Big Egg Podcasting Universe: Episode 7 Show Notes
Where to watch
Anna Gomis vs Miyuu Yamamoto
Doris Blind vs Kyoko Hamaguchi
All India Women’s Pro Wrestling: Meghna Singh vs Nidhi Gurnani
Listener question: WWWA Martial Arts Championship
With all of the digging I did before recording this episode we still know painfully little about the WWWA Martial Arts Championship. Are there any gaps in its Cagematch record you can fill? Do you know anything more about it than we do? Help us out, folks.
Amateur wrestling scoring system
We have no idea how the scoring works in these matches, let’s be honest. If you want to try and get to the bottom of it, check out the Olympic Channel’s guides to scoring for Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.
George Hackenschmidt squatting horses
While I have not been able to confirm whether George Hackenschmidt did in fact squat horses regularly for fun, he was apparently once seen lifting one off the ground. He was still in school at the time.
The Yamamoto fighting clan
Ikuei Yamamoto represented Japan at the 1972 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling. He then came home and started raising a family of killers.
Miyuu, whose match we discuss in this podcast, is the eldest. Not content with being an all-time great in freestyle wrestling, she decided to go into MMA in her early 40s and had her most recent fight – a loss to Ayaka Hamazaki – in Rizin at the end of 2020. Read this profile of her at MMA Junkie.
Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto was a wrestling champion who then went into MMA and became a legend with some support from Miyuu’s then-husband Enson Inoue – as Zoë says, his career change was forced by a run-in with the yakuza! Kid died of cancer a few years ago, but his life is chronicled in this Deadspin article.
And then there’s Seiko Yamamoto, the youngest sibling, who is separately terrifying. Relatively little is published about her and her current husband, fighter Yu Darvish, but if you can get past the angle of this article about ‘Yu Darvish’s wife’ at Heavy it’s a great introduction.
Animal and Kyoko Hamaguchi
Kyoko Hamaguchi is a legend of Japanese women’s amateur wrestling, having won national championships every year for a decade and two Olympic bronze medals among a raft of other accolades. Check her astonishing record at Wikipedia.
She started out being trained by her father, Animal Hamaguchi – an accomplished puro wrestler with several tag team titles to his name, but who is also widely known for getting a bit carried away watching her matches. Thanks to the joys of The Way Back Machine (protect this at all costs), here’s a profile of Animal from the old New Japan website – or have a look at his Wikipedia page.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Royce Gracie
One of the classic MMA fights we keep coming back to (in this episode and in the Puro Pourri Podcast more generally) is Kazushi Sakuraba vs Royce Gracie, which went 90 minutes in 2000 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest fights of all time. If you’re mad enough to watch the whole thing it’s online in sections. Here’s part 1 to give you a taster.
Lucia Rijker
It turns out that on this 24-match, 10-hour wrestling show, there were still some matches that didn’t take place. Dutch boxing legend Lucia Rijker makes an appearance apologising that she wasn’t able to compete. Find out more about her and imagine just how badly she might have pummelled poor Kyoko Inoue.
Plugs
Zoë’s Twitch channel
Head to Twitch.tv/commiezoe for all that gaming stream goodness.
Women Love Wrestling
Writing by and about women who love wrestling, with proceeds going to RAINN in the US and Women’s Aid in the UK. My essay is first in the book but don’t let that put you off. Get on Amazon
The Rise and Fall of Rikidozan: A Novel in Seventeen Matches
George’s novel about a young man discovering the murky world of early puro and totally legitimate businessmen. Available in paperbook and ebook. Get on Amazon
Fastbuck
David’s mad noise music includes ‘13 Japanese Birds’, all of which are named for joshi stars, and albums named for the Four Pillars of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Listen on Bandcamp
100 Greatest Literary Detectives
A book that does exactly what it says on the tin, including George’s essay on Jasper Fforde’s novels. Get on Amazon
Socials
Zoë’s Twitter: @ZoeTransWitch
David’s Instagram: @villanoxiv
The Puro Pourri Podcast on Twitter: @PuroPodcast
Sarah’s Twitter: @SarahParkin1
