LLPW Onna Kyokuken Hanabi (women's fireworks threshold) |
Sakie Hasegawa & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima 5:19 of 9:28. Exciting fast-paced match. Though LLPW was hosting the show, the crowd was largely behind the AJW team, giving them good pops. Young ASARI was treated well since she was getting pinned. ASARI displayed some of her hot moves, but also looked green.
~Sky Flower Rock~: Manami Toyota vs. Carol Midori 2:50. Literally half the match was the rolling cradle. Toyota just kept it going and going until pinning Midori in it after 1:25. A shame since Midori is a capable wrestler who could have had a good match with Toyota had that been the goal.
~Technical Flash~: Kyoko Inoue vs. Mikiko Futagami 4:01. As with the previous match, this should have been a chance for the LLPW wrestler to step up and allow the great AJW wrestler to carry them to a good match. Unfortunately, the LLPW wrestler was never taken seriously. Kyoko did nothing to help Futagami look good; it was simply AJW flexing their muscles.
~Dream Kickoff~: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Yukari Osawa 1:41. Yamada was fired up, wrestling with the passion we were always hoping to see from her post 1995. Osawa isn't in the league with Futagami or even Midori work wise, but at least this was an exciting squash as Yamada chose to make it more than simply quick.
Aja Kong vs. Miki Handa 4:16 of 6:38. As with her predecessors, Handa had little offense and was just a jobber. Aja was playing cocky heel and showing Handa up.
~Elimination Battle Field~: Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Numacchi vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha & Mizuki Endo 17:34 of 26:49. Finally, another real match! Exciting fast-paced action with enough tags that even the weaker wrestlers, who wisely weren't leaned on, looked fine. If you know anything about how LLPW books you can guess this was going to be The Day of the Eagle as they typically allowed all their lesser stars be jobbed out in exchange for pushing their two major wrestlers, Sawai & Kandori. The bottom three LLPW women were quickly dismissed, so Big Bird Sawai could be the hero, propelling her league to an amazing comeback from 4 vs. 2 odds. Eagle actually did a diving body attack, taking out 4 AJW women on the floor before pinning the entire AJW team sans Suzuka in a 2 minute span. Again, this was all to make Eagle look that much more impressive, as it would have been far more dramatic to spread these last falls out, not to mention not saving Numacchi for last. Harley survived, working circles around Sawai as always, but getting none of the glory she deserved. ***1/2
Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi 14:30 of 14:38. Very heated and intense match. Daring match that risked pissing fans off today to build to the pay off when Bull finally had her singles match with Kandori on 7/14/94. What was rather unique is despite the match going almost 15 minutes, they kept Bull & Kandori apart to built anticipation for their meeting to the point they never officially squared off. At 5, Bull lariated Kandori off the apron in between beating on Hozumi. A bit later, Kandori returned the favor, elbowing Bull off the apron, leading to them brawling on the floor. Takako & Hozumi stepped up, so the wrestling was good when they were in even if no one cared as they were minor names who weren't involved in the storyline. Kandori's matches against AJW were by far her best, which isn't surprising given the quality of their wrestlers compared to LLPW's, but that's not the reason. AJW understood Kandori's gimmick worked when she maintained the aura of the dangerous threat who could take someone out at any time, more a mythical tough woman than someone who worked for long stretches (except against the best of the best) or sold. Kandori, of course took Takako out for the win. She also reapplied the wakigatame after the match to garner extra heel heat. ***3/4
Waisha Kamikiri Death Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama 13:47. Those who want to argue Hokuto as the greatest ever can point to a match like this where she was strapped with an average opponent, but not only made the match live up to its main event billing, she managed to make it at least somewhat memorable. Considering Kazama wasn't allowed to be seen as even a near equal, the match was about as dramatic as it could possibly have been. Hokuto injured Rumi's back right away with a backbreaker and slame on the table. Every subsequent offensive move focused on Rumi's back. Kazama came back attacking Hokuto's bad knee, wrestling a smart and effective match by sticking to her game plan throughout. Sure, Kazama can't work on Hokuto's level, but she can kick an injured knee about as well as anyone. As Hokuto could put injury storylines over with the best of them, by the 12-minute mark you started believing Rumi could take her out at any time. Unfortunately, the match really was nearly over, and to make things worse the knee and back injuries played a dramatically reduced role in the final few minutes. As per the stips, Kazama was sheared after the match. ***3/4
