80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Rimi! Nancy! Ayumi!

Disc 2 

4. Ayumi Hori & Nancy Kumi vs. Jackie Sato & Rimi Yokota 1/6/81

K: This match is Red Phoenix vs. Dynamic Jaguars, i.e. the two babyface factions going up against each other. I noticed at the entrances that Ayumi Hori is now being billed as ‘Super Jumbo Ayumi Hori’, she’ll get her name changed to Jumbo Hori soon after this.

This is worked a very fast pace, certainly unlike most wrestling of its time. But what also stands out about it is despite that, it’s still quite mat-focused and they get a lot of movement out of struggling for holds. There isn’t much targeting of a limb over a long period, it’s more that they just grab at whatever they can when they get an opening and improvise from there. There are some patterns though which fit the wrestlers we’re watching. For example Rimi is a lot more ferocious than Jackie and likes to come in all guns blazing hitting fast offense from the get go, whereas Jackie is more content to take control with an armbar or something. But Jackie comes across as the better wrestler here as her approach actually does work the vast majority of the time, whereas Yokota sometimes overextends herself with her flying around and throws momentum to the Red Phoenix team when one of her moves doesn’t hit. 

Likewise, Hori is clearly presented as the weak link in her team. Her size does come into play a few times, for example it feels like she was only able to counter one of Jackie’s headscissor takedowns because she was physically bigger rather than her having much technical skill. But that’s all she really has to offer here and so spends most of her time on the defensive or trying to tag Nancy back in so they can get back into the match. I did enjoy her cocky smile squaring up to Jackie though, like she really thought she was in with a chance there before Jackie wrenched her shoulder out and started running circles around her on the mat with impressive ease.

Jackie isn’t able to do this so easily against Nancy though. When we restart for the 2nd fall things are pulled back and they do a really good Greco-Roman style struggle. Nancy actually gets the better of Jackie in this, one clever more is when they’re on the mat she pushes her knee against Jackie’s chest for extra leverage in pinning her down. Jackie backs into her corner to allow Rimi to tag in, and we get that contrast again when Rimi charges in trying to beat everyone up at once, looks amazing for a few seconds before it backfires and now Red Phoenix are back on offense. Whichever way it goes for her though, Rimi is a thrill to watch.

The 3rd fall is a bit slower worked than the previous two, I think they convey well that the battle has been taking its toll. Hori did sell her leg a little bit earlier on but not much amounted to that until here, where we get a protracted stretch of her leg being worked on is cut off from tagging Nancy in because of it. She even gets a bit of shine here in being allowed to sell. The finish, this is going to sound like I’m being “early 2010s WWE fan” funny here, but I have to describe it as Ayumi Hori hits Rimi Yokota with an Attitude Adjustment, then picks up Rimi to hit a 2nd one but Rimi does the CM Punk counter of landing on her feet and pivots into a quick rollup for the win. 

***3/4

MD: I’m pretty sure Hori and Yokota were tag champs at this point which is interesting given the factions. We don’t usually get to see the wrestlers coming down to the ring up to this point, so it’s nice to see Jackie slapping hands and what not. She’s leaning hard into the Jaguar theme with one on the back of her coat and the pattern worked into her gear. Kumi and Hori have blue matching coats so not rocking the Red Phoenix literally.

This was action packed right from the start. It was driven pretty well by the contrast between the four. Kumi and Yokota were explosive (with Yokota more so). It doesn’t mean Yokota wouldn’t pick up even Hori and drop her on her face, but they were more likely to just throw themselves at their opponents. Jackie and Hori leaned more on dominant strength. This was the biggest I’ve seen Hori work so far though she might have been too giving at times. In general, though, there was a sense that she was a mountain to be climbed, a problem to be tackled, though Jackie was so often up to the task. When things picked up at the end of they fall, they really picked up, which was saying something given the pace up til then. Jackie survived a front flapjack by landing on her feet and immediately headscissored Kumi over, following it up with her slingblade type neckbreaker drop whip off the ropes and her belly to back drop. Yokota came in with her press up vertical seated sentons off the rope and things kept swirling faster and faster until Jackie slammed Kumi and Rimi hit her triangle ricocheting splash off the turnbuckle pad and Jackie finished her off with her bodyslam backbreaker. It’s all a lot and was a lot within the span of seconds really, but it was very exciting stuff that didn’t feel weightless or tacked on. It felt more like a fast break from a couple of great athletes. 

Second fall started with some really nice close-up struggle as Kumi was able to turn a test of strength around on Yokota by pushing her over with the knee. From there they worked her over, almost leaning heel in their aggression. She was able to slip up out of a pin with a shocking bridge to get the tag to Jackie and everything broke down into chaos on the outside after that. Everything comes back together for Kumi and Hori both putting on figure fours (again, struggle: hori has to really kick at Jackie to get it on) and then Yokota has another electric comeback and they head outside again and the match has sort of lost the plot even if it’s all very exciting. They do find it again as this leads to Kumi beating the count to take the second fall.

Third fall has some struggle (very good stuff with Jackie fighting for every inch) to start before things settle down for very nasty legwork on Hori. Yokota just stomping on it looks absolutely brutal. But none of it matters because once she makes the tag, she’s fine. Finishing stretch has more beating on Yokota until she starts to cartwheel and bound and every time she does it, you have to pause and go back and see it three times because you almost can’t believe your eyes, even with footage from 45 years ago. Hori catches her after the first but then she bounds out of a FU attempt and wins with a roll up. I don’t 100% know what’s coming, but given how she’s come along and what she can do, I can’t wait to see where Yokota is at this point in 1982 for instance. Lots of good action in this one even if because of the length and the lack of a clear heel, it did sort of go all over the place. The Jackie/Rimi team is something special given their differences and strengths.