[1989-04-26-JWP] Mayumi Ozaki vs Cutie Suzuki

[Jetlag]

The other fun part of watching the original JWP: getting to check out how good Mayumi Ozaki was early on. She was a 5 foot 90 pound girl with 3 years of experience, but the way she wrestled here, she might aswell have been Arn Anderson. She brought the asskicking to the idol girl in a way that made this resemble a US style match, working Cuty over with stomps to the face, big knee drops, stepping on her hand etc. I know this type of stuff is bread and butter joshi, but I still thought the way they paced the match early on was exceptional, with Ozaki dominating and Suzuki having to string a few nifty babyface flyer spots together to regain control. Eventually Suzuki starts working a chickenwing crossface (everyone in JWP uses the UWF submissions), before Ozaki lands a cool leg trip to stomp the hell out of Cutie's leg – which is promptly no sold cause Cutie ain't no Mimi Hagiwara, but okay. They do 50/50 section trading a bunch of nearfalls and keeping a good „this could be decided at a coin toss“ feeling before Mayumi seals it by catching Suzuki flying at her into a bridge suplex that was pretty cool. Oz was queensized in this match, and even though they both made their debut the same year, it felt like a seasoned vet carrying a young flyer to an impressive match.