Nobody Fights Like Sisters
There's never been a sisterly dynamic in pro wrestling quite like the Crush Gals. Not even real, blood sister tandems in wrestling like the Bellas or the Hamadas ever really get close to what the Crush Gals meant to both each other and to the fans.
As with so many great things in pro wrestling, the Crush Gals' relationship is one forged in combat. Their legacy together starts on a famous Ittenyon Korakuen Hall show in 1983 where their spirited fight together led to the formation of a team that would come to define 80s joshi. To describe the Crush Gals' rise as meteoric would be an understatement. With AJW's mandatory retirement age looming over their heads, there was a ticking clock on the company's ability to maximize the immense popularity that Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka attained. The team forms some time in late 83 or early 84 and by 1985, they're comfortably the biggest act in the entire promotion. The records come out, the live concerts, and the bloody brawls with Dump Matsumoto's Atrocious Alliance all follow from there. The rise is so quick and relentless that by 1986, Lioness Asuka finds herself already burned out and disillusioned from the act, putting the tag team on hiatus for much of the year. Within something of a two year span, the Crush Gals finished a whole cycle of superstardom from formation to initial breakup.
All this is fairly well documented, and understood by those with even a passing knowledge of the era. Something that might get lost if one doesn't really dive into the material though is the dynamic that existed between Chigusa and Asuka in their time teaming together. A hierarchy exists within that team where for much of that run in the 80s, Asuka was consistently presented as the more capable and accomplished worker of the two. They shared their accolades as a tag team, of course, but the matches themselves, Asuka's often the one that puts the finishing touches on the action. Asuka's the one with the big climactic move--the giant swing--and although Crush Gals didn't follow the same strict formula as the contemporary southern tag, Asuka was far more likely to be the hot tag saving face in peril Chigusa. Booking often reflected this as well with Asuka being a regular contender for the top red belt in the company, while Chigusa primarily concerned herself at this point with the white belt.
All of this informs their most famous match singles match together on February 26, 1987.
The atmosphere around the match is sporting. The two competitors clearly have a lot of respect for each other, and both are fairly close in popularity with the audience in attendance. Note how both women come out to the Crush Gals theme song "Rolling Sabot," and the crowd seamlessly transitions from chanting "CHI-GU-SA!" to "A-SU-KA!" as the entrances change. But the history the two have with each other does so much to give context and gravity to action that can, at times, feel a little too free flowing for its own good.
That feeling stems from a few things. It's a common enough feature of this particular time in joshi as the action draws from two important influences. The first is lucha libre, and one sees this especially in how the mat work flows in and out of holds with the kind of back-and-forth pacing one often sees in Mexico. The second is the budding shoot style tradition in Japan at the time, and that comes through in the grittier tone of the holds here, cranked down on hard and constantly struggled against, as well as the standing exchanges being built around stiff kicks. The combination makes a lot of sense in some ways, especially with the emphasis on mat work, but the trade off is that it loses some of the narrative polish one gets from the more American-style pro wrestling tradition.
For all the reasons above, this has never been my favorite of the Chigusa/Asuka matches. It doesn't have the sense of progression of their 1989 red belt title match, nor does it have the dazzling peaks of lesser matches like their 1999 GAEA bout. What it does have though is this very real feeling of two major forces crashing into each other at the peak of their powers, and how a dynamic emerges from that.
In this case, it's entirely about how Chigusa can never quite get the best of Asuka. Asuka's the first to crowd in here with those big smashing kicks early in the match, and down on the mat, she acquits herself well. Chigusa never feels like she's drowning throughout this match, but it's Asuka who always seems the most confident and self-assured at any given point of the bout. Whenever they're tangled up on the mat, it feels like Chigusa's more likely to reach for a rope while Asuka more often than not can find her own way out.
What Chigusa brings to the table though is just undying resilience. She's gasping for breath, struggling to find her footing, but god if she just doesn't go down. It's a sympathetic performance that transcends so much of the other stylistic flaws here. It's so clear that even with both women being beloved by this crowd, it's Chigusa that draws much of their cheers as the match proceeds. Chigusa's resilience not only draws in the crowd's sympathy but also the viciousness of Asuka. Lioness Asuka never really crosses the line here into pure malice but she takes these direct and mean avenues that Chigusa tends to not. For example, Asuka's the first one to go to those kicks at the ring of the bell. More significantly, Asuka comes into the match with a bandaged up arm which, outside of an early Fujiwara armbar, Chigusa avoids attacking. And yet, deeper into the match, Asuka has no compunctions about going for a similarly bandaged up leg of Chigusa's.
Chigusa forces Asuka's hand in such interesting ways. It's hard to say she ever has the advantage over Asuka, but she sticks in the fight just enough to be a real nuisance. There's enough fight in Chigusa that they can actually trade bombs in the end, quickening the pace with these real urgent feeling pinning combinations, piledrivers, and slams. She even survives the giant swing multiple times here, demonstrating that while she's not quite on Asuka's level, she's forcing Asuka to extend herself in ways others might not. I can't lie, some of it is the sheer sugar rush of the spike in pace, but it reads well as Chigusa looking for any opening to get the win and Asuka trying to put away the little twerp. It all functions well with the ticking 30 minute clock that Chigusa's just able to survive too.
The five minute overtime is a direct extension of that final rush. I could see dismissing it as just back and forth for its own sake but when it has such beautiful near misses such as Chigusa clinging to the ropes to dodge a wild dropkick from Asuka, and how Asuka immediately pays that back by ducking a spinning wheel kick. It's stunning pro wrestling, given weight by just how furiously they throw themselves into each moment.
Again, Chigusa survives the time limit. The referee decides to give the match to Asuka, which honestly, fair enough. Asuka has this match, and if one had to name a winner, it's only fair that it should be her. But at the same time, it leaves so much in the table that can be explored down the line. There's the sense that Asuka never really beats Chigusa and the sense that there's a little bullshit at play here and that Chigusa was robbed.
This story never finds its resolution in AJW--we'd have to wait for GAEA to get that--but my god if it isn't a lovely way to get that ball rolling. Nobody fights quite like sisters do, blood or not.
Rating: ****1/4