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Tournament ARS '98 Ikkaisen
(1st round): Candy Okutsu (5-3-2) vs. Yumi Fukawa (0-7-1) |
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This wasn't nearly as good as their 2/18 match, but given what happened to Yumi, it's surprising that it was good at all. The match got off to a good start, but once they settled into the body of the match the pacing was too even and slow for these two. Thus, even when they went to high spots it wasn't that exciting, and the totally dead crowd didn't help things either. "The early part of the match subtly hints at the original Tiger Mask's training of Okutsu, as she throws a quick rolling savate along with Tiger Mask's trademarked through-the-ropes-feint. Okutsu later would be the first woman wrestler to assume the Tiger Mask tradition, this time appearing under her own moniker, 'Tiger Dream.' The lead up prior to Fukawa's accident was done pretty well. I didn't mind the ground attack after Fukawa and Candy had set up the fast start with Candy doing the feint, ala Tiger Mask. The sequence where Candy began selling her leg, leading Fukawa to target Candy with the moonsault looked nice because it seemed pretty logical from move to move," wrote Kieth. The match got really good at 10:30 with pro style high spots, including Yumi avoiding Candy's moonsault attack and la magistralling her for a near fall. Fukawa had focused on Candy's leg earlier, and now she was catching Candy in legitimate leg finishers, which Candy was putting over well. "Unlike her matches in the All Japan Women federation, Yumi Fukawa has come a long way in developing both her aerial and submission style along with improving her aggressiveness. Unfortunately, for this night, her luck would run out; but not due to facing the more experienced and sleeker Okutsu," wrote Keith. For Yumi, facing the more experienced and sleeker Okutsu should only be a plus. If someone is truly sleek and smooth, that should rub off on their opponents if they have some semblance of athletic ability, skill, and experience, which Yumi does. Also, Yumi isn't at the level where she can carry a match yet at this point, so the experience of Candy should help in this regard. I think these aspects of Candy's game would only have served as a plus. I still don't think this match would have been quite as good as their previous one or Candy vs. Gami from 4/17/98, but we'll never know because in one of the most unfortunate accidents of the year, the match was ruined right in the middle of Yumi's big run when she landed on her head twice in a row while attempting moonsaults off the 2nd. These were incredibly nasty landings, to the point where she was lucky she wasn't the next Nobutaku Araya (he broke his neck when he didn't get all the way over on his moonsault finisher). "About mid-way through the match, Yumi sufficiently works over Okutsu's leg, which Okutsu sells as she tumbles to the ground, when Yumi sends her for the ride. However, here's where the situation for Fukawa becomes ugly. Seeing the prone Okutsu, Yumi goes for her running quebrada, but instead ends up crashing on her face! A mixture of laughs and noise breaks from the crowd, but Yumi is determined in executing the move. She approaches the ropes for a re-try, but once again lands on her head! It's difficult to assess the actual reaction of the crowd since they might be used to lucha comedy and probably realize that Yumi had recently worked a bit in Mexico. However, this situation is no comedy spot as Yumi legitimately hurts herself in both spots, with the second mishap damaging both her face and her ego. At first, Okutsu doesn't realize the extent of the injury and stands up to place a foot to Yumi's head. When Yumi doesn't move and the referee moves in to check on her condition, Okutsu moves away, not knowing the extent of the injury. But this is where I gain a lot of respect for Yumi Fukawa. Rather than quitting she staunchly begins moving and Okutsu responds by placing her on the top rope. Candy really carried things from this point, but still the quality was up and down, as Yumi was clearly hurting, but she was able to "get it back" from time to time. "After seeing Yumi's accident, I have a difficult time in assessing how this match might have developed. Up to the accident, the execution was well done. The thing about the missed quebrada was that it hurt Fukawa's pride more than her body. I think the mixture of laughter from the audience and her problems in doing well on ARSION's big show convinced her to quit using the moonsault/quebrada. Prior to this she had some trouble with the move as you can see her get these low elevation quebradas on some other shows like their first one," wrote Keith. The problem with all of Yumi's flying moves is that she jumps out, but not up. Due to the pull of gravity, it usually looks like she's jumping down because you descend so fast when you don't force your own ascent. Since she is always going down, she has a lot less time to do any flips, spins, or turns in the air, and that's when things can get dangerous because neck injuries, which luckily she didn't suffer here, are a very serious matter. "It should be pointed out that when Yumi missed the first moonsault, it was not a goof on her part. When she jumped up on to the ropes to do the springboard, the ropes were a little too loose. When she tried to leap back off the ropes, her knees were caught under the top rope, which resulted in her being whipped backward into the mat on her head. That's even worse than her just falling because she had quite a bit of speed from the whipping effect. As far as the second moonsault goes, she was obviously still stunned from the first, so she shouldn't have even tried it," wrote Chris. Remarkably, Fukawa managed to go another 5 ½ minutes like they planned. The audience proved they didn't belong in Dawn of the Dead, actually starting a Fukawa chant because they realized what a gutsy performance they were seeing. "I was glad for the audience to have realized Fukawa's need for encouragement. It's not like in America where you see a missed move and the crowd idiotically screams 'You fucked up!' Either way, Fukawa '98-'99 has shown incredible heart and the proof is her willingness to go on from here," wrote Keith. Luckly, the Japanese fans aren't that pathetic, and don't engage in pointless mindless chants like that. If there is a point to that chant, I'd like someone to explain it. I mean, you get a bunch of marks and smarks together and they think they belong on one of those lame Secrets of Pro Wrestling shows because they are able to pick out the most obvious blown spots. It's like, when 90% of the building realizes there was a mistake, what do you want a fucking medal for being one of the 90%? Not to mention 2 seconds later they'll expect the guy they were just trying to humiliate to be motivated to continue "killing himself for their entertainment." With some of these people, you have to wonder if the only remorse they would feel if someone did die doing a stunt for them is that they wouldn't be able toscream "You fucked up!" at them anymore. Then again, there will always be others who will make mistakes because even the best are not perfect, and the completely talentless Psucko Sid will be around for them to mindlessly mark out for, well, that is if he actually shows up. Candy did all her big spots, but kept the pace slow because Fukawa was really hurting. Fukawa couldn't go with the rolling German suplex that was probably supposed to lead to the finish, so Candy settled for a German suplex hold and Fukawa went back on offense. Candy soon cut her off and did her rolling German suplex followed by her powerbomb for the win. An unfortunate match because we've seen what these two are capable of, and this certainly wasn't it. Keith: This match was disappointing because of the accident. Right up to the accident, everything seemed pretty crisp, so the potential was there. Afterwards, Fukawa's head swelled up for a few weeks as you can see on later shows where she has "raccoon" eyes. Also, I heard she was prone to receiving black eyes after that incident. Miko: I expected more from this match. Fukawa mostly worked submissions, while Candy did her more acrobatic spots. I can't remember seeing any woman in Japan try the same spot twice in a row, and miss it badly both times. It looked really painful each time. Candy stood on Fukawa's back while the ref checked her to make sure she wasn't hurt too badly. Probably because of the injury, the match seemed to break down a couple of times with neither being sure of what to do. No better than ** Special thanks to: Chris Martinez, Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules!, & Miko Kubota - Michiku Pro 17:57
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