[1998-03-06-JWP] Mayumi Ozaki vs Reiko Amano

[Jetlag]

 

Ozaki is questionable, but she may have given Amano her overall best match of the year in this one. Solid layout with Ozaki mostly stepping on Amanos face and roughing her up while Amano worked her submission game. Amanos is really great at rolling in and out of submissions. The whole thing had a somewhat early 90s JWP feel to it as they kept it simple and to the point. Somewhat slow in parts early on, but the 2^nd half is peppered with cool stuff without going overboard.

 

[Ma Stump Puller]

TL:DR Version:

Watched this and I will second that it was really well done in terms of layout and sheer violence despite some greenness on the account of Amano, but also balances that with a really good sense of mutual disrespect that the two understand and appreciate as things move further. Good watch. Longer review below that I stuck up elsewhere:

A really good rite of passage for Amano as she battles against her own mentor in a fight she has clearly little to no chance of winning. Ozaki neutral starting off before Amano tries to go for a cheap flash pin with a German suplex while her back is turned so she immediately goes into full shit-heel mode with loads of gloating and taunting. There's a great sense of both student and master both knowing how to bend the rules and get ahead in their own respective ways and almost....respecting that, in a way? Like they know the other is going to be scrappy so it's a sense of "well get on with it then" rather than the usual indignation you would expect. Ozaki at times seems very proud of her student finding ways to endure her beatdowns and still manage to inflict pain despite the immense disadvantages Amano naturally has: she's nowhere near as good a brawler, has a rough time trying to push her weight here, and even on the technical front Oz is more than capable defending and blocking holds when she's aware.

The only times Amano gets the advantage is when she's able to just outpace her mentor with raw speed and aggression more so than anything else, with some really good sequences displaying that in full view. Of course Ozaki can just walk back into this with a nasty dropkick or a stiff boot or slap to the face, but that isn't always the case. The match really kicks into high-gear in terms of emotive value when Amano manages to bait Ozaki into committing to a early pinning powerbomb to trap her in a inverted armbreaker; despite getting to the ropes Oz's arm is completely busted in the process and she essentially sells it like it's been broken for the most part. This definitely intensifies the drama given that fact and Ozaki's amazing sell-job to convey that unexpected weakness that she now has to somehow win with one good arm left.

Amano in turn goes laser-focused for the shitty arm with boots and other submissions, really focusing in on what will be one of her best features in how she can do cool tricked out speedy submission work while keeping things frenetic and interesting. The moment where Ozaki tries for the half suplex and gets so pissed off at her opponent again exploiting her bad arm that she just fucking hammers in knees to her head until Amano dies before following up with equally stiff foot stomps and a powerbomb for a near fall was a great moment and really felt like things immediately went from a 5 to a 10 on the intensity scale. Amano gets blasted with a Uraken so badly that she starts bleeding from the nose just to hammer in that point that Oz is no longer messing around and wants to end this as soon as possible.

That in turn opens her up to a bunch of signature Amano armbreaker transitions that do inch ever closer to a victory before Ozaki counters the third into this terrific one arm powerbomb to finish up shop in brutal fashion. The post-match of both of them tearing up and hugging was a emotional moment to cap this off and really bookended the mentor/student dynamic these two had going. So yeah, great match obviously. Between Amano's scrappy moments and Ozaki's incredible all-rounded talent at this time you really couldn't go that wrong. Loads of mutual pettiness shared with a equal sense of respect for said pettiness makes for a uniquely fun type of violence that is hard to find much at all.