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[1994-01-24-AJW] Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (2/3 falls)


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  • 3 weeks later...

OK, getting things started by copying over what I wrote on DVDVR from when I last watched this:

 

I haven't been disappointed by a match in a long time.

 

Let me qualify that.

 

The first fall is good. LCO work a nice control segment on Toyota's back, they build to a few near falls, and Toyota takes it home. LCO are "outclassed" and change it up. The second fall is damn fucking near perfect. LCO bring more of their normal heel schtick (though stop short of brawling), the action builds great, Mita ends up pulling a DVB out of the blue on Toyota and the crowd lose their minds. Shimoda holds off Yamada for all she's worth, and a second DVB evens the falls. Up until now the match is awesome, and I'm already getting the first line in my head, y'know, "a year to the day after Hokuto slapped them backstage, Hokuto's watching from the announce table as Mita and Shimoda are working their first great match without her..."

 

But then the third fall... LCO come out of the blocks amped up. Mita kills Toyota with a couple of piledrivers on the floor whilst Shimoda assaults Yamada with chairs. They toss Toyota back inside, Toyota's done for, Yamada's out of the picture, and they give Manami their big piggyback drop/splash combo... and the crowd don't give a shit about what should be the biggest near fall of the match by far. I really don't get it. I mean, if LCO were going to win (unlikely), it wasn't going to be by getting two straight falls in the span of two minutes, but the selling and action and drama was right there and the crowd just didn't bite. And unfortunately, it seems to throw them. Mita seems to go "OK, then" and scales the work back down to the level of the first fall. Shimoda goes on to blow a few spots, and the five minutes after that phantom near fall are as close to a disaster as they were going to have. They do work things back up, and the final few minutes are good, but flat compared to the final few minutes of the second fall. Shame.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was trying not to be too colored by MJH's thoughts, but I couldn't help it, because I largely agreed with him.

 

All in all, this was a very good match. But there are moments where it's great, and they can't really sustain it. So I agree that this is frustrating because it deserved to be better than it ended up being. But there are too many average or blah moments in between the high points.

 

It was tough for me to pay attention to everything going on in the first fall. I just couldn't connect to it. At this point, with a Toyota tag, I know the action level is a given -- and this is no exception, it's world class stuff -- so I'm looking for things that make it stand out in other ways. In this case, aside from some brief moments like Mita biting Toyota's hand, there just wasn't much substance beyond the flash.

 

The second fall was a great match on its own. The main reason it's better is that the LCO gets more aggressive and is awesome at displaying a real mean streak.

 

The third fall was largely good, but had a few moments where they lost the crowd. By the end, they had them back, but they took a few detours along the way.

 

Also, Shimoda is a better wrestler than Mita, but Mita has more charisma and a better idea of how to be a bitch, so they complement each other well.

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Also, Shimoda is a better wrestler than Mita, but Mita has more charisma and a better idea of how to be a bitch, so they complement each other well.

Heh, I think you may be the first person in history to lable them that way. Usually it's the other way around with most thinking Shimoda is the charasmatic one and Mita being the workhorse.

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It's possible I have them confused. I had trouble figuring out who was who.

Shimoda is the really hot one. Mita is the bigger one with a funny eye.

 

I always thought as far as charisma goes, they were pretty equal. Workwise, Mita was better in the early years, and Shimoda was the best at least from 97. I'm not sure when the balance shifted toward Mima. Mima being hotter made her the ultimate crazy bitch during the blood-thirsty reign of 97 though.

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Shimoda is the really hot one. Mita is the bigger one with a funny eye.

It's funny, I always thought Mita was hotter when they were younger but Shimoda aged better and was hotter when she got older.

 

I always thought as far as charisma goes, they were pretty equal.

Maybe early on but Shimoda def developed the bigger personality by the late 90's early 00's. Mita got more reserved/quiet over time.

 

Workwise, Mita was better in the early years, and Shimoda was the best at least from 97. I'm not sure when the balance shifted toward Mima. Mima being hotter made her the ultimate crazy bitch during the blood-thirsty reign of 97 though.

I think it was because they went full on super heel in 97 which they'd never been up to that point and that style favors Shimoda more. Still, for their overall career i'll still slot Mita ahead, it's especially noticable if you look at their singles work apart from each other. Like i've seen some great Shimoda singles but never anything as good as say Mita vs Ito in 01

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  • 4 weeks later...

This is a good match with a tremendous second fall. The third fall dragged for me as well. Overall, very good match but it could have been much better. It was really getting great for me and the crowd didn't budge on that near fall in the third. Too bad I guess.

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I enjoyed the third fall better than you guys. They definitely meandered after the nearfall and seemed rattled but they built up the actual finish well. I thought Toyota was especially spot on in this match. First fall had nice slow build, Second fall really was fabulous, and third fall had satisfying finish. This match fell just below great status.

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  • 1 year later...

Mita was the hotter one, at least in my view. And the better worker--in fact, other than her big space-woman plancha to the floor, I'm honestly struggling to think of a single significant contribution Shimoda made to the match. Oh, she was perfectly fine mechanically, and kept up with everyone else which is a feat on its own. But basically she was a hotter, slightly more charismatic Suzuka Minami. Mita was better if only because she worked more and the Death Valley Bomb was a move that was really over and built to well in the 2nd fall. When she gets Toyota up in the fireman's carry, Toyota and the crowd all freak out--and when she hits it, Toyota is completely finished even as Mita is spent as well and has to hit another one to keep her down. LCO going nuts in the second fall when their backs were against the wall was definitely the highlight, and their thorough demolition of the champs to equalize showed them as an elite team despite all the misgivings that I've stated. Sadly the third fall can't quite measure up--after killing Toyota dead with the DVB after multiple teases, I was disappointed that the move played no role at all in the 3rd fall. Mita even gets Toyota up for it but does an airplane spin instead, which is a puzzling move choice to say the least.

 

This was really good, but heading into the 3rd fall I had this pegged as a MOTYC and I don't think it's going to be there. It felt like that FMW match at DreamSlam--a showcase for the tag champs to carry a game but inferior team to something approaching greatness, rather than two great teams putting on a show together. It's possible that outside of Kansai & Oz there simply aren't any other teams who compare to Toyota & Yamada.

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  • 8 months later...

This wasn't as bad as I was expecting based on some of the initial comments. The problem with it wasn't the length as such, but the pressing need for each fall to seem important. I would have ended the second fall several beats earlier to prevent the burnout people experienced in the final stanza. After such a tremendous struggle from Mita to win the fall, it's energy sapping to turn around and wrestle another fall. A shorter second fall gives you some breathing room and lets you add more of that struggle to the deciding fall instead of blowing it on the equalizing fall. The third fall never quite matched the drama of Mita trying to level the scores so there was an imbalance there. But there weren't any glaring execution problems and I thought the pacing was excellent for such a long match. I watched the match while listening to a record, which is a new habit of mine that creates an artificial rhythm to the matches but prevents me from getting bored. I was blissfully oblivious to whether they lost the crowd and happy that they worked at a decent clip.

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  • 10 months later...

There's some really good analysis and discussion here. On the Mita vs Shimoda issue I'd have said Shimoda was my favourite in the past, but the balance has shifted over time. Either way it's a close run thing. Their team chemistry works so well because they were always near enough equals without being the same. The notion that tag teams need to look and wrestle exactly the same is clueless. Mechanically Mita was better. Shimoda wasn't quite as naturally talented as her contemporaries and struggled to keep up in her first few years. Fortunately they stuck with her, (remember someone as good as Kudo got kicked to the kerb) and Mima became a great worker as well. From initial impressions Mita might seem to be the quieter personality, but she's actually got lots of character and certainly isn't quiet! One of the best screamers. Yeah you're a hardcore Joshi fan when you have screamer rankings. Then you've got Shimoda's sex appeal. Both of them are awesome heels. The way they're strong individually, yet even better as a unit. Personal mark out mania, and my favourite tag team of all time.

 

Although they didn't win, this contest was a big breakthrough for the Orientales. They made the transition from midcard to WWWA TT challengers with style. It was a generous 38m of fast paced action with very little repetition. All four women had deep movesets. Las Cachorras generally liked to control proceedings, but were up against superior foes. The first fall was good. The champions had the best of it, so it was no surprise when they got the pin. LCO needed to step up their game, and certainly did so. The crowd got right behind them in a red hot segunda. Going full length worked because 2-0 was a genuine possibility. At this juncture it was a potential MOTYC. The final fall proved too long as they slowed it down and paused for breath. They came back at the end to provide a satisfying conclusion. Excellent effort as all 4 brought the goods and left everything in the ring.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1994-01-24-AJW] Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda (2/3 falls)
  • 1 year later...

I agree with FLIK on his opinions of Mita vs Shimoda; Mita was definitely hotter, more charismatic and a better wrestler than Shimoda in the early 90's but when LCO really became the real "Oriental Bitches", that's when Shimoda really shined.

First two falls were pretty solid, but the third fall was rather strange and LCO just didn't have the offense in to make it that compelling. Crowd wasn't really buying it, but the crowd was definitely feeling in the last few minutes.  Pretty good match overall, though too long.

 

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