August 8, 201312 yr Author comment_5555417 There appears to be some minor clipping throughout this. Not sure if there's a completely unedited version out there somewhere or not. Yet another great match in the month of April, as Kudo is the master of this style and Ozaki is a great brawler who can carry the performance with her charisma and facial expressions. These two are pretty fearless, as Kudo I think has found an opponent that's even going to push her to do a little more than usual in this environment. But even the nutty spots are built up well and sold properly. And that's the genius of Megumi Kudo (and maybe you could say the same thing about Ozaki) as a worker -- she gives meaning and weight to every crazy thing she does by selling it properly, timing it properly within a match and building to those big moments as something special. I'd call her the Mick Foley of Joshi in that some people are just going to write her off as an unnecessary risk taker, but there's something smarter going on than that in the performance. 1997 has been really good to her, and it's unfortunate that this is the last full match we're getting from her. Luckily, Ozaki isn't quite done with us yet.
August 8, 201312 yr comment_5555420 There appears to be some minor clipping throughout this. There's a few diff versions The most common 1 shows about 12 of 17 mins from story of the F 2 which is the version i've got. There's a longer full/near full fan cam version available and I think it may have gotten released on another VHS tape back in the day too.
August 15, 201312 yr comment_5556423 I thought this was much better than the Kandori matches, though with the clipping it's hard to tell exactly how good it is. If you're going to work death matches then barbed wire ones are the best as the action is confined to the ring more, which I prefer over crowd brawling. I also liked the constant struggling to throw each over onto the barbed wire board. That was a great dynamic.
September 3, 201312 yr comment_5560079 I absolutely loved the spot where Kudo hits a powerbomb into a pinning position. But Ozaki kicks out and with momentum, Ozaki ends up going off the side of the ring into the barbed wire board below. There is plenty of ring action to go along with the good spots built around the barbed wire boards. The Kudo retirement tour has been good.
September 16, 201312 yr comment_5563148 Clipping was odd but action within this match was super with great build and timing to the big spots and brutality. We bid adieu to Kudo in a sad moment. Ozaki's stock is really rising in my eyes as she has been great in the 1997 stuff so far.
September 7, 201510 yr comment_5697557 I don't know why they felt the need to clip this, but this was another smartly worked death match with two ladies in their element and good build to the big confrontations with barbed wire, particularly the beds on the floor. Even with all of the weaponry surrounding them, they take a less-is-more approach to both the big bumps and the match layout itself--it's simple, right down to the finisher-trading at the ending, but simpliicty works. Toyoda and now Kudo retiring definitely leaves FMW with a major void.
January 4, 20178 yr comment_5781498 #364 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-400-351/2/ This made the list for the Top 500 matches of the 90s by Loss. As noted, it's listed at 364. I watched it today, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I thought I'd just note on the board where it ranked.
May 2, 20178 yr comment_5799080 Would love to see a full version of this but the clipped version is still pretty damn fantastic. Super violent of course with great pacing and build with some truly amazing, imaginative and unique transitions. I liked Ozaki working from underneath against Kudo who had more experience in this sort of setting. Some of the selling was iffy but the attention to detail made up for it. **** 1/4
June 29, 20205 yr comment_5921776 Does there exist a full version of this match? Because the 12 minutes we get here is sensational.
July 11, 20232 yr comment_6007021 Mayumi Ozaki vs Megumi Kudo 04-18-1997 FMW Fighting Creation - Tag 2 We continue Megumi Kudo’s retirement tour, this time she is going against Mayumi Ozaki, she is dressed up as Street Fight Mayumi so you know what we’re going to get today, a barbed wire deathmatch that FMW named No Ropes Barbed Wire Double Hell Death, that’s literally how they named it, I love the goofy names FMW gave to their stipulation, sometimes it feels like they were making these names funny on purpose, I don’t believe that someone put that name to an stipulation and thought that everyone was going to take it seriously, it reminds of the american names in Super Mega Baseball, you know Stallion Johnson,Slapper Glutes or Immaculo Spectaculo. Let’s get back to wrestling shall we, this match is clipped, I don’t know if we have a full version of this but if that’s the case please notify me, we have only twelve minutes of wrestling in our hands but it looks like the match was twenty minutes long or close to that number, it’s one of Megumi’s last career match, in fact, it’s the second to last match of this retrospective, the last one will be of course her last match against Shark Tsuchiya April 29th 1997, the name of the stipulation is even more ridiculous than this one, it’s No Ropes Barbed Wire Current Explosion Barricade Double Hell Death I swear I’m not making that up, please trust me. The match starts as usual, with both wrestlers playing around the barbed wire putting over the possibility of making contact with the wire, the first one to suffer this fate was Mayumi Ozaki, it’s interesting considering that usually is Megumi the one that goes to the wire first but not this time. Megumi proceeded to beat her up until Mayumi threw her into the barbed wire placed on the floor, then Mayumi used what looks like a dog collar to punish Megumi. Megumi made a comeback that lasted the rest of the match, Megumi got the win with her vertebreaker, the Kudome. I’d recommend this match if you like barbed wire deathmatches like Bambi & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Arisa Nakajima & Chikayo Nagashima from 2008, unfortunately this one is worse.
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