- (AJW Title) Kaoru Ito (c) vs Debbie Malenko
Interesting match up. What little is shown of the early portion sees Debbie going after Ito's bandaged up leg but it doesn't appear to amount to too much so Debbie switches things up and goes for more agressive stuff. They go back and forth a bit with Deb getting in a series of flash Fujiwara arm bar attempts but each time Ito scrambles to make the ropes really quick in what I thought was a nice touch. So far all very basic standard fare, the typical decent low level match you'd exspect. Ito starts making her big comeback and it looks like the finish is coming, Ito gets in a few footstomps but then makes the mistake of attempting one off the top rope to the floor which she misses and tweaks her allready bad knee on the landing. Debbie goes into kill mode after that, bulldog on the floor, northen lights superplex and a standard nother lights follow, all the while Ito still limping around due to her messed up knee. Ito tries to fight back a little but Debbie catches her leg, locks in an STF and the pain is too much so she gives up. I actually had no clue Debbie ever won the title so I was legit surprised at the finish here. Last few minutes after the footstomp to the floor is what really put this over the top for me, took it from being a nice solid match into becoming a real damn good one. Sadly only 8 of 25 mins aired.
- Suzuka Minami & Mima Shimoda vs Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta
Funny moment early on as they zoom in on Takako's boot while she's standing on Suzuka's head and we get to see she's in desperate need of a new pair as it's being held together with duct tape. Anyways, this follows your standard tag match formula. Suzuka was a workhorse as always, some solid stuff in the first part and really shining in the last. Shimoda was in full on spaz mode but also did a nice job playing FIP mid match. Hotta & Takako by now are a regular team and have a 3WA tag match coming up later in the month. Interesting comparison to the previous Hotta/Tak matches we've seen so far, vs OZ & Fukuoka they were working on top, vs OZ & Kansai they were working from underneath and here they're pretty much evenly matched. Hotta was fired up for this one, mostly did her usual thing but had a lot of energy and passion behind it, Takako too who especially looked good beatind down Shimoda. Can really tell her confidence is growing over time as far as working a more agressive/dominant style goes. Final few mins of this are pretty rockin with everyone scramblin to get the win before time runs out. Match goes the distance and ends in a 20 min draw (about 11 aired), kudos to them for actually not telegraphing the finish here too. I really liked this a lot, one of those matches that particularly good enough you need to go out of your way to see it but something i'm sure most would enjoy if they got the chance to watch.
- Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Aja Kong & Bat Yoshinaga
No matter their partners any time Bat is opposite Toyota in a tag it's always been fun and Aja & whoever vs Toyota/Yamada always rules too. First time seeing Aja & Bat team up and they make for a cool team to go against them given their history. Bat & Aja playing monster made for some good stuff early on beating up Yamada. Fun kicker vs kicker moments with her & Bat. Finish was real hot too with some great near fall moments. The "Toyota's the weak link" storyline made for some added drama as it made me actually buy that she might do the job here. Cooler heads prevailed though as even they're not nutty enough to have the champs drop a fall to a team with Bat Yoshinaga at this point so Toyota gets a rare win for her team pinning the mid carder with a sort of cross armed tiger suplex. Real good based on what aired but that was only 9 of 22:30.
Undercard highlights at the end of the show
- Tamada & Chaparita going to a time limit draw
- Mita & X over Watanabe & Shiratori in 14:30
- Kyoko over Terri Power in 15:30
No comments:
Post a Comment