AJW Dream Slam I - 2nd April 1993 - Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori
Intro
I don't know about you, but I often get sucked into the black hole that is the wrestling part of Wikipedia. Sometimes it takes me hours to re-emerge. There's something about such a meticulously curated list of title reigns, entrance themes and signature moves which really appeals to me. I love looking at the evolution of wrestlers, especially their movesets. (Who knew that Dean Ambrose's finisher in FCW used to be an over-the-shoulder belly-to-back piledriver (AKA White Noise)? Not me, until I trawled his Wikipedia page.
Sometimes, in the course of my epic internet voyages, I end up looking at the pages of Japanese female wrestlers (AKA joshi wrestlers) from the 90s. I usually know very little about them, though I've often heard the names. When it comes to their movesets, however, one word stands out as being remarkably common: "innovated". It's the term used on Wikipedia to indicate that a certain move is believed to have been invented by the performer in question, and it crops up everywhere on the pages of joshi wrestlers. If you think of a dangerous-looking move that an indie wrestler with a pair of kickpads and a name like 'Joey Dragon' would do 20 times in a match, chances are that it was invented in the 80s or 90s by a 20-something Japanese lady. The Death Valley Driver? Invented by Etsuko Mita. The Burning Hammer? Kyoko Inoue. The Vertebreaker? Megumi Kudo. Baby Dean Ambrose's FCW finisher? That was Mariko Yoshida's Air Raid Crash. Even, the goddamn Jackhammer, a move now so synonymous with Goldberg that anyone else using it is seen as a sign of immense disrepect (just look at Ryback), was originally invented by Jaguar Yokota in the 1980s. (And I'm willing to bet a lot of money that Goldberg didn't have to get her permission before he used it...) As for Akira Hokuto, one of the wrestlers in this match, she invented the Northern Lights Bomb (perhaps better known as Al Snow's Snow Plow in the US), as well as the Gutwrench Sit-out Powerbomb, which Kenny Omega uses these days.
It was discovering how many moves were invented by Japanese women which first made me sit up and take notice of joshi wrestling. Then, fairly recently, I watched my first joshi match: Manami Toyota vs. Aja Kong. I was blown away. It was quite a revelation to me, because the WWE version of history is that women's wrestling only started properly in 2015, beyond a few isolated matches and performers like Trish and Lita. Yet here was evidence of women having a huge yet unappreciated impact on the wrestling business, some 30 years before the "Divas Revolution" was even a twinkle in Stephanie McMahon's eye.
It was only when I did some more digging into the history of women's wrestling that I realised what a phenomenon joshi wrestling was in the mid-90s, and how the then-WWF's completely failed to capitalise on it. True, the WWF did import a lot of female Japanese talent in the mid-90s, but the whole division was built around a single woman: Alundra Blayze. As talented as Blayze was, when she left suddenly and dramatically for WCW in 1995, the 'division' naturally collapsed into nothing, as no-one other than Blayze had anything resembling a character. Rather than actually trying to revive the women's division with a fresh injection of talent, the WWF just let the whole thing drop, and thus began the transition into the Attitude Era, where women, even if they wrestled, were simply treated as sex objects, an appraoch which continued well into the 2010s, and the effects of which are still all too visible. The WWF presumably thought that sex was a better marketing tool than good wrestling. Were they right? The immense popularity of the WWF during the Attitude Era suggests that they were, although from my own experience, the crowd reactions to the women's matches in 1993-94 were pretty great. What if the sexualisation of women in WWE coming at the same time success of the Attitude Era was a coincidence? There's nothing about the edgy punk-rock 'attitude' of the late-90s WWF that would have made it incompatible with good women's wrestling. Just look at the excellent all-female UK promotion, Pro-Wrestling EVE, which has that same chaotic feel to it, but with a thoroughly inclusive, progressive feminist mindset.
Anyway, I digress. This isn't an article about women's wrestling in the West: it's about a legendary match from Japan in 1993, when joshi wrestling was a big deal. And I mean a BIG deal. A year later, in December 1994, the same all-female promotion, AJW, would hold a show called Big Egg Universe in the Tokyo Dome, which drew a crowd of 30 - 40,000, a higher attendance than many early WrestleManias. I'll admit I don't know that much about either woman in this match; despite being interested in it, I'm still very much a novice when it comes to joshi. So let's cut to the chase and dive straight in.
The match
One thing I've learnt recently is that there is a lot of filler in 90s Japanese PPVs. The running time of Dream Slam I is an eye-watering SIX AND A HALF HOURS, and 80% of that seems to be stony-faced interviews in front of bland backgrounds, of which I can understand exactly nothing. Akira Hokuto looks bloody terrifying though in her giant wig and... wait, has she stolen Jim Cornette's tennis racket? Oh, no, it's a sword. That's badass. Shinobu Kandori looks much more normal, but in an equally intimidating way. Now they're both in the ring, and Hokuto is wearing a ferocious noh mask from traditional Japanese theatre, kneeling with her sword pointing into the ground. She looks like a demon samurai and I'm slightly in love. Sadly she has to take her awesome entrance gear off, and suddenly she looks about half the size she did before.
The bell rings, and the two women circle each other like hungry wolves. This feels big already. Suddenly Hokuto lunges and hits an incredibly stiff elbow to Kandori's head. She collapses, and Hokuto grabs a mic, launching into a tirade of angry Japanese. It's utterly terrifying and I fully believe that she's the "Dangerous Queen" that the commentary team claim her to be, in the only two words of English that I can make out. On the topic of the commentary, I can't understand it at all, so I don't know how good it is, but I notice that there's at least one woman on the announce team, which is refreshing to hear.
Kandori is pissed, and fires back with palm strikes. Then, out of nowhere, she catches Hokuto in a Fujiwara armbar, which I believe is her finisher. She wrenches back on it so hard that it looks as though Hokuto's arm is broken. Hokuto is screaming in pure agony. When Kandori finally lets go, Hokuto can barely move her arm and holds it at a horribly unnatural angle. She rolls to the outside, still screaming in pain, and instantly she's surrounded by a team of medical officials, who spray what looks like deep heat on it (which is a nice touch). I may not know anything about these characters or be able to understand a word of the commentary, but instantly the face/heel dynamic is established. I initially thought that Hokuto would be the heel, what with her demonic entrance gear and shouty promo, but her masterful selling of her arm instantly sets her up as the 'face in peril'.
Finally she crawls back into the ring, but Kandori just stomps her right back out again. Is there count-out in this match? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's no-DQ, as they're gone from the ring for quite some time at points. Hokuto brushes off the medical team and yells what I'm going to assume is something like "piss off" at them. When she gets back into the ring, Kandori just starts to beat the shit out of her, but she responds with strikes of her own. This is strong-style alright. I'm not a massive fan of pure, strike-heavy strong-style matches, I must say. I watched the Shibata/Ishii match that Metlzer gave 5*s to (as he did to this match, in fact), and I didn't particularly enjoy it. I was just worried that they'd actually cause serious injury to each other or themselves (as indeed would happen with Shibata's tragic accident last year, which makes me even less able to enjoy full-force strikes). I love a nice, snug match now and then (as evidenced by my fondness for Vader), but there's a reason I don't enjoy MMA. I want to know that the participants are keeping each other safe and not actually trying to inflict lasting damage, even if they do inflict some real pain. This looks incredibly realistic, but in doing so is coming rather close to a real fight for my tastes and I'm struggling to enjoy it at this point.
After some more brawling, Kandori goes to the outside. Hokuto looks as though she'll attempt an asai moonsault, but Kandori hits a clothesline to the back of her head to send her back into the ring. OUCH. Kandori follows up with a body slam and tries for the armbar again, but this time Hokuto is ready for it, and determined not to let her lock it in, keeping her hands locked together. Kandori settles for a Kimura (I think - or it might have been a keylock: I'm not too good on differentiating the numerous arm-based submissions). Hokuto reaches the ropes though, and uses the break to slap on an armbar of her own, but Kandori gets out of it.
They brawl to the outside, and vault the barricade onto the announce table. Hokuto hoists Kandori up for a tombstone... but wait! Kandori gets a sweet version of the classic 'Taker/Kane reversal and then... JESUS CHRIST. She just drops Hokuto hard onto the table, which doesn't give an inch. Hokuto's eyes are glazed as she rolls onto the floor. The camera focusses in on the table and THERE'S A GODDAMN DENT IN IT. HOLY SHIT. I presume that was some kind of rigged table, but I realise I don't want to know, and nor do I care. It's incredibly effective. Kandori heads back to the ring and gets... cheered?! I'm not sure I'm quite in sync with the crowd here. I'm very much behind Hokuto. Kandori is a bully. I want to see her get taken down.
The camera goes back to Hokuto who is surrounded by her medical team, and HOLY SHIT THAT IS A LOT OF BLOOD. (The smark inside me wonders if it was the 'medical team' who did the blade job. If so, that's really clever.) She is a bloody mess almost instantly. I might have to turn this one off fullscreen, as I'm not particularly great with close-ups of lots of blood. I get a bit squeamish. (And yet Mick Foley is one of my favourite wrestlers. Go figure...)
Back in the ring, and Kandori takes over with ruthless kicks to the head of her bloodied opponent, but eventually Hokuto hits a clothesline and gets Kandori to the outside, this time in control. They head into the audience, who crowd round them rabidly. The camera crew can't get past to keep up, which feels wonderfully chaotic. The few shots we're able to see show that Hokuto has gone full Muta. With her grisly crimson mask, her face now resembles the demonic visage from her entrance gear, only this time there's no costume. She's not dressed as a demon now: she is the demon.
The camera cuts to a long shot and we can just see the crowd swirling round a central point where I can only assume the two wrestlers are fighting. Eventually they tumble back through the barricade and we see that Kandori is bleeding now, though nowhere near as profusely as Hokuto, presumably from having her head banged against the railings. Both can barely stand. I check the time and it's only been 10 minutes since the start of the match. Shit. I'm not sure I can last another 20. It's so intense.
They get back in the ring, and Hokuto hits repeated big boots. I'm not sure there's been more than two actual wrestling moves yet: just stiff strikes. I appreciate the story they're telling in such a masterful way, but I'm beginning to wonder if this match is for me. It's hard to watch.
After some more stomping, Kandori goes for what looks like it'll be a suplex onto the ropes, but she just dumps Hokuto straight to the outside face first, over the top rope. Jesus. She follows it up with a slingshot plancha which destroys Hokuto. There's blood EVERYWHERE.
After they make it back to the ring, Kandori attempts a back suplex. Hokuto tries to struggle out of it, but Kandori just uses brute force and hits it anyway. The details like that in this match are what's making it feel like a real fight, I think. There's something of Bret Hart in the way that both women are adding little touches to make you believe in what they're doing.
Suddenly Kandori goes back to the Fujiwara armbar, but again Hokuto is ready for her, and resists it, so Kandori transitions into a crossface chickenwing. I like this mini story that's developing: Kandori keeps going for her deadly, match-ending armbar, but Hokuto blocks every attempt to lock it in, so she keeps switching to less effective submissions in order to surprise Hokuto and maintain control.
Hokuto slaps Kandori hard, then DRILLS her with a brutal snap piledriver, which is presumably revenge for the Tombstone onto the table. Not content with trying to kill Kandori once, she then follows this up with one of the most vicious spin kicks I've ever seen. Kandori just collapses onto the ropes and I'm not sure if she's selling or genuinely out cold. It's incredible. Hokuto tries for another but whiffs it, and Kandori grabs the leg for a submission, but has to break on the ropes.
She follows up with repeated strikes and gets a DDT for the first cover of the match (I think), but Hokuto kicks out. Kandori's real plan is revealed, however, when she immediately clamps Hokuto in a headscissors and looks to grab her arm for the armbar. Maybe the pin was just a way to get into position. Clever stuff. Hokuto locks her fingers again though. The expressions of both wrestlers tells me that if she unlaced them and Kandori were able to lock in the hold, Hokuto would tap immediately. After my hesitation earlier, I'm hooked in by the incredible storytelling and I realise I'm on the edge of my seat.
Hokuto transitions into a Single Leg Boston Crab, and Kandori rolls it through for one of her own, but there's a rope break. Hokuto looks knackered, but fires back with a snap suplex. She barely gets a two count. She has a huge mountain to climb if she's going to beat her opponent, whereas Kandori looks as though she could seize victory at any moment.
Hokuto hits a body slam and climbs to the top for a picture perfect splash, leaping halfway across the ring. Kandori sells perfectly, clutching her ribs and gasping for air. Hokuto heads up to the opposite turnbuckle for another splash, but this time Kandori gets her knees up, and it's Hokuto's turn to sell equally perfectly. Kandori gets to her feet and hits a magnificent deadlift powerbomb, hoisting Hokuto high up into the air and slamming her down into a prawn hold cover. Textbook stuff. Miraculously, Hokuto is out at 2. Kandori heads up to the top for a crossbody, but it's too far and Hokuto swats her away, before hitting a German Suplex with a lovely bridge. Kandori literally struggles out before the 3, in another beautiful little detail. Both women are covered in blood: their own and each other's.
Hokuto climbs to the top again, this time perhaps looking for a moonsault, but Kandori snatches her off into a sleeper and ragdolls her! It looks so cool. Hokuto escapes briefly, but Kandori just locks it back on, this time with bodyscissors. The crowd chant for Hokuto and this time I'm right there with them. Hokuto gets so close to the ropes, and there's an agonising delay before she finally touches them with her fingertips. She looks to be out cold, and the ref slaps her full force on the back several times. Dude. Was that necessary? Presumably it was to check if she was responsive. She doesn't look conscious to me, but the ref is obviously satisfied, and the match continues.
Hokuto comes to. She just grabs a handful of Kandori's hair and won't let go, as if it's the only thing she can do. Kandori lifts her for another powerbomb, but this time Hokuto manages to reverse it with a beautiful headscissors takedown (a move I love that I've only seen in older matches, perhaps being replaced with the hurricanrana in modern wrestling). Hokuto sandbags an Irish whip and then hits her own version of Kandori's powerbomb! She doesn't get Kandori up as high as Kandori was able to get her, which both sells her injuries and makes the move look even more brutal somehow, as she just drops Kandori on her neck. A prawn hold gets Hokuto a good near fall. She's getting closer.
She follows up with a spin kick and Kandori falls back through the ropes. Hokuto leaps onto the top rope, then BALANCES THERE FOR LIKE A WHOLE SECOND, BEFORE HITTING A CANNONBALL TO THE OUTSIDE. HOOLLLYYY SHIIITTT. Sorry for the sudden profusion of capslock, but this is incredible. JR's iconic call of "somebody stop the damn match" gets overused these days, but it's applicable here. Both women are down on the outside, just screaming, and it doesn't feel like over-selling in the slightest.
Kandori struggles to her feet and back towards the apron, and I'm expecting things to calm down but then HOLY SHIT THAT'S HOKUTO OUT OF NOWHERE WITH A GODDAMN FRONT MISSILE DROPKICK FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE OUTSIDE. She flies like a javelin, hitting Kandori square in the chest, and both women collapse. What a bump.
Now we get the change in pace, as seemingly hundreds of medical officials check on both women. Japanese ringsides always look so busy: there are so many people milling around, even during a match. I realise that here, each woman has her own support team, like in a boxing match, which makes this seem even more like a real fight.
Eventually they get back in the ring. Hokuto calls for something (presumably her finisher, the Northern Lights Bomb) and the crowd pops. This is a fatal error though as it allows Kandori to slap on the armbar, and this time Hokuto isn't ready for it! She literally flops around the ring like a fish out of water, desperately trying to break the hold, but risking serious damage to her arm at the same time. Fortunately, her flapping propels both women to the ropes. I'm on the edge of my seat. I don't want Hokuto to tap. Why isn't the referee breaking this up?! Come on, ref! Finally he forces the break and the two collapse.
Kandori is up first and drags Hokuto up in a double underhook... but it's a ruse to allow her to slip on the armbar again without Hokuto being able to prepare for it! You don't often see feints in wrestling, and that was a wonderful one. Hokuto manages to struggle out though, so Kandori goes back to the double underhook and this time uses it to hit a sublime Tiger Driver, with huge air-time on it. ...But Hokuto kicks out! The crowd is electric.
Kandori hits running strikes, but Hokuto won't stay down. On the third attempt, Hokuto reverses into an amazing bridging back suplex kind of thing, with her head under Kandori's arm. I don't really know what to call it, other than 'beautiful'. Kandori kicks out, which whips the crowd into a frenzy.
Just as they reach fever pitch, Hokuto calls for the Northern Lights Bomb again, lifts Kandori up, and this time she hits it! It looks utterly devastating. That's surely it. 1,2... KICK OUT. ...Barely. It's more of a 'flop out', as Kandori uses her last ounce of strength to slide out of the pin. Hokuto can't believe it. She hoists Kandori to her feet and calls for another Nothern Lights Bomb, but this time Kandori is ready for it and reverses it into a Northern Lights Bomb of her own! I love it when wrestlers steal each other's finishers, and this is a perfect example, with spot-on psychology. Kandori covers... but Hokuto kicks out! HOW? The arena is filled with a chant of "Hokuto". It would be loud by the standards of American crowds, let alone Japanese audiences, who often keep a respectful silence.
Both women stagger to their feet. Hokuto lunges forward with a punch and both women collapse. Back up again. Kandori hits a punch. Both women go down. Back up again. Both women go for a punch, but Hokuto gets there first and hits Kandori with all of her remaining strength. Both women go down. But only Hokuto is able to use her final reserves of energy to literally drag herself over Kandori for a cover of sorts. It's not even the one-armed 'desperation cover' of WWE: she just crawls on top of Kandori, like she's using her own body as dead weight to keep Kandori down. 1, 2, 3. That's it. The bell rings. Kandori looks out. Neither woman moves. Hokuto got the pin off one punch, but the fact that it doesn't feel like an anti-climax is testament to the hell that both wrestlers have put each other through. I feel as drained as both women look.
Eventually Kandori staggers to her feet and is helped to the back. She looks pissed. Hokuto can't even manage to stand. She just sits where she is in the ring and someone hands her a mic. She starts to speak, blood cascading down her face. If you want an iconic image, there it is. I have no idea what she's saying, but she screams it at the top of her lungs with passion and violence. It's visceral and unsettling, and one of the most effective post-match promos I've ever seen, despite me not understanding a word of it. Eventually she finishes her tirade and collapses, before lurching to her feet again in triumph, staggering unsteadily around the ring, supported by her crew. I can't help but feel that I've witnessed a real, literal war between two forces of nature. I need a lie down.
Concluding thoughts: Hoo boy. This one is not an easy watch, but I think it might be one of the best matches I've ever seen. This is wrestling as violent, passionate art. This is Bret vs. Austin at WrestleMania 13. Great films don't have to be fun to be great. (Hell, you can personally hate a film, and still think it's a great piece of art.) Wrestling matches should be the same, if we want them to be considered as art. I enjoyed this match in the end, but I'm not sure it could be called 'fun'. It's grim and unrelenting, and for a good third of the match, I thought I hated it. But once both wrestlers started busting out actual moves (I do think the brawl at the beginning might be a smidge too long), I was hooked. Its genius is not in its technical prowess (though both women pull off some amazing moves), nor in its endless innovation (though some of the transitions look incredible): the real triumph is the story, and the way it remorselessly hits you with raw emotion like a gut-punch. Even if you don't speak a word of Japanese, the narrative stands out crystal clear, with all its many details. You don't need words to understand Akira Hokuto's struggle to overcome her opponent. Her flawless selling tells you everything you need to know. Sometimes, when you're watching a match, it's hard to forget that wrestling is fake. In this match it's hard to remember that it isn't real. I had to keep reminding myself that these were performers, playing characters, pretending to drag each other to the brink of death. They are utterly convincing. I'll definitely seek out more matches from these two, especially Akira Hokuto, who I thought gave one of the best performances I've ever seen in a match.
This commitment to telling a believable story is what makes the best joshi wrestlers so special, not any number of GIFs of spectacular spots on Twitter captioned "Japanese women be crazy". WWE would do well to remember that when they repeatedly fail to tell compelling stories in their women's divisions. If wrestling is ever going to be accepted as a true art form, it will be because of matches like this. If female wrestlers are ever to be held in the same regard as male wrestlers, it will be because they are given the chance to have matches like this.
Verdict: Watch this match. Nothing else I've seen is quite like it.
Great review!
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