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Post by nintendologic on Feb 20, 2021 17:16:46 GMT -5
This is actually the highest-rated AJW match on Cagematch as of this writing, and I checked it out on a whim after the AEW women's title tournament had me in the mood for some classic Aja Kong. I had always avoided this because significant clipping doesn't sit well with me (this is officially a 30-minute draw with a little less than 20 minutes shown), but this greatly exceeded my expectations. It helps that editing was so seamless that it's nearly impossible to tell what got clipped. However, I suspect there was some funny business going on with the timekeeping. For example, the five-minute call came three and a half minutes after the opening bell, and there was no clipping at that point that I could detect. In any event, Kong vs. Toyota was very much an established commodity at this point, so of course they deliver the greatest hits (Aja stretching Toyota in the opening minutes, Aja dragging Toyota into the crowd and whipping her into some chairs, Toyota trying to put Aja through a table, etc.), but they also provide enough interesting twists that it doesn't feel like an exhibition. Toyota crashing and burning on a springboard plancha followed by Aja hitting a dive of her own may be my all-time favorite sequence involving these two. As a Toyota skeptic, I have to say this was a pretty great performance from her in terms of keeping her worst tendencies in check. Like selling, for example. I was pleasantly surprised when after she blocked a splash by putting her knees up, she took a few moments to regain her bearings and didn't just go back on offense right away. She also seemed to have toned down the screaming somewhat. Or maybe I've just become so inured to it that I was able to block it out. Perhaps more than anything, what sets this apart for me is the ending. I'm a big fan of "I've got nothing left but you'll have to kill me to pin me" finishes, and this has one of the best. Toyota is getting murdered by urakens and her defense is completely gone, but she refuses to stay down for the three-count, even bridging out of one pin attempt. So Aja literally takes the gloves off and lands a bare-fisted uraken, but time expires before she can make the cover. Big Egg Universe is still the definitive Kong/Toyota match, but this is head and shoulders above any of their WWWA title matches.
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Post by Cap on Feb 20, 2021 18:15:14 GMT -5
I haven't seen this. I need to check it out.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2021 9:24:15 GMT -5
Toyota is someone who I find quite irritating to watch but I really like their Big Egg match, so I was glad that I checked this out as well. Up there with the former and Hokuto 9/2/95 in contention for her best singles match.
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Post by marksman on Feb 25, 2021 21:22:48 GMT -5
Just watched this and would definitely back it - I spent half of the match seriously worried Toyota was going to die. (Even though I KNOW she's still alive.) Agree with NL on the ending being outstanding. Will definitely be checking out the Big Egg match.
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Post by bossrock on Feb 25, 2021 22:21:51 GMT -5
This was great, but I think I prefer their '95 matches. Toyota is someone I always struggle with as she has lots of great matches and awesome offense, but her recovery is just way too quick. That's one of my biggest criticisms when it comes to joshi and Toyota is definitely the champion in that regard. That being said, these two have great chemistry together and the heel/face dynamic always works well.
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Post by KB8 on Aug 1, 2023 11:09:04 GMT -5
Apparently this went to a 30-minute draw. It really says something about how good the AJW editors were because I could not have told you where they shaved 10 minutes from. Either way, as far as Aja Kong v Manami Toyota goes this had all of the good stuff you might associate with that match-up. It largely followed the same formula as their 11/94 match, with Aja trying to bend or break or sometimes bend AND break Toyota while Toyota refused to succumb to either. Toyota was actually even more belligerent in '97 than she was in '94 so now and then she'd just shout something that I couldn't understand and start hitting Aja in the face. At one point she broke out of a rear naked choke and literally double stomped Aja full in the mouth. I'm obviously picky about the Toyota that I watch, but I've been on a roll with her lately and I thought she was pretty excellent again here. You knew she'd burst into life at points and hit some suplexes or dives, and she did that and those suplexes looked nasty and the dives were every bit as reckless as they needed to be if they were going to topple Aja. Her missile dropkick to the floor is a fucking absurd thing and how she never crippled herself in all those years is beyond me. But the selling in between is really good as well, not just in how she's selling the submissions as she's in them or how she's bumping for Aja's offence; I mean the parts before she gets up and runs the ropes or jumps off of something. She'd take a little stagger, delay those bursts just a couple seconds longer than she would've years before, and something as simple as that really puts across the scope of what she's trying to overcome. Those delays set up some great cut-offs as well, like when she went for a big dive to the floor and wiped out one of the ring girls, which Aja followed up with a PLUMP tope that clattered Toyota and the same poor ring girl. I even liked the big table spot because it felt like Toyota needed to up the ante or she'd just get smooshed before long. Also it looked brutal so that helps. The finish is something I could've gone either way on, but in the end I think I liked it. Toyota was dead on her feet, but she'd keep kicking out until she was dead on her arse. Aja hit her with three hideous urakens and Toyota wouldn't stay down. It was a small thing, but I loved how one of Toyota's kick-outs was a bridge accompanied with no screaming. There was none of her usual defiance, it was pure instinct in that moment. Aja giving her a bare-handed fourth looked like it must've shattered Toyota's whole face, but by then Aja had literally punched herself into exhaustion and just as she makes the cover the bell rings. Even if Toyota never won, she at least survived and somehow that felt closer to a victory than defeat. This was good stuff.
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Post by elliott on Sept 16, 2023 23:03:58 GMT -5
Awesome match. Frustrating we don't have the whole thing because it looks tremendous.
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