[1980-07-AJW] Jackie Sato vs Mami Kumano

[SAMS]

1980-07-XX
AJW
Jackie Sato vs Mami Kumano 
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
★★

This was an excellent performance from Jackie Sato. Easily the best she’s looked all year. Kumano as well gave a fine heel performance, however this match overall was dragged down by everything surrounding it.
The ring was surrounded by a number of other wrestlers, including Monster Ripper, Kumano’s partner Ikeshita and Tomi Aoyama, a key babyface in the company. The heel wrestlers seemed to have carte blanche to do basically whatever they liked at any time. The second fall finished with Monster Ripper hauling Jackie into a Fireman’s Carry and then lugging her around the outside of the ring while the referee counted her out. Kumano had a long stretch where she was using a small screwdriver as a weapon. There was an attempt to conceal this weapon for the most part but in the end the referee got a bit too nosey for his own good and ended up getting a swift jab in the throat from it. How is a referee supposed to work under these conditions? Is he just supposed to continue like that never happened? He should have called his union. Anyway, if he’s got no authority to enforce any of the rules then what’s the point of having them, or having a referee for that matter? Why should I care about a rope break during a submission if there’s really no reason for anybody to release the hold? Why should we even have the match if a group of wrestlers can just haul one competitor outside the ring and contain them there to be counted out. Just feels a bit wishy-washy to me and it denigrates the whole match.
Ultimately if this booking strategy was to make Jackie look like a superhero, overcoming insurmountable odds, then to a certain extent it was a success. The non-heel wrestlers on the outside were next to useless in preventing her from getting gang attacked and she managed to pull out the victory anyway. The stretches she had on offense were intense and impactful and she pulled out a wide variety of throws that just looked great. Kumano spent a great deal of time annihilating her with the screwdriver and she sold the shit out of it, especially when she got hit in the hand. Later on when they targeted her bandaged leg she sold the shit out of that as well. There were men in the crowd who were so incensed with the heel antics that they actually tried to get involved and there were small girls crying, so clearly the crowd were having a strong visceral reaction to the action in and around the ring, but for me as a viewer, I wish that they could establish the boundaries a bit more and then heels doing heel things would feel a bit more meaningful.