… hey it was otherwise gonna be just a three-match review for the Joshi Spotlight this week, okay?
JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- YUKI LEE:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’3″ 150 lbs.
Career Length: 1992, 1994-1999
-Yes, YUKI LEE. What? I wanna cover everybody and I’ve gotten through most of the people who were big from 1992-95 that I was most familiar with, and now it’s just either the dregs or the people whose careers peaked after the era I’ve seen. I can’t do a Meiko Satomura bio if I’ve only seen her as a rookie spitfire and not Joshi Mom! So now it’s just losers who retired young!
So Yuki Lee was a big centerpiece of the JD’ promotion, which got started in late 1995- she was an AJW wash-out who got re-trained and for some reason was made a star of focus on JD’s shows, which started with a big dramatic opening with the faces and names of Bison Kimura, Jaguar Yokota, AJW “Pretty Girl” loser Chikako Shiratori… and rookie Yuki Lee. I guess a lot was expected of her, but god knows WHAT.
She was kind of your typical joshi at the time- short, stocky, short-haired and with kicky offense. Like they wanted her to be a new Kick Demon or the “Rookie Spitfire” like GAEA Japan was getting with its first class of shockingly-good rookies. But with Yuki, it just never turned out for whatever reason, and she spent the rest of her career in JWP before retiring in 1999. Having seen a bunch of her stuff, the flaws are quite apparent- even a couple years in, she’s still in the “Klutzy Rookie” phase, not quite knowing where to be, which direction to turn for a move (thus exposing the business), or even showing proper fire for a comeback. This isn’t that horrible for a newbie wrestler, of course, but in her case they were pushing her to a level she wasn’t ready for- you can’t have big midcard matches and showcases with a person named in your TV opening and have her rolling the wrong way on stuff or awkwardly stumbling through matches.
CAREER TRAJECTORY:
-Yuki Lee was a rookie trained in AJW, but only has a single match listed on Cagematch- a (10:00) draw in 1992 over the AJW Junior Title, before she’s gone. Apparently she washed out really quickly or quit due to the horrible atmosphere in the company (which chewed up rookies and spit them out, and elevation hit a wall right around this time as the Interpromotional Era was just getting started).
Following this, Yuki re-debuts in 1995 as a central figure in JD’ Beauty Athlete– a promotion built around Bison Kimura, Jaguar Yokota and Jaguar’s trainees. Yuki acts as kind of the “Focus Rookie” of the company, getting a shot in the TV show’s opening with her name and face and everything, making her out to be one of the four pillars the company is built around. Except… she wasn’t any good. Which is fine for a rookie jobber, but one of her first shows sees her defeat Chikako Shiratori, who was a “get” from AJW and one of the bigger names in the midcard. So you have these midcard showcase matches where she’s teaming with a veteran against a veteran and another rookie and she’ll do stuff like roll the wrong way on a corner rollup or miss a hair-whip by a mile. Just unpracticed stuff.
Yuki’s 1996-97 run is a pretty steady downfall- she defeats The Bloody (a rookie who is already more impressive than her) on a lot of shows, but loses in a LOT of tag matches. Like a huge amount- nearly every match seems to be a tag loss. She manages to appear on a lot of Kodo Fuyuki’s promotion, as JD’ seems to be doing a thing with them having guest-matches on his cards. Then by 1998 she’s losing again and again- often to mid-tier stars (Cooga, Kumiko Maekawa), but then SUMI SAKAI, a 2nd-year wrestler, defeats her. Yoko Kosugi, the future Ace of JD’, leaps above her in seniority from the looks of things. Yuki Lee quits JD’ in March 1998, alongside Chikako Shiratori (who had also plateaued and seemed to want to make a go of being a freelancer).
Yuki is hired by JWP in 1998, again with Chikako- the two are partnered up as new hires, and go on a tear against the rookies- I see a lot of tag victories over Tomoko Kuzumi-tier wrestlers in such bouts. Buuuuuuuuuuuut then as soon as she hits the “Command Bolshoi” tier she starts eating losses in those same bouts- Bolshoi, Hikari Fukuoka, and other JWP stalwarts are able to crush her. Rieko Amano (another 1995 hire) defeats her in singles, and Devil Masami crushes her in (1:51). She & Tomoko Miyaguchi make it to the second round of a one-night Tag Tournament, but that’s it before she defeats Chikako at the end of the year.
1999 is more of the same- she’s beating rookies in solo matches, but losing tags. Teaming with Dynamite Kansai, she loses to Hikari & Kuzumi. The “Fab Four” rookies of JWP had improved so much and Yuki was now below them in the pecking order by a lot. She quits JWP that March and joins Chikako in Osaka Pro (Super Delfin’s promotion) doing women’s matches for a few months before she finally calls it quits- her final match that I can see is in July 1999, losing to Chikako, whose career she’s been following for a while.
MOVESET:
* Spin Kick, Dragon Screw Legwhip, Leg-Trap Backdrop Suplex Hold
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfIkfOkmPrI
THE CRUSHING SPIRITS:
LIONESS ASUKA vs. YUKI LEE:
(JD’, July 1996)
* Asuka, kind of freelancing or something by this point, takes on the hot prospect rookie of JD’. Asuka’s in some pretty sharp gear this time around- all black with white stripes on the chest. Yuki’s in mostly red.
Yuki tries rookie-fu, and Asuka isn’t even gonna bother- she timbers her over with a kick combo, beats on her when she tries simple stuff, and throws on casual submissions. Suplex, sleeper, knee strikes and elbows keep Yuki down, and a sleeper and some kicks tell the story of her fighting no matter the odds, Asuka just casually doing stuff. She carries Yuki around, dumps her into a sharpshooter, then finishes with the Giant Swing at (5:59). Asuka then talks smack and we get an EXTRA match- Asuka again kicks her ass, throwing out backdrop suplexes & spinning heel kicks. A big spinkick puts Yuki down for the “KO” spot, getting up and eight to put her over, but Asuka just kicks the hell out of her again. This happens repeatedly, but Yuki gets a hideous dragon screw to reverse one in a hope spot- a long ankle lock has Asuka angry and struggling. Yuki fights her into a couple of powerslams for a one-count, then gets powerbombed, but bridges out! Asuka just does it again for the three (5:32).
Well they had to do a “spirited rookie” match- Asuka put the work in, but mostly just acted annoyed that the kid was trying to hang. It had a good story with Asuka’s clear contempt and desire to throw more shots to kill the kid, but Yuki’s just not that good yet- none of her stuff hits well and she’s not good at selling.
Rating: *1/2 (about as good as a rookie being murdered for 11 minutes straight was gonna be- Yuki’s not any good and Asuka was rightly only barely trying, but the story was there)
MEGUMI KUDO & KAORI NAKAYAMA (FMW) vs. BISON KIMURA & YUKI LEE (JD’):
(Discover New Heroine Tag Tournament- Round Two- Summer 1996)
* Most interpromotional stuff typically involves “Someone vs. GAEA” or “Someone vs. AJW”, so FMW & JD’ mixing it up is interesting for the time period. Both teams are the only representative of their company left, so it’s kinda anyone’s ballgame. Bison & Kudo notably were part of the same AJW training class in 1986. Bison & Yuki are in blue & white again, Kudo’s in black & Kaori’s in red & white.
Team JD’ attacks to start, then tee off on Kudo (Yuki seems to throw a REALLY stiff Bison Chop on her), then the rookies do basic stuff. Yuki seems pretty stiff and not good. Finally it’s Bison/Kudo, but they do a long test of strength- Bison straightjackets Kudo, then does a Bushwhacker battering ram of all things into the turnbuckles and piledrives her for two. Kudo does the same ram a couple of times, then dumps Bison & the teams fight outside the ring, with Kudo missing with a piece of guardrail. Then we’re OBVIOUSLY clipped to to the ring, with Kudo reversing Bison with a big DDT to a crowd pop. Bison reverses another one, and throws Bison Chops until Kudo reverses to a Northern Lights suplex for two. Bison counters a rana with a powerbomb for two, then another sets up Yuki’s awful elbow off the second rope for two- Kudo reverses for the same and then the rookies fight- Kaori keeps reversing stuff on Yuki, hitting a bridging double-arm suplex for two, but Bison runs in after fighting Kudo outside and Bison Chops her into Yuki’s leg-trap backdrop suplex hold for three (6:36 of 16:51 shown). Wow, they’re clipping these by a lot.
Rating: *1/2 (“bleh” match- we get the slack opening and then lead right to a merely “okay” end-run, with the rookies not really showing much and the veterans wrestling like it’s an easy payday- we’re missing a LOT, however)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcON99jWM30&t=2s
JAGUAR YOKOTA & YUKI LEE vs. COOGA & THE BLOODY PHOENIX:
(JD’, Aug. 6th 1996)
* So Cooga beat The Bloody one show ago after a very long match, and now they’re teaming up against a top star and the top rookie prospect. Jaguar’s in black & animal print, Yuki’s in blue & silver parachute pants & top, Cooga’s in blue & silver with a mask, and Bloody’s in red & black with a mask.
Jaguar does her flip dodge & rana on Cooga right away, but eats a high knee and gets beaten up. Yuki/Phoenix go with some ugly basics- Yuki hits an electric chair drop & weak restholds, but Jaguar gets backed into the other corner & Cooga/Bloody do sleepers & chinlocks. Lotsa choking until Bloody hits a Super Vader Bomb for two, then everyone fights on the outside as the camera struggles to keep up and most everything is dark. Back in, Jaguar hits her windmill cross-body and butt-butts on Cooga, but Yuki immediately gets beat up- I gotta say Phoenix is a LOT more advanced than Yuki is. Her stuff is fairly smooth and hits properly instead of awkwardly. Yuki, for example, can’t hit a corner rollup without rolling the wrong way and she misses a “running hair-spin” by a mile.
Clipped to Bloody & Cooga hitting a double backdrop to twin sentons on Jaguar, then Cooga’s tornado DDT gets two. Jaguar does her corner rana then the bridge-up into a Straightjacket Suplex for the same. Cooga reverses the Vertical-Drop Pedigree with a mountain bomb for two, but Phoenix runs in and eats it instead- Cooga saves. Yuki gets a powerslam, karate chop & Perfect Plex for 2-counts, but Bloody gets a sleeper & German, but can’t hold the bridge. Jaguar hits a flying cross-body to help out Yuki, so Bloody hits a dive & Cooga a tope con hilo! After a long beatdown outside, Cooga misses a flying thing and takes a leg-trap backdrop hold from Yuki for two, but Jaguar missile kicks Yuki by mistake and a backdrop hold gets two on her. Cooga directs Phoenix to toss Jaguar for breaking up the pin and finishes Yuki with teh Flying Knee Smash at (15:21 of 16:49 shown).
UGGGGGGHHHH- the “endless restholds and clumsy rookie segments so they get experience” match. Just like the last one! And a lot of JD’ stuff! The growing pains of new promotions are a harsh mistress. Yuki looked AWFUL in here- awkward and stumbly, while Phoenix is already pretty decent (hitting GERMANS as a rookie is kind of crazy- most AJW rookies are still doing bodyslams for years).
Rating: *3/4 (slightly better than the prior match thanks to 3 of the 4 being good, but still very slow and plodding)