11/30/97 Nagoya Shi Taiikukan From GAEA G-Panic #3 12/13/97
An excellent storyline match. The story was dissention in the ranks of the KAORU & Yamada team due to Yamada being suckered in by the heel tactics of Ozaki. Ozaki was in Yamada's head to the point where Yamada was so obsessed with beating Oz up that she lost track of the point of the match, to win. The initial reason Yamada was so pissed at Ozaki was that The Minky One's constant interference in a prior tag match between KAORU & Yamada and Ozaki's understudies, Sato & Chikayo Nagashima, caused Yamada to be pinned by Sugar. Ozaki & Yamada had a stare down before the match, and Yamada wanted Ozaki to start, but, of course, Sugar started to piss Yamada off.
The distraction of Ozaki allowed Sugar
to gain the advantage, and Ozaki was sure to get under Yamada's skin by double
teaming her. At one point, Sugar had Yamada in a facelock and Ozaki came in
and bit Yamada's leg to annoy her. As soon as referee Tommy Ran escorted Ozaki
to her corner, Sugar turned the facelock into a bite.
Ozaki & Yamada first officially wrestled at 2:30, which was too early for them to first meet, but this match was too condensed to begin with. Ozaki was pretty much paired off with Yamada for the sake of the angle, so I guess that was the logic to it. This made Sugar seem inferior because Yamada disregarded her and didn't want to wrestle her. However, this was fine because the end result of the match was another good push for Sugar. Actually, it was pretty obvious here that Sugar was inferior because she just isn't a polished worker yet, and she was screwing up some spots. There was a huge difference between when KAORU was wrestling Sugar and when KAORU was wrestling Ozaki, which wasn't all Sugar's fault. I mean, you can't expect someone who had just turned 19 the day before to really know how to wrestle; just supplying quality work, which Sugar did, is more than enough for them to do in a tag match with the veterans. The problem is that KAORU wrestles with the mentality of a 19-year-old even though she was 28 at this point. For all intents and purposes she's an incredibly poor woman's Koji Kanemoto, minus the cockiness and diversity. Luckily, KAORU's liabilities weren't exposed too much here because Ozaki pretty much eliminates them when she is carrying the match. The match was set up so that Yamada was the one who was beat on, thus KAORU didn't have the chance to make many of her trademark quick comebacks. Sometimes the situation made it okay for KAORU to roll out her spots, but generally when she was in with Sugar it was vintage KAORU. In other words, she did all kinds of "cool" things with little rhyme or reason to them.
At 7:40, Yamada did some sort of suplex off the top to Sato that was kind of a cross between a belly to belly and a hip toss, but Ozaki made the save. Instead of trying to finish Sugar off, Yamada chased Ozaki and they brawled on the floor until KAORU restrained her partner. KAORU was like "what the hell are you doing?" as she pointed to Sugar, who was still down in the ring. When Yamada reentered the ring, she didn't even try to pin Sugar, instead she kicked her once and slapped KAORU's hand hard on the tag in a very bitchy manner. KAORU came in and tried her moonsault, but by this time Sugar had recovered so she avoided it. The Oz Academy then double teamed KAORU, including a double diving footstomp, which was a favorite double team spot of Ozaki's back when she used to team with the soon to be retired Cuty Suzuki. Of course, when KAORU came back she didn't sell the previous damage at all, and she immediately went to all her big spots.
KAORU & Yamada got into an argument because Yamada threw Sato into her corner and challenged Ozaki to come in. KAORU's point was that Sugar had just taken some of KAORU's best stuff while Ozaki was relatively fresh. KAORU tried to restrain Yamada, but her sights were set on attacking Ozaki. As Yamada gave KAORU a little nudge to leave the ring, Ozaki ran out of the corner and shoved KAORU in the back, making KAORU think it was her partner that gave her an added boost.
Ozaki & Yamada were tearing it up together, and don't think it was a coincidence that Yamada was showing shades of her old greatness in this match. When Ozaki finally used her tequila sunrise on Yamada, KAORU still made the save because first and foremost she wanted to win the match. Yamada came back with her spinning leg lariat at 11:00 and crawled over to tag KAORU, who came in and did her swandive moonsault finisher. Sugar made the save because Yamada was still down, but KAORU got pissed at Yamada for not recovering in time to cut Sugar off. Yamada just made a grouchy face at KAORU. KAORU used her Excalibur (Michinoku driver II) finisher on Ozaki, but again Sugar made the save because Yamada was sitting on the ring apron. Suddenly Yamada recovered and wanted to tag in, seemingly because she realized Ozaki was "ripe for the pickens."
Ozaki came back with an uraken to KAORU though and tagged Sugar. With Sugar in, Yamada had no interest in tagging in, so she walked across her side of the apron where KAORU couldn't tag her even if she could make it to her corner. Ozaki & Sato double teamed KAORU then Ozaki held Yamada off while Sugar tried to finish KAORU. Sugar had KAORU set up for her Ligerbomb, but Yamada got free and tried to break it up with a kick. Sugar saw this coming so she moved KAORU into the line of fire then Dragon screwed KAORU for a near fall. KAORU tried to come back with a Misteriorana, but Sugar turned it into her Ligerbomb for a great near fall. Ozaki took Yamada out on the floor then reentered the ring and caught KAORU with an uraken just after KAORU had avoided Sugar's. Sugar then tried to Ligerbomb KAORU for the win, but it was blown and KAORU fell on top of her, so they simply redid the finish. This made no sense because KAORU landing on top would be a counter that turned the tide or at least a spot where both sold because KAORU was "too damaged" to come back. Of course, when you have KAORU and an inexperienced wrestler you shouldn't expect logic.
Yamada went nuts, attacking Ozaki after the match, but she was restrained by several women. The Oz Academy did their typical post match taunting and bragging while Yamada was being restrained. KAORU & Yamada then got into an argument and they had to be held apart, while the cause of all the problems, Ozaki, sat on the top turnbuckle and pointed to her opponents as if to say "look at these fools fighting amongst themselves." Yamada kicked KAORU in the back when she was walking back to the dressing room, so they had another pull apart that Chigusa had to break up. Yamada & KAORU sat in the locker room facing opposite directions and refused to look at each other, while Ozaki had a good laugh about all the dissention she had caused in her post match interview.
An excellent short match, especially Ozaki and Yamada's performances. It was a great angle because there were so many dimensions to it, building on an old fued, possibly creating a new fued, strengthening the heels and the effectiveness of their tactic, and giving the young star another big pin. The problems were that it was too short, Sugar wasn't on the level, and KAORU will always be KAORU. 13:47. ****