Jetlag said:

"The more KAORU I watch, the more she rises in my estimation as one of the top wrestlers of her era. Obviously one of the workers in the GAEA promotion. Really athletic wrestler, who has a knack for neat moments and well laid out wrestling matches. Looks great both standing up to established stars as well as working with the younger crew. Her match against Aja is a joshi Match of the Decade contender and makes me want to dig more into her 2000s work. I have to revisit her GAEA stuff too and dive deeper into her AJW work. Apparently, she's still wrestling, so that's also something to consider!?"

KAORU? Maeda Kaoru? The Aja match is amazing, I'll grant you that, but KAORU?

I have only seen two matches of hers, the famed Aja match and a Hokuto match. Both were great (the aja one elite).

From that I am interested in seeing more. I assume anyone who has those two matches isn't trash. However, I'm pretty sure Aja and Hokuto could have "fine" matches with me if they really wanted to at the time, so I need to dig in  a little before I get carried away.

I think with KAORU is that she was on the outskirts of the main stages as she left AJW to go to Mexico and Hamada's Universal. She's good in GAEA's early years but when she starts teaming with Ozaki, it's a lot of brawls and I guess she did that do save her body cause she's still around today. I think she's retiring this year or next year. I'm not for sure.

The last good match she's had recently was her vs Kairi in the 2015 5 STAR GP and that kinda shows that Kairi could work at WWE style match with weapons and etc.

 

Might have KAROU on my list, the Aja Kong match is amazing!! The Hirota 2002 is great too, I might even like it more. Interested I'm going into her career more.

Doubt she'll make my list but a really reliable, charismatic hand.

Cool to see KAORU getting some love! She's a great tag team wrestler more than a great singles performer now that I think of it. Although it can get obnoxious at times, her team with Ozaki was pretty good. For anyone looking for a few more matches.

Tag matches:

Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU vs. Meiko Satomura & Ayako Hamada (GAEA 10/20/02)

Chikayo Nagashima & Toshie Uematsu vs. Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU (05/13/01)

Lioness Asuka & Mayumi Ozaki vs. KAORU & Meiko Satomura (02/11/99)

KAORU & Meiko Satomura vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Sonoko Kato (06/21/98) although it's more about Satomura vs Kato imo

Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu vs KAORU & Kiyoko Ichiki (GAEA 01/19/97) 

Singles matches that I like are (skipping the Aja one):

KAORU vs Mayumi Ozaki (01/30/00)

Lioness Asuka vs. KAORU (07/22/00)

 

Four score and twenty years ago, I was a fan of KAORU's tag team with Hikari Fukuoka in JWP. I especially liked their 7/7/96 match against Dynamite Kansai and Cuty Suzuki.