[1996-12-14-JWP] Hiromi Yagi vs Plum Mariko

[Ma Stump Puller]

Clipped by 3 minutes. This was a pretty good starter, Yagi and Plum were sharp technical wrestlers and they showcase that aplenty here with lots of opposing joint and limb work from the pair, there's a good tit for tat with Yagi doing her usual goofy foot-biting in leg work and Plum answering by trying to break her elbow in a couple of pieces that naturally showcases the kind of grittiness that only two seasoned grapplers would understand. They do a great job as well of balancing the more faster pace with the submission work as Yagi sells the effected limb when in motion and so focuses more on her Judoka throws as opposed to the more high-risk stuff; whenever she does try to match Plum's more speedy offence later on in the match she utterly pays for it because Plum can scout her way better than vice versa with counters into submissions.

Plum seems to have the more effective hold work as well, Yagi is faster on account of her background but Plum does these really tricked out modifications like a kneebar into figure-four that showcase her higher level of experience by comparison. The pace is still obviously dictated by the fact that this is still an opener so the two make sure to keep things energetic up until the very end when Yagi goes for a sick second rope Fujiwara armbar and gets the shocking upset victory over her more experienced opponent. Solid sprint and extremely fun from start to end, about as good as an opener like this is gonna get quite frankly. The more Yagi I watch the more I'm impressed with her potential GWE case....