Semi Finals: Eagle Sawai vs. Noriyo Tateno
This was very ground based and alright. Tateno struggling to lock holds in on Sawai due to her large frame added some interest. Tateno worked this as the veteran star grounding and containing her beastly opponent. It was no Itsuki Yamazaki in JWP performance, but it was decent enough and I was into Sawai overcoming her. The spot where Sawai crushed Tatenos bridge looked downright murderous.
Semi Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Harley Saito
This went 11 minutes and we got about 7:30 of it. We get pretty much the opening , and then the ending section, both of which are really great. Starts like a Choshu/Hashimoto match with Saito trying to blow Kandori away with her kicks and Kandori just being an impossible badass. I like while Saito is good enough to not get tapped out right away by Kandori, she still pretty much got her leg mangled. Also check out Saito selling her shoulder earlier. Ending had Kandori busting out several really great Fujiwaraish counters and Saito doing her best outmatched fighter trying to pull of an upset performance. I‘m salty about this missing 3 and a half minutes.
Bull Nakano & Mima Shimoda vs. Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai
Opening minutes of this was the kind of hot interpromotional warfare your brain craves. Nakano is as good of a monster as you need shrugging people off and blasting them with lariats, Kazama kicks the crap out of her, Kurenai is an eye-stabbing trouble making fiend, and there‘s brawling and a staff and nunchakus getting brought in. Middle portion was a bit middling as I was annoyed by Bull and Mima kind of no selling their opponents, but the ending made up for it as we get Rumi and Yasha unloading their big moves on Mima, more staff-bashing and Yasha dramatically trying to survive Bull. This was plenty enjoyable.
Finals: Shinobu Kandori vs. Eagle Sawai
This starts out great right away with Sawai going for the powerbomb and then spiking Kandori with a Randleman-esque slam. Pretty much every 1993 Kandori match is gonna be scrappy and full of bone breaking submission work and this had plenty of face kicks, smacks and nasty knee bars. Sawai isn‘t someone people rate highly but I enjoyed her as a big monster throwing Kandori around which is different from her usual opponents. Ending was great as Sawai seemed to be crumbling from Kandoris submission onslaught until Sawai started throwing her with those big uranages. Kandori can‘t put her away with powermoves so she has to come up with a Fujiwara-ish counter. Scrappy and good.
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