[1994-04-03-AJW] Yumiko Hotta & Sakie Hasegawa vs Aja Kong & Toshiyo Yamada

[ohtani's jacket]

I didn't like this quite as much as @Jetlagbut it was a  kickass BattlARTS style AJW match. It was fought under "Kakugi rules," though they were pretty liberal with it since the only shoot style moves Hasegawa knew were a few kicks and the basic submissions that all All Japan trainees are taught. The main draw here was Hotta vs. Kong, but the heart of the match was Hotta and Yamada since they were the shooters. If you like the famous Hotta vs. Kong match from '94 then this is another chance to see Aja smack Hotta in the face with shoteis. Hotta bled hardway from the mouth in a continuation of the violence from their singles match. It was a typical AJW match in terms of roles -- Aja was the alpha, Hasegawa was the weak link, and so on. Yamada wast the most impressive worker of the bunch. She reminds me a lot of Kazuo Yamazaki in the sense that she doesn't have the charisma or personality of her piers, but her technique is exemplary. The finish could have been better. They teased Hotta going down for the 10 count, but instead Aja finished her off with a uraken and a sleeper, but Aja either needed to drag Hotta to the center of the ring, or the ref needed to wait a few more beats before calling for the bell, because the crowd didn't really get it and neither did the commentator. If I'm being cynical, Akira Hokuto on commentary telegraphed the promo she cut at the end, which made this feel like fodder for the dome show, but there was some decent faux shooting along the way.