[1993-09-29-AJW] Shinobu Kandori vs Yumiko Hotta

[Jetlag]

I'm starting to wonder how these two workers ever got a dubious rep. I've myself dismissed Hotta during the GWE discussion but I will say she is pretty good when not compared to the Top 100 workers ever. Both workers stuck to their strengths here so naturally it was good. It was a slow paced bout, but in my opinion the good kind of slow pace for this type of simple, brutally violent battle.They were wise enough not to go outside the ring or do extended holds. Instead, Kandori brings the flash submissions and takedowns which are over, while Hotta brings the face shattering stiff kicks. I think Hotta was way lower on the totem pole here than Kandori, so she makes up for it by absolutely abusing her with painful kicks. Goodness gracious what a beating. At one point, she did the spot where she ties Kandori into a tree of woe so she can soccer kick her more easily. Kandori tries to climb out of the position and Kandori gets onto the ropes to kick her in the eye again. Kandori tried a lot of different stuff and Hotta came across as a fighter with a very limited, but extremely devastating arsenal. Kandori eventually responds by ripping a bandage off of Hotta's face and repeatedly taped fist punching and toe kicking her in the bloody eye and this match is ON. They do a ton of bomb throwing for the finish like they always do in these japanese girl wrestling matches, but these two have pretty brutal bombs and there were enough interesting touches to keep me interested. Altough there were definitely a few moves that felt forced in. But nevermind that you will want to watch this for the WAR like brutality.

[Zenjo]

LLPW had been getting their asses kicked all show so it was up to leader Kandori to restore some pride. Shinobu was higher ranked, but Hotta was being pushed quite strongly at the time. The early stages reminded me of Tenryu vs Choshu. It was like two bulls facing off and trying to show who had the biggest erm horns. Unsurprisingly it was very stiff. Hotta's kicks were strong and Kandori's submissions deadly. Lots of intensity that engaged the crowd. They gave themselves a strong base. The stretch was overcooked and the rating was trending down rather than up. A shorter duration would've been preferable. There were times it didn't flow as well. Still there was plenty to enjoy in this collision between two badasses of the Joshi scene.