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[1996-03-31-AJW-Wrestling Queendom] Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue


Loss

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  • 3 weeks later...

Typically good, high-energy match between these two, and another strong title defense for Toyota. I think the wrestling style these two have is so similar that it keeps the matches from hitting the next level sometimes, though. I much prefer Toyota opposite someone like Kong, Nakano, Sakegawa, etc.

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  • 1 month later...

Kyoko and Toyota have "their" match. Some are better than others, but they're all generally similar. I preferred this to their December one, but I think their 8/94 match is their best pure sprint (even with the botched finish) and their 60:00 is also essential viewing. It's of a certain level by proxy, but as much a fan as I am of them as a pairing (over Toyota/Yamada, personally) this isn't something I'd nominate for MOTYC.

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I really liked this and would say it's a MOTYC. Toyota is the discovery of the set for me. I also really liked Inoue's springboard elbow and the Shelton Benjamin spots were great. I don't know what was with the dancing by Toyota early on?

Without having seen the match, I'm going to guess that it was to mimic Kyoko's dancing.
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  • 2 years later...

I'm not planning to do the 1996 yearbook for a while yet but have been sporadically rewatching some AJW from that year. I used to be under the impression that the years 91 & 96 were of a similar standard for AJW either side of the 92-95 golden era. Having viewed all the matches from 91 I was pleasantly surprised how well most things held up. The promotion was fresh, exciting and going places. Fast forward to 1996 and it's been a very different tale.

 

Queendom was the biggest card of the year for the company, and it's hard to see how it could have been much worse from a match quality perspective. The only good thing about the show was Sakie Hasegawa's retirement ceremony. Hotta in a watchable shoot was the next best thing. None of the matches delivered, including this main event which really needed to save the show but didn't. It lacked intensity and had no big match feel. They started off with the giant swing and the rolling cradle which was just about the worst thing they could have done to put over the importance of the occasion. The rest was uninspired with some execution problems.

 

3 months into the year and Zenjo had now permanently lost Bull Nakano, Akira Hokuto and Sakie Hasegawa. A huge blow for the roster. Most of the remaining veterans were looking uninspired and just going through the motions, and the booking was every bit as lacklustre. They started to push the younger wrestlers but there was such a gulf between the girls who debuted in the 90's compared with the 80's that they couldn't represent any credible threat. Hopefully things will pick up a bit in the second half of the year.

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  • 1 year later...

I know of joshi basically of what's on the Yearbooks, but Zenjo's analysis of the state of AJW rings true. People are retiring or leaving left and right, and it seems like the brutal style is starting to catch up with them. Not to mention the hot interpromotional matches seem to be done with (though I see from the results that there's a big LCO vs. JWP match). This is an enjoyable bout, but the feeling of "now what?" for the promotion is palpable--other than rematches with Kong, who else that's native to the promotion is there to challenge Toyota? And incidentally I really don't like how Toyota's JOCS has become just another move.

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  • 1 month later...

Agree that this has a now what vibe and may not have been the best match to deliver for the biggest show of the year, but this was a really good match that still rang like the AJW glory days of the early 90's for portions of it. Amazing that we go from this to 2 years from now and 1 AJW match on the whole yearbook. Kyoko always gives great effort and it showed here. Toyota was less reckless than usual at times too. ***1/2

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  • 2 years later...

Good match that didn't really click with me. The case for a lot of Joshi matches of this and the 99 Yearbooks. Long-term I want to finish 97 and 98 and then work my way back up starting from 1990 -- if this ever gets accomplished, I wonder how I'll feel about seeing the whole of the 90s Joshi 'boom' in context. But this just wasn't my style, and though I can recognize it was a perfectly good match without too much excess, I didn't really enjoy it all that much.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1996-03-31-AJW-Wrestling Queendom] Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue

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