[1990-11-17-Hamada's UWF] Aja Kong & Bison Kimura & Madusa Miceli & Tarantula & Xochilt Hamada vs Manami Toyota & Mariko Yoshida & Kaoru Maeda & Mika Takahashi & Esther Moreno

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Some who aren't crazy about Joshi will accuse me of blasphemy for this, but this is Joshi's version of the New Japan multi-man tag match. The crowd is hot, the action is great and everyone picks up the pace a few notches. I appreciate Esther Moreno bringing a little lucha flair to this when she's in the ring. I really want to see more from her now. I need recommendations, and I really hope there's a Kong/Moreno match out there. Speaking of Aja, the crowd treats her as the star of this, and she delivers a performance to match. The dive train in the last few minutes of this is awesome, which culminates in Aja doing her dive much to the delight of the crowd.

 

The eliminations happen awfully fast over halfway in, which tells me that even at 25+ minutes, this match could have used a lot more time. The garbage can stuff is bullshit, but it doesn't last long, and Aja is incapable of doing a match without it it seems. Great finishing sequence, though, and it really is a fantastic match - the best Joshi match of the year - and the multi-person format suits the go-go-go style very well.

[FLIK]

I appreciate Esther Moreno bringing a little lucha flair to this when she's in the ring. I really want to see more from her now. I need recommendations, and I really hope there's a Kong/Moreno match out there.

I have Jungle Jack vs Esther & Toyota tag title match as my #1 joshi match in 91 and I had Esther #7 on my top 10 list for that year & wrote this in my year end recap

 

Like i've mentioend before discovering how good the Moreno's were was another highlight of the year for me. Esther easily steals the show in every match she's a part of and the only reason she's as low as 7 on my list is because she didn't get as many high profile big matches to shine in and was mostly regulated to mid card matches most of the time.

Her sister Cynthia is also really damn good but Esther was the star of that team. Hell, all the Moreno family rules, Alda, Rossy, thier brother Oriental.

 

As for other reccomendations, I allready talked about the Honey Wings (Kaoru & Takahashi) vs Xochitl Hamada & Esther series in the 90 re-watch/1st time viewing thread & the 11/14 8 woman elimination match.

 

These are also worth tracking down as far as her work from this era goes

 

5/26/1991 Kyoko Inoue & Debbie Malenko vs Mariko Yoshida & Esther Moreno

6/18/1991 Takako Inoue, Mariko Yoshida & Manami Toyota vs Esther Moreno, Cynthia Moreno & Mika Takahashi

8/2/1991 (AJW Tag Titles) Cynthia Moreno & Esther Moreno © vs Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida

 

Esther was around forever in joshi though & pops up lots of places.

Late 80's original JWP, mid 90's JWP & JD, early days of ARSION, etc...

[PeteF3]

I could watch this all night, pretty much. Moreno was the standout performance, other than Aja's. A 10-man makes the joshi go-go-go style much more palatable because you expect that kind of pace in any 10-man, whether it involves joshi workers or WWF fatties and muscleheads. But this had some structure to it, with a very well-done FIP segment on Maeda and some great big vs. little stuff when Moreno is trapped in the ring with Aja Kong. The heels go down 4-on-2 and that's when they get desperate, with the eliminated women interfering and...yes, Aja using the trash can. I was actually fine with that, because she wrestled on the level until the numbers were against her. The double-eliminations and disregard for tagging in the closing stretch is I guess one of those things I'll have to get used to, but it did make for a cool closing stretch with Aja splashing both Honey Wings for the double pin. The trash can usage didn't bother me, but I have to say Manami Toyota interfering at the end did. No matter--I agree that this is the joshi MOTYC and possibly a top 10 or so candidate for the overall list. This could easily have gone twice the length.

 

As an irrelevant aside, Madusa didn't look out of place at all here, but with that hairstyle and the quasi-street-clothes attire, she looked like a psychotic Susan Ross, having finally snapped and beating the shit out of Kramer or Elaine for one too many societal transgressions.

[soup23]

I kind of liked Madusa's trashy look and thought it was attractive. I know I sound like a broken record but this was a great match that didn't have me coming up for air in the 30 minutes it lasted. The pace was relentless. Moreno looked like the female version of Hamada and all her spots were great. A couple of things annoyed me at the end (trashcan, Aja looking that dominant over an established tag team) but overall joshi has improved a lot for me in the month of November.

[Zenjo]

A bit of a hidden gem here. The Survivor Series had nothing on these girls.

 

This wan't the Tarantula that was around in the early 80's. Frenetic action like you'd expect and I was surprised how high the quality level was. Moreno really impressed ahead of her stellar 1991. The fans didn't really know Toyota but she stood out as team leader. The funny thing was that heel Aja was hugely popular and got chants every time she did a move! The booking was well catered to that as Kong came back from 1 vs 3 to prevail. It had just about enough time although eliminations were very rapid at the end.

[Childs]

Great format for Joshi, because it emphasized pace without the need for long-term selling. I'm with everyone else in that I loved Moreno and found Madusa shockingly entertaining. But I even liked Toyota in this context. Structurally, they did a great job with Aja as the force who could not be balanced. They held her in reserve for most of the early going and then delivered all the "planes circling Kong" spots you'd want as a kind of sugar rush climax.

[Kevin Ridge]

Cool spot with the catapult/backbreaker and Aja doing a butt splash then a clothesline. I’m unfamiliar with who is who for a couple members but some impressive looking moves being done. Zero chance to breathe during match. This was non stop go go go. Yeah, some of the pinfalls are rushed but you get that with elimination matches. This was a great match and the crowd seemed to really like Kong.

[garretta]

Sorry, but this was another "sit through what I paid for" match for me. I didn't know half the workers, and had a hard time guessing who the ones I thought I knew were except for Aja and Medusa. It's hard to care about eight girls you barely know. I kept waiting for JR or Vince to come to ringside and explain to me what the hell I was watching, which still happens for me on a lot of non-American matches, unfortunately for my status as a so-called "smart" fan. To make it worse, they must have been getting "wrap it up come hell or high water" signals from somewhere, because the eliminations were far too quick for their own good, especially Aja's double pin at the end. Of course, she should have been DQ'd for using the trash can long before that.

 

I'll be glad to get back to some good old American wrestling after watching this, even if it means putting up with the travesty that is the Black Scorpion.

[Zenjo]

I kept waiting for JR or Vince to come to ringside and explain to me what the hell I was watching

Like Survivor Series 95.

 

 

unfortunately for my status as a so-called "smart" fan.

You're going to have to watch the Black Scorpion as penance.

[garretta]

One man's penance is another man's torture, I suppose. Seriously, I may go back and rewatch this match once I get a little more familiar with who's who. The action was excellent, but it would have been hard to tell what was going on even if I'd known everyone involved. They could have spaced the eliminations out a bit more.

[Nathers]

Just watched this a couple of days ago myself and it's a real gem of a match. Top 20 for the year in my book.

[drew wardlaw]

I barely knew who anyone was here, but this was a fired up elimination match and non-stop action. Don't have much more to say than that really.

[dawho5]

Non-stop action, a luchadora, Aja diving on unfortunate souls, very fun stuff. I would rewatch it, which I don't always say about joshi.

[tbrett]

This match was fantastic, I am not a Joshi fan but this Yearbook is slowly making me a fan. This is definitely in the running for MOTY for me, the pace was impressive I can see why so many people are big fans of early 90s AJW.