[2018-12-19-GPS Growth5] Command Bolshoi vs Konami

[Ma Stump Puller]

This was shockingly smooth work from the pair, especially Bolshoi who was very much deep into her retirement run that would finally finish the next year. Despite this she was nevertheless just as crafty and perhaps even better at the fundamentals than she was in the 90s with a lot of her grappling work being refreshingly simple but just refined enough that you could notice the details right away. Konami is similarly refreshing as she's not phoning it in or obviously doing doss work under the guise of "heel antics" (as her work these days seems to imply) here she seemed clearly motivated to wrestle, especially with her sharp kicks which she uses here to good effect whenever she can't handle the grappling parts. Bolshoi appears here as the llave Maestro of the pair, utilising her vast experience to focus on counters and find creative openings to secure limb work; she tends to pull from a more defensive position, taking to give twice as much. Konami is inevitably set as the proactive, younger talent, faster and meaner but not always aware of their surroundings and as such gets punished in most of the holds. She'd stick on a cool calf-slicer then get overeager and suffer for it when Bolshoi managed to loosen her grip and snap on a cross armbar. She gets back into things by then pulling back just enough to hook her arm back onto her other to get back leverage and continue applying the slicer and vice versa.

Eventually the big clincher comes when Konami hooks the other leg into the hold and really tears up Bolshoi's leg, forcing her to take a breather outside before immediately getting blasted with a leg/head kick combo that crumples her to the ground. This was somewhat ripped from their JWP match earlier in the year, but it's played much better here than it was there especially in the dramatics department. The second half of the match (as showcased visually Bolshoi rolling up her baggy pants to reveal the exposed kneepad) is Bolshoi now operating with a clear vulnerability; as such she can no longer afford to play it safe and makes that abundantly clear by going right into sloppy strikes. These are clearly not particularly great yet I think they shockingly work here as a desperation move by Bolshoi, especially how she incorporates the leg-selling by kinda sloppily hurling her whole body into it and stumbling a little. We follow from this with an amazing submission-chain by Bolshoi as she spams chokes (head/arm, RNC) while her opponent sells appropriately with some teasing at her getting KO'd but just about being able to defend and keep the hold loose. Similarly amazing lead-in to the classic Bolshoi sliding triangle choke as she slaps Konami with her free hand when she tries taking mount to get her into position to do the thing.

This is also sold as a potential world-ender however Konami is able to keep moving through leverages to stay in the game and eventually get to the ropes. The last couple of minutes are for the most part considered by myself to be the weakest, with Bolshoi throwing more sloppy strikes (this time with a stiff slap or two so not awful) while maintaining a big advantage with some wacky arm/leg wrench that seemed like a Navarro rip. That came and went and the two went into just generic "strike into strike" exchanges though these were made better by the fact that they at least had the class to fatigue-sell at the END of the match instead of 4 minutes in. Konami bumps great for a couple of huge suplexes by Bolshoi that build well to her being able to outlast her more frail foil and eventually snap on the Triangle Lancer....just as the bell rings.

This is the only stickler of the match that I dislike: draw finishes very rarely work and this in particular just didn't with the slow build and pressure mounting. The match doesn't benefit from it whatsoever and no one really needed to be protected, least of all Bolshoi who was basically on her last major stint and had nothing to gain from this. It adds a sour taste to something that otherwise was incredibly well put together. So how good is it? Very, obviously. Bolshoi comes across as the better of the two though Konami seems to put in a honest effort and has a couple of cool armbar transitions, though I think on occasion she could've put a little more life into the match than what she did. I would've also liked for the leg selling to have been respected beyond just the immediate effects (Bolshoi gives it a good effort until the last 5 or so minutes when she just....doesn't anymore so it doesn't really go anywhere) but other than that this went extremely well with me. Shame that we only really get this Konami once every year or so now.