment concluded, LCO, Hokuto to a lesser extent than the others, had been dominated. Shimoda tried to bite Bull after the restart, and paid the price for that with a brutal lariat, so Hokuto had to take matters into her own hands again, rushing the ring with her bokken to interrupt Bull's Angelito and get Shimoda out of there. Hokuto then hooked Minami up in a sharpshooter. Hotta tried to capitalize by kicking her in the head, but she only screamed and sucked up the pain, maintaining the hold because she had to, allowing her proteges to get some free shots in, doing some damage and giving them some confidence. Shimoda and Mita actually held their own following this, briefly, and it was Hotta who turned the tables on Hokuto, delivering a brutal Jumbo Suplex. Hokuto came back against Bull, and Mita's highlight of the match came when she got the chance to airplane spin Bull. It was more than Shimoda got, who was unable to accomplish anything on her own and was only there to be slaughtered, though she did a great job of that. The match kept getting better as it went along. Minami nailed everyone with her backbreakers as they charged at her. Hotta of all people did a plancha, while Minami added a tope off-screen. The final portion was filled with tons of big moves being hit, and many being avoided. The pins were exciting, and everyone scrambled to save. One of the best spots saw Bull interrupt Hokuto's Northern Light's Bomb on Minami, only for Hokuto to defiantly retried it, but Minami escapes it herself. Ultimately, Shimoda wasn't strong enough to hang, and fell to Minami's German Suplex hold while the rest of the team were being fended off. This was a wild match, with brawling segments that added to the match without overwhelming it, and a sense at all times that all hell was going to break loose. Everyone treated it like it was a main event and went all out, delivering a really great match. But afterwards, it was quickly time to move on, as Kudo and Combat came to ringside, and suddenly Bull and Hokuto were side by side, acknowledging that they'd be the ones to go and deal with this FMW problem on 9/19. ****3/4

8/30/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92 Semi-Final: Aja Kong vs. Toshiyo Yamada 17:18. This was a dominant Aja mauling. Aja building up her ferocity throughout the match. She started, perhaps a little too slow (but that gave the crowd a few minutes to get into the match after the show-stealing six woman that went on before it), dominating Yamada in the ring before she eventually worked her way outside and left Yamada a bloody mess, which came after a cool spot where Aja nailed her with a lariat into her oil can. After Aja finished destroying her, and dumped her out in the crowd, the fans chanted for Yamada. Aja waited in the ring with a look of disdain while Yamada got a breather and fired up. The match was going to work or not based entirely on Yamada's comebacks. The earlier upset where Yoshida defeated Kyoko in a similarity laid out match was fresh in the mind, so it was easier to buy Yamada as a threat. Yamada made the most of it with a tremendous fired up babyface comeback that would have made her idol, Chigusa Nagayo, proud. The other half of making it was Aja's selling, which she did well enough to make it work, particularly selling the kicks, but nowhere near as good as she would have done a year later when she was in her prime. Yamada unleashed a barrage of fast kicks and burst attacks, and Aja eventually felt threatened enough that she ran through her and resorted to the oil can. She flattened it over Yamada's head, but Yamada came back with multiple brain kicks. She continued getting the best of her, even avoiding a uraken and firing back with one of her own, which made for a really biggest near fall of the match. They countered each other some more, but it was all over when Yamada ran into Aja's uraken. Aja then finished with a waterwheel drop, which would have been enough, but she put the exclamation point on with a diving elbow to take the win. ****

8/30/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92 Semi-Final: Manami Toyota vs. Mariko Yoshida 17:36. Yoshida stood out more early on than Toyota did. Yoshida put over what Toyota did to her, and came after her relentlessly in response with her stretching and legwork. As soon as Toyota broke free, she was off at a million miles an hour immediately, so they might as well have just started the match here. The match worked once the pace quickened and they took it to the air. This had an excellent second half. They avoided some dives and hit others, Yoshida hit the run up plancha and Toyota hit a moonsault in the ring, and her Quebrada from the top rope after avoiding Yoshida's dive. Toyota missed a second moonsault that led to Yoshida's big run where she threw all of her big moves at her. Cartwheel elbow, top rope DDT, la magistral, plenty of suplexes, finishing up with diving body presses, but Toyota survived and ended up outgunning her. Yoshida showed she was capable of pushing Toyota, but Toyota had more devastating moves, and more counters, on top of that, Yoshida was in her second match of the night, and was running out of steam. Yoshida's last chance came when she was able to use the same sunset flip she beat Kyoko with earlier, but here Toyota countered it, and her run came to an end courtesy of the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex soon after. This wasn't as smarty worked as Yoshida's match with Kyoko earlier. The first half of this was just a solid waste of time, but the second half blew it away with tremendous action. Yoshida had more than just hope. She proved she belonged, but was just outgunned. ****

8/30/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92 Final: Aja Kong vs. Manami Toyota 13:06. This was really just a means to an end. It was a far inferior version of the Aja vs. Yamada semi-final. They got the point across they needed to, but it was a very forgettable match. Aja gave Yamada a far more memorable beating earlier, and Toyota's comebacks weren't enough to ever make you think the result was in doubt. Toyota saved the press version of the moonsault for this match to use as her big spot in the match (she used the standing version only against Yoshida), and they built it with her taking three attempts to hit it, but she never wins with it, and no one was bought it. The only thing that might have been better was the finish here that saw Aja fold Toyota up like an accordion with a nasty chokeslam. This wasn't a bad match, but it was more like a midcard TV match than what you'd expect from a tournament final. **3/4

9/15/92 AJW: Akira Hokuto vs. Suzuka Minami 14:55 of 15:33. Technically good and well worked match between old tag team partners who had gone in opposite directions since their 1991 meetings. The match played off this idea well. Minami was happy to bring out a bit of her own Hokuto from the start, initiating an outside brawl with her and winning. Hokuto would pay her back for that later. They worked each other over with Minami using her typically solid back focus, and Hokuto making sure to put it over. It ended up with Hokuto trying a tombstone on the outside, which Minami reversed and followed with a tope. Hokuto still countered three powerbomb attempts that followed in three in different ways. Minami hit two powerbombs, but Hokuto got her feet up on a dive. Minami escaped the first Northern Light's Bomb attempt, but couldn't keep Hokuto out. That was the difference between them, once Hokuto had the momentum, she was overwhelming, even if Minami dominated more in her run. After getting caught in a backdrop suplex, Minami couldn't counter the Northern Light's Bomb and fell. I'm not sure what the post match was all about, but Minami was a sore loser, and seemed to be cursing Hokuto out, while Hokuto just walked off on her. ***1/2

9/19/92 FMW: Megumi Kudo & Combat Toyoda vs. Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto 13:54. The handheld version is the only way to watch this in its complete form. The first inter-promotional match that had been building for two months. The match was initially being set up as Shark Tsuchiya & Crusher Maedomari vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada (and it's hard to imagine that match as being anything but a disaster), but changed quickly to this one, and ended up being a true battle of FMW's strongest vs. Zenjo's strongest. However, it was still a big mismatch with Combat and Kudo being major underdogs, and everyone knew it. Hokuto and Bull wasted no time mauling Kudo with vicious slaps and a lariat. They were on fire, as intense as they ever were. Kudo spent a while being worked over by Bull, and when Combat would rush in to try to help her, Hokuto would cut her off. When Hokuto was legal, she held a sharpshooter on Kudo, and Combat was unable to make her break a hold. Bull followed up with her Bull's Angelito and taunted Combat, who didn't even try to break her hold. This was a great segment, total humiliation. Before it got old, Kudo made a hot comeback on Hokuto, and Combat followed it up with her power moves, which got them back into the match. Combat and Kudo got some near falls and were competitive in the finishing run, but Combat went up top, only to get dropkicked off by Hokuto, leading to her somersault plancha and Bull hitting a tope. It seemed academic from there, with a doomsday device set to put away Kudo, but Combat made it back in time to make the save. It didn't matter much though, as Bull delivered a guillotine leg drop to pin Kudo, while Hokuto Northern Light's Bombed Combat. This was a really well-built tag match, action-packed from start to finish, with a crowd hot for everything they did, and showcased all four really well. After the match, Hokuto got the mic and challenged Shark and Crusher, and then Bull grabbed the mic and committed the biggest crime you can commit in FMW; appealing to the crowd while not being named Atsushi Onita. She said, “If you want to see more matches between Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto, come to All Japan Women!”, which infuriated Tarzan Goto (who was in charge of FMW's women's division), and was the beginning of the problems between All Japan Women and FMW. ****

10/17/92 AJW Tag League The Best '92: Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari vs. Bat Yoshinaga & Tomoko Watanabe 11:33. Notable early interpromotional match, as it was the first one to take place in All Japan Women. The crowd didn't want the outlaw FMW filth ruining their wrestling show and let them know about it, while Bat and Watanabe were treated like they were the second coming of the Crush Gals. This was mayhem, with Tsuchiya and Maedomari bringing the violence. Some fan even threw his drink on Maedomari, so she flung a chair at him. A wrestling match did break out. The best parts came from Bat constantly striking Tsuchiya in the head with stiff kicks and strikes, and making her work hard enough that she got blown up. It turned into chaos again towards the end. Watanabe juiced, which added a lot to the match even if it happened the end. Bat tried to help her, but got wiped out with a chair. The FMW team won with a double powerbomb, leaving the crowd even more livid. They dropped out of the tag league after this due to Tsuchiya suffering a collarbone fracture at an FMW show. They never would have topped this match anyway. This was an uncooperative mess of a match with ugly brawling and wrestling that looked like it was going to break down into actual chaos at any moment. And that was precisely the point. A good match wouldn't even have been appropriate here. This stood out compared to everything else surrounding it, and set a tone for future interpromotional matches that anything could happen. **

10/22/92 JWP: Mayumi Ozaki & Tomoko Okutsu vs. Plum Mariko & Sumiko Saito 15:06 of 21:10. Two of JWPs best and their two best juniors made for a good match. Plum and Ozaki controlled the action, mostly worked over the juniors and gave them enough of a chance to show what they could do. Ozaki and Saito were really good, Ozaki bullied her and Saito made hot comebacks. Plum did a good job guiding Okutsu through, and for someone with less than three months, Okutsu was really impressive in her own right. A bit more Ozaki vs Plum would have been nice, as they only had one short segment where both were legal together. ***1/4

11/2/92 AJW Tag League The Best '92: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Sakie Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko 30:00. This match just had a great pace and build that didn't feel like it was anywhere near 30 minutes. Yamada led the match, while Toyota took a backseat, following her lead. She didn't do much in the way of spots until the final 10 minutes. Sakie got worked over for a long time before making the tag to Debbie. Debbie's offense wasn't impressive in itself, just neckbreaker, suplex, piledriver and sleepers, but it's the way she uses it and strings it all together. Her submissions were excellent, and were even potential matches enders later. Yamada put over the threat, and did a great job of making Sakie and Malenko look more dangerous than they really were. As the match progressed, Toyota got more into it, hitting her bursts of offense. She ended up taking a particularly horrifying bump when she did her missed dropkick bump and deflected off the ropes, flopping all over the place. Hasegawa and Malenko had gotten themselves into a position where they could win and were thwarting all of Yamada and Toyota's big moves. Debbie was able to get big near finishes out of her submissions that the fans bought, while Sakie used her kick and hit an exploder for big near fall on Yamada towards the end. She followed up with another, but that was when the time expired. The young team came close, but the champions held them off. Yamada and Malenko were the best, and this was quite easily Debbie's best match. Toyota and Sakie contributed well. Excellent match. ****

11/2/92 AJW Special Tag Match: Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto 18:19. Shark and Crusher were supposed to be wrestling Aja and Kyoko, but they'd already pulled out of the tournament, so the league decided to give us a good match instead. This was just a damn good house show match. They busted out some crowd pleasing spots early, like Kyoko's never ending giant swing. Worked the usual slowdown before the hot final portion. It was pretty standard stuff, but very good and entertaining. Bull and Aja did rekindle their rivalry just before Dream Rush, which helped since they hadn't interacted much since teaming up in the tag tournament. Aja and Kyoko worked a cool double team finish which was like a Doomsday Device Flying Back Elbow on Hokuto, which gave Kyoko the pinfall victory before their All Pacific Title match at Dream Rush. ***1/2

AJW Dream Rush 11/26/92 complete show review

11/26/92 AJW All Pacific Title Match: Kyoko Inoue vs. Akira Hokuto 22:18. In their 1/4 match, they started out with such urgency they couldn't recapture it. Here, they opted for a slower pace, methodically executing their moves. Initially, they were in each other's faces, with Kyoko shoving Hokuto into the corner and delivering a slap, prompting Hokuto to respond with a German Suplex. Kyoko retreated momentarily before returning with a 33-rotation Giant Swing, which saw Hokuto bail to regroup as well. While Kyoko attempted to dominate Hokuto on the mat, Hokuto countered her usual holds with pinning attempts, making Kyoko work for her eventual control. Hokuto was always looking for openings. Kyoko Irish Whipped her, which she used to try a baseball slide, but here Kyoko had an answer of her own, which was as simple as stomping her in the face. Kyoko was too predictable, simply kicking Hokuto until Kyoko grabbed the leg. Hokuto worked over Kyoko in response. Despite being relatively even on offense, Hokuto appeared far more dominant. She was more vicious, and her holds had a little more on them. She'd throw out her nasty jumping piledrivers. At one point to gain the advantage, she frantically kicked Kyoko repeatedly in the face. Hokuto just never held back, if there was an opportunity, she would try to pounce on it. Kyoko attempted a comeback by ascending the ropes, but Hokuto knocked her off and followed up with a plancha. Kyoko struggled her way back up to the apron, so Hokuto dropkicked her off and hit her somersault plancha. Kyoko struggled her way back for the second time. Hokuto waited on the top, forcing Kyoko's only way in to gently roll underneath the bottom rope. Hokuto followed with a missile dropkick when she made it to her feet. Although she appeared half-dead, Kyoko rolled through a flying body press. The final portion continued building on all of their countering and answering each other, with thrilling near falls and teases. Kyoko had worked herself back in and built up to her Niagara Driver, but Hokuto answered that, dropping her into a pin attempt. Then she countered Kyoko's springboard elbow attack with a dropkick. Kyoko was able to answer the Northern Light's Bomb with a roll up that resulted in an incredible near fall. Hokuto hit a German Suplex and then hit knees on a diving body press, then in turn, did the same to Kyoko when she tried her run up elbow, which looked devastating, and turned out be the killing blow. Hokuto didn't win with it, but she was easily able to hit the Northern Light's Bomb and win the All Pacific Title. A tremendous performance from both, with impeccable pacing, selling, and execution. Hokuto was a class above, just adding a little extra onto her holds and milking Kyoko's pin attempts to make you think Kyoko got her. A real classic capped off with one of a brilliant finishing run that brought together everything they were building. ****3/4

Hokuto had just wrestled the best women's singles match of the year and she wasn't done yet. The Matsunaga brothers aimed to involve all women's leagues in the interpromotional rivalry. While they had secured participation from JWP and FMW, LLPW had yet to sign on. LLPW declined involvement in this event, and were only considering participation for Yokohama in April. Invitations were extended to Rumi Kazama, Shinobu Kandori and Harley Saito to attend this event as spectators, which they accepted, and the trap was set. Hokuto took the opportunity in the post-match to grab the microphone and call out Kandori, trash talking and challenging her to fight. The wrestling media ran with it, and overnight, it became the biggest story in women's wrestling. LLPW had no choice but to accept, or look like cowards, so they were locked in.

11/26/92 AJW WWWA World Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong 20:20. The final battle of these two monsters after a two year war. Aja had come a long way. She knew she let the opportunity slip in April. Bull knows she was fortunate to still be the champion, and she knew she wouldn't be so lucky next time. This was ‘next time'. Bull opened faster than she ever had before, with a jumping lariat and quick strikes to take Aja by surprise. A diving lariat missed though, and Aja ran through her twice. Aja pounded Bull until Bull nailed her with a lariat. Bull took control for a quite a while on the mat. One interesting aspect of the match is how they struggled to apply holds and found it challenging to even lift each other, with Bull just getting Aja up, and the moves not hitting cleanly. After a brawl outside, Bull tried a sunset flip from the top, which didn't come off. and Aja came back. Where Bull had to struggle, Aja had an easier time of it. It wasn't one of Aja's better beatings, even the brawl on the outside wasn't to her usual standards, though Bull put it over strongly. The final five minutes make the match though. Bull tried a guillotine legdrop and missed, then Aja started paying tribute to her Jungle Jack members. She pointed to Kamiya and gave Bull the heart punch, then pointed to Ito and used her footstomps. Perhaps she got too arrogant in calling her shots, as Bull came back with a lariat. Bull wasn't playing around, and after hitting a bicycle kick which saw Aja bail outside, she launched into her with a tope. Bull hit the guillotine, but Aja kicked out. She hit the somersault version, and Aja kicked out of that too, just like in their last match. She needed to hit the moonsault, but Aja avoided it. Aja hit three urakens, and Bull was struggling up looking in agony each time, but she survived. Aja pointed to Bison and delivered two Bison chops. Her final tribute was to Bull herself, finishing her off with her own guillotine legdrop. This wasn't a great match like their April match, but it was certainly a very good heavyweight battle with strong psychology, and the ending, not just of the match, but the rivalry was excellent. They got it right, Aja kicked out of everything she kicked out of in April, but she learned and avoided the move she couldn't kick out of. Had she kicked out of the moonsault, it would have been too over the top. Bull had survived Aja's offense before, and did here too, so tributes to Jungle Jack were not only a cool thing to do, but Aja needed something new, ultimately that something was Bull's very own move. The post-match, that's just one of the great moments, with the monsters finally embracing for real and letting it all out. They hated each other. They settled their differences, and now they can respect each other. Having Bison there only made it even better. ****

11/26/92 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki 14:38, 1:44, 24:00. The first real rivalry match carried an atmosphere beyond comparison. Eriko Tsuchiya & Yoshika Maedomari of FMW had turned the whole thing into a circus. While they created an element of danger, they couldn't back it up in the ring. Of course, no one expected them to, and traditional wrestling fans had little respect for FMW anyway. Expectations were vastly different for these four. The pressure was on them to deliver nothing short of a classic that would capture the minds of the spectators. Additionally, Ozaki and Kansai themselves faced added pressure as they defended their relatively unknown upstart, JWP, and had to legitimize themselves to an audience, most of whom had never seen them before. Everyone was amped up for this, and the start was incredible. Yamada and Kansai were the right pair to start the match. They exchanged stiff kicks and strikes, setting a tone of intensity from the outset. An Irish Whip went awry, but Kansai covered it in the best way possible: by clobbering Yamada immediately. Instances like this occurred throughout the match, and instead of any of them being a negative, they added to the match by making things feel uncooperative and more legitimate. When Ozaki and Toyota faced off for the first time, Toyota delivered the most devastating dropkick of her career. It was brutal and it knocked Ozaki out momentarily. This all happened in the first 90 seconds. From there, things slowed down as Toyota got worked with submissions. Toyota played the face in peril for much of the first fall. A lot of basic submissions were used to go with the occasional burst, but it never felt slow-paced because they never stayed in one hold for long. Partners would run in, and they'd crank up on the holds more. It took only 8 minutes for the crowd to fall in love with Ozaki and chant for her; one of the match goals was complete at this point. But they didn't want to babyface themselves, so they continued working over Toyota, slowing the match down until the crowd chanted for her, and then gave her the comeback. While Toyota wasn't posing too much of a problem, Yamada was. Each time, she would come in for a burst and dish out some heavy damage. They got the chance to double-team her when Kansai knocked Toyota off the top turnbuckle to take her out. They moved into an urgent finishing run after that. They were ahead and left Toyota and Yamada playing catch-up. They were able to save and get offense, but not enough of it. Toyota ended up missing a moonsault and getting slaughtered with a lariat from Kansai. Ozaki was tied up with Yamada, but when she broke free, she hit Toyota with a missile kick to the back of the head, and Kansai put her through the mat with a Splash Mountain to claim the first fall. Not only had they taken a 1-0 lead, but they made it look easy. Kansai thought she could finish Toyota off quickly in the second fall, but it backfired. Yamada went on the run she was trying to in the first fall, and put away Kansai with her Reverse Gory Special Bomb in a short time. The third fall had a bit of everything. Toyota had been quiet through the first two falls, but came into the match here. She hit her dropkick spam, some of her flashier submissions, which fit better by this point in the match than they would have early, and she even made sure to get in her rolling cradle later. Ozaki was having the match of her life, from both the apron and in the ring. Her nasty submissions were on show, and she was stomping away, smashing fingers, keeping the crowd reactions under control; when Toyota ran in to assist Yamada, she got booed, so Ozaki came in straight after, shifted the heat back and getting the crowd to chant for Yamada. Kansai had given Yamada a big working over with kicks and suplexes, even an assault outside with a chair, which later led to Yamada giving up the advantage on Ozaki in order to get revenge on Kansai. This resulted in the best exchange of the match. An unforgettable exchange of kicks, as intense as you'll ever see. Kansai won initially, but Yamada came back with a leg sweep off an Irish Whip and gave it all back to her. The toll of the match was high, and it was becoming harder to execute. Both teams needed to push for the end, and that played into Toyota and Yamada's hands. Kansai was hanging on and remaining competitive with both, but she was exhausted and couldn't stop Ozaki from being double-teamed. Toyota and Yamada hit a double diving headbutt. Ozaki survived it, and came back with a German Suplex on Toyota before setting up Yamada for Kansai to take her out with a tope. It backfired though, and Toyota took out both opponents with her quebrada. Ozaki survived a double backdrop and a moonsault, and there was no stopping the Ozaki chants at that point. Ozaki and Kansai had one more chance as Ozaki fought off Yamada. Toyota was isolated, and Kansai set her up for Ozaki, but she missed her twisting body press, and Toyota capitalized with a German Suplex for the final pin while Yamada held off Kansai. The finish is debatable, as Ozaki got her shoulder up on the three count. Whether it was blown or not is anyone's guess, but it left the door open for obvious rematches. The crowd chanted “Zenjo, Zenjo” after the match, but they gave Ozaki and Kansai the respect they deserved. This was actually more like an original JWP match than anything, with the stiff offense, brutal submissions, and the flare of non-cooperation. Ozaki was the biggest contributor. She controlled things, when they got off track, she would get it back. Her apron work, heeling, and working the crowd were masterful. Offensively, Kansai was the standout by far, she was brutal, while Yamada was able to hang with her, together the two were magic. Toyota was the outlier, but she was frantic and her high energy fit in the end. Keeping her relatively quiet until late in the match made her contributions stand out as game changers. All four contributed positively, and what they achieved was nothing short of the greatest women's tag team match of all time. *****

12/1/92 JWP 2 Count Fall, JWP Openweight Title Decision Match: Cuty Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai 11:58. This was really good. Cuty had no chance, even with the rules in her favor and Kansai having just gone 18 minutes with Devil Masami, but no one told her that. She took it to Kansai, worked Kansai over when she was able to, but the best thing was she kept making desperate miracle comebacks, hitting big moves and flash pins. No matter what Kansai would do, Cuty would fight back, and with the help of two count rules, you could buy her as maybe stealing a win. She almost did. She survived everything Kansai threw at her, and kept coming back for more. She eventually got wiped out though. A really cool finish saw Kansai go for another backdrop suplex, but flip her around into a Splash Mountain to become the first JWP Openweight Champion. ***1/2

12/1/92 JWP: Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue 22:05. JWP's first interpromotional match. Fukuoka was given a chance here, and showed aspirations to step up and shine, but it didn't take long for her realize she was out of her depth. Almost immediately, she was on the receiving end of a nasty beating. Hotta was extra brutal, while Takako picked up the scraps, capitalizing on Hotta's offense and working on her new bitch persona. For the better part of 10 minutes, Hikari was destroyed. She managed to make a brief comeback, and executed a hot tag to Ozaki, but the momentum shift was short-lived, and she was back to where she started soon after. Ozaki eventually reached her breaking point, and took matters into her own hands, rushing in and engaging in a heated slapping fight with Takako, which she won. She put a crab hold on, and Hotta came in illegally, delivering a brutal head kick to Ozaki, but Ozaki gritted her teeth and maintained control of the hold, refusing to give up the advantage. Fukuoka attempted to mount some offense, but not everything went according to plan. When Hotta whipped her into the corner, Fukuoka tried to boomerang out, but got stuck. Hotta covered the spot by clobbering her and delivering a Jumbo Suplex. Ozaki tried to help her from the apron, but to no avail. It only got worse for Hikari when Takako held her in a camel clutch, Hotta came in again and delivered a kick to the chest (this would be a common spot later, but it wasn't yet). Later, Hotta had a leglock on Hikari, Ozaki encouraged her, so she fought back with slaps on Hotta. It just infuriated Hotta though, who got up and launched a savage assault with her kicks, easily the most vicious of the match. Ozaki furiously and frantically tried to stop Hotta, and eventually subdued her with a choke. This was probably the best part of the whole match. Hotta got things back under control and switched with Takako. Takako didn't want to fight Ozaki, so she dragged Hikari back in. Hikari gained the upper hand, leaping onto the top rope and attempting a standing moonsault. Takako avoided it, but she landed on her feet. She then tried the rolling cradle, but got stuck in the ropes. After Hotta accidentally took Takako out with a lariat, Hikari executed it properly. Ozaki landed a flying body press and a pescado on Hotta, while Takako was attempting to finish off Hikari. Ozaki was able to stall her out, but Hotta returned and continued to dominate. JWPs real chance came when Takako missed a tope and Hotta missed a plancha. Ozaki followed up by smashing Hotta's head into the announce table. Once they returned to the ring, Hotta fought back, knocking Ozaki off the top rope, but missed a guillotine leg drop. This led to some incredible near falls with Ozaki's Tequila Sunrise, Fukuoka's moonsault, and a straightjacket German. That was as far as JWP got, as Hotta reversed an Irish Whip into the Pyramid Driver on Hikari. Ozaki was able to make the save, but Takako handled her, and Hotta won with a backdrop suplex from the top rope. JWP and Ozaki were now 0-2, and they really needed to get a win on the board. It was a great match with an amazing atmosphere, high-quality action all the way through, and some of the best near falls you'll find anywhere. Hotta stood out with her brutality and did a great job with Hikari, while Takako was excellent picking up the scraps. Ozaki was the standout and the driving force; she really made the match, working the apron and desperately saving her partner when she wasn't legal, and having the best exchanges when she did come in, particularly with Takako. ****1/2

12/13/92 AJW All Pacific Title Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Takako Inoue 12:03. Takako got a hot start and tried to end the match quickly. Hokuto, in response, opted for torture, and gave her a nasty stretching. The highlight was her sitting back on a crab almost bending Takako in half. Takako eventually cut her off, knocking Hokuto off the top, hitting a tope and targeting the knee. Takako didn't have much offense, but she did enough to get by, the only submission she used was the Achilles Hold. Hokuto's selling was good. It made it seem like Takako had a real chance. Hokuto made her comebacks through Takako's run, but couldn't string anything together. Hokuto eventually caught her and hit her somersault plancha. That put Takako out, and Hokuto killed her with suplexes and a Northern Light's Bomb to win. This was quality. ***3/4

12/13/92 AJW Tag League The Best '92 Final: Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 27:08). It was nice that there were no semi-finals on the same night as the finals this year, so both teams could come in fresh. Toyota and Yamada attempted to blast Kyoko away at the start, with Toyota hitting her quebrada within 30 seconds. It soon settled into a lengthy control segment that saw Yamada get worked over, and it was so good it flew by. Aja and Kyoko had matching gear, half and half of each other's style; their fashion sense can be questioned, but it was cool anyway. Aja gave Yamada the methodical beating, and then Kyoko came in and followed up just as well. Yamada tried some comebacks, but Aja and Kyoko were smart enough to prevent them. There were neat things in there; Kyoko throwing in a little bit of heeling, the camel clutch punt spot, Kyoko putting Yamada in the Romero Special, which everyone breaks up, so Aja took guard, taunting Toyota. Apparently, all this dominating of Yamada was starting to bore Kyoko, so she decided to start a slapping fight to wake her up. It worked a little too well, as Yamada got a hot tag to Toyota out of it, but Aja cut the dropkick spam off right away, and it didn't work on Kyoko either. Toyota would need to be a little more imaginative. Toyota next tried the rolling cradle on Aja, but she shrugged that off too. She got to do it on Kyoko though. Yamada and Toyota took revenge for the camel clutch punt earlier, and Yamada got some kicks in on Kyoko before the tables were turned. Aja gave Yamada an almighty thrashing on the outside. Toyota and Yamada weren't able to do much with Aja, but they got their run in on Kyoko. There were a lot of double teams, but when Yamada went for the Reverse Gory Special Bomb, Aja broke it up with an oil can. The first big near fall saw Toyota get a sunset flip when Aja went for the waterwheel drop, the same way she defeated her in the Japan Grand Prix. Aja avoided the double diving headbutts, and she and Kyoko hit helicopter slams. Aja got a near fall on Toyota with her chokeslam she won the JGP with. Kyoko was the one who needed the win, though, and Aja knew it, but Toyota and Yamada almost spoiled it. Toyota hit a moonsault and went for the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, but Kyoko escaped it. Aja cut off another quebrada attempt, and Kyoko hit the Niagara Driver in the middle of the ring. Aja was too busy cheering her buddy on that she didn't cut off Yamada, but it didn't matter. They did the doomsday diving elbow, and Kyoko got the win with that. A really excellent tag match with a feel-good ending. Kyoko was low on here without any major victories over anyone in the match before, and she didn't hold any belts having lost the IWA Title to Toyota in April and the All Pacific Title to Hokuto in November. Everyone was good, Kyoko, Yamada in the first half and Toyota in the second half, but Aja really killed it here and made the match. ****1/4

These matches look good on paper, but don't be fooled…

1/4/92 AJW Heartbeat The Rival Bout '92: Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada 30:00 + 5:00 + 5:00. The first 20 minutes were good. The next 20 was a display of their (mainly Toyota's) worst traits. It was similar to their 9/7/1991 match, and it seemed like they aimed to do a better version of that match. So, let's just go to where it all went wrong: Yamada decided to do the Texas Cloverleaf 24 minutes into the match just as the it was picking up, and held it for some time before switching to a camel clutch, which pretty much killed the match. After a brief exchange, she went back to it a second time, putting the nail in the coffin. The whole thing wasted 3-4 minutes, and she might as well have held up a sign that said “draw” on it. They aimlessly traded until they got to the bit at the end where Toyota was supposed to do a Rolling Cradle for the finish of the match, except she blew it, and it turned out to be a regular cradle. Ending a match with a rolling cradle is stupid to begin with, but blowing it caused them to finish 40 seconds too early. Toyota wanted to repeat the spot, but Yamada didn't go for it. Instead of trying anything else, they did basically nothing for 40 seconds, and it was a long, awkward 40 seconds. Yamada did one weak pin attempt and a lousy German Suplex at the end. If they just ended it there, it would have been mediocre, but it got a whole lot worse. As bad as those 5 minutes were, it had nothing on overtime #1. Toyota blew every spot she tried, and instead of letting Yamada salvage spots she was blowing, or better yet, take over, she refused to cooperate because she wanted to get her shit in, which only drew attention to the fact that she was botching, all the while continuing to dig the hole deeper by blowing more spots. There weren't even any good spots or transitions; they were off the rails, just doing whatever by the end. The stupidest part of the match was in the middle of all of this, where Toyota gave Yamada three reckless reverse tombstones in a row. The first one she pulled off, the second one was blown, and the third one she just dropped her. Yamada kicked out of all three, and no one reacted, and she was lucky she didn't receive a stinger or worse. That overtime finally ended, and it still wasn't enough. They just didn't know when to flush this turd. Overtime #2 started with more nonsense, as Toyota tried her quebrada with no setup at all, immediately, for the second time in the match, and blew it for the second time (the first time she pulled out of it as she was slipping, this time she landed on her head). The match was too far gone to salvage, but they actually got things somewhat together for a while. Yamada punted Toyota around, and that was the best thing they'd done in the last 15 minutes. Toyota even managed to execute the quebrada properly on the outside, but Yamada moved, and she splat on the floor anyway. There was another good part where Toyota frantically dodged some kicks; it looked really good and tired Yamada out, leaving her vulnerable for Toyota to finish, but then Toyota couldn't lift her up for a suplex. She did get it together to hit her Japanese Ocean Suplex, and the bell rang while she was in the pin, though. This was a match where nobody won, and everyone who sat through it lost. It makes what they accomplished with their next match in June look like a miracle.

3/20/92 AJW Kyoko Inoue vs. Bull Nakano 24:16. Two rookies doing nothing but dropkicks and crabs for 2 minutes would have been more exciting than this dog. They did nothing, they didn't even try. I know Bull isn't averse to dogging a match she doesn't feel is worth it, and Kyoko was her junior so she'd just follow Bull's lead, but all of their other matches were really good. Maybe someone was sick or injured here. If you like restmissions this is the match for you.

7/5/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92: Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong 20:41. Aja makes for a great tour guide of Korakuen Hall. She takes you through all the corridors, to the merch table, the vending machine and even up to the balcony. I guess this holds value if you want to take Aja's tour. As a wrestling match, it has its moments, but it's real dumb. It's an extended Aja beating, and a pretty lazy one. Aja didn't try, that was the point, she took Toyota lightly, and got caught at the end.

8/29/92 LLPW Noriyo Tateno & Harley Saito vs. Miki Handa & Utako Hozumi 36:06. This was an easy LLPW MOTY on paper, so what happened? Check the match time. It started good, it ended good, but they gave them 20 extra minutes to stretch each other with in the middle, and it ended up in the dumpster. I have no doubt that at the usual 15 minutes LLPW gave most of their matches around this time would have resulted in something good, but 36? No.

10/22/92 JWP Dynamite Kansai vs. Devil Masami 22:51 of 30:00. Kansai and Devil usually had good matches in these years when they could go. This time they opted to attempt a cure for insomnia. It's clipped, which is appreciated because it's 7 minutes of your life you won't waste watching this. But you could do one better and save an extra 23 by not watching it all.

1. Akira Hokuto. Hokuto was already the best women's wrestler at the start of the year, but she got even better after the Mexico expedition, transforming her stale Marine Wolf look into the Dangerous Queen. Her wrestling changed too, she was every bit as urgent, but more ruthless, and by the end of the year, smarter.

2. Mariko Yoshida. Yoshida was fun. Zenjo's most popular wrestler of 1992, and Yoshida managed it working solely in the midcard. Many a show was stolen long before the big matches took place. Sadly, as quickly as her rise was, it was snuffed out due to injury.

3. Kyoko Inoue. Kyoko was the most improved wrestler of the previous year, and then took her game to another level in 1992. Despite the odd miss, she largely delivered excellence all year, whether she was leading a trio of juniors, tagging with Aja, having a spotfest with Toyota or an epic with Hokuto, she stood out and wrestled at a high level, hell, there was even a comedy match (which got serious) with Yoshida which was one of the highlights of the year.

4. Mayumi Ozaki .A high IQ wrestler with all of the ability to go along with it. You'd only have to watch the two interpromotional tag matches to see how incredible Ozaki is. She stepped up from junior fodder in the old JWP to being Dynamite Kansai's main event rival in the new JWP. By far the smallest in size of anyone on this list, but a giant in terms of personality, charisma and talent.

5. Toshiyo Yamada. Yamada had an incredibly strong year, but her finest day was August 15th, her performance that day was nothing short of mindblowing. She worked two great matches back to back, the tag team match with Hokuto against Aja & Bull, and then turned around and immediately worked the hair vs hair match with Toyota in the very next match. She was is capable with the right opponents of delivering something special, and she did this frequently in 1992.

6. Bull Nakano. Bull's last year as champion. First year she made herself, second year she made everyone else, third year she put the two biggest stars over. The first one was Hokuto in the cage match, and the second was Aja for the red belt. She was still one of the best workers around when she wanted to be and always had the biggest presence.

7. Manami Toyota. Toyota's eye-catching high spots and extreme energy are what makes her memorable, but she's so frustrating. The singles matches with Yamada in 1992 are the most extreme examples. On her best day, she can give you a classic, as they achieved on 6/21, on her worst day, she can give you a complete miss as they did on 1/4.

8. Dynamite Kansai. Wrecking ball Kansai has been impressive for years, and continues to shine as one of the best workers on the scene. Her only limitation is a lack of competition in JWP, her big rival is Ozaki, but aside from Devil Masami, there isn't anyone you could really buy as a threat to her. The 2 count rules were a great addition to help with that, allowing her to have competitive matches again Plum Mariko and Cuty Suzuki.

9. Aja Kong. After years of chasing, Aja finally put an end to Bull's legendary run on top and dethroned her. She continued to improve through 1992, and her individual performances got better and better as the year went on.

10. Bison Kimura. It's easy to forget someone when they disappear and retire halfway through the year. But Bison was the clear #10. She was really good when she was around, and still the workhorse of Jungle Jack. She finished up her first run with a memorable match against Aja.

1. 11/26/92 AJW 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki *****

2. 8/30/92 AJW Bull Nakano, Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami vs. Akira Hokuto, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda ****3/4

3. 11/26/92 AJW All Pacific Title Match: Kyoko Inoue vs. Akira Hokuto ****3/4

4. 6/21/92 AJW Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada ****3/4

5. 12/1/92 JWP Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue ****1/2

6. 4/25/92 AJW WWWA World Title Match: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong ****1/2

7. 8/15/92 AJW IWA World Women's Title Hair vs. Hair Match: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Manami Toyota ****1/2

8. 8/15/92 AJW Fuji TV Tag Tournament Mid Summer Typhoon '92 Final: Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada ****1/4

9. 6/21/92 AJW Japan Grand Prix '92: Mariko Yoshida vs. Sakie Hasegawa ****1/4

10. 1/4/92 AJW IWA World Women's Title Match: Kyoko Inoue vs. Akira Hokuto ****1/4

1. All Japan Women

2. JWP

3. LLPW

Chaparrita ASARI (Masami Watanabe)

Yuka Shiina

Fusayo Nochi

Miho Ikari

Akiko Abe

Best Joshi Puroresu Matches YouTube Playlist