[1998-08-23-GAEA] Meiko Satomura vs Sonoko Kato

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Here's what I wrote about this when screening borderline matches before 1998 was released. After watching it again, not much I would change.

 

Satomura/Kato is also yearbook worthy. I'd put it in that same Joshi For People Who Don't Like Joshi category, since most of this is stiff kicks and groundwork, and it's paced really well. What Lorefice said was that it got a little sloppy toward the end, and I do agree that the last few minutes are the weakest part of the match. But it was pretty tremendous before that. I also think it was lost on him that they were selling fatigue, so he was calling stuff blown that was just getting over how hard fought the match was. Still, I wouldn't argue too much with someone who called it a 4* match. If it wasn't at that level for me, it wasn't far off.

[Zenjo]

Showing over 22m of a 30m draw was generous by GAEA TV standards. I think that the 2nd bit of clipping did telegraph the outcome. It was an interesting match with both positives and flaws, mainly related to the length.

 

There were fast paced counter submissions on the mat and some meaty kicks if the opponent strayed from that position. There was plenty of intensity in this fierce next gen rivalry. Kato was the one who impressed me most here, her ring presence was strong. It's a shame her knee's gave out on her as she'd have been right up there with Satomura in the years ahead. The downside here was that they didn't do the best job of constructing a 30m match due to inexperience. The selling of exhaustion towards the finish was way OTT. They both acted near death. Overall I'll call it good.

[soup23]

This was a very good match if not a bit dry at times. I did like the attention to the arm work again and the sell and fatigue as the draw came closer to fruition. Satomura continues to be a hyped worker I enjoy a good bit but havent really been blown away by that one performance just yet. This yet again was a very good match but not a great one. August 23, 1998 was a good day in joshi. (***1/2)

[FLIK]

Satomura continues to be a hyped worker I enjoy a good bit but havent really been blown away by that one performance just yet.

 

 

She is only 3 years into her career at this point

[soup23]

 

Satomura continues to be a hyped worker I enjoy a good bit but havent really been blown away by that one performance just yet.

 

 

She is only 3 years into her career at this point

 

 

I didn't mean that really as a criticism, just that it was still lingering.

[PeteF3]

A pretty good match that threatened to verge into greatness, but never quite got there, as this lose focus and peter out towards the end. The kick exchanges were great and some of the counterwrestling was just gorgeous, though. This probably peaked with Satomura's tremendous comeback leading into the Death Valley driver, but after that fails to put Kato away (after Satomura had just kicked out of Kato's finish as well), the ending is more of an anticlimax rather than a huge build into an inevitable result leaving you thirsty for more. Unquestionably a noble effort, though.

[Jetlag]

Man it's weird that they had probably their longest match together at teenagers. This matchup should've been the Ishikawa/Ikeda of joshi for years to came, but alas... a few great sequences and counters in this one as is their modus operandi. Opinions may vary on how great this actually was as a match, as the clipping kind of chops it up and there was not a ton of direction. I was not a huge fan of the over dramatic last couple minutes. Generally I think anything over 20 minutes tends to get excessive for joshi.