Cutie Suzuki vs. Kanako Motoya
Oddly ornery technical match. Suzuki stretches Motoya a bunch, and then Motoya stretches Suzuki and hits these cool headbutts that felt like something a bald european technician would do. Motoya once again had really nasty sentons. The match didn’t seem to come together as a whole but it there were some fun bits.
Mayumi Ozaki & Carlos Amano vs. Megumi Kudo & RIE
This was a street fight with everyone dressed up in their grungy street clothes and it was just an absolute house of fire as they went full throttle over like 25 minutes. Amano and RIE bled like crazy and Oz and Kudo held up looking like absolute superstars throughout this match. They could’ve just done brawling and weapon shots and it would have been good as they worked in some really cool key transitions, but then they went all out in the second half delivering so much cool stuff and false finishes out the ass. They convince you that Oz and Kudo could end the match, then they introduce the more plausible possibility of one of the underlings getting pinned, then it’s underling vs. underling, then suddenly Oz and Kudo again… they did a great job mixing the weapons and chains with the 90s style puro big moves and something like a tiger bomb or half nelson suplex looks double cool in a bloody brawl with weapons strewn about the ring. Amano looked brave as fuck diving in to save Ozaki and while RIE had a shitty moment where she blew a move, she also had a really cool moment where she taped a bat to her knee and delivered a gross looking jumping knee to the head. The chain stuff was engrossing, remember chain chokes often end brawls in Japan either by ref stop or submission. Ozakis out of nowhere backfists were really cool. Tremendous stuff at a crazy pace that would light a fire if you ran it anywhere today.
Dynamite Kansai vs. Hikari Fukuoka
This was compared to Aja vs. Toyota, but honestly, I thought this was probably better. Fukuoka is so much better than Toyota it’s not even funny, her offense and comebacks are varied and way more interesting, and she actually sold her ass off, was struggling to get back on offense and milking things for drama, plus she can pull out some damn graceful moves and the moonsault stomp and rider kick are also cool than anything in a Toyota match. This was just a really good big vs. little match, with Kansai mostly controlling and Fukuoka making some great comebacks with Kansai then cutting her off in brutal fashion. Needless to say Kansais kicks were absolutely vicious. I loved Fukuokas desperation legsweep after Kansai started kicking the shit out of her in the ring. After Kansai hit the splash mountain, Fukuoka seemed extremely done, struggling to move or get to her feet, that’s how you sell after a big move. The final stanza with Kansai hitting super violent punt kicks and Fukuoka trying to pull out desperate counters was really great. Hell of a match, one of the best big matches of 1997.
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