80s Joshi on Wednesday: Lioness! Mimi! Yukari! Masami! Matsumoto! Ripper!

Volume 3 

9. Devil Masami, Kaoru Matsumoto & Monster Ripper vs. Lioness Asuka, Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori 3/30/82

K: This is the main event of the go home show before the big Monster Ripper vs. Jaguar Yokota WWWA Singles Title match. This made the set mainly for that reason, but it's also nice that it's a good match with Lioness Asuka and Kaoru Matsumoto in, thus fulfilling my rule that there been at least one match from them in 1982 so viewers can track their development.

I wouldn't say the first fall was all Monster, but it almost was. While the other pairings had some back and forth, whenever Monster Ripper was in the ring she was just demolishing everyone and never looked to be in any real danger. This starts right from the beginning when the heels get trapped in the corner and hit with a sequence of running splashes, but when Omori jumps at Monster she just bounces off her like Monster's made of steel. The closest thing we get to Monster looking like she's in trouble - and even then, not really - is one point where she goes for the flying hip attack twice, but Lioness Asuka rolls underneath her the second time so she crashes and lands. I'll also note that whenever anyone gets Monster into a pinning predicament, she immediately just kicks out before the referee can even begin a count.

Kaoru Matsumoto has a decent showing here for the little that's expecting of her. She doesn't have much in the way of offense, but I thought she threw a pretty mean lariat at Asuka early on. And something about the way she walks around the ring just feels like an arrogant strut, and it's not even clear that she's doing a strut.

Mimi Hagiwara was easily the best on her team, no surprise there really. Her and Devil Masami keep up their good chemistry. I think Devil might actually be physically stronger than Monster despite not being as big, Monster at least looked like she had a bit of a struggle lifting Mimi over her head, but for Devil she just goes straight up into the military press like she's picking up a co-operative 6 year old. I have enough recent experience to know the "co-operative" qualifier was very important there. Mimi also does a funny little butterfly suplex move, or at least that's what I'd call it from the set up, but Mimi doesn't go over with Devil for it, she just drops her straight on the mat. Looked painful actually.

Matsumoto gets the most focus in the 2nd fall, kinda makes sense since if they're going to level things up she's the obvious heel to take the pin, so might as well give her some ring time. She gets a bit of work to do with everyone, but we get an AJW 'flew too close to the Sun' finish pretty quickly where she's trapped near the babyface corner, gets hit with move after move until Omori gets the pin as Mimi and Asuka mark the heel corner to prevent a break-up. I like how they incorporate teamwork into tag matches like you probably would do if this were a real sport. Omori gets the win on Matsumoto, starting the most heated feud in AJW history :)

The 3rd fall is just the heels getting revenge for losing the previous fall. Monster Ripper looks especially awesome going on a rampage including having a chair wrapping around Asuka's neck and swinging her around the outside and onto chairs, before Matsumoto gets her on top of the announce table to pose looking all proud of herself. Bit of stolen valour in there. Omori is the victim here and gets taken out. Heels stand tall.

This would have been a better match if the 3rd fall had more to it than just the babyfaces getting demolished. Might have undermined the wider purpose of the match, but I'd say pulling that off while milking a bit more drama out of it would have been the bigger challenge, and more impressive to pull off. But for what it was, this was good stuff.

***¼

MD: I thought Matsumoto was on her way here, even if she was on her way to a different place where she’d eventually get up. She was very good at asserting herself and using her size. Sometimes it was a little rough around the edges but she was additive to the super powered heel team that was Masami and Ripper. Those two were in matching black and despite the size difference, there were times where for a split second, I thought Ripper WAS Masami, solely because she was doing something so vicious and cruel. There was a point where she wrapped a chair around her opponent’s neck and dragged her around ringside and it’s exactly the sort of thing Devil would do.

I honestly think she had not just improved tenfold since her run a couple of years earlier but was actively great at times. Once Mimi hit her cross chop and Ripper didn’t just no sell it, but she dusted herself off like she was Samoa Joe or something. Coolest person in the room. The match started with everyone charging at all three heels pressed into the corner and it worked right until Ripper simply stepped forward and made it work no longer. And she had all of the huge offense like the press slam backbreaker. Devil contributed more than enough too of course.

Mimi continued to stand out on the babyface side. She was not quite an ace but she was very good at this point. I’m going to have to see more out of Asuka especially but I know that’s coming. This was a means to an end to heat up Ripper even more and it certainly achieved that goal even if that came at a slight cost.
 

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends) 5/18 - 5/24 Part 2

AEW Double or Nothing 5/23/26

Jon Moxley vs Kyle O'Reilly

Imagine being Kyle O'Reilly.

Last fall, he'd stared down the biggest villain of the last few years, maybe the greatest warrior of his generation. He fought a monster, perhaps a wounded monster, one with his back against the wall, sure, but a monster nonetheless. 

He fought the monster, defeated the monster, and yet, unlike so many others, he didn't become a monster in the process.

He stayed true to himself. Kyle O'Reilly has grown into a man who cares about his friends, who would rather smile than scowl, who thinks there is still good in this world, that there's something worth fighting for. He lives his life. He stops and smells the flowers. He sees the possible beauty inherent in everyone and everything. He's a breath of fresh air in an increasingly bleak world, someone who can smile backstage and then lock in when the bell rings, but as someone who never forgets what he's fighting for and what he stands for.

And yet, while he was gone, Jon Moxley has somehow turned public opinion back his way. Did he do it by apologizing? Did he do it by hitting bottom and losing everything? Did he do it through the sort of acts that Kyle O'Reilly would consider heroic?

No.

He won. And he won. And he won again. He won the Continental Classic, coming back from a deficit, including overcoming the injury O'Reilly had given him. Maybe his victory over Fletcher was suspect, as Fletcher defeated himself when he couldn't find the Callis Family Screwdriver, but he defeated the "Greatest Tournament Wrestler Ever" in Okada, and then gave a speech full of empty platitudes that the masses (and his own followers who had seemed otherwise on the verge of betraying him) ate up. 

This is Jon Moxley, the man who ended Bryan Danielson, the man who poured bleach down the throat of Kyle's good friend Orange Cassidy, the man who, after losing to Kyle right before the start of the Continental Classic, rushed back into the ring to cruelly and pettily put Kyle himself out of action.

And now only was the crowd seemingly okay with all of that, they were chanting Mox's name just as much as they were chanting Kyle's. 

Imagine being Kyle O'Reilly and hearing those chants. 

You had taken Moxley to the limit a week before, but this time, he didn't quit. 

And why would he? The Moxley from last fall was a man who had felt the walls closing in. This was a Moxley who was breathing air that he hadn't earned, save for through combat, save for by lying to everyone around him, save for by lying to himself most of all. 

Might equals right. The Continental Championship, with its barring of interference, was the ultimate arena to prove might. And thus, Jon Moxley was obviously the most right of all. Just ask Daniel Garcia. He had been at the bottom of his rope, had pushed Mox to the limit, and now he was under his tutelage. Just ask Will Ospreay, who Mox had taken out. Just like he'd taken out Kyle.

Just ask the fans. They'll be more than happy to tell you. They were more than happy to tell Kyle on this night.

It would have been one thing if they booed Kyle and chanted for Mox. It's a New York crowd. We live in dark times. Things happen. Kyle could have looked past that. 

But they chanted for one and then the other, back and forth. They saw Kyle O'Reilly and Jon Moxley as equal, as equally worth their adoration and support. Moral equivalents.

Imagine being Kyle O'Reilly, who came back from his injury and immediately helped his friends win the six-man titles, who now was coming back to take what else he felt he earned. To right a wrong that no one else seemed to care about anymore. Imagine hearing that. Imagine feeling it.

In his previous matches against Moxley, he did everything right and pressed Mox on his weaknesses, on his shattered nerve, capitalized on every mistake.

Here, now, months later, in a world that he never made, in a world that betrayed him and his positive outlook, O'Reilly was a little off his game, all while Mox was drinking deep in the confidence of his own Kool-Aid.

They fought even at first, but when they got to the floor, when O'Reilly finally pried off an advantage and pressed it, Mox managed to get under his skin. The middle finger wasn't about defiance. It was, I think, a momentary admission, a peeling back of a carefully clung mask. O'Reilly had won his battles. None of it had mattered. Mox was winning a much greater war of hearts and minds. 

O'Reilly lost his head, throwing wild kicks. Mox moved and O'Reilly's leg crashed into the post. 

Everything after that was academic. The match ended with both men in simultaneous leglocks. This time, Mox could be bolstered by his own bullshit that he could once again buy into completely. In the face of that, O'Reilly, brave, caring, tough, skilled was only human and what can a human do in the face of an idea, even one that can only exist in an unfair, unearned, decrepit world.

That wasn't enough though. Post-match, Mox stood before O'Reilly, spat out his platitudes, and held out his hand. And O'Reilly, who wants to see the beauty in all of us, took a breath, and let the world sweep him under. It was easier to believe. It was easier to forgive. It was easier to accept. He shook Jon Moxley's hand.

Which leaves me. Here I am, chronicling this story month after month, left to wonder how much longer can I too possibly hold out. You give the devil his due long enough and even a naked, fallen emperor has enough capital to buy himself new clothes. 

Jon Moxley is precariously close to getting away with all of it.

Read more!