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JWP Match: Tomoko Kuzumi & Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi & Kanako Motoya |
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This opening match was world better than it's counterpart on the AJW 30th Anniversary show, or for that matter anything on the AJW 30th Anniversary show. I felt bad for JWP that this was the opening match though because it insinuates that they are prelims. "Kuzumi, definitely, is a top star, but her positioning in JWP is so weak on the interpromotional shows. Considering that these four as the top of the JWP crop right now, you'd expect them to receive higher status on a show like this, which could've easily been used as a transition moment that lead from the old stars (e.g. Jaguar's retirement) to breeding a few new stars," wrote Keith. In JWP, these girls are anything but prelims. The reality though, is that right now a top star in JWP is not translating to a top star in women's wrestling. So we have four women that not only are pushed as (along with Kansai and Devil) the stars of JWP, but at this point were smoking every wrestler on the first half of the card, yet they are in the friggin' opening match. It's not until Aja & Yoshida go out there in match five that you find even one better performer, but JWP couldn't get by on work alone at this point and since this point the work has really tailed off. JWP needs to do whatever it takes to convince people that their wrestlers are the real deal, but instead they act like they aren't even convinced. "Aside from exhibiting the JWP talent and providing good filler material, I didn't see a point to this match. There were several points on this show which were used to plant the seeds for some future angles (e.g. Ozaki and Aja confering with Asuka, AJW vs. Neo), but there seemed to have been very little going on for this match to really help elevate the positions of these future stars on an important interpromotional show like this, except to say, 'Hey, here are some talented young ladies. Let's just show them off," wrote Keith. This is where GAEA and even LLPW and Jd' do a better job than the other leagues. I don't need to see a bunch of outside interference by talentless stiffs like Fang Suzuki, but you can't go out there and just work in every match. Unfortunately, since Ozaki left and Devil and Kansai gave up on any semblance of storyline and psychology, that's all you see in JWP these days. The problem starts with Hikari (before she retired) and goes right on down to Sai, with no exceptions. Every match can't have two people acting as if they'd like to kill each other, but when you have literally no rivalries (since the whole Kuzumi wanting to become a freelance bit was ended in stillbirth), it's hard as a fan to not think "what's the point?" As far as match quality goes, it was about what you'd expect from these four. As usual, it was steeped in work and spots, but was weak in the mental aspects. These four have so much experience against each other at this point that they are doing some excellent counters of each others big spots. In addition, they really have their timing down of their double teams, simultaneous spots, and saves. "If you could ignore the dead silence of the crowd, this was a hot opener. The spots were really good, typical of what you'd expect these four to be putting out these days. As Mike said, the mental aspects involved here were weak; the structuring of the match was very simple, one hot spot going into a bigger one, leading to a series of near falls at the end. But as Mike pointed out, these four are at the top of their game," wrote Keith. In this truncated version, the match was a real highlight reel. The only spot I didn't like was Kuzumi's nadare shiki no doublearm suplex because it took forever to set up. This brings to mind that Kuzumi had the best moves in this match, but also the worst execution. The best high spot was Kuzumi doing the Hokuto tope con hilo. Another spot that stood out because it's always good to see people figure out various ways to counter their opponent's finishers was Miyaguchi turning Kuzumi's Michinoku driver II into a cradle for a near fall. Later on, Miyaguchi was unable to counter the Michinoku driver II, so that was all she wrote for her. As always, I cringed when I saw Kuzumi do that move because she once again had trouble lifting her opponent, and I'm afraid that one of these days her opponent is going to wind up with a neck injury. Anyway, based on what aired it was at least a good match. Special thanks to: Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules!15:53 (6:16 shown) |
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