Man, I know semi-obscure joshi isn't my bread and butter but how the fuck is this my first time seeing Itsuko Yamazaki? Why aren't more people talking about her? She was excellent in this. Kansai was evidently a wrecking ball even in her formative years so Yamazaki has to use her wrestling ability to counteract it. She catches a big Kansai kick on the floor, whips that leg into the ring post and from then on that's her get-out. At times this felt like a distaff Fujinami v Hashimoto, with Kansai in the Hashimoto role of throwing hellish kicks and being able to swing momentum by connecting with even one of them. Yamazaki goes to the octopus stretch, reverses a suplex into a super slick cradle, catches those kicks right at the last instant before she gets mashed, just a really fun defensive performance. She was always looking to turn that defence into offence as well though, like when Kansai rolled to the floor for a bit of recovery and Yamazaki spat a mouthful of water at her, telling her to get back in there with a wag of the finger. Kansai mostly sold the leg work fine. She didn't hobble around like Randy Savage with a bum knee, but it never felt like she completely blew it off so I can deal with it. She also made those kicks look like things actually worth fearing; made them look like Yamazaki needed to keep forcing the issue in case just one big roundhouse slipped through. That is to say she thumped the hell out of Yamazaki when she was given enough daylight to. I will now endeavour to check out more Itsuko Yamazaki.
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