[1992-08-15-AJW-Mid Summer Typhoon] Akira Hokuto & Toshiyo Yamada vs Bull Nakano & Aja Kong

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

- (Fuji TV Tag Tournament FINAL) Bull Nakano & Aja Kong vs Toshiyo Yamada & Akira Hokuto

A match they've been building up to heavily over the past few shows. It's enemies now friends Aja & Bull vs friends or atleast people who were on friendly enough terms now enemies Hokuto & Yamada. They waste no time selling you on this story in case you didn't know going in as Hokuto & Yamada get in a fight before the match even starts during pre match interviews. Meanwhile Aja & Bull are on the same page and act all stoic and scary in the back or atleast try to. In a funny moment you can actually see Aja half crack a smile while trying to mean mug the camera. Aja & Bull get straight to it as the match starts, they both bust out with Aja's sig palm strikes and follow it up with a bunch more double teams. Yamada gets mauled for a while only managing to lightly fight back. She gets in a small cradle which Aja counters by biting her in the stomach, yup, not going to be a good night for her tonight. Hokuto comes in and fares little better against the 2 monsters so she decides to grab a weapon to even things up a bit because really, when you're fighting Aja Kong & Bull Nakano at the same time it's only fair that you should be allowed to use a kendo stick or 2 or a gun, either or. Goody goody Yamada objects to this plan and gets in an argument with her partner, telling her to knock it off. Yamada hops back in and is like "I got this" and wails away with some quite stiff leg kicks on Bull, actually managing to get her down and follow it up with a few submission attempts. Hokuto again comes in and again Bull & Aja kick her butt so again she goes for the Kendo stick with Yamada trying to stop her, this time leading to a brawl between the tag partners. Aja & Bull take advantage and crush the pair with dives as things break down into a chaotic arena brawl. Hokuto eats a piledriver through the announcers table in a highlight. Back inside more fighting between Hokuto & Yamada leads to Aja cracking them both with trash can shots. Little later Yamada's had enough of this shit and short arms Hokuto on the tag, refusing to get in making Hokuto fight it alone for a bit. She actually manages to drop Bull with the NLB but it's not enough to win. Yamada finally comes back in only with no tag as aparently the ref decideds "fuck it, go ahead anyways kid" and doesn't make her leave the ring. She cleans house and Hokuto actually helps her out and it looks like they may finally be working things out but that doesn't last long, Yamada to accidently hit her with the diving enzugiri. Bull & Aja then toss Yamada aside and follow up on Hokuto, Bull hits her guiloteen leg drop and then tells Aja to go up top and HOLY SHIT, she hits a flying leg drop of her own and yeah, no one is getting up from that. Gigantic celebration post match with hugs and smiles all around as the crowd goes ape shit. Once she regains conciousness Hokuto goes after Yamada one more time and they brawl to the back at which poing Aja gets on the mic and says I believe "hey you 2, stop fucking up our victory party" and then the celebration continues. Aja & Bull congragulate each other for a job well, declare they will dominate over the entire tag division now and agree to be bffs for life. Course, Aja also reminds Bull she's coming for her 3WA title too but Bull just smiles and is like "Nawwwwwwww, don't think so". Amazing match, great wrestling, great story. AJW really was one of the best booked promotions in the world at this time.

[MJH]

Haven't got much to add; great match.

 

That said, I'd question the booking of Bull/Aja teaming before their blow off. Maybe they should've done the switch in April, Dream Rush always felt less of a moment to me than it should've been (though coming after Bison's retirement was strangely synchronistic[?]).

[FLIK]

. Maybe they should've done the switch in April, Dream Rush always felt less of a moment to me than it should've been (though coming after Bison's retirement was strangely synchronistic[?])

Naw, gotta disagree. Not that switching it in April wouldn't have worked but looking back in hindsight it really came at the perfect moment. I dunno how to really put it properly but for me, everything about the timing of Dream Rush just felt right. That it came after they'd squashed the beef just helped things feel like more of a natural passing of the torch.

[jdw]

Last time I watched the Dream Rush title change, I really loved it and it really felt "right". Bull's epic, long title reign brought to a close by her top rival. Big show, with the company about to transition into major interpromotional storylines. It's as if the Bull Era closes, and a new Queen takes the top spot for the new era. In turn, Aja would effectively be on top for the entire interpromotional era, with Dynamite's win over her the last highpoint while Toyota's win over Dynamite being a sort of anti-climactic close. Timing... felt really right.

 

Constrast would be Kawada-Misawa, which was probably two years too late.

 

John

[MJH]

April would've been too seen, I was throwing a thought at the wall, but... I'm still not sold on Aja/Bull being as big as it could've been. When's the last time you saw such a big match in any company be booked second from top? I still really like it, but it's as if that era had already ended, and the switch is a month or two late for me. Maybe they could've done it late September/early October? I don't know. But then you also have Hokuto/Kyoko hitting a home run before them and the main event being basically a World Series winning Grand Slam. I don't see too many people coming out of that show with Bull/Aja being the first thing on their mind/lips after that.

[FLIK]

I'm still not sold on Aja/Bull being as big as it could've been. When's the last time you saw such a big match in any company be booked second from top? I still really like it, but it's as if that era had already ended, and the switch is a month or two late for me. Maybe they could've done it late September/early October? I don't know. But then you also have Hokuto/Kyoko hitting a home run before them and the main event being basically a World Series winning Grand Slam.

Eh, match placement doesn't matter that much, I mean yeah if it was put randomly mid show or opener or something like that maybe but otherwise no. So long as it's treated as something important going into and during the show and it delievers like it's billed, something else coming after it won't hurt it at all.

 

Kyoko/Hokuto from the same show you brought up was only the 4th match on the show and really, it was great but not THAT great, in the grand scheme of things, just a match, Bull/Aja was for sure a bigger deal coming out of the show. Hokuto/Kandori I was 2nd from the top at the 1st Dreamslam, Kudo/Aja 3WA singles and the OZ/Kansai vs Toyota/Yamada 3WA tag blow off took a backseat to Hokuto/Kandori II at the big December 93 show. When people talk about Big Egg in 94 it's rarely the main event they remember off that show. Kansai/Aja title change in 95 was 2nd from the top. Uhhh...pulling more random shit out my ass, Rock/Hogan 3rd from the top at Mania 18, Ric Flair retirement match vs Michaels 5TH from the top at Mania 24.

 

Anyways, yeah, point being if something's great and or special it doesn't matter if it's not the main event.

Dream Rush was the biggest show the company had ever tried to run up to that point. If Aja/Bull mained some other random show earlier in the year would it really have been more fondly remembered then it is? Yeah they'd started the interpromotional era a few months earlier but this was the first show whear it all really came together with the 3 other groups, FMW, LLPW & JWP all being in the house at the same time. The moment whear it went from, OK, we're doing a few interpromotional matches to full on World War. Felt like the right place to put the nail in the coffin of the previous era. And slowly fading from one into the other works better then having to do it abruptly and start fresh.

[Loss]

Hell of a match with quite a bit going on. Really well booked in that it furthered two big feuds. Hokuto and Yamada's infighting ends up being their demise. The duel guillotine legdrops to finish were nice. Aja and Bull tease their continued rivalry after the match too, which is great fun.

[Tim Evans]

Really liked the story of this match with the feuding partners and Bull/Aja taking advantage. Hokuto takes a beating with those clotheslines while she's on the top rope. It's a wonder she didn't get concussed hitting the apron like that. One thing I never got is why Aja was allowed to use weapons without getting Dq'd? Was there a no DQ rule just for her? Hokuto did it too.

[MJH]

Weapons are allowed at the referee's discretion, ie; not to excessive use. Bull would use her nunchaku too, many guys/girls might use a chair, etc...

[FLIK]

Yeah, with Joshi it's more of a moral code then a hard rule. You had to go REALLY over the top to get a full DQ.

 

Also, depending on the ref, while you wouldn't get DQ'd for weapon use, you most often wouldn't be allowed to win with it either. Like you couldn't hit someone with a chair and then pin them, the ref wouldn't count until you did a proper leagal move first.

[Zenjo]

Pointless tag tournament. A very strange contest as the Hokuto/Yamada team were having philosophical issues. Yamada wanted to wrestle straight up, Hokuto wanted to cheat. It's no surprise they were beaten with conviction. More about building the two singles feud than having a strong match, which was unusual for AJW.

[WingedEagle]

Flik didn't leave much to cover. I absolutely loved this, much moreso than the hair match later that night. Bull & Aja plays monsters perfectly, while Yamada & Hokuto take a thorough beating while staying determined and never laying down. Hokuto's brawling was just awesome. So much to love here, there's really no good place to start or stop identifying it all.

 

You have to question the booking a bit because given the beating she takes here I don't know anyone can give her a chance to win the hair match later. Kong & Bull bust out a couple dives that put heavyweights around the world to shame. Just such great storytelling with different roles on the Yamada/Hokuto team, the big vs. small element, high spots, brawling and a killer finish -- everything you could ask for.

 

Was there ever a big Hokuto/Yamada match coming out of this?

 

****1/2

[PeteF3]

Tag partners in conflict, again. Vince Russo really WAS vacationing in Japan this week. This is definitely much more multi-layered than the W*ING match that told an eerily similar story, and Aja finishing it with Bull's big move was a clever icing on the cake. And seeing Aja and Bull all smily and giggly afterward was fun. Excellent work with a story that came across well to native and foreign viewers alike, which is not always easy to do--contrast to a number of lucha trios matches that had me completely lost.

[garretta]

Bull and Aja are quite the tag team, just as I expected. They don't have their teamwork quite down yet, but when you're as individually powerful as these two, you can dominate even while you're learning how to work together. Even without their differences, it would have been difficult for Hokuto and Yamada to win; when they fought with each other like they did, it was a wonder that they survived.

 

As violent as this match was, I'm surprised that they booked Yamada to do it the same night as her hair match with Toyota. If that wasn't bad enough, she took the lion's share of the punishment, plus she and Hokuto brawled to the back after the match. I know from previewing the disc that the hair match from the beginning of the segment to the end was about a half hour, so if there's seven or eight minutes taken up with the pre- and postmatch festivities, that still leaves a highly emotional twenty-two minute bout with her best friend and tag team partner. I'll be interested to see how on earth she pulls it off.

 

Thanks for the above discussion of weapon use in AJW. I'll have to keep that in mind when watching future bouts.

 

I know these girls don't bother to sell much as a rule, but Yamada taking what looked like a nightstick shot in the throat on the floor, then running back to the ring full speed to break up a pin attempt completely boggles my mind. She never even registered pain that I could tell. House style or not, that was one of the most ridiculous sequences I've seen yet in wrestling, and that's saying a mouthful.

[Tim Cooke]

AJW ran two shows that day. A noon show and an 8 pm show. So that's why Yamada was able to work both matches at a high level

[garretta]

Thanks for the info, Tim. Even so, that must have been one long, hard day!

[dawho5]

Great tag match with a bunch of different stories going on.  Yamada's disgust with the partner's tactics ends up hurting her team more than anything else and they lose decisively.