Devil Masami v Lioness Asuka (AJW, 3/15/85)
This was really good stuff and possibly the best I've seen Lioness Asuka look in a singles match. Or at least the closest she's come to nailing what I personally enjoy from her. They cut a hell of a pace, but it never felt rushed, it built well, had a great sense of escalation and even at 15 minutes I thought everything had just the right time to settle. At this point Devil is pretty easily my favourite 80s joshi wrestler and part of that is how she injects so much aggression and intensity into everything she does. I guess by now the talking point about her having some of the best facial expressions ever is a tired one, but it's true and the way she puts across specific things and communicates specific emotions is really cool. She got hit with one quick backdrop here, pretty out of the blue from Lioness who'd been on the defensive before, and Devil's expression upon impact told us she was not expecting to get hit by that and also that it very clearly hurt like a bastard. The early grappling portion had a real grittiness to it and they established early that Lioness wanted to hit the giant swing. She was determined to hit that thing. They also established that Devil had no interest in being swung in any fashion and would immediately hook Asuka's leg or fight like crazy to break free. When it became clear Lioness wasn't for swinging her she'd try and turn it into a crab or sasori-gatame and Devil would fight that with just as much urgency. As it progressed you could tell that Lioness was able to make inroads with her striking and I loved that sometimes Masami would just grab her by the throat and wrestle her to the mat in response. If it works it works, right? By the end Lioness' strategy was all about those kicks to set up the giant swing while Devil's was to compress Lioness' spine with piledriver variations. Some of Devil's selling for those roundhouse kicks really was sublime. I should watch Devil/Chigusa for the first time in about 15 years again soon.
Devil Masami v Noriyo Tateno (AJW, 4/25/85)
Really fun big dog on campus performance from Devil. She mostly bullied Tateno for the full 11 minutes here but she did it with a bunch of great looking stuff and worked super aggressively again. She was just ragdolling Tateno early, ripping her into holds and squeezing the life out of her with a bodyscissors, whipping her head around into nasty neck cranks, doing everything with a scowl. Tateno didn't get a lot and her openings were fleeting but she was SPUNKY when she needed to be. At points Devil would drag her out to the floor and throw her or slam her across tables. One of Tateno's squad either tried to interject eventually or she just stood close enough to the action that Devil could grab her, but either way grab her she did and the girl got whipped clean into Tateno. That same girl later had the audacity to jump into the ring and she and Tateno went about double-teaming Devil. Or they tried to. Devil took them both outside and chucked them into rows of seats and slammed them both across a table. In the end Tateno and her wee buddy managed to keep Devil out the ring long enough for the ref' to count them both out, which Devil was naturally incensed about but Tateno treated it as a victory of sorts. There was a cool dichotomy post-match between Devil and Dump and her gang of louts, as Devil accepted Tateno's handshake and acknowledged her as a worthy challenger, even raising her hand in a nice show of respect. She might've been all over Tateno from the start but it was just business. If that had been Dump and Tateno tried to shake her hand at the end Dump would've stabbed her with a pencil. Once upon a time Devil might've as well, but she was above such things at this stage of the game.
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