Candy Okutsu & Fusayo Nouchi vs. Chikako Shiratori & Chaparrita ASARI 13:15. Surprisingly good when you consider the only decent worker in the match was Candy, who was still really green. They worked a solid match that kept moving the whole time and never lulled, got boring or turned into a mess like most junior matches do. Candy basically carried the match on her back. Her partner didn’t add anything though. The Zenjo girls made for a decent enough team, in the sense they at least complimented each other. Shiratori was perfectly fine here. She was good with the basic work. She puts effort into it, but she just couldn’t do anything beyond that. ASARI is the polar opposite, hopeless with the basic work, but brought her spots and hit the Sky Twister Press perfectly at the end. **1/2

Bolshoi Kid vs. Mima Shimoda 13:55. This was trash. It was built around the clown doing stupid comedy spots and paying for them, which is a stupid premise to begin with, and she was blowing spots left and right to go along with it. Occasionally, Bolshoi managed to execute a spot properly, but the setups were slow and they looked weak and phony anyway. Shimoda was okay bullying the clown, but beyond that, they didn’t work well at all. Bolshoi was too much for Shimoda to overcome. Mariko Yoshida was the referee, and she seems to always get put as the referee for all the worst matches so she can liven them up a bit, and once again, the best part of the match was a mini-sequence between her a Shimoda. 1/2*

Solid Black Queens Energy: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Manami Toyota 22:55. Their 6/3 match was a solid match that could have been really good had Toyota been willing to make Hikari seem like a threat. This was one of those Toyota’s brainless efforts, and it wasn’t even a good example of what these two can do spotwise because their execution wasn’t up to it and Toyota didn’t even seem interested. Hikari was the better of the two, but Toyota was leading the match, so it wasn’t hers to make. Hikari had a lot of control on the mat, but Toyota would just blow it off. She trash talked while in a body scissors, and then basically Hulked up in comical fashion to reverse it. Hikari worked over her knee for about 3 minutes straight and Toyota was straight back sprinting at 100% immediately after, doing a boomerang. It took about 15 minutes for them to finish up with all the filler and get it into the spotfest. It was mainly just mirror spots and suplexes. The crowd went nuts for all of it, but they just wanted to see these two doing their spots. Toyota did a nice plancha over the guard rail, which was probably the highlight of the whole thing, but she soon followed up with a moonsault where she landed on Hikari’s head and Hikari was messed up after it for a bit. Toyota tried the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex twice, but Hikari couldn’t go up for it, so she had to settle for a couple of German Suplexes instead. Once Hikari regained her bearings, she showed how the moonsault is supposed to be done. Toyota did a rolling cradle after, which I suppose counts as psychology, making her dizzier after ringing her bell on the blown moonsault… well, it set up the finish anyway, which was a sloppy version of the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex which finally ended it. **

Pure Heart Meets The Dangerous Queen, Only One Time Singles Match: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Akira Hokuto 18:26. Hokuto's involvement with JWP was relatively limited during the rivalry year. This was her first real interaction with JWP, and she gave about the same amount of respect she’d shown to LLPW. You’d think putting the two best workers of 1993 against each other would have great results, it didn’t get up to that level though. Ozaki didn’t have her best performance, there was nothing wrong with her work, she did all the moves fine but the attitude wasn’t there. She seemed intimidated by Hokuto when she should have matched and upped her nastiness as she would have done with anyone else. It turns out that there’s some things you can’t bluff; Ozaki really was in awe of Hokuto. She said in an interview that wrestling Hokuto was different, she had an aura like no one else and all she could think of when she was in the ring with her was “wow, it’s Akira Hokuto”. The focus of the match was Hokuto's knee, as usual, and Ozaki effectively targeted it throughout the match. Hokuto's selling was top-notch, and the second half saw an escalation of big moves. They sold the big moves and made most of what they did meaningful. At one point, Ozaki powerbombed Hokuto outside and waited in the ring, taunting her doing jumping jacks so Hokuto even made that into a revenge spot later, doing pushups after her somersault plancha. Ozaki never really had a chance to beat Hokuto, but they managed to put that in doubt with a kneebar she caught towards the end. She had a run where she had to counter Hokuto and eat a DQ bomb, but ended up hitting the Tequila Sunrise for a near fall. That was really it for Ozaki’s hope, and they went home straight after, with Hokuto avoiding a cannonball, hitting the Henkei backdrop and a Northern Light’s Bomb to quickly finish. This was far from the best match they could have had together, but it was still a really strong and smart match in terms of structure, execution, selling, and it had enough drama. However, what was lacking was urgency. As mentioned earlier regarding Ozaki's persona, and for Hokuto’s part she was rather subdued compared to her performances from earlier in the year. These two having a match of this quality despite neither being anywhere near their best should tell you all you need to know about how great they were, but it’s hard not to be a little disappointed by it. ***3/4

Most Special Persons Wrestling Jam: Devil Masami & Plum Mariko vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Cuty Suzuki 33:07. This was the real main event of this show, which is saying something when you had Ozaki vs. Hokuto and Kansai vs. Kyoko on the card, and this wasn’t even an interpromotional match. It was however, the proper return of Chigusa Nagayo, after returning for the two Dream Slam shows to promote her movie (which bombed) she didn’t return for Legacy of Queens as planned, but ended up joining JWP (I believe specifically as an exclusive freelancer). Special would be the way to describe this match. Immediately Chigusa entered, and it was like the 80s again. There were enough schoolgirls (I suppose they had grown into women by this point) in the crowd to give it that atmosphere. The opening staredown from Devil and Chigusa had more substance to it than Hikari and Toyota’s entire match. The master plan unfolded with Plum attacking Chigusa while she was preoccupied by Devil, but their quick double-team attempt was thwarted when Chigusa evaded it. Chigusa dumped both out and teased a dive, and then the match got underway properly. Cuty found herself on the receiving end of some basic offense and heel tactics. Chigusa wasn’t happy with the heel tactics and Plum relished in taunting her, teasing Cuty with the tag before cruelly pulling her away. Devil and Chigusa had their first proper confrontation, and it was careful. They built the tension and heat. Plum got a kneebar on Chigusa and Chigusa played face in peril, when it looked like she was going to make the comeback in a figure four leglock. Devil ran in and stomped, then did a great Jumbo Suplex where she suplexed Cuty onto Chigusa. Chigusa hit a powerbomb and leg lariat on Plum to set up her sharpshooter. Devil came in to cut it off, but Chigusa never released the grip and put it on her. Plum got worked over for a bit, which was only really notable for introducing the sleepers to match, while Cuty’s wasn’t particularly effective, Devil made sure to interrupt Chigusa’s. After Cuty tried to quicken the pace, Plum countered her and tagged Devil. Cuty surprisingly managed to get the best of Devil briefly, avoiding a lariat and coming up with a Dragon Suplex which was a great near fall and set up Chigusa to take over. Chigusa unleashed a leg lariat on Devil and locked her in the Sharpshooter. However, Plum's interference prompted Chigusa to break off and attack her, allowing Devil to take over again with an Electric Chair double team with Plum hitting a seated senton. Plum put a dragon sleeper on Chigusa, but she snapmared her way out of it. Devil press slammed Cuty and dragged Chigusa into a powerbomb, she hit one but then Chigusa started countering her. Chigusa was too predictable with the leg lariat but Devil was too predictable with a lariat, and they both evaded. After Devil’s lariat attempt, Chigusa caught her with a kick to the back of the head, and Cuty came off the top rope with a flying knee. Cuty tried to finish off Devil with another Dragon Suplex and Chigusa helped her with a kick, but Plum intervened and Devil escaped. This was so perfectly built up now that Plum put a kneebar on Cuty that people really believed it was the finish, Devil took out Chigusa so all Cuty could do was hang on. The only criticism of the spot was that it probably went on too long, but Plum’s kneebar was never a protected move (though it probably should have been). Eventually, Chigusa avoided Devil's baseball slide and high kicked her, which allowed her to save Cuty. Devil and Chigusa got into an argument while Plum had Cuty in an STF, which was actually the more credible of her submissions in the sense that she’d actually won matches with it before, but the kneebar was more over and the STF was just used as filler. Chigusa got the hot tag soon after and took it to Devil, but Devil turned her high kick into a half crab. Chigusa came back grabbing Devil’s foot when she went for a kick and landed a bunch of strikes. They did a TKO tease of Chigusa's elbow. The first great sleeper spot followed with Chigusa getting it on Devil with Plum trying to break it up and Cuty doing her best to keep her away. Soon after, Devil did an even better sleeper spot. Devil jerked her around and Chigusa was not only looking like she was about to go out, but started frothing at the mouth. Cuty ran in and Plum got rid her. It was so good that it should have been the finish, but it did make things academic. Chigusa endured two powerbombs, and Cuty suffered one for her efforts to disrupt the pin. Plum attempted to set up Devil for a guillotine legdrop with a German Suplex, but they had to execute the move twice due to positioning issues. Devil got another near fall with a German suplex before pinning Chigusa with a guillotine leg drop, sealing the victory. Devil gave one of her best performances in terms of leading the match, and she was the standout. Plum wrestled the match of her life, being the workhorse and her submissions were worked into the match as major spots. Chigusa was a little rusty but significantly better than she was on the April shows, offensively she did enough, and her selling and apron work was tremendous. Cuty had the lesser role, but did a really good job as well, and made her moments count. This is 1993, so this doesn’t quite make a women’s match of the year contender. It is however, the best non-interpromotional women’s match of the year. ****3/4

Full Throttle Thunder Queen World: Dynamite Kansai vs. Kyoko Inoue 20:46. This match is more than good enough as a main event, but they had some trouble following the previous match, and like Hokuto vs. Ozaki, it was a little hard to buy Kyoko as a threat to Kansai coming in. In a perfect world, you’d have had Kyoko vs. Ozaki and Hokuto vs. Kansai, but at that point it would have been an arena card. This was the battle of the Splash Mountain vs. The Niagara Driver, but ultimately it was about the firepower to hit it. The first half was a lot of weardowns with some spots interspersed for transitions. Kyoko managed to do a pretty impressive giant swing considering Kansai’s size. Things weren’t really established until the second half. Kyoko had Kansai pretty well scouted, but it was Kansai’s kicks that made the difference. Kyoko could counter them, but couldn’t counter enough of them. The last few minutes were mostly all Kansai, with Kyoko hitting desperation suplexes and flash pins. She almost hit the Niagara Driver, but Kansai got out of it. After Kyoko’s flash pin attempt, Kansai rocked her with another kick, and that was enough to hit a backdrop suplex and then the splash mountain to put her away. This another well put together and well executed match. ****

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