[1995-03-21-AJW-Wrestling Queendom: Success] Manami Toyota & Blizzard Yuki vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

Interesting back story to this. After the Jan tag title match W Inoue who were the 99th team to hold the belts at that point vacated the titles JUST so they could win them again and officially be recognised as having the 100th reign. This is the tournament final to recrown the champs.

[Loss]

Sakie Hasegawa may be the most likable wrestler in Joshi. This match misses her. There's not much inherently wrong with this match, but Hasegawa is such a good babyface, and Takako in particular plays off of her so well, that I can't help but compare that match to this one. The lack of Hasegawa to play off of makes Takako less interesting, even though she is still excellent. I thought the match layout hurt this one too. Blizzard Yuki, who I had never seen in another match -- is completely useless for the first half of this and doesn't get in a single bit of offense. She also doesn't sell in a compelling way that adds to the match, so it just feels like the Inoues running through their spots, of which there are admittedly quite a few. When Toyota finally makes it in the ring, she doesn't fare much better, so the point being made is that Kyoko and Takako are too good of a team to get much of a challenge from a makeshift pair of wrestlers. Kyoko gives Toyota maybe the most insane giant swing I have ever seen for its sheer speed, even though it didn't last very long.Toyota can't beat them with just anyone on her side. Great drama in the last few minutes, but I don't see this as much more than a solid match, and it's not something I would have pushed to make this set had I watched everything in advance. YMMV.

[FLIK]

Blizzard Yuki, who I had never seen in another match -- is completely useless for the first half of this and doesn't get in a single bit of offense.

Yuki IS Sakie Hasegawa

[jdw]

Loss knows that. His point is that the Yuki "character" takes away from what he likes about Hasegawa.

 

John

[Loss]

Blizzard Yuki, who I had never seen in another match -- is completely useless for the first half of this and doesn't get in a single bit of offense.

Yuki IS Sakie Hasegawa

 

 

Loss knows that. His point is that the Yuki "character" takes away from what he likes about Hasegawa.

 

John

Pretty much. Hasegawa has great facial expressions and body language. This getup neutralizes both of those things.

[MJH]

It's a wonder they didn't can the gimmick after it bombed at Big Egg.

[FLIK]

I thought it was a cool gimmick myself in that Mutoh/Muta alter ego kinda way. I'm guessing they did probably have bigger plans for it at the start but in the end she'd only bust it out a couple times a year.

 

so the point being made is that Kyoko and Takako are too good of a team to get much of a challenge from a makeshift pair of wrestlers.

Haven't seen the match but just knowing AJW in general that was probably the goal. They occasionally liked to book matches in a way whear it was REALLY obvious who the better wrestler was supposed to be coming out of it to put them over, especially the champs and this who tournament was pretty much just an excuse to give the Inoue's a bigger push.

[Tim Evans]

The ref in this is just the worst. I know he's done it before the the slow as hell near fall is annoying. Like he goes "1,2.......3". And he does it during every pinfall. Is the Yuki gimmick supposed to be like Eric Young's "Super Eric" without the superpowers? She wasn't very good at all here. I did like Takako kneeing Toyota right in the head while having her in a tombsone.

[PeteF3]

I don't get the purpose of the Yuki gimmick. Hasegawa wrestles exactly the same way here, so what's the point? I pretty much hate post-'89 Muta but at least he makes an effort to differentiate his style and personality when he's got the paint on. This match is solid, but that's all. If there's the quintessential "joshi by numbers" performance, this is it--if you've watched enough joshi you can pretty much count every spot before it happens. Hell, I could do it and I've only been watching since starting these Yearbooks.

[Zenjo]

The Blizzard-o Yuki gimmick drained most of Hasegawa's charisma. Masked wrestlers learn how to entirely express themselves with body language as they can't use facial expressions. It's an acquired skill.

 

This was the final match of a long and rather dull one night tournament. There was also a half hour kickboxing snooze-athon that had killed the crowd. The fans did wake up again for the main event, but the wrestlers got the structure wrong. The opening half was Toyota doing her 3rd FIP segment of the evening. The second half started off with finishers and then seemed to be moving further away from an ending rather than progressing towards it. I would criticize the booking rather than the workers. Their brains must have been fried and their bodies exhausted after 3 full length matches. Kyoko finally ends the tournament with a Niagara Driver on Yuki.