|
|
TWF Sekai Joshi Senshuken
Jiai: Kyoko Inoue vs. Lioness Asuka 1/24/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1,500/1,000) From Jd' #36 4/14/99 |
|
|
As always, Lioness wreaked havoc with every object she could find a way of turning into a weapon. She dragged Kyoko all over the building, and threw everything at her including the ringside table. With the exception of a few rest holds that killed the momentum, it was a fast-paced all action match. It was similar to their previous matches, but they were great matches so it's hard to complain about that. "Even though Lioness used a lot of moves that involved tables here, unlike the DUD(ley) Boys she is able to come up with different table spots so the moves don't become stale as quickly," wrote James. The main difference was that Lioness' seconds, The Bloody & Fang Suzuki, were pissed that Lioness abandoned them for Aja Kong "Ego," Mayumi Ozaki, & LCO, so they helped their enemy, Kyoko, out. Lioness had new lackeys to interfere on her behalf though, Ozaki's understudies Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima. Although Nagashima might be a better wrestler than Bloody, she definitely didn't do as good a job of getting Lioness advantages as Bloody did. "I don't think it mattered that Sugar and Nagashima didn't help Lioness out much. The match was was one-sided enough that she didn't need a lot of assistance," wrote James. That's true, Kyoko came off worse here because she was getting a lot better help this time, and still couldn't win. In their previous matches, Kyoko only recieved a little bit of help, while Lioness got as much as she needed and then some. Lioness jumped Kyoko before the bell to get off to a quick start, but Bloody & Fang jumped in after 1:15, attacking Lioness so Kyoko could take control. "Given that they weren't going to use Kyoko or any other pushed outsiders for several months following this match, more should have been done to set up Fang and Bloody as serious opponents for Lioness. If they had beaten her down enough to enable Kyoko to take the advantage for more than 40 seconds, it would have been better. Really, someone like Kosugi should have helped out Kyoko rather than heels Bloody and Fang attacking heel Lioness," wrote James. Kosugi had no reason to side with Kyoko or go out of her way to get Lioness. Bloody & Fang had no love for Kyoko, but it was an opportunity to get revenge on Lioness for forsaking them in favor of more well known wrestlers in GAEA. You know I agree that they should have done something to make Bloody a credible opponent for Lioness, but Fang no one would buy Fang no matter how hard they tried to push her. Maybe Vince could get her over if she could do the people's bloodsuck, but she's Japanese, so even if she was a great talent WWF or WCW wouldn't push her. Although she's not as energetic or spectacular as she used to be, Kyoko has finally gotten over her weight gain to the point where she can at least hold up her end. "Kyoko was a lot better towards the end of 1998 than the had been at the start of the year, and at the end of 1997. The first Lioness vs. Kyoko match in April 1998 was basically all Lioness, with Kyoko not adding much to it at all. In this match, and some of her other matches from late 1998 onwards, for example vs. Aja from October, Kyoko did a lot more and looked like a better wrestler, even if she was largely dominated on this occasion," wrote James. The first match against Lioness was the first time in years that Kyoko was badly outclassed. I think it may have been a wakeup call because she's shown up for all her big matches since then. Even though she turns 37 on 7/28, Lioness is so perfect when it comes to execution and so modern in her offense that she never seems to age or get injured even though she's always been a spot machine. Speaking of which, she did a killer spot where she put Kyoko through a table with a diving footstomp to the floor. She also did a running high angle Ligerbomb onto a pile of chairs. "Definately. Lioness almost never screws anything up, comes up with new moves on a regular basis and has been able to have matches that are at least good against a variety of opponents over the last year or two, which is more than can be said about many of the other veteran women," wrote James. Lioness was definitely pushing the gimmick style today. Kyoko would try to get back to traditional wrestling, but since she couldn't do enough damage to Lioness to be able to exert her will upon her, these two just wound up killed each other with big moves involving props and weapons. Finally Lioness Liger bombed Kyoko off a table on the middle rope, but Kyoko just kicked out. This got a good pop because it was the finish of their 5/6/98 women's match of the year, and at this point I think only Kyoko and Jaguar had been able to kick out of it. Rather than sulk over her top finisher being unsuccessful, Lioness tried to raise the bar once again by German suplexing Kyoko off the top rope through a table. However, Kyoko was able to save herself, knocking Lioness off the top rope through the table in the process. Kyoko followed with her Niagara driver twice in a row for near falls. "This would have been an ideal finish for the match, as Kyoko would have effectively beaten Lioness at her own game, leaving an opening for a rematch where Lioness takes the title back," wrote James. Kyoko signaled to the crowd that she was going to do a third, but Lioness spewed poison mist in her face then pinned her with a spinning high kick. This finish wasn't really fulfilling after all the killer spots, but both women were on top of their game today and gave us another really strong spot oriented match. This might have been the best match of their series if they had come up with a more convincing way to close the door on Kyoko's title reign, but nonetheless it was a strong contender for women's match of the year. "Considering that Jd' referee's generally refuse to count pins that come as a result of cheating, it's ridiculous that this fall was counted. It came off even worse when Kyoko didn't care enough to argue about it, and was more interested in shaking hands with the person that had basically 'stolen' a win from her," wrote James. Jd' has no real consistency in this regard. Tommy Ran is the only ref that refuses to count falls, but she seems to do it once a match to get involved, rather than to really be a "troubleshooting referee." I can see how the ref can be "distracted" and not know that objects being used led to the finish, but when someone face is suddenly green, the ref shouldn't assume that, in the heat of battle, they must have decided that going for the Nitohei look would be more beneficial than doing some offensive manuevers. Special thanks to: James Phillips- Japanese Women's Wrestling 18:59
|
|
