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JWP Nintei Musabetsukyu Senshuken
Jiai: Hikari Fukuoka vs. Command Bolshoi |
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| This match had to majorly exceed just about everyone's expectations. I mean, The Damn Clown haters club probably thought about starting the Cult of Bolshoi to run hand in hand with the infamous Cult of Emi that I was "outed" as being a member of (some century ago when I first typed up this review). The work was really good and they did plenty of spots, including some effective teases of the big moves, but this isn't really a surprise and aside from the teases really wouldn't separate this match from really any other Hikari match. Pretty much all of Hikari's title defenses were disappointing because she had opponents that she could have had a great match, or at least a **** match with, but her weaknesses in calling and carrying the match prevented the matches from coming close to that level. This match, on the other hand, worked because they didn't just do their spots back and forth like in most of Hikari's matches. Instead, they went above and beyond what you would expect from them to make up for the fact that The Damn Clown was not a credible challenger even though she was coming off winning the Body Heat '97 tournament. In this match, Bolshoi was made credible, somehow, because she went through finisher after finisher. It wasn't so much that she pushed Hikari to the max, but that she usually caught Hikari off guard so it looked like she had a chance to score the unlikely upset. If this match proves anything, it's that a booking swerve is so much more effective if that type of thing is only done once in a while. Instead of every person in the audience turning their head to the aisle awaiting a cast of 40 something bumbs that haven't had a good match since the days of Prime Time Wrestling to cause the 150th non finish out of the last 156 crummy episodes of Monday Nyquil, you are actually "shocked" when something that *should be* unpredictable happens. "Entering this match after a 'big' win that 'set up' this title challenge, Bolshoi knew she had to turn it up a notch. Honestly, as much as you can rag about Bolshoi's days as the annoying, puntable clown, this was a match that forced you to at the very least respect her. That was what she needed to do, get Hikari's respect. In the previous tag match, Bolshoi grabbed the microphone and emphatically told Hikari, 'Hikari, that belt is fucking coming here!' For the damn clown to use such expressions illustrated how much the belt meant to her (in Japanese Bolshoi said, "Hikari! Omae no beruto ni koi!' 'O-mae' is like 'you fucker' in Japanese or 'you homeboy.' In the past, it was used between close people to signify 'you.' Now, it is considered a mild expletive. 'Koi' is a rude form of 'kuru' used by men and drunks to tell their wives and wenches to bring more beer, etc. So having the damn clown going from goofy to dead serious signifies the drastic change from Kid to Commando). In fact, the interview segment prior to the match confirmed how much the belt meant to Bolshoi because she knew that she wouldn't have many more opportunities like this to prove herself. The problem with Bolshoi is that she's neither a draw nor someone that you can give credibility to as a serious challenger. She's someone whose role belongs as a second tier worker that puts the younger wrestlers over. Given the plethora of retirements and departures from JWP in the last two years, they had to push someone for Hikari to beat, and today it was Bolshoi," wrote Keith. Bolshoi quebrada'd Hikari before Hikari even entered the ring. What was goofy about this was instead of Bolshoi continuing to attack, which would have "forced" them to ring the bell, she just let Hikari get into the ring and they had the ring introductions then started the match. "I liked that Bolshoi attacked Hikari before the intros because it showed how she was willing to do whatever it took to win, but it was stupid to have them do the intros after the quebrada because it killed whatever 'momentum' that Bolshoi got in attacking Hikari," wrote Michael. "When Bolshoi quebrada'd Fukuoka before the match it showed me that she was going to do whatever it took to win. Then they killed that idea by going to the ring introductions, which showed that Bolshoi doesn't have the killer instinct necessary to win the title," wrote Jason. "This move was reminscent of how Hikari assaulted Sakie Hasegawa at the Dream Slam II in the beginning of the match with her headscissors takeover. It worked then because the crowd was hot that night and both workers were excellent. Unfortunately, in a time when the women wrestlers need to somehow build heat and sustain it, having Bolshoi refrain from continuing her assault was a dumb move. It showed respect and killed Bolshoi's initial momentum from going over completely that night with the crowd," wrote Keith. Hikari tried a plancha early, but Bolshoi got out of the way well before
Hikari could jump then waved her finger "no." Hikari controlled
the early portion, mainly working Bolshoi's leg. Thus, there was focus,
but, in vintage Hikari form, this attack never really went anywhere.
If you are able to get past Da Nose and take something Bolshoi does
seriously, you'll notice she did a pretty good job of selling her leg.
Her only problem early on was that she seemed kind of tentative early
on, seemingly she was a little nervous being in such an important match.
"I didn't like that Bolshoi unmasked the way she did. To me, it would have made more sense for her to have had Hikari nearly beaten, like after she barely kicked out of several big moves, and then unmask to 'shock' Hikari instead of doing it as a hope spot before she finally lost. It made no sense that she'd be so exasperated with trying to beat Hikari that she'd unmask after Hikari kicked out of her top rope uranage (even though that's her finisher) because there was no reason to shock Hikari when she still had the advantage. It was pitiful that her unmasking a) barely got a response and b) didn't get the crowd into the match except for a decent pop on two near falls. Well, what Bolshoi looks like was one of the burning questions that plagued JWP fans for years and when she finally unmasked, it became one of those deals where the question was better left unanswered. Some of us thought there could be an attractive face under that mask, but man we were wrong (although it obviously has nothing to do with her ability as a wrestler)," wrote Michael. Hikari blocked Bolshoi's second pico buster and her nadare shiki no uranage and came back with her zenpo (front) kaiten (revolving) shiki (style) no missile kick, which both sold. Somehow, Hikari recovered first and used her big spots on Bolshoi, which led to a hope spot where Bolshoi turned her Tigerdriver into a huracan rana for a near fall. Hikari "could have" pinned Bolshoi with her Tigerdriver, but she let her up so she could win with her moonsault footstomp. After making a move to end it with her moonsault footstomp, Hikari decided to waste time in an embarrassing failed effort to get the crowd to pop for her big move, which allowed Bolshoi to sneak up from behind and suprise her with a Tiger suplex for a near fall. One way this spot would have worked better is if Bolshoi did her move as Hikari started climbing the ropes. It would also have worked better if Bolshoi did her suplex before Hikari made her move to climb the ropes. In this scenario, Hikari would have stopped in the ring and played to the crowd while she was waiting for Bolshoi to finish selling the previous spot, and Bolshoi would eventually have come up from behind to deliver the suplex. "This instance was one of the rare times that Hikari exhibited any personality in a match. However, she doesn't have the ring presence of Kong, Chigusa, Ozaki, or Hokuto nor the attitude to pull off a stunt like this. It was as if for one instant, Hikari remembered to draw the crowd's attention to what she was doing, but she can't sustain a crowd reaction the way the others can. When you see Toyota doing something similar, you'll notice how lightning quick and consistent she is. Like when she hits her moonsault press she'll climb the ropes really fast and point to the air, screaming loudly 'ikuzo!' ('Here I go!') before hitting it. She knows which points to draw the crowd's attention to, but does everything with intensity and accuracy (for the most part) so her screaming and 'same old' spots work. Hikari, for all of her talent, never picked this up which is why she failed in elevating herself to what her idol has done," wrote Keith. "The fact that Hikari stopped going up the ropes after she started to was what 'got under my skin.' I would have felt the same way had Hikari got the hall rocking by playing to them, which obviously didn't happen even though she "begged" the audience to pop. I agree with Mike that some time for Bolshoi to sell was necessary, and certainly it was better than seeing Commando pop up like Super Koji, but it was still obvious that Hikari was stalling to allow Bolshoi one last hope spot. Had she climbed up and then played to the crowd or just played to the crowd without first grabbing the top rope, it wouldn't have bothered me because it wouldn't have been obvious stalling. When Misawa and Kawada (or anyone else for that matter) sell, they are in a sense stalling, but it's not like they decide to put off doing the next move to get the crowd into the match. This spot would have worked better if Hikari had played to the crowd then climbed up and did the moonsault footstomp, landing on her feet when Bolshoi avoided it. This would have allowed Bolshoi to catch her from behind and suplex her, which would've been a great near fall. Mike says this would have eliminated the element of surprise they were shooting for in their hope spot, but the way they did the spot, they didn't surprise anyone anyway," wrote Michael. The Tiger suplex was basically it for Bolshoi's offense. Hikari Tigerdrivered her for a near fall, but Bolshoi kicked out now that Hikari wanted to pin her with this move. Hikari then moonsault footstomped Bolshoi for the win. 15:05. "While I don't strongly disagree with Mike giving this match ****, I personally think it's closer to ***3/4. The match told a good story and did the best it could at trying to make Bolshoi look like a credible challenger, but the lack of heat probably (although JWP always seems to have disinterested crowds) showed that the crowd didn't buy it. The crowd can be overlooked a lot of times, but in this case I don't think it can because the whole purpose was to get the crowd to believe Bolshoi could score the upset enough that they'd pop, most likely for the underdog Bolshoi. Even Bolshoi's unmasking (regardless of whether or not it was at the right time because it's an arguable point even though I think it came at the wrong time) got little to no reaction, and at that point you knew nothing they did could get the crowd going. The Toyota vs. Hiromi Yagi from 1/14/97 that Mike underrated at ***3/4 and the Ozaki & Amano vs. Kuzumi & Motoya from earlier in this show were both better matches that deservedly garnered **** from me," wrote Michael. "I thought the match was good in the sense that Fukuoka and Bolshoi did their job of making Bolshoi a legit contender, but the match didn't come off the way it was suppose to because the crowd seemed to be asleep," wrote Jason. "I thought the core of the match, after re-watching it, was surpringly good. The transitions looked good and the moves looked slick. Unlike Yasha vs. Fukuoka, Bolshoi vs. Fukuoka came off well, probably because both girls are quite familiar with each other, but more importantly, their styles mix. What ticks me off about Hikari as a champion is that she never seems to make the matches more meaningful. Her challenge of Cuty Suzuki following this match came off really flat because it was 'too polite.' Cuty did nothing except acknowledge the challenge, which didn't help, but Hikari can't 'lay the smack down' the same way Hokuto can trash talks her opponents. Heck, when you look at Omukai challenging Aja in a teary eyed fashion, you can see what a fantastic actress she is, even if she isn't as close to a worker that Hikari is, because Omukai makes you feel her emotions with her expressions," wrote Keith. Special Thanks to: Jason Higgs, Michael Smith, & Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules!
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