Forever Forward Fridays

 

Jumping Bomb Angels (c) VS Glamour Girls - AJW WWF Women's Tag Team Championship 6/8/1988

JJZ: So I knew right away what I wanted to watch when you played a Jumping Bomb Angels match forward to me. I immediately remembered a few of their matches in WWF when I was a kid with the Glamour Girls. And man those matches were crazy a real nice change of pace. For the time that this took place it was great to see what they were doing. Really jaw dropping imo. The moves were so stiff and different. The energy was non-stop. Like four kids on a sugar rush. Watching this I loved how influential I knew this feud was. It was like watching a historic documentary. Just so amazing to see four women setting standards and they didn't even know it. I'd tell anyone trying to get into the business to give this feud a once over. I wasn't crazy about the finish but I wasn't surprised. Side note I got a real kick out of the way the Glamour Girl went for their pins.

CJD: Yeah those pinfall attempts were straight out of a NES wrestling game. This match reminded me so much of when I started getting into 80s wrestling tape trading and for every amazing find like Jumbo/Kerry there were so many "what the fuck??" matches that I was looking for glimpses of greatness in overall match structures and styles I was still desperately trying to wrap my head around. I'd imagine what something that sounded great on paper like a best of Steamboat VS Muraco feud must have been like, then get the VHS in and found out the reality was very different. Part of that was being a child of the 80s and romanticizing the glimpses of memories I had watching back then. But part of it was just having to relearn the psychology, the crowd expectations, and the schedule and lifestyle wrestlers had back then. Now this match is not a total WTF watch, it's a quality match for certain. But there's definitely moments that took me back to those early tapes that left me dumbfounded. The main thing this match has is a great energy as you said. What a fun feud in wrestling history and what a shame that Moolah sabotaged the finish to this match and their supposed upcoming Wrestlemania match as a result. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say the history of women's wrestling in the US may have been different otherwise. The last thoughts I'll close with are that the Glamour Girls gave me serious Beatdown Biddies vibes from GLOW. And damn did that entrance song slap!!

Forever Forward Fridays

 

Jaguar Yokota/Devil Masami VS Jumping Bomb Angels - AJW 12/10/1984

CJD: I watched this match a few months ago and decided to revisit it this week to see if I wanted to play it forward. You know I'm on the 5 year quest that is Greatest Wrestler Ever which I'm going to try to not let bleed over into our blog too too much, but is bound to overlap at times. And our current Joshi Journey on fridays has been great for that as I've gotten to watch two or more matches from some serious contenders who I need more exposure to. And this match is one I'm going to bring back to you because holy shit, talk about trailblazing. These women were tearing shit up in 1984, setting a pace for high impact tag team wrestling that would make current indy wrestlers jealous. At a glance this might look like a sprint, and on first watch I thought it was more of one. But there's too much substance and too strong fundamentals to consider it anything other than an all-time great tag by my standards on second watch. We've featured a lot of tag team wrestling on Tuesdays and Fridays lately but I hope this still stands out from the pack for you. I know it's a match that really stuck with me.

JJZ: This might be the most a match you've shared feels like our old days of watching wreslting together. Old, grainy, I have no clue who some of the talent is. But most importantly, I'm excited. I don't know why but the start of this gave me a flashback to the movie Body Slam with Piper and Tonga Tom. Anyway, this was a fucking blast. Non stop action with spots I wouldn't expect to see in 1984. The pace for that time was also a very nice surprise. My wrestling viewing has been down so much as of late that Play It Forward has been my central vein. Matches like this always raise my heartrate and remind me why I love this sport. Now let's talk about the finish. Jesus. I made sure I had my 1984 Wrestling Mind on and when I saw this I was shocked. I was expecting the typical 80s AJPW/NJPW double countout. I don't care about the spoiler because fuck it, that was awesome. Can't wait to kick something back after that.