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Jd' Junior Senshuken Jiai: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai |
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This was the first time on a TV taping that these two were "the show," and they made it worth tuning in. These were two of the most improved wrestlers for 1998, Bloody coming out of nowhere, and Sakai growing as she gained experience. They have become good enough that being out there so long didn't expose them. Neither of these two are on the level where they can carry a long match yet (Bloody might have gotten to that point at the tail end of 1999), but they did a good enough job of working their spots in to get by. One thing I liked was that they worked all the undercarders into the match. Certainly, the heels have helped Bloody before, but the faces in turn helping Sakai out was a nice touch because it showed that the matches with faces and heels under Jaguar and Lioness are important these days. Both women's move sets needed to be improved, especially Bloody since she relied too heavily on suplexes for someone who didn't do any dangerous ones. She had expanded her senton offense to include a senton off the apron and a diving senton through a table though, which along with Sakai's plancha, were the highlights of the match. Over the past year she has added several moves so right now Bloody has several deadly moves and finishers that are credible against anyone in Jd' except probably Lioness. Bloody showed more mat skills than she had in the past, but she needs to tighten her locks so it's not so obvious that she's not applying much pressure. Some blown spots hurt the match, most notably Sakai overshooting a moonsault and Bloody missing Sakai with a chair she threw at her. At points things looked too acted or didn't flow as well as they should have, but all things considered it was really a strong match given that they were up and coming wrestlers who are still learning their craft. Their finish showed their inexperience as Bloody got her feet up for Sakai's moonsault then went to the top, but Sakai recovered quick enough to run over and Frankensteiner her off the top. It was a quick comeback and it required a second to give Bloody an extra boost to take the bump. The fact that Bloody kicked out of Sakai's grip before 3, but didn't get her shoulders gave her an out for losing the title. Bloody failed in her third defense, so Sakai became the 4th champion. Michael: As far as the blown spots go, Sakai did hit her hand on Bloody's back with the moonsault and footstomped her before going for the pin. So, she covered her mistake as well as she could, which is something that some of the JWP girls don't always do. As far as showing inexperience, the finish to the Jaguar vs. Bloody match on Jd' #30 was no better than this finish and Jaguar has more experience then Bloody and Sakai combined. Actually, it looked like this might not have been the planned finish because the ref looked confused for a second. Chris: I hadn't seen The Bloody in a long time, but today I saw this match and her 6/5/98 match against Sakai. I know Sakai is good already, but both matches were a lot better than they looked on paper because I wasn't expecting what The Bloody gave me. There were some questionable spots, but you wouldn't know this was a "Junior" title match by the wrestling. The moonsault that Sakai missed didn't ruin it for me either, as it's not like other women such as KAORU haven't done the same thing before. The few other problems weren't enough to spoil it either. I wouldn't have predicted it, but these were probably my two favorite matches on the last Sakai & Momoe compilation tape I got. Special thanks to: Michael Smith & Chris Martinez 20:01
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