>THE BEST OF DUMP MATSUMOTO comp. (QUEBRADABOY!!!)

-Mike sent me this and GOLLY! does it rule! AJW was so freakishly different in the mid-eighties than it is now and this tape encompasses it in a microcosm. Dump Matsumoto is somebody Bill Watts would have created- a REAL monster heel with a bottomless propensity for violence and an amazing ability to generate a unbelievable amount of heat. She was Watts-ian in that she was definately made to look strong at the expense (and blood) of the number one face- who, in this instance, was the 21 year old Chigusa. This tape is predominantly about their feud, but there is also a really cool Matsumoto/ (WAY young) Bull Nakano match and Dump's emotional retirement match thrown in for good measure. The Chigusa stuff is well-documented in it's total mayhem and insanity- the perfection of this feud is amazing. The part I was drawn to is the fact that AJW, in 1985, looked like what Chigusa is trying to create with GAEA in 1997- angles create the heat, keep your heels strong, and the matches take care of themselves. None of these matches were technical masterpieces- but the multi-layered angles and the dramatic execution of them gave each match grave importance- so when Chigusa bridges out at 2 9/10ths, it was high drama because if she doesn't, Dump Matsumoto gets to shave Chigusa's head. With Chigusa portraying the spunky angelic face as well as she did and Matsumoto portraying the TRULY PSYCHOTIC heel as well as she did, the last thing you want to see is Chigusa having to go through THAT. The matches were excessive- in that Chigusa blades a bucket in each of these- but the true edgy craziness in all of these matches are something Abdullah, Pogo and Tsuchiya could only dream of. Matsumoto is a rampaging bull and this is a clinic in how to get your face over by keeping your heel really strong. When Chigusa finally pins Dump, it is a true triumph and the end of an epic struggle. It's all so very disturbing in its level of violence and hatred, and I don't think anyone has pulled a feud off that has quite hit that level since. What a tape! Psychotic. Ingenious. Indispensible. GO GET IT!

>FMW WOMEN'S SPECIAL- Samurai TV (GLENN!)

-This was quite the mixed bag with the really cool (Kudoh/OZ), the very okay (Kandori/Kudoh), the pretty bad (Miss Mongol) to the truly wretched (Shark Tsuchiya). I'll try to dwell on the positive tip since the true crappiness of Shark Tsuchiya could shave anyone's wrestling buzz. It's a known fact that everybody dresses their best for a death-match if they are worth their weight in spidernet. Onita with his Lee jeans and white cowboy boots, Ooya with his white undershirt neatly tucked into his Levis, Tanaka with his Forrest Green Eddie Bauer pants and blood-enhancing yellow shirt and so on- SO JUST IMAGINE how awesome the evil goddess, Mayumi Ozaki, looks all dressed up for this double-hell-barbed-wired what-have-you!! She is dressed like the hot redneck chicks I went to high school with in Tidewater, Virginia- ripped and faded jeans, cut up T-shirt with something heavy metalish on it, kill you as soon as look at you:), and Kudoh wasn't far behind. This match was about as good as your gonna get in a non-Cactus Jack death match. It incorporated the barbedwire and spidernet seamlessly with the matwork and highflying moves of these two. It had a decent build to the finish and had lots of well placed flying-over-barbed-wire-intensive highspots. Both bled but it wasn't sickening like the prior Tsuchiya matches on the tape and worked in the context of how the match came off. The only downside is that there isn't a straight match to compare this to, because the deathmatch hinted at the ability of these two to have a GREAT regular match. Welcome to FMW's fucked up booking. The Kandori/Kudoh death match was pretty okay. It stayed on the mat longer but Kandori isn't really the ideal opponent for Kudoh. Kandori had trouble making the fast lucha stuff look smooth and she was acting like she was afraid to take the RGSBDD. Since it was Kandori, blood was all over the place. This match wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Stick with Kudoh-Combat and Kudoh-OZ.

>GAEA CHAMP FORUMS- 4/26/97; 5/3/97 (GLENN!!)

-HEY! GAEA got REAL weird on us! I think I like it! Out of leftfield, Chigusa dons the Zero gimmick and is accompanied by a foxy Bloody Phoenix-like valet. I don't have any idea what it's all about and don't want to delve too deeply into the psychosexual ramfications of it all, but I think Hokuto and OZ are in cahoots and Devil Masami is stuck in the middle because She and Chigusa were having the BridgeLady lovefest in the first episode after having a fun-filled match with Kato and Satomura. Then in the next episode, Zero comes out and busts up Akira and OZ real bad after they have just wrestled each other,teaming with their prospective proteges, Nagashima and Maiko Matsumoto. Devil then comes and looks like she has a truce with OZ and Akira, so I don't know what the hell is going on. I guess this all sets up Akira/Chigusa, continues the OZ/Chigua feud and hopefully sets a substantial WHIP ASS KAORU/Akira First-Broken-Neck-Loses feud. Devil Masami fits in somewhere or she wouldn't have been hovering around the main event for two episodes in a row, I would think. With the Soap Opera out of the way, the wrestling on the two shows was really good. On the first show, the Toshie Uematsu WCW Cruiserweight title defense was a peppy little effort, filled with fast moves and nifty mat stuff as AJP also-ran Shiina gets her ass handed to her and pitches a fit for it afterwards. Toshie is getting more aggressive and was actually doing a Sugar Sato-level taunt at the end that I was digging. On the second show, Yamada/Chigusa vs Kato/Satomura was a spirited effort. Yamada looks like she is ready to jump to the lower impact style of GAEA (if she stays out of feuds with KAORU or Akira Hokuto) because she looked about as healthy and confident in this match as I've seen her in a while, and I think that the fact that she can do all her best stuff and not have to leave the ground was a good change of pace for her. Her exchanging kicks with Satomura was about the best that Yamada has come off since the last GOOD Yamada/Hotta match. All four of them did lots of cool things I thought, as they did lots of mirrored submission hold sequences where the youngsters would do stereo Scorpion Deathlocks and their elder stateswomen opponents would repeat it later in the match. These two shows take Kato and Satomura to a crossroads- in the first show where they are opposite each other, they are the highlight of match because they beat the crap outta each other. In the second show they look credible as a tagteam against Chigusa and Yamada- though they take a youngster underdog stance the whole match. In the end, I would say they are better in against each other than as a tagteam, plus HEY! Sonoko Kato has OZ academy written all over her. She can be surly, I just know it!:)

NEXT WEEK: Actual analysis of Kawada/Kobashi! Hayabusa gives Shiga a reason to be in the wrestling business! Hopefully ALL THE LUCHA IN THE WORLD! More of the Lorefice tape avalanche! A New Arashi Spotting! KICK ASS! WOO-HOO!

CHEETAH~!

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