[2000-01-10-Jd'] Lioness Asuka vs Dynamite Kansai

[soup23]

We cut with Asuka grinding out a leg submission. Kansai gets an intense claw hold on and takes it all the way to the floor with it clinched in. Things break out into a hardcore style match when a table is injected along with chairs that Asuka uses to demolish Kansai with. Asuka blows some red mist into Kansai’s face allowing herself to regain control. Asuka hits a nice tope and this match has taken a nice out of control feel with Asuka hurling chairs at Kansai on the outside. A huge double stomp sends Kansai through a table on the outside. I really liked the way Kansai fights back and the first Splash Mountain is a really dramatic nearfall. Asuka is able to put Kansai away with a sequence that never felt overly excessive in my mind. I really wasn’t digging this much for the first few minutes but I did think the temperament and hatred came through in the last half of the match. ***

[Loss]

This didn't connect for me at all. The interference doesn't work in the context of what they are trying to pull off, and the psychology is weird with Dynamite using a clawhold for a long time as a point of offense. That alone doesn't bother me, but when she's the babyface and she's using that in the "opening" matwork sequence (I realize there's some clipping), it's a bit bizarre. Add the hardcore section in and this is very much a match that doesn't know what it wants to be.

[Tim Evans]

Good to see a match with people interfering liberally and bad hardcore action. Brings me back to the late 90's. I never really saw the big deal in Kansai and she didn't impress me much here either. This was like 2 heavyweight women having a brawl that they shouldn't be having cause they are too old. Lioness didn't look too bad. Liked the double stomp through the Japanese table. Finish was kinda anticlimactic. OK match.

[Kronos]

I couldn't get into this one at all. The pace is so slow. I don't mind a slow burn, if it's building some drama. But this isn't building anything. It's just slow. I find myself constantly checking my watch. Part of it I think is that I have no connection to either one of these wrestlers, and they're not doing anything to develop one for me. I've certainly seen them both work in the past, but I think they've probably always been with somebody who I either like or who does a better job making me care about the events in the ring.

 

We do get a couple of reasonably cool spots, such as the double stomp through the table. And the pace picks up a little bit in the last minute or two. But it's not really anything we haven't seen before. If we must have a hardcore joshi match, give me Kudo v Toyoda anyday over these two.