[1996-04-29-GAEA-Gaeaism] Toshiyo Yamada vs Meiko Satomura

[PeteF3]

Talk about it here.

[PeteF3]

There's a horrible moment early on here as Yamada climbs up the ropes, then has to turn and literally call Satomura over to the corner so they can do their spot. Bad, bad form, but they manage to make up for it with a simple but effective and universal story, of Satomura trying to fight her way through despite being outsized, out-experienced, and generally overmatched. Satomura's flailing, crazed, desperate fist-throwing gets that over, and she also has a million different ways of taking Yamada down into a cross armbreaker, constantly keeping her off-balance. Toshiyo for her part works like a faster Tenryu, casually cutting Satomura off with some great punches and of course her kicks. Then she caps it by tapping Satomura herself with the cross armbreaker. Good stuff and probably the most immediately accessible GAEA match so far. Yamada consoling a hysterical Satomura afterward like Triple H and that kid is one of the more "aww" moments of the year.

[Jetlag]

Wee little Meiko flails her arm and pounces on Yamada like a pitbull, trying to force a submission by constantly going for an armbar throwing wild elbows and slaps and generally being a wild house of fire. Yamada wasn't wearing her kickpads so not quite what you expect in this match, but she does nearly kick Satomura's head off with a sickening dropkick (did we just see her passing the curse here?), working some nasty crossfaces and throwing some jaw dislocating slaps. The subsequent armbreaker spot and Yamada selling that shit like a pro was tremendous aswell. Great heated rookie/veteran sprint, exactly how it should be worked.