[1995-07-09-JWP] Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai (Street Fight)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

My guard was up going into this. While I really liked the March match, two street fights within four months of each other seemed excessive. That was for good reason. This is a really great match too, and it may even make my top 100, but there's nothing this match does that the March match doesn't do just as well or better. If there is a difference, it's that this time, Ozaki does more selling, while she was the aggressor in March, but that's not even as pronounced as you'd think, and the match is still worked pretty much the same way. All-over-the-arena brawling is incredibly boring to watch on TV, but great for the live audience. It's hard to complain about a match this great, and believe me, I'm not. It's just that there's not much new to say. This is the feud that doesn't quit.

[Tim Evans]

I liked parts of this match. Ozaki waiting in the crowd for Dynamite and Dynamite going into the crowd to get her. Ozaki kicking her right in the face towards the end. The brawl into the lobby and the ring girls trying to keep the fans back. Other than that? Fuck this match. 30 of the 36 minutes of this was just utter crap and a example of the worst brawls. It reminded me of those Cena brawls on ppv with guys like JBL and Orton. So long and if you cut 15 minutes out of it, the match would have been better. And Fuck Ozaki for no selling the piledriver through the Japanese table. I know Piledriver mean nothing in Japan but come on? Then Ozaki treats attempted murder like a transition move.

[NintendoLogic]

This is a really great match too, and it may even make my top 100

You think there were 100+ really great matches in 1995 alone?

[Loss]

How do I respond to this question without getting in a semantics debate with you over what "great" means? I enjoyed every match in my top 100. This was one of them. Clarify your question, please.

[NintendoLogic]

That's precisely it. I was curious about your threshold for greatness. Not trying to be adversarial.

[Loss]

For 1995, I rated 62 matches at **** or better, if that answers your question. Compared to other years:

 

1992: 79

1993: 99

1994: 53 (Through September - still watching)

1996: 61

[jdw]

FWIW, Loss had this #32 on his list for the year. Some random well known stuff he had below it:

 

#93 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Psicosis (ECW Gangstas Paradise 09/16/95)

#85 - Rick & Scott Steiner vs Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase (NJPW Tokyo Dome 01/04/95)

#84 - Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF In Your House 12/17/95)

#80 - Bret Hart vs Hakushi (WWF In Your House 05/14/95)

#77 - Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue (AJPW 09/10/95)

#62 - Eddy Guerrero vs Dean Malenko (ECW Hostile City Showdown 04/15/95)

#61 - Brian Pillman vs Johnny B. Badd (WCW Fall Brawl 09/17/95

#59 - Shawn Michaels vs Jeff Jarrett (WWF In Your House 07/23/95)

#39 - Toshiaki Kawada vs Gary Albright (AJPW 10/25/95

#36 - Rey Misterio Jr vs Psicosis (ECW TV 10/07/95)

 

 

Not to defend his ratings or anything, but he liked this one a good deal.

 

John

[Loss]

The air date was 7/23, but this actually took place on 7/9, so I updated the thread accordingly.

[PeteF3]

From the attire and setting you could swear this was a rerun. But it's wrestled, at least early on, at a much more deliberate pace than the first match. This time they brawl into the souvenir/concession area rather than a lobby, but the layout overall is pretty similar and this really feels like they took this match "around the horn" a la an American house show run. Ozaki wins this time, at least. Basically a watered-down version of the first match. Not to get all, "Well, in a real fight wrestling move [x] couldn't happen therefore it's stupid" here, but I don't know of many street fights that go for 36:41. It's late and I'm tired, but I think that's way too long for the type of match they were trying to do.

[ohtani's jacket]

The second Kansai/Ozaki street fight is the less violent, less grotesque of the two. Crowd brawling is never gonna be my thing, and some of the transitions weren't the flashest, but there was a lot of cool shit in the bout like Kansai's chained fist shots and an awesome submission counter from Ozaki. The finish was fairly inventive even if Ozaki's offense wasn't that great and I liked a lot of the nearfalls despite an aversion to table spots. It's funny the things you tolerate. I didn't mind the chain, or Ozaki using the broken top rope to strangle Kansai, but other props just annoy me. I wonder what started the push toward street fights in '95. If it was something as simple as the success of Onita in FMW or a push away from the increasing over-exposed women's style. Whatever the case may be, they positioned Ozaki strongly as Queen of the Street Fights and could have done a lot more, a lot sooner with FMW and Kudo.

[Zenjo]

A 'Dress Up Wild Fight', or Street Fight in translation. It was naturally a wild and crazy arena brawl. A chain was heavily involved as Oz put Kansai on a leash and made her her bitch. There were also chairs and piledrivers through tables. The ring was even dismantled and used as a weapon. Blood again flowed out foreheads, although not as gratuitously as last time out. They kept the energy level high and the 37m seemed to fly by.

 

Weird to say given the excesses of the match format but it had a slow burning, art house type of appeal at times. The first pinfall attempt didn't arrive until 20m in. Dyno had a total of one pin attempt the entire bout. For a lengthy battle I really liked how they paced it. And this environment allows Ozaki's charisma to shine through. It's such a great personality dynamic she has against the straight laced Dyno. It's surprising how dominant the underdog wrestler was here. Kansai took no end of punishment before eventually falling. Ozaki had now beaten her twice and was indeed Queen of the Street Fight. Whilst not as strong as the original this wasn't a rehash like some people are saying. There were several key differences with how they played out and this had plenty of its own merits.