Monday 5 October 2020

Revisiting 90s Joshi #20

Aja Kong & Akira Hokuto v Dynamite Kansai & Yumiko Hotta (AJW, 8/24/94)

This had some stuff I liked a lot and some stuff I wasn't so hot on. It's elimination rules and that changes up the dynamic a bit, namely in that it's going to lead to someone fighting uphill against a couple dogs when their partner goes down. Who would ever want to go it alone against one of those pairings? Who's going to be that unlucky woman, you ask! Well based on how nonchalant she was at the start you'd have put money on it being anyone other than Hokuto. This was as blase as I've ever seen her in a big contest and she was even laughing at Kansai getting in her face before the bell. Maybe it was pure hubris because she was clearly in a bad way here - retirement looming as it was - and I suppose it was fitting that she's the one who was left to fight the odds. I liked the Aja elimination with Hotta and Kansai just battering her about the head until she couldn't stand up. It felt a bit abrupt in one sense, like maybe they could've built to it a bit more, but it made for a cool moment and I guess two of the hardest kickers on the planet kicking your brains out is enough build in and of itself. Hokuto continues to impress the hell out of me and I thought there were moments of this where she was pretty much phenomenal. She can be as grandiose as anyone, but it was the subtleties in her performance this time that I loved. Her quick elimination of Hotta by capitalising on a miscue felt like her one and only chance of evening the odds, then during the finishing run with Kansai it looked like she was a kick in the arse off death's door. Those last few minutes were great and I'm shocked Hokuto and Kansai never had a big singles match. It might've been decent. 

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