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[2000-01-03-AJW] Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kayo Noumi & Miyuki Fujii


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Welp, didn’t take long before I had my first googling Noumi and Fujii apart. Another day, another crowd brawl in Korakuen. This one wasn’t that bad either as LCO gets jumped at the bell and has a oh hell no moment where they drag around Noumi and Fujii demolishing them with chairs and whipping them into the building. Storyline here was simple but really effective with LCO just brutalizing the more inexperienced wrestlers. They do a variety of brutal moves including jumping piledrivers and stiff kicks. Noumi even starts bleeding she gets so pulverized. I know LCO is known for this style but I found this really effective in how bruising they could be without the typical Vader or Aja Kong character type. I really liked that it took Noumi and Fujii using double team moves to finally gain an advantage. Once it goes back to one on one, Shimoda takes over easily again. Noumi is able to get some flash pins but not much else until a desperation lariat. She climbs to the top but Mima stops her. Excellent spot as she ends up with the sunset flip on Mita and then tags in Fujii. End of match starts as it begin with LCO dragging their opponents around the arena kicking ass. Fujii gets powerbombed onto a stack of chairs in the ring and Mita does the nonchalant cover on the chest that the referee refuses to acknowledge. After another glimmer of hope, LCO buckles down with Mita pulverizing Fujii in the ring and Shimoda handing Noumi outside with a piledriver through a table. Mita picks up Fujii on some pin attempts and the referee finally just declares the match over. What a brutal beating. ***1/2

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LCO matches starting around 1997 are really fun until you realize they are all structured the exact same way with all the crowd brawling. Even then, they can still be really fun, and they definitely aren't taking a night off here. It's just that this seems to be exactly how every. single. match they have. plays. out. Some of the weapons shots amused me because what the hell was that huge metal thing? This is way too much of a copy of the genuine classic they had with more promising young wrestlers in Ayako Hamada and Akino less than a month earlier until the match gets back in the ring. What a concept, January 2000 -- keep matches in the ring! This is quite the king-sized beating, maybe one of the better extended squashes you'll ever see. I like the finish as something different too. I wouldn't want to see matches worked this way very often, and I'm glad they aren't, but this was a pretty cool one-off.

 

***1/2

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  • 5 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

This Joshi period is another blindspot for me. LCO was impressive here with a major beatdown on Noumi and Fujii. You have to give Noumi and Fujii credit too for their great work here with the hope spots. A little too much brawling in the crowd which seems to be looking like the norm for this time period. I enjoyed the finish too with LCO just decimating their opponents until the referee stops the match.

 

***1/2

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I haven't seen much LCO and its possible that once I do the act won't be as impressive. But we're not there yet, and this was so much fun. Absolutely loved the strong heel routine that they carry throughout the entire match, even when Korakuen Hall got behind them. Between the brawling around the building and little touches like Mita repeatedly pulling one of the pawns up before a three count, this was a textbook destruction. A ton of fun with a presumably unusual finish that worked well.

 

***1/2

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This was pretty fun as I hadn't seen an LCO match before. I can see how the style would get old but it hadn't for me yet. Shimoda came off as a great bully and Mita came off as sadistic. The crowd brawling was fun as was Shimoda running one of the opponents into the wall (I didn't google who was who on that team). The mid-match comeback was fun only to lead to a little more crowd brawling. Shimoda's pulling her opponent out of the pinfall twice only to have the referee stop it was awesome

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Two walk-through-the-crowd segments in an 18-minute match? That's pretty close to an automatic disqualifier for me. The second one was particularly puzzling because it took all the starch out of what had become a fairly compelling match. And they never got it back. Mita and Shimoda delivered a fine bully performance, but it's hard for me to give much praise to a match so devoid of dramatic tension.

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Maybe it's because I'm not exposed to late 90s joshi at all but I really loved this. Mita and Shimoda were not only ridiculously unforgiving, but also surprisingly giving when it came time for them to sell some hope spots. I actually liked the second crowd brawling bit because it almost felt like Mita and Shimoda doubted they could put Noumi and Fujii away in the ring and needed to go back to what gave them control of the match in the first place. Noumi and Fujii got some SUPER cool stuff in. Not much, but because of that each move and outburst they had became more memorable. Maybe I'll get tired of stuff like this upon watching a lot of joshi around this time, but I thought this was really bloody good.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two walk-through-the-crowd segments in an 18-minute match? That's pretty close to an automatic disqualifier for me. The second one was particularly puzzling because it took all the starch out of what had become a fairly compelling match. And they never got it back. Mita and Shimoda delivered a fine bully performance, but it's hard for me to give much praise to a match so devoid of dramatic tension.

 

I can count the number of joshi matches I have seen, prior to this endeavor, on one hand and have fingers left over.

 

That being said, this perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on this match. The second brawl through the crowd lost me.

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  • 9 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Watching this in my bed last night was maybe not the best idea Ive ever had - the screams emitted from the two younger wrestlers here were truly haunting at times. Headphones in, volume down.

 

I am completely unlearned in the ways of AJW outside some of the biggest matches and names of all time (and even then, its middling knowledge), so while Ive seen the names of LCO and Mima Shimoda thrown around, this was the first true time I can remember seeing any of these women in the ring.

 

And what a fuckin bizarre, brutal, painful joy.

 

This was not an easy match to watch, especially when I wasnt expecting something quite like this, but the brawling portions felt theatrical and downright mean (some of those chair throws were straight up gross), and the piledrivers, no matter where delivered seemed to be JUST and inch from a broken neck.

 

I guess something can be said about believability and all, but yeah, this was nasty. If these women do this more often than not (as Im assuming they do), Im gonna have to pace out their matches when I am feeling some time of blood lust.

 

Hard to watch but super captivating. I really enjoyed it overall and am one of the high votes on this. 3.75/5

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  • 2 months later...

I don't really like the logic of crowd brawling and then getting back into the ring, it just feels like weird. Like, I just can't understand how you'd go from wanting to fight anywhere but in the ring to wanting to stay in the ring. Then going back to crowd brawling later, it's just a weird choice. That said, this certainly violent, and I like that. It's a long squash match with a couple bullies beating the piss out of two much smaller opponents, and I am fin with that. It never feels like the underdog has a chance, so maybe that is negative, as there is no tension, but I don't really mind. I guess that keeps it from being a four-star match or whatever, but pro wrestling is fun when somebody is beating somebody's ass.

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  • 2 months later...

I liked this, but I think it went on a little too long. Mainly, the first part of the match didn't really drag or anything, but there were parts where I just thought they were almost too dominant. Obviously that was the point of the match, but something about it just dragged a little in the first section. I wasn't really into the second crowd brawl part, but I think it did serve as a bit of a transition into the closing stretch where Mita and Shimoda turned up their fury even more. It did a good job of establishing them as badasses. I was really into Mita just lifting Fujii's shoulders up at the end. That was very cool. Solid match.

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  • 1 month later...
  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-03-AJW] Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs Kayo Noumi & Miyuki Fujii

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