70s Joshi on Wednesday: Day! Tomi!

41. 1979.08.XX1 - 01 Cheryl Day vs. Tomi Aoyama

K: I usually do my write-ups going through the match chronologically while trying to explain my thoughts rather than just doing a play-by-play. I’m going to break that habit here though because this match really felt they started with that spectacular finish in mind and then worked backwards. Tomi counters an Irish Whip with a top rope boomerang into a flying bodypress for the three count. I thought this spot was ahead of its time when I saw Manami Toyota do it in the mid-90s so imagine my shock learning that someone was doing this in 1979. In more recent years when I’ve watched Toyota do her boomerang leaps I’ve noticed Aoyama being referenced on commentary, so the Japanese fans got what she was doing. It really helps in understanding Manami Toyota when you realise- contrary to Western fan conventional wisdom - she wasn’t supposed to be an innovative wrestler at all. She was being a stylistic throwback. That’s why she had such a plain look with the long black hair, basic black gear and was all softly spoken in promos. The ‘traditional’ girl presentation matched how she wrestled in the eyes of longtime AJW fans.

I hope you’ll pardon that digression, it’s just the rest of the match doesn’t really invite analysis. Tomi takes control early until she misses a dropkick and then Cheryl Day starts her heat section very early on with a series of strikes targeting Tomi’s throat before settling on working her arm, but the match doesn’t go on long enough for that to really go anywhere and they were probably just killing time to get to the big finish. They put some physical effort into the body of the match though, I don’t think it was ever boring. Pedestrian seems a fair description though.

**¼

MD: This was a pretty complete piece of business. Day took over early with a quasi-dropkick right to the throat, intentional enough as she followed it up with a throat chop. Then she took the arm and bulldogged it down right onto her knee. They worked the brunt of the match after this with Day grinding the knee into the arm and eventually Tomi coming back with kicks to the legs and working it over. Eventually Day got her out and beat her up a bit but Tomi came back on the inside with a flurry of her own and it was all spirited stuff. Obviously you’d rather the arm and legwork matter in the end but expectations are what they are and they at least framed things well enough due to one bit leading to the other. Finish was Tomi’s leap back body press where she lionsaults-styles her way to the very top back onto a standing opponent and it would be an impressive spot in 2024 let alone 1979.