PeteF3
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What was Nagayo doing between the Crush Gals and this show, anyway? Or until the formation of GAEA? I do admire the booking of this show for laying out so many disparate styles, especially for a big joshi show where one of my criticisms is that the styles and matches tend to run together. This is a hard-hitting slugfest between two old rivals, with some crowd brawling and some intense submission work before we start hitting the near-falls. I don't know what Nagayo's status was but for a legend-returns-to-the-ring match this was pretty awesome, and she didn't look to have lost a step. Nagayo gets a nice comeback after kicking out of the Guillotine Legdrop, before Bull shrugs it off to put her away.
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The only other Bolshoi I've seen is a submission match with Plum that's worked like joshi UWFI, so I confess between that and this that I still don't quite know her deal. That match was worked completely straight and here we get a comedy opening that's out of a Brazos match. It is amusing shtick and probably fits in well with the overall card, and Kid brings the goods when it comes to offense and bumping and selling later in the match, being the real workhorse of her team. That being said, there were long stretches of this that were loose and cooperative-looking as hell, and other than the dive train, Plum's cool takedown and leg submissions, and the JWP team doing a bunch of top rope double stomps in a row, very little of this stood out. Almost totally heatless, to boot. Kyoko pretty convincingly kills Bolshoi dead to end a disappointing match. Grover talked about this whole card aging surprisingly poorly--I don't know if that's the case, as the main event sure didn't seem to, but this would be a match to point to to support that assertion. -
This had a slow beginning and Team FMW simply wasn't very interesting, and outside of her big fat plancha Toyoda still isn't. Other than that she contributes very little to this. I should be a fan of a team slowing the pace of a joshi match down, as they did here, but it didn't really work. This turns into a good to very good match, but it strikes me as a Toyota/Yamada carryjob--it's amazing how Toyota has been carrying herself as a grizzled veteran in these bouts, having a real knack for timing and building up to the big spots. The whole layout really seems to be dictated by the AJW team. On top of that Toyota decides she's going to murder herself getting the FMW ladies over, most notably including a HOLY SHIT backflip off a Combat lariat. Just an array of one sick bump after the other before she starts her comeback, leading to a fun stretch run with Kudo finally deciding to pull her weight. We get an incredibly clever finish--Combat saves Kudo from one Japanese ocean cyclone suplex, so Yamada stands in front when Toyota goes for a second attempt and then ducks away when Combat tries for a second save, suckering her into clobbering her partner. Toyota then hits the JOCS cleanly for the win. Even in a match with probably one too many miscommunication spots down the stretch, that stood out. The result of this, despite the loss, was sort of a coming-out party for the FMW ladies. But it came off more like a selfless performance from the AJW team to get them over, rather than Combat & Kudo doing a ton to get themselves over. This was a good match but an overall fantastic performance from Toyota & Yamada, saving this from a dull start.
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Re-watched this earlier today and I fully agree, my rundown