Post by Saint Saito on Sept 29, 2015 2:03:03 GMT
The Saint Saito Story
“She is a girl whose young age is greatly eclipsed by her raw talent as a wrestler, and unfortunately she knows it. Wrestlers like that, true wrestling prodigies, true artists in the ring, true aces of wrestling are one in a million. Unfortunately she knows that, too.”
That piece of purple prose was what a colleague of mine scribbled onto my notepad for me to read prior to meeting Sara Saint. Or Sara Saito. Or Saint Saito, depending on how you want to address her. In all honesty, I had never heard of Saint Saito before the day before yesterday, but learning of her I was fascinated by this young lady.
I was fascinated to learn that this Japanese-American girl is a scion of a massive wrestling family, or two families to be more specific. On her mother’s side, Sara Saint is the mother of Japanese wrestler Emi Saito, who after over a twenty year-long career still wrestles to this day, albeit in a semi-retired capacity. She is also the niece of Sumie Saito, Emi’s twin sister and former tag team partner. Sara is also the daughter of the late Ross Saint, of the Saint wrestling family that operated in wrestling promotions throughout California and Texas, going all the way back to her grandfather, ‘Black’ Jack Saint.
Not to mention the other eighteen relatives of hers in the wrestling business, and that’s not counting the many relatives who are preparing to enter the business themselves, including her younger brother.
But her wrestling heritage was not all that fascinated me about Saint Saito. In my research of her, I took the liberty of watching some of her previous matches. It was amazing to me that Saito debuted as a wrestler in a small promotion in Texas, back when she was thirteen years of age. While wrestlers making their debut at a young age isn’t entirely unheard of – I have indeed heard of a wrestler in Japan who debuted at age nine – at an age when she should be thinking of boys, Sara Saint was facing men and women twice, three times her age in a wrestling ring.
By the time she turned sixteen years old, Sara was a multi-time champion, even coming down to the ring holding three title belts at once. Not bad for a girl who can’t even legally drink and drive yet.
Today, I had the opportunity to speak with Sara over dinner at her favourite restaurant, an Indian place on Golden Gate Avenue in her native San Francisco, and it was interesting to meet her, to say the least.
Sara looked very much like the typical teenager, so much so that one could never tell that she was a professional wrestler. She dressed casually, a black Misfits t-shirt and jeans, very punk-chic. From her dress to her bearing, this young girl was the very picture of a brash, rebellious teenager.
“I’m Sara,” she introduced herself as, nothing more, nothing less. Just plain, simple Sara.
After we sat down and after Sara ordered a tandoori chicken on me, we started the story of Sara Saint from the beginning.
“So, I’m second generation on my mom’s side,” she began with a smirk as we waited for our meal. “My mom is Emi Saito of the…I guess you could call them the ‘infamous’ Saito Sisters, from Tokyo in Japan.” The Saito Sisters were the tag team I mentioned previously; twin sisters who terrorised promotions throughout Japan since the early eighties.
“Mom was the brash one, and while my Aunt Sumie was the crazy one,” Sara explained with a laugh. “Though they sometimes acted like the other to throw their opponents off their game. Girls would think they’re fighting Sumie when in fact they were fighting Emi, and vice-versa. It’s all pretty confusing!” And she laughed again before telling me all about the sisters’ accomplishments in the ring. “I was just a kid when I last saw my aunt,” she explained once she was done telling stories. “I don’t know, six…maybe seven years old? Something happened between mom and her and they haven’t spoken to each other until recently. I guess busting a bitch in the face at my high school does wonders for reconnecting sisters, am I right?”
Sara elaborated on that by telling me about an incident just over a week ago that ended with her being suspended from her school, and that her mother suggested that she go to Japan to live with her aunt, Sumie Saito.
“You caught me just in time,” she told me. “I’m being shipped off to Tokyo tomorrow.” Her tone suggested that Sara was less than thrilled with the prospect of moving to another city, another country, but she did of course acknowledge that a change of scenery might just be the thing she needed at this point.
And at this point our meals arrived and the waiter asked if we needed anything else, and then leaving us alone when we both declined. As we ate, I asked Sara about her father’s side of the family.
“My dad, he…he’s Ross Saint, of…formerly of the Saint wrestling family.” The tone in her voice as well as the look on her face suggested that this was something of an uncomfortable subject for Sara. Further research into her father told me that Sara’s parents were on the verge of a divorce when Ross Saint grew into a state of depression before tragically taking his own life.
“It’s him, my five uncles and his dad – my grandpa – so this is pretty much the larger half of this wrestling family. The Saints worked mostly in California and Texas, but my dad decided to spend some time wrestling in Japan in the mid-nineties, and it was then when he met my mom, knocked her up, married her and nine months later here I am!”
Since the subject of her father seemed to be a sore subject for the young woman, I decided to direct the interview to her own wrestling career.
“What can I say?” she answered with a shrug before popping some of her tandoori chicken into her mouth. “I started training when I was eleven/twelve. Mom and dad trained me in their own separate styles, so I guess you could describe mine as kind of an all-round style. I debuted when I was thirteen in this place in Texas, against this other rookie. I kicked his ass, by the way," she said with a smile. "Since then I've been wrestling for four years, won my fair share of titles and championships..."
Sara paused in her answer to think about what else she had to say. And then she laughed. "Hell, in the four years since I began I can safely say that I’m just the baddest ass on the planet! I mean…you take a look at me and you see some seventeen year old kid. I’m right, aren’t I? But how many wrestlers do you know – does anybody know – who have done what I have done when they were seventeen? I’m a multi-time champion and I haven’t even graduated yet! There are very few wrestlers, if any, who can make the same claim as I can, and some people don’t like that I can do what most grown-ups can’t.”
Sara certainly did not lack for confidence when she spoke. “It’s just a fact,” she replied when I told her so. “When you make your debut at thirteen you’re going to have assholes looking down at you for being a kid. Well…I’m a kid. So what? This kid just kicked your ass and took your belt like a frigging boss! Do I like to rub it in people’s faces? Sure I do. I’ve accomplished more in four years than most grown-up wrestlers do in ten! How can I not be proud of that?”
When I pointed out that there was a difference between taking pride and rubbing it in the faces of other wrestlers, Sara only scoffed before she had this to say. “Do I look like I care about what the grown-ups think? I put it to you again; how many wrestlers do you know about who became champions by the time they turned seventeen, even if it’s only one shitty lower tier title? No, the way I see it, every time I walk down to that ring holding three big girl belts in my hands and around my waist they all go green with envy. They can’t handle that I’m this child and I’m already more successful than they are. Hell, I bet that when they were my age they didn’t even go to wrestling school, yet!”
It was an interesting look at the wrestling business in the eyes of Sara Saint, ‘everyone is jealous of my success,’ being the gist of it. Reflecting that look, Saint Saito has been the top-tier champion of two separate promotions and a tag team champion in another, all at the same time. In an industry where it is difficult for a wrestler to hold even two at once, it was easy for Sara to believe that the rest of the world was jealous of that success. It was here at this point when I was reminded of the note my colleague left before I met this fascinating young woman.
“She is a girl whose young age is greatly eclipsed by her raw talent as a wrestler, and unfortunately she knows it. Wrestlers like that, true wrestling prodigies, true artists in the ring, true aces of wrestling are one in a million. Unfortunately she knows that, too.”
When I asked that lay in the future of Saint Saito’s future, Sara sat back and thought about the answer.
“What I see in the future of Saint Saito is true greatness. I see more gold than I could ever possibly carry in my career. I see Halls of Fame bearing the name of Saint Saito. I see wrestling companies fighting tooth and nail for the opportunity to have me work for them as one of their biggest draws. I see…” she smiled at this point. “I see Saint Saito being remembered ten, twenty, fifty years from now as being one of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived, male and female.”
Such high ambitions from a seventeen year old, but Sara was already well on her way to seeing those ambitions come to be. The interview was nearing its end, so I asked Sara if she had anything to plug but she declined, preferring to just give our readers this small, simple message:
“Everybody better stand up and recognise. I’m the best female wrestler in the world today and I got a track record the grown-up wrestlers could only dream of having that prove it. Call me a blowhard, call me a braggart, call me some immature child with delusions of grandeur but the fact remains…Saint Saito is one little kid who’s already better than you.”
It was here when I decided to end the interview, so with that I asked Sara if she would be willing to pose for some pictures. The brash teenager before me somehow transformed. Her entire bearing completely changed as I snapped pictures of her and it truly was as if I truly were interviewing a wrestler. I have been a wrestling journalist for many years, and I have interviewed dozens of young wrestlers who are as brash and cocky as she is, but Sara Saint, or Sara Saito, or Saint Saito was while definitely the youngest I have ever spoken with, based on what I have seen of her, Saint Saito probably had the most promising of all their careers.
I look forward to seeing if I was right ten years down the line.
- "The Saint Saito Story" by Laurence Monroe, Pro Wrestling Illustrated. August 2015.
