[2003-08-10-JD Star] Dump Matsumoto vs Ranmaru

[Ma Stump Puller]

Clipped to 6 minutes. This was during Dump's 2003 comeback after taking 10+ years off. What's amazing is that she wasn't even that old here; she was 20 when she started wrestling and 28 when she first retired, so she was only 43 here. That's honestly not even all that aged by even those standards, let alone today where we have guys in their late 40's and above still ticking away just fine, but I guess that's a whole different set of standards there. She had openly stated that she came back mostly because the Joshi Puro scene was in the fucking toilet around this time and wanted to give it a much-needed boost. Despite the well meaning intervention the rot would sadly continue throughout the 2000's.

Ranmaru is a fairly nothing worker who is mostly known ("known" in big quotations) for being a goofy comedy worker in later years, but here she was generally working fairly serious and taking big bumps. Despite having 15+ years off wrestling Dump has very little rust here and honestly looked pretty damn great in places, stiffing the shit out of Ran with open-hand slaps and giving her Tenryu boot punts to the head. She generally refuses to give her opponent little to anything here with tons of no selling bar taking a flat back bump for one kick and a very quick pin attempt. She otherwise just batters the fuck out of Ranmaru even more with a disgustingly stiff lariat and smashing a chair to pieces over her opponent's head in gruesome fashion. Dump goofs off a little by talking trash on the same mic she was hitting Ran with while intentionally relenting on multiple pinfalls after a Samoan Driver and pretty huge German suplex before finishing off with a standing lariat for the one-foot pin.

This was a pretty fun squash with Dump looking energised and eager to prove that she could still do her signature rampaging antics and frankly I very much became a believer after this match, she beats the shit out of poor Ran with mostly just raw ring work with a couple of weapon spots thrown here and there. It was wild seeing her do actual moves and those looking actually solid both doing them and moving around in general. This naturally doesn't hit the highs of her 80s run but if you wanted evidence that she could definitely go after her first retirement then this is excellent proof of that in action.