Monday, June 11, 2007

Manami Toyota, part 2


Soon after this match the two stars once again teamed up to win their first WWWA World Tag Team Championship in March 1992, defeating the evil Jungle Jack (Aja Kong & Bison Kimura) in Tokyo. On November 26, at AJW’s Dreamrush show Toyota and Yamada defended their WWWA Tag Team titles against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki in a legendary 2/3 Falls match, considered one of the best wrestling matches ever, and rated 5 Stars by Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

In April of that year Toyota furthered her singles career by defeating rival Kyoko Inoue on April 25 in Yokohama for the IWA Singles Championship. Toyota defended that title eight times over the course of three years, before losing it to Reggie Bennett on May 15, 1995.

At Dreamslam II, on April 11, 1993 Toyota and Yamada fought a rematch against JWP Project's Kansai and Ozaki in yet another highly-rated 2/3 Falls encounter. This time, however, Toyota and Yamada were on the losing side, and Kansai and Ozaki got their revenge. The feud concluded at AJW’s St. Battle Final event, on December 6, 1993, where Toyota and Yamada regained their tag titles.

On August 24, 1994 Toyota once again squared off against Kyoko Inoue, and defeated her to unify the IWA and All Pacific Singles Championships. Toyota’s run with the two titles was not to last long. On October 9, 1994, Inoue gained a measure of revenge against Toyota, as Kyoko and her partner Takako Inoue (no relation) won the WWWA Tag Team Championship from Toyota and Yamada. Toyota then vacated her All Pacific Championship, prior to her first WWWA Heavyweight Championship match against the monstrous Aja Kong at AJW’s Queendom III show, on March 26, 1995. The match saw Toyota reach the summit of AJW when she won and became the 39th WWWA Champion.

On May 7, Toyota defended her crown against arch-rival Kyoko Inoue at the Korakuen Hall, where the two fought to a 60 minute time limit draw.Despite piledrivers on the floor, German suplexes off the top rope, and multiple finishers, neither combatant was able to secure outright victory. Nonetheless, Toyota retained, and the match was voted Match of the Year for 1995 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The following month, Toyota lost the WWWA Championship to former champion Aja Kong, on June 27.

Toyota soon recovered from the loss. In 1995, she won the AJW Grand Prix tournament, securing her position as the number one contender for the WWWA Championship. Before she received her title opportunity, she faced the legendary Akira Hokuto at AJW's Destiny show on September 2, 1995. On December 4, she finally received her title shot, and defeated then-champion Dynamite Kansai to become a two-time world champion.

Over the next 12 months Toyota made three successful defenses of her WWWA title. In December of 1996 she came up against long term rival Kyoko Inoue and lost in a match that saw the All Pacific and IWA Women's World titles unified with the WWWA Title.

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