The Crush Gals
Above: Album covers of Crush Gals music
The 1980's
professional wrestling phenomenon was not only a huge
spectacular in the USA but also in Japan.
At the forefront of the frenzy, an unlikely duo referred to
as "The Crush Gals."
The tag team duo of Lioness Aska (also written as Asuka) and Chigusa Nagayo
known as "Crush Gals" was
formed in 1982. The pair were formidable grapplers with
tomboyish haircuts and great singing voices ( true rock n'
roll wrestling phenomenon's.) Quickly the pair became icons
of Japan’s female pro-wrestling world and icons of the
sport that were comparable to that of Hulk Hogan in the
United States in the 80's and emulating the success of The
Beauty Pair from Japan in the 70's.
Not only did the Crush Gals rule the wrestling world in the
80's but also the music charts. As pop culture icons the
pair hit the top 10 with a succession of catchy tunes that
became popular hits.
Imagine your favourite singer also being one of the most
talented wrestlers in the world, times that by 2 and there you have it...The
Crush Gals.
Crush Gals frenzy in the 80's
The next few years of the 80's saw the pair battling to win and retain their tag team straps and the tag team division became the true money maker for AJW.
During the mid-80's the pair dominated the tag team division of All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (AJW). The Crush Gals first WWWA Tag Team title run began on August 25, 1984 when they beat "Dynamite Girls" Jumbo Hori and Yukari Ohmori to win the belts. The Crush Gals title reign lasted for five months when they were defeated by Dump Matsumoto and her partner Crane Yu.
Over the next few years the heel stable "Gokuaku Domei, led by Dump was The Crush Gals main foes and the pair battled to win and retain their tag team straps and the tag team division became the true money maker for AJW.
In the February 25, 1985 match where Crane Yu & Dump Matsumoto defeated The Crush Girls for the WWWA World Tag Team titles it was the typical "Good Guys" versus "Bad Guys" scenario as the Crush Gals drew thousands of adoring, screaming teenage fans that carried pom-poms to cheer on the pair. The "Bad guys" were played to perfection by the huge punk style Dump Matsumoto and Crane Yu who made formidable opponents. Tv Ratings for the weekly AJW show followed suit and the feud drew high ratings for AJW of 12.0 regularly. Even today these matches are revered by wrestling fans who want to see women's wrestling in its glory day. Matches from this era were replayed on TV as (AJW) Women's wrestling Classics and have since established new fans of The Crush Gals.
Dump Matsumoto and Yu Crane were forced to vacate the titles.
Dump formed a new tag team with fellow heel a young Bull Nakano (who later went on to singles fame in the WWE ).
On May 16, 1985 The Crush Gals defeated Bull Nakano & Dump Matsumoto for the WWWA World Tag Team titles. The Crush Gals had become tag team champions for the second time.
Chigusa Nagayo then went on to feud with Dump Matsumoto and on August 28 1985 the pair embarked on one of the most memorable matches in Joshi Puroresu history, the famous hair match.
The ending had Chigusa covered in blood, KO'ed by Dump, who proceeded to shave her head as thousands of fans screamed in disbelief. Lioness Aska was at ringside and entered the ring to help fend off further attacks & console the upset head shaven Chigusa. This was Joshi Drama at its finest!
The Crush Gals still remained the tag team champs and held the tag titles for 7 months (DEC 1985) when injuries forced to vacate the tag team titles.
The Jumping Bomb Angels (Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki) claimed the vacant tag titles holding them for two months until March 20, 1986 when The Crush Gals the The Crush Gals racked up their third title reign by defeating Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno for the WWWA World Tag Team titles. Lioness Asuka unfortunately had an injury which prevented her from being able to wrestle in a WWWA Tag Team title defense against Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto on August 23rd 1986. Lioness's spot was taken by Kazue Nagahor and together her and Chigusa lost to Bull Nakano and Dump Matsumoto.
The Chigusa / Matsumoto feud was still what everyone wanted to see however and the attack by Matsumoto in September led to a second hair match being scheduled. The match happened on November 6 1986. History looked like it would repeat itself as Chigusa was viciously beaten and bloody but out of nowhere Chigusa pulled off a rollup pin. Chigusa had gotten her revenge and victoriously cut Dump's hair.
In 1987 The Crush Gals went to the USA and did a stint for The World Wrestling Federation (later to become World Wrestling Entertainment WWE ). The Crush Gals did not receive the same push that the team of The Jumping Bomb Angels got but did wrestle on TV. The Crush Girls had matches against Lielani Kai, Judy Martin, Donna Christianello, Penny Mitchell, and Black Venus, amongst others.
The re-match
between the Crush Gals came on January 22, 1989. Lioness
Asuka won the title cleanly and kept it until her retirement.
The Crush Gals were to win their third WWWA Tag Team titles
on March 4, 1989 from the young team of Mika Komatsu and
Yumi Ogura.
Above: Pic
of Lioness at Ringside autographed.
Chigusa Nagayo was the first to reach the mandatory
retirement age of 26 for all AJW wrestlers. Chigusa’s
retirement show (Wrestlemarinepiad 1989) was a huge event
held on May 6 1989, drawing a large vocal crowd. Chigusa’s
retirement card consisted of Japanese wrestlers (incl:
Manami Toyota, Etsuko Mita) & American wrestlers (incl:
Queen Kong, Madusa, Leilani Kai). The wrestling extravaganza
also had a great live concert by the Crush Gals where the
team performed their hit songs to the screaming crowd as
well as the girls performing in a marathon wrestling contest
where they wrestled everyone in the company.
Lioness Asuka hit the retirement age also in 1989. It
definitely wasn’t a good business ploy to have your two most
popular stars forced in retirement whilst still at the
height of their popularity and the AJW business took a sharp
fall in fan following for several years afterwards as a
result of this policy.
Above: Pic of Chigusa
Nagayo with title belt and in the dojo.
In 1994 Chigusa Nagayo returned to wrestling circles with
the forming of the GAEA wrestling promotion. August 24, 1994
a press conference was held to announce the new promotion and
to audition the rookies that would go on to become the first
crop of GAEA talent. Chigusa was supported at the press
conference by Kaoru Maeda and Bomber Hikaru the founding
members of GAEA. As the head trainer at
GAEA Chigusa started to produce her own talent.
Top initial class students included: Meiko Satomura, Sugar
Sato, & Toshie Uematsu.
GAEA’s first card was on April 15 1995 at Korakuen Hall in
Tokyo. The promotions first event was a sell-out hit titled
"Memorial First Gong."
In 1996 Chigusa Nagayo ventured back to the United States
having established an inter-promotional deal with WCW.
Chigusa was repackaged
as a face painted wrestler called
"Zero" and had Sonny Ono as her manager. GAEA grapplers
Akira Hokuto & Toshie Uematsu were to take out the women’s
WCW title and the WCW cruiserweight women’s title
respectively battling against women wrestlers such as:
Kaoru, Kato, Madusa and Malia Hosaka.
November 2nd 1996, GAEA established the AAAW title (All Asia
Athlete women). Chigusa Nagayo was the first AAAW Champion.
GAEA was to become one of the leading forces in women's
wrestling in the late 1990's however the hey day had seemed
past and none of the women's promotions were drawing crowds
to the extent that they were in the Crush Gals era of
the 1980's.
In December, 1998, Lioness Aska debuted in GAEA a heel
(villain). A new feud was established against the Crush Gals. On April 4, 1999 Chigusa & Asuka
battled against each other for the first time in ten years, by
December 27, 1999, however the Crush Gals re-united.
The union again proved successful and the pair went on to
win their fourth tag team championship titles together as
the 13th champion title holders of the AAAW championship on
April 30, 2004. The Crush Gals reign was short-lived however
as they lost their titles on May 5th 2004 to Aja Kong &
African / American Amazing Kong.
Asuka retired on April 3, 2005
the last time the girls fought in the ring together. Chigusa fought on April 10, for GAEA’s
closing show when GAEA closed its doors after 10 years of
business.
“We always talk about what we can do to make women’s
wrestling in Japan better,” says Asuka, “but recently we
feel that time is not on our side anymore. We have had our
share of injuries, so that’s why we decided to leave the mat
for good.” “...Sometimes, at
night, I think about it and try and imagine what Chigusa is
going to look like up on the mat,” Asuka says. “I see myself
crying. Last time we split I think I was smiling. This time
I want it to end it in tears.” said Asuka shortly
before her retirement.
Chigusa Nagayo Interview
Tuesday, May 20, 2003 www.japantoday.com featureJapan's top female pro wrestler
is no pushover
by Sachie Kanda.
TOKYO — In the ring, Chigusa Nagayo is a real fireball, hurtling through the air,
kicking her opponents and subduing them in scorpion deathlocks.
But today, the 38-year-old Nagayo, who stands 166 cm tall and weighs 83 kg from the action.
Self-confident and polite, she is always the consummate professional.
For those who have watched America's Playboy-like entertainment pro wrestling shows, it may be hard to
imagine that Japanese female pro wrestling is just as skillful as male pro wrestling.
But one look at Nagayo in action leaves no doubt. The No. 1 drawcard and founder of GAEA,
Japan's female pro wrestling federation, the charismatic Nagayo holds a sort of spiritual power over her growing legions of fanatic
female fans in Japan. As soon as she gets into the ring, they let out a
roar and then go into raptures when she lunges through the air at
her opponents, overwhelming them with her wild fighting techniques with names such as
superfreak, running three, sleeper hold and of course the
scorpion deathlock. Her road to fame and fortune had an unusual beginning.
Born in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagayo said her childhood dream was to become a doctor because she used
to go to the doctor every day for a checkup as she suffered from tuberculosis and asthma. Unbelievably, it
was the karate lessons her mother forced her to take that dramatically improved her health within a year.
Just before she entered high school, her family, which owned seven restaurants, ran into huge debt.
"The family was forced to split up and live separately. That was the end of my dream," Nagayo said.
Then a wanted ad for female pro wrestling caught her eye. "At a time when most 15-year-old girls in Japan were
enjoying themselves with their friends, I joined the female pro wrestling world in order to support my family."
In the early days, the practice and exercise schedule was grueling but it paid off. Nagayo won her first title on May 15, 1982.
Since then, she has bagged many titles, including the All Japan junior, IWA world female,
All Pacific, WWWA tag-team, WWWA single and AAAW single titles.
In 1989, she formed the Crush Girls with Lioness Asuka in 1989 and the two went
on to win many tag-team titles.But being in the spotlight took its toll.
"The more titles I earned, the more pressure I felt to hang onto those title belts.
Just before a bout, I would be backstage and hearing the audience scream and the sound of
the gong would make me nauseous," she said. "Sometimes, I
wished I could run away but I knew I had to face my fear and told myself never to give up." Majority of
athletes 'cowards' Despite all her titles, Nagayo is still learning.
"I never have a perfect match," she said. "Every time I fight, I find something I
could not do or something I could do. The majority of athletes are cowards. By that, I mean they don't want to face their weaknesses.
That's true of life in general. However, I think
that by finding one's weakness, a person becomes stronger because they are not afraid to try again when something goes wrong. That is why they can smile like a
sunflower and be kind to others despite the many twists and
turns of life. On the other hand, a person who is blind to his or her own weakness tends to be
arrogant toward others and self-indulgent." Yet, Nagayo draws a clear line between training, wrestling and her
private life. As an instructor, she is tough and manipulative, hurling insults at trainees to ignite their fighting
spirit and test their guts and motivation. It is like being in a military boot camp. "The reason I push them is so
that one day a trainee will beat me and force me to realize that it's time to step
down. As I get older, I think about such things. But even if I leave the ring in
that way, I will train another wrestler to beat whoever dethrones me." In the meantime, Nagayo is
trying to change the style of Japan's female pro wrestling 180
degrees. Her first goal is to take GAEA, which she founded in 1994, worldwide. Her wrestlers are
learning English to be able to compete overseas. "When I wrestled in the U.S., I recognized the importance of communications skill,"
said Nagayo. To help accelerate her globalization strategy, she invited four male wrestlers —
whom she calls the GAEA Boys — from America, Canada and France. Nagayo is also anxious to tone
down the blood-and-guts image of pro wrestling which has long been considered vital to pumping up the audience. "An injury scar used to be
regarded as a gold medal but now I think that's nonsense. What's most important are a wrestler's health and techniques, not the blood."
In addition, Nagayo has practically revoked the retirement age, which used to be 25, when most
female wrestlers were at their peak. Despite her energetic nature, Nagayo admits to sometimes feeling depressed.
Such times, she often drives to shrines to summon up the spirit of the deceased.
"The atmosphere of the shrine, the smells and sounds of nature calm me down.
All I need is some positive thinking and my can-do spirit returns."
For a look at Nagayo and the world of GAEA, check out the 2002 award-winning
documentary "GAEA Girls " by British filmmakers
Kim Longittio and Jano Williams on DVD (Pioneer, 4,700 yen) and
video. Or visit http://www.gaea-inc.com
