Fact: In Manchester a Mega-Rider is a weekly £7.50 bus ticket, a tactic brought into play by the Stagecoach corporation in an attempt to eradicate the opposition and virtually monopolize Greater Manchester bus services. In GAEA Japan the term seems to mark some sort of big joshi show that even Shinobu 'I was the other one in THAT match honest' Kandori showed up to. Me like GAEA. Me no like Stagecoach.

Ran Yu Yu v Carlos Amano

This could have been a main event if there was any justice in the world, but as it stands it serves as a heck of an opener to a supercard. Amano is so damn great because she has this innate ability to make things look right. She is slick as hell mat wise also. She looks very comfortable working with Miyaguchi (well, she would obviously....) and it's fast paced yet subtlety performed aptitude all the way from both. The exchanges are well delivered throughout and sold in a manner that gradually put over the effects of the bout. There was a lot of colour in this match, lots of nice moves but without getting silly, and extremely intricate lightning speed matwork. Ran Yu Yu's top rope knee drop is killer. The finish is great; they go through about a minute of contortionistic reversals culminating in a sneaky Amano pin, which naturally gets Amano over without detriment to the newcomer's reputation. Incredibly well worked, warm match which is all the more noble given that the crowd will have been relatively unfamiliar with Ran Yu Yu.

Aja Kong v Sugar Sato

Aja has gone through this odd metamorphosis since she lost the title. No longer Aja the monster superworker as such, but more the Phil Hickerson of GAEA-J; a fat, offensive and surly heel. This fued is fantastic, as Aja has been completely punking Sugar's cheeseburger lovin' behind out for months, forcing Sugar into the sympathetic babyface role. The story is that Sugar has to persevere through the battery and stick it to the big nasty bully Hickerkong during the supershow. Tha Shug comes to the ring carrying an empty oil barrel (I can't make it up), which I guess was twenty times as big as Aja's tin thing that she smacks people with. I was going to say that Sugar's recepticle was even bigger than Aja's box.........but that would have been crude, if not impossible. Sugar comes in flailing in her own loveable, sloppy way. Which is actually an effective foil to Aja's brutality if you think about it. Sugar did get in a nasty looking uraken later in the match that put a smile on my face, but not as much as the full on tope suicida that Sugar took from Aja. Aja no sells everything of course, which made it all the more fun as the harder Sugar tried to get back into the match, the more she was frustrated. On a more negative note let me not forget to mention the Sugar to Aja uranage onto the oil barrel that frankly looked about as convincing as Juventud Guerrera's citizenship papers. Oh yeah and Ms Sato wins the match and Aja gets all pissed off and starts a post-match ass-stomp. Man, this wouldn't work anywhere but GAEA.

Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita v Chigusa Nagayo/Lioness Asuka

Bigger, older, fatter - the Crush Gals are back for the eight hundred and fifty forth time! Good to see that Chigusa has eschewed that ridiculous feminine haircut of recent times and reverted to the W*ING Kanemura/Eric Bristow style mullet. Again, I loved the angle that set this up. It was during the AWESOME Chikayo-Shimoda match, when the reforming Crushies did a badass mid-south run-in to even the odds for a cunningly LCO outnumbered Nagashima. Oddly enough, the core of this match is erratic brawling. Shimoda seems to be bringing it big time as of late and is the most interesting worker in this match for sure. The LCO knock out the opponentsunderchairsdropaguardrailonthem spot, for which a bloody faced Lioness does the coolest Kawada sell for, getting up slowly and falling back down as soon as she reached her feet in an agonized fashion. From there the two teams traded death valley drivers and made saves on each others near falls as is customary in these affairs. Lioness got the eventual pin with a fisherman's powerbomb (I'm sure that's not the real name). Ah, this was fine brawling and whatnot and had the usual blood-chaos-ass LCO aesthetic. Money well spent, all in all.

Toshie Uematsu/Devil Masami v Dynamite Kansai/Toshiyo Yamada.

They didn't really show too much of this but it looked good enough. Nice stuff from Uematsu. I'm not sure about this whole Uematsu as Devil-cito deal though, especially when her strength is clearly as a feisty babyface. The oldsters were at least competent. DK and Yamada's football outfits are ridiculously silly still, and I'm sure that 'Powerhead' is a some sort of female masturbation reference.

Sakura Hirota v The Copper With The Whopper

Hirota in a Shimoda-esque dress. They hardly broadcast any of this. Probably a good thing.

Low Ki/Steve Corino v Predator/Spanky

Ki - didn't get too much time, but looked good when he was in and didn't do anything silly.

Corino - a cross between Barry-cito Corino and goof Corino here. Carried the match for what it's worth.

Spanky - came out dancing with Hirota to 'My Heart Will Go On'. You see those crazy Japs think he's Leonardo DiCaprio. Hahahahahahahahaha...................not! His work was spotty. I commend Terrance and Phillip on their recent murder of Celine Dion.

Predator - or is that Predated? The guy is supposed to be Bruiser Brody, running through the crowd with a chain. The useless fugg comes off more like John Nord. Where is Invader 1 when you need him?

The match - was there.

Ayako Hamada/Meiko Satomura v KAORU/Mayumi Ozaki (AAAW Tag Straps)

This one slanted towards KAORU terrain, which isn't my preferred option but whatya gonna do? Oz looked fucking hot in her little suspender number. RV Mei makes an appearance early on with a horrific botched flip. Fortunately there isn't much more Satomura nonsense in this match. Actually since Hokuto fucked off, Meiko seems to have lost all of the exuberant fire synonymous with her name, indeed supplanting it with a frightfully accurate Chigusa Nagayo styled demeanor. I think I liked the old Meiko better, but we'll see how it goes. Hamada smoked Meiko in the recent (and good) Mei/Ayako v Aja/Toyota match and she continues the run of good form in this one. Hamada and Ozaki seemed to knock up the best sequencial constituents of this affair, although it degenerated into a messier entity when KAORU took over. This was all fairly nice stuff but it seemed to be a lacking a little of that special something that you expect from GAEA tags. Ayako and Meiko take the straps and the Meiko/Chigusa synthesis gets even more striking by Satomura's post-match expression. Hmm Meiko?

Chikayo Nagashima v Manami Toyota (AAAW Title)

I was very optimistic going into this one. After all it was Nagashima's first real chance to show what she can do a topliner against a Toyota who is far better as a morose, cellutite-arsed bastard than in her overly lauded 'prime'. There is a valid corollary to this match, namely Akira Hokuto v Meiko Satomura eighteen months preceding, as will become evident. At the outset of the match Toyota and Nagashima lock up in a knuckle lock. Toyota overpowers Nagashima quite easily, so Nagashima ducks behind to attempt a suplex - which Toyota blocks. The opening sequence culminates in Chikayo locking up Toyota in her over the top rope armbar. What does this opening signify? We have established that Toyota is bigger, stronger and more experienced than Nagashima. We have also seen that in order for Chikayo to successfully tackle Toyota, then she must use cunning in addition to her superior speed and energy. Let's compare this to Hokuto-Meiko where they establish a similar foundation. In that match Satomura had to overcome Hokuto's brutality by giving back what she received twice as hard no matter what. What we have in Toyota-Chikayo then is a different methodology of approach to the same basic predication of match.
As the match works through its early stages, one increasingly gets the impression that Toyota is fully in control of the bout despite Nagashima's best efforts. The size differential is used with great effectiveness as the match wears on. Chikayo has to exert twice the effort and twice the force to damage Toyota than Toyota has to in return to the same effect. Therefore not only is the viewer encaptivated by the spectacle of Toyota's continued mauling of her adversary but also of Nagashima doubling the barrage of offence (she would do two double footstomps to get a near fall for instance). Every part of this match is building to its logical conclusion - either a) Chikayo overcomes the odds and outsmarts Toyota into defeat or b) Toyota survives the braver, more deserving challenge of Nagashima in a twist of fate as cruel and unjust as life can sometimes be. We get the latter as Toyota wins the title with a neo-Northern Lights Bomb, Nagashima boldly attemping elaborate counters right up to the very death.
The match was lavished with a lot of wonderful little touches. Much like Hokuto and Satomura on all fours trading headbutts, Toyota cursing belligerently and throwing sadistic punches at Chikayo while in the confines of a leglock was a distinctly human and memorable image. Although the match didn't have the level of attrition that Meiko-Hokuto had it was equally as impelling to watch because every move seemed to have some greater significance. I have not seen a better match this year.

Harley Race v Richard Murdock (Mid-Atlantic) by Lee Flattery

dream-match noun: professional wrestling match for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Title between Harley Race and Dick Murdock in the 1970's.

I found myself at a passionate extreme of euphoric delight upon the discovery of this contest on a tape full of partially complete Mid-Atlantic film footage. Yes, Harley Race and Dick Murdock - the two baddest motherfuckers in the history of wrestling get it on for the NWA strap in front of a bunch of agitated hicks. Instantly my favourite aspect of this match is the fact that you can tell that these two are not going to hold back a thing from each other in terms of ass-whomping. Its like Regal v Finlay at Uncensored only with twenty times more heat and vastly superior structural qualities. Harley had such a unique style, the almost goofy bumping style and the unorthodox 'punching' method but by hook or by crook he made it all click together in a totality of wreslerdom. Of course in most of his matches Race played the straight guy to somebody elses extravagance and that was part of the Harley charm. In Dick Murdock however Race is faced with someone who is not only more ostentatious than he is but who is also as rock solid. It makes for a hell of a match; Race in his role as omniscient NWA champ, Murdock producing the clubbering like a infinitely superior version of Dusty or Dick The Bruiser, Race giving the pounding right back, both men stumbling through the ropes together to rapturous response, the nearlynearly flash of victory from Dick and the inevitable though gloriously kayfabe protected winning three-count from Harley. Minor drawback is that this was chopped from about 25 minutes into about 10 but what can you do? This is wrestling like it was meant to be.

El Dandy v Zorro v Electroshock v El Hijo De Perro Aguayo (AAA Verano De Escandalo 8/02) by El Flattanico

You know this is going to be great when El Dandy slaps Zorro right in the mush as soon as the bell rings. Yeah, its AAA, its a four-way hair match and it rules - problem? There is no EMLL style over-production in AAA thus they get the most genuine crowds and atmospheres anywhere presently in the world. I would liken the current AAA atmosphere to territories like Continental or World Class - kind of down 'n dirty but with a buzz in the air.

Electroshock may be one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world, although I do not know whether to hate or admire him for stealing not one but TWO kisses from Lady Apache's sweet. sweet ass during this match. The Lady-Electro fued is awesome because not only is it very sleazy but also because Lady Apache plays her role with such vicious, chair hurling aplomb. It all ties in to the match as well. Electroshock gets preoccupied with Lady at ringside, while El Dandy smacks the shit out of the technicos. Dandy pulls the hit-the-technico-in-the-nads-then-fake-being-hit-in-own-nads trick on Zorro. Sadly that goody twoshoes referee Hijo De Tirantes isn't buying and Zorro gets his ticket out of there. Electroshock is the next man safe after stretching Perro Jr. This leaves Dandy and Hijo De Perro to slug it out over the hair. I've really been enjoying Perro Jr lately. You know who he reminds me of? Not his Dad (who was average at best in my opinion) but rather everyone's favourite Hawaiian (after King Curtis) Rick Steamboat. Its just the way he sells and reacts, the way he pours his energy into his work. He is a great babyface that is for sure and another VERY underrated worker. Dandy we all know is the god of Mexico and I took great joy in seeing him deliver the WTMMF to Perro Jr's face once more. Hector Garza, who is Dandy's second, may be the new king of the RIM sleaze gods. His moustache and cheesy grin alone get him three million sleaze points. Kind of like Mr Mexico only a good worker. Garza is a riot at ringside antagonizing the suspiciously small-panted Latin Lover, all of which comes full circle to the totally Mid-South finish. Garza chairs Perro Jr, Lover chairs Garza, Lover feints to chair Dandy.....only he leaves the walloping to a recovered Perro, who then hits a sexy double stomp from the top for the three. So Dandy gets his head shaved and looks even cooler - THIS MAN IS GOD!!! Some fat blokes in silly costumes come out and a whole bunch of brawling ensues, including Dandy WTMMFing Lady Apache. AAA is such a fantastic promotion - no hyperreal pretension just straight up angles, straight up wrestling and a lot of idiosyncrasy. If you haven't already - go get Niall's 8 hour AAA tape now!!!