80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Tomi!

Disc 1

3. Jackie Sato vs. Tomi Aoyama - 1/4/80

K: This is probably the biggest match the company could put on at the time. Company Ace vs. Heir Apparent, World Champion vs. All-Pacific Champion. It’s non-title and had a 30 minute time limit (title matches would have 60) so they’re telegraphing a bit that this isn’t THE match between the two, but it’s still a pretty big deal to see these two in a singles match.

The crowd were pretty hot for the previous Junior Title match and they’re even hotter for this one. When Tomi Aoyama climbs to the top turnbuckle the screaming is so loud it comes out a bit distorted in the audio. There’s a couple of young girls in the front row I noticed who are really getting into it and reacting to the big spots. True wrestling connoisseurs there. 

When the match starts they both have these fighting pose stances squaring off at each other and it feels like they’re both taking each other seriously. Tomi is a bit more aggressive, which I think works in the matches favour as it benefits her to come across as confident, Jackie doesn’t need that so much as she’s already the Ace. There’s a cool little spot where Jackie launches Tomi into the corner, and Tomi counters it by leaping to the top and going for a boomerang splash or something, but Jackie just does a backroll to get out of the way and Tomi adjusts to land on her. I say this a thousand times watching this stuff but that’s a cool logical spot that someone should steal now and it’d fit into modern wrestling fine. 

I feel like if I’d seen this after watching the 70s stuff I’d be surprised how much of the early match is taken by Aoyama. Not just that, it’s that she’s in control primarily through mat wrestling rather than any of her high-flying. In fact, the couple of times she does actually go for a top rope roof Jackie able to just move out of the way. It feels like Jackie has her scouted for what she’s most known for, but is struggling to deal with her on what is supposed to be Jackie’s superior domain. There’s a couple of occasions in this early period where a hold gets broken and they had a soft-reset, and you think “ok this is where Jackie takes control”, but the back-and-forth doesn’t happen, Aoyama quickly gets back on top each time.

I thought this structure worked great. It gives a big boost to Aoyama’s credibility/levels her up a bit without hurting Jackie’s stature at all. It works all the better that when Jackie does get a comeback - and her comebacks comes not from one of those soft-resets, but a proper fighting comeback - her offense looks fantastic and clearly more damaging than Aoyama’s. It’s just she hadn’t been able to deploy it yet. She’s also just cool. She does a Big Boot so casually like no one else I’ve seen in that she just lets her foot just hang in the air for a couple of seconds after clocking her opponent with it. She makes it look easy.

Jackie isn’t able to consolidate control though. Aoyama actually gets a comeback in pretty quickly by countering a headscissors into a hold of her own to start her 2nd prolonged period of control. This 2nd one differs in that while the 1st was established her as on Jackie’s level on the mat, this was getting her over as a real threat to win the match. She’s a lot more vicious now and her offense is mostly targetting Jackie’s leg. There’s cool moment where she goes for a Figure Four but Jackie spins over onto her front before Aoyama can lock it in, but this makes it an even bigger moment soon after when Jackie isn’t able to block it and we get cuts to the crowd looking very distressed as Jackie is put in the submission and has to clamber for the ropes. 

It feels very cohesive that Aoyama loses this 2nd period of control not by losing on the mat, but she went for a piece of her signature high-flying offense (a dropkick) but Jackie countered it. The counter is awesome. Jackie just sidesteps the dropkick, puts out a knee and drops Aoyama straight onto it to turn the dropkick attempt into a gutbuster. This leads us into a huge 3rd act/climax of the match where they go 50/50 or close enough. Jackie sells the leg quite well I thought for the first few minutes of this, hobbling a bit on it while on offense or moving until she gradually shifts back into moving normally. I don’t think Aoyama had done serious enough damage to her leg to warrant selling more than that. There’s a great moment where, after initially failing to do a Giant Swing, Aoyama manages to hit Jackie with a dropkick - the first time her flying offense actually pays off; and then goes for the Giant Swing for the 2nd time and she’s able to get Jackie up and spin her around.

They finish this with another great scream reaction from the crowd for Jackie missing a dive and crashing into the outside, only for Tomi to crash and burn even worse when she goes for a (this time deliberate) dive to the outside. She’s able to beat the 20 count back into the ring, but then Jackie hits her with a sick backdrop that lands her on the back of her head and they are both counted for a double KO. I’ve sometimes complained about non-finishes in a lot of the 70s matches but this is a draw where it felt like that match had built to that conclusion so I have no problem with it.

I love this. Desperation to win, gritty matwork, innovative spots, lots of little narratives that get paid off within the match, and of course someone getting dropped on their head. The first Zenjo Classic.

****1/2

MD: I’m curious to see where Kadaveri is going to fall on this relative to everything we saw in the 70s but this might be the best match we’ve seen so far, and the most complete. This was non-title and they were really pushing this as the match up that would take them into 1980. The idea was that if Tomi had a good showing here she could get a title match or at least that she’d need a good showing to have momentum for a title match. There was a real tension here, with a hot, vocal crowd, the hottest we’ve seen in a while. It should be noted that a lot of the transitions came after moments where they were tussling for pins and trying to hold each other down, for instance.

I think there was just more of everything. This felt more complete and actualized than a lot of what we’d seen in the 70s. There was a higher level of familiarity. Tomi rushed in with dropkicks but she went for both a dive (though not the Queen Rocket) and her jump to the top finish early only for Jackie to get the heck out of the way quickly. Later on in the match she had to really work for the giant swing too. 

There was also more limb targeting and selling, even on offense. It didn’t make it through act breaks but it was more tangible and made it farther into the match than usual. Tomi went to Jackie’s leg early and she leaned hard on it with a lot of different flexibility-enhanced holds. Jackie had a comeback with a few power moves but Tomi cut her off by going back to it and when Jackie was able to come back again, she was noticeably stumbling until they moved on to the next big theme.

The finish was very self aware and smart, heading towards their next match. Jackie had dominated for a time, using all sorts of offense like her belly to back toss, falling power body slams, and these wrenching backbreakers. She had hit a couple of her off the rope cross takeovers (not sure what to call them. They’re like flying cross chops but she grabs the head and tosses her opponent down but it’s a trademark of hers). After a tussle, Tomi had come back and they faced off at the twenty minute mark to finish things up. Jackie got an advantage with a roll up into her belly to back suplex, but she missed another one of her flying cross attacks and rolled out. Time seemed to stop as everyone knew it was time for the Queen Rocket. Tomi wiped out though. She made it back into the ring but Jackie went to put her away with another belly to back. She pressed off the top rope to counter it and they both crashed down, unable to beat the count, leaving things even for their big title match (though fate, or booking, I’m not sure which, would have other things planned for that). 

It was still rough around the edges at times (though generally in ways that added as much as it potentially took away) but when you combine some of the evolving smartness and self-awareness to the work with a hot crowd and big stakes, this felt like a step forward for the promotion. We’ll see if it’s part of an evolutionary line or just a momentary blip though.