Issue 68C - 3/21/00 AJW 30TH ANNIVERSARY HALL OF FAME Commercial Tape 11/29/98

J typhoon: Nanae Takahashi & Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP) vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Rieko Amano (JWP team)

Amano really stood out with her recently bleached hair. Unfortunately she didn't stand out for her wrestling, not that she was bad. By all means, this match should have stolen the undercard, but it was a lot worse than you'd expect because no one was as good as they normally are. Takahashi logged too much ring time, and took the match down as she always seems to do. There were a lot of hot moves, and the work was good, but it was kind of sloppy and very lacking in the mental aspects. They did a lot of near finishes that would have come off a lot better if the match had heat, but it was women's wrestling in 1998, so heat was almost out of the question. Kuzumi pinned Miyaguchi in her Michinoku driver II. Michael: Takahashi isn't on the level of the JWP girls, but everyone looked good. Kuzumi's rolling German spot was seriously impressive, and her and Nanae's teamwork was decent. Some nice near falls, and a good finish. Miko: I thought this was a good, but not exceptional match. Everyone did their spots well. Amano found a lot of different ways to work into submissions, as always. Nanae is a step or two slower than the others, but at least used her bulk reasonably well. My only real complaint to this match is there was no real purpose to it. The wrestlers were out there to roll out their moves, but there was no real drama or story to it. James: This really fell flat. In a way, this was a bit like some of the matches from early '98 when the JWP girls went to Neo Ladies, in that they weren't performing anywhere near as well as they do "at home." The wrestling wasn't that great, but at least Tanny Mouse wasn't involved this time. I think they had more of an excuse in the matches against Neo because they were often singles matches. The JWP girls can't carry and some of the Neo wrestlers, Tanny and Shiina in particular, can't be carried. This was essentially a JWP match except it had Takahashi there to ruin it instead of Kana there to help make it good. The others are good enough that they should be able to do *** in spite of Takahashi. Even though Takahashi is not too good, there are ways to work her spots into the match so they help it rather than hurt it, but the other three didn't find them. Special thanks to: Michael Smith, Miko Kubota - Michiku Pro, & James Phillips- Japanese Women's Wrestling 15:54