Mizuki Endo vs. Michiko Nagashima
See this is why I watch LLPW. You put on a random match like this and just turns into a gritty violent brawl. Endo socks Nagashima in the back of the head to start and soon they are chucking chairs at each other. Loved the uncooperative early goings, even the joshi staples like a hair pull snapmare or dropkick looked hatefilled, and soon it turns into a Nagashima asskicking as she brutalizes Endo with chains and kendo sticks. It wasn’t the ECW kind of violence where do you really showy hits and stunts and wait for the audience to cheer, Nagashima came across as a psycho genuinely trying to kill Endo with the kendo stick. Even when a table was brought in that feeling remained, there was no theatrical build to a big fancy table spot, Nagashima just decided to punish Ende some more so she set up a table and smashed Endo into it. Some nasty as hell chain punches and knuckle face grinding. Endo came across really gutsy hitting big suplexes and really wanting to win while Nagashima was just a violent psycho. The finish was a bit weird as Nagashima beat the heck out of the referee and then hit a victory roll where the referee counts the 3, maybe he really didn’t want to piss Nagashima off after that. Anyways for an inexplicably violent opener I enjoyed this a lot.
Jenn Yukari vs. Michiko Ohmukai
Ohmukai was just your standard dropkicks and suplexes pretty girl wrestler at this point, but Yukari is a pretty fun worker. Yukari really blisters Ohmukai with kicks which makes you wonder if this made Ohmukai put on kickpads later. I really liked how Yukari would headbutt the shoulder before locking in a nasty arm stretch. The last few minutes had some nice back and forth and a neat spot where Yukari caught Ohmukai who was coming down with a flying knee with a kick to her leg. Pretty good although only 7 minutes of 13 were shown.
Rumi Kazama & Karula vs. Mikiko Futagami & Carol Midori
Karula is Harley Saito in a silly crow mask. But as soon as she steps into the ring, holy fuck she is just Harley Saito in a silly mask because she is immediately kicking the shit out of people. Futagami and Midori control early on with some basic ground stuff but soon Kazama and Karula start potatoeing the hell out of them. There was a moment where Kazama was kicking Midoris head like a football. This surely has to be a contender for the most violent to feature somebody in a silly crow mask. Futagami and Midori don’t stand a chance in hell but they make a nice rally at the end getting some decent nearfalls over the badass veteran team. Futagami even teased hitting a tombstone off the top but Kazama reversed it with a big headscissor in a cool spot. I really liked that when Karula did a ninja pose Midori just ran over and kicked her. That’s the spirit. Fun match all things considered.
Shinobu Kandori vs. Noriyo Tateno
Basic match, but does it really matter when they are getting great reactions by staring at each other? Traditional wrestler Kandori is not quite as exciting as shooter Kandori, but she did a solid job carrying the notoriously dull Tateno. The ending was quite great as Kandori sold the fuck out of a shoulder injury and survived Tatenos onslaught.
Eagle Sawai vs. Yasha Kurenai
Wow, I
didn’t think this would be so good. These are two of the most
unfairly scolded by joshi fans wrestlers ever and I’m a fan of
them, but they still blew me away here. First half was about as
perfectly worked as you can work an extremely simplistic big vs.
little match. Sawai would stick to her clotheslines and body charges
which she would run Kurenai over like a truck with. Kurenai was
outgunned, unable to even sweep Sawai or do much of at all. There are
a number of neat spots, such as Kurenai trying to pull off Sawais
kneepad to attack her leg, and a number of moments where Sawai just
shrugged off Kurenais attacks and it was really cool. Kurenai would
try to taunt and hit a throat chop but was met with even more brute
force. Kurenais Ogawa-like eye poke actually slowing down Sawai
briefly was really cool. Still Kurenai couldn’t do much against
Sawai, until Kurenai got her staff and hit Sawai in the shoulder in a
very well timed moment. After that it was a bunch of really great
Kurenai armwork. Kurenais arm locks and attacks came across as really scrappy which makes sense since she's basically a rowdy street brawler, not a slick shooter. The sequence where Kurenai kept ducking Sawais
clotheslines until she got caught in the face was outstanding. The
rest of the match was built around Sawai trying to reestablish
herself as a monster while selling that armwork for every bit it was
worth. The character moments and especially the charisma of Kurenai
were great, as when she had decimated Sawai to the point Sawai had to
roll outside the ring which is Kurenais domain it really felt like a
big moment and Kurenai accentuated it perfectly when she grabbed her
staff and looked ready to move in for the kill. The simplicity was
great and made this feel like a Tenryu or Choshu match, especially
the bit where Kurenai kept landing running boots to Sawais shoulder
while Sawai seemed to be falling apart. The last couple minutes saw
both of them rolling out all their moves with some extremely well
timed hope spots for Kurenai. Sawai being a monster was always a
factor but I really liked how something like Kurenai kicking out of a
move seemed to break her confidence. Perhaps the ending run was a bit
standard but fuck it when you have this great of a buildup I don’t
really care. Awesome match which was about as sensibly worked as you
will ever see a 90s big match from a joshi promotion. Great story told in beautiful way, plenty of cool character work, whiplash-inducing hard moves
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