Japan Grand Prix '93 Red Zone: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Suzuka Minami 17:58. This was the second match on the card, as they omitted Etsuko Mita vs. Mima Shimoda, which went on first. This was a pretty solid match most of the way, they worked over each other legs, with Minami getting the worst of it, but she came back by roughing Yamada up outside, and worked her back over inside. Somewhat mundane, but solid and well-executed. It got really good in the last third. Yamada won with her Reverse Gory Bomb, and also managed to extract one of Minami’s teeth. ***1/4

Akira Hokuto & Kyoko Inoue vs. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano 16:20. Bull and Kyoko worked the majority of this and were really good, even if not giving their maximum effort. Kyoko was on the receiving end of it for the first six minutes, getting worked over by Bull with Aja following up. She got her offense in on Bull later on. Hokuto made a minimal contribution, but she was good when she was in. She could go with Aja, and got the best of Bull, which had Bull using the nunchakus, prompting Hokuto to take revenge with her bokken later. Outside of that, she assisted Kyoko from the outside, turning the table so she could hit her offense on Bull, but Aja also assisted Bull. The monsters showed better teamwork though, and that’s what ended up getting them the win. ***1/2

Japan Grand Prix '93 Blue Zone: Manami Toyota vs. Hikari Fukuoka 18:17. A precursor to what Toyota would do to virtually every junior she was in the ring with years later. This could have been really good, but that wasn’t the goal here. Fukuoka wasn’t in Toyota’s league to begin with, and Toyota spent the entire match demonstrating that. They did go 50/50 until the finish where Toyota hit a bunch of unanswered moves to win, but throughout, Toyota showed her up in almost every exchange. I suppose the action was good if you just want to see a bunch of moves, but the execution wasn’t their best either, some hesitation and sloppiness though the only outright blown spot was Fukuoka overshooting a plancha and crashing head first to the floor. There was a ton of stretching, Toyota just acted bored while she was getting worked over and would lazily overpower her to take over whenever she felt like it. Hikari got plenty of her big moves but instead of Toyota doing anything to show she was gaining on her, which might have made the match compelling, she just blew it all off. **3/4

2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Yumiko Hotta & Takako Inoue 60:00 (16:56, 18:11, 24:13). Team JWP’s first defense of the tag belts, and a rematch on the 1/15 classic. This was paced out for 60 minutes so it was slow with lots of holds, but it built up well and there was plenty of attitude on display, which kept it entertaining. Takako and Ozaki played the little sister roles, getting worked over. Hotta and Kansai dominated and punted them around while those two would pick up the bones. Ozaki ended up getting the worst of it in the first fall, and despite them not doing a lot, it was interesting watching everyone trying to one-up each other. Kansai rushed in when she couldn’t stand it anymore, taking matters into her own hands and escalated things. She proved April was no fluke, pinning Hotta with a Splash Mountain. The second fall saw Hotta and Kansai take a turn getting worked over before Takako found herself in Ozaki’s role in the first fall. Kansai got the best of Takako. They did an interesting spot where Hotta ran in and kicked her in the face to save Takako, but Kansai held onto her and recovered to regain control. Takako got worked over, usually by Kansai with Ozaki mugging her on the outside and stomping on her hand. Hotta was able to thwart a double team from the apron to get the tag in and cleaned house, punting Kansai and hitting a Tiger Driver, which didn’t finish, but after miscommunication from Ozaki and Takako successfully assisting with a double team, she put her away with a Pyramid Driver. Takako’s ribs were injured so she got them braced up between the second and third fall. Ozaki removed the brace and used it as a weapon against Takako, followed by Kansai unleashing her kicks. Takako came back on Ozaki and hot tagged Hotta, who kicked Ozaki around in response, but Hotta potatoed her with a head shot and legitimately concussed her. Kansai had to come in to improvise while Ozaki tried to remember where she was (this was the beginning of Hotta run of concussing the JWP girls, where she concussed Ozaki, Hikari and Plum over the course of June and July). Kansai did a great job of frantically trying to protect Ozaki, while Ozaki continued trying to fight. Hotta kept kicking her down and Ozaki would fire back. The match was off the rails and the roles essentially reversed out of necessity, but what was working for it was that it was so dramatic. A concussed Ozaki seems to bring about great performances (she gave an all time great performance at Dream Rush after being concussed within the first minute of the match as well). She struggled through a crowd brawl with Takako, while Hotta and Kansai went at it. In the ring, it wasn’t pretty. Ozaki couldn’t do everything, she did her spots as well as you could expect, but it was sloppy and everyone could see she had nothing left but was refusing to die. By the end, Kansai and Ozaki were looking to put Takako away, but were unable to do it and the time ran out. This wasn’t a classic, but it was consistently good throughout with a great twist and drama in the final fall. ****

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