Beauty Pair and Crush Gals are two history making (and changing) tag teams that formed what we define today as modern joshi. Two teams that changed the course of history by not only bringing wrestling to the mainstream, but also help it to be viewed as a legitimate sport to many. During the early 1970’s of All Japan Womens Wrestling (AJW), the company was very reliant on basic and generic babyface characters to help push their company while shipping over American women to take the fall as the bad guys.
The tag team division was very active during this time with foreign talent as well as Japanese teams. Between 1971-75, the tag team belt was traded between teams over 50 times. While it sounds exciting to watch a belt change hands, it can ruin the legitmacy of not only the championships, but the sport as well. This pattern also doesn’t lead to the development of new wrestling stars; without at least one top star in a entertainment company, who will come to watch? This changed when two women were paired together, Maki Ueda and Jackie Sato formed the team of Beauty Pair and they not only helped change the company, but revolutionize the sport.
The Evolution of Beauty Pair
Now to understand why women fans are so important to this company, you need to understand a few things. Right before AJW was formed as a official Japanese womens wrestling company, womens wrestling was just a strip-tease show in Japan. Many people, especially women fans, pushed to legitimatize wrestling in the eyes of sports fans. Thanks to Mildred Burke touring Japan after the war in the 40’s, wrestling fan clubs were born, which eventually led to AJW holding their first show in 1968. At the time, the strip-tease shows were still fresh in people, mainly male fans, minds. Men would most likely attend these shows not thinking it was a sport or even had any athletic talent, simply thinking it was still a funny and pleasurable thing to watch.
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AJW realized they needed more woman fans to come and be present at shows. This led to a shift in the Japanese wrestling culture that we still feel today. Beauty Pair was formed on February 24th, 1976 with members Maki Ueda and Jackie Sato. That same night, they won the tag team championships. Beauty Pair was billed as the faces of the tag division and always played “the good guys”. They were two young, athletic, and beautiful girls who could wrestle every night if you asked them to.
However, that wasn’t what drew in the female audience. AJW so desperately needed to look more legitimate, and Beauty Pair just happened to be two extremely talented singers as well. When AJW realized this, they had Beauty Pair release a few songs. I don’t think AJW intended for the pair to become the pop idols they did, but I doubt upper-management complained. It’s like Maki and Jackie were the best of both worlds for the company. They’d perform concerts in the ring before shows and when they were singing? They had their own personal back track of teenage girl fans in the crowd, yelling, singing, and dancing along to Beauty Pair’s music. Beauty Pair’s most famous song (in my opinon) “Kakemeguru Seishun” was most commonly sung by the two. The lyrics mention wrestling while the unforgettable english chorus repeats the lines “Beauty beauty, Beauty Pair”.
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These two women gave AJW what they had been begging for: real fans. No more were the days of half-filled arenas of men hoping there was a nip slip during every match. Now we had teenage girls to appeal to and not only did they love their pop idols of Beauty Pair, many came to love the theatrics and dramatics that come with wrestling as well. A year after Beauty Pair formed, AJW sends out a newsletter that they’d be holding auditions for new women’s stars. In the past for AJW, there were no formal auditions like many companies have now, they simply took in any woman that would come. After the unexpected popularity boom from Beauty Pair, over 600 aspiring girls applied for the AJW audition in hopes they’d be the next Beauty Pair.
Of course, nothing lasts forever. Maki Ueda never was a wrestling fan in her youth, it was actually her father who encouraged her to become a wrestler because of her athletics from high school sports. Wrestling is very demanding both physically and mentally, and many things came to bother Maki such as having to miss her mothers funeral because of schedule, seeing fellow wrestler Oscar Ichijou suffer a fatal injury while training, and having differences with her own partner Jackie. In late 1978, Maki informed management she had made plans to retire. On February 27th, 1979, Maki faces Jackie Sato in her retirement match. Jackie goes on to wrestle for a few more years until her own eventual retirement. After this, AJW had a crushing blow in TV ratings and ticket sales. Beauty Pair is what led AJW to have a television rating of over 20% and now with the pair separated, AJW needed a new pair to lead the charge.
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The Evolution Of Crush Gals
Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagoya were two young aspiring stars for AJW in 1980. Much like many other rookies at the time, Asuka and Chigusa hoped to reach the popularity of the Beauty Pair. Lioness Asuka made her official in-ring debut for AJW on May 10th, 1980 and was an immediate success, so much so that by the time 1982 rolled around she was already a 2x champion. Chigusa Nagoya was a little different in her career start. Chigusa would debut on August 8th 1980 in a losing effort against Yukari Omori. Chigusa cried after losing the match, and was then scolded by her senior, Tomi Aoyama, for crying. 1981 was a slow year for Chigusa as the company was overflowing with talent and Chigusa wrestled eight times in that year. 1982 looked more positive as on May 15th, she won the vacant Junior Championship. January 4th, 1983 would be the fateful night that changed the trajectory of these girls careers forever though, as the two wrestled each other in a singles match. The match was incredible and the company decided the two would become a tag team from here on out. Thusly, The Crush Gals were born.
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The girls had their first match as a team facing the Dynamite Girls for their tag team championships. Even though they lost, the crowd grew to love the team and they quickly became fan favorite underdogs. Of course, upper-management noticed this and and realized they could be the next Beauty Pair the company needs to get back on the mainstream. The Crush Gals then release their first song “Bible of Fire” and it would go on to sell 100,000 copies. Four days after the song came out, Crush Gals defeat their rival Dynamite Girls for their tag team championship. This is the moment the girls became more then wrestlers, they became teen idols as well as they’d frequently release music and perform in the ring before shows. What AJW never expected was that they wouldn’t become the next Beauty Pair, instead, they’d reach heights higher then Maki and Jackie combined. If you’re having a hard time grasping how popular and important these girls were, think of Hulk Hogan and his popularity; The Crush Gals were most definitely on his level of popularity.
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The girls fame would continue to rise in 1985 as they entered a feud with the evil Dump Matsumoto and her Atrocious Alliance. Dump and Crane Yu would defeat the Crush Gals for their belts on February 25th, but this was only the start. Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagoya, both separately and as a team, would face Dump and her alliance members frequently. AJW realized the big matches were against Dump and Chigusa, and cashed in all their chips on a singles match for the two. This was no ordinary match, it carried serious consequences, as the loser would have to shave their head bald. Chigusa was at peak stardom here, she and Asuka had international fame and were the biggest teen idols out. When the match rolled around it was intense and every teenage schoolgirl in the crowd was on their feet yelling and screaming, much like the days of Beauty Pair. However, these girls would begin to scream and cry when the match ended, as Chigusa lost and was being shaved bald in front of her adoring fans. Imagine Paul McCartney of “The Beatles” being forced to go bald at peak stardom, imagine how all those fans would act. Passing out and crying, yelling and screaming for their idol. The match is available on Youtube and I highly suggest checking it out for yourself.
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The girls would continue to garner fame and be the companie’s stars until May 1989 rolled around. AJW had many rules for the girls, no alcohol, no tobacco, no boyfriends, and most notably, all girls had to retire at age 26 so they could pursue other careers and motherhood. When Chigusa’s 26th birthday rolled around, she lied and told fans she was getting married and retired on May 6th 1989 after having 5 matches (4 of them unplanned) on the show WrestleMarinepiad ’89. Lioness Asuka would unfortunately follow suit and retire the same year in July. AJW was met with a bitter decline in business after forcing the girls to retire, even so, the company kept this policy. The two would go on to stay retired for a few years until the 90’s rolled around and they both began wrestling again on their own time. Chigusa even formed her own company, GAEA, which would see the Crush Gals reunite as “Crush Gals 2000” until they both retired in 2005 and GAEA closed its doors.
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The Lasting Legacies of Beauty and Crush
Regardless if you watch Stardom, Sendai, Marigold, Marvelous, or beyond, the impact of Beauty and Crush is still felt to this day. Many Japanese women’s wrestlers do projects outside of wrestling like singing, acting, and modeling to help promote wrestling and bring it to a bigger and wider audience. Some may feel that idol culture has no place in Japanese women’s wrestling, but without the teen idols of Beauty Pair and Crush Gals, Japanese women’s wrestling most likely wouldn’t be the sport and performance we love today.
Crush Gals are also known for changing how wrestling is done between the women in Japanese wrestling, incorporating more martial arts moves and not being afraid to hit hard. Crush Gals made the sport more open and free-flowing for the ladies that would come after them, giving women more options and freedom to do what they want with their careers and many Japanese women’s wrestlers of this day wrestle beyond the age of 26 now.
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