Issue 73 - 8/5/00 Toyota & Yuki vs. Inoues 3/21/95

100th WWWA Sekai Tag Oza Kettei Tournament Kesshosen: Manami Toyota & Blizzard Yuki vs. Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue 3/21/95 Osaka Jo Hall (8,500) From AJW WRESTLING QUEENDOM Osaka Bishin Okoku SUCCESS Commercial Tape

The winner of this match would become the 100th WWWA tag champions. Toyota & Yuki got to the final by beating the legends team of Lioness Asuka & Jaguar Yokota in the quarterfinals and Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda in the semifinals. Both matches were very good, but disappointing considering the great talent involved because they were evenly paced without that much hot action. Toyota & Yuki clearly saved it for the final though. Inoues got to the final by beating Suzuka Minami & Reggie Bennett in a match that was taken down by Reggie then Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida in a match that was good but not on the level of Aja & Yoshida's first round win over the ass kicker team of Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada. This was what we were waiting for all night. A fast-paced all action match that showed just how good they were when it came to work and spots. Well, I was waiting for some story, but that's another one. Anyway, it was a Toyota style match with Kyoko also standing out over Yuki & Takako mainly due to superior offense. The Inoue's dominated the match. Toyota & Yuki really didn't get any offense in until Toyota knocked Kyoko off the top rope to the floor at about 6:30 then did her missile kick to the floor where she hits each opponent with one foot. Toyota used her big moves on Kyoko; moonsault, sky high missile kick, and Japanese ocean cyclone suplex hold, but Takako bailed Kyoko out by making the save on the JOCS then pulling Toyota off the middle rope so Kyoko could comeback with her diving elbow attack. Takako used her nodowa otoshi off the top then destiny hammer, but Yuki made the save. That was really the story of the match, helping your partner out when she was in need to prolong the match and give your team a chance to comeback and win later on. At one point, Yuki kicked Kyoko a few times to try to save Toyota from being Niagara drivered, but Takako pulled her off and threw her down. However, Toyota turned the Niagara driver into her 2 kaiten ebigatame (roll up the opponents body into a sunset flip), and Yuki held Takako's leg so she couldn't save, but Kyoko was in good health so she was just able to kick out. Yuki tried to cut Kyoko off on the top rope with a nadare shiki no brainbuster, but Kyoko turned it into a powerslam for a near fall. Toyota saw Yuki in trouble, so she came in and did a version of the doublearm suplex. However, Kyoko avoided their double diving headbutt and the Inoue's applied their versions of the STF (Takako a regular one and Kyoko her spider nest one). Takako took care of Toyota outside of the ring while Kyoko used her lariat for a near fall on Yuki. Toyota got back in the ring in time to break up Kyoko's near fall from her diving elbow drop, but Takako soon had Toyota right back on the floor where she took her out with a destiny hammer off the apron. This allowed Kyoko to Niagara driver Yuki with no one to make the save, which meant it was curtains for Yuki. This match was so good purely because of the work. They did so many nice looking and difficult spots, with the execution being right on. It could have been more dramatic if it was longer because you didn't expect the final to end before 12 minutes, and also because you were always waiting for the big Toyota & Yuki comeback that never occurred. Kyoko & Takako were never in any real danger of losing because Toyota & Yuki were never in control for long enough stretches to get anything but a flash pin, and this isn't the kind of match or matchup where a flash pin was likely. The fans did get into it and there were a lot of nice near falls that they made look credible even if in your head you didn't really believe it could possibly end here. The final was the best match of the tournament, which is the way it should be. 14:49