5-Star Match Reviews: Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue – May 7, 1995 (30th Anniversary Review)

I was originally going to post this on Wednesday but I had some other matters to attend to first. Anyways, since so many of us in the wrestling fandom are always wearing nostalgia goggles I figured I’d go back in time once again on this, the 30^th anniversary of a famous match between two of the most celebrated women’s wrestlers in modern times in Manami Toyota and Kyoko Inoue.

Of the two of them Toyota is by far the more famous wrestler. She was one of the most creative and innovative in-ring wrestlers of her time, coming up with some of the craziest techniques ever seen. Some of the stuff she did during the 1990s was a decade ahead of its time and yet still not replicated all that much elsewhere. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that everyone’s favorite match critic, Dave Meltzer, lauded her as the greatest thing he’s ever seen, showering her with stars while Will Ospreay was still in his swaddling clothes. But were she and her peers really that good, or was this praise simply the result of an overreaction to something new and different?

The Story

Toyota and Inoue had a years-long rivalry that saw them trade wins back-and-forth in singles and tag matches. They were already turning heads as early as 1992 when Meltzer rated one of their matches “*****+++”, that’s how awesome it was. Their rivalry continued as both women won singles and tag titles but then the stakes were raised even further when Toyota won the WWWA World Single Championship, arguably the most prestigious and historically significant title in all of women’s pro-wrestling. but Toyota’s celebration was short-lived: once she beat Aja Kong to win the title she found herself swapping one big woman for another. Inoue was heftier than most of the other women and had an easy time throwing power moves and trapping her opponents in submission holds since most of her opponents were much smaller and lighter than her. So Toyota had a problem: though she had the champion’s advantage Inoue was bigger, stronger, and just as quick. Would Toyota retain her title on her first defense, or would she end up a transitional champion once all was said and done?

The Match

This took place on May 7, 1995. It was voted the Wrestling Observer’s Match of the Year for 1995, beating such classics as: Shawn/Razor SummerSlam 1995, a bunch of Rey Mysterio matches, Kawada vs. Kobashi from January 1995, and two Four Kings tag matches, including 6-9-95. Let’s see if it holds up.

It’s pedal to the metal as the bell rings with Toyota spamming dropkicks from the very start. Toyota goes for a top-rope dive but Inoue launches her to the floor below. In the ring Inoue hits clotheslines into the ropes and then locks Toyota in a back-arching camel clutch. Toyota goes for a counter corner dropkick but Inoue sidesteps and locks in a Boston crab, which then evolves into a Liontamer-style torture crab. Inoue with a torture rack backbreaker followed by a dragon sleeper-style camel clutch. Another torture rack ends with Toyota being launched across the ring and then locked in a sort of sharpshooter/armbar combo hold, which Inoue then changes to a sort of grounded bow-and-arrow hold.

Inoue sends Toyota into the ropes but Toyota springboards off the top rope and lands a counter crossbody. She goes for a dropkick but Inoue counters into another Boston crab. Toyota gets a ropebreak and counters an Irish hip, and as Inoue prepares her own springboard counterattack Toyota dropkicks Inoue’s back in midair. Toyota follows by wrapping Inoue through the ropes and dropkicking her spine.

Toyota locks in a manjigitame followed by a heel hook, another heel hook, a deathlock, a double underhook Muta lock, and her own bow-and-arrow hold. Toyota tries another manjigitame but Inoue throws her off. Toyota escapes a backdrop and does the rolling cradle for two. She goes to the top rope but Inoue cuts her off and launches her off with a German suplex. Two-count. Inoue goes for a diving back elbow but Toyota gets up and kicks her off the top turnbuckle and to the floor. Toyota teases a dive but stops herself as Inoue gets out of range. She steadies herself and rushes Inoue on the apron but Inoue avoids it just in time for Toyota to fly through the ropes.

At ringside Inoue clotheslines Toyota to the mat and then over part of the barricade. Back in the ring Inoue lands her back elbow this time but only gets two. Toyota escapes a powerbomb and kicks Inoue to the floor again. Then Toyota jumps onto the top rope and dives onto Inoue on the floor. Christ this woman’s sense of timing and balance were insane!

Back in the ring Toyota lands a moonsault for two. Inoue blocks one Japanese Ocean Suplex but can’t reverse it a second one, though she does, as expected, kick out at two. Toyota tries the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex but Inoue blocks and lands a step-up top-rope headscissor takedown for two. Inoue attempts a Niagara Driver. Toyota escapes, ducks a lariat, and hits a Manami Roll for two. Inoue gets up first and locks in another Boston crab. Ropebreak. Sharpshooter by Inoue. Then into another camel clutch. Toyota goes for another counter springboard crossbody. Inoue ducks this one and locks in another chinlock. Ropebreak. Toyota bounces off the ropes and hits first with a dropkick. She goes to the top rope for a dive but Inoue gets her feet up.

Toyota attempts a superplex but Inoue overpowers her and drops her down gourdbuster style. Top-rope shotgun dropkick by Inoue. Two-count. Toyota avoids another Niagara Driver and lands a bridging German for two. Inoue avoids another moonsault. Toyota cuts off another dive and attempts the Victory Star Drop/Avalanche FrankenToyota but she’s so exhausted both women fall down in a heap. The ref begins to count. Both get up around seven. Inoue shitcans Toyota and locks in a ringside crab followed by a giant swing. Inoue returns to the ring while some of the rookie women help Toyota get feeling back in her legs.

In the ring Inoue lands three diving back elbows for two as we reach the 30-minute mark. Inoue tries another powerbomb. Toyota blocks and lands a double-arm suplex for two and hits three moonsaults for, of course, two. Another bridging German. Two-count. Then another. Two-count. Inoue counters another Irish whip and this time counters a Manami Roll with a powerbomb. Toyota ducks a clothesline and dumps Inoue ringside. Diving dropkick to the floor. Toyota grabs a Japanese table, places Inoue on it, climbs to the top rope, and dives. She lands a splash but the table doesn’t break. In response Toyota rips off some ringside mats and piledrives Inoue onto the exposed floor. Twice. Inoue tries another headscissor counter but Toyota stops her and lands a dropkick to the back of her head. Two-count again. More dropkicks from Toyota. More two-counts. Another moonsault. Two-count. Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex connects. One, two, and, OF COURSE IT’S A TWO-COUNT.

Toyota tries the same move again. Inoue counters with a drop toehold into another chinlock. Ropebreak. Double leg-trap chinlock/armbar combo. Ropebreak. Toyota avoids a corner charge. Inoue blocks a moonsault crossbody. Another submission hold. Toyota resists yet another Niagara Driver so Inoue clobbers her with a clothesline. Toyota attempts another superplex. Inoue lifts her up and hits an avalanche powerslam for two. Niagara Dri – countered with a Manami Roll for two. Inoue runs up the top rope and hits an avalanche overhead suplex. Two-count. Inoue with three lariats. Two-count. Niagara Driver connects…for two. Inoue tries again. Both women, now exhausted, collapse again. They fall to the floor and take some time to recover. Inoue hits first with a helicopter-style Niagara Driver…and Toyota bridges out at two. Seriously, were there magic nutrients in the water in Shimane that Toyota drank as a child?

We’re around 50 minutes in as Toyota once again jumps onto the top rope and hits a counter springboard sunset flip. Another JOCS gets another two-count. Toyota charges but stops herself as she runs out of gas. Inoue takes advantage with a clothesline and suplexes Toyota over the rope and to the floor. Another Irish whip counter into a dropkick sends Inoue falling back out to the floor. Toyota hits a diving foot stomp to the floor. Toyota with a top-rope quebrada to the floor and then an avalanche double underhook suplex. For another two-count.

Both women struggle to their feet but Inoue fires up and lands Kawada kicks. She follows with three big running clotheslines and then an exceptionally big one that sends Toyota flipping end over end. Toyota might be out so Inoue covers. One, two, and – another near-fall. Toyota escapes a Niagara Driver so Inoue lands a much softer powerbomb in response for another near-fall. Toyota reverses a corner whip into a sunset flip for two. There are only a few minutes left. Toyota with a rope-assisted German. Toyota lands one more German and goes for another but Inoue reaches the ropes. Toyota lands another dropkick and tries another JOCS but is too exhausted. Bridging German. Two-count. diving splash. Two-count. Inoue counters a corner whip and lands a rope-assisted DDT and then a DDT from the apron to the floor. Inoue struggles but manages to land another Niagara Driver…for two. Toyota gets up and tries a super sunset flip powerbomb…when the bell rings. Time runs out as both women find themselves hung up in the ropes.

STILL WWWA World Single Champion due to a 60-minute DRAW: Manami Toyota

Post-match both women get loud ovations along with a rarely-heard “zenjo” (AJW) chant from the crowd and then Aja Kong comes out to declare herself the next challenger for Toyota’s title.

Review

Going sixty minutes in pro-wrestling is very, very hard. Going sixty while keeping the audiences engaged and excited is harder still. And going sixty while keeping the crowd excited AND keeping such a ludicrous pace is simply inhuman. This was simply insane; thirty years of change hasn’t dulled its quality at all. It was all action from the start and never felt slow or pointless. It was an ambitious idea and they succeeded in executing it without anything falling apart. Even the few sloppy or botchy moments throughout the match could be forgiven because both women were so exhausted that they couldn’t be expected to land everything 100%. From what’s been written elsewhere some fans were surprised that this was voted Match of the Year for 1995, especially given breadth of amazing matches that took place that year all over the world. But there’s something admirable in the physical sacrifices these two women made into making this into something special. They could’ve cut the match down. They could’ve shaved off entire sequences. They could’ve adopted a once-and-done approach to landing moves so that there wouldn’t be any repetition. Instead they chose to throw everything they had at each other and take the audience on a special journey in which each sequence, even the repeated ones, had different outcomes.

And even though both women thrashed each other they both kept going. Yes, both of them didn’t really sell deeply or showcase their exhaustion as much as in equivalent matches in WWF/E, WCW, NJPW, or AJPW. So anyone looking for realism above all else might find this particular style of wrestling hard to get into. But that surrealism was part of the appeal: zenjo was built on pushing boundaries, breaking conventions, and promoting a style that required major effort into suspension of disbelief. And yet even with all this action these women never lost the plot. They never went too far with silly elements, went crazy with preplanned or cooperation-heavy spots, or went excessive with overkill. They were so evenly matched from bell to bell that repeating things and keeping each other on edge was necessary. Many people might dismiss this sort of match as self-indulgent or over-the-top but I disagree: this was a frantic match with both women going into it knowing the other was a bottomless well of energy and thus had to go where neither had gone before. There was as much urgency as creativity at play here, which is what makes it such an exciting viewing experience. For anyone whose easily bored and wants to “skip ahead to the good part” there’s no such thing here because skipping ahead even five seconds is impossible since both women pack so much action into every single interaction.

Final Rating: *****

I originally viewed this match five years ago and just like before I think this is an honest-to-God 5-Star classic worth every piece of praise it has gotten over the decades. It’s full of athleticism and incredible action that makes the hour-plus time investment worthwhile. For those that want something different from their usual wrestling fare I strongly recommending watching this match and others like it. These two women didn’t stretch their match layout to an hour; stretching implies something getting longer while also getting narrower or losing its structural integrity. Instead, they took their formula and extended it. They wrestled at the same pace and with the same high-octane style usually reserved for twenty-, thirty-, and in rare cases forty-minute matches and applied it to a full sixty minutes without losing the crowd. This was as impressive as it was ambitious: the 1990s joshi style, especially during the Interpromotional era of 1992-1996, was so physically demanding that the entire industry all but imploded on itself within two years afterwards since fewer women were able to meet these ever-increasing standards.

For all the talk of women’s wrestling making progress over the past ten years it’s kind of sobering to know that there was an entire generation of women raising the bar decades earlier whose in-ring exploits have yet to be matched.

Thanks for reading.