12/10/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93: Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe 19:10
PA: An interesting match that came four years before these teams had the greatest cage match in history. This wasn’t one of the higher end tag team matches of the year, but was a really good one. It was well structured with a good build, well-paced with quality action all the way through. It had a fair bit of sloppiness, but anything blown was usually covered well enough, particularly as they ramped up the spots in the back end of the match. It was probably the best match that LCO had led up to this point, and the junior team followed along well. It was a breath of fresh air when compared to the recent tag matches Ito had been involved in against LLPW teams. ***1/2

12/10/93 AJW: Bull Nakano & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami 15:33
PA: This was one of those ‘stiff the junior’ matches. Minami certainly got her shots in, but it’s mainly a good example of Hotta being incredibly reckless. Again. The Hikari match was bad, the Plum match was far worse, and this takes the cake. Unlike those matches, this was actually a good match. The start was quite fun, with ASARI throwing dropkicks and Hotta making her do 10 of them, but after the tenth one, Hotta punted her in the jaw, breaking her jaw and knocking a couple of teeth out in the process. The match was mainly ASARI trying to do things and getting stiffed for it in response. Hotta didn’t sell a single thing she did on her own, but it was fun watching ASARI try. The injury made it "memorable", but it might have been more fun had she not been holding her face together. Bull kept things competitive and helped her to get a little revenge on Hotta, setting up the Sky Twister Press, which ASARI executed properly (to the one opponent who probably deserved to take knees). After that, Bull missed the guillotine legdrop and Minami got rid of her, leaving ASARI and Hotta all alone with Hotta putting her away easily. ***1/4

12/10/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93: Aja Kong & Sakie Hasegawa vs. Eagle Sawai & Yasha Kurenai 21:25
PA: The Tag League was still alive in this match. Aja and Sakie were finished, but if Eagle and Yasha won they’d had made the finals. This wasn’t always pretty, but it was heated and fun. Yasha and Sakie spent most of it on the receiving end. Yasha took an enormous beating from Aja and tried to use her shinai later, but it was no match for Aja’s oil can. Eagle and Yasha did a pretty good job, the usual problem, particularly with Yasha, is that her heeling has too much comedy to take her seriously and that was present here, but they were pretty good working over Sakie. They built it well into a good finishing run though the finish itself where Yasha hits her chokeslam from the top and Sakie just pops up and hits her rolling savate kick to win was pretty lousy, not that crowd minded, they were happy to see the home team play spoiler and keep LLPW out of the finals. ***1/2

12/10/93 AJW Tag League The Best '93: Akira Hokuto & Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Kyoko Inoue 15:36, Tag League The Best '93 Final: Akira Hokuto & Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Kyoko Inoue 14:49
PA: These two matches are essentially one match. A two-fall match, or if you want to think of it in a traditional way, a 2/3 falls match with Hokuto and Toyota having a 1-0 lead. Had Hokuto and Toyota won the first match, they’d have won the tag league outright with no need for a final. Yamada and Kyoko needed to win two matches in a row to take the tournament. They won the first match and the two teams immediately restarted with the tiebreaker final. The tag league was never the most prestigious tournament, particularly after they started messing around with random teams (not to say it was ever a joke tournament), but there was special meaning here as it was Hokuto’s final day as a full time wrestler after losing to Kandori just four days earlier. These matches are probably the best representation of the Zenjo house style, combining the best aspects of the classic Zenjo sprint with a lot Hokuto melodrama. Its action packed, frantic, high-effort go-go style with lots of great spots and the latter part (the second match) had a lot of drama and selling with Hokuto’s knee being the main focus. Kyoko and Yamada were in a must win situation in the first match, and were the underdogs. They took their openings to get offense, but were countered often. The finishing run saw a lot of cool things and hot near falls, but by the end Toyota was isolated, and though she was able to thwart the double teaming she fell victim to Kyoko’s Niagara Driver, which not only gave Kyoko and Yamada the win, but knocked her silly and set up all the drama that followed. Hokuto tried to cover for Toyota, but Kyoko wasn’t having that and left her at Yamada’s mercy. Toyota was finally able to get away and tag Hokuto, but her bad knee became the target of the abuse. A submission was never on the cards, but it left her weakened and vulnerable to the big moves. Hokuto managed the tag, but Toyota tagged her back in too quickly. Limping badly, Yamada brain kicked her down, delivered a vicious kick to the face and hit a diving back elbow for two. Hokuto avoided a double team and Toyota intervened with a missile dropkick. Hokuto attempted a tombstone, which was reversed by Yamada. Kyoko executed a plancha and things were looking bad for Hokuto. Yamada hit her Reverse Gory Special Bomb after two attempts in the ring, but Toyota saved the match. Kyoko took over to attempt to finish herself, but Hokuto slipped out of the Niagara Driver and tagged Toyota, who hit three different kinds of moonsaults for near falls, meanwhile Hokuto took Yamada out with a dive. Toyota hit the Japanese Ocean Suplex, but Kyoko avoided a double missile dropkick. Yamada almost pinned Toyota with a diving brain kick while Kyoko held back Hokuto. They continued trying double teams, but after Toyota took out Kyoko, it was down to Hokuto and Yamada to settle it. They countered each other’s finishers but, in the end, Hokuto was able to hit her Northern Light’s Bomb to win the tag league and end her year on a high note. A feel-good win for the Korakuen fans, especially the ones who had seen her take the long walk back just four days earlier. ****1/2

2/28/26 UFC: Regina Tarin vs. Ernesta Kareckaite 3R
ML: This is basically what you want from an undercard women's fight, high pace, high volume, lots of movement, exchanging strikes. It's not a great technical or strategic fight by any means, but no one was expecting it to be. They gave you everything they were capable of though. 21-year-old Tarin took the fight on 3 days notice, dropping down 15 pounds more than she was assuming she had to for an upcoming muay thai match, but her cardio held up well. Tarin has more power, and she was able to implement her gameplan a lot better, as simple as that may have been. She's very good in the pocket and at short range, unloading hooks. Kareckaite did a good job of walking her down, but that's not the best strategy given Tarin preferred to fight on the inside and was good at stopping, landing her hooks, then circling away. Kareckaite wasn't doing enough to push her back with actual strikes, and she wasn't doing anything to utilize her 5 inch reach advantage, which beyond not using enough kicks or any range keepers, she further negated by being square to her opponent. Tarin was definitely the better brawler, partially because she got off a lot quicker. Kareckaite was somewhat hesitant to throw the first shot in round 1. As the fight progressed, she still didn't throw at distance, but would walk Tarin down and get the first shot or two off before Tarin answered with better punches. Tarin looked a lot more relaxed out there and had more of a flowing style. The first round was Kareckaite's worst, but to her credit she fought in a much more proactive manner after that, leading the dance. Tarin started making her chase and trying to walk her into a big punch. This was a round where Kareckaite at least gave off the illusion that she was winning, but she was actually taking some pretty big shots because Tarin would stop, land, then escape before taking any more shots. Kareckaite could land first, and sometimes second, but it was killing her that she rarely did anything in between Tarin hitting her and circling away because Tarin was landing good shots and stealing every exchange. Kareckaite threw a few kicks in the third round, but this is something she really needs to work on in order to be able to score at distance and also to be less predictable. Turin didn't have any success clinching to get a takedown in the third, but she was doing a good job with the short range punches. There was big inside exchanging in the last minute, which contained the best action. Tarin's mouth was bloodied. This fight was competitive, but it's hard to say Kareckaite actually won a round, even though it's not completely unreasonable to give her the 2nd or the 3rd. Tarin won a unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27, 29-28. Good match.

FFCP 2/15/57 France: Jean Bout vs. Liano Pellacani
DC: Jean Bout appeared to be an accomplished grappler and the babyface in this match. Italian wrestler Liano Pellacani showed a lot of intensity and some very stiff forearm smashes. Bout would make his comebacks in spectacular fashion through his speedy and flashy offense. Pellacani was a very snug wrestler, but he was more than willing to bump and sell generously for the popular Bout. Things slowed down a bit as the match went on, but the intensity level was consistently high. At some point, they both tumbled over the top rope to the floor, much to the excitement of the commentator. This was definitely a memorable match, especially considering this took place in the 1950s. Excellent match. ****¼

JWA 10/13/57 Osaka, NWA World Heavyweight Title: Lou Thesz vs. Rikidozan 32:33
DC: Japanese pro wrestling would only start reaching true greatness in the mid 1970s when Giant Baba wrestled Billy Robinson, but this classic from the late 1950s deserves to be mentioned. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Lou Thesz, one of the greatest pro wrestlers of the 1950s, defends his belt against the “father of Japanese puroresu” Rikidozan (who was actually (North) Korean, but this wasn't revealed until after his death due to the complicated political situation between Japan and Korea). For someone who was basically the first one to properly popularize pro wrestling in Japan, Rikidozan's understanding of pro wrestling psychology was quite excellent. His moveset wasn't very unique, but he made up for it with his display of fighting spirit. He was a former sumotori, and especially since sumo is such a respected sport in Japan, it was easy for the Japanese crowds to believe that Rikidozan had a chance against this American wrestling champion. Thesz did a great job carrying Rikidozan to a memorable match. They had a pretty good match six days prior to this, but it was a 60-minute draw, and thus not quite as exciting as this more condensed match. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to really consider this 10/13/57 match the first truly recommendable match in Japanese puroresu history when you keep in mind that, thanks to Rikidozan, puroresu had only started being popular since 1954 or so. Excellent match. ****¼

FFCP 2/21/58 France: Inca Peruano vs. Jacky Corne
DC: Inca Peruano (a.k.a. Rocky Tomayo/Joe Soto) was a Peruvian wrestler. Jacky Corne was a solid but somewhat dull grappler. He showed some more fire during the later stages of the match. Overall, the match relied a lot on how Inca Peruano was dealing with the situations he was finding himself in. Considering this took place in 1958, this was quite a fascinating wrestling match. Excellent match. ****

FFCP 6/4/59 France: Jean Rabut vs. Isha Israel
DC: Jean Rabut showed a lot of intensity in combination with his tremendous technical skills. Isha Israel showed really good execution and speed, which enabled him to keep up with the tenacious Rabut. What makes this match stand out in particular is that, while it's technically advanced, it doesn't feel as showy as some of the other impressive French catch bouts from this era. Rabut's approach feels like that of a fighter trying to put his opponent to the test as much as possible until the opponent can no longer continue. And Isha played his role well as the one who is hanging in there and fighting for survival. Both men sold tremendously. Great match. ****½

FFCP 11/27/59 France: Gilbert Cesca vs. Rene Ben Chemoul
DC: The matwork was very fancy, and sometimes felt a bit too fancy (almost to the point of focusing too much on trying to show off). Interestingly enough, Gilbert Cesca executed a couple of huracarranas, which were called “ciseaux de volet” (flying headscissors) by the commentator. The match eventually became a bit grittier and less showy, with both workers showing a lot of force behind their moves. Excellent match. **** 

NJPW 2/17/94 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Jushin Thunder Liger & Power Warrior vs. Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner 13:05
DC: Just when you thought seeing Max Moon team up with Wild Pegasus was cool, like we saw earlier on this show, we also got to see Jushin Thunder Liger battle WWF Superstars, Scott & Rick, The Steiner Brothers! And what better tag team partner Liger could ask for in this match other than Kensuke Sasaki pretending to be a Road Warrior. This was a beautiful simulator-esque dream match of randomly epic proportions. The best part about this match is that it was actually even better than expected. Literally just five days prior to this match, the Steiners were still wrestling the Quebecers in WWF. Initially, you might think that this was just going to be one of those novelty matches that would disappoint, but, oh no, not this one. This was loads of fun and so good. Of course, the biggest concern once the bell rang was, would Rick Steiner and especially Scott Steiner even bother to sell anything for the junior heavyweight Liger? Not only did the Steiners sell for Liger, they sold like crazy for him. They must have really respected him, because the Steiners treated Liger like the great wrestler he really was. When Rick was in the ring with Sasaki, he made sure to outgrapple Sasaki. However, as soon as Rick showed some mercy for Sasaki, it was Sasaki who ironically started acting like a no-selling American (or we could say he did what Road Warriors do). The Steiners had seen that and done that, so they weren't fazed. Scott then continued his surprisingly superb selling for Liger. Eventually, they did all switch to the story of Liger being the smaller man who was in trouble, but it was done in a completely believable and realistic way, not in an uncooperative and disrespectful way. Sasaki saw this as a great opportunity to further channel the Road Warrior in him, especially since he was the heavyweight powerhouse of his team. The action moved more and more towards a back-and-forth type deal with the workers giving the crowd the impression that things really could go either way. The execution was superb, the selling was about as good as it gets for a match featuring three heavyweights in a NJPW ring in the mid 1990s. In the end, after several super exciting near-fall moments, it was Rick who scored the pinfall over Liger to get the Steiners the win. What a rare sight it was to see the Steiners, who were actually still part of WWF at the time, in the same ring as the great Liger, and what a match it was. Excellent match. **** 

NJPW 5/28/96 Nagano Big Hut, BOSJ III Block B: Black Tiger II vs. Villano IV 12:08
DC: Black Tiger II was the late, great Eddy Guerrero, as most of you probably know. Villano IV, the best worker of the Villano family, was an underrated luchador. This was his second and final tour for NJPW (his first one was a random tour in 1988), and his only time participating in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. In spite of both workers being top-notch luchadores, they actually rarely participated in the same match prior to this tour. They had been opponents in a couple of trios matches back in Mexico, and they would be part of a couple of World War 3 60-man battle royals in WCW, but other than that, their paths never really crossed. On this BOSJ III tour, this was the only singles match of the three matches they had against each other. So, this was pretty much their one and only big match against each other, which made it all the more special. The match started off with them taking it to the mat. They made the effort to actually work mat sequences, and they weren't just content sitting in holds, so that was a good start. It was certainly some high-quality lucha that they displayed. What they did looked competitive and looked like to luchadores trying to outdo each other and get the upper hand. It never felt contrived, because they were convincing in their portrayal of the struggling they went through. Guerrero would occasionally throw in a suplex to break up the matwork. Villano IV saw that as an invitation to do the same, and the hit a nice tope suicida. This opened the doors for them to keep attacking each other with moves that were potentially going to be a victory for someone or at least bring someone closer to victory. For instance, Guerrero hit a really nice powerbomb that got him a two count. Once the near falls started, they never really stopped trying to beat each other, putting over the idea they realized that both of them were in top form and able to win this match at any time. Eventually, it was Guerrero who scored the pinfall after a swinging DDT off the second rope, a popular lucharesu finisher. This was a really enjoyable match. Villano IV didn't have quite the impressive track record Guerrero had in NJPW, so it wasn't a surprise that Guerrero won, but the way this match was built up and worked always made it doubtful whether or not an upset victory was just around the corner. The work was smooth and well-executed. The moves they executed were impressive enough and yet it never felt like they were being unsafe. In other words, this was a perfectly fine and successful BOSJ bout. It never overstayed its welcome and almost made you wish for more. Very good match. ***½ 

12/6/93 AJW: Bull Nakano, Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda vs. Cuty Suzuki, Plum Mariko & Hikari Fukuoka (JWP) 20:36.
PA: JWP battling Bull was the most fun here. At the start, Cuty demanded to fight her instead of LCO, with Plum and Hikari sneaking in for a triple team. It failed as Bull decapitated them all with lariats, but they had more success later. Bull and LCO played heel with Bull being the dominant monster, while JWP were the smaller underdog babfyaces, which suited everyone best. It was really good and entertaining throughout, with lots of fun double and triple teaming. Bull was the best and Hikari stood out the most because she had the coolest spots, but everyone had their moments. LCO set the entire JWP team up for Bull to do the guillotine legdrop to all three, but everyone moved, and Bull received a train of diving footstomps in response. ***3/4

12/6/93 AJW: Kyoko Inoue, Takako Inoue & Yumiko Hotta vs. Harley Saito, Eagle Sawai & Rumi Kazama (LLPW) 15:38
PA: Kyoko got by far the biggest reaction of anyone, and the match was dependant on who was in at any given time. Eagle doesn’t provide anything of interest. Hotta and Rumi tried to have an intense kick battle but it didn’t matter how well it was executed, Rumi’s too small for it to look credible and Hotta wouldn’t sell anything she did anyway. Hotta vs. Eagle was better since Hotta had to work to hit a Tiger Driver, which was particularly brutal. Interspersed was good stuff from Harley and Kyoko, with Harley on the receiving end of a long giant swing. The latter part of the match was a really good spotfest, they really just did non-stop action and near falls. Harley and Kyoko were the best here, and Takako provided some good stuff with Harley as well. Eagle was better hitting her power moves for near falls and took a few big bumps, one particularly nasty one off a release German from Kyoko. It came down to Kyoko and Harley, Kyoko survived the Tiger Suplex but Hotta turned the tide for Kyoko, allowing her to hit her diving elbow and a Niagara Driver to win. ***1/4

WWWA World Title Match: Aja Kong vs. Megumi Kudo (FMW) 22:34
PA: Initially proposed during the Japan Grand Prix, where Weekly Pro Wrestling surveyed fans in Korakuen Hall for potential challengers for Aja Kong's title, Kudo's nomination was initially met with laughter in contrast to the big reactions for Dynamite Kansai and Shinobu Kandori. However, by the end of the match, they wouldn’t laugh again, and any doubts about Kudo's credibility were dispelled. While it’s not normally ideal for the WWWA World Singles Title match to be third from the top, it was the correct call here as they weren’t going to be able to follow the flashiness of the tag title match, nor the drama of Hokuto vs Kandori, both matches being heavily hyped rematches. It also freed them to show their best points and work a different match to what might have been expected had they been in the main event. It built like a mens match, Kudo was competitive at the start, but the early going saw Aja predictably brute force Kudo down and methodically dismantle her. When she got the chance, Kudo immediately went after Aja’s arm with a jujigatame, and relentlessly went after it. Aja sold the arm huge while fighting back with her other arm. She still tried to bully her, but wasn’t able to. One great spot saw Aja hit back with various weak strikes with her left hand and Kudo nail her with a right to knock her down. I’m not sure Kudo was ever a major threat, but Aja sure as hell made it look like she could win. Aja came back, and Kudo had to use her speed to regain her advantage. She avoided a bunch of Urakens and dumped Aja, hitting a tope. She continued to avoid the Urakens in the ring. The ref bump spot may not have been welcome, as the chorus of boos suggested, and while the bump itself was okay, referee Bob Yazawa kneeling over in the corner for a minute looked pretty stupid. The phantom pin off the rana did make it seem like Kudo could have won, and you never saw ref bumps in these days. Aja crushed Kudo with multiple urakens for a TKO, but she wanted Kudo to get back up and screamed at her. Kudo made it up at 8 and the crowd lost their minds when she countered Aja’s waterwheel drop with a sunset bomb. Kudo looked to follow up with a Tiger Driver, but Aja slipped out of it and gave her one more Uraken, no TKO this time, she just pinned for the three count. After the match, the two from the 1986 class reunited properly after five years. Their old mentor, Jaguar Yokota, who was sitting at the play-by-play table, was also crying. ****1/4

WWWA World Tag Title Match: Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki (JWP) vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Manami Toyota 25:34
PA: The final match of the classic trilogy. They had great history to play off of and did so. It’s the most coherent of the three matches from bell to bell and everyone was in great form. Toyota, in particular, excelled as the match was tailored to her style, featuring a shorter runtime and a one-fall format. Whilst being the most action and spot oriented, it was filled with great sequences and never really went overboard so that you couldn’t follow it. However, being one fall cost them early drama. The match started in the same way the second one did, although Toyota saved Yamada but found herself in trouble. No one in the building bought it or even reacted, it’s a one fall match, and it wasn’t ending in the first 30 seconds. To that end, Ozaki and Kansai didn’t have much hope and everyone wanted Yamada and Toyota to take the belts back, especially since the league refused to book Ozaki and Kansai as a strong team (they had one defense in 8 months and weren’t even allowed to win that). Toyota was worked over early. She was stretched and was on the receiving end of a kicking from Kansai before coming back to spam some dropkicks, Kansai cut that off pretty quickly, but was taken out by an Ozaki cannonball, allowing for the tag to Yamada. A few minutes after that, we had the first great exchange between Kansai and Yamada. Kansai thought she was going to jump on Yamada and kicked the hell out of her, but Yamada ended up winning the battle, causing Kansai to bail out and restart. The match just had an excellent flow through the weardown, and built up really well. Yamada ended up winning another kick battle with Kansai, and set up Toyota to do a camel clutch, and instead of just one kick, Yamada kicked her repeatedly. Toyota tried to follow up, but her boots to Kansai’s head only upset Kansai. She attempted a boomerang out of the corner, got caught in a Northern Light’s Suplex but managed to come back with a moonsault afterward. Kansai wasn’t taking the stupid rolling cradle and shrugged Toyota off, but Yamada assisted her and she got it on Ozaki. It wasn’t long before Kansai was kicking Toyota around like a football again though. Kansai couldn’t hit Splash Mountain between Toyota escaping it and Yamada saving her. Kansai could hit everything else, including a brutal diving footstomp which allowed her to finally hit the Splash Moutain, but Yamada made the save by kicking her in the head. Another great spot followed with Ozaki and Kansai essentially doing a reverse doomsday device. Toyota took the diving lariat on Kansai’s shoulders, but managed to make it into a victory roll for a near fall. Kansai and Ozaki kept trying to finish Toyota. Ozaki took Yamada out, and they tried the Splash Mountain neckbreaker drop, but Toyota kicked Ozaki off the turnbuckle. Yamada made the tag, and her brain kick was avoided, but she came back with a stiff spinning one before doing her dumb backdrop suplex spamming. Kansai took a diving brain kick for a close near fall, and kept coming back, but it was 2 v 1. Another diving brain kick hit with Kansai on top of Toyota’s shoulders, but Ozaki saved the match. Ozaki did thwart their double teaming finally and tagged in, but with Kansai out and both Yamada and Toyota in good shape, she was on the receiving end immediately. She avoided a moonsault and Kansai recovered to assist with a lariat, leading to Ozaki hitting the Tequila Sunrise with Yamada saving the match. Ozaki’s diving body attack met knees, but Toyota’s Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex got turned into a Victory roll for two. Kansai wanted to do something from the top, but Toyota saw her early and kicked her off. Yamada held them on the outside for Toyota's quebrada but that didn’t quite go to plan, Toyota landed on the apron, and not only took a bad landing herself but kneed Kansai in the face on the way down. They did the dangerous backdrop to Ozaki, but Kansai made it in to break up the pin. Toyota hit the cyclone suplex, but it only got two. All of the near falls and the saves were just incredible, none of the stuff used in the first two matches had worked, so what was left to do? Something new. Yamada dragged Kansai out and Toyota missile dropkicked her, and back in, Toyota debuted a new finisher… and it was an absolute shocker. It was like a Japanese Ocean Alabama Slam, and it wasn’t even executed well. It was so bad Ozaki should have really kicked out and told her to just finish it with another Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex or anything else, a rookie bodyslam would have been a better finish than this. It was such a bad way for such great match and trilogy to finish. Aside from the 11/26/92 match being the best of the trilogy, I’m not sure which one ranks as the runner up; 4/11/93 was more memorable, has the benefit of a great beginning and finish, more drama with the three falls and had a stronger story since it was the conclusion of Ozaki and JWP’s mission to show they were just as good as the big league. So, it probably, almost certainly wins while taking those factors into account. However, if those things aren’t important to you, 12/6/93 is the superior match for pure bell to bell action. But who cares? All three of them are all time great matches and warrant the highest recommendation. ****3/4

Dangerous Queen Tokyo Trial: Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori (LLPW) 21:07
PA: This was not the in ring classic that their first match was, but it is the captivating, emotional and dramatic payoff to Hokuto’s 1993, and her career as a whole. As a companion to their first match, it works, but it’s far better within the context of following Hokuto’s rise and fall. She began 1993 performing at her peak. She defeated Kandori in a match where she was mostly dominated, but had the determination, fighting spirit and ability to just pull it off, aided by Kandori’s own arrogance. She went through until August at her best, defeating everyone in the Japan Grand Prix, but throughout the tournament her body broke down. She had a broken back, her knee gave out against Harley Saito, all the wear and tear from eight years of injuries was also catching up with her. She fought through it against Toyota and Hotta to win the tournament, she also defeated Kazama. Her knee was so bad that it needed surgery, and after surgery came Aja; too soon for her to be competitive and too prideful not to take the match, she was picked apart and beaten, forgoing her second chance at the red belt in the process. She made the Kandori challenge and maintained insistence that she would never lose to a ‘judo wannabe’, and if she did, she’d retire. Despite her diminished physical state, Hokuto displayed enough resilience to overcome adversaries like Kazama for the second time, and Ozaki. This was the last trial, unlike in the Aja match, she was able to compete, but it was a question of if her body would hold up. It seemed like Hokuto had it all to lose, but she felt she had nothing to lose. She had to be the best, and if she couldn’t beat Kandori, then it was all for nothing anyway. Kandori had been insulted by Hokuto plenty before their first match, but the biggest insult was that she lost it and she wanted to dominate Hokuto even more thoroughly this time. The match started literally how the last one finished, with the two nailing each other in the face and knocking each other down. These were stiff shots and the first blood was drawn with Hokuto bleeding from the mouth. Hokuto went for Kandori’s leg and hit two early DQ bombs. They got into a slapping fight but Kandori just suckered her into Wakigatame, then immediately released it, wagging her finger.It was going to be a long night for Hokuto before Kandori was satisfied. Hokuto hit a piledriver, but it didn’t do a lot. Kandori started striking her with body blows, headbutts, and boots to the face, disdainful taunting her. Hokuto fired up and fought back and had some success, but Kandori got her in the same position before too long. While Hokuto was trying to make the most of her offense, Kandori was toying with her and not particularly threatened. Hokuto did some damage from the air with two missile dropkicks, and after Kandori rolled outside, she followed her and did the Northern Light’s Bomb on the floor. The games were over as far as Kandori was concerned. When she returned, Hokuto caught her with a savage spin kick. Kandori snatched a sleeper, but got jawbreakered. Hokuto went up and Kandori basically did a tiger driver from the second buckle, which got a TKO count of 9. On both occasions, Hokuto signalling for crowd support and wasting seconds allowed Kandori back in. Hokuto fought back with her own burst when Kandori took her foot off the gas, hitting a lariat and her somersault plancha. Kandori delivered a lariat in the ring, sending Hokuto crashing to the mat once again. Hokuto pressed on though, hitting a German and Backdrop suplex. She went up top for a flying body press, but Kandori rolled through her. Kandori stomped at her and Hokuto used another backdrop suplex, unable to bridge, but she did get a two count. She went up top again and Kandori and ran up, slapping her and dragging her down into a vicious kneebar. The crowd lost their minds at that, but Hokuto made the ropes quickly enough. Kandori dragged her back, but Hokuto fought her off, that’s all she could do though. She nailed Kandori with everything she had and rocked her, but Kandori had more in the tank. They slugged at each other, and it was clear Hokuto was going down, but she was going down swinging. The camera cut to Mita and Shimoda, who were bawling, with Aja, Hotta and Minami behind them - they made the finish even more than the wrestlers did. The camera caught Kandori whiffing an uppercut, which was unfortunate, but the next one struck. Kandori grabs the leg and opts to hold her down for three. Kandori’s done it, and LCO are beside themselves. Anticlimactic as the finish is, there was no other way for it to end. It’s definitive, Hokuto didn’t give up, her body did because of Kandori and all she had to do was put her out of her misery. It was about proving superiority, they had to take each others best shots to do that and they had to do it while showing the arrogance they were known for, whether that gave the opponent chances of not. Kandori got on the mic and told Hokuto if she loves pro-wrestling, to continue doing it, but Hokuto's resolve remained unyielding, driven by her stubborn heart. Initially she was to retire on 3/27/94, but that was changed to be the first of three retirement matches, starting there, going through 8/24/94 and finishing at the Tokyo Dome on 11/20/94 (though she ultimately didn’t retire there either). This didn’t top their first encounter. I don’t think it was even really supposed to, and it shouldn’t be compared directly to it. In the correct context, it’s great pro-wrestling and a great sequel. Structurally, it was odd, and there were decisions that in a regular match would have been bizarre, but within the story they were telling everything worked. It was stiff, they generally executed well (aside from that uppercut late), and it was packed with emotion and drama. The long walk was an epic and emotional scene as well, Hokuto took the walk alone, under her own power with a parade of journalists and the wrestlers in tears behind her. ****1/2