Ayumi Kurihara vs. Yuzuki Aikawa - Yuzupon Matsuri 3 ~ Birthday Eve 15/05/2011
I adored the start of the match. We saw some lovely lucha libre-esc exchanges, like the armdrags Aikawa pulled out which was then followed up by some of your usual brutal Aikawa kicks and nasty headscissors that involved Aikawa lifting her legs up and slamming Kurihara’s head into the mat. What a start! Kurihara had some great facial expressions. Like when she used the hair for leverage in the camel clutch - her face was so playful and sinister at the same time. Kurihara showed her grappling skills really well when working over Aikwawa’s knee but she didn’t go into it very much as far as the overarching story goes. But she does at one point lock Aikawa in an armbreaker after being pumped in the neck by Aikawa which I thought was brilliant. Aikawa had some good fiery comebacks. She was pretty stiff with the strikes as well. Those kicks to a seated Kurihara in the corner were awesome. Loved it when they began slapping and kicking the hell out of each other, you could see the anger and disdain on their faces after every strike. It made for an exciting end to the 20 minute draw that they had. ****
I adored the start of the match. We saw some lovely lucha libre-esc exchanges, like the armdrags Aikawa pulled out which was then followed up by some of your usual brutal Aikawa kicks and nasty headscissors that involved Aikawa lifting her legs up and slamming Kurihara’s head into the mat. What a start! Kurihara had some great facial expressions. Like when she used the hair for leverage in the camel clutch - her face was so playful and sinister at the same time. Kurihara showed her grappling skills really well when working over Aikwawa’s knee but she didn’t go into it very much as far as the overarching story goes. But she does at one point lock Aikawa in an armbreaker after being pumped in the neck by Aikawa which I thought was brilliant. Aikawa had some good fiery comebacks. She was pretty stiff with the strikes as well. Those kicks to a seated Kurihara in the corner were awesome. Loved it when they began slapping and kicking the hell out of each other, you could see the anger and disdain on their faces after every strike. It made for an exciting end to the 20 minute draw that they had. ****
All Asia Tag Team Title Match: es (Manabu Soya & Seiya Sanada) (c) vs. Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) - AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love In Ryogoku Vol. 11 21/03/2011
Phew, this was a total miss. I mean, there was at least 10 minutes of good wrestling in this match. But there was 20 minutes of both teams aimlessly doing things without any reason and with no sense of build or pacing. First, Sekimoto and Soya kicked off the match with a hot exchange, got the crowd pumping and then Okabayashi and Sanada came in and it lost momentum just like that. Everything they did just felt flat. Sanada tried to bring some life by adding a few kip ups which was nice but it was shallow and didn’t add a lot. Okabayashi against Soya wasn’t great either. His go-to always was just to do Kobashi vs Sasaki tributes by doing a chop battle. It was the first thing they did - it just felt lazy and forced. The match grew in the final third of the match after Strong BJ began working over Sanada and finally began showing some of that chemistry that they lacked all match. Sanada’s bumping was good, making use of his athleticism. Sekimoto pummeling Soya, tossing him around like he was a Junior was awesome as well. Just a good end to a totally disappointing match. This was a 32 minute match that felt like 50 with a few bright sparks but not enough to save it. **
Comments
Post a Comment