[1996-03-03-JWP] Mayumi Ozaki vs Hiromi Yagi

[PeteF3]

lengthy television match between Ozaki and one of the most promising workers of the 90s Hiromi Yagi. Quite long so probably has more flaws than I remember, but this along with the Amano pledging angle before and afterwards give more light to what Ozaki was doing in 1996. Personally, I think she was one of the more interesting workers that year. There's a bunch of ***-*** 1/2 star OZ Academy matches split between JWP and GAEA but I can't remember which one stands out enough to encapsulate them all.

[PeteF3]

Here's something you don't see every day: a joshi match that's worked entirely on the mat. Oh, there are two instances of brawling outside the ring, but other than that this is 20:40 of pure matwork. Oz comes in selling a rib injury, which gives Yagi an opening and a focus for just about everything she does. She's otherwise overmatched, but every time she hits or puts a hold on the ribs, Oz crumples. The matwork is really, really damned good, with all the holds being well-worked and a good variety while still maintaining a psychological focus. And with the deliberate pace and all the camera close-ups this really feels like a 1983 Florida studio match in a JWP setting. And they build up to a satisfying climax with almost no near-falls. Overall this is too "slight" of a match to really be a Yearbook entry, particularly in a loaded year, but it's well worth watching for its uniqueness.

[Zenjo]

I was surprised by how evenly they worked this given the status disparity. Ozaki was smaller than most of the 80's girls and Hiromi was advanced beyond her years. It was mainly technical with some nice submission work from both. A couple of forays to the floor were out of place and disruptive. I liked the pure wrestling just fine. Yagi pushed her hard before Oz came through after 20m. Her generosity was rewarded because she had an opponent deserving of it.

[Jetlag]

20 minutes of matwork? I didn't think so.There were holds, yes, but when I think matwork I think of something more than that. Plus there were a ton of impact moves, flying and rope running. Pretty much just a regular match with a slight emphasis on holds in my book. That aside this was a really nice match as it was just them picking eachother apart over the duration. Plenty of bomb throwing, and Yagi gets to look excellent, surviving some harsh powerbombs and landing some great moves of her own. I tend to belief joshi matches are better when it's (talented) rookie vs. veteran and this was a very good showcase for lucha judoist Yagi in the 2nd year of her career, aswell as Ozaki's competence at putting a match together.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Yeah watching this I EXPECTED mat-work, but this is a false advertisement; the match is very much not "20 minutes of pure matwork" it's a typical hierarchy match with some working holds stuck in there. Here is the review

God Ozaki has to be one of the greatest at these petty bitch-fests she ends up having with other wrestlers, it's unreal. At the start of this she acts all regal but as soon as Yagi starts ragdolling her around with Judoka throws the mood changes real quick and Oz is almost immediately back to her old ways of hair pulling and skin pinching to try to get any sort of edge possible. The first half resolves around Yagi getting a small advantage at first with her grappling; something Oz is clearly not a expert in nor pretends to be; but as soon as Yagi has that advantage taken away she is quickly exposed as simply not being on her opponent's level, conditions be damned. Ozaki beats the piss out of her on the outside, landing multiple huge moves including a disgusting powerbomb followed up by a bent-back armbar that Yagi sells as if she's being tortured.

Almost to spite her submission-heavy foil Oz goes right into her own arm work as she works on the limb with shoulderbreakers and a bunch of dynamic holds. This is where there's a small breakthrough as Yagi is able to take advantage with her own holds whenever she's able to muster enough to counter whatever's being done to her. This is namely in laser-focus of Ozaki's weakened lower back (she has a brace on here) through really mean submissions where she's pulling it with leverage, landing splashes onto said brace or just slamming them onto the ring. Ozaki naturally sells really well as this goes for a good while, bumping big and getting over the injury enough that the Korakuen very easily get into this. There's also a bit of brawling but this is fairly short and is there so Yagi can use the railings and hit a chair shot to the head of Ozaki, thankfully worked in such a way that Yagi just hits the bench rather than actually swinging for the fences. We get a small break before going right back into the action with Yagi landing top rope dropkicks and some cool rolls into submissions before the ropes are hit.

The latter gets a bit too ambitious with a moonsault attempt that Ozaki cleverly counters into a huge top rope back suplex to equalise the match, letting the two do a conventional 50/50 exchange of big moves. Yagi gets a huge pop for landing a duo of top rope foot stomps onto the brace but gets another 2-count. She tries to capitalise by running right at her but Oz hurls her onto the ropes in a fairly reckless move (though again thankfully this goes safely) before catching Yagi in a long sleeper spot that Yagi is able to struggle and escape from. Oz escapes a potential finish to go into a deep spinning Dragon Sleeper then into a regular for the submission victory. This was ALMOST a very good match, but it slips up on a couple of things that add up. For one, Yagi's hold work just isn't all that interesting here, which is sad because she's one of the best to do it. She doesn't pull out the submissions a ton and when she does it's typically generic working holds that the pair don't try to really make seem abrupt, even when we're talking about cross armbreakers.

Ozaki sells pain but not fear, if that makes any sense, sitting in the holds too long for the crowd to respect them. Either that or she's not doing them at all and instead launching herself off the top rope for mostly ok but fairly non-descript offense. Secondly; the finish sucks. This is a running theme where Oz will submit wrestlers who focus on submissions (Amano '06) and while it works for her petty character it kills the crowd here who were expecting an impactful climax, not long dragged out holds that go on for way too long for them to keep attention. It especially doesn't make sense with her spamming out powerbombs throughout the entire thing. Thirdly and perhaps most poignant is that the structure is a little all over the place here. The start works to get over Ozaki's advantages and Yagi's openings, but then afterwards Yagi focuses less on the holds and more on random dropkicks and moves that didn't quite fit the style being put over here as her critical advantage. All in all it's definitely still a decent match despite being heavily flawed with a good sell-job by Oz....with that said it could've been a lot better.