Jaguar Yokota

Ring name(s) Jaguar Yokota
Rimi Yokota
Monster Y
Born July 25, 1961
Tokyo, Japan
Trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW)
Wrestling Debut June 28, 1977, against Mayumi Takahashi.


Rimi Yokota is a Japanese professional wrestler and later wrestling trainer, who wrestled under the name Jaguar Yokota. She was one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time, and, during her heyday in the early 1980s, was one of the best wrestlers of either sex in the world.

Yokota was born on July 25, 1961 in Tokyo, Japan. She spent the majority of her career as a headliner for the All Japan Women's promotion (AJW). It was highlighted by two title runs as the WWWA Champion.

Having been inspired to join AJW by 1970s stars, the Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato and Maki Ueda),[1] Yokota debuted on June 28, 1977 in Tokyo, against Mayumi Takahashi. She won her first belt on January 4, 1980, when she became the AJW Junior Champion. Later that year, she won the WWWA World Tag Team Championship with Ayumi Hori, on December 17, having also become the first AJW Champion with a victory over Nancy Kumi two days earlier. On February 25, 1981 she achieved her greatest success to that point, defeating her original inspiration, Jackie Sato, for the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. She was 19 years old.

She lost her first world championship to La Galactica on May 7, 1983 in a hair vs. mask match, then won it back a month later. During her second world title run, she had very notable fueds with Devil Masami and Lioness Asuka (of the Crush Gals), but had to vacate the championship in 1985 due to a shoulder injury.

After her early retirement in 1986 (she was 24), she became a trainer for AJW. Notable students of hers are Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, and Kyoko Inoue. In 1995 she formed the Jd' promotion, and wrestled as its top star until 1998.

Yokota was married in August, 2004. Currently, she wrestles as Jaguar Y, a member of the Monster faction in HUSTLE.

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Is Nice!

Was over in Nice for Kellie's birthday and found this men's fashion shop. Yes!

Toshiyo Yamada

Height: 168 cm
Weight: 70 kg
Birthday: February 27, 1970
Hometown: Saitama, Saitama
Trained by: Jaguar Yokota
Wrestling Debut: July 27, 1987

Toshiyo Yamada (born February 27, 1970) is a Japanese female professional wrestler. She was trained by Jaguar Yokota. In the 1990s, Yamada wrestled for the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling promotion (AJW).

A year after her professional wrestling debut in 1987, Toshiyo Yamada was awarded the All Japan Junior Championship. She then formed the tag team Dream Orca with Etsuko Mita. The team won the All Japan Tag Team Championship in June, 1989, but was forced to vacate the titles in March, 1990, when Yamada she injured her neck. She was told she would never wrestle again, but she worked hard and was able to revive her career.

After her return, she toured Mexico with Kyoko Inoue, and later won the WWWA World Tag Team Wrestling Championship twice with Manami Toyota. In the mid-1990s, she left All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling for the new promotion GAEA Japan.

As of 2006, she is semi-retired.

Titles:
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
WWWA World Tag Team Wrestling Champion (2 times) - with Manami Toyota (2)
All Japan Tag Team Wrestling Championship (1 time) - with Etsuko Mita
All Japan Junior Championship (1 time)

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Manami Toyota

Ring name(s) Manami Toyota
Billed height 167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Billed weight 68 kg (150 lb)
Born March 2, 1971,Masuda, Shimane, Japan
Trained by Jaguar Yokota
Wrestling Debut August 5, 1987, against Sachiko Nakamura

Manami Toyota is a professional wrestler best known for her work with the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) wrestling promotion. Following AJW's closure she has continued to work in other joshi promotions such as GAEA and NEO. Toyota is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

Manami Toyota made her professional wrestling debut on August 5, 1987, in a singles match against Sachiko Nakamura. Her big break came in her second year, on the first Wrestlemarinpiad show from Yokohama Arena, on May 6, 1989. Teamed with Mima Shimoda, she defeated Etsuko Mita and Toshiyo Yamada in a lightning-paced match that nearly stole the card from the more established veterans. The bout had all the basic ingredients that made Toyota a star, including flashy moves, fast and frequent tags, double-team moves, and a long series of dramatic near falls. When the bout was released as part of a four-hour commercial tape, Toyota became recognized as a wrestler to watch.

Toyota won her first title on November 18, 1989 in Matsuda, when she defeated Mika Takahashi for the AJW Championship. She defended the title three times, including one defense against her future rival Kyoko Inoue (on August 1, 1990), before vacating it on September 1, 1990. The following month (October 7 in Tokyo) she challenged Bison Kimura for the All Pacific Championship and emerged victorious. However she only managed to defend the title once before losing to Suzuka Minami on March 17, 1991.

Parallel to this success ran Toyota’s famous feud with future tag-team partner Toshiyo Yamada. Initially, following Toyota’s success teaming up with Shimoda, the AJW braintrust felt they could well be the new Beauty Pair or Crush Gals, but that was not to be. Toyota's real chemistry came not with Shimoda but with Yamada, whose style was unlike Toyota's and provided more of a contrast. Yamada was a slightly built, short-haired, kicking specialist, who idolized both Chigusa Nagayo and Akira Maeda. Unlike other wrestlers who rely on kicks and submissions, Yamada could also work the rapid-paced matches, and was accomplished at building to near-falls with repeated kick-outs at the last possible moment.

To begin with, however, Toyota and Yamada were opponents rather than partners. Between 1989 and 1991 they wrestled many times, producing bouts that rivaled the quality of the main events that AJW's champions were presenting. At the start of 1992, the two won their first tag team championship when they defeated KAORU and Lady Apache in Tokyo on January 19 for the UWA titles.

However, their singles feud was not yet over, and it reached a climax on August 15, 1992 at Korakuen Hall in a Hair vs. Hair match. The bout was a dramatic one, not least due to what occurred after the match was over. Toyota, even though she had won the match, did not want Yamada to get her head shaved, and had to be forcefully restrained by four prelim girls, who eventually forced her back to the mat. In respect of the match conditions Yamada wanted her head shaved and went ahead with the stipulation.

Soon after this match the two stars once again teamed up to win their first WWWA World Tag Team Championship in March 1992, defeating the evil Jungle Jack (Aja Kong & Bison Kimura) in Tokyo. On November 26, at AJW’s Dreamrush show Toyota and Yamada defended their WWWA Tag Team titles against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki in a legendary 2/3 Falls match, considered one of the best wrestling matches ever, and rated 5 Stars by Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

In April of that year Toyota furthered her singles career by defeating rival Kyoko Inoue on April 25 in Yokohama for the IWA Singles Championship. Toyota defended that title eight times over the course of three years, before losing it to Reggie Bennett on May 15, 1995.

At Dreamslam II, on April 11, 1993 Toyota and Yamada fought a rematch against JWP Project's Kansai and Ozaki in yet another highly-rated 2/3 Falls encounter. This time, however, Toyota and Yamada were on the losing side, and Kansai and Ozaki got their revenge. The feud concluded at AJW’s St. Battle Final event, on December 6, 1993, where Toyota and Yamada regained their tag titles.

On August 24, 1994 Toyota once again squared off against Kyoko Inoue, and defeated her to unify the IWA and All Pacific Singles Championships. Toyota’s run with the two titles was not to last long. On October 9, 1994, Inoue gained a measure of revenge against Toyota, as Kyoko and her partner Takako Inoue (no relation) won the WWWA Tag Team Championship from Toyota and Yamada. Toyota then vacated her All Pacific Championship, prior to her first WWWA Heavyweight Championship match against the monstrous Aja Kong at AJW’s Queendom III show, on March 26, 1995. The match saw Toyota reach the summit of AJW when she won and became the 39th WWWA Champion.

On May 7, Toyota defended her crown against arch-rival Kyoko Inoue at the Korakuen Hall, where the two fought to a 60 minute time limit draw. Despite piledrivers on the floor, German suplexes off the top rope, and multiple finishers, neither combatant was able to secure outright victory. Nonetheless, Toyota retained, and the match was voted Match of the Year for 1995 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The following month, Toyota lost the WWWA Championship to former champion Aja Kong, on June 27.

Toyota soon recovered from the loss. In 1995, she won the AJW Grand Prix tournament, securing her position as the number one contender for the WWWA Championship. Before she received her title opportunity, she faced the legendary Akira Hokuto at AJW's Destiny show on September 2, 1995. On December 4, she finally received her title shot, and defeated then-champion Dynamite Kansai to become a two-time world champion.

Over the next 12 months Toyota made three successful defenses of her WWWA title. In December of 1996 she came up against long term rival Kyoko Inoue and lost in a match that saw the All Pacific and IWA Women's World titles unified with the WWWA Title.

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Nanae Takahashi

Ring name(s) Nanae Takahashi
Billed height 167 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Billed weight 76 kg (167 lb)
Born December 23, 1978
Resides Saitama, Saitama
Trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW)
Wrestling Debut July 14, 1996 vs. Momoe Nakanishi, in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Nanae Takahashi is a professional wrestler from Japan. She has wrestled for prominent Japanese promotions All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling and Pro Wrestling SUN, and has held multiple world championships.

Nanae Takahashi graduated from All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's (AJW) training class of 1996, and rose to prominence at a time when AJW was beginning its decline. Early on, she achieved the most fame as part of the tag team Nanamomo with classmate Momoe Nakanishi. Together, Nanamomo won four tag team championships, the AJW Tag Team Championship twice (on November 23, 1997 and August 23, 1998) and the WWWA World Tag Team Championship twice (on July 16, 2000 and July 6, 2002). Concurrently, Takahashi was making a name for herself as a singles competitor, winning the AJW Championship on March 1, 2000, and the junior division competition at that year's Japan Grand Prix. Having established herself as a major competitor, Takahashi won the 2002 Japan Grand Prix, and won her first WWWA World Heavyweight Championship on December 12, 2004. During AJW's final years she won the WWWA World Tag Team Championship three more times (each time with a different partner), and the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship once more. She was the last WWWA champion, handing in the belt to promoter Takashi Matsunaga immediately after winning it on March 26, 2005, due to the imminent closure of All Japan Women.

At an independent show held on July 14, 2006 to celebrate her tenth anniversary in professional wrestling, Takahashi announced her intention to start her own promotion. He stable, the Dream Catchers, held their final show on the following September 3.

On October 1, 2006, Takahashi defeated Africa 55 for the resurrected AWA World Women's Championship at the debut of her new promotion, Pro Wrestling SUN. The promotion is a sister promotion to Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, an affiliate of the revived American Wrestling Association. On January 14, 2007, Takahashi lost her world championship to Amazing Kong.

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Idol Fever: Part Deux

Coming soon...

With the ending of Season 6 nearing I'm a little antsy to know if auditions for American Idol Season 7 will be anywhere I'm able to get to....
I had a third go at the auditions in New Jersey for season 6 but I couldn't even pass round 1. I blame it all on my farmer overalls....however, I'm anticipating a "need" for another first-hand Idol experiance blog...
Idol Fever: Part Deux coming soon.....

Hiroko

Ring name(s) Hiroko
Billed height 5'2"
Billed weight 110 lb
Born 1975,Aichi, Japan
Debut June 10, 2004 (WWE)

Hiroko Niizuma Suzuki is the manager and wife of professional wrestler Kenzo Suzuki. They got married while he was still with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

On June 10, 2004, Hiroko made her debut as Kenzo Suzuki's geisha valet and translator on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s SmackDown! brand.

In November 2004, Hiroko began feuding with Torrie Wilson and numerous catfights took place between the two divas. On an episode of SmackDown! airing February 10, 2005, Torrie defeated Hiroko in a kimono match.

Hiroko and Kenzo were traded to the RAW brand on June 30, 2005 at the end of the 2005 Draft Lottery. However, they were both released by the WWE on July 6, 2005 without ever appearing on RAW. The move was seen as cost-cutting (her contract was a reported 275,000 USD per year which was higher than a bulk of the actual wrestling talent) since several other wrestlers were released at the same time, as well as over the course of several weeks. Although there were reports that she has hinted that she would like to return to WWE or sign with TNA

In late 2005, Hiroko Suzuki became the General Manager for Japan's HUSTLE promotion.

technorati tags: sexy, wwe, sports, smackdown, raw, pro-wrestling, tna, ecw,raw, wrestling, pro wrestling, pro wrestling blog, wwe divas, pro-wrestling, news

A Day in the Life

"I read the news today, Oh Boy . . ."

(What Beatles album is that from? Oh my God/dess, I'm only 31 and going senile! Is it Sgt. Peppers? It is, right?)

Saturday marks the first big "all hands" meeting for the Women's Studies cast and crew, and Cindy and I are scrambling to get as much done as we can.

Things are going quite well. So well, in fact, that I wish Cindy and I could hire a third co-producer to take some of the workload off our shoulders. For the record, we don't have the funds, so unless you're willing to do a lot of unceremonious grunt work for free, don't even bother sending a resume. Besides, we have a pretty good system in place. Lots of work, but we're getting things done.

It's late and if I don't hurry this up, Tuesday will be over and it'll be the Wednesday blog which would make me sad since I've prided myself on not missing one so far. To that end, I'm simply listing off my to-do list for tomorrow which in a verite, "slice of life" manner, might be sort of interesting to the layman (or woman).

Then again, maybe I'm making excuses for not having much of a blog this week. The fact is simply that everything is pretty "nuts and bolts" right now, and not the glamorous filmmaking life that everybody keeps telling me independent filmmaking is. And really, by writing a blog about the things I have to do tomorrow, I'm killing two birds with one stone.

In the morning I have six phone calls to make: Four to potential locations, one to a potential script supervisor, the last to the insurance company who's covering the Women's Studies production. Depending on how these phone calls go could define the rest of my day, but let's assume that nothing from them needs any immediate action.

Afterwards, it's off to two locations we've already secured; one for the "initiation scene," the other a very cool field of flowers for a Melissa/Iris scene. Once there, I'll take pictures for our location photo log. On the way back, I'll check the company mailbox to see if the editing software and/or hardware pieces we ordered last week have arrived.

The afternoon will get me back to "the office" where I'll answer email and dig into various items of busywork including dealing with anything from the morning's phone calls. I'm also in the midst of prepping invites and schedule for a day player audition being held in two weeks. After I've had enough of that for awhile, I'll call Aaron the DP and we'll hopefully come to a consensus on a lighting kit we're wanting to order.

By that point, it'll be the evening and I'll take a bit of a break before coming back to "the office" before bed to maybe play around with storyboards or character notes for Saturday's meeting. Or maybe I'll just watch the new Harry Potter trailer over and over until I pass out from excitement.

If I actually get all that done, it'll be a good day. Hell, if I get half of it done, it'll be all right. Rereading it all just makes me want to go to bed, which I'm going to go do now.

Jackie Sato

Naoko Sato, better known as Jackie Sato (October 30, 1957 - August 9, 1999) was a professional wrestler from Yokohama, Japan. In the 1970s, while wrestling for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), she formed the tag team, the Beauty Pair, with Maki Ueda. Following in the steps of Mach Fumiake, The Beauty Pair was part of an important shift in the culture of Japanese women's wrestling, attracting more female fans by becoming pop icons. In their mainstream success, Sato and Ueda paved the way for the even more popular team, the Crush Gals, of the 1980s.

Though she had played basketball in high school, Jackie Sato became a professional wrestler after graduation. She joined AJW in 1975, and had her debut match against her future tag team partner, Maki Ueda, on April 27 of that year. On February 24, 1976 the Beauty Pair was formed, and they won the WWWA World Tag Team Championship that night. During their championship reign throughout most of 1976, the Pair created excitement by using their top ten hit single to announce their entrance, and were regularly feted by their adoring fans who threw confetti and streamers into the ring.

Sato also had success as a singles wrestler. She won the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship on November 1, 1977 from Maki Ueda in a Beauty Pair showdown, and held it twice more during the late 1970s, defeating Monster Ripper and Nancy Kumi. She lost the title the final time to the younger Jaguar Yokota on February 25, 1981. On February 27, 1979, Sato defeated her former partner, Ueda, in a "loser retires" match. Sato's own retirement ceremony was held on May 21, 1981.

On August 17, 1986, inspired by the current boom in interest in women's wrestling in Japan due to the success of the Crush Gals, Sato, along with wrestler Nancy Kumi, boxer Rumi Kazama, and others, formed the first women's promotion to compete against the AJW monopoly, Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP). Sato herself returned to active wrestling and competed for nearly two years before retiring a second and final time on March 20, 1988. Under Sato's influence, JWP did not offer the "mandatory retirement" policy common in AJW, allowing female wrestlers to compete until they wished to retire, rather than until the promoters ordered them to retire. AJW eventually dropped the mandatory retirement policy in the 1990s.

Sato attended the AJW thirtieth anniversary show in 1998. She died on August 9, 1999 due to stomach cancer.

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Wrestler:Sumie Sakai

Ring name(s) Sumie Sakai,Yellow Michinoku Ranger (CZW)
Billed height 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in)
Billed weight 54 kg (119 lb)
Born November 24, 1971,Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Resides Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Billed from Osaka
Trained by Jaguar Yokota,Lioness Asuka,Cooga,Bison Kimura,Steve Bradley,Killer Kowalski,Slyck Wagner Brown
Debut April 20, 1997

Sumie Sakai is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. She currently resides in the United States of America, appearing with professional wrestling promotions in the northeastern United States such as Women's Extreme Wrestling and CHIKARA.

As a young woman, Sakai practised judo. From 1995 to 1997, she halted her practice of judo to work with senior citizens at the Kasugamachi Care Center in Kanazawa, Ishikawa.

Sakai became involved in wrestling when her friend and fellow judo practitioner, Megumi Yabushita, invited her to join the wrestling industry. Sakai trained under Jaguar Yokota and made her debut on April 20, 1997 with the Yoshimoto Ladies Pro Wrestling promotion, facing Yabushita in the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. She went on to form a tag team with Yabushita named YABUSAKA.

Later in 1997, Sakai began wrestling for Yokota's JDStar promotion. Whilst competing for JDStar, Sakai won both the JDStar Junior Championship and the JDStar Queen of the Ring Championship. She also won the Women's Championship of the affiliated American Wrestling Federation, the North American Women's Championship of the affiliated New England Championship Wrestling promotion and the Tag Team Championship of the affiliated Trans-World Wrestling Federation. In 1999, she suffered a broken leg while wrestling Lioness Asuka. While rehabilitating, Sakai became enamoured of American professional wrestling, and resolved to one day wrestle in the United States of America.

While in Japan, Sakai faced several prominent male Japanese wrestlers, including Dick Togo, The Great Sasuke and Jinsei Shinzaki. She furthered her training under Bison Kimura, Cooga and Lioness Asuka.

Sakai wrestled her first match in the United States in 2002. In 2003, she left JDStar and relocated to the United States.

In December 2003 and January 2004, Sakai appeared with Ring of Honor, defeating Alison Danger and losing to April Hunter. She returned to Ring of Honor on August 20, 2005, losing to Lacey at Do or Die 5.

On April 17, 2005, Sakai organised "WE LOVE SABU", a pair of shows held at the Differ Ariake Arena in Tokyo. "WE LOVE SABU" was organised in support of Terry "Sabu" Brunk, an American wrestler who had been afflicted with a serious virus in the summer of 2004, with the proceeds of the show going towards paying Sabu's medical bills. The show featured Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling alumni such as Masato Tanaka and Extreme Championship Wrestling alumni such as The Sandman. A similar benefit show entitled "A Night of Appreciation for Sabu" had taken place in the United States on December 12, 2004. Sabu eventually made a complete recovery, returning to the ring on May 21, 2005.

In 2005 and 2006, Sakai appeared with the French Queens of Chaos promotion.

Sakai made her mixed martial arts debut on October 14, 2006, fighting American kickboxer Amy Davis in a bout promoted by the Primal Tribe Fighting Club as part of the Xtreme Fight Series II event. The bout ended in a no contest at the end of the first three-minute long round after Davis suffered an arm injury and was unable to continue as a result of an armbar applied by Sakai.

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Katz new melon protective head wear

Well it was only a matter of time before the real Katz took to using melon head wear!
CAKE! GIN! CAKE!

Mayumi Ozaki

Ring name(s) Mayumi Ozaki,Pure Wild,Queen Of The Street Fight
Billed height 156cm (5'3")
Billed weight 54kg (119lbs)
Born October 28, 1968
Wrestling Debut August 17, 1986 with Esther Moreno Vs. Maiko Tsurugi & Reina Gallegos

Mayumi Ozaki is a Japanese female professional wrestler.

Ozaki debuted in a tag match in August, 1986. In her career, she held the WWWA tag titles with Dynamite Kansai from April 11, 1993 to December 6, 1993 (both winning from and losing to Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW). She also held the UWA Junior and JWP Junior titles between 1988 and 1991, and teamed with Cuty Suzuki and Hikari Fukuoka to win the JWP Tag Titles a number of times between 1992 and 1995. Most recently, she held the AAAW Tag title with Aja Kong, beating GAEA's Sugar Sato and Chikayo Nagashima on August 23, 1998 in Tokyo.

Until recently, Ozaki usually wrestled in JWP (Japan Women's Project), but was also the leader of her own heel stable called the Oz Academy, which freelanced in other women's promotions in Japan, such as AJW and GAEA. In 1998 Ozaki became a true free agent, and began to promote her own shows using her Oz Academy wrestlers, looking for a niche in the fragmented women's puroresu scene.

Ozaki has a talent for setting up and working with the psychology of a match. She is able to work any style from mat wrestling to "street fighting," is able to look credible dominating larger wrestlers, such as former partner Dynamite Kansai, and she is especially good at settling down young or erratic workers and making a match flow smoothly. Her own moves are crisp and intense, with no wasted motion; and every movement has meaning.

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Candy Okutsu

Candy Okutsu ( born Tomoko Okutsu January 16, 1975 in Japan) was a female professional wrestler. She made her professional wrestling debut on August 4, 1992. She worked for the JWP Project promotion from then until 1997, when she retired due to an injury. She made her comeback on February 18, 1998 when she had joined the ARSION promotion. She became the first female version of Tiger Mask when she worked a few times as Tiger Dream. Candy Okutsu retired from professional wrestling on January 5, 2001.

technorati tags: Wrestling, wwe, sports, smackdown, raw, pro-wrestling, tna, ecw

Not been about much

Its been sometime since I posted anything up here, I guess that's a reflection of a few things.

Work sucks at the moment as I am having to be a proper City type in order to get things done and the Beeston Kat inside is 'rising up' and I am having allsorts of Dark Side thoughts about the whole thing. But that's going to be put to bed soon when I just ride out the first six months blues and move on to the getting used to it and now let's get going into a rythm section. Not long before I am back on track and manage to get other things in apart from work, I really didn't expect it to take this long. But hey its all par for the course.

Other than that not a great deal to report, I went on my first weeks holidays since I started this week and I decided to start to get fit again and went on the yearly Tri Camp with my Tri club. It was just what it says on the tin, up at 7.50am, spend an hour in the pool before brekkie (Common Wealth silver medalist for a coach!) Then out on the bike for 4 hours, back to the hotel for either another swim, a run or a massage. Sounds a lot worse than it was, the swim properly sorts you out and the weather was top so being out with the club was fun, we did some cracking rides in the Mallorcan mountains and finished off with a monster 160km ride all over the island on Friday. The legs felt it this morning I can tell you.

Guess that is part of the getting back to normal for Pizbot, I have been feeling pretty negative and dissapointed with myself about my lack of training and general laziness so I decided to kick start it all. Plus I got a cracking silly tan too........



Wenesday was my 30th but I didn't tell anyone on the Camp and just played it very cool on the day. Only my room mate knew and I avoided the fuss which wouldn't have rocked out much cos we all had to get up fooking early the next day anyway. Plus none of my real mates (I.e YOU lot) were about so I thought best just to ignore it and wait for party time on the 5th May. Hope that some of you will be in attendence, its just going to be a humble affair at a small bar round the corner from mine and then maybe back to mine? Who knows. It doesnt feel any different at all anyway, I just feel fitter and think I've lost a few of the winter kilos. Woo hoo!


Everyone go be cool, there's a new addition to the team on their way. Here's to them!


Pizbot.

P.s - I am posting this from the Crackberry and will tidy up all the disclaimers and add a pic when I get back to my Interweb Matrix Connection in Balham tonight.

Bull Nakano

Ring name(s) Bull Nakano,Keiko Nakano,(kanji) bù rù naka no
Billed height 168 cm (5 ft 07 in)
Billed weight 95 kg (209 lb)
Born January 8, 1968,Kawaguchi, Saitama
Resides Orlando, Florida
Trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
Wrestling Debut 1983
Retired from wrestling 1997

Bull Nakano (born January 8, 1968 as Keiko Nakano) is a former professional wrestler.

At the age of 15, Keiko Nakano began her career as a professional wrestler in her homeland of Japan. She trained and performed with the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling organization (AJW), and quickly became one of the greatest heels in the history of Japanese women's pro wrestling.

After winning the AJW Junior Championship under her real name, her identity was changed to Bull Nakano and she teamed with the legendary Dump Matsumoto to feud with the popular Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka). With Matsumoto as her partner, Nakano won the WWWA Tag Team championship. She would win the title a second time with Condor Saito as her partner.

Nakano briefly wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in 1986 teaming again with Dump Matsumoto known as the Devils of Japan.

In 1990, Nakano won a tournament to win the vacant WWWA World Heavyweight Championship, and would go on to hold the title for nearly three years, before dropping it to Aja Kong.

Nakano also travelled to Mexico where she captured the CMLL Women's title, becoming the first person to hold that belt. She then made her way to the United States and competed for the World Wrestling Federation. Brought in by Luna Vachon, Nakano dominated the WWF Women's champion, Alundra Blayze, in a series of matches and won the WWF Women's Championship on November 20, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan. Thus, Bull Nakano is the only person to have held both the WWWA World Heavyweight Chamionship and the WWF Women's Championship, both of which have a historic lineage, dating back to 1937 and 1956 respectively. Consequently, she is also the first female of Asian descent to win the WWF/WWE Women's Championship.

Nakano held the title for five months, until losing the title back to Blayze on April 3, 1995 in Poughkeepsie, New York. The WWF had planned on bringing in Bertha Faye to feud with Nakano while Blayze got a nose and breast job, but Nakano was found in possession of cocaine and quickly fired from the company.

Nakano returned to Japan, where she continued to compete in AJW, then went back to the United States in 1996 to feud with Blayze, now going by her original ring name, Madusa, in World Championship Wrestling.

That was the last time Bull Nakano was seen on North American television. She continued to wrestle in Japan, but retired in 1997 to pursue a career in professional golf.

In the years following her retirement, Nakano began to diet and gradually lose much of the weight she had to maintain to stay in her role as one of AJW's monster heels, going from a peak of 250 pounds down to 143 pounds. In 1998, Nakano released a book about her weight loss called Bull Nakano no Diet Nikki: 19-gou Size no Watashi ga 9-gou Size ni (Translated: Bull Nakano's Diet Journal: How I went from a Size 19 to a Size 9).

In January 2006, Nakano, still pursuing her pro golf career, joined the Duramed Futures Tour on the Ladies Professional Golf Assocation. She is currently based in Orlando, Florida, USA.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

A tribute to Pizbot

Chigusa Nagayo

Ring name(s) Chigusa Nagayo,ZERO
Billed height 165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Billed weight 71 kg (192 lb)
Born December 8, 1964,Omura, Nagasaki
Trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW)
Wrestling Debut August 8, 1980 (against Yukari Omori)

Chigusa Nagayo is a female Professional Wrestler best known for her popularity in the 1980s for her tag team The Crush Gals with partner Lioness Asuka. She was the founder of the GAEA Women's Professional Wrestling organization (known simply as GAEA) She briefly competed as alter-ego Lady Zero in GAEA.

" TOKYO — In the ring, Chigusa Nagayo is a real fireball, hurtling through the air, kicking her opponents and subduing them in scorpion deathlocks. But today, the 38-year-old Nagayo, who stands 166 cm tall and weighs 83 kg, is taking a break from the action.

Self-confident and polite, she is always the consummate professional. For those who have watched America's Playboy-like entertainment pro wrestling shows, it may be hard to imagine that Japanese female pro wrestling is just as skillful as male pro wrestling. But one look at Nagayo in action leaves no doubt.

The No. 1 drawcard and founder of GAEA, Japan's female pro wrestling federation, the charismatic Nagayo holds a sort of spiritual power over her growing legions of fanatic female fans in Japan. As soon as she gets into the ring, they let out a roar and then go into raptures when she lunges through the air at her opponents, overwhelming them with her wild fighting techniques with names such as superfreak, running three, sleeper hold and of course the scorpion deathlock.

Her road to fame and fortune had an unusual beginning. Born in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagayo said her childhood dream was to become a doctor because she used to go to the doctor every day for a checkup as she suffered from tuberculosis and asthma. Unbelievably, it was the karate lessons her mother forced her to take that dramatically improved her health within a year."

Full story at: http://www.japantoday.com/jp/feature/p15

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Lioness Asuka

Ring name(s) Lioness Asuka, Tomoko Kitamura, ZONE
Born July 28, 1963,Tokyo, Japan
Trained by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW)
Wrestling Debut May 10, 1980
Retired from wrestling April 3, 2005

Lioness Asuka is a pro wrestler from Tokyo, Japan. Along with Chigusa Nagayo she formed the Crush Gals, perhaps the most famous and successful women's wrestling tag team of all time.

she was born Tomoko Kitamura on July 28, 1963, Asuka joined All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) in 1980, and had her professional debut on May 10 of that year. She was an immediate sensation, winning her first title, the AJW Junior Championship, the following year, and the AJW Singles Championship in 1982. In 1983 she formed a tag team, called the Crush Gals, with Chigusa Nagayo. The Crush Gals were huge stars for the (AJW), in the mid-1980s. They feuded with Dump Matsumoto and the Jumping Bomb Angels. Thanks to their fame, AJW's weekly television broadcast consistently brought in ratings over 12.0. Their fame also carried over into other media, including recording top ten singles.

By the late 1980s, the Crush Gals broke up, and Asuka began a lengthy feud with Nagayo, which culminated in her achievement of the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1989. She retired later that year, but came out of retirement in 1994. She subsequently wrestled for many of the new women's promotions that arose at that time, such as Jd' and ARSION. In 1998, she made a significant move when she joined GAEA Japan, the promotion run by her former partner, Nagoya. Asuka began her GAEA career as a top heel, feuding with Nagoya, and, in one storyline, winning control of the organization from her. Eventually, near the end of 1999, Nagoya and Asuka united against a common rival, and, the next spring, reformed the Crush Gals. The storyline was huge news in Japan, and GAEA's April 4, 2000 show, featuring the debut of the reunited team, now called CRUSH 2000, was the biggest in the promotion's history.

Due to a neck injury, Asuka announced her retirement on November 3, 2004. Her retirement was made official on April 3, 2005.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Sound Garden

I learned the hard way that sound can make or break a film. On my first short film, First Session, my original sound guy kind of flaked out on me, and I was left with a fast approaching deadline and virtually no soundtrack.

Thankfully, I got introduced to Sean Russell who's not only an expert at putting out audio fires, but a creative mind and sincere professional who has been a blessing to work with. He's the sound master of Women's Studies, and understands the importance of audio to the cinematic experience. Not only that, his post-audio skills are, to coin a phrase, mad.

On a production full of PC/Avid technicians, Sean is also our lone Mac operator, for which he catches a lot of good natured flak, though sometimes I think he often gets the last laugh.

As the Women's Studies shoot dates roll closer, Sean has been busy prepping his sound recording gear as well as preparing for the eventual post process. I took some time recently and talked with him about his gear, work methods, and philosophy.

# # #

Lonnie:
Sean, what drew you to sound work?

Sean Russell:
I first got into sound at a young age visiting my uncle Steve's studio at the age of eleven. I was into playing drums, and he recorded a small solo to tape for me and right there I was hooked. Some Years Later, I was playing in bands and handing tapes to sound guys every night asking them to tape our show from the board feed. Usually, those tapes sounded horrible, and I thought I could make a better sounding recording. That's how I slowly moved from making music to recording music, and later, my passion for post developed. And here I am.

Lonnie:
A lot of independent filmmakers make the mistake of shortchanging their sound in both recording and post, why do you suppose that is?

Sean:
I've always been taught that video with poor audio might as well be surveillance!

I guess mostly because the conscious focus of any film is the visual. I think most people always think of movies that way - the visual judgment of how they looked may have been more immediate then how they sounded. I would also suppose that with days, weeks, months of shooting a project (and trying to make it look as good as possible) you end up with no time (and budget) to get the film properly posted to a standard we're all used to. Most gear budgets are a lot like casting budgets - you spend the big money on the biggest feature. In gear terms, that might mean a really cool camera. With casting, it might mean spending a chunk of the budget to get a big celebrity. After you've spent a good amount of budget on the camera and associated peripherals, the sound department gets 'what's left over,' meaning, usually the location audio suffers, both in equipment and quality.

In big productions, the location audio recorded isn't as big a deal, with 90% of most audio being replaced after principal photography is over. In post, the usual culprit is the timeline - too many projects hit post past deadline, need the audio yesterday, and don't have time to take time! I've been in this position many times - perhaps more times than not. Proper audio is the difference between a well-shot film with a good plot going over well, or just being well-shot with a good plot. So much of the audio for film is subconscious, and it's amazing what the human ear can perceive as being 'false' or 'fake' if the audio isn't up to par. It's my job to make it seem like there almost wasn't a 'sound guy' or 'post tech' tweaking stuff, as most people are pretty fuzzy about the process anyway.

Lonnie:
A lot of films which could have failed, succeed because of fantastic audio. Lucas's THX-1138 is one that comes to mind.

Sean:
Yes, films which 'could have failed' ...hmmm, there are so many that come to mind... anyone remember Armageddon? Man that was a bad movie, but the soundtrack - whew! The audio in general was top-notch. It's amazing sometimes what the Re-Recording mixers on a movie can do. You mentioned THX-1138 - I would even go so far as the first Star Wars movie. Have you seen cuts without audio? Complete Velveeta. Even the people making the movie thought it would tank - but then they saw it with all of Ben's audio behind it, John's music on it, and - WOW! What a great film! It's the subconscious element of sound to work almost behind the scenes on our senses while our eyes process the film itself. I think good sound makes the film believable - and allows the suspension of disbelief we all must experience to walk out of the film saying to each other 'that was a good movie.'

Lonnie:
I agree wholeheartedly. The aural experience enhances the visual one, and is just as important in making the audience lose themselves in the movie. What are some of the things you like to do to heighten that experience?

Sean:
Secret tips, eh? OK, well, there are general rules, 'see a sound, hear a sound,' that kind of thing. A lot of sounds that we typically hear on movies aren't actually realistic - but most of the time, our brain agrees with the delivery and there's no argument that would give pause. The easiest example in modern cinema is probably gun effects. On TV, when the bad guy cocks his 9-mil, you're usually hearing a 12-gauge shotgun sample. There might be other samples layered with that, but you almost never actually hear the 9-mil itself, it's just not believable. The same can be said for the firings of the guns - many guns in real life make more of a 'pop' sound then a 'boom' sound - but you rarely hear that, because it doesn't build the same way. It's not what we're 'used' to hearing on a movie.

I think it's mostly trying to make sure that the layers that make up an effect or sequence don't stick out independently enough to defeat the stack. It's also about the timing of the sequence, and build up musically coming in or going out.

Lonnie:
Give the gear heads a little taste of what your rig is like, for both production and post.

Sean:
Production audio is mostly Sennheiser shotgun mics feeding Lunatecs recorded 24-bit / 48 kHz to Compact Flash. It's usually a simple chain to get the clearest idea of dialog, location room tones/background loops, and general other sound gathering techniques that might comprise of 15%-20% of the actual audio in the movie.

When you get to Post, everything moves into ProTools and you begin 're-cutting' the film from the ground up - before music and final dialog mixing. Once you get the main beds down, you begin all the obvious effects, and things like the SPL transient designer are a must for making things 'bigger.' Much of the actual effects and editing is handled strictly in the DAW now, with the integration of ProTools and Avid.

Lonnie:
Last question: What does your world sound like?

Sean:
Good question. That's a question I've always wanted to ask those that came before me. I've always been fascinated with the human perception of sound and how people hear differently. I suppose my world sounds not unlike everyone else's. I am forever trying to be more conscientious about what I am perceiving, and how much I'm hearing something as opposed to how much I'm feeling it - or perceiving that I'm feeling it.

Connecting to the undercurrent of emotion that a piece is portraying and supporting that feeling is my main goal. It's my connection with that feeling that allows direction to the technical aspect of my job to come up with something that will enhance rather than distract the point of the story, whether it be in song or film.

Ayumi Kurihara

Ring name(s) Ayumi Kurihara
Billed height 5'5" (164 cm)
Billed weight 126 lbs (57 kg)
Born July 13, 1984
Tokyo, Japan
Trained by Mariko Yoshida,,AKINO,,Michiko Ohmukai,,GAMI
Wrestling Debut April 24, 2005

Ayumi Kurihara is a joshi puroresu wrestler who grew up around pro wrestling, as her parent's Tokyo barbecue restaurant "The Three Treasures" was not only a place where wrestlers often ate, but is also a sponsor of pro wrestling events. Because of this involvement, Ayumi has had to work twice as hard training and in the ring to avoid the stigma of being a sponsor's daughter.

Ayumi played basketball in high school in Tokyo, and after high school went to work at her family's restaurant.

Ayumi entered training with the women's pro wrestling promotion M's Style, where she learned the craft from well-known Japanese female wrestlers Gami, Mariko Yoshida, AKINO, and Michiko Ohmukai. Ayumi debuted in 2005, at the age of 20. She is viewed as one of the future stars of joshi puroresu in Japan as she has a hunger and desire second to none in the younger class.

M's Style closed in the fall of 2006. The final match was a six-man tag match, pitting Tojuki LEON, Bullfight Sora and Ayumi against AKINO, Ohmukai and Yoshida. The younger generation won the match.

Since then, Ayumi has wrestled as a freelancer, in NEO, JWP, Jd', Ibuki and Pro Wrestling SUN.

Near the end of her tenure in M's Style, Ayumi incorporated a stronger finishing move to her moveset. Ohmukai was shown teaching her how to perform a uranage, which she then went on to use in a tag victory with Ohmukai against Ayako Hamada and Cherry.

In December of 2006, Ayumi wrestled Shuu Shibutani in a special show geared toward the upcoming generation of wrestlers. The fans voted the match the best of the night and both women received trophies.

Ayumi often hits numerous dropkicks during her matches, including missile dropkicks off the top turnbuckle. She's not afraid to hit hard and take hard hits, prompting American wrestler Steve Corino, who works for Pro Wrestling SUN and faced her in a mixed tag match, to call her "lil' Kawada girl." (Toshiaki Kawada is well known in Puroresu for his stiff strikes) This has led to Ayumi taking a beating from veterans like Nanae Takahashi and Dynamite Kansai in matches due to her hard-hitting work rate.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

"Evil Princess" Megumi Kudo

Ring name(s) "Evil Princess" Megumi Kudo
Billed height 162 cm (5 ft 4 in)
Billed weight 60 kg (132 lb)
Born September 20, 1969,Koshigaya, Saitama, Japan
Resides Chiba
Wrestling Debut August 8, 1986 against Kaoru Maeda
Retired from Wrestling: April 29, 1997 against Shark Tsuchiya

Megumi Takayama, better known under her stage name, which is also her maiden name, Megumi Kudo , and by her nickname Kudome, is an entertainment personality, and was a professional wrestler who worked most of her career for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling.

Kudo practiced basketball during high school. When she was 16 she joined All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling but found little to no success there. She was released after two years because she had not enhanced her wrestling ability enough, and worked as a kindergarten teacher for a while.

However she still felt the desire for pro wrestling, and joined Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling in 1990. She was quickly pushed to the top of the card, it is generally considered that this was because of her looks. However she worked and trained hard, developing her skills significantly. She ended up being the top star of FMW's women's division, and the most recognised female wrestler in Japan.

Kudo worked all kinds of matches, but she was mostly known for brutal death matches, where the ring ropes were replaced with barbed wire. Her notable feuds were against Shark Tsuchiya, Combat Toyoda and Sumie Sakai.

On April 29, 1997 she had her retirement match against Tsuchiya in a "No ropes, 200 volt double hell, double barbed wire barricade, double landmine glass crush death match". She vacated both of the titles she held in a retirement ceremony on June 13, 1997.

After retiring from professional wrestling Kudo has worked on various television programs, including as a commentator for pro wrestling events. She also hosts a weekly radio show in Japan.

In 1992 she released a music CD titled "Keep on running". She is married to fellow wrestler Hido, whom she met in their FMW days.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Emiko Kado

Height: 5'5"
Weight: 135 lbs
Birthday: January 28, 1976
Hometown: Osaka, Japan
Date of Death: April 9, 1999 (Died in hospital after a match)
Professional debut: February 18, 1999

Emiko Kado (January 28, 1976 - April 9, 1999) was a Japanese female professional wrestler, who died after a wrestling injury, only months into her professional career.

Kado had her first match in February, 1999 at the ARSION First Anniversary Show at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall in front of 1550 people, losing to Aja Kong. Kado went on to wrestle fourteen more matches in her short career, losing every one. In her last match, on April 9, 1999, she teamed up with Michiko Omukai to face the team of Mariko Yoshida and Mikiko Futugami. About 22 minutes into the match she suffered a serious injury from a blow to the head. Kado was rushed to a hospital in Fukuoka, where she died.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Jumping Bomb Angels

Ring name(s) Jumping Bomb Angels
Billed height Both - 5' 5" (164 cm)
Billed weight Tateno - 165 lb (75 kg), Yamazaki - 125 lb (57 kg)
Born Tateno - December 1, 1965
Tateno - Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan
Wrestling Debut Tateno - July 12, 1981, Yamazaki - 1980
Retired Yamazaki - 1991

Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki formed one of the most exciting teams on the Japanese Woman's Wrestling circuit. On January 5, 1986, The Angels defeated Bull Nakano and Condor Saito to win the vacant WWWA World Tag Team Women's Championship. Then on March 20, 1986, Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo, the Crush Gals, defeated The Angels to capture the WWWA Tag Team titles.

Tateno and Yamazaki were known as "The Jumping Bomb Angels" in the WWF. At the Survivor Series 1987, The Jumping Bomb Angels were the sole survivors in the Women's division Survivor Series match. On January 24, 1988 at the Royal Rumble, The Angels beat The Glamour Girls in a best 2out of 3 Falls match to win the WWF Women's Tag Team Wrestling Championship. On June 8, 1988, The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin) defeated The Angels to recapture the WWF Women's Tag Team Championship.

It was reported that in January 2004 the WWE approached Yamazaki for a recommendation of a Japanese woman wrestler they could use. She suggested that the WWE look at Takako Inoue. Nikkan Sport went on to report that Takako was very happy with the workout and said that she wants to be more than a sexy WWE Diva. If they want her only for her sex appeal she wouldn't be interested as she was a professional wrestler first and foremost.

Yamazaki is retired from wrestling and lives in New York where she owns the sushi restaurant GO.

Prior to her retirement, Yamazaki appeared in the WCW in 1991. She wrestled at the WCW Wrestle War pay-per-view, teaming with Mami Kitimura to defeat Miki Handa and Miss A.

Tateno has remained active after Yamazaki's retirement and has competed in Ladies Legends Pro Wrestling (LLPW) in Japan.

Kyoko Inoue

Ring name(s)Kyoko Inoue
Billed height 166 cm (5'3")
Billed weight 95 kg (209 lbs)
Born April 22, 1969
Trained by Jaguar Yokota
Wrestling Debut October 10, 1988 versus Takako Inoue

Kyoko Inoue is a Japanese female professional wrestler. She has held the WWWA World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship three times, and is the first woman to win a men's title in Japan. She is also the founder of the joshi promotion NEO Japan. Kyoko Inoue was trained by famous Japanese wrestler, Jaguar Yokota.

For most of the 1990s Inoue wrestled for the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling promotion, where she held both the top singles title (the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship) and the top tag title (the WWWA World Tag Team Championship). On January 20, 1997, Inoue achieved the so-called AJW Triple Crown when, already in possession of the WWWA Championship, she won the unified All Pacific Championship and IWA World Women's Championship, and then unified them with the WWWA Championship. She vacated her titles on May 11, 1997, after a defense against Kaoru Ito went to a sixty-minute draw.

Later in 1997, Inoue left AJW and started the NEO Japan Ladies' Wrestling promotion. NEO held its first card on January 9, 1998. Kyoko made history in February of 2000 by winning the WEW Tag Team Championship with Kodo Fuyuki. This made her the first known woman to win a men's title in a Japanese pro wrestling promotion.

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
AJW Champion (1 time)
Japan Grand Prix (1991)
WWWA World Heavyweight Champion (3 times)
WWWA World Tag Team Champion (4 times) - with Takako Inoue (4)
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
WEW Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Hiromichi Fuyuki
JDStar
TWF World Women's Champion (2 times)
NEO
NWA Pacific Women's Champion (2 times)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
1995 Match of the Year (vs Manami Toyota)

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Akira Hokuto

Hisako Uno Sasaki is a former professional wrestler better known as Akira Hokuto. She is married to wrestler Kensuke Sasaki. She was an incredibly tough wrestler, sustaining several severe injuries during her career. She is considered by some to be the best female wrestler in the history of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling never to have won the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Born Hisako Uno, Sasaki became a professional wrestler in the wake of the enormous popularity of tag team the Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka). Debuting for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) shortly before her eighteenth birthday, Sasaki immediately stood out from the crowd, winning AJW's Rookie of the Year award for 1985. The next year, she won the AJW Junior Championship, and participated in AJW's Match of the Year, paired with Yukari Omari in a losing effort against Chigusa Nagayo and Yumiko Hotta in the final of the annual Tag League Tournament.

In 1987, her star still rising, Sasaki won the AJW's top tag team belt, the WWWA World Tag Team Championship paired with Yumiko Hotta. Twelve days later, however, the two lost the titles to the Red Typhoons (Kazue Nagahori and Yumi Ogura) in a two out of three falls match. During the finish of the second fall, Sasaki took a tombstone piledriver off the top rope and broke her neck. Incredibly, she wrestled the entirety of the third fall holding her head in place with her hands. This gained Sasaki a reputation for toughness.

After a year of recovery, Sasaki returned with a new persona. She had bleached her hair blonde, and now called herself Akira Hokuto, after popular wrestler Akira Maeda. Teaming with Suzuka Minami as the Marine Wolves, she won the WWWA Tag Team belts twice more.

In 1990, Sasaki was booked to win the Japan Grand Prix, AJW's annual tournament to determine the number one contender to the top singles belt, the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. Tragically, she once again suffered a severe injury. During a Grand Prix match against Manami Toyota, Sasaki performed a plancha and crashed her knee into the ringside metal barrier. She tore open her knee, and was rendered unable to walk; nevertheless, she once again exhibited her famous toughness. Crying, she tied a bandage around her leg, pulled herself back into the ring, and attempted to continue the match. It was clearly impossible, however, and she was removed from the tournament.

Sasaki returned to singles competition during the early 1990s. She won the All Pacific Championship in 1991 and 1992, and sustained many more injuries. She earned the nickname 'the Mummy' since she so often came to the ring wrapped in bandages. In 1993 she was granted another shot at the WWWA Championship, against champion Aja Kong on October 9. Unfortunately, Sasaki was again injured in August of that year, and requested that the match be made a non-title match, since she felt wrestling in her injured state would insult the prestige of the belt.

Later that year, having married Mexican wrestler Máscara Magica, Sasaki moved to Mexico. She continued her career in her new home, adopting the persona Reina Jubuki. On July 30, 1994, she defeated La Diabolica for the CMLL World Women's Championship, and carried it for over two years. Later that year, having divorced her first husband and returned to Japan, she defeated Aja Kong in the final of the interpromotional V*Top Woman Tournament, an event which drew a gate of 42,500 to the Tokyo Dome.

In November, 1995, Sasaki participated in WCW's World War 3 pay-per-view event. She teamed with Bull Nakano and defeated the team of Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki. A year later, she competed in a tournament to crown the first WCW Women's Champion. She defeated Madusa Miceli in the final on December 29, 1996 in Nashville, Tennessee. She vacated the belt on September 8, 1997 due to injury and pregnancy.

In 1996, she left AJW and joined Chigusa Nagayo's new promotion, GAEA Japan, winning their AAAW Tag Team Championship in 2000. Also in 2000 she was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in recognition of her skill and contributions.

For her retirement match on April 7, 2002, Sasaki teamed up with Meiko Satomura to face Ayako Hamada and Chigusa Nagayo. Sasaki scored the pin on Hamada with the Northern Lights Bomb. In the post-match retirement ceremony, some of Sasaki's colleagues, including Toshie Uematsu and Aja Kong entered the ring, gave her flowers, hugged her, and bowed to her. She even slapped a few of them, including Satomura, and Sakura Hirota (Slapping is considered a way to transfer part of her fighting spirit). This was followed by a ten-gong salute before Sasaki was showered with streamers. She then walked up the walkway where she was met by husband, Kensuke Sasaki, and their son.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

NEW BLOG!: http://lingerienet.blogspot.com/

Dynamite Kansai

Height: 173 cm
Weight: 93 kg
Date of birth: December 4, 1969
Wrestling Debut: August 17, 1986 in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo vs. Cookie Zula

Chieko Suzuki was born on December 4, 1969, and was raised in Kyoto, Japan. In 1986 she auditioned for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), but was unsuccessful, and instead became a member of the first rookie class of Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. She debuted on August 17, 1986 under the ring name Miss A. When Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling broke apart, Suzuki chose to be part of the JWP Project. She changed her ring name to Dynamite Kansai in 1991.

In the mid-1990s, after leaving JWP, Kansai joined the new promotion, GAEA Japan. In 2006, she worked for Mayumi Ozaki's promotion, OZ Academy.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Mika Akino - AKINO - Noki-A

Female Japanese wrestler Mika Akino, better known simply as AKINO, was born on October 24th, 1973 in Tokyo, Japan.
She started later in the sport than most joshi wrestlers, debuting at the age of 25.
In 2004 she had two female MMA matches and won them both.

Titles held: Sky High of ARSION (twice), Twin Star of ARSION (once with Ayako Hamada), JWP Tag Team Championship (once with Tsubasa Kuragaki).
Wrestling moves: Aki Imploder (Wrist-clutch exploder suplex), Double knee backbreaker, Noki-A Special (Reverse Enzuigiri to the back of the opponent's head), Back suplex, Cross armbar, Suicide dive, Tornado DDT






AKINO versus Chikayo Nagashima

Mika Akino - AKINO / Noki-A, posted to http://joshipuroresu.blogspot.com/ on 4-11-2007

Aja Kong

Erika Shishido is a professional wrestler, better known by the stage name Aja Kong, and the founder of the ARSION all-women professional wrestling promotion. Shishido has won several championships in both singles and tag team divisions throughout her career, primarily while with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling.
Shishido was trained by AJW, and graduated as part of their class of 1986. She made her debut that summer, and immediately joined Dump Matsumoto's heel stable the Atrocious Alliance, along with fellow classmate and tag team partner Nobuko Kimura. After the stable dissolved in 1988 due to Matsumoto's retirement, Shishido and Kimura went their separate ways, but re-formed in 1990 as Jungle Jack. Now called Aja Kong and Bison Kimura, they entered a two-year feud against their former allies Bull Nakano and her heel stable Gokumon-to. During their partnership they won the WWWA World Tag Team Championship twice, and participated in some memorable matches. The most famous of these was a hair vs. hair match on January 11, 1991, which was lost by Jungle Jack, resulting in both women being shaved bald.

Kong herself also pursued Nakano for the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship during the early 1990s. She failed in several attempts before finally achieving her goal on November 15, 1992, ending Nakano's three-year reign.

Kong made a notable wrestling appearance in the United States. She was the sole survivor of a women's elimination match at the World Wrestling Federation pay per view Survivor Series in 1995. Kong also appeared on two episodes of Monday Night Raw and was victorious in both bouts. Kong was being built up as a challenger for the WWF Women's Championship, which was held at the time by Alundra Blayze (also known as Madusa). Kong was scheduled to face Blayze at the Royal Rumble pay per view in 1996, but Blayze was fired before this match up could occur.

In 1997, Kong left AJW and started the independent promotion Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION (usually referred to as simply ARSION). She led the organization until 2001, when, on February 12, she walked out of a tag team match, and announced she was quitting ARSION. This dramatic event was televised.

Shishido continues to wrestle as a freelancer for various promotions in Japan. Recently she formed a tag team with Amazing Kong/Margaret. On June 6, 2006, Erika and Margaret defeated Wataru Sakata and Ryoji Sai for the HUSTLE Super Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles on October 9, 2006 to American tag team Bubba Ray and Devon in a three-way match which also included the team of Sodom and Gamora. She has also made recent appearances in the Chicago based all women promotion SHIMMER.

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling
AJW Champion (1 time)
AJW Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Naboko Kimura
All Pacific Champion (1 time)
Japan Grand Prix (1992)
Japan Grand Prix (1996)
WWWA World Heavyweight Champion (2 times)
WWWA World Tag Team Champion (4 times) - with Grizzly Iwamoto (1), Bison Kimura (2), and Amazing Kong (1)

ARSION
Queen of ARSION (1 time)
Twin Star of ARSION (1 time) - with Mariko Yoshida

GAEA Japan
AAAW Championship (3 times)
AAAW Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Mayumi Ozaki (1), Devil Masami (1), and Amazing Kong (1)

HUSTLE
HUSTLE Super Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Margaret (Amazing Kong)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter
member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 2006)

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

Script Doctor

The "how, when, who, what, and where" of the Women's Studies production is really coming together nicely. We've got a lot of elements in place and have started to bang out something that resembles a shooting schedule. This weekend will be the big design meeting with Art Director Stephanie Petagno to finalize some costume designs and the like. At the end of the month I'll kick off the first rehearsal with the actors, a true milestone.

To that end, I spent part of the weekend working on what will be my final revision of the Women's Studies script, the "blue" script. (Once we started production, the script went from being the fourth draft to the "white" script. Since this is a production draft, it's gotten upgraded to "blue.") There will be other minor rewrites as location needs or storyboards require changes to be made. Still, from a certain point of view this is my last chance as a writer to craft the story before I hand it off for the actors and allow them to turn my words into their words.

I like to think I'm not one of "those" writer/directors. You know, the type that has to micro-manage every line delivery because the actor "just isn't capturing the vibe I intended." To me, a script is a blueprint. The actors, camera and sound crew, and art director are like the carpenters, electricians and pipe-fitters. The director is the foreman, and in this case, the foreman just happens to also be the guy who drew up the floor plans. But the foreman doesn't tell the carpenters every detail of how to put up the walls. He lets them use their own method and is just there to make sure evrything comes together as intended.

I come from an acting background, so my attitude towards actors is to give them enough space to discover their own countries, yet give them enough guidence so they don't get lost. I want them to find aspects of the script to claim for themsleves. If they need to take the words I've written and alter them slightly to make them their own, I'm down with that.

I like working with actors. A lot of directors have troubles with actors because their main tool is emotion, and to really get down and dig deep with them requires everyone to look inside their hearts and reveal truths they might not ordinarily want to share. It takes a lot of trust between actors and a director to really make the emotional discoveries, and trust just can't be given. It has to be earned.

Writing is like that too. I have respect for anyone who writes something and puts it out there for others to see. It takes a great deal of courage to expose your inner thoughts in that way, be it a poem, a novel, or a script. What if people don't like it? Or even worse, don't get it? That's the biggest fear I have, I think; a fear that people will read or see what I've written and just look at me in that queer way that says, "I don't understand what you're trying to say?" And yet there are times when I'm in the midst of creation that I myself don't quite understand what I'm trying to say. I only know I have to say it.

Another part of me feels a bit of loss at letting the Women's Studies script go into the arms of others because I've spent the better part of the last two years with it, constantly turning it over in my head. I still will of course, though once we start shooting, I'll lose the option to change anything. Film is immortal. Once an image is captured, it's always captured. You can only have so many takes before you simply have to choose one and live with it.

The consolation to it all is that I really like this script, and can't wait to share it. As great a blueprint I think it is, I think it's going to make an even better movie. And it'll do so not because of my singular voice, but the varied tones and tambours of the cast and crew's voices, singing together in harmony.

And the repost! From RAGS

I just had a bowl of fruit, aint no telling why I took that route, all
these bacon sarnie eaters equal gods to me, I got this pack of
chipolata's calling out to me

Oh Yes DUNC!

Just got a full English inside-a-me, aint no tellin' what the side
effects could be. All these hash browns equal seex to me, I got a cuppa
sitting next to me!

The WWWA Wrestling Title, part 6

Manami Toyota won the WWWA wrestling title from Hotta on January 4, 2000 in Tokyo.
Kaoru Ito then beat her on September 17, 2000 in Tokyo
Manami Toyota won it back on February 24, 2002 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, and Ito took it back again on July 6, 2002 in Tokyo.
Momoe Nakanishi won the belt on October 20, 2002 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
Ayako Hamada defeated her on May 11, 2003 in Yokohama, Kanagawa .
Amazing Kong took it on January 4, 2004 in Tokyo and Ayako took it back on 2 May 2, 2004 in Tokyo.
Nanae Takahashi defeated Hamada for the title on December 12, 2004 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
The title went vacant on December 29, 2004 when Takahashi was injured.
On January 3, 2005 in Tokyo, Kumiko Maekawa defeated Ayako Hamada. All Japan Women closed in April 2005.
Nanae Takahashi won the title on March 26, 2006 in Tokyo. This was Maekawa's retirement match.
The Title was retired March 26, 2006. Takahashi returned the title belt to former All Japan Women's chairman Takashi Matsunaga and abandoned the title.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

The WWWA Wrestling Title, part 5

Kyoko Inoue was unsatisfied after a match against Kaoru Ito ended in a 60-minute time limit draw, and she vacated the title.
Something you never see in wrestling here.
On June 17, 1997 in Sapporo,Hokkaido, Kyoko defeated Kaoru Ito to honorably claim the WWWA Wrestling Title.
Yumiko Hotta defeated Kyoko on August 20, 1997 Tokyo.
Then Shinobu Kandori defeated Kyoko on March 21, 1998 in Tokyo.
Yumiko Hotta defeated Shinobu on March 10, 1999 in Tokyo, then she and Kyoko traded the title back and forth till October 22, 1999 in Fukuoka, when Hotta finally came out on top with the WWWA wrestling title.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling

The WWWA Wrestling Title, part 4

Devil Masami defeated Dump Matsumoto on December 12, 1985 in Tokyo to win the WWWA World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship.
Then Yukari Omori won the belt on August 23, 1986 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
Chigusa Nagayo defeated Yukari on October 20, 1987 in Tokyo.
Lioness Asuka 1 August 25, 1988 Kawasaki, Kanagawa won when Nagayo was injured during the match.
The title went vacant when Asuka refused the title.
On January 29, 1989 in Tokyo Asuka defeated Chigusa Nagayo; also recognized as the Unified Global Champion after defeating American representative Madusa Miceli on May 6, 1989 in Yokohama, Kanagawa.
The title was declared vacant on July 19, 1989 when Asuka retired.
Bull Nakano won the title on January 4, 1990 in Tokyo, when she defeated Mitsuko Nishiwaki in the tournament final.
Aja Kong defeated Bull on November 26, 1992 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa.
Manami Toyota defeated Aja on March 26, 1995 in Yokohama, Kanagawa
Then Aja Kong won it back on June 27, 1995 in Sapporo, Hokkaido
Dynamite Kansai defeated Aja on August 30, 1995 in Osaka.
Kansai was defeated by Manami Toyota on December 4, 1995 in Tokyo.
Kyoko Inoue won the title on December 8, 1996 in Tokyo. That unified the All Pacific and IWA World Women's titles, defeating Takako Inoue on January 20, 1997 in Tokyo.

technorati tags: wrestling ,pro wrestling,wrestling news,woman wrestling,female wrestling,japanese wrestling