Quebrada

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

2/15/97

All Japan/New Japan Apparent Working Deal?

In shocking news, Weekly Pro Wrestling is reporting an apparent working deal between All Japan and New Japan. Mitsuhara Misawa and three other AJ workers met Shinya Hashimoto and three other NJ workers at a carnival. The New Japan and All Japan workers were eating in the same place, although they had separate tables. Hashimoto went over to the All Japan table to ask if he could get some food then everyone started talking. The meeting was supposedly short, but I guess the guys got along well. Anyway, New Japan workers are now supposed to appear on All Japan’s Tokyo Dome show. The match that’s being discussed is Misawa vs. Hashimoto, which could be really good. I’m very skeptical about this because Baba doesn’t get along with Choshu or Inoki. Choshu’s interference with the relationship between AJ and UWF-I last year is one of many reasons Baba dislikes him. In addition, Baba is very prudent when it comes to interpromotional deals. This article at least proves that the younger generation of AJ and NJ workers doesn’t show hostility toward one another. It’s the 25th anniversary of both promotions and they want to run a lot of major shows, so I guess anything is possible. Another rumor that I’m even more skeptical about has New Japan workers showing up at AJ’s 3/1 Budokan Hall show. If AJ and NJ work together, FMW will most likely remain the only promotion that nobody works with. *The promotions didn't work together until 2000*

EMLL

The tour of Japan may have got off to a good start, but it had an abysmal finish. The show in Kyoto drew an unimpressive 800 fans, but more importantly the 2/6 show scheduled for Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gym drew a horrendous 1,350. If you remember, Komazawa is the same place FMW drew nearly 8,000 fans on 12/11. Ticket sales were so bad for the 2/6 show that they put the show in the smaller gym and papered the crowd. Once again, it was proven that Korakuen Hall has the hardest of the hardcore fans. It’s really sad that the best attendance on the whole tour was Korakuen Hall though because that’s such a small building and it didn’t even have the best lineup. Obviously EMLL didn’t expect this or they wouldn’t have booked the Komazawa show since Komazawa must have a higher overhead. Apparently the Lutteroths, who own EMLL, have a big port development deal in Ensenada. The wrestling shows in Japan were only secondary to the business deal and the businessmen EMLL is dealing with paid for the shows. I guess this tour proves that fame in wrestling is generally a national thing. A Santo vs. Casas main event should be able to draw anywhere because both are huge stars and great workers, but obviously their fame in Mexico doesn’t mean anything in Japan or the U.S. for that matter. Santo and Casas didn’t exactly pop a crowd at the World Wrestling Peace Festival either. This is by no means a cut on Santo or Casas, but I think the hardcore fans sometimes lose touch of reality. The fact that I would pay for Santo vs. Casas doesn’t translate to the average wrestling fan. The average fan has possibly never heard of them or more likely doesn’t know enough about them to be willing to pay to see them. With few recognizable names and no tv in Japan, it’s tough to garner much interest in your product. If you don’t believe that Shawn Michaels vs. Sid could draw just as poorly in Japan or Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto could draw just as poorly in Mexico, you probably should. As for the actual wrestling on the 2/6 card, Casas defeated Santo with La Magistal in only 10:44. As I feared, by only doing 1 fall much, much of the matwork and building was probably eliminated. In the only title change of the tour, Mariko Yoshida of AJW won the CMLL Women’s title from Lady Apache in 9:36 also with La Magistal. Two of the most famous wrestlers in history, Satoru Sayama and El Santo were honored on the show. Sayama was honored for past achievement in Japan and Mexico while Santo (obviously not present) was honored on the 13th anniversary of his death.

FMW

If you are interested in getting a hold of the 12/11 Komazawa show, I’d advise against purchasing it from RF. The version RF has been selling only has 4 matches. The women’s matches, including the Megumi Kudo vs. Shinobu Kandori bloodbath are not included on the version he’s been selling at ECW shows. Then again, I'd advise against purchasing any Japan stuff from RF unless you like watching smears.

FMW Guru Zach Arnold has provided results from the current FMW tour:

Nanjyo vs. Ichihara was supposed to be the best match on the tour. The women have been going long every night since FMW wants the focus on them since Kudo is retiring in 2 ½ months. I’m not thrilled that the lousy Quinones cronie Crypt Keeper is working here again. That basically ensures one bad match on every show. The Bret Hart wanna be Koji Nakagawa is also working again. Don’t worry, President Arai will still be doing all the booking. Gladiator, Oya, Crypt Keeper, and Head Hunters have gone over every night. I think Gladiator is being buttered up before his loss to Tanaka. Tanaka has been losing every night, so this may be an underdog deal.

JWP

In very unfortunate news, top star Dynamite Kansai has health problems. Apparently there’s been something wrong with her internal organs for the past six months, but they don’t know what it is yet. She has to go back to the doctors soon. At that time, they will decide whether she can continue to work. It must be serious because she’s already mentioned retirement. This is a crushing blow to JWP since aside from being the best working big woman in wrestling, she’s one of their only two draws. Hopefully it won’t be that serious. *Okay, I was a bit delusional rating Kansai ahead of Kong, but Kansai is one of those wrestlers that rarely got her due because most people didn't see that many JWP shows. Kansai gave one of her best performances in losing the title to Hikari Fukuoka that April, but very few top performances after that and within two years was no longer even a good worker. The Kansai most people are familiar with from GAEA is not even a shell of the one that was JWP's top star up until this point. How much of this was due to health and how much to time catching up with her, I'm not sure.*

New Japan

Antonio Inoki has some sort of shoot tournament planned for the June show in Mexico. The idea is for Inoki and Satoru Sayama to host an "Ultimate Vale Tudo Tournament." They will also act as coaches for the wrestlers who will meet Ultimate fighters. Inoki is looking for Sayama, Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Yugi Nagata, and Kazuyuki Fujita to be the key wrestlers involved. Dan Severn, who has worked for New Japan before is rumored to be the first Ultimate fighter involved. Oleg Taktarov’s name has also been mentioned. *This never happened, but Inoki started promoting "shoots" in Japan instead featuring protégé Naoya Ogawa*

New Japan sold out Sapporo Nakajima Sport Center on 2/8 and 2/9. On 2/8, Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura retained the IWGP Tag Titles by defeating Keiji Muto & Junji Hirata in the main event. Fujinami is working with a broken finger, but they decided against a quick title change. Riki Choshu, Kensuke Sasaki, & Satoshi Kojima defeated the NWO team of Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiro Saito, & Marcus Bagwell in 12:16 when Kojima pinned Saito. The NWO team of Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Hashimoto & Manabu Nakanishi when Chono pinned Nakanishi in 12:12. The NWO’s push isn’t quite as big here since the weak links have already suffered a loss. You could also take this as NJ not making the same mistakes as WCW. Although I guess the last statement is obvious since NJ will never do anything 1/10th as horrible as Souled Out. The wrestling highlight of this show was most likely Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto beating Jushin Liger & El Samurai in 12:16 when Kanemoto pinned Samurai. Kanemoto defeating Liger’s team also gives him more credibility for the title match. The 2/9, had a classic main event where Liger retained the J Crown by pinning Otani in 27:14. I can’t wait to see that match because Otani is even better than he was when they had their ****3/4 match 11 months ago. How could the two best juniors in the world not have a great match when they are given that much time? *They did a junior version of the 1/20/97 Misawa vs. Kobashi and based on TV it looked like it could be the best junior match ever but I've still never seen it in complete form* The other potentially great match, TAKA Michinoku vs. Kanemoto, had the disappointing ending of Kanemoto tiger suplexing TAKA at 14:41. This was for a shot at the J Crown on 2/16 and there’s really no words to describe how badly I want to see TAKA against Liger or how great that match could be. Koji is very good, but he’s the worst of the four. Kanemoto vs. Liger on 2/16 should be good to very good, but it almost has to be a letdown from the Otani match. *Liger vs. Koji turned out to be tremendous as well - better than Liger vs. TAKA would have been - and starting a streak of great matches between the two* The most exciting thing about the 2/16 Sumo Hall show is the return of Shiro Koshinaka. Koshinaka’s the best worker in the world when it comes to elevating the level of his opponent and working to their strengths. Shiro takes on the Great Muta with the storyline that Muta beat Shiro when Muta’s debuted the gimmick in NJ 7-years ago. Shiro will assure that Muta’s biggest efforts come after lacing up his boots as opposed to during. Fujinami & Kimura will defend the IWGP Tag Titles against Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi. This should be lousy. Fujinami & Kimura are too old, Kojima has no charisma, and Nakanishi was Kurosawa. The main event where Hashimoto defends the IWGP Title against Yamazaki could be one of the best NJ heavyweight matches of the year. This will be a super stiff realistic looking match. *Their '98 G1 Climax match is by far their best, but this one is certainly underrated*

RESULTS FROM SUMO HALL JUST IN! Hashimoto retained the IWGP Title. Fujinami & Kimura retained the IWGP Tag Titles. Liger retained the J Crown by soundly defeating Kanemoto. Muta defeated Koshinaka.

Pancrase

HOOKnSHOOT has been reporting the split between Pancrase and Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den. The original dispute was between Pancrase and Shamrock over Ken not fulfilling his contract, the possibility of Ken working the U Japan show, President Ozaki violating Ken’s American booker position by going over Ken’s head and signing 14 American’s, etc. I guess Pancrase was unprofessionally taking this out on the other Lion’s Den fighters. Guy Mezger will work the 2/22 show against Yuki Kondo and that will be the end of the relationship. This means Frank Shamrock, Vernon White, etc. are done with Pancrase. Austin Long, who trains in the Lion’s Den and fights on Jeff Osbourne’s HOOKnSHOOT shows was going to be the next Lion’s Den guy to debut with Pancrase, but he’s been sent home. Pancrase will be using the guys Ozaki signed behind Ken’s back as American talent. These guys are UFC alternates and other fighters of equal or lesser ability. Basically, these are guys with much less skill and technique than the Lion’s Den guys.

I guess I kind of blew the Yoshiko Takahashi story last week because I failed to touch on the importance his win has in Japan and failed to emphasize Ismail’s rulebreaking. Japanese fighters never defeat BJJ practitioners, so Takahashi’s win was either a first or very rare. Takahashi is over huge in Japan right now. This is probably an exaggeration, but he’s somewhat of a national hero. Takahashi’s win has raised the stock of Pancrase fighters worldwide. Takahashi sprained rather than broke his hand early in the match, which was part of the reason he was so cautious during the overtime. He had to have minor hand surgery, but should only miss 1 show.

Promo Azteca

The latest lineup on the constantly changing 2/21 show at Tijuana Auditorio Municipal has La Parka, Konnan, & ? vs. Los Hermanos Dinamitas and Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Hijo Del Santo. Santo vs. Rey Jr. should be a great match. Even though Rey has an injured knee, this could easily top **** if it’s booked right. Caras won’t do any of the extreme stuff, so there’s no chance of hiding his poor work rate. In fact, I guess he doesn’t want to sell much of anything these days. Bob Barnett told me that Vampiro and Caras had a fight in the ring because Caras wouldn’t sell or take bumps for him. Vampiro, Rey Misterio Jr. and "Super Porky" Brazo de Plata are booked as a team in Guadalajara. Looks wise, that’s about as weird of a combination as you can get.

RINGS

Apparently Akira Maeda is looking to do a U.S. PPV. The great reasoning behind this seems to be that his rival Masakatsu Funaki and Pancrase did it, so why can’t he? To quote Dave Meltzer, "Hey, anyone can do anything if they’re willing to lose enough money." Since RINGS is predominately worked, they would actually have more appeal in the U.S. than Pancrase. Works are more exciting to the average fan because they are more dramatic and contain high spots. Right now, RINGS has two fighters that could be marketable in the U.S. The first is Kimo, who was recently signed. The other would be Maurice Smith, who just scored a huge upset by defeating world class kickboxer Jerome LeBanner at the last K-1 show. Smith was one of the great kickboxing champions, but he largely left the sport some time ago to work for the shoot offices in Japan. He had some big money worked matches with the various shoot offices, generally putting over the top star. He’s lost main event matches to Maeda, Funaki, etc. Smith was considered washed up by many, but with the Conan Silviera upset at EFC 3 and the LeBanner upset I guess he’s more than proved everyone wrong. Of course, beating LeBanner in K-1 has no correlation to a buy rate in the U.S. They are trying to get Dan Severn as a regular performer. Severn was offered $10,000 for a match with Maeda, but he said the timing wasn’t right. That would be a major match, so I’d assume he’d make less per match if he worked regularly. Even $10,000 per match doesn’t sound that great for him when you consider that RINGS only runs one show a month. Since UFC has a non-compete clause in their contracts, Severn wouldn’t be able to appear on a PPV for RINGS (or any other UFC competitor for that matter) unless he left UFC. Don’t get me wrong, RINGS could put on a good PPV. They have two of the best workers in the world in Volk Han and Kiyoshi Tamura. I’m trying to be realistic and I don’t expect them to sustain a buy rate or garner a lot of interest. UWF-I and Pancrase were already unsuccessful with better products, so why would this be any different?

WAR

Tarzan Goto joined WAR on February 12. Goto appeared at WAR’s show and challenged Genichiru Tenryu to a match. When Koji Kitao, who’s been opposing Tenryu in the headline feud, heard this he got Goto to join his group. So now it will be Kitao, Nobukazu Hirai, and Goto feuding with Tenryu and Nobutaka Araya. I guess ** isn’t out of the question. Kitao said more wrestlers are about to join his group. With Goto involved, one would expect his cronies Akihito Ichihara and Mr. Gannosuke to join, but I don’t see that happening because they appear to be happy working FMW.

Tape Watching

I saw some more new AJW stuff this week. The first tape was a commercial tape from 10/6/96 at Nagoya Aiichi Gym. The opener was Sayo Endo & Miho Wakizawa defeat Nana Takahashi & Yachiyo Kawamoto via Endo’s jackknife cradle. It was basically a nothing match with Endo going the whole way for her team and doing all the offense. AJW Rookie of the Year Momoe Nakanishi vs. Yuka Shiina was good for what it was. They obviously didn’t do much, but at least it built and had solid execution. Tomoko Watanabe & Kaoru Ito defeated Genki Misae & Yoshiko Tamura in an average match when Tomoko used her screw driver on Tamura. The young girls looked decent here. Tamura used a German suplex and bodyscissor victory roll to get two consecutive near falls on Tomoko. The youngsters were credible enough to get some pops, which is good. Mima Shimoda, Toshiyo Yamada, & Etsuko Mita beat Chaparrita ASARI, Rie Tamada, & Yumi Fukawa when Shimoda Tiger suplexed ASARI at 14:41. This was a good exciting match. ASARI, Tamada, & Fukawa are so small that Mita looks huge compared to them. Due to the size advantage, Mita was throwing them around by their hair with ease and Yamada did a super fast snap suplex. Tamada looked good in this match and we may have something here after all. The highlight was a sequence where Shimoda toped the whole opposition, Mita toped two of them, and ASARI cross body plancha’d the whole pile. This match built, had good heat, and lots of well-executed high spots. ASARI stole the show. ***1/2. Kumiko Maekawa beat Yumiko Watanabe via unanimous decision in a boring 5-round shoot kickboxing match. Takako Inoue defended her IWA Title by pinning Mariko Yoshida in 23:00 after her Destiny Hammer (I’ve also seen this called Takako Panic) finisher. Uncharacteristically, Takako did a lot of brawling. Maybe she doesn’t want Mayumi Ozaki to be the only evil beauty idol. Unfortunately, it was Mutaesque brawling and it hurt the match. Takako dominated the 1st half of the match, as if Yoshida was a rookie. Yoshida bled. The match really picked up in the second half with both using their signature moves and lots of near falls. Yoshida did a spot that I’ve never seen before where she countered a bodyslam with a Wakigatamae, but instead of going to the mat and trying to get a submission, she quickly turned the Wakigatamae into La Magistral. ***. Kyoko Inoue pinned Yumiko Hotta with her Niagara Driver at 19:13. Kyoko whipped Hotta into the corner and DDT’d her on her head off the second. Hotta seemed groggy and they went to rest holds, so she was probably legitimately shaken up. The second half of the match was great with both using their signature spots, but despite the stiffness they couldn’t get any heat. It had the usual Hotta stiffness, was fairly realistic, and built well, but the execution on some of the spots wasn’t awesome considering what they were doing though. ***1/2. Manami Toyota defender her WWWA Title pinning Aja Kong via Tiger Suplex in 21:07. This was the typical great match between these two. Toyota blew a springboard early, but it wasn’t too bad because she landed fine on the ring apron, climbed the rope and did the cross body. The early portion was slow with Aja dominating. Aja was tremendously stiff. Aja piledrove Toyota out of the ring then ran and stiffed Toyota in the head with a table, which seemed to hurt Toyota legit. They exchanged palm blows until Aja’s stiff blows put Toyota down. Toyota made a comeback by countering a press slam with a dropkick and using a series of missile dropkicks. Toyota tried a springboard plancha, but Aja kicked her in the stomach. Aja went to the second rope, but Toyota climbed the ropes and dropkicked her to the floor. Toyota proceeded to put Aja on a table and do her springboard somersault plancha. The unbreakable table didn’t give an inch though and Toyota hit the floor hard. Toyota invented a great new move (although not well executed) where she has her opponent on the top rope facing the crowd and she somersaults off the top rope-hooking her opponent’s arms with her legs-into a powerbomb. It’s basically a Die Hard where she uses her legs rather than her arms. After a couple reversals, Toyota tried a bodyscissor victory roll but Aja wheelbarrel suplexed her. Aja for her reverse elbow off the 2nd, but Toyota Japanese Ocean’d her for a near fall. Aja leveled Toyota with her huracan and went for the pin, but Toyota bridged out. Toyota used a belly to back, but was too exhausted to go for the pin. Aja went for another huracan, but Toyota blocked it and Tiger suplexed her for the win. Awesome match with lots of great counters and transitions to go along with the stiffness, build, and psychology. ****1/2.

Next up was AJW TV from 11/24/96 taped 11/21 in Kobe. Genki Misae, Sayo Endo, & Nana Takahashi beat Yuka Shiina, Yumi Fukawa, & Momoe Nakanishi in a dull match. Everyone is limited, but when they do something they do it well. The finish was really bad. Misae back body dropped Shiina then tried to pin both arms to the mat. Shiina kicked out, so Misae pinned both arms to the mat again and won. Rie Tamada pinned Kumiko Maekawa with her Dragon suplex in 9:59 to win the All Japan Women’s championship. Maekawa’s kicks were slow and had little impact. She has a lot of fire, but her execution here was unimpressive. Tamada is a total Toyota wanna be now, which I guess is okay since you may as well copy the best. This was really sad for a title change. *3/4. They did three different segments to celebrate Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, Mita, & Shimoda’s 1st decade in wrestling. Mita, sporting a butch haircut but at least with much more natural eyebrows, was unrecognizable in the old segments. The funniest part was footage from a bootcamp like training facility where they were throwing logs to each other. They also had them singing, showed old match footage, etc. Tomoko Watanabe pinned Toshiyo Yamada in 11:39 with her screw driver. Extremely disappointing match with no build at all. Nothing happened early and then they did a couple of their favorite moves and it ended. The highlight was Tomoko throwing Yamada into the announcers and the female announcer hitting the male announcer to get him off of her. **. ASARI, Mita, & Shimoda defeated Yoshida, Ito, & Tamura when ASARI pinned Yoshida in a flying huracanrana at 18:00. This was the best match on the show. It was a highspot fest with great execution and near falls. The highlight was Shimoda, Mita, ASARI, and Yoshida doing four consecutive dives. ***3/4. Toyota & Kyoko defeated Aja & Hotta in 20:05 when Toyota Japanese Ocean’d Aja. This was billed as a best four match or in other words, the top for women in the promotion. Toyota came up short her springboard somersault plancha and wound up kicking Hotta and landing badly on her head and back. The match kind of stopped while they made sure she was ok. What aired was good, but too much was edited out. ***1/2.

AJW TV from 12/14/96 was from the major year end show on 12/8 at Tokyo Sumo Hall. The early matches were edited down to about five minutes each, so the rating might not be indicative of the actual match. Rie Tamada retained her All Japan Womens title beating Chikako Shiratori of Jd’ with a Dragon suplex in 10:27. The execution and transitions weren’t impressive, but it was fast paced and exciting. *1/4. Chaparrita ASARI retained her WWWA Super lightweight Title pinning Fusayo Nouchi of JWP in 14:34 with a new version of the small package. Both did cross body planchas. ASARI missed a facing forward Sky Twister Press, which is an awesome new move. This had lots of hot moves including Nouchi using a gutwrench superplex, ASARI a super Frankensteiner off the top, etc. It even had great heat. Unfortunately they edited so much out. ***3/4. In a shoot kickboxing bout, Yoko Takahashi of Jd’ beat Sayo Endo via decision after 3 rounds. Endo’s punches were slow swooping blows with no snap. She was dominated and it wasn’t like Takahashi is Andy Hug. Aya Mitsui won a unanimous 5-round decision over Maekawa in a Muay Thai rules shoot match. They aired the last round and it was very exciting. Maekawa hit a great front kick. The Japanese fans booed the decision, which is an uncommon occurance, so Maekawa may have been jobbed. In a Vale Tudo rules shoot match, Ito defeated someone named Maliko with a cross arm breaker in :51. In the ill-fated rematch of the U*tournament final, Rosina Elina defeated Hotta via cross arm breaker in 4:25 of a Vale Tudo Rules shoot match. It started out cautiously with both feeling each other out. Hotta was doing well boxing Elina. Hotta made the mistake of throwing a kick, which Elina caught and tackled her. Elina then worked the arm and was soon able to apply the cross armbreaker. Hotta was near the ropes, but in a legit match you’re not able to fight off a submission like that and struggle to the ropes. Kansai of JWP & Aja defeated Takako & Yoshida when Kansai splash mountained Takako at 19:15. Takako & Yoshida did simultaneous topes. Aja even did a tope. Kansai brutalized Takako for 3-4 minutes before finally splash mountaining her for the win. This had great heat, build, stiffness, and near falls. ****. The main event was Toyota vs. Kyoko which I have reviewed in full at the end of the column.

Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue WWWA World Title 12/8/96 Sumo Hall Match Review

After a short feeling out process, Toyota jumped off the top with an arm drag. Toyota tried to do a victory roll like maneuver into a cross arm breaker, but Kyoko wouldn’t go down. Toyota countered Kyoko’s press slam with a dropkick. Toyota whipped Kyoko into the ropes, but Kyoko springboarded off the 2nd with a reverse elbow. Kyoko whipped Toyota into the ropes, but Toyota springboarded off the top with a reverse cross body. Toyota tried her missile dropkick, but Kyoko stepped back, caught Toyota’s legs, and did her giant swing. Instead of finishing the swing with a throw, Kyoko applied the Boston crab. Kyoko caught Toyota off the ropes with a fall away slam. Kyoko hit a DDT. Kyoko applied the Camel Clutch. Toyota got the first near fall of the match with her rolling cradle. Toyota went to the 2nd rope, but Kyoko got up and belly to back suplexed her. Kyoko went to the top, but Toyota knocked her off the top to the floor with a front kick. Toyota went to the top for a plancha, but Kyoko basically Rocket Launchered her to the floor. Kyoko whipped Toyota into the security rail then clotheslined her over it. Back in the ring, Toyota rolled up Kyoko’s body into a sunset flip for a near fall. Toyota went for her moonsault, but caught a pair of knees. Toyota ducked a clothesline and back body dropped Kyoko over the top rope. Toyota reduced the match by slipping on the top rope while trying the springboard plancha. She recovered enough to half hit the move, but it looked bad. Toyota put Kyoko on a table and went for a springboard, but lost her balance on the top rope. Toyota backflipped back into the ring ala Owen Hart reversing an arm bar, ran off the ropes, and this time hit a springboard somersault plancha, which bent the unbreakable table. Her balance wasn’t even that good on that one, but the real problem was Kyoko had to lie on the table too long. Toyota really needs to cut down on the springboard moves. She motions to crowd and gets a good response before attempting them, but then she screws up the springboard. In unedited form, you could most likely justify ***** for this match if it wasn’t for the blown springboard spots. Toyota tried a Tiger suplex, but Kyoko got to the ropes. Kyoko reversed an Irish whip, but Toyota reversed it again and rather than let Kyoko go she pulled her back and Tiger suplexed her for a 2 3/4 count. Toyota went to the top, but Kyoko jumped on the 2nd and flying headscissored her for a near fall. Kyoko went to the top for her patented reverse elbow, Toyota stopped her and climbed to the top. With both standing on the top rope, Toyota invented an incredible move that I’ll call the Super Die Hard with legs for lack of a better term. Kyoko kicked out of this at 2 9/10. Toyota hit her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex for another 2 9/10 count. The selling in this match was much longer than the typical fast-paced AJW match. Toyota and Kyoko were even dragging each other up, so they could keep some pace yet the moves would not only be sold but no one would recover too quickly. Toyota tried for the Japanese Ocean, but Kyoko countered with a vicious clothesline-Toyota flip bump-for a 2 3/4 count. Kyoko tried for her Niagara Driver, but Toyota wouldn’t go up. Kyoko tried for a clothesline, but Toyota ducked. Then Toyota tried to roll up Kyoko’s body into a sunset flip, but Kyoko powerbombed her for a 2 ½ count. Kyoko hit the Niagara Driver for a 2 3/4 count. Kyoko went for another Niagara Driver, but Toyota turned it into a sunset flip for a 2 9/10 count. Toyota staggered to the top, but before she could jump Kyoko recovered and arm dragged her off the top for a near fall. Kyoko tried a powerslam off the top, but in the air Toyota turned it into a small package like maneuver for a near fall. That was another new invention. Toyota tried for the Japanese Ocean, but Kyoko countered it and clotheslined her. With Toyota leaning against the ropes, Kyoko hit two stiff clotheslines. Kyoko tried for a third clothesline, but Toyota ducked it and German suplexed her for a 2 ½ count. Toyota did two more German suplexes, getting a 2 ½ count on each. Kyoko got a 2 ½ count with her Niagara Driver. After a couple more counters, Toyota hit another Japanese Ocean for a near fall. Toyota put Kyoko on the 2nd and tried for the Japanese Ocean, but Kyoko jumped off. Toyota hit a front kick. The selling was even longer during this final portion. Kyoko got a near fall by countering the Japanese Ocean with a German suplex. Kyoko hit her Niagara Driver for a 2 9/10 count. Kyoko did a sloppy powerbomb. Kyoko invented the rack bomb (torture rack into a powerbomb or inverted Death Valley Driver) to win the WWWA title.

This was everything you could expect from these two. It had more building and psychology than their previous matches, but still had all the hot moves, creativity, great counters/ reversals, and near falls. One would assume the whole 24:52 match is even better than this 17:15 version. This was selected match of the year in AJW’s annual awards. ****3/4.