Quebrada #46

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

http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

8/29/98

HYPER VISUAL TOURNAMENT ZION '98

8/31/98 Osaka Namihaya Dome Sabu Arena

(with help from Keith Watanabe)

This is ARSION's second singles tournament. The first tournament, on 5/5 at Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan called ARS, was won by Candy Okutsu. Candy had retired on 8/17/97 due to back problems, and she was the lowest rated native in ARSION when the promotion opened on 2/18. To say that the first tournament was used to create a new star would really be an understatement. To say that Candy, who may be the best all around performer in the promotion, should be voted comeback wrestler of the year would be fact.

Candy is sitting this tournament out because the point of having two tournaments is that the winners will meet in November to decide the first Queen of ARSION. Candy will be wrestling on the show though, donning the hood for the first time as Tiger Dream, the first female version of Tiger Mask. Supposedly the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, will be teaching her all his old moves. In any case, the Tiger Dream gimmick and any kind words or training by Sayama can only help Candy become more of a star. Candy's opponent will be the recently unretired Hiromi Yagi. Yagi was Candy's best opponent when they were both in JWP, and all their matches are at least good, so this should rock.

Ayako Hamada faces Mary Apache in a quarterfinal match. Hamada is the much publicized 17-year-old daughter of should be Hall of Famer Gran Hamada. It's long been obvious that ARSION was going to make Ayako a star, but it seems that they are going to do it immediately. Ayako has had exactly three matches so far, all of which have been no worse than the semifinal on the show. She lost her debut match on 8/9 at Korakuen Hall, but it was to Candy, so that was more than expected. The important thing was that they gave her a very good worker that could carry her and the match went 7:22 (which is not short for an ARSION match, especially considering their time limit is 15:00) so she had time to display her skills before jobbing. Her next two matches were both main events teaming with Aja Kong. This makes her seem important because she is headlining with the biggest name in the promotion and their team won both nights. Of course Aja scored both pins, but both matches lasted longer than 20 minutes (tag matches have a 30:00 time limit) and the teams of Rie Tamada & Michiko Omukai and Candy & Yumi Fukawa were unable to beat Ayako. The good thing about Mary Apache is that even though she's been wrestling almost three years, she is only 18 years old. She does some nice flying moves, but she is supposed to be fairly weak on the mat. Mary has a pretty good push coming into ZION'98. On 7/21 at Korakuen Hall, she teamed with Aja to defeat Candy & Reggie Bennett when Mary pinned Candy with her moonsault press at 16:41. She went on to draw Rie Tamada on 7/23 and Mikiko Futagami on 7/24. On 8/9 at Korakuen Hall, she drew Reggie Bennett. However, this push will not continue in the ZION tournament because Mary is basically in the tournament so Ayako can get her first singles win without taking out an established wrestler.

The other quarterfinal in this bracket is "The Fighting Cheetah" Rie Tamada vs. "The Lady of 1000 Holds" Mikiko Futagami. If the nickname wasn't hint enough, Futagami has adopted Dean Malenko's gimmick. Thus, this match is being billed by Weekly Gong as a "confrontation of technicians." These two met on 3/21 in Akutoshitei Hamamatsu with Futagami winning in 14:29. Futagami has a chance to win this tournament because she ranks behind only Aja Kong and Mariko Yoshida. The fact that Tamada has a shoulder injury pretty much seals it in Futagami's favor, and perhaps that will be incorporated in the finish of the match, but I'm sure Tamada will put up a decent fight before losing.

In the second bracket, "Dynamite Mini" Yumi Fukawa faces "The Beauty Venus" Michiko Omukai. Fukawa is doing less flying now than she was in ARSION initially because she doesn't get much height on her jumps so she was risking injury. The biggest factor in this decision was the embarrassing accident at the ARS tournament where Yumi crashed on her face doing two quebradas. Since this show is one of their biggest shows of the year, Yumi wants to avoid embarrassing herself again. Omukai is a kicker, and now that she's been wrestling this style for six months she's doing a better job at her gimmick than she was initially. These two met on 4/11 in Aichi Nagoya Sogo Taiikukan with Omukai winning in 13:20 with a crucifix. After that match, Omukai arrogantly approached Fukawa to demand respect, but received a slap instead. Since this is their first rematch, there is an issue to settle here. Fukawa and Tamada recently split their tag team "Tamafuka" to pursue their singles careers. The two former partners met in the main event of ARSION's 7/21 show with Fukawa taking the match in 11:01 with a jujigatame. This win is significant for Yumi because Omukai lost to Tamada in the first round of ARS. From those results, Fukawa, Tamada, and Omukai have been placed in parity with one another, so their matches in this tournament will be the deciding factor as to whom is the biggest star of the three in ARSION. This should be a good even match, with Fukawa avenging her loss.

The final match is "The Martial Arts Mariposa" Mariko Yoshida vs. "America's the toughest and the strongest woman wrestler in the world" Reggie Bennett. In case you were interested, Reggie and President Rossy Ogawa were the ones that made these nicknames up. Yoshida is ARSION's trainer. She is probably better all around than Candy, but she pushes ARSION's mat style, so unlike Candy, she really doesn't use any of her old spots. Yoshida is a great technical wrestler though, she can more than get by with this new gimmick. Reggie is supposed to be better in ARSION for the obvious reason that the matches are shorter. She can get by on her power moves alone, and they look especially impressive in this setting. In addition, her raw strength makes her submission holds, such as her reverse full nelson which put Aja away in the first round of the ARS tournament, more effective. This is the biggest match of the first round. These two met in the semifinals of the ARS tournament with Reggie pinning Yoshida, who had only recently returned from her broken arm, in 12:24. Yoshida will avenge that loss here, and it will actually be a good match.

If everything goes the way I think it will, Hamada will face Futagami in the semifinal. What you should see here is Hamada get over by putting up a good fight, but just not have the experience to take out the eight-year pro.

Yoshida will have her second tough match of the night against Fukawa. These two met twice before with Yoshida beating Fukawa with a henkei sleeper hold in 11:11 on 5/8 at Toyohashi Sogo Taiikukan and Yoshida winning again in 11:15 on 7/25 at Wakayama-ken Rittaikukan. This will be a good match, and the winner is somewhat in doubt. If ARSION wants to create another new star, this is the time for Fukawa to score the big upset. However, Yoshida is really like a new star because her look and style are so much different from when she was lost in the shuffle in AJW all these years. Since Yoshida is the trainer and the only really established native in the tournament, she is really the woman to beat, but that is kind of why she needs to win. She isn't like Aja who could withstand a big loss in a tournament and still be Aja. Unlike Aja, her value can really go up if she wins this tournament, and once she has established her dominance it will mean more if a Fukawa or the others can beat her. Moreover, because Fukawa isn't rated highly, she can establish herself as a credible singles player just by getting by Omukai in the first round. They could do a storyline where Yoshida loses to either Fukawa or Futagami because she is too injured or worn down from beating Reggie. However, I think Fukawa has to wait at least one more match before she avenges her losses against Mariko.

If I'm really feeling it in my predictions, we are left with Futagami vs. Yoshida. This is pretty much a toss up. Futagami was held back for years by LLPW, the league whose logo should add "we haven't created a new star" to their "Since 1992" logo. Actually, it looks like the latest judo girl, Junko Yagi, is going to be pushed hard, so six years later they may actually have a star. Anyway, Futagami lost in 10:56 to Yoshida's henkei sleeper hold in the first round of the ARS tournament, but she avenged that lost beating Yoshida in 7:56 with a henkei leg lock on 8/9 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. Since Futagami won their last meeting, proving she could beat Yoshida, that probably means Yoshida takes this one. The other thing to think about is what has more drawing power, Yoshida vs. Candy or Futagami vs. Candy. It's safe to say that Yoshida vs. Candy is the better drawing match of the two. As far as I can tell, Yoshida has not met Candy in singles while in ARSION. On the other hand, Futagami already beat Candy on ARSION's second show. While there should be a great deal of anticipation for either match because it will create ARSION's first ever champion, by holding it off instead of giving it away so early, the promotion seems to think that Yoshida vs. Candy is the better match, and I don't think many people would disagree with them. While Futagami would really gain a lot by winning this tournament, she comes out looking like a star just by getting to the finals and losing to Yoshida. She would be in line for the first big title defense because no matter who came out on top in November, Futagami already has a win over them in ARSION. In the case of Candy, that win hasn't even been avenged yet. I have to go with Yoshida over Futagami in what should be the best match of the tournament.

NJ Tokon V Special Vol. 42 AIRFORCE WARS J Commercial Tape

10/10/97 Koriyama Central Hall: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai & Kendo Ka Shin vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa. The focus of this match was Ka Shin against the heels. Liger & Samurai don't like the heels, but they are veterans so they just calmly go about their business. They know the best way to get one up on their rivals is to pin them. On the other hand, Ka Shin is the brash young rebel. He comes out of the dressing room behind Liger, but he runs into the ring ahead of him and attacks Kanemoto. Everyone starts going at it from here so they just skip the ring introductions and ring the bell. Ka Shin gets punked by the heels early, often getting double and triple teamed. He finally comes back catching Koji in a jujigatame, but Otani and Takaiwa come in and stomp him repeatedly. The faces took control and they decided there was no reason they shouldn't return the favor and double and triple team the heels anytime they had the opportunity. Takaiwa and Samurai worked really well together doing all kinds of hot spots. This was no surprise though because this was a tag match.

Koji was the best worker in the match, but the guy is just a mental midget. Ka Shin does some cool shoot spots, but he makes stupid mistakes that shooters in this day and age shouldn't be making. Which leads us to the worst segment in the match. Koji takes the nastiest swinging neckbreaker I've ever seen from Ka Shin then the shooter Ka Shin gets on top of him, but doesn't bother mounting him, and reigns palm blows. Koji turns his back to Ka Shin, leaving his neck exposed, but Ka Shin doesn't even think about choking him out. Thus, Koji gets a reversal and comes back in perfect condition because his neck was only just nearly snapped and he was only nearly knocked unconscious by the series of blows. Koji starts doing his typical athletic high spots though because being a prick gives him carte blanche to never have to sell in his and some people's minds.

Otani tagged in, and Ka Shin picked up where he had left off earlier by working for a jujigatame. He got it on Otani on three different occasions, but he couldn't put the champ away. Finally Otani blocked the takedown into the jujigatame and out of nowhere put Ka Shin away with a German suplex. Ka Shin attacked Koji after the match, so there was another melee.

Typical strong match with perfect execution that heightened the rivalry between the two sides. Not as exciting or glamourous as normal and it didn't build to the finish. 17:00 (13:42). ***1/2

10/13/97 Shizuoka: Liger vs. Takaiwa. Some people will say this isn't a "juniors" match. They'd probably say the same thing if they bothered watching great juniors' matches from the 1980's like Takada vs. Hase or Koshinaka. The point is, just because guys are lumped into a division that doesn't mean they are bound to do that one style all the time or in some cases ever. This wasn't a stipulation match, so they could do any style they wanted and the point should be whether it ruled or sucked.

This was a more realistic style. It wasn't realistic in the sense that they tried to do shoot style, but realistic in the sense that the moves were hard to get off and both men were putting over the effects of the moves.

Takaiwa was still looking for his first win over Liger, but he couldn't come any closer than he did in the Super Jr. IV league bout. Everything Takaiwa did here showed he had further improved and grown up. Was it finally time for the student to surpass the teacher? Takaiwa clearly thought so.

Takaiwa put Liger down with a lariat and Liger hit his head hard on the mat. I'm not sure whether or not Liger was really injured, but the ref played it like he was. However, Takaiwa pushed the ref away and stomped Liger, who still hadn't moved. Liger's second El Samurai came into the ring to check Liger out, but Takaiwa kicked him away too. This made Takaiwa seem like more of a heel and if Liger really was injured, it bought him enough time to recover enough to continue the match.

Takaiwa kept beating on Liger until Liger collapsed when Takaiwa tried to whip him into the ropes. Liger tried to escape to the floor, but Takaiwa followed him out and beat on him some more. Finally, Liger came back by catching the charging Takiwa with a shouda. Liger, of course, didn't start doing movie kicks and rolling sentons like someone we know though. Instead, he collapsed to his knee then fell forward onto his stomach. He put Takaiwa in a headscissor, which is a rest hold, but he was hitting himself in the head during this to "clear the cobwebs" so he could recover enough to mount his real attack. However, Takaiwa regained control before he could do so.

Liger came back with a great Dragon screw, but he was still too hurt to capitalize. Thus, Takaiwa recovered first and tied Liger up in the corner for the infamous Tree of Woe, but instead gave him a flying forearm to the head. Liger once again wasn't responding, but this time Takaiwa gave him time before he continued the onslaught.

The action got hot when Liger came back using his abesi-geri then used a series of shoudas. The shoudas didn't phase Takaiwa though, who just made a face at Liger then came back with a lariat. Since the selling in this match was strong, the no sell spots by the young punk had meaning.

Takaiwa went for his powerbombs, but Liger kind of sloppily Frankensteinered him over the top rope to the floor. Liger followed with a tope con hilo off the apron. He did a devastating suichoku rakka brainbuster that Takaiwa sold well. Liger tried a nadare shiki move, but Takaiwa hit him until he fell off the top. However, Liger avoided Takaiwa's diving elbow and executed La Magistral for a near fall.

Takaiwa caught Liger in a Death Valley bomb. He was going from spot to spot at the proper pace because he had been hurt by Liger's offense in this match, and he was doing great spots when he did something. He tried his Death Valley bomb off the top, but Liger returned the favor by hitting him until he fell off the top.

Takaiwa finally did his successive powerbombs, but he turned the last one into a Liger bomb for a near fall. It seemed like Liger was just about dead now, but he fired up and was able to withstand two lariats. Liger then came back with shoudas, but Takaiwa still made that face at him saying it wasn't going to be enough. Takaiwa caught Liger off the ropes with a powerslam and set up a running lariat, but Liger turned it into a flying crucifix for the flash pin. The finish was similar to the Top of the Super Jr. IV league bout. Once again Takaiwa couldn't look any stronger without pinning Liger. Now that Takaiwa is at this point, the next step pretty much has to be a win because anything less would be regression. They listed the length for this as 10:22, but I had it as 14:45. ****

10/16/97 Yokkaichi Shi Taiikukan: Kanemoto vs. Ka Shin. Ka Shin's limitations really show up in singles. With the exception of Otani, and at this point there wasn't even that exception, no one typically has very good or better singles matches with him. Kanemoto did it at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4/98, but not in this earlier meeting.

This match was confused. It didn't know what it wanted to be. It looked like it wanted to be a UWF style match, but then eight minutes into the match Kanemoto took over with his pro style high spots. Basically the match had no direction or focus and it didn't flow at all. In other words, it had the usual flaws of a Koji carried match.

Ka Shin tried to come back with the swinging neckbreaker, but the spot was blown. Ka Shin used a series of kicks, but Koji came back with a high kick then moonsaulted him for the win. Lame finish. Ka Shin took his mask off after the match and got Kanemoto to come back into the ring where he got him in the jujigatame. 11:26. *3/4

10/16/97 Yokkaichi Shi Taiikukan: Otani vs. Samurai. They edited out half the match, but didn't make it that obvious. When I initially thought it about to turn into a great match it just ended on me. Ka Shin, who didn't put his mask back on, had a pull apart brawl with Kanemoto before the match.

Samurai was very aggressive, using Otani's own tactics against him. Otani took control, but Samurai came back landing on his feet for a suplex then planting Otani with his reverse DDT for a near fall. They began doing hot spots, but they were also selling much better than normal. They were putting over the fact that they were spent, which should have been a clue to me during my initial viewing about how much they had chopped out.

Otani hit his great swandive missile kick followed by a German suplex for a near fall. Samurai came back with a lariat, which was a great near fall because he locked the cover in deep like a wrestler would when the opponent wasn't going to kick out. Samurai tried a nadare shiki no reverse DDT, but Otani elbowed him off and hit his swandive wheel kick for the win. This finish was kind of weak, but it's a finish you'd expect to see on a house show, which is what this was. Maybe this was very good, but given what this tape was I'd guess that they would have shown more if that was the case. 13:31 (6:26 shown). ***

10/23/97 Kumamoto Shi Taiikukan: Otani vs. Ka Shin. This was a short match to try to hide the limitations of Ka Shin. Ka Shin once again attacked before the bell. Soon he was working over Otani's arm to set up the jujigatame. Otani came back with a choke sleeper out of nowhere. Ka Shin worked the arm some more and Otani was really putting it over. Otani came back, still putting over the arm, and began using big spots.

Otani made another comeback using several nice spots. Finally Otani went for his Dragon suplex, but Ka Shin countered it for a takedown into the jujigatame for the win. I didn't like that the match was so short, but it put Ka Shin's finisher over big, especially since Otani acted like he was in great pain and tapped repeatedly. It helped give Ka Shin credibility and was one of the reasons he received the title shot, which was a much better match, in December. 5:40. ***

10/25/97 Kagoshima Arena: Liger vs. Kanemoto. These two had two ****3/4 matches earlier in the year, so anything less than great was going to be a disappointment, and this wasn't great. This wasn't bad for storyline or psychology, but it wasn't great either.

This started out very slowly. There wasn't a big spot until around the six minute mark, and it wasn't like they were planting seeds early. From this point it was a damn good match though. Liger hit a big running shouda in the corner that Koji did a good job of selling then Liger bombed Kanemoto for a near fall. Liger used his nadare shiki no fisherman buster, but Koji kicked out.

Kanemoto came back with a series of nice kicks after avoiding Liger's diving headbutt. He began hitting his regular high spots, but Liger did a go-behind on his Tiger suplex and tossed Koji on his head with a devastating released German suplex. This time Liger hit his diving headbutt, but Koji kicked out then cut him off on the top with and did a nadare shiki no brainbuster. Liger got his knees up for Koji's moonsault then blew Koji away with his running shouda, which Koji took a great bump on, for the win. This match was fine for what it was, but obviously I would have enjoyed it more if they had attempted to do another classic. 15:20 (12:59 shown). ***3/4

10/27/97 Nagasaki-ken Furitsu Taiikukan: El Samurai vs. Takaiwa. Not much to say about this one. These two can work together great, but their matches don't come close to being great because neither can call or carry the match. This match was most likely flawed , but if so all of that footage was left in the editing room. What aired was **** range, but I'd guess that the match was no better than good in actuality.

The finish was really hot. Takaiwa got a near fall after Samurai took a great flip bump on his lariat. Takaiwa then tried to powerbomb Samurai off the top, but Samurai turned it into a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner. Samurai then did his Samurai bomb (Thunder Fire powerbomb) followed by his nadare shiki no reverse DDT for the win. 11:57 (4:07 shown). No rating.

This is certainly a tape you would want to have, but it wasn't close to great. One noted tape dealer called this tape The "Best N.J. Video since the 1st J Cup." Considering that period includes such great videos of the same genre as The Sky Diving-J and The J Crown, this is one of the biggest lines of $hillshit not emanating from an RF video or Chapman list that I've ever read.

Selected matches from FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS on WOWOW 8/14/97

FIGHTING-EXTENSION Vol. 6 taped 8/13 Kagoshima Arena

Tournament 21 3rd Place Match: Wataru Sakata (RINGS JAPAN 7-15-1) vs. Minoru Tanaka (BATTLARTS 1-2). This tournament was for the smaller wrestlers in the promotion. It created a title for shooters that weight less than 209 pounds. This was a pretty good shoot match. Sakata was clearly superior, which you would expect considering they only do works in Battlarts.

Tanaka immediately tried for a takedown, but his technique wasn't the cleanest and he didn't get down low enough, so Sakata took him down in a neck lock. Tanaka was lucky because he was able to get a rope escape, but he clearly didn't learn anything from this mistake.

Considering Sakata was always in the dominant position on the ground there was a ton of jockeying for position and the movement, which was very fast, was interesting to watch. After an escape that didn't come across well on tv (or at least I couldn't see it), Tanaka tried to shoot just as he had at the beginning of the match. The result was the same, except this time he found himself in the middle of the ring and his only option was to tap out from the neck lock. Tanaka seems to have a much brighter future in works, but at least his somewhat unconventional style in shoot was one of the things that made this interesting. 5:03

Tournament 21 Final: Masayuki Naruse (RINGS Japan 18-25-4) vs. Christopher Hazemann (Australia, 3-5). These two went all out here. They did everything they could to make the match dramatic and exciting. To an extent it was, but to an extent it fell flat. It was an even bout where they went through just about every possible point. Great workers like Han can pull this off, but these two aren't great, and there were so many holes in the work that I can't imagine anyone thought it was a legit shoot. A work that is obviously a work can be fine in RINGS, and certainly Han's stuff is obviously a work, but when you start getting into knockdowns that lack credibility that's where things start to fall short. I can't say for sure what the reason for the crowd not being into this was, but due to a dead crowd this lacked the drama that it should have built up and it also lacked the aura of a final. In this case, the lack of crowd reaction kind of cheapened the work of the combatants because they were really trying to put on a show and the match was definitely very entertaining. This was basically a very good match that didn't really work for the audience so you have to take it down a notch. If I was rating the match, I'd probably give it ***1/4.

Hadi disagrees with my assessment of this match, ""This match showed that Naruse is a lot	better worker than people that are familiar with RINGS think. Naruse is mainly a pure mat	wrestler with ocassional striking ability. Hasemann is not good on the ground. Naruse was	forced to do the traditional Takada technique, work to his opponent's strengths even though	that meant sacrificing his own.	I disagree with Quebrada Mike on the fact that the
knockdowns weren't credible, because, In my opinion, most of them were. What needs to	be remembered is that these guys aren't heavyweights, thus they can't hit as hard or withstand	as many stiff blows. I think Naruse did a great job of carrying and making this exciting."

One cool maneuver early was Naruse doing basically a forward flip to alleviate the pressure from Hazemann's arm lock. There were all kinds of counters and reversals in this one. About 1:30 in, Naruse took control rolling Hazemann to the ground with an ankle lock. It looked like Hazemann was thinking about using a rope escape, but he applied an ankle lock of his own, which instead forced Naruse to escape. Hazemann did a nice takedown into an Achilles heel hold, which forced Naruse into another rope escape.

At 8:30, Hazemann attacked Naruse so aggressively that he was literally running after him. He didn't really score with any of these blows, but, largely due to his height advantage, he was able to go from holding Naruse's head on knee lifts to rolling him into a neck lock. Naruse had to use another escape to get out of this.

Naruse came back, knocking Hazemann down on a knee lift that barely touched Hazemann's arm. This was just pathetic. When Hazemann got up, Naruse ran into the "deadly" Sweet Chin Music. Hazemann then knocked him down with a weak high kick, but as Naruse was falling forward, Hazemann crushed him with a knee lift to the face. This knockdown tied the lost points at 5. Hazemann kicked Naruse as he was in the middle of throwing a kick. The result was that he knocked Naruse down, but Naruse's kick connected a lot lower than it would have, catching Hazemann low.	With the score tied at 7, Hazemann caught Naruse with a great high kick, but Naruse weathered it and came back with shoudas and knee lifts. Naruse almost had a jujigatame and then he did get a hiza jujigatame, but the crowd didn't react at all until they gave a little polite applause when Hazemann made it to the rope. Hazemann now had 8 points, so they called out "final down." This means that one more knockdown and Hazemann gets TKO'd from lost points. As soon as the ref restarted the bout, Naruse used a series of shoudas for the knockdown. Naruse became the first champion of RINGS under 209 division. 14:26

Ranking Bout: Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS Japan, 10-4, ranking 2) vs. Hanse Nyman (RINGS Holland, 19-15-3, ranking 8). What makes Kiyoshi Tamura great is not that he can have an off the charts match with Han, but that he does whatever it takes to carry lesser workers to good to great matches. Whatever it takes doesn't mean Tamura tries to show anyone up, rather it often means selling much of the time for a no talent kickboxer. By making his opponents offense look really credible and taking a real pounding, Tamura can usually make a match good or better within the RINGS style even if he's in with a bad opponent. Tamura can take a guy like Ilioukhine Mikhail, who has no charisma and is good on the mat but nothing outstanding on his feet, and have a great 18 minute match (which is long by the standards of worked shoots) with where Mikhail's weaknesses aren't even apparent. People tend to make excuses saying the reason their favorites aren't having good to great matches is the opposition. However, Tamura having very good matches with stiffs like Nyman and Dick Vrij exposes the theory, as long as the opposition has is pushed, as bogus.

This was like a work of a Pancrase theme match, which in a sense is a work anyway. The bout was almost entirely contested on their feet. Nyman is an out of shape kickboxer with little technical skill. Tamura is a great technician, but is nothing special on his feet. Even if he was the equal of Nyman in stand-up, he would still almost certainly have lost because Nyman weighs more than 30% more.

Tamura basically got his ass kicked here. I would have liked it better if Tamura was competitive, but Tamura is just so great that it was cool just watching him make Nyman's offense look good. As always, Tamura let the bad kickboxer hit him very hard so the blows looked more than credible. I think this was the main reason this match was slightly better than Naruse vs. Hazemann, which by all means was booked to be the better match. Basically this match was what it had to be because Nyman was going over strong and he sucks on the mat. I enjoyed it for what it was, and thought it was much better than a Nyman dominated match has the right to be.

The first really damaging blow was a high kick by Nyman around 3:40 that Tamura sold as if he was knocked unconscious. At 5:40, Tamura tried to avoid a Nyman kick, but seeing that Tamura turned his back, Nyman held the kick back and locked in a standing sleeper. At 6:30, Tamura had Nyman in a wrist lock, but Nyman quickly took an escape, which frustrated Tamura, and did a kip up to get back to his feet which was impressive for a guy of his size and body type.

Nyman rocked Tamura with a knee lift and kicked and Tamura stumbled back into the ropes, but much to Nyman's dismay, this wasn't ruled a knockdown. Nyman almost immediately did get a knockdown though, which put Tamura down 6-2.

Nyman caught Tamura with a great hook kick. Tamura found himself trapped in the corner and Nyman soon put him down with a flurry of blows. Tamura was now down to his final down, so it was make or break for him. He finally shot in and took Nyman down. Tamura then made an absolutely beautiful move, swinging into a jujigatame, but again Nyman immediately grabbed the rope (in this case he had no choice). As soon as the bout was restarted, Nyman caught Tamura with a palm strike and two kicks to knock him down for the TKO. Nyman was pretty fired up about his victory.

This had good heat even though the fan favorite didn't fair well at all. Tamura did a fantastic job of carrying this. The impact of the blows Tamura took and his subsequent selling combined with how one sided this was really put Nyman over. Obviously I'd rather see Tamura against a wrestler who has ability on the mat, but I'm more impressed when someone can carry stiffs to very good matches then I am when someone can have a great match against Han. 9:03

"People always ask what makes Tamura so good. This match is just a simple example of how	Tamura is willing to go the distance to make the opponent look good. Nyman's blows aren't	Mohammed Yone like strikes, they are stiff blows. Tamura made this match by using the	Takada technique of working to his opponents strengths. Nyman's strength is striking, so	Tamura let Nyman beat his ass so that it looked credible. When it comes to working shoots,	the only guys who are on the level of Takada when he was in UWF-I are Tamura, Han, and	Yamazaki," wrote Hadi.

Ranking Bout: Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS Japan 29-20-3, ranking 6) vs. Volk Han (RINGS Russia, 42-12, ranking 1). This wasn't the Yamamoto I was used to seeing from 1995, as his conditioning was down and he was somewhat hampered by injuries. Han is a technical master though, and he did his typical strong job of carrying here.

"Both these guys at their best, are the best. This was before Yamamoto started regressing.	Yamamoto showed that he has as much skill as Tamura on the mat, and his strikes were	excellent. Han's selling was phenominal, as he made every Yamamoto strike look increasingly	painful. Not quite as great as their matches in '95 or '96, but one of the top matches of '97 in	RINGS," wrote Hadi.

Han got a standing arm bar, but Yamamoto, like Naruse earlier, did a forward flip to alleviate the pressure. However, Han saw this and released him in midair so Yamamoto hit the mat hard. Han immediately went after Yamamoto's ankle, but Yamamoto made a nice counter to avoid it.

Han caught Yamamoto's kick and tried to take him down. Yamamoto tried a jumping takedown to stop this, but Han put an end to that and applied a cross heel hold. Han straightened Yamamoto's arm, but Yamamoto rolled through and locked in a hiza jujigatame. Han turned this into an arm bar, but Yamamoto rolled through and applied a choke sleeper which forced Han into an escape.

Yamamoto took Han down, but again Han straightened his arm and again Yamamoto rolled through. At 6:00, Han had a ½ crab, but Yamamoto turned it into an Achilles tendon hold. However, Han turned this into a cross heel hold and Yamamoto had to escape. Great stuff!

Yamamoto was able to get a jujigatame on when Han was on his knees, but Han was close enough to the ropes that he was able to roll forward into them for the escape. Yamamoto knocked Han down with a roundhouse kick just after 9:00, which put him out 7-3. Yamamoto then tried a jumping takedown, but Han got his leg and Yamamoto had to escape.

At 10:00, Han took Yamamoto down into a hiza jujigatame, making the score 7-5 Yamamoto once Yamamoto escaped. Yamamoto immediately put Han down with a mediocre front kick. Han was down to his final point now, so there was no margin for error. Yamamoto tried to chop Han down like a tree, but Han caught his leg and took him down into a hiza jujigatame. The crowd was very vocal as Yamamoto struggled to make the ropes. Yamamoto was in the hold a long time, but finally he edged his way over to the ropes. It was very dramatic, but had UWF-I like credibility.

Yamamoto came back looking to strike because he didn't want to get caught in a submission when he was this close to winning. He caught Han with a high kick, which put Han down for the TKO. Yamamoto took ranking 1.

Great mat wrestling, transitions, and drama. Another great performance by Han. This would have been better if it was a little stiffer, but there were no real drawbacks. They've done better in the past, but it was still a great bout. 11:30

JWP on WOWOW 1/18/97

SIX TO SEVEN taped 12/28/96 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

They showed less than two minutes of the semifinal matches of the tag tournament. Ozaki & Amano beat Plum & Yagi and Devil & Motoya beat Hikari & Esther.

JWP PRESENTS YEAR END TAG TOURNAMENT Final: Mayumi Ozaki & Reiko Amano vs. Devil Masami & Kanako Motoya. They only showed half the match, but what aired was excellent. What I really liked about this match was that even though this was basically a tournament to get the young wrestlers over, the veterans really went at it hard. Thus, they made the tournament seem really important. In AJ terms, they took this from being the Asunaro Cup Final to being the Real World Tag Team League Final. It's not every day that someone like Devil, who has been around for an eternity, is going to go out of her way to double team a young punk like Amano.

This was an exciting workrate match. The only real drawback was that it could have been a little stiffer. Ozaki & Devil were great here. Devil's work was the best it has been in ages. She didn't do her monster gimmick here at all. Instead, she took a months worth of bumps in half a match.	Motoya attacked Ozaki's bad knee. Devil was interjecting freely. At one point she held Ozaki and Amano outside the ring, but they got free from her grasp so Motoya took Devil out with her plancha. Motoya got a near fall on Oz after a sky high move by Devil.

Oz gave Devil a great diving swinging DDT. Devil turned Ozaki's attempt at a bodyscissor victory roll into a reverse giant swing, which was both innovative and cool. Ozaki nadare shiki no Frankensteinered Devil. Amano then spiked Oz's powerbomb, but Moyota saved Devil.

Motoya set up her diving footstomp too soon, so she got off the top rope while Oz saved Amano from Devil's Liger bomb. Then Motoya climbed right back up and both her and Devil did diving footstomps for a near fall on Amano.

Amano was in big trouble because Ozaki had been taken out by Devil and Motoya was holding her so Devil could do a lariat. However, Amano avoided the lariat and tagged the now recovered Ozaki. Ozaki basically missed an uraken, so Motoya didn't know whether to sell it or not. Ozaki made the decision for her by pulling Motoya down. Ozaki then slammed Devil off the top rope onto Motoya.

Ozaki took Devil out with her Tequila Sunrise and a series of urakens. This left Amano and Motoya in the ring to decide things. Motoya got a near fall with her La Magistral, but Amano did a great spinning takedown into the jujigatame for the win. The finish made perfect sense because the Oz Academy proved they could beat the tag champion Devil's team, and they won the tournament in the process, so the combination set them up for a title shot. Motoya did the job, so you didn't know if the Oz Academy could beat Devil with her better partner Hikari. Amano would really be the weak link in that match, but this match helped establish her as someone who wouldn't succumb to a pin that easily and scoring the win here helped legitimize her. 15:36 (8:37). ****

Sari Osumi Debut Match: Osumi vs. Tomoko Kuzumi. Osumi just did bad Tanny Mouse like comedy here. The only thing was than that was her hip attacks because she barely got off the ground. Kuzumi's spots looked great. They certainly weren't as glamourous or complicated as normal because the opposition, but her execution was so precise. Overall, the match wasn't good though because of Osumi. 5:15 (1:43 shown). No Rating.

Saburo Retirement Match: Saburo vs. Candy Okutsu. Saburo, who wrestled under her real name Sumio Toyama before adopting this rather bizarre gimmick on 8/10/95 at Hakata Starlane, was retiring after wrestling only four years due to a bumb knee. She seemed to me to be someone who really loved the sport, but only had average ability. Like Devil, she was typically at ringside watching the matches even though she wasn't a ring girl so she didn't have to be there. This match looked pretty good, but it had a five minute time limit and they only showed :59 seconds of it. The main thing was that Saburo appeared to be close to winning when the time limit expired. No Rating.

Fusayo Nouchi Retirement Match: Nouchi vs. Cuty Suzuki. Nouchi was retiring due to double vision from concussions. She was a member of AJW's class of 1992, but her career in AJW was very brief (end of 1992 through part of 1993 and I've never even seen her in AJW). I assume AJW let her go then JWP picked her up, and debuted in JWP on 9/23/93 at Korakuen Hall. In any case, she was a pretty good worker, but her lack of size combined with the fact that she wasn't on the level with JWP's more pushed juniors Candy and Yagi, although they could carry her to good matches, limited her upward mobility. This match also had a five minute time limit. It looked decent, and like the last match ended with Nouchi about to put Cuty away. The retirement ceremony for Saburo and Nouchi followed. I wasn't a big fan of these two, but it is sad when any wrestler has to retire this young. I mean, Nouchi, who was recently married, has been retired for 18 months and she's still only 22. (1:04 shown) No Rating.

Taped 1/12/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Ozaki & Amano vs. Plum Mariko & Esther Moreno (Jd'). This wasn't much of a match. I expect Esther to be bad, but it's depressing to watch Plum also blowing spots and having problems setting her moves up. Plum was used as a stepping stone so Amano would have more credibility in next months tag title match. Plum was in control of Amano, but as she was trying to pick Amano up, Ozaki booted her with a Yakuza kick and Amano pinned her. Why this went so long is beyond me. I mean, Esther is horrible and Plum was obviously laboring her way though. Moreover, the point of this match was to push Ozaki & Amano. It's not like Plum & Esther is such a highly rated team that they need to last forever to maintain credibility. Even the little shown wasn't remotely good. 27:13 (4:23 aired). No Rating.

Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kanako Motoya. This was exciting, but certainly not great. Hikari was easily the best here. She did a lot of great flying including her Orihara moonsault, which ironically was the one spot in the match she had a little trouble setting up. Kansai wasn't in top form due to the effects of collagen. Motoya had some problems working with both opponents. Motoya did all kinds of sentons, but she was pinned in Hikari's Tigerdriver. 20:26 (6:41). No Rating.

WOWOW Special Match JWP Jr. Title: Tomoko Kuzumi vs. Hiromi Yagi. This built slowly. The early portion was fine, but neither had a focused attack. Yagi is so good that even when a transition or spot doesn't go as planned she can make it passable by making it look like the opposition thwarted her attempt and she had to settle for something else.

The match picked up briefly at the five minute mark with a series of spots off the ropes. Both women were looking to gain the advantage here, but it was Yagi who took control, catching Kuzumi in a jujigatame. Kuzumi tried to suplex Yagi to the floor, but Yagi stopped it and plancha'd Kuzumi. Yagi tried her nadare shiki no ipponzeoi, but Kuzumi turned it into a victory roll off the top, which was an awesome innovative spot. Kuzumi used her doublearm backbreakers to set up a Boston crab.

At 9:35, Yagi came back with a fisherman buster, and they both sold long with Yagi really putting over the damage Kuzumi had done to her back. Yagi came back with her lancet-arch (a cool looking version of the backdrop that starts out with her locking her opponents arm in a chickenwing). This softened Kuzumi's arm up for future jujigatames.

Kuzumi came back with a German suplex, but she was hurting too much to capitalize. Yagi regained control, but Kuzumi countered Yagi's diving move by dropkicking her in midair. Seeing Yagi was in bad shape, Kuzumi had an adrenaline burst that allowed her to quickly do her rounding body press for a near fall. Kuzumi tried to end it with her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex, but Yagi turned it into her fisherman buster for a great near fall.

Yagi got the jujigatame, but Kuzumi made it to the ropes. Yagi tried to cut Kuzumi off on the top, but Kuzumi went right into her nadare shiki no Japanese leg roll clutch hold for the win. I was hoping the match would last longer, but the finishing move, largely do to Yagi's ability to go with it perfectly, was as beautiful as anything you'll see. There were points in this match where they weren't on the same page, but the sequences in this match were far more complicated than in most others, so you can live with a few problems.

Yagi announced her impending retirement due to marriage after the match and also said she wanted to wrestle Kuzumi one more time for the JWP Jr. Title. Kuzumi accepted this challenge, so Yagi's retirement match on 3/9/97 would be against Kuzumi for the JWP Jr. Title. 13:36. ****

Taped 1/14/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan #2

WOWOW Special Match: Yagi vs. Manami Toyota (AJW). Yagi was great here in basically every way. She was clearly the better of the two in this match, and I have no doubt that she would have surpassed Toyota sometime in 1997 if she had stuck with wrestling. The problem with this match is that Toyota didn't really take Yagi seriously. Yagi wasn't a very highly rated wrestler, and she wasn't a veteran like Toyota. Thus, Toyota was the one who carried the match. The problem with this is that while Toyota has been wrestling since 1987 and Yagi has only been wrestling since 1994, they way they wrestle would suggest that their experience levels were flip flopped. If Toyota had taken Yagi as a serious opponent and let her call and carry the match, this would have been a match of the year candidate. Even with Toyota dictating, this might have been a match of the year candidate if just took Yagi seriously and worked hard.

Yagi was retiring soon, so the purpose of this match wasn't for Toyota to try to really elevate her. However, Toyota still had to make Yagi look competitive, especially given how long they were going. The problem with this match was that Toyota didn't really sell for Yagi. Submissions are an integral part of Yagi's offense, and she knows how to incorporate them so they add to the match. Here the mat was a negative. It was supposed to be advancing the match, but it didn't come off that way, at least to me, or get any heat. When Yagi did a "common" submission, Toyota made it look like a rest hold by not really selling it at all. Since Toyota didn't want to sell, she countered or blocked almost all of Yagi's key submissions, which if you think about it is pretty ridiculous given their backgrounds and the fact that Yagi seems to manage to get these on everyone else, in shorter matches. The point of all these blocks should have been building to Yagi eventually catching Toyota, and it probably was, but it didn't work because Toyota's reactions didn't fit. Since Toyota basically blew off Yagi's mat wrestling, there was no heat when Yagi was trying to lock in a finisher on the mat. Of course Yagi, the serious mat wrestler with a legit fighting background in judo, sold huge for all of Toyota's cool looking submissions that hold no water.

The non mat segments of this match were great, as Yagi was able to match Toyota as a worker. The mat segments were also great if you only watched Yagi, who did a great job of making it look like she was really applying a lot of pressure on her submissions, as well as making it look like she was in tremendous pain from Toyota's submissions. Based on the way the mat segments were done by Toyota, this match would have been a lot better if it was just a workrate match without any mat wrestling. It could have been like Yagi's retirement match vs. Kuzumi, only better.

Toyota did a really cool ceiling hold where she fully extended her legs. It was moves like this, combined with the non-intense demeanor Toyota has had too often in the last few years, that were making a joke out of the mat though. There is certainly a time and a place for these moves, but I don't think this was the right opponent to use them against.

Just before 11:00, Toyota attacked Yagi's "bad" knee with submissions such as the figure 4, and Yagi was doing a great job of selling these. Toyota had no intensity though, so it was like she didn't believe she could win with a submission. If Toyota herself doesn't believe she can win then you can bet the crowd wasn't going to buy it either.

The vast majority of Toyota's high spots were perfectly executed, and Yagi is quite the bump taker. Yagi came back at 15:00 with a Hijo del Santo-esque plancha. After all this build to Yagi catching Toyota in a legit finisher, she finally caught Toyota in her hiza jujigatame. Toyota sold it a little, but not enough to make it look like she was in grave danger. When Yagi got this move on the second time, the crowd should have been popping big for the potential mega upset, but again Toyota didn't put it over, and the crowd was silent.

Toyota came back with a German suplex, and did sell her knee a bit after that spot. Toyota then missed a moonsault, and Yagi immediately put her in a wakigatame. They way Toyota sold the spot, it may as well have been a Rocky Maivia time wasting special chinlock.

At 18:35, Toyota hit her springboard plancha. Yagi sold it like she was hit by a car. Toyota hit an enzui missile kick and covered. When Yagi bridged out, she went into a jujigatame, but Toyota blocked it then got the ropes. Toyota came back with a great springboard diving body attack. However, Yagi cut Toyota off on the top and did her beautiful nadare shiki no ipponzeoi into a jujigatame. Somehow Toyota managed to lock her hands after Yagi already had her arm, funny how these things happen in works (I've seen the submission god Volk Han do the same thing in a far more realistic looking match so this shouldn't be taken as a cut on Toyota), then she got the ropes.

Yagi used a series of dropkicks to the arm, but Toyota came back with an incredible German suplex that started off with Yagi on the 2nd rope. Toyota got a near fall with her super fast moonsault. It seemed like the finish was going to be Toyota's Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex, but it was blown, so Yagi had the sense to duck Toyota's lariat and comeback with a German suplex. You could see that they were improvising a bit now, which was tough because they aren't familiar with each other. Toyota soon won with her Japanese Ocean suplex. 23:05. ***3/4

Since we are on the topic of Toyota, I guess this is as good a time as any to correct my incorrect theory about Toyota being the best female wrestler ever. It's a pretty hypocritical theory for me to have considering how much I cut up other wrestlers who have the same flaws as she does. I love Toyota, but there comes a time in every great wrestler's career when they have to grow up. That time came a long time ago for Toyota, but she simply refused to change her style. What makes someone the best is not just that they are the best worker, which among the women Toyota certainly once was and may still be, but that they are great all-around performers who work to their opponents strengths in order to have the best match possible with them.

What separates someone like Liger from someone like Toyota is that as Liger's athleticism declines, he compensates by improving in other aspects such as psychology, timing, selling, pacing, and stiffness. Thus, even though he can't do shooting star presses these days, he is a much better all- around wrestler then he was in his heyday as a flyer. Of course, some people mark out for spots and would rather point out in every review that Liger is relying more and more on palm blows then point out even one of the aspects where he's improved. Getting back to Toyota, as her athleticism declines, her whole game declines because she makes no attempt to compensate by improving in other areas. She's going to decline steadily until she either retires or decides it's time to mature like Liger and Ultimo Dragon among others have done. There's no denying Toyota's incredible resume of great matches. There's no denying that she had the greatest workrate ever, and arguably was the best pure worker ever. There's also no denying her weaknesses in selling, transitions, carrying opponents, pacing, and building a match.

The woman who is the best ever is Jaguar Yokota. She can get the most out of the least, as well as the most out of the best. If you watch Jd', you know full well how little talent they have, yet Jaguar has consistently had good matches despite working with women like Yuki Lee, Esther Moreno, & Cooga. The reason she has good matches with these women is that she knows their strengths and their many weaknesses. She only puts them in positions to look good, which is why she can actually get through a match without having Esther Moreno blow a spot. You can go through the entire Jd' roster and the only women who haven't looked considerably better against Jaguar then against anyone else are Lioness Asuka, the job she did of carrying Kyoko to the best match in Jd' history on 4/26/98 was just awesome, and whoever we've never seen wrestle Jaguar. Jaguar's matches with Lioness are best recent examples of her ability against someone of similar ability, and they show that Jaguar can still have 4 star matches even at such an advanced age. I would rate her work over the past year ahead of Toyota's, and it's a fair comparison because even though AJW has declined a lot, Toyota still has had the better opposition. Toyota's August 1997 matches against Ito and Aja were better than anything Jaguar has done, but when you compare Toyota's matches against the younger wrestlers to Jaguar's, she doesn't even compare. Of course her role is a little different, but the main difference in the two is that Jaguar makes the opposition look good before jobbing. Since Toyota is mainly high spots and ring work, she is overshadowing the opposition on the way to having a good match with them, even if she's not trying to. Another difference is that Jaguar takes these matches seriously, and again she has more reason to since Jd' is basically her league, but am I the only one that wonders what happened to Toyota's intensity? When you start looking at their best matches, you'll see that the great Toyota matches that weren't mainly great for the incredible workrate were generally when she was carried, for example against Hokuto and Aja, whereas I'm trying to think of an instance when Jaguar was carried. Of course, Jaguar's work in the 1980's was off the charts, and she was carrying far worse wrestlers to very good to great matches, as well as having great matches with the other greats. I don't fully know how great she was or just how many great matches she had because AJW didn't make any commercial tapes during Jaguar's days and the tv footage isn't exactly the easiest to find, especially when you are concerned about video quality. The fact that Jaguar trained just about every great wrestler AJW produced from Devil Masami on may be the best testament to her ability. Jaguar was the best women ever when she retired early, she may have still been in her prime, due to the stupid old AJW rule, and in her "old" age she may have again reached the level of being the best around during 1997 and/or 1998, or at least she is very close.

JWP on WOWOW 2/22/97 taped 2/9 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Tomoko Miyaguchi vs. Sari Osumi. This was about what it had to be. It was a basic match that Miyaguchi did a good job of carrying because she kept things within the realm of what Osumi could do. This match wasn't particularly interesting because Osumi was very green and couldn't do much. The bad things about Osumi were that her facials were goofy and again the hip attack looked lame. There wasn't really anything wrong with the match though. Miyaguchi won with a diving body press. 6:53. *

Tomoko Kuzumi & Kanako Motoya vs. Candy Okutsu & Commando Bolshoi. This was a junior style match. There were no rivalries here and the match had no storyline. This wasn't a crappy spotfest like the garbage that Rob Van Dam does though. This match built well. The cool spots weren't easy to get off and they weren't meaningless. One cool spot was when Bolshoi whipped Motoya off the ropes and Motoya did a handstand kick to knock Candy to the floor then rolled backwards and kicked Bolshoi in the stomach.

The best segments of the match were when Candy worked with Kuzumi. This is the style of match Bolshoi was meant for, and she wasn't annoying in this match so she was actually a plus. Motoya wasn't anything special here.

The finish saw Motoya assist Kuzumi on a somersault senton to Candy. Motoya then did her diving senton and somersault senton before La Magistralling Candy for the win. This finish was something of an upset, showing that Motoya was going to be kept on the level of Kuzumi, Amano, and Miyaguchi. 17:42 (12:39). ***1/4

Plum Mariko & Alda Moreno (Jd') vs. Cuty Suzuki & Esther Moreno (Jd'). This match looked really bad on paper. It just meandered along. It didn't really have any direction or focus. No one was really good or really bad. The spots weren't blown, but they didn't always flow together.

The match was somehow good because the Morenos did their cool spots and they were actually hitting them for once. Somehow they hit one spot after another after another. Where was this coming from? Did someone forget to tell them it was 1997 not 1991? This turned out to be probably their best performance in the past few years.

After a slow start, the last nine minutes were very good. The finish saw Alda give Esther a somewhat sloppy nadare shiki no Misterio rana, but Esther turned it into a pin of her own for the win. 19:01. **3/4

Only Give Up Judo Jacket Match: Hiromi Yagi vs. Kaoru Ito. This was rather uneventful with Ito dominating the match then winning with a jujigatame. 4:45

5 Minute Time Limit Puroresu Rules: Yagi vs. Ito. This was an added attraction, and it more than made up for the Judo match because it was tremendous. The workrate was awesome. They used every big spot they know and the execution was perfect.

Ito did everything right that Toyota did wrong. She treated Yagi as an equal, so she sold for her and put her submissions over as credible finishers. Yagi put over the finish of the last match by selling her arm big in between spots.

Yagi did a plancha early that was extra cool, as all Yagi's flying moves are, because the way she spreads her arms out makes the spot look really graceful, like a bird swooping down. One highlight was when Ito kicked out of Yagi's bodyscissor victory roll and Yagi went right into her hiza jujigatame. This was such a slick spot. The transitions were all really smooth. Even though these two never work together, they are so talented that they were able to work together at the level that the best workers who work together all the time do.

Ito was killing Yagi with her footstomps and also did a deadly uranage where Yagi landed on her head. The match went a little long because they didn't want to run through the spots too quickly. I'm sure they would have utilized the spots better if it wasn't for the time restraints. In any case, they should have just had this as a regular match because it would have been great if it wasn't for the incredibly short time limit. Ito went for a nadare shiki no fisherman buster, but Yagi turned it into her schoolboy buster then swung into her hiza jujigatame, but Ito was saved by the bell. Now that Yagi is back, I'd really like to see these two have a singles match. I don't expect it to happen though. Great while it lasted. 5:20

WOWOW Special Match JWP Tag Titles: Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs.
Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano. This is a good example of how someone gets over in a loss. It was obvious that Amano, who was challenging for the tag titles for the first time, was jobbing because she was the one who "didn't belong," but Amano was a spunky young punk. Since Amano put up a "much better fight then you expected," mainly just by not getting pinned since she only got in a minimal amount of offense, you had more respect for her by the time the match was over. Amano could have got over more if she had been given more offense, but this was as far as they needed to take her push on this day.

Hikari immediately threw Amano into her corner, showing to Oz that Amano wasn't fit to challenge her. Oz didn't tag in though, and Amano got right back up and attacked Hikari. Amano was really aggressive, but her tactics weren't successful against the veterans. Oz took control of Hikari, and Amano kept coming in and double teaming.

Devil press slammed Ozaki into a row of chairs on the stage. Amano was dominated for a long period of time. Finally Ozaki tagged in. Neither Ozaki nor Hikari could gain an advantage over the other, and even Amano catching Hikari with a missile kick couldn't turn the tide. The wrestling sequences between Ozaki and Hikari were damn good, and surprisingly they didn't get any worse when Devil came in. Devil Jumbo suplexed Amano then Hikari tried a moonsault, but Amano got her legs up. Still, Amano couldn't gain an advantage.

Devil press slammed Ozaki over the top rope onto the Gaea faction of the Oz Academy then held Amano so Hikari could plancha her, but Amano avoided it. Amano finally got a little offense in. Ozaki soon tagged in and gave Hikari a really stiff uraken and a Thunder Fire powerbomb for a near fall. Oz did another great uraken then a Liger bomb for a near fall. Still, Ozaki couldn't get her Tequila Sunrise off.

Later on, Hikari took Amano out with a great Rider kick, but by the time she was able to cover, Ozaki got free of Devil's grasp and made the save. Devil used a series of powerbombs on Amano, but eventually Amano turned one into a DDT. Devil didn't really sell, but that could have been because Ozaki was coming off the top with her diving swinging DDT. Amano spiked Oz's powerbomb and covered Devil for a near fall. Amano came really close to pinning Devil with her rolling reverse cradle. Amano immediately tried another, but Devil held onto the ropes. Ozaki immediately tried her uraken, but Devil ducked, so Amano got clocked with it and she collapsed like she was knocked out. Devil Liger bombed Amano, but Ozaki saved. Devil diving footstomped Amano. Both Devil and Hikari used versions of the powerbomb on Amano, but Amano still wouldn't stay down. Devil sat on the top rope and Hikari tried to moonsault off of Devil's shoulders onto Amano, but it took too long to set up and Amano avoided it. Devil then caught an unsuspecting Amano from behind with a rolling kakato otoshi and Hikari covered Amano for the win.

After the match, Plum hit the ring to set up her and Cuty as the next challengers for the tag titles. Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato once again got into it with Plum to continue that rivalry. Meanwhile, Amano was still down in the ring putting over the finisher. 16:44. ***3/4

Special Thanks to Keith Watanabe, Hadi Motiee, Michael Smith, Chris Martinez, & Mark Gonyea