JWP 3/4/1987

 

Plum Mariko vs. Maiko Tsurugi

Oscal Tomo & Smiley Mami vs. Ilia Yonemoto & Eden Mabuchi

Cuty Suzuki & Yu Yamazaki vs. La Venus & Dirty Yamato

Eagle Sawai vs. Xochitl Hamada

Diosa de Plata & India Azteca vs. Esther Moreno & Mayumi Ozaki

Miss A & Rumi Kazama vs. Yuki Ito & Harley Saito

Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi

This was the earliest JWP I've seen so far. There are a few more handhelds from 1987, but most of them don't even have a date. Jackie Sato era JWP is an interesting obscurity to check out. Most of the wrestlers here were really green and much of the undercard felt very basic with wrestlers just trying to string moves together and not have the match break down. There were like a dozen back elbows thrown. Structurally, the matches were pretty lacking.

The one standout in the undercard was Suzuku/Yamazaki vs. Yamato/Venus. It had a clear face/heel structure with Venus engaging in some cool luchariffic exchanges. Dirty Yamato also did her dust powder attack and Yu Yamazaki looked good doing some heated exchanges with Venus and trying to unmask her. The other tag featuring Mexican ladies was also a bit more advanced although sloppy. Esther Moreno decided to do a dozen flips.

The best match before the main event was Miss A/Kazama vs. Ito/Saito. They were also green, but they really kicked the shit out of each other. They really made the right decision putting all the kickpadded girls in the semi main event. Miss A, even though she was a baby here, was already a serious bruiser, but Kazama may have been even more vicious and may have been the best girl in the match. Saito also looked good here and this was a foreshadowing of the cool tags JWP would be doing in the early 90s.

THE MAIN EVENT: Just getting to see Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi in 1987 in JWP is something in itself. These two were great in AJW before the Crush Gals hype took over. These two were very technical wrestlers then, but this match really dialed up on their connection to the crowd. You can tell they were still major stars. The wrestling felt simplistic, certainly not on the level of what they were doing in 1980, but the heat they were garnering was far greater than everything they did in those days. They were working a bunch of tight submissions and scrambling takedowns. Kumi was the aggressor attacking Sato in the ropes and eventually bloodying her and punching her in the face a bunch. That alone should tell you how on fire this crowd ended up getting for the match. The wrestling in this match wasn't as important as their personalities, which may be underwhelming if you were hoping for a purists dream match, but if a heated 80s match between two legends with blood and a bunch of tight wrestling sounds good to you, this was a very good match.