Bring Your Whole Crew: Akira Hokuto vs Yasha Kurenai - AJW 6.11.1993

"Don't be stupid, you heard what I said, motherfucker!" - DMX, Bring Your Whole Crew

Akira Hokuto is one of those wrestlers that evokes the most visceral reactions every time I watch her. Singles, tag, whatever it is - she carries herself with such a confidence that rubs off on me - everyone has their favorite wrestlers that makes them want to run through a brick wall, but Hokuto makes me want to not only run through it, but pick up the remnants of said brick wall and…I don’t know, eat them? Maybe not that. Whatever the hell would be cool in that moment, she makes me want to do that. She is too fucking cool. The way she’s so unapologetic about being cocky and abrasive is the precise kind of character I’ve always loved in wrestlers.

My first favorite growing up was Shawn Michaels, particularly from watching his 90’s work on my dad’s wrestling DVDs. My first contemporary favorite was CM Punk, a fandom which began in 2011. For whatever reason, I just love wrestlers who aren’t white meat, but not necessarily anti-heroes either. Just heroes who happen to be little shits. Akira Hokuto is a hero who was a little shit, and perhaps became too much of a little shit that it lead to her becoming the villain in the eyes of any LLPW roster member/fan - the story of her iconic 1993 run, considered one of the best year-long runs any wrestler’s ever had. It’s an awesome year-long character arc (that really kicks off at Dream Slam I, but you know) that produced some of the Dangerous Queen’s very best work.

This includes, perhaps my favorite sub-five minute match ever, with her taking on Yasha Kurenai. Now, I don’t think I need to run through everything that happens in this match. You can watch that for yourself because it’s incredibly short, and there are a total of, like, five or six things that actually happen from bell-to-bell. I’d heavily suggest just getting that out of the way before continuing, because I mean, what do you lose if you don’t like it? A minute and a half of your life?

Before you do go in, though, you should at least understand the context, which is very simple; Akira Hokuto beat LLPW’s toughest soldier in April, and is literally just LLPW’s bully during this interpromotional stuff. The AJW fans eat it up, and so do I!

With that out of the way, what I want to detail is what I got out of the match itself: the power of restraint, of sacrificing what could be done…for the sake of what has to be done, for the sake of the bigger picture. Yasha Kurenai isn’t a name that comes up in a lot of all-time Joshi wrestler conversations like Akira Hokuto’s does, but I do consider her a great talent. I’ve never really seen a bad performance from her. I haven’t watched much LLPW, but of what I have seen, she’s pretty sweet - she’s involved in a lot of AJW shows, and I’ve never seen a match with her name in it that I didn’t like. I think, on paper, Akira Hokuto and Yasha Kurenai in a thirteen minute Korakuen Hall brawl would be very appetizing. That’s a match I’d read about happening and look forward to watching. It absolutely could’ve been something that was, at the very least, good, and at most, a memorable but probably hidden gem of the Joshi interpromotional era.

However…time and place. Had that been what this match is, does that accomplish a whole lot? Probably not as much. While Hokuto was running through the LLPW girls after beating Kandori, that was what most of those matches were. Yet it’s this match that’s talked about above them all - because it does so much. Running through a roster in competitive matches is one thing, but straight up squashing one of their more successful stars in the fashion Akira did is unforgivable. That’s when this Hokuto vs. LLPW rivalry has crossed a line - that is flat-out embarrassing.

As soon as the video was over, after taking to the YouTube comments for a translation of Hokuto’s post-match promo, (which just fucking fired me up all over again) the very first thing that came to my mind was Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori II at AJW St. Battle Final later that year, AKA what all of this was building to. I couldn’t help but reflect on how much more cathartic Hokuto’s loss and subsequent humbling looks in hindsight.

On its own, this match is still something to write home about - I mean, I don’t think everyone who’s seen it knows the context, so it must be. The illustration of both women’s characters as soon as the bell sounds, building up to Hokuto being done with Kurenai’s stupid bullshit, and then the finish, is the kind of shit you take notes on. But as a piece of a bigger picture, that being Akira Hokuto’s rivalry with Shinobu Kandori, one of the most famous Joshi rivalries ever? It’s an unbelievably effective piece of business. AJW and LLPW didn’t hate Yasha Kurenai or anything. This wasn’t meant to be a total burial, if her booking afterward is anything to go by. This doesn’t work if they throw any old piece of fodder at Hokuto, which is what makes this quite a gamble - but clearly one that paid off, if this short squash is one of the most famous Joshi matches of the decade.

All in all, though, what really makes it for me is that undeniable confidence and abrasiveness of Akira Hokuto that I mentioned earlier. The closest, most famous comparison I can make to Akira Hokuto is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. There’s not a fake (or not stitched together) bone in her body. How can you not be sucked in by the Dangerous Queen’s reckless, callous charm? I don’t know.

How can you watch this match and not, at the very least, just say…“fuck yeah”? I also don’t know.

Jadeee gives it ****1/2.