JWP Best Match Collection '90 Single Match Volume Official Release |
11/11/90 Osaka: Miss A vs. Devil Masami. Hard hitting, intense battle between JWP's two largest women. Devil was still a fantastic big woman at this point, and again carried the up and coming wrestler to an exciting & spirited affair. They started fast then settled in to the body of the match with A working the knee. Devil finally made a comeback with her powerbomb after avoiding A's dive, which sent them to the finishing segment exchanging bombs for near falls. I liked the sprint at the start, and especially to the finish, and it even had a pretty legitimate finish of A scoring the upset reversing into a German suplex, but the middle portion just being a lot of body work on the mat that went nowhere prevented it from rising to the level of something noteworthy. ***1/4
7/19/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito 18:54. Most likely the finest performance of both women's careers, really the perfect genesis of the unbridled hatred Kandori brings to a contest that makes it come off as a real fight with a great worker in Harley who could not only clean things up, but was stylistically suitable enough to get away with beating Kandori up. There's not one element, aspect, or style that makes a great match, but perhaps the most important thing once reasonably skilled individuals are paired is they're able to convey that they care enough to do everything they can to beat the opponent. That's why so called entertainment wrestling always falls so flat, once they start stalling, posing, doing their laps after every punch, generally screwing around, it just feels like the uninspired show it is, it no longer provides that visceral feeling that you're seeing a fight. Harley vs. Kandori, on the other hand, feels like two lions were let out of the cage in the middle of the Roman colosseum. This was pure savagery from the opening bell, oozing disdain from every pour. It's not exactly a full on shoot style match in that they deviate here and there, running the ropes, going for flash pins, throwing in a dive & a couple moments on the outside, but few matches feel more like they're shooting on each other. They just put so much energy into their urgent hatred, jerking the appendages on the submissions & striking with the ferocity cranked into overdrive. It's not so much that their strikes were stiff because most stiff striking reeks of cooperation with the opponent standing there like a doofus, but rather that they were filled with anger & rage to the point they came off as mostly being wildly out of control with a bit of calculated disregard for doing the honorable thing when the opponent was in prone position. Even a simple bodyslam was fantastic here because Kandori deposited Harley so hard she bounced off the mat. The match started with a staredown where Kandori acted& Harley answered her back, first with a push then with a slap, quickly establishing that Harley was not only going to stand up to Kandori, she was going to try to beat her at her own game, which made her an even bigger underdog than she already was. Harley then landed a knee to the midsection but got thrown down trying a snapmare. In the next lockup, Kandori got a reverse bodylock, & when Harley did a go behind, Kandori hit an ipponzeio, getting the sort of toss Harley had just failed at. Harley paused for a second on her knees then just exploded to her feet with a sick elbow & buckled Kandori with brutal knees to the midsection, taking her down with a snap suplex, but having Kandori counter into a wakigatame. Kandori's flash submissions were used to great effect throughout, but again it's really the urgency that both performers put into them, Kandori really cranking on them & Harley kicking Kandori in the face or doing anything else she could think of to break the holds before they broke her, & then taking advantage of a prone Kandori, kicking her in the face some more for having the gall to try to hurt her with these moves. Kandori's offense has never been finer because in this match she threatened from every position. When she couldn't get a throw or suplex to set things up the way she'd like she just dropped into a leglock & forced Saito to have another answer. If Harley's answer wasn't good enough, for instance grabbing the ropes, Kandori would just pull her back to the center & reapply. Harley got the worst of the grappling exchanges as you'd expect, but her striking was much better than Kandori's, and it not only kept her in the match, but kind of put Kandori in her place. I mean, when else do you see Kandori just getting beat up, taking all sorts of unanswered shoot kicks to the face & ear? There was a great spot where Kandori whipped her into the corner, but Harley reversed late & went right into an elbow in the corner. Harley's performance was just so fearless. She was going to take everything that the more dangerous opponent she'd ever face could throw at her, and do it right back, for instance a big body slam into mount punches and answering Kandori's leg lock by grabbing one of her own. The match felt a bit sloppy, but that's mostly because they purposely weren't doing clean rolls & tumbles to make the cooperation in a match that's all about being uncooperative less obvious. Harley is probably the most opportunistic of JWP's wrestlers when it comes to winning with the flash pins they booked too often, and when she finally initiated her, it was small packaging Kandori after her kick was caught. What's great is Kandori immediately turned the tables, rolling into her own flash pin attempt. The match arguably would have been better if it was less diverse, but the deviations actually worked really well, keeping the audience on their toes & giving Harley more of a chance. Still, I'm glad it didn't end with the back & forth flash pins sequence after Kandori back body dropped her way out of a piledriver. Harley still gained something from getting the win there even though her victory was quickly overturned because Kandori got her right shoulder off the mat for an instant (surprising given even more obvious kickouts purposely go unnoticed when JWP does flash pins). The thought of actually losing added a lot of wood to Kandori's fire that had already been burning bright all night, and now she just wanted to kill Harley, though this is where the holes in the execution of her striking game were most obvious. The portion after the restart was more a traditional pro wrestling finishing sequence with a lot of suplexes, and Kandori even ascended to the top rope only to get superplexed. Kandori's leglock would have been the more fitting finish based on the match they'd been doing, but good god was the Tiger driver she actually won with brutal, and a match of this caliber kind of needed something that sick & incapacitating to warrant actually ending because neither were going to quit mentally. The ref was just raising Kandori's hand when Miss A cold cocked her with a charging right hand and every woman at ringside hit the ring to stop the brawl, with a good five women holding A back the first time then a few more after Kandori said something to A on the mic. Not merely the best original JWP match I've seen so far by a wide margin, but a true classic for any league at any time. ****3/4
12/24/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mayumi Ozaki vs. Rumi Kazama 17:36. A quality big match that should have been better than it was. Ozaki was emotionally invested from the start, but while Kazama showed better offense, she teetered on just going through the motions doing her stiff kicks & mixing in a couple submissions, suplexes, and a brawling sequence. Ozaki hit a nice suplex here and there, but was more controlling Kazama than doing anything that spectacular. Even though she didn't have a lot of her big moves yet, she had a hop in her step & did everything with conviction. Ozaki had her heel routine down, which gave the match some structure, though it was still lacking in drama. She controlled early, and even though Kazama was lacking fire, I still think the match would have been better if Kazama was making comebacks rather than switching to a more back & forth affair. Kazama had moments where she seemed into it, particularly when she was on top working submissions & slapping Ozaki around, but would also be playing with her hair the moment she finished screaming in pain from Ozaki's submission. The match picked up nicely down the stretch with a series of suplexes which would have made for fine finishers, but instead Rumi won countering Ozaki's flash pin with one of her own. ***
