70's Joshi on Wednesday: Hagiwara! Hanawa! Yokota! Fujimi!

5. 1978.08.XX - 01 Mimi Hagiwara vs. Seiko Hanawa (JIP, Month Guessed)

MD: We come in JIP here and get about seven minutes of action to the finish. Right from the start it’s already more measured and methodological than what we’ve seen so far. That doesn’t mean they ever really stop, just that it’s a little more hold driven and mat based to start. After escaping from a couple of Hagiwara’s holds (like a fairly nicely entered cross-armbreaker) Hanawa took over by chaining a cross toehold into a nasty surfboard into a seated bodyscissors with thudding drops and then finally into a leg nelson. It was all pretty well done. Hagiwara fired back after getting knocked outside but I get the sense she was still working things out on offense. Her punches and neckbreakers didn’t have a lot behind them. Hanawa came back after dodging a flying cross chop and hit these great short rope-assisted fireman’s carry takeovers. She landed a few big back body drops but Hagiwara snuck in a small package out of nowhere for the win. Hagiwara’s best stuff at this point seemed to be her pin attempts (Victory Roll, Sunset Flip, etc.) but she had ok fire and we should get to see her develop in the footage to come. Interestingly, the commentators were talking about an “industrial event” in Hawaii and how well received the Beauty Pair were upon arrival and I wonder if we can find out anything more about that.

K: Mimi Hagiwara is an unusual wrestler. She's also an actress best known for playing Choko in the original Kamen Rider TV series, a rare case of an AJW wrestler already having some fame before wrestling. She did her tryout under a mask to stop the media finding out she was trying to become a wrestler. She also debuted at the age of 22, which is very old by their standards. Seiko Hanawa is best known as Rimi Yokota's partner in the 'Young Pair' tag team, she disappears from footage by late 1979 so not much else to say about her.

The match is JIP. There's a funny moment at the start of this where Seiko is holding on to the rope to try break Mimi's submission, but the referee just kicks the ropes so she loses grip. The rule on rope breaks here is that you must secure the rope to get the break, not just touch it, so the ref kicking it is just testing to see if you've secured it or not. They're both just working very basic holds here. Mimi is a bit slower on executing things but she has the right idea and sells underneath ok. Mimi gets kicked out of the ring, when she returns she starts her comeback with punches. They don't look very good but that she punches hard is part of her gimmick we're just supposed to accept. Seiko takes back control with a lot of repeated moves which are a bit boring, but then Mimi rolls her up out of nowhere to get the 3 count.

Not much of a match.

6. 1978.08.XX - 02 Rimi Yokota vs. Victoria Fujimi (Month Guessed)

MD: Alright, this seems to be a broadcast from Hawaii, apparently from the Civic Center in Hilo, Hawaii. We’ll see if Kadaveri has any more info on it as I’m getting to this first. It’s our first look at the future Jaguar. She had a cape with “Rimi” on it and worked at least de facto heel here. Fujimi had a karate gimmick including the gi and early kicks and over the shoulder throws though she settled into more conventional offense later on (a figure four, a butt butt, and then these nasty dropping goardbusters down the stretch). If you told me that Rimi got the Jaguar nickname for biting people, well… this match would be good evidence. She got out of a tough bodyscissors that way and later, after taking over on the outside and starting on the arm, gnawed on Fujimi’s hand while she was in control. She balanced a bunch of dropkicks and cross chops with that mean armwork, the brutality on the outside, or just a running forearm down the stretch. This had a great comeback at the end with Fujimi shedding her gi jacket as if she was Lawler dropping the strap and rushing the ring. She hit a huge Thesz press and then this giant ‘rana with the legs locked around the arms in a unique way, and then those goardbusters. Yokota bullied her way back into it but Fujimi hit a sunset flip out of nowhere for the win. I wasn’t too sure about the heel/face dynamic here but I thought the transitions worked really well.

K: I’m pretty sure this is the chronologically the first Joshi match we have in full, so very fitting that has it has Jaguar/Rimi Yokota in it, who is still wrestling full time to this day. This is all her era. She is introduced as part of ‘Young Pair’ and Victoria as part of ‘Golden Pair’, her tag team with Nancy Kumi. This is the era where rather than having stables almost everyone is put into tag teams. And a note to Matt on how she got the name ‘Jaguar’, I’m not 100% sure this is THE reason but it seems the most likely explanation. The AJW roster used to travel separately in three buses, in August 1980 they were given stable names after which bus they travelled in. The girls who rode the ‘Jaguar’ bus were called the Dynamic Jaguars, Rimi was one of them. This was their entrance theme as a faction:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=U0FgzA7oLhw By mid-81 she’s being called Jaguar Yokota.

The opening is just them exchanging moves, the back and forth signifies that no one is really getting an advantage. There’s a fun moment where Rimi stands on Victoria’s foot to stop her from dodging a strike which knocks her over, but when Rimi goes to run the ropes she gets tripped by Victoria still on the ground. This sets up Victoria locking in a bodyscissors to gain the advantage, which Rimi tries to counter with BITING THE TOES AHHHH. People generally wouldn’t call her a ‘heel’ as she’s not part of the Black Legion official heels, but in terms of working the match she’s the heel here it’s just slightly more subtle.

Rimi dominating most of the match builds up to Victoria taking off her gi and jumping into the ring to get a comeback in and we get some back and forth excitement. Victoria eventually wins on a sunset flip before doing a very pleasing backwards roll into an arm-raised leap of delight. If we’re being objective this was no better than average quality wise, but it’s a lovely match to have.

**