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THE FOURTH STARTIST: Rie Tamada (6-7-3) vs. Michiko Omukai (3-9) |
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Omukai was impressive here, carrying and really saving the match. On the other hand, Rie was more unimpressive than she usually was at this point, adding nothing to the match. She did some submissions, but was typically disinterested in matwork. My problem with her though was that she seemed to want to do as little as possible. I mean, she did the spots, but they didn't look credible because she took all kinds of shortcuts when it came to setting them up and putting them over. She almost reminded me of a little kid who wants to wrestle you so they can do some moves they think are cool, but quits after a minute or two because you aren't just laying down for them and letting them do anything they want. Then the kid whines in hopes of convincing you to just let them do the moves to you so they can "show them to you." In this match, Rie just didn't make the sequences look believable. She didn't want to fight to get anything off, she just wanted Omukai to let her do things with no resistance. They seemed to lack communication, so Rie decided well, if I whip Michiko into the ropes and don't make it look like I'm going to do a manuever, then she'll know she should make a comeback here. The result of this was that Omukai had to work a faster pace than she normally would to make up for the fact that Rie wasn't doing any acting. Overall, the match was pretty confused because the moves weren't logically ordered or chained together all that well. They attacked each other's bad shoulders, which was good. Rie's shoulder went out once again early in the match, which obviously wasn't good and certainly didn't help things. Still, Omukai made you think her shoulder was in a lot worse shape than Rie's was. Even though there was some focus on the shoulders, the match was very work oriented because that is the only way Rie wrestles. Omukai got more offense in than Rie and her kicks are much improved, so that helped the match a lot. I can tell I'm making the match sound worse than it really was, but there isn't really anything positive to say beyond what you could always say about the wrestling of these two. I think Omukai needed to win this match. Her record was just disgraceful and she should already have been rewarded for improving, especially when she was wrestling someone who hasn't made any real effort to improve in any way. Instead, they also went the distance. I'm always surprised to see two draws in a row if I'm watching any league but Pancrase. I like draws, but even with these short time limits, you really need wrestlers that are capable to pull them off. 15:00
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