70s Joshi on Wednesday: Martin! Ikeshita! Rimi! Seiko!

62. 1979.10.XX - 01 Judy Martin & Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa (Either late September or before October 17)

K: This was a bit toned down compared to the face vs. heel tags I’ve gotten used to seeing, and that has good and bad points. The good being that the match felt pretty cohesive throughout. I got the impression that the heel team were clearly superior and they rightly dominating most of the proceedings, but they also established that Yokota has a bit more going for her than Hanawa. She got the big comebacks and most of the prolonged offense when they were able to put the heels on the backfoot. The bad point though, is that it all felt a bit pedestrian. Even when they spilled to the outside to brawl a bit it felt like they were doing it coz that’s just what happens in 1979 AJW tags rather than having any real commitment to it.

The definitely highlight for me was the 2nd big comeback when Ikeshita was able to swing a chair at her opponent only to get knocked over and it wasn’t immediately clear what even happened. It looked a bit like she just lost her balance because the chair was so heavy hah. But no it was Yokota saving the day. She had a pretty good showing in an otherwise very unmemorable affair. I thought Martin was pretty disappointing and didn’t add much at all.

*3/4

MD: This wasn’t perfect but I thought it was a structural improvement to what we’ve been seeing lately. No heel ref. Less sputtering heat and more clear delineated double heat (with a reason to justify the second). Pretty hot finish. Ikeshita took over right from the start and she looked like an absolute monster as per usual. Just scraping faces on mats. That sort of thing. Most of the first heat was on Yokota and Martin was able to give fairly well (though Ikeshita did most of the work). When it was time for the first comeback (Yokota pulling Ikeshita off the top as she was going for her seated senton) Martin didn’t take as well as I’d hope. Some of it was struggle and not going along with things but some of it seemed like she wasn’t exactly sure how to take something.

Second heat was because Ikeshita started to use the top of a microphone as a weapon and she escalated on to chairs. Again, they didn’t need a heel ref to make all of this work. It was just the usual chaos with a little help from the outside. Comeback here was good visually as Yokota came out of nowhere to make it happen. Ikeshita grabbed someone’s handbag as they were brawling down the aisle and used it as a weapon which I’m not sure I’d ever seen before. Then she used that advantage to get back in the ring and win the match. It was only one fall and was a little tighter overall than what we’ve been seeing

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Rimi! Seiko! Chino! Martin! Kumano! Masami!

58. 1979.09.2X2 - 01 Chino Sato, Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa vs. Judy Martin, Mami Kumano & Tenjin Masami (After 9/21, possibly October)

K: The Americans are very visible at ringside for this one but thankfully they appear to not be in constant interference mode for this low stakes matchup. We start with Chino Sato goes for some kind of grab attack on Mami Kumano which seemed to throw Mami off a bit, but Chino didn’t have a 2nd move to hand to capitalise before she got cut down to size to begin a period of heel domination. This first section is wrapped up with a pretty cool moment where Yokota is being stomped in the heel corner, and just for a second Judy Martin lets go, and with cat-like reflexes Yokota dashes all the way across the ring to her corner to make a tag and she does it so quickly it really looked like Judy had made a mistake and was physically unable to stop Yokota getting away.

The big babyface comeback comes from a Seiko Hanawa rollup of all things. Once the heel’s offense is broken up, it’s like they can’t get their machine up and running again. For the final few minutes the pace really speeds up and the babyfaces basically take turns to hit their signatures moves and tag out before they get tired. So we get Hanawa fireman’s slam, Sato hits a couple of powerbombs and then Yokota is flying around with her very aggressive crossbodies and it’s all too much and somehow in the mix of things they get the win with a snap pin that looked a bit awkward and probably came too soon.

Pretty inconsequential match, but fun for what it was.

**

MD: This was pretty straightforward but Martin, Kumano, and Masami are a bit of a WAR team when you think about it. Martin is, in my mind, the ace of Moolah-ism. No one makes hair throws and clubbing shots work better than her as she bases and makes everything make sense. They sent Sato out to die at first and the Young Pair didn’t do much better, getting only tiny spatterings of hope. Kumano pulled hair and jammed her knee into throats and stepped on faces, but Masami would tear at them with her nails instead. A different sort of villain.

When they finally mounted a comeback, Sato got to shine with a Giant Swing and some of the most direct power bombs we’ve seen yet (we saw some of the leg hook flip ones here instead). I don’t remember seeing a straight one quite like this earlier in the footage. Kumano had none of it though and dragged her down until things devolved into chaos and the babyfaces won with a fairly dubious sunset flip. Lots of chaos on the outside with the seconds as you’d expect too. This was ok but needed more hope if it wasn’t going to get a shine.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Kumano! Ikeshita! Rimi (Jaguar)! Seiko!

50. 1979.09.13 - 01 Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita vs. Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa (2/3 Falls)

K: This is a Named Team vs. Named Team match so you know it’s a big show. Yumi Ikeshita is wearing a dinner jacket for the introductions. How I’m supposed to root against someone in such a cool outfit I have no idea. Actually I do, it’s Yumi Ikeshita she’ll make me snap out of it soon enough.

The start to this is wild. Young Pair try to jump Black Pair at the start but it backfires and then get beaten the hell out of and thrown out of the ring to the screams of the fans and all of that action happens in 15 seconds. Once Hanawa is back in the ring Mami Kumano has got out THE TOWEL and uses it to strangle her, but she also does this kinda funny thing where she’s constantly shifting her body around to block the vision of the referee who knows she’s doing something untoward but can never quite see it… If anything Ikeshita then ups the ante when she’s tagged in, using the towel to strengthen her punches before just assaulting Hanawa’s face and dragging her face all across the mat like she’s trying to make her look ugly. We’re two minutes in when Young Pair get a moment’s reprieve to regroup. They achieved a hell of a lot with those two minutes making the Black Pair look both like absolutely vicious ruthless animals and the Young Pair look brave by daring to try stand up to these awful people.

That 2 minutes was like a compact preview of the 1st fall. Things are less chaotic, for the most part, but you never really believe Black Pair were ever at serious risk of losing control of things. Maybe the closest that comes to it is when things spill to the outside and Young Pair come into the ring swinging chairs, but they’re quickly overpowered. Actually it wouldn’t make sense for them to beat Black Pair at their own game.

I felt like the 2nd fall played off this, as Young Pair manage to even things up after they manage to turn it into a competition of technique, and Rimi pulls off a nifty rollup to get a pin. The 3rd fall then follows that up as Black Pair start by just immediately blasting their opponents with some metal bins and turn things chaotic and full of rampant rule-breaking again. It works because it feels like both teams are trying to change the dynamic of the match to fit their styles. The 3rd fall is really good stuff and Yumi Ikeshita really feels like she had to power up at the end to get the win for her team. This is the best Young Pair have looked so far.

***1/2

MD: This was an absolute mauling. The Young Pair tried to ambush at first and they just got thrashed and the Black Pair didn’t look back. A lot of variety of violence overall. Early on they used the towel and shots to the throat. Yokota wiped out huge with a posting from the apron. Just a lot of kneeing and stepping to the throat. As the match went on thee was a flowing element to the carnage. They’d sweep an opponent across the ring with a yank and then whack them in the back of the head, one side of the ring to the other. They’d hide a choke from the ref almost dancing around the ring with their opponent. And when things escalated they escalated big, like with Ikeshita’s hanging tree choke.

Yokota and Hanawa did better when they could double team but they’d be quick to miss a move or just to get cut off. A chair picked up on the outside jammed into a stomach, a bucket wielded across the skull, the Black Pair were simply unrelenting. The end of the first fall had the Young Pair grab chairs and attack Ikeshita and Kumano in the middle of the ring. Ikeshita absorbed it with her gimmick hard head and Kumano caught it, set it up, and choked one of the Young Pair with her dangling choke. Just unstoppable. In the second fall, the Young Pair did get a banana peel roll up and it made the comebacks in the third fall exciting because it did seem like maybe they could get lucky again but no, no they did not. A fun thrashing which really showed the power and presence of the Black Pair and what made them special.
 

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Nancy! Seiko!

44. 1979.08.XX2 - 01 Nancy Kumi vs. Seiko Hanawa

K: Matt is correct in that this show is actually from July, as the commentary hypes the Jackie Sato vs. Monster Ripper title match on July 31st. To prepare for this project, I made a good effort to catalog every 70s AJW match there’s footage of and put them in chronological order, but because of the lack of dates in written sources/me not understanding Japanese, a lot of that came down to just looking at the footage and guesswork. The auto-translated captions on YouTube have since given us some new insights.

I’m writing this very shortly after seeing a tweet saying “Everyone knows the legend of Jackie Sato. But Nancy Kumi was one of the best of the 1970's.” It’s not my style to call anyone out in these posts but I’m going to use that as bouncing off point, as I certainly have not come to this conclusion about Nancy Kumi from the footage we’ve made our way through so far. She’s been an extremely uninteresting wrestler. But I’ll give her another shot here as she faces her junior Seiko Hanawa.

Well the first thing of note I saw was Nancy miss a flying crossbody, but Seiko just stood there for a couple of seconds looking a bit confused before deciding she’s supposed to go on offense now. That was a bit strange. But then again this whole match is a bit strange. They both seem to be working heel for some reason, at least in terms of structure. Seiko’s control isn’t the most engaging wrestling ever but when Nancy counters a headscissors and takes over everything grinds to a halt as she sticks her knee into Seiko’s back and, well do you know this hold where they just do that but also with the feet as well? This goes on for a minute or so and the commentary really put over how important this is by cutting to one of the announcers walking around chatting with fans.

Most of the match is Nancy in control, and it’s not that bad in a vacuum. She does have some malice in her hits and normally I’d want to get behind whoever she’s whacking with a chair on the outside. I think really Hanawa is the bigger problem here. She just doesn’t really do anything to make you want to get behind her, though like I said it’s like she was working heel earlier in the match. This all comes together when we get Hanawa launching into her comeback to utter silence and it’s just sad. Crowd could not care less about what’s happening in the ring at this point. The only thing that wakes them up a bit is when Nancy goes up top to finish this failure of a match.

3/4*

MD: This was the US vs Japan preliminary league and I’m not convinced this isn’t from July and not August due to the commentary. Lots of distraction as they had fun with the high school boys in the crowd so they weren’t fully focused on the match. They did list off some of the standings and it was more than I could follow.

Kumi was the primary aggressor here. They both went for dropkicks at the start but immediately thereafter, Kumi was slamming Hanawa around ringside. Hanawa came back after a missed move off the ropes and had a nice rolling headlock but Kumi deadlifted her up by her head out of it and took over for most of the match. That included some brutal chairshots on the outside and a bridging figure four.

Hanawa came back with this impactful gobehind roll up that almost felt like a snap German and then had a great fiery comeback with a lot of takeovers before Kumi shut her down. Kumi finished her off with these sort of Northern Lights Gourdbusters and a top rope twisting splash. Pretty good sprint overall. The legwork went nowhere, of course, but I liked the transitions and that goes a long way. I'm kinder to it than Kadaveri was but certainly not required watching.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Seiko! Kumano! Ikeshita!

43. 1979.08.XX1 - 03 Jackie Sato & Seiko Hanawa vs. Mami Kumano & Yumi Ikeshita

K: There’s an annoying clip very early on which makes it hard to assess the opening portion of the match. We get the standard-fare feisty babyface Seiko launching right into the attack, then later Black Pair have taken control and we didn’t really see how. But their section mauling Jackie Sato especially is pretty good. Highlights included pulling Jackie’s arm out tort and then headbutting her in the shoulder, and a bit later Yumi would grab Jackie by the back of the head and launch her face-first through the ropes into Mami’s outstretched knee through the other side of the apron. Absolutely every piece of offense Black Pair do just looks dirty. It’s just cheating, or just ugly and unsporting at the very least. It felt near miraculous when Jackie was able to get a comeback in by dodging a double-team so Mami kicked her own partner by mistake, and once she got the ball refused to let go until she picked up the first fall. What a hero.

There’s a noticeable change in pace and tone in the 2nd fall. Whereas the 1st was messy and driven by the heels just causing mayhem, this time Black Pair were being far more measured and controlled in taking apart their opponents. It felt like they were reacting to a chaotic situation of their doing backfiring on them to cause them to lose the 1st fall, so they’re not going to allow that to happen again. After taking out Jackie with a weapon (hiding it from the referee for a bit of extra heat), Mami Kumano just voluntarily allows Jackie to go over and tag a very angry Seiko Hanawa in, who is also protesting to the referee about the weapon use. Black Pair are happy to have Seiko as their target though rather than the superhero Jackie. She also gets meticulously taken apart and beaten. The third fall follows much the same pattern, but this time they capitalise even more by tying Jackie’s leg up in the ropes to finish off Seiko quickly. Nice match this, the 1st fall probably went on just a little too long but that’s just about the only negative thing I’ll say about it.

***

MD: A couple of clips in here around transitions which is never the best but what we get is pretty substantial even if the last few minutes of this is the end credits. Hanawa had to be inspired teaming with Jackie because she attacks right from the get go. We miss how the Black Pair take over, but they sure do take over. This is a great dominant performance from them. They control at length multiple times in the match but the longest is in the first fall where they destroy Jackie. I’m usually higher on Kumano and she has her usual wild abandon and violent stuff, including some new things like a dragon sleeper into a stomach whack. Here though Ikeshita really shined, just rubbing Jackie’s face all over the mat.

At some point they switch over to Hanawa but that really just lets Jackie recover enough to be ready for Hanawa to turn it around on them for a hot tag. She almost reminds me of Hogan in some ways by this point (some might consider that blasphemy). She’s great at taking and taking but when it’s time to give, she’s larger than life, just kicking through faces, just dropping people straight down from a belly to back position, and hitting her cross attack with great camera angles. As noted, the Black Pair did take back over and things got wild on the outside as one might expect. The trick was to isolate Jackie and they did so with the help of their seconds on the floor. In the last fall, they managed it by tying up Jackie’s leg in the ropes. Hanawa was fiery but ultimately doomed.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Komine! Hanawa!

36. 1979.07.XX - 02 Hiroko Komine vs. Seiko Hanawa

K: We’d consider this a ‘rookie match’ in later years but the average experience level is so low in the company at this point that this isn’t quite worked like that. The spirit of the thing is done correctly, it constantly feels heated and that they’re both trying hard to win the match and getting mad at each other. That bit of pettiness at the end where Hanawa gets one last spiteful smack in is the kind of thing I’m talking about and what AJW excelled in stylistically. The mechanics and structure of the match were uninspired. The standard shine, heat, comeback stuff but there wasn’t really anything of interest in how it progressed or memorable moments, they just went out and did their match while getting the vibe of the thing right.

*3/4

MD: These two nominally competing for a spot on the Japan national team for the upcoming series vs the US women. Komine was in black and was more the rookie and Hanawa was in yellow. It was spirited but the transitions weren’t great, except for the first one which was Komine breaking out of a bodyscissors by grabbing Hanawa by the ears and lifting her up. She then ran her face across the top rope and rubbed her boot into it and it was all pretty good for a bit. The comeback was just Hanawa getting behind her and using a waistlock to drop her for an awkward rolling bodyscissors. From there it was back and forth and they worked hard but I’m not sure it entirely flowed. Hanawa finally came out on top, winning with a figure four. Ok when they were going but I wouldn’t say it all came together.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Lucy! Mimi! Yokota! Hanawa!

26. 1979.03.XX2 Lucy Kayama & Mimi Hagiwara vs. Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa (Before April 6th as Lucy is tag champ)

K: I really like this match. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to people though, I like it for very ‘me’ reasons. I don’t even think it’s all that good. It’s certainly very flawed. But I’ve still watched it several times since the full version popped up on YouTube about a year ago (before the only available version was missing the first 8 minutes or so). It’s a rarity to see 4 very inexperienced wrestlers (they all have less than 2 years experience) being sent out to wrestle a long match like this, not to mention they’re doing it in a pretty unique style at the time so it’s not like they had many examples to be copying. They’re very much working this stuff out as they go along, and the end result is pretty entertaining stuff even if everyone (and the style itself) is a work in progress.

The match it built around two very long face-in-peril segments from Mimi Hagiwara. She’s the most junior of the wrestlers here (class of 1978, the other three are 1977 debutantes) so by default she’s gonna suffer most of the punishment, and so Young Pair are gonna be the de facto heels. Even this early on, it’s clear that Mimi’s strength is her babyface selling. The 1st of the two face-in-peril segments is the more interesting one. I particularly like this double team move they did where Rimi pushes Mimi’s neck onto the top rope, Seiko from the outside pulls her head down towards the floor and as she releases, Rimi pulls the top rope up in a spring motion to propel Mimi by the head back into the ring. It doesn’t quite work… I don’t remember anyone copying this later, but it’s an example of seeing them refining the style in real time, warts and all.

Something that worked better was the more basic ways of preventing Mimi from making a tag, and how these tactics ended up backfiring at the end of the first segment as Seiko distracting the referee didn’t actually do Rimi any favours as Mimi was able to reverse a leg-scissors hold into a Boston Crab before making her way over to get the elusive tag. Seiko would have been better off running in and causing Mimi a bit of grief before the referee intervened. It’s cool to see how engaging everyone is when they’re on the apron. They’re active participants of the match despite not being legal in how they reach out for potential tags, are ready to brawl on the outside if it comes to it and you’ll get the occasion run-in if their partner is in trouble. This dynamic gets paid off when later in both the Young Pair put the opponents in stereo submissions in the middle of the ring like it’s Tsuruta-Gun vs. Super Generation Army tag from the early 90s.

This may be an average quality match, but it’s an impressive achievement and a historically interesting watch.

**1/2

MD: Hanawa is going to fall out of the footage sooner than later, but this was a very, very good look at the Young Pair together. It’s a long (~25 minutes) one-fall tag team match up against two babyface wrestlers that weren’t in their usual tag pairs. After some early chaos, The Pair’s familiarity came into play as they took over on Hagiwara with quick switches and front facelocks, interspersed with other punishment like standing hairpulls. This is maybe the first time Hagiwara’s selling in the moment really stood out to me. I don’t know if it’s her acting background or what, but she was incredibly emotive and sympathetic. All the while, Kayama was doing everything she could to get in.

Eventually, she was able to make it in and that slight height advantage had her tossing the Pair around. Hagiwara got her share of revenge too but was soon dragged down into a second heat segment where they really tore her leg apart. Lots of good submissions here and leg whips. Laser-sharp focus from the Young Pair. Hagiwara eventually mounted a comeback where she dropped the leg selling entirely (oh well), leading to more of Kayama crushing her opponents, including with a straight out tiger driver, before Hagiwara wipes out on an unfortunate body press into the ring. There’s a great bit towards the end here as the Pair put on simultaneous figure-fours on their opponents and it feels almost like one of those FTR bits where they’re trying to hold hands while both are in a hold. The finish was just Hagiwara getting swept under from the cumulative damage. There is almost a 90s AJPW feel to the finishing stretch where the Pair really have to neutralize Kayama as well or else they’ll never be able to score a pin. The dropped leg selling was frustrating but not surprising. Overall, this was a great look at the Young Pair as a unit and Hagiwara’s (short-term) selling in general.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Yokota! Hanawa! Kumi! Fujinami!

11. 1979.01.XX1 - 01 Nancy Kumi & Victoria Fujimi vs. Rimi Yokota & Seiko Hanawa

K: The referee of this match appears to be Miyuki Yanagi, who goes as far back as any of the wrestlers we’re going to be seeing in these reviews. She debuted in 1955 in All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling Association (not the AJW we’re familiar with, a similarly-named precursor company when the Joshi scene was split between multiple promotions) and from what I can tell wrestled for the Matsunaga brothers through the pre-TV period, holding the WWWA Tag Team Titles with Mariko Akagi as late as 1974. That’s interesting because she would have been a champion in AJW at the age of 36; the whole “mandatory retirement at 25” rule fans in the West are aware of really wasn’t a thing for very long, nor was it ever consistently enforced. After retiring she became a trainer, and can be seen in various road skits on AJW TV in the 80s running training drills and the like.

To the match. The opening of this was characteristic relentless offense from both teams, with neither getting much of an advantage. Golden Pair (Nancy & Victoria) are higher up in the hierarchy though, so it opening like this really means they’re not going to get an easy fight. After a couple of minutes of this, everything just stops and we get Victoria & Seiko doing a tentative staredown before going for grappling. If you’d played this match from 2 minutes in, you’d probably think that was the start.

We get a sustained period of Young Pair dominating things, mainly just keeping Victoria cut off on their side of the ring and smother her with moves. When Golden Pair manage to turn things around, we get pretty much the same kind of thing from their end. There is a focus on attacking Hanawa’s arm though, whereas Young Pair didn’t seem interested in any kind of limbwork. This pattern gets broken up though when they go outside the ring and throw each other into chairs/the outside wall for a bit. It’s something which happens in these matches a lot. I wonder if it’s a tactic for when they’re not sure where to progress whatever they’re doing in the ring, or feel like the crowd isn’t into it and they need to shake things up. It serves as a reset though, as they take their time to all get back in the ring while the referee counts.

After this ‘reset’ the match does go in a different direction, as now Young Pair are being more blatantly heelish. Things open with Rimi clawing at both her opponents eyes, and then raking Victoria’s face across the top rope, ignoring referee Miyuki’s warnings. It’s noticeable a bit later on when Nancy manages to escape one of Rimi’s holds and starts a bit of a comeback, she gets a bit of a cheer and applause from the crowd. When Young Pair get back into it, things spill outside again and they run right to the other end of the venue where we can’t see what’s going on, and we get a double countout.

Pretty enjoyable match with a few interesting moments. Things improved after the 1st run and throw around on the outside, but it never really went into another gear with a new narrative hook even if the action itself didn’t let up.

**1/2

MD: To remind everyone, Kumi and Fujimi are the Golden Pair and Yokota and Hanawa are the Young Pair. My impression was that the winners would get to challenge for tag belts but I’m not 100% clear on this. It was played up as a big opportunity for the Young Pair and they certainly made the most of it. This was wild, non-stop action but it followed more or less of a narrative. The Young Pair ambushed right from the get go and they pressed at full speed. That was, according to the commentary, their big advantage. They were absolutely relentless. Early on Kumi and Fujimi got some shots in but they were dragged back under. Probably most memorable here was Yokota with some lifting flapjacks and Hanawa pressing back with a headscissors and rolling with it on Kumi. Just brutal looking stuff. The ref would break it and she’d come right back in with it.

The Golden Pair had a size advantage though and were able to power their way back. That led to a series of nasty gourdbuster style drops by Fujimi. That’s one of my big takeaways from this one actually. For a lot of this, what they were doing didn’t feel like conventional spots or move so much as just them finding a way to drop their opponents on their face as much as possible. That was true for both parties. Also, so many back body drops and some of them were so quick that the camera had to shake all over the place to try to capture it. The Young Pair took over in the most dynamic way possible; Hanawa grabbed Kumi and literally ran her all around the arena before tossing her into a wall. It’d go back and forth after that before crumbling apart to their equivalent of “walk and brawl” which was more like dashing and brawling in the stands. The Young Pair almost made it back into the ring to beat the count but were held on to and the match ended as a draw.

So much happens in these that it’s hard to cover all of it. I’m glad there’s two of us working on this. It’s exhausting and they very often decide not to sell in order to just keep the action moving and the violence going but that doesn’t usually impact the overall momentum shifts so it’s a little more forgivable, even if maybe weird and preventative when it comes to the crowd really getting into things (though everyone did, as always, get a kick out of Fujimi’s butt butts). There was a moment on the tape where they cut to calmly interviewing some guests while the four were screaming and killing each other in the ring and when it cut back you really had to wonder if you missed anything essential for the match or just more of the continuous punishment. That doesn’t mean this wasn’t wild and fun to watch though.

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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.

**

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Found Footage Friday: RIP BART SAWYER~! VOLS~! WOLFIE~! FLASH~! ISHIKAWA~! JAGUAR~!

Lucy Kayama/Mimi Hagiwara vs. The Young Pair (Rimi Yokota/Seiko Hanawa) AJW 1979

MD: This one had been out there for a while, but never complete. The first nine minutes were always missing. Yokota is pre-Jaguar here. Those first nine minutes seem essential to the overall match; after a bit of feeling out with dueling foot stomps, Yokota and Hanawa lean in hard on Hagiwara. This includes some nice roll back guillotines and a rolling headscissors by Hanawa and Yokota, a lot of arm stretch surfboards, and tying Hagiwara to the tree of woe. It's a pretty brutal mauling, that lasts into the footage we did have, with a southern tag bit of the ref missing the tag before Kayama is able to finally get in. They steady revenge that followed (highlighted by the Kayama using the seated bodyscissors with roll-back and slam-forward we saw so much in the French footage) for the next many minutes doesn't resonate nearly as well without the lengthy initial beatdown.

We miss the Pair's transition back to offense (maybe just an off camera slam by Yokota) but the back half of the match is them demolishing Hagiwara's leg. Hagiwara is already an emotive seller, always active, always engaged and engaging the crowd and to be fair Yokota and Hanawa give her a lot to work with, just tearing it apart with targeted offense on the inside and outside of the ring. The comeback isn't as clean and focused as I'd like but it's still clever, with Hagiwara snatching a flying octopus hold out of nowhere and Kayama coming in hot. They go to that old southern tag standard of the FIP wanting back in too soon to set up the finish. Good match made better by the restoration of the missing footage.  

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Isami Shinkiba Tournament 12/25/2018

MD: It's old man Ishikawa vs a kind of tubby karate guy in a gi. Pretty self-explanatory really. Ishikawa controlled early by not allowing Isami to strike. Isami would have to occasionally use a rope break (and Ishikawa smacked him on the butt afterwards for his trouble). In the stand up, despite Ishikawa throwing some mean headbutts, Isami had a clear advantage. It was just once he got him down that he wasn't quite sure what to do with him. Ishikawa could absorb most of his seated blows and he almost needed to let him back up so he could get his full body behind his strikes. That opened him up for Ishikawa to snatch a limb though and it tired him out, making that possibility all the more likely. Finally, Ishikawa was able to move around him, getting a mare. Isami tried to escape with a nice roll through into a hammerlock, but he wasn't in his striking world anymore; once he left it, Ishikawa put him away with a nasty no-give arm trap.

ER: I thought this was going to be much more of an exhibition based on how things started, with Shinkiba looking like Sammo Hungover and Ishikawa grinning like a goof while playing Inoki leg kick games from his back. Shinkiba really doesn't look like he can do much of anything for the first few minutes, like Ishikawa is essentially working an exhibition with an easily takedownable tub in a gi. He takes him down and easily locks in a couple submissions while Shinkiba puts up about as much fight as I would against Ishikawa. Yuki even swats him playfully on the butt after Shinkiba quickly lunged for the ropes after a smooth Ishikawa rolling kneebar. Maybe that swat on the butt is what set this guy off, because then he starts throwing inside leg kicks and high kicks from both sides, Ishikawa leaning into all of them, and even starts open hand chopping Ishikawa in the arm to get access to his ribs. Shinkiba does a really great solebutt to the intestines, with a smack that sounded like a thigh slap but I saw no thigh slap in sight. When Yuki starts throwing headbutts, he hits an even louder one so I guess this guy just throws great kicks to the stomach. I loved him teeing off on Ishikawa's body with punches, pinning him to the corner with short closed firsts aimed at the torso. But he can't KO Yuki, and because of that, Yuki is going to find a way to tap him. 

Bart Sawyer/TN Vols (Reno Riggins/Steven Dunn) vs. Wolfie D/Flash Flanagan/Ashley Hudson MCW 12/25/98 (Aired 1/2/99)

MD: I wanted to do a Sawyer match since he passed away recently. I can't believe that we've never covered this one before (I had to take it back to the center to ask) because it's wild. Almost book worthy. Maybe book worthy. It's fifteen minutes of absolute chaos, ten of it being the match. This is the master footage so there's no announcing over it and you hear everything. The camera and even the crowd have no idea who to focus on since the violence is all over the building. You can be focused on Sawyer and Wolfie brawling off in the corner and hear sounds of impact from off the screen. It was back and forth. I won't say it was full of brilliant transitions or even a heroic comeback but it was full of memorable moments and lots of blood, most especially from Dunn.

There's crazy, heated stuff in here. Chairshots galore, including a battle between Wolfie and Sawyer. Riggins lawn darting Flanagan into the fourth row. Tons of Australian flag shots. The set piece where Sawyer climbed up some sort of roofing. The post-match beatdown where the heels got their heat back. And of course the crazy finish where Riggins shoved Wolfie off the balcony through a table and then Sawyer tried to leap down after him for the pin and had his foot jam on the concrete as he landed. These were a bunch of pros who knew how to handle a match like this, to keep it moving, to keep the crowd into it, to build to some very big spots, and then to keep the heat up to try to get people back for the following week.

PAS: The Nashville Fairgrounds has seen a lot of blood spilled in matches just like this over the years. From Jackie Fargo through the Moondogs through early TNA. Just a really cool example of the kind of main event all over the fairground brawls which have been mostly lost to history. No really structure, just a bunch of bloody brawling in every nook and cranny. Flash Flanagan is well known for taking insane stunt bumps, but Wolfie took it on this day, falling recklessly off the balcony and awkwardly nuking himself on the table and the hard concrete. I really prefer this kind of stunt to what we see now. Not only was there no crash pad, there was no athleticism. It really felt like a guy zooted out of his mind falling off a roof, which fit well with the chaotic atmosphere of the entire match. Sawyer wasn't the focus here (not sure this had a focus) but you could see how well he fit in this kind of Tennessee street fight.

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