[1997-08-20-AJW] Kyoko Inoue vs Yumiko Hotta

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Hotta looks like a different wrestler with longer hair. Pretty good match, but again, it's the same people having the same matches. Hotta relentlessly returns to the cross armbreaker until it finally does the job and gives her the win.

[FLIK]

but again, it's the same people having the same matches.

Heh, guess you'll also be happy to know this was Kyoko's farewell to the company too. She anounced it earlier in the night kinda fucking over the surprise of Hotta winning the 3WA title here....

[soup23]

Hotta's arm work here looked well especially the armbreaker from the top rope. It really felt like she had to lock it on at the end in order for it to be successful. Not a bad swan song at this point for Kyoko leaving the company and it feels like AJW resetting with Kong and her leaving.

[PeteF3]

Pretty decent action from what we see. I could give much of a shit about Hotta, but her hard-ass submission style does make for a nice contrast with Kyoko's down the stretch. And it's refreshing to see a big joshi match built around submissions. That said, the actual finish is REALLY, eye-rollingly contrived as Kyoko does this bizarre method of attempting a pin that's never been done and serves no purpose except for her to get pulled into a cross armbreaker.

[Zenjo]

After 12 years of blood, sweat, tears and near misses the eternal bridesmaid finally wins the big one. It can't have felt as sweet with the company crumbling around her. I can't begrudge Hotta a WWWA title reign, though 3 of them was too many.

 

There was some clipping again on the TV taping, I'm not sure how much. This did have excitement with the high probability of the title changing hands. Technically it wasn't that good however. It's not recommended supplemental viewing. Hotta was sloppy and her offence had become too shoot style oriented. It took me back to the final days of Chigusa in AJW 1989 where she was working a style that wasn't compatible with the rest of the roster. Here Yumiko just did hard kicks and submissions to weaken Kyoko's arm and leg. She legitimately couldn't ascend the ropes at one juncture because of leg damage. Hotta managed to kick out of the Niagara Driver and secured the win with a Jujigatame. Kyoko departed the scene, but would return to the title picture down the line.

[G. Badger]

They told an excellent story. Kyoko has her usual power & high energy moves where Hotta is all about her kicks and submissions. You' ve seen this match up but Kyoko really sells the hell outta everything. It may be her best sell job that I can remember. She is selling everything that hurts- arm, legs, back. And Hotta is just vicious but not in a sadistic way. Now she is focused and measured in her strikes. It reminded me of Hashimoto to an extent. Clocking in around 15 minutes, this was the perfect amount of time for Kyoko & Hotta. There's no filler - this is all quality wrestling. And all that put together, this is a great title fight. Shoot, it's probably a near classic.

I was able to see the full match and maybe that's why I have a more favorable opinion. Or I think the year book format may not be the optimal way to watch wrestling. It seems like a recipe for burn out. That's hindsight obviously.

This actually doesn't look to be Kyoko's final match as an AJW wrestler. She and Toyota fight LCO on 08/22/97. She comes back in '98 representing her NEO promotion.