Career
In the 1970s, while wrestling for All Japan Women"s Pro-Wrestling (AJW), she formed the tag team, the Beauty Pair, with Maki Ueda. Following in the steps of Mach Fumiake, the Beauty Pair was part of an important shift in the culture of Japanese women"s wrestling, attracting more female fans by becoming popular icons. In their mainstream success, Satō and Ueda paved the way for the even more popular team, the Crush Gals, of the 1980s.
Though she had played basketball in high school, Jackie Satō became a professional wrestler after graduation.
During their championship reign throughout most of 1976, the Pair created excitement by using their top ten hit single to announce their entrance, and were regularly feted by their adoring fans who threw confetti and streamers into the ring. Satō also had success as a singles wrestler.
She lost the title the final time to the younger Jaguar Yokota on February 25, 1981. On February 27, 1979, Satō defeated her former partner, Ueda, in a "loser retires" match.
Satō"s own retirement ceremony was held on May 21, 1981.
On August 17, 1986, inspired by the current boom in interest in women"s wrestling in Japan due to the success of the Crush Gals, Satō, along with wrestler Nancy Kumi, boxer Rumi Kazama, and others, formed the first women"s promotion to compete against the AJW monopoly, Japan Women"s Pro-Wrestling (JWP). Satō herself returned to active wrestling and competed for nearly two years before retiring a second and final time on March 20, 1988. Under Sato"s influence, JWP did not offer the "mandatory retirement" policy common in AJW, allowing female wrestlers to compete until they wished to retire, rather than until the promoters ordered them to retire.
AJW eventually dropped the mandatory retirement policy in the 1990s.
Satō attended the AJW thirtieth anniversary show in 1998. She died on August 9, 1999 due to stomach cancer.
All Japan Women"s Pro-Wrestling
WWWA World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
WWWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times)—with Maki Ueda (2) and Nancy Kumi (1)
AJW Hall of Fame (1998)
Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996).