HIDDEN GEM: Before She Was Famous

I love little surprises like this one.

Starla Sexton vs. Malia Hosaka
Date: December 21 , 1998
Location: Universal Studios Florida, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Lee Marshall, Mike Tenay

This is from WCW Worldwide, which is about as low as it got on the WCW ladder (though it ran uninterrupted from 1975 until 2001 and was the final WCW show to ever air). Sexton is better known as Molly Holly and has barely been wrestling a year at this point. Hosaka gets the ever present standard Japanese music and apparently just had a kid a few months ago.

Sexton flips out of a top wristlock and slaps on a quickly broken armbar. Hosaka chokes with the knee and then the boot before stopping to kick at the leg. The legdrop between the legs (ala Jeff Hardy) lets Hosaka choke even more but she misses a crossbody. A gutwrench suplex gives Sexton one but she gets caught in a reverse DDT. Back up and Sexton grabs a quick victory roll for the fast pin at 4:36.

Rating: C. You could see the talent in both of them and my eyebrows popped up at the surprise finish. I would not have bet on Sexton pulling it off but it was so strange to see women having a normal, even good at times, match in WCW. You don’t see that very often and it worked well here. Not a great match, but compared to what women usually did in WCW, this was a masterpiece.