[2000-07-14-AJW] Manami Toyota vs Eagle Sawai

[soup23]

A quintessential Toyota match. If you like her style, you will dig this. If not, pass on through. I am pretty tolerable of Toyota overall and did think Sawai brought some bruising offense to the back to try to slow things down when the match called for it. The outdoor setting makes the wind effect be pretty rampant here. That is amplified with Toyota diving off of the stage structure in a nutty spot that really took pin point accuracy. Most of the execution was well done here and there continued to be an underlying issue between Toyota and the outsider factions of JWP and LLPW. A strong title defense overall and probably one of Sawai's last big matches. ***1/2 (7.0)

[Tim Evans]

The outdoor venue really helps the atmosphere in this match. Especially during the entrances and for the brawling. I didn't think Toyota looked too bad and pretty much held this together. I'm not that familar with Eagle but she didn't impress me much. Lots of brawling and Toyota doing bumps off the light post in this OK mathc.

[ohtani's jacket]

Well, this exceeded all expectations. This was a match-up I didn't want to see and it ended up being the best match Toyota has had all year. That was mostly due to the dynamic of her having to figure out how to beat a woman who was much heavier than her but they also did an excellent job of working in a spiteful, bitchy way that fit the buildup to the bout. That type of character work is something that often gets overlooked about Toyota. I wouldn't say she was the greatest actress in women's wrestling but she wasn't purely a spot monkey (to borrow an old internet term), especially when she grew older. The only criticism I would make off the bout was that I don't think the conflict had escalated enough to warrant those dives from the lighting setup. And they ended up being throwaway spots which was stupid. But I was heavily into the finishing stretch and I thought the match achieved a terrific crescendo where I was left wondering how exactly Toyota was going to put this woman away. Even the spots that Sawai was too big for Toyota to execute properly seemed to add some dramatic realism to the bout. I'll probably end up liking this more than anyone else but that's the neat thing about having expectations bowled over.