[2003-07-13-GAEA] Carlos Amano vs Lioness Asuka

[Ma Stump Puller]

shameless shilling for the Amano Complete & Accurate

The first few minutes of this had the two do some fairly nothing grappling; Asuka's background means that she more or less controls these until Amano starts to take a small lead via negotiating into an Achilles Tendon attempt. Rather than humouring this, Asuka immediately goes into super disrespect mode by backhanding the shit out of her and throwing out big stiff PK's whenever possible to really hammer in the frustration at almost getting out-grappled by a pipsqueak. Asuka was never really known for her particularly striking grappling capabilities (at least in terms of match entertainment, anyway!) but her trying out for legit tight facelocks like she's in MUGA was pretty cool. Amano works especially well with these kind of David/Goliath matches where she needs to grind out advantage by being vicious or smart (sometimes just both! ) seeing her force an extended cross armbar by resorting down to biting Asuka's clamped hand or trying to escape being driven into a Fujiwara armbar shoulder first with Nishimura-style handstands to reverse the leverage are two VERY different counters stylistically, but only really make sense paired together by her alone without seeming bizarre.

The grappling definitely got much better despite Asuka's limitations when they started pushing the pace, helped by Amano's eccentric antics in places as mentioned above before they hurled themselves into a short Korakuen brawl which had a couple of outside submissions applied and Asuka giving Amano's head a tour of the signs there, always worth following tradition ig. The striking exchanges they engage in afterwards were super fun, with Amano's high-energy stiff forearms and headbutts paired with Asuka's no-nonsense and equally as stiff heavyweight style making for a striking juxtaposition that got the crowd super behind the underdog Amano here as she had to get bolder and bolder to stand a chance here. They bring out the usual late-Asuka trash table antics however it thankfully is only used for I'd say one real spot (the top rope stomp) before they wisely go back to the meat and bones of the match with bombs and whatnot.

Counters here for the record rocked, there's one near the end especially where Amano manoeuvres out of a Tower Hacker into a armbar submission that despite some sudden awkwardness setting it up looked killer when it actually happened, truly a epic moment at least on comparison with some of Kendo Kashin's wackiest transitions. My only real issue is that I think they spend a little too much time sitting in the actual armbar holds themselves (which was always a flaw specific to Asuka, Chig usually sold them much better since she added in more franticness that made it seem like she was legitimately going to have her arm broke) that it kinda negates the tension from them and makes it a bit too obvious that she wasn't going to tap. It builds up nicely though to Asuka relying on her brute strength to power out of another attempt into a Tower Hacker near fall alongside a couple of sharp heel kicks + the LSD to finally get the pinfall.

This is a match that's REALLY helped by the fact a non-clipped version exists; without knowing of the first half's existence in regards to the more measured pace between the two and how that explodes into the brawling we see later you'd just think this was a sloppy late-Asuka brawl that only gets truly great at the end without those gimmicks in play. With that added, we have not only solid grappling bits between the two that translate to getting over Asuka's disrespect of the upstart opponent (and then her comeuppance when she almost loses numerous times) but also establish the counter-heavy dynamic behind Amano's success here as she found multiple ways to get back into the match despite the hierarchy difference between the two. I thought as a whole this was a pretty well constructed match; probably one of Asuka's last truly great performances in-ring despite her clear physical limitations being quite apparent here as she mostly kept to the greatest hits and didn't take too many crazy bumps. Amano really could not have a properly bad match for the 2000's, it seems.