This was pretty much the definition of a Leaving It All Out There joshi tag, coming with all that entails. Not one of them had even been wrestling for four years at this point (Malenko barely two) so it was a young lions version of a Leaving It All Out There joshi tag, coming with all THAT entails. Yoshida is a personal favourite but even still I was shocked at how good this was. Some of the transitions were ropey and they raced through some stuff, the execution wasn't always perfect and at a couple points I wanted them to slow it down a bit and build some more heat before moving onto the next segment. But they had that crowd hooked completely by the end and I'll be fucked if I wasn't all in as well. Yoshida's the one I was most interested in here and she was really fun in that sort of lucha-esque way, where she could still tie someone in knots but she was also happy to take to the air at the same time. In ARSION she was more Negro Navarro or Blue Panther, here she was still Atlantis or Angel Azteca. Some of her flying was delightful and of course she got to apply a preposterous hold for fun. Debbie Malenko looked raw as hell but her exchanges with Takako got real gritty and I dug them slapping each other about the ears. Takako wasn't in full bitch more yet but she clearly had a mean streak a mile wide and Debbie bore the brunt of it. Sakie took most of the beating and played a fun babyface who wouldn't quit, quite literally I suppose as she spent a fair amount of time being stretched. Not all of her strikes landed flush, but she gets an A for effort and when they did land it was usually right under the chin. Liked the opening with Yoshida and Inoue going straight after her and cutting her off from her partner, and even if the hot tag could've been built to a little more I thought Malenko was impressive coming in bringing the thunder. All four of them probably overreached at least once but, not to sound patronising, there was a charm to all of it. More than the charm I appreciated how much they took the 20 minutes they had and tried to grab their chance at impressing. I think they succeeded all ends up. Super pleasant surprise.
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