With Rea Marumori being Rossyed, Sendai Girls are down to one rookie (to be fair, her departure does seem like it was a mutual decision that served the best interests of all involved). However, in sadness comes opportunity, as outsider Yura Suzuki appears to be stepping up and confirming her position as YUNA’s generational rival. Unfortunately for YUNA, that’s not been going so great. In their sixth singles match (and the second time in a row they’ve opened a Korakuen together), YUNA once again tasted defeated, putting her record to a somewhat unimpressive 0-6. Oh well, there is always next time.
Truthfully, this match wasn’t anything special. It went under five minutes and was basic in its construction. YUNA fired off dropkicks, so Suzuki responded by kicking her about the place and tying her up in a few nicely worked submissions. If you were tuning in for the first time, you’d come away thinking they were two alright rookies, but I doubt you’d be inspired to seek out more of their work. What is intriguing is the style clash that it represents. Their generational battles may be an invention of my own that Sendai Girls have no interest in, but if it isn’t, the chance to watch them do this again and again brings with it a whole load of possibilities.
That clash is born in their backgrounds. YUNA is a traditional joshi rookie brought through the Sendai system that has roots which can be stylistically traced back to Meiko Satomura’s training under Chigusa Nagayo. There’s a touch of her own thing in there, but I’ve been watching a load of old GAEA recently, and the difference between her and the first iteration of someone like Toshie Uematsu isn’t that vast. Put her in some swimsuit gear, and she’d fit right in. In contrast, Suzuki was born outside of the bubble. Trained by Tatsuhito Taikawa, she’s bounced around various promotions (Cagematch still lists Alma Libre as her home base) and has been allowed to craft her own style with a freedom not always given to traditional rookies. She draws heavily on her background in BJJ and kickboxing, which means that despite only being 17 (and three years younger than YUNA), there was a sense that she was the adult in the ring. She’s a rounded wrestler, confident in her own abilities, while YUNA’s still figuring out who she is.
To be fair to YUNA (and the traditional joshi rookie system), Suzuki has been doing this longer than her, and she’s hardly perfect. There were some whiffed kicks, and the final boot to the head lacked a bit of impact for my taste, but I find that contrast between them fascinating. I don’t think it should be a direct competition, and everyone takes a different path to figuring out who they are in the ring, but right now, it feels like Yura has the advantage, something that Sendai’s booking backs up. The joy of these long-running rookie feuds is less the matches, but rather watching the wrestlers develop together as they grow throughout their careers. Right now, Yura Suzuki is the mountain YUNA has to climb. I can’t wait to see what they are to each other five years from now.
You can follow Sendai Girls on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/user/sendaigirls
They have also started uploading shows to Wrestle Universe: https://www.wrestle-universe.com/
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