70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jackie! Nancy!

78. 1979.12.11 - 03 Jackie Sato vs. Nancy Kumi (Only 9 Minutes of 30 shown)

K: They only show about 9 minutes of a 30 minute long match here so this will be a brief post. I did think it was interesting that they actually acknowledged the cuts by putting what minute of the match we’d skipped forward to in the corner. I don’t remember ever seeing that in any other match AJW match. They’re more famous for being excellent at seamlessly editing matches to fit the TV time.

The context of this is that they’re building up challengers for Jackie’s title. They seem to do a lot of these non-title matches vs. the champion where you’d think the challenger was high enough in the pecking order to just get a championship match, but the booking philosophy seems to be that title defences only happen at the biggest shows. Nancy looked like she was putting in a strong effort here (which is another way of saying she wasn’t being boring as hell). I would have liked to see this in full because they really did have the crowd hot in the latter stages. There’s a nice cut to some very concerned fans as Jackie is fighting to break out of a Boston Crab; which was followed up by Nancy hitting a sunset flip that was impactful enough it was almost a proto-Code Red. 

The taper also screwed up by seemingly changing channels for a few seconds just as we were at the finish. Have to just laugh at that.

MD: Yeah, I was going to say that we miss the actual draw and the last nearfall for some cartoon or another, and that’s the way we end our trip through all 70s footage that we have. Come on!
But we’re lucky to have this at all, even cut up, I suppose. I will say that Kumi’s come a long way in 79, especially in the back half as she was not someone who particularly asserted herself in matches, just a cipher to get beat around the ring by the Black Army and she’s pretty formidable here as she was in the Moolah match. 

We get the feeling out to start, which was a little clumsy even with Jackie carrying herself like she thought she was the best in the world. She was unquestionably an ace. Then it cut to a middle section with Nancy hitting a neckbreaker drop and her lifting flapjack. Somewhere in there, she worked the leg too and I think that would have been a huge chunk of the match. They said everyone was chanting for Jackie but it seemed at least a little split to me. The half crab attempt was compelling because Nancy just collapsed trying to twist her around.

And the finishing stretch was a legitimately exciting few minutes. Jackie really did have a great small package out of nowhere and that almost got her the win once or twice. Nancy ended up on the defensive but she kept on kicking out even as Jackie tried more intense moves. It seemed like they were going to end it on a roll up as the bell rang, but that’s when the cartoon cut in. They already had Jackie's next opponent lined up in Tomi (just coming off of her match with Lucy) so this elevated Nancy just a bit more while keeping Jackie strong. 

That brings us to the end of the footage. We’ve talked about the next thing we’ll do (which is pretty logical considering where we are and what was released just about a year ago now) but I imagine we’ll be back in a week or two with some general thoughts about the 70s AJW footage first.

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D3AN~!!! Day 3: YUTA~! MAKO~!

DEAN~!!! 3 9/6/25

Wheeler Yuta vs Matt Mako

MD: If the first Texas residency belonged to Hologram and if the Chicago residency belonged to Toni Storm, I kind of sort of thing that this Philly residency belongs to Yuta. Maybe not the clearest choice. You could argue Daniel Garcia or Mox or maybe a few others. But there was something about how the hometown crowd thoroughly hated Yuta that puts it over the top. Every time he appeared on screen, the chants started. Every time he tagged in, the boos rang out.

As such, this will end up being his signature match for the residency (there's still that ROH mixed tag with Shafir coming up, which is TK booking for me once again), because it was very good. 

If Matthews vs Starkz was about contrast, this one was about dissonance. 

Yuta is incredibly skilled. The springboard takeover into a seamless, picture perfect Cattle Mutilation was a thing of beauty. He nailed his signature rebound between the ropes to hit a German Suplex. He's a former Pure Champion. Yet the transition to offense was because Shafir got involved. Yet when pressed, he pulled off the turnbuckle pad to try to get an advantage. Yet he only won because of another Shafir distraction and him going to the eyes. 

That gap between obvious truth (Yuta's skill) and reality (Yuta's cheating), between expectation and how things actually play out creates a sort of cognitive dissonance which is the cornerstone for heel heat. It's well and good if the bad guy does something bad, but when he does it in a way that runs counter to the possibilities the fans know to be true, that's even worse. 

Of course, you might argue that Mako drove him to it by being that good. Just one tremendous, memorable, crisp piece of offense after the next. Even when Yuta did get him, like with that Cattle Mutilation, he couldn't keep him in it. Even when Shafir got in his face, like after he dropped Yuta into a chair on the outside with a sleeper, Mako was able to just shift directions and crash into Yuta with even more speed. 

But still, Yuta should be able to at least hold his own and on a card like this, he should have at least tried (not to mention the insult to injury that was his out of line behavior post match attacking one of Dean's kids). The only thing he proved here was that Mako had his number. But that doesn't matter when it comes to the record books. 

And that selfless performative embodiment of true selfishness is exactly why Yuta gets the legitimate heat that he does in a world still afflicted by ironic chants and winking cool heels. And it's why he owned his hometown residency, even in more of a secondary role.

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