70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Lucy! Kumano! Masami!

75. 1979.11.XX2 - 03 Jackie Sato & Lucy Kayama vs. Mami Kumano & Tenjin Masami

K: This is a fairly throwaway formula match with good wrestlers in it. The most significant thing I'll point out is that Tenjin Masami gets a good showing, she's in the ring about as much as Mami Kumano but I don't think she ever looks like she's significantly less developed even if she doesn't have any signature moves yet. She looks nasty and fearsome, the screaming while on offense is probably a bit too much. 

The finish of the 1st fall was a bit off. It looked like they went for the finish a little earlier but there was some miscommunication, and then they repeated the set up almost straight after.

The Black team were very dominant for most of the 1st fall, setting up a babyface comeback and win, only for the heels to get even more vicious immediately on the 2nd fall's start and they introduce a chair to proceedings to even things out. I knew that was going to happen from having watched enough of these. After all of the wild weapons and methods of cheating we've seen before though, simply hitting someone with a chair felt kinda uninspired. Maybe this wasn't the right match to do anything special.

We didn't get to see much from Jackie until the 3rd fall. Selling for long periods of the match is Lucy's job, and since Black Pair were gonna be on top for most of the first two we were bound to not see much of Jackie. A cool moment is when she counters an Irish Whip attempt by just launching Kumano into Masami who was standing on the apron. Jackie follows up this with a whip of her own into a straight forearm or punch in the face that looked like it knocked Masami's lights out. Lucy gets tagged in to go for her Vader Bomb, but Masami is up too early so she turns it into a kind of reverse dropkick, also pretty cool adjustment that felt like it was on the fly. 

There's a really relentless bit of offense where we first see Jackie hit a big flying splash, the cover gets broken up  and Masami tries to escape by rolling under the bottom rope, but Jackie is too on the ball and drags her back into the ring before hitting her vertical suplex into a backbreaker move. All this offense from the babyfaces is just too much and takes us straight into a finish that felt satisfying. 

This was a promotion just spinning the wheels killing TV time till the next big show. First two falls were mostly filler. Jackie got to look like the worthy champ at the end, that’s all it really felt like it was trying to accomplish and I guess that’s all it needed to.

**1/2

MD: I’m glad we get to see Kumano a couple more times as we’re nearing the end of this stage of the project. This was another one of those very complete tags. My biggest takeaway was how much Masami felt like she belonged. I’m not sure I had the sense in previous matches, but she had as much confidence as I’ve seen out of her in this run and had found ways to stand out. Yes, there was the choking and the general aggression, but she really made use of her size, both in hefting people up with hanging tree chokes or pressing them over her head, but also by using Vader attacks or just having Lucy’s flying cross chop bounce off of her. Just real heft to what she did in a way that wasn’t a visually sure thing as it was with, let’s say, Hori.

Kumano was, of course, Kumano. An absolute bulldozer. Lucy (incredibly fiery and intense) had burst forth to take an early advantage but Kumano just shut her down, pulling her this way or that by her hair or dragging her face across the ropes or the mat. They had a great bit where Masami would grind the knee into the face before handing her off to Kumano for the dangling choke. Jackie broke it up once, but then Masami went after her and both of them ate it. Finish of the first fall was Lucy bouncing off Masami only to slip around her for a roll up. Clever stuff.

Second fall was a mauling as Kumano came in with a chair and absolutely brained Lucy and Jackie. That led to Masami holding one up for Kumano’s seated senton off the top and a missile dropkick. Third fall continued the mauling, including with object shots, until Jackie was able to reverse a whip crashing Kumano and Masami into each other. Lucy had a nice mule kick off the top (that I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen before), and then Jackie used suplexes and slams to win. She just sort of dropped down with an elbow to take it. Still hierarchy in this one as Masami was more likely to get swept under, but she was really more of the force that she would one day be here.