80s Joshi on Wednesday: Yokota! Sato!

Disc 1

1. Intro - 1/4/80

2. Chino Sato vs. Rimi Yokota (AJW Junior Title) - 1/4/80

K: For anyone who didn't know, I am the person who curated this set. So it feels a bit strange for me to be reviewing it when it's partly my work, but I also haven't had the chance to write about it in any real depth or explain my thought processes. I'll try to keep that on the sidelines though as talking about the matches themselves should be priority of course, but it'll mean you'll be reading a different perspective from me than Matt every week. 

There's an amazing video of three rookies talking about their training at the start of the set that I thought was a perfect introduction to understanding 80s AJW. That it also happens to be the first thing that aired on AJW TV in the 1980s (this was the January 4th 1980 show) makes it even more fitting. These are super determined teenage girls who have dedicated their youth to becoming successes in pro-wrestling, mainly because they feel they have no other options. There's a harsh desperation in the air that makes this very different from WWE's stories of 'boyhood dreams'. As well as just enjoying some wrestling matches, part of watching AJW is to follow the life stories of these rookies struggling to try and make it to the top, or fall short, as most of them do.

It's with that understanding that we can delve into this 1st match. This is to decide the first ever AJW Junior Champion (the title has just been introduced for younger wrestlers). Note that unlike Japanese men's wrestling, in Joshi 'Junior' refers to experience level, it is not a weight class. A wrestler's seniority is especially important (down to year they debuted) in AJW, not just because of standard Japanese seniority customs, but because their careers are so short and the wrestlers all joined in classes. In any random AJW match, you would expect the winner to be the wrestler with the higher seniority, e.g. a wrestler who debuted in 1978 will by default beat a wrestler who debuted in 1979. The formula trains the audience to pay attention when it get broken, as that tells you who is being pushed. 

The standard system of seniority goes something like this:

1. Trainees. These are wrestlers who have passed an audition to join the company, and are paid employees, but they have not yet passed a 'pro test' that allows them to have matches. This is a unique two-stage system to become a wrestler which only exists in Japanese women's wrestling. Trainees spend most of their days training to pass that test, but you will also sometimes see them hanging around ringside at shows doing menial tasks.

2. Rookies. These are wrestlers in their 1st and 2nd years since debuting. They will have extremely basic ring gear/not much of a discernable gimmick, their matches will mostly be just doing fundamentals (their matches against each other usually finish on just straight pins), and they'll generally be associated with a mentor senior wrestler. The idea behind this is wrestlers should have gotten good at all these basic elements of wrestling and 'paid their dues' before they start to try developing distinctiveness.

3. Juniors. These are wrestlers in their 3rd and 4th years since debuting. They will still be held back in terms of push, and will generally still be associated with a senior mentor wrestler, but by this point they should be developing into their fully-fludged self.

4. Proper wrestlers. Their isn't an exact term here, just that by the time they reach their 5th year, if their development has gone on track, they should now be reaching their peak and be aiming to challenge for the top titles.

Now that above system is not set in stone, in fact things can get really exciting when you see the company is so high on a particular wrestler that they seem to be fast-tracking them through the system, but it gives you a solid idea of what to expect as wrestlers progress. 
NOW TO THE MATCH

This is the biggest match of either wrestlers career to this point and they really make the most of it. They do such a good job of conveying their determination to win. It gets really nasty at times, without either of them being a heel, but just two young athletes who really want to win and get mad at each other for being in the way. Sometimes it feels pretty. Like early on when Yokota brings a metal bin into the ring to clock Sato on the head with it (just the once, so it doesn't feel like cheating but just her being mad). When things spill out to the outside (which happens a few times) they chase the other out and keep laying in the violence, chairs get involved. It mostly feels spontaneous though flawless, for example there was a bit of a noticeable bluescreen pause on one of Sato's chairshots on the outside.

They keep up this ferocious, simplistic action for over 20 minutes. They don't quite have the arsenal to be going that long without things feeling repetitive sometimes, or narrative threads losing coherence, but I was still thoroughly entertained. The two (almost) constants are Sato repeatedly targetting Yokota's leg with holds and sometimes just stomping. The other is that they're are both persistently looking for the win by sneaking in quick rollups or covers. This is where Yokota excels as she's mechanically so brilliant. For example the sunset rollup she does when countering Sato's shoulder barges about 10 minutes in is incredibly crisp, you'll struggle to find anyone in wrestling history make such a simple move as that look impressive and like something that could have pinned someone.

It's hard to see anyone getting the win with any of these flashpins though, because both wrestlers are so determined to never be on their back. You'll see them kick out/roll onto their front sometimes literally before a 1 count. It can be a bit glaring when you're used to wrestlers kicking out on 2 out of habit, even when they weren't in any danger of losing the match, but this way it feels like any pin attempt is in danger of ending the match if they aren't getting their shoulders up by a count of 1. This is a stylistic thing with Joshi that hasn't entirely gone away but in the 80s it was especially distinctive. Even on when they're brawling in the outside when they're on the ground they'll instinctively turn over to their front even though they can't get pinned out their anyway.

In the end, Yokota gets the win with a determined holddown which Sato can't push up out of despite flailing the rest of her body around. There's a cute little cut away to two girls in the crowd hugging as Yokota is awarded the match and a trophy as tall as her. Very good match, and a great way to acclimatise yourself to the house style.

***3/4

MD: On the one hand, given some of what we’ve seen at the very end of the 70s, we shouldn’t be surprised a title match looks like this. On the other, yeah, it took me by surprise. We really didn’t see much Sato in the 70s footage, just a few matches and she played different roles in them. Her offense was pretty dynamic. I do remember that. Yokota is, of course, Yokota, but this is by far the most she’s gotten to shine even with her popping up a decent amount in 79. 

This goes almost the full thirty and we’re only clipped out of a few minutes of it. I’m not sure it always has a coherent story. I’m not sure that the actions, as gnarly as they are, always have the consequence over time that I would prefer. But what we get here is gripping in each and every individual moment and full of struggle for literally everything that happens. It’s still an overall exhausting and engaging experience even if I’d say it never completely comes together. 

Things break down almost immediately with Sato knocking Yokota out of the ring and just toppling her into chairs and Rimi coming back with an object. That’s one way to set the tone. She overextended however and Sato is able to mangle her leg with a chair. Some of the legwork that followed was just brutal. There’s a deathlock where Yokota managed to contort herself in the most painful way. This would be a theme for a while. Yokota wouldn’t sell when back in control but Sato still targeted it to take back over and that worked well enough for me considering. None of this was passive. Yokota fought back at every point, and Sato just adapted. That might mean turning a block of a Boston Crab into a giant swing or a jammed figure-four into her dropping down on top of Yokota. 

The crowd felt more into this than some of the matches we’d seen in late 79, but they gave them good reason to be. Even when things were more even or back and forth, the level of intensity was very high building to a frenetic last minute where both wrestlers had to dive into the ring to beat the count at the last moment. When Yokota vs Masami from 83 showed up recently, there was question about whether the finish was a shoot or not, and this 100% felt like a shoot and Yokota able to just barely hold down Sato’s shoulders. I have no idea if it was or not, but if so you almost wonder how history might have shifted. That I even question this is a testament to the wildness of the match.