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32-449: The Crush Gals were one of the primary attractions to AJW until their forced 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

64-789: A close working relationship with the Ice Ribbon promotion. JWP also had a relationship with American promotion Chikara , with Hanako Nakamori, Tsubasa Kuragaki and Kaori Yoneyama , a replacement for an injured Command Bolshoi, representing the promotion at Chikara's JoshiMania weekend in December 2011. JWP has also participated in Chikara's premier tournament, the King of Trios , on two occasions, with Bolshoi, Kuragaki and Yoneyama participating in 2012 , and Bolshoi, Hanako Nakamori and Manami Katsu in 2016 . On February 8, 2017, JWP held

96-535: A farewell show at the Tokyo Korakuen Hall called Eternal Last Gong . The promotion closed while still being profitable due to a combination of Nagayo's desire to retire, reliance on free agent wrestlers, and many of the original members being inactive or wanting to move on. On February 5, 2020, Nagayo announced a one-night return for GAEA on April 15, 2020, in Korakuen Hall. GAEA established

128-597: 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

160-518: A press conference to announce that the promotion would fold following its 25th anniversary event on April 2, 2017, after which all of its wrestlers would become freelancers. The group's contract with the JWP production company was set to expire in April and the two sides had not been able to come to terms on a new one. Bolshoi would remain in charge of Pure Dream kabushiki gaisha , which she had established

192-494: A relationship with the Japanese hardcore promotion Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW) on July 29, 1995, and worked with the prominent American promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1996. As a component of the relationship with WCW two GAEA wrestlers, Akira Hokuto and Toshie Uematsu , became the first WCW Women's Champion and WCW Women's Cruiserweight Champion respectively. GAEA's most famous storyline involved

224-400: A series of matches. In 2000, she became a babyface and reunited the Crush Gals with Nagayo under the name " Crush 2000 ". The pair would remain a semi-regular team until 2005, when both Asuka and Nagayo sought to retire and GAEA Japan closed down. GAEA Japan Gaea Japan (trademarked as GAEA Japan ) was a Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion . GAEA's name comes from

256-547: The Super Famicom game console. JWP's goal from the start was to rival All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), the top joshi puroresu promotion in the country, but always remained in its shadow. After closing the gap between the two promotions in 1996, JWP was hit hard in 1997, when two of its top workers, Candy Okutsu and Hiromi Yagi retired, Dynamite Kansai was sidelined with health problems and finally, when, on August 16, another top worker, Plum Mariko , died in

288-601: The "entertainer" side, led by Jackie Sato and financed by Masatoshi Yamamoto, founded JWP Project, later renamed JWP Joshi Puroresu, which held its first event on April 3, 1992. Already the following year, JWP managed to sign a television deal with the WOWOW channel. In 1994, Jaleco published the JWP Joshi Pro Wrestling: Pure Wrestle Queens ( JWP女子プロレス ピュア・レッスル・クイーンズ , JWP Joshi Puroresu Pyua Ressuru Kuīnzu ) video game for

320-807: The Greek mythological goddess of the Earth, Gaea or Gaia . GAEA was founded in 1995 by Chigusa Nagayo , a professional wrestler who achieved huge success in the 1980s with her tag team partner, Lioness Asuka , as the Crush Gals . GAEA's formation was first announced at a press conference held on August 24, 1994. Present at the event were charter members Nagayo, KAORU , and Bomber Hikaru. GAEA's first rookie auditions were also held on this occasion. Their rookie class included Meiko Satomura , Toshie Uematsu , Chikayo Nagashima , Sonoko Kato , Sugar Sato, Maiko Narita, Chihiro Nakano, and Makie Numao. On April 15, 1995,

352-402: 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

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384-501: The early 1990s, both Asuka and Nagayo would come out of retirement. Nagayo returned for AJW in 1993 for two matches, before quickly departing to work for JWP Joshi Puroresu , and created her own promotion, GAEA Japan in 1995. Asuka was allowed to return to AJW in 1994, although she was not promoted as the top-level competitor she had previously been. Asuka would join GAEA Japan in 1999 as a villain and faced off against Nagayo in

416-632: 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

448-494: 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

480-587: The new promotion held its first show. It was at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall and was called Memorial First Gong . The event was a sellout and received good press. From this point on, GAEA held monthly shows at Korakuen and also occasionally went on the road to other Japanese cities. GAEA's reputation grew as a result of the acquisition of some well-known wrestlers and the organization of some very successful interpromotional shows. GAEA acquired highly respected freelance wrestler Akira Hokuto on September 16, 1996, and Toshiyo Yamada on July 3, 1997. The promotion established

512-598: The pair would win the WWWA World tag team championship for a fourth and final time, defeating the Calgary Typhoons (Mika Komatsu and Yumi Ogura). They would hold the titles until Nagayo's retirement in May 1989. Asuka, the reigning WWWA World Champion, would follow Nagayo into retirement that July. The retirement of AJW's top stars saw their business harshly decline thereafter. Nevertheless, AJW continued its policy of mandatory retirement at 26 for its stars. In

544-627: The previous November and through which she would launch a new promotion on August 11, 2017. The new company would retain control of the Daily Sports Women's Tag Team and Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championships , while the JWP name and the JWP Openweight , Tag Team and Junior Championships all remained with the JWP production company. JWP's folding marked the end of the oldest women's professional wrestling promotion still in operation at that point in time. The following month, it

576-400: 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

608-896: The promotion folded in April 2005. JWP then adopted AJW's premier wrestling tournament, Tag League the Best , and also inherited the promotion's old sponsor, the Daily Sports newspaper, which led to JWP most notably introducing the Daily Sports Women's Tag Team Championship in August 2008. JWP not only trained a large number of wrestlers, but was also able to recruit wrestlers from other folding joshi puroresu promotions, including Arisa Nakajima , Leon and Sachie Abe from AtoZ, Kazuki from JDStar and Hanako Nakamori and Tomoko Morii from Ito Dojo, while also employing freelancers such as Emi Sakura , Kana and Misaki Ohata . JWP had

640-445: The promotion since the beginning, served as the final president of JWP. The promotion's slogan was "Pure Heart, Pure Wrestling". JWP Joshi Puroresu was founded in early 1992, when Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP), ravaged by internal politics, split up into two camps, dubbed the " shooters " and the " entertainers ", and eventually folded on January 18. The "shooter" side went on to form Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling (LLPW), while

672-524: The reunion of 80's tag team sensations, the Crush Gals, in 2000. The Crush phenomenon in Japan was roughly akin to the American phenomenon of Hulkamania and the first appearance of the reunited partnership on May 14, 2000, at GAEA's fifth-anniversary show, drew the attention of the entirety of the Japanese press. On March 15, 2004, a weekly show with matches from GAEA started on The Wrestling Channel . On April 10, 2005, GAEA closed its doors for good with

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704-482: The ring during one of its events. These were followed by Jackie Sato's death from stomach cancer on August 9, 1999. After a co-promoted event with AJW in February 2000 turned out to be a failure, JWP closed its doors at the end of the year. However, the promotion returned just a few months later, now under new management, headed by wrestler Command Bolshoi . JWP continued working with former rival promotion AJW until

736-454: 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

768-477: The title after Nagayo became injured during the match. However, immediately afterwards, Asuka vacated the title out of respect for Nagayo, stating she did not wish to win the title in that manner. Asuka would win the championship "the right way" in January 1989, during a rematch between the two. Both Asuka and Nagayo had reached the pinnacle of AJW, however, their 26th birthdays were now rapidly approaching, and so too were their mandatory retirements. In February 1989,

800-691: 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

832-505: 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. The Crush Gals' time spent feuding with the Atrocious Alliance had seen both Asuka and Nagayo rise to the top level of AJW, and resulted in major singles victories over the likes of Dump Matsumoto and Bull Nakano. This made both Asuka and Nagayo contenders for

864-693: The top championship in AJW, the WWWA World Single Championship . In February 1987, Asuka and Nagayo would face each other in a singles match, with the winner receiving a championship match against the reigning Yukari Omari (their old rival from the Dynamite Girls). In a 35-minute bout that is cited as one of the best AJW matches of all time, Asuka came out victorious. Asuka went on to challenge Omari, but could not overcome her. However, Nagayo later received her own shot against Omari and

896-475: The two All Asia Athlete Women's (AAAW) titles (with AAAW being a play on the WWWA acronym of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling's titles), a singles championship and a tag team championship , on November 2, 1996. Originally, the singles belt was labeled "Heavyweight", while the tag team belts were labeled "Junior Heavyweight", but the weight class requirements were eliminated on May 31, 1998. The first AAAW Champion

928-689: Was GAEA founder Chigusa Nagayo. The belt was subsequently held by some of the most prominent Japanese women's wrestlers of the 1990s including Manami Toyota and Aja Kong . The AAAW Tag Team Championship was first held by Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato . Also, Uematsu's WCW Women's Cruiserweight Title was solely defended in GAEA after Uematsu won it in the United States until the title was abandoned after GAEA and WCW ceased their relationship. The AAAW Single Championship and AAAW Tag Team Championship were revived in 2022 by Chigusa Nagayo 's promotion Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. The AAAW Single Championship

960-399: Was a Japanese joshi puroresu ( women's professional wrestling ) promotion , founded in 1992 as a splinter promotion of Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. Celebrating its 25th anniversary at the time of its folding in 2017, JWP was the oldest joshi puroresu promotion in Japan and its Openweight Championship was the oldest championship in all of joshi . Command Bolshoi , who had worked for

992-472: Was able to knock her off her throne in October 1987. Thereafter, the Crush Gals would reunite a few more times to once again face the united force of Matsumoto and Omori, but inevitably, a match between the champion Nagayo and Asuka was due to take place. 1988 saw several matches pitting Asuka and Nagayo against each other for Nagayo's championship. During a face-off between the two of them in July 1988, Asuka won

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1024-640: Was revived first, on January 10, 2022, with its first new champion being Takumi Iroha . The AAAW Tag Team Championship was later revived, on May 1, 2022, with Itsuki Aoki and Rin Kadokura winning a tag league tournament and obtaining the revived tag titles. Archived official website at the Wayback Machine (archived August 16, 2000) JWP Joshi Puroresu JWP Joshi Puroresu ( JWP女子プロレス , JWP Joshi Puroresu ) , also known as JWP Project ( JWPプロジェクト , JWP Purojekuto ) or simply JWP,

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