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Post by stunninggrover on Mar 29, 2018 19:59:29 GMT -5
1991-01-04 Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto [WWWA World Championship] (AJW @ Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan)
Hokuto had not hit her peak yet by this time. However, she was already working her way up the ranks. This was the first time Hokuto challenged for the WWWA World Singles Championship. Bull Nakano was the most dominant force in joshi puroresu at the time.
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Post by microstatistics on Apr 3, 2018 13:37:15 GMT -5
Second. My PWO review:
" Bull is amazing in this. How she is able to play bully monster while still display vulnerability and put over Hokuto as a threat is pretty remarkable. Excellent David vs. Goliath match with that cool matwork segment in the middle."
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Post by mvz on Apr 4, 2018 22:19:49 GMT -5
Third. I concur with all of what was said above. Nakano shows flashes of brilliance at this stage. Nakano gives a generous performance. Took a little while to get going but they hooked me. Very dramatic finishing stretch makes this a strong match.
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Post by elliott on Oct 1, 2018 19:11:38 GMT -5
I really liked this, but it strikes me as a low-end MOTYC for 1991 than a candidate for a Top 100 All Time list. It's fun to see Hokuto before she becomes HOKUTO and I appreciated her approach in this match. This is a nice bigger wrestler vs smaller wrestler match-up with Hokuto trying to end it early with bombs and quick roll-ups. The body of the match with them trying to wear each other down with submissions is good basic stuff. Finishing stretch was dynamic. Great match, definitely something I'd recommend folks check out, but not something I'm considering for this list.
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Post by Cap on Aug 2, 2020 10:38:00 GMT -5
I agree with Elliott on this one. I watched this last weekend and thought it was awesome, but not list-awesome for me. I don't even really have a complaint about the match. It does everything it should and is probably a pretty big over-delivery born out of the pitch-perfect dynamic they strike. Great stuff. Go watch it.
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Post by KB8 on Sept 10, 2020 6:27:33 GMT -5
Not one I'd give a ton of consideration to for my list, but yeah, I thought this was awesome as well. Loved the start with Hokuto blindsiding Bull after Bull dismissively walked away from her handshake, only for Bull to go absolutely buck wild and punt her up and down the place like a barefoot Tenryu. This was one of my favourite Bull performances as I thought she was a savage when she needed to be, looked vulnerable enough that you might buy Hokuto scoring an upset, then showed desperation of her own when Hokuto refused to stay down. The stretch in the middle with Hokuto controlling was an interesting play on the norm. That she did it, as a clear underdog babyface, by using the sort of holds you'd usually see a heel use to wear down a babyface was cool. She obviously can't trade bombs with Bull and her opening gambit was a risk that backfired, so it made sense for her to try something different. A couple times Bull looked like she was more annoyed than in any serious danger, like one of those videos on twitter from a NATURE IS CUTE account where a golden retriever is trying lie in peace while a hundred puppies climb all over her. She probably could've swatted Hokuto away, but Hokuto was dogged and I loved that Bull just started biting her fingers out of annoyance. When she takes back over again she's even more pissed and that dive where she wiped out about six people was tremendous. Just a total "fuck absolutely all of this" moment. Hokuto staying in the fight and responding with one of her own was great as well. The outside interference bit is daft, but I was practically slack-jawed that Hokuto was enough of a nutcase to do the same spot that broke her neck not that long ago. She was also taking those backdrops at crazy high angles right from the beginning.
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Post by Kadaveri on Sept 10, 2020 9:19:41 GMT -5
I was practically slack-jawed that Hokuto was enough of a nutcase to do the same spot that broke her neck not that long ago.
Or that Bull agreed to do it. Imagine the consequences for her if it went badly again?
This is also just two months after the Aja vs. Bull cage match. A crazy thing I recently learned is that cage matches had been banned in AJW since 1974 after a wrestler called Junko Sasaki broke both her legs attempting some stunt. It's unclear what exactly happened as AJW had no TV then but must have been something involving the cage itself or why ban them specifically? So of course when Bull's allowed to do one she legdrops off the cage. Coupled with her redoing this Hokuto spot, it seems like Bull going through notoriously disastrous moments in AJW history but executing them properly so no one would get hurt when she did it.
Insane woman.
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Post by elliott on Sept 10, 2020 10:31:05 GMT -5
Bull was the best. That settles it
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Post by Cap on Sept 11, 2020 8:33:37 GMT -5
Yeah. That is a point I have fully come around to Elliott's line of thinking on. Bull was absolutely elite.
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Post by elliott on Sept 11, 2020 18:22:09 GMT -5
I maintain that Bull was one of the 3 coolest humans in the early 90s. Its Bull, Snoop Dogg and Michael Jordan.
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Post by [Darren] on Oct 13, 2020 4:11:10 GMT -5
Second.
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Post by Kadaveri on Oct 13, 2020 7:48:27 GMT -5
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Post by marksman on Feb 27, 2021 19:00:22 GMT -5
Really enjoyed most of that; both of them are awesome. That said, the outside interference bit really dinged it for me. Still, Elliott's definitely convincing me of Bull's greatness with his recommendations!
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Post by elliott on Feb 27, 2021 19:05:23 GMT -5
Something that really just comes with the territory in 80s and very early 90s Joshi is the outside interference. Its like comically slow counts in lucha, crap finishes in 80s AJPW or ref bumps in WWE. It a trapping of the style.
However, I'm glad you mentioned that because it will help with recommendations going forward.
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Post by Kadaveri on Feb 28, 2021 7:46:53 GMT -5
With Joshi, you just need to accept that the referees are very lax in enforcing the rules. When you see just one match with things that'd obviously get you DQed in WWE it looks like a 'flaw', but I think it becomes less of a problem when you watch more, because you realise within their 'universe' they're still pretty consistent with how far you need to go before you get DQed, which is roughly 3 violations of the Geneva Conventions.
If Mike Tyson can bite a chunk of Hollyfield's ear off and only get deducted 2 points because the referee felt so pressured not to call a DQ, I don't think it's that unbelievable that a wrestling show could also be like this.
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