GAEA G-PANIC! #41 12/27/00 DEEP ENDLESS |
11/26/00 Osaka Umeda Stella Hall
Devil Masami & KAORU vs. Lioness Asuka & Sonoko Kato 5:37 of 8:19. Mainly KAORU vs. Kato. Good action, but somewhat sloppy.
AAAW Tag Championship Next Challenging Team Decision Tournament Final: Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Meiko Satomura 7:47. Nonstop helter skelter action. Ozaki did most of the actual wrestling for her team, but Hokuto stood out due to being the only one who did enough acting to get some mileage out of the moves. The managed to put a little heat on Hokuto vs. Satomura, building to their big singles match on 4/29/01, though it was a relatively wasted opportunity during the match. Two things helped Satomura: Hokuto making it a huge deal that Meiko kicked out of her DQ bomb despite the fact it occurred just 4 minutes into this sprint and Chigusa actually being the one who was pinned by Hokuto, the latter setting up Satomura’s post match attack on Akira. Kind of a messy match, including Satomura and Hokuto cracking heads when Meiko tried her bicycle kick. **1/4
12/17/00 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Chigusa Nagayo vs. KAORU 10:43. They went all out, but it was the requisite big spot killing highlight reel of garbage. They actually did some different spots, with Chigusa even pulling out a shoulderblock off the apron and KAORU a diving footstomp to the floor, but there was too much silly brawling. KAORU hit her table with a bat before the match, which apparently was the cue for Chigusa to charge right into it at the bell. Later, Chigusa no sold some shots with the table half and screamed like an idiot. Someone must have discovered Chigusa fell short of her yearly quota of getting pinned, as she did another job her, going down to KAORU’s excalibur. **
Sonoko Kato & Saika Takeuchi vs. Toshie Uematsu & The Bloody 5:45 of 13:43. Energetic match. Takeuchi was obviously way out of her depth, but her effort got her over. She accidentally got a bloody mouth from Uematsu’s knee, which actually added to the positive effect. Uematsu did a nice job of carrying her team and making the match. Good match.
Devil Masami & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Lioness Asuka & Meiko Satomura 8:30 of 12:48. Okay match, though almost entirely devoid of give and take. Devil controlled the early portion against Satomura then Yamada bumped for Asuka. Devil vs. Satomura was an attempt at Devil’s brand of solid wrestling that didn’t quite come off due to Devil’s lack of athleticism, while Lioness vs. Yamada was a much faster and showier squash that even wound up looking more professional due to the consistently spot on execution. KAORU attacked Lioness from behind with a table half after the match. **
HHH Title Match: Sakura Hirota vs. Dynamite Kansai 2:55 of 7:48. Hirota came out looking like a portable shower to hide the fact she was dressed in Kansai’s outfit. I’ve seen a lot of bad finishes in my day, but this one may take the cake. Hirota actually held Kansai up for Kansai’s own splash mountain for 25 seconds, which is quite a feat. Obviously if any logic was involved, Hirota would want to slam Kansai as soon as possible, but since this is Hirota she never even dropped Kansai, instead submitting because Dynosaur’s girth was too much for her shoulder.
AAAW Tag Title Match: Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Akira Hokuto & Mayumi Ozaki 24:37. A memorable match by GAEA standards, primarily notable for the fact they made it appear to be the usual 9 minute sprint only to wind up going nearly 25! Certainly more an exciting match than a particularly accomplished one from any technical or psychological perspective, even the execution was hardly precision. Hokuto sold early, with the idea seeming to be to keep Ozaki out of the ring for as long as possible since the heat is on her against her understudies. Unfortunately for the story, though fortunately for the match quality, the GAEA attention span only lasts a few minutes. Any semblance of plot was out the window once Ozaki came in, but Ozaki & Nagashima gave the expected high quality performances, with Hokuto remembering her expertise in playing hurt and Sato even giving an effective power wrestler performance. Nagashima made the match with her waterbug style, though she was far better against Ozaki, who she’s not only much more familiar with but also is about her size and much more athletic and flexible. The match was always at least decent, but never super despite some neat spots such as Nagashima doing a footstomp off the arena entrance and landing on her feet for Hokuto’s nadare shiki brainbuster. Again, the main asset was the surprising length, making some of the normally pedestrian near finishes a little more surprising, though it was still more of a match that appeared close to ending than one that appeared about to end. Although it was almost 3 times the typical GAEA length, the match still essentially came off as a lengthy finishing segment. Sato & Nagashima were generally in control, so you believed they could retain. After defeat appeared much closer than the horizon, Nagashima came back with Ozaki’s old tequila sunrise finisher and her own fisherman’s buster finisher for near falls the crowd went nuts for. The fans really wanted to see Nagashima go over her mentor, but with Ozaki just about dead they pulled out a lame finish where Nagashima tried to take Ozaki out with her own uraken only to have an arm collision when Ozaki pulled her favorite strike at the same time. Hokuto then caught Nagashima with a missile kick and Ozaki put he away with her witchcraft to claim the titles. ***1/2
