I arrived at the wrestling room of a university in Tokyo to find 72kg wrestler Satoko training with a male wrestler. The two were on their feet just grabbing at each other. Satoko went in for a double-leg takedown, lifted her shirtless male opponent off his feet and slammed his sweaty back to the mat with a loud slap. He tried to twist around, but she was already on top of him with her hips pressed down against his belly. I zoomed in with my camera to catch his expression of desperation mixed with resignation. He was fighting, but he knew it was futile. His face disappeared as Satoko pressed her upper body down on him and she held him there for a few seconds until he stopped struggling.
Then she leapt to her feet and her coach called her over to talk to me.
She told me that tomorrow she was competing in a tournament. What got me really interested, though, was when she said that so far she was the only 72kg wrestler in the women's division and that if no one else showed up she was going to see if she could wrestle in the 74kg men's class.
I said that I would be there and went back to my hotel to make sure all my photography gear was charged up.
I got to the gym where the tournament was being held a little late. I was hoping I hadn't missed any of Satoko's matches, but it turned out that my timing was perfect. As expected, there were no other women for her to wrestle and the organizers had just agreed to let her compete against the men.
This was pretty unusual in Japan. While women's wrestling was quite popular, they almost never competed against men. Japan is pretty male dominated and I suspected that any guy who got beat by a female wrestler would feel totally humiliated.
I sat down on the edge of the mat where the 74kg matches had already started. As I brought my camera out, two wrestlers nearly plowed right into me after one guy threw the other on his back. I snapped a few shots as the winning wrestler pinned his opponent. As they cleared off the mat, I saw another guy warming up in the far corner. He was lean but very muscular and was wearing a wrestling singlet from a university in Tokyo. As he jumped up and down and stretched, one of the mat judges ran over to him and started talking. I figured out right away what he was telling him because he had a shocked look on his face and immediately turned over to the opposite corner where Satoko was warming up.
The male wrestler chuckled and nodded his head and his teammates in his corner laughed. I got a few pics of them all laughing because I didn't think he was going to be laughing when he got on the mat with Satoko.
The two shook hands in the center of the mat and the ref blew the whistle. The male wrestler shot a takedown, but Satoko sprawled and pushed his head down, and wrapped her arms tight around his upper body. She was being really aggressive and drove all her weight onto him so he collapsed onto his belly with his face in the mat. I think he was kind of stunned because before he knew what hit him, she had jumped on his back and was trying to get her arm under his to turn him on his back. It looked painful and almost illegal as she wrenched his arm up and fought to turn him. I zoomed in on what you could see of his face. It was all contorted as she mopped the mat with his forehead. He was definitely in some pain judging from the loud groans I was hearing. He looked up at the referee hoping for some mercy, but she had relaxed her grip on his arm so it wasn't dangerous anymore. The action slowed and the ref blew the whistle to bring them up to their feet.
It took him a minute to get up after the beating he just took. He slowly got to his feet and swung his arm around a few times to make sure it still worked. His teammates looked worried. I think they were afraid that she was going to actually hurt him.
Satoko looked confident, but not cocky. All she cared about was beating this guy. She knew she was better than him. And she was going to make sure he didn't forget it. The ref blew the whistle and the male wrestler shot low, wrapped his arms around her hips and lifted her off her feet. Satoko fought to get away and in the scuffle she rammed her elbow right into his eye.
"Awhhhhh!!" he cried and released his hold, calling a time out. A nurse came over to him to look at his eye. He was definitely going to have a shiner, bit there was no blood, so they sent him back to the mat for more punishment.
He looked mad now. Not only was he probably going to get beat by a girl wrestler, he was going to have a huge black eye that everyone was going to ask him about.
AS they started wrestling again, he tried the same throw, but she was ready for him and the two collided, chest to chest, struggling to get the upper hand for a throw. But Satoko managed to get some leverage and in one explosive moved lifted the guy up, letting out a scream as she did. The spectators around the mat, who were mostly male wrestlers gasped as Satoko slammed the guy to the mat. He let out a cry of agony as his body fell. His female rival climbed on top of him. He tried to bridge. His cock bulged out of his singlet as he pumped his pelvis in the air. But Satoko slammed her hips right down on him, pinning his penis as she pinned his shoulders. One of her breasts was smothering his face, as if to remind him that he was being defeated by a woman.
Finally the ref put an end to the beating and slapped the mat, calling the pin. Satoko jumped to her feet and screamed, punching her fist in the air. Her beaten male opponent clutched his head with his hands and curled up in the fetal position on the mat.
Everyone started applauding what she had just done to this guy. It must have been hard for him, but he managed to compose himself and get up as the ref raised Satoko's arm in victory.
But it wasn't over yet. Having beat this guy, she advanced to the next bracket. Everyone was wondering if she could actually win the weight class and become the champion.
The victorious female roars in defiance, the male whimpers in defeat. Definitely a mixed wrestling match.
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