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.