[1980-02-21-AJW] Yumi Ikeshita vs Lucy Kayama

[Jetlag]

This is for the vacated All Pacific title match and a hell of a fight. Wait, it's Yumi Ikeshita - surely there's gonna be a ton of cheating? Well, believe it or not, but Ikeshita actually left her foreign object aside for a few minutes and went at it with Lucy on the mat. And bah gawd Yumi Ikeshita was quite the skilled grappler! She had some swank arm locks and takedowns including a really rocking flying armscissor and was just as good at dominating on the ground as she as at dominating with cheating. Eventually Lucy gets the better of her leg and Yumi actually resorts to foreign object shenanigans while hobbling one one foot and making a comeback. They go back to the wrestling though and work some pretty spectacular spots including both of them crashing and burning on dives (Lucy Kayama surely was not afraid to die) and lots of nearfalls. If this had blood and maybe a bit more ideas from Lucy this would be a slam dunk MOTYC. Still you completists will want to note it down because it's Yumi Ikeshita grappling baby!

[SAMS]

1980-02-21
AJW
Lucy Kayama vs. Yumi Ikeshita
All Pacific Title Match
★

I believe this was originally supposed to be Aoyama vs Ikeshita, however Kayama was a last minute replacement for Aoyama due to injury. Things started pretty aimlessly until Ikeshita started targeting Kayama’s arm. We transitioned at the midway point to a hide-the-foreign-object routine which led to them brawling on the floor. Eventually the match was put to bed with Ikeshita nailing Kayama with a piledriver for the pin. In some classic camera work, we cut to pictures of commentary and ringside while the pinfall was occurring so we missed it entirely. Also the graphic on screen labelled the winning move as a “Filedriver”, which I presume had to be unintentional. (edit: I've seen this multiple times now so clearly that actually was its Japanese name. Has provided me with lots of unexpected giggles over the last few months).
I wouldn’t be so low on this match if it didn’t last 25 minutes. At 10 or maybe 15 it would have been passable, but at nearly half an hour it definitely overstayed its welcome. I’m also having a real disconnect with Kayama. Nothing she has done has interested me and I can’t quite point to any unique quality that she has. Ikeshita was also disappointing as I thought a lot of what made her good in a tag setting was lacking here.