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Jaguar Yokota Intai (retirement)
Final Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Devil Masami (JWP) |
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I don't understand what the point of this match was. I mean, it was to draw the house, but the choice of Devil as an opponent was kind of questionable. I know they are friends for over 20 years, Jaguar trained Devil, and all that. Devil is also someone that has beaten Jaguar in the past, so Jaguar probably has a lot less of a problem losing to her. Still, Jaguar claimed she was retiring because the young girls would never be the stars if she is around to overshadow them, so why not show us why one of the young girls should be considered a star by giving her the gig? If she wanted Jd' to survive in her absense from active wrestling, she should have put one of the top faces, Kosugi, Yabushita, or Sakai, over because they need credibility so bad it's not even funny. I don't think Onita's retirement match did a lot for Hayabusa because Onita wouldn't put him over, but at least he was in the main event of a major show, which opened a lot of people's eyes to him. If Jaguar was going to lose to someone outside of Jd', why not give us a dream match like Jaguar vs. Toyota, Aja, Kyoko, Hikari, or someone like that? That certainly would have been a much better match, which is the way Jaguar should go out, and it would have drawn more fans. You would think Jd' could get a lot in return for Jaguar losing to someone like that, but again if Lioness was to go over Kansai, that was a huge win for her. The thing is, Lioness is the only person in Jd' that doesn't need a big win. Keith wrote, "Once they announced who Jaguar's opponent was for this show, I hit my head against a glass window. This match seemed to be more 'personal' for Jaguar than anything else. The problem about making something personal is that there's a chance that it isn't marketable. Here, that problem arose. If Jaguar wanted to have a final match with Devil, why not do it at Korakuen Hall where Jd' only needs to fill 2,100 as compared to a 11000+ arena? It would have been a waste to have Jaguar's retirement at Korakuen Hall. Sure, Ariake Coliseum is too big an arena for women's wrestling in 1998, but it's one of those arenas that never sells out, so it's not like it was a total disgrace that Jd' didn't come close or anything like that. Even though this show didn't do that great, it may have been the most attended women's show of 1998. From that perspective, it's hard to fault the decision. Without knowing the costs of renting the various arenas, I can't really make a statement about how much they gained or lost by running one arena over the other, but I have to think "5800" at Ariake Coliseum must have made them more money than 2100 at Korakuen Hall. I mean, the building can't cost that much more to rent, can it? "The booking on this show was extremely weak considering the arena that they needed to fill, the positioning of the future stars, and having matches that lacked heat because of seemingly non-existent issues (issues here being defined as some kind of intense rivalry that draws interest)," wrote Keith. The booking was terrible from Jd's standpoint because they didn't do anything to help themselves. That JWP and AJW did nothing with their little matches should not be their concern, but The Bloody, Kosugi, Sakai, and Yabushita all needed to be positioned as the stars of the company. They fell flat in each case. "Second, considering this was a Jd' show and that one of the feature matches was going to be Jaguar's retirement, why was it scheduled third from the top of the card? Yeah, probably few people didn't expect a great match from these two and that they needed the AJW vs. Neo event to help draw and provide the 'finale,' but if that was the logic, then surely they could've realized that the booking for this show was weak," wrote Keith. I don't think it made that much difference where the Jaguar match went on because that was the one that drew the crowd. The same could be said of Inoki and Choshu's retirement matches, among others. The mistake made by Jd' was not having any of their own wrestlers in the final. If you look at the NJ Tokyo Dome shows, you had IWGP Heavyweight Title matches going on last, so you leave the fans with the direction the company is going in for the next few/several months. This show left the fans wanting to attend AJW vs. Neo shows, rather than Jd' shows, especially since Jd' showed people that they "didn't have that much left." This is one of the main problems of doing an all-star show instead of it just being a Jd' show that had some interpromotional matches. Jd' brought the drawing card to the table, but they didn't play their cards right, so their other wrestlers weren't positioned or elevated like they needed to be. Jaguar is still capable of having an excellent match, but Devil caused the match quality to decend to hades. I was getting more and more depressed as each minute passed, knowing the greatest would soon be gone and there was a better chance she was going out with a DUD than going out with a bang. Devil seems to expand by the day, so she has next to no stamina. I don't think she can sink any lower than she already has. I mean, beyond the fact that this was the biggest crowd she's performed before in ages, she didn't even fire up for her friend's retirement match. The song says "God made the Devil just for fun, when he wanted the real thing he made Aja Kong." Well, I was really wishing we were seeing the real thing in this match because god may have been enjoying himself, but I sure as hell wasn't. This match got off to a really slow start, with nothing really happening for seemingly ages. Jaguar got most of her offense in early, but she didn't get to showcase most of her big spots because Devil was too big or didn't feel like selling or whatever lame excuse she has for herself. Devil then took control and dominated the rest of the match. Jaguar was never really able to mount a comeback, just one move and then Devil would cut her off, so the match didn't build any kind of drama. They did some big spots, but the set up was so incredibly slow due to Devil that they weren't very impressive. The highlight was Devil standing on the 2nd rope and hoisting Jaguar up like she was going to do a verticle suplex, but instead throwing her over the top rope to the floor. Luckily, Jaguar was caught by the seconds, but it still had to suck. "This was scary. Jaguar had a lot of guts for doing something
like this, even on a retirement match. If she wanted to make a statement
about quitting permanently, then she certainly risked it in this spot,"
wrote Keith. "The difference between Choshu and Jaguar's retirement matches was that Choshu, in lacking ability, had picked the perfect final opponent in having Liger fight him and carry him. Heck, Choshu got to do a plancha for a memorable spot. On the other hand, Jaguar had old Devil and provided a memorable bump rather than a satisfying finish. The whole match was a waste of Jaguar's time considering that she seemed willing to provide a few exciting bumps and still had enough to give a final good performance," wrote Keith. She still has enough to give several more good to excellent performances. You have to really suck to not have a good singles match with Jaguar, even in 1998. "Jaguar really should've fought Manami Toyota, who still has enough talent to provide a good performance when motivated, and could've helped position Toyota and AJW in a better spot. Toyota wouldn't even have had to won, she could've drawn or even lost, but just make both of them look good, especially Jaguar in her finale. Instead, I felt empty by the ending. There was very little that was said to solidify a moment like this after the match was complete," wrote Keith. I would have rather had Jaguar put Toyota over, but in turn, Toyota put someone that was still with Jd' over. The problem is, like JWP, Jd' hasn't positioned Kosugi or Bloody as stars, so when you see a match like Bloody vs. Kyoko, it's not like you think Bloody has a chance in hell of winning. The only thing they probably would have had a chance to do is Toyota over Jaguar for Lioness over Toyota, and that would have provided two excellent matches that both would have drew. Jaguar didn't want them to do anything special because it was her second retirement, so she just gave a speech after the match and some of the girls carried her to the back on their shoulders. She is still working behind the scenes training the Jd' women, and she now has a new on camera role as one of Jd's referees as well as working for FIGHTING TV SAMURAI! on the S-ARENA Samurai News show. Special thanks to: Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules!19:33 (13:36 shown)
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