This was pretty great. When I first watched it a few years ago I thought it was one of Toyota's best performances, and that hasn't changed much on rewatch. How it was paced was very much a Kandori match, though. You know Toyota has a pace she likes to work at and that pace is fast and constant. Kandori will often slow things down, so in this you had a much slower pace than you normally get with Toyota, but there are still moments where she bursts into life and hits her stuff with all the ZEAL you expect from Manami Toyota hurling herself about the place. I get that if you're really into joshi and you're a Toyota fan then you have no problem with how she'd usually work (or actively like it), but for me personally she's much more enjoyable working at this pace. Makes her highspots feels so much more meaningful. She does a fucking headcase Sabu-style springboard somersault onto a table and a missile dropkick to the floor, but they feel appropriately crazy and huge because they aren't thrown out so quickly and in amongst a slew of other highspots. There are also a few bits where she just cracks Kandori in the face because Kandori will condescend to her or take her lightly, and once again Kandori's KO sell rules (there's a great payback spot later on and Toyota's own KO sell is just as great). No offence to her, but this is Toyota here, so you can expect one or two spots to come off looking ugly. The probability of her overreaching and botching something is simply higher than it is for others. It just...is what it is. Not everything was hit clean in this by any means, but the ugliness really worked, primarily because they were so good at throwing audibles. Usually those audibles involve Kandori just going fuck it and trying to yank a limb off, but I don't think it would be totally fair to attribute the quick thinking solely to her. By the end you've got a scenario where Toyota has to throw out the big bombs and go for broke before Kandori catches her in a submission far enough away from the ropes that Toyota can't escape. And at around twenty minutes in length there was no bloat and the stretch run never went too long. Some of the nearfalls were appropriately massive and, despite knowing the result this time, I still popped huge for one of those roll-ups. First time I watched this I thought it might be a top 10 joshi match of the 90s. While I'm not sure I'd still have it that high, I know it held up like I hoped and remains my favourite Toyota singles match.
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