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 16th 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 |
Thanks for reading, please leave a comment and like my blog's Facebook page here.
Later Readers!
Bonus!
Here are the photo galleries to JoshiMania and Chiakara
JoshiMania Part 1
JoshiMania Part 2
Chikara: The Great Escape
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