3/9/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall From JWP TV 3/15/97 THE BEGINNINGS
One sign that someone is really behind on their reviews is that the wrestler has come out of retirement before they write the review of their retirement match. I'm really glad Yagi is back, although I wish she was back full time instead of as a part time freelancer. I wouldn't be doing justice to the situation if I didn't at least briefly mention what a loss Yagi's retirement was to JWP and wrestling as a whole. When you have a league of a dozen people, losing your best prospect, who in just three years time had already become the second best wrestler in your league and one of the ten best women in the world is more than a crushing blow. That sad thing is, Yagi was just one in a long list of setbacks JWP has suffered in the past two years. Her potential was basically unlimited because she could not only match just about anyone as a worker, but had, for her experience level, an incredible understanding of how to work to her opponent's strengths and hide their weaknesses. What separates the wrestlers you would call the best from the rest of the pack is their ability to make their opposition look a lot better than they really are on the way to having a match with them that is better than it has a right to be. Yagi certainly hadn't reached Jaguar level in this regard, but given how far she had come in such a short time, it was attainable. Her biggest roadblock was that she didn't start wrestling until she was 22. In any case, she decided to get married and retire, so even though she is back to some extent, we'll never know how good she could have been. This match was a great example of just how good Yagi was. It isn't the best example of Yagi's style, or really Yagi's style at all because she barely used a submission after the first few minutes of the match. There also wasn't much in the way of build or psychology here. It was basically one great move after another with great work. The pacing was much faster than their January match and the selling wasn't as good, but certainly not to the point they were killing the moves.
"It was a lot different from their previous match which I also gave ****, and that's a credit to them that they could do two different style matches at this level," wrote Michael.
One of the main reasons I am so high on this match is that the work is so incredibly graceful. Kuzumi is one hell of a worker in her own right, but Yagi wrestled her style here and once again made her look great like no other can. Kuzumi has a lot of great looking difficult to execute spots that you can't do against every wrestler because they don't have the athleticism to take the bumps right, and even with the wrestlers who do have the athleticism these aren't going to work 100% of the time. Yagi was the best at taking these and making them look great because she took perfect bumps, and also had an uncanny nack of saving partially blown spots, not that there were many in this match.
Yagi
did a great, perfectly executed, ipponzeoi into a udehishigigyakujujigatame
early on. Kuzumi hit her springboard plancha and doublearm suplexed Yagi to
the floor. When Yagi reentered, she avoided Kuzumi's dropkick, so Kuzumi went
sailing to the floor and Yagi followed with her ultra cool looking plancha.
Kuzumi came back with a missile kick that Yagi took a great bump on, and softened
Yagi's back up with a series of backdrops. Kuzumi continued attacking the back,
including a near fall with a diving body press to the back. Kuzumi tried to
go to the top, but Yagi German suplexed her off the 2nd and both sold. Yagi
regained control, getting a near fall with a beautiful
lancet-arch (backdrop that starts off with Yagi locking her opponents arm
in a hammerlock type position). Yagi was slow between spots because she was
selling her back. This gave Kuzumi the opportunity to come back, but Yagi quickly
cut her off. However, when Yagi tried a nadare shiki move, Kuzumi did her beautiful
victory star drop, the finish of their January
match, but this time Yagi kicked out. Soon after Kuzumi did a variation of the
victory star drop where she did a slingshot into it instead of starting it with
both opponents on the ropes. This was equally tremendous, which is also to Yagi's
credit because without perfection from both parties it looks badly screwed up.
Yagi came back with a nadare shiki no ipponzeoi for a near fall. Kuzumi cut Yagi off on the top, and did her nadare shiki no doublearm suplex finisher, but didn't go for the cover. Instead, she did a perfect swandive missile kick to Yagi's weakened back, but Yagi still kicked out. Kuzumi did an ultra corbata (spinning headscissors from the corner), but it still wasn't enough. Finally, she cut Yagi off on the top rope and did a rano suplex (looks like a superplex/nadare shiki no brainbuster, but the way the opponent is thrown off the top is kind of like a gutwrench suplex). Yagi bounced off the mat and Kuzumi covered her to retain the title.
Great performance by both. Due to Yagi, Kuzumi was able to do every great spot she knew without the match coming off as a spotfest or any execution problems. The match could have been better if it was longer and more of a combination of both women's styles, but in a way it was smart to do all Kuzumi's style because that would be the style that would dominate this junior division in Yagi's absence. 13:39. ****1/4
"The lack of heat or anything else from the crowd for this match was a disgrace, and the fact that nobody popped for any of the near falls was sad. This wasn't as bad as Megumi's ceremony, but she already had her last match. Kudo's ceremony came weeks later in front of several thousand less people, so it couldn't have had the emotion it would have if it was on the same night she carried Shark to a watchable match one last time," wrote Michael.
Yagi's retirement ceremony followed, climaxing with an emotional scene as the Hiichans posed together for the final time with Yagi, in tears, taking the center slot which previously had only been occupied by leader Hikari Fukuoka.
"The shot with Hiichans doing their pose for the last time has always been, and will always be, one of those things that sticks in my memory forever," wrote Michael.