Ran Yu Yu vs. Misae Genki, JWP 12/9/2001
This… this was absolutely awesome. I was notoriously down on their big encounter in 2000, but this… this was a whole world better. Basically they got everything right that the 2000 match got wrong, and on top of that they were downright evil to each other. Just a vicious hard hitting match with blindingly awesome transitions and intense struggle that was on the level of the best 90s NJ junior matches. Yu Yu is so, so good, she has style and grace, and she hits like a tank. And Genki is a big old beast. Early going was basic but really great fighting it out, with Yu Yu trying to ground Genki and zone in on her arm, and Genki hitting back really hard. Both were already brutalizing each other here, Yu Yu caught Genki with a sick looking thai knee and kept slapping her head on the ground, Genki had big thudding boots and a moment where she just wasted Yu Yu with a flurry of hard palm strikes. Even the crowd brawling felt unusually hate filled, there was another nasty knee to the face from Yu Yu here. I am used to Genki being kind of a no selling douche so her paying subtle tribute to Yu Yus arm work wearing her out was a nice touch. The transitions they busted out were great and organic, with each exchange feeling like a fight. There were a number of absolutely fantastic moments, some that stood out were Genki dragging Yu Yu over the rope to strangle her, something that often feels like filler in matches but felt like a murder attempt here and it set up one of the most devastating elbow drops I’ve ever seen. I also loved Genki busting out an awesome chokeslam counter, and her punching Yu Yu in the back of the head to break out of Yu Yus armbar felt straight out of FUTEN. I loved Yu Yu working her way back into the match after Genki had knocked her silly, first trying to slip into submissions or roll ups before she found the strength to swing back and try to KO the monster. Finishing run was amazing as well full of great desperation counters and Yu Yu trying to knock Genkis head off with her elbows. Tremendous, tremendous match full of fight and grit and fantastic wresting, they hit it out the park and they weren’t even the main event.
Ran Yu Yu vs. Carlos Amano, JWP 9/10/2001
I love both these two workers, how on earth did the fact they had TWO full length taped singles matches in 2001 elude me so long?? This was an excellent contest and pretty different from your typical joshi match. The first 12 or so minutes were almost all submissions and groundwork. There were a number of moments where they visibly slowed down to come up with some intricate counters and it was really cool. Amano tried to zone in on Yu Yu’s arm/shoulder but Yu Yu pushed back by almost ripping Amanos leg out with some spinny leglocks of her own. When they stood up they clocked each other with some super hard strikes. Yu Yus turnbuckle enzuigiri and that weird sternum elbow she throws have to be among the best strikes any wrestler has ever had. Amano wasn’t the headbutt machine yet, but her flying clotheslines and spinning elbows land really snug, and both these two time their stuff so well that you never know when their hits are coming. Also Yu Yus diving knee drops are sick. Finish was pretty technical and cool to see in a joshi match, just great stuff overall.
Ran Yu Yu vs. Carlos Amano, JWP 12/18/2001
Not as good as 9/10 match, the matwork wasn’t as good and there was an annoying part where they both started no-selling suplexes. Aside from that this had some excellent standing exchanges, awesome counters and a brilliant finish so I don’t want to call it a miss. I mean just something like Ran Yu Yu catching Amanos flying armbar and turning it into a torture rack is so impossibly cool. Check it out if you are a fan of these two.
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