ALL TIME MOTY LIST Head to Head 1998: Kandori v. Hotta V. Kandori v. Toyota

Shinobu Kandori v. Manami Toyota AJW 8/23/98

PAS: I am a notorious Toyota hater, but this is a match that even a Manami skeptic can embrace. I love the idea of Manami facing off with a foreign invader trying to regain her big red belt. She comes out totally amped, taking Kandori's handshake and turning it into a choke, and even dropping Kandori with nasty palm strikes. The match structure of this was great, you had Toyota, probably the most prolific offensive wrestler of all time unloading all of her offense on Kandori, and Kandori finding tricky and nasty ways to counter and evade. Loved all of the escapes out of Toyota's suplexes, Kandori landing some vicious ground and palm strikes. Every time Toyota went on one of her runs, Kandori would slow it with brutality. Toyota unloads the whole kitchen sink, multiple suplexes, a crazy flip dive onto a table, her maniac top rope dropkick to the floor, Kandori would absorb it and keep pounding away looking for Toyota to slip up.  It was basically the worlds greatest Sabu v. Taz match. Finish was completely nuts, Toyota is rolling, it feels like she is going to take home the belt, when Kandori victory rolls out of an Ocean Cyclone suplex into a crazy arm and leg figure four, kneebar combo for the tap.

ER: Our first Manami Toyota match review on the site, only 11+ years in!! I really like Phil's Taz/Sabu comparison, but what I found amusing is that Toyota is both Sabu and Taz here, while Kandori is like Fujiwara, enduring a beating and looking for an opening to sink something in. Kandori laid in some beatings, knocked Toyota on her face with a huge lariat, sunk in a triangle that I thought would end things (and I'm not sure I would have even have known what a triangle choke was in 1998) and absorbs incredible damage. Toyota comes off totally deranged, in a great way, all throughout the match. Toyota really brings the attack Kandori with every kind of suplex you can imagine, flying to the floor several times in increasingly dangerous ways, including that sick table spot where her body just plants into Kandori's and that damn Japanese table doesn't break, leaving them kind of frozen in unbalanced pain, and her always vicious dropkick to the floor that always seems to be aimed at the throat. 

The most important thing about the match, for me, was the importance and heft the nearfalls added. The pinfalls felt as important as the moves in this match, and both wrestlers can take such incredible punishment that right from the beginning it felt like it wouldn't necessarily be a big move that ended the match, but a move that best combined impact with pin leverage. Very early on the pinfall escapes were very narrow, but they weren't ever treated like breathless 2.9s, hold for applause heavy breathing at the Godspell curtain call, they were treated like narrow escapes. It showed early that this match could end at any time and either one could end it. I think this made Toyota's run of nasty suplexes down the stretch tremendous, as Kandori would be barely avoiding defeat just by rolling a shoulder, or literally just falling out of pins because the suplex would over-rotate her. There were at least 4 pinning attempts where I was positive the match was over, and the strength of their drama-free kickouts drew me more and more into what would actually finish things. And the actual finish was suitably sick, one of the truly greatest submissions I've seen: part heel hook, part kneebar, a figure 4 on Toyota's arm, just a nasty hold that I thought Toyota sold great. Joshi doesn't always fire with me, but this was such a spirited, intense fight, with real attention and importance paid to pinning an opponent, that I couldn't help but stay glued.


Kandori v. Hotta review

Verdict:

ER: This was a lot closer than I was anticipating, but I think the viciousness of Hotta barely helps our champ retain. This match was a total fireworks show, our champ is a maintenance worker fistfight after something goes wrong at the fireworks show.

PAS: They are both great matches and testimonies to how incredible Kandori is as a wrestler. The visceral violence of the Hotta match is always going to resonate more to me. Still an EPIC for sure


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE KANDORI

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Folks Rush In, 3 Letters try to Stop It. D-I-C-K-T-O-G-O, One Letter Short but Motherfuck the D.A.

Dick Togo/GENTARO vs. Takashi Sasaki/Masashi Takeda FREEDOMS 10/28/10 - GREAT

This was a workrate tag match, kind of the indy Japan version of a ROH Briscoes tag. That isn't my type of wrestling at all, but Dick Togo is the great style equalizer. This kind of match is normally judged on the coolness of moves and the amount of overkill, however Togo's little spots were cool enough that he added and extra dimension. It did well on the two normally criteria though. I thought the end of this match felt like the end, with GENTARO hitting a sweet looking bridged Saito suplex while Togo slapped on a crossface. There was a bunch of cool moves too, Sasaki countered a flying clothesline with a kick to the stomach, Takeda hitting a top rope northern lights suplex. Could have used a dive train, and maybe some cool double teams. Also there was one spot where GENTARO was on the top rope and Sasaki kept spanking his ass, I guess he was trying to knock him off the top but it was weird. Wouldn't be the best match on a PWG show, but would probably be in the top 3.

Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda DDT 1/30/11 - EPIC

The Dick Togo singles match train continues. Gem after gem, his last six months have been incredible. Honda is a comedy guy an used to be Togo's partner in the DDT Italian Horseman. This is clearly the match of his life, and I give him a ton of credit for stepping up and bringing it to Togo like he did. Early part of the match had Honda working over Togo's arm. Togo did a really nice job selling, and it makes total sense to give him a ding to make Honda's offense credible, still Honda's attack was a little pedestrian. Match really kicks it into gear when Honda hits a nice tope and comes up bloody. After that, the match morphs into a Mid South Coliseum main event, with Togo working over the bloody babyface and Honda making awesome valiant comebacks. Togo has him in the corner, smashing his head into the turnbuckle and punching him, and Honda does a full on Lawler 1986 TX Death Match comeback, dropped strap, 17 punch combo ending in a huge uppercut for a near fall. Such a neat moment, which Togo sold perfectly. We get a big near fall run, which is really something that Dick Togo does better then anyone in the world, and then take a trip back to TN with an awesome punch Lawler v. Mantel style toe to toe punch exchange. Hell of match, the kind of thing only Dick Togo can deliver in 2011. If he really retires in June it will be at the height of his game, like Jordan leaving in 93, lets hope Togo does a season of minor league baseball and returns to the game

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Manami Toyota CHIKARA 4/16/11 - FUN

The Chikara trios matches continue to be disappointing. Everyone in this match it as least a solid wrestler, but it never felt like they got on the same page. Togo was the best guy in the match, although it may have been the least spectacular Togo match I have seen in this project. He was a bunch of fun smacking around Toyota, making great asshole faces. I enjoyed Jigsaw here too, as he hit a pretty tope and moved around well. Everyone else was pretty MIA. You kept wanting this match to explode in a crazy run, and it never really did. The finish especially felt really flat. This didn't have as many things to hate as the opening round match, but it didn't have a ton to love either.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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