International Women's Day Special: Hotta vs. Kandori 2

Shinobu Kandori vs. Yumiko Hotta LLPW 3/10/99 - EPIC

PAS: This is one of wrestlings great rivalries, two extra strength crowbars and hyper skilled grapplers going to war. In their previous match Kandori captured the big red belt and has been holding onto it since, and this Hotta coming in to take it back. Much like the first match this had some real killer grappling with both ladies working there way into slick triangle chokes. Hotta is all about finding ways to sneak in fierce little shots, they grapple for an arm, and Hotta knees her in the temple, Kandori tries for a scissors kick takedown but get stomped. Hotta is hellbent to not let her get to much into her grappling bag  Kandori in the guard is something I adored about their 98 match, and she is slick as fuck off her back here too, she is so good at making that guard look active, stymieing five Hotta attempts, but succumbing to the sixth. Finish is very cool with Hotta barely getting to the ropes on two nasty submission attempts, rolling to the floor,  only to nearly get caught with another standing armbar when both get back into the ring. Hotta is able to brain smush Kandori with a headbut which sends her to the floor, and when she tries to get back Hotta hits a 57 yard field goal with her head, causing Kandori to barely get counted out and lose the belt. It was a bit of a "Kandori doesn't job" finish, but a nasty one. This doesn't have the blood of the first match, but the actual work was right up there, another classic.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KANDORI

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You Call Kandori a Cheater She Left You to Die

Shinobu Kandori/Rumi Kazama/Yasha Kurenai vs. Eagle Sawai/Michiko Nagashima/Sayuri Okino LLPW 2/15/98 - EPIC

SR: Amazing match, which on first watch I thought was seriously fucking with some of the absolute top brawls in history. This was insanely heated and everyone was brutalizing each other, but even more they succeeded in conveying real desperation on the babyface side without going into hammy territory. Whole match was violent to the core and they never let up, these girls didn't hold back with chairs, kendo sticks, other plunder and just straight up kicking eachother in the face, and the heel team of Sawai, Nagashima and Okino was great at working cut offs, isolating their opponents and swarming them. Of course Kandoris superstar charisma is outstanding, and she will do cool things like look in flash submissions during brawling exchanges or counter a chain attack with a judo throw, but the stars of the match are somehow Yasha Kurenai and Michiko Nagashima. Eagle Sawai is also good her as just a big monster crushing people with body attacks and power moves, and Rumi Kazama is solid as a veteran lady wrestler who can kick hard. Nagashima looks damn good punching people in the face with her fist wrapped in a chain, hitting unexpectedly violent offense and taking nasty bumps. Kurenai is fierce booting peoples heads off and the heat segment on her ended up being seriously great due to being smartly laid out (in such a way that when you'd guess the hot tag would happen, it doesn't). 

It sets up a tremendous second half where Kurenai keeps running in, being a bloody mess and looking half dead, and going fucking crazy on the heels with kendo sticks and even a scissor, trying to take chunks out of Eagle Sawai. You really end up wanting her to get to win but also dreading her getting pinned due to how sympathetic she is set up to be. Shark Tsuchiya and Lioness Asuka interfere in the match along with like a dozen tracksuited ringside girls from LLPW and JD' trying to jump into the frey, and while I normally dislike liberal interference in joshi matches, it felt like a frantic gang war here. I could see some folks being irked by them teasing some hot nearfalls and then doing an elaborate chain spot followed by another heat segment, although I thought everything worked and it was a suitably crazy moment. Finish was completely unexpected but great. I think the match would have moved into all-time territory if we had gotten Kandori choking some people out and Kurenai being involved in the finish to pay of her story more, but those are very minor criticisms for what was a damn great unpredictable brawl.

PAS: Killer discovery by Sebastian who is truly the master of digging in the mines.  This is a wild gang fight with lots of mean looking ladies in ugly colors and fringe mangling each other. Our girl Kandori is somewhat of a minor player in this, although she does get one superstar moment where she cleans house with nasty straight punches, gets cut off with a chain to the ribs, and then turns an attempting Eagle Sawai chain choke into a judo throw. Kurenai and Nagashima take the biggest beatings with blood caking on Kurenai's head and Nagashima getting hung by the ankles and wailed upon.  I dug the wildness of it, with lots of random gals running in and smashing and being smashed. I thought it needed a slightly bigger climax to move into all time legendary status, but still a hell of find. 

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Shinobu Kandori Feels the Glass Against Her Cheek

Shinobu Kandori vs. Meiko Satomura LLPW 2/25/07 - EPIC

PAS: Man it feels like 2000s Kandori might be an undiscovered gold mine. In this match she is more like NOAH Misawa then the killing machine she was in the prime of her career. Broken down gunslinger is one of my favorite wrestling tropes, and she is great as someone fighting through the beating, too old to die young. Kandori comes in with bandages over some nasty bruise cuts on her forehead, and Meiko spends most of the match trying to kick those bandages off. Meiko was great in this match as well, she is the next version of a brutal asskicker and trying to take down the old queen. Kandori is a master grappler, and still has that in her arsenal, as she slips in some nasty submissions from the ground. The end of this match is great Kandori is getting plastered but she sidesteps a pele kick and dives into a desperation rear naked choke, she slips her forearm across the throat and the ref breaks the hold, but that extra bit of illegal choking allowed her ragdoll Meiko enough to get a powerbomb and a win.

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Shinobu Kandori Can't Deny She is Begging for Attention

Shinobu Kandori vs. Rumi Kazama LLPW 8/4/95 - GREAT

PAS: Cool chance to see Kandori work the ace role in an intra, rather then an interpromotional setting. Kazama looks and dresses like a Japanese Judy Tenuta, and has kind of a basic thick girl joshi brawling style. Sort of a super poor ladies Aja Kong. Kandori is good enough to a bunch of cool stuff with Big Slam Bull Nakano though. Match opens with Kandori ripping off a Kevin Von Erich style headscissiors right into an armbar which was totally awesome looking. The whole match was basically her pulling out cool shoot style shit around some side slams and elbow drops. I loved a spot early in the match were Kazama finds herself on top and throws a punch down, Kandori waves her into the guard, spins her seamlessly into top control and throws an eye crosser of a punch. Finish was really cool too, with Kandori rolling all around Kazama's body trying on a bunch of different submissions until she rolls through into an armbar and reverse choke for the tap. There were a couple of wonky moments, and Kazama brought very little to the table, but it was another great Kandori performance, what an all time talent she was.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINOBU KANDORI

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Kandori is Sick and Tired of Fights Starting Wars

Shinobu Kandori/Mizuki Endo vs. Yumiko Hotta/Kumiko Maekawa LLPW 8/15/97 - EPIC

PAS: I reviewed a great AJW tag between these two teams a week later, but this was at another level. Match starts out great with Endo going for a shoot and takedown on Hotta, unfortunately for her Hotta walks over after and gives her dental surgery with a kick to the face. Maekawa is great in this too, she lands these awesome hook kicks right to the head and face. Kandori and Hotta is an all time great rivalry and they have some cool interactions here. I loved the finish, Hotta comes in to make multiple violent saves, Kandori angrily gestures her to leave the ring and as Hotta turns her back Kandori back jumps her and chokes her out. We get a great run of near falls which ends with Kandori nearly ripping off Maekawas arm while she was waving and smirking at Hotta. Total asskicking and another chapter in the amazing Hotta vs. Kandori feud

ER: Really fun hate-filled tag, looked vaguely unprofessional and was nice and messy-in-a-good-way. Endo was a good Energizer bunny, getting her mouth bloodied early as a tough scrap with Hotta ends with Hotta kicking her in the mouth and targeting her for the match. I can't handle some of these boston crabs in joshi; Hotta looks like she's trying to make Endo feel heat whenever she twists for the rest of her life. It didn't scare Endo but I like how she was presented as Kandori's weak link. Hotta vs. Kandori felt like a crazy anime battle, both very expressive with body language and both come across as total badasses. Maekawa shows good energy and while everything throws out doesn't always land flush, her spirited delivery makes it work. Hotta was such a fun bully here, doing dickhead things like yanking Endo around by her top knot, and I loved all the various choke exchanges we got, everybody showing off their own personal method for choking out a human. Kandori's match ending armbar was great, mocking Hotta the whole time but then looking genuinely excited that she won. Loved all of this.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KANDORI

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1998 Match of the Year

Shinobu Kandori v. Yumiko Hotta LLPW 3/21/98

PAS: This was a KO or submission match for the WWWA title, and merciful fuck was this a war. Kandori opens up by tackling Hotta to the floor, after they get back into the ring, they scramble and it ends up with Hotta field goal kicking Kandori right in the head. Hell of a way to open a match and it really lets you know you are watching something special. This match has the greatest guard work I have ever seen in a pro-wrestling match, Kandori is basically a distaff worked Demien Maia. There is this great section early in the match where Kandori is in rubber guard and Hotta, frustrated with her inability to pass, just rains down headbutts splitting her own head open. For the rest of the match Hotta has blood streaming down her head which totally adds to the crazed aura. Of course with these two quasi unprofessional ladies everything is thrown with reckless abandon. Hotta is just unloading KO shots with every kick, Kandori is trying to crack jaws with every slap. Finish was great, Hotta lands two big bombs, a double underhook piledriver, and a nasty liger bomb, but clearly weak from blood loss, she forgets the rules and goes for a pin. This allows Kandori to catch her from the bottom with a great tight triangle choke for the tap out. It was basically a worked version of the Chael Sonnen v. Anderson Silva finish 12 years before that fight. Such a masterful piece of violence and a Segunda Caida match through and through

ER: There's nothing quite like a big wrestling title or stips match, the best ones just have an aura of something bigger. Hotta punts a prone Kandori in the head less than a minute into this, so you just knew what kind of scrap this was going to be from go. Hotta is a total savage here and Kandori leans into one of my favorite roles, underdog who is nasty herself and also resilient. Kandori can take a beating and keep her eye out for openings, like Fujiwara or Ishikawa. Hotta is mean and her face looks like she wants nothing more than to keep her title. She's the one going for less dignified attacks first, the one immediately trying to put Kandori away. She throws in that punt, locks in a quick sleeper choke, and starts jamming headbutts from mount, busting herself open immediately. Blood will always ramp things up, and Hotta's blood-covered face makes her look simultaneously more savage and more desperate. There's a moment where Kandori goes for a pin, looks up at the ref whwn she realizes the ref isn't counting (due to the KO/Submission stips) and while she's looking Hotta grabs her arm for a sub attempt. I loved that as it came into play on the finish, with Kandori getting that same benefit of Hotta waiting for a pin count, allowing her to lock on the finishing triangle. While Kandori is going for submissions as a way to victory, Hotta is going for knockouts. At one point Kandori is seated, and Hotta walks up behind her and just wraps a kick around her face. The callback finish was great, with Hotta hitting a nasty snap piledriver and then rolling through to deliver a vertically spiking tiger driver; she waits for a pin, and a loopy Kandori locks on a triangle that the exhausted Hotta can't escape. This will be a fun inaugural champ for a year with no obvious champs or challengers.


ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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