Cero Reviews AJW Classics ~Retro Hour~ EP 1

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Cero Reviews AJW Classics ~Retro Hour~ EP 1

Post by cero2k » Feb 19th, '21, 13:40

All Japan Women's Classics EP 1
May 7th, 1983
Kawasaki, Japan

AJW Junior Championship Match
Noriyo Tateno (c) vs. Hiromi Komatsubara - 5.5/10
Tateno, one half of the Jumping Bomb Angels later on, had held this title since August 1982, a title where the 'junior' implies age, not weight. Komatsubara, for that matter, I believe only had a couple of matches and doesn't have much history written about her on the web.

Match saw Komatsubara have a lot of offense over Tateno, who just made a comeback and won with a crossbody, Back Body Drop, and a slam combo. The wrestling was basic, some stuff looks stiff because of the era, but as the title implies, this is the title of women who are still getting experience or training. Tateno had been an underdog, and so bringing in someone to beat her up for a couple of minutes, for her to make the comeback and win, was just basic booking.

Monster Ripper vs. Mimi Hagiwara - 6.5/10
The pageantry of Hagiwara and the heel gimmick of Ripper are just beautiful. Obviously, Mimi is the Japanese super babyface, while Ripper was the violent foreigner. Monster Ripper is better known in America as Bertha Faye. Commentary at one point compared her to the women's version of King Kong Brody. she was such a force in Japan that babyfaces would illegally double team her in order to get the better of her and fans would go crazy for it.

The match was a David vs Goliath match, with Goliath beating the shit out of David and pinning her at the end of the match. Ripper tossed Mimi all over the place, in and out of the ring. Mimi had some great hope spots, some with the aid of her seconds. I wouldn't say this was a squash, Mimi did look like she was putting in good effort and could had gotten the roll up pin towards the end.

Vacant WWWA Tag Team Championship Match Best of 3 Series (0-1)
Devil Masami & Tarantula (c) vs. Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori) - 4/10
Dynamite Girls won match one of the series, they are both former WWWA tag team champions, but not with each other, this team actually is quite new. Masami and Tarantula, though, are the former champions and are looking to reclaim their gold. I couldn't documentation on why the titles were vacated, I just know it happened during 1983.

If one team didn't have names like Tarantula and Devil, I could had believed that the Dynamite Girls were the heels here, her work was vicious, and sometimes even heelish. This started like a normal tag match, but quickly became a brawl among the fans, and sometimes into the fans, which I've always found quite uncomfortable. Man or woman, I feel it can get gropy.

Anyway, the match was super chaotic, but I'd argue the the brawling was good and with Tarantula and Devil Masami winning, it tells a story that if the Dynamite Girls want to win the tie breaker, they're gonna have to keep it in the ring.

WWWA World Championship Hair Vs. Mask Match
Jaguar Yokota (c) vs. La Galactica (w/Monster Ripper) - 8/10
Everything is on the line, Hair vs Mask, plus the WWWA World Championship. Galactica came out wearing a Mariachi suit over a golden leotard, hat and all, and her silver mask. Freaking gorgeous! She is a Mexican luchadora, better know as Pantera Sureña, she worked mostly AAA, but would jump to EMLL from time to time, before ending her career in Japan in a promotion called HVFA/ATOZ. Jaguar Yokota needs no introduction, she's a legend of Joshi.

Really simple story to this match. Yokota is the better wrestler, completely dominant in a one-on-one situation, but Monster Ripper keeps getting involved and attacking Yokota over and over, letting Galactica take control of the match. The matches reaches a point where Ripper and Galactica brawled with Jaguar outside the ring and they cut a chunk of hair, which prompts the mask tearing for a super pop.

Big climax comes when Yokota is fucking done, she is tired of Ripper, she is tired of Galactica, she's even tired of the referee and the officials. She grabs a chair and takes out everyone in a fit of rage, but also blinded by her rage, goes for a huge tope suicida that Galactica dodges and Yokota crashes and burns. With no referee, Galactica and Ripper just destroy her in the ring with sentons and slams and pin her.

Post-match - Yokota is going crazy, but eventually calms down and accepts to get her hair cut. She is stabbing people with her eyes. Jaguar Yokota is a fucking badass! After this, she has a mission to beat the shit out of Ripper and regain her title from Galactica.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This is a show that took place before I was even born, there's no argument that wrestling hasn't changed since, but there is no denying that this show had so much energy and wrestlers that the crowd was totally behind of. The storytelling is basic, with the foreigners being heels and the Japanese women the babyfaces fighting the odds. The wrestling, considering the time, looked a lot better than a lot of stuff from the same time that I've seen.
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