This is a beautiful pro wrestling match. Hokuto is still selling the effects of the match with Kandori and has her arm taped up. Yamada treats it like the neon sign it is and goes right for it, and at one point, Hokuto even has to have her arm re-taped. Hokuto's selling may be the best I've ever seen. She pulls off a LOPSIDED German suplex because she can't use one of her arms. I'm really excited about continuing to watch Hokuto in '93.

This was FUCKING GREAT. Absolutely FUCKING GREAT. Kudo wrestles like the Joshi version of Arn Anderson and systematically destroys Kong's arm. In what gets annoying in American matches, but feels cool in Japan because it doesn't happen very often, there's a ref bump, and Kudo gets a visual fall. Kudo's surprise powerbomb from the top rope into a reeaaaaalllly close call was tremendous. This also really had the feel of a world title match because of the pacing being a little slower than normal. I want to make sure I like this because it's as awesome as I think it is, and not just that it stands out because they were doing things not everyone was doing, but my instinct is to call this second to Kong/Kansai as the best Kong match of the year, and also call it a fairly high-end MOTYC, one I think I even liked better than Thunderqueen and the Dreamslam II main event. I'm not sure what the rep is for this match, but it deserves a genuine revisit and evaluation from anyone who hasn't watched it in a long time.

...

Yeah, chalk some of that instant reaction up to overexcitement over some things you don't normally see in this style being rolled out in this match. This is a great match, probably more so than I've seen it get credit for, but it's a shade below the very best matches of the year. But there are a lot of positives, and I still think this is worth a revisit.

I thought this was really, really good. There's lots to like and I think some people will find it really easy to get into. The only problem for me is not the way this match is worked, but more the amount of time it got. It should have been 10 minutes at the most. The punches and headbutts and mat wrestling are all pretty awesome, but after a while, I felt like I had seen everything they were going to do and there was no reason for the match to keep going.

This is probably a lost classic. Aside from Kudo/Toyota, it's the best Joshi match I've seen in '96, and one of the better matches on the set overall. They pace this like a classic world title match and the selling from both is phenomenal, with lots of staggering, barely hit moves, etc. It's the kinda thing that really puts over the match as a big deal. Some tremendous nearfalls and counters and a very involved crowd. I'm being vague and should review it in depth sometime, but this is awesome.

I fell asleep the first time I tried to watch this and almost skipped over it. I'm glad I didn't because it was really good.

I liked how few momentum shifts they worked into it. There's basically the "feeling out" (with a nastiness to it -- Hokuto's crazy looking "snap" piledrivers) --> Yamada taking over and working the arm --> Hokuto applying another bandage to the shoulder and taking control after the breather --> Yamada spin kicking her in the fucking teeth --> finishing stretch.

I can sometimes be taken out of joshi because the comebacks and transitions occur so regularly, but I thought this was structured and laid out really simply and I enjoyed it quite a bit as a result.

Aja Kong v Yumiko Hotta 1/24/94 belongs here, I think. Hope I'm not wrong about that match still being exceptional.

Is that the one where Aja beats the shit out of Hotta's hand and brutalizes her ? Is so, yes, amazing match.

Maybe this thread is playing into perception that everyone in Joshi wrestles exactly like Manami Toyota, but that's the exact myth we're attempting to dispel.

For most of her career, she was like a poor woman's Onita.

The Fujii vs. Yoshida match may be the greatest hybrid grappling/mma but still is a pro wrestling match ever. Puts the hype of Josh Barnett NYE 2011 match to shame.

Whilst I agree on her over-achievement, I don't buy that Kudo was better than Toyota or Yamada in 1993

but I sure can't recall any of the undercard being extraordinary.

What Joshi would really benefit from is a carefully selected (and match-ordered) comp, or something akin to Ditch's site

I like both Bull and Devil and appreciate what they were trying to do here, but it works better in theory than in practice. Really basic 70s/80s-style wrestling can be great, and they execute it well. This is a very good match. But it lacks the excitement and drama of some other Joshi of the year because it really feels behind the times. It's all about context. This would have looked better in a business downturn when the promotion was getting back to basics than in a time period when the new stuff being tried is getting over and working.

Technically, this may be the best women's match on the set, and this really is the blueprint on how to put together a great match. I just wished they'd mixed in a little of 1993, because it seems out of place.

I'm sure some will see this and have a drastically different opinion, which I can appreciate for sure. I don't want to insult this match. It's just not as exciting as I'd like 37 minutes of these two during this time to be.

...

This is really an interesting match, because it's hard to criticize something that well-worked with all these veteran touches that are so, so vacant in wrestling so, so much of the time, even among great workers. But at the same time, it's missing something I can't put my finger on. I'm really interested in reading more opinions on this because I'm conflicted. I would have raved about this on the 1996 yearbook, and here, it feels lacking. Hard to explain.

Kudo was not as flashy as the AJW wrestlers, but she didn't have to be. Her command of the basics was so far above most of the AJW group. She reminds me of a female Norio Honaga more than a female Atsushi Onita.

Let's put it this way.
Compare her with

Watch the DS 1 match with Kudo/Toyoda vs Toyota/Yamada and you can see how vastly inferior she was to Toyota and Yamada

Kudo looked bad in all of her AJW matches. She was obviously not on the same level and she looked minor league. When you are getting shown up by the midcard matches, its time to pack it up. She looked much better against AJW opponents on FMW shows since the match quality on FMW shows was lower and there weren't other women who were vastly superior.

Compare her with her 1986 Zenjo classmates - Aja, KAORU, Bison, Combat, Mika Takahashi and Cooga. I'd put her above Cooga but thats not saying much.

Compare her with the 1987 class - Toyota, Yamada, Mita, Shimoda and Sachiko Nakamura. She would be 2nd from the bottom of that list as well. Watch the DS 1 match with Kudo/Toyoda vs Toyota/Yamada and you can see how vastly inferior she was to Toyota and Yamada.

Compare her with the 1988 class - Kyoko, Takako, Yoshida. Takako would be the only one I'd go either way with at this stage of the game.

KAORU vs Combat Toyota- GAEA 2/16/96: This was during the first big angle in GAEA- where FMW and GAEA are at odds and fabulous Memphis-style invasion mayhem ensues. Combat is a lost good worker of the 90s and KAORU is wearing that Silver and Leopard print outfit you love so much and she rocks the world- bumping like a freak for Combat's Offense O' Danger and selling the knee like a champ.

Yumiko Hotta/ Manami Toyota/ Sakie Hasegawa vs. Mayumi Ozaki/ Plum Mariko/ Hikari Fukuoka- ALL JAPAN WOMEN 8/25/93: One of the great forgotten Joshi matches during the AJW vs JWP heyday. The late Plum Mariko and Sakie Hasegawa- the budding star whose career was cut short by back injury- are in this and show the depth of the rosters back in the day, since they are lowmen on the totem pole at the time but could still go with anyone in the world. Plum goes at it fullbore with a meth-amphetamine-level workrate of circa 93 Manami, takes the beating Hotta can dish and then takes the longest Locomotion Suplex from the fabulous Sakie Hasegawa. The nearfalls are molten, the workrate in astronomical and highspots are thoroughly queensized. All this plus a BARELY LEGAL OZ!!!

Hikari Fukuoka/KAORU vs Chikayo Nagashima/Toshie Uematsu- GAEA 3/8/96: KAORU and Hikari Fukuoka were a fun tagteam that should have stayed together and did something. They did beat the life out of the then rookies Toshie Uematsu and Chakayo Nagashima. The finish is suitably gnarley.

Yumiko Hotta/ Kyoko Inoue/ Takako Inoue vs. Cutie Suzuki/ Plum Mariko/ The Bolshoi Kid- AJW DREAMSLAM 2- 4/11/93: It's all fun and games until Hotta starts punting the clown. Possibly my favorite match ever involving Kyoko Inoue.

Sugar Sato/ Chikayo Nagashima vs Sonoko Kato/ Toshie Uematsu- GAEA 9/16/96: My favorite tagteam- Sato and Nagashima- have their first really good match. Toshie Uematsu and Sonoko Kato brawl like motherfuckers in this fabulous, primordial, brand new-OZ Academy vs GAEA Young Punkin ass-stomp. All four RULE it in this.

Jaguar Yokota vs Peggy Lee- ALL JAPAN WOMEN I'm assuming 1982ish: WOW's THUG when she was young(er) hangs with the best wrestler in Joshi history , just by being the fabulous old school redneck heel trhat God made her to be- whipping up on Jaguar, bumping really well and being an all round hateful little queenie. Her boots MOTHERFUCKING RULE. Jaguar REALLY MOTHERFUCKING RULES in this what with her "light years ahead of its time" moves and execution.

Megumi Kudo vs Mayumi Ozaki (Barbed Wire Match) FMW 4/18/97: Most footage I've ever been able to find of the fabulous deathmatch between Kudo and the QUEEN of the Deathmatch, Mayumi Ozaki. OZ looks so fucking hot when she is dressed to perform the Death Match. The ripped jeans, the Navy Seals t-short- RoRRROwwwwRR!

Sonoko Kato vs Meiko Satomura- GAEA 5/12/96: Finals of a rookie tournament and the first time you say, "WHOA! Who is the Meiko Satomura?"

Tomoko Kozumi vs Kanako Motoya (JWP Jr Title) - JWP 5/97: Kozumi is now Azumi Hyuga and Motoya is now Kana Mizaki of JWP. This match is so good that it gets you depressed when you think that it wasn't long before these two fell off the face of the earth in the turmoil and slow death of JWP- as opposed to having the high profile matches that matches like these would lead you to believe they could have had by now.

Meiko Satomura/ Sonoko Kato vs Tomoko Miyaguchi (now YuYu Ran)/ Saya Endo- Junior All-Star Show 8/2/97: This is a big fat batch of fun fun fun! I wish they would bring back the Junior All Star shows because you would get cool little interpromotional matches like this. God, add Miyaguchi to the "career fucked by the decline and death of JWP" heap. She ABSOLUTELY rocks in this- as she and Meiko trying to see who can being the biggest bitch in the match. Meiko is already spectacular at this point and I really love this match.

Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong- AJW BIG EGG WRESTLING UNIVERSE 11/20/94: Aja reels in the excessive tendencies and psychological shortcomings of Manami, thus allowing her to freak out all she wants with the high spots and BOY! does she. Manami takes a QUEEN-SIZED beating on the way (Ohhh, it's BIG! Manami is tough as motherfucking nails in this). Aja rocks like a hurricane- being the best monster heel that ever wrestled but taking it to the nth power in this match.

2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokoto/ Noriyo Tateno vs. Dump Matsumoto/ Crane Yu- 1984ish: Dump hadn't gone completely crazy yet so the entrance isn't like it would be two years from this point (in that she hadn't drawn a swastika on her forehead and assaulted everyone at the annoucers table. She did have the rad Nancy Spungeon punk rock bob hairstyle going at this point.) Jaguarrules like Jaguar will rule and Noriyo rocks the Mrs Brady coiffe that all the moms were sporting at the time. Dump starts stabbing early.

Megumi Kudoh/ Combat Toyota vs Manami Toyota/ Toshiyo Yamada- FMW 5/5/93: FMW used to have a rockin' little Women's division with fun angles and cool interpromotional matches. Here, the really really great tgteam of Toyota and Yamada take on the AJW ex-patriates with fabulous results. Megumi Kudo was so cool looking so hot while punching folks in the face. And this match was before Yamada ruined her knees and back and became the Masa Chono of Joshi. Combat is solid as ever. Toyota hits the greatest dropkick in the history of wrestling on Combat about four minutes in.

Yuko Kosugi/Jaguar Yokota vs Sumie Sakai/ Megumi Yabushita- Jd'- 4/26/98 : The greatest man to ever walk the face of the earth- GLENN TSUNEKAWA- hipped me to the greatness of Jd'. Kosugi was a real up-and-comer who retired shortly after starting to show some real zest. Yabushita and Sakai came in together after achieving status as legit Judo girls- so they suplex like motherfuckers. Here they are after they just came in and the godlike Jaguar carries EVERYBODY- but you can see the spark that makes Jaguar trainees so good. Sakie and Yabushita are already busting out the cool submissions even at this early stage in their careers.

Debbie Malenko vs. Terry Powers- 2/28/93 ALL JAPAN WOMEN: GODDAMN! I didn't even know I HAD this match on tape but I was scouring Quebrada Mike's Tapelist to see if it would give me any ideas for this comp and I said "HEY! I have that tape! I haven't watched it yet! JUMPING HOLY CRAP! IT'sGOT FRICKIN DEBBIE MALENKO ON IT!" Debbie Malenko is mysterious and legendary because her career was so short and taped accounts of her matches are scarce- making her sorta like a distaff grappler James Dean. Here she is against the woman who would become WWF's Ivory and it's a damn good match and it's for the All Japan title and everything. Terry Powers speaks of getting trained by Brad Rheingans. Debbie Malenko RULED he fricking WORLD. Post-match Debbie speaks some Japanese for her Peeps. Mmmmm.... Malennnkoooo........

Marine Wolves vs The Crush Gals- 2/3 falls for the WWWA Tag Titles- All Japan Women-4/27/89: The Crush Gals are Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Aska. The Marine Wolves is a 22 year old Akira Hokuto and the mysterious Suzuka Minami- who I've only seen a few times. Chigusa and the divine Lioness assume the role of elder ass-stompers with real panache- walking to the ring sullen and angry. The Marine Wolves are irrepressible scamps who torment their elders. Chigusa was still agile and nifty and Lioness is just FUCKING AWESOME in this. Notice how the psychology and the story of the match is so unlike the stuff from 92-97 AJW- as the match is based on Old School psychology of Lioness and Chigusa trying to rip Akira' arm out of the socket like Estrogen Anderson Brothers. Watching this, you'll see where Chigusa wanted the style of GAEA to develop from the start.

Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto & Shinobu Kandori- AJW WRESTLING QUEENDOM 3/27/94: This match is fucking GREAT- Hokuto and Kandori legit hate each other's guts and they get wrangled into this Pareja Increíbles. Bull Nakano was a truly great wrestler and is great in this match bumping GIGANTIC for Hokuto's fucking NASTY dangerous offense; Aja is at her stiff-as-fuck, ass-beating zenith- thus it all balances out the endless fun of Akira and Shinobu hating each other's stinking guts but still having to tag each other. In glorious Windowbox Format to truly make the "AWWWW fuck you! I hate you!" tags even more fun. Aja vs Kandori is MAGIC, DADDY!

Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Devil Masami/ Yukari Omori- AJW 12/86: The Jumping Bomb Angels- Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki - and Mimi Hagiwara were the forerunners of the hyperworkrate style to overtake Joshi by the early 90s. Omori is the demented Joan Crawford of 80s AJW and she is big and hateful in this. Devil is all younger (only 24!) and spritely in this as she hangs with the highflying Angels.

I recently watched Shinobu Kandori's WWWA title defense against Manami Toyota and was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I'd even go so far as to say that Kandori is the unsung heroine of 90s joshi. She brings an aura of violence and legitimacy to her matches the same way Brock did at Extreme Rules, albeit on a much smaller scale. I'd always taken it as an article of faith that Akira Hokuto brought Kandori up to her level in the Dreamslam match. But as I see more of each of their work, I'm increasingly convinced that Kandori was the main driver of that match.

Kandori just suffers alot from never jobbing in LLPW and from being in LLPW.

Latter especially. Early LLPW & Early JD are really the black sheeps of joshi. Lots of great stuff to be found but very few (myself included) ever take the time to explore it deeply.

*EDIT*
There's tons of great Kandori matches one could bring up but just real quick i'll give a special mention to the matches vs Devil & vs Kansai in 80's JWP just as an example that she'd allready been really good for years before the Hokuto match which is usually the earliest one ppl talk about among her work.

I'm all about Yuko Kosugi, who made an appearance within the last week. Looks younger than she did when she actually was younger.

Hokuto wouldn't have as much heat without Kandori. Kazama vs Hokuto shows that.

Maybe this thread is playing into perception that everyone in Joshi wrestles exactly like Manami Toyota, but that's the exact myth we're attempting to dispel.

They're not getting a body part worked over; they're just getting stretched. It happens in every Joshi match. The submission sections are as predictable as the outside brawling, the nearfalls, the reversals, the saves or any other component of the matches. It's something they do in the first third of the match. Sometimes it's sold well, but often it's crap. The same is true of every other wrestling formula. I don't know what type of wrestling you like, but I bet we could pick it apart.

Working a body part is a storyline in some Joshi matches, but not all Joshi matches. Submissions are a part of practically every Joshi match but not a storyline. Why do it? Because that's the way their working style developed over time? It's not something I really care for, but selling a body part all the time is the opposite extreme.

The emphasis in Joshi is that after the matches they're always buggered. Regardless of what was sold during the match, they always put over how fucked they are after a match. That's what you're supposed to take away from it.