Devil Masami v Chigusa Nagayo (AJW, 8/22/85)
A hell of a wrestling match. If you've been unfortunate enough to have read more than a few posts on this here blog then it probably won't be a shock when I tell you that I sort of balk at the thought of sitting down for a 40-minute wrestling match. The biggest compliment I can pay this is that it did not feel like 40 minutes and by the end I easily could've taken another 10. I don't even remember what I thought about it whenever I last watched it but this time I came away thinking it was as good as it gets for a match that's pretty much back and forth the whole way. If you're going to work primarily back and forth then you really need to capture a sense of struggle and everything - really, it was EVERYthing - here felt like a struggle. The early grappling was a bit UWF 1.0, or like a sped up version of a match between those UWF guys in a New Japan ring. Momentum bounced around often but any time one of them took that momentum it felt earned. Part of that is in how they sold everything, the toll of it all and the fight over every move. The other part is how Chigusa's strikes were so well established by now that everyone bought them swinging the tide. She could hit them from anywhere too and Devil sold all of them like shotgun blasts. Honestly, I don't love 80s Chigusa. I actually prefer old 90s beefy den mother to her GAEA students Chigusa, but there are things she does in her prime that I'd say are pretty undeniable as far as greatness goes. Bits of selling here, a transition there, the way she'll reel off a suplex at the perfect moment. It obviously doesn't hurt that her crowd connection is quite frankly stupid as fuck and maybe unlike any in history. This struck me as the complete babyface Chigusa performance though; maybe the complete babyface performance, period. She was assured and tried to work on the front foot the whole way, but she never let you forget that she was in there with Devil Masami, who might just be a peak too high to climb on the right night. And really, as good as Chigusa was I thought Devil was even better. She may not live on the same side of the tracks as your Dump Matsumotos of the world anymore, but she doesn't quite live on the same side as Chigusa. Even if she doesn't lead the life she once did, she hasn't forgotten it entirely, or IT hasn't forgotten HER. While she wasn't outright cheating at any point in this she was hyper aggressive and a few times it crept right up to the line of taking liberties. When she planted Chigusa with a ganso bomb - a ridiculous thing for 1985 - it looked like she might finally go on an extended run of offence. The crowd, which in reality was Chigusa's crowd, sensed it too and immediately rallied behind Chigusa. Devil's response was pretty subtle but you could tell something of her old ways kicked in, because she initially went to press the advantage with a DDT before pausing, taking in the crowd's reaction, and instead punching Chigusa in the kidneys. It backfired because pretty quickly Chigusa caught her flush with a wheel kick and Devil's advantage was gone. Later on Devil managed to put Chigusa in a figure-4, and as Chigusa forced the rope break Devil dragged her outside and gave her a shinbreaker on the announce table. It never led to a sustained run of offence necessarily, she never worked over the leg specifically, but it was another example of her embracing frustration in a way Chigusa never would have. Then maybe my favourite part of the match. They both end up on the floor and after they're separated Chigusa gets back in the ring to continue having a wrestling match. Devil instead grabs her trusty kendo stick and stares a hole in Chigusa from the floor. A few years ago she wouldn't have thought twice about walloping Chigusa with it but this time she thought twice, thrice, then got up on the apron with it and even took one step in the ring. If you've read one word about Devil Masami's facial expressions then you've read a thousand but you could see every emotion plain as day here and the struggle for her not to submit to her baser instincts was amazing. She dropped the thing and gave Chigusa the respect of continuing a fair contest and she might even have won over a few of those Chigusa diehards in the process. That they were so exhausted and drained by the end that they both decided to go full Necro Butcher and punch each other in the face is the substantial cherry on top. Once again, a hell of a wrestling match.
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