Miami —
With a swift kick to her opponent’s face, wrestler Atomic Banshee began to dominate the final fight of the evening on a humid evening in Miami Beach. The match was part of the world championship of Sukeban, the all-female Japanese wrestling league, and the defending champion, wearing studded black attire, horns, and ghostly white makeup, was scrapping with Ichigo Sayaka in a bubblegum sailor dress.
Sayaka rolled out of the ring and into the media pit, with Banshee in pursuit. Photographers and reporters (myself included) cleared out of the way as Banshee grabbed her challenger’s head and twin pink braids and slammed her into the metal barrier.
In the lead up to the showdown, the crowd had been chanting other competing wrestlers’ names all night — Crush Yuu! Crush Yuu! and Stray Cat! Stray Cat! — gasping and cheering as the women performed backbreaking body slams and dramatic airborne finishers.
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