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Count 6 Woman Tag Match: Mayumi Ozaki & Cuty Suzuki & Plum Mariko vs. Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami & Chigusa Nagayo From JWP on WOWOW 1/15/94 THE STARS '94 Taped 1/9 Tokyo Korakuen Hall |
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| This is a great example of a gimmick match done right. One would think that these rules would cause the credibility of the finishers to take a big hit because they suddenly wouldn't even be good enough for 2 counts. However, these six went nearly 30 minutes of action packed, highly entertaining wrestling without killing off a single finisher. They did it by utilizing their submission skills, teasing big spots rather than rolling them out, and relying on their partners to make saves. This match was rich in story, containing so many little points and subtleties that added to the match. The pairings basically pitting the large established women against the small up and coming women. Note that Chigusa was the lowest ranked member of her team. People tend to be unaware of the fact that things weren't so easy for Chigusa when she came out of retirement. Back in 1993 and 1994, it wasn't like AJW was begging her to come and no sell Toyota for 15 minutes before making her submit to a move that's not even her finisher. It was more like the leagues treated her as a star, but she had to sell a lot for the new stars and while she didn't do many jobs, she certainly did a lot more then than she did in 1998. The fans were certainly harder on her than the leagues, as the fan base had really changed since she retired in 1989. The schoolgirls were now grown up and could care less about wrestling, while the guys who resented Chigusa because she was the idol of the schoolgirls were now the ones buying the tickets. Getting back to the size part, this match was built around the fans hoping the smaller team could pull off the upset. For the most part, they were dominated, but they were given enough that with these rules the fans still believed they had a legitimate chance of winning. Actually, I think this would have been the perfect time for one of the smaller women to go over because the larger woman would have the natural out that she was only down for 2. Anyway, one of the reasons it wasn't hard to believe that Ozaki's team could win is that Ozaki displayed her typical fearless in your face attitude. 1 Even though she isn't that much larger than the totally uncredible Damn Clown Bolshoi, Ozaki has never had a problem making you think she can take any opponent at any time. That fact was key here because they were building to the Ozaki vs. Chigusa street fight that was taking place two days later in Osaka. Cuty doesn't have this kind of attitude at all at this point and her offense was always weak, so, as usual, she didn't seem very credible even though she probably had more wins than Ozaki at this point. Plum, who was in the early stages of the biggest push of her career, which was, of course, cut short by injury, was still developing her more aggressive and intense attitude. This attitude didn't show up enough in this match, but probably peaked in the Chigusa match the next month because the opponent and the style of match they were doing gave her the best opportunity to act in that manner. The opening was excellent, with Oz's team attacking right out of the handshake and trying to pin Chigusa, including Plum hitting her Frankensteiner. Fourty five seconds into the match, Kansai's team all hit lariats and simultaneously press slammed the opposition 2 to make you think they were taking over already. However, Ozaki's team avoided simultaneous diving footstomps and German suplexed the opposition at the same time. Kansai's team took over and tried to win already, but Ozaki's team was poised to jump in the ring at any moment to break a pin attempt. This built to a spot where Oz tried to save Plum from Devil's submission, but Chigusa was ready to jump in to prevent a save. Thus, she cut Oz off after one kick that failed to make Devil break and and leveled Ozaki with kicks. Later on, they did a similar spot where Oz tried to save Cuty from Kansai's sasorigatame (scorpion deathlock/sharpshooter), but again after one kick that failed to break the hold she was cut off by Chigusa. This time Chigusa put her in a sasorigatame as well, and when Plum came in to save Cuty, Devil picked her up in press slam position 3 and dropped her on the metal turnbuckle. Chigusa finally couldn't punk Ozaki on a save because she was in the ring wrestling. However, Kansai came in instead and Oz ran away like a mouse running from a cat then they flipped each other off. Plum then came in to save Cuty, but Kansai gave her a blistering kick to the thigh and Plum just looked at Kansai then walked off kind of pouting while she held her thigh as if to say it's not worth it. Cuty and later Plum started making little comebacks for near finishes, but still they were largely dominated. Chigusa and Ozaki had an argument while Kansai had Cuty in a facelock, so Kansai came over to kick Ozaki. It was hard to tell if Ozaki ducked the kick or Kansai just missed it, but, in any case, it just grazed Ozaki's hair. Ozaki pretended she was going to sell it by holding her head, but then Ozaki acted like she was alright, patting her head say it barely touched her. Kansai fired up for her Splash Mountain at 18:30, but Ozaki did what would become one of her requisite counters and Plum missile kicked Kansai in the back. Ozaki's team was finally in control, and they mounted their offense through double and triple team spots. The problem with some of the double and triple team spots was that even though you could see Ozaki calling them, Plum & Cuty still didn't always perfectly time them. Plum got her hizajujigatame on Chigusa, and she was really working the hold and making the facials to show she was putting everything into it. 4 Later on, Chigusa tried to crawl toward the ropes to escape Plum's ankle lock, but it was near the side Oz was on. Oz stood outside the ring right where Chigusa was looking to grab the ropes, poised for attack. Seeing this, Chigusa rotated 90 degrees so she could crawl toward the ropes Kansai was standing near. However, Oz entered the ring and made it a double ankle lock then Cuty sat on top of Chigusa and held her hair or something until Devil pulled her off. The action picked up at 25:00. There was a flurry of triple teaming on Chigusa, but she avoided their mistimed triple diving headbutt and Devil almost pinned Ozaki with her powerbombs. Plum finally saved Ozaki when Devil had her up for a powerbomb by hitting her in the butt with weak strikes, 5 which miraculously caused Devil to back into the corner so Ozaki could stand on the middle rope. The problem for Ozaki was that Kansai came in and knocked Plum out of the way then pulled Ozaki off the second into Splash Mountain position. Plum recovered in time to make Kansai lose her balance enough by kicking Plum in the gut 6 that she lost the hold. Kansai probably wasn't supposed to let Ozaki down here because she immediately got Ozaki up and did the Splash Mountain, but Cuty made the save. Kansai then Splash Mountained Cuty, but she wasn't legal so obviously she couldn't pin her. Devil followed by coming off the top with a guillotine leg drop where one leg landed on Ozaki and the other landed on Cuty. 7 The ring cleared with everyone other than Chigusa and Plum were fighting on the floor. The finish saw Plum kick out of a piledriver at one, and got up in time to cut Chigusa off on the middle rope. Plum was going to do her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner finisher, but Devil got back in the ring and helped Chigusa super powerbomb Plum. 8 To make the finish dramatic, Ozaki, who was hurting but had just gotten back into the ring, crawled over to try to make the save 9, but Devil got in her way enough that the ref counted to 2 just before Ozaki got there. Chigusa started with Ozaki after the match, which gave Oz a chance to make some more great pissed off faces. The fans yelled Ozaki as she instigated a second shoving match that led to a heated pull apart. Chigusa called for Ozaki to fight her right now, and it looked like Devil wasn't going to hold Chigusa back if Ozaki could get free. Ozaki did get free, but Devil held Chigusa back and Ozaki was pulled out of the ring and back to the dressing room. 10 Kansai, Devil, and Chigusa were so much better at this point than they are now, and all had strong performances. Devil in particular was worlds better here than she is today, and she was the best of the six. Not surprisingly, Ozaki was by far the best on her side and Cuty by far the weak link in the match. The selling should have been better and I would have put Ozaki, Cuty, and Plum over more than they did, but it's hard to complain given the quality they delivered here. 29:50.
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