[1997-08-17-JWP] Kumiko Maekawa vs Rieko Amano

[Ma Stump Puller]

This was a fairly fascinating watch all things considered. It's wrestled under what is essentially NJPW's Different Style Rules, basically no pins, submissions/KO only etc. It's the only Amano match that is overtly shoot-style (while the Kana tags are wrestled as such pinfalls were still allowed, not counting her jd' MMA match either because that wasn't worked) and as such is quite the oddity. Maekawa with her Karate background basically acts as the striker here while Amano with her amateur background was shooting much more and trying to get submissions. They get that over very easily by having Amano's first action in the match be a double leg takedown which led to Maekawa going for the ropes when she lost the mount and then almost had her back taken trying to escape, then had Amano be cowering in the corner taking leg kicks when they got back in stand-up. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about the pair you get exactly what is being communicated here just from watching their first exchange.

As a whole I think this while functionally decent doesn't really hit the mark in any real way possible in that the exciting parts of a shoot-style match (the technique, rapid changes in momentum, sick counters) just aren't really here for the most part. There's lots of tentative sitting in open mount and the pacing is particularly slow by the second round, especially when Maekawa takes charge on the mat since that's not really her avenue. While the actual work was for sure competent (Amano especially snaps on a super quick armbreaker out of full mount that really shocked the crowd near the beginning) it just never quite peaks at any point worth mentioning, instead trucking along at a safe but rather plain pace. They did do better than some of the dogshit UWF-I undercards in prior years though so that's saying.....something, at least? I thought the ending was goofy as fuck as Amano at the very start of the third round tries to run in with a dropkick and predictively does nothing, getting kicked in the head for a long knockdown. Amano gets back up, Maekawa just roundhouses her head off again to finish the match with a KO.

As I said above this had a interesting premise with fairly talented workers, it just never really got all that exciting. There's lots of downtime on the mat and less time seeing Maekawa land huge clunky kicks to the face and head; never a good thing in my book. Amano definitely showed a more amateur-style with a bunch of solid tricky takedowns and some submissions that I think could've been a interesting style to contrast with, say, ARISON-era Yoshida or Yagi. This just lacked a real hook to really sink my teeth into, which is a shame because this matchup on paper had a lot of potential.