AJW Athena: The Spirits of Lady’s Sports Card Set Checklist and Review

In my collection I have a wide variety of Joshi card sets from over the years, many of which do not have a card list anywhere on the Internet. So I hope to slowly add more of them to Joshi City, with the next set being a set released by All Japan Women in 2000.

Card Set: AJW Athena: The Spirits of Lady’s Sports Card Set
Release Date: 2000
Number of Cards in Set: 63 Cards
Cost per Set: ¥5,000
Where to Purchase: Third Party Vendors (Buyee, Ebay, etc.)

As is usually the case with older card sets, there is not a lot of information available online for this set, but this is an incredibly unique product from All Japan Women. It was sold as a complete set, no packs or random cards like autographs, every sold set had the exact same cards. Not only does the set come with the 63 cards, but it also includes a card divider (?) and an official card holder! Seen here:

The card holder is great as it keeps the cards safe and is well designed, the divider I am not sure of the purpose but it doesn’t hurt anything either. These extras help justify the price, as 5,000 yen is a bit on the high side for a complete set of cards. The set also has a variety of card types, as seen below, that helps make the cards feel more special than if they were just 63 regular base cards. Nine of the cards are what I am calling “clear file” cards, as they are unique transparent cards that I have not seen in a card set before. The set is hurt however by the size of AJW’s roster at the time as it means the wrestlers have multiple cards in the 63 card set, which lowers some of the excitement when looking through them. Nanae Takahashi is on seven different cards, for example. Also, the “autograph” cards are not real autographs, but printed facsimile (fake) autographs, which have always been popular with wrestling card sets in Japan but can be confusing sometimes on first look when purchasing cards online. Here is a full checklist:

Red = Premium Foil Card
Blue = Facsimile Signature Card
Green = Clear File Card

1. Manami Toyota 2. Miho and Kayo 3. Chaparrita Asari 4. Yumiko Hotta 5. Nanae and Momo 6. Kaoru Ito 7. Tomoko and Kumiko 8. Mima and Etsuko 9. Nanae Takahashi 10. Miho Wakizawa 11. Kaoru Ito 12. Takako Inoue 13. Tomoko Watanabe 14. Nanae Takahashi 15. Manami Toyota 16. Chaparrita Asari 17. Kayo Noumi

18. Miyuki Fujii 19. Momoe Nakanishi 20. Kayo Noumi 21. Yumiko Hotta 22. Miho Wakizawa 23. Nanae and Momo 24. Chaparrita Asari 25. Tomoko and Kumiko 26. Miho and Kayo 27. Mima and Etsuko 28. Takako Inoue 29. Miyuki Fujii 30. Kumiko Maekawa 31. Kaoru Ito 32. ZAP-T and ZAP-I 33. Momoe Nakanishi 34. Mima Shimoda

35. Manami Toyota 36. Etsuko Mita 37. Takako Inoue 38. Kayo Noumi 39. Miho Wakizawa 40. Manami Toyota 41. ZAP-T and ZAP-I 42. Chaparrita Asari 43. Tomoko Watanabe 44. Momoe Nakanishi 45. Yumiko Hotta 46. Nanae Takahashi 47. Yumiko Hotta 48. Kumiko Maekawa 49. Mima Shimoda 50. Chaparrita Asari 51. Etsuko Mita

52. Miho and Kayo 53. Tomoko and Kumiko 54. Nanae and Momo 55. Miho Wakizawa 56. Kayo Noumi 57. Miyuki Fujii 58. Momoe Nakanishi 59. Nanae Takahashi 60. Manami Toyota 61. Kumiko Maekawa 62. Chaparrita Asari 63. Takako Inoue

Here is the full card set, in order: