Quebrada #43

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

to view this column with its images visit http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

7/27/98

Jd' on Gaora 4/11/98

BREAK THROUGH Series taped 2/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Yuki Lee & Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Ryuna & Angie. This was Angie's first tv match. She's definitely gigantic, and apparently not very talented. The heels dominated this one. The spots weren't blown, but it was just bad wrestling. 5:44 (2:56 aired). 1/2*

Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW team). This was very hit and miss. Some stuff looked great, but it was obvious these four are inexperienced. Momoe was the best of the four, while Takahashi was the worst by a mile. Takahashi is so slow and unathletic that her setup may never be good. Takahashi's only hope at this point seems to be if she could get over based on having a popular partner, like potentially Momoe, because she really brings nothing to the table. Momoe is doing a lot more athletic spots, including a great moonsault attack here. However, the highlights of the match were her beautiful jackknife holds, including one to Sakai when Takahashi had Sakai in a bridge following her German suplex. Sakai was even more reminiscent of Yagi here, as she's added the Schoolboy buster to her arsenal. Sakai & Yabushita kept going for jujigatames, but they were blocked. Finally, Yabushita pulled Takahashi off the top into a jujigatame ala Meiko Satomura for the win. The match itself was good, but the lack of polish took it down to only average. 15:58 (6:08 aired). **

Cooga vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). Emi looked different then the last time we saw her in Jd' as she let her hair grow and she wore a metallic silver and white outfit instead of that horrid tutu. Cooga called and carried the match, so obviously this wasn't going to be that great. The spots looked good, but the work wasn't fluid. Emi had problems because she isn't familiar with working with Cooga. Thus, there were some moments of hesitation and indecision. The highlight of the match was Cooga catching Emi, who was trying a high cross body, in midair, but Emi then turning it into a really nice DDT. Emi looked decent, but of course did the job when Cooga Tiger drivered her. This could have been better because Emi didn't get to show all of her signature spots, but it's not Jd's job to get Emi over as a promising youngster so it's not surprising that their veteran didn't go above and beyond the call of duty to get Emi over. 11:58 (7:15 aired). *3/4

Sachie Abe & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Shark Tsuchiya (FMW) & Fang Suzuki. Shark carried this match, so that should tell you how good it was. Of course, she took her usual amount of bumps, though that was less annoying than usual because of the ranking of the opposition. Abe is and was the only one of the four that is even half decent. Sogabe stunk up the joint. All kinds of spots looked bad. 9:59 (5:02 aired). 1/4*

The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Mima Shimoda (Neo Japan Ladies). We still have five months to go, but I doubt anything will surpass this as my personal most disappointing match of the year. My five favorite women are Ozaki, Toyota, Shimoda, Shiratori, and Jaguar, so I was really psyched about this match, even though the outcome was obvious and with Shiratori involved I don't expect a classic like I would if my other favorites were wrestling.

I wouldn't even bat an eye at Shimoda in a match that involves The Goddess, especially now that Mima is trying to hide the fact that her conditioning, especially below the waist, isn't what it used to be by borrowing the pants that Great Aunt Rasmussen wears to the pool at her retirement home. However, Shimoda is still the second coolest super bitchy vixen on the planet trailing The Minky One Mayumi Ozaki, and she's still just about as good a worker as any woman on the planet, so you would expect her to be able to hide the mediocre wrestling skills of The Goddess. In recent months Shiratori has actually had some good tag matches. She even had one involving The Bloody & Sayori Okino, who aren't even fit to carry Shimoda's pink chair to the ring, so this should have been a good match, even if it was good in spite of Shiratori. Instead, this was 10 times worse and more damaging to Shiratori than the extremely pointless match with Yasha Kurenai.

It was a given that Shimoda was going to win this match, but Shiratori absolutely needed to push her. Even though, at 25-years-old, Shiratori is never going to amount to anything as a wrestler, she's still considered one of the leagues stars, and Jd' has very few of them. Even if Jd' has conceded that she is a lost cause, they don't need to make it obvious to every one of their fans.

This "match" was just a backdrop for the postmatch angle where Lioness Asuka, Shark Tsuchiya, The Bloody, and Fang Suzuki attack Las Cachorras Orientales and Shiratori to set up the car wreck that headlined the biggest show in Jd' history on 3/8/98 at Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan. The key to that statement is postmatch, meaning they should have had an actual match first. Instead, Shiratori got off to a good fast-paced start, until Shimoda cut her off with a chair 0:45 into the match. Shiratori got to show us that she can't sell a chair shot. She got to kick out of one Shimoda finisher, the Tiger suplex, and then she got to show us that's she's just a jobber by getting pinned after Shimoda's Deathlake drive at a mere 2:27. This turd made the WCW booking crew look like Keiichi Yamada.

Even if Jd' has given up on Shiratori, the point of an angle is for it to logically lead somewhere. Las Cachorras are heels from Neo Ladies and Shiratori is a face from Jd'. I don't mean to insult you by stating this. Rather my point is that why the hell should Cachorras care if Shiratori gets beat up along with them? Shimoda was just bashing Shiratori with a chair 1 minute earlier, so it's not like she's concerned about damaging the tremendous looks of The Goddess, as a heel she is supposed to "try to." If Shiratori had lasted 15 minutes with Shimoda and pushed her, then she could have earned her pink chair so to speak. Instead, the result of the whole thing is that Las Cachorras are teaming with a jobber who not only obviously can't hold up her end of the bargain, but is opposed to their style of wrestling. As sick as it sounds, it would have made more sense for them to have recruited the hideous Tanny Mouse. At least Tanny is from their league and she had recently shown Cachorras that she could withstand a good amount of their punishment. This angle set Cachorras & Shiratori up as the faces in the 3/8 match, and the faces are supposed to be the draw. Why a league would relegate their only face in the main event of their biggest show into a jobber and try to draw based on the undercard and heels from another promotion being faces is incomprehensible. The wrestling in this match was far better than in the opening match or the Shark match, but for obvious reasons it was a DUD

TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody. This was a good match. The execution was strong and both The Bloody & Kosugi looked polished. The Bloody, who is actually only 20 despite being a member of AJW's class of 1994, looked the more polished of the two since she was opposing Jaguar. Due to The Great Yokota, this was most likely the best performance of Naomi Kato's uneventful career. It came at an opportune time because the finish would have fallen flat if The Bloody didn't look good. What was promising about this match was not only that The Bloody & Kosugi had strong showings, but that they have become an integral part of the only feud in Jd' that anyone cares about, Jaguar vs. Lioness.

The heels fought their style, dominating the match since they were jobbing in the end. Early on Kosugi was a punching bag when Lioness was in. They push Kosugi as a young Kudo, so it's no surprise that she takes a big beating all the time, especially since she doesn't have seniority over the other stars of the league. Kosugi did fair well against The Bloody though.

At 5:10 Lioness tried to powerbomb Jaguar on the floor, but Jaguar turned it into a corbata (twisting Frankensteiner). Jaguar then tope con hilo'd Lioness off the apron and Kosugi followed with a diving footstomp to the floor ala Kaoru Ito.

The Bloody began dominating Kosugi with heel tactics, which led to Lioness spike piledriving Kosugi through a table. Asuka then hit Kosugi with the broken table, which caused Kosugi to juice. Lioness attacked the cut by repeatedly punching Kosugi with a chain. Lioness intended to put Kosugi away, but even though she delivered a spike piledriver on a chair and a nadare shiki no backdrop onto a chair, she couldn't get the job done. Lioness did have Kosugi pinned once, after a spike Liger bomb, but Cooga came in and made the save.

At 11:15, Lioness set up a table on the middle rope and intended to Liger bomb Kosugi off, but Jaguar cut her off with a chair and nadare shiki no brainbustered Lioness off the table. Jaguar tagged in, but she didn't get to show much offense. She tried to quebrada both opponents, but they avoided it and Lioness would up piledriving her through a table.

Jaguar came back when Bloody's chair off the second backfired, which caused Lioness to juice. At 16:30, Jaguar made another comeback hitting her Shuttle Loop Buster on The Bloody, but Bloody bridged out. Bloody made a comeback with her rolling German, but Jaguar avoided her diving elbow drop. Bloody still tried to fight off Jaguar, but she eventually succumbed to the fisherman buster. As a 20 minute match this was close to very good, but I'm skeptical about this maintaining the same quality over another 40 minutes. 19:03. ***1/4

2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Titles: Las Cachorras Orientales (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. Kumiko Maekawa & Momoe Nakanishi

From AJW TV 11/22/97

WRESTLE MARINEPIAD '97 taped 10/18 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

I could sit here and point out all the flaws of this match if I wanted, and certainly there were mistimed spots and a number of spots that weren't executed to perfection among other things, but this is a match where you should get lost in the moment. It didn't have a right to be as good as it was, as 17-year-old Momoe wasn't suitable replacement for injured Tomoko Watanabe, the veteran leader of this former WWWA championship team, or was she?

What's great about this match is what it says to the fans watching it. Maekawa steps up and further legitimizes herself by showing she can lead a team that is competitive with the best of them. Momoe has her breakout match. Even though her move set is pedestrian, the fighting spirit she displays in this match by hanging in with the veterans despite getting mauled is eye opening to say the least. If Las Cachorras were selfish wrestlers, none of this would have happened and the match would basically have been a one-sided waste of time. I mean, given their seniority, they would have had every right to demand that this match be 2-0 and no more than 15 minutes long. Hell, a few months earlier they destroyed Kaoru Ito & Momoe, and Ito certainly outranks Maekawa. In any case, Shimoda is about as unselfish as they come and Las Cachorras showed why they were truly the best and most consistent duo in the world in 1997 (despite everyone voting for the AJ teams, who are clearly superior at their best, but aside from the tag league what did any of those teams do in 1997 to even warrant consideration?) by turning in a Crush Gal-esque performance. Like Chigusa & Lioness a decade earlier, they not only made the younger team look great, but they made a much lower team look like legitimate contenders. They did such a good job making the opposition into strong babyfaces that you just had to root for Maekawa & Momoe, and the fans (what few there were) did so in a very vocal fashion.

Momoe came out with a dropkick and Mita just stood there and took them, basically saying, "Welcome to the big time kid. This might work against Miyuki Fujii, but I'm super bitch Mita and I'm going to punk you just for trying such stupid offense against me." Momoe got beat down and tossed around for the next several minutes before coming back with a schoolboy out of nowhere and tagging Maekawa.

Maekawa came in with such a look of confidence and concentration that Mita almost looked like she was thinking about backing off. Maekawa took it to Mita. She choked her on the top rope and Shimoda kept trying to break it up, but Maekawa would just kick her way with one leg. Shimoda finally turned the tide with her trusty chair. Later on, Maekawa was nearly caught in Mita's Death Valley bomb, but she turned it into a sunset flip for a near fall.

Cachorras did the first of their mistimed chair shots to turn the tide. They turned it into a brawl highlighted by Mita whipping Momoe through several rows of chairs on two different occasions, which caused the kid to juice. Shimoda failed to put Maekawa away. Maekawa had Shimoda pinned with her kakato otoshi after Mita's chair shot backfired, but Mita just got by Momoe in time to make the save. This could have discouraged the unfamiliar partners, but they stuck with it and Momoe took Mita out with a plancha so she couldn't make the save when Maekawa kakato otoshi'd Shimoda to take the first fall. Even though they were still underdogs, by stealing the first fall Maekawa & Momoe started to seem a lot more legitimate. 14:31 (11:30 aired).

Maekawa picked up where she left off, and even the chair couldn't stop her this time. Shimoda avoided her first kakato otoshi, but Momoe missile kicked Shimoda then Maekawa kakato otoshi'd Shimoda. The crowd sensed a huge upset, but Mita just made the save. Maekawa set Shimoda up for her calf-branding neckbreaker drop, but Mita shoved Shimoda out of the way and Death Valley bombed Maekawa. Mita then tried to put Shimoda on top of Maekawa for the win, but Momoe came up from behind with a released German suplex.

The crowd was chanting for Momoe as she tried to take Shimoda out, but Mita chaired her to cut her off. Mita tried another chair shot, but it backfired. Momoe German suplexed Shimoda and the crowd yelled 1...2..., but Shimoda kicked out at 9/10. Momoe was feeling it and she was showing great charisma as she tried to pull off the biggest upset of her career. She came damn close with a beautiful diving schoolboy. Cachorras turned the tide with their double teaming though and Shimoda pinned Momoe after the most dangerous Deathlake drive in history. 3:35.

Momoe didn't have the big moves, but she was resourceful and she would come up with a pinning move out of nowhere to maintain the great drama of the match. Cachorras took it back to the floor with Mita piledriving Momoe through a table. Back in the ring, Shimoda did her ladder drop to both opponents. Momoe took some chair shots, but eventually was able to hot tag Maekawa. Maekawa blew her kakato otoshi and Cachorras double teaming led to Maekawa getting Deathlake drived, but she kicked out. Maekawa made one last comeback, but Shimoda ducked her spinning high kick and Mita capitalized on Maekawa being in a compromising position by Death Valley bombing her. Shimoda then Deathlake drived Maekawa for the win. Far from a flawless match, but the good really outweighed the bad. 6:45 (5:42 aired). ****1/4

AJW TV 3/21/98

taped 3/1 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1st 3 matches) & 3/21 LLPW at Tokyo Korakuen Hall (final match)

The show began with a feature on the young women training with coach Yamazaki called THE NEXTS. One would think that this would do more to dissuade young women from joining the promotion than anything else. I can see the point of these brutal stretching exercises which brought Kayo Noumi, Noriko Toyoda, and Emi Motokawa to tears because the flexibility is very important for their matches. However, I'd be interested in an explanation of how running, crawling, and practicing kicks in the snow with bare hands and bare feet when it's one degree Celsius is going to improve anyone's wrestling ability. Poor little Noumi said itai (it hurts) on more than one occasion. According to Michael Smith, "The only thing more torturous than doing the stuff these women do at the training camp would be to have to sit through an ECW commercial tape or a WWF PPV."

Manami Toyota vs. Kayo Noumi. Noumi was a member of the class of 1995, but like that year's rookie of the year Mari Mogami, she vanished into obscurity until AJW got so incredibly desperate that they brought her back in late 1997. Since Yumi Fukawa moved on to bigger and better things, Noumi is AJW's junior idol. She is cute and cuddly and Takako designed her a nice outfit that basically is the same as one that Takako used to wear about three years ago.

This was a pretty good match. Manami sold for Noumi a lot so Noumi would have some credibility against her. The problem is that Noumi is really petite and Toyota, who was always one of the taller women in the league, has really filled out. Noumi had some trouble just lifting Toyota. Her offense didn't have much force behind it, so some of the spots weren't credible even though Toyota sold them it. Noumi looked like she was wrestling in slow motion on some occasions because she's inexperienced and going from spot to spot doesn't come natural yet. The transitions were horrible, which isn't really that surprising given that Toyota was carrying and her transitions were never good. The good things about the match were the pace was pretty fast and there were a lot of nice high spots by Toyota, who was on today.

Both women did their planchas. Noumi got at least a 2 3/4 count on three occasions, so even though she was way out of her league they went a long way to give you the illusion that she had a chance of winning. I think that Toyota kicking out so late was much of the reason that the crowd was so into Noumi's near falls. Noumi couldn't withstand much of Toyota's offense though, and she was eventually pinned in the moonsault. 13:28 (7:22 aired). **1/2

Kumiko Maekawa vs. Momoe Nakanishi. This was a battle of AJW's two best up and coming stars. It's kind of funny that they were born 8 years apart. Anyway, this was the 25-year-old Maekawa's best performance to date. Maekawa carried the match and she was the better of the two. Her offense was really explosive and her kicks all looked great. Momoe's selling here was typically excellent, and she took a hell of a beating, in this Maekawa star vehicle.

The match was faced paced. They hit all their spots, which wasn't always the case with Maekawa. There were two spots that were particularly awesome. One was a Maekawa kick that blew Momoe's chin away and the other was a Maekawa single leg dropkick that jolted what was left of Momoe's chin. In between the spots they did a lot of matwork, which was fine, but they were unable to tie it into the rest of the match. Momoe didn't get to flash much offense. When she did, it was all aerial spots, including a plancha and an awesome climb-up moonsault attack. The aerial spots led to her demise though as Maekawa kakato otoshi'd her when she was climbing to the top. She then nadare shiki no brainbustered Momoe and soon put her away with a vicious kakato otoshi. Both of these women looked like polished wresters.

I would have liked to have seen this whole match to see if it held up, but what aired was definitely very impressive. Barring injury, Momoe will be sensational by the time she is 20, but this was Maekawa's match. 20:59 (11:23 aired). ***1/2

Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue vs. ZAP I & ZAP T. I don't really know what to say about this match or how to rate it. The ZAP gimmick just doesn't make any sense to me. I doubt it makes any sense to anyone else because there was no explanation as to what happened to Ito & Watanabe. It was quickly obvious who the ZAPS were unless AJW figured the fans weren't going to notice that two of their top wrestlers just zanished overnight, so you would think the Matsunagas would offer their viewers some storyline explanation for their transformation. The ZAP gimmick was seemingly just created because Las Cachorras Orientales moved on to uneventful things in Neo Japan Ladies, where they at least receive a paycheck, so AJW needed some new heels. Unfortunately, the fine qualities that make Shimoda & Mita two of the best working heels aren't exemplified by the ZAPS.

The ZAPS wrestled this match in ugly green overcoats and had pants to match. You can't really do anything in this attire because you can't move very well. I assume this is the reason that the ZAPS only wear these coats to the ring now. The ZAPS eventually took the coats off in this match so they could do some spots, and probably also so they wouldn't overheat. Guess what they wore under their coats? If you guessed the outfits that they wore prior to being transformed into ZAPS, you are correct. Luckily, they also don't wear their old outfits anymore, but one has to wonder how hard it would have been to design new outfits for the ZAPS before they adopted that gimmick.

The only good thing about the coats the ZAPS' wore here was that they were somewhat successful in making it hard to tell who is under them. However, everything else gave their identity away, so they really served no purpose. Not only were they wearing their old outfits underneath, but Ito was still doing her signature diving footstomp and Watanabe was still doing her signature Dragon screw. One of the five announcers even said Ito-san after Ito was talking on the mic after the match. The stupidest part of all was that Hotta ripped Watanabe's mask and exposed her face in the ZAPS' first tv match! I could see if the mask ripping happened after the ZAPS had reigned terror for a year, but we only had 10 minutes to "anticipate who these two were" before we got "the big payoff." I remember complaining that Koji ripping Naniwa's mask in a Super Jr. League Bout was the desecration of mask ripping because it lessened the effect of him ripping Samurai's mask in the Super Jr. final. If that was the desecration, then someone needs to invent a new adjective strong enough to describe what this was. Then again, you could argue that the gimmick had already faltered so badly by the 10 minute mark of this match that the mask ripping didn't even make a difference.

I don't think this match accomplished what it set out to because I can't even figure out what it was trying to accomplish. All the ZAPS really did here was brawl around the arena and hit Hotta & Takako with objects. Their gimmick spots looked fine, but Fang Suzuki, hell even The Lowest Form of Life Shark Tsuchiya, is capable of doing the same thing. What was good is that they established the heels by having them dominating the first nine minutes. What was bad was that a bloody Hotta then made a comeback and the ZAPS didn't get to do much more on offense. Thus, the ZAPS aren't striking fear into anyone's hearts because we've just "met them" and we already know that our "hero" Hotta can take their "best" stuff.

The match did get most of the league involved, as there was all sorts of outside interference. At one point on of the ZAPS beat Toyota and the other seconds with a kendo stick. The finish was a draw because the ref threw out the match when all hell broke loose in the ring including all the face seconds stomping Nana Nakahara, who is now a full-fledged ZAP, while IWA Japan's Sachie Nishibori was holding her. After the match, Tomoka Isozaki joined the ZAPS. 22:54 (14:27 aired). *3/4

Double Title Match: Yumiko Hotta (WWWA World Singles Champion) vs. Shinobu Kandori (LLPW Singles Champion). This was a UWF style bout. It was a pretty good bout, but it was certainly not close to the quality you would expect from a WWWA World Singles title match, much less a double title match. The rules of this match were that you couldn't win by pinfall, and that turned out to be the deciding factor in the match.

They went back and forth with Hotta getting the better of the stand-up portions due to her kicking ability and Kandori getting the better of the mat portions. 4:30 in, Hotta's head was badly cut "from headbutting Kandori," who was kind of using the guard. This was a completely goofy spot. Kandori attacked the bloody head, which was the one thing that was reminiscent of a certain double title match.

Hotta did her Pyramid driver, but remembered there were no pins and went into a jujigatame. Kandori eventually turned this into a hiza jujigatame, but Hotta stood up out of it and got a knockdown with her kicks. I guess the sequence was exciting, but it certainly didn't hold any water. Kandori got up at 8 only to have Hotta put her down with a flurry of kicks. This time Kandori got up at 9. Hotta tried to knock her out with kicks again, but this time Kandori caught Hotta's leg and put her down with rapid fire shoudas.

9:45 in, Hotta used a really lame piledriver then Pyramid drivered Kandori. However, this time Hotta forgot that there were no pins. When the ref didn't start counting, Hotta leaned over Kandori with her arm between Kandori's legs to attempt God knows what. In any case, she left herself exposed and Kandori capitalized by locking in a sankakujime, which is a (bad, at least as it was applied here) version of the triangle hold, for the win. This finish wasn't as obvious as the horrible Hotta vs. Kyoko 8/20/97 finish, but it was half a "mistake" and half a "please take my arm Shinobu." I thought this weak finish made Hotta seem worse than if she had just lost cleanly (and smoothly) because her out was that she made a bad mental mistake. Hotta remained winless in her career against Kandori, and this certainly wasn't close to as good as their 9/29/93 match, although that's not a big a surprise since they worked this much more realistically and even if you combined their ability at doing a shoot style match they still wouldn't be close to half as good as Kiyoshi Tamura. Kandori joined Dynamite Kansai as the only women from rival Japanese promotions to ever hold the akai (red) belt. The sellout crowd chanted Kandori's name after the match. 12:02 (10:20 aired). **1/2

Neo Street Fight Match: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Dynamite Kansai

3/17/95 Hakata Star Lanes

From JWP JAZZ & SOUL Commercial Tape

I reviewed this match a long time ago as part of Pure Wild, but I realized later that I totally blew it. Now that I've seen the whole match, I'm sure the review was way off, so here it goes again...

Mayumi Ozaki would go on to be nicknamed Queen of the Street Fights, but before she could earn that well a deserved nickname she had to participate in her first. This wasn't the first bloody brawl that Ozaki had been in, but this was the first match billed as a street fight that JWP had run. One of the things that makes Ozaki great is that she always comes through in a new and/or compromising situations. Certainly Ozaki had been working with Kansai for years, and their fued is as underrated as any I can think of, but due to the stipulations this match took a different direction than their previous matches. I guess what this match shows more than anything is that if you know what you are doing you get it right the first time, and just about every time after that.

This is what a street fight should be. The match was steeped in brawling, but the brawling was for a purpose. This wasn't ECW where the "wrestlers" just bash people with objects for 20 minutes because their only "skill" is using gimmicks to mask their total lack of ability. I guess they should get some credit for being able to deceive the smarks into thinking they are good and "hardcore," for getting the smarks to chant "ECW" while some of the worst wrestling on the planet is going on, for getting the smarks to vote for them as tag team of the year. If you do enough manipulating and false hype, you can sucker some people into thinking you have ability, but as Butthead once said, "You can't polish a turd, dude." Ozaki & Kansai incorporated the brawling by replacing wear down holds and submissions with beating the hell out of each other with the gimmicks. However, that doesn't separate the match from the millions of other brawls.

There are two main things that separate this match from the other brawls and make it great. First, these two are able to make the gimmick spots have meaning within the context of a great wrestling match. They know how to use them and when to use them. The most important thing they know though is how to sell them properly, and that makes all the difference in the world.

As Hadi said, "The difference between good workers and bad workers is simple. Good	workers like Ozaki and Kansai understand what needs to be done to get the maximum out of	the situation. Whether they use the gimmick spots or not, they still will get maximum effect	out of each and every move. If it's a chair shot they will sell like they are dead. If it's a	juji-gatame their facials will show the kind of pressure that is being put on their arm."

The reason a chair shot doesn't mean anything in ECW is that they use more than you can count and it's cool to show your "machismo" by no selling even the stiffest of them. It's the difference between, "Oh my, there's the deadly chair shot, I hope so and so can persevere" and "Yawn, I saw Balls take 15 of those in the last match and they didn't even hurt him a bit."

"What good does it do when you have a guy losing thousands of brain cells because he wants	to show how hardcore he is? I mean, Jesus now even the outsiders like Masato Tanaka and	The Gladiator don't sell them at all." The way I see ECW now there is maybe 1-2 very good	workers. Jerry Lynn is one of the them for sure," said Hadi.

The other thing that separates this match is that each segment of brawling built up to actual top notch wrestling in the center of the ring. Every time one woman thought they had the other in trouble they would use their regular big spots to try to put the other away. Doing the match this way kept it as what it was, a wrestling match. It also established that the gimmick spots aren't finishers, which means you don't have to raise the bar for the finish each time by adding another table.

What separates Ozaki from the other women wrestlers is that she puts so much into each match. As talented as she is as a wrestler, she's even better at the acting aspect of the sport. She's able to project the feelings and emotions of the match, which isn't an ability that many wrestlers have. She's always right on when it comes to her expressions and emotions, which is why she is a great heel even though she's not the least bit physically imposing or intimidating. I draw the analogy to Joe Pesci playing Nicky Santoro in the typically fabulous Martin Scorsese movie Casino. Anyone who has never seen Pesci act would be laughing their ass off when they saw what the man playing the mob's enforcer, who becomes the most feared man in Las Vegas, looked like. However, his acting is superb, so once you see him playing the role you totally forget he's a short pudgy 50+ year-old and wonder if there's anyone alive who could do a better job with this part.

Ozaki was pure evil in this match, beginning her reign of terror by sitting in the seats instead of entering the ring when she was introduced. Kansai never expected such deception, so she walked to the ring like she normally would, passing Ozaki by without even realizing it. Ozaki popped out of her chair and was choking Kansai from behind with a chain before Dynamite even knew what hit her.

In the ring, they had a tug of war with the chain, but Kansai is stronger so she pulled Ozaki in and went right into a backdrop driver. Ozaki repeatedly attacked Kansai with the chain. She would wait until Kansai looked to be recovered then make her eat the chain again.

Kansai finally came back by back body dropping Ozaki to the floor. She piledrove Ozaki on a chair then wrapped her up in the now detached top rope. I guess they took the words street fight literally because they brawled all the way to the street.

Kansai turned it back into a wrestling match at 11:00 with her backdrop driver then tried to end it with her Splash Mountain. However, Ozaki turned that into an arm drag and got a near fall with her Tequila Sunrise. It was going to take more of a beating to keep these women down, so the street fight resumed with Ozaki using the chain to tie Kansai in the corner then attacking her defenseless foe.

On the floor, Ozaki facebustered Kansai off the guard rail onto a chair then bent over Kansai and bit her to cause Kansai to bleed, and also cover up the fact that Kansai was blading. Kansai really gave herself a nasty cut, as the blood was immediately dripping off her forehead and staining the floor. Ozaki bit Kansai's cut and the ref objected to this, so Ozaki spit the blood in the ref's face.

A loud Kansai chant erupted and she soon came back with a lariat. She then wrapped the chain around her arm to add impact to her subsequent lariats. She did the same exact thing with her kicks, which culminated in Kansai punting Ozaki over the top rope (which was what used to be the middle rope) to the floor.

Kansai set a table up in the ring and tried to piledrive the now bloody Ozaki onto it, but Ozaki refused. They did parity spots, but eventually Ozaki caught Kansai in her Tequila Sunrise for a near fall. It was still going to take more to beat one of these two, so it was back to the gimmicks with Ozaki high-angle powerbombing Kansai on a table and collapsing on Kansai for the dramatic finish, except Kansai just kicked out.

Kansai caught Ozaki in Splash Mountain position, but Ozaki slipped out. However, Kansai then KO'd her with a high kick. Ozaki sold this tremendously, lying there motionless until the 7 count. Kansai "could have" won, but the reason there was a 10 count instead of a pinfall was that she was so spent that she had collapsed in the corner.

Kansai went back to trying to piledrive Ozaki through the table, and this time she was successful for a hot near fall. Kansai fired up and had Ozaki dead to rights in a Splash Mountain, but out of nowhere Ozaki turned it into an arm drag for the flash upset win! Ozaki celebrated like mad after the match and the entire crowd marked out for her with load Ozaki chants. Kansai still hadn't budged from the damage and loss of blood that she had suffered during the match. Ozaki also put the toll of the match over, collapsing in Hikari's arms during her celebration. Ozaki was carried out of the ring, but Kansai is too big for anyone to carry so she was merely assisted back to the locker room.

It's very rare that there is a street fight with great work, but this would fall into that category. The only real liability of the match was that Ozaki needed to be stiffer with her gimmick shots. Another example of talented wrestlers doing a rare "garbage" match and blowing away what 99% of the garbage wrestlers can do on their best day because they know psychology and how to work and the garbage wrestlers generally don't. 22:30. ****1/2

Junior Body Heat One Night Tournament Final: Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Rieko Amano

8/10/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

from JWP TV 8/24/96

Candy had won the JWP Jr. Title from Hiromi Yagi on 7/27/96, but you are only considered a junior for the first four years you wrestle. The fourth anniversary of Candy's debut was 8/4, so she had to vacate the title. Thus, the winner of this tournament would be crowned the new JWP Jr. champion. Kuzumi made it to the finals beating Tomoko Miyaguchi in quarterfinal and Fusayo Nouchi in the semifinal. Amano's path to the final saw her defeat Yuki Miyazaki in the quarterfinal & upset Hiromi Yagi in just 1:03 in the semifinal.

This was a good final. These two didn't have that many spots at this point and didn't know how to effectively extend the match, so the beginning was weak and very basic though the execution was good. Amano used a little bit of the time early to work over Kuzumi's arm, but it wasn't nearly enough. The match picked up at 7:30 with Amano turning Kuzumi's lariat into a wakigatame. Amano tried to work the arm more, but Kuzumi countered into a hiza jujigatame. Kuzumi knocked Amano to the floor and did a nice swandive reverse plancha. Kuzumi used her big spots, culminating with an attempt at her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex. However, Amano turned it into a flying wakigatame! They did a great job with this spot, with Amano jerking the arm constantly and Kuzumi screaming in pain. Finally, Kuzumi made it to the ropes. Kuzumi got up holding her arm and Amano hit it with two lame low trajectory jumping lariats before Kuzumi cut off the third by kicking Amano in midair. Kuzumi sold rather than making a quick comeback, and when she finally made her way over to Amano to go on offense, Amano caught her in a jujigatame.

They picked up the work with a series of near falls back and forth. Amano charged at Kuzumi in the corner, but Kuzumi back body dropped her onto the top rope. They had a long struggle with both women slapping each other back and forth until Amano knocked Kuzumi off the top with one. Kuzumi got up and caught Amano with a cool single leg dropkick, nearly knocking her off the top to the floor, before Amano could mount any offense though, which allowed Kuzumi to finally execute the move she wanted all along, her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex, for the win. Kuzumi won the JWP Jr. title! Good solid match with a very good final six minutes. 13:34. ***

JWP Open Weight Singles Title: Dynamite Kansai vs. Mayumi Ozaki

8/10/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

from JWP TV 8/24/96

This is another match that gets better upon repeated viewing. This wasn't close to the smoothest, the best executed, or the most heated match you will ever see, and it was hurt by the fact that it was rather slow paced and they never really kicked it into overdrive. However, the work was very solid, the psychology was excellent, and the match built really well. What really makes this match special is Ozaki's performance. The reason I'm such a minky mark is that Ozaki always puts her heart, soul, and body into every match. In this case, she did all that, and then some.

Ozaki turned in the single best acting performance in women's wrestling that year. I wouldn't even want to guess what it's competition would be, but it was probably another Ozaki match because none of the other women are close to her in this regard. Ozaki's been taken for granted her entire career, as both the promotion and most wrestling fans don't come close to giving her the credit she deserves. She was the best wrestler in this promotion from the day it started until the day she left, but she was never given a run with the title, which, along with Akira Hokuto & Dump Matsumoto never holding the WWWA World Singles Title, might be the three biggest title travesties in the history of women's wrestling. In this match, Ozaki was so incredibly determined to finally take the title. Her facials and reactions were just perfect throughout the match. She ran the gamut of emotions, and her timing of when to show them was as perfect as the way she showed them.

Ozaki was wearing a big brace on her right knee because she had recently returned from a broken leg. She clearly wasn't 100%, but she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. Kansai didn't want to have to beat her by kicking her bad leg out, but she wouldn't be afraid to do it if that was what it was going to take to keep the title. That was one of the keys to this match, that in their own ways both women, though especially Ozaki, made this belt seem of the utmost importance.

They built up a rivalry between these two in the pre match highlights, and continued it before the match started with Ozaki making faces to show she was both pissed and determined. The match began with a no cooperation spot where they wouldn't work together on the lock ups. Both women were displaying the utmost concentration and they were trying to intimidate each other. You could fit two Ozaki's (if only there could be another) inside of Kansai, but instead of backing down, Ozaki is trying to put fear in the heart of Kansai. You gotta love it.

Kansai dominated the early portion, at points she kept Ozaki grounded and at points she really punishing Oz her by throwing her around with force and kicking her around hard. Ozaki did her best to resist. She was selling all the spots, but she was acting like she wasn't in pain because she was so determined to win that Kansai's offense was mainly just pissing her off because it was keeping her from attaining her goal. Kansai set Ozaki up between the ropes and kicked her lungs out, which Oz, of course, sold really well. Ozaki made a comeback, dropkicking Kansai when she was on the ground. The first one got Kansai around the eye hard, and Kansai began selling this big between spots. Ozaki got revenge by setting Kansai up between the ropes and kicking her. When Ozaki reentered the ring, Kansai caught Ozaki with a backdrop driver. Ozaki tried to work on Kansai's arm by taking her down into a jujigatame, but Kansai stood up out of it and slapped Ozaki hard. Ozaki never released the grip though and she was now able to extend Kansai's arm, and they put this over as a legitimate finisher before Kansai made it to the ropes. Ozaki attacked the arm some more.

At 10:00, Ozaki kicked Kansai in the bad eye then did the Gran Hamada diving swinging DDT and put Kansai in the wakigatame. Kansai made the ropes, so Ozaki kicked her to the floor and did a tope con hilo off the apron. Kansai came back reversing Ozaki's whip into the guard rail then did a Cactus Jack style lariat where both went over the guard rail. Both women sold, with Ozaki selling her knee for the first time.

They turned it up a notch around the 15:00 mark when Ozaki turned Kansai's Splash Mountain into a choke sleeper. Ozaki did three consecutive Tequila Sunrises for a near fall. Kansai was in trouble, but she managed to power out of Ozaki's Liger bomb. For the first time in the match, Kansai resorted to punting Ozaki's bad leg. Ozaki sold this huge, sprawling around the mat in pain. Kansai used more kicks to the leg then set it up for a diving splash. However, Ozaki cut her off on the top with a vicious slap to Kansai's bad eye that really sounded great and did a nadare shiki no DDT for a hot near fall.

Ozaki got near falls with a diving DDT, Thunder Fire Powerbomb, and two Pyramid Drivers, showing more and more frustration with each Kansai kick out. Kansai came back sweeping Ozaki's leg, and got a near fall with her backdrop driver. She set Ozaki up for her Splash Mountain, but as she threw The Minky One in midair, Ozaki did an incredible counter turning it into a Japanese leg roll clutch hold for a hot near fall! Kansai Splash Mountain'd Ozaki, but Ozaki kicked out at 2 3/4. She Splash Mountain'd Ozaki again, and this time it was all she wrote. Both women lay in the ring for a while after the match, selling how tolling the match was. Ozaki didn't move for two minutes, so Kansai rubbed it in by walking right over her face. This woke Ozaki up on the wrong side of the bed, and she tried to trip Kansai. Kansai had a nasty mouse under her eye, but she still had the belt. Another opportunity had passed Ozaki by, and her failure left her heartbroken. Both Ozaki & Amano cried after the match, but with the youngerster Amano being the more heartbroken of the two. Ozaki rubbed Amano's head to console her and Amano assisted Ozaki, who was hobbling, back to the dressing room.

One of the reasons I'm so impressed with the Ozaki vs. Kansai fued is that they can do **** or better matches in more than one style. What made the street fight stand out was the way they incorporated the gimmicks into a great wrestling match, but here they didn't use any gimmicks at all. This match wasn't as good as the gimmick match, but that had absolutely nothing to do with the gimmicks not being used. The thing both matches had in common was the most important aspect, getting the most out of the situation at hand. These two matches respectively exemplify what a "garbage match" and what a title match should look like.

This is a match that I wish real wrestlers would watch. It's far from the most glamourous or exciting, and, most likely due to Ozaki being physically limited, it's not even the best representation of the ringwork these two can display together. What it excels in is understanding how the match should be wrestled and how the situation should be portrayed. This shouldn't be rare, but sadly it is. The right facial is priceless, while almost any one highspot is no big deal, especially since most of the wrestlers who do the coolest spots aren't all around performers so they aren't able to come close to getting maximum value out of them. 20:22. ****

Special Thanks to Michael Smith & Hadi Motiee & Keith Watanabe