[1998-02-11-JWP No Gimmick] Command Bolshoi & Dynamite Kansai vs Rieko Amano & Sugar Sato

[Ma Stump Puller]

Decent match that's built on the young pricks in Amano/Sato trying to overcome Dynamite's immense advantages over both of them. Dynamite hits like a truck and was very much still capable of hitting all of her best hits while Bolshoi handles the brunt of the working exchanges, using a lot of her lucha knowledge to keep things grounded. Most of the first half is taken up by Amano doing solid feeding/selling and really getting over her struggle to stay in the game despite being firmly outclassed. This match basically lives and dies by how much you like outside brawling because oh boy there's a decent chunk of it here. Lots of the typical hierarchy no-selling shtick, etc etc. Definitely feels like a Dynamite match all things considered. Pretty great spot where Sato keeps trying to knock Dynamite out of the SDL she's got on Amano with dropkicks to the head but keeps getting no sold. Dynamite takes all of them (and some of these look real nasty all things considered) before getting out of the hold herself and killing Sato with some awful stiff punts to the head, including one right to the back to finish off.

Dynamite eventually starts to take bumps when she gets double teamed and has a couple of times where cracks start to show in her usually pretty tough stature before she can just snap back into things with another big kick or something of that sort so the usual business there. Bolshoi's stuff by comparison isn't as good as she's mostly there to do some generic work and sell for the other two, namely with leg work. She does get some Ogawa-like moments where she gets to be the sneaky technical master she will eventually become but it's mostly her not really doing a whole lot interesting and: even worse: it's by design. Sato is a perfectly fine GAEA-style worker who would find her niche as a mean hoss a few years down the line, as of now she's just really just hanging around here for the most part. There are some moments where you see bits of her throwing some aggression but no awesome tackles or huge power spots = instantly forgettable for me ngl.

Loads of technically competent bits, strikes mostly bleh (Dynamite has to try to sell her weak ass backhand and it's rather depressing) just there for the most part. The match kinda just ends rather than building much. Amano lands a good few German suplexes for near falls before Dynamite marches in to control things again, Bolshoi and co go on the top rope and she hits a top rope Uranage to get the pin. No real tension built there apart from one or two near falls and there was no big burst of violence to really cement this as the turning point, just more or less a big spot into the end.

Not bad, just hamstrung by this being built around Dynamite (who is still great, mind) taking up a lot of the time doing her usual routine against two people who positively don't threaten her at all. Bolshoi has to wrestle a featureless style as to not get in the way of this so no fancy lucha work, just loads of holds and slams that grind the pace down. Sato was fine and Amano was a bit iffy in places but mostly felt really good going up against the pair, especially Dynamite whom probably would've been a solid match for her at this point. All in all not BAD per-se but lacking in a real epic aspect to get it beyond just "fine" tier bar a good performance off Dynamite doing her usual formula.