Random Wrestling: Women's Edition

June Byers vs. Cora Combs

Other than the 50’s I’m not sure when this match was.   It’s actually a pretty solid match that was enjoyable to watch, the crowd was into it, which is more than you can see for the current WWE non NXT product.

 Mildred Burke vs. Mae Weston

So that last match made me look for a Mildred Burke match the pioneer woman’s wrestler.  Again this match is from the 1950’s and this has a newsreel feel to it with the background music and commentary.  Burke was pretty damn vicious and dirty in the ring. 

Vivian Vachon vs. Kay Noble

From the early 70’s Vivian is the sister of Maurice and Paul Vachon and the namesake of my cat.  She was also the featured subject in the documentary Wrestling Queen that I own and it is a very good documentary on her and wrestling at that time.  Both Vachon and her opponent Kay Noble stopped wrestling full time in the early 80’s because they had children and only appeared sporadically after that.  

My cat Vivian Vachon

The Crush Girls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagoya vs. Leilani Kai & Penny Mitchell

March 16, 1986 Madison Square Garden

The Crush Girls were hugely popular in Japan as both Asuka and Chigusa reached megastar status in Japan.  When they came to the States they brought a ladies style that was unseen over here and it blew the fans away.  Most people know who Leilani Kai is.  Penny Mitchell I had never heard of until recently but have watched several of her matches and am a big fan of her work. 

 Jumping Bomb Angels: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota

August 10, 2008 from LLPW in Japan

Parts 1 & 2

The Jumping Bomb Angels were popular and successful tag team in the mid 80’s to early 90’s both in Japan and the states, they famously defeated the Glamour Girls for the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championships at the first Royal Rumble in 1988.  Yamazaki had retired in 1991, moved to New York and opened a restaurant with her husband.  This match in 2008 is her return to wrestling.  Noriyo had stated active in wrestling until her retirement in 2010. 

Masami debuted in 1978 and had a very successful career in Japan until her retirement at the end of 2008.  In 1997 Masami became the second and last WCW Women’s Champion winning the vacant title in a tournament final a couple months before the title was abandoned by WCW.

Jaguar Yokota debuted in 1977 a month before her 16^th birthday and considered one of the greatest women wrestlers of all time, she is still actively wrestling in Japan. 

Me with Itsuki Yamazaki at Legends of the Ring June 2, 2012 in Monroe, NJ

 

Sara Del Rey vs. Mia Yim

April 23, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland

RCW presents “The Supremacy”

Sara Del Rey is probably the greatest American Women’s Wrestler of all time. Since September 2012 she has been working as a trainer in the WWE for NXT, even recently being promoted to assistant head trainer.  Good for her that she found a way to live to not travel and make a living wrestling, crappy for us that she isn’t wrestling any longer.  She is only 35 so potentially she could still return to wrestling showing the world how good she is.

Mia Yim was early in her career at this point but it was clear from this match just how good she was going to become, and is.

I had the pleasure of seeing Del Rey wrestle twice in person, both for Chikara.  First time on December 3, 2011 in Everett, MA for JoshiMania where she defeated Tsubasa Kuragaki in a hard hitting match.  Then on July 28, 2012 in Portland for in a losing effort to Grand Champion: Eddie Kingston in an awesome match. 

Myself with Sara Del Rey Chikara in Portland, yup that's the Young Bucks in the background

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Later Readers!

Bonus!

Here are the photo galleries to JoshiMania and Chiakara

JoshiMania Part 1

JoshiMania Part 2

Chikara: The Great Escape