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Dave meltzer reviews Ajw 1994 Big egg universe Sunday he greatest woman wrestler who ever lived, left the ring at the Tokyo Dome, her face covered with both sweat and tears, and collapsed in the locker room amidst a hoard of reporters asking her about her future. It will no doubt be remembered as the pinnacle moment of not only her career, but that of her sport. Five years earlier, it looked like that sport had its last big hurrah, its first and what figured to be its last $ 500,000 house--"The day the music died," so to speak at the Yokohama Arena, signifying the retirement of its most popular performer ever, Chigusa Nagayo Soon after it lost its weekly Saturday afternoon television time slot. It was relegated to a monthly slot in the middle of the night, and with no charismatic superstars left, the teenage girls that were the fan base grew up and left pro wrestling behind. But it was a temporary lull, re-emerging just two years later with a new appeal, with new stars and with an entirely new audience demographic that would have never considered watching it before. They would have dismissed it, despite the quality of the matches being the best anywhere, as entertainment aimed at schoolgirls, which it was. But when it reemerged, it built to a level larger than anyone's imaginations at the time could have ever conceived of. The moment ended a day that began ten hours earlier when a 60-piece marching band led a parade of more than five- dozen wrestlers representing 11 different flagcarrying federations which looked like a scaled-down version of the Olympic games opening ceremonies. A day that can be best described by one word. Staggering."Big Egg Wrestling Universe," as the showwas called, set a production standard for the industry that not only broke new ground, but in ten hours set the evolutionary clock of the industry ahead by ten years. It more closely resembled a Super Bowl than a Wrestlemania as an event. The figures were more than just record-breaking, they were astounding. It was more than just the 42,500 fans, which more than doubled the all-time record for a woman's wrestling show that held up for 53 years (19,000 fans for a match between Mildred Burke and Elvira Snodgrass in 1941 in Louisville). There have been 12 crowds larger than that in Japan formen's wrestling just in the last five-and-ahalf years. But what was astounding is the popularity potential of women' s wrestling that this show uncovered. On April 2, 1993, All Japan women drew the first million dollar house in women's wrestling history for Dream Slam I at the Yokohama Arena, still probably the greatest pro wrestling show ever and at the time, the best series of interpromotional matches for drawing fans and believed to be just about the limit as to the best crowd the group would be capableof. Try $ 4 million 19 months later, paced by about 6,000 fans paying the top ticket price of $300 on the stadium floor. On April 2, 1993, the promotion did a staggering $68,000 in program sales alone. Try $612,000. Add what could have been close to if notexceeding another seven figures on other gimmick sales, throw in eventual commercial videotape revenue (between $1 and $2 million), network television rights and corporate sponsorship fees (in excess of $ 1 million) and you're talking about when all is said and done, gross revenues that will end up in the $8 million range. You're talking Wrestlemania gross revenue, but achieved without the most lucrative arm of the Wrestlemania revenue stream, the pay-per-view end. Staggering described more than just the business aspect. To say the ring entrances were the most elaborate in the history of wrestling wouldn't begin to do the show justice. The wrestlers came out from a curtain on a sound stage in the baseball stadium outfield. The sound stage stretched nearly from foul pole to foul pole, blocking out some 14,000 outfield seats from being able to be sold. There were the usual explosive and pinwheel fireworks entrances. The last 13 matches had laser light show ring entrances, with the light show corresponding with the wrestlers' entrance music and light show in some cases making designs of the wrestler on the ceiling of the Dome. Wrestlers looked like they entered in cages and space ships from above (actually brought in by hidden lowered cranes from backstage but the visual effect with steam coming from the stage to the bottom of the entrance vehicle looked like ships levitating in mid-air), from underneath, in giant balloons, with acrobatic Ninjas and amidst a parade of Harleys. Approximately $1.1 million was spent on special effects alone including a sound stage as impressive if not more than at the biggest rock & roll shows. Every match had its own corporate sponsor, who would then present a trophy and/or gift to the winner of the match. And then there was the wrestling. This was not the greatest wrestling card of alltime, although it had to rank as among the best. But it was easily the best Tokyo Dome show ever. Ten hours and 23 matches are just too long even with some 40 topes and seven four-star matches. If scaled back to eight hours and if the four shoot matches and midgets were eliminated, and if the show ended with a more climactic last two matches, this could have been the greatest wrestling show ever. If any card could be called a slow builder, this was it. There really wasn't any major heat until the tenth match on the show when Shinobu Kandori and Toshiyo Yamada tore the house down. From that point things were off and running from 4:45 p.m. until 11 p.m. with one great match after another, with one 30 minute intermission at 6:30 p. m. and a second "opening ceremony," this time for the eight participants in the tournament only. Amazingly enough, there was still excellent heat nine hours in, up through the Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai V�Top Woman tournament semifinal match, but the crowd got tired by 11 p.m. (the majority having been there from the start). Many kids, because of the curfew law (under 18 without parental accompaniment have to return home at 10:30 p.m.), people who came in from far away hoping tocatch the last train home, not expecting that an "afternoon" show would last until almost midnight, and those simply exhausted from the day or worried about getting up for work the next morning, started filing out early. There appeared to still be 35,000 in the building at 11:20 p.m. when the ring introductions for the final match began. So it' ll have to settle for being the greatest wrestling spectacle. Originally this show was to be Hokuto's retirement show, as throughout the year they had advertised thepromotion's three biggest cards of the year (March at the Yokohama Arena, August at Budokan Hall and this show) would be the "Dangerous Queen final countdown." In the rough and dangerous world of Japanese women's wrestling, Hokuto was in many ways a symbol of the life-style of the participants and the promotion. Starting as a pro under her real name of Hisako Uno just before her 18th birthday, she was respected almost immediately as being a standout among the many good athletes in the promotion that entered the sport in the midst of the Crush Gals phenomenon. Even without a special look or gimmick, she teamed with Yumiko Hotta to win the WWWA world tag team titles from Leilani Kai & Judy Martin at the age of 19. But less than two weeks later, on April 27, 1987, it was over, not just the tag title reign, but apparently the career. She took a tombstone piledriver off the top rope for the second fall finish, the first and last time such a move has been done in the AJW ring, since it resulted in a broken neck. Even more than her ability, where she gained her reputation was in guts. The broken neck came during the finish of the second fall of that match. She got up, literally holding her head in place with her hands, and went through all her high spots, blocking out the pain, and worked the entire third fall. But it was about one year later before she could return to the ring, returning with bleached blond hair under the new character of Akira Hokuto, taking the first name of the most popular male wrestler in Japanat the time. Although she was quickly regarded as the best worker in the group, it wasn't until years later when the fans caught onto her, largely because of her frequent injuries resulting in ribs, shoulders, elbows and knees being taped in place, often at the same time. The "mummy" having incredible matches week-after-week tends to eventually get noticed. She broke her back before a major show, and was back in main events two weeks later. After a broken neck, everything else was child's play. It was Dream Slam I and her match with Shinobu Kandori that established her as the group's biggest star in what was to be her final year of her career. While on tour in Mexico earlier that year, she got engaged and later in the year married to a Mexican wrestler who goes by the name Mascara Magica, and was moving there permanently at the end of 1983. But the Kandori match, which set so many records, also established her, when pushed in a key match, as the biggest drawing card in womens wrestling at the time, perhaps in its history, a status cultivated through the remainder of 1993 and through 1994. Over the past month or so, the promotion stopped all hype regarding the show being Hokuto's retirement match. She, under a mask as Reina Jubuki, had won the CMLL womens championship and it became well-known she was going to continue her career in Mexico, where some had labeled her the Michael Jordan of womens wrestling. It was announced after the show that Hokuto would return to Japan for one or two major matches in 1995, including a return fall engagement at the Dome.Hokuto, 27, was presented as the show's star, winning the V�Top Woman tournament, the main draw of the card, and new title belt to represent the top champion of all womens world champions. Hokuto pinned long-time rival Kong in the finals. The way the publicity for the show was done and the way the crowd reacted, anyone else winning would have been both a surprise and a disappointment to the crowd. While all the major stars were "over" to a degree, she was clearly the star. While it was the pinnacle of Hokuto's career as far as being the key wrestler to draw the record house and being awarded a championship emblematic of her status as the best in the world, regardless of organization, there was disappointment in that it wasn't her finest hour in the ring. Saddled with the two weakest wrestlers in the tournament (LLPW's Eagle Sawai and FMW's Combat Toyoda) in her first two matches, and then with a tired crowd in a "story" match with Kong in the finals, her three bouts were the only tournament matches not to reach ****. The virtual consensus was the best match on the show was Kong's match with Manami Toyota in the tournament first round at ** ***, with another first round match of Yumiko Hotta vs. Toyoda shocking everyone as its closest rival and Kong vs. Kansai third. The match of U.S. significance was second from last, with Bull Nakano winning the WWF womens title from Alundra Blayze (also known in Japan as Madusa as all the women in their interviews were calling herby her old ring name) . Coming on after 11 p.m. and following Kong-Kansai with the spent crowd was tough enough, but being asked to work American style so as to provide something different on the show made it even tougher. The Nakano-Blayze match was virtually identical to their regular WWF house show matches, which are usually one of the two best matches on most shows, but paled in this company. Nakano kicked out of Blayze's german suplex finisher and wound up winning with a legdrop off the top rope in9:27. After the match Nakano told fans she was returning to the United States and would stay through September of 1995, and asked fans to remember her when she returned. In locker room interviews Nakano said she wanted to defend her title against Kyoko Inoue in Japan next year on a big show, most likely March 26 at Yokohama Arena, most likely one week before the expected title change back.The card also featured a men's six man tag match with the stars of Michinoku Pro Wrestling doing their typical house show main event match; a "Miss Wrestling Universe" tag team match between four of the prettiest women in Japanese wrestling (one of whom, Takako Inoue, had a softcore-porn picture book released by the office earlier in the week selling like crazy at the souvenir stands hyped by some risque magazine shots in several different mags in the month leading up to the show); the debut of Blizzard Yuki (Sakie Hasegawa), a masked female martial artist as a cross- marketing gimmick of a character that will be released this coming week as a comic book figure that will also be part of computer games animation and perhaps as a television cartoon character; a legends tag match featuring Jaguar Yokota, the pioneer of this style of women's wrestling; and four shooting fights, two under amateur wrestling guidelines, one under shoot boxing rules and another under kick boxing rules. The opening ceremonies saw not only all the wrestlers on the card, but many not on the card dressed in matching sweat outfits with company and sponsor logos, mascots and flag carriers with the various promotional insignias coming out for All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (AJW), JWP, LLPW, FMW, Gaea Japan, Michinoku Pro Wrestling, World Wrestling Federation, EMLL, Shoot Boxing, All Japan Female Wrestling Federation (amateur wrestling) and the Women's Amateur Wrestling Association from France.

WON SEPTEMBER 1992 JAPAN TRIP V BIGGEST CHANGE - The audience at AJW shows The AJW group years back used to draw an audience that was close to 90 percent teenage girls I recall in 1987 the first time I saw the group live that the workrate was exceptional but the audience was there for Chigusa mania as the building was filled with young girls dressed like Chigusa Nagayo with haircuts like Chigusa Nagayo and screamed and cried like crazy when Chigusa Nagayo was being brutalised by Dump Matasumo. No hardcore wrestling fan would be caught dead in the building even though it actually had the best hardcore action of any of the promotions Women’s wrestling was cultural stigmatised as simply something for teenage girls it’s new era with all the new stars and a totally different audience. The last time I saw the women at Korakuen in March 1991 the audience was split 50/50 between the teenage girls of before and the hardcore fans who got into the group because of the charisma of Aja Kong and the realisation and appreciation of just how good the matches and wrestling really are. On 8/15 I’d guess the pendulum has almost completely swung as the crowd being close to 90 percent hardcore male wrestling fans as the unique atmosphere, it no longer exists there is little crying (although there was some but the few remaining teenage girls) at the emotional climaxes less of the streamer throwing and on the financial downside the hardcore fans aren’t going to buy nearly the amount of gimmicks that the teenage girls audience did. However Korakuen was overflowed with about 2,300 fans in a building that seats 1,860 and the belief probably true is this group of hardcore fans will be more loyal. HARDCORE WRESTLING FANS given time to be exposed to the product (and keep in mind, this will take years to accomplish but ultimately would be successful) will accept women's wrestling provied the women are better than the men. If they aren't as good, or even are just as good, people aren't going to buy it for anything more than a very short period as a T&A show because all things being equal, our society always treats men's athletics as superior to women excpet in the few sports (gymnastics and figure skating come to mind) where the women have the physical ability to outshine men in. If they are better, they'll be respected for it and eventually they'll have an audience because wrestling is probably the only contact sport.exhibition/entertainment/whatever in which women at the top level because they have great flexibility, are lighter and thus have more endurance, can outperform men in

WON SEPTEMBER 1992 JAPAN TRIP V MOST UNIQUE SHOW - JWP television special in your wildest dreams or most drug induced crazed state you could never imagine something quite like this TV Asahi one of the four major networks in Japan got this crazy idea a few months back about doing a Clash of the Champions for insomniacs. They scheduled a live television special from 1:30 to 5 a.m and wanted small groups in Japan that don’t have television to combine well politics and scheduling being what they are only one group agreed to it the new JWP so at about 1:20 am after wandering from one television studio to another in downtown Tokyo for more than a half an hour myself an John muse and wrestler Sean waltman Who had an 8:30 wake up call for a long road trip The next day found the studio this was a journey that included stumbling into CNN headquarters in Japan and seeing highlights of the Republican convention and somehow finding Antonio Inoki office at a television network and being detained by security speaking nothing but Japanese (well it’s their country) Who were wondering what exactly we were doing wandering around an office building at 1 a.m. the studio was pretty much like any TV wrestling studio those of you who remember Memphis wrestling in the 70s in many of the territories will fondly recall There were about 115 clinical insane people at the studio (they must have been since nobody left early there was a rumour they were all being held at gunpoint) An overflow of magazine reporters in the lobby down the hall watching on television and a cast of about nine or ten celebrity commentators from the sports entertainment world including the legendary Chigusa Nagayo herself with her eyes shut an head on the table fighting to stay awake and it was only 1:20 a.m. The show began with an introduction of the nine women on the show and it was time for the opener Big Bad Devil Masami Who is like a cross between Jim duggan , Road Warrior animal, Ric Flair,Joanne Weston and Dump Matsumoto and still not at all unattractive 15 year veteran who dates back to the original boom era of women’s wrestling with the Crush Girls. She teamed with Mayumi Ozaki a tiny women against Dynamite Kansai who those of you recall the WCW PPV show from Phoenix in 1991 will remember miss a and her partner was sometimes model Cutie Suzuki they went out there and had one hell of a 25:00 match with topes brutal guardrail and stiff work and chair shots highlight being Masami pressings Suzuki overhead walking around the ringside stopping in front of a half a sleep Chigusa Nagayo yelling at Nagayo and dropping Suzuki on the table basically right in her lap. Masami has more ring savvy than any of the AJW although I wouldn’t go so far as to say she is one of the top five female workers today , then came the 30min commercial mania if you ever thought the delays in the clashes were bad you never would again the only comparison I could come up with was for the few of you who may have lived in Texas during the early 1980s and attended the Dallas Sportatorium cards during the days when they had to revive certain wrestlers in order for them to do a coherent interview The second match didn’t in the ring until about 2:45 a.m. with the relatively normal looking plum Mariko wrestling the Boirshi Kid Who is a teenager dressed like bozo the clown I was just glad Vince McMahon or Antonio Pena wasn’t watching because they’d steal the gimmick for sure they went 16min it wasn’t too bad then another singles match with Hikari Fukuoka (Who was really good) against Sumiko Satio (Who has great potential) and the put on a great 20min match doing every move in the book. Finally at about 3:50 A.m. it was time for the main event on Only Give Up Battle Royal which means the only way to be eliminated is via submission, this was the best battle royal I’ve Seen since those classic Los Angeles and San Francisco Battle royals of the late 70s I think there were four topes, Masami did a press slam on her partner in the opener Ozaki and dropped her over the top rope where she took a bump on the floor the guard rail took a major beating at one point Masami was destroying some of the women in the grandstands even Chigusa was wide awake for this one Kansai did a dive though the ropes and missed and went straight into the guard rails Boirshoi kid did the asai moonsault at about 4:05 a.m. try to put yourself in my shoes for a second it’s 4:05a.m. On a Monday night you’re in a foreign country where nobody speaks your language you’re watching this unbelievable Battle Royal and some women dressed up like bozo the clown is doing the Asai moonsault It was 10min of mind blowing action before anyone was eliminated Plum Mariko ended up winning in 20:05 by Eliminating Fukuoka after they went back and forth for a few minutes although that is probably the least important aspect of the show.

WON MARCH 1991 TOKYO KORAKUEN HALL This Sunday was a unique day in that All Japan Women had a show at noon and Jwp had a show at 6:30 pm both cards were not only sold out but had standing room only in every conceivable spot the All Japan card literally had people hanging from the rafters including several people hanging from a ladder in the back Jwp announce it’s crowd at 2,500 and All Japan 2,500 which looked ligit the Jwp show which didn’t sell out in advanced was priced from $37 down to $22 while All Japan’s pricing was $47 down to $18 The afternoon show was excellent and the evening show was also very good but two cards in one day is just too much wrestling I hadn’t seen AJW in korakuen since 1987 the heyday of Chigusa Nagayo and Dump matasumo and things have changed Very few of the girls are still around because they get rid of the girls when they hit their 26th birthday noriyo tateno who was one half of Jumping bomb angels and in the wwf at one time had her retirement match this afternoon Bull Nakano was a star then now the world champion and the lone main event hold over from the Chigusa era it’s all new fans Chigusa drew the teenage girls who dressed like her wore her fan club jackets and screamed over her like Madonna But it’s different now many credit the upswing in the AJW group to the time period last summer when Aja Kong and Bison kimura were working for Universal since Universal is a lucha group it mainly draws the hardest core fans Because it’s names aren’t familiar to the general public, women’s wrestling was always stigmatised in Japan as something for women to watch in 1987 even though I saw a card that was better than anything The men’s promotion were doing (and better than just about any card I’d ever seen in armerica) there were few male fans there and almost no hardcore fans one subscriber who went was amazed at how good the card was but still said it was something for girls and I doubt he went back The stigma is gone the crowd was a young crowd about half hardcore male fans there simply to see great matches and half the teenage girls who screamed and cried over their faves are gone as are the concerts. It’s just wrestling now and these are the most expressive hardcore fans around. JWP was formed in 1986 and has always gone after a different audience it tried to attract males a time when AJW attracted very little While there were people who attended both shows I’d guess the number was very small JWP attracted a much older crowd men in business suits with wife’s and girlfriends they weren’t manical about the show although there was heat There were hardcore s in the balcony but not packed to the level of AJW.

This last part was actually on the first page of daves newsletter so in hindsight I should have started the whole article with this bit first. l have been following this business for more than 17 years now and there are times that I think i’ve Seen everything well i woke up last Sunday morning this afternoon was over found out i’d Seen nothing simply put the ALL JAPAN WOMEN’S promotion puts on the most entertaining show and the best wrestling that I’ve ever seen Infact nothing even comes close there are no words to convey the atmosphere and action that the promotion delivers or just how effective Chigusa Nagayo and dump matasumo are while admittedly the live crowd which attends their events is hardly a democratic cross section in fact 90 percent of the crowd is teenage girls but to their audience these girls are over To the point that a U.S. fan would have to see it live to even have a concept of what I’m trying to say Dump is the best heel in wrestling and whoever is in second place isn’t even close as for Chigusa the reaction she gets not only can’t be duplicated by any wrestler in this country (hulk hogan certainly comes the closest and at his best isn’t half as good) You’d probably have to use Madonna or Bruce Springsteen at their peak for comparison the crowd literally lives and dies with every move she makes we saw the crowd literally crying at one point in the show and then in the main event we saw a 50 min match of nothing but high spots and a crowd which never let up for a three hour show I’m bringing this up because I am voting Chigusa for wrestle of the year (although I will vote for hogan as best babyface with Chigusa in second place because I respect that hogans appeal is more broad based and he has better drawing power even if Chigusa reaction live blows the hulkster away) with the exception of hogan there is nobody more important to their promotion than Chigusa probably nobody besides hogan more responsible as an in ring personality for marketing income than her and there is no bar none better worker male or female in this business. AND THATS IT

THIS IS THE LAST PART Of The ARTICLE From a marketing standpoint , the age rule has its benefits as well probably the biggest failure in pro wrestling is they don’t understand pop culture that they are part of while some musical groups have long runs like the roiling stones the hot groups usually skyrocket to the top and often fizzle down to nothing just a fast The average run for pop stardom teenage heartthrobs like David cassidy or Bobby Sherman is two years let’s face it hogan no longer can sellout buildings just by showing up any more and the rock & roll express and road warriors can’t even draw fans anymore (although the latter case I think there is still tons of unutilized potential but ricky and Robert are dead as draws) By getting the baby faces out by 25 you don’t create a dusty Rhodes who is still popular, but in the real world turn people off your product the age rule forces this promotion to consistently develop new and better talent and push them to the top instead of getting stale and relying on acts that where once draws but no longer are Now I’m not at all in favour of this rule or any sort of mandatory retirement age for wrestlers if I had it my way I’d just watch nick bockwinkel five nights a week or masa Saito but in many ways this business has been hurt badly for decades by guys past there prime, promotions don’t realize you have to take the business down at times to rebuild and push new talent in the long run Besides Chigusa who just turned 23 this past week has been wrestling for this group since she was 15 in mid 1980 and became a pop superstar in 1983 while still a teenager the other top babyfaces are lioness Asuka the other half of the crush girls tag team which peaked this groups popularity about two years back Asuka now 24 has been a pro since just before her 17th birthday During there heyday of the crush girls Asuka was actually every bit as popular as Chigusa and the better worker but Chigusa has improved incredibly in the last year while Asuka has been played by injuries (the injure rate in this promotion is very high kyoko aso broke her neck getting a tombstone piledriver of the top rope that move is now longer done because of that) The Jb angels are Itzuki Yamazaki & noriyo tateno are both 21 but never made it to the top in Japan because they are to girly (the same reason why they made it in the USA and why the crush girls wouldn’t have made it big) the other top babyface tag team is kazure nagahori,19 and yumi ogura, 20 two very pretty and very small girls-and yukari omori who turns 26 shortly Omori was world champ before Chigusa and will probably retire early next year the heels are real heels led by kuaro dump Matsumoto who has been around for eight years at about 220 pounds with a punk rock hair Style dyed several different colours kendo stick biker outfit and swastika tattooed on her forehead presents a picture you wouldn’t believe Her partners in crime are Bull Nakano 19 who began wrestling at 15 in 1983 and rose to the top rather quickly bull has hair on only one side of her head dyed all different colours and face paint as well the third member is condor saito 20 who came from the class of 184 and known for her wild screams is smaller than dump and bull and often injured because of her all out style The girls they are pushing right now to eventually be on top are Yumiko Hotta 20 who uses lots of karate kicks similar to the uwf wrestlers, yasuko ishiguro 20 and mika Suzuki 18 . MORE TOMORROW

OK HERE'S SOME MORE The main attraction of the card was the retirement of tenjin "Devil Masami, who will thurn 26 on january 7th was basically forced out by the mandate retirement rule the promotion has. It's something that culturally can't be understood by u.s. fans although dump was made an exception to the rule because dump can't be replaced, however Jaguar Yokota who is acknowledged by many as the greatest women wrestler of all time was not made exception and retired in late 1985. Im not sure the reason why some would say they want the girls young and cute but since this promotion doesn't even try to appeal to a male audience i don't see that as a reason as mentioned earlier, the japanese culture is known for pushing teenage girls as superstars in movies and music and discarding them when they hit 20 , and i suppose it is thought that schoolgirls can more easily relate to wrestling idols who are just a few years older then they are. Masami's finale match was a 5 min exhibition against chigusa , who is the world champion of the group unlike other matches you could have heard a pin drop at certain points of the match yet as some old-time wrestler's who remmber the old days will tell you the best heat is often silent heat because it shows fans are so into the match that don't cheer and boo they weren't making noise because it was boring although in reality i was kind of disappointed with the match as the only highlight was masami doing a suplex on chigusa with both girls standing on the top rope. Mainly chigusa just took bumps for masami to make her look good in the finale match and was basically beaten when the exhibition ended another problem with the match is the last 30 to 45 seconds when they should have turned it on they instead both broke down and started crying and would you believe it by the the time the bell rang i'll bet half the audience was crying to . It's just another sight i won't soon forget masami wants to continue wrestling and will probably work some in calgary next year and possibly the wwf while masami is a good worker she doesn't have the potential to get over in the u.s. like the JB angels have because she's basically unspectacular in the ring and in my mind the only way for a girl wrestler to get over is for her to be able to do things in the ring that the men can't which is why the JB angels are doing so well and why dump would be such an attraction. In fact even though the show is japanese my impression is this promotion is such a novelty that with the correct promoting it could deliver a sizable cult audience and get a lot of media publicity in the u.s. like vince attempted and failed to do with wendi richter (and as bad as wendi work was in the u.s. as wwf champ she would of gotten over pretty well if she had dump and not moolah to feud with) OK TIME TO TAKE ANOTHER BREAK

hey guys i got an old won from 1987 when dave meltzer went to japan and this is what he said about ajw Trying to describe ALL Japan womens's promotion won't be easy. We saw a sunday matinee show on 12/1 at korauken hall in tokyo with about 2,400 teenage girls log-jammed in 1,800 seat building breaking every fire law known to mankind. It was the best live card i've ever seen in the last three years and the main event was by far the greatest match i've ever seen live. In fact i'd say without question it was better than any match ever held in the usa in the history of this business. It was a 12 girl tag team match went 50 min of nothing but high spots and he crowd was screaming at about double the level of hulk hogan posing routine for the entire time. When chigusa nagayo was squaring off against lioness asuka, the roar was louder than you'd here in the 7th game of an nba champinship series with 18 sec left and the home team down by 1 i've never experienced anything like the energy that comes out of the crowd, and the girls in the ring worked every bit as hard as the crowd the girls are on tv on the fuji network and while they consistently draw 7s plus on saturday afternoons , the week we were there they drew an 11.3 rating to give you an example of the popularity of this group in japan that rating for 1 show is higher than the rating of all mcmahon's syndicated shows in the usa put together in fact it's roughly the same as the rating for mcmahon's best snme nbc special drew. So when i compare the importance of chigusa with hogan it is not an outlandish statement at all even though the girls put on the most entertaining card you will ever see as mentioned before the crowd is almost all teen girls who live and die with every move made by chigusa . The place was packed with members of the many chigusa fan clubs and also lioness asuka fan clubs wearing their fan clubs jackets Im not sure of the customs, but the girls wear the jackets into the buildings, then take them off when the matches start then whenever chigusa is about to come out the girls all rush and put on their jackets it's an amazing sight although the most amazing sight is the heat when chigsusa either sings or wrestles The people who watch men's matches do not watch women's matches in japan it is a completely different audience and in fact the japanese fans and reporters that we met couldn't even understand why we were so interested in the girls card there is definite negative stigma about the girls , at least among wrestling fans probably because the show is so obviously designed at mainly teen girls . About 15 min before the show started there were maybe 150 fans in the building and since we knew the show would sellout we were shocked one of the guys i was traveling with told me to look in the lobby it was jammed with about 1,500 girls buying more souvenirs chigusa merchandise dump matsumota gym shorts and programs and streamers. There were a lot of american fans at the girls show which is something you don't see at men cards while the u.s. fans seemed enjoyed the show there is know doubt to the americans the show would revolve around dump matsumota. If dump was to tour the u.s.a and be let loose and have good opponents to work with like the JB ANGELS with no push are getting over in the usa she would make women's wrestling in america matches between dump and chigusa in the past have drawn gates well over $200,000 i'd go so far to say within 3 months dump would be in newsweek magazine and in 6 months a famlliar figure on t.v. commercials . Dump wrestled yukari omori on the card we saw and it was 17 min of non-stop brawling all over the building with juice on omori's part , tons of outside interference , and heat like you will never see in this country. Even though reality dump, 27 is actully nice and mild-mannered from all accounts her tv and ring persona is so strong that even when she walks down a street away from the ring fans get scared and run away screaming. Sorry guys but I need to take a break ill finish the article later