[2006-12-24-JWP] Yoshiko Tamura vs Azumi Hyuga

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJl8Ug3j09E

[Jetlag]

 

So, this match. When I watched this for the Best 2000s Japan project, I thought this was pretty bad. Now that my mindset has grown and I'm not in the situation of watching and evaluating a gazillion mediocre 2000s puro matches in a short time period, I've made up a slightly more differentiated opinion.

 

There is a ton of really good stuff going on here. In fact, I'd say for the first 25 minutes the match is very good. Solid matwork with some great holds displayed, and because they are going very long, they do a deliberate pace and build to their spots. Another positive is that they really don't make it obvious that they are going very long, always leaving the possibility on the table that the match could end now or atleast transition into the finish.

 

After the 25 minute mark the match starts falling apart with a few hiccups, such a no-selling or a weak comeback here and there, but they always managed to do something that pulled me back in. Granted, some of the more Kurt Angle-ish spots here are also seen in more highly praised joshi bouts, so I guess big chunks of this come down to taste, and to their credit, many spots here are timed very well, and many sections (such as the work on the arm or back, or Tamura's long section of dominance where she tries to finish her opponent, creating a lot of tension) are done better than many other workers would have.

 

Yoshiko Tamura looked pretty excellent, as she was very dominant, and she actually has the moveset to keep things compelling for such a long. Her elbow and knee combos were pretty great and had the feel of what Kawada or Misawa would do, I also really liked her chucking a chair at Hyuga to set up her big dive. She knew how to mix up her offense and be inventive. Hyuga, on the other hand, didn't seem to have enough moves to go this long. I mean, I've seen 20 minute matches where she ran out of ideas, so that was going to be a problem from the very beginning. I liked her cradles and the flash armbar was cool, but other than that she mostly relied on her suplexes, Michinoku Driver and endless running knees. The running knee is especially a way too cool spot to be done 20 times. On the other hand, some of her suplexes were damn good; at one point, she just caught a Tamura kick and dumped her on her head, straight out of the Alexander Otsuka playbook.

 

The part that will probably kill a lot of people's estimation of the match are the last 10 or so minutes where they just go nuts throwing out a slew of death moves. You may hate or tolerate that depending on how much you can get into the fact that this was a rare promotion ace vs. ace match with a bunch of titles on the line giving them the permission to go super duper epic. Well, you can give them credit as they were frantic to go for the kill as the time was running out, and they ended the match with a classic spot. Also, they never lost the crowd.

 

Overall this is a pretty difficult match to evaluate because it's part great and part pretty bad. I'd say if this went 30 or 45 minutes this probably would've been great. As it is I'd say it's still on the "good" side atleast for me and still a solid attempt at doing an AJPW style super epic. But you be the judge.