I've been around long enough to remember when non finishes were standard in the joshi business. Back in the 70s it seemed that every other match ended by count out or DQ. This had a lot to do with visiting gaijins who wouldn't job. AJW stopped doing a lot of that in the 80s and really it hasn't been much of an issue in recent years. But LLPW owner Shinobu Kandori pulled a real boner on the Jan. 5 Korakuen Hall show as part of the All Star Strongest Woman tournament. This isn't going to encourage anyone to take this seriously. And they have to fill Sumo Hall next month.
The match in question was the quarter final tournament match between Shinobu Kandori & Amazing Kong. Kong basically killed Kandori. She attacked her before the bell and beat the crap out of her with a lariat (pictured), an Amazing Press & a Liger Bomb. Amazing Kong threw Kandori out of the ring and proceeded to power bomb her on a chair. After the ref warned Amazing Kong, she hit him and was DQd at 10:01. Oy vey! Is that pathetic enough for you? This result looked even sillier when Aja Kong & Dump Matsumoto used weapons in their match. But that ended in a DQ too. They used a chain. Dump busted Aja open with a nail. Of course Sasori helped Dump and Mayumi Ozaki & Police helped Aja. Aja was winning when the ref DQd her for using a fire extinguisher at 10:57. Huh? And we don't even get Aja/Kandori in the semi finals.
The other two quarter final matches were a little more orthodox. Meiko Satomura & Harley Saito emphasized kicks, something they're both good at. Satomura won with the Scorpion Rising at 10:25. Typically Saito was very gracious in defeat on her 20th anniversary. Eagle Sawai vs Mayumi Ozaki had Sawai controlling most of the match but with Police's help, Ozaki turned things around and won with a power bomb at 10:46. Well, at least there was no DQ. The other event of note was the return to joshi of former Osaka Pro valet Francoise. She did appear briefly in A To Z in 2003 but I don't recall if she ever wrestled there. She won her match over Ayako Sato with a missile dropkick at 6:34. Certainly the results of this show were surprising but that doesn't seem like a good thing. Feb. 12 in Sumo Hall should be very interesting.
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