[1997-01-20-AJW-Zenjo Perfection] Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes of Kyoko's first major title defense with Big Red. Surprisingly little heat for this. They pop for the nearfalls, but that's about it. I liked the spot where Takako was about to go up top for a third time, but just stopped, changed her mind and decided to do a quick pin attempt instead. I like what we see of this match and would like to check it out in full sometime.

[FLIK]

Kyoko's first major title defense with Big Red

This is also a unification match for the All Pacific & IWA Women's titles that Takako holds to create the short lived AJW triple crown.

 

I like what we see of this match and would like to check it out in full sometime.

Yeah it's real good though I liked it 3rd out of the 3 matches from this set of TV. Best match on the show was actually the Watanabe/Maekawa vs Toyota/Shimoda tag title change that didn't make the set.

[soup23]

Botched finish aside, this looked really good from the clips to. It was a relief to see both this and the previous match allow the spots to breathe a bit. For a joshi novice, what is the most "definitive" match for these two.

 

Good to see these two matches in the rewatch/first time list for you Loss as the full matches may be errata candidates.

[FLIK]

For a joshi novice, what is the most "definitive" match for these two.

of the ones i've seen, 1/24/93 which I have on my list of best matches ever

[ohtani's jacket]

Yeah, check out the 1993 one. Both Inoues had tremendous years in '93.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yuck. What a bad botch by the referee on counting that pin fall originally. It is January and I feel like I'm already done with Joshi.

[Robert S]

Was Takako knocked out here (or forgot to kick-out) or did the ref just forget what the finish was?

[Zenjo]

Kyoko forms the AJW Triple Crown, which really didn't mean much. A short while later she would vacate the All Pacific belt and the IWA title was abandoned. I could never see what the point was of having two second tier titles, as well as a third tier (AJW Title) and forth tier (AJW Junior Title). Plus there were always at least two sets of tag titles in circulation. Even hardcore fans of the promotion would have a hard time telling you who held them all at any one time.

 

Early on the WWWA champion was in control and there was a nice underdog dynamic. Takako couldn't string anything together. Then Kyoko's bad shoulder became a factor. Takako should've concentrated on that but did some silly stuff with chairs instead. Generally it was solid before threatening to burst into life near the finish when it looked like the upset might be on. Unfortunately the momentum at the finish was hurt by Kyoko no selling the Destiny Hammer and especially the botched pinfall. I don't know whether the ref was to blame or Takako? If the ending had been good then I would call this an omission, but as it is I can't recommend it.

[FLIK]

I could never see what the point was of having two second tier titles, as well as a third tier (AJW Title) and forth tier (AJW Junior Title). Plus there were always at least two sets of tag titles in circulation. Even hardcore fans of the promotion would have a hard time telling you who held them all at any one time.

Couldn't agree less. AJW was always built heavily around the pecking order and with most of their roster built around home grown stars slowly moving up said pecking order starting out as rookies.

 

Jr title was for the youngsters

AJW title was for the mid carders

All Pacific title was for the upper card wrestlers

3WA was for the elite main eventers

 

Same deal with the 3WA & AJW Tag titles

 

It was always really easy to keep track of for the most part since if you followed the product close you knew where everyone stood on the pecking order usually.

 

The IWA title was sort of on the lvl of the All Pacific but was always more of a gimmick belt that wasn't defended that often and was inactive for large periods of time until they bothered to remember it existed. Mostly used as an excuse to give an upper card wrestler something to do for a while or to give an extra boost to a feud/angle.

 

Same deal with all the other short lived belts they had over the years, CMLL Women, UWA singles & Tag, 3WA Martial Arts, 3WA Light Weight, 3WA Midget....

[Zenjo]

It was always really easy to keep track of for the most part since if you followed the product close you knew where everyone stood on the pecking order usually.

Yes it was easy to keep track of the pecking order. I certainly couldn't tell you the chronology of most of the titles. A wrestler defeating a higher ranked opponent was more important than holding most of the titles. A number of them were just props that served little purpose as nearly half the roster would have one or two belts at any one time. Wrestlers wouldn't even bother bringing them out to the ring unless they were being defended, and they were forgotten about for months at a time. I'd have preferred it streamlined down to:

 

AJW Junior - For rookies and 2nd year pros was fine.

AJW Tag Titles - For midcarders to have something to fight over. The AJW singles title wasn't necessary.

All Pacific Title - Upper card.

WWWA Tag & Singles - Main eventers.

 

This is for pre Summer 1997. After that I think they had more titles than wrestlers on the roster.

[FLIK]

A wrestler defeating a higher ranked opponent was more important than holding most of the titles. A number of them were just props that served little purpose as nearly half the roster would have one or two belts at any one time. Wrestlers wouldn't even bother bringing them out to the ring unless they were being defended, and they were forgotten about for months at a time.

It wasn't modern day WWE, you shouldn't look at it from that perspective. Things like the champions not bringing the belts to the ring for every match and going months between defenses was just the norm for how Japan was period, All Japan, New Japan and everyone else did the same. And after the initial 70's, early 80's era when they hot shotted all the time, title reigns became significantly more meaningful in AJW and if you paid enough attention it wasn't hard at all to recall the title history or who had held what belt.

[PeteF3]

As a non-expert put me in the camp that AJW had too many titles. I didn't like how mid-'80s Crockett did it and even if AJW's championships are more tiered than JCP's U.S./National/TV title clusterfuck there were still ways of getting over "tiers" without titles. See: All-Japan. Anyway, really good closing stretch here, badly blown finish aside. Kyoko's frantic desperation is sold wonderfully, and Inoue contributes some fine work of her own. Kyoko attempting to lariat Takako off the turnbuckle a la Hansen/Kobashi and Inoue turning it into a wakigatame was a great spot and a rare submission-based false finish for AJW.

 

As for the finish itself, I put 100% of the blame on the ref. Officiate it like it's a shoot, dude.

[KB8]

This wasn't doing a ton for me. Kyoko basically deciding fuck it after having her shoulder torn at and hitting four powerbombs in a row like it wasn't a thing struck me as a pretty weak transition, particularly when viewed straight after Misawa/Kobashi. I don't mind Kyoko when she's in there with someone I like and Takako is usually somewhat interesting, but I'd check out the '93 match mentioned earlier before seeking this out in full. 

[soup23]

Watched this in full and it frustrated me. Opening starts with Takako reeling off three DDTs that are shrugged off. Then Kyoko does some leg work that goes nowhere. The arm work done in the middle portion is easily the strongest portion of the match. Takako felt like a pretty big underdog in this match and they make it believable she could win with the arm submission. Kyoko comeback and finish is some of the most egregious fighting spirit nonsense you will see. She suddenly just shrugged off all prior work and bulked up into the finishing stretch. Tack onto that the botch by the ref on the power bomb and this was a match that didn’t leave me wanting to watch the reign of Kyoko at all. **1/2