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TWF Sekai Tag Senshuken Jiai: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody |
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The best tag match in the history of the company. The matches in this feud just get better and better because Kosugi & The Bloody continue to improve. Kosugi & Bloody used to need to be carried by Jaguar & Lioness, but now they work quite well together and even better against the veterans. The thing that really stands out about this match was that it did as good a job of looking like it would have a decisive finish as perhaps any 60:00 draw I've seen. The pacing was ridiculously fast given the length, but as if they were still in their early 20's, Jaguar & Lioness never gassed. There weren't a ton of near falls that looked like they would be the finish, but everyone wrestled with a sense of urgency and there were enough near falls that the match "had to" end, especially with Jaguar acting like she was near dead seemingly forever. The match seemed to start slow in the GAORA version, but the longer and better SAMURAI version made it seem like it was a 60:00 sprint. The fast pace was definitely a plus overall, but they did so much to make it seem like it would have a finish that the match probably peaked about 3/4 of the way through and they just didn't save enough for the final section to top what they have already done. Jaguar & Lioness were just awesome in this match. They did so many great sequences, killer moves and well timed counters. The heel domination story, well simple, allowed the spots to have meaning, as did Jaguar's acting. Kosugi was not on their level, while Bloody kind of was in her own limited way. The match followed the typical Lioness vs. Jaguar pattern. Lioness, the killer heel, destroying the face and not selling for any sustained amount of time. Jaguar, the consummate face, getting battered (and bloodied) for long periods, but somehow managing to kick out and mount little comebacks after her clever counters. What was new here is that Bloody pretty much dominated Jaguar as well. There was even a spot where Bloody had Jaguar beat after a hyper speed locomotion German suplex hold, but Kosugi just made the save. If Jd' could have gotten anyone to watch their shows and react to them, Jaguar would have been the unquestionable master of this style match where she gets destroyed, but through sheer heart, will and determination, usually manages to hang on long enough to come back and pull out the win. Basically, Jaguar is the master of this from the wrestling and acting standpoint, but Atsushi Onita sold it at the box office and got all those fans that came to get behind him even though his in ring performances were nothing special. Anyway, Jaguar's acting is brilliant because she is so believable at looking like she's going to keel over from the king sized beating she's sustained. All the blood she lost in this match added to that effect. She believes in fast-paced all action matches, so she doesn't really sell for sustained lengths of time, but someone since to an extent she's always selling, it doesn't seem like she needs to put the moves over any longer than she does. Kosugi tried to follow Jaguar's lead in this regard, but she is still learning. Bloody tried to follow Lioness's lead as a heel in this match, but at this point she's much better as a worker than a cheater. The difference between the two lies in the believability. Lioness hits hard enough and acts intense enough to be totally believable. Bloody still has problems making solid contact when she hits people with weapons and doesn't act serious enough when she's supposedly being nasty. Her wrestling ability was ten times better here than it was at the start of 1998, so at this point she was one of the last people that deserves criticism. The most annoying spot was one that Lioness took part in as well, where Jaguar was hung in the tree of woe and all the heels gave her ganmen dropkicks. The problem was the heels were laughing while they were going this, and Fang either looked really goofy playing to the crowd or she was purposely making a mockery of playing to the crowd before doing a move. In any case, it wasn't exactly an Oz Academy beat down. This had all the big moves you'd expect and even a few different ones like Jaguar doing a moonsault off the top to the floor and Lioness putting a table on top of Kosugi then giving her a diving footstomp. Lioness did a lot of the same gimmick spots she used against Kyoko, including putting Jaguar in a chair and kicking her down the stairs. The draw was fine, but the final minute wasn't the greatest. Hechisera tried to hold Tommy Ran in the corner while Ryuna and Fang set up a table. Ran saw this, so she refused to count when Lioness Liger bombed Kosugi off the table. This was stupid because Lioness has used this move as a finisher before. Then Lioness did a Liger bomb, but didn't go for the pin even though she knew there was literally no time left. Instead, she did another Liger bomb, but the timekeeper seemed a second late in ringing the bell so Jaguar touched Lioness with her foot to give Ran an excuse to stop the count at 2+. Unfortunately, after sixty minutes of showing why she is the best ever and how much she wrestling she had left in her, Jaguar announced her impending retirement. Michael: The one thing I didn't like about this match was that after being out there for 60 minutes, Lioness and Bloody had "too much" energy during their post match attack on Jaguar and Kosugi. The best tag match in Jd' history? I'd bet my ass on it. Jason: Another excellent match, from what was shown it was very fast paced from where they started. Lioness and Bloody largely dominated Jaguar, who juiced after being piledriven on a chain. One great spot was Jaguar countering Lioness's Liger Bomb off the table with a huracan rana. This match was probably in the ****1/4 to ****1/2 range. The huracan rana counter was the best near fall in the match because it played off the finish of their 10/22/97 match and truly looked like it could be the finish once again. Special Thanks to: Michael Smith & Jason Higgs 60:00 (27:29 aired in SAMURAI version)
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