80s Joshi on Wednesday: Matsumoto! Yu! Chigusa! Lioness! (But not the Crush Gals!)

Volume 4  

9. Saipan Training

K: I liked the little bit in this where Devil is making her minions all run up the hill and Matsumoto is way slower than the rest and she gets a little whack on the backside for it. Villain origin story in the making there. 

MD: This was a fun contrast between Jaguar just practicing holds and the Devil Legion running through the woods and doing crash push ups on tree branches. They made a special point that the Legion was trying to uncover the secret of Jaguar’s speed and that Yu and Tarantula still wore their masks despite the heat. 

10. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Kaoru Matsumoto & Masked Yu 4/11/83

K: I think it’d be nice for someone to watch this set with zero knowledge of where things are going, and I know for some people that’s close to being true. But someone watching this without knowing that the team of “Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka” are the Crush Gals is probably pushing it. But for historical accuracy’s sake, these are not the Crush Gals. They wouldn’t get that name and become a regular team until later in the year. This is just another  inconsequential two random babyfaces vs. two random heels tag amongst many that happened on AJW TV most weeks to fill time. But yes of course this becomes interesting with the benefit of hindsight quite quickly, especially when in less than two years these exact teams will be having some of the most heated matches in wrestling history (which I doubt anyone would have thought possible at this point). 

So with that in mind, this is also a peak into the low-card. Matsumoto & Yu ambush the babyfaces to start but with a twist, they grab them by the ankles from the floor and pull them outside. You don’t see them coming from the camera angle, so it’s an elevated bit of chaos compared to the usual ambush when both teams are in the ring.

Chigusa is very worked up. She’s shouting and pointing at the heels, making herself, her emotions and feisty attitude the centre of attention. When she gets in the ring she quickly succumbs to Kaoru’s repeated lariats, which she hits with a very smug demeanour. I think this was the most noteworthy part of the match without looking ahead. After this, the strange thing is how little this looks like their future matches. You even see what looks like a classic spot, like the Irish Whip into a double strike, but instead of doing the signature Crush Gals pose & punch we just got a (missed) double dropkick. It feels like these two becoming a tag team was an idea, but they have absolutely nothing else figured out other than a little fun match.

**

MD: Got to think this was included because it’s the earliest Crush Gals footage we have as a team. It’s sub-ten minutes and while it has its moments, I’m not sure there’s all that much to it. Chigusa and Asuka come out without any sort of unifying theme but they do come out together. Then they get yanked out of the ring by surprise as Matsumoto and Yu had been lying in wait. It was a great visual actually. 

They’re all coming along really. Matsumoto has these nice thudding clotheslines. Chigusa sells as viscerally as you’d expect. Asuka is a dynamo on the initial hope spot/teased comeback and Chigusa has all of the added intensity from earlier this year with her karate shots. Finishing stretch was good with Yu and Matsumoto hitting a fun double belly crush until they crashed into into each other. Asuka and Chigusa hit this great belly to back/top rope back elbow combo but got jammed on a double dropkick as Matsumoto held Yu on the ropes. Then the Legion pretty much won clean on a canadian backbreaker by Yu while Matsumoto cut off Asuka. Post match, Asuka and Chigusa were upset and thrashed the ref but best I can tell, they didn’t really have a case. Not an auspicious start for the Crush Gals (which is fair as it wasn't a start at all) but there was something there, I think.

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