[1993-08-21-AJW-Grand Prix] Harley Saito vs Yumiko Hotta

[Jetlag]

Harley Saito had one of the best women's matches I've ever seen in 1990, so let's see what she could do in the later much bigger era. This was one of the most sensibly worked Hotta matches I've ever seen, as it was worked as a David vs. Goliath bout. Of course Hotta brutally kicks Saito to a pulp, and even though the „outsider as sympathetic face“ story is weird it's executed extremely well here. Saito does some good work controlling Hotta while staying out of her kicking range, but eventually takes a brutal beating. The second half of this match was outstanding because it wasn't just bomb throwing but Harley really milking her moments, always being seemingly so close to turning the tide and swinging the match in her favour but missing. I assume this was the setup for Hotta vs. Kandori, but in itself it's a really good match for the „one contestant is hopelessly overmatched“ type.