Joshi Spotlight: AJW in 12.2001 (Ito vs. Hotta- Steel Cage Deathmatch!)

AJW IN DECEMBER 2001:
* It’s a big one for Zenjo! Tag League THE BEST 2001 finishes with three last matches setting up the finals! A big push for NEO’s Misae Genki! The end of Miho Wakizawa’s Zenjo career as the “Wacky Final” concludes! And finally, a Steel Cage Hair vs. Hair Deathmatch match between Kaoru Ito & Yumiko Hotta!

DEC. 2nd 2001:
* A show at Korakuen Hall sees Tag League THE BEST 2001 finish! Three teams (Ito/Nakanshi, Toyota/Hotta, Watanabe/Takahashi) are tied for the lead, meaning today’s last matches for all three times will determine who fights in the finals.

WACKY FINAL:
TAG LEAGUE THE BEST 2001:
KAORU ITO & MOMOE NAKANISHI vs. MIHOKAYO (Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi):
* Wakizawa’s career ticks down as MihoKayo prepare to get demolished against the top two wrestlers in the company in their final match as a team. This is probably the last time I’ll ever hear MihoKayo’s 1970 novelty Native American-sounding disco theme. Ito’s got green army fatigue colors, Momoe’s in a brick-colored camo outfit, Kayo’s in blue and Wacky’s in yellow. In Tag League THE BEST, Manami/Hotta, Ito/Nakanishi and MihoKayo are all about tied, so this is the tiebreaker.

MihoKayo attacks early to start, getting countered but do-si-do-ing back into the lead- Wacky looks RAPTUROUS being able to do double-team spots and beat up Momoe. She’s screaming at the top of her lungs like she knows she’s done soon and the fans start laughing. Momoe eventually comes back and Wacky gets double-teamed, managing comebacks here and there on Ito, usually via rollups or falling clotheslines. Kayo boots Momoe to the floor, but Ito easily takes out MihoKayo- they avoid her dive but still get beaten up on the floor. Wacky fakes being tired and trips up Momoe in the ring, but Momoe still lands her run-up moonsault to Kayo for two. Kayo dodges Ito’s ass attack and hits the double-wrist armsault for two, and Wacky fails repeatedly to hit suplexes and gets lariated for two. Kayo chases Ito up top for the Super Double-Wrist Armsault, allowing Wacky that fisherman’s suplex she was fighting for at last. Ito lariats her again and moves for the Flying Stomp, but gets caught in Wacky’s Super Frankensteiner for two, but gets caught in a monster Ligerbomb- Kayo saves. Momoe counters a near-tears Wacky and Ito finally lands that dive onto MihoKayo, but Momoe run-up planchas her by mistake. MihoKayo both hit planchas! Rocket Launcher Senton in the ring gets two, but they miss stereo flying headbutts & Momoe’s splash and Wacky pounces with a dramatic Fisherman’s Buster for two- Ito barely saves. Super Frankensteiner gets two, reversed for two, but Ito accidentally lariats Momoe, nearly getting her pinned! Wacky keeps trying flash-pins as the fans are anticipating flukes, but Wacky poses and gets Dragon Suplexed, barely flopping over after “2”, and they immediately finish her with a Powerbomb/Missile Kick Combo (“Bungie Kiss”) at (13:22 of 19:05 shown), Miho doing an incredible death-bump on the landing. As you might expect, she’s bawling after the match, Kayo crying too. “Everyone who has supported me until now, thank you so much”.

Good, hard-fought match- Momoe in particular was extremely generous, letting her rookie-year classmate counter everything she had and looked almost hopeless out there as Wacky nailed move after move. Ito was less generous, being the champion, but hit the best-looking stuff- that sit-out powerbomb was vicious. Wakizawa was just out there hitting her “greatest hits” in a really solid final surge, and of course Momoe doing all that selling and bouncing around pays off in the end when she counters the last splash and hits the killer combo to end it.

Rating: **3/4 (solid mid-tier “all effort” match with Wakizawa getting to do all her stuff and be semi-dominant while still looking out of her league)

TAG LEAGUE THE BEST 2001:
MANAMI TOYOTA & YUMIKO HOTTA vs. KUMIKO MAEKAWA (AJW) & MISAE GENKI (NEO):
* It’s Misae Genki! From NEO! Been a while since we’ve seen her- last I got was her slowly rising up the card in the “reasonable challenge for Kyoko Inoue, but will always lose” tier. Genki’s now in a black & silver full bodysuit, sorta like Psicosis’s lucha gear, with mechanical-looking abs and muscles drawn on. Kumiko’s in purple, Manami’s in black w/ red, and Hotta’s in white.

Genki/Toyota start, and Manami keeps doing “try to no-sell, but eventually does” bits, which is rare for her (doing things like no-selling Genki’s big boot but staying down off a big shoulderblock, then selling only the third chop, collapsing to the mat)- it helps put over Genki’s size, as the 5’8″ former stringbean now looks HUGE in there with added mass. Manami escapes by biting her leg and ties her in the ropes for her dropkick, Hotta assisting with kicks to make it more believable. Hotta gets tripped down, losing a test of strength, but comes back by bludgeoning Genki down in the corner and doing her corner rolling kick. Toyota gleefully adds a kick to the ass to aid a butterfly suplex, but charges into an airplane spin and gets plastered by Kumiko’s kicks- spinkick gets two. A resthold sets up Manami’s rolling cradle for two, and Hotta appears amused by Kumiko’s counter-kick, but is brought down by a double-team. Kumiko throws on a figure-four and Genki drops elbows, but Toyota flies in to splash Kumiko and they hit their assisted Samoan Drop combo. Toyota gets a missile kick but is immediately counter-kicked out of a whip and Genki comes in for Kyoko’s “rock the cradle” hold. Manami escapes and Hotta wins a strike-war with Genki, but takes a corner attack & suplex. Hotta’s trapped in the ropes and eats some double-team shots, but Manami interrupts them and it’s a big fight in the stands. Funny bit as they don’t clear the fans fast enough so Hotta gets whipped into a slow-moving chubby guy and has to stop dead in front of him. The juniors take the lead on the floor, but Hotta starts slapping Genki around until the big one fires off elbows and eventually drops her.

Hotta gets a rolling kick (hitting at a weird angle) and appears confident- countering Genki’s Chokeslam but eating a backdrop for two. Kumiko completely brains Hotta with a trio of kicks to the head, but Hotta just looks up like nothing happened and smokes her with one and Tiger Drivers her for two. Hotta gets her double-facecrusher on both but eats Manami’s missile kick when they move and they hit a Sit-Out Spinebuster/Scissor Kick combo. Genki sets up Kumiko’s rolling kick into an Ax Kick for two in an awkward exchange of hesitant interference spots- Manami saves- then Genki saves after Manami’s missile kick sets up the Pyramid Driver (cross-armed ligerbomb) on Kumiko. Genki catches Manami with a superplex and a few more interference spots sees Manami hit the kids with a plancha. A clunky but acceptable exchange sees Manami hit a Moonsault for two, attempt the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, Kumiko slide out and miss a spinkick so Manami can try a German, and Kumiko slides down to get a counter-kick. A Manami Roll counters a German and nearly gets three, but a Pump Kick counters a whip for two. Manami gets a near-deadlift German on Genki for two, but Moonsaults onto knees and the Chokeslam gets two. Genki misses a second-rope elbow and overswings so Manami straightjacket Germans her for two, then counters a double-team with a German to Kumiko. The Samoan Drop/Flying Assist combo gets two on Genki, and the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex gets two- Kumiko sorta saves. Everyone hits everyone but Hotta accidentally clocks Toyota, setting up Genki’s Gutwrench Powerslam for two- Hotta saves. Toyota counters another to a Queen Bee Bomb attempt but gets ax kicked by Kumiko and Genki’s elbow smash gets two as they crank out the near-falls. They finally get rid of Hotta and a Powerbomb/Flying Elbow gets two- Genki’s aghast, but quickly hits her Gutrwench Powerbomb again… and PINS MANAMI TOYOTA at (20:32), getting a clean win over the veteran! Good reaction for that.

A very “slow, steady” match, where the veterans put over the up & comers as threats… SORT OF, as they kept trying to no-sell and would frequently make a comeback and act like nothing had happened, and appeared to be reluctantly selling Genki’s strikes. Hotta was the worst for this, eating three huge spinkicks that have the crowd “AAHHH”-ing, but just hitting her own kick and finisher attempt for two. The match got MUCH sloppier as it went on, people frequently getting in each other’s way, as they’d do semi-elaborate interference spots but with bigger, slower wrestlers just bumping into one another as they tried to move around. You’d see spots that would have taken 5 seconds to happen in 1992 Zenjo and now it’s a thirty-second exchange because people are SLOWER now, you know? Like the Manami/Kumiko exchange over finishers ending in the counter of a German- that would have been done at INSANE speeds back in the day but is now a “do a move attempt, get countered, stand there for half a sec, then eat counter”. So it leads ot a lot of clunky exchanges but it actually still kinda works because they’re obviously going as fast as they can at points (well not Hotta, lol) and looking desperate. Toyota hitting some finishers on Genki and having the junior kick out is a good way to put her over, and Genki actually getting a solitary clean pin (albeit after a ton of other moves beforehand) is another great elevation. Toyota was doing the “I ded” sell during most of the final run- not flopping around and looking harried but just lying there like “….” which isn’t the best but she had to do most of the match herself since Hotta was so slow and unwilling to sell.

Rating: ***1/4 (fought themselves into a pretty good match in the end- clunky but it got the job done)

TAG LEAGUE THE BEST 2001:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. TOMOKO WATANABE & NANAE TAKAHASHI:
* LCO’s tournament run ends here- they’re not even in the Top Three teams at this point- the Tag Champs need the win to go to the finals. Tomoko’s in neon green, Nanae’s in lavender and LCO are in their “shredded white strips over leather” gear. This one is clipped.

We’re JIP to Tomoko missing a flying attack and going right into Shimoda’s chairshot to the face, but counters the DVD/Ax Kick to a double clothesline. Nanae counters a powerbomb and actually bowls over Mita a couple of times, then takes a Blazing Chop without dropping and counters Mita to a backdrop driver. Shimoda stalls her up top so Mita hits the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop for two. They keep kneeing each other in the nose to counter moves until Tomoko just inteferes with the Screwdriver (one-armed powerbomb) to Mita. They set up an insane Hellsmasher/Flying Move combo when Shimoda interferes, shoving down Tomoko and Death Lake Driving (tiger superplex) Nanae, but their double-team sees her flying Ax Kick Mita by mistake and Nanae hits the NanaRakka (falcon arrow) for two. Shimoda punches Nanae to set up Mita’s DVD for two- Tomoko saves. Shimoda wimpily tosses a chair to deal with her and they hit the DVD/Ax Kick combo… for two! Clean kickout by Nanae! A dazed Nanae is pulled up, but zips out a sudden lariat for two! But Shimoda ax kicks her and holds down Tomoko so yet another Death Valley Driver gets three (4:59 of 23:45 shown), LCO winning. This loss guarantees Hotta/Toyota reach the finals. Hard to assess it off of the last 5 minutes but it seemed ***+. Mike Lorefice said it was the best match of the night in full.

TAG LEAGUE THE BEST 2001:
FINAL MATCH:
KAORU ITO & MOMOE NAKANISHI vs. MANAMI TOYOTA & YUMIKO HOTTA:
* The current Ace and future Ace vs. The Past Aces. I like it. Good idea for a tournament final.

The younger pair pounce and Ito immediately slams into the veterans with a dive and it’s a big crowd brawl. Manami does her “clap on the barrier and fly onto someone” trick, I think slamming Ito right into the seating (OW). Hotta uses a chair and they hit the assisted Samoan drop thing on Momoe for two, but Momoe counters to a run-up moonsault. Ito hits a NASTY judo flip to stop Manami’s rolling cradle, then merely ignores being trapped in the ropes to lariat the shit out of her when she tries the dropkick (FINALLY). Powerbomb gets two. Hotta keeps interfering but Ito manages to powerbomb out of a Manami Roll before finally falling and taking a Moonsault. Time for more wandering! Hotta at least gets bloodthirsty against her upcoming opponent, repeatedly stabbing Ito with scissors and going for a LONG wander through Korakuen Hall. You know it’s a big time-waster when they’re up in the hallways. Tiome for the ATTEMPTED MURDER~~ spot with Hotta trying to push Momoe off the balcony, but I think the fans are bored of those so it doesn’t get much of a reaction. She gets more for showing the fans Ito and the scissors. After four minutes of this wander they’re back to ringside (where was Manami that whole time?), and Ito takes a front piledriver on a table and… that itty-bitty trickle of blood is all they got from that? And of course back in the ring Ito immediately recovers all health, powerbombs Hotta on the floor, and hits a Stomp from a table on the 5-ft. balcony to the floor, slipping and ass-slamming Hotta dead-on. OWIE.

Hotta dodges a Flying Stomp and hits a “shotei” (just a pieface here), but another attempt sees her hauled down for It’s armbar, sold barely above a resthold. Momoe’s missile kick sets up a Ligerbomb for two, and Momoe just spams non-stop attacks until she charges into the rolling kick and a Pyramid Driver powerbomb plants her. Manami makes her first appearance in 8 minutes and does her no-sell spot out of a German, but now MOMOE does one and then does her flying backflip into a German for two. The vets stop the Powerbomb/Dropkick combo and Toyota tope con hilos both opponents on the floor, but their own double-team finish is stopped- Momoe Germans Hotta & Ito hits a Super Samoan drop on Toyota. Everyone throws lariats and now Momoe run-up planchas her foes- Ligerbomb/Missile Kick… two! But Hotta swats Momoe and they hit the Samoan Drop/Flying Assist- Ito saves. Toyota tries the J.O.C.S., Momoe escapes and ducks a shotei so Manami gets whacked in the mouth, and the Momo Latch hits- Hotta has to save as the fans are buying it. A second Latch and Manami’s not even pinned properly yet the fans freak at the kickout, and the Dragon Suplex gets two. Momoe tries to run-up but Toyota catches her, tries the J.O.C.S., Momoe forward rolls into a pin, but Manami rolls BACK, getting two. Queen Bee Bomb (wrist-clutch northern lights bomb)- Ito saves. Japanese Ocean… no Momoe flips back into a REVERSE Momo Latch- two! Japanese Ocean Cyclone finally… FINALLY… hits… for two! Hotta has to run interference on Ito again and Momoe’s at last out of energy as Manami hits another Queen Bee Bomb and pins her at (17:23)- Toyota & Hotta are the Tag League THE BEST 2001 winners! Manami cuts a Superbabyface promo, saying Momoe has improved a ton “but everyone was cheering for me, so I couldn’t lose” (lol Momoe was getting better reactions).

Alright and with a bunch of effort (Hotta being in there for the majority is probably why she missed most of the first match) for most of it- way too long of a pointless crowd brawl in the first half, clearly to kill time (it’s not like Ito sold the beating or even bled enough to justify all this scissor stuff). By the 3/4 point they were just “hit a finisher, kickout, then the other two immediately recover and speed into their own finisher”, too. But WOW they pulled it right out of *** territory in the end, doing a crazy batch of counters and reversals in the last 2-3 minutes, totally improving the match a ton. That it was 90% flash-pins made it better, as any of those can pin and it’s not just “lol your finisher sucks!” move-ruining. This ends up a funny thing where a slack-ass match that ends well is way better than a hot match that depends into slack-ass territory because the finish is hot.

Rating: ***1/2 (feels like they could go higher… but they all wrestled already and 3/4 of them aren’t in their physical prime- pretty average match for most of it until the last five minutes was REALLY hot)

Tag League THE BEST 2001 Standings:
Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta (6)
Kaoru Ito & Momoe Nakanishi (6)
Las Cachorras Orientales (5)
Kumiko Maekawa & Misae Genki (5)
MihoKayo (4)
Tomoko Watanabe & Nanae Takahashi (4)

The big surprise is the tag champions being tied for last with MihoKayo.

DEC. 16th:
* The big show to end Zenjo’s year! From Kawasaki City Gymnasium! Featuring the Wacky Final and Ito vs. Hotta in the cage! Apparently on this show Kumiko Maekawa defeated Manami Toyota to determine the next 3WA Title challenger.

WACKY FINAL SMILE:
RETIREMENT MATCH:
MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. KAYO NOUMI:
* Fittingly, Wacky’s last match is against her tag partner. Commentary points out she’s been wrestling 5 years and 5 months, and is only 22 years old.

They do the DRAMATIC LOCKUP~~ to start, Wacky quickly dumping Noumi and hitting a big plancha and roars to the fans. Commentary openly derides how skinny she is for a wrestler, but points out her matches “draw the audience more and more” (“you can’t imitate that. It’s definitely somethign she was born with”). Wacky throws her around a bunch, but Kayo gets a screaming comeback and traps her in a camel clutch after several attempts. Wacky comes back and repeatedly bites Kayo’s feet, and hits some falling clotheslines for two, but gets dumped- she can’t get her Fisherman’s Buster. Kayo gets the world’s ugliest sunset flip for two- lol Wacky totally didn’t know what was coming and didn’t duck. Kayo tries a flying splash (after a SUNSET FLIP?) and splats, and so Wacky gets missile kicks, a splash and a fisherman’s suplex for two. Kayo rolls her up out of the Buster attempt, but takes the Super Frankensteiner for two. Fisherman’s Buster hits, but she hesitates and gets rolled up from the ground- she stomps away in revenge, but eats shit trying another Super Frankensteiner (Kayo hangs on to the ropes) and they end up slugging it out into an ugly flash-pin exchange. Wacky puts Kayo up again, but gets German’d off the second rope this time, then plancha’d on the floor. Missile Kick & flying splash get two-counts as the fans start to get impressed.

Kayo fails the Double-Wrist Armsault, but follows Wacky up top for the Super version, getting two, then the regular one for the same. Kayo tries another Super Armsault but Wacky sunset flip bombs her, hitting at such a high angle that Kayo’s HEAD bounces off the mat for two. German gets two, and she hits another Super Frankensteiner, Kayo rolling through for two, but Wacky spins her into the Fisherman’s Buster at last, getting two. Two more Fisherman’s Busters, but Kayo’s foot hits the ropes. Miho is flagging, and gets German’d while she’s building herself up for another try, then hits a Double-Wrist Armsault for two, then invents ROLLING Armsaults, hitting four in a row, Miho still kicking out. But that’s it for her, as Kayo now adopts the Fisherman’s Buster herself, scoring it for three (15:30). Miho Wakizawa’s career ends. She’s actually so messed up she doesn’t even start bawling immediately like all her other recent matches- it takes a while for her to get up and finally do her retirement interview, saying “I’m sad, but my heart is full” and thanking the fans for their support with tears in her eyes. She gets the 10 bell count and retires in a sea of yellow streamers, but is happier and less of a mess here than in every other Wacky Final match. We skip a post-match angle, apparently: during the ceremony, Rumi & Takako made it look like they were going to have Eagle beat Miho up, but “doublecrossed” Eagle with a double DDT and had Wakizawa pin her with a diving body press.

One last gigantic Wacky expression to send us off!

Wakizawa’s retirement actually outlasted Zenjo as a company- it’s TEN YEARS before she returns, turning up in World Wonder Ring Stardom in 2011, wrestling there for three years until retiring for good. She even won their tag belts once! And whatever the “Artist of Stardom” belt is! The match was a very “Miho Wakizawa/Kayo Noumi” kind of match- Super-Energetic, Wild & Fighty, But Not Technically Sound. All their offense is a gangly mess of limbs, as usual with Wacky in particular, but kind of fun for that. In the end, Wacky didn’t really develop a moveset of sorts and was often left spamming the same 2-3 moves all the time, but she was fun. And yet another wrestler retires in the Joshi Spotlight series (it’s unlikely I’ll ever move on to Stardom, lol).

Rating: **1/2 (energetic, fun, fighty, and sloppy- the Wacky Special)

Spoiler alert, lol. You know it’s Japan when they just state what’s going to happen in the thumbnail or description.

STEEL CAGE DEATH MATCH:
HAIR vs. HAIR:
KAORU ITO vs. YUMIKO HOTTA:
* This match is said to end the war between “The Army” and “The Rebels”. Yeah we’ll see! Hotta comes out in leather, carrying a chain and a ladder. Which she immediately throws into Ito’s head the second she’s near the ring. Ito’s bleeding all over the place as Hotta strangles her with the chain (on top of a table so all of the gym can see it), then beats her all around the cage before finally entering with all her stuff.

In a VERY clever move, Hotta sprays the entire area with a fire extinguisher… to cover an escape attempt while Ito is dazed! Ito barely notices and stops her. Hotta takes a giant bump falling off the side of the cage, but kicks Ito’s ass everywhere again. Hotta bites the cut as Ito has great “I’m dying” selling- Hotta gleefully whups on her for minutes until Ito gets a second wind and they ANNIHILATE each other with ultra-stiff elbow shots that look like it’s a shoot. God DAMN. Hotta finally strangles her down with the chain to put the fight out of her as we switch to a less-quality capture of the video- after a couple minutes of that, Ito fires away with the chain and strangles Hotta, who half-heartedly sells it before going down. Ito stomps her back and whips her into the ladder in the corner, but Hotta whips it into her and skooshes her with it until she tries to climb, at which point Ito hauls her down by the neck (since Hotta never removed the chain from around it). They both square off and wrap the chains around their fists in a bitching moment, Ito winning a scrap and hitting a big running punch. Hotta fires off rolling kicks, but Ito roars to life and drops her with headbutt spam and blasts her into the cage over and over again until both slump over. Hotta, also bleeding, sneaks in a chainshot and piledrivers Ito as the breaks between moves get longer. Another hits and it’s a full minute before Hotta flings the ladder onto Ito. Ito manages to drag her out of a climb and stomps her back, then hits two uranages.

The fans go wild for Ito’s climb attempt, but she’s dragged down and sleeperholds Hotta instead. She releases but charges into Hotta’s tiger driver and now HOTTA holds the sleeper. Tired, are we? This lasts more than a minute, and then it’s released as they stare at each other on the ground- we get a shot of Shinobu Kandori watching this (building to a future shot?) and Ito finally stomps the shit out of Hotta’s knee. Another boot and a ladder add to the pain, then she wraps the chain around her hands and smashes the knee repeatedly, then wraps it around her FOOT and stomps it a bunch. A figure-four builds to that, but as soon as she’s out, Hotta sweeps Ito’s leg and works the arm and chokes using the chain again. They spend like two straight minutes fucking around with the chain (Ito’s wrist is locked to it, then Hotta locks the other end to the ropes I think), interspersed with the occasional chain shot, but Ito drags her out of a climb attempt and after a LONG couple minutes fires off a Ligerbomb that has the powder from the extinguisher fly off the mat in a great visual. Flying Stomps misses but she gets a lariat, but Hotta gets a shotei and has to be dragged out of a climb again. Hotta still hangs her upside-down in the corner and chains her to it, kicks the shit out of her, and nearly ESCAPES before Ito’s able to pull herself up to grab Hotta’s pant leg- the fans were going nuts for that bit. Ito finally drags Hotta off, chucks her out of the corner, LAUNCHES a ladder at her head and tries to escape, but Hotta unchains herself and electric chair drops Ito from above the ropes.

We FINALLY hit good video again (I believe this match is two separate videos spliced together) as they only have the energy to fight it out on the mat. They both climb the same corner, but Ito punches Hotta down with a chain around her fist and hits the Flying Stomp! And another! And another! Ito declares it’s over, but gets caught at the top of the cage, has the chain wrapped around her neck, then has it tied to a post so she can’t escape. Hotta drags her off by the neck but tries to climb herself and gets pulled off in a HUGE bump from the cage to the mat, ending up in a stack with her legs in the air. Jesus Christ. They sell that a WHILE thankfully, and a double-lariat puts both down again. Hotta barely gets up and climbs, but just…. stops… halfway up like she’s either waiting or is too hurt to climb. Ito pulls her off and climbs, but has the ladder thrown into her repeatedly until Hotta separates it into one giant ladder for a Signature Spot for the match- climbing it and getting pushed off, Ito expertly scrambling to the other side of the ring for a Flying Stomp with the ladder still on her! Hotta STILL manages to get up and chase, tying the chain around Ito’s foot, but gets shoved off, lands on the ladder, then centers herself on it so Ito can do the Mandatory Cage Spot- a Flying Stomp from the top of the cage, WITH the chain on her foot, to Hotta on the ladder! Ito climbs and Hotta STILL gets up, and tries to pull her off with the chain, but it comes loose and Ito gets over the edge and leaps down to win (45:37)! Ito escapes the cage! Both sell the match’s viciousness but oh yeah it’s a HAIR MATCH, as Hotta sits in the chair and calmly allows herself to be trimmed- Ito refuses to use scissors and has the ref do it, but gets to do the buzzcut portion. And now… the HANDSHAKE OF RESPECT! Both warriors now admire one another and shake hands, butting heads to show appreciation.

The “final move from the top of the cage” is a Zenjo standby going back to at least Bull vs. Aja in 1991. It’s in every one of these I’ve seen.

That was looking like a ****+ mega-brawl for a second there but Holy GOD was that way too long for what they wanted. I understand it makes things look more arduous and devastating but when you have to kill so much time resting it hurts the momentum and makes it clear you don’t have enough stuff to fill that time. Case in point, the first sleeperhold hits at about 17 minutes into the video and it’s 24:00 before they start doing non-resting moves again, and after that it’s just Ito building up each move so there’s like 15 seconds between every little thing she does, and then it’s MORE restholds. At least the “Arduous slow fighting” can fit a long match, but there are just too many huge gaps in the bout where they’re obviously taking rests or doing the “Walk & Stomp” to set up things. And bits with slow climbing and “hey, come on… you still have to catch me!” stuff. That said, the match’s setpieces and first minutes and last minutes are all excellent, so it’s not the “below **” match I’ve seen it reviewed as online, and is an excellent showcase for Kaoru Ito’s toughness and Main Event Push continuing as Ace of the company, as well as a good payoff to the Ito/Hotta feud. Just nothing I’m ever gonna wanna watch again, haha.

Rating: ** (another billion-year-long Hotta match, but it had good storytelling, a good finish, and some great stuff in the opening 10-15 minutes. Just went too long and was too slow for most of it. Basically a ****1/2 match trapped in a * match)