fujiwara armbar investigates: Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project (JWP)

An occasional series in which, in a bid to further my spotty knowledge of Japanese wrestling promotions, I watch a recent event and assess whether or not I'd watch regularly given the time, money and ability to access.

Promotion: Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project (JWP)

Event: Tsubasa Kuragaki 15th Anniversary ~ WINGS!, Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, 14th October 2013.

What did I know about the promotion going in?: Practically nothing. Whether through deliberate mass self-denial or the lack of quality information and media out there, joshi puroresu in 2014 is not the phenomenon of the late 1980s and early 1990s when legends such as Manami Toyota, Kyoko Inoue, Aja Kong and Bull Nakano routinely tore down houses and enthralled critics into the admission that women's wrestling was much more exciting and visceral than that colossal boob Hulk Hogan and his worn-out routine. 

I was passingly familiar with a couple of names from this card, such as Rabbit Miu, the aforementioned Kyoko Inoue and the (apparent) JWP heel-in-chief Kana, who recently promoted her own mixed-gender show. The headline match was a mixed tag featuring Minoru Suzuki, which ended with Suzuki hitting Kana with his Gotch-style Piledriver. Consider my interest piqued for this worker, then.

Respect is weird (credit: Keeping The Spirit Alive)

What is the history of the promotion?: Technically, JWP is a splinter group of a former company called JWP. Riven by internal struggle between opposing ideologies over the direction in which to push JWP, split evenly between those favouring a more realistic and hard-hitting 'shoot' style and those more keen to promote a sports-entertainment informed product, JWP became JWP Project (taking the more entertainment-indebted performers) and LLPW (Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling) in 1992. The latter closed its doors in 2012, whilst the former continues to produce a number of shows per month.

And how was the event?: We open with a very short match, a three-minute time limit between the masked Command Bolshoi and Arisa Nakajima. Post-event research indicates that Nakajima was returning from a real dislocation suffered a fortnight previous. Given the brevity, it was difficult to comment, but both workers seemed pretty smooth and capable. As in many matches this long, we go broadway.

In the days since this show, Arisa has clearly recovered fully from her injury

A six-person tag follows between the heel unit of KAZUKI, Rydeen Hagane and Sachie Abe and the comic trio of Rabbit Miu, Tsukushi and Yako Fujigasaki. Initially confounded by what appeared to be six unfamiliar names, the match drew its characters for the uninitiated incredibly proficiently, with the small babyface team hoping to pester their much larger and physically capable opponents into surrender. 

Central to the conflict were exchanges between the tiny and supercharged Miu and KAZUKI, who carries a convincing weary veteran expression in her every movement. Perhaps some of the comedic spots didn't quite come across well, but once the match hit its stride it managed to deliver. The heels win with a lovely series of top-rope manouevres delivered with maximal dispassion to the prone Fujigasaki.

Kana (l), Rabbit Miu (r)

A singles contest between Leon and GAMI picked the crowd up really nicely. GAMI, a 23-year veteran, wore a Pro-Wrestling WAVE t-shirt throughout. It seemed like a really easy and funny way to generate heat and immediately make oneself the heel: wear a rival company t-shirt. The masked Leon worked babyface in a match that began with comedic implications but abandoned them over the 13 minute run-time to work a very good television-style match where good snatched an unlikely victory over evil. 

Match four was an entertaining tag bout worthy of MOTN on a majority of indy shows I've caught. The small and be-masked Command Bolshoi returned to pull double duty alongside Kyoko Inoue, who is not the same wrestler of the early 90s. Of course, age gets to us all, but the Inoue of old was a legitimate high-flyer with an array of innovative signature offence, whereas the Inoue of today is among the larger performers in the company who takes real pleasure in dominating the lower ground and powering opponents into submission. 

Command Bolshoi

In this context it works fantastically, giving the opposing team of Kagetsu and Manami Katsu a real headache, with Inoue capable of one kind of devastation and the technical and remorseless Bolshoi offering quite another. Not mere makeweights, Kagetsu in particular is a fine and selfless all-round athlete in the manner that a young Owen Hart or a Tsuyoshi Kikuchi were, meshing well with any kind of style and selling appropriately. Inoue and Bolshoi win a match well worthy of its own series.

The semi-final between the anniversary star Tsubasa Kuragaki and Kayoko Haruyama was no formality for either worker. Haruyama is stocky and muscular, whereas Kuragaki is rounder and less clearly defined but just as functionally strong in the way that seems much more apparent in Japanese wrestling. In yet another convincing back-and-forth encounter in which both sides of the ring displayed agility in addition to a premium selection of power moves, Haruyama spoils the party.

Main event: do you think Hanako will shake Kana's hand?

The main event between JWP Champion Kana and Hanako Nakamori pushed the entire card up a couple of levels from 'surprisingly decent' to 'actually good'. Setting the tone from the opening (depicted), Nakamori responds to Kana's handshake by slapping her hand away. Kana rockets Nakamori across the face and from there chaos descends on this small Tokyo club. 

Production levels for JWP aren't great, with maybe two or three cameras and no commentary. For some companies that would possibly be a detriment but for the portion of the match where Kana kicks the crap out of Nakamori on the outside, the scampering of the crowd combined with the prurient camerawork gives the match less of a filter than a mainstream production.

The beating the two competitors administer to one another is just as vérité as the filming style, with an in-ring submission exchanging carrying an air of satisfying believability and intensity. This, in short, is the kind of match I like to see from time-to-time, where it looks like the two people are trying to hurt each other. KENTA is that kind of guy, Daniel Bryan is too. To this list I would like to add Kana.

"u like me Fujiwara?"

One particular slap delivered by Nakamori catches Kana with makes me exclaim 'fucking hell!' out loud to nobody in particular. Kana defends, winning with a reverse cross armbar that almost looks like the title of this very blog, but both people win as immediately after the show finishes (with a confusing promo that I didn't follow and won't try to explain) I run to see what other matches they have online. I invite you to watch this particular match for yourself.

What did you think?: It was good. If Kana wasn't there then maybe I'd find it difficult to watch every week - more to do with the production and the lack of commentary and the lack of general availability (hence me reviewing a show from October last year!) rather than the lack of quality in-ring across the board. 

It's just that Kana is one of those workers who transcends the limitations of televisualisation and the shackles of cheap broadcasting in the way that guys like Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson and others who made those mid-00s ROH shows compelling. 

Would you watch again?: Yes. It's a simple answer but when this stuff was good, it was as good as anything out there, and even at its worst it was still fun and tongue-in-cheek. Even were it regularly broadcast I might not watch it week-in/week-out, but to drop in on in the same way that I have with WCW, TNA, ROH and lucha promotions would be a real addition to the wrestling diet.