Saturday 17 October 2020

Revisiting 90s Joshi #25

Azumi Hyuga v Carlos Amano (JWP, 9/23/99)

This wasn't my favourite match of this little project. Then again it wasn't my least favourite either. By the end I was fairly into what they were doing and I liked the story they told, it just took me a little while to get properly hooked. Maybe going to this after watching so much ARSION/Mariko Yoshida lately was always going to be a bit jarring. Maybe being a little more familiar with Hyuga might've helped as well, because I think this is the first time I've ever actually seen her (last time I saw Amano was against yes you are very correct it was Mariko Yoshida). She impressed me, mostly with her selling, but beyond that it felt like she carried herself as an ace and yet I have no idea whether or not she actually was or would become one. Amano went after the leg most of the way while Hyuga had to kick and claw her off. Usually the kicking her off part meant full force booting her in the mouth and some of the early shots were especially nasty. The longer the match went the more focused Amano's attacks became, the more obvious Hyuga was in favouring that leg, and even if some of the selling might've been spotty I thought she was largely consistent with it, which at this point will do me fine. There were also times where it looked like Hyuga would go after Amano's arm. It only came in short spurts so it was looking like it wouldn't really amount to much, but they circled back to it at the end and it made for a cool finish (one I thought was sort of abrupt before engaging in some very deep and meaningful critical reflection and ultimately coming around to it). I think I'd enjoy this more if I watched some more Hyuga and then came back to it again later. So I suppose I'll watch some more Hyuga.

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