70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Lucy! Tomi! Ripper! Kumano! Ikeshita!

34. 1979.06.XX - Jackie Sato, Lucy Kayama & Tomi Aoyama vs. Mami Kumano, Monster Ripper & Yumi Ikeshita

K: They made pretty clear at the beginning that this is a prelude match to the double main event on 7/31, but even if they’re naturally not going to go all out here I still think they delivered a pretty good match here. The first fall wasn’t much, both teams brawls around the place without much of a structure to it and then it was pretty out of nowhere when Mami Kumano got the win with a torture rack, I think the announcer wasn’t even sure why the bell was ringing for a moment.

The second fall was a big improvement though. Comfortable being 1-0 up, Black Army now start playing a bit more conservatively grinding their opponents down. This is the environment where Yumi Ikeshita really shines as she has the biggest arsenal of offense of them and she can work holds for prolonged periods as well. The Jackie vs. Monster square off was also really good, the messiness of the 1st fall meant they’d waited until the 2nd for the crowd to really see this pairing, and in contrast to the rest of the match which was pretty frantic, if felt like they were milking every movement and building tension with their clash. Jackie would try to go for Monster’s back or find a way to take her down, but she never gets far as Black Pair would run in and cause her problems whenever she got herself on top for very long. There’s a particularly good moment when Jackie ends up on the floor with Ikeshita standing on her arm, Kumano is scrunching her face up and at the same time Monster Ripper is headbutting her in the belly! Well that’s a bit of a weird combination but I think sometimes just being weird is a good way of getting people’s attention.

Jackie tagging out isn’t a hot tag here. She’s able to get to the ropes and get a partner in but that doesn’t lead to some big momentum shift, they have to work harder to earn that. It finally comes when Tomi Aoyama gets Irish Whipped into the ropes by the corner where Monster Ripper is standing, but she leaps impressively high in the air to hit a big dropkick to the face that sends Monster flying off the apron into the crowd. It reminded me of that moment in 6/9/95 where Kawada gets Irish Whipped but just kicks Misawa off the apron in the process, except Tomi isn’t an asshole haha. Anyway that exciting spot worked really well to set up the comeback, not just because it was exciting, but it believably took Monster Ripper out of the match for a good while allowing the babyfaces to just beat Black Pair without the Monster turning their plans upside down. Ikeshita does try to stop Tomi from pinning Kumano to get the win but it doesn’t work as Jackie is freed up to pull her away.

The third fall is when that cool spot comes back to haunt them. The babyfaces do maintain their momentum at the start for a bit, but Monster Ripper is going for revenge and the harsh reality is they still haven’t come up with a way to stop her. Jackie Sato does lose her shit a bit here and jumps in trying to strangle heels with a towel, but she’s not able to beat them at their own dirty way. Before long, Monster hits her unstoppable top rope seated sentient move and big splash (with a vertical suplex in between) and we know this means game over.

Full of flaws typical of the era, it’s all a bit primitive and sometimes the action meanders, but this is still a well laid out match and leaves me wanting to see that 7/31 show.

***1/4

MD: This was a set up for the 7/31 show with Ripper vs Jackie and Black Pair defending against the Queen Angels. The heels had a declaration of their unified maliciousness read before the match. Tomi and Lucy both got their names shouted fondly by the crowd when announced but obviously Jackie got a much bigger roar. Three falls with the first very short. Chaos to begin, then come back, and things breaking down outside, ending with a Kumano torture rack quickly. Second fall had Ripper and the Pair press their advantage, including more tearing at Jackie’s face. The comeback was great though, with Tomi turning a whip into a massive dropkick onto Ripper to knock her off the apron. With her gone, the Angels were able to hit a couple of quick double teams, including this great reverse gutwrench finisher. There was some more teasing of Ripper and Jackie in here, including in the third fall, but it was generally academic, with the bad guys back at full strength and able to double team and cheat and press down. Finish had them crush Lucy (literally) with a vertical splash off the top by Ripper followed by the suplex/big splash combo. This was all good and did a good job heating up the 7/31 show, with a great comeback for the end of the second fall.