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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment