You are up against it all ways with a VAWT. I doubt that you will get it to turn the induction motor if you gear it up to over 1000rpm even if the motor is not excited.
A decent motor conversion would generate at about 200 rpm and if you can't gear to that speed and start against slight cogging you will probably not gear to 1000 against bearing friction.
At the other end, when it is running in a high wind you need a monster load to hold it down, the two requirements are not compatible.
When you say an axial motor, do you mean axial alternator as in dual rotor?
This is the best alternator for starting, there is only bearing friction and if you make it big enough you should be able to direct couple it, if you have to gear you will only need a small speed increase. It may not solve your high wind problem but you have that to come.
Unfortunately the VAWT requires elegant control technology for starting and speed limiting so you will struggle with the desire to do it with low tech control.
You will certainly need some sort of relay ( mechanical or electronic) to bring the load on after you have come out of stall, but that doesn't overcome your enormous starting losses through a high ratio gearbox. Some sort of servo assisted centrifugal clutch on the input of the gearbox seems the best option but I see many snags there unless you have the facilities to build something special.
Flux