Kim's match reviews and pop culture emporium

 Really interesting lineup for the teams here. Kazue is a young lioness who is very annoying in a very good way. The first fall is defined structurally by both teams targeting the younger members of the opposition with the critical moment being a missed attempt at a double team leading to Jaguar blasting Kazue allowing Tateno to get the pin. The second fall starts off with Kazue still feeling the effects and surviving an onslaught Jaguar gets tagged in and isolates and obliterates Tateno to even up the match. The match breaks down in the third with a fun amount of chaos with Chigusa and Tateno having the telling moments against Kazue. More fun than i was expecting 7.5/10

 We start off with Chigusa beefing with Shiro. Chigusa comes into this with a bunch of tape covering up various injuries. The alliance is merciless in this one with the outside interference doing nasty stuff like targeting the taped up wrists and knees. Chigusa does get a foothold in by targeting the leg though she is still very much on the defense. Both women blade eventually and end up trading bombs neither is able to land the final shot leading to a time limit draw with Dump going to the final. We pivot directly into the final with some of the slickest transition shot wise on the set thus far. The final is the most purely defensive I can think of dump being over the course of the set. This mini set of matches is really a tour de force for her resume as a top 80s star. There's this thin line between still having the inherent physical traits needed to do damage while doing an exquisite job of showing a great struggle with stamina over the course of two matches in a row. It's a...

The first thing of note in the opening sequence is this is the first time in these Yamazaki tourney matches iirc that someone has gotten off to a faster start than her and taken the initiative which Asuka is able to do by kick proximity forcing Yamazaki onto the back foot. Asuka takes advantage by targeting Yamazaki's taped up fingers though unfortunately for my sicko self no nasty finger specific work more just general targeting of the arm. Yamazaki gets acclimated rather quickly and finds her foothold by lasering in on Asuka's leg. It develops into an attrition vs sunday shot type battle with Yamazaki Just enough high flying moves that she can't finish off Asuka and loses via piledriver. 8.5/10

 Jumbo comes in with her back still taped up. Love the attention to detail continuity wise with regards to injuries during the japan cup. Of interest is Crane yu once again serving as referee for this bout. Dump is preoccupied with crane to begin with allowing jumbo to get the jump on her via dropkick. That doesn't lead to sustained offense unfortunately as very quickly the numbers game takes effect with dual focus on Hori's head and back along with some nasty opportunistic biting of the arm by Nakano. Jumbo's lifeline in this one ends up being her strength in a power move sense alongside crane finally snapping at all the abuse she's taken since retiring and actively trying to help Jumbo win. Unfortunately it backfires giving dump the critical opening to secure the 3. This feels like the most dump has been written like a bigger worker in terms of folks struggling to lift her which is really interesting. 9/10

 I'm kind of surprised by how I'm feeling about this one going to put that feeling out front. I was expecting to like this more than I did. Devil gets taken down by a leg sweep and gets put in an armbar but Chigusa  can't capitalize. The devil gets the submission of note here in the form of a bow and arrow lock. the overall dynamic of the match being devil having the edge on the mat pretty solidly while Chigusa is able to get off more big shots though devil ends up winning via rollup. All the components are here for an 8 except time. And in this case the lack of time really hurt my experience of the match. I liked a lot of the individual aspects that both workers were going for but the whole match felt far too compressed to let things breath properly 7/10 The thing I appreciate about the Japan Grand prix at large is it gives the singles scene between the natives some structure and a sense of body that mostly felt absent at least imo in the pre boom period stuff. Can't w...

 The alliance are challenging here with Crane Yu as the referee for this matchup. Bold choice to have the new ref officiating a title match. Bull and dump get control pretty early and maintain it for a decent portion of the first fall by targeting Chigusa's banged up leg. The faces get in bits offense but what seals the fall in the babyface's favor is the big moments going their way. the second fall essentially consists of the babyfaces trying to follow up getting beaten up with Chigusa's arm and head being a target leading to a heel win via piledriver. The third fall breaks down as does the heel challengers focus on the champions Asuka is able to get the telling flurry off on Bull Nakano cause dump was too preoccupied with beating up Crane Yu at ringside. Karma And Chef Kiss worthy 9/10

 Much more evenly matched fight for this one. While it's not a mirror matchup by any means you can certainly see early on that their bases are rather similar which figures given they are tag partners. Both workers get off near misses with strikes but the story for the body is asuka trying to comeback from the hole that is her wounded knee. Match ends in a time limit dra after a finishing stretch of bomb trading. 8/10

 Tateno starts quickly with a barrage of three dropkicks. Itsuki responds promptly with a massive barrage of six. The match settles down a tad with yamazaki taking the lead and keeping it for the bulk of the match. Tateno tries to battle on the mat a couple of times but that is never sustained. The interesting thing about this match is how one sided it feels especially for a match between tag partners like Tateno gets these bursts of really impactful offense like a great tope to the outside but she feels really outgunned strategy wise throughout. And strategically outgunned in a where unlike previous matches Yamazaki is mostly single mindedly focused on the head instead of a multiprong strategy. I love the meanness in her performance. The match ends in a battle of springboard sunset flips with Yamazaki coming out the winner. 7.7/10

 Interpromotional feud week at cmll. Fun stuff but personally for me a bit of a meh week for cmll solo advancement. Though I will admit if I were actively invested in mlw the synergy would be peak. The thing that actively caught my mind was my reaction to Yutani and Okumura on the Saturday show. The fact that they are used as heels and given the history of Japanese workers in the states being used as nebulous heel figures with varying degrees of racialized aesthetics and i found myself thinking this should bug me and yet it doesn't.... why? it makes me realize i've never fully written down the things about the oriental heel archetype in wrestling bugs me. the part of it as a young person the racialization plus the rarity of face presences kind of tied into the creeping realization of the otherness of the east asian american experience specifically the lack of us our lives and experiences on screen and on page in the 2000s. it lead to a strange mixture of excitement at seeing so...

 Easily my favorite Asuka performance on the set up to this point. She comes in with a banged knee and Hori comes in still having her back taped up. There's a bit of jokeying via some tentative strikes leading into an irish whip by Asuka leading into a strike to the gut. Hori sets a marker by getting a sharpshooter on Asuka. After this she establishes a two-vector attack on the head and leg of Asuka with maybe the most effective achilles lock outside of shootstyle and a figure four. the highlights of Hori's focus on the head is a powerbomb and driving asuka from the top turnbuckle down to the mat face first. Asuka gets surprisingly little purchase in the body of the match itself it ends up being a case of Hori having strategically dominated the match but the question lingering of whether or not she has the singular big bomb to end things which it turns out she doesn't have as Asuka gets the pin with a sick high kick followed up by a piledriver. Asuka only goes after the bac...

 This match is a great example of why tournaments are great. This match is such a fun continuation of the injury themes in the last match i reviewed in Hori vs Omori from Omori's injury perspective. She still has the banged up knee. Yamazaki gets overexcited and rushes Omori at the bell allowing her to get a big shot in there's a partial rollup but not used as pinning attempt just for Yamazaki to be able to reset. There's bits offense from Omori but it is a very Yamazaki centric match on the offense there's really good, focused leg work. Eventually they go to the outside and Yamazaki smashes Omori's head into a seat at ringside. Interestingly the focus is on what in another match would be an incidental thing that would be tossed aside for the obvious angle of the concussive damage. Instead there's an impact on Omori's wrist which she has to get taped up. Yamazaki does not lose a beat and immediately goes after that wounded hand viciously. The endgame for thi...

 Both wrestlers come in banged up with Hori having her back taped and Omori having one of her knees be taped up. Though not gonna lie it took a while for me to notice Omori having a wounded leg. The match ends up as a power vs technique battle with Omori taking on the role of the technician viciously targeting Hori's back. Hori is really generous as an underdog babyface honestly not even having an extended shine sequence to start off with. Omori puts in a really fun heel performance using the rope whiplash late on as well. Hori gets her segment in control via the knee with a fun varied amount of holds and in the end Omori has no true counter for the raw power when the big bombs from Hori come out. 9/10

Weird match to talk about. Fun match though it's hard to talk about cause it's clipped or at least it feels clipped to me. All four women do well in their roles and I find myself having an urge to check out more Judy stuff. It's interesting how little dump gets to do the immovable object sort of stuff in her matches. I think in my head i'm thinking of the way vader was booked as an example on the men's end of things. nr. the clipping warps the analytical experience too much for me

 First match of the 85 AJW tournament. It's clear straight from the off that Asuka has striking that the devil has to be wary of. Devil gets control via a sneaky leg kick followed up by leg control. The devil's strategy isn't centered on the leg as much as it is controlling asuka on the mat. Once asuka does get her impactful stuff off it's readily apparent she has the edge in striking though there is a cool sequence where they exchange piledrivers. The big stuff starting to hit leads to asuka trying a sharpshooter and giant swing. Desperation brings the ruthless cheat out of the devil using eyegouges throat chops and the ropes with the finishing stretch being a battle of attrition vs bigger knockout potential which asuka wins. Love this 9/10