[1990-08-19-AJW-Survival Shout in Korakuen] Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

- Aja Kong & Bison Kimura vs Bull Nakano & Grizzly Yamato

Everything I want out of wrestling & so much more. If I still gave out star ratings this would get 5. Legit one of the greatest matches i've ever seen. At it's best, great wrestling matches allways garner 1 of 2 responses from me. Either i'm jumping up & down going "fuck yeah, whoo, this is amazing" or i'm sitting thear deathly silent, intensely concentrating, not wanting to blink and miss 1 second. This match falls into the latter category. I couldn't turn away by the end, just staring with my mouth 1/2 open in disbeliefe at how damn fuckin great this was. This wasn't just good in your standard "oh they did a b & c, I like all those things, toss in a blender & mix for yummy goodness" sorta way. This was special, they did a through z then invented a 27th & 28th letter because they're just that good. Everyone was so perfect playing their roles, especially Bull as the unstopable dominant monster. Watching Bull just stand thear as Aja & Bison tried with all their heart to beat the shit out of her with Kendo sticks and Bull just had this "come on, is THAT all you've got" look on her face is one of those iconically cool moments in wrestling that you know you'll never ever forget.

[Loss]

Well, this was pretty fantastic. Bull is so protected as the top dog, and Aja throws everything she has at her - her best offense and even weapons - and it barely makes a dent. Kimura and Iwamoto aren't central to the story of the match, but they work hard and add value, taking some big bumps and punishment. This is a bloody, hate-filled brawl with top notch action, selling and heat. My #2 MOTY at this point. Just a war in every way possible. I really want to see the Aja/Bull singles matches coming up now, and all the post-match screaming at each other only magnifies that.

[jdw]

I think Kimura and Iwamoto are central to the story: they get the living shit kicked out of them at times, which not only contrasts with Aja as a Monster and Bull as a Super Monster Ace... but also seems to in turn inflame Bull and Aja to dish out payback punishment:

 

"Oh... you're beating up Grizzly like that? Fine, we're going to brutalize Bison."

 

"Wait a fucking minute... we're going to kill Grizzly!"

 

It's not like the two monster don't try to beat the crap out of each other, but the punishment dealt out to Kimura and Iwamoto gets epic at times, and would be cringeworthy if you showed it to anyone not use to joshi performers beating each other up.

 

John

[Childs]

The caning spots certainly made this memorable. The image of Nakano just standing there, inviting Aja and Bison to hit her in the head with sticks, bordered on sadomasochistic. No doubt it put her over as pretty indestructible. I really didn't like that they built to that sequence, wandered out into the crowd and then came back to do a fairly normal wrestling match. After all that violence, it just kind of ended.

 

I feel like I watch Joshi through some sort of distorted lens. So often, when Loss and FLIK absolutely love a match, I really like parts of it, but the structure lets me down. This had all the parts of something incredible. As presented, however, it didn't get there for me.

[PeteF3]

I was ultimately let down by this, too. Frankly I thought the kendo-sticking was the most eye-rolling moment of the match. Bull has done nothing but cut off opponents and no-sell shit all throughout the set and now Aja fucking Kong, who's physically bigger, whaling away at her with a kendo stick doesn't phase her, either? I'm not well-versed on joshi history but the big blowoff when someone finally puts Bull down for the count better make WrestleMania III look like a studio squash at the rate this is going. And then, yeah, this meandered like crazy after the DCOR tease. Not a lot of near-falls, or any sense that either side was approaching danger or losing energy...it just ended because it was time to go home and that was the finish.

 

Negativity aside, it's not like I hated this. Grizzly and Bison working the stiffest, most hardcore possible Jeannie vs. Toni catfight was fun. Bull was good dishing out on offense even if I'm really into her psychology at this point. This would be a MOTYC instead of just a joshi MOTYC if they shaved off ten minutes. (I'm missing the "filled with heat" part, too. I thought the crowd was noticeably quieter for this than the Toyota match, even if Vince McMahon or Gorilla Monsoon would chalk it up to "awed silence").

[ohtani's jacket]

I think the point of the caning spot was that Aja wasn't hitting Bull hard enough. When Bull took the sticks off her and used them on Jungle Jack and the ref she split the things in two. Aja wasn't able to muster that sort of rage at this point as she was still really green. At the end when Bull is taunting her, she spits the dummy and releases some of her anger. That was the point of their feud -- for Aja to summon the kind of hatred and rage that Chigusa wanted from her student in the GAEA Girls documentary. I think this match makes more sense in the context of their ongoing feud and Aja Kong's development than as a stand alone match, although it's entertaining enough on its own. It's somewhere in the middle between what Joshi was in the 80s and what it would become by the mid-90s and I think there's a lot to like about it in the context of this time frame where the matches were a little rough around the edges.

[soup23]

Blood, hate, screaming....definite MOTYC for me.

 

I thought it was kind of ingenious from a protection standpoint in putting Kimura and Iwamoto in the match as the loyal henchman of their respective partners. THey really took an asskicking. Bull right here looks like Vader should have looked throughout 1992-1994 and here getting hit with the kendo sticks looking annoyed, then getting the sticks and wailing on Aja/Kimura/and the ref was a great iconic moment that actually made storyline sense.

[Kevin Ridge]

Getting snapmared by your hair looks fun. Aja is slimmer. Bull just toys with her opponents at times. Aja’s got her trusty tin basket. Ref is cool with it. Bull and Aja have been kept apart during match. They finally go head to head. Top rope legdrop out of nowhere. Fight over a suplex attempt. Grizzly and Bison are bringing the weapons. Bull completely no sells kendo stick shots. She then grabs a stick herself and puts a hurting on Kong. Fighting in the crowd. Finish felt kind of anticlimatic but the brawling continues. Good violent match that did seem odd at times with the weapons/everyone in the ring brawl and then going back to a standard tag match.

[Zenjo]

A real war. Brutally stiff with no end of pain dished out. Wild and crazy action with plenty of biting, blood and Singapore Cane usage.

 

The status dynamic was very strong. Grizzly stepped it up well in the #4 role, although her personality was dwarfed by the others. Impressive Bison performance but her moveset deficiencies arose at times. Then you had the two big guns kicking ass. This felt like the beginnings of a great feud rather than a blowoff. Really good match but I wouldn't say a MOTYC. The closing minutes it was starting to lose its direction a little.

[Badlittlekitten]

I adore Aja in this match. Dare I say it, she excels in the role of the emotional, fiery, underdog, 'babyface' even more than her usual monster role. I'm kinda like that with Nakano too, she was clearly more natural as the breezy, happy go lucky girl like in her Big Egg match with Medusa. She never quite convinced me enough as the monster. She is still great though and this might be her best performance in terms of playing her character - the viscous karate kicks to Bison, the no selling of the kendo sticks and the sickening shots she lays on Aja with them, the rope running power spots, the post match forehead chewing and especially that moment near the end where she crowds a teary Aja into the corner like a true bully - Bull's fantastic here.

 

But a lot of credit needs to go to Grizzly and Bison. It's them rather than the other two that bring the real sense of hatred into this match. The wailing, the viscous slaps and chair shots, the blood and the selling. It's palpable.

[aethelred]

Such a great match. I thought Grizzly and Bison were tremendous in this as well. Looking forward to Aja vs Bull!

[Loss]

Previously at PWO:

 

Jungle Jack vs. Bull Nakano & Grizzly Iwamoto, 8/19/90

Interesting period for AJW. It looked so indie.

This is the type of match that would be popular if the DVDVR Best Joshi matches of the 90s list was ever revised. Even if you don't like Joshi, it's a really good brawl & and a lot of people appreciate a really good brawl. The story is basically Bull vs. Aja. This was part of their "To Beat The Bitch, You Gotta Be The Bitch" feud. My favourite thing about this, however, is that Bison Kimura thinks she's hot shit compared to Iwamoto & they do some pretty great chair work on her (including a really good looking piledriver onto the chair), but then, later on, Iwamoto comes out of nowhere and beats the shit out of Bison with a bamboo cane. The finish is a bit aimless, but it's a cool match. I even liked the part where Bull no sells cane shots from Aja and Bison and then gives them a lesson in how to beat someone with a bamboo cane.

[garretta]

I had no idea what to think about this one. It seems like a match that was cooked up in a fan's scariest nightmares, really, with a blue-haired woman, a green-haired woman, and people whacking each other in the head with kendo sticks all over the place. I didn't dislike it, but it was too far out for me to love it like some of you did.

 

Kudos to Grizzly and Bison for absorbing a pair of savage beatings so Aja and Bull didn't have to. Those cane shots looked (and probably felt) absolutely brutal.

 

They did mix in some solid wrestling along with the brutality, which doesn't always happen in matches like this. In fact, Grizzly scores the winning fall with a nice German suplex. It's all a bit anticlimactic after we almost had quadruple homicide via kendo stick, but wrestling's just that way sometimes.

 

I'm guessing Aja was majorly pissed off in her postmatch screamfest with Bull, judging by her tears. Anyone care to guess why?

 

I wouldn't call this a match of the year candidate by any means, but it was something that needed to be seen. Looking forward to Aja and Bull one on one!

[drew wardlaw]

This was a big disconnect for me. It just felt very long and I couldn't follow the match. Granted, it was the middle of the night when I watched this, and I was taking care of a newborn, so maybe I didn't give it the attention it deserves. It was strange, because as unfamiliar as I am with joshi, Aja Kong and Bull are two that I've actually seen some footage of, so this is one I need to re-watch. I did enjoy some of their interactions though, and it felt like the setup to a big singles match, so we'll see.

[rzombie1988]

I did a full review of the match here:

http://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/ajw-survival-shout-in-korakuen-8191990.html

 

Some shots from it:

 

My thoughts on it:

Bison Kimura beat Grizzy Iwamoto with a random german but this wasn't about that at all. THIS. WAS. A. WAR. This match was fricking insane. Bell to bell just absolute violence and war. And it was incredible.

The story of the match was the Aja vs Bull feud. This match was building up a future match of theirs and did it ever. Two hosses fighting to be the king of the monsters and putting each other through hell to get there. They sold, they no sold and the went for blood.

They hit each other with chairs, canes, trashcans and whatever else they could get a hold of and they just never let up on each other. It was one of the best brawls I've ever seen.

There were so many good stories here from Bison and Grizzly not being able to touch either Bull or Aja as they were just too strong to be hurt by their weak sauce. At times, Bison and Griz were looking for tags and saves and Aja/Bull just let them fight it out and often completely ignored their shots, while focusing on the prize of each others heads. The match even ended and neither Aja or Bison cared as they were past that and kept going after each other. They then screamed and cried at each other while challenging each other to another match.

This was everything great about pro wrestling. You had the larger than life characters. You had the hate. You had the violence and you had the believably as hate trumped all here and they fought for every move.

I'm almost speechless here because this was just everything you dream about out of pro wrestling and more. The finish was the only critique here as it was out of nowhere, but this was no longer a match and it didn't matter who won at that point anyway, because everyone took so many causalities that everyone lost while the viewers won.

Rating:*****. A must see war.

[dawho5]

I liked this a lot more than Toyota vs. Hokuto. Bull and Aja as massive beasts beating the shit out of the junior partners was a lot of fun. It meandered in spots, but this is way more my type of wrestling.

[Edwin]

This was bonkers. And just add to the discussion, I'll say I think everyone is underselling the Bison Kimura and Grizzly Iwamoto exchanges. These two beat the junk out of each other. Those early punch exchanges were brutal -- I mean Devil Masami vs. Chigusa Nagayo levels of brutal. Those kendo stick shots between them were pretty brutal too -- maybe not Sandman caning Sabu in the jaw levels of brutal, but still they were pretty brutal. Great match.

[Chess Knight]

Ok so if I have this right, Bull is your monster ace, Kong is your hopeful monster ace and Grizzly and Bison are on either side for some reason I dunno. And they all have animal names. They probably did a bit too much in this match, I lost track of piledrivers and I'm not sure that cane had much use considering Grizzly and Bison couldn't even take each other out with it. Kong and Bison are at one point whacking Bull with it and she's showing how much it doesn't bother her, which may have been great, if we hadn't already seen the lower ranked women also not get taken out by it.

The good, though, was extremely good. I liked every match up here, and the Kong/Bull hostility trickled down well to Grizzly and Bison. Bison was screaming while attacking Grizzly like they were dating and she caught her cheating. Lots of hair pulling early and the four of these women certainly had a lot of combined hair to pull at. Bull was mostly dismissive of Bison, shrugging off a lot of what she did and bloodying her up. She throws her to Kong's corner at one point, Kong tags in, and we get a stare off before this incredibly awesome moment where Bison dropkicks Bull out of thin air....which Bull of course shrugs off and proceeds to kick the shit out Bison for. Kong kinda tries to stop Bull but eventually just lets it happen, maybe to leave Bison in the deep end and see how she swims. At the time of watching, I had wished that the outcome of that was an actual Kong/Bull interaction, but it leading to Grizzly/Bison round...3 or whatever, at least allowed Bison have some offense again, and we got our moment upcoming so maybe it was better this way. Kong vs. Grizzly didn't feel like quite the slaughter Bull vs. Bison did, but I think maybe the point was that Kong was using Grizzly as a punching bag to shove it in Bull's face, instead of actually being as enthusiastic to kick the shit out of someone the way Bull was. Bull doesn't even try to stop the double teaming against Grizzly until Kong and Bison are both biting her bloody face, which results in them getting to bite Bull's face when she tried to intervene. The small sliver of double teaming against Bull worked, until it didn't, and then we finally get the proper Kong vs. Bull 1v1. It starts off AMAZINGLY as Bull hits a follow up clothesline, and Kong does the weeble-wobble stumble-bumble selling as well as I can possibly imagine it ever being done, at least in this context. She stumbles all the way to a turnbuckle corner and we get a rad shot of Bull's reaction and Kong's smile before they clash more and Kong does go down again. Kong catches Bull with a spinning backfist though which popped people big, and then struggles to get Bull up for what you may possibly call a suplex (but Kong might not as she slams the mat and screams in anger on the kick out). The frustration between the teams builds from there and we start getting more weapons, some arena brawling, and kick out interruptions. I thought it built very naturally (even if, like I said, not every interaction is great), so I think they missed a bit of opportunity for the match to end and its highest heat point by getting back in the ring and working a little too 'normally' after too brief a moment of real chaos. The finish was fine in booking I thought, at least with the little information I have about this promotion in 1990, but the energy was at its flattest of the entire match. All in all I think I'd say like 80% a really great match?