AJW 4/25/1992

- Yumiko Hotta, Suzuka Minami & Mima Shimoda vs Miori Kamiya, Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe
Just your standard AJW 6 woman for the time. Nothing special but decent while it lasted. Notable mainly because you had Watanabe from Bull's gang teaming with Jungle Jack girls Ito & Kamiya, the 1st time we've had a combo like this that I know of shince that feud becan in 1990. They don't really play off their history though. Ito & Kamiya work well together and Watanabe kind of just comes in here and thear to do her own thing seperatly but that's it and she proves to be the weak link as Hotta & Suzuka finish her off with a cool double team powerbomb elmbow combo.

- (3WA Martial Arts Title Match) Bat Yoshinaga (c) vs Akemi Torisu
1 year later it's the rematch of my favorite kickboxing match in AJW history. This doesn't quite deliver in the same way or live up to the hopes I had but it was still enjoyable. Akemi shows she's learned nothing over the past year, she still swings wildly with no technique or strategy other then "swing or die". Like the last match, Bat just toyed with her and got in far more shots. She didn't knock her down as much so atleast Torisu's chin has gotten stronger but she still bloodied her up, leaving no doubt who the winner would be. The only time Bat was ever in trouble was when she decided to get cutesy and threw these crazy ass spin kicks which looked cool but had no chance of actually connecting. Torisu would pounce with Bat down, getting in a few good shots but every time Bat would just get back up, looking pissed and taking back over. Match goes the distance, Bat via judges decision.

- (AJ Tag Title Match) Debbie Malenko & Sakie Hasegawa (c) vs Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida
Yoshida back again, this time with regular tag partner Takako to go after the tag belts they lost to Sakie & Debbie a few months earlier. Shit's on to start as things turn into a brawl outside the ring and Yoshida & Inoue go to town on Sakie which is the story of the 1st half of this match. Debbie would get in ocasionally and clean house and Sakie got her licks in too but largely this was Inoue & Yoshida dominating early on. They came in to this match working a lot more aggresively then they have in the past and it paid off quite well for them. There was still a lot of the usual you'd exspect, lots of matwork and submissions and suplexes and all that but they also weren't afraid to just straight up smack someone in the head either. Tak & Deb particularly had a brutal exchange, just wailing on each other mid match. 2nd half turns into really great sprint with everyone busting out their big moves and going all out, my fav spots being Debbie hitting a sweet overhead belly to belly suplex off the top rope and Takako & Yoshida wiping out Sakie with stereo suicide dives. End comes when they hit Sakie with a double team DDT off the top which leads to one of those weird "they forgot to kick out" moments whear the ref just stops at 2 because that wasn't the planed finish but they cover for it nicely and Takako hits her with her shoulder backdrop suplex to regain the titles. Screwy ending aside, this was a great match. One of my favorites of the year so far.

- (IWA World Women’s Title Match) Kyoko Inoue (c) vs Manami Toyota
Whenever a lot of people talk about this feud it gets brought up how similar their styles are. I thought the story of this match was a good example of how diffrent they can be as well. Toyota when on offense just went a million miles an hour most of the time, hurling whatever attack she can think of off the top of her head at Kyoko. Inoue on the other hand seemed to put a lot more thought into what she was doing, she'd match Toyota speed for speed but often it was done more to outsmart her or to take advantage of one of Toyota's mistakes. Toyota would go for a dive, miss & Kyoko would hit one of her own or Toyota would go for something else and Kyoko would quickly counter or move out of the way, stuff like that.  And when she wasn't doing that, Kyoko put a lot more effort into other attacks like using various holds to wear down Toyota. Toyota for her part does a good job of selling it all too and putting over the fatigue as the match goes on and when on offense she hits all her big moves perfectly on this night. Final stretch sees all the usual near falls you'd exspect plus a few you wouldn't with Kyoko using a lot of stuff she normally doesn't like choke slams to try and get the win. In the end though it's Toyota who outsmarts her and hits her with the JOCS out of nowhear to pick up the win and the title. Really great match, one of the better ones in the feud.

- (All Pacific Title Match) Bison Kimura (c) vs Toshiyo Yamada
War to start as they just stiff the heck out of each other. Yamada tries to take it to the mat soon after but Bison is having none of that, prefering to wrap her hands around Yamada's thorat and stomp her head in for a while. Yamada gets sick of that and fires back w kicks of her own and then is more succesful on her 2nd try to work the ground game. She goes after Bison's leg and then it turns into them taking turns stretching each other for a bit. Yamada again gets the advantage and alternates between more mat work and punting the bejesus out of Bison. Match ends like it started, as a fucking war and devolves into a battle of Chop vs Kick with Bison going nuts and winning out in the end after getting Yamada down and hitting a discus dive head butt off the top. Another great match.

- (3WA Title Match) Bull Nakano (c) vs Aja Kong
Their underlings may be getting along but these 2 certainly still aren't as Aja's in a surly mood before the match even starts. She gets on the mic and essentially tells Bull "bitch, you die tonight". Battle of the monsters to start, lariet, no sell, running smash, no sell, Aja with the bad ass standing drop kicks to get the advantage. 1 min into this and Bull is allready bleeding. Aja takes the fight into the crowd and starts hurlying rows of chairs at her head then leaves her for dead thear, heading back to the ring. Bull slowly returns, dripping blood and holding her eye. Aja works over the cut some more, punching, biting and headbutting away. Bull has a lot harder time fighting back then usual tonight. This isn't the first time she's been beaten down but usually all it takes is 1 lariet and she can turn things in her favor, here she has to put a lot more effort into it. Perhaps a sign she's begining to weaken, perhaps a sign Aja's growing stronger, perhaps neither or both. When she does finally pull it off she goes for revenge, taking things back out into the crowd and busting Aja open with chair shots of her own. Aja starts swinging wildly but Bull quickly shuts that down and continues her beat down until Aja grabs her can. Ref won't count so Aja starts spamming urakens and taking a page out of Yamada's book and punting the snot out of Bull every time she goes down from one. Each time Bull gets up a little bit slower but won't stay down. Bull hits another lariat followed by a suplex and then the big leg drop but Aja kicks out. Megadeath flipping leg drop misses and Aja hits a top rope plancha to the outside. Back in Aja's back drop smash off the top gets 2 and Bull comes back with a suicide dive to the outside. Bull again hits the Megadeath but this time Aja kicks out, the 1st time that's ever happened I believe and Bull just has this awesome "oh shit what do I do now" look on her face. She digs deep and bust out the moonsault to finally survive this match and come out the victor. Aja is carried out to the back post match and Bull can't leave under her own power either. In the back Watanabe has to hold her up during the post match promo whear she's in near tears. Certainly bot the best match these 2 have had, a little slower then i'd have liked at times but yeah, this was still awesome.