Crush Gals vs Jaguar Yokota/Devil Masami (AJW - 6/28/1984)

Something I'll need to rewatch and probably get on a disc hopefully in much better quality. The version I just watched was really pixelated and actually cut out on me twice. I watched a fair amount of 80s Joshi back in the tape trading days (more than most probably), but I don't recall ever seeing this before. I was aware of it in recent years but could never find a good copy online and was kind of hoping the DVDVR 80s Project actually did 80s Joshi.

Anyway, like I said I need to rewatch this (probably a lot) but after a first viewing I have to say I was not expecting to watch a top 10 contender for the first time this late in the project. Whoa yall. Whoa. This fucking match.

I remember Yokota being more of a scientific heel while Masami was the bruiser. But there wasn't much distinction on rewatch.

Asuka was definitely the senior babyface, though. Playing the big sister role while Nagayo has the classic underdog babyface. 

Super fun match with great athleticism and intensity. They basically worked a 30-minute sprint, which is mind blowing, but that means there's not a lot of room for great selling nor different phases in its structure to help it feel less "same-y". It's full of very cool interactions and little details though, with a couple of great nearfalls as well, and while the character work didn't look as strong to me, Masami is still a great actress and she tells a lot just with her face; just a mesmerizing wrestler.

Some spots are a bit bizarre, like the usual random brawls at ringside where it doesn't fit in the match at all (a bad tendency the whole puroresu has always had, imho), or how they seemed to work on Asuka's legs at some time, but didn't go anywhere after a couple of minutes; also a bit of discoordination at some sequences, specially when hot tags were supposed to be made (Yaguar in particular looked a bit out of place sometimes, like, she just stands there watching Chigusa come into her after Lioness tags out, for example), so the match doesn't feel as polished as a result, but they all look spectacular anyway and the crowd is buying everything. I just don't see any of them at their peak yet, except Devil. They were still improving their styles, and it's fun recognizing that while also watching some glimpses of their overall greatness, so, while I won't call this a 100 contender, I think it is definitely worth watching. It is very difficult to go all out for a full half an hour and not kill the match as a whole, and the fact these four young ladies made it work is amazing and they have all my respects.