So what's the deal with New All Japan Women? It's not what you might think. Remember last year there was a company called Girls Door. It was owned by EWF, the IT company that also owns Smackgirl. Last year EWF approached the Matsunaga family to ask for permission to use the name All Japan Women. The Matsunagas agreed on two conditions. One is that it had to be called NEW AJW. The other is EWF can't run shows in Tokyo. Over their history, AJW has always run shows in regions in Japan that no one else will run. Today, it's even worse. Most joshi companies run in Tokyo only. Even First On Stage's attempt at a regional promotion Zero Sun Nexus appears to have ceased operation. So the New AJW is probably a good thing.
The problem is it's very difficult to get any info or reports on New AJW shows. If they have a website, I haven't found it. And most of the fans who go to shows and write about them live in Tokyo. But one of them took the bus to the Mar. 31 New AJW show at the Haga-cho Gym in Tochigi. He came home in the middle of the night and was very tired. Other than the use of the AJW name, it was a typical joshi show with a mix of veterans and youngsters. The main event was JWP's Azumi Hyuga & KAZUKI vs Michiko Ohmukai & Ran YuYu.
The opener was Leon vs Arisa Nakajima. Leon started out with a dropkick & a surfboard. Nakajima came back with a reverse chicken wing, a facebuster & an armdrag. The end came when Leon pushed Nakajima into the corner anailed her with an elbow and her Mad Splash finisher at 10:25. Next was Kaori Yoneyama vs Bullfight Sora. Apparently the sight of a wrestler dressed up as a cow was fascinating to the crowd. Sora did her usual comeday shtick but Yoneyama caught up to her. She hit a missile dropkick and a brainbuster. After she got a two count with a German suplex, Yoneyama pinned Sora with a Majistral cradle at 13:52.
Up next was GAMI vs Hiroyo Matsumoto. Matsumoto crotches GAMI on the top rope. Outside the ring, GAMI hits her with a megaphone. Matsumoto's Argentinian backbreaker is countered by a sleeper. GAMI hits a Northern Lights suplex for a two count. She follows this with a lariat and a Kentucky bomb for the win at 11:04. Next was Mariko Yoshida vs Ayumi Kurihara. Kurihara tries to get the jump on Yoshida with kicks and a Bow & Arrow hold. But Yoshida blocks a backbreaker and follows it with a DDT and a sleeper. Yoshida wins with a double arm facebuster at 12:47.
The Main event had Azumi Hyuga & KAZUKI vs Michiko Ohmukai & Ran YuYu. Hyuga hits a double arm backbreaker on Ran and tags KAZUKI in. Ran uses kicks to get control of KAZUKI but KAZUKI comes back and tags Hyuga. Hyuga hits a missile dropkick. Ran is in trouble but KAZUKI is back in. After hitting KAZUKI with a kneedrop, a K Crusher & a brainbuster for two count, Ran wins with an elbow drop at 13:18. Using the AJW name evokes fond memories from some fans. It's not the same but they probably enjoyed the show anyway. And I do think it's good experience for the young wrestlers to perform in front of a crowd that is different from the norm.
Hi Frank, I'm Martin from England. I just discovered your blog, and I intend to use it to keep up with joshi-related news. Over here, we just get fairly poor quality GAEA house shows from about 2003 on cable. Every episode seems to feature a Sakura Hirota match. I'm sure she's very funny to the Japanese, but not to me. Anyway, I just can't understand how they can have Satomura, Masami, Chigusa, Aja, even Toyota on a bill and only get about 150 audience. I'd eagerly travel 100s of miles to see those women. what do you think?
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the joshi business. The Japanese pro wrestling business has been in general decline for several years. There are two reasons for this. One is the rising popularity of MMA in Japan. The other is there are too many zombie feds putting on too many pointless shows. Shin-kiba 1st Ring & Shinjuku FACE both have less than 500 capacity. If joshi feds can't fill those halls, how are they supposed to fill larger halls like Korakuen Hall (2100 cap.)? The answer is they can't. The fans in Tokyo have simply stopped going. I realize that most foreign joshi fans don't understand or care about that but that's the way things are today.
ReplyDeleteHey Frank! I'm Phil, also from England and discovered your blog from puroresupower.com which had a link concerning the SENDAI Girls tournament (which started this past weekend i believe). I'm relatively new to the joshi scene having got hold of as much old AJW as i could and the obvious Dreamslam shows and the like. I've been trying to work out who would be considered the major promotions these days since the closure of AJW and GAEA so i can follow it a little better. I was introducd to SENDAI Girls through a DVD promotion on the SHIMMER forums and manged to get hold of the first show (with Satomura Vs Aja which was fantastic) and the Nanae Takahashi 10th Anniversary/NEO Summer Stampede TV block which i enjoyed enormously, although i was quite disapointed to see what looked like the retirement of the cutest joshi wrestler ever, Yuka Nakamura :( Anyhow from what i can muster, SENDAI and possibly LLPW (which i just ordered the Jan and Feb shows of) seem like the likely candidates as they run what appear to be regular shows with names i'd recognise. Is there an english language site you know of which covers the joshi promotions much like there are for the big male promotions??
ReplyDeleteThanks for any help.
NEO is probably the busiest promotion right now. Some of them like LLPW, Pro Wrestling SUN & Sendai Girls seem to have delusions of grandeur but they're not that good. I'm probably the only one who writes about joshi in this manner. I go to Japanese sites daily looking for news & show reports. If you're looking for results, try the German site http://www.purolove.com/ and for a historical perspective, check out Amy Action's updated site at http://www.amyaction.com/ I will be contributing to Amy's site. You should also check out joshi videos I have posted at Veoh.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Upon further perusal of the last couple of months of your entries it seems you have a lot of the bases covered and things are starting to become much clearer. I shall be continuing to read with great interest!
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