80s Joshi on Wednesday: Chigusa! Lioness! Jaguar! Noriyo!

Volume 5 

5. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno 8/21/83

K: This is a very historic due to it being the first time Chigusa & Lioness tagged together as 'Crush Gals'. They're also in the main event of a bigger-than-average show despite being lower-midcarders until this point. Putting this 'debut' in this spot feels like a big elevation already.

We start with Chigusa going for some strikes but keeps getting outdone by Jaguar. Chigusa's strikes aren't good, they certainly don't look very convincing and it looks like she's being too careful not to actually hurt Jaguar. It feels like she's really trying to showcase her style and bring the karate inspired stuff to the forefront but it still needs a lot of work. When Lioness is in they switch a bit to really upping the pace, which although that's hardly new in AJW, it's still a lot faster than most of what we've seen and feels like part of the package in introducing the Crush Gals.

Another distinct thing here is the amount of shouting from the wrestlers. Especially Chigusa but it's not just her, Noriyo for example really gets into it when she locks in a bodyscissors and repeatedly lifts Chigusa up and plants her on the mat. There's a good moment right after this when Lioness is in the ring and again is loudly working over Noriyo, who escapes and quickly scrambles over to the corner but Lioness is able to grab hold of her and pull her back just in time. I think the links up well with the finish for that fall when Jaguar is in looking pretty dominant, she tags Noriyo in, who makes the mistake of Irish Whipping Chigusa into the apron just as Jaguar was standing there not paying attention and gets knocked off to the floor. Chigusa takes advantage and takes out Noriyo.

Actually, Jaguar should take the blame for dropping that fall. She wasn't paying attention! 

Also it's so hot in that venue that when the wrestlers are on the apron their seconds get up with a towel and wipe sweat off their backs.

They keep up a tremendous pace in the 3rd fall. Lots of little momentum swings and quick tags that feel very rhythmic. If there's a flaw it's that it ends a bit too early when it felt like they could have peaked a bit higher than this, though maybe it wouldn't have worked out like that in reality. The finish was very good though. Lioness hits a very fast giant swing, suplex from Chigusa and then Lioness hits a flying lariat off the top rope. Not a finisher I'd associate with her but it looked effective. Very good match and a great statement.

***3/4



MD: There is a match a couple of weeks before this with Chigusa and Asuka vs Devil and Yamazaki and in the commentary I do think they call Chigusa and Asuka the Crush Gals. That ended in a double countout but it definitely felt like the Crush Gals were being elevated in the draw. This has them come out in matching gear, color coded, with their names on the tights, however. I kind of like the parallels with Devil teaming with Yamazaki and Jaguar teaming with Tateno. 

Chigusa doesn’t feel there yet to me. The most memorable thing about her, past some of the gutsiness is the kung fu/karate stuff and it’s very funny here as she starts against Jaguar and Jaguar isn’t going to just let that stand so she starts firing back with her own shots. This is very intense overall (and you do get the sense that in the midst of August it was very hot in there) with lots of screaming, more so than I’ve noticed recently. I don’t know if that has to do with how hard they are throwing themselves at one another or just the people involved. A lot of the story early is that Jaguar can take out either of them but either of them can more than hold their own against Tateno and if they work together, they can get the better of Jaguar too. The first fall ends as Jaguar makes it in and hits a suplex followed by a recoiling cradle on Asuka (I do like how those two match up especially).

Yokota/Tateno have a slight advantage in the second fall until Tateno accidentally crashes into Yokota (conveniently looking off into space) on the apron. Then the third fall starts with Chigusa dropping Tateno on her skull out of a gutwrench. With Tateno and Chigusa especially there is a sense of scrappy competitiveness. Tateno will go for a small package and Chigusa will just drop on her for a pin, that sort of thing. For the second or third time in the match, Jaguar comes in hot, hitting a ton of big offense including a float over body press and then a figure-four on Asuka which they milk for a while until Chigusa can make it in. Even so, they cycle through quickly so Jaguar destroys Asuka one more time, but then Asuka is able to come back with a kick and gets the giant swing on Tateno. The Crush Gals do some quick switches after that, with Chigusa hitting a bridging front chancery suplex and Asuka right in with a top rope neckbreaker drop. It all happens so quickly that Yokota can’t react and they beat Tateno. Maybe because there weren’t any of the Devil Army there to make things go off the rails, this held together, even if it was quite back and forth. Regardless it was another escalation and the Crush Gals seem to have arrived almost out of nowhere.