Name a Better 1990s US Women's Match: Madusa vs. Hokuto, Career vs. Title

Title vs. Career: Akira Hokuto vs. Madusa WCW Great American Bash 6/15/97

ER: I thought this was fantastic, pretty easily the best women's match in WCW history. True, there really isn't much competition for that crown, but this match stands on its own. I think it stands above all other 90s American women's wrestling matches, which against is not a huge field but whatever, this match rocks. The crowd that had been so hot for Psychosis/Ultimo had taken a siesta during the next three matches, but Madusa's fired up entrance got them completely back in it. The Quad Cities were so loudly behind Madusa, and the match suddenly felt like an actual Big Deal in spite of the limited build the match received compared to other major matches. The match was much more violent than I expected and really rose to meet the Career vs. Title stipulation. I've seen so many matches worked like the participants didn't understand the stipulations of their own match, that it was incredible to see Madusa really leave it all out there. This was the best I've seen her look in a wrestling ring. Her real strength is her sympathetic selling, which was the driving force of this match. Her energy really elevated this, getting the crowd into all of her comebacks and bringing them into her pain. Akira Hokuto being a little asshole obviously helped with that too. 

Hokuto was in full asshole mode, taking every single opportunity to yank at Madusa's hair, choke her with her boot, stand on her neck and tits, pressing the limits of what a referee would allow. Hokuto's hair whips alone were nasty as hell. These things were a long way removed from Moolah. Hokuto whips Madusa so hard, into extra rotations, releasing late so it looked like Madusa was getting her face bounced off the mat. I've never seen hair whips look this violent. They looked like something a hairy Russian would have done to Shinya Hashimoto, grabbing him by his sideburns. Madusa peppers in comebacks but Hokuto is relentless, and they manage to work a believably back and forth match without it ever feel like they were just taking turns on offense. Both felt like they were fighting to stay in it as it broke down into suplexes and cool messy kick exchanges, each trying to land against tempo. The crowd is so into Madusa. Her quick series of missile dropkicks are thrown devil-may-care, more important to plant her boots in Hokuto's head, neck, and chest than worry about her landing. When she lands funny on an axe handle, the match takes an even more killer turn. 

Now, Madusa is really good at taking Hokuto's offense in this match. Part of that is surely how forcefully Hokuto delivers that offense. Hokuto's piledriver is going to look good no matter what, but Madusa does this great small rag doll sell of it, getting a little RVD bounce and then crumbling off to the side the way piledriver-taking-expert-salesmen Genichiro Tenryu legitimizes the skeletal pain of one. Her excellent selling of Hokuto's violent offense was enough of its own great performance, but after her unfortunately landed brief knee-buckled axe handle, she got to show off a commitment to limb selling that we haven't seen in WCW this year. In this era of WCW, and during the style of this era, all of the guys who knew how to work over a limb also happened to be prominent Get Your Shit In artists. A necessary evil of most wrestlers who can damage a limb. So Madusa gets the opportunity to blow them out of the water by limping her way through the last half of this excellent match. I think only Roddy Piper's sustained knee and hip selling in the Slamboree main event even approaches what Madusa does here, and not very close. Madusa managed to bridge theatrical limping with enough realness and gutsiness that I fully bought into her fighting through an actual injury. She is good enough in this match that one could convincingly talk themselves into the injury being legit, and her gutting her way through the match rather than just end her career on a whimper of a stoppage. 

I just love what she does with this knee injury. I love how and when she acknowledges it: How she limps her way over to do a corner headstand rana; how she pulls off a legitimately all time great powerbomb, lifting Hokuto over her head and throwing her down with the force of Scott Norton and America behind it, hopping around on one leg to sell the shock of Hokuto's impact. It was in the way that she sold her knee just well enough to show that no matter what she was able to hit with a bad knee, Hokuto knew she was dealing with a wounded animal and was never behind. When she hyperextends Madusa's leg with a kneebar or just stands on the bad knee to dig her boot heels in, we feel it. When Madusa drags her dead leg behind her, narrowly avoiding a missile dropkick, her inability to hold the bridge on her German suplex is felt too. The finish is abrupt and cruel. There is no extended torture. Hokuto is cruel but not stupid. She knows she can't leave hubristic openings. When Madusa's leg buckles on a high atomic drop, Hokuto pounces immediately and with no fanfare, murdering a woman's career with a vertebrae shortening northern lights bomb, opting to torture after the match rather than celebrate her victory. 

After her loss, when Mean Gene almost rudely badgers a crying Madusa about whether, in the moment, she actually realizes her career is over. The crowd actually starts a "Leave Her Alone" chant, which clearly rattles Gene as he repeats, almost incredulously, "Leave Her Alone?!" with his face pulled away from the mic. How often have you ever heard a crowd turn on Mean Gene Okerlund? I can't think of a single time. You can't blame the Gobbledy Gooker on Gene, he was merely stuck in that segment and desperate to salvage. Here, he was the sole focus of the fans' scorn, and it was because of the incredibly convincing performance of Madusa.