Since deciding to properly commit to the joshi revisit back in 2020, just about every wrestler I've watched has gone up in my estimations. Some I was already high on anyway, like Aja and Kandori and Yoshida, but there was a point where I could not have been less arsed about watching a Mayumi Ozaki or Dynamite Kansai or Manami Toyota match and to say my stance has since softened on all three would be an understatement. You can probably count Takako Inoue amongst that ESTEEMED number as well. Kyoko I still struggle with, though. Outside of the Kandori match from '93 there hasn't been a Kyoko Inoue match where I've come out of it thinking she's all that enjoyable (the Kandori match is terrific but it's mostly about Kandori). She's not particularly interesting on offence, kind of spotty when selling (even for joshi), doesn't have the sort of grappling that'll draw me in, and she isn't a shit-kicker like Hotta or even Yamada where every now and then they'll just volley someone in the lungs. But this was the one right here. I thought she was great and basically every aspect of her performance was as strong as I've ever seen it. Actually both of them were great and as a match it turned out to be awesome. The first half was mostly about working holds and this was easily as engaging as I've found Kyoko working the mat, maybe Takako as well. Even if they basically came through at the same time Kyoko is definitely a rung above Takako in the pecking order. She showed it by how she mostly dominated on the ground. Takako would have to fight and claw for everything, working overtime just to grab a headlock. Kyoko wasn't toying with her as such, but she was comfortable and took some time having fun with an Indian deathlock, rolling around the ring with Takako and stretching her out. This was a fun contest for Kyoko. It was not fun for Takako and she wasn't in the mood to be put in her place, which she demonstrated emphatically a bit later. Kyoko was firm in cutting her off, like when they both stood up and Takako threw a few rough shots, Kyoko responding by dropping her with the nastiest elbow I've seen her throw. Takako went after the leg for a bit and trapped Kyoko in a gorgeous mid-match kneebar that people seemed to buy as a finish. So Kyoko kicked things up a bit and hit her nice springboard offence, still in control and dictating the pace, the match largely in her hands. Then Takako caught her on one of those springboard attempts and threw her outside, followed up first with a tope, then secondly with a butterfly suplex. I was not expecting Takako to up it again by trying to kill Kyoko but she surely did by hitting a vile high-angle back suplex on the floor. Kyoko really came into her own after this, selling the suplex like death and really milking the countout tease. Her selling the whole rest of the way was excellent and honestly felt a little Misawa-ish in how she just tried to survive those next few minutes. Takako was trying to unload the clip to put her away and Kyoko's slow transition back to offence was great. She went for her airplane spin powerbomb but couldn't even hoist Takako up properly, had to take a beat to recover and put across the toll of that suplex on the floor. The next time she put Takako in her place it was with a brutal sort of forearm lariat thing, just a complete "enough of this now" shot. Her sit-out powerbomb was an ugly thing that landed Takako on her tailbone, but again it worked as Kyoko still not being able to properly execute those moves. Maybe she wanted to make an example of Takako because she interrupted her own pin to dish out some more punishment. To Kyoko it had been a wrestling contest while Takako saw it as a fight. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. I found myself rooting for Takako on her last comeback attempt, her scrappiness and determination winning me over, but you have to say Kyoko drilling her with one last KO shot was pretty great too. This was top.
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