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Hikari Fukuoka & Rieko Amano vs. Dynamite Kansai & Cuty Suzuki |
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This match had the work and the spots, but lacked the psychology and, of course, the heat. Hikari & Amano made the match, but Cuty was actually good here. In particular, Cuty's timing of when to use her spots was right on. Kansai went with the flow instead of shaping the match, which is unfortunately what she did the entire year. As is almost always the case, this made absolutely no sense because she was the only one in the match that has a grasp of psychology. Kansai was good here, but the point is that she could have been so much more. In KAORU-esque fashion, Hikari did her moonsault off the top to the floor 20 seconds into the match. One cool spot was Cuty doing a diving footstomp off the shoulders of Kansai, who was sitting on the top rope. Cuty eventually pinned Amano, which was the worst result they could have done because Cuty is the one retiring soon and Amano is still the one fighting to prove she belongs in the big matches. Keith: I wish Rieko would focus her attack more, but other than that I'm usually pleased with her work. They did an interesting storyline in the match at one point where Fukuoka & Amano essentially cut Kansai off from Cuty. This made sense because Fukuoka & Amano are smaller, and Amano doesn't have that much credibility against Kansai in a one on one situation. It allowed Rieko and Hikari to hit a variety of spots and look somewhat credible in double teaming Kansai. In turn, Kansai didn't lose credibility by selling for them. In addition, she didn't have to fill in her "share" of the spots, being that she's somewhat limited offensively. This portion of the match allowed us to give Rieko and Hikari a much better chance of defeating Kansai and Cuty. Hikari and Rieko did all the work, while Kansai and Cuty sold. Overall, it was a good booking strategy because everyone came out looking fairly strong, especially with Kansai and Cuty eventually getting the pin as the "veteran" team of the two, and the actual wrestling was better because Hikari and Amano got more offense in. Special Thanks to: Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules! 22:53
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