[1994-03-27-AJW-Wrestling Queendom] Manami Toyota vs Plum Mariko

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was probably a strong match, but it didn't really appeal to me personally at all. All of my least favorite things about the Joshi style were on display pretty prominently throughout. Mariko and Toyota are both great athletes, and their similar styles created a dynamic that seemed to work with the crowd. So the match was effective. But it's not something I ever care to watch again, even though there were some cool things here.

[FLIK]

Always liked this match a lot but yeah at best this is maybe the 5th best match on the Quendom show to me. Main event of course but I also thought Dynamite Kansai vs Sakie Hasegawa & Toshiyo Yamada vs Kyoko Inoue smoked this match and the LCO vs Ozaki & Cutie tag was better too.

 

Mariko and Toyota are both great athletes, and their similar styles created a dynamic that seemed to work with the crowd

Hm, curious what led you down that line of thinking?

I'd always considered them polar opposites style wise. I think Plum more worked more to Toyota's strenghts in this one but overall I mean. Toyota the poster child for "sprint style" joshi and Plum being more about matwork, submissions and suplexes.

[Loss]

In the two matches I have watched so far on this set, Mariko has been a go-go-go type and a high flyer. The way you're describing her sounds more like Yagi or late 90s Yoshida, which intrigues me. What do I need to see?

[El-P]

Indeed, Plum was the polar opposite of Toyota, but she could work go-go-go too if needed. But her main style was matwork and submission.

My memory is fuzzy, but I'm sure FLIK can direct to some good mat oriented matches with Plum. I think there's a cool Plum vs Bolshoi match somewhere.

[FLIK]

Mariko has been a go-go-go type and a high flyer

Well, she was adaptable and was fine doing that style if the occasion called for it, especially a big 6 or 8 woman tag or if it fit more to her opponents strengths. But with the right opponent who was game for it she was def more about mat work, suplexes and flash submissions. Really JWP on it's own in general was a slower paced promotion compared to AJW.

 

Yoshida is actually a great comparison for her. Them against each other was always a dream match for me but they sadly never got to cross paths due to injuries both had at diffrent times in their careers and then Plum's tragic death. Probably a good chance Plum would have ended up in ARSION had she lived, she was perfect for that style.

 

Anyways, the Devil/Plum vs Chiggy/Cutie match on the 93 set is a better example of the type of match Plum was best at.

 

The Plum vs Bolshoi Submission match from 1/93 for sure, i've been pimping that one for a while as a lost gem, I know MJH & others have too. Link for it's still good on my old match download site if anyone wants to see.

 

Mentioned this in another thread but I think the Plum vs Chigusa match in JWP from 2/94 is a top 10-15 joshi match for 94 and probably Plum's best singles match ever.

 

Devil Masami & Debbie Malenko vs Dynamite Kansai & Plum Mariko from 2/93 is a real good match. The footage that airs (about 17 mins of a 33 min match) is more about highlighting the Kansai vs Devil interactions but the few mins we get of Plum & Debbie going at it are fun. Original Dreamslam match was supposed to be Debbie & Sakie vs Plum & Fukuoka but then Debbie got injured 2 weeks later.

[El-P]

Yoshida is actually a great comparison for her. Them against each other was always a dream match for me but they sadly never got to cross paths due to injuries both had at diffrent times in their careers and then Plum's tragic death. Probably a good chance Plum would have ended up in ARSION had she lived, she was perfect for that style.

Oh yeah, that is one of the impossible dream match too. Plum would have been been awesome in ARSION.

 

Anyways, the Devil/Plum vs Chiggy/Cutie match on the 93 set is a better example of the type of match Plum was best at.

Great match. I loved this one so much.

 

The Plum vs Bolshoi Submission match from 1/93 for sure, i've been pimping that one for a while as a lost gem, I know MJH & others have too. Link for it's still good on my old match download site if anyone wants to see.

That's the one I was referring too. I knew you would know about it.

[ohtani's jacket]

The Plum/Bolshi submission match is awesome, but there aren't a lot of Plum matches like that. She was only an average worker, IMO.

[NintendoLogic]

I've never seen a single Plum Mariko match, but Lorefice said in his Plum obit that she wasn't a strong mat wrestler and got her submissions through athletic counters rather than outmaneuvering opponents on the mat.

 

EDIT: Having seen the submission match, I'd say that's accurate. Plum wasn't a Yoshida-caliber mat worker.

[El-P]

Plum wasn't a Yoshida-caliber mat worker.

Nobody is except Tamura and Volk Han.

[ohtani's jacket]

Oh c'mon, Yoshida wasn't the third best matworker ever.

[Kevin Ridge]

I'm trying to give Joshi a chance but it's been a struggle. Probably something I need to be in the right mood to watch. I also might appreciate it more when I watch the year books in a row. Anyways, this felt average. Toyota never seemed in any danger so it just came down to when she was going to win.

[Exposer]

This was a pretty good match. There was too much of the negative Joshi in it for me though. The beginning minutes were a struggle and the back and forth move for move style is not my thing. There didn't seem to be a proper control segment at all in this either. It was just go-go-go. It was still pretty good but these kinds of matches don't interest me.

[soup23]

This had a go go go pace but I thought the roles were constructed well and I enjoyed bully Toyota pulling Plum’s hair and being vicious since that is a role I am not used to her being in. I also thought this didn’t have an inordinate amount of kickouts or repeatedly big moves like some joshi matches can have.

[PeteF3]

This was okay, and I too enjoyed Toyota's...wristlocks on Plum's hair, I guess would be the best description. Some heeling out of Toyota that you almost never see. That said, this is about the least-focused match ever as both girls just sort of run through their thing with almost no regard for transitions or psychology, at least until the end when Toyota crushes Plum with a power bomb counter off the top. It's not suffocatingly paced, which is nice, but between Toyota working on top at the beginning and the end there isn't much of a compelling reason to care about what's going on either. I think I like the concept of Plum--a spunky, joshi submission type--more than Plum herself. She's talented and works hard but a lot of her matches on these Yearbooks have come across as very samey. I see the point about her being about athletic counters more than pure mat skills--her scissor takedowns and leg submissions are very cool but they're executed the same way in every match, giving them the appearance of rote spots rather than pure technical skill. Anyway, I still liked a lot of this and appreciated the decisive finish, as well as the reigned-in performance from Manami.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a decent match. I don't agree that it was go-go-go as it was quite a slow paced match. I liked the early going, but wasn't entirely convinced by Plum working from the top. I actually thought her height was a bit of an issue in this as she seemed too small to be a credible threat to Manami. I did like her contribution to the stretch run, though, from the gorgeous german to the clever submission attempts. Her size admittedly made Manami's offence look killer, especially her planchas. Ultimately, they were at different levels in the hierarchy and that was plain as day in the finish, but not a bad day's work for either woman.