Footage mining: Actwres GirlZ

Tae Honma vs Miyuki Takase, AWG 11/3/2019

Straight-forward awesome match. Begins strong with solid lockups and some slick matwork. The match soon turns into an ARSION-like affair as Tae Honma is an armbar fiend and was constantly trying to snap Takases arm off. Honmas laser focus and variety of ways to lock in shoulder popping joint locks is really entertaining, and Takase constantly cutting her off with gritty lariats to the throat was great. Takase continueing to crowbar Honma throughout the match while selling the damage to her shoulders felt like something out of a grittier Choshu match. Even the chest forearms, which I’m not a huge fan of, where pretty vicious and hard hitting here. I was surprised at the greatness of Honmas selling too as she really sold being almost choked out by a modified triangle choke very well, and then taking more shots to the windpipe from Takases lariat. Second half of the match had quite a bit of unexpected brutality such as a vicious boot from Honma, and Honma cycling in on Takase to destroy her shoulders and face with dropkicks out of a Santo/Casas match. The insane headbutt was by far the highlight. I’ve seen my fair share of gritty headbutts in Japanese matches by now, this one stood out because it came completely out of nowhere. Takases sleeper attempts becoming ineffective due to her arms being shot was another neat detail. There is one kinda weak sling blade from Takase and they do overindulge a bit with nearfalls, though Honmas counters were great and Takase never let up with those lariats. Real sleeper great match, by far one of the best joshi matches of the decade if you ask me.

 Mari vs Yumiko Hotta, AWG 3/28/2019

This was something to remind you how magical pro wrestling can be. 2019 Hotta is really over the hill, but still has insane levels of aura, and she does actually wrestle in this. She has that Johnny Valentine-feeling where even a basic headlock or half crab from her feel like she’s brutalizing the other person. Hotta is basically like a wall of concrete in this. Mari struggles to do anything at all to her, and that makes this really compelling. Mari is still a ninja at this stage, but she does look like a great wrestler already. Really does a great job putting over the struggle of facing the ultra-tough veteran, and hitting lots of great kicks, which most importantly were all insanely well timed. It starts like a pretty fun match but the way Mari kept chopping away at Hotta and selling even mundane submissions like a surfboard stretch as an insane struggle it really starts to feel like a special match. Hottas performance here felt like a combination of nearly immobile Tenryu and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, she still kicks hard as hell but is vulnerable due to being so shot, and really tears into Mari with submissions. Then you have Mari getting her nose busted and the finish which felt legit as hell. Really starkly different match from pretty much anything else in the modern wrestling landscape, and to see it in a promotion like AWG is downright insane. Best post-prime Hotta match I’ve seen by a mile and Maris great performance was a big part of it.

 

Mari & Yumiko Hotta vs Tae Honma & Hikari Shimizu, AWG 4/7/2019

This was another winner. Hotta is so immobile and lethargic that conventional wrestling becomes impossible, so all her interactions become interesting by default. There is some really good stuff between her and Honma with Honma trying to damage her arm and Hotta snapping into armbars. I also loved Hotta nonchalantly breaking up an armbar attempt. The non-Hotta women her were working pretty hard. Shimizu is all hard kicks and she’s pretty fun. Mari was doing more athletic stuff than nowdays, lots of ninja kip ups and such that are cool mixed with also hard kicks. Honma continued to look good with her flash submissions and she does pull off a really cool finish against Mari. Seems these two never had a singles match which strikes me as a bit of a waste. Cool submission work, lots of stiff offense, grumpy old lady Hotta bonus, yeah this was pretty unique and enjoyable.

Mari vs Hikari Shimizu, AWG 3/17/2021

Impressive match that had well executed wrestling, great selling, a clear story, and they both absolutely bruised each other with brutal kicks. After some slick opening wrestling, Mari caught a Shimizu crossbody and slammed her hard in a great spot to establish the roles. It quickly turns into overdog Mari punishing Shimizu with her kicks and submissions, and Shimizu having to try to gut it out. Shimizu had multiple great comeback attempts that were extremely sharp. She is not quite as brutal as Mari, but she was kicking pretty hard too, and they both have effective straight forward offense. Mari clearly excels when she is trashing an underdog like this, and Shimizu had a few great hope spots. Really liked the struggle over a basic body slam towards the end. Leg kick battle towards the end was also quite intense. Most importantly, it was a modern Japanese big match that didn’t have anyone no-selling a suplex.

Hikari Shimizu vs Hiroyo Matsumoto, AWG 11/20/2021

Probably even better than the Mari match, which I nearly didn’t expect. This was just the 3^rd match on the card and honestly when was the last time you watched a card where match 3 out of 5 was fucking great? But this was pretty fucking great. Very similar to Shimizu vs Mari except Matsumoto is more of a big bruising monster. Matsumoto is really impressive beating the life out of Shimizu here with stiff chops and elbows and Shimizu was just as good as in the Mari match, kicking away at Matsumoto with hard kicks and selling pretty great. Just really effiecient. Once again I thought all of Shimizus comebacks/hopespots were insanely well timed and executed. Loved her desperate sleeper attempt towards the end, just trying to choke the beast out. Need more of that ‘just trying really hard to win’ energy. Matsumotos spinning back elbow was also a thing of beauty and timed just perfectly.

Yasushi Sato vs Konaka, AWG 6/24/2018

Yes, these two are also Actwres Girlz! It’s pretty cool that one of the greatest match ups in all of Japanese wrestling ever just so happened at a random joshi card. This was them pretty much doing the Velocity version of their match – very technically sound, but with a few jokes thrown in and made palatable for a more casual audience. They still mixed in lots of great stuff that you won’t see from any other two wrestlers. There’s this little sequence with both of them balancing on their heads and foot-wrestling which was pretty insane. Konaka does some great sleeper hold work, and Sato hits this hammerlock Russian legsweep that was just a thing of beauty. Sato busts out his big springboard dive which I always love, and even a perfect looking Victory Roll. Konaka has a really nifty counter to Satos attempted gutwrench. Really cool to watch. I still want to see their Ironman match, dammit.

Assorted Ice Ribbon

 

Kiku vs Tsukasa Fujimoto, Ice Ribbon 4/12/2022

I liked Kiku in the one match I’ve seen of her, and I know Tsukasa is a pretty respectable wrestler, so I decided to check this out. This is at the beginning of Kikus career so she is still taking rookie punishment, i.e. 5 dropkicks from Kiku can’t knock Tsukasa down and so on. However just when she looks hopeless Kiku is able to hit a surprise body slam, allowing her to go for her signature submission, which Tsukusa resists against with all her might. Kiku In a smart move drags Tsukasa to the floor and locks in a figure 4, which Tsukasa sells as actually damaging. This sets up the surprisingly intense second half with both of them slapping the shit out of each other and hitting some hard kicks. Basic stuff but very well done.

Asahi vs Tae Honma, Ice Ribbon 6/11/2022

Pretty different type of match for Ice Ribbon. No comedy or time wasting, instead they grappled and stubbornly went for the armbar. Asahi in particular had lots of slick ways to tie up her opponent and try to bend her arm out of the shoulder, though Honma does also look good. Some really well timed flash submissions and roll ups here, which is kind of the best case scenario for an Ice Ribbon match. There was also a great struggle over a Tiger Suplex at one point. Won’t make you forget ARSION, but it’s a fine unique piece of pro wrestling.

Chon Shiryu vs Kiku, Ice Ribbon 5/6/2023

Another great little match from Chon Shiryu, what are the odds? The man just keeps on delivering every chance he gets. This is pretty rad 7 minute match. It’s almost all Shiryu, though Kiku is cool too. Kiku now has a frying pan that she hits people with for the obligatory once-per-match comedy spot (god I hate Japan sometimes), but Shiryu turns that frying pan against her, hitting Kiku spine-first with the frying pan against the apron in an actually painful looking spot. I really buy that a kung fu master would know how to use a frying pan to hurt someone in unique ways. Shiryu then does a real workmans job working over Kikus spine with nasty elbows and a cool springboard stomp. Shiryu just keeps doing cool shit. Kiku only has two brief comebacks, although they are fun. Finish is fucking great as Kiku get Shiryu down and desperately goes for her signature submission but Shiryu pulls her over, locking in a submission of his own for the tap.

Asuka Fujitaki vs YuuRI, Ice Ribbon 6/8/2024

Really fun 8 minute match that had a lot of good stuff packed into it. Fujitaki is a thickly built girl, who has both fun ways to crash into her opponent as well as some skill. Fujitaki displays some cool submissions, and YuuRI tries to beat her in ratty ways. YuuRI actually has some pretty fun well timed kicks of her own. Apparently Fujitaki has gone under several different names notably as Grizzly Fujitaki and now Asuka Goda, I should probably watch more of her because this was cracking.

Asahi vs Saori Anou, Ice Ribbon 12/31/2022

Really good stuff here, no doubt. Starts really nice with an intense lock up. They move through some actually impressive slick sequences with some cool bridging spots. Asahi eventually gets Anou in an armbar which Anou sells as a big deal and Asahi takes control working over Anous arm. Really nice control segment with well done attempted comebacks and cutoffs. The build from Asahi being firmly in control to the match slipping away from her was really good I thought, as such I didn’t even have a huge problem with her no selling because it gave the sense that she was desperate to maintain control. It was a bit iffy when they did the chest forearms but then Asahi did these cool double handed blows to Anous face and Anou retaliated with a thudding enzuigiri of her own. Last couple minutes actually felt gritty due to Asahi trying her damndest to snap Anous arm. There is some sloppiness and they do get carried away with an assload of nearfalls but that’s joshi sometimes, the build and substance here were a lot better than your typical joshi movesfest though. Thought Asahi looked quite good here, she put some real heft into her forearms and the arm attacks were cool, I wonder what she’s been up t- oh, apparently she died in an accident not long after this. Bummer to say the least.