Violence, stiff punches and Hossing it up! What could be better?
So when I watched the great Kudo/Kong vs. Combat/Bison match a month back, I was stricken by how it seemed to push Aja vs. Combat, giving them a lot of sequences where Combat was like “Bitch, you will NOTICE me!”, defiantly opposing the bigger monster. I was like “Wow it looks like they’re teasing us for a solo match” and wouldn’t ya know it- this is prove Joshi REALLY knows how to book ’em, even in-ring.
We seem to miss a semi-interesting TV show from January, as Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa beat Nobue Endo & Kumiko Maekawa (17:50!!) to retain the All Japan Tag Titles (the jobber ones), Aja Kong & Mima Shimoda defeat Etsuko Mita & Yumiko Hotta (17:07) in the battle of the toughies & LCO (one on each side), Sakie Hasegawa defeats Tomoko Watanabe (17:59) in a shocker since Sakie is leaving in a couple months and they seem keen on pushing Tomoko, and Double Inoue beat Manami Toyota & Kaoru Ito (19:31) in a match Meltzer rated ***3/4. This might be for a tag title shot, as Double Inoue take another run at the gold before the month is out.
Later in this week I’ll take a look at a GAEA show, since this one is a one-match review.
AJA KONG vs. COMBAT TOYODA:
(Jan. 10th)
* Aja’s in white & gold here, while Combat’s in black & red. Unfortunately, this looks like a REALLY small gym.
DOUBLE CHARGE AT THE BELL! Combat clotheslines Aja down, then dodges her when Aja charges in and Kong hits the floor. Combat whips her into the chairs, into Aja’s own oil can, and then flies off the apron with the can, leaving Aja doing the “falling tree” sell on the floor. Holy shit, she made AJA KONG SELL AN OILCAN SHOT! That NEVER happens! Combat talks shit in the ring and dives out- BANG! Oil can catches her right in the head! haha, serves her right for just leaving it out there! Aja returns some of that punishment, and a chair has Combat bleeding, then she’s thrown into a table that’s propped up against the ring and Aja slams it straight onto the back of her head. Aja throws headbutts & punishing chops, then her charging corner lariat & kicks, and fights her into a piledriver for two. More headbutts have Combat about to rise defiantly, but Aja stuns her with another and hits a big second rope splash for two and NOW Combat is roaring defiantly, ignoring some chops and catching Aja with a clothesline! Flying Splash gets two and now AJA is roaring up defiantly, and it’s the best spot: FAT GUY NO-SOLD SHOULDERBLOCKS! Each one eggs on the other to try again as the crowd is way into that, and they perfectly time their pause, then charge off the opposite sides, right into the Hogan/Warrior double clothesline spot! Crowd LOVES that.
Aja’s up first and manages a backdrop driver for two. Annoyed at the kickout, she hits her Flying Back Elbow for the same. Even MORE annoyed, she gears up the Uraken- miss! GERMAN from Combat! Aja takes a sickening bump right onto her head, so bad that Combat’s bridge can’t even hold her slumping corpse. Combat suddenly goes “Manami Toyota” with DROPKICK SPAM, a missile dropkick ending it and getting two. The ThunderFire Powerbomb is countered to the Uraken- blocked! Combat clotheslines Aja but can’t get a flying move or a tiger driver, so just pounds Aja down and hits some kinda motherfucking flying Earthquake Vertical Splash and holy shit did that look like it hurt. She is NOT a small lady. That gets 2.8, and Combat tries to finish with the Tiger Driver, but Aja slides out… URAKEN!!! Both women are dead, putting over the horrors of those moves, and Aja tries to finalize it- she gets the first syllable of “Shi ne!” (die!”) out but Combat blocks and goes for the German again, but Aja reverses and SHE hits a German, leaving Combat wide open- URAKEN! Aja covers her for the win at (10:23 of 12:20 shown), ending a brutally tough match. Aja & Combat have the Hoss Hug of Mutual Respect at the end.
This was totally rad- just non-stop brutality and power moves from both women. It was short but it was VIOLENT, to the point where it was clear nobody could last another minute with all that horrific shit they were throwing out in there. It was interesting- Combat dominates with speed (!) to start, but then Aja cleverly counters her and it’s the typical “Methodical Aja Match” for several minutes until Combat does a believable “okay NOW I’m pissed off” comeback, as she’s one of the few wrestlers who can brawl back and forth with Aja and have it look credible. The shoulderblock no-selling was perfectly timed- they even had a dramatic pause right into the double-charge off opposite ropes for full Hogan/Warrior- the crowd popped as soon as they started running! And then Aja takes the lead and tries to finish, but Combat’s wise to her and uses MORE speed to harry her, then fucks her up with that devastating flying move. Who on Earth would want Combat to put all her weight on their chest like that? That was either a fucked up senton or a super MDK. And then Aja proves she’s no dummy, as she counters Combat’s LAST counter and tags her with the same move, setting up her finisher. I was disappointed when I saw the match-time on YouTube, but wow, they did NOT waste time. They cut out all the bullshit and just went right at each other.
Rating: **** (one of the best short matches I’ve seen- ten minutes of two people trying to murder each other with power moves and smart counters for two behemoths)