70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Lucy! Ikeshita! Gomez!

72. 1979.11.XX1 - 03 Jackie Sato & Lucy Kayama vs. Norma Gomez & Yumi Ikeshita (2/3 Falls)

We start in the middle of the 1st fall. I found it a little hard to get into being dropped into it with Jackie getting double teamed by the Ikeshita and her Mexican ally, lots of choking for several minutes, and when Lucy got tagged in she just got more of the same. Then, in a blink and you’ll miss it transition, the babyface suddenly started steamrolling and were 1-0 up. 

But ok things pick up when we start the 2nd fall and Jackie is in a mean mood now. The fall starts with Jackie Irish Whipping Norma Gomez straight into Ikeshita on the apron, knocking her to the ground and drawing out a ‘woah’ from the crowd. Ikeshita is pissed and wants to fight on the outside and looks determined to get her vengeance. I thought it was interesting how she wins with the hurricanrana pin (after some very cool over the head backdrops), and even though Jackie makes contact jumping in to break up the pin, it still counts because she wasn’t able to actually break it up and Lucy’s shoulders stay down. I don’t know when it became a rule (or if it even officially is one) in wrestling that the referee stops counting the pin in a tag match if someone so much as taps the pinning wrestler on the back, but I don’t think that was a good change.

There isn’t much of a 3rd fall. Jackie does a cool backbreaker and looks like she’s going to really take charge, then a chair is being swung around, they’re fighting on the outside and the result is a countout. Oh well. I guess they just weren’t going to give away anything tonight. 2nd fall was good though.

**

MD: We come in JIP here. I didn’t really get a great sense of Norma except for that she was credible. She kept the pressure on, mainly with choking and mean shots and that was all that was needed because Ikeshita was going to come in with all the cool stuff. Also a picked up choke hiding. Eventually Lucy took out Norma on the apron and ran right to Jackie and they just mowed through their opponents like it was nothing. 

We had another transition in the second fall, but that was after some chaos on the outside. Again Ikeshita looked like a million bucks. Her delaying power slam off the ropes were brutal and the way she won the second fall with that elaborate over the top escape into the ‘rana was top notch. There were a couple of moments here where they said the crowd was going up big for Jackie and I just didn’t see or hear it. You watch the crowd and there aren’t those shots of wincing or screaming girls. Everything seems less hot than back during the Ripper feud and before, and I don’t know if it’s how things were mic’d or if they were just cooling down in general.

But that didn’t make Jackie any less of an Ace. When she took over in the last fall, it was brutal and without mercy or doubt. But then the chairs come in and everything breaks down and that was that.