[1980-12-16-AJW] Jaguar Yokota vs Jackie Sato

[Jetlag]

The rush of great Jaguar Yokota matches continues. This was frickin AWESOME. It was kind of a preliminary to the later, bigger Sato/Yokota title match and mainly served the purpose of building up Jaguar, but for a match that is essentially typical half baked young wrestler gets first taste against the star this is really outstanding. Jaguar was absolutely ferocious. Picture Hashimoto, except lighter, faster, girlier, and replace the brutal kicks with brutal matwork. The wrestling was as tight and on point, while still keeping a graceful note, but the struggle and fighting and wild-eyed determination from Jaguar is what pushes it over the top. People talk about Jaguar having ahead-of-her-time offense, but fuck that talking point. She didn't need any of it. The basic spots, such as boston crabs, body scissors or small package holds were made into holy shit spots here. I mean seriously the technique is flawless, but the timing and defensive use of the moves is stunning. Some might argue that structurally the match was messy and had the kind of meandering spots typical of young wrestlers in big matches, but the focus of the match was Jaguar Yokota sticking it to Jackie Sato with a vengeance and that was present at all times. Sato was somewhat reserved, but a great foil for Jaguar's fury and added a few slick moves to the match. Also, there is some arm work that gets paid off nicely, and the repeated leg attack stuff from Jaguar gets played up later in the match, building to an incredible last 5 minutes.

[KB8]

Man what the fuck? How is Jackie Sato not beloved among us internet geeks like the other joshi stars? I'm assuming the obvious answer is something like "barely anybody has watched this era of joshi compared to the 90s boom period," but in a JUST and RIGHT world we shouldn't accept that. Every time I've seen her - all of the maybe five or six matches I've actually watched - she's been tremendous and this was badass as hell. I wonder if I'd have become a bigger joshi fan over the years if I'd started out with stuff like this. I love ARSION and chunks of other 90s joshi hits the sweet spot, but for about fifteen years now it's been a style I've quite often struggled with, especially if I'm jumping into it cold. I really need to settle into the rhythm of it and watch matches in bunches so the momentum shifts and all those other joshi-isms that have been talked about forever don't bother me quite as much. I had no problem jumping straight into this though, and it's the sort of thing I feel like doing a proper deep dive into because stylistically there's a lot about it that's way up my street (and I've watched enough from this period to know that it's not exclusive to this match alone). Everything was done here with such snap, like they were trying to slam their opponent clean through the mat. Jaguar was a terror but the way both of them worked holds and went for submissions was amazing. At times it was dang near beautiful, but never did it look cooperative. Sato trying to contain this young whirlwind was a great story as well and holy shit were some of those backbreakers/neckbreakers brutal. I guess I'd have liked them to make more of the hand stuff, because Jaguar trying to rip Sato's fingers apart with the ring ropes was awesome, but for how long it was actually a focus and the fact Sato took control for a stretch after it I don't mind too much. This was the absolute business. 

[SAMS]

1980-12-16
AJW
Jackie Sato vs Rimi Yokota
Fuji TV Cup WWWA World Single Title Tournament Final Match
Ota City Gymnasium, Ota, Tokyo, Japan
★★★★ ¼ 

For Yokota, this felt like a step up for me. She’d shown glimpses, and I know she has a pretty strong rep for this year, but there were certainly a few other Joshi candidates who stood out more over the year. Whether that’s just a footage issue, I don’t know. At least here, in a big singles setting, she delivered the goods and certainly pulled her weight. The first moments had her tentatively going for some low kicks, getting way down onto the mat, but positioning herself so that she could retreat quickly enough if required. This displayed her wariness at taking it to Sato right from the off, respecting the senior woman. 
It didn’t take long though before she did manage to gain control and this stretch, with Yokota working over Jackie, was my least favourite bit of the match. Yokota’s work was good. She displayed viciousness, raking Jackie’s hands along the ropes, but hand work in general doesn’t hit home for me like some other body part specific offense does, but more importantly, I felt like Jackie gave her this portion way too easily. She was just taking the offense, with no resistance or fighting back and Yokota wasn’t ever forced to double down to consolidate her control.
I shouldn’t have worried though because from the halfway point onwards this was pure fire. Jackie managed to find some footing in the match and mounted some offense of her own. I might be at the point where I think Jackie may have the broadest and best looking offensive arsenal in all of wrestling in 1980. It wasn’t present all year round, but the last few months I think she stepped up a gear and just the sheer amount of moves she had in her bag is unbelievable, capped off by the ludicrous suplex into a backbreaker. But on top of that pure insanity, she delivered at least 2 or 3 other moves here that would be candidates for moves of the year. Then when Yokota managed to nail her with some comeback moves, Jackie’s subtle selling, not going overboard, but showing off that vulnerability, did the business.
They finished the first “section” of the match with a double countout. Desperately grappling on the outside and then, with the count reaching 20, Yokota clung onto Jackie to stop her getting back into the ring. Seeing that this was a tournament final, things couldn’t finish on a double countout, so we got an extra 5 minutes and the intensity was up to 11 right from the jump. Both women did a fantastic job of getting across the urgency. They had a small window to secure victory and they were going to pull out all the stops. The kitchen sink was all that was left by the end, and the bell rang with Yokota locked in a Boston Crab, screaming and clawing for the ropes, but refusing to give. Things finished on yet another draw, but this time the “judge” made the call and Jackie took the honours. However, Yokota had stuck with her bell to bell, she had arrived and moving into 1981 it looks like a new star is ascending for sure.