70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Ikeshita!

32. 1979.05.XX2 - Jackie Sato vs. Yumi Ikeshita

K: The legal-illegal moves ratio from Yumi Ikeshita here is off the chart. It's like she wrestles dirty as a matter of principle, even if a legal move would have done. There was probably more dirty moves in this one match from her than there's been on Raw this year. It's not just that that she's breaking rules though, there's a real malicious savagery about all her offense. In the opening heat section she does little else but try to ruin Jackie's face and tear her eyes out. Whenever Jackie gets a bit of fightback going, Yumi's default reaction is to reach for the throat and try to strangle her. It all feels purely instinctive and beastial rather than her adhering to a gameplan or something. The scary vocalisations (they're loud, but not exactly screaming) all add to it. I'm reminded of a funny internet comment where a Japanese poster wouldn't believe that Yumi Ikeshita was now married as "no would could love that woman."

Most of the match is really just an extended heat section. Jackie fights back and shows a lot of grit and toughness with how she never feels out of it despite all the torment she's been put through. She even manages a really snug looking flying headscissors in one of her escapes from Yumi's rampage, the kind where it actually looks like she's got a good grip of her opponent's head. This ends in a countout after one of Jackie's comebacks couldn't be repressed in the ring and things spill out. Slightly anti-climatic but worth it to see this textbook heel performance within a fairly standard TV match.

***1/4

MD: In some ways this was one of the most conventional matches we’ve seen so far, by… well, I guess certain conventions at least. I would say it was shine/heat/comeback, because they went right to heat, but once that heat started, you had a number of hope spots, including ones that seemed like a transition, and then cutoffs until the finishing stretch. Kumano was seconding Ikeshita. Jackie was alone. Kumano gave Ikeshita advice early. That drew Jackie in to whack her like a true ace is apt to do and Ikeshita took over because of it.

From there she made it her mission to erase the face of Jackie. There’s some joke about the Beauty Pair and eliminating the Beauty now that the Pair was gone but it’s a reach and someone else will have to come up with it, but man, was it ever a focused attack. She started with this absolutely nasty rubbing of Jackie’s face on the mat, but then pulled and poked and prodded and rubbed her face over the top rope and even the ring apron while on the floor. Just absolutely vicious stuff. Back in the ring, she rubbed her face into the at again, and yanked from a camel clutch position before throwing a headbutt. On the second one, Jackie reversed in a great moment of hope, hitting a big boot before getting cut off. This would continue. Kumano would whack her with a can from the outside. After another flash of offense, Ikeshita would control with a hidden object.

Finally though, she grabbed at Jackie’s head one too many times and Jackie lifted her and dropped her forward, and then hit a belly to back and a number of power moves. It spilled out after that and even with Kumano trying to hold her back, Jackie was still able to prevent Ikeshita from rolling into the ring. It ended as a draw with a post-match double teaming by the Black Pair, but still felt somehow like a moral victory for Jackie. That’s star power for you.