[1990-05-13-AJW] Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

My old review

 

- (3WA Tag Titles - 2 out of 3 Falls) Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami © vs Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki

60's Soldiers EXPLODE - Marine Wolves vs Fire Jets. 1st Fall is pretty good, they don't go all out but real solid work. Fire Jets mostly dominate to disapointment of the shrieking school girls in attendance who're all about them some Marine Wolf love. Minami & Nishiwaki have an awesome exchange near the end that sees Nish come out on top w a backdrop suplex to pick up win #1. Quick 2nd fall going only 4-5 mins. Starts w Hotta playing a game of kickball using Ms Minami as the ball but when she tags out to Nish Suzuka's able to make a come back. Hokuto comes in and cleans house and the Wolves go on a long stretch of offense throwing bombs against both girls until they finally put Hotta away to even things up. Fire Jets whine the entire break to the ref that it was only a 2. 3rd fall is more back & forth then the other 2 with Hokuto & Nishiwaki being the standouts this time. It comes down to them for the final stretch and it's a huge joy to watch. Really Nishiwaki period was the best of the 4 tonight, loved her in this match. She sadly losed though when Hokuto counters her powerbomb attempt into a cradle. Real good match. Dunno why, maybe just wasn't in the mood for a spazzy spot fest having watched this after like 6 & 1/2 hours sleep but I really dug the pacing of the match too. They weren't going at a snails pace or anything, just not so super fast that it made it hard for some stuff to register or remember or whatever. Fire Jets again prove to not be gracious winers post match and beg for a re-match after.

[Loss]

This was a very good match, which was helped by being only the second Joshi match on the set so far. I liked the submission work in the third fall, and Hokuto was an exceptional athlete. But this isn't anything I'll remember. I'll definitely rewatch this one at some point.

[PeteF3]

Had trouble getting into this. It was certainly action-packed and well-executed but at no point did I have any emotional involvement in who won, who lost, or what happened to anyone. Part of that is never having heard of Minami or Nishikawa but part of that was just that the work just didn't grab me. It was just a physically impressive series of spots and counters.

[soup23]

I may be contrarian but this was one of my favorite matches so far on the set. Part of that may be that we have only seen one joshi match so far but the pace worked at along with an interesting story being developed in each fall really drew me in even at 2:00 in the morning. I also had no experience with Minami and Nishiwaki and thought they were both great here so this match some new discovery aspect to it as well. Probably will need to rewatch to see if it holds up but right now this is in my top 10 for the year.

[Kevin Ridge]

I still don’t recognize Hokuto. The female fans are chanting non stop. Regal suplex look alike to win the first fall. Hotta laying in the kicks. Minami makes the tag but I thought she wiffed. Hotta getting suplexed all over the place. Second fall doesn’t look smooth with the roll up attempt. Third fall ends with another roll up.

[Zenjo]

Fantastic 80's atmosphere with the schoolgirls boundless enthusiasm and chanting. Minami was really popular despite her long hair. When it comes to schoolgirl support it's hard to overstate the importance of a butch haircut.

 

The action was also akin to the previous era, more unstructured and a bit rough around the edges. Plenty of fun though as the teamates worked well together, particularly the Marine Wolves. I liked how the wrestler who had just dropped the fall was dominated afterwards and put in danger of losing another one. The quality level was consistant with a good climax.

 

'We Fire Jets'

[Cox]

I immediately checked out of this when one of the ladies kicked out of a piledriver on a 1 count in the first minute of the match. It was certainly action-packed and fluid, but hitting big moves (especially the piledriver) early in the match without really selling them is a good way to make me not care about the match. Maybe that's just the joshi style and I'm not exposed enough to it to appreciate it, but for this match at this point for me, it was enough for me to not care about the rest of the match.

[stunning_grover]

Fantastic 80's atmosphere with the schoolgirls boundless enthusiasm and chanting. Minami was really popular despite her long hair. When it comes to schoolgirl support it's hard to overstate the importance of a butch haircut.

Ha! Good point.

 

 

I immediately checked out of this when one of the ladies kicked out of a piledriver on a 1 count in the first minute of the match. It was certainly action-packed and fluid, but hitting big moves (especially the piledriver) early in the match without really selling them is a good way to make me not care about the match. Maybe that's just the joshi style and I'm not exposed enough to it to appreciate it, but for this match at this point for me, it was enough for me to not care about the rest of the match.

It was Yumiko Hotta who kicked out of Suzuka Minami's piledriver on a one count. I actually didn't noticed it at first (probably because I'm used to seeing piledrivers getting treated like that in puroresu by now). Still, I totally understand what you mean. This actually reminds me of the 80s New Japan set discussions at the DVDVR forum. At one point, there was even a separate thread about this subject. The lack of selling (or even no-selling) of piledrivers was not uncommon in puroresu (also in joshi puroresu, which was very workrate driven during the 1980s and 1990s). It's just a regular move and is not seen as a deadly move. I guess it helps to keep that in mind while watching (joshi) puroresu. It's similar to still enjoying a puroresu match despite the fact that the sasorigatame (Scorpion Death Lock/Sharpshooter) is not a deadly finisher (while perhaps being used to it as a deadly finisher in American wrestling). It also works the other way around (moves considered a finisher in Japan being sold as a resthold in the U.S.), for example, the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels iron man match where Bret sold a jujigatame as a resthold. Or... maybe we could look at things from a more kayfabe-like perspective... we could think that Shawn Michaels can't execute a decent jujigatame and that Japanese wrestlers can't execute decent piledrivers.

 

Especially when watching a yearbook like this, where we see wrestling from all over the world, we have to accept certain things that were considered normal in certain promotions/areas/styles. With lucha we have to accept the fact that two pinfalls almost always end up right after each other to decide a fall and that they submit to holds puroresu workers in Japan would never submit to. With WWF we have to accept that the Ultimate Warrior was considered championship material. With Memphis we have to accept the whole technical losses stuff. With USWA Texas we have to accept that they no-sell angles and title changes that happened in Memphis. With puroresu we have to accept that the piledriver is just a random, relatively ineffective move and not a finisher. Well... we don't have to accept it, but it makes the matches probably a lot more enjoyable if we do. I think a yearbook like this shows that great wrestling can happen in all kinds of forms, in different promotions and in different styles. When watching Memphis, for example, I tend to focus more on the angles and Jerry Lawler's great promos. When watching puroresu, I tend to focus more on in-ring work. When watching lucha, I tend to watch it in lucha viewing mode. It's all great stuff, but it comes in different forms with different characteristics and with different finishers.

 

 

This 2-out-of-3 falls match was terrific. It was for the WWWA World Tag Team Championship. Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami, the Marine Wolves, defended the championship against Yumiko Hotta & Mitsuko Nishiwaki, the Fire Jets. There were still plenty of school girls in the crowd at AJW shows in May 1990. They were making a lot of noise, were doing a lot of chanting and they added a lot to the crowd heat of the match. The Marine Wolves was an excellent tag team. Suzuka Minami is, in my opinion, the most underrated pro wrestler of all time (when it comes to how she’s viewed by wrestling fans on the internet). She was a great worker, but hardly anyone talks about her. While Hokuto was the leader of the team, Minami proved to be the type of worker that’s great to have on your team. The Fire Jets won the first fall (which lasted about 7 minutes) after Nishiwaki pinned Minami. The Marine Wolves were desperate to score the equalizing fall. They executed all kinds of high impact moves. The Fire Jets weren’t going to let that happen too easily though and fought back. Still, the Marine Wolves managed to win the second fall (which lasted about 5 minutes) after Minami pinned Hotta. The third fall saw all kinds of great action, including brawling outside of the ring and plenty of great tag team wrestling. Hokuto scored the pinfall victory over Nishiwaki to win the third fall (which lasted about 8 minutes) and the match (which lasted about 20 minutes in total). The Marine Wolves retained the championship. I think this match was even better than the Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita match from January 4, 1990. A great performance was given by all four workers, especially the Marine Wolves. This match is currently in my top 3 of 1990 so far.

 

 

EDIT: By the way, I have to mention this after writing all that stuff about piledrivers in puroresu... On the same show as this tag match (May 13, 1990 AJW), there's a match between Manami Toyota and Etsuko Mita where Toyota actually wins the match after hitting four piledrivers on Mita! The match itself is really good, even though Toyota is almost Sabu-like when it comes to her reckless execution of a lot of the high risk moves.

[Zenjo]

Excellent post by stunning_grover. Once you've learnt to appreciate a certain style you just naturally watch it with a different mindset in place compared with another style. With the yearbooks you're jumping all over the place all the time and getting such a huge variety thrown at you. From match to match your expectations change as to what you expect and want to see. Some aspects of a style you may become indifferent to or like more over time. Others things you'll always dislike no matter what.

 

It also works the other way around (moves considered a finisher in Japan being sold as a resthold in the U.S.), for example, the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels iron man match where Bret sold a jujigatame as a resthold.

I've seen several cases when an American wrestler unused to working in Japan is put in the Jujigatame and just casually lies there whilst the crowd are going crazy because he thinks it's a rest hold.

[garretta]

Having seen only two joshi matches, I'm really not familiar with the workers and their styles yet. But compared to what we see in North America, this stuff's a revelation. To see women actually executing holds and maneuvers more complex than clotheslines and dropkicks is worth the price of admission alone. For that reason, I look more kindly on joshi than I do shoot-style or lucha, the other two styles I'm not so familiar with, and look forward to learning and seeing more about it as the Yearbooks progress. This was a breath of fresh air, even if I didn't always know exactly who I was watching.

[drew wardlaw]

I'm very unfamiliar with joshi, really just from the two matches I've seen on here so far and the ocassional wcw match. I think the woman in blue was in the last match? Anyway, it seems like the style is very quick and heavy on the moves. It's cool to see and hear the famous little girl crowds really hot for the match. Someone else posted above, but I liked the concept of the loser of the previous fall continuing taking a beating.