Issue 52D - 9/24/99 JWP on WOWOW 9/27/97

Selected matches from JWP on WOWOW 9/27/97 The Footwork Taped 9/20/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall JWP Korakuen Tag Title Tournament Final: Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano vs. Tomoko Kuzumi & Kanako Motoya

These four just tried to put on the best possible match, so the Oz Academy modified their style to work to the strengths of the opposition. It was basically a workrate match with choice spots from start to finish. This match was really exciting (to everyone except those in attendance apparently) and everyone gave a strong performance. It was, for the most part, a one-dimensional match, but everything they did was done well. In a tag match like this, not working an all around match shouldn't be so much of an issue unless what they are doing is goofy or downright stupid, which wasn't the case here. Still, I wish Ozaki would have done some teaching here so Kuzumi & Motoya could move toward becoming more diverse workers, something they still haven't made any progress toward becoming even though it's been two years since this match took place, but you can't complain about the quality of ringwork this match delivered. "Amano and Motoya were the best here, with Ozaki just playing it cool letting Amano do most of the work. Kuzumi was her regular 'Toyota #3' self doing all the cool spots, but not selling any damage. I guess that if you are going to be that type of worker you may as well emulate Toyota and Fukuoka," wrote Jason. "Oz did a subtle but great job of helping this match be very good, contributing when necessary, but still letting Amano log most of the ring time to improve against her peers. There were a lot of cool spots. There could have been some great near falls, in particular Kanako using La Magistral on Amano after Amano hit Kuzumi with the diving lariat, but there were only 100 people that didn't lose their voice or whatever excuse can be made for yet another silent crowd at a JWP show," wrote Michael. They joined this in progress, so it was high spots from the outset with Kuzumi catching both opponents with a plancha. However, the Oz Academy avoided Motoya's subsequent suicida, so she took out Kuzumi. Amano looked really good doing her series of jumping lariats, as well as some Toshiyo Yamada-esque suplexes. She turned Motoya's diving body attack into a wakigatame. Amano then swung into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, but Motoya blocked it. Kuzumi & Ozaki were tearing it up, with Ozaki getting her legs up for Kuzumi's rounding body press then doing one of her own. Kuzumi hit two missile kicks, but Oz just arrogantly walked out of the way of the third as if to say, "how many times do you think I'm going to fall for this same move?" Ozaki did an excellent job of working a sleeper hold. Amano missed Kuzumi with her sky high lariat and rolled right into Motoya's diving senton. In Toyota like go offense fashion, Kuzumi then made a quick come back using Sakie Hasegawa-esque rolling doublearm suplexes. Kuzumi's selling, especially her carry over selling, was crap, but she was flying around the ring doing all kinds of cool spots, so that would make it okay to most people. On the other hand, Motoya's selling was quite good, the best of the four actually, although again she didn't really put over the previous damage. After some double teaming, it looked like Motoya would pin Amano with her diving senton, but Amano bridged out. Amano came back with her dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame (jumping takedown into a cross armbreaker). Kuzumi broke the submission up tried her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex, but Amano knocked her off the top and hit her diving lariat. Motoya then la magistralled Amano for a nice near fall. Kuzumi & Motoya followed with a cool double missile kick to Amano then Motoya rolling sentoned Amano to win the tournament and become the 2nd Korakuen tag champs (this belt is now dormant). A strong New Japan juniors style tag match. The work was great with every spot hitting. Unfortunately, the match was devoid of selling, psychology, and heat. "Not every match has to have great selling and psychology. This match once again proved that a match based on workrate (although it had a purpose and they weren't just rolling out spots) can still be a solid ****, or better in some cases," wrote Michael. The Oz Academy won the last tag tournament and were credible challengers for the regular tag titles, so it was time for JWP to elevate the other youngsters. Ironically, they chose Motoya, who had pinned Amano to win the one night tag tournament on 6/16/96. She was the one that needed the pin the most though, and Amano had been elevated earlier in the night anyway, showing great fighting spirit mainly by refusing to give up despite taking a huge pounding from Kansai. Amano was verging on tears after the match, so Ozaki patted her face and head to console her. 17:15 (9:02 aired). "I really liked this match because it was designed to move Kanako up to the level of Kuzumi, Miyaguchi, and Amano, and it worked. It can be argued that she was already there, but the other girls were ahead of her (and still are) when it comes to getting better matches on the cards," wrote Michael. "I also felt that Motoya getting the pin on Amano was justified because they wanted to elevate her to the level of the rest of her peers, while Amano had already shown her heart earlier in the night," wrote Jason. Special Thanks to: Jason Higgs & Michael Smith