JWP TV 11/12/94 taped 11/6/94 Tokyo Korakuen Hall |
10/20/94 Sapporo Teison Hall: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Bolshoi Kid 0:23 of 0:28. You can do anything, but don't clown the clown! Chigusa took this match as a joke, mocking Bolshoi by imitating her jig. She thought she was going to just go straight to her finisher, probably win on the first move, but Bolshoi countered the running three to score the huge flash pin upset!
KAORU vs. Hiromi Yagi 7:47 of 12:22. Acceptable veteran vs. youngster match. Yagi didn't have her execution totally downpat, but it was nonetheless entertaining seeing her try to hang with the rival promotion's star because she's so spunky. KAORU didn't take this too seriously, but had no problem selling for Yagi, and was alert enough to save a spot or two that didn't come off as planned. *1/2
Cuty Suzuki vs. Candy Okutsu 19:00. Cuty played heel effectively, doing a good job with her facials and garnering heat roughing up the youngster. Generally though, the crowd was kind of dead because they knew Candy didn't have a chance, and the match was doing little to make them believe anything to the contrary. The crowd got into it when Candy made her comeback with a fantastic, lengthy rolling German suplex and avalanche style front suplex, but Cuty quickly cut her off and finished it. The wrestling was very competent with solid performances from both, but it actually came off as even more of a glorified squash than the previous match. **
Mayumi Ozaki & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Dynamite Kansai & Devil Masami 22:10. After Ozaki & Bolshoi were defeated by Fukuoka & KAORU at JWP's 10/10/94 Korakuen Hall show, Ozaki recruited Fukuoka to team with her and told KAORU she was no longer needed, setting up their singles match on 10/20/94. Ozaki had owned Fukuoka from day one, but Hikari defeating her in their last two singles matches - a controversial win on 8/21/94 to capture the Body Heat tournament and legitimately on 9/25/94 which earned her a title shot against Devil on 10/20/94 - not only showed that Hikari had arrived as a major force, but put her in the main event to stay. Cuty was a good draw for JWP that they'd continue to exploit in tag matches, but JWP was too serious about their wrestling to feature her forever, and it was really the four in this match that would carry the promotion for the next few years, with Cuty being spotted and Candy playing an ever increasing role. The match itself was somewhat disappointing, probably because the two bumpers were on the same team, and they didn't seem to want that team to get dominated nor did they want the large women taking too many bumps. The match was by no means tame, but still, this would have been a good time for a strong storyline. Though they had a few segments that featured a certain aspect (for instance Devil's power) or depicted a strategy (Ozaki & Fukuoka attacking Kansai's knee), the match tended to meander and was thus generally being greeted with indifference until they picked things up in the second half with their signature moves. The wrestling got good, but more due to their familiarity. It lacked spark. There were some intense moments, for instance when Kansai was actually propelling Ozaki off the mat with her kicks or Ozaki was kicking her feet to try to slip out of the splash mountain, but overall it felt more like a really nice house show main event. ***
