Revisiting 90s Joshi #45

Lioness Asuka, Eagle Sawai & Shark Tsuchiya v Yasha Kurenai, Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori (LLPW, 8/15/97)

This was wild as hell. I'd never seen Carol Midori before but her first mistake was thinking she could go at Eagle Sawai head on. She made several more mistakes of that ilk throughout the match and we applaud her dedication to the PUGNACITY. They all pretty quickly found themselves in a pier-sixer around Korakuen Hall and as joshi crowd brawling goes this was pretty good. It was probably the weakest stretch of the match, but that was down to how good everything else was. If nothing else that brawling segment established the hierarchal gap and how little regard the Eagle/Shark/Asuka trio had for their opponents. Asuka must've chucked Midori head-first through twenty chairs, walked away to find someone else to beat on, then changed her mind and went back to inflict more misery on Midori. Yasha Kurenai was amazing here. The first time I ever saw her she was tagging with Kandori against a team from AJW and I thought she played a really fun Great Kabuki to Kandori's Tenryu. This was her in a different role, like the world's greatest Masao Orihara. The legends beat the unholy hell out of her and Kurenai's face in peril performance was legitimately exceptional. Shark carved her up with the sickle and this was some gruesome sickle work, but if you were worried it would be one of THOSE Shark Tsuchiya performances then you needn't have been as after that she focused more on stiffing Kurenai with elbows and lariats to the back of the head. Her and Asuka were amazing shit-talking bullies, the way they'd drag Kurenai's limp carcass over to her corner and hold her hand out, goading Futagami and Midori into reaching out for the tag, only to pull the hand back right at the last second and stomp her in the kidneys. There was one bit where Shark grabbed Kurenai by the hair and it looked like she was going to chuck her into the corner herself, tired of playing with Kurenai and looking for a new toy to chew. I was a wee bit disappointed because they were building serious heat and I wanted Kurenai to earn that comeback, to give us the satisfaction of seeing her retaliate and make the tag on her own terms. It would've meant more. Luckily Shark knew it too because it was all a fake-out and she immediately dragged Kurenai away again by the hair, Futagami and Midori cursing her to hell and back. Eventually she does earn the comeback and I loved how she made a return a few minutes later by whacking people with a stick. They played up the gulf in stature again by how the skinny girls would go for quick double- and triple-teams, really do everything with a sense of urgency, try to isolate one person while walking that tightrope of keeping her partners out the way at the same time. Asuka was almost dismissive of it at first and there was one part where Midori strung off a few moves, only for Asuka to shut her down and look at the crowd like "come on, really??" Eventually they manage to jump Sawai and Eagle was pretty great as a hefty bump machine. Every move they hit on her felt like a mountain climbed, then they tried a triple powerbomb off the turnbuckles only for one of Asuka's lackies to stop it with a kendo stick. It was such a deflating moment because you felt like they were THIS close, but then they come back to that later on and actually hit it for an awesome payoff. Speaking of deflating, Shark casually walking over and breaking up what looked like the winning pinfall with a stomp to the back was a perfect bitch move. You felt like that was it for the underdogs, they'd come close but just missed their chance, all because they took their eye off the ball and let this ghoul waltz over and ruin everything. That the match went another few minutes after that and they just kept adding layers onto the finishing stretch really speaks to how well everything came together. What a sensational bit of madness.