After all the controversy surrounding Naomi and Sasha Banks‘ departure from WWE, the company’s Women’s Tag Team Championships have returned to screens in a prominent way, featuring regularly in matches and storylines. But, as good as many of the women that have held the belts have been, none of the tandems have managed to quite reach the tag team synergy of one of the holders of the original championships.
In the late 80s, a pair of joshi wrestlers made the journey to WWE and struck audiences with a wrestling style none of them expected – The Jumping Bomb Angels. Comprised of Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno, The Jumping Bomb Angels brought a standard of wrestling that was incredibly ahead of their time to WWE, securing their place as perhaps the best women’s tag team the promotion has ever seen.
The Formation Of The Jumping Bomb Angels In Japan
Like many tag teams, Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno started their careers individually, coming together part-way into their careers. Both of their beginnings date back to the legendary All Japan Women promotion, the place that took joshi wrestling to the stratosphere in Japan. Tateno was the first to make an impact, reaching the finals of the 1981 Rookie of The Year tournament at just 16, losing to a woman who would go on to have overwhelming success, Chigusa Nagayo. Just a month difference in age, Yamazaki soon followed, the two rookies were thrown in the mix with stars of the promotion. Both would hold singles championships in their early years, with Tateno winning the AJW Junior belt, and Yamazaki winning the AJW Championship (a lower tier belt despite its name).
The two tagged together a couple of times as teenagers, fellow graduates from the AJW dojo, but it wouldn’t be until late 1984 that they officially became The Jumping Bomb Angels. As the Angels, they captured the vacant WWWA Tag Team Championships in January 1986, defeating the formidable force of Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto. Their reign was ended by the incredibly popular Crush Gals, Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka. The two continued their runs in AJW, until an opportunity in the United States came knocking.
The Jumping Bomb Angels Amaze The WWE Fans
The Jumping Bomb Angels debuted in WWE on an episode of Prime Time Wrestling, facing off against the Women’s Tag Team Champions, The Glamour Girls, Judy Martin and Leilani Kai. The Angels exploded inside the ring, moving quicker and with more intensity than anyone in attendance could have predicted. Whilst Kai and Martin tried their best to ground and pound the duo from AJW, the Angels were just too much. Mixing inventive tandem offense with individual brilliance, Yamazaki and Tateno got an upset win over the champions.
As the only other women’s tag team in the company, The Jumping Bomb Angels faced The Glamour Girls across house shows, TV, and pay-per-view, only ever having one other duos match against Rockin’ Robin and Sensational Sherri in WWE. Yamazaki and Tateno were also a part of the traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match in 1987, teaming with The Fabulous Moolah, Rockin’ Robin, and Velvet McIntyre to take on The Glamour Girls, Dawn Marie, Donna Christianello, and Sensational Sherri. Sherri had nothing but praise for the Angels, their fellow performers also recognizing just how excellent they were as competitors.
The Jumping Bomb Angels’ biggest moment came at the 1988 Royal Rumble, challenging The Glamour Girls for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. In a Best of Three Falls match, the Angels brought the high octane action that had captured the hearts of the WWE audience. The pops that the Angels got for their two falls rivaled any other that night, the crowd leaping to their feet for the first and again as the tandem secured the titles, a career highlight for Yamazaki and Tateno.
The Legacy Of The Jumping Bomb Angels
Despite the rapturous reaction the Jumping Bomb Angels got at the Royal Rumble, their reign as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions wasn’t the most storied. A pair of follow-up defenses against The Glamour Girls on WWE programming led to a third back in Japan for AJW. Martin and Kai reclaimed the belts, winning via count-out in what would sadly be the last appearance of the titles, and the end of the Jumping Bomb Angels’ run.
The Angels went their separate ways after the loss of WWE gold. Less than a year later, they were squaring off in a Double Jeopardy Match, a strange stipulation where two matches happened simultaneously, with the Angels facing each other as Bull Nakano wrestled Yumi Ogura in the same ring. Yamazaki had a shorter career of the team, with a cameo appearance for WCW’s WrestleWar in 1991, before finishing her career later that year in the JWP joshi promotion. Tateno continued her career throughout the 1990s and 2000s, finding more singles success in AJW, as well as having runs in FMW, LLPW, WAR and WAVE. In the summer of 2008, the Jumping Bomb Angels reunited for a series of exhibition matches, facing off against fellow legends, recognized for their work as stars on both sides of the Pacific.
The Jumping Bomb Angels brought a new style to the WWF as whole, let alone just to their women’s division. Stringing together offense, working at break-neck speeds, the Angels brought fans the spirit and intensity of the pioneering joshi style of the 80s. Though there have been talented teams in the WWE since the reintroduction of the women’s tag belts, none have quite managed to achieve the synergy of the Angels.
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