Joseph and Colette Discuss Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto
Joseph and Colette Discuss Aja Kong vs. Akira Hokuto
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With that out of the way, here is the conversation Joseph and I had about the main event of Big Egg Wrestling Universe, the VTOP Women Tournament finals between Aja Kong and Akira Hokuto. Joseph’s essay is here, and mine is here. —Colette
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
So our match this week is the main event of a very long show. I think one of the interesting things about this show is that most anyone who talks about it will remember the Toyota/Kong match from earlier in the show much more than this main event. I'd say that Toyota/Kong is likely the best match on the show by a decent margin, but I'd also say that the match we did cover might be more interesting at least to write about. There's always something a little juicier about (relative) failures like this. Did you get the same vibe when working on this week?
Colette Arrand
Yeah, I did. In a lot of ways it compares to main events on modern WWE and AEW shows in that its place at the end of a show that's gone on for a long time end up disregarded while matches on the midcard are elevated because the fans, in the stadium and at home, are actually awake for them. Sometimes that drag in energy is palpable, as it is here, but more than that this match feels like the stepdaughter to Toyota/Kong because, for one of the wrestlers, the show has already reached its emotional peak. So you end up with a main event match, and a match of legitimate historical importance at the time, that doesn't feel like either thing. So yeah, I caught that vibe, and, to be frank, it kind of frustrated me!
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
I'm curious if you watched any of the other matches on the show specifically for this particular writing cycle.
Colette Arrand
No, but only because I watched the entirety of the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view last week and came away having had more fun with the three minutes the show offers of La Parka and 2 Cold Scorpio than with the apuestas match.
How I'm supposed to watch matches for this project is something I'm still trying to figure out. I watched the whole of WrestleMania 13 and have been tweeting about how much the Legion of Doom rule for a few months now. I have seen the show twice, and I own the program for this and three other AJW shows though, so I would say that I'm a fan. I take it you did contextualize this with the show though — how did that work out for you?
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
I don't think I would have if it wasn't a tournament. I just wanted to see what both Aja and Hokuto were bringing to the main event within that context. So I did end up watching all their tournament matches, and it really is kind of wild how much better Aja's output was than Hokuto's. Especially in the context of this main event too, it definitely felt like Aja came in having fought a much tougher road than Hokuto. Just runtime wise, Hokuto spent much less time in the ring before the main event than Aja did. Then action-wise, Aja's been pretty much put through the ringer having had to fight off both Toyota and Dynamite Kansai, which leaves Hokuto feeling the much fresher and advantaged opponent before the bell rings.
Colette Arrand
Is that how the main event played for you? To me, it's mostly Kong's match until she busts her knee on that suicide dive, like those matches have revved up her engine while Hokuto is far more laid back. She's certainly not wrestling with the same passion her pre-match tears suggest.
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
For sure, it does feel like Aja's match to lose when the bell rings, which makes the main event's placement all the stranger. You'd think Hokuto would want to take advantage of how battered Aja's been through the night. I think what frustrates me most about the match is I see all the places where they almost have me. Like even before the match, when they exchange those terse slaps, I remember thinking, "Oh is this actually going to be good?" And it is, for the most part, but they leave so much on the table.
Colette Arrand
I'm 100% with you. It feels like they're about to uncork an absolute monster of a match, then mostly don't. I felt myself turn on the match a little while Aja Kong was out on the floor, and that usually does not happen in matches between two wrestlers I absolutely adore. The first half of the match isn't really even a tease towards what they're capable of, it's just perfectly adequate wrestling, which is why, Kong's incredible selling be damned, I felt antagonistic towards what they were doing from the halfway point on.
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
I think they're also hurt by me having so recently done a Crush Gals project recently too. Both Chig and Asuka are just so much better at filling this kind of negative space between the big bombs with some really awesome tricked-out mat work and that has never really been the strong suit of either woman here. The half crab is going to be the death of me when I dig into more 90s-era joshi, it's a real go to of pretty much everyone on that roster when they want to kill some time.
Colette Arrand
There was a bit towards the end of Hokuto's legwork where it looked like she went for a Sharpshooter but messed it up, somehow falling into the good ol' half crab. So you can't say they didn't try, but yeah, that is going to be something you have to endure. Granted, some of the greatest wrestling in history is worked in around the half crab, but it's notable.
On that front, though, a question spurred by my essay: is it just the fact that it doesn't have much variance, or does it feel to you, as it does to me, that choosing to focus on a leg injury was wrong in the first place?
Joseph Anthony Montecillo
Your theory definitely falls in line with the general consensus around this match. Even Meltzer was writing at the time that he thought this was a more "story" based match and that it was absolutely the wrong call given the thinning and exhausted crowd. I think you're both probably right in that regard, but also, I kind of have a soft spot for it. I think I would actually have resented the match a bit more if it didn't have the leg work, given how listless everything else they were trying was. Having this big mistake costing Aja is at least a narrative hook I can get behind, and she puts so much into selling it that I can't help but be endeared.
Colette Arrand
My issue is that Hokuto abandons it! She wins, of course, but she flat out wrestled a bad match in terms of strategy, which you really don't see too often in wrestling because that's not an easy story to tell. It would have sucked if this was Hokuto's last match, because it's nothing like how I picture an Akria Hokuto match.
Colette Arrand
Next week, we move on from the Egg Dome, traveling to Germany where egg-shaped man Otto Wanz looks to gain the CWA championship from Vader. Two big men battering each other — this is what wrestling is meant to be.