Michiko Nagashima vs. Mizuki Endo
Rookie match with some basic moves and lots of stretches. Really nothing match here. Both these two turned into good wrestlers later but they had nothing going for them at this poitn.
Yukari Osawa & Mikiko Futagami vs. Utako Hozumi & Leo Kitamura
16 out of 22 minutes where shown. Pretty dull match without much heat until they started doing nearfalls. Hozumi and Kitamura controlled most of the action until Futagami pulled out a surprise win. Good for GAMI.
Kurenai Yasha vs. Midori Saito
Kurenai seems like a fairly underrated worker. She dominated most of this and she knew how to beat on Saito for 10 minutes and make it not boring. She did cool things like drop elbows on her face, bust out a bottle or throw a row of chairs at Saito out of nowhere. She also made some nice cutoffs and it was a cool seasoned rudo performance which was impressive considering she was still pretty early in her career. Saito had one nasty boot to Yashas chin but didn‘t impress me much otherwise. Yasha takes it with the chokeslam and this came across as almost a squash.
Rumi Kazama & Noriyo Tateno vs. Eagle Sawai & Miki Handa
Pretty decent match worked at a medium pace. Kazama, Handa and Sawai all looked good. Tateno is usually pretty boring but Sawai was fired up, just running over her with body checks and lariats, and that got Tateno to show a bit of fire of her own. Kazama had her working boots on and was working stiff as usual. And Handa did some pretty good work too working over Tatenos spine with nasty looking knees and elbows. The finish was really good - Handa rolled up Tateno into a boston crab. Kazama landed a kick to make the save, but the resulting force pushed Handa further into the hold and actually forced a submission. Nice win for Handa and felt like something that should happen more often.
Shinobu Kandori & Harley Saito vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita
Okay, wow. The opening of this was like a bomb going off. Super heat, intensity to the max, scrappy fights breaking out, everyone trying to kill each other. They had a bunch of AJW fans attending this cheering for Minami and Mita so this had the kind of insane heat these interpromotional matches have. The first 10 or so minutes were pretty damn amazing and up there with any WAR/NJ tag. Kandori is such a damn superstar, outgrappling everyone while making jokes and then snapping, buckling people against the ropes and mauling them with nasty lariats and elbows. And Mita and Minami brought the heat. The sequence where Kandori choked Mita out and Minami cleared house to safe her was another level of urgent and badass. Makes you wonder why that kinda stuff doesn‘t happen more often. Harley Saito is also quite the effective plucky sidekick to Kandori. The second half this was more of a typical joshi match but still, it was a damn hot ending run that the crowd went crazy over. And all I want from a match with a hot ending run is a hot opening that gets me into it, and they did that here. Real gem, and another piece in Kandoris amazing string of 1993 performances.
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