Some thoughts about Yuka Sakazaki getting kicked repeatedly in the head
And: this week's recipes
In the realm of Joshi promotions, Tokyo Joshi is, of course, the silly one that is run by a guy who loves idols. Any general TJPW show is not particularly interested in “realism” or “motivation” and like, almost half of the wrestlers have animal gimmicks, and one is just “a toddler.” Tokyo Joshi is so good at presenting unreality, and the big, broad, silly gimmicks, that it is easy to lose sight of the difference between a “character” and a “gimmick,” and even more, viewers accept the presentation of “idols who are all friends with each other” as reality rather than it being yet another aspect of the performance. TJPW in particular, is so good at presenting friendship among women on stage (and online) that when anything breaks outside of that, a lot of the audience really fucking hates it.
Today, of course, I can only be thinking about Yuka Sakazaki when I write this. Her gimmick is “magical girl.” Her character is “your friend who could turn on you at any second.” It’s a classic sort of mean girl, the one you think is your friend who decides, seemingly at random, that she is not. It’s so specific, and so relatable, that viewers often think that it is real. But we don’t know Sakazaki. We have no idea who she really is. She’s a pro-wrestler, and everything that happens in the ring is entertainment.
When I was in middle school, for two years my best friend was a girl named Mishka. Mishka was so charismatic and engaging—she was a really interesting and lively person, and most of the time was incredibly fun to be around. She also was someone who became very angry very quickly, and would never tell you why. Every few months she would say that she hated me, and not talk to me for a few days, before deciding that we should make up. I was so stressed out by this that I eventually made a promise to myself that the next time she did that, I would never speak to her again. Eventually, she got mad at me, told me she hated me and didn’t want to be friends. True to my word (to myself) I did not speak to her again. Perhaps I appreciate Yuka Sakazaki’s character because I have this background that makes it clear what a specific character choice she is making. It is a heel, yes, but it’s different from being someone who hits you in the head with a chair, it’s a level of realism that makes viewers think that when she acts “out of character” in the ring, it is, in fact, out of character, rather than being a part of a very specific character, who can exhibit shocking and random petty meanness.
In the quarter finals of the Tokyo Princess Cup, fan favorite Hikari Noa (the idol who loves death matches) kicked Yuka Sakazaki in the head. She kicked her in the head many times and Sakazaki just marched slowly forward. In wrestling people call this “no-selling” and it’s considered to be a very bad thing to do. (I think it’s debatable that this is even what happened, but everything in wrestling is up to interpretation, which is the fun of it.) No selling makes your opponent look bad, it makes their moves look weak. The strength of a wrestler is, after all, communicated entirely by their opponent.
When Sakazaki “no sold” a bunch of head kicks in this match there were a number of viewers who got really mad. How could Sakazaki, and the promotion, bury Hikari Noa? Noa must be leaving for a bigger promotion, why else would this happen?
But Sakazaki does this sometimes. Occasionally, she will walk out to the ring without her normal big smile, and fans will say “wow, she must be so mad that she is going to lose this match!” Once, she slapped someone after the match, and it was never mentioned again. People, again, thought “Sakazaki must have been really mad to lose.”
Yuka Sakazaki is an entertainer, and a really good one. She’s funny, she’s charismatic, and most of the time she comes out with this glowing look that makes you think “wow, she’s so happy.” Her excellence as a performer makes a lot of us, as viewers, forget that pro-wrestling is acting. A wrestler is an actor who also likes to risk paralysis on a regular basis. A wrestler is an actor who is in character basically all the time. Long ago, people said that the advent of social media meant we were now in the post-kayfabe era, when in fact it has been the opposite.
The promotions that I watch regularly, DDT, TJPW, and Gatoh Move all have found their relative success by understanding that pro-wrestling is the perfect avenue to form para-social relationships. Like AKB48 and the other big idol groups in Japan, they make their money by selling access, as much as wrestling. Gatoh Move, undeniably, is the king of para-social wrestling relationships, the peak of “they’re famous to me” but TJPW is famously heavily inspired by idols and idol culture.
All of these promotions receive a lot of criticism from fans for wrestlers not moving up the card fast enough, for underdog wrestlers not getting their big wins soon enough, and for the people on top staying there for too long. It is because of how effective these companies and their performers have been at creating and communicating characters that we, as fans and viewers, feel frustration and even anger that we keep seeing our faves lose again and again. The rage that the audience felt at seeing Hikari Noa lose in that manner went beyond a simple babyface v heel storyline, even though that’s what the match looked like, because of the years that TJPW has spent working to make Noa into a highly sympathetic character.
Why would Yuka Sakazaki no sell the kicks of an up and comer in her promotion? Is it because Yuka Sakazaki the person was going into business for herself? Is this something that the promotion will have to try to turn into an angle? To me, this is a performance that serves the characters of both wrestlers. Yuka Sakazaki looks like an incredible monster, even moreso for the seemingly arbitrary timing of her heel work. Noa, on the other hand, looks more sympathetic than ever. While her tag team partner is becoming more and more vicious in her matches, Noa hasn’t been able to display the same so called “mean streak” that she needs in order to come out on top.
Yuka Sakazaki is moving into the role played so well by other wrestlers, Aja Kong, Minoru Suzuki, Hino, and countless others, who younger or smaller talent fling themselves against to prove that they can overcome the insurmountable wall. The important part in almost all of these matches, is that the younger wrestler does not overcome that challenge. They might eventually, but it takes some greater change within them. Hikari Noa is fine, but maybe next time she’ll hang onto her submissions until 4.5, because, after all, Sakazaki dared her to.
So do I feel bad for Hikari Noa? Of course I do, I was supposed to, their plan worked.
Writing about wrestling, previously:
And here’s what I am doing with my CSA this week:
Three fruits of the earth—a summer staple. Maybe I’ll share my version of this later. I make what is really a cross between these recipes. (The first is too salty and I don’t like the corn starch on the eggplant, the second is not brown enough.) 2x3 of the ingredients in this are from the CSA!
Broiled tofu with negi miso and tomato salad
That pasta with walnuts, kale, and breadcrumbs (or maybe dubu jorim with kale muchim, who could say)