80s Joshi on Wednesday: Jumbo! Yukari! Chigusa! Lioness!

Volume 5   

8. 1984 New Year's Marathon

K: This is a cut from a much longer segment of AJW doing various activities for New Year. Here it feels like a spiritual sequel to the first segment of the set, in that it’s mostly wrestlers running :) I also think it fits the overall vibe of 80s AJW in feeling like wholesome fun for the most part, then there’s an ominous bit of foreboding at the end…

Oh and a bit of trivial, there’s a wrestler in the race almost no one will recognise called Masami Yagishita. She retired very soon after this, and later resurfaced as a referee in JWP. She’s still on the scene now as referee Tommy.

Addendum

Bonus: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori (WWWA Tag Team Titles) 1/4/84

K: This is the biggest of the bonus matches. The one which I had the toughest time deciding whether to include it or not, and still think I may have got it wrong. The reasons for inclusion are very strong. It's the first Crush Gals title shot we have footage of (they had another title shot against the Dynamite Girls of 8/27/83, but we don't have that one), it's a very good match, some think great. It also apparently did a great TV rating, and is part of the story of how they ended up becoming such a strongly pushed act.

Reasons against? Firstly, it's really long. I'd have to cut out two others matches to include it (I was giving myself time limits to not push people's patience), and I couldn't pick two matches from this Volume to remove without thinking nah, it's not worth the price. Secondly, we only have a little over half the match, so it's hard to assess it. I wouldn't give it a rating for instance. Thirdly, we're going to have another Crush Gals vs. Dynamite Girls match soon, so it's not like we're missing this match-up entirely.

The bonus matches volume was basically made so I could include this somewhere. So let's go. I'm going to start by absolutely BURYING Yukari Omori's terrible outfit for her entrance. Why is she dressed in a zebra-fur giant sports bra thing. Who on Earth thinks that's a good look? 

The crowd are loud and seem to be cheering for both teams, but Crush Gals clearly have more support. We get a pretty heated bit of argy-bargy before the introductions. Crush Gals did something similar with Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki back in November before their match, so it's a bit illuminating to see that they did this for a babyface vs. babyface match too. Dynamite Girls don't come across as heelish here, both teams are being equally aggressive.

I don't remember ever seeing a match start like this. Crush Gals get jumped, and immediately get put into... double sharpshooters? It's the kind of spot you'd expect to see in the middle of a match where the babyfaces embarrass the heels for a bit. But in this context, it seemed to convey that Crush Gals are the less experienced team and need to level up quick if they aren't gonna get steamrolled by the (relatively) veteran pair.

Next segment of interest. Chigusa gets isolated by the Dynamite Girls and they focus their attacks on her right arm. Chigusa is really expressive in her selling and trying to struggle out of things, even if she can't get much offense. They milk this a bit, could have milked it a bit more imo (especially since they're going long) as this was good stuff. It gets wrapped up quickly though when Chigusa rolls to the outside to get her shoulder bandaged, then gets back in the ring, does a quick comeback with an enzuigiri, gets the hot tag to Asuka and before you know it Asuka's got the pin to take the 1st fall looking as strong as Goldberg.

Good set up, abrupt payoff. I don't think having Asuka look so strong like that served the narrative well. It would have worked better if her getting that pin was more flukey. Coz that's how the Dynamite Girls react. They're mad and really throw themselves at it and things feels more like a brawl in the 2nd fall. They make some mistakes too. Jumbo allows herself to get put in the sharpshooter by Chigusa, but Omori isn't having it, walks over and just breaks it up without regard for the rules and then hits Chigusa with a big top rope dive to the outside for good measure. Even worse is a bit later though, when she hits Chigusa with a guillotine legdrop where she's just lands right on her face. Take that you little punk.

It feels a bit harsh considering it was Asuka who got the pin and not Chigusa, yet she's barely got any focus. But nevermind. When Asuka does get in she also puts Jumbo in a sharpshooter, and Omori also comes over to break it up by repeatedly smacking Asuka in the face looking very mad. But it has no effect on Asuka and she just keeps the hold locked in, she's just that much stronger than Chigusa. I respect that that's the narrative they're going for, but it does result in a match where Chigusa is the one carrying the narrative and Asuka's role is really just to tag in for a little while, kick ass and then tag out for Chigusa to mostly get beat up again. I don't think they get the balance right.

Chigusa is pinned at the end of the 2nd fall with a big 2nd rope powerslam from Jumbo Hori. At the start of the 3rd fall her selling is awesome. I might say, Mimi Hagiwara-esque. She even has wet hair for some reason, echoes of the 1/4/82 tag. The moment I saw her like that I can feel my blood pumping.

The big change in the 3rd fall is that Lioness Asuka drops being the Goldberg hot tag and contributes a lot more. Certainly on the selling side, it's her turn to get isolated and beat up now. We see a lot of great offense here. At one point the Dynamite Girls do a Demolition Device style move on Asuka, except Jumbo Hori does a big flying crossbody off the top. Soon afterwards (a bit too soon maybe, but it's hard to say with all the clipping), Jumbo is on the receiving end of a side suplex off the turnbuckle. She takes the bump like a champ (well I guess she is one). Chigusa does a crafty little riling up of the crowd while she's on the apron here, but this is Asuka's fall and she uses her strengths well to make this fall the most exciting one. She can work a crazy high-octane pace like no-one else except Jaguar, even when she's getting repeatedly dropped on her head. She also very well conveys being an overly-intense jock super athlete who just wants to win no matter what, but wants to win fairly. 

Doesn't happen though. The 60 minute time limit elapses without a decision in the 3rd fall, so we have a draw. First time there's been a 60 minute draw in AJW since the Rimi Yokota-Yumi Ikeshita match on 8/8/80 AFAIK. These certainly can be effective when used sporadically and it certainly seems to have done the job here. I won't rate this because of so much being clipped out, but it was an enjoyable watch.

MD: It’s funny. I know the boom period is right around the corner and I am expecting to love it, but I am going to miss 1983. Jaguar and Mimi as the lead babyfaces. The Dynamite Girls as the lead tag team. Devil teaming with Tarantula and then Yamizaki. Chigusa, Lioness, Tateno all on the rise. Ripper back in for a run. Galactica bursting onto the scene and then gone again. Yu and Matsumoto asserting themselves on the outside. We’re missing a lot of footage, but I enjoyed the year. I guess that means I’m probably going to really enjoy what’s coming. We have to get there first, and we start with the team of 83 and the team of 84 facing off against one another for the tag titles.

This is a remarkable match, even if we can’t fully wrap our heads around it. I honestly don’t know what was cut. I presume it was a bunch of holds and feeling out and I don’t even know. It’s a pretty clever series of cuts. There were a lot of moves here, a lot of stuff, some tandem offense from the Crush Gals, like a belly to back reverse elbow drop, a spike power bomb, a spike pile driver. Omori used the fireman’s carry gutbuster a couple of times. Jumbo at one point hit her power bomb, rocket launcher, front tombstone sequence. Big stuff. There was also more martial arts type kicks, and not just from Chigusa. What we didn’t see however, were the Dynamite Girls using their finishing sequence. When they did hit their big moves, they were broken up more than usual. 

The Crush Gals controlled for a lot of what was kept. I wonder how intentional THAT cutting was? Probably me being a conspiracy theorist? Maybe it just worked out that way. Despite that, the Dynamite Girls came out as the original aggressors and things did absolutely spill out to the floor violently and chaotically at the end. 

The other big takeaway was just how worn out and worn down Chigusa seemed as the match wore down. She was already excellent at portraying that deep deep selling where it affects her down to the soul.

So those are big takeaways. The biggest though?

From what I’ve been able to see, they had pushed the Crush Gals so hard over the last few months. They were equal against Jaguar and Devil teams, even beating Jaguar’s team at least once. Asuka had some amazing athletic exchanges against Jaguar. She beat Monster Ripper and Yamazaki in a two on one match somehow. 

And it was working. The crowd was starting to change. Mimi, the Dynamite Girls, Jaguar, all had fan clubs that seemed to be made of high school boys. They may still have been there but they had been invaded by a small encroaching legion of young girls with paper bullhorns chanting Asuka over and over again. The tide was shifting and nothing would ever be the same. 

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