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!
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!
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