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Post by KB8 on Apr 20, 2021 9:32:10 GMT -5
COMPLETE & ACCURATE YUMI IKESHITA
Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 7/31/79) - EPIC Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Jackie Sato (AJW, 8/79) – GREAT Yumi Ikeshita, Tenjin Masami & Hiroko Komine v Jackie Sato, Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 8/79) - EPIC Yumi Ikeshita v Lucy Kayama (AJW, 2/21/80) - EPIC Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 3/80) - GREAT Yumi Ikeshita & Monster Ripper v Rimi Yokota & Ayumi Hori (AJW, 7/80) - GOOD Yumi Ikeshita v Rimi Yokota (AJW, 8/80) - GREAT
I'm sort of doubling this up as a GME and GWE thing. 80s joshi is a pretty big blind spot for me but I've really enjoyed some of what I have seen before. I'll probably jump around a bunch and go off on different tracks based around who I like and whatever. Anyhow, we'll see how this goes.
Mimi Hagiwara & Chino Sato v Tenjin Masami & Hiroko Komine (AJW, 1/80) -- imagine sitting down in 1980, watching the WWF or Mid-Atlantic every week, and someone shows you this. What the fuck? This wasn't necessarily blow away great or anything but for 1980 it was pretty ahead of its time, if you'll excuse the cliche. Our future Devil Masami and Komine are evidently the heels and work nice cutoffs, while Sato and Hagiwara are really scrappy from underneath. Sato's rolling headbutts are always awesome and I loved Devil just picking her up and trying to throttle her. You can see elements of the 90s style here - the pace, the big offensive moves, the transitions, but this is only around 10 minutes rather than the longer and more audacious tags from later. Finish is truly gorgeous and one of the cleanest and quickest sunset flips you ever did see.
Chino Sato v Rimi Yokota (AJW, 1/4/80) -- Another match that does not feel like something you would see in 1980. There's a lot to unpack from this stylistically and I'm not really sure what the best comparisons are yet. Either way I didn't think this was a great match, but it had a great first half and some great moments sprinkled throughout. Some of what both women were doing was certainly great. The grappling was top drawer and everything carried a real sense of violence. Some of it was obvious violence, like recklessly throwing each other into stacks of chairs, but some was more understated, like that grappling, which isn't always the easiest thing to make look mean. They did lose me a little in the second half, although I watch this a couple nights ago and don't remember too many specifics. That said I loved how uncooperative it felt the whole way through, how they'd roll immediately onto their front whenever they hit the mat just to make a potential pin attempt even harder. Jaguar of course rules so I'll probably watch every bit of her I can find. The Jackie Sato/Tomi Aoyama match from this same card also rules and I might watch it again while I'm at this.
Yumi Ikeshita v Lucy Kayama (AJW, 2/21/80) -- Get me all of the Yumi Ikeshita, I guess. I thought this was tremendous. It was almost a cross between your classic 70s NWA title formula (wrestled by bantamweights) and a lucha title match, if one of the participants was some sort of warp speed Abdullah the Butcher-Javier Llanes mishmash. The first half was outstanding with some first class grappling. I think one of the things I value most in wrestling at this point is the sense of struggle and this always felt like a struggle. Each reversal, every hold, they were crisp but always maintained the sense of being fought over. Some of it also looked cool as fuck and at the end of the day that's always a bonus. Ikeshita's rolling key lock for example was maybe the slickest I've ever seen without it looking like the opponent is having to actively do any of the rolling. When it wasn't beautiful it was brutal and that worked just as well, like Ikeshita wrapping her hands around Kayama's throat and basically dragging her around the ring. At some point Ikeshita pulls a fork and gets to stabbing Kayama in the head, which was a little jarring (and perhaps unfortunate because it means no more matwork) but I'll be fucked if it didn't work for me at the same time. The vampire in me wanted buckets of blood but I suppose we make do. It builds to a couple big revenge spots as Kayama finally steals the fork and goes wild, then Ikeshita grabs a chair and bonks both Kayama and the referee, who thankfully decides not to throw out the match for whatever reason. We get two big dives and that thing about piledrivers not meaning anything in joshi is maybe a 90s thing because wouldn't you believe it, this actually ends on a piledriver! This ruled and Ikeshita is definitely on the watch as much of her as you can list.
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Post by Cap on Apr 20, 2021 9:51:46 GMT -5
Neat... I am really happy to see the now somewhat sustained emphasis on joshi both here and seemingly over on GWE, especially 80s Joshi.
Interested to see more here.
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Post by elliott on Apr 20, 2021 17:58:31 GMT -5
Yumi Ikeshita is pretty high on my list of people I wanna watch everything from
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Post by mvz on Apr 22, 2021 17:33:46 GMT -5
Thanks for making this thread, I’m looking forward to following and watching along when I can. Ikeshita was cool and that match was pretty great.
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Post by KB8 on May 11, 2022 19:02:42 GMT -5
Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 3/80) -- What the fuck was this?! I don't even know where to start but it was certainly something. Ikeshita is fucking amazing, just a skinny yet outrageously menacing presence, all violence all the time, never to be trifled with. I've literally never seen a Yumi Ikeshita performance that wasn't awesome (in all of the four that I've seen). Her and Kumano are clearly the heels and I guess Aoyama and Kayama are the plucky babyfaces. I'm sure I've seen both of them before but probably never this early. They were quick in a way that you'd call SUDDEN. Just full steam ahead and borderline rabid, but rabid in the endearing sort of way because everyone in attendance is screaming their head off for them. Of course they had to be a little rabid or Yumi Ikeshita would merely headbutt them into oblivion. This is 2/3 falls and the first fall was really fun and super hectic. I love how Kumano and Ikeshita don't even wait half a second before coming to the other's aid. There was one bit where Kayama landed on her feet off an attempted Ikeshita flapjack and before she could throw a punch Kumano was in booting her in the stomach. Aoyama and Kayama hit a couple nice double teams and then go fuck it, drag Kumano to the floor and try and strangle her with a microphone chord. That leads to them picking up the fall with a killer assisted splash that for a second there looked like it could've ended catastrophically for one or maybe all of those involved. The final two falls were madness of the highest order and Ikeshita was like a pig in mud. They run an injury angle where Aoyama appears to tear her ACL while trying to apply a Boston Crab, then Kayama comes in and shields her from being stomped senseless. So Ikeshita and Kumano stomp them BOTH senseless! People are going ballistic and trainees in tracksuits try to intervene and Yumi Ikeshita is just fucking whomping every single one of them. Some athletic trainer starts pulling on Aoyama's leg like a cartoon character trying to open a door and I question his credentials because that is the last thing you want to do with a ruptured ACL and Ikeshita grabs him by the hair and fucking launches him out the ring! And you're thinking "okay this is clearly going to a stoppage," but they actually clear the ring and Ikeshita and Kumano level the falls. And then they start the third fall despite Aoyama being unable to move, many tracksuited trainees are manhandled by the skinniest woman in the building, someone in a suit and earpiece gets awkwardly thrown through the ropes (by guess who), the woman on commentary is in tears, every child in the building is shrieking herself hoarse, then Aoyama finally manages to roll out the ring but Ikeshita has the brass to pin Kayama for the win after she ends up getting battered instead. Yumi Ikeshita is the by god truth and this was an incredible spectacle.
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Post by Kadaveri on May 11, 2022 19:26:11 GMT -5
Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 3/80) This is probably my favourite feud of the era and the best example of Joshi being stylistically so distinct from anything else at the time. You may enjoy this match from 7/31/79 with the same two teams: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7AiX60o98U
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Post by KB8 on May 12, 2022 4:48:31 GMT -5
I'll take all of the Yumi Ikeshita so sure, why the hell not!
Also I said in that write-up that Lucy Kayama feels familiar but I'm not sure I'd seen her in anything that early, and as it would turn out I wrote about a Kayama match in this very thread, from even earlier, against, you guessed it, Yumi Ikeshita. And wouldn't you know it but that match was incredible as well.
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Post by KB8 on May 12, 2022 18:05:10 GMT -5
Not technically KB8 watching *80s* joshi but this is my thread and so I will break my own rules. Fire me, I'm already fired!
Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 7/31/79) - So I guess the Black Pair are one of the greatest teams ever that nobody talks about as being a great team? At the very least they're one of the most savage. This was awesome - other than the ref' being on the take - and it was an amazing Black Pair performance. It's bonkers that this was happening in 1979 as the pace and general STUFF that they're doing is way different than basically everywhere else in the world (as Kad mentions). The first fall starts out mostly even, pretty back and forth, similar to lots of 80s New Japan tags with nobody really sustaining an advantage but everything being quick and hectic. They capture the sense of struggle, which is maybe the most important thing in a match like that or else it's four wrestlers just doing some shit with no drama. Then Ikeshita and Kumano zero in on Kayama's bandaged up leg and from there it's pretty much madness. The Black Pair are relentless going after this thing and Kayama sells it all amazingly. She's frantic trying to make it to the corner and tag out yet Ikeshita and Kumano constantly double up on her, and every time Aoyama comes in the ref' forces her back out, which gives the Black Pair even more rope to work with. There was one incredible spot where they unwrap some of the tape around Kayama's knee, wrap it around her throat instead, and because it's still partially attached to the knee it ends up being some torture device that chokes Kayama the more she extends her own leg. It was like that time in Lost where Locke tied up Boone in the jungle and whenever he tried to move it would tear at some joint. Kumano holds the leg up and Ikeshita does a middle rope headbutt to the knee, Ikeshita just boots Kayama right in the kneecap whenever she tries to stand up, Aoyama is going ballistic the whole time. The hot tag was pure desperation. It wasn't like a US hot tag where she created an opening, milked crawling to her corner and reached out just as one of the heels made a tag at the same time. This was Kayama repeatedly trying to jump or wriggle away from them and finally one lunge allowed her to slip Kumano's grasp. Kayama ends up tagging herself back in before long and I think Aoyama actually tries to stop her from throwing herself to the wolves again, which fucking ruled. And you see why she would try that because of course Kayama gets obliterated again in short order. You'd think she was legitimately dead as people cart her away in between falls. The second fall is more Black Pair mauling and Aoyama being as scrappy as possible trying to come back. Ikeshita has incredible headbutts and I'm sort of in awe at how she carries herself, but Kumano is no slouch in bastardry either, let me tell you. Aoyama's comeback rules as she does a fucking 1979 leaping top rope springboard that takes out both Ikeshita and Kumano, then tries to dive to the floor and Kumano fucking whomps her in the head with a chair! Twice! These AJW refs would earn the ire of every current NBA superstar because they let motherfucking eeeeverything go and after having a chair smashed off her skull (twice) this one is all but academic. These Black Pair matches are wild as fuck and I feel no less certain that I need to see every second of Yumi Ikeshita ever committed to tape.
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Post by KB8 on May 13, 2022 12:36:25 GMT -5
Okay so I'm turning this into an impromptu Complete & Accurate Yumi Ikeshita thread to go along with whatever else I'm watching. I'll edit it into the first post and update it accordingly.
Yumi Ikeshita & Mami Kumano v Tomi Aoyama & Jackie Sato (AJW, 8/79) – GREAT - I watched this a couple nights ago and I've forgotten a lot of it now, but Sato steps in for Kayama - presumably on the shelf from the July battering - and shockingly enough it was badass. Sato and Ikeshita are a great pairing as you'd expect and I'm hyped about checking out a singles match (they have at least one. I think). Sato stepping into Kayama's role naturally means the Black Pair try to rip her leg off. My favourite part of this was how they'd do the standard spot of dropping the elbow across the knee, except rather than doing it to the inside of the knee they would do it to the outside, which would rotate the knee internally at a super nasty angle. Infuriatingly the tape just cuts out in the second fall and I don't have a clue how much is missing, but it was on its way to EPIC territory with another five minutes.
Yumi Ikeshita, Tenjin Masami & Hiroko Komine v Jackie Sato, Tomi Aoyama & Lucy Kayama (AJW, 8/79) - EPIC - This was amazing as well and might actually be my favourite thing so far. If nothing else it might be the most complete match, at least in that it actually WAS a match from start to finish and nobody had to get carted out halfway through and Yumi Ikeshita never caused a near riot in the middle (not that that's a bad thing, of course). I feel sort of ridiculous looking a gift horse in the mouth like this, but there are times during these matches where you maybe almost kind of perhaps wish the babyfaces wouldn't be so utterly destroyed for extended periods. A little babyface shine here and there might be cool. That said, it's hard to complain too loudly when the heels causing the destruction are doing it with such aplomb. For most of the first fall this was a total, wonderful mauling. There's a stretch where the heels actively work over Lucy Kayama's FACE and it was fucking amazing. Tenjin may not have been going by Devil yet but the devil was certainly in her already. She has these big eye rakes that are almost claw-like and Kayama would sell them like she'd been attacked by a mongoose. Ikeshita would slam her face-first into the mat and drag her face along the canvas by the hair. Komine was raking her eyes and nose across the top rope. The three of them were kneeing and headbutting her in the chops and it was gloriously vicious. All three babyfaces took a turn getting smashed to bits in that first fall and all three stints ruled, but Kayama's was something else altogether. Whenever the babyfaces built up some momentum the heels would also try immediately to squash it, often as nastily as possible. Ikeshita wraps something around her fist at one point and regains control for her team by punching the babyfaces in the throat. Later on her and Masami tie this thing around Aoyama's neck, grab an end each and start pulling like they're trying to rip her fucking head off! Also how did joshi crowd brawling become so crummy? Because if more of the wrestlers were aping these lot it wouldn't have. Masami repeatedly slams Aoyama's head into the announce desk and the commentator gets caught in the crossfire after a flying microphone smacks him in the mouth, Ikeshita indiscriminately throws Jackie Sato into groups of spectators and Komine is using that chair to hit someone whether a pensioner is sitting on it or not. I should mention how awesome the offence looks here as well. Ikeshita has a phenomenal fallaway slam and a phenomenal bulldog. Masami is just steamrolling people with Vader-ish body blocks. Sato does these proto-slingblade things that look like they'd give you whiplash. The babyfaces all do this headbutt to the sternum after whipping their opponent off the ropes. Tomi Aoyama has a 9/10 on the Koko Ware Dropkick Scale and will hit four in rapid succession and also has a fucking 11/10 on the giant swing scale. Seriously, this is the quickest giant swing you've ever seen and then she'll pass them over to Jackie Sato who'll do the quickest airplane spin you've ever seen and what the fuck is this match doing in 1979??? Even the less crisp or impactful stuff works just because it's done with such snap, like Kayama's short-arm elbows. And while those runs of babyface control are few and far between, they absolutely make the most of them and it feels like they've scaled a mountain just by stringing five moves together. That's sure what it felt at the end, and Aoyama hitting the coolest splash ever made for an awesome finish. They pulled it out the bag with grit and skill. Man this was great stuff.
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Post by club on May 13, 2022 13:44:45 GMT -5
Been watching some Ikeshita this week based on this thread. She's phenomenal. Thanks for these, keep em coming!
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Post by KB8 on Sept 1, 2022 11:06:31 GMT -5
I guess since we've got 70s joshi in here then I'll throw some 90s joshi into the mix as well. Or at least 90s joshi that hasn't been nominated already (that I won't nominate myself).
Akira Hokuto v Suzuka Minami (AJW, 4/29/91) - Stylistically I feel like I should've enjoyed this more than I did. It's not that I actively DIDN'T enjoy it, I just wasn't really engaged and even when they were doing things I'd usually be into I was sort of drifting in and out. The early parts were built around grappling and it was some of the more rugged grappling you'll see from this period of AJW, or even joshi in general. They slowed the pace down and kept it grounded, rarely taking it back to the feet so they could run the ropes or trade dropkicks and snapmares. I didn't find it all that compelling, but if it had gone the more back-and-forth route then I'd have found it even less compelling so...there's some valuable information for you all to do with as you wish. Minami has a great tilt-a-whirl backbreaker if you would like some more valuable information. Eventually Minami goes after Hokuto's leg and they started to win me over, even if some of what she did looked a little goofy. The part where she laid Hokuto's leg out flat and climbed the turnbuckles to hit a splash on it was a neat enough idea, but the setup was weird so Hokuto had to lie there and watch it happen rather than just, like, move out the way. Then again pro wrestling is stupid as fuck so maybe it's a hollow complaint. I liked how Hokuto would slow things all the way down to a crawl just to sell the damage, at one point hobbling around on the floor as the ref' put the count on, not getting back in the ring until that split second before 20. When she fought back and mounted some proper offence she kept drawing attention to the leg, like when she'd hit some suplexes but wouldn't be able to hold the bridge attempts. The selling was just right; understated enough that you bought her thinking the next time she tried it she'd pull it off, not going overboard as if she'd been shot in the calf leaving you questioning the wisdom of returning to that well. Then again pro wrestling is stupid as fuck so maybe that would've been another hollow complaint. Really liked the finish, which strangely reminded me of the finish to Warrior/Savage from that year's Wrestlemania. Maybe it was the decisiveness of it, the way it was emphatic while still sort of catching me by surprise. Like Warrior hitting the repeated shoulder tackles, Hokuto hit three missile dropkicks and a cannonball senton, all from different corners of the ring. Like Savage after those tackles, Minami was pretty much done. Hokuto put the exclamation point on it with the head drop while Warrior never needed to, but even still there was a brief moment of "wait, they're not getting back up here, are they?" And they do not get back up. Maybe if Hokuto had pinned Minami with one foot on the chest and walked away with a sleeveless tie dye jacket that had both of their faces on it this would've also been eleven stars. But then if my granny had wheels she would've been a bike. Alas.
Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue v Eagle Sawai & Leo Kitamura (LLPW, 6/15/93) - The inter-promotional wrestling brings us the goods once again. This was mostly about the Aja/Eagle pairing for me. There was a wee bit of ill will there from the last tag they were on opposite sides of, so it meant we got plenty of meaty shots and parts where they'd just Vader-style run into each other. I couldn't tell you if I'd seen one Leo Kitamura match before this but she was a pretty great whipping girl on the night. She was kitted out like Kyoko with the face paint and tassels, and I'm not sure if she did that as a deliberate wind-up but she got her clock well cleaned for it. You could make a good case she was the star of this with her scrappiness and sympathy-garnering. Aja was thoroughly dismissive of her and at points it looked like she maybe even felt bad about walloping the poor girl. She'd take her down after Kitamura threw some feeble slaps, but then instead of pounding her head into the mat like she would against many others, she just tagged out and let Kyoko deal with it. Aja was also really fun taking whatever offence Kitamura could muster, the best being her quick springboard elbow out the corner where she went full bodyweight into Aja's chest, bounced off her like a crash test dummy, yet stunned her briefly enough so Kitamura could make the tag. An extended heat segment would've really pushed it over the top, but what we did get was the sort of thing you want and by the end Kitamura looked like she was struggling to even stay upright. I don't have much to say about Kyoko. I've largely avoided her going through this stuff unless she's opposite someone I really like and I came out of this thinking that if I was going to watch someone dressed in Kyoko Inoue garb I'd rather it was Leo Kitamura.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 3, 2022 14:25:31 GMT -5
Yumi Ikeshita v Rimi Yokota (AJW, 8/80) - GREAT - It's been entirely too long since I've watched any Yumi Ikeshita. How is something like this happening in 1980, btw? It starts hot with Yokota handspringing across the ring, Ikeshita blocking a strike flurry and hitting a quick hurricanrana like this is 2022 Dragon Gate and not nineteen-fucking-eighty. Ikeshita immediately going to the throat was great because nobody works as vicious as Yumi Ikeshita. This might be reactionary on my part but I'm telling you now, if she had a career half as long as someone like an Aja or Ozaki then we're proclaiming her the GOAT running away. I love how she jabs the throat with her thumb, really pulls Yokota's head back by the chin so she has easier access for squeezing the windpipe, drops the shin on the throat, just a bunch of awesome, nasty stuff. She even does the bit where she has the knee across the throat while arguing with the ref' and these early 80s AJW refs let everything go anyway so you sort of worry that Yokota might actually be choked to death. Yokota taking over with the wrist lock was great and those wrist lock takedowns looked sensational. Ikeshita kips up out of them every time before getting yanked back down, having the wrist twisted and bent at gross angles, it all ruled. I still need to deep dive Yokota and she was pretty great here as the scrappy technical babyface fighting the odds; those odds being long in the first place because of Yumi Ikeshita in general, but also because of Devil being a plague at ringside with constant interference. In the end this was a bit of a Yumi Ikeshita buffet, where we got a bit of everything from her. We got nasty underhanded Ikeshita with the choking and throat-punching, we got fully out in the open savage Ikeshita with headbutts to make the Fujiwaras weep, we got vicious grappler Ikeshita with these mean looking kneebars, then finally we got chains off psycho Ikeshita when she'd had enough of Yokota and took to stabbing her in the head with a fork. At one point a fan was vocally complaining so Ikeshita stood up on the ropes and threatened to stab him too! Yokota eventually snapping and stabbing both Ikeshita and the ref' with the fork was incredible and I figured that was our DQ ending, but no, the AJW referees are a lenient company so she lets it continue and the last couple minutes were frantic with them trying to score the win before time expires. On the one hand this was an awesome 15-minute draw but on the other hand it's wildly disappointing because I wanted these two to wrestle for like 45 minutes and I pretty much never want to watch a wrestling match go 45 minutes. So really, my fullest marks possible. In a just world this would've led to a cage match to circumvent the Devil interference. Or there would be at least one more singles match between them because shockingly enough they're great together.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 3, 2022 18:00:21 GMT -5
Yumi Ikeshita & Monster Ripper v Rimi Yokota & Ayumi Hori (AJW, 7/80) - GOOD - Crazy fun showcase for Ikeshita and Monster Ripper as the best big and little 1-2 bruiser combo we never got on a consistent basis. They were like Nappa and Vegeta, for those of you who also grew up watching Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network. Ikeshita was at the mauling straight out the gate, slamming Hori face-first into the mat and then dragging her around by the hair while grinding her face across the canvas. She would also slam Hori and Yokota down to the mat, her own leg outstretched, the toe of her boot being driven into the throat of whoever was unfortunate enough to be taking it. Which quite frankly is fucking incredible and I don't know if it's possible for me to think any more highly of her than I already do at this point. Ripper was using her GIRTH and just bumping her skinny opponents all over the place. She'd engage in a knuckle-lock with Hori and immediately yank her into a Vader-style body block and then later she was just obliterating them with THICKBOI hip attacks. Yokota and Hori had to bust their tail for absolutely everything and it made every bit of offence feel like a triumph, especially when they locked on stereo figure-fours and Ripper and Ikeshita sold genuine terror. Of course you cannot stop the inexorable advance of Yumi Ikeshita and Monster Ripper but especially Yumi Ikeshita as she immediately grabs a bucket and motherfucking whomps everyone, including the referee. When the bucket is removed Ikeshita and Ripper drag the babyfaces to the floor and chuck them around, then upon re-entry Ikeshita produces the oldest can of beer you've ever seen and smashes it over Hori's head and I don't know what else there is to say about that woman. Ripper takes an ungodly missed legdrop bump from the top rope and I love that Ikeshita came through in the clutch for her team not by clonking someone with a piece of metal or a tin of beans but rather by whipping out a perfectly executed inside cradle.
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Post by KB8 on Nov 4, 2022 10:44:14 GMT -5
Bull Nakano v Yukari Omori (AJW, 3/85) - Well this has a very different ABMIENCE than the stuff from 1980. I'm mostly going by elliot's big list of 80s joshi in his recommended matches thread (although this wasn't on there) and the '85-'87 period has the most matches by far, so I'm taking that as peak 80s joshi (or peak 80s AJW, for all intents and purposes). This kind of felt like 1985 Mid-South with the sustained crowd heat, while the earlier stuff had crowds that were a little more subdued. Sometimes you just FEEL like a promotion is going through a hot spell and that was the impression I got here. I'll need to get used to the liberal interference in these matches where Dump and/or her stablemates are involved. She would routinely get on the apron and stab Omori in the arm with a metal rod and the crowd would shriek in horror. At other points one of Dump's cronies would get in and start hitting moves on Omori in full view of the ref'. Luckily the refs in AJW were letting anything and everything go as far back as '78 so I'm well acclimatised to it by now. It might've been jarring otherwise. If nothing else I like how it gives everything a sense of chaos, though maybe I'll be less enamoured by it the more I see? I'd assume it's more of a Dump & Pals thing and not every match has that going on so I'll probably be fine. Omori was really good at garnering sympathy here and selling the arm. Bull doesn't really feel like Bull Nakano yet, which I guess isn't unexpected considering she only debuted a couple years prior. I did like her constantly trying to rip Omori's arm bandage off and at a couple points tried to use it to choke her.
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Post by KB8 on May 9, 2023 15:16:22 GMT -5
I'm turning this into a KB8 Watches Any Old Shit thread now. To hell with it. I will continue the Complete & Accurate Yumi Ikeshita, though.
We were talking on the discord about Pirata Morgan tonight so I watched some Pirata Morgan. I also watched some Pirata Morgan earlier in the week so how about that for a coincidence! I also went back and re-watched a Hart Foundation v British Bulldogs match for the first time in about 15 years the other night and I have two more that elliott recommended to me.
Hart Foundation v British Bulldogs (MSG, 9/23/85) - Gorilla notes at the outset that "this match literally REEKS of connotations." Certainly one of his better lines. He's talking about title shot connotations and really what he means is ramifications rather than connotations, as the winners here might get themselves a shot at Valentine and Beefcake in the near future. At least I assume that's what he's meaning. You can never really tell with Gorilla and that is why we love him dearly. I guess absence in wrestling makes the heart grow fonder because I thought this was pretty great and really didn't have any of the issues I usually think of with the Bulldogs. It had a nice early shine segment, a short Davey in peril segment followed by a longer spell with Dynamite in peril, and then in the last couple minutes I thought they were building towards a time limit draw before they came through with a clean finish. Not everything came off perfectly, but the majority of it did, structurally it landed great, and they nailed the big notes as well as the more minute things that really make a match pop. It was pretty fun seeing Dynamite and Bret have a top this contest at a few points, maybe something they started in Stampede and kept it running all the way down the road. First it was the spot where Dynamite grabs a seated Bret by the hair and yanks him into the air, which Bret paid him back for later. Then Dynamite took the sternum bump in the corner like a maniac, flipping backwards damn near into the middle of the ring, and later Bret took one of his own that was every bit as nasty. Bret is maybe still a bit vanilla at this stage, maybe isn't comfortable projecting his character yet, but he's definitely a great mechanic and solid in all of the ways you'd expect. He was also fun complaining about nothing hair pulls early on, really screaming at the referee to have a word with Dynamite. Dynamite is absolutely yoked to the moon and back, all intensity all the time. He even backs Bret into the ropes with enough force that he nearly flips Bret over them. His heat segment was excellent and I guess it's easy to forget how good Dynamite could be when he wasn't doing stupid shit or dominating 90% of matches against folks he probably shouldn't be dominating. He took a slam on the concrete that looked disgusting and eventually Davey couldn't take any more, ran in and chased Bret all the way around the ring twice, Jimmy Hart scrambling for safety with the megaphone waving like a white flag. Neidhart was mostly about the front facelocks and choking, but his timing was decent enough and he at least has fun bully charisma. With a less useless ref' some of the distraction spots might've been better, although to be fair it doesn't look like the Hart Foundation REALLY know how to maximise those moments with interesting stuff yet. A couple times they basically just did a blind tag, which is fine and all but there was a little more scope to be creative if they had it in the holster. The last couple minutes sort of meander and there was one ropey bit of selling where Bret just went back on offence after getting hit with a huge gorilla press slam (and this was post-hot tag, so Davey was the fresh man), but the finish itself was great. Very good start for what is a somewhat maligned pairing in 2023.
Pirata Morgan, Jerry Estrada & Emilio Charles Jr. v El Satanico, Super Astro & Solomon Grundy (CMLL, 3/9/90) - What a rudo show. All three brought a little of everything here, some comedy, some nastiness, some technical proficiency, charisma levels through the roof. This was really all about their assault on Solomon Grundy. At times they went about it in a goofy way, which led to amusing moments like Pirata and Emilio trying to slam him only to get squashed beneath the ampleness of Grundy's frame. At other times they were downright vicious though, like when all three cornered the big fella and put the boots to him. They were a group of bullies wailing on a fat kid in dungarees. Grundy is basically Jerry Blackwell if Blackwell ate Hillbilly Jim. When he can defend himself he's fine and his partners have his back, one of his partners being Satanico and there's no one you'd rather have at your back than Satanico (although Grundy accidentally squashes Satanico in the corner and I half expected him to turn on Grundy right there). Lots of amusing stuff built around Grundy's size and the rudos not wanting to go at him one on one, like when Pirata Morgan was in there with Super Astro, the latter then tagged Grundy and Morgan nope'd the fuck out of there immediately. This was also a tremendous Jerry Estrada performance. He was determined to look like a fool and all of his horse shit had the perfect timing. It can be hard to do comedy right in wrestling, but this worked as well as it did because Estrada was so good at making himself look effortlessly stupid. He'd add a bunch of great little touches to accentuate the main stuff happening at the time, walking across the apron obliviously as Grundy is running the ropes and getting bounced into the second row, trying to grab someone's foot from the floor only to miss and fall over. It's the sort of peripheral stuff that kept people engaged even in the quieter moments, without trying to make things all about him. There's a great bit where Emilio grabs Super Astro so Estrada can smack him, but before it Jerry turns around and shit-talks Satanico and walks right into a pump kick to the face. Later the rudos get triple squashed in the corner off a running splash and Estrada crumples in a heap claiming he was kicked in the nuts. His timing, positioning, stooging, reactions, just a ridiculously fun Jerry Estrada highlight reel.
Pirata Morgan, Jerry Estrada & Hombre Bala v Rayo De Jalisco Jr, Atlantis & Alfonso Dantes (EMLL, February 1987) - The original Bucaneros! I almost forgot about Jerry Estrada running around wearing an eye patch. This was another amazing rudo show, especially in the tercera. They mugged the tecnicos in the primera and Morgan was directing the whole thing, a lunatic Tarantino with a fetish for blading his own eye socket rather than putting other people's feet in his mouth. In the second caida we got a taste of how ridiculous the rudos were going to be in the tercera - some comedy, some clowning, the tecnico comeback with Rayo running circles around everyone. Alfonso Dantes looks old even by lucha standards here but still has amazing whip on his arm wringer takedowns, and of course Atlantis hitting his running moonsault out the corner looks amazing by any standard. And then there's the tercera, which was basically one extended reel of rudo horse shit and miscommunication spots. Sequences where one, two, sometimes all three of them are made to look foolish, some where they end up running face-first into each other, some where one will dropkick the other into the third man who will be then accidentally be speared by the first. There was one sequence that ended with Estrada taking a Fuerza bump to the floor and dropkicking both of his partners in the face, and I wish I could do the whole thing justice but it would be impossible with mere words. There's an unfortunate jump in the tape, or maybe a commercial break, but we miss what seemed to be the start of Los Bucaneros making their comeback. When they do they hit stereo running dropkicks to a kneeling Atlantis, and right at the very second the move connects two people in the crowd fire off a fucking cap gun! Amazing! Pirata Morgan for the top 30. Jerry Estrada for the top 3.
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