1985 is the year to follow if you want to see All Japan Women at the peak of its powers. They set the things up in 1984, and in 1985 they ran with it and took it to the next level. Gokuaku Domei vs. Crush Gals was the constant feud of the year and the big draw, providing many entertaining and chaotic Dump Matsumoto matches, and the most legendary angle in the history of women's wrestling with the hair vs. hair match between Chigusa Nagayo and Dump Matsumoto on 8/28/1985. The league ran the Nippon Budokan on 8/22/1985 for the first time since 1979, headlined by Lioness Asuka challenging Jaguar Yokota and the semi-main event of Devil Masami vs. Chigusa Nagayo, these matches were not only the top two women's matches of the year, but the top two women's singles matches of the entire decade. Jaguar Yokota decided to retire in 1985, she almost made it through her last year, but sustained an injury the day before her last title defense against Devil Masami and had to turn over the belt, ending her second and final WWWA World Title reign after 926 days with 4 title defenses (to go along with her first reign of 801 days with 7 title defenses, giving her a total of 1727 days as champion, a number no one would ever come close to surpassing). Jaguar's successor defaulted to Devil Masami, who won the vacant title against Dump Matsumoto on the last show of the year to become a double champion (though she vacated her All Pacific Title after winning the WWWA World Single Title). The WWWA Tag Titles were also vacated at the end of the year due to injury to Chigusa Nagayo. Itsuki Yamazaki and Noriyo Tateno moved out of the junior ranks on the first show of the year with a very good showing against the Crush Gals at the new years Korakuen show, throughout 1985 they proved they belonged, particularly Yamazaki, who was a real standout wrestler throughout the year.

1/5/85: UWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 19:27. In contrast to their previous matchup, this one kicked off at a more measured pace, featuring somewhat tentative exchanges on the mat. However, it didn't take long for Galactica to gain the upper hand, at first by mugging Jaguar on the outside, and later escalating to weapons and outside interference. Jaguar endured the assault and made some comebacks, eventually hitting a tope and tombstone piledriver on the floor. Galactica resorted to desperate measures, initially targeting the leg and later resorting to a foreign object, causing Jaguar to bleed. Galactica continued to dominate with a straightforward heel beatdown and a few spots thrown in. Jaguar's exceptional selling elevated the entire match. She put over the toll, with her comebacks never reaching full speed so they didn't have the same impact they would have normally. It was subtle, but made gave the match a lot of added drama. While not on the same level as their 9/13/1984 match, this was another quality match between these two. ***3/4

1/6/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno 10:31, 3:21, 3:00. The first tag team title shot for the unnamed team of Yamazaki and Tateno (they would, of course, become the JB Angels, but they never actually got that name until 1986). They'd mainly battled each other in junior matches, as they had no other peers from their own class to wrestle (there were only three members of the 1981 class, and the third one quit very early), until they were thrown together as a tag team in 1984. The early portion was really good, with competitive matwork and in and out tags, with the challengers showing they could go with the champions. Yamazaki decided to switch things up doing six dropkicks in a row to Lioness (though, these were of the weak first-year junior variety rather than the high impact ones Yamazaki was known for). Tateno eventually got dominated, but was able to catch a break to regroup. Things went a little downhill from there. After some brawling, Chigusa and Tateno were legal, but weren't doing much of anything, so Lioness tagged in to get things back on track. Crush Gals eventually looked to put Yamazaki away, but she avoided Chigusa's diving headbutt and then did a primitive version of a springboard plancha, capturing the first fall after a piledriver. At this point, the goal of the match to give Yamazaki and Tateno some credibility and move them out of the junior ranks was complete, so the last two falls were little more than a Crush Gals steamroll. The challengers got in a little offense, but were no longer really competitive. Crush Gals retaliated in the second fall, overwhelming Tateno to even the score, and the third fall was even swift, with Yamazaki being the victim this time. Yamazaki and Tateno simply didn't have the offense at this point to match them, with sunset flips and missile dropkicks being their big moves. This match was a little rough around the edges at times, but overall, it was very good. It was an important stepping stone for the future JB Angels, elevating Yamazaki and Tateno out of the junior ranks. ***1/2

1/10/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota, Yukari Omori & Mika Komatsu vs. Lioness Asuka, Chigusa Nagayo & Yumi Ogura 11:18, 3:46, 2:38. This was a typical Zenjo tag match for the era, except it was wrestled twice as fast as normal. The first fall was mostly all matwork with some quicker stuff to break things up, while the last two falls were short and action packed. They never let the action settle at any point with consistent tags, switching their holds up constantly, and the work was generally at a high level. Ogura and Komatsu took turns getting worked over. The four seniors were good, with Jaguar and Lioness providing the best exchanges. Ogura did pretty well here, but it was beyond the pace Komatsu was capable of, and she struggled to keep up. Ogura dropped the first fall to Omori, but got to pin Komatsu in the second fall. Komatsu was pinned again in the third fall by Chigusa. Although it was almost a foregone conclusion that the juniors were going to be the ones taking the losses, they did a good job of making it seem like Chigusa might lose the third fall before she put Komatsu away. ***1/2

2/25/85 AJW, All Japan Title Match: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Bull Nakano 18:33. Keiko Nakano was rechristened as Bull Nakano, and was sporting a half shaved head with blue hair. This was a wild junior fight. Bull didn't do much other than grind down Yamazaki with basics and lot of heel tactics with plenty of help from Dump and co. Yamazaki would frantically try to fight back, and they'd scrap it out usually with interference putting Bull back in charge. The action might not sound appealing, but it was compelling because of Yamazaki's fire, and the two being of them being out of control in the scrap. Yamazaki went for a springboard to the outside and injured her knee, which Bull went after. Yamazaki came back with an impressively well placed missile dropkick taking out both Bull and referee Shiro Abe, which allowed Noriyo Tateno to give her some help double teaming Bull, though it was a short-lived comeback because her knee was injured. Yamazaki kept fighting back, hitting some hot moves, but all the heels ran in and Shiro threw the match out, giving Yamazaki the DQ win. Yamazaki vacated the belt afterward. It was a little strange that they weren't using the usual rules for this match, I can only imagine they didn't want either to lose, so they went with this instead. In any case, this is exactly what I love to see from junior matches – frantic, fiery, scrappy action. ***1/4

2/25/85 AJW: Jaguar Yokota & Devil Masami vs Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori 10:37. Quality action-packed match with everyone going all out. Ten minutes of non-stop action with frequent tags and momentum switches. Jaguar and Devil controlled things. Jaguar would hit her fast-paced bursts, while Devil would slow it down. The Dynamite Girls were always competitive with them, and were in fine form as well. It escalated nicely to an exciting finishing run. Being that they were facing the top two stars in the league, it was a bit of a stretch to think the Dynamite Girls had much chance, but they did manage one convincing near fall when Hori landed a pair of powerbombs on Devil, who managed to get a foot on the ropes. The only downside is it was only ten minutes (or at least ten minutes shown – who knows how much Samurai TV clipped) but those ten minutes were all quality. ***1/2

2/25/85 AJW, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu 11:55, 0:53, 4:51. Dump and Crane mugged the champions before the match started, leaving Chigusa bleeding. Shiro Abe was thrown out as referee and Jimmy Kayama was given the job. Crush Gals outwrestled the heels early until they were cut off with weapons and interference. Dump teed off on Chigusa with a metal rod and scissors to the horror of all the Crush Gals fans, while Lioness was powerless to help her. Chigusa kept fighting her way back and tagged Lioness, but they all ended up fighting outside, with Crane being legal and in the ring, so she got the count out to take the first fall. The second lasted less than a minute, with Crane receiving a barrage of big moves, and the Crush Gals levelling the match with a spike piledriver. The third fall was just total chaos. Chigusa put Crane in a sharpshooter until Dump came in wielding a bucket, taking out both Chigusa and Lioness. Lioness bled as well. Chigusa took a piledriver from Dump, but it proved insufficient, so Bull and Crane intervened, contributing to a spike piledriver, but Chigusa survived that as well. Chigusa came back, and tagged Lioness, pandemonium ensued as everyone rushed into the ring again. The heels had now decided Jimmy Kayama was the problem, so they took him outside and mauled him, allowing Shiro to take over. Dump started cutting Chigusa's hair with the crowd screaming in horror. The Crush Gals got pummelled, and Shiro counted the fall. You sure don't watch these matches for great technical wrestling. This was all spectacle, with great drama and crowd reactions, Dump style carnage at its best, and easily the best match these teams had. ****

2/27/85: UWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica 21:55. This was worked more like a bitter grudge match than their previous matches. Jaguar had more of an edge to her, immediately going after Galactica's mask and initiating a brawl on the outside. Galactica was more vicious in response, and had help from the usual suspects. Because they went in this direction, it was a slower paced match than their previous two, with less spots. Galactica eventually targeted Jaguar's arm, cutting it open and going for full vampirism points, biting and licking the blood. Galactica relentlessly focused on the arm while Jaguar struggled, unable to use her right arm but found ways to fight back. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, her selling was amazing, and once again made the match, with logical comebacks and only using her injured arm in a limited fashion (had Lioness or another great talent been involved who don't put this much detail into their selling, the match wouldn't have the drama and thus, fallen flat). Jaguar ended up skating through with a count out. She desperately dropkicked Galactica off the apron and hit a plancha, struggling back into the ring to beat the count while Galactica was down. I liked the count out finish here because it was done in a dramatic way, and there was no logical way for Jaguar to actually beat Galactica in the ring in the state she was in. This was an excellent and dramatic match, taking their previous bouts to their logical conclusion. ****

3/15/85: Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka 15:16. This marked the opening contest of the inaugural Japan Grand Prix, a memorable way to begin featuring the tournament's two standout wrestlers and prime contenders for victory. Lioness delivered a slap to Devil's face in the early going, awakening a semblance of the old heel persona in Devil. Devil retaliated ruthlessly slamming Lioness onto the mat and reciprocating with a slap of her own. Devil attempted to dominate, but was never able to keep Lioness at bay for long. The match was highly competitive all the way through. Devil strived to assert control, but was unable to fully dominate with Lioness always being able to retaliate before she could settle in for too long. With each thwarted attempt, Devil's frustration escalated, resorting to nastier tactics, from a simple backrake to trying to choke the life out of Lioness, eventually going after the eyes. It worked enough for Devil to hit a series of big moves on Lioness, but she was unable to finish her off, so she opted to take a risk, going for the rolling senton from the top rope. Lioness avoided it and unleashed a barrage of kicks to knock Devil silly and finished her off with a Giant Swing. Lioness winning here was actually a pretty big upset, and this match was tremendous way to kick off the tournament. ****1/4

4/6/85: Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Jumbo Hori 17:23. This was the first day of a Korakuen Hall double header with two big matches for Lioness Asuka. Today she wrestled Jumbo Hori, and the following day she'd have a huge match against Chigusa Nagayo. Hori carried the match, and it was similar to the Devil match, in that Hori had a lot of control using her power, but couldn't overcome the resilient Lioness and became frustrated by the comebacks, which eventually brought about her downfall. Hori almost seemed to take Lioness lightly at the start after thwarting some kick attempts, but Lioness caught her with a headkick when she had her guard down. She started targeting Lioness's knee. Hori had some control after that, but was eventually outwrestled by Lioness. Lioness's selling here was a lot better than it came be, as she never let you forget about the damage Hori had done to her while she was fighting back. Hori overcame Lioness to hit a pendulum slam, but was frustrated, pulling Lioness outside and attacking her with the ring bell hammer. She got a couple of shots in, but Lioness managed to pry it out of her hands, and nailed her in the injured back with it, which spelled the end for Hori. She wasn't right after that, and although she fought back briefly, Lioness put an end to her in the ring pretty quickly. Another excellent match from Lioness in the Japan Grand Prix, and the best singles match of Jumbo Hori's career. ****

4/7/85: Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 17:57. The theme of the 4/7/85 show was tag team partner battles, with these two and then the Crush Gals fighting each other. Tateno and Yamazaki rarely ever had good matches together, there was the highly entertaining 1983 match where they went all out in junior competition, but they often went through the motions and didn't click together in the way that Lioness and Chigusa did when they battled. This match was the exception though. Yamazaki had her heel edge in this one, prompted by Tateno stomping on her foot during a test of strength causing her to lose it. They worked hard with intensity, even if they weren't particularly smooth all the time. Yamazaki was great in the heel role, nasty, vicious and relentless. Although her fiery, flashy babyface work was always excellent, particularly in tags, it's a shame that she hardly ever worked heel again until she went to JWP. The crowd still loved Yamazaki, and popped big for a high spots, but it was effective enough that Tateno got a bigger reaction when she made the comeback and got the crowd in a frenzy. Tateno couldn't finish Yamazaki off, and Yamazaki came back again. Yamazaki took it up a notch, leaping onto the top rope and executing a plancha. Tateno fought back again in the ring, kicking Yamazaki off the apron when she tried her vaulting kick, and following up with a tope. They had a back and forth finish with Tateno's downfall coming from Yamazaki boomeranging out of the corner. She did it once, but Tateno made the same mistake a second time, and fell victim to a sunset flip. This match was brilliant! Loads of great action and hard work, and mean Yamazaki was always a win. I'd initially thought they'd peaked around the 10 minute mark, as they seemed to lose a little steam, but I was wrong, as they rebuilt to an even bigger peak with a really exciting finishing run. ****1/4

4/7/85 AJW Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo 30:00. The Crush showdown ’85 is not the high end match they'd later deliver, but nonetheless a fascinating encounter where Chigusa finally turns the corner and goes from an adequate worker to a good one. It was quite a tentative match between partners, built around teases more than anything else, which worked because the crowd were so invested they would go ballistic for anything. It was heavily matbased with very solid matwork. They had been training with Akira Maeda, and the shoot style influence was on display. Though they were shown as equals, Lioness was a little stronger than Chigusa by virtue of being more vicious, trying to take Chigusa’s head off with kicks on multiple occasions when she got the chance. This was enough to put them into their more naturals roles of Lioness being the aggressor and Chigusa on defense. Chigusa’s wrestling was much improved here to what we had seen in the past. She always had the crowd psychology down, and worked that to perfection, but previously she had been more of a scrappy wrestler, as you see from juniors where they can do things, but they often look out of control (which has its own charm, but isn’t always pretty). Here she was smoother and far more technically sound, even if she still wasn’t in Lioness’s league in that department. It was paced out well, albeit it was very slow compared to what we normally would see from them. The match was most intriguing during the build up because you sensed the escalation was coming and the teases were extremely effective. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off in any meaningful way, as the escalation was little more than the two trading moves back and forth toward the end, with neither looking like winning, or dare I say, really trying to, thus is all wound up feeling a little flat. ***1/2

5/12/85 2/3 Falls WWWA World Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Pantera Surena 13:39, 4:49, 13:41. This is from a bullring on the Mexican expedition at a UWA event. Pantera Surena is La Galactica without the mask on, as she had been unmasked in Mexico for many years. It also answered the question of how a clean wrestling match between these two would look, with the answer being inconsistent. It was a very long match, totalling over 30 minutes, and it felt it, as they paced it very slowly. Surena was solid. She did some nice work, but it was so slow paced that it got tedious at times, particularly in the first fall. After taking the first fall, Surena dropped the second fall to a figure four, which wasn't doing much damage to her, but she elected to drop the fall and take it to a third rather than risk damage. The third fall was the good one here, and redeemed the whole match. Jaguar started a run, and the crowd rallied behind Surena's comeback. They went hard for pins and big moves, tiring each other out. By the end, they were almost too exhausted to lock up. There were some great falls in the final portion, the best of which being a tombstone piledriver reversal spot, which almost saw Surena get the win. Jaguar found a final burst soon afterward, and took the win after a piledriver. The first two falls were pretty lousy and didn't contribute much other than providing match length for the toll they showed in the final fall, but they got there in the end with a terrific and dramatic final fall. ***

5/16/85: Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Devil Masami vs. Itsuki Yamazaki 9:44. A really fun teacher vs. student match. Yamazaki opted to dive on Devil within the first 30 seconds and refused to let her in, so Devil just dragged her outside and choked her with the microphone cord. Devil worked over her protégé, using every heel tactic short of weapons, and appeared to be enjoying every second of it. They were both very good in their roles, with Yamazaki making spirited comebacks, and fighting well from underneath. There was a great spot where Devil was going for a Romero Special and Yamazaki was trying to claw her way to the ropes, with Tateno trying to help her get there, though it was to no avail. Yamazaki made a decent comeback at the end, but she didn't really have much chance against Devil. ***1/4

5/16/85 2/3 Falls, WWWA Tag Title Match: Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo 4:48, 7:47, 8:09. Crane Yu was the referee for this, which made Gokuaku Domei none too happy. This is one of the more bizarre wrestling stories. A few weeks earlier Dump and Crane battled in a Japan Grand Prix match. Crane was of the impression they were going to have the typical Dump brawl, but without interference because they were equals. Dump had other ideas, and went to Bull and the other members of the group, telling them they were all going attack Crane during the match. So, that's what they did. Crane was so angry over the whole thing that she got on the mic after the match and quit. Legitimately! So, that was the end of Crane Yu (at least until she returned under a mask a few years later). The tag team belts were vacated, and Crane dropped out of the Japan Grand Prix. The Matusnaga's must have liked her enough to convince her to stick around as a referee, and it made sense for this match when you consider the way the match in February unfolded. What's funny is Crane took more bumps in this match as the referee than she did when she was wrestling. Bull was a much better partner for Dump than Crane, as she was more athletic and able to do the Crush Gals faster paced spots better. She was also Dump's junior so the roles between the two were clear, and there was no power struggle. Though, the double-edged sword is that it made it more predictable because you knew that Dump was just doing to dominate, while Bull was going to be feeding all the comebacks whenever she was in the ring. Crane tried to enforce the rules, but she kept getting distracted by Shiro while Dump and Bull wreaked havoc. The Crush Gals were still able to take the first fall. The start of the second fall was cool, as Bull got the nunchakus out, so Chigusa brought in a chair to fight fire with fire. Crush Gals ended up getting mauled though, with Crane having no chance to keep control as the match got chaotic. Dump levelled things up after delivering a bucket shot with Chigusa on Bull's shoulders. I suppose Crane was new to refereeing, so she didn't know the old rule that you don't have to count falls directly off double teams or weapon shots. Amid the chaos in the third fall, Lioness seemingly had the match won with a piledriver, but Crane was pulled out of the ring, preventing her from counting the fall in time. The Crush Gals mounted comebacks, only to be dismantled by weapons. Shiro played a disruptive role, mostly engaging with Crane, but also interfering with Chigusa's sharpshooter. Dump attempted to eliminate Crane with an outside beating, the same tactic that had worked with Jimmy Kayama in February, but this time, she left Bull alone in the ring. Lioness capitalized with a Giant Swing, and Crane managed to get back to count the fall, giving the Crush Gals the belts for the second time. ***1/4

6/25/85 Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 Playoff: Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto 16:40 of 30:00. This was Japan Grand Prix finals day. Lioness Asuka needed to defeat Noriyo Tateno to move onto the finals, which she did in pretty short order. Had she lost, this Dump vs. Chigusa match would have been the final, but with Lioness defeating Tateno, this was made a playoff match with the winner going onto to face Lioness afterward. It was the first one on one match they'd done since Dump became Dump (they had one other match in 1983). I definitely wouldn't want to see the full 30 minutes of this one, but what they showed was a pretty enjoyable Dump match. As a wrestling match, it was way better than their hair vs. hair match. It's mainly lots of Dump using weapons, interference, grinding Chigusa down, Shiro Abe antics, the usual. The heat was off the charts. Chigusa made her spirited comebacks. After so much interference, Yamazaki and Tateno decided to assist Chigusa, though after that Dump started nailing her with scissors, busting her open. She kept making comebacks though, fighting fire with fire, blistering Dump with a chair and actually busting her open. They built some excellent near falls later in the match with Chigusa coming close, and the action was excellent in the final portion, though it kind of fizzled out in the last minute as the time expired. I'm not sure how they actually determined who went onto the finals to face Lioness. Chigusa was on the mic when they returned from the break. I'm not sure if she gave it up (which wouldn't make much sense) or if they drew straws (which was the common thing at the time to determine things like this). In any case, it was Dump vs. Lioness in the final. They tried, but the match was just okay. They never had good matches together to begin with, but with Dump just going 30 minutes with Chigusa, there wasn't much chance. Lioness won the match with a German Suplex hold to take the Japan Grand Prix, setting up her challenge of Jaguar Yokota for the Budokan show in August. ***1/2

8/22/85 2/3 Falls: Noriyo Tateno & Itsuki Yamazaki vs Bull Nakano & Dump Matsumoto 11:53, 6:31. Tateno and Yamazaki never had a chance here, but they put up a good fight. Tateno took the early beating, and once she was able to tag out, Yamazaki cautiously locked up with Bull, only for Dump to jump her from behind. Yamazaki and Tateno were able to hit their hot moves on Bull, but the comebacks were never more than a couple of moves. The first fall ended up in a double count out after a lengthy brawl with no one able to make it back into the ring. Yamazaki and Tateno wanted to fight fire with fire, so Dump tossed away her weapon, and they wrestled cleanly for a while. Of course, Dump only took one move, but they got a run of offense in on Bull. Dump had seen enough of that, and nailed everyone with a bucket to put a stop to that. After another mauling, a spike piledriver to Yamazaki assisted by Bull and Condor Saito put an end to the match. This was a good Dump brawl with the usual carnage, enough drama, and great comebacks from Yamazaki & Tateno when they got the chance. The only issue was you couldn't really buy them as much of a threat. ***1/4

8/22/85 AJW Tokyo Nippon Budokan, All Pacific Title Match: Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo 36:52. The first part of famous Budokan double main event. This was a battle for best bout of the year. Lioness and Jaguar were technically superior to both Chigusa and Devil, and came up with the strategy to have an athletic match with new moves that Devil and Chigusa had no chance to compete with. Devil and Chigusa, knowing they couldn't compete with that, opted to focus their match more on putting meaning behind everything they could and teasing big moves they'd deliver later to create a more dramatic match, which Devil was the master of. Before the match, Chigusa had made the rather bold promise to her fans that she wasn't going to lose to Devil despite doing so in every match they'd ever had together dating back to 1981, the majority of those being one-sided slaughters (their most recent on 5/18/85 in the Japan Grand Prix was more competitive, but Chigusa was still unable to get the better of Devil). The introductions set the scene with their contrasting body language. It was another title defense for Devil, but Chigusa was completely zoned in on Devil, didn't move from the centre of the ring and barely reacted to her introduction. It was the biggest match of her life. Chigusa was able to take Devil down, but couldn't get anything going, and Devil controlled the early portion while the crowd rallied for Chigusa's comebacks. Devil tried to hit suplexes, but Chigusa blocked them all, with each one drawing horrified screams from the schoolgirl fans. Chigusa caught a suplex and looked to work the mat, but Devil resorted to biting to cut that off, and put Chigusa in a Romero Special, which was probably the biggest spot in the first 10 minutes. That didn't work, so Devil attempted to ramp up the viciousness, aiming to ram Chigusa's head into the ringpost, but Chigusa reversed that and took advantage of by unleashing a barrage of kicks. Chigusa only had a brief control segment before Devil was back in the ascendancy, but she was able to do some damage Devil's arm. Devil escaped, and continued looking to hammer away, but Chigusa came back with her kicks. Devil blocked Chigusa's piledriver and Devil hit one of her own. She just tried to grind Chigusa down, but Chigusa fought back again, catching an octopus hold and then a piledriver and superplex. These were big spots in the context of the match that shifted the balance of power towards Chigusa, if she wasn't ahead, they were at least equals. Chigusa continued her assault, but Devil cut off a kick and desperately applied a figure four to shut her down. After escaping, Devil took her outside and dove off the top turnbuckle onto her. In the ring, she tried to kill off Chigusa with backbreakers, but Chigusa escaped a third one and quickly went for a sharpshooter, but Devil blocked it. They struggled for suplexes, blocking and reversing each other, but Chigusa ended up on top and had Devil in a position where she was no longer able to break the sharpshooter. Devil bailed out, looking in serious trouble, but Chigusa wasn't letting her regroup, and hit her with a tope. Devil was at her limit, and her response was to grab the bokken and stab it into the ring apron to pull herself up. This was tremendous with, Devil having that evil look in her eye and the old Devil almost returned, though she decided in the end not go there. After the restart, they took boxing stances and threatened to throw hands, but Devil overpowered Chigusa and went in for the kill with big moves. She was unsuccessful, and Chigusa caught her with an enzuigiri. Then they did start throwing hands, Devil looked to get the advantage, but Chigusa slipped behind and hit a German Suplex for a great near fall. They were both done at this point. They continued exchanging blows, but were in no position to block the big moves anymore, though neither were able to finish. Their dramatic exchange ended with Chigusa landed the decisive blow on Devil, but she also collapsed. Chigusa was able to crawl toward Devil, but never made the cover, and neither one could make it up, resulting in one of the more satisfying draws you'll ever see. The belt remained with Devil, but Chigusa fulfilled her promise that she wasn't going to lose. The word ‘epic' is so over-used these days, lavishing praise upon the pretenders, but this was a truly epic match, and one of the greatest women's matches of all time. Devil called the match, and they didn't plan anything ahead of time, not even the finish, they didn't know whether Devil was going to win or it was going to be a draw, the only agreement was that the belt would stay with Devil and that both main events had a 30 minute time limit, although they went 7 minutes long (Chigusa said she lost track of time after being knocked silly by one of Devil's punches). The finish wasn't decided until the 25 minute mark when Chigusa told Devil “let's make the end of the match exciting by punching and kicking”, which Devil agreed with. This was normal for All Japan Women; they never pre-planned anything. It's sad to think that, all these decades later in the days of everyone ‘scripting' their matches to every last detail, what they did here is such a lost art. In the battle of the main events, Chigusa and Devil were victorious. Fuji TV aired 18 minutes of their match on the TV show the following day, while Jaguar vs. Lioness received only 6 minutes of coverage. The overwhelming crowd response, and the emotional reactions of the special guests left Fuji TV with no choice but to feature Chigusa and Devil's match prominently. Despite Lioness initially being infuriated and attempting to protest to the director of Fuji TV, after watching the match again with a calmer mindset, she acknowledged it was a match like she had never seen before. *****

8/22/85 AJW Tokyo Nippon Budokan, WWWA World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs Lioness Asuka 23:46. The second part of famous Budokan double main event. Jaguar Yokota's dream was to be a main eventer at the Budokan, and here her dream came true. Jaguar was the most talented female wrestler of all time, and she was proud of her wrestling ability, but despite being the champion and leader of the league, she was also aware that she wasn't the reason this show was possible. The call for generational change was getting louder, and Jaguar was all too aware of it. She secretly made her decision under the bright lights of the Budokan, that this would be her last big match. Lioness Asuka was her opponent and her favorite disciple. She was the best athlete after Jaguar, and was the perfect opponent for Jaguar to have the match she dreamed of where she could show everything she had. Jaguar didn't have any time to take it all in though, after Chigusa and Devil had gone 7 minutes over their scheduled time in their match, Lioness and Jaguar were asked to cut their match down to 20 minutes, which they weren't going to do, so they had to get through the introductions and get straight into it. As soon as the bell rang, they were off at an insanely high tempo, countering each other at a speed only these two were capable of. In contrast to this afterward, while featuring some bursts, the match was largely contested on the mat, with the two countered each other there too. Jaguar focused on wearing down Lioness's knee initially, but the tables turned when Lioness managed to injure Jaguar's knee while reversing a Figure four leg lock. Lioness relentlessly targeted Jaguar's injured knee, dropping knees until Jaguar found an opportunity to escape to the floor. Although Jaguar attempted a brief comeback upon reentering the ring, Lioness kicked her knee out and got back on top. The speed picked up again afterward, with Lioness thinking she might be able to go in for the kill, but Jaguar kept fighting back. The pace quickened again, though not quite as fast as they were at the start due to the toll of the match. Lioness stopped Jaguar with a powerbomb, but Jaguar caught a dropkick and an underhook piledriver. Lioness reversed a tombstone, hit an airplane and a giant swing, but that wasn't enough. Frustration was beginning to set in. Lioness attempted to gain an advantage by grabbing Jaguar's back, only to find herself reversed. Jaguar hit the ropes, but in the most brutal looking spot of the match, Lioness caught her in a brainbuster position and launched her over the top rope the outside. You'd think Jaguar was dead, but she wasn't, and avoided Lioness's tope attempt that followed. Lioness was still ahead of the match, but did some damage to her knee. She still went in the for win. A fter a brainbuster and two German Suplexes, they fought on the top rope, with Lioness hurling Jaguar down, but she missed a diving knee drop, allowing Jaguar to capitalize on the mistake and put her away with a new variation of a backdrop hold. Chigusa and Devil had the epic, dramatic masterpiece. This match was the technical, athletic masterpiece. The former might have won the day, but the latter was nothing short of the second-best women's singles match of the 80s. ****3/4

8/28/85: Hair vs. Hair Death Match: Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo 11:38. Six days after the two greatest singles matches of the decade comes the greatest spectacle. This had the classic “Shadow” Dump Matsumoto entrance where Kahoru Kage played the role of Dump, while the real Dump followed behind dressed up as the masked manager. There isn't much to speak of with this match, it's a complete Dump massacre. Chigusa made some comebacks to keep the fans hopeful and fight fire with fire, but as far as she got was applying a sharpshooter to Dump, only to give up her only real advantage when she got suckered into thinking Dump gave up. Dump just mauled her with everything. There was even a wrestling move or two amongst the weapons. As always, the scissors drew those horrified screams. They were used to bust Chigusa open, and cut her hair. The heat was nuclear, and though it would have been anyway, they did a masterful job of working the crowd through the whole thing - another lost art, just watch the way Chigusa runs to all four sides of the ring after juicing to make sure the entire crowd can see it. By the end, it was all futile, someone tossed in a towel to call it off, but Chigusa defiantly threw it back. A chairshot from Dump put her down for the KO though. That was the end of the match, but the drama was only just beginning. The scene leaves all the babyfaces and fans in utter dismay. The heels drag Chigusa into the ring and the haircut begins. 10,000 schoolgirls simultaneously traumatized, crying and screaming at the sight of their hero being shaved in the middle of the ring, and Dump made sure to drag Chigusa around so they could get a closer look. Content, Dump departed, wielding a shinai just in case any schoolgirls wanted to make the jump. This is more of an angle than a match, but it's the most legendary angle in the history of women's wrestling.

9/26/85 Tag League The Best '85: Jaguar Yokota & Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo & Lioness Asuka 12:10. Unlike the Japan Grand Prix, the Tag League didn't provide too many good matches. This was probably the best and most interesting of the league matches (there was a pretty good match between Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Jaguar Yokota & Yukari Omori, though only for Jaguar vs. Yamazaki). This was last time Jaguar would go up against the Crush Gals. Unfortunately, she was not in a good way for this match. She had an ankle injury, and it looked badly blown up. She clearly shouldn't have been wrestling, looking in serious pain even just walking to the ring. Though forced to work almost entirely on the mat, she gave an outstanding performance, and still managed a few spots. It helped that Chigusa and Lioness were both excellent matworkers as well. Omori didn't feature much until later. Lioness eventually gave Jaguar a Giant Swing, and then looked to put an end to things by targeting the injured leg. Jaguar passed out and had to be taken out. The match should have ended there, but Omori wanted to fight on, so she went at it solo. She was a house afire, slugging Lioness down, getting a big run on Chigusa. Lioness got avalanched, but Omori succumbed to double teaming, and Lioness finished her off. ***

10/10/85 Tag League The Best '85 Semi Final: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano 10:27. The winner of this would face the Crush Gals in the finals. Dump and Bull wrestled semi-cleanly for a while, though that all went out the window after babyface comebacks. This was mostly a solid match. Bull and Dump did their thing, though Dump took a few more bumps than she usually does. Yamazaki and Tateno made it good with their exciting comebacks. They have pretty good chemistry with Dump and Bull. They were fired up, and had some good hope spots and near falls, but much like their Budokan match, it was hard to buy them as a threat no matter how much the schoolgirls willed them on. Yamazaki was eventually caught coming off the ropes and put away with a lariat from Dump. She may have kicked out before the three, and tried to debate with the referee, but it was too late, and the finals were set up for later in the show. ***

10/10/85 2/3 Falls Tag League The Best '85 Final: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Dump Matsumoto & Bull Nakano 11:09, 3:18, 11:04. Another chaotic spectacle unfolded in a spectacular way with the members of Gokuaku Domei entering the ring wearing masks. All five of them jumped the Crush Gals, and it settled down to Bull vs. Lioness. Lioness ripped the mask off. Chigusa and Dump went at it next, except it wasn't Dump, it was Shadow Dump again (Kahoru Kage). So, with that plan backfiring, the real Dump came in to get the match started. Chaos ensued, with the Crush Gals on the receiving end, inside and outside with the all the usual weapon and interference. Chigusa got dismantled. Dump started going after her knee, and then undid her bootfaces. Bull accidentally allowed Chigusa to tag out, and Lioness made a big comeback, but outside interference put a stop to that. The Crush Gals got completely dismantled, though won the fall via a DQ. Chigusa was done for though. The second fall was the typical short one. Lioness took over on Bull and Chigusa rejoined. She did well for a while, hitting a piledriver on Dump, but that was all she had. Lioness got some near falls on Bull and Dump, but was put down with a lariat, and a doomsday device with Dump getting the pin to even things up. There was drama between falls, as Masami and Yamazaki got into a pull apart with all the heels. Lioness was out in the corner injured, and Chigusa had to go alone. That one didn't make too much sense. Considering what she usually survives, Lioness being injured off a somewhat gentle flying lariat was really weak, and Lioness's selling wasn't the most convincing either. They would have been better off going with Dump and Bull destroying her with weapons. In any case, it was up to Chigusa to start alone in the third fall. Chigusa started cautiously, but it wasn't long before Dump nailed her in the knee with a trash can, and then nailed the referee with it for good measure. Lioness came back to life to protect her partner. It turned into chaos again with the babyfaces and heels all jumping in, but Chigusa's bad knee was still getting worked over, and the match came to a halt. It was restarted, but there wasn't much for Chigusa. She made a comeback, but was too weak to really do anything, and Dump and Bull just picked apart her knee until the match was stopped. Crush Gals vs. Gokuaku Domei delivered again with another entertaining and dramatic match. ***3/4

12/4/85 2/3 Falls: Noriyo Tateno, Itsuki Yamazaki & Yukari Omori vs. Lioness Asuka, Yumi Ogura & Mika Komatsu 7:57, 1:06, 4:06. This was wild from start to finish, a total action packed hyper-speed match. Yamazaki was head and shoulders above everyone else here, working as fast as I've seen her. Lioness also excels in this sort of a match, but everyone was good. The younger girls, Ogura and Komatsu, weren't as smooth as the others, but tried and actually did pretty well, particularly Ogura. There was some matwork at the start, but it wasn't long before it was all running and moves with fast tags. In the third fall, Lioness and Yamazaki had the best exchange of the match. It wasn't until the end that things slowed down a little again, with Omori's knee being targeted by Ogura, though when Lioness came in, they slapped at each other, and Omori scored a couple of power moves to fight back. Yamazaki and Tateno almost finished off Lioness with their double teaming, but were unsuccessful, though when Ogura came back in Tateno finished her off pretty quickly with a pair of neckbreaker drops and a tombstone. Fantastic little match from start to finish. ***3/4

12/12/85 WWWA World Singles & All Pacific Double Title Match: Devil Masami vs. Dump Matsumoto 19:16. Jaguar Yokota was supposed to wrestle Devil Masami here for the title, and this would have been her final match - win or lose (it was scheduled to be a serious match using the hold down rule, ala Jackie Sato vs. Yokota from 1981). But, the day before, she dislocated her shoulder, so the match with Devil was cancelled, and she dropped the belt. Commissioner Ueda came out to give the update and Jaguar surrendered the belt, the retirement announcement would follow in the coming days. Masami would have to face either Lioness Asuka or Dump Matsumoto (the hold down rule was cancelled and the agreement was Masami was going to win the match). And how do you pick the one who gets the match? Draw straws! Dump won, and the main event was set. They started out with a standoff with their weapons, but handed them off and started wrestling clean. Dump ground down Devil with basic blows and holds while the crowd chanted big for Devil. Dump played hide the weapon for a while, and went for Devil's eyes. Dump just dominated the match while Devil sold huge for everything to make it dramatic. Devil did give a classic babyface performance here, and the match was effective. When she made her babyface comebacks the crowd popped huge. When they hit their big moves, the near falls were dramatic, and there were a number of them. While it started out slowly and Dump's beatdown was nothing interesting or even really brutal enough to warrant the kind of selling Devil was giving, it turned into an exciting match as it went on. The finish saw Yamazaki take out Bull, and then Yamazaki and Tateno assisting Masami with an Electric Chair from the second rope, but because of Dump's size, they had trouble setting the spot up, and it took forever. Devil eventually nailed it, and got the win and both belts. Dump matches thrive on chaos and spectacle, and this was probably the best match you could have hoped for with those things at a minimum. A smart match with a great babyface performance from Devil. ***1/4

1: Jaguar Yokota. Jaguar wanted to go out at her peak, and she did, retaining her place as the top women's wrestler. This year she didn't dominate the top match list like in previous years, she had a couple of high end matches (La Galactica from 2/27 and Lioness Asuka from 8/22), but almost every match she was good, and she was always the standout in every match she was in.

2: Devil Masami. Devil was great in 1985. Her psychology was the best, and she was the most diverse. She was able to switch between babyface and heel based on the opponent, and was great at both, whether it was more animated heel as she showed against Lioness Asuka, more subtle heel as she showed against Chigusa Nagayo, or pure babyface as she showed against Dump Matsumoto. Devil isn't a wrestler who stands out in undercard matches like Jaguar, she was a wrestler for the big match, and she delivered in every one she was in.

3: Lioness Asuka. Lioness was at the top of her game in 1985, specifically in the first half of the year where she was the standout wrestler in the excellent Japan Grand Prix tournament. She was best in tags or with senior opponents who she'd sell for. Her best singles matches came against Devil Masami, Jumbo Hori and Jaguar Yokota, all her seniors, which is no coincidence. If she was wrestling her juniors, she didn't always put on particularly interesting matches because she had a tendency to eat them alive.

4: Itsuki Yamazaki. Yamazaki didn't have the same chances as the big four, but she was right there with them throughout the year. She was the standout wrestler in just about every match she was in, and had a top 5 ranked match with her tag team partner, Noriyo Tateno.

5: Chigusa Nagayo. Chigusa showed much improvement throughout 1985, from the scrappy wrestler we'd seen prior - she still had that and it was part of her charm - but she was now a smooth and very competent matworker, taking influence from the UWF and even training with Akira Maeda. She hadn't peaked yet, but she was getting to that.

1. 8/22/1985 All Pacific Title Match: Devil Masami vs Chigusa Nagayo *****

2. 8/22/1985 WWWA World Single Title Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka ****3/4

3. 3/15/1985 Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Devil Masami vs. Lioness Asuka ****1/4

4. 4/7/1985 Fuji TV Japan Grand Prix '85 League Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki ****1/4

5. 2/25/1985 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Match: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs Dump Matsumoto & Crane Yu ****

Akira Hokuto (Hisako Uno)

Suzuka Minami (Mika Suzuki)

Yumiko Hotta

Mitsuko Nishiwaki

Grizzly Iwamoto (Kumiko Iwamoto)

Yasuko Ishiguro

Kyoko Aso

Kahoru Kage

Sayuri Nakajima

Rie Okabayashi

Fumie Kanzaki

Akemi Sakamoto