Chigusa vs Masami, AJW 8/22/85. One of two absolute gems on the night. This one has uber-babyface Chigusa against monster heel Masami in an epic that, like the match which followed it, was ages ahead of its time.

Lioness Asuka vs Jaguar Yokota, AJW 8/22/85. Also epic, also ahead of its time, but with a very different dynamic. This is a peer vs peer main event struggle, done a bit tighter than Chigusa vs Masami. 234 MB.

Bull Nakano vs Manami Toyota, All Japan Women 7/21/90. Bull is the monster veteran, while Toyota has yet to fully develop her array of suplexes. Thus young Manami is a big underdog, and she has to try and sneak a pinfall in order to survive. If that pin doesn't come, she's gonna DIE.

Yoshida & Takako Inoue vs Hasegawa & Debbie Malenko, AJW 1/5/92. Fast-paced match for the company's secondary tag titles. Features an insane, must-see impact move.

Toyota vs Yamada, 8/15/92, Hair vs Hair. One of the biggest bouts for both of them. Action-paced, with a great closing stretch and an emotional aftermath. A joshi must-see. 204 MB.

Kyoko Inoue vs Mariko Yoshida, AJW 8/30/92. This is a decision match in the '92 Grand Prix. Kyoko has the sole trump card in the match, the splash mountain. Both have incredible agility and this sets up a lot of huge nearfalls for each of them.

Manami Toyota vs (Winner of Inoue/Yoshida), AJW 8/30/92. Really good follow-up to the other match, as Toyota is fresh and thus a big favorite, but her opponent refuses to stay down. I'd recommend against downloading this until after watching Inoue vs Yoshida; the filename is a spoiler!

Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada, All Japan Women 11/26/92, 2/3 Falls. A certified joshi classic.

Kansai & Ozaki vs Hotta & Takako Inoue, JWP 1/15/93. On the one hand, Hotta & Takako wouldn't usually be thought of as a top-flight team. On the other hand, they match up quite well with Kansai and Ozaki, and they work good together. Korakuen is RED HOT and this is must-see for fans of joshi.

Nakano & Kong vs Toyota & Yamada, AJW 1/24/93. As if this could be anything but greatness.

Kyoko & Takako Inoue vs Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki, AJW Dreamslam 1. Some o' that good joshi prowres. Cutie....

Hokuto vs Kandori, AJW Dreamslam 1. Not my cup of tea, but I'm the exception because this is probably the most beloved match of joshi followers. Super-intense with hardly any letdown.

Kong & Hokuto vs Kandori & Eagle Sawai, AJW 4/11/93. You expect the Hokuto/Kandori pairing to be intense. What makes this tag so interesting is Kong/Kandori, which is two of the toughest ladies ever to step in the ring. Kong brings the FIRE and makes you want to see a singles match that sadly never happened. Eagle is there to counter Aja's size and does so decently.

Toyota & Yamada vs Kansai & Ozaki, All Japan Women 4/11/93. Generally thought to be as good if not better than their first effort, which is saying a lot.

Manami Toyota & Yamada vs Kudo & Combat Toyota, FMW 5/5/93. The FMW duo lost the first iteration of this a month before, and are out for revenge in front of the home crowd. First match was somewhat of a letdown, but this is great fun.

Toyota vs Fukuoka, Grand Prix '93, AJW 6/3/93. Slow in parts, picks up at the end. Interesting matchup thanks in part to their many similarities.

Hokuto vs Minami, AJW Grand Prix '93, JIP. Minami is lesser-known among the joshi wrestlers, but she was capable enough to have a heated finish against Hokuto.

Team JWP vs Team AJW, Thunder Queen Battle, JWP 7/31/93. One of the definitive women's matches of all time. It's a 60 minute iron...woman match, with four 5 minute singles matches and a 40 minute tag with everyone in. Hardly ever letdown, loads and loads of great action, and an amazing close. Lots of MBs.

Toyota vs Hokuto, JGP '93 semi-final, AJW 8/21/93. They bring out the best in each other.

Takako Inoue vs Cutie Suzuki, AJW 8/25/93. Two joshi "idols" show that they have a hell of a lot more than just a pretty face.

Toyota, Hotta & Hasegawa vs Ozaki, Fukuoka & Mariko, AJW 8/25/93. Sprint-y AJW vs JWP goodness.

Hokuto vs Kazama, AJW 8/25/93. I haven't heard much about LLPW's Kazama before, but she's solid and Hokuto can lead "solid" to a really good match.

Kong vs Kansai, AJW 8/25/93. Follow-up from Thunder Queen. Joshi's heavy-hitters throw everything they have at one another. Finish is sorta weird but it's deliberate and undeniably painful.

Shimoda, Ito, Asari & Shiratori vs Suzuki, Mariko, Fukuoka & Bolshoi, Captain's Fall elimination, AJW 10/9/93. Dramatic eliminations and, thanks to being interpromotional, it has a big-match feel despite the lack of superstars. Ito and Suzuki really shine.

Kansai vs Yamada, AJW 10/9/93. To say that Yamada doesn't match up well with Kansai would be an understatement. There are moments where Dynamite seems so thoroughly inevitable, you wonder if Yamada has the guts to keep going. Then she does. This is HER home turf and she'll fight until there's nothing left.

Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs Kandori & Hozumi, LLPW 11/9/93. Let me tell you, this is what I like in my pro wrestling. You get hate, some hard hits, roles being played, a responsive crowd, and it's hardly ever predictable. Nakano and Kandori know how to deliver the interpromotional warfare.

Hokuto vs Kazama, hair vs hair, LLPW 11/9/93. Rematch from a few months before, as Kazama tries to avenge her loss. Hokuto is supremely confident, and I can't completely blame her considering how much more accomplished she was/is. This and the tag do a wonderful job of setting up a big match in December.

Hokuto & Toyota vs Kong & Hasegawa, AJW 11/12/93. Yeah, AJW was pretty good in '93. - UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Kansai, Ozaki, Masami & Mariko vs Hokuto, Minami, Mita & Shimoda, Captain's Fall elimination, AJW 11/28/93. A bigger and better play on the October match, with good pace and some ginormous bumps. I clipped out three five-minute singles matches; it starts with a 5 minute match between the captains, Kansai and Hokuto, then moves on to 4-on-4.

Hotta & Double Inoues vs Sawai, Harley Saito & Kazama, AJW 12/6/93, JIP. AJW vs LLPW action!

Aja Kong vs Megumi Kudo, AJW 12/6/93. Kudo's best non-hardcore singles match. Funny how it's with her best singles opponent. Solid big vs little match and Kong really lays in the backfists to drive the point home.

Toyota & Yamada vs Kansai & Ozaki, AJW 12/6/93. One-fall conclusion to this tag rivalry.

Hokuto vs Kandori, AJW 12/6/93. I prefer this to their first match because they don't do random crowd brawling and stick to in-ring intensity. Also there's some crazy shoot punches to the face, I mean this might have more brutal punching than any men's match you can find. These women are not messing around.

Nakano & Asari vs Hotta & Minami, AJW 12/10/93. Young Asari is clearly the weak link. Things go downhill when Hotta punts her in the mouth. Is Bull Nakano enough to help her survive?

Hokuto & Toyota vs Yamada & Kyoko Inoue, AJW 12/10/93. Two back-to-back matches that wrap up the tag league. First, the team coming in with fewer points gets the pin to even things up. Then they face off in the final.

Kong vs Hotta, AJW 1/24/94. STIFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. 182 MB.

Kong & Toyota vs Nakano & Kyoko Inoue, AJW 3/3/94. An all-star tag delivers at ever-reliable Korakuen.

Kong & Hokuto vs Kansai & Hotta, elimination, AJW 8/28/94. Quite the heavyweight-style slugfest.

Dynamite Kansai vs Kyoko Inoue, V*Top Tournament, AJW 11/20/94. Interesting matchup. Kyoko is no featherweight and has tons of agility, but Kansai is a tank. I didn't know how well they'd mesh in the ring, but they certainly manage to pull off a Tokyo Dome level match.

Aja Kong vs Manami Toyota, V*Top Tournament, All Japan Women 11/20/94. They go absolutely all-out for the occasion, and the result is one of the best singles matches in either of their careers.

Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai, V*Top Tournament, AJW 11/20/94. The irresistible force versus the immovable object, the sort of match that was meant to be at the dome.

Kansai, Masami, Fukuoka & Yagi vs Ozaki, Cutie Suzuki, Okutsu & Toyama, 1-count match, JWP 3/21/95. Very, very unique match. Starts off as a series of singles matches with a 5 minute time limit, then after those both sides come together for a 4-on-4 tag. 1 count pinfalls are able to generate effective nearfalls on almost anything!

Double Inoues vs Toyota & Blizzard Yuki, tag title tournament final, AJW 3/21/95. Both teams had to beat two pairs of quality opponents earlier in the night. They don't go overly long as might have been the temptation if they hadn't wrestled earlier, yet they don't show fatigue in delivering an action-packed main event, so this is the best possible outcome.

Bull Nakano vs Kyoko Inoue, All Japan Women 3/26/95, WWF Womens Title. Witness the spunkiness of Kyoko as it goes against the straightforward solidness of Bull.

Lioness Asuka vs Hotta, AJW 3/26/95. Done with quasi-MMA rules and strikes that blur the line between work and shoot. Finish is crazy. So deeply brutal of a match.

Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai, WWWA title, All Japan Women 8/30/95. The female equivalent of a superheavyweight war. Ten months previous, Aja pinned Kansai at the biggest joshi show ever in the Tokyo Dome, using her mighty spinning backfist. Kansai, she of the hard kicks and crucifix bombs, is out for revenge and wants to hold the top title in women's wrestling for the first time. As stiff and brutal as it should be.

Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue vs Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa, 2/3 falls, All Japan Women 8/30/95. In the mold of the Kansai/Ozaki vs Toyota/Yamada tags, this is thoroughly epic.

Nakano vs Kyoko Inoue, AJW 9/2/95. The last big singles match in Japan for Bull Nakano, and it's a doozy. Continues where they left off in the March match.

Toyota vs Hokuto, AJW 9/2/95. The last big singles match in AJW for Hokuto. This has a much more intense start than the norm for Manami Toyota, and a suitably grand finish. They go all-out.

Hotta vs Yamada, AJW 12/4/95. The couple of botched spots are made up for by them kicking the crap out of each other non-stop. Good gracious.

Manami Toyota vs AJW, 12/25/95. Very odd, very interesting match. It's 30 1-minute singles matches, a few of which repeat, starting with young... um... lionesses, and building to the Aja Kong-level ass-kickers. You'll probably never see anything else like it.

Aja Kong, Combat Toyota & Cooga vs Bison Kimura, Kudo & Kaoru, AJW 3/31/96. Lots and lots of joshi to enjoy. 237 MB.

Manami Toyota vs Kaoru Ito, AJW 3/23/97, JIP. Ito has been an undercard wrestler since debuting in '89, working hard but somewhat stuck in place. '97 was her breakout year, and this was a huge opportunity that she makes the most of.

Kudo vs Ozaki, no-rope barbed wire deathmatch, FMW 4/18/97. A few minutes are clipped out. The top ladies of hardcore do battle!

Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota vs Kansai & Candy Okutsu, JWP 6/15/97. Jaguar is in ridiculous shape and Candy takes ridiculous bumps. This is something I got on one of my first puro tapes and it holds up better than most of its compatriots!

Manami Toyota vs Kaoru Ito, AJW Grand Prix '97, JIP. Big match in the tournament and a big follow-up to their March battle.

Yoshida vs Fukawa, Arsion 9/26/99. A big part of the reason behind Arsion's creation was to move away from non-stop high impact moves. This match is a great demonstration of the mindset, largely shoot-style mat wrestling.

Manami Toyota & Kayo Noumi vs Kaoru Ito & Miho Wakizawa, AJW 10/15/00. Evenly matched, with a headliner and a midcarder apiece. A mix of comedy, action and their respective roles makes this good clean fun. Waki takes a rude bump near the end that I think the crowd misses, and she also misses a splash in extra-painful fashion.

Kong vs Yoshida, Arsion 10/17/00. See here's why Aja Kong is Aja Kong. She can go at Yoshida with strikes, with power moves, and Yoshida's submission advantage isn't even much of an advantage because Kong's got skill there too. Yoshida has to rely on punches with her gloved hands in order to faze the joshi juggernaut and get in significant offense. But are punches enough to set up the Spider Twist, or will she fall as countless others have before her?

Kaoru Ito, Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi vs Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita & Kumiko Maekawa, AJW 11/23/00, cage match. Whole team must escape to win. Good match with a craaaaaazy finish.

Manami Toyota vs Mariko Yoshida, ARSION 11/25/01. It's the mistress of the suplexes against the hybrid shootiness of Yoshida.

Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura, GAEA 12/15/01. Kong has been one of the top joshi names for a decade. Satomura has tried and tried to topple her, but always comes up short (there's a video package at the start with this). Now they go at it one more time to determine who the top woman really is.

Manami Toyota & Hotta vs Ito & Momoe Nakanishi, NJ 5/2/02. AJW was given a spot to showcase itself, and these four go all-out. 133 MB.

Kayo Noumi vs Rie Tamada, All Japan Women 6/16/02. Oh Noumi.

Kong & Toyota vs Satomura & Ayako Hamada, GAEA 9/20/02. Kong, having finally fallen to Satomura the year before, gets Manami Toyota to jump from AJW and form a superteam to combat the younger stars of GAEA. Intergenerational tag warfare!

Ran YuYu vs Carlos Amano, GAEA 10/20/02. Pretty darn good joshi match right here.

Toyota & Yoshida vs Kansai & Akino, Oz Academy 1/10/05. Hey look, it's joshi puroresu that isn't from 1993! The first half is decent action, but the second half is where things really get good. Akino was possibly the most gifted joshi wrestler to debut after the late 80s/early 90s crew, and she gets a chance to show that she belongs with the other three.

Satomura vs Aja Kong, Sendai 7/9/06. Best joshi match in a looooooong time. 195 MB.

Satomura vs Kyoko Kimura, Sendai 12/3/06. Kimura has enough energy to give the battle-hardened Satomura all she can handle.

Satomura, Okuda & Mizumura vs Kuragaki, Arisa Nakajima & Ohki, JWP 8/26/07. Satomura and her Sendai Girls students invade JWP! Loads of fun, the younguns bring a lot of fire, give this a shot!