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ZAP I & T vs. Yumiko Hotta & Miho Wakizawa |
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This was a very significant match in Wakizawa's career, as it was the first time she was this high on a card of a major show. It seemed to show that her winning the junior portion of JGP '98 meant something as far as how they were going to push her, but we should have known better. One problem was that once the leagues start working together, all the younger wrestlers are paired off, making it nearly impossible to escape junior status. It's almost like no matter how your own promotion pushes you, if you are young you are either going to be put against another junior or in a veteran vs. junior match where you'll lose and who knows how much the veteran will put you over. In Wakizawa's case, this wasn't so much of an issue because she's wasn't all that good yet and it's not like she was ready to graduate from junior level. However, there were plenty of women who were that good, but even today still aren't being taken seriously by the veterans. In any case, Wakizawa was put in the spotlight tonight, but after this is was back to fighting over the AJ Tag Titles with the other juniors. As you'd expect, Wakizawa was basically manhandled here, while Hotta, of course, more than held her own. The match was edited in such a disjointed fashion that it's hard to tell if it was any good. What aired was a series of well executed spots. In this format, I didn't find the match compelling at all. On one hand, it seemed good because there were a lot of nice spots. On the other hand, I was bored seeing seemingly every highlight of the ZAPs on offense revolved around the kendo stick. The fact that more than half of the semifinal was edited out doesn't exactly bode well for it's quality. Hotta's stick shots were actually stiffer than Ito's. The key to the match was the outside interference. First, Momoe interfered on the behalf of Hotta's team. Later, Takako came out when the ZAPs were in trouble and beat the ref and mainly Hotta with the kendo stick. This took Hotta out of the picture and allowed the ZAPs to come back and quickly put Miho away after a double team and Ito's diving footstomp. Hotta grabbed Takako's hair as she was walking away after the match, but I & T pulled Hotta off and Takako walked back to the locker room, ignoring the interviewer. What stood out in my mind was Wakizawa being tied in the corner with the chain around her neck because it reminded me of something the lowest form of life Shark Tsuchiya would unfortunately do to Megumi Kudo. At least the Zaps used the kendo stick on her rather than slicing her up with the kama. Thank god for small favors. Miko: This was not all that good. There was some decent wrestling, but a lot of poor brawling. I don't mind ZAPS as heels, but I dislike their lack of creativity. If they want to be garbage brawlers, they need to use a wider variety of gimmick spots. Not -every- heel spot has to involve the rod. Still, the ZAPS were the only wrestlers other than Kandori to get boos. Special thanks to: Miko Kubota - Michiku Pro 22:21 (9:19 aired) |
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