Quebrada #30

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

8/19/97

The Tragic Death of Plum Mariko

It was well known that the weekend of August 15th-17th would be a sad one for women's wrestling fans, as one of the most promising young stars, JWP's Candy Okutsu, was retiring way before her time due to a bad back. However, the weekend turned into a catastrophe when long-time JWP star Plum Mariko tragically died after her match on the 15th.

Plum, real name Mariko Umeda, teamed with Boirshoi Kid against Mayumi Ozaki & Rieko Amano at Hiroshima Sun Plaza. Ozaki used one of her regular spots, the Ligerbomb, to pin Plum. The move was not blown, rather it was executed no differently than normal, but it appears that have triggered a pre-existing problem, an abscess on Mariko's brain.

Since other wrestlers had faked not being able to get up after the finish (sold the finish) that night, the fans in the arena didn't immediately realize there was a problem. It seems that this spot may not have been the planned finish of the match. In any case, Plum was knocked out from the Ligerbomb and didn't kick out. After the match, Ozaki and the other wrestlers saw Plum, who still hadn't budged, snoring, which is a sign that her brain was bleeding.

Plum, who went into a coma that she would never come out of after the Ligerbomb, was rushed to a local hospital. The doctors urgently performed brain surgery, but sadly it was to no avail.

Plum, just 29-years-old, was pronounced dead on the 16th at 5:30 JST. The death makes Plum the first fatality stemming from a professional wrestling match in Japan.

The cause of her death was brain damage. Doctors believe that the abscess on Plum's brain, a condition they are fairly certain she went into the ring on the 15th with, was caused by taking bumps and blows to the head during her matches. This has lead to a lot of thought about the toll the advances in wrestling in the 1990's, mainly the increased amount of high spots and dangerous moves being performed on a nightly basis, is taking on the performers.

Doctors believe it was a cumulative group of injuries, resulting in brain trauma, rather than the singular injury on the 15th that caused Plum's untimely death. The significance of that belief is Plum's accidental death most likely could have been prevented if she had been examined by a doctor, as a doctor probably wouldn't have allowed Plum to wrestle in this condition.

JWP president Masatoshi Yamamoto made the announcement of Plum's tragic death during the promotions August 17th shows at Tokyo Korakuen Hall and a 10-count memorial was conducted. All the wrestlers and fans in attendance mourned Plum's death. Sadly, the plan for JWP's afternoon and evening shows on the 17th was to celebrate Plum, Ozaki, & Kansai's 11th anniversaries as pro- wrestlers.

Recently, Plum had been having problems such as forgetting the finish of the match, forgetting to save her partners on occasion, not being able to memorize complicated sequences, and missing some moves she normally wouldn't miss. These problems are due to the numerous concussions she suffered during her wrestling career. JWP was well aware of the concussions, as they haven't pushed her due specifically to the toll they have taken on her memory.

Plum had been having headaches in the days leading up to her death. Plum had complained of these headaches to her friend Cuty Suzuki. Maybe the signs of her brain damage were there, but no one expected her problem to be something that serious.

JWP officials had noticed Plum wasn't herself of late. It seems that all they knew was that Plum, who refused to miss any matches, was unusually tired. Plum didn't tell the JWP officials that she was having problems such as headaches. It appears that she didn't tell them because she feared that they would ask her to give up what she loved most, puroresu. Plum certainly didn't want to retire, although in retrospect that's obviously what she should have done.

Plum Mariko was a very good worker, who was extremely dedicated to her profession. Her desire to perform was such that it's most likely the reason she's no longer with us. Even before her death, few wrestlers had encountered such bad luck with injuries. As unlucky as her injuries were, the timing of them made things three times as bad. Plum was in the early stages of the biggest push of her career when she was first injured. She had improved greatly over the year and a half before her first injury and she was still getting better. Anyone who followed her career would agree that Plum was just coming into her own in April 1994 when she suffered the first of many setbacks. Most wrestlers who encountered the hard luck Plum did during her career would have hung up their boots, but Plum seemed to only want one thing, to be a professional wrestler.

Plum was most famous for being one of the best women at the submission style. This gave her a shooter gimmick, which was based on some reality, as prior to her series of injuries, it was thought that Cuty & Oz were safe outside of the ring as long as their friend Plum was around. Plum's in-ring style was somewhat unique for a "shooter," as although she trained in Sambo and was known as a Submission Queen, she was not a strong mat wrestler. Plum never dominated or controlled anyone on the mat. She never really worked toward her submission holds. Instead, Plum used her athletic ability to counter a move and go into one of her submissions.

Plum always came off as a resourceful wrestler. On many occasions, she would appear to be just about pinned, but then she would pull a great counter out of nowhere. Plum's best counter and best submission hold was her victory roll into a cross knee scissors. Even if you don't appreciate submissions, it's nearly impossible to not appreciate this move because Plum always did a great transition into it and it was always applied with such fluidity. In later years, Plum took her favorite move one step further by performing it off the 2nd rope. No matter when or how she used the victory roll into the cross knee scissors, it was always an excellent spot and a highlight of the match.

Plum's athleticism was one of the main things that separated her from other submission wrestlers. This athleticism allowed Plum to work well with opponents of any style. It allowed her to work well whether the pacing was fast, slow, or varied. Plum was definitely not a boring wrestler. She always had a good mix of spots in her match, with her favorite non-submission moves being the bodyscissors drop, utilizing both a jumping version and a diving version off the apron, Frankensteiner off the top rope, and the cross-arm German suplex. She even had a nice springboard plancha that she used from time to time.

A key to Plum's wrestling career was that she was very unselfish. She was willing to play a supporting role to the insuperior Cuty Suzuki, who the promotion pushed ahead of her due to Cuty's better looks, among others. It's said that her personality was such that she liked being second. I don't think anyone would argue that she wasn't a good company wrestler.

Plum Mariko was an original member of the Japan Women's Pro-wresting promotion. After being trained by Kotetsu Yamamoto, Atsushi Onita, & Gran Hamada, she made her debut at the age of 18 against Yuu Yamazaki on JWP's first card, 8/17/86 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. In the early days, JWP mainly existed to give work to former AJW stars who were forced into early retirement by AJW at age 26. Due mainly to the fact that it was extremely difficult to get into AJW at the time, but in part to some good recruiting, JWP debuted several promising youngsters in their first year. Dynamite Kansai, Mayumi Ozaki, Shinobu Kandori, Harley Saito, Rumi Kazama and others also debuted on 8/17/86. Later in that year, Eagle Sawai & Cuty Suzuki made their debut. You should recognize these names as a virtual who's who of famous non-AJW wrestlers.

Plum's early career is not well documented at all. The promotion definitely recognized her talents at an early age as they booked her to win the tournament for the vacant JWP & UWA junior title on 9/15/89 in Tokyo. I'm unclear as to how she was pushed in comparison to Ozaki & Cuty back then. I think she was behind them from the get go, but I don't think there was a large gap. Plum did defeat them both in this tournament, so there was definitely some parity.

Plum held the jr. titles for nearly 4 months before dropping them to Rumi Kazama on 1/10/90 in Yokohama. Rumi vacated the titles just 13 days later, which resulted in a tournament for the vacant belts. Plum recaptured the JWP & UWA Jr. titles on 6/16/90 in Shimozuma, defeating Cuty Suzuki in the final. The titles, which Plum vacated later that month, were the last titles Plum would have in her life.

Plum formed a team with Cuty Suzuki during this time period. It's said that they hated each other and were forced to tag. However, they got together after Japan Women's Pro broke down and became good friends. Ironically, when they were in JWP Project and liked each other, they didn't have many opportunities to form a tag team. Anyway, the team was pushed as a Super Idol team as Plum was a very attractive woman as well. One trademark of Plum as far as her looks were concerned was her ring attire, which was always among the fanciest and best.

If you've never seen a Japan Women's Pro match, you would be surprised at how much different the style was in comparison to what is being done now or what was being done at the same time in AJW. The style was much slower paced with lots of matwork early on. If the match was good, it built slowly and turned into a good or very good match during the final few minutes. If the match was bad or average, then it just came off as a deliberately worked series of spots with little direction. Since they didn't have many workers, almost all the matches were long and followed the same basic framework.

The earliest Plum matches I've seen are from 1991. She was a good worker at that point, but her transitions weren't that good and her work wasn't fluid. The best of these few 1991 matches that I've seen was a match against Cuty Suzuki on 11/2/91 at Korakuen Hall. I think this was for Cuty's JWP & UWA jr. titles, but I'm not certain. Both women used good moves, but neither worked their holds in well. The execution was good, but the match didn't really flow. It was a good match, but not close to the level she would reach in a few years.

Japan Women's Pro went through a bitter break up in early 1992. The result of this was the formation of two new groups, the second JWP (aka JWP Project) and LLPW. Plum, who was against the league splitting, joined the new JWP. Ironically, since her relations with LLPW remained strong, she was the only JWP wrestler who participated in LLPW's first show. With Kandori, Kazama, Eagle, Harley, & Noriyo Tateno all in LLPW, Plum was elevated to the semi-final and/or main event on many JWP cards. Plum was never a drawing card or a big star, but she was a good enough worker by this point to be involved in semi-final singles, semi-final tag matches, or main event tags. The new JWP has always had a small crew, so the main event is not an elite position. Many times they double book the women, having them do an undercard singles match and then a big 6 or 8 woman tag match on top. Plum was always a lot better in tag matches due to psychology not being one of her a strong suits. In an 8-woman tag, no one expected her to build or work to her submissions.

Plum defeated Boirshoi Kid with a cross knee scissors on JWP's debut show, 4/3/92 Korakuen Hall. It was a good match, particularly since it was their first in about 3 months, with some nice sequences, but it was sloppy in spots, had no real build, and the finish came out of nowhere. Although it was less than a half year later, their match that aired on the August 1992 tv show showed a marked improvement in both women. This match built well. The final five minutes were great with excellent high spots by both, culminating with Plum pinning Boirshoi with her cross-arm German suplex.

Also in 1992, a submission oriented battle royal helped get Plum over. The match contained JWP's biggest stars, but it was Plum Mariko and another promising youngster, Hikari Fukuoka, who were pushed. The two combined on submission holds to make both top stars, Kansai & Devil Masami, give up. Plum then pinned Hikari (I don't get why they would do a pin there, especially since it was the only one in the entire battle royal) to win the battle royal.

The key event to JWP in 1992 was the beginning of their working relationship with AJW. This had a huge effect on JWP matches as their style was changed to allow them to work the faster- paced style common to AJW rings. This change tremendously improved everyone who was able to adapt to the new style. The improvement was not only due to AJW's style being superior, but because it made everyone more diverse. The young women in JWP like Hikari Fukuoka & Candy Okutsu were able to adapt well because they were great athletes, but more importantly, because they were young and not fully entrenched in the traditional JWP style. Ozaki easily adapted the best of any of the JWP women, but Plum was no slouch and she went on to work some great matches in the faster- paced more exciting style as well.

The first evidence I have on tape of the different style is JWP TV from December of 1992. This show joined Plum vs. Sumiko Saito in progress. Even in edited form, it was easy to see a marked improvement over any of the other Plum matches I had seen. The sequences were much better and the match had a much better flow. It was simply smoother and more fluid than the early JWP matches I've seen Plum in.

All-Star Dreamslam 1 on 4/2/93 at Yokohama Arena was a fantastic, super, and unbelievable show that almost everyone shined on, with Plum being no exception. Plum & Fukuoka wrestled Sakie Hasegawa & Kaoru Ito. Although Sakie was the best worker of the four, Plum was the featured performer in the match and she scored the pinfall on Sakie with her Frankensteiner off the top. Plum had no trouble adapting to the fast-paced style of the match. Her submissions were also very over with the crowd, as both Sakie & Ito were roundly booed when they came in and saved their partner from a Plum submission hold. This was a great match that is sensational by opening match standards.

Plum also made a great showing at All-Star Dreamslam II on 4/11/93 at Osaku Furitsu Gym. Plum teamed with Cuty & Boirshoi against Yumiko Hotta & The Inoues. Plum was the only one on her team that made a good showing. She was easily working on the level. Her work, combined with possibly Takako's best performance of the year and Kyoko's typical great performance made this spot-a-thon a great match despite lackluster efforts from the other three.

During the next several months, Plum's status was further elevated. From this point until her unfortunate series of injuries, she worked in several main events that were regular (2-woman teams) tag matches and singles matches. Plum's biggest achievement during this period seems to be teaming with Oz on 7/25/93 in Nagoya to win a one-night tag tournament.

One of Plum's biggest matches, which unfortunately was her worst high profile singles match, was on 7/31/93 at Yokohama Bunka Gym. This show is most notable for having the greatest gimmick tag match of all-time, a dramatic, brilliantly booked ***** 60:00 Iron Woman match. Unfortunately for Plum, she wrestled Hotta in the semi-final. The match was billed as Submission Queen vs. Hard Kick Queen and the pre-match on the tv show was fantastic at getting this idea and the legitimacy over. However, the match was far from memorable as the two didn't work well together. Plum didn't seem herself and she blew some spots. Hotta was visibly frustrated at one point early in the match. The match had some great spots, but didn't flow well and some spots seemed too contrived. Hotta dominated the match with her kicks before winning a good, but highly disappointing match, with her pyramid driver. Plum got her win back from AJW at JWP's 8/15 Korakuen Hall show when she made the KAORU submit in the semi-final.

One of Plum's best matches was at AJW's major Budokan Hall show on 8/25/93. Plum teamed with Ozaki & Fukuoka to beat Manami Toyota & Hasegawa & Hotta. The last seven minutes were off the charts with hot and fast moves. Chris Zavisa of the Pro Wrestling Torch rates this match *****. Just 5 days later, Plum upset Ozaki in Hiroshima.

Continuing Plum's hot streak on big shows, Plum & Cuty & Fukuoka & Boirshoi won a captains fall elimination match over Mima Shimoda & Ito & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori & Chaparita ASARI at AJW's Wrestlemarinepiad'93 (10/9/93 Tokyo Bay NK Hall). Plum got the big pin on Shimoda to win the match. A great match with tons of hot action.

Plum's best performance probably came on 11/18/93 in a match where she teamed with Devil against Chigusa Nagayo & Cuty. Given that Cuty isn't close to great and Chigusa has not been a great worker since she retired in 1989, it's shocking that this could be a match of the year calibre match. Those who have seen it all call this a super match and a classic with everyone being excellent, but Plum and Chigusa being the major reasons for it's greatness. Chris Zavisa also rates this match a ***** classic.

Just ten days later at AJW's major Osaka Castle Hall show, Plum was involved in another great match. The JWP team was victorious in a captains fall match where Plum & Kansai & Ozaki & Devil beat Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Shimoda.

Plum's last major match of the year was a disappointment though, as Plum got stuck against Bull Nakano's team in a tag match at AJW's ST. Battle Final Show on 12/6 at Tokyo Sumo Hall. Bull & Shimoda & Mita defeated Plum & Fukuoka & Cuty when Shimoda pinned Fukuoka in a good, but highly disappointing match. It was the typical Bull crap, with her not selling for the smaller women, on some cases even when she was in a 3-1 sitiuation. Luckily, Shimoda was her usual great self and did all the selling and bump taking for her side, so it was still a good match.

Plum wrestled in a very unique match on 1/9/94, teaming with Oz & Suzuki against the larger team of Chigusa & Devil & Kansai. To make things even, they made it a 2 count vs. 3 count handicap match, meaning that if Plum's team got a two count on their opposition they won the match. It went a great 29:50, with a ton of excitement before Chigusa pinned Plum.

Plum got a big push in early 1994. During JWP's February tour of Guam, she got big singles wins over both Fukuoka and Ozaki. This combined with a strong showing in tag matches in March, led most to believe that Plum was on the verge of being elevated to a top position. She might even have become a serious title contender.

Plum had a major match on AJW's Wrestling Queendom II show (3/27/94 Yokohama Arena) against Manami Toyota. This was a tremendous match with Toyota putting on a superb performance. However, Plum deserves credit for being able to answer the best working woman in the history of the sport.

Unfortunately, Plum's hopes of becoming a superstar were crushed by a series of injuries. The first injury, which occured in April 10 at Korakuen Hall in a match against Hikari Fukuoka, was just a broken nose. It kept Plum out of JWP's major show at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum on 5/22/94, but no one figured it was going to have any long-term effect.

Plum came back from the broken nose fine, but she suffered a major injury almost as soon as she returned. In June of 1994, Plum broke her left collarbone. From that point, she was basically out of action until October 13, 1996. Due to these injuries, Plum not only never reached her full potential as a star, she never reached her full potential as a worker.

Plum did make a comeback in late 1995, but it was extremely short lived. One of her first matches back was on 12/9/95 at JWP's Yokohama Bunka Gym show, where she teamed with Boirshoi to beat Saburo & Fusayo Nouchi. Unfortunately, Plum was once again injured, breaking her right collarbone. This injury put Plum out of action for another 10 months.

After coming back from injury once and almost immediately reinjuring herself, she could have called it a career. After the 2nd major injury, most would have retired, particularly since by the time Plum came back she was to be one of the older women in the promotion. However, if there's one thing Plum wasn't it was a quitter .

Plum battled back, making her return on 10/13/96 on JWP's Ryokaku Big Challenge show, which was their biggest show of the year. Plum's match, teaming with Cuty & Kanako Motoya against The Oz Academy was the best on the show, but Plum didn't really have any part in making it so good. Plum clearly showed ring rust, which was expected. The scary thing was she nearly killed herself during this match. There was a spot where she was supposed to do her Frankensteiner off the top rope to Amano, but they lost balance and fell to the arena floor. Plum landed right on her head, which in retrospect may have had something to due with her brain damage, but there's obviously no proof. For athletic credibility reasons, Amano forced Plum to submit to her juji gatamae.

Since her return, the best Plum matches that I've had a chance to view were on the 12/20/96 TV show. She wrested two very good matches on the show and, although she was clearly carried in both matches, it showed her divesity. The first match was a street fight vs. Oz where Oz showed once again why she's the best heel in the business. The few chair shots Plum did weren't good, but they did a smart match incorporating their strength, wrestling, into a brawing situation by doing a ton of wrestling moves onto a chair that was lying flat in the ring. Oz used several versions of the powerbomb, including putting Plum through a gimmicked table with one, before pinning Plum with a pyramid driver. The match vs. Yagi was the best psychological match I've seen Plum in. Plum finally concentrated on working her opponents leg over rather than going for a flash submission. There's no doubt that Yagi lead Plum to the psychology. However, since Plum wasn't the athlete she once was, if she could have taken her style in this direction she could have still improved. Unfortunately, it's a moot point now.

Plum wasn't pushed heavily since making her courageous comeback due to the problems stemming from the concussions I mentioned earlier. She predominantly worked in the middle of the card. She wrestled in a lot of matches against Ozaki & Amano, probably because her style is compatible with Amano's submission style, and often didn't come out on the better end.

Plum's last interpromotional match for a "rival" company was when AJW used her in their one-night trios tournament on 3/22/97 at Osaka Messe Arena. Plum teamed with Tomoko Kuzumi & Motoya to defeat Kyoko & Misae Genki & Tanny Mouse in the first round, but lost in the 2nd round to Takako & Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa.

Plum's last major match came on 5/10/97 in the main event at Korakuen Hall. She came out on the losing end as Fukuoka & Devil defeated her & Cuty to retain their JWP tag titles.

Plum's last "big" singles win was against Candy Okutsu on 6/19/97. I put big in parenthesis because due to the terrible state of Candy's back, she was jobbing to everyone all summer.

500 people, including wrestlers from all the women's promotions attended Plum's funeral, which was at 8:00AM on the 19th. Plum received a reported 50,000 bouquets of flowers. The funeral sounds like it was very classy and moving.

Plum's death could be devestating to women's wrestling in general. There's no telling what effect it may have on the other wrestlers, particularly the wrestlers who have been working with her since day 1. There was a rumor that Mayumi Ozaki would retire, but Ozaki said she would continue to wrestle without compromising her style because she believes that's what Plum would have wanted her to do. Ozaki has definitely been affected though, as she hasn't eaten anything since before the fatal match on the 15th.

There is no positive about Plum's death, but the one thing that's remotely good is that her goal of restoring JWP & LLPW's working relationship may come true. Plum's old friends from before the promotions split attended her funeral and for at least one day everyone forgot about the rivalries between the promotions.

Masatoshi Yamamoto announced that he would like to do a memorial event for Plum as a way to raise money for the family she left behind. LLPW president Rumi Kazama, and many of the wrestlers within that promotion, expressed interest in the promotions burying the hatchet and finally working together, at least for a show or two, because they feel that's what Plum would have wanted. Plum actually wanted this for her 10th anniversary, but it didn't work out.

JWP is being investigated by Hiroshima Central District Police for professional negligence resulting in death. If Plum had complained of abnorality to company officials, then JWP would be in a lot of hot water. Although I have no way of knowing, it seems that Plum had been hiding her problem from them for fear they would ask her to retire though. I doubt such a charge will be brought against JWP. The police wanted to do an autopsy on Plum, but her father Kunihiko Umeda was strongly against it, so it was cancelled.

One development that is stemming from Plum's death is controversy over medical staff being on hand for the shows. The only promotion that has a doctor who examines the wrestlers before letting them into the ring is New Japan. If JWP had a doctor who examined the wrestlers before the matches, Plum would probably still be alive. Instead of having a doctor on hand to administer to the wrestlers in case of injury, the leagues have taken the less expensive route. They generally book venues that are near a hospital. They also train all the wrestlers in first-aid and tell them how to handle emergency situations. When a wrestler is injured, it's the referee's job to determine the severity of the injury and whether the match needs to be stopped or not. Having a doctor on hand is a good idea, and one that may be mandated, but it's also one that would add a lot of expense for the promotions. The wrestlers safety is the most important thing though.

Plum Mariko's death is clearly a tragedy. I can't even begin to put into words how sad this makes me and many others feel. I think most are still in shock, I know I am. I won't soon forget the terrible feeling I had upon reading the news in e-mail. All wrestling deaths are unpleasant, particularly when people die so prematurely like this, but I feel differently about this death than any of the others. It's not because it's the first in-ring death of a wrestler in Japan. It's not because others have had problems, both physical and/or mental, that led to their untimely demise. I feel as if there was someone who had a simple wish, just to wrestle, and the talent to do so on a high level, but life was so cruel that she wasn't even allowed to do that simple thing for long.

Goodbye Plum. I miss ya already.

Rest in Peace

Mariko Umeda

aka Plum Mariko

11/1/67-8/16/97

Huge Thanks To: Zach Arnold, Koji Yamamoto, & Chris Zavisa

Special Thanks to: Brian Alvarez, Scott Lacy, Ramon Lores, & Hideyuki Shimura