80s Joshi on Wednesday: Masami! Yamazaki! Jumbo! Yukari!

Volume 5   

7. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori (Fuji TV Cup Tag Tournament Semi Final) 11/28/83 

K: Sums up the state of 1983 AJW footage that one of the best matches we have is a semi-final match from a tournament where both the other semi-final and the final are missing. On the other hand, it’s great that we have this.

Dynamite Girls are the tag champs (the titles aren't on the line in this tournament), after winning them from Devil Masami & Tarantula in June. Since then Devil's been tagging more frequently with the more junior Itsuki Yamazaki. If I was allowed to retroactively name tag teams I'd call this pairing the Jumping Bomb Devils.

Itsuki gets a bit of a showcase here. At first Devil is assisting with her big jumping moves in a way that it looks like she's using Itsuki as a weapon, but when she's in the ring alone she more than holds her own. She does an unusual move where she pushes Jumbo Hori into the ropes, and when Jumbo rebounds back going backwards, she kicks her in the back. It felt like a backwards Irish Whip? Pro-wrestling physics. 

Devil and Itsuki isolate Jumbo Hori and target her back. There's a really mean moment where Devil has her in her own corner just within reach to make a tag, or at least she would be, if Devil weren't standing on her hands while smirking. The heat builds up a bit and leads to great shift in momentum when Itsuki makes the mistake of going toe-to-toe with Yukari Omori, who shoves her across the ring so hard she almost completely clears it. Yeah go Omori! Her offense is getting better and better. 

When Devil gets in to even things out, she does it by hitting Omori with these big punches where she pulls her elbow back, clenches a big fist for a good couple of seconds to get the crowd's attention, before clocking her with it. It's a good way of building a bit of suspense for the punch and suits her well.

Devil and Itsuki are the heels here, but they're not doing anything especially heelish yet. The main way they garner heat is they're a lot more inclined to double team to get themselves out of predicaments. In the 2nd fall we get a bit of this when they both jump Omori to allow Itsuki to unload dropkicks and take the advantage a bit. Itsuki then pulls Omori outside, presumably for a bit more pummelling, but this is a mistake as it gives Jumbo Hori license to intervene and suddenly Itsuki is getting double teamed herself and thrown onto a table while Devil arrives too late to help her. Bit of just rewards.

Itsuki's just more mad at this, we get a little shout-off between her and the Dynamite Girls, which leads to her throwing Omori into the heel corner for Devil to do a BIG lift and throw down to the floor. The heels take back control after Jumbo is knocked to the outside, and then they do this cool combination move where Itsuki is standing on Devil's shoulders and they hold hands while Devil walks most of the way across the ring before Itsuki jumps off her shoulders for a big splash onto Omori for the pin. Great finish there.

Oh this match is really good and exciting. There's constantly something fun happening and heat just seems to build and build. The crowd are also pretty hot, one of the best crowds we've seen in a while.

Soon into the 3rd fall this has escalated into a crazy brawl. Devil Masami has got out her bokken and is attacking both babyfaces with it. Omori seems angry but incapable of doing anything to stop Devil's ferocious attacks so instead vents her frustration by beating up the referee. This doesn't really help matters. In fact Devil drops the bokken soon afterwards, but is able to finish Jumbo Hori off with a big seated senton off the top rope.

They pulled off having a really heated fight plus lots of cool innovative offense and a fast-pace almost throughout. Classic Zenjo style and a great match. Then they follow it up immediately with a hot angle as the Crush Gals get in the ring, presumably angry about how their fellow finalists got their win. I liked how Itsuki kicks out at the Crush Gals while standing on the apron, looking all aggressive and nasty. It looks like they're about to calm down and they shake hands, exchange words, then suddenly Devil throws a punch at Lioness Asuka and all hell breaks loose! Seconds are rushing the ring as well to separate them, including Tarantula wielding Devil's bokken.

I'm just frustrated now that we can't see the Crush Gals vs. Jumping Bomb Devils tournament final. We just know the Crush Gals won that won.

****

MD: The other semi-final was Crush Gals vs Masked Yu and Tarantula (Crush Gals won). They cut back to Chigusa and Lioness throughout this match as they’re watching on a screen in the back. Lioness is heavily bandaged and looks put upon for most of it. That feels like a theme. I’m pretty sure Devil was taped up and Hori definitely was, her back taped under her gear. 

And it wasn’t just for show. Masami and Yamazaki went after it immediately, heavily focusing their attack. By this point, they’d been teaming for months and Devil was able to assist Yamzaki in bounding about. Some very mean stuff here, both taking it outside and Devil just stepping on Hori’s hands as she taunted Omori. That backfired to a degree as it let Omori come in, but the Dynamite Girls still had to fight their way back (mainly to the Jumbo hot tag) and it wasn’t until Yamazaki missed a senton off the top that they were able to capitalize and pick up the first fall. 

They kept asserting themselves well into the second fall, with Jumbo hitting her fireman’s carry tosses onto Devil and even after Yamazaki came in with lots of dropkicks. They vaulted her over a table on the outside pretty effectively, for instance. But then Devil dropped Omori to the floor from a suplex position. That let her hit this shot off the ropes she was doing in this match (a cross chop I don’t remember them making as big a deal out of previously), Yamazaki to hit her fall away slams, and for them to finish Omori off with a great bit where Devil walked across the ring with Yamazaki on her shoulders to set up a splash.

Third fall was pretty heated. While the fans haven’t quite turned over into whatever they’d become in 84, the Dynamite Girls were more over than they probably get credit for (though I can’t say for certain that Devil/Yamazaki didn’t have supporters by this point either). It looked like they were going to turn things around too. Hori’s transition where she catches someone in a bearhug and then does a twisting slam out of it was very effective dramatically. They twisted things up though. Devil made catch the bearhug twice. Then when she lifted Devil up to the top to pull her off head first as she was want to do, Devil almost got a win with a sunset flip. These sorts of inversions felt new to me. After that, everything broke down with Devil getting her sword and causing chaos. When the smoke cleared, she hit Ikeshita’s old seated senton off the top and got the win. Post match the Crush Gals came out for a staredown and, after a handshake, everything broke down. Unfortunately, we don’t have the finals but this semi felt very iconic for the time and in some ways like it was pushing the needle forward.

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