[2004-04-30-GAEA] Mariko Yoshida vs Carlos Amano

[Jetlag]

This is in the RealHero archive if you go to the GAEA section.

 

Great little match. Not shootstyle at all, closer to lucha/IWRG if you ask me, as both of them just try locking in nutty submissions in on eachother, in between trading unpredictable shoot headbutts and punches to the face. Amano as a quick on her bare feet maniac grappler using her hard head as a battering ram really is awesome. I also loved her counter to Yoshida's finisher which would later be made famous in a certain UFC bout. Amano's quickness and inventiveness here was great, and her style fit Yoshida's like a glove. Perfectly good bantamweight 11 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka match.

[KB8]

Cracking little match. Yoshida is a wonderful pro wrestler and we got to see plenty of what makes her so here. Her early grappling and tying up of Amano's limbs was Navarro-esque, only quicker and slicker. Pretty soon this became about how Amano could possibly survive Yoshida's masterclass, and she'd eventually get her answer by using her head as a weapon. She'd just launch herself head-first at Yoshida with these wild headbutts from various angles, which opened the door for her to bust out some of her own slick grappling. For an eleven minute match they did a pretty great job of getting across how dangerous the Air Raid Crash is, as every time Yoshida went for it Amano would frantically try to escape or reverse it into a hold. That then meant we got to see Yoshida come up with ways of escaping those predicaments, and I don't know if there's anybody better at milking a possible submission than Yoshida. Those little struggles over a cross armbreaker or a neck crank -- nobody does them better.