Devil Masami

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Timbo Slice]

I was never really a fan of Devil, but I have some matches on a playlist that I'll get to soon that might change my mind. Think on the joshi side there's just too much ahead of her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was on a few lists, though.

[Loss]

I'm sure OJ will correct me if I'm out to lunch on this one, but I see Devil Masami as Joshi's first veteran worker. She ended up in JWP in the late 80s when she was too old to work AJW and built a second career for herself that was different but in some ways more impressive than the first. We were talking about innovation before - Devil Masami would be like a model still on the catwalk in her thirties, but I don't know if that counts for something or not. She's impressed me in nearly every match she's been in, even the bad ones, and anyone who enjoys the silent film facial expressions of someone like Killer Khan will probably really love Masami. As a young worker, she, Jaguar Yokota and the Crush Girls were probably the four pillars of workrate and as she got older, she became great in a different way. She'll probably be between 50-60 on my list.

[El-P]

I used to love Devil so much. Except when she was doing that Super Heel shitty Taker like gimmick. But yeah, great worker. And like you said, probably the first veteran worker. The greatest smile in joshi puroresu too (could be a genuine gentle smile or a totally evil one).

[ohtani's jacket]

Jackie Sato and Nancy Kumi came out of retirement to start the original JWP, so I suppose they'd be the first veteran workers. We don't have much of that era on tape, though. Devil was the first to transition almost directly from her AJW retirement to working as a vet and then the Jumping Bomb Angels followed suit.

[jushin muta liger]

I'm watched a bunch of Zenjo matches from the 80's and she stuck out to me the most because she came across as the best all around heel in terms of being in the ring and playing a character. Dump is the best character heel but didn't bring the goods like Devil did. I've seen OJ say that her best stuff is in the 90's but I haven't seen her JWP stuff yet.

[Dylan Waco]

In a way I don't know what to say about Devil because to me she is the most transparently great worker in Joshi history. I am guessing this is probably a weird claim to many because she doesn't seem to get talked about the way the other great 80s Joshi workers were. She doesn't have the aura of violence and gimmick of Dump. She's not a walking wrestling archetype like Chigusa Nagayo. She's not the innovator and trendsetter that Jaguar Yokota was. But to me is hands down the most complete package of any of the ladies from that era.

 

To me what stands out the most about her in the 80s is that she could work the expected Joshi pace, and all the other conventions of the style, but still kept one foot in the world of traditional wrestling. To some Joshi purists this might be seen as a detriment, but to me this is a huge plus because it means she can temper the excesses of her opponents without completely altering what makes Joshi distinct. No, you can't force Nagayo to sell a limb, or Jaguar to slow down (and maybe you shouldn't), but you can control the pace enough where things have time to sink in and the impact of what is there feels more significant. Devil was the master of this, and as a result her matches v. Sato, Jaguar and Chigusa are some of my favorite Joshi matches of the decade. Her match with Kandori from 88 probably is my favorite Joshi match of the whole decade.

 

As an older vet in the 90's I thought she was outstanding. I'm not going to sit here and try and argue that she had great match, after great match, but I thought her performances were universally strong with every outing. She has hands down the best facial expressions of any Joshi worker in history, and while people rave about the acting of Ozaki I don't think she holds a candle to Masami in terms of communicating the context and significance of a spot or a moment with body language. This seemed to be an especially important tool as she got older and her asskicker vibe was amped up. A lot of people point to the Nakano match in 93 as the best Masami of the 90s. I can't argue against the two tough gals throwing down, but I liked the Nagayo match a lot, and the Kyoko Inoue match is way better than I was expecting it to be going in.

 

Where other tough ladies from that period were presented as a more overtly violent in look, Devil just conveyed a sense of violence at all times in her actions. I have no clue how tall she was, but to me she always feels like a monster because of her actions and the way she carried herself. She would steamroll someone with a big shot or a press slam them like they are nothing, and grin in their face afterward. She was just a gleefully vicious performer, almost Regalesque at times in her approach.

 

It's a broken record from me by this point but Devil was also a really good tag team wrestler in both the 80s and the 90s. I enjoyed the way she worked opposite the heroines in her younger years, but grumpy vet Masami was an especially fun tag worker. She seemed to revel in picking her spots, delivering a particularly nasty cut off, and working something akin to traditional heat sections which of course I love. I'm not sure she is the absolute best Joshi tag worker ever, but in a style filled with good ones she does stand out.

 

To her credit she was a very consistent performer, who played different roles over the years but didn't sacrifice quality to do so. I have seen a good match of her as early as 1980 and as late as 1994 which also puts her in the upper echelon in terms of duration of quality within the Joshi ranks. Her biggest negative is probably that she doesn't have a litany of super great matches, but I'm not entirely sure I could name five Joshi wrestlers who I think do, and all of the ones who I'd have above her in that regard will make my ballot. Beyond that I'm not even sure what the knock on her would be unless you think she lacked enough flash for the style but if I'm being honest I'd dismiss that criticism as absurd.

 

With Masami I don't think immersion in the style is critical to appreciating her and understanding why she is great. And for that reason alone I will rate her.

[KB8]

I've watched a few Masami matches recently and would probably agree with you that she has some of the best facial expressions in joshi (I can't really commit to that fully since you've probably watched - literally - at least a hundred more joshi matches than me in the last few weeks, but still, it's an impression I got without COMPLETELY going down the joshi rabbit hole again).

 

Are you planning on talking about Ozaki at some point? I'm really interested in seeing where you fall on her.

[ohtani's jacket]

Devil had good matches through to '97. You could make a reasonable case that she was a good worker from '77-97. It's also worth nothing that of all the workers who defied the retirement age she was the best as a vet.

 

She had a really expressive face but nowhere near the range of Ozaki. She was good at being Devil whereas Ozaki played a wider spectrum of roles.

 

Is anybody docking her s point for her Super Heel stuff? Has anybody revisited it and found it interesting?

[Loss]

I thought Super Heel was pretty bad, but it also seemed like a relatively insignificant part of her career, so it didn't really factor into my ranking of her.

[Jetlag]

Call me a philistine, but I haven't been postively swayed by 90s Devil. I've yet to notice the veteran touches that people keep mentioning. I also find her awkward (may have to do with her horrid wrestling gear) and her facial expressions more Edge than Regal. I think she just didn't quite click into the 90s environment. A shame because 80s Devil is a killer and the match with Chiggy is an epic performance from her. Their 93 match... not so much, in fact I thought it was pretty bad. Then again I'm not a fan of Chigusa either.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

I'm glad Dylan has spoken up about Devil, as I thoroughly enjoyed taking a look at her, and at points thought she may end up as my highest rated female. Wasn't sure what the consensus was about her, so glad to see that others are fans of hers.

[elliott]

Maybe the under the radar top 10 all time Joshi contender just based on no comments so far. When I think of Devil, I think of one of the great faces in wrestling history. She was so expressive. Doesnt take a backseat to Jaguar or Chigusa or any other wrestler in my mind. The 93 match against Bull Nakano is one of the great performances (from both women) of the decade. 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Devil had a solid twenty years or so as a good worker. She had good matches at each phase of her career and was excellent at the roles she played. I think my favorite era is when she jumped to JWP and became a matriarch of sorts. On regular JWP shows, she'd bully, stretch, and terrorize the girls, but when they competed against AJW there was no way she wanted her girls to lose to her old team. I also quite like her early heel run where she bullies Hagiwara all the time. 

[Childs]

She made my list the last time and I can't see her falling off. She's a worker I've always latched onto easily, even when I don't love the match or the promotion around her. I think that speaks to a lot of the qualities others listed above. I always feel like I know who Masami is supposed to be in a given match. She also has some classics to her name, though I'm not the most qualified to list them. 

[elliott]

If I had to recommend 3 matches I'd say:

vs Chigusa 8/22/85

vs Shinobu Kandori 7/14/88

vs Bull Nakano 4/18/93

I think they're all MOTDC

[Jetlag]

The Kandori match was a disappointment, but Devil had a pretty decent run in JWP before the split:

Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Miss A & Harley Saito (8/12/1990)

Rumi Kazama & Shinobu Kandori vs. Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 9/30/90)

Devil Masami & Rumi Kazama vs. Miss A & Itsuki Yamazaki (JWP 4/26/1991) 

Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Cuty Suzuki (JWP 5/25/1991)

Harley Saito & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Madusa (JWP 12/7/1991)

 

On the other hand, I was underwhelmed with most all of her singles match during that period. I've come around a bit on her  post-prime work, since she is pretty effective in short matches as a bomb throwing monster. That said, people should watch all her stuff, and not just the hyped stuff, to assess her fairly.

[elliott]

Devil's vertical suplex into a gorilla press is cool as fuck. Did she take that from anyone or come up with it herself? Has anyone since tried to use it?

[Tetsujin]

The more I watch of Devil Masami, the more I think she's a top 25 contender. She has a very unique aura, like she's the queen of the joshi jungle, and as everybody says: her facial expressions are top tier. She could sell the importance of everything she wanted: holds, bumps, nearfalls... A very creative offensive worker as well. And it seems she's incredible consistent throughout more or less 20 years, so yeah. She's one of the best joshi wrestlers ever and right now I can only think about Aja, Hokuto, Satomura and maybe Kandori and Ozaki being ahead of her on my 2026 list.

As far as her Taker gimmick, I've only watched the Ozaki 93 match and that was fucking amazing so idk. Does she have more recommended matches working that gimmick?

[Kadaveri]

11 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

As far as her Taker gimmick, I've only watched the Ozaki 93 match and that was fucking amazing so idk. Does she have more than recommended matches working that gimmick?

My favourite match with that gimmick is Devil/Ozaki vs. Chigusa/Dynamite GAEA 4/15/95. I don't think there was anything wrong with the Super Heel gimmick for the first couple of years she used it. It's just that afterwards she started going overboard with the goofy aspects and that's mainly what's been remembered for some reason.

[mmcoor]

I Haven't even gotten to her most highly regarded matches and i think she may be one of the top 20 ever