70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jumbo! Jaguar! Victoria! Gomez! Rios! Ikeshita!

73. 1979.11.XX2 - 01 Ayumi Hori, Rimi Yokota & Victoria Fujimi vs. Norma Gomez, Raquel Rios & Yumi Ikeshita

K: This didn't go anywhere I didn't expect from the start, but still, it felt like it overachieved somewhat considering it included two unfamiliar Mexican wrestlers and a very green Ayumi Hori, who actually got more focus than anyone.

The first half of the match was mostly a drawn out face-in-peril segment for Hori, who is so outmatched that she never really even attempts to make a comeback so much as just try to make it to her her corner to tag back out. It makes you wonder why her partners let her tag in in the first place. There's an interesting moment when she almost makes it to her corner but Ikeshita just covers her. Not a pin attempt, they're clearly in the ropes, but it just stops Hori from making a tag. She's looked pretty weak on offense in previous matches (which really is a drawback when you're the biggest wrestler on the roster) so at least this role avoids that. She at least does a decent job of repeatedly reaching out her hand to signal she needs to tag out, although in one moment she reaches out her hand to the wrong corner. Maybe Ikeshita’s face-targetting offense disoriented her.

When Victoria Fujimi gets to tag in she's immediately on the receiving end of more offence, these tags are almost always very heel dominating. She is established as being a bit above Hori in the hierarchy though by letting to fight back a bit and things spill out to the outside for some rudimentary chaos.

Things pick up when Ikeshita is back in the ring and is taking everyone out with a metal bucket. After that's taken off her though she more than holds her own with the slickest moves of anyone, and finishes things with a fantastic looked-like-a-deadlift pile-driver that the second she hit it I thought had better be the finish as I don't remember seeing her hitting a better one. It's just a bit of a shame that Yokota had so little to do here when she already looks like the best wrestler on her team and is started to get hyped up on commentary. Solid showing though.

**3/4

MD: Some interesting commentary notes I picked up on. They indicated that Fujimi was probably the leader of her team since she was most seasoned. And they likened the future Jaguar to Mariko Akagi and said that she was following her path. 

No big surprises for this one. It’s interesting to see Hori work from underneath because other than people having to punch up at her, they treat her just like anyone else. Rios had some size and they had a brief beatdown but it wasn’t really a Clash of the Titans. When Hori’s on offense, she just crashes into people though. I liked Gomez more here, even if she just choked and shoved a finger into someone’s throat for the most part. 

Primarily and unsurprisingly, this was an Ikeshita showcase. They always are unless Kumano’s there to share the load. A headbutt to take over, dragging a face over the mat, the obtuse angled slams. Things broke down and the babyfaces had more luck after that (after a brief series of bucket shots), but only so much, as Ikeshita reversed a tombstone attempt and absolutely planted Yokota with a sit down pile driver for the win. Not as much substance to this than if it went longer but you may not have gotten that substance in the first place, so I’m not complaining too much. It was solid for how long it went.

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70s Joshi on Wednesday: Jumbo! Nancy! Rios! Masami!

70. 1979.11.XX1 - 01 Ayumi Hori & Nancy Kumi vs. Raquel Rios & Tenjin Masami

K: The Americans are out and now we get a look at the mysterious Raquel Rios, who I'm assuming is a Mexican wrestler or at least that's where she seems to have worked most often, but it's hard to find info online so I'm not sure of that. 

Nancy Kumi gets quite the roar from the crowd during the introductions. I've never got why she seemed perpetually over (at least before matches start) when she rarely looks like a star after the bell rings. Anyway she sells being hurt on the outside early on and leaves Ayumi Hori to sell in the ring for the heels. Masami is incredibly expressive and loud, but lacks much offense at this point. It's interesting though that despite her being such a junior worker, she actually gets to look more dominant beating up Hori that Rios did, who when she tags in gets the tables turned on her. Devil also manages to get a comeback on Nancy after she returns to the ring by just physically overpowering her. The strangest move of the match was definitely Devil jumping up sidewards onto Hori's shoulders to do a headscissors. I didn't know what on Earth was going on at first, it was a bit too cute but fun I guess, She attempts it a 2nd time but it gets countered and allows for Nancy to get a hot tag where she does some exciting offense for about 10 seconds before it all fizzles out.

I'd normally describe this as a Tenjin Masami showcase. She certainly was the wrestler who did most of the memorable stuff in this match and showed some improvement since we last saw her. Certainly everything until the brief finishing stretch where Nancy got some nice strikes in and we saw a cool top rope crossbody from big Ayumi Hori. I'm not sure if it was deliberately laid out to get Masami over or if it was more the more pushed wrestler not bothering to do much until it was her time to get the win, but that's how it came across.
**

MD: While this did have Rios from Mexico, it’s nice to be back to normal in this footage with the Americans headed home. This was a good check in on Hori and Masami. Masami especially. She was absolutely coming along. Not everything hit clean, but everything hit with enthusiasm and verve. She had a way of hitting from every angle, and with consequence. For instance, she was able to plow right through Kumi with her charging Vader Attack style body block, but when she tried it with Hori both went down, due to Hori’s size. The commentary called those “dump truck collisions.” At one point when Rios was pinned, she walked right in and stomp the ref instead which popped basically everyone but the ref who was furious at her. I also liked her (late) Honky Tonk Man styled neckbreakers where she didn’t go over with them.

Hori had a bit more oomph behind what she was doing. Sometimes it worked out well like when she and Masami did a bit based around flying headscissors, where Masami got her over the first time but got shrugged off big the second time. Sometimes less so, like when she couldn’t get a slam off the ropes to work the first time around. Rios fit in well enough, participating in the violence and throwing headbutts. 

This was pretty chaotic throughout but had an extra bit of it early when it seemed like Kumi might have been hurt. She came back and came in hot though, flying around and hitting stuff with confidence. The finish had her hit multiple Northern Lights styled face first drops onto Masami before taking her over all the way with it. Biggest thing to see her was how Masami was just rising up the ranks of the Black Army and becoming more of a force.
 

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