On 7/9/1984, All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling began regular primetime broadcasts for the first time in five years on Fuji TV from 7:00pm to 7:30pm on Monday evening, and the Crush boom was in full swing. After failing to capture the WWWA World Tag Team titles on 1/4/1984 from Dynamite Girls, the Crush Gals captured them on 8/25/1984. On 1/4/1984, Dump Matsumoto (no longer Kaoru) was introduced for the first time. She was too nasty for her Devil Corps leader, Devil Masami to control, and the two ended up fighting in a tag team match they were partners in against the Crush Gals in 2/28/1984, ultimately disbanding Devil Corps. Dump and Crane Yu (Masked Yu at the time) would start their own group, which would eventually become known as Gokuaku Domei, while Devil switched into a full babyface. Jaguar Yokota’s WWWA World Single Title took a backseat in 1984, it was only defended one time, against La Galactica on 9/17/1984, though this was the best singles match of the year. Jaguar worked a lot of tag matches with Devil Masami throughout the year, with their matches against the Crush Gals being the highlight. There was a lot happening in 1984, and from a match quality standpoint, 1984 was the first year able to populate a top 5 matches of the year list populated entirely of ****+ matches. 1984 was a really good year in its own right, particularly the second half, but it was setting up an even better year in 1985.

1/4/84, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Yukari Omori & Jumbo Hori vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo. Just four months into their partnership, the Crush Gals were already garnering the biggest crowd responses since the Beauty Pair. Their first challenge for the tag team titles against the Dynamite Girls was a losing effort on 8/27/1983 in Korakuen Hall (and no footage of the match is available). This was their second shot after defeating Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki to win the Fuji TV tag tournament on 12/9/1983 (again, no footage of the match is available). This was a 60 minute draw with approximately half of it broadcasted. The first fall was okay, fairly pedestrian, but did serve its purpose. Dynamite Girls established themselves in the heel role and worked most of the first fall on top going after Chigusa's arm. Chigusa got a break and had it taped up outside before we got the exciting Crush Gals comeback, with Lioness taking the first fall after a backdrop suplex on Hori. The match kicked into high gear in the second fall, starting with Hori taking a spike piledriver, and dives from both Lioness and Chigusa, looking to end things early, but Omori saved. They worked over Hori's knee for a bit, but Omori continued to save her partner and the Dynamite Girls took over again. Omori did a dive on the outside and in the ring, Chigusa took over after a diving elbow from Hori that didn't work, so Omori did a diving legdrop from the top rope, except she overshot it and her ass landed on Chigusa's head. Chigusa survived the onslaught and hot tagged Lioness. Lioness was trying to finish Hori with a sharpshooter and Omori came in and started slapping her, but Lioness refused to be moved. Chigusa came in to put a stop to Omori, and they all ended up all fighting and slapping each other on the outside. This was great! Dynamite Girls had the upper hand after that, and Hori looked to finish off Chigusa. She wouldn't stay down, but accidentally took out Lioness trying to dive on Omori. Omori hit her Avalanche Fallaway Slam, which probably should have been the finish, but Chigusa kicked out. The next move was Hori hitting a vertical powerslam from the top rope to finally put her down. This fall was tremendous. Chigusa was putting over the toll of all of those big moves at the start of the third fall, stumbling around looking half dead. Lioness got worked over for a while before they started pulling out all the big moves, dives and near falls. It looked like anything could have ended the match at any time, and it was exciting stuff, but no one was able to get the win, and with everyone getting more tired, they were unable to hit anything big enough to finish, so the time expired. Lioness brought the best offense, Chigusa brought the sympathy, Hori did a good job, I can't say the same for Omori (I did like her frequent run ins during Hori's heat segments, but that was about it). There were some rough patches, but the match really hit hard when it mattered in those climax moments and there were a lot of those in here, even if some of the stuff they were kicking off was getting to be a bit too much. ***3/4

1/8/84: Jaguar Yokota vs. Mimi Hagiwara 20:00. A rare match between Jaguar and Mimi, captured on handheld just weeks before Mimi's retirement, does not disappoint. The atmosphere is great, with constant dueling chants. The male segment of the audience chanted for Mimi, while the schoolgirls rallied behind Jaguar. They kicked off with a hot start, Mimi hit her boxing blows and made a run before Jaguar took control with her hip attacks. The match followed a familiar pattern, with Jaguar giving Mimi a good stretching and working her over while Mimi sold and screamed. Despite Mimi's attempts to break free and make a comeback, Jaguar tenaciously held onto the advantage. Opting for a change in strategy, Mimi seized the opportunity to drag Jaguar outside, which worked but also gave Jaguar a moment of reprieve. Upon restarting, Mimi tried to catch Jaguar off guard, but Jaguar overwhelmed her with kicks to the leg. Mimi, however, managed to take control on the mat and worked over Jaguar's knee. Momentum shifted a couple more times as they attempted to quicken the pace, leading to fast running moves that backfired, before both tried to put each other away. Mimi executed a tope and rammed Jaguar's head into the post, drawing horrified screams from some of the girls in the crowd. Mimi nearly secured a count-out as Jaguar made it onto the apron, only to be posted again by Mimi. Jaguar returned to the apron, prompting Mimi to pull her over the top rope and deliver a piledriver. Mimi went in for the kill, attempting to put Jaguar away. Jaguar tried to create an opportunity by leaping onto the turnbuckle, but Mimi countered with an Electric Chair from the rope. However, her luck ran out when she attempted a dive and missed. Jaguar capitalized with a crossarm German, struggling her way to an underhook from the top rope, but Mimi survived, and the time ended up running out on them. This was the best Mimi match I've seen, and she did as much to make it so as Jaguar did. Tremendous action with lots of good and interesting twists. You could really buy Mimi as a threat when she pulling out all of those big moves. This match was a real gem. ****

3/17/84, 2/3 Falls: Devil Masami & Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Dump Matsumoto & Masked Yu. Kaoru Matsumoto was one of Devil's cronies along with Masked Yu. On 1/4/84, she came out as Dump for the first time and got more heelish, using weapons and cheating whilst Devil was on a different path, in her match on the same show with Mimi Hagiwara, the two actually shook hands after their match. On 2/28/84, things came to a head during the Crush Gals vs. Devil Masami & Dump Matsumoto match, with Devil wanting to wrestle cleanly (commissioner Ueda had put a ban on weapons) and Dump showing defiance. Their discord resulted in them fighting more than their opponents as the match progressed, and ultimately led to Dump and Yu parting ways after the match, which effectively disbanded Devil Corps. Devil was left with Itsuki Yamazaki, while Dump was forming her own group with Yu. All of that set the stage for this match, where Dump and Yu, aided by a masked manager (Rossy Ogawa) and biased referee Shiro Abe (who actually turned heel during this match) faced the Devil & Yamazaki. The heels used their weapons and cheating as much as they wanted to keep control, but the babyfaces overcame that to catch the first fall. The second fall was mostly chaos and Yamazaki getting annihilated. She got taken to back afterward, leaving Devil to fight alone. Devil was armed with her bokken, and the heels didn't want any part of that. Devil got some help from the Crush Gals, but eventually got overwhelmed. The heels ended up tying her to the ring post with a chain to win by count out. A wild and entertaining spectacle. ***1/4

6/28/84: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 30:00. On July 9, 1984, All Japan Women made a comeback to prime time TV, featuring this match as the highlight of their debut show. The focus was on showcasing the four main stars of the league, giving viewers a taste of what the league was all about. While primarily an exhibition match, it was structured around short segments to highlight the Crush Gals' spirited comebacks to elicit big crowd reactions. While they succeeded, they were doing a lot of different things that didn't always flow on as well as they could have, with things introduced but not followed up, most notably, a prolonged focus on Lioness's knee that was abruptly abandoned when it was time to move onto the next portion. Despite this, the match succeeded in delivering tremendous action over for the 30 minute duration, and showcased the wrestlers in the way it was designed to. Jaguar was the standout and carried the match, not only showing all of her great offense, but during slower moments, she kept the energy high even in basic holds so it looked there was lot happening when there really wasn't. Devil's style had changed by this point, she was still a power wrestler, but a lot smoother and more refined since the babyface turn, dropping the brawling she was mainly known for. They worked the subtle heel role well, just doing enough and never going overboard. Crush Gals did their usual thing, their comebacks were always hot, though they didn't contribute much outside of that. This was all Jaguar and Devil. Chigusa was still the lesser of the four, but had gotten a lot better by this point, and was more capable of working with Jaguar, whereas a year ago she couldn't do much other than try to keep up. The action escalated as it went along, and the moves got bigger and bigger with plenty of possibilities for a result. It helped that the crowd were buying into everything they did, but ultimately, it ended with Lioness bridging out of Devil's final pinfall attempt to hang on for a draw. ****1/4

8/25/84, 84 Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu vs. Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami 17:47. Evil referee Shiro Abe was in fine form at the start of this, coming out with shades on and trying to kick the assigned referee out to take over. He was unsuccessful despite a long protest to Commissioner Ueda. Dump and Crane mainly worked over Jaguar in the opening minutes with basic stuff. Jaguar took over on Crane with a burst. Once Devil came in to continue, the shenanigans began, with Dump blindsiding her with a metal rod. Devil and Jaguar got mugged on the outside. There was hilarious spot where Shiro started hammering Devil, so she rolled outside and blasted him with a chair. Jaguar, never one to be outdone, followed up by ramming him into the post, causing him to juice. They actually mostly wrestled cleanly for a while after that. Shiro ran in again when Devil and Jaguar had stereo figure four leglocks on, but got chased off by the referee. After a restart, Jaguar looked to go against Dump, but she didn't want to fight fair, so she set her up for Crane to blindside her with a rod, and Dump took over. Double teaming followed, but Masami and Jaguar managed to turn it around and go for the finish. Masami hoisted Crane onto her shoulders, and Jaguar executed a missile dropkick. Dump introduced a bucket into the chaos, and Devil had seen enough. Bokken time, and it all culminated with a big weapons fight ending in a disqualification. I'll assume both teams were DQ'd. This was a good quality match, particularly for a semi-clean match involving Dump and Crane. Jaguar and Devil kept them moving, and the action, while obviously nothing comparable to their matches with the Crush Gals, was good stuff and Shiro added to things with all of his nonsense. Good match. ***1/4

8/25/84, 2/3 falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka 11:04, 2:31, 5:39. Rematch from the 60 minute draw on 1/4/84, and the Crush boom was in full swing. The schoolgirls changing their chants in mid-air, seamlessly going from “Chi-gu-sa”, to “As-u-ka” is something to behold. Compared to their previous encounter, this match was a lot more refined and well structured. Omori's performance notably improved, although Hori was still the better of the two. The Dynamite Girls used their size advantage to bully and ground the Crush Gals initially. They were successful for a while, but ultimately the Crush Gals made their big comeback with a run of double teams on Hori, pinning her. In contrast to the slower first fall, the second fall was the short fall filed with big moves. Chigusa took an onslaught of them, allowing the Dynamite Girls to square things up for the third fall. They seemed to be working Lioness having a knee injury to explain why the Dynamite Girls were able to destroy Chigusa. Both Crush Gals were injured going into the third fall, but sustained selling isn't Lioness's forte, so that didn't quite work. They continued the story in the third fall, and the Crush Gals couldn't get anything going. They'd make comebacks, but be thwarted, and take each other out, leading to a Chigusa getting hammered with all kinds of big moves again, though this time she survived them. The match reached dramatic heights, but went into overkill with all the punishment Chigusa survived, and the finish itself was quite weak, with Chigusa winning from a single German Suplex hold (after a very brief comeback from Lioness that consisted of exactly one move). I've mentioned where this match falls short, but despite that, it's still an excellent match and a little better than the 1/4/84 match overall due to better work and being more cohesive. ****

9/4/84, '84 Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 9:35. Terrific match between the two teams destined to meet each other again in the finals. Jaguar's taped shoulder became a focal point, leading the Crush Gals taking a heelish role (not that their fans minded). The opening was rapid fire action before Lioness started targeting Jaguar's injured shoulder. Jaguar showed her resilience, managing intermittent comebacks despite the pain she was in. Her selling was impeccable, constantly protecting her injured shoulder on both offense and defense. Devil asserted her dominance, but still had to tag out after Crush Gals comebacks, forcing Jaguar back in. As the match progressed, Jaguar's condition deteriorated to the point where she could no longer continue, prompting the Crush Gals to put the exclamation point on it by ruthlessly hammering away at her injured shoulder, resulting in a referee stoppage while Devil could only attempt to shield her partner. Devil wasn't happy at all with the actions of the Crush Gals in the post-match, but you couldn't blame the Crush Gals for doing what they had to. After heated scenes, Devil ended up shaking hands with Lioness (who was the main villain of the piece), but it was clear there'd be another fight, and we wouldn't have to wait too long to get it. ***3/4

9/17/84, Fuji TV Cup Tag League Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu. Two versions of this match exist. There's one from a comm tape with bad English commentary over the top of the TV audio, it's good for a laugh, but it quietens down the crowd noise as well, and that's half the appeal of these Dump matches. There's a version on Samurai TVs Classic series (the second run), which has the proper Japanese audio and several minutes more action, thus making it the superior pick, although they didn't show the entrances in that version. This was the two teams second try. They had their first match in February, and they were still figuring what the Dump formula was, resulting in a mess that contention for worst match of the year. Seven months later, they'd figured it out, and the answer was to make it as out of control and exciting as possible. That's just what they did from the start. Everyone had energy (even Dump was moving around well when she had to), the drama was high, and the action was good. Chigusa got mauled heavily with weapons and her knee was targeted. Lioness made a really hot comeback early, but tagged Chigusa, and Crane ran through her. Chigusa actually got the better of Dump, and got a sharpshooter on her, while Lioness tied up Crane. She laid out Dump with a couple kicks, but then Dump just tagged out and Crane took over, as if they forgot to transition to it with anything. Crane took over until Chigusa was caught with an enzuigiri, and Lioness and Crane had an intense slapping fight, which led to Lioness hitting a Giant Swing. Crane survived that, but a spike piledriver was clearly going to finish Crane off, except Dump forced crooked referee Shiro Abe to stop counting. A backdrop suplex from the second rope also saw Dump make him stop counting. Dump took over using a can, and they went on a little longer, trying to finish off Lioness, but she kept surviving, so Dump nailed her with a bucket Chigusa went crazy. This was great. She punched the bucket out of Dump's hand and assaulted her with it while Lioness dragged Shiro out and assaulted him with a table. Chigusa managed to tie Dump and Crane together, and then the camera went back to Lioness, who was throwing a row a chairs on Shiro, and low blowing him. The fun came to an end though, as he disqualified them. This was a great example of what those Gokuaku Domei vs Crush Gals matches were all about. The wrestling is nothing to write home about, it's about the crowd engagement, drama, excitement and all kind of shenanigans that create entertaining spectacles, and this was a good one. ***1/2

9/17/84, WWWA & UWA World Title Unification Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 13:09. Jaguar might have gotten her belt back a few weeks after their hair vs. mask match, but hadn't taken anything from Galactica to truly claim revenge. She finally had the chance almost 18 months later in the form of the UWA World Title. Galactica was in fine heel form here, jumping the gun with a foreign object before the introductions and cutting up Jaguar's leg, forcing her to start the match injured. Galactica went straight after the leg, and while Jaguar didn't always inspire that much support from the schoolgirl audience, she had it here due to due to the work they were doing and being against a foreigner who was actually menacing. Jaguar hurt Galactica's arm to even things up once she took over. After catching a reset on the outside, both came back in tentatively looking for an advantage. This portion culminated with an excellent spot where Jaguar tried a bridge out only to get dumped outside and toped, which seemed to take about as much out of both. Galactica controlled, but couldn't put Jaguar away with submissions, so she went for big moves. Jaguar reversed a tombstone piledriver and then rammed Galactica into the ringpost. Galactica juiced with the blood flowing through her white mask, which was an amazing visual. They both had the same idea, criss crossing in the ring, but collided with each other for a double down, but Jaguar at this point had more left in the tank, finishing with her run of big moves to capture both titles. This match was excellent. Dramatic and heated match that blew their 1983 match away. ****1/4

9/26/84, 2/3 Falls Fuji TV Cup Tag League Final: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Crush Gals 6:16, 3:17, 3:45. This was not only the best match of the tournament, but also the clear women's match of the year. Devil and Jaguar still proved to be the masters of their juniors, but the Crush Gals wrestled with more confidence after their victory on 9/4/84. Yokota and Devil would try to control and bully them, but the Crush Gals were always able to fight their way back. Jaguar and Lioness were doing a lot of state of the art stuff, while Chigusa was more scrappy, and Devil was the most menacing with her power. At one point, Devil threatened to press slam Chigusa out of the ring, but decided she wouldn't attempt to kill her on this day. Perhaps she should have, because soon after Chigusa survived, took Devil down with kicks, and hot tagged Lioness, leading to the Crush Gals taking the first fall. They almost took Devil out in the second fall, but due to double teaming Jimmy Kayama refused to count the fall that would have won them the match, and Devil came back. Yokota took over, but the Crush Gals were hellbent on not being denied, taking over on Jaguar and hitting double team moves. They went for broke with Chigusa hitting a tope, but taking out Lioness. This time Devil grabbed Chigusa and threw her out of the ring onto Lioness, and it was academic from there, with Jaguar throwing Lioness' corpse in for Devil to finish. They slowed things down a bit at the start of the third fall, with both Lioness and Devil tiring out and putting over the toll. They tried to put Jaguar away with a German, Belly to Belly, and a Giant Swing, but she wasn't staying down. She exploded back, but couldn't follow up on Lioness. Chigusa got the tag in, but Jaguar countered her, and with Devil holding Lioness at bay, Jaguar was able to finish with an underhook suplex from the top rope. The first two falls were all time greats, with the third being a little below. This match was just about everything you could have hoped for from these two teams and then some. It's only unfortunate that Samurai TV never aired the match in the original run of classics when they were showing matches in full. Amazing match. ****3/4

10/6/84 AJW: Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami 16:44. This was a somewhat rare ‘heavyweight' style match. Omori was a solid wrestler at this point, but not the most exciting to watch, nor much of a threat to Devil. Devil crafted a good and interesting match, letting her have extended periods of control and selling well for her to make her seem like a threat. It was generally slow, but always moving, and they did quicken things up at times. They executed well, and everything they did looked impactful. Omori's game plan was good, and she always seemed to have an answer to Devil. Devil would try to quicken things up, and resort to biting and brawling, but Omori managed to stay ahead of her. In the end, Omori almost had Devil almost beat with an Avalanche, but followed it up with a dive and missed, allowing Devil to put her in the Romero Special to escape with a win. Although Omori wouldn't become a big deal until 1986, this match gave her some credibility in singles matches that she didn't really have before. This was also the first good singles match I've seen her have. ***1/4

10/6/84, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka vs. La Galactica & Lola Gonzalez 10:06, 6:26, 8:38. This match was pandemonium. Crush Gals popularity was so overwhelming the schoolgirls wouldn't let them get to the ring. They actually had to stop the music so they could proceed and get the match going. There was a heated Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu vs. Crush Gals match on 9/17/84 (the second televised match between the two teams, and the first one that didn't suck), but this one was another level. There was some solid wrestling here through the first fall, Galactica was alright, although Lola didn't add much, but that wasn't really the point of this. Dump and co were interfering as much as they wanted to. Crush Gals were taking their beatings, but kept coming back, and took the first fall. The carnage began in the second fall, with Dump using scissors on Chigusa, and the Mexicans getting some major heat tearing apart her knee and stomping all over her hand in the ring, while Lioness could do nothing but watch. Dump ran in with the wrench to help out, nailing Lioness with it. There wasn't much of a comeback due to Dump dragging Lioness away, leaving Chigusa to get double teamed and pinned. Crush Gals fought back at the start of the third fall, but the mugging caught up with them again. Lioness went for Galactica's mask, but was unsuccessful, and Dump stabbed her with scissors. Lioness juiced, and Mexicans were going after the cut, biting at her head. The fans were livid, throwing those cones into the ring, and the match was chaos until the Crush Gals made their comeback. They hit dives, and Chigusa took over on Lola, who bled as well, and Lioness got the win with a giant swing and backdrop suplex to send the crowd home happy. This was nothing but pure heat and drama, but it was off the charts, and made for a great spectacle. ***1/2

10/21/84, 2/3 Falls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori 11:39, 2:34, 4:02. Another quality match between these two teams, though this match wasn't for the belts. This one didn't attempt to be an epic, and it didn't have the big moments of the first two matches, but it was a consistently very good match with an overall faster pace and more frequent tagging in and out. The Crush Gals exhibited more control of the first fall than in the previous matches, which displayed they were becoming a stronger tag team who didn't just fight from behind, although they were beaten quite convincingly in the last two falls. The first fall was back and forth. It was usually Chigusa vs. Hori and Lioness vs. Omori, and they all worked well together. Omori ended up falling to some double teaming from the Crush Gals. The second fall was the usual short one, this wasn't particularly good, but the finish was neat where the Crush Gals set up for another double team, this time on Hori, but she caught Chigusa diving off the top into a fallaway slam, while Omori got rid of Lioness. The third fall was better, mostly big moves and attempts to finish. The Dynamite Girls dominated, and the Crush Gals were only hanging on, but it wasn't enough as Omori finished Lioness off. The belts weren't up for grabs, but the Dynamite Girls got some pride back, leaving their trilogy of matches in 1984 at 1-1-1. ***1/2

1: Jaguar Yokota. Jaguar was still by far the best wrestler. She was involved in the best singles matches and the best tag matches, and was responsible for their greatness. She also did good work with the youngsters, Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno, mentoring them and trying to elevate them.

2: Devil Masami. Devil was the master of psychology and persona, making the change from a nasty heel to a pure babyface without seeming like she even changed at all.

3: Lioness Asuka. Crush Gals made it big 1984, and were responsible for the boom that started officially in July. They were on their road to becoming great wrestlers. They were two halves that completed each other, Lioness was stronger on the athletic attacking side, Chigusa was strong on working the crowd and defense. Lioness was the superior worker overall of two at this point, and had better overall output in 1984. Chigusa was making improvements throughout the year, but an injury late seemed to stagnate her progress.

4: Chigusa Nagayo. See Lioness Asuka.

5: Yukari Omori. Omori's partner Jumbo Hori, was the better of the two in their tag team matches, but they weren't worlds apart, and Omori had more good matches overall, so she got the nod. Dump Matsumoto wasn't far behind either.

1. 9/26/1984 2/3 Falls: Fuji TV Cup Tag League Final: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Crush Gals ****3/4

2. 9/17/1984 WWWA & UWA World Title Unification Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica ****1/4

3. 6/28/1984 Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo ****1/4

4. 1/4/1984 Jaguar Yokota vs. Mimi Hagiwara ****

5. 8/25/1984 2/3 falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka ****

Condor Saito (Machiko Saito)

Kazue Nagahori

Etsuko Kato

Kumiko Tamura

Ruriko Kawada

Mitsuko Nagahori