70s Joshi on Wednesday: Ripper! Kumano! Nancy! Rimi!

48. 1979.08.XX3 - 03 Mami Kumano & Monster Ripper vs. Nancy Kumi & Rimi Yokota

K: The opening to this was strange. The first pairing is Monster Ripper vs. Rimi Yokota, but it looks like Monster has no interest in wrestling little Rimi, she ushers for Nancy to get in the ring. Rimi tags Nancy in. Monster and Nancy size each other up a bit, but before and contact is made Monster seems to change her main and tags in Mami Kumano. Nancy beats up Mami but a bit, but then Monster Ripper bursts in just pummels her. Maybe they’re getting across that Monster is a bit unpredictable/won’t just fight fair and square even if she is already the biggest and the strongest.

After that, this is a very one-sided mauling. The babyfaces get to tag in/out a couple of times, but only because Monster’s so strong she sometimes throws her opponent to the other side of the ring and isn’t able to stop them from making a tag in time. Not that it matters, as she just beats up the new person instead anyway. I had expected this to be a bit more competitive, not for any real reason tbh, but I should have remembered Monster’s the WWWA Singles Champion now and has a title match with Jackie Sato to build, so there’s not much to be gained in heating either of these two up against her.

So I’d accepted by the time we got there that there wasn’t going to be a big morally vindicating comeback. Instead, Rimi & Nancy managed to successfully double team Monster for a while in a way that didn’t really make them look that good, but it was fun. Especially when Mami ran in swinging a chair trying to save things but just hit Monster by accident. But still, Monster Ripper was able to overcome these little twerps. It took a few more moves to finish her off, but once she hit that big flying seated senton on Rimi, that was the end of her getting any more offense.

**1/2

MD: This was a mauling with a hot comeback at the end. They announced Yokota by noting her nice smile, but it was Kumi who struck first, dragging Kumano in from the outside with a double underhook and sort of turning it into a slingshot butterfly suplex. That’s about all she got as they got dragged down immediately thereafter. They had one bit of hope where they both got a shot in on Ripper together but then she ran through him. The brunt of the rest of the match was the Black Pair destroying Yokota, including some extended masterful hide-the-object work from Kumano (not that she needed an object). She showed some other stuff we hadn’t seen out of her like a cavernaria and bow and arrow type stretch.

The comeback came with Kumano getting too close to the ropes as she was using the object and getting pushed out. That let Kumi and Yokota get a shot or two in on Ripper before trying a double suplex. They were struggling but Kumano still went for a chairshot only to miss and hit Ripper. Unfortunately, despite buying themselves a minute of advantage, they couldn’t put Kumano away in time and Ripper, once recovered, absolutely crushed them. After the top rope standing senton and vertical splash by Kumano and Ripper respectively, she finished Kumi off by grabbing her arm leg and giving her a giant swing that way. They were building to the next Jackie match but also raising the specter that Ripper might take the belt back to the US as a truly unstoppable force.