From Beauty Pair to Bull Nakano: The Evolution of Joshi Pro Wrestling (Part 2)

From Beauty Pair to Bull Nakano: The Evolution of Joshi Pro Wrestling

Dive into the rich history of Joshi Pro Wrestling in Japan with hosts Justin Knipper and Fumi Saito. In part two of this mini-series, we explore the evolution of women's wrestling from the 1980s through the 1990s. Discover the impact of legendary figures like Mimi Hagiwara, Jaguar Yokota, and the iconic Crush Gals. Learn about the rise of JWP and the pivotal role of Bull Nakano in transforming the wrestling landscape.

We also delve into the inter-promotional rivalries of the early 90s, the innovative matches that captivated audiences, and the unforgettable moments from events like the 1993 Yokohama show. With insights on the introduction of international talent like Medusa and the influence of various wrestling styles, this episode provides a comprehensive look at how Joshi Pro Wrestling became a phenomenon.

Join us as we recount the stories, matches, and characters that defined an era and set the stage for future generations of female wrestlers. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the world of Joshi Pro Wrestling, this episode is packed with fascinating details and nostalgic highlights.

Episode Transcript

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(02:07):
Hey everyone, welcome back to Write That Down. I am one of your hosts,
Justin Nipper. I edit for fightgamedia.com.
I'm a staff writer at F4WOnline and WrestlingObserver.com.
I'm back with Japan's leading pro wrestling author, historian,
broadcast journalist, sociologist, Mr.

(02:27):
Fumi Saito. Welcome to part two of our Joshi Pro Wrestling History mini-series,
our deep dive into women's pro wrestling in Japan.
Today we picked up where we left off on the last episode before we really dive
into Joshi wrestling in the 80s and 90s.
Fumi did a recap of what we talked about last week, and then we dove into talking

(02:50):
about the Mimi Hagiwara era. We talked about Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami's early days.
We talked about the legendary Crush Gals era.
You hear their song in the background right now. That's them.
The introduction of JWP, Jackie Santos, JWP 1986.
The second big women's promotion. Not big, but the second promotion.

(03:14):
We spent a lot of time towards the end of the episode talking Bull Nakano.
We talked about an early 90s era as well, 92, 93, 94.
And we're going to talk a lot more about that specific era of all Japan women's
wrestling and LLPW and a lot more next week on part three.
But today we did our best to get through as much as we could.

(03:36):
We focused on full the Yokohama show, 1993 Yokohama show, kind of legendary one.
There's a lot to impact. This is another dense episode. If you have questions,
comments, let us know. Get at us on social media.
All right, if you haven't already, before we get started, please subscribe to
the Fight Game Media Network podcast feed.

(03:58):
You can subscribe on Spotify, Apple, Stitcher, Downcast, wherever you download your podcast.
It helps us out a ton. Okay? And also, by the way, I have a book out on Amazon
right now called Stronger Than All.
It's a digital match guide to every New Japan Strong match of the first two years of episodes.
There's a sale going on right now this month, and if you're interested,

(04:21):
you can pick it up for $2.99 US dollars.
So, all right, plug it out of the way. Let's get into the good stuff.
Let's get into Joshi Pro Wrestling History, Part 2, 1980s, 1990s.
About television, that's how we got this way. Channel 8, Fuji Television,
was always behind this big idea of women's wrestling to be a different entity,

(04:48):
a completely different entity from men's wrestling, pro-wrestling in Japan.
From Ricky Dozan era to Giant Baba, Anthony Inoki era, all the way to this day,
I guess, that wrestling is very popular.
There was a dark age, but Fuji Television wanted to create something completely

(05:11):
different from that aspect of pro wrestling.
Pro wrestling nonetheless, but women's wrestling was something completely the
same product, but completely different approach, and deal with different marketing,
deal with different audience, is what I'm trying to get to.
And it cultivated that kind of younger audience that female,

(05:35):
teenage audience that never was there and never really came back either right
because they weren't really wrestling fans they were Mahafumiake fans they were
Beauty Pair fans, Maki Ueda fans Jackie Sato fans,
then there was more clear baby face and heel set up than the men's wrestling

(05:57):
at the time if you remember Japanese wrestling of course basically
at the time Japanese baby face against American heel, but it's always subtle.
You know what I'm saying? Kind of almost subtle.
All these Japanese women, like 30 wrestler roster,
and the one wearing red is babyface, and the black tracksuit top and bottom,

(06:21):
the black one is the heel, you know, that the beauty pair had a rival of black pair, you know.
And yeah, it was really easy to understand, like a first-time viewer on Channel
8, All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling TV program, that you can start watching it
today and understand it.
Does that make sense simple then

(06:43):
the baby face will work like baby face and heels will
work like heels and they don't use the word baby face or heels though but it's
clear by watching television yeah but right for those listeners out there that
didn't listen to our first episode let's okay let's use next three minutes go

(07:05):
over kind of like a college course.
We have to go over last week's material there was women's wrestling as early as 1948,
the war ended there was a war World War II there was Pearl Harbor,
there was Hiroshima, there was Narasaki we went over that because today's audience

(07:27):
sometimes don't even know there was a war of course they do know 80?
Yeah like 75 75, 76 years ago, 1945, the war was over.
And then they don't, a lot of the people probably, what does that got to do
with anything to do with wrestling?
It does because there was a thing, THQ, General Headquarters, Japanese occupation.

(07:53):
And you know by general mccarcer in 1951
60 years after the war there was still the u.s
occupation in in japan ghq and 1951
wrestling was brought from america and one
bobby brown's crew that had
a tribute to troops and that's where

(08:15):
ricky dozen debuted as pretty much
i wouldn't say first Japanese professional wrestler because they were
the people before that you know but in in
popular history yes Riki Dozan was the first Japanese wrestler American
style professional wrestler yeah yeah and
same 1951 Mildred bark's crew

(08:37):
came in the same year that they ran the show in Japan women's wrestling show
in Japan as early as 1951 amazing right that the seed was planted by Mildred
Park and Great Mae Young. Yeah, the same Great Mae Young.
And they trained young Japanese wrestlers, then left. Then there was a birth

(08:59):
of women's professional wrestling.
And Rikidozan's Nippon Pro Wrestling never used women's wrestling.
Rikidozan himself, I was told, that he resented women's pro wrestling at the
time, and they never really used it. There was a different image to it.
But therefore, you never know what works. that women's wrestling in Japan had

(09:20):
different, completely different development and a completely different evolution.
The women's wrestling company, all women's wrestling company existed all through this last seven years.
That's, yeah, the basic history, you know. And as early as 1955,
there was like a 5-6-7 women's company in Japan.

(09:42):
Tokyo Women's Wrestling. not this you have Tokyo Joshi now right but that's
completely different same name DDT produced Tokyo Joshi Pro this was right but
there was a thing as Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling back in 1955,
All Japan Women's Wrestling not the All
Japan Women's Wrestling that we know and there's another All Japan Pro Wrestling

(10:05):
there was Hiroshima Joshi Pro Wrestling it's like a six seven different company
running shows around the country amazing I mean talking about mid 50s but we
got to fast forward a little bit because.
These 50s and 60s women's wrestling in Japan weren't as well documented as it

(10:28):
should have been because the sports paper or even the pro wrestling magazine,
you know, newsstand magazine, they didn't really cover women's wrestling as much.
Kind of prejudiced, but they weren't covered by sports pages,
you know, sports section of, you know, the tabloids even.
Even that there was no really much physical record to the match result or title

(10:54):
match records and all these things.
It's really, yeah, it's a shame, you know, that they didn't really have written
history on it all through 50s and 60s.
And we talked about it in the last episode. It was actually young Rassi Ogawa,
you know, 21-year-old Rassi Ogawa.
He did all the research and dug out the result and made this lineage and title

(11:23):
match history and result as much as he could and.
He tried to fill the gap a little bit wasn't complete though but yeah young
Rashi Ogawa started working for All Japan Pro Wrestling back in 1978 78.
Beauty. Working there his whole life. Pretty much. Yeah. Right.

(11:47):
That's good though. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's one of the last from that
era and he was behind a lot of it too. He saw it happen.
Yeah. Right. And also he was, yeah, Matsunaga brothers, Matsunaga brothers are
very interesting one that the Takashi Matsunaga, Kenji Matsunaga,
Kunimatsu Matsunaga, and Toshikuni Matsunaga, four brothers ran the company.

(12:11):
And they were the one running, what, 250 to 300 shows a year for 20, 30-year period.
It's like a more barnstorming style.
When the TV came, yeah, they'd run TV-type shows with TV budgets.
But when it's not TV taping, they would go to the smallest town that you can find.

(12:37):
You probably can't find these little towns on the map even. They ran shows.
Two or three hundred shows in Japan That's a You're going to a lot of small
towns That means Yeah Yeah They never even took bullet train Always on the bus,
Every day Night after night Day after day That's hardcore And they Oh they're

(13:00):
going to town And the girls And these You know company guys And the wrestling
You know wrestlers Were the ones Building the ring Setting up the concession
Setting up the Even seating You know because they They had their own,
you know, these chairs.
Seriously, they carry their own steel chairs, you know, for wrestling.

(13:22):
They were like at least 500 chairs in that truck.
Oh, all the way to like 90s. Yeah.
So they were able to run wrestling shows in the middle of nowhere, basically.
And that's another method. method it's
like old school 50s wrestling in america
right yeah and but the tv came in and then we talked about maha fumiaki mack

(13:48):
fumiaki's era she was the one who started singing and she was a big huge superstar
and the wrestling that the woman's wrestling all of a sudden got so
popular and commercial and became pretty much TV show and TV product in, to be exact, 1974.
And Mahafumiaki's big boom period only lasted a little less than three years,

(14:14):
two years and eight months to be exact.
Much like Tiger Mask era.
We still talk about Satoru Sayama's Tiger Mask era because he was so huge and
phenomenal and that was so groundbreaking that Tiger Mask was showing something
that nobody has ever seen, right?
That Mahafumiaki was exactly that in 1974. 1974, you know, pretty young 17-year-old

(14:41):
wrestlers doing this thing in the ring, and it's on TV every week, and wow.
Around the same time, I think, Justin, you were a bit too young to remember
roller derby and roller game.
I remember roller derby from my dad. My dad really liked roller derby. Oh, okay, okay.
Yeah. Same era. It came back in the 90s. It did come back. Right.
Oh, they tried a few different times.

(15:03):
Right. I remember watching it, but roller derby is definitely one of those sports
or quasi-sports that is kind of like a relative of pro wrestling. Very, very similar.
Yeah. And when extinct, you know.
I think it's more of a legitimate sport now.
I think they changed some of the rules. Yeah, and also it's not a roller skate.

(15:24):
They use inline roller blade type skating, you know.
And yeah it's like a they've been like a relative and cousin of professional
wrestling and like in la that the same referee was being referee you know one
night at the olympic auditorium those guys were refereeing roller game you know

(15:45):
like thunderbirds and all that and then
the thursday night they come in and then the referee wrestling matches male
maskers you You know what I'm saying?
But yeah, same time. Yeah, like a Thursday night or something.
I watched Tokyo Bombers in the roller derby, roller games.
Then there was Friday. Friday must be wrestling.

(16:09):
So either, yeah, they switch time. But the women's wrestling was always on Channel 8.
You know, I don't want to sound prejudiced, but I did not really follow women's wrestling on TV.
As much as I should have or as much as I was paying attention to,
you know men's wrestling you know inoki's new japan

(16:29):
and barbers all japan you know twice a week and there was another company called
iwe that the international wrestling you know that enterprise so there was there
were men's three different company running prime time tv show three times a
week your parents will get mad right you know yeah yeah yeah so I wasn't really watching and also.

(16:50):
Maha Fumiake and Beauty Pair, period. They appealed to teenage girls.
You know, this completely different audience in marketing.
And they were selling merchandises way before WWF was selling merchandise. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it was definitely more of...

(17:13):
I'm trying to find a comparison. Teen Idol. Yeah.
Pop Idol. yeah teen idol pop idol in the 60s 70s
but that's why i brought up roller derby roller games but it also similar it
also was more marketed to like there wasn't a uh when we bring up teen idol

(17:34):
in the states we often add the element of like falling in love there's some element of
love like it's it's usually between somebody loves the singer you know there's
where in this kind of idol you know there might be that but there's also just
more support it's more of a.

(17:54):
It's it's not there's no sexual undertone it's more uh partridge family partridge
family that could be a good one but even still that it's yeah we talked about
monkeys and basically rollers or But when we get to the singing,
that's why I'm trying to...
They become a little bit more than wrestlers. They become just...

(18:15):
I guess it would be, it's not the same. I'm struggling to find a good comparison,
but I guess if you think about it, but if you think about old entertainers,
like, I don't know, Dean Martin or even Frank Sinatra, all these guys would do, they would act,
they would sing, they would do movies, they would host shows.

(18:37):
They were kind of multi-talented and that was kind of the standard.
And I think that old school show business sense applied to Joshi Pro Wrestling.
There was that element of show business. Yeah, it's very 70s approach.
Yeah, high level, sophisticated show business in addition to the pro wrestling.

(18:57):
Yeah, Mahafumi Ake, Beauty Pay, Maki Ueda, Jackie Saro, they all came to quiz
shows and variety shows other than the wrestling shows.
John Baba Inoki made appearance
occasionally but it was like very special but these girls would appear and pop
up in different TV shows in the same channel yeah they were more personalities

(19:22):
you know like you said Baba was a wrestler so there's nothing else to talk about
he's doing the wrestler thing he's a wrestler but.
Later on more men would start to do that in Japan too you see somebody like
Makabe is like the king of eating sweets those uh.
He's on all the time even though he's in the 90s Onita was doing it too the

(19:47):
king of death match but when he comes on TV he's a funny guy,
kind of outrageous so that element was there yeah.
It's unique and I think the best way to,
understand it or try to understand it is to go out
watch what you can listen to the records and you know experience it for yourself

(20:11):
because as a westerner it's really different than and what's unique about all
japan women's wrestling's approach was that they didn't make these superstars
overstay their welcome in a way that the.
There was a rule that kind of dreaded, but, you know, no drinking,
no boyfriend, and retire before age of 25. They really did that.

(20:36):
All the way to like Matsumoto Shigusa Nagayo era.
They make you retire before age of 25.
So you can go on with life and, you know, get married and have kids or something like that.
It was like element of purity to the
the top idol slash wrestlers too

(20:58):
there's something yeah the maha fumiaki retired when he
was what when she was what the 20 yeah it was like a really really you know
quick quick two i mean three years but when you were seventh grade in eighth
grade three years seemed like forever huh oh yeah oh yeah yeah for sure so there
was an era it was there was an era that when they retired these These teenage fans,

(21:21):
the whole bunch of them, they retired too.
And yeah, after Beauty Pair, there was a short Mimi Hagiwara era that another
pop singer turned wrestler.
But she was not as athletic, but she was a star nonetheless.
And there's a, yeah, Mimi Hagiwara era.
Then there was teenage Jaguar Yokota and teenage Devil Masami.

(21:44):
See, all these girls start wrestling when they're right out of ninth grade,
tenth grade. You know what I'm saying?
And some of the wrestlers, when you start them, they're awful young too, right?
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(22:58):
The show we went to a couple years ago now we saw
azumi who's oh yeah she
was like high school like
a teenager she was a little girl she
looked like one of my students okay okay
so when i see her now like she's
like she's a woman all grown up it's yeah yeah it's

(23:20):
different it's definitely yeah it's different
it's different but yes there
was only one you know
one company you know that all Japan
women was women's wrestling at the time you have
to wait yeah and you we
still have to cover this that the different companies

(23:43):
a little bit later on we had to
wait until 1986 Japan Joshi Pro
Wrestling started you know the second company
you know they lasted until 92 so it
wasn't all that long but yeah that japan
joshi became two companies jwp and llpw you know in 92 but uh we still have

(24:08):
to cover this 80s because there was another huge era in crash girls shigusa
nagayo and lioness asuka that was
almost as big or maybe bigger than Beauty Bear because they're athletic and.
The magazine I worked for, Deluxe Pro Wrestling, the sister magazine of Weekly

(24:32):
Pro, a baseball magazine family, Deluxe Pro Wrestling became...
Those are the reasons for it. When monthly magazine became Weekly Pro Wrestling,
the sales skyrocketed, the circulation.
And there's another magazine called Deluxe Pro Wrestling, at the time, monthly magazine.
The monthly magazine kind of declined in circulation. And what they did was

(24:55):
made Deluxe Pro Wrestling portion into women's magazine.
Yeah. And there was a magazine, inside magazine, there's a monthly Crash Girls that was popular.
That they covered, you know, only Crash Girls in their world,
you know. And the magazine was really popular in their own way.

(25:17):
And that too. and Rossy was actually a
manager of this Crash Girls era you know Fuji Television was still running their
weekly shows and Better Times Slot at the same time yeah Crash Girls era we
can't forget that Jumping Bomb Angels too yeah.

(25:43):
Same era yeah it's the same time exact same era within the country of Japan
Crash Girls was much bigger star than the Jumping Bomb Angels and Crash Girls
Rana Sasuka and Chigusa Nagayo along with their heel.
On them, Dump Atsumoto and their group their faction, they had they toured Madison

(26:06):
Square Garden in 1985-1986 did you know that? Boston Garden too?
Yeah, but they actually didn't make that big of an impact instead.
The Jumping Bomb Angels were a bigger hit in America because they looked like
your almost stereotypical Japanese women with long, straight black hair, right?

(26:32):
I think most, if you're an old school fan, WWF fan, you might have seen them
on one of the pay-per-views in the late 80s.
Yeah, and their one-sit opponent, the Glamour Girls, the Leilani Kai and Julie
Martin, they had programming. They didn't bring in too many wrestlers at the time.

(26:52):
They just, they kept doing the Jumping
Bomb Angels against Glamour Girls all over
the place I mean you get same opponent same card little bit different content
but they just worked against each other forever but they are the women's wrestler

(27:12):
that really changed the perception of women's wrestling in America was a big impact wasn't it,
I think so because wrestling was very advanced yeah what they expected from yeah yeah yeah,
slippery maneuvers and, uh, missile drop kicks and a bridge and women doing
German suplexes and all these things.

(27:33):
And the line style by then, by the time it came to the States,
it was, it had almost two decades of, of.
Cultivating itself of what it was the style
in the ring and then yeah maybe a heel dynamic and
also american audience was just expecting when
you hear women's wrestling the fabulous in the aged fabulous

(27:54):
muda against her own opponent right in the one match yeah so uh i think jumping
bomb angel in america was pretty much the first experience the american audience
actually able to sit down and watch Japanese women's wrestling.
That's what I'm trying to get to.
And they had a real good time and they had two long tours. You know,

(28:17):
seven months stay here and another seven months stay.
And Itsuki Yamazaki ended up living in America and she's still in New York. Yeah. Really? Huh.
To this day, yeah. She reopened her restaurant in New York again.
How about Tate-no?
She's back in Japan, but she's a bar owner. Yeah, nightclub owner. Yeah.

(28:41):
Yeah, different era. But yeah, so there was the attempt to bring Japanese women's
wrestling into American market.
It was successful, but that wasn't forever.
People just remember jumping Balmanger from that certain period, right?
It was very different from everything else in WWF at the time.

(29:06):
It was still and i think that's some momentum from
wrestlemania one with wendy richter and
cindy lauper there was still a little right you know
there was still some momentum from a year or two after that yeah but basically
back to mula style after they stopped bringing in the japanese talent judy martin

(29:27):
i mean it would eventually kind of go back to that or just Just disappear completely in the 90s.
Yeah, and then you had to wait until Alondra Blazer.
Yep, 94 or so. Yeah. In the meantime, we've got to get to that today,
but we've got to talk about Medusa a little bit later on tonight.

(29:47):
The Mimi Hagiwara era, then Crash Girls era, before that, the teenage Jaguar
Yokota and teenage Devil Masami, right?
They were a few years older than Crash Girls, okay?
But the Crash Girls became such a huge star in the mid-80s in Japan.
And it was a beauty pair, Mahafumiya era all over again.

(30:11):
They were not that far apart, but, you know, like we said, the company was making
these superstars retire relatively early age.
Therefore, you have another set of superstars being brought up.
And I guess that's how it was. And when Crash Girls was huge, it was huge.

(30:36):
But when they started retiring like in 88, 89 but they would come back later on okay we'll get to that,
these teenage I mean huge group of fans also left yeah and the same thing happened
you know when Crash Girls days were over that all those teenage that huge group

(31:00):
of fans they retired too that was like in 88,
89 yeah I should also mention that, excuse me,
especially chigusa nagayo the style that
they were wrestling in the ring it was really reminiscent of what was
popular at the time like uwf style martial arts oh yeah yeah she started working

(31:21):
like akira maeda with spinkies and the karate yeah yeah that's the same idea
that was really different too yeah because she still did the singing and you
know the albums and sure but But the style was updated.
Musical, stage play, and movies, of course. Yeah, yeah. Style was updated.

(31:43):
Spinning heel kicks and, yeah. Right. Or even the UWF kicking pads, right?
Yeah. Oh, sure. And, you know, same haircuts even.
Right, right. It was very similar. And it would appeal to men a little bit more, too, I think.
I think that's where we started to see more of that I still didn't follow Crash Girls though.

(32:10):
Like you said it was one given Sunday sometimes if you remember Korakuen Hall in Tokyo,
you run two different wrestling shows in the same building noon show women's
wrestling and 6 o'clock show men's wrestling they come in and change the ring
and all these things and I usually skipped.

(32:33):
Women's wrestling and noon show but they will come back for New Japan shows
on the same building on Sunday night or something.
I wasn't prejudiced but it was hard for me to walk into.
Oh, two shows in the same building?
Sunday. Noon shows and 6.30 shows? Oh yeah, they do that too. Saturdays and Sundays.
Maybe that's amazing for American fans, huh? Yeah, because it became a tradition.

(32:58):
It became a tradition in Japan and also right in
the center of Tokyo the easiest access
you just get on the subway get on
the train and go there and just watch wrestling
and now it's the Tokyo Dome right next to it yeah I mean what's better than
that right so the crash girls and also that the mid 80s into late 80s the VCR

(33:26):
VHS videos or already in fashion that,
you know, it's really hard to find Mahafumiake and Beauty Pair footage.
And now it's popping up on YouTube and stuff like that. But not everybody had VCR then.
But during Crash Girls era, every home had VCR.

(33:48):
So it's easy to find these videos.
Yeah. And it's still good to this day.
And with any with any of those groups from Beauty Pair to Crushed Gals with
their music with their albums I mean were these songs pretty big hit singles
or were they just big within the wrestling community.

(34:09):
They had one or two regular hits. They were on late night singing shows too.
So that shows how much of a breakthrough they transcended.
And she made right after retiring from wrestling Chigusa Nagayo made a couple movies as an actor.

(34:35):
They broke up before. so Nagoya
never really retired storyline breaking up and
yeah they did that yeah right so hindsight
yeah they did a lot of different things but all in
all still Crash Girls era when you look back so those
are little details yeah and I mean if anybody out

(34:55):
there hasn't seen the footage from the mid
80s Chigusa Nagayo against Lioness Asuka single
match yeah that happened a few times pretty amazing crowd
reactions pretty intense battles between the two they were special for sure
and even today people were still talking about them right and then finally in

(35:17):
1989 both Chigusa Nagayo and Lionel Sasuke both retired.
Officially retired they would come back a little bit later on but the first
official retirement and somewhat somehow that this you know All Japan and women's
wrestling crew looked skeleton.

(35:38):
That's when Rossi made a plan to bring in Medusa full-time.
Spring of 1989. Okay. Yeah. Medusa, Miss Ellie, Alundra Blaze.
Yeah. She was brought in. She was, what, 26 at the time? Yeah.
So they already broke the 25-year-old rule then. That dude.

(36:01):
But Medusa already had a two-year run with the AWA and the AWA champion and
also being the manager of Bad Company, you know, if you remember Pat Tanaka
and Paul Diamond. Paul Diamond, yeah.
Yeah, and young DDP was in there, younger.
Yeah, but the Vergine's AWA wasn't as serious about women's wrestling and Medusa

(36:23):
had her opponent, you know, as a champion.
But pretty soon, the women's program, they kind of dropped, you know.
And WCW was around the time NWA Crockett into WCW and was in transition period
and they didn't have women's division and WWF didn't have women's division,
well kind of had but it wasn't serious about you know even even Diva yet you

(36:47):
know and I guess the timing was perfect that Medusa was brought in and I thought
she was going to have just tours but no she brought in ten suitcases and she moved to Japan and
started going to Japanese language school, so she learned the language.
And also, she was put in the bus. Now you have 250 shows a year schedule.

(37:10):
That's serious. That's pretty unheard of. I mean, she was a trailblazer.
Yeah, then also, none of the girls spoke any English in that bus.
Can you imagine? It really forced you to learn Japanese.
And this complicated six-man tag team, six-woman tag team, the high spots they
have to go through. There's a lot of nonverbal communication.

(37:33):
Yeah, yeah. But what was a breakthrough was that the following year, 1990,
when they started doing the wrestlers MMA kind of thing,
that Medusa and younger Aja
Khan had kickboxing fight not work
it's actual kickboxing it was

(37:55):
like it was like early MMA I guess
Medusa had this feeling that it was do or
die situation and also had to
prove something to their very locker
room because other girls were somewhat some of
the girls were iffy why was she brought in because most

(38:16):
of them felt that they were better wrestlers than medusa were
right and just some
of the girls felt that the medusa was getting a special treatment
because upon arrival there was a singing program
you know being produced and she had a singing you know that the cds and the
picture books and image videos and all these marketing vehicles that Rossi came

(38:41):
up with and just if she wasn't going to be a superstar you were doing something wrong, right?
Rossi did everything to make her a new superstar. This was right after Crash Girls era.
You know, you gotta develop a new audience and the whole strategy of it.
But all in all, Madusa had a lot to prove.

(39:03):
Prove to the audience, prove to the locker room. Yeah, both. Right?
Like a sandwich and learning the language at the same time. Oh my gosh.
You know, it takes a lot of guts to, to do that. It, you know,
it sounds like what it sounds like, but,
Jeez. Especially without something like the internet available.

(39:25):
Oh, there was no internet. I mean, and actually there was no cell phone.
Nobody had cell phone in 1990 yet. Oh, God. Yeah.
Oh, she used to leave like, you know, 10 minute message on my answering machine.
I mean, answering machine was not short. It's like an actual mini cassette tape,
right? So you can record a long time, you know?

(39:46):
And then the new device, you know, came
out like in 1991 that you can listen to your
answering machine from outside remember that yeah
and yeah the communications and all these things and I guess that the Rossi
and I were friends so I got involved more yeah around that time it was interesting

(40:07):
you know because it was one year before you know inter-promotional program started
you have to wait until 1992,
that all the,
women against FMW women, you know, like Megumi Kudo and, yeah,
Maido Mari and all these girls. So, Tsuchiya?
Yeah, that era, oh, yeah. That Debbie Malenko, Hasegawa against Maido Mari and Tsuchiya.

(40:33):
It's like, you're talking miscommunicating all the different,
you know, upbringing in wrestling that all these FMW women's wrestlers were
trained with men's method, right?
Onita trained them, so they're Therefore, they work like men.
And that made matches interesting.

(40:55):
And there was the All Japan Women's, women against JWP girls.
All Japan Women against LLPW. LLPW, okay, we have to go back.
1986, they started Japan Joshi Pro Wrestling as a second group.
All the wrestlers coached by late Jackie Sato.

(41:16):
Part one, half of Beauty Pair. Yeah, she made a comeback as a wrestler,
short-lived, but mostly she coached all these Kyuri Suzuki, Mayumi Ozaki,
Dynamite Kanzai, you name it,
JWP, or Japan Joshi, that group of girls.

(41:37):
Completely different from all Japan women. That made it interesting because
not all the women's wrestlers were all Japan-style women's wrestlers anymore. more.
There was a different kind. It was eye-opening, right?
Trained by different wrestlers, trained by another method.
Wow, women can work different style too. Does that make sense?

(42:00):
Yeah, you could really start to see the differences and.
Not just the style, but the approach to everything in the ring.
Yeah, sometimes clashes in, you know, styles, but that made match that much,
you know, more interesting because, yes, Dynamite Kanzai was really good in her own way.

(42:23):
You know, later on, there was a program, Aja Kong against Dynamite Kanzai.
It's like, wow, they work like men, right? Yeah.
I mean, it was just a different, it was kind of a new approach.
And it was brutal at times it
was rough it was also the time when like
we talked about early MMA pride or not
pride excuse me Pancraze EWF harder hitting style same audience was watching

(42:50):
both men and women's wrestling and I think this might have allowed Joji Pro
Wrestling to start to expand its market to the 90s because a lot more men started to watch Yeah,
and then there was a time like in early 90s when a lot of the smaller independent

(43:10):
companies in Japan started.
You know, not just Old Japan and New Japan and UWF groups, but FMW, Universal.
Universal is a company that brought in the Mexican genuine lucha libre, you know.
Yoshihiro Asai, before he was Ultraman Dragon, he was a New Japan Dojo student back in 1986-87.

(43:41):
He was told that he was too small to debut in Japan and he packed up and went
to Mexico in 87 and made it on his own.
His own success story that we have to talk about Ultraman Dragon sometimes in different episodes.
But he was brought back along with all these genuine Mexican talent like El Santo,

(44:02):
the Vizianos the Kendo the Katokunri all these genuine Mexican talent that they
had Mexican Lucha Libre show in Japan for the first time in 1991.
All Japan women helped that group and they sent all Japan women's superstars

(44:27):
like young Bison Kimura the Aja Kong, the young Kyoko Inoue, they,
worked show you know, the Lucha Libre show and these fans who came to see genuine
Mexican Lucha Libre went home becoming women's wrestling fans,
that was interesting yeah, because I wasn't expecting it but you know what we

(44:51):
saw today, women's wrestling was the greatest thing or something.
And then the Crash girls, as popular as they were, they didn't really draw men's audience.
Not to take away from them, but they were really, really popular.
But like myself, I didn't really follow women's wrestling until then.

(45:15):
The crossgirls really appealed to teenage female audience, you know,
it's almost specialized in it, and that didn't, yeah, as a result,
they didn't really draw men's regular wrestling fans, and,
by Rashi sending these, you know, women's wrestlers to this universal Lucha Libre show,

(45:36):
they, these Japanese fans, they were somewhat prejudiced at the time, right,
about women's well that's for girls right but uh they ended up watching women
witnessing women's wrestling for the first time during that show i said wow
is that what they do right and they stopped coming to,

(45:57):
women's wrestling shows therefore bonaka no era starts yeah so this would be around what 88 89 92.
Because I know Bonagano was she was a big name but she was a bit in the shadow yeah she started,

(46:18):
yeah because she was a second from Dump Matsumoto Dump Matsumoto retired around
the same time Crash Girls retired they're all gone then all of a sudden 20 year
old Bonagano became the number one wrestler yeah that's also,
Masaera yeah because both Crash Girls

(46:39):
are gone Red Belt you know you still have
the top Red Belt the WWWA Worldwide
Women's Wrestling Association World Champion
the Red Belt we call it there was a Pacific title
that's a White Belt that tradition remains all the
way to today see Stardom's Red Belt is the biggest one the second best was the

(47:02):
White Belt much like your WWE Universal Champion in a continent title kind of
thing and Bo Nakano was put as a red belt champion heel and,
It didn't matter that Bonacano had to be the one to carry the company. Yeah.

(47:22):
And she was successful.
And what was successful was that Bonacano and her faction were the ones that
brought men's audience into the building.
Now it's a completely different era.
Then, yeah, go ahead. So what are

(47:42):
some reasons do you think that was back then and why
would what was it about her
specifically or particularly that she how did she do you think brought in men's
audience because her matches are just as convincing as any men's matches content

(48:05):
20 minute single match storytelling.
Expressions character and at
the end of the match you're satisfied you know
and it's just good wrestler you
know that the that portion of her character it
should not be overlooked that the Pona Kano as heavy as she was you know you

(48:27):
see you back then Pona Kano was what 220 pound girl in a woman she was she had
a very unique look she was big and she had a wrestler she looked like a pro
wrestler yeah and it worked like a wrestler and And it's like, these matches,
some of these Japanese wrestling fans,
male wrestling fans were still prejudiced, right? Like still puzzled.

(48:48):
And being, you know, Bonakano, Ajakan, Bison, Kimura, Akira Hokuto,
but probably were still quizzed. But yeah, they were there to show male audience what they could do.
And their matches were actually just as good as what you expect from Keiji Muto
or, you know what I'm saying?

(49:09):
Saying at the time, Akira and Mitsuharu Misawa, that if not better,
you know, that these women's wrestlers are really, really convincingly,
I mean, they're good, is what I'm saying.
So that whatever you felt, you know, at home before you come into the building, just leave it.

(49:32):
And just watch Bonacano's match.
You'll be a fan of Bonacano when you leave the building.
I mean you left the belly yeah it was like that larger than life she definitely
had that yeah and then she became star without doing any promos in the ring
no promos no singing no movies no none of that it just matches yeah,

(49:56):
similar to men's style I mean people got popular men got popular in men's wrestling
through the wrestling there wasn't too much overlapping entertainment and also I guess the,
Japanese wrestling fans at the time.
There's more to wrestling than the new japan and old
japan you discovered uwf you know

(50:16):
like uwf and uwf groups that
trying to make wrestling into legitimate contest
that like mma that's the style style was there and the way in the other side
of extreme spectrum people watched onita's death matches right yeah and so i
think people were then there was a lucha libre group you know or doing genuine lucha libre in Japan.

(50:43):
And people were, I think, ready to have another style of meal or something.
Yeah. And by the time of the early 90s, even in the late 80s,
it was quite innovative compared with everything else that was happening in the world.
It's hard to explain it now, but when you see some of the kinds of wrestling,

(51:05):
or the moves, a lot of the aerial stuff, a lot of the high-flying,
the Lucha Libre-inspired offense.
It was very, very, it was a spectacle.
It was really, you wouldn't see that on any other shows unless you're at a Lucha
Libre show in Mexico, but they really did bring,
by the early 90s, a special element and different energy to pro wrestling that

(51:31):
I think really influenced a lot of modern pro wrestling, men's and female.
Yeah, male and female, of course. And Japanese audience were ready to watch
another style of wrestling. You know what I'm saying?
And they were ready to move on from the idol era.
Not just that, but the male wrestling fans, there are more to wrestling than

(51:54):
the Antonio Inoki School of Wrestling, New Japan, and Giant Baba School of Wrestling, All Japan.
There's two major companies of course but then the UWF was presented then Onita
Extreme presented then there was a couple you know Wing or IWA Japan that did the spin of,

(52:16):
Onita style deathmatch happening and then there was like a All Japan Women but
you have JWP there was LLPW FMW had some women and there's a lot to watch that is There's more to it,
like a variety, a different style of music or something.
Very different. You feel like, yeah, like you feel like you listen to ass-kicking

(52:39):
rock and roll or in heavy metal side, but sometimes you want to listen to good
old southern rock and roll.
Or, yeah, like a really pop to really...
They allow audience to really experience
different style of wrestling there are more wrestling out
there that it really was a you know

(53:01):
like a rich period the early 90s that
a lot of wrestling to choose from and it
was definitely a time of innovation not just within
women's wrestling but in japanese wrestling
i think the athleticism got turned up a
couple notches we saw a lot of things really
evolved from the 80s and also by showing different

(53:23):
style of wrestling they forced wrestling and
wrestling company I should say wrestling companies to
be more honest to the audience you know what I'm saying that was
early 90s all the double counter and
double DQ or you know the no
contest finish disappeared you have to
send people home happy you know what

(53:45):
I'm saying and the reason I'm
saying is in late 70s into
early 80s that when you have
NWA world title match you know
either if it was Hardy Race or younger Ric
Flair coming to All Japan and defend in
his NWA world title that people

(54:08):
just knew that it was going to be double
count out or the DQ finish or
you know what I'm saying that the title wouldn't change the world title wouldn't.
Change hands in Japan or something but Giant Baba was still doing it and in
hindsight interesting that Baba was one of the first ones to change that trend

(54:29):
that they went to all clean finish, winners and losers right?
And forced wrestling company to be more honest to the audience that they started
giving you know what people want or these audience will go to another company
go watch other wrestling,

(54:51):
Yeah, it started becoming more competitive among the companies. Yeah.
And Bon Nakano was, and Akira Hokuto, I should say, those two are very special that they can, you know,
like show the wrestling and the matches, the content, Toruto was four pillars or three musketeers.

(55:13):
The Bon Nakano matches, Akira Hokuto matches, Aja Kong matches,
they were every bit as good as men's matches.
Am I making sense? If not better.
I've always been a big, huge Bonakano fan.
She's good. And also, she comes up with me.

(55:35):
They never repeat the same match. Even they did Bonakano against Aja Kong many
times, or Bonakano against Akira Hokuto or something.
Or Manami Toyota, for that matter, they will bring in a different level match
every time they come back.
Yeah, it had a different rhythm than a lot of other wrestling styles at the time, too.

(55:58):
It was pretty fast-paced compared with, say, WWF in the 90s.
The people in Manami Toyota, she never watched men's wrestling growing up. Is that interesting?
I think you can tell in her wrestling, though, because you know even
the way some of the wrestlers do a body slam or
or do the hair throw right right

(56:20):
or women's original yeah unique to
women's to women's wrestling that the bridging better looking bridges yeah yeah
yeah better looking bridges i was just was gonna say i mean same german suplex
with bridges right but they have different physique and just yeah they do it

(56:41):
more like figure skating or something, right?
Yeah, and there wasn't a lot of posing the moves.
There wasn't a lot of holding a suplex. Oh, they go 100 miles an hour,
you mean? Yeah, exactly.
When you brought up Manami... Yeah, like a marathon runner, 100 miles an hour, but they go 45 minutes.

(57:02):
It was kind of like the Stan Hansen idea.
Go 100% and never really let up until the match is over.
Yeah, then you're poor you know what I mean and on the topic of Bullknuckle we should also mention,
she's the only wrestler that I know that carried nunchucks with her to the ring,

(57:23):
oh they demonstrated nunchucks right before the matches well Greg Kabuki was
always doing it oh that's right,
how could I forget that she would use it as a weapon soon after too yeah a little
bit for some reason she was healed but she was a likable heel though you know for some reason,

(57:43):
maybe it's because of her look she looked cool she looked like kind of like
a comic book character she didn't look like anybody yeah the blue blue hair
sticking up and maybe two feet three feet tall.
And heavy makeup she right she used a can of spray every night,

(58:04):
wow to make the hair stick up and if it didn't work she used the glue I mean
good old glue you know punk rock style,
yeah and then the band X in Japan was huge too at the time uh yeah she does
look like X yeah they kind of had that glam look the makeup yeah of the time yes,

(58:26):
yeah oh yeah and she was also doing like you mentioned,
Medusa earlier and Aja Kong and the kickboxing match and later Poonakano had
a lot of famous cage matches,
yeah then the big leg drop off the top of the cage much like your you know superfly

(58:46):
jimmy snooker memory yeah a little more extreme i would say.
Leg drops pretty gnarly yeah leg drop off the top of the cage and bounced and she stood,
you know what i'm saying a lot of impact i guess yeah yeah and then there was
in the starting in 92 then there was in a promotion period that made,

(59:12):
women's wrestling even more popular.
They were running big shows every month.
You know, Yokohama this month, and next month, Kawasaki, and they're eventually
going, oh, of course, Budokan, Sumo Palace, all the way to Tokyo Dome in 1994.
Yeah. But by then, they did this traditional, more like an inherited world title

(59:37):
thing that Aja Kong beat Bona Kano to become the Red Belt champion, world champion.
Then Bona Kano left Japan and went to Mexico and became CMLL women's champion
and came back and didn't have a full-time schedule.
Then went to America at the end of 93 and had an Alondra Blaze program.

(01:00:02):
By then, Medusa was back in America and
she was Alondra Blaze but Alondra
Blaze needed this great opponent then there
was Bonacano Alondra Blaze program in WWF I
remember that so vividly I remember how different those two looked compared

(01:00:24):
to everything else that was on the programs those days probably like if you
grew up as a kid in 90s you know that's how you remember what women's wrestling is like.
That's the positive and good memories I have of it.
It was pretty inspiring because, like you said, the style was so different. It had evolved so much.

(01:00:48):
Bull Nakano's look was like anything that I'd seen at the time.
Even her body shape. I'd never seen a woman that's that big and...
Thick and heavy. But can move like a feather. Move.
Yeah. Flying off the top rope. Alondra Blaze definitely needed
Bonacano to do what she does sure yeah

(01:01:10):
because Alondra Blaze was strong enough to German suplex that size of Bonacano
right and Bonacano in the States was able to you know she always played the
heel character but in the States she could do that play that role genuine heel and play off the

(01:01:30):
heat that the crowd might initially would give her when you think about doing
something heelish like that.
Yeah, during that course, during the one-month period, they wrestled 28 times in one-month period.

(01:01:51):
It's like that's every day, isn't it? Yeah, there was something special and
serious about her and Toyota and Kyoko Inoue,
something that was a little more intense than past generations and more wrestling-focused.
One, during this Alondra Blaze period, there was one that the Survivor Series,

(01:02:14):
they brought in like eight other Japanese girls. Remember that one?
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And actually, I remember watching, there was one of the
programs, like the preview programs,
WWF America, Wrestle America or something. It was on USA Network.
Yeah, and they would show old matches and preview pay-per-views that were coming up.
And I remember there was a vignette they showed with jim

(01:02:36):
ross doing a voiceover and they showed actual footage from all
japan from all japan women of all the
competitors and i saw chaparita asari
do the sky sorry doing the spinning spinning in the air thing that was my it's
like if i was a kid and i saw the avengers for the first time i mean we didn't
have that yet but when i saw that i i didn't do that i didn't i I had rewound

(01:03:00):
it and rewound it and rewound it. And I'd never forget.
Yeah. I mean, and she looked like she was wearing a space cadets outfit.
I mean, it looked like, yeah. And you had to kill. She was a little too, like a five feet.
Very small, very small. Yeah. And I remember, I also remember Aja Kong breaking
her nose the next night on a Monday night raw.
Ah, yeah. And she got a bloody nose on TV.

(01:03:23):
And it was going to be Aja being sent for next Alain Draboulet's
programmed the following year that never took place but yeah it was going to
be Aja against Alondra Blaze the following year and just somehow didn't take place but yeah.
But yeah, the 95 Survivor Series, you saw Kyoko Inoue who had the face paint too. Sure.

(01:03:47):
They were doing things, like I said, you wouldn't see in any other promotions in the States.
Only in Mexico at the time.
Right, because there are many women's wrestlers out there down there.
Yeah, the look was different.
So there was a link because of Bo and Alondra Blaze.
Oh, Jumping Bomb Angel before that. But there was a link between US women's

(01:04:12):
wrestling scene and Japanese women's wrestling.
It kind of mingled in a different way than the men's wrestling.
Yeah. I think for that era of girls,
they were ahead of their time for the United States. I think it was.

(01:04:33):
Because there was no such thing as women's division. Yeah, I mean, it was based on a lot of.
Division yeah it had more history it
was based on more more of its own history so i think if
and that's why i think if you watch it now especially the
material from the 90s it's it doesn't
look or feel that dated like some wrestling can feel

(01:04:53):
sometimes you could you remember trends of wrestling and and
also you just are able to
watch these women in the japanese women's matches with no storyline
or promo and they were
dramatic they were very dramatic uh some
of the and yeah some of these uh matches that from the wrestling in the ring

(01:05:15):
to the crowds just go really intense wild unlike a lot of male wrestling at
the time too but yeah the i mean part of me thinks.
Part of it's lightning in a bottle it was a lot of great talent all together
at the same time I think that's part of it too I think you had a lot of special,

(01:05:41):
characters that can't be recreated, can't recreate Kyoku Inoue,
can't recreate Bull Nakano or Manami Toyota for that matter yeah,
Akira Hokuto yeah they're really.
Akira Hokuto, yeah strong link
between two countries so the more so than the wrestling legacy itself but she

(01:06:04):
played a part like a political part in it you know orchestrated to bring in
japanese girls into wwe ring at the time yeah so that was good now back to japan that uh,
In a promotion thing, you know, company against company, you know, thing peaked.
The first peak was April of 93, Yokohama Arena, the famous show that lasted until after midnight.

(01:06:33):
You know, we were going to miss the last train, but all the matches still taking
place and two more matches coming. and I guess all these 18,000 people decided
to stay in the building after the last train.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and if you live in Tokyo, people got to realize
if you missed the last train and you're in Yokohama, you're at least 40 minutes,

(01:06:56):
maybe an hour away from your home if you live in Tokyo.
So you got to make a decision. That's a regular decision you have to make.
Yeah, and then it was school night too. It
wasn't a weekend on the weekend and there's like a legend that
people were sitting outside the
train station or decided to walk to the closest bar

(01:07:16):
you know to just sit and some people found hotels to stay and there's just a
legend that you know a lot of people you know found each other those wrestling
fans you know in a small bar around town there's just oh did you go to the show
tonight wow we missed train too and it's just,
legend you know that was a night

(01:07:37):
Akira Hokuto became the breakthrough superstar
by beating Shinobu Kandori Shinobu yeah Shinobu Kandori was another one who
was a world champion judoka you know that turned wrestler was never a wrestling
fan so he was almost like almost like not an alien but a.

(01:07:59):
Just individual who wandered into wrestling world very similar to Nalia Ogawa
couple years later oh for today's fan Brock Lesnar at the beginning yeah but,
yeah but a tough one very tough in order to have in order to have convincing

(01:08:23):
wrestling match with that person is incredibly difficult difficult.
But Akira Hokuto and Paul Dick are such a good worker.
And also, she beat Kandori very convincingly.
It was like a double juice match, of course.
One man cut forehead at the time. It was a bloody match. It was legendary.

(01:08:49):
They did three consecutive single match that year.
It became a huge program. program we should spend
more time on the next episode on yeah
especially i mean because she's she's
really special too and it's still like your
hokuto oh very special and became bigger stir

(01:09:09):
than any former wrestlers on television and she's
on tv now i mean like turn the tv on
today and then you you find akira hokuto
some channel either it's a food channel
or the traveling you know traveled you know or
the cool show variety show a talk show or something
she's on tv all the time and also she survived

(01:09:31):
breast cancer and she made it
public and had it documented that every step the way of her making comeback
and you know and just became very inspirational figure in in entertainment world
very smart woman yeah and bright would you say she's a household name in Japan?

(01:09:52):
Oh, right now? Oh, she is. Akira Hokuto? More so than any wrestler.
I mean, any former wrestler.
Well, now Ricky Choshu's on TV a lot, Keiji Muto's on TV a lot,
and Maeda, or Nobuhiko Takada for that matter, and Onita's always on TV too.
But Akira Hokuto can be on regular television and didn't have to present it as a former wrestler.

(01:10:18):
Most of today's TV viewers don't probably remember Akira Hokuto as a former
professional wrestler.
She's just Akira Hokuto. Yeah, she doesn't wear the makeup or dye her hair the
same way. Oh, no, not anymore.
It just turned into TV person. Yeah. Big, big smile. Very different from her past.

(01:10:41):
Yeah, her wit and so quick.
Yeah. And the way she spoke is pretty, you know, the wrestling,
especially in Japan and in women's wrestling in Japan, it's not focused on angles, promos.
Or storylines but she was quite effective,

(01:11:03):
talking on the mic even if you don't understand Japanese I think she had a lot
of she could communicate a lot just doing what she does she was kind of like.
She's another one that you can't really compare her to anybody either right
right little bit of Riki Choshu in her little

(01:11:24):
bit of Keiji Muto in there little bit of
inoki in there right yeah lots of
charisma and kind of fearless fearless attitude
those crazy cannonball dives off the top of great athlete great athlete oh my
gosh and also invented a lot of moves i mean like twisting lights bomb twisting

(01:11:48):
suplex into bridges and then and all these,
I mean, changed a little bit and never wanted to do somebody else's move, right?
So whatever she did in the ring, all these big moves were pretty original.
Same way Manami Toyota was, what she does, pretty original, right?

(01:12:10):
And the approach too with Toyota, she was just so fast.
She was, like you said, 100 miles per hour. Yeah, just as soon as that bell
rang, and she would Like a cat, she would jump onto the top rope. No hands.
Just... No hands. Just leapfrogging. Just like a cat. Yeah.
That was wild. That was wild at the time. It still is. So people have to watch.

(01:12:32):
They go back, they watch that. And there's lots to watch. All right, so...
We were able to, you know, I didn't know how far we were, you know,
I didn't know how far we were able to, you know, go, but the 93,
94, 95, that in the promotion peak era, you know, there was people remember
1994 Tokyo Dome card, but it wasn't the peak.

(01:12:53):
It was almost like the beginning of the end of the era, actually.
So it's like the last scene in the movie.
Yeah pretty much yeah pretty much
that Bonacano returns and Madusa
returns as Alondra Blaze and he
was also Akira Hokuto's first retirement right yeah
right that was like almost like a beginning at the

(01:13:16):
end but there was Yokohama Arena
there was Budokan there was Osaka you know
there was Nagoya Tokyo Bay NK
Hall that building is no longer but then
another two more Yokohama arena show another budokan
show they were running all kinds big shows much like
today's new japan right yeah then in

(01:13:39):
94 the gaia japan started at the you know after former crash girl decided to
return to wrestling instead of coming back to all japan women she wanted to
start gaia Japan her own company,
and there was 15 year old rookie Meiko Satomura was in there.

(01:14:01):
WWE NXT superstar yeah so it's like that's the interesting part that we have
to talk about cover you know next time but there was this.
Now we kind of look back this you know
early 90s women's Japanese women's wrestling peak period but I was there Rossi
was there we didn't feel that it was a boom you know what I'm saying I felt

(01:14:25):
that it could get bigger you know what I'm saying and oh it's like we were saying
that at the time, 25 years ago, right?
That would boom period come back again?
Oh, yeah, probably. But it's not it yet. We didn't think it was boom period.
Now we look back, it was huge.
But we were in it, you know, and experiencing it.

(01:14:46):
I was doing color commentary, you know, for all Japan women's official video series.
And I didn't really feel that it was like a booming yet.
I felt that it could grow even bigger
and yeah I didn't realize that it was that big you know now it's 2022 that I

(01:15:08):
look back 25-27 years ago right that was big almost 30 years ago it is 30 years
ago on the other side of the world 93,
94, 95 were not popular years for pro wrestling in the US.
Oh then the big scandal and the steroid trial and yeah.
It was a long period. 2020 TV shows.

(01:15:32):
Oh yeah, that was a bad period, wasn't it? People, I mean, it's viewed nicely now.
There was some great wrestling, but it's not like it was popular.
I mean, compared with where it was back then and even where it is now.
It's a lot more popular now than it was in those early 90s years.
So looking to Japan and seeing how successful...

(01:15:54):
All japan women and lpw were and and
other japanese companies who were doing great new
japan was probably the biggest company in the world at around that
time maybe yeah and they were actually the osaka dome
the fukuoka dome that they're building them in stadium shows and so and we'll
talk about it next time but the women would run tokyo dome around this time

(01:16:16):
too and looking at it from that perspective yeah 94 i mean that is it was not
a popular time for wrestling in general in the US and.
Monday Night War or NWO or anything like that there were women doing a women's
only show at the Tokyo Dome right,
very interesting there's a lot more to get into next week we'll focus more on

(01:16:40):
the 90s and try to get into Gaia and then,
Fallout from all the way these videos can be found on YouTube now so I want
people to watch you know, Bonacano and Akira Hokuto matches the younger Manami Toto,
Kyoko Inoue matches Saki Hasegawa, David Malenko matches if you can find them

(01:17:02):
on YouTube because it's worth watching actually this is a pretty recent announcement,
it's a week old this was announced that there's okay there's a streaming service
in the United States called IWTV,
independent wrestling television, they do a lot, they used to do GCW streaming
and they did They have licenses for lots of indie promotions to distribute their

(01:17:26):
stuff on their streaming site.
And last week, as of last week, they acquired over 200 episodes of All Japan
Women from this. Oh, wow.
So there's about 200 episodes on IWTV.
Ah, okay. Very interesting. They did a deal with, you know, Ladies Ring.
Ladies Ring, the magazine and media company. They did some kind of distribution deal.

(01:17:51):
So if you're a hardcore fan and you want to sign up for the IWTV subscription
service, they have lots of old All Japan, a lot of the stuff we talked about on today's episode.
Alright, so this is where we start next week.
The end of this inner promotion era and it was like, as of 1997 half the wrestlers quit All Japan Women.

(01:18:18):
Rossi quit All Japan Women and started his first company, Arsion.
We're going to start around there. And Gaia Japan and Neo Ladies. Neoladies.
Neoladies, of course. Oh, yes. Yeah, so those things. Now that,
I mean, like in 2022, we have 15 women's companies in Japan, you know?

(01:18:39):
And we'll try to get to that. And how did this All Japan women close their shop, too?
It was the end of an era, definitely.
All right, we'll get into that next week. I'm excited for that,
too. And I think a lot of our listeners are as well.
So if you have questions, hit us up. a little bit disorganized,

(01:19:00):
you know, because we jump back and forth, back and forth.
So, yeah, we'll be a little bit more organized next time.
Well, if listeners out there wanted to ask you a question or reach out to you
about anything, how can they reach you?
On Twitter, at Fumihikodayo, F-U-M-I-H-I-K-O-D-A-Y-O, at Fumihikodayo,

(01:19:21):
or Fumisaito on Facebook.
And I'm at Justin M. Nipper, K-N-I-P-P-E-R on Twitter.
That's it for next, for this week. For next week, let's talk about more 90s
All Japan Women's and JWP and FMW women.
Into millennium and 21st century. Yeah, into the modern era.
So until next time. So long from Tokyo.

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