Revisiting 90s Joshi #17

Akira Hokuto & Aja Kong v Shinobu Kandori & Eagle Sawai (AJW, 4/11/93)

It's a shame Kandori and Aja never had a singles match. Feels pretty evident from this that it would've been, you know...good. I guess we'll always have this though, which was, you know...good. It's a week after Hokuto/Kandori so tempers are still through the roof. You expect their exchanges to rule and they do. Hokuto is one of the best ever at making a submission hold feel like the most lethal thing in the world. She had that shoulder taped up from the singles match and was frantic whenever Kandori tried to grab it, just wildly kicking and bucking to get to the ropes. All of her offence had that extra bit of meat behind it as well, like her senton to the floor that wasn't the least bit graceful yet looked all the more impactful because of it. I've always been sort of whatever on her, but it's not too difficult to understand why some folk think she's an all-timer. Kandori/Aja ruled. Kandori will start shit with anybody and at the beginning Aja was mostly trying to separate her and Hokuto. As soon as Kandori opened her mouth to Aja that was it, Aja was livid and now it was personal. There was one bit where Kandori was overly eager to get at Hokuto despite Aja being the legal woman, so Aja just suplexed her on her head as a wake up. Kandori would try to break up an Aja submission by knocking her about the head, but Aja refused to let go and give her the satisfaction. As good as they were together there was still a sense that they had an extra gear to move up, which makes the fact it never led to a singles match even more disappointing. Lots of niggliness, lots of nastiness, everybody getting uncooperative with everybody else, a great finish - this was the interpromotional pro-wrestling. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #16

Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada v Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki (AJW, 11/26/92)

I figured I'd like this more now than ever before. I've obviously talked a bunch lately about rhythm and pacing and transitions in joshi, and it sort of feels like the last few weeks have built up to me watching it through fully-fledged joshi eyes. If I started with this I probably would've been apathetic to it at best and DISGUSTED by it at worst. I mean it's not like I'd be expecting MX/RNRs, but still, this isn't the type of tag match I typically want to watch. Either way I thought it was really good and sure enough the most I've ever enjoyed it. If we're being honest, New Japan tags of the era weren't structurally too dissimilar. They had a fair amount of transitions and they were more likely to have a handful of smaller heat segments than one or two longer ones. The main difference of course was the pace at which they did everything. This pretty much never stopped, but I didn't think it was overbearing. Even if momentum shifted sort of abruptly at points and some of the selling was a bit spotty, the big moments resonated well and the build overall was exceptional. It probably helped knowing the backstory a bit more this time as well, so those big moments did resonate. Toyota and Yamada had been on a bit of a bad run leading up to this and Toyota was the one who'd been eating the pinfalls, so when she does it again at the end of the first fall you're wondering if they - and she in particular - can bounce back. Ozaki and Kansai are the JWP flag-bearers, but outside of that common ground they spent more time during their careers trying to kill each other than teaming. It made their performance as a team feel pretty special because for most of this they were the more functional unit. They also played to their setting and heeled it up, with a bit of subtlety at first but by the end they were full on about it. Ozaki stomping on Toyota's hand as she reached for the ropes to break the figure-four was probably my favourite moment of her entire career. Kansai was the buzzsaw you wanted her to be and the exchanges with Yamada were routinely awesome. There was one point as well where Ozaki had Toyota in a camel clutch and Kansai just strolled in and booted her in the throat. For all the shit I've given them in the past, I thought both Ozaki and Kansai were really good in this. Yamada was as well and Toyota was at least fine. The match and especially the third fall was paced in a way that I was worried Toyota might end up being too much, but it never really happened. She also took a couple maniac neck bumps and it made Kansai's powerbomb look absolutely lethal. By the end I was ready for it to be over and I suppose that's never a brilliant sign, but on the whole I can get on board with this being a great match. If nothing else it's probably must-watch for the style. 

THE BIG DOG! THE TRIBAL CHIEF! THE SHIRTLESS HEAD OF THE TABLE!

Roman Reigns v Jey Uso (Clash of Champions, 9/27/20)

Heel Roman ditching the vest and going full thirst trap feels like it should've been a thing for at least a few years now. This is actually my first time seeing any WWE since Wrestlemania, let alone Roman working heel. He's a natural at it and I think we all knew that because, you know, it's not difficult to notice and never really has been. The whole thing they've got going on with the fans on big computer screens around ringside certainly makes for a better atmosphere, and this kind of deserved to be worked in front of some form of a crowd rather than an empty arena to dead silence (best part about the empty arenas was the shit-talking and crowd noise sure didn't seem to hinder them in that respect). Your big dumb melodramatic WWE main events will never really be my thing but I thought this was a strong enough take on that particular thing. Roman pretty much ruled, as even when he's doing stuff I'd typically roll my eyes at he's a decent enough actor - graded on the pro-wrestler curve - for it to be okay. I really loved him big dogging (pun PROBABLY intended) Charles Robinson and threatening to have him put in the bin if he interrupts this very personal family beatdown on his cousin one more time. "Tell me I'm the tribal chief. Tell me I'm the head of the table." All of his little touches were on point as usual, like how he'd sell surprise at being caught with a stinger of a hook, how he'd rejig his jaw throughout the match, how he'd sell his lower back after hitting that standing legdrop thing just to delay a second before making the pin, and all of his facial expressions convey the emotions he's trying to (I assume) without being hammy about it. The sinister laugh after the low blow kickout was a wee bit hokey I suppose, but the spot itself was really cool. Also loved how insecure he became as the match went on. It was structured with him obviously working the majority of it from above, and if there were any moments where it looked like Jey might cause an upset it was through short bursts of big offence. So he dominated and looked every bit the chief he wanted us to know he was. But after all this time, after being given the keys to the kingdom, even after beating cancer and coming back like he'd never been away, there had to have been a very real sense of fuck you to everybody who booed him every night for the last six years. The curtain's been drawn back now and everybody knows the script, so WWE's woeful booking is the sort of thing Daniel Bryan or Sami Zayn fans would fling their shit at. With Roman, when he was booked worse than just about any babyface ever, *he* took all that shit and nowhere near as many people made the same excuses for him. Now he gets to fling it all back and to hell with everybody else, but deep down that rejection maybe still eats at him. Is he really The Man? He sure needed to hear it from somebody and it was Jey Uso's shitty luck that it needed to be him on the night. The Big Dog, the Tribal Chief, the Head of the Table. That dude is the business. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #15

Akira Hokuto v Kyoko Inoue (AJW, 11/29/92)

This didn't do a ton for me, but I had to take a break just after the bridge to the finishing run so that probably didn't help. I liked the early stages well enough as they started getting tetchy, then began to lose a bit of interest in the body of the match. All the work they were doing was fine and everything, the holds were worked with a decent sense of urgency, and I liked the nasty wrinkles they added to those holds, like Hokuto fish-hooking Kyoko with both hands. It just didn't really grab me. I thought both women were good overall, though. Hokuto's expressiveness was great again and I liked how aggressive she was, especially the string of dives just before the finishing stretch. Kyoko's selling for each of those dives was great and I loved her glassy-eyed stare. I have no real affinity for her and she's not someone I could say a whole lot about as an appraisal, but she'll have performances like this that play to my tastes, where she'll take things a bit slower and let everything register (and on the flipside she'll have matches like the Toyota broadway where they just do as much shit as humanly possible in sixty minutes). My favourite spot of the match was her attempted blind elbow off the top that Hokuto countered with the feet up. Looked real nasty and again Kyoko's selling was good. Ah this was alright. I've seen worse things. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #14

Manami Toyota v Yumiko Hotta (AJW, 6/17/90)

This started like a house on fire with Toyota jumping Hotta during the referee's checks, then crushing her with a huge dive from the top rope all the way past the guardrail. The rest never quite hit that level again, but it had some nice moments and overall was decent enough considering Toyota was still a teenager and Hotta not much older. In lucha terms it'd be another forty years before they hit their peak. Hotta will always kick the shit out of someone and when she took over on offence there was a couple examples of it. She spent more time stretching Toyota than knocking lumps out her, though. Her control segment probably went on a bit long, but there was some good stuff there, like the single nastiest version of a Boston crab I've ever seen. She had her bent so far back Toyota's FACE was the only thing on the canvas. Unfortunately Toyota's comeback, while spirited and energetic as you'd expect, didn't feel particularly hard come by. There was also a goodly amount of sloppiness in the back half and every other move down the stretch looked flubbed in one way or another. Neat finish. There's probably a really good match in there somewhere considering their strengths. I may not keep this going long enough to find out.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #13

Akira Hokuto v Shinobu Kandori (AJW, 4/2/93)

Alright, so right now is probably the most I've enjoyed joshi as a style in close to fifteen years; maybe ever, honestly. It's basically all I've watched the last few weeks and I'm finding something to enjoy in basically all of it. For a style I struggle to immerse myself in, I feel pretty well immersed. I say all that because I've never *LOVED* loved this match - probably the most beloved match in all of joshi - and so if I was ever likely to properly GET IT it'd be now. I guess I largely buy into the notion that if you don't enjoy the hell out of something when it comes to a subjective medium like pro-wrestling then how great can it actually be? but this feels like a rare exception to that because I thought it was clearly great...and yet I still didn't love it. As daft as it might sound it's probably the best match I've ever seen that I have no real personal connection to. I mean there's an awful lot of really fucking good stuff in this. Hokuto's performance is great and I can see why it's often heralded as the best individual performance ever. I've seen it described as maximalist and that feels about right. Everything she did was huge and no matter how far back in that back row you were you couldn't miss it. She's not my favourite seller in joshi even though she's often talked about as being the best, but this was probably the best sell job over the course of any match I've ever seen in the style (or the GENRE, if you're one of those). The arm injury she picks up early isn't always the main focus, at least in that she doesn't obviously sell it all the way through (she's no Kevin von Erich, I guess), but any time Kandori goes for an armbar Hokuto's absolutely frantic trying to reach the ropes. What's most impressive about her selling is the overall exhaustion and physical toll as the match goes on. She bleeds twelve buckets and by the end she can barely crawl across the ring. She'll stagger around and use the ropes to keep herself propped up. She'll fight back in bursts, but afterwards it'll look like she took as much out of herself as she did Kandori. Offensively she was scrappy and gritty and all those other adjectives you want to use and she would not be denied. Kandori would need to kill her to keep her down and pretty much every move Hokuto hit looked like she did it knowing it could be her last. Her two dives towards the end felt totally reckless and at the same time totally necessary given the opponent and circumstances. It was a stellar performance, and whether or not you subscribe to the idea that it's the best ever, I think if nothing else she deserves credit for the fact only she could pull it off like this. Kandori ruled as well, obviously. Man she's awesome. She was like the fucking terminator and for as much as you believed she'd need to kill Hokuto to keep her down, you believed the opposite to be an even truer prospect. Every time she grabbed hold of Hokuto's arm there was widespread panic and the bit where she turned an attempted Tiger Driver into a kimura then back into another Tiger Driver was amazing. At one point she just picked Hokuto up in a suplex and chucked her out the ring like a bag of rubbish. She was equally great when it came to selling, as she usually is (she'd be my own pick for best seller in joshi). It was much more subtle than Hokuto's, but her KO selling is Fujiwara-level and there were about five instances of it. The pace being much slower than usual certainly helped this overall. Everything had a sense of gravity to it, and while talking about transitions and rhythm in joshi is beating a dead horse this clearly wouldn't have worked as well if it followed the standard AJW pattern of the time. It also has one of the best openings of any match ever, with Hokuto decking Kandori and shit-talking her on the house mic and Kandori responding by trying to rip her arm out the socket. It was Thunder Road or Gimme Shelter or the Mortal Kombat opening where Shang-Tsung steals Liu Kang's dweeb brother's soul. Just perfect. And of course there's the tombstone spot which is totally iconic. It's not just the spot itself looking crazy, it's the fact Hokuto was the one who took it there in the first place and learned the hard way not to fuck with Kandori like that (also the close-up of the dented table, and even if I'm pretty sure it was Kandori's knee that left it and not Hokuto's skull it doesn't take away from the visual). So yeah, great match. Like, really great. But not one I love.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #12

Dynamite Kansai v Mayumi Ozaki (JWP, 7/9/92)

I liked this more than I would've five years ago (prolly). I'm not sure it's enough to make me go back and watch any of their street fights together, but as a slow-burner it had enough going for it. I'm also enjoying how the JWP style from around this period is less hectic and go-go than what was going on in AJW. This felt a bit like the Kansai/Yamazaki match I talked about a couple days ago, where Kansai uses her savagery and Ozaki has to combat it with skill, although I liked that one a bit more. My favourite stretch of this was the first few minutes as they established the story they were going for via belligerence and booting each other in the teeth. Kansai punts Ozaki clean out the ring, then when Ozaki gets back in she pump kicks Kansai in the ear a few times. She isn't here to put up with anybody's shit and considering she's about 3 feet tall and 80 pounds soaking wet it's impressive how much I bought her trading strikes. Well, not so much trading, as she was smart enough not to engage in that, but at least in bringing Kansai to her knees whenever she threw strikes of her own. The striking was supplementary, but it was effective when it needed to be. On the other hand Kansai's striking was demonic. There were parts where she was full on Wanderlei punting Ozaki in the back of the head (it was borderline disturbing, actually), and some of Ozaki's fetal position selling was great. I liked the idea of Ozaki working Kansai's arm, but it's hard for me to get on board with a Fujiwara armbar being applied for like three minutes straight as if it's a half crab or whatever. I know it's a stylistic issue, like piledrivers in Japan being treated as transition moves and not the sort of thing that kicks off a six month blood feud, but still, it's a hangup and I can't shake it. I at least liked Kansai's selling of it in that it hindered some of what she was doing for a minute there. Could've done with the setup to that arm work having a bit more build. It just sort of happened. One second Kansai had on a sharpshooter and seemed to be working Ozaki's back, then the next second Ozaki was on top and I guess now we're heading down that road of talking about transitions in joshi and nobody can be arsed with that anymore. This wasn't half bad. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #11

Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue v Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka (JWP, 12/1/92)

Let's give Ozaki another run, then. Anybody who's read enough of the shit I've written on this thing will probably have gathered that she's not a favourite of mine. But it's been a minute and some interpromotional warfare is usually enough to get me at least a little invested. I also think what drove me up the wall with Ozaki in the first place was the brawls. I watched too many Ozaki brawls and I hated most of them. Things like the street fight with Takako are deplorable and joshi crowd brawling is usually rubbish anyhow, so I have no interest in watching anybody do that for an entire match. On the flipside she has qualities that I like. She's a good seller in the broad sense of taking a beating and making you believe that it hurts. My grandpa would say she's the height of a pit boot, yet she could be as vicious and violent as anybody. She can really bring the hatred in a way that rarely feels contrived. Her execution can be pretty woeful at times (even for me, who doesn't usually bother about execution too much) but she's scrappy as hell. And this had plenty of the good stuff with not much of the other stuff. Not to harp on the point but it's ridiculous how much better her exchanges with Inoue were in this compared to their big singles match from '96. They hate each other to death and cuss each other out the entire time. Ozaki/Hotta is another stellar match-up and Hotta is perfect in this role as invading cunt trying to cripple folk. Fukuoka took the brunt of it and the main hook of the match was her trying to hang with the big kids. It meant Ozaki wasn't in there for much of it, but she was pretty great working the apron and there's something to be said for a wrestler being an interesting presence on the peripheries. The interpromotional joshi has been really enjoyable during this little revisit and this is another one that landed well. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #10

Dynamite Kansai v Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP, 1/6/91)

Man, I know semi-obscure joshi isn't my bread and butter but how the fuck is this my first time seeing Itsuko Yamazaki? Why aren't more people talking about her? She was excellent in this. Kansai was evidently a wrecking ball even in her formative years so Yamazaki has to use her wrestling ability to counteract it. She catches a big Kansai kick on the floor, whips that leg into the ring post and from then on that's her get-out. At times this felt like a distaff Fujinami v Hashimoto, with Kansai in the Hashimoto role of throwing hellish kicks and being able to swing momentum by connecting with even one of them. Yamazaki goes to the octopus stretch, reverses a suplex into a super slick cradle, catches those kicks right at the last instant before she gets mashed, just a really fun defensive performance. She was always looking to turn that defence into offence as well though, like when Kansai rolled to the floor for a bit of recovery and Yamazaki spat a mouthful of water at her, telling her to get back in there with a wag of the finger. Kansai mostly sold the leg work fine. She didn't hobble around like Randy Savage with a bum knee, but it never felt like she completely blew it off so I can deal with it. She also made those kicks look like things actually worth fearing; made them look like Yamazaki needed to keep forcing the issue in case just one big roundhouse slipped through. That is to say she thumped the hell out of Yamazaki when she was given enough daylight to. I will now endeavour to check out more Itsuko Yamazaki. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #9

Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito v Dynamite Kansai & The Scorpion (JWP, 8/4/91)

Kandori and Saito are such a great duo. Kandori brings the grappling and ability to tear your arms off while Saito brings the stiffness and ability to kick your spleen through the uprights. This was pretty awesome. At times it felt like a WAR tag at warp speed, especially the first five minutes. Lots of nastiness and ill will and two teams who do not care for each other. Saito and Kansai were throwing sledgehammer kicks, everyone was throwing hard slaps, there were potato shots all over the place, everything felt like a big old scrap. My favourite part was when Kandori started bullying Scorpion with a series of those Kawada chops, where she'd chop her to the mat and instantly drag her back upright by the wrist, then when Scorpion tried to counter with a single-leg Kandori just stomped on her face. Scorpion was super fun in general. I don't even know if I'd seen her before. She wasn't as vicious as the others and was certainly the underdog compared to her partner, but she made up for it with her flying and tricky lucha offence, the best being a killer plancha where she used Dynamite as a launchpad. This is also about as enjoyable as I've found Kansai in a long time. I'm not a fan of hers at all and for every moment where she'll do something amazing - like plaster someone with a fifty-yarder - she'll ruin it by doing something equally annoying - like drop all pretense of selling and just transition to offence out of nowhere. There were one or two instances verging on the latter here, but she largely worked as a believable dominant force and on the whole we got more of the former. Who knows, maybe I'm coming round to her a bit. Anyways, this was badass. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #8

Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito v Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada (AJW, 4/9/94)

This wasn't up there with the truly elite Kandori/Hotta bouts, but it's still Kandori/Hotta and we take every bit of Kandori/Hotta that we can get. You pretty much know what to expect from them -- they hate each other with a passion and they smack lumps out each other. It's great. I also liked the inclusion of Saito and Yamada as it's always interesting to see how other partners fit around them. Saito is a bit of a throwback but always really fun whenever she shows up. She took a bit of a back seat here in terms of stature and Kandori was clearly the one who'd need to pull team LLPW through. Kandori is such an awesome defensive wrestler. Her selling of strikes is always on point and it's cool seeing her match up with Yamada. It has a sort of Fujiwara/Takada vibe, where Kandori will need to absorb shots and try to find openings through her grappling, and once or twice she just plucked Yamada's leg out the air and set about twisting it off. The Fujiwara/Takada comparison also works for me personally as I'll watch the former in pretty much anything, the latter doesn't do a whole lot for me, but matched up against the former it becomes an altogether different prospect (although I don't know if they ever had a singles match, despite their interactions in tags being really good). 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #7

Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue v Shinobu Kandori & Utazo Hozumi (LLPW, 11/9/93)

If there's one thing this little deep dive has done it's raise the stock of literally every wrestler I've watched for it. Had never heard of Yasha Kurenai but she was in that tag with Kandori the other day and so her stock goes up. I dreaded watching Takako Inoue for years there and she's been borderline great in everything I've watched recently. I can't really be bothered with Toshiyo Yamada and yet she's been fun in the couple matches I've watched with her in them. Kandori was already a favourite and at this point I'm all the way in on her being truly elite. Even Ozaki hasn't sucked. But all told, I think the person who's shot up most in my estimation is Bull Nakano. I've watched a solid chunk of her over the last couple weeks and I'm starting to see where her biggest fans are coming from when they talk about her as an all-timer. Ageing, post-ace or even late-ace run Nakano is the Bull I enjoy most and this was everything good about her. I guess I'd still need to watch more from around this period to say for sure, but it felt like after dropping the belt she almost did a Tenryu, where she dialed back the workrate and let her star power and charisma and acting take over some. She wasn't lazy or anything, she just didn't seem to do as much STUFF. And that's by no means a criticism and by all means a compliment because wrestlers prolonging their career by working smarter (or however you want to put it) is a very awesome thing. And this whole match was a very awesome thing. It's AJW walking into LLPW's house - or gymnasium - which means it's got the interpromotional edge to it, which means you can't really go wrong because interpromotional wrestling, as we've established, is the best. As we've also established, joshi is a style that usually has a whole lot going on and sometimes it'll be too much for me to get into. There'll be constant momentum shifts and the rhythm will be up and down and it'll sometimes feel like they're rushing through stuff (I also acknowledge that joshi fans are generally okay with that so what I think doesn't really matter). This had a whole lot going on, but in the best way possible because it had nothing to do with them cramming stuff in and more to do with roles and little sub-plots built around hierarchies. 

Bull v Kandori is the obvious centrepiece and I loved everything they did, not just together but with the other's lower-ranked partner as well. It may be an easy comparison to make as it's 1993 and interpromotional wrestling in Japan was a big thing, but it felt like a WAR v New Japan match and if you know me then you know that's about as glowing as any praise I could give. Kandori was in full Fujiwara mode, flipping Bull the bird, mugging, throwing headbutts, catching people in armbars from everywhere. For her first involvement she just paintbrushes Takako out the road and waltzes over to demand Bull gets in there. A visibly annoyed Takako responds by ramming her head into the turnbuckle and Takako's look of "oh shit what have I done" before Kandori headbutts her into oblivion was incredible. Bull's first involvement was also amazing. Hozumi is obviously the runt of this particular litter but she has SPUNK and goes straight at Bull. Bull is almost apologetic as she grabs her in a clinch, looks across at Kandori, and then lariats the jaw clean off Hozumi. I loved Bull's whole demeanor, how she was thoroughly unimpressed with Kandori's shit-talking and wouldn't rise to any of it. LLPW is beneath her; she's certainly not about to rock up and engage in a street brawl with thugs. She powerbombs Hozumi in the middle of the ring, cradles her, then when the ref counts two she just rolls her aside because that would be too easy. She looks dead at Kandori when she does it as well. A little later Kandori does the exact same to Takako, pins her with the exact same cradle, then as the ref counts two she rolls her aside and you know where Kandori's attention is. Of course we finally get Bull/Kandori and for a minute there it was everything you could want. Maybe Kandori got under her skin after all because that first exchange ends with them throwing each other into the seats with fifty referees and ring girls having to contain it. Like the best WAR v New Japan tags they only gave us a taste of the main pairing, but it was a spectacular taste and by the end you're already forking out money for the singles match. I guess Takako Inoue is tailor-made for this kind of thing. Or maybe she just ups her game whenever she's opposite Kandori. Either way belligerent Takako is a real hoot. She'll bully Hozumi and step to Kandori, yet she'll dial it back and let the former get her licks in while knowing when to sell like death for the latter. It was Takako's selling in the last couple minutes that made the finishing stretch so dramatic, or at worst it played a major part. And those last few minutes were sensational. The spot where Kandori finally has Takako in the cross-armbreaker only for Bull to crush her with the guillotine legdrop was unreal. Hozumi gaining some small measure of revenge by containing Bull long enough for Kandori to go back and apply an even nastier armbar was great as well, and Takako's selling during that end sequence made Kandori feel like the baddest person in the room. This was awesome and I'm now very hyped for the Bull/Kandori chain match. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #6

Bull Nakano v Aja Kong (AJW, 4/25/92)

I don't know if I liked this more or less than the cage match. It was certainly different though, and I was interested to see how they'd work a straight singles match at a point where Aja was a little closer to claiming the throne and Bull was a little closer to relinquishing it. Nakano was really good here as 1994 Stan Hansen, where she probably knew deep down that her time on top was limited but she'd be fucked if she was going to accept it on the night. Aja borderline mauled her for about half of this and there were a few close-ups of a bloody Bull looking very "why am I actually doing this again?" Even when Bull makes her comeback there's a sense that Aja can swing momentum again quickly. There's one part where Bull's laying into her and Aja seems to recognise that she's the heir apparent, lashes out with a wild attempt at a backfist, and as Bull steps back to avoid it there's a ripple of shock that runs through the place. The fact Bull has to take a second just to register what happened gives Aja the chance to follow up again and this time she actually connects with it (and about four more after that). The sequence was significant in that it never felt like your typical response from Aja. It didn't come off like a hope spot where she'd try and fire back before being cut off again, which it would have a year earlier. This time it felt sort of dismissive, like that beating Nakano was putting on Aja really didn't have the same mustard behind it that it once had. I thought the finishing run was strong and largely paced well, and if there was one thing they knocked out the park it was THE big kickout and Bull's subsequent reaction. The match as a whole wasn't super tight, but they absolutely nailed the last few minutes and the finish was great. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #5

Shinobu Kandori & Yasha Kurenai v Takako Inoue & Sakie Hasegawa (AJW, 10/9/93)

Interpromotional warfare makes everything better (you know, in wrestling. Prolly). This was the third match of the night on AJW's annual Wrestlemarinpiad show, pretty much a lower midcard match where the star power is carried largely by Kandori, and yet the place was rocking for the LLPW invaders rolling into town. You could see how everyone involved played off it as well. Takako Inoue is a strange animal. She'll be responsible for complete tripe against the likes of Ozaki and then she'll be involved in something like this where she's totally awesome and try to crush someone's trachea. Kandori was amazing, letting every bit of her charisma shine through to make this whole thing feel like it had some proper stakes. She would just bully one of her opponents while flipping off the other, assert her dominance with a smirk, projecting this aura of absolute badass while giving Inoue and Hasegawa enough to keep the crowd red hot. Inoue would come in swinging and connect with a potato shot, Kandori would stagger back half in surprise, then look at her grinning like "okay so we're doing this now?" Loved the moment at the start where she grabbed Inoue in a cross-armbreaker right in the middle of the ring only to let her up and tell her to bring it. I've never seen Kurenai before but she was a perfectly fun Kabuki to Kandori's Tenryu. At one point she even applied a nerve hold and she was not the least bit afraid to let Inoue spin kick her in the throat. I could've done without the ropey crowd brawling section, but it was brief and if nothing else I bought it as Inoue and Sakie trying to win by countout because they realised who they were in there with. Kandori basking in the moment and making sure Inoue watched as she choked out Hasegawa was a great finish, too. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #4

Shinobu Kandori & Miki Handa v Yumiko Hotta & Takano Inoue (AJW, 11/28/93)

Man to hell with everything else, Kandori v Hotta is the true #1 joshi feud of the 90s. This was a few years before the '97/'98 murderfests but they were clearly at each other's throat already. During the intros Kandori grabs the title belts from the ref and chucks them away, ready to be done with the preamble and start with the scrapping, so it ends in a pull-apart and a short brawl into the crowd. Joshi crowd brawling generally sucks but this at least led to Takako getting cut open, which in turn led to Kandori and Miki brutalising her. Kandori is such an awesome shit-talker. I remember watching the Dreamslam match with Kandori when I was first dipping into joshi - as I'd imagine lots of folk did - and thinking Kandori was pretty stoic. Maybe not bland exactly but not someone with a ton of personality either. It wasn't until the last few years that I reevaluated her and clearly my early impression was nonsense, because she has a ton of charisma and she's pretty much always a hoot. She was having a blast mauling Takako here and every exchange with Hotta was what you'd expect. They don't always looked crisp, some of them were downright ugly, but you never forget that these two women will throttle one another given the chance. In tag matches like this you need the understudies to bring the heat and Takako and Miki fairly brought the heat. Some of Inoue's flying knees looked brutal, especially the ones where she'd come roaring into camera shot and clatter someone in the neck or ear. She and Hotta get their revenge on Miki by opening her up and Hotta of course boots her in the forehead several times like a maniac. Add a nasty finish to cap things off and this was another badass entry into the Kandori/Hotta highlight reel. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #3

Aja Kong v Manami Toyota (AJW, 11/20/94)

At this stage of the game, I like my wrestling when it's at its most simple. When I first started broadening my horizons and checking out Japanese wrestling it was the All Japan stuff I went to, because I read about the storytelling and psychology and all that. It was a new way of looking at pro-wrestling, a new way of thinking about it and processing it. It felt like something more than I'd been used to, like this stupid hobby could be an art form and not just carny nonsense. Now I'm old and I don't really need the deep narrative or anything especially intricate from a match structure standpoint. The less I need to think, the happier I am. And this was about as simple as you can get, worked pretty much perfectly for the Dome setting. Aja was on a tear in 1994 so Toyota comes out swinging, but before long Aja is trying to bend her in two. These were some of the nastiest Boston crab variations you'll see, and even if Toyota's screaming is a dead talking point by now I thought for once it was less of a distraction and actually added to how visceral the beating was. Toyota has to get mean in return and at one point she full on booted Aja clean in the face. Aja's "oh you silly motherfucker" reaction was amazing because you knew she'd make Toyota pay, and of course she absolutely took the jaw off her. Finishing run has the big bombs you'd come to expect with Toyota having to up the craziness, but nothing went overboard, it all looked great and at around 19 minutes it felt properly compact, which again made sense given their audience. Maybe Toyota's best match and I've got no real problem calling this a Tokyo Dome classic. 

Revisiting 90s Joshi #2

Bull Nakano v Aja Kong (Cage Match) (AJW, 11/14/90)

Part of me enjoyed this a lot more than I'd have expected. The other part recognises that it'll probably never really be my thing, but I thought there was lots to like. There was a whole lot going on outside the ring and it led to a bunch of weapons getting tossed into the mix, but surprisingly it never felt overly hokey to me. Something like Jimmy Jacobs v BJ Whitmer was one of the best blood feuds of the 00s and it was at its best when they kept the trappings to a minimum (or minimum for 2007 US indie wrestling). When they got in the cage they started adding in all sorts of props and even had ring staff bring them into the cage while the match was going on. The stunts sort of became a bigger focus than the hatred and flat out attempted murder and you wish they stuck to just stabbing each other in the head with a railway spike. Everything with the weapons in this actually felt pretty organic and added to the desperation and chaos of it all, though they subbed in some scissors for the railway spike and sure enough that was still the best of the weapons stuff, so maybe that tells us something. Bull resorting to stabbing Aja in the arm was borderline disturbing, especially with Aja being horrified at it all. It's Aja Kong and she herself has stooped to deplorable levels in this match alone. Yet here she is, this wrecking ball of a woman, appalled at what her opponent is trying to do to her. I guess it went a bit longer than my attention span was willing to hold for (though probably not long by most peoples' standards) and I wish Bull made a little more of Aja going after the leg, but the finish is one of those moments that can fire a match to legendary status and make you forget about those other quibbles. I'm glad I finally checked it out after all these years.

Revisiting 90s Joshi #1

Kind of surprised I've had this urge recently, but I feel like jumping back into some 90s joshi for the first time in about ten years. It's not my favourite style by any stretch, but over the last couple years I find myself being way less annoyed by the stuff that used to annoy me about joshi. I'll revisit some of the highly-praised matches I might've been cold on in the past, take a run at a few wrestlers to see if my opinions have changed any over the years, just the usual sort of dipshit mini-project that I do for a week or so before I get bored and drop it. It's what we're all about at Whiskey & Wrestling! 

Bull Nakano v Akira Hokuto (AJW, 1/4/91)

I thought this was pretty awesome. Structurally it's about as basic as you can get and the narrative is really simple -- Bull is a wrecking ball and top dog; Hokuto is on the rise and looking for a major scalp (there may be extra layers to this but early 90s AJW isn't exactly my bag so you can do your own bloody research). Loved the start with Hokuto blindsiding Bull after Bull dismissively walks away from her handshake, only for Bull to go absolutely buck wild and punt her up and down the place like a barefoot Tenryu. This was one of my favourite Bull performances as I thought she was a savage when she needed to be, looked vulnerable enough that you might buy Hokuto scoring an upset, then showed desperation of her own when Hokuto refused to stay down. I'm not really Bull's biggest fan and I guess in some ways it's because she's still a bit of a blind spot for me, but this felt like the sort of performance worth pointing to if you're making a case for her as an all-timer. The stretch in the middle with Hokuto controlling was an interesting play on the norm. That she did it, as a clear underdog babyface, by using the sort of holds you'd usually see a heel use to wear down a babyface was cool. She obviously can't trade bombs with Bull and her opening gambit was a risk that backfired, so it made sense for her to try something different. A couple times Bull looked like she was more annoyed than in any serious danger, like one of those videos on twitter from a NATURE IS CUTE account where a golden retriever is trying lie in peace while a hundred puppies climb all over her. She probably could've swatted Hokuto away, but Hokuto was dogged and I loved that Bull just started biting her fingers out of annoyance. When she takes back over again she's even more pissed and that dive where she wiped out about six people was tremendous. Just a total "fuck absolutely all of this" moment. Hokuto staying in the fight and responding with one of her own was great as well. There's a daft bit of outside interference, but I was practically slack-jawed that Hokuto was enough of a nutcase to do the same spot that broke her neck not so long ago. She was also taking those backdrops at crazy high angles right from the beginning. We're off to a good start, brothers and sisters! Maybe I like the joshi in my old age!

Some ARSION...in tournament fashion!

The ARSION-ARS Tournament! Or some of it, at least. 

Aja Kong v Reggie Bennett (ARSION, 5/5/98)

I can deal with wrestlers shrugging off offence early in bouts more than I can during the finishing stretch of a 25 minute match, so the early no-selling of suplexes here didn't bother me much. If anything it was maybe a positive considering these two are BIG, so a couple ass-kickers struggling to deal damage on one other actually feels noteworthy. Also it was like the very first thing they did so you know, whatever. They trade some shots, Reggie manages to avoid the spinning back fist, and with a nifty bit of trickery puts Aja to sleep, all inside three minutes. She might look like the sort who could simply overwhelm everyone else in the company, but she's clearly capable on the mat as well so who knows, maybe that'll be important later in the tournament...

Candy Okutsu v Rie Tamada (ARSION, 5/5/98)

This was a wee bit sloppy in points, a wee bit no-selly here and there, but the good stuff more than made up for that and by the end I thought it was fairly rockin'. The way they introduced the Tamada shoulder injury was certainly inventive and it worked pretty well for a minute there, leading to some neat dueling limbwork. It starts getting really good when they basically drop that limbwork, which maybe sounds ass backwards, but they drop it in favour of thumping each other in the face really hard so how loudly can we complain? Tamada was throwing absolute forearm cannons and then missile dropkicked Candy dead in the face a couple times for good measure. Last couple minutes feel appropriately frantic as well, with one of the best flash finishes like that I've seen in ages. Really fun match. 

Mariko Yoshida v Reggie Bennett (ARSION, 5/5/98)

So earlier in the tournament it was established that Reggie Bennett is able to not only trade blows - albeit briefly - with Aja Kong, but even take her to the mat and put her to sleep. Yoshida is a different animal entirely, and while she can't throw bombs like Aja she can work the mat to an elite level. As you'd expect she goes right to that, so Reggie has to use every bit of grappling skill along with her clear weight advantage to stay above water. Yoshida is always shifting for position, riding Bennett and looking to grab stray limbs as Reggie tries to basically smother her at points. The story is pretty simple in that respect. Yoshida needs to win with her grappling while Reggie, who's competent on the mat from at least a defensive perspective, is looking to slam Yoshida through the mat. In the back half Yoshida has to do everything a little quicker because Reggie is finding openings and starting to unload. There's a great nearfall where Reggie locks in a similar choke to the one she put Aja away with, and Yoshida is just incredible at milking everything right up to the point she manages to finally grab the ropes. It's not Shawn Michaels flailing around in the ankle lock for five minutes, it's not big an exaggerated where she's playing to the back row of the Omni. It's much more subtle and I love that little moment before the break where she reaches the hand out, misses the rope by a millimetre, looks all but done for, but then with her one remaining bit of energy she weakly wraps her fingers around it before getting put out like a light. I've said it a few times on this dumb blog and it still rings true - she might be the very best ever at milking a submission nearfall. Of course this whole thing was badass. 

Jackie Sato!

Jackie Sato v Tomi Aoyama (AJW, 1/4/80)

Jackie Sato is a treasure. She carried herself like a Fujinami level ace, cool and confident while selling the danger of Aoyama. I'd never seen Aoyama before but she was all about the dropkicks early and there were two moments where she went for broke only for Sato to calmly walk out of dodge (and on the first occasion Aoyama crashed and burned). This had some cool tricked out matwork, though most of it was built around Aoyama working the leg and going to the figure-four. Sato would repeatedly roll out or manage to block it, so at one point Aoyama grabbed an Indian deathlock type thing and started stomping on Sato's back. She also went to the shin breaker a handful of times and man did that crowd live and die with Jackie Sato. When Sato took over she rolled out a bunch of neat offence. Her backdrops looked killer - super high angle and impactful - and she did a sort of hair-pull Slingblade that ruled. Finish might be a touch anticlimactic, but it certainly looked plausible. Whole match pretty much flew by as well. Feels like way more people should be talking about Jackie Sato and I guess what I'm saying is someone should do a deep dive on her and chronicle their findings.

Jackie Sato v Jaguar Yokoto (AJW, 12/16/80)

Man what the fuck? Honestly, how is Jackie Sato not beloved among internet wrestling geeks like the other joshi stars? I'm assuming the obvious answer is something like "barely anybody has watched this era of joshi compared to the 90s boom period," but in a JUST and RIGHT world we shouldn't accept that. We should one and all be waving the Jackie Sato banner. Every time I've seen her - all of the maybe five or six matches I've actually watched - she's been tremendous and this was badass as hell. I wonder if I'd have become a bigger joshi fan over the years if I'd started out with stuff like this. I love ARSION and chunks of other 90s joshi hits the sweet spot, but for about fifteen years now it's been a style I've quite often struggled with, especially if I'm jumping into it cold after a while away. I really need to settle into the rhythm of it and watch matches in bunches so the momentum shifts and all those other joshi-isms that have been talked about forever don't bother me quite as much. I had no problem jumping straight into this though, and it's the sort of thing I feel like doing a proper binge watch of because stylistically there's a lot about it that's way up my street (and I've watched enough from this period to know that it's not exclusive to this match alone). Everything was done here with such snap, like they were trying to slam their opponent clean through the mat (that made a super satisfying *thwack* every time). Jaguar was a terror with how she'd go for limbs, the way she'd just lunge at Sato and grip her in a bodyscissors or drag her to the mat with an ankle pick, but the way both of them worked holds and fought for submissions was amazing. At times it was dang near beautiful, super graceful and rapid quick, yet never did it look cooperative. It's about as engaged as I've been by non-shoot style or lucha matwork in ages and it kind of caught me by surprise. Sato trying to contain this young whirlwind was a great story as well, how she'd get more frustrated over time and slap the mat after being forced to scurry to the ropes. And holy shit were some of those backbreakers/neckbreakers brutal. I guess I'd have liked them to make more of the hand stuff, because Jaguar trying to rip Sato's fingers apart with the ring ropes was awesome, but for how long it was actually a focus and the fact Sato took control for a stretch after it I don't mind too much. This was the absolute business. 

The Lucha Title Match (two of them)

Mascara Magica v Karloff Lagarde Jr. (CMLL, 2/6/98)

Hey, this wasn't half bad. Not great, not something you're likely remember in a ton of detail weeks later, but a perfectly solid lucha title match. I haven't seen a ton of Lagarde Jr. He has a sort of Christopher Moltisanti face, though I assume Lagarde is better at the lucha matwork. The primera was pretty basic in terms of how they worked holds, but it was fairly smooth and had a decent sense of struggle. The tercera was heavy on the dives, but they were well-placed, a couple looked really nice, and we even got a little sub-story with Magica injuring his ribs/midsection. I guess I'm easily pleased with this sort of thing. Even an average lucha title match is something I'll be able to sit through and be mostly content. So if middling lucha title match is right up your alley then hot damn what are you waiting for?!

El Felino v Dr. Cerebro (IWRG, 1/18/01)

This, on the other hand, was excellent. I don't know exactly where Felino ranks among your all-time lucha mat workers. Probably not sky high and very likely not as high as his opponent, but he's a guy who will pretty often knock it out the park in a title match. I suppose it can be easy to forget that he was pretty awesome for a while there if all you've watched in recent years is scuzzy old maskless Felino with the painted on abs and armpit shtick. He hung with Cerebro every step of the way in the primera and it made for an awesome nine minutes of matwork, lots of slick counters while maintaining some GRIT. There's also something to be said for a great second caida in a title match. It's rare that you'll get one of those considering they're often short and mostly for the purposes of quickly evening up the score. They don't beat about the bush and revenge is usually dealt swiftly in a lucha title match, so I suppose you judge great with those caveats in mind. A great second fall in a lucha title match might be great compared to other second falls, but probably not when compared to great first or third falls. Great being relative, basically. But the segunda here had a short little narrative all of its own and was capped off by Cerebro hitting a tope that about snapped Felino in half. As far as dives go it was also properly organic, to the point where I was sure he was only going to fake Felino out before he full on crushed him instead. The tercera built the drama and we even got a callback to that second caida narrative playing into the finish, which I'll always appreciate. Cerebro had himself quite the year in 2001 and this was top drawer.