Posted February 18, 200817 yr comment_5428251 Joshi #6 – 1987, 1989 Devil Masami vs. Mika Komatsu - Squash Handheld: Monster Ripper handicap match (end only) - Nothing to it. November 1987 TV: Dump Matsumoto, Condor Saito & Kumiko Iwamoto vs. Yukari Omori, Yumi Ogura & Kazue Nagahori - This was a fine match but nothing memorable. Crush Girls vs. Bull Nakano & Drill Nakamae - Matches featuring Dump's Army are always a nice change of pace from the faster, spottier stuff. They feature a discernable structure and plenty of character notes. For example, we get to see Bull's nunchuck skills in this one. That said, this ends pretty abruptly and falls short of nomination territory. 1989 Japan Grand Prix finals: Madusa Miceli vs. Mitsuko Nishiwaki - Short and awkward. May 1989: WWWA title: Lioness Asuka vs. Madusa Miceli - This started as a heated brawl with both women blading and Madusa actually looking kind of bad ass. She was much better as the big, American ass kicker than when she attempted more athletic matches. The match got more sluggish when they started trading submissions and in general, the ending had less spunk than the beginning. I'll still throw it on as a low-level nom, because it features some good stuff from a familiar figure in Madusa. Handheld: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Delta Dawn - Short and unmemorable. JWP Handheld: Yuu Yamasaki vs. Esther Moreno - Nothing too interesting. I agree with Loss that most of these handhelds are hard to sit through. August 1989 TV (taped July 18): Grizzly Iwamoto & Bison Kimura vs. Honey Wings (Tag League 89, JIP) - These are more like clips of match endings than anything we could put on the set. Suzuka Minami & Mima Shimoda vs. Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita (Tag League 89, JIP) - Hokuto rules but again, this is just a clip. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Tamada vs. Bull Nakano & The Beastie (Tag League 89, JIP) - It's a shame this one is so clipped because it looks like it might have been really good and heated. Lioness Asuka retirement show – interview from Honolulu and career clips - Asuka debut clips; 1980: Tomoko Kitamura (Asuka) vs. Yukari Omori; 1984: Crush Girls vs. Yukari Omori & Jumbo Hori; 1985: Asuka vs. Jaguar Yokota - These really are just clips, combined with these weird interview segments set against a Hawaiian waterfront. Might make nice extras if we had any clue what they're saying. Lioness Asuka vs. Noriyo Tateno - A five-minute draw. Lioness Asuka vs. Jaguar Yokota (exhibition) - This is another five-minute match. Might make a fun extra to show that Jaguar was still pretty awesome years after retiring from AJW. Madusa vs. Mitsuko Nishiwaki (repeat) August 1989 TV: Aja Shishido (Kong), Miori Kamiya & Reibun Amada vs. Mima Shimoda & Honey Wings - Always good to see Kong but nothing special about the match. Hiromi Hasegawa & Noriyo Tateno vs. Akira Hokuto & Etsuko Mita - This was actually a really exciting mid-card tag match. Hokuto ended it with a really cool move in which she caught an opponent in mid-air (can't rememebr which) and flipped her over into a bridge suplex. All four brought some nifty stuff to this one so I'll throw it a low- to mid-level nomination. Mitsuko Nishiwaki & Madusa interview class of 1989 rookies (Watanabe, Sakie, Ito, etc.) Grizzly Iwamoto & Bison Kimura vs. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada - I haven't much liked Bison and Grizzly so far. They seem like cheap knockoffs of Dump with their hyper-reliance on weapons. They did some nasty beatdowns of Toyota and Yamada, but the crowd remained pretty dead for this one and it didn't do too much for me.
