I wasn't too sure about this on paper, but I'm glad I gave it a shot because I wound up liking it a fair bit. They weren't shooting for epic, it was more of a "story match" with Ozaki basically trying to humiliate her young opponent. I'm not a fan of wrestlers essentially no-selling stuff as a means of drawing heat, and I was worried that was what Ozaki was going for at points of this, but as time went on she started to crack and in a way Amano looked all the better for it. Amano would hook on a Boston crab and initially I thought Ozaki was trying to show disinterest, or even outright ignore that she was in a submission hold because she's a heel or something (I think Toyota would do this sometimes around '97/'98, and that sort of heeling really does nobody any favours). She'd smile and shit-talk because this wiry MMA girl was trying to make life uncomfortable for her. "How adorable." But then that smile would veer more towards grimace and at a certain point all that shit-talking felt like hubris. Ozaki was in full bitch mode, but she was pretty giving and when Amano grabbed an armbar in the middle of the ring I genuinely bought Ozaki tapping. I suppose it didn't hurt that Ozaki's selling of the arm was excellent, so there was always some vulnerability there and they milked the small handful of big nearfalls really well. I've been less than complimentary towards Ozaki plenty of times, but this felt like one of those performances her biggest fans might point to as an example of her being a wonderful actor, and to be honest I'd probably agree. The moments she lost the plot and punted Amano in the face or tried to brutalise her for getting out of line were also amazing. One uraken in particular was batshit wild and about spread Amano's nose across her forehead. For a match that shouldn't really have been in doubt, more than once they made me doubt what the result was going to be. One of the cooler non-Kandori late-90s joshi matches I've seen in ages.
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