This was the main event of the GAEA debut show and a big-name match up for the occasion. 90s and early-00s GAEA has sort of become one of my favourite promotions to watch over the last few years, and that along with ARSION are my two favourite joshi promotions ever. There's a real charm to the first few years of GAEA with all of the rookies and stylistically it didn't lean on excess quite the way AJW would. This wasn't really that GAEA as half of the match is two JPW mainstays, but it was scorching hot and gave the crowd a bit of everything. I've watched a handful of Mayumi Ozaki matches the last few days and at this point there may not be a wrestler I've ever done a bigger 180 on than her. 10 years ago you wouldn't have been able to pay me to watch five Ozaki matches in three days. But over the last few years I've come around on her big time (she's thrilled, I'm sure) and yeah, maybe she was awesome this whole time and it was just me. She was really great here, scrappy and TENACIOUS and now and then she'd just wrap a chain around her hand and punch someone in the face. She was also wearing street clothes so you knew she had it in mind to fly off the handle at some point. There may never have been anyone more willing to take an absurd beating off a specific opponent than Ozaki from Dynamite Kansai. Every time they match up throughout their careers there'll be at least a couple times an outing where Kansai unleashes some horrific kicks and Ozaki eats all of them like a total nutcase. Devil was in her Super Heel bag here, which I wasn't aware of coming in and I wish I was because then I'd have tempered expectations. She's fine enough working that sort of thing and I guess I appreciate great wrestlers experimenting, but regular Devil Masami is too good for me not to be disappointed when she decides to play a shambling zombie. There were a couple moments where her selling was amazing, though. She'd try to brick wall her way through some stuff because she's impervious to pain or whatever, but she'd stumble or show a subtle sign of the damn breaking and the audience would pick up on it. I guess if I'm going to sit and watch someone do an Undertaker ripoff it might as well be Devil. About midway through they took it to the floor and got to the crowd brawling, but this was some decent joshi crowd brawling and it looked like Devil was trying to murder Chigusa with those chair shots. There were also moments throughout where those two would stare at each other or hesitate a little just to remind you that there's some steep history there. Not my favourite GAEA, but an easy watch and the crowd being rabid the whole time didn't hurt.
No comments:
Post a Comment