[1991-04-29-AJW] Akira Hokuto vs Suzuka Minami

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

- (All Pacific Title) Suzuka Minami © vs Akira Hokuto

The Big White Belt on the line as the Mega Powers Explode. So remember everything I said about Suzuka/Toyota not having any passion or emotion and being a bland, by the #s match? This was the complete opposite, everything that match should have been and more and all around off the charts great. The tag partner/friend element adds a lot to the dynamic and the story of the match is them tossing that shit out the window cause the title's on the line. In an amusing irony, Suzuka herself goes after Hokuto's leg, not as agressively as Toyota did a few months back, just enough to get over that if need be she too will exploit her weakness to gain the advantage. Hesitating to go all the way with it may have been what cost her though as Hokuto picks up the win in the end. Kick ass finish too with her hitting 3 vicious looking missile drop kicks off 3 diff turnbuckles, a 4th flipping drop kick off the last one (which ended up being more of a flipping ass to the face but still) and then finally the NLB. Easily the best Suzuka Minami match i've ever seen and one of the better matches of the year.

[Loss]

This started off with some really inspired, vicious-looking matwork that I enjoyed quite a bit. Minami does some really awesome, painful looking work on Hokuto's knee and ankle. Hokuto rolling out and taking almost the full 20 count to sell the damage was not at all what I'm used to seeing in this style, and was a welcome change of pace. When she returns to the ring, she decides to go hard or go home, and applies a sharpshooter to Minami, but she's on shaky ground herself because of her bad wheel. In a cool spot, she ends up extending her own leg forward because the hold she is applying is actually hurting her too. She manages to build a brief comeback, but Minami cuts her off and goes right back to the bad leg. Awesome. They build to a pretty exciting final stretch and Hokuto eventually gets the win.

 

Interesting that Lorefice described this as an incredible fast-paced match with tons of big moves and kickouts, because the majority of this is really just matwork. There are some big moves at the end, but the description doesn't do this match justice at all. Really great.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, there are big moves and kickouts, but even after the opening matwork chunk, the big moves are all given time to breathe here. Even during Hokuto's closing flurry she's selling fatigue between every move she does. I'm waiting for Minami to do something to get me really emotionally invested in a match of hers instead of appreciating her bouts more than loving them, but this was really good stuff and a vast improvement over the majority of 1990 joshi.

[Zenjo]

The Marine Wolves explode! Literally!!!

 

OK perhaps not but Hokuto's poor knee takes another pounding. If she hadn't cut back her schedule she'd have probably ended up hobbling around like Mita, Mutoh and Kobashi. Minami targeted the limb in the early stages and it was well sold. The pace quickened in the 2nd half with a back and forth stretch. Hokuto had taken more damage but she was the higher ranked fighter with more powerful offense. Didn't like the finish at all. I wouldn't call it a classic, just a very good match.

[soup23]

Great stuff. The leg work was allowed to breath and felt consequential. I liked the little touches that all added to comprise this match and the major moves down the stretch all had a sense of purpose. Two partners going at it always has an added sense of grittiness and that came into play here. Top 10 match of the year so far.

[garretta]

This was a neat little match full of focused work on Hokuro's bad knee; if Minami had been any more aggressive, she would have turned herself heel. Hokuto takes the beating, and just when you think she's done comes back with that spectacular "four corners" aerial finish, all while still selling the leg. Great stuff, as was the sick bump Minami took right on her head.

 

I expected Minami to stick around and congratulate her partner, but they took her out (ostensibly) for medical attention. I love the emotional scene after the match, as Hokuto cries from a mixture of pain, happiness, and relief upon having the belt strapped around her waist once more.

 

Flik was right; if Minami had gone after Hokuto's leg a little more aggressively, she might have gotten a submission title win. But perhaps the point of the story was that there was too much of a bond between her and Hokuto to allow her to destroy her friend and partner just for a championship. Of course, Hokuto's desperate enough to turn this kindness into a weakness, as comradeship doesn't stop her from dropping Minami right on her head to get the final three-count

 

I'm not sure how this would rank overall if I was still trying to do rankings, but this is the joshi Match of the Year so far (from admittedly slim pickings).

[KB8]

Stylistically I feel like I should've enjoyed this more than I did. It's not that I actively DIDN'T enjoy it, I just wasn't really engaged and even when they were doing things I'd usually be into I was sort of drifting in and out. The early parts were built around grappling and it was some of the more rugged grappling you'll see from this period of AJW, or even joshi in general. They slowed the pace down and kept it grounded, rarely taking it back to the feet so they could run the ropes or trade dropkicks and snapmares. I didn't find it all that compelling, but if it had gone the more back-and-forth route then I'd have found it even less compelling so...there's some valuable information for you all to do with as you wish. Minami has a great tilt-a-whirl backbreaker if you would like some more valuable information. Eventually Minami goes after Hokuto's leg and they started to win me over, even if some of what she did looked a little goofy. The part where she laid Hokuto's leg out flat and climbed the turnbuckles to hit a splash on it was a neat enough idea, but the setup was weird so Hokuto had to lie there and watch it happen rather than just, like, move out the way. Then again pro wrestling is stupid as fuck so maybe it's a hollow complaint. I liked how Hokuto would slow things all the way down to a crawl just to sell the damage, at one point hobbling around on the floor as the ref' put the count on, not getting back in the ring until that split second before 20. When she fought back and mounted some proper offence she kept drawing attention to the leg, like when she'd hit some suplexes but wouldn't be able to hold the bridge attempts. The selling was just right; understated enough that you bought her thinking the next time she tried it she'd pull it off, not going overboard as if she'd been shot in the calf leaving you questioning the wisdom of returning to that well. Then again pro wrestling is stupid as fuck so maybe that would've been another hollow complaint. Really liked the finish, which strangely reminded me of the finish to Warrior/Savage from that year's Wrestlemania. Maybe it was the decisiveness of it, the way it was emphatic while still sort of catching me by surprise. Like Warrior hitting the repeated shoulder tackles, Hokuto hit three missile dropkicks and a cannonball senton, all from different corners of the ring. Like Savage after those tackles, Minami was pretty much done. Hokuto put the exclamation point on it with the head drop while Warrior never needed to, but even still there was a brief moment of "wait, they're not getting back up here, are they?" And they do not get back up. Maybe if Hokuto had pinned Minami with one foot on the chest and walked away with a sleeveless tie dye jacket that had both of their faces on it this would've also been eleven stars. But then if my granny had wheels she would've been a bike. Alas.