Joshi Spotlight: Jaguar Yokota vs. Devil Masami in 1983!

WWWA WORLD TITLE:
JAGUAR YOKOTA vs. DEVIL MASAMI:
(AJW, 9/7/1983)
* Someone finally uploaded it! This match between the two top singles wrestlers of their day has been considered “lost media” for years (ie. TV, movie, a book that has fallen into such obscurity that nobody can find proof it happened, or watch the product: https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Media_Archive). But finally someone uploaded this VHS transfer two weeks ago. Jaguar was the World Champion at this point- a legit badass and grappling superstar who was said to be untouchable on the mat, and had been the champ ever since Jackie Sato was dethroned. Devil Masami had been rising up for a couple of years, having failed in her 1982 attempt at the gold. Jaguar comes out with a lil’ pork pie hat and shirt like a background tough in a Mexican gangster movie (except for all the pink). Devil makes an even bigger entrance, coming out wearing the same Noh theatre mask that Akira Hokuto would later use, but painted gold, and riding on a luchadore’s shoulders to the ring. Jaguar at this point has super-short hair, while Devil’s is longer. She’s got a lot of weight on her tiny opponent, looking bigger and stronger in her purple 80s Swimsuit.

Both women are very respectful in the opening match handshake and we’re off- Jaguar immediately monkey flips Devil and bounces her around with dropkicks until she does the “big bounce to the floor”, looking mad. haha Jaguar messed up the first kip-up and made sure the second was GOOD. Jaguar pounces on the apron and judo flips Devil back in, but finally Devil uses her size to counter and catches her leap with a big press slam. Jaguar snags the ropes off a whip and they’re back to square one, doing a good bit with a lockup. Mat wrestling gets nasty when Devil hauls Jag up by the hair and bounces her off the top rope, but Jaguar finally hauls her down with fundamentals. Interesting how Jaguar mostly controls with speed and precision while Devil can use power to leverage her way to moves. Classic “80s wrestling” as Jaguar counters a jujigatame attempt with a backwards roll, slips the arm out and locks up the knees and bashes them with her knee. The usual bodyscissors spot that’s seen well into the 2000s has them reverse to pins and Devil finally snags the hair and wrenches the neck, then the standing back-stretch puts them right back into the bodyscissors! See, this is the “slow part” but it shows them fighting for every bit of ground and acting like EVERYTHING hurts and they have to fight out. And you can tell by the sweat that they’re not just havin’ a rest.

Jaguar finally twirls sideways to counter and works the leg until Devil makes the ropes, and we’re back at a standing grapple- they fight the SHIT out of a double-knucklelock, covered in sweat, and Devil manages to flip Jaguar and slam her into the post! Devil whips her into the chairs and waits her out in the ring (this spot is like 20 seconds when ’90s joshi makes it a 2-minute rest/transition spot, haha), and Jaguar comes in furious, hitting a ton of leaping attacks and scoring two-counts- we’re at the “next stage” for sure. Jaguar stretches her arm out with some painful-looking holds and stomps the arm, but a kneedrop misses! But Devil only manages to bounce her off the ropes before Jaguar trips her up and goes back to the arm- Devil finally manages to sneak in a headscissors and then hits a VERY delayed suplex/slam, then another for two. Vertical suplex gets 2 and she rolls Jag into a front facelock, then pulls the arms back and does a high-angle chinlock. I was figured it was all gonna be “slams and finish attempts” now but they’re right back to the grappling, probably as a rest. And just as I write that, Jaguar gets whipped and hits her helicopter cross-body for two! Abdominal stretch, but she fails to hook that foot around the calf, and Devil grabs it and pulls her out, then bounces her head off the mat with a HUGE Front Piledriver! Because Joshi, Devil doesn’t even go for the cover and hits a weird backdrop suplex (just dropping Jag at the top), and pays for it when Jaguar flips out of her next thing and hits a Backdrop Suplex Hold for two.

This creates a double-down with the two exhausted wrestlers, and they sell the shit out of that, Devil having to haul herself up using the ropes and Jaguar can only crawl around the ring and give her nasty looks. Devil just hammers her back with an axehandle, but a defiant Jaguar can nail her from that position, clubbing away at her, but loses her energy and Devil clubs her to the floor and waits her out in the ring- haha, great psychology- take an ACTUAL rest while your characters, in-universe, are having a rest. When Jaguar finally makes it in the ring after having a walk & drink, she gets CLOBBERED with a cross-chop off a whip and Devil puts her on her shoulders, climbs to the second rope, and drops her with a PRESS SLAM from there. She climbs to finish, and when Jaguar runs up to stop her, Devil just slams her down by the hair and butterfly suplexes her for… Jaguar to thrash and roll out desperately! I think that was one of those “Zenjo Shoot Pin” situations I’ve heard about, where the finish would come off a worked move but a shoot pin. Or they’re just REALLY good at working that. Devil just slams her and goes for another, but THERE’s the Jaguar Bridge-out, as she slides up and bolts off, leapfrogging Devil hitting a perfect hurricanrana for two. Jaguar bounces Devil around with ass attacks and dramatically fights her into a butterfly suplex and fights her… into another shoot pin at (24:59)! Jaguar Yokota retains! Devil was trying to slide out (her hips were opposite to her torso like a ’90s comic pinup), but Jaguar had her upper body locked down. But seems to have had her arm up and got counted down anyways. Lol the bosses miiiiight have put their fingers on the scale a bit here.

Man, what a long, arduous, cardio-intensive match. It had that NWA-style “catch wrestling”, with girls fighting for every bit of ground, looking for every available counter. Not merely “resting”, they were struggling so dramatically they got as sweaty as when the men do it. They teased a higher pace a few times by sneaking in things like Devil’s press slam or some brawling, but usually went back to the holds to wear the other down. This pays off in the end where Jaguar’s energy & toughness are flagging and Devil ramps up the offense, dropping her with huge strikes and a dramatic power move off the second rope (which I can’t imagine was commonly seen in 1983). The style of match, with the LONG fighting on the mat, isn’t to everyone’s tastes and still isn’t precisely my thing, but it completely justifies itself in the endgame where two exhausted wrestlers are desperately trying to get their moves off and can now hit “the big stuff” with justification- the other person can’t fight them off because they’re too tired! This combination of real exhaustion and “kayfabe” exhaustion always works really well, and makes it look like any move could realistically end it. And Jaguar hitting perfectly smooth Ranas and leapfrogs 25 minutes into a match is insanity.

Rating: **** (a very great example of that style of NWA-ish mat wrestling into bigger moves, with the trademark manic Zenjo pace)