[1995-01-04-AJW] Manami Toyota & Sakie Hasegawa vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

Double Inoue won the tag belts off Toyota & Yamada a few months earlier and they also pretty much took over their spot as the best team in joshi. Hell of a run they had, with this year being their peak, one of the best teams ever period.

[Loss]

I can only guess that the reason this isn't talked about at the same level as Thunderqueen and Dream Rush is that not as many people have seen it. It wasn't released commercially, and in fact, we almost missed putting it on here. Thank FLIK and MJH for catching it.

 

After just finishing 1992, this is a breath of fresh air. They still do all of the things that make them great, but because they're more seasoned, there's more meaning behind everything because the pacing and match layout is superior. In 1993, Akira Hokuto, Devil Masami, Bull Nakano and Megumi Kudo were the most psychologically sound wrestlers I could find in the world of Joshi. In 1995, Toyota and Kyoko, who don't exactly have that reputation, are just as good, and Takako and Hasegawa are on another level.

 

I love everything here, from the payback spots on the Inoues from Takako bootscraping Hasegawa, to the way the nearfalls built in a way where they weren't just doing action for action's sake. In fact, I'd compare the layout of this to a big AJPW match. That's not to say it loses its context in AJW, because it doesn't. But Hasegawa's somersault to avoid the lariat reminded me of Akiyama. Takako's jumping DDT a few moments later reminded me of Taue. Does that make Toyota and Kyoko Misawa and Kawada? Probably not. But they both look as good here as I've ever seen them, maybe better than ever in some ways.

 

Had this been a one-fall match, I'd still consider it great, because the first fall is so good. But the finish to each fall was outstanding, especially Takako's flying Jumbo knee from the top rope that closed out the second fall. I also like that Toyota and Kyoko are at a point where they are familiar with each other and work spots accordingly. All the failed attempts of Toyota to apply the rolling cradle to Kyoko were awesome, making the moment when she finally did it a great payoff.

 

Hasegawa and Takako, as mentioned before, are sensational. Takako seems to relish any opportunity she gets to be a heel. There is this moment between the second and third falls where she is standing over a Hasegawa who can barely stand just smiling. Hasegawa is also great at applying small touches, like grinding her fist against Takako's knee, or her elbow against Takako's neck.

 

The only thing keeping this from Best Joshi Match Ever status for me is the moment where Toyota decides to channel Sabu. The brawling outside was unnecessary, and she does a moonsault on a table, misses the move, is visibly frustrated and starts seemingly telling others to get in position, then tries again. It's a shame because up until that moment (and after that moment), Toyota looked great.

 

Every bit as good as Thunderqueen for me, and just slightly below Dreamslam. I'm hoping there are more matches in this vein in 1995.

[FLIK]

I can only guess that the reason this isn't talked about at the same level as Thunderqueen and Dream Rush is that not as many people have seen it. It wasn't released commercially, and in fact, we almost missed putting it on here.

In 95 there's just a lot that overshadows it, not the least of which is that the 8/30 re-match is largely considered even better by most ppl who've seen both.

 

I'm hoping there are more matches in this vein in 1995.

YMMV depending on how much you dig wild brawls but for me personally this isn't even top 10 joshi match for 95 (and I do love this match don't get me wrong) so i'd say you're in for quite an enjoyable year

 

Will be interesting to hear what you think of 3/21 too (Blizard Yuki is Sakie under a mask if you didn't know) since that's the one I haven't seen yet and only know of by rep.

[MJH]

I can only guess that the reason this isn't talked about at the same level as Thunderqueen and Dream Rush is that not as many people have seen it. It wasn't released commercially, and in fact, we almost missed putting it on here.

In 95 there's just a lot that overshadows it, not the least of which is that the 8/30 re-match is largely considered even better by most ppl who've seen both.

 

This: 8/30 is one of the best joshi tags ever. And being one of the last big commercial tapes along with Destiny a few days later, it's generally seen first. I guess, if there's a comparison, it's a little like watching 5/94 after 6/95 for most people. I think the discrepancy is greater, and of course this is hidden away on TV which has never been as sought-after as comms for Zenjo, but this is a great match, with one of the best opening falls these 3WA tags ever had.

[jdw]

Looking in the 1995 WON's for something else, thought I'd look this one up. Dave gave it ****3/4, so it wasn't a blown off match at the time.

 

I *think* that what likely happened as 1995 went on is that there were a few billion highly rated matches as the star calculator kept going higher. There also was probably a "peak" of AJW and joshi interest/coverage with the 11/94 Dome show climaxing much of the interpromotional stuff. Dave was at Toyota's first Big Red win... loved the Toyota-Aja rematch... wrote good things about Aja-Dynamite IV if I recall... loved Toyota-Hokuto... and wrote up the year ender big show where Toyota got Big Red back from Dynamite to close what essentially was the resolution of the interpromotional period. Even with all the love, none of it really seemed to have the fire in the belly that say the 1992-94 period did in terms of coverage. I don't recall a lot of Zavisa stuff in the Torch, though I'm sure it was there.

 

It just... was kind of there at that point. Still well loved, far more than it was starting in 1996 when the decline really felt like it was kicking in.

 

John

[Childs]

If this is a great match, joshi is just lost on me as an art form. From the extended run of my-turn/your-turn 2 1/2 counts in the first fall to the shitty table spots to the complete unwillingness to sell anything for more than 30 seconds, I thought this was dreadful. Not disappointing, dreadful. The effort was there, no doubt, but that's the only good thing I can think to say. I need to stop commenting on joshi, because I don't enjoy being this kind of crank.

[Bix]

I don't have the yearbook yet but I'm pretty sure I saw this on a Brian Socha Best of 1995 comp years ago and remember it being gallingly bad. I had not envisioned Manami Toyota as the homeless woman's Sabu. Childs sums it up perfectly. Thankfully I also bought a tape with some much better AJW matches.

[Loss]

If this is a great match, joshi is just lost on me as an art form. From the extended run of my-turn/your-turn 2 1/2 counts in the first fall to the shitty table spots to the complete unwillingness to sell anything for more than 30 seconds, I thought this was dreadful. Not disappointing, dreadful. The effort was there, no doubt, but that's the only good thing I can think to say. I need to stop commenting on joshi, because I don't enjoy being this kind of crank.

I felt this way watching a lot of the 1996 stuff, but I've just grown to accept some things as part of the style. The lack of long-term selling can get annoying at times, but I've justified it by saying that at least they're consistent between matches in how certain moves are sold. I won't say I don't understand you looking at it this way, but I will offer up some recommendations that aren't "workrate" matches that I think might appeal more to you. Check out Hokuto vs Yamada from May of '93 (built around Hokuto still selling injuries from the Kandori match at Dreamslam) and Kudo vs Kong from December of '93 (with Kudo taking the match in a more familiar direction in line with a traditional world title match).

 

Ozaki's matches -- and JWP matches in general -- tend to be more about hate and violence and less about the big spots, but I actually prefer this style to Ozaki's usual style, because her grudge matches have her doing things so brutal that I get frustrated sometimes when something that should be the finish isn't.

 

Really, I've found that AJW has its own mythology surrounding how much things should hurt. Debbie Malenko did commentary on a '92 match and explained this in a way that I thought put the overall psychology in perspective. After some huge moves, she pointed out that hopefully those moves "stung" enough to maybe catch a quick pin. I don't know how many big moves are intended to be so devastating that they change the complexion of the match. And I understand that not being for everyone.

 

Also, some of the top-notch mat wrestlers like Yoshida and Yagi might be more your speed.

[El-P]

I haven't watched joshi in about 7 years, so I don't know if I would change my mind about it, but it never really bothered me. Like Loss said, part of the style. Also, Toyota is the apex of go-go-go style, which was not exactly based on long-term selling. But I never felt I watched a spot exhibition when watching Toyota or any great workrate match of the era. It's just that it was based on action, and the women could deliver it better than any man on the planet at this time.

 

Toyota was a great seller in that she made the submission hold look painfull as hell thanks to her flexibility and her personnality, and she made the audience felt for her. If that's not selling, I don't know what it is. Long-term selling in putting over the damage over the course of a long match ? Nope, that was not her style, her character was all about going full speed no matter what, and it was believable because of the energy she would project. Although I must say that watching 1992 and 1993 years of joshi, Toyota's stock kinda dropped, and she's really not my favourite (unlike when I first discovered joshi in 98), but it would be hard to deny she was an amazing pure worker.

 

My personnal taste go way more toward Aja, Yoshida, Oz, Hokuto, Kyoko, LCO, Yagi. One of these days I'll go back to this, hopefully, it was my favourite wrestling ever next to shootstyle.

[Phil Austin]

I had never seen this before, but I LOVED this match. I must admit, I found the 1992 set a bit more of a slog to get through (I'm still not finished yet), but 1995 is just really appealling to me 2 discs in, and this was a real highlight after the 1992 Joshi.

 

Like Loss said, if this is below the standard of Joshi for 1995, I will be a very happy man!

[Tim Evans]

I really enjoyed this. Maybe not as much as Loss but it was entertaining. Really liked Takako and Sakie the most. I also liked that every fall meant something and the partners broke up pinfalls in the first. That's a problem I have with most 2/3 falls matches these days is the first 2 falls mean nothing at the end. Only problem I had with this was the finish. I mean after all that, that move is the one that finishes the match?

[KB8]

I'm definitely with Childs here. This is just not my thing at all. I mean, joshi isn't my favourite style of wrestling to begin with, but I've enjoyed enough of it on the '93 yearbook (watched Hokuto/Saito from August a few days ago and thought it was really good, for example) and found that crazy 8-woman sprint on the '96 yearbook (from February, I think) SHOCKINGLY enjoyable...but I pretty much threw my hands up on this after about 5 minutes. The niggly stuff early with the camel clutches was cool, and Takako would at least do something like flip the crowd off or act like a bitch now and again, but on the whole I didn't care for it one bit.

[smitlick]

Only just started watching this yearbook... First match off the rank was this one and I've gotta say I was pretty disappointed. Really nothing memorable at all. Im super new on the whole AJW front so hopefully the other yearbooks get me more conditioned/used to the style.

[PeteF3]

Well, this might be the most divisive match on the 5 Yearbooks and change so far. I thought this was fantastic, but I wasn't as high on it as Loss. Getting to watch joshi grow from where it was from 1990 until "now" probably helps alleviate some of the criticisms. After watching 5 years' worth of this stuff, I know what to expect and what not to bother hoping for, and the match stands up as great in its own context. It's better than anything at Big Egg Universe, but it's not at the level of the Dream Rush/Dream Slam/Thunderqueen holy trinity of joshi tags. For example, I thought Inoue's final kickout in the first fall was unnecessary--she should have gone down after the flurry of suplexes from Hasegawa instead of kicking out only to go down right after to a tornado DDT. Toyota's table dives were bothersome, but this has been a trademark of hers for the past several months, and incidentally I don't think it's a coincidence that she started using tables in '94--Meltzer may have overstated his case at the time, but Sabu's influence was far-reaching indeed. What struck me watching this was just how good the execution on almost everything was. It didn't tell a transcendental story like the other tags mentioned, but almost every single move, every spot, and every kickout was pulled off beautifully from both a timing and execution standpoint. The only issues were the table dive re-do and a spot where Takako pulls Toyota off the turnbuckles to set up a Doomsday Device but doesn't quite successfully sit her on her shoulders, forcing Toyota to rather obviously grab onto Takako's head to set up Kyoko hitting her. But considering how much else they crammed into this, those are minor concerns. This should be in the running for MOTY, or at least a top 10 spot.

[ohtani's jacket]

This fell apart for me in the third fall. The first two falls I thought were good and I couldn't understand why this had been so divisive, but the third fall as a spluttering mess. Those table spots were the worst. Absolute crap. I didn't feel there was anything terrible about the first two falls, but the opening fall was clearly front heavy with two many nearfalls they'd have been better off putting into the final caida. I also would have liked to have seen Manami submit to end the second fall, but nobody ever submits in Joshi. Aside from the shitty finish, I liked the contributions Hasegawa and Takako made. I'm happy to see that Takako is still a wrestler I can get into after all these years.

[Zenjo]

The best bout from January. Had it been only one fall it would've been a MOTYC. The character work early on was such fun. Takako's facial expressions and heelish mannerisms are priceless. She may not have had quite the natural ability of the others but was a smart worker with plenty of ring craft. Some outstanding action ensued, everyone was killing it. Manami gets all sorts of shit for slipping on the ropes, but it's awesome when she nails the moves. The hot near falls would've been just right for a normal match. In this context they should've held back ahead of the 3rd. A shortish segunda kept things rolling nicely. At that stage I was thinking it could be something quite special. As it was the tercera proved a let down. They slowed down a bit before launching into the grand finale, which wasn't. The table spot was horrible and the final move weak. Though it ended on a downer this was a potentially great match with flaws.

[Calvin]

This is for Double Inoue’s WWWA Tag Team Championship, and it is a Best Two Out of Three Falls match.

I thought this was worked smartly to hide Toyota’s weaknesses and maximize her strengths. She was there every time this match needed a shot of adrenaline – there’s no one quite like Toyota when it comes to picking up the pace is there? – and she could lean on Hasegawa to carry the selling segments, so this was just about the perfect biome for her to have a great match. Toyota’s athleticism and superstar charisma are on full display here, and I’m able to better appreciate those qualities when she’s not actively annoying me. There’s some questionable transitions here that prevent this from reaching true greatness (at one point, Toyoto redirects the entire match to do Sabu tribute spots), and I’m unsure if blowing their load in the first fall was the wisest decision since the match seemed to cool down afterwards and never really regained the heat it had in the beginning.

***3/4