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Crush Gals
The Crush Gals were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo. Formed in 1983 in the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, the Crush Gals would become an extremely popular and influential unit throughout the 1980s, helping to propel both themselves and AJW into mainstream popularity in Japan. The Crush Gals, who combined youthfulness and an exciting wrestling style with pop music, became teen idols and developed a cult following amongst teenage girls in Japan. Helping the Crush Gals to achieve their initial success was AJW pitting them against contrasting antagonists such as Dump Matsumoto and her Atrocious Alliance stable; a group made up of slightly older women portraying violent, imitating face-painted characters inspired by the Sukeban subculture.
The Crush Gals were one of the primary attractions to AJW until their breakup in May 1989; AJW's internal policy that their performers must retire upon reaching the age of 26 saw both Asuka and Nagayo taking a hiatus from professional wrestling. However, both wrestlers would return within three years to professional wrestling (although outside of AJW), and in 2000, the pair would reunite in the promotion Nagayo created herself, GAEA Japan. This final run would last until 2005.
Individually, both Asuka and Nagayo would have long, tenured runs in professional wrestling, but their time as the Crush Gals represented the most popular era of their careers. Wrestling historians have compared their joint popularity in Japan in the mid-1980s to that of Hulk Hogan in the United States in the same period.
The Crush Gals were created in January 1983. Previous to this, Lioness Asuka had debuted for AJW in May 1980 and was immediately considered a rising star while Chigusa Nagayo had also debuted in 1980, but her progress in the promotion was more gradual. It was on 4 January 1983 when the two rookies faced off against one another in a match that drew good reactions, leading to the duo being paired together. The name "Crush Gals" was inspired by Akira Maeda's nickname "Crush" and the Japanese girls magazine Gals. In June 1983, the Crush Gals wrestled Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami to a 60-minute draw in front of 5,000 fans.
On 21 August 1984, the Crush Gals released their music single, "Bible of Fire", which would eventually sell over 100,000 copies and serve as the lead single for their 1984 album Square Jungle. Nagayo has stated that prior to the creation of "Bible of Fire", she had never sung in public before. Within days of the release of the single, on 25 August 1984 the Crush Gals defeated early rivals the Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori and Yukari Omori) to win the WWWA World Tag Team Championship at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
By this point, the Crush Gals had already achieved a high level of popularity and success by combining wrestling and music. However, their highest point came in 1985 when they began a rivalry with Dump Matsumoto's Atrocious Alliance. Matches between the Crush Gals and the Atrocious Alliance would regularly attract a 12.0 rating on Fuji TV, the station AJW broadcast on in Japan. This meant that 12% of the entire viewing audience in Japan that night were viewing the match. Wrestling historians have placed the Crush Gals' popularity at this point on par with Hulk Hogan in the United States.
On 25 February 1985, the Crush Gals would lose their WWWA World tag team championship to Matsumoto and Crane Yu of the Atrocious Alliance. Matsumoto and Yu would hold the titles until they were forced to vacate them two months later, following the retirement of Yu. The Crush Gals would recapture the titles in May, but their reign only lasted 21 days due to an injury. In August 1985, the feud between the Gals and the Atrocious Alliance escalated when Nagayo lost a hair vs hair match against the Mohawked Matsumoto and was forced to shave her head.
The feud with the Atrocious Alliance would continue into 1986, with the Crush Gals winning the WWWA World Tag Team Championship for a third time in March 1986, only to lose the titles to Matsumoto and her new partner Bull Nakano. However, Nagayo would gain a measure of revenge when she defeated Dump Matsumoto in a second hair vs hair match in October 1986.
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Crush Gals
The Crush Gals were a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo. Formed in 1983 in the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, the Crush Gals would become an extremely popular and influential unit throughout the 1980s, helping to propel both themselves and AJW into mainstream popularity in Japan. The Crush Gals, who combined youthfulness and an exciting wrestling style with pop music, became teen idols and developed a cult following amongst teenage girls in Japan. Helping the Crush Gals to achieve their initial success was AJW pitting them against contrasting antagonists such as Dump Matsumoto and her Atrocious Alliance stable; a group made up of slightly older women portraying violent, imitating face-painted characters inspired by the Sukeban subculture.
The Crush Gals were one of the primary attractions to AJW until their breakup in May 1989; AJW's internal policy that their performers must retire upon reaching the age of 26 saw both Asuka and Nagayo taking a hiatus from professional wrestling. However, both wrestlers would return within three years to professional wrestling (although outside of AJW), and in 2000, the pair would reunite in the promotion Nagayo created herself, GAEA Japan. This final run would last until 2005.
Individually, both Asuka and Nagayo would have long, tenured runs in professional wrestling, but their time as the Crush Gals represented the most popular era of their careers. Wrestling historians have compared their joint popularity in Japan in the mid-1980s to that of Hulk Hogan in the United States in the same period.
The Crush Gals were created in January 1983. Previous to this, Lioness Asuka had debuted for AJW in May 1980 and was immediately considered a rising star while Chigusa Nagayo had also debuted in 1980, but her progress in the promotion was more gradual. It was on 4 January 1983 when the two rookies faced off against one another in a match that drew good reactions, leading to the duo being paired together. The name "Crush Gals" was inspired by Akira Maeda's nickname "Crush" and the Japanese girls magazine Gals. In June 1983, the Crush Gals wrestled Jaguar Yokota and Devil Masami to a 60-minute draw in front of 5,000 fans.
On 21 August 1984, the Crush Gals released their music single, "Bible of Fire", which would eventually sell over 100,000 copies and serve as the lead single for their 1984 album Square Jungle. Nagayo has stated that prior to the creation of "Bible of Fire", she had never sung in public before. Within days of the release of the single, on 25 August 1984 the Crush Gals defeated early rivals the Dynamite Girls (Jumbo Hori and Yukari Omori) to win the WWWA World Tag Team Championship at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
By this point, the Crush Gals had already achieved a high level of popularity and success by combining wrestling and music. However, their highest point came in 1985 when they began a rivalry with Dump Matsumoto's Atrocious Alliance. Matches between the Crush Gals and the Atrocious Alliance would regularly attract a 12.0 rating on Fuji TV, the station AJW broadcast on in Japan. This meant that 12% of the entire viewing audience in Japan that night were viewing the match. Wrestling historians have placed the Crush Gals' popularity at this point on par with Hulk Hogan in the United States.
On 25 February 1985, the Crush Gals would lose their WWWA World tag team championship to Matsumoto and Crane Yu of the Atrocious Alliance. Matsumoto and Yu would hold the titles until they were forced to vacate them two months later, following the retirement of Yu. The Crush Gals would recapture the titles in May, but their reign only lasted 21 days due to an injury. In August 1985, the feud between the Gals and the Atrocious Alliance escalated when Nagayo lost a hair vs hair match against the Mohawked Matsumoto and was forced to shave her head.
The feud with the Atrocious Alliance would continue into 1986, with the Crush Gals winning the WWWA World Tag Team Championship for a third time in March 1986, only to lose the titles to Matsumoto and her new partner Bull Nakano. However, Nagayo would gain a measure of revenge when she defeated Dump Matsumoto in a second hair vs hair match in October 1986.