Forever Forward Fridays

Tomoko Miyaguchi VS  Kanako Motoya - JWP 7/11/1997

JJZ: So we've watched a lot of wild ass Joshi matches. This ain't one of them. Before selecting this one to play forward I watched a few tag team bouts that would have been PIF worthy. But I thought I would like to go down a different road for this. Knowing little to nothing about Tomoko and Kanako, I very much got an established wrestler versus a young lion feel. With the exception of the screaming this was a thoughtful technical match. Mostly holds and striking. Very little bumping. But the energy still came through my screen. I really enjoyed that about this match. Now I got some major Daniel Bryan feels with those submission holds in the beginning but didn't think much about it until the finish. I wonder if DB was a big fan of these ladies. Enjoy baby.

CJD: If I have the date right, at the time of this match both of these women had only been wrestling for a handful of years. Although like you said, Miyaguchi (or Ran YuYu if you prefer) is definitely a bit more seasoned and playing the more veteran role. Still, the polish on this match from two wrestlers so inexperienced is remarkable. This was so fundamentally sound. I'm really glad you went in this direction too, I was in the mood for something that just played with the building blocks of pro wrestling without a ton of sizzle. Not that there wasn't a ton of fire and struggle here. I don't know the first thing about Kanako Motoya (or Kana Mizaki if you prefer!) but I'm very curious to see what she looked like a few years further into her career, considering she was this good this early!

Forever Forward Fridays

Tanny Mouse/Tomoko Miyaguchi VS Azumi Hyuga/Yoshiko Tamura - JWP 10/10/1997

CJD: Baby Mouse! Baby Azumi (when she was Tomoko Kuzumi)! Two wrestlers who I may or may not have seen before! A dead crowd, wrestlers screaming their heads off, a hot finishing steak, a million brutal dropkicks, neck bridging kick outs! JOSHI!! I didn't have a ton of Tanny options available to me but I did really like watching her as a greenhorn and seeing her evolution to her big title match from our last post to this one. Her team has that same plucky, light hearted, babyface vibe that she brought last time, this time against a no nonsense team bringing big time aggression. I was also feeling the straight up tag team action this week. Not a bad find at all with limited options.

JJZ: This was a fucking banger CJD! Holy hell, the screaming in this match was insane. Thiz was such an wild car crash of a bout that you couldn't blink. The German suplexes were so stiff. The neck droppies just kept on coming and making me gringe a little bit. Sorry that Tammy didn't bare that much fruit but I think you played forward a gem baby cakes. I know you mentioned that the crowd was dead but the energy and vocals of the wrestlers fully over came the dead ass fans. We've watched so many matches Chris, that I think you might agree sometimes while watching it's more like checking off boxes to determine if this is a good match, instead of just enjoying what's going on I front of you. These ladies totally took me out of that box checking mindset and I just enjoyed the ride.