[1992-11-02-AJW-Tag League The Best] Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Bull Nakano & Akira Hokuto

Early portion saw Bull schooling Kyoko as her & Hokuto beat up on her for the first few mins. Nice reminder that she's still the lowest ranked one in this match. Kyoko comes back eventually and breaks out the never ending giant swing on Hokuto which is always a cool move then it's Hokuto's turn to play whiping girl for a bit. Aja & Bull don't have too much interaction in this but when they do they have a nice little battle of the big girls moment. The near fall stretch was really good and things finally end around 18 mins in with Hokuto eating a sort of Doomsday Device afer Kyoko elbows her off Aja's shoulders. Post match Aja gets on the mic to talk shit on Bull. Not a lot to say about this, kind of a really good house show match if that makes sense. They didn't half ass things or work lazy in any way but you could tell they weren't going all out either. Served as a nice preview for Dream Rush.

 

Of all the joshi on the 92 set, this would be my pick for the weakest match of hear. A lot i'd have rather seen make the cut over this (and the other 11/2 tag actually)

[Loss]

Good match, but sometimes, I hate Kyoko Inoue. For a great wrestler, she has some annoying habits, like tossing Bull around like a ragdoll without any real struggle. I know Bull is a willing bumper, but Kyoko is Toyota-lite without quite as strong a body of work. The other three, of course, rule throughout. I used to love Aja Kong and I still do, but the more Bull I see, the more secondary Aja becomes. Aja and Hokuto are MUCH better at working the size difference and selling for each other. Really, every pairing here works except Bull/Kyoko, and even that is good most of the time. Hokuto does an incredible top rope splash on Kyoko, who is all the way across the ring. Athletically, she looks like the best wrestler in the world. Not a hidden classic, but a great match, and one I'd consider a critical yearbook pick because it really provides an interesting look at all four outside of their Established Classics.

[FLIK]

For a great wrestler, she has some annoying habits, like tossing Bull around like a ragdoll without any real struggle. I know Bull is a willing bumper, but Kyoko is Toyota-lite without quite as strong a body of work

I've seen this point come up a few times now and I think it's kind of an unfair complaint, sorta penalising them for not doing something they weren't intending to do in the first place. Ocasionally it would come into play of course but as a general rule the bigger monster type wrestlers in joshi were never portrayed in that "immovable object" type way you see in other promotions, atleast not when they faced off against your upper tier wrestlers.

 

Toyota & Kyoko kind of stand out because they happen to have a more suplex heavy move set compared to most but Bull & Aja & others would bump big for others as well so it's not exclusive to them.

 

I used to love Aja Kong and I still do, but the more Bull I see, the more secondary Aja becomes

You're gonna love 90 & 91, 92 is a "down" year for Bull compared to what she was churning out the previous two

 

Actually, be interesting to see what you end up thinking of Kyoko in 91 too as that year was all about giving her the mega super push and features the big Bull vs Kyoko title match.

[Loss]

I compare it all to Vader in my head -- Vader bumps a lot, but it always means something when he does. Even if they are taking lots of bumps, that it's not a big deal when they do is the problem.

[FLIK]

I compare it all to Vader in my head -- Vader bumps a lot, but it always means something when he does.

True but my point is that that's because they took more time to establish it so that it would mean something. Hell, this was sort of the 1st era whear something like this would have even be an issue for AJW/Joshi. Vader was following in the US tradition of decades of "fat guys being body slamed is giant deal".

 

With AJW they never went that route to start with so it's not like Kyoko or Toyota or others are tearing down something that was built up. The Aja's & Bull's of the world wouldn't do it for everyone of course but yeah, if you were a main eventer or even upper mid carder and had a big suplex or powerbomb in your arsenal then it was more or less a given that they were gonna go up for it.

 

Also, by the point of this particular match, Kyoko & Bull had allready wrestled a bunch so it kind of was "old news" to see her toss Bull around since they'd allready established her as someone who can give Bull a run by then.

 

Bull to Vader actually is a good compariosn though since aside from a few minor style diffrences like this, they had a ton in common and I actually think Bull was better at the Vader role then Vader was

[MJH]

What Flik said. I can't remember very many instances at all where Aja, say, blocked getting sent off the ropes. She might switch, she might come back with her crossbody, but the "immovable object" thing just didn't exist in the style. Really, it's not as if Aja or Bull pressed their size difference. You wouldn't get lock up->push-off->flex... they'd throw girls around, sure, but it was more "these girls are tougher, and they will fuck you up" rather than "Toyota/Kyoko/etc can't deal with the size of these girls!". Kyoko might make a bigger deal out of getting them up (or not as the case may be) for the surfboard, but that's about it. Kyoko was just as likely to block a slam/suplex off an undercard girl like Numachi or Shiratori than Bull/Aja were to block hers.

 

IIRC, Kyoko was billed at 170 and Nakano 200 (and Aja 230) so it wasn't like there was a huge size difference anyway... no more than Misawa (255) vs. Hansen (300) or whatever.

[jdw]

I used to love Aja Kong and I still do, but the more Bull I see, the more secondary Aja becomes.

Aja isn't at her peak here, or really that close. She really grows into the Champ role.

 

John

[Tim Evans]

I really enjoyed this. It wasn't a epic or anything but it was fun and all 4 just went balls out the whole time. Bull is just awesome and Hokuto is growing on me.

[PeteF3]

I actually liked this better than the first tag match. Maybe it's because Aja and Bull have such presence and a specific way of working that it overcomes one of my issue with joshi--that everyone seems to work at the same pace and in a similar style, so all the sequences in a tag match tend to run together the way that just doesn't happen in All-Japan or New Japan. I get that that's an oversimplification--I don't need to be told what sets apart someone like Toshiyo Yamada--but she still wrestles a similar pace with big kicks instead of other big moves. Anyway, that doesn't really come across here as even though they bump and give lots to their opponents, Bull and Aja still establish themselves as monsters. And there's a nicely focused closing run with Hokuto getting trapped into the ring and getting some great kickouts before a double-team puts her down. Definitely more satisfying on almost all levels than the first match.

[WingedEagle]

FLIK's comments above about Bull are why I'm looking forward to eventually grabbing '90 & '91 -- I've enjoyed Bull more than any other joshi worker on here. She was great dominating Kyoko, and trading with Aja is always great. She also sold really well for Kyoko after the Kong piledriver. It seemed like the announcing was much more subdued here and in the previous match than is typical for AJW. Not sure what that's about. Really surprised to see Kyoko take the fall given the stars here.

 

***1/2

[Zenjo]

This was to set up the two big singles matches at Dreamrush. It was good quality without being memorable or standout. They weren't going quite full out as it was a B show and the previous contest had gone long. The bout started strongly before losing its way a bit in the middle. The finish was strong and they had an appreciative audience that I'm sure went home happy.

 

With Bull and Kong around this time there was a changing dynamic with Aja about to replace Nakano as top dog. I loved the way Bull would subtly become less dominant over time without anything seeming untoward. She'd still kick ass and win most of the time, yet did it displaying more vulnerability than in 90-91.

[garretta]

I thought this was extremely well-worked by both teams. Kyoko in particular took a hell of a pounding here, and the submissions looked brutal. I've never seen a male wrestler sit as high for the Boston crab as some of the females do. A few (including Bull in this match) actually drape their opponent's leg across their own shoulder, which looks like it can tear the top half of your body loose from the bottom half if enough pressure is applied.

 

Speaking of brutal, what about Kyoko's giant swing? She looks like she can barely stand after she finishes applying it, so I can only imagine how it disorients her opponents. I've never seen anyone make so many revolutions with this hold (or its cousin, the airplane spin) before. Usually, if a wrestler applies it for more than a few revolutions it leads to a nearfall on him, because he's so disoriented that his victim collapses on top of him.

 

Aja doesn't use the trashcans at all in this one, although she brings them to the ring, as we see them in the introductions. Either she's mellowing or this wasn't a big enough show to break out that spot. Bull was a little more technical here than usual too, using a lot of painful-looking leg submissions that she seldom uses otherwise.

 

Aja and Bull are back to being rivals again after being partners in September. That's fine by me; I'm looking forward to their confrontation at Dream Rush.

 

I wasn't aware that Akira was Bull's mew partner when she presented Bull the flowers at her celebration back in September. I wondered why it was her instead of someone like Aja.