1983 saw a new style born that would take over Zenjo and become the style that everyone associates with the league, the go-go hyper-speed tag team match. They may look archaic compared to what came later, but really stood out compared to came before. The specific match was the 8/21/1983 Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo match, and it was also the first Crush Gals match seen on TV after becoming the Crush Gals. At the start of the year, Mimi Hagiwara concluded her year long feud with Devil Masami. It ended in a crushing victory for Devil and Tarantula where both Mimi and Jaguar Yokota were destroyed and beaten. With Mimi failing to regain the tag team belts, even with the ultimate tag team partner, there was nowhere else to go. A rare case of a feud ending cleanly, and the heel coming out on top. Mimi spent most of 1983 wrestling gaijin, and had few noteworthy matches. Devil Masami started a slow babyface turn that was teased throughout a very good three-match series with her usual partner, Tarantula, against the Dynamite Girls, and continued throughout 1983. Devil also faced Jaguar for the WWWA World Single title on 9/7/1983, in a serious match using the hold down rule (same rule used for Jaguar's title win against Jackie Sato), but no footage of the match seems to have survived (though footage of the Crush Gals vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Noriyo Tateno from the same show does). I believe the Matsunaga's wanted Devil to win, and take over Jaguar's spot, as Devil was ready by this point and had more fan support, but despite being smaller in stature, Jaguar was too strong and won the match. Afterwards, Devil exclaimed that she was quitting, but thankfully she didn't. Jaguar's big program of the year was against La Galactica, with the hair vs. mask WWWA World Single title match being the most memorable moment. Jaguar lost the belt after 801 days as champion, and got her hair cut, but regained it a couple of weeks later (and no footage of the rematch exists either), the hair took a little longer, however.

1/4/83, All Japan Title Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo. The early years of Chigusa Nagayo's career weren't a happy time for her, struggling to stand out amongst her peers, being among the lowest ranked of them, and not showing much if any potential. Lioness, on the other hand, was a prodigy, the perfect junior and an absolute freak athlete. From day one, she looked like she would be the one to succeed Jaguar or Devil once she came of age. After being embarrassed, losing to her junior Noriyo Tateno on 8/10/82, Chigusa decided she was done with wrestling and this would be her last match. She still wanted the chance to show ‘her' pro wrestling and Lioness agreed. Rather than the technically precise, smooth matches they'd have in later years, this was scrappy fight, though the stiffness was already there. Lioness worked most of the match in control, which was the best thing for the match, as Chigusa wasn't yet on her level and her strong suit was drawing the crowd in with her selling. Lioness won the brawling, hit some moves and worked over Chigusa before Chigusa made a comeback with her own matwork. While Lioness was clearly more skilled and Chigusa's work was on the rough side, she understood the psychology she wanted to show and was getting little things right with her intent and showing the crowd how much she wanted this. She worked Lioness' knee over, injuring it, giving us the funny visual of Jimmy Kayama yanking on her knee to pull it back into place. I suppose it worked because Lioness completely stopped all of her selling once she got back in the ring, and they went hard at each other to the finish. Lioness, at one point, did a crazy backdrop suplex where Chigusa rotated and landed on her head. Lioness won convincingly and Chigusa's reaction in the post-match was perfect, she showed her disappointment at the loss, but had a look of fire in her eyes. This was a very good match, particularly for their experience level, and it worked to convince the Matsunaga's there was something there with Chigusa. The following day she went to Kunimatsu to tell him she was quitting, but before she could, he started praising the match and telling her that she showed the crowd who she was, and to keep doing it. And with that, instead of it being the end, it was only the beginning. ***1/2

1/4/83, 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Devil Masami & Tarantula vs. Jaguar Yokota & Mimi Hagiwara. Mimi's last shot at Devil and Tarantula. She had the best partner this time. Jaguar made her presence felt at the start and Mimi was on fire, though it wasn't long before she got mugged by Devil on the outside and put into the face in peril spot. This time Devil was going for the throat with some good heel work. Jaguar got the hot tag though, and a run of her great burst offense, ending the first fall after a brainbuster on Tarantula. The second fall saw Mimi getting mugged, choked with a microphone cord and double teamed with Devil and Tarantula steamrolling the fall. Jimmy Kayama's incompetent refereeing drew the ire of Mimi again, and Jaguar was more than happy to lend a hand giving him a thrashing as they turned tossed him around and threw a table on him. They looked to give Devil and Tarantula some of their own medicine, and Devil got busted open. That really only pissed her off though, and she completely destroyed Mimi and Jaguar with a pair of press slams, throwing both of them from the ring to the outside. They got them both back in the ring and hit stereo brainbusters with both getting pinned at the same time to win the match in an emphatic way. Rare enough in these days for a feud to end, much less the heels winning in such a dominant way. The work here was a higher level than the other matches over the previous year, the only thing missing was a hotter third fall, though what we got was certainly memorable. ***3/4

5/7/83, WWWA World Single Title Hair vs. Mask Death Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica. There's a lot to like about this match, and a lot to hate, or more accurately, one thing to hate, but it's a constant occurrence. The wrestling was actually really good, Jaguar was brilliant as always, and although Galactica didn't have a great deal of offense, she could do what she needed to and was better than most of Jaguar's opponents. The problem was Monster Ripper was in La Galactica's corner and constantly interfered any time Jaguar took over to the point where it just became tiresome. Sure, it was done this way so Jaguar wouldn't look bad in losing, and the match layout was faultless in that regard, even if it was cheap, but it didn't make the match more enjoyable. I'm all for some interference when it's warranted (and it was here), but it would have been better had it been kept to handful of key moments rather than done to the point of repetition. Jaguar eventually got enough of it and went after Galactica's mask with scissors, and went after everyone with a chair, including the referees. Afterwards, she went for a tope and crashed and burned, the sound of it was brutal as she crashed into the announce table. Jaguar got killed by both Ripper and Galactica after that with dives and Galactica picked up the win. The haircutting drama followed, and Jaguar would be sporting a new haircut for the foreseeable future. Jaguar won the belt back a few weeks later on 6/1/83 in a rematch, but sadly, the taping of that show has never surfaced. She also got revenge on Monster Ripper on 6/14/83, which we do have footage of, but it was a pretty lousy match and not worth watching. This is a tough one to rate, part of me says 3 stars, another part says 4, so I'll split the difference. ***1/2

6/14/83, 2/3 Falls WWWA Tag Title Champion Decision Match #3: Jumbo Hori & Yukari Omori vs. Devil Masami & Tarantula. This was the final match of a three match series (though due to the finish it would effectively become a four match series, but infuriatingly, we don't have the fourth match available). The first match on 4/11/83 got things off to a bit of a wobbly start. It turned out to be a pretty good match due a quality third fall, but the first two falls weren't particularly good. The Dynamite Girls got the victory in that one. The second match on 5/7/83 was a 2-0 sweep for Devil and Tarantula. This was an improvement over the first match by cutting out things that didn't work the first time. It also took things in a different direction, despite losing 2-0, the Dynamite Girls looked more dominant, and Masami looking vulnerable in order to subtly turn her babyface. This third match continued that story. Things were squared 1-1 going into the third after Tarantula was destroyed and carried out, leaving Masami to fight all alone against both Dynamite Girls. Masami never really turned babyface, but the seeds were planted, and it was impossible not to get behind here. She had some help from Masked Yu and certainly wasn't afraid to cheat and use underhanded tactics. It ended up in a wild brawl to a count out. The match was restarted, but the Dynamite Girls still couldn't put Devil away. Devil made comebacks, and was too stubborn to stay down, even looking like she might able to win, but the time limit expired ending things in a 1-1 draw. This was a really good match, though perhaps not as good in a vacuum as it is with the context of the previous two matches. The overall series was excellent, better than the sum of its parts, and it's best experienced that way. It may be disappointing there was no conclusion to it, but it was probably the right call. If Devil had won the Dynamite Girls would have looked pretty weak losing a 2 vs. 1, and if they'd won it would have likely turned them heel while they were supposed to be the babyface team. In any case, the fourth match just three days later on 6/17/83 was won by the Dynamite Girls, kicking off the second longest WWWA Tag Title reign in Zenjo history. ***1/2

7/83, All Japan Junior Title Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki. A match that's a favorite among the thirsty subset of Zenjo fans due to Tateno getting her wardrobe wrong and almost falling out of her top. This was some time before these two became good, but they had one hell of a fight here in a match that really showed what junior matches were all about and how much the belt meant. It's mostly basic junior stuff with a few more advanced moves thrown in. It's not always the most graceful match, but it's an intense scrap between two juniors keen to show they were the best of their class. They went hard at each other here from start to finish, which may not have been the best idea since the building was a hotbox and they both got tired a lot faster than normal, but it made for a really exciting and memorable junior match. The ‘shoot pin' portion was something else, they never stopped or let up and settled for simple bodyslams and takedowns, they just kept going hard. They were so exhausted they could barely even execute a takedown by the end of the match, but neither one was willing to stay down, and they both hung on for the time limit draw. This was pretty much the definition of leaving it in the ring. ***1/2

8/21/83, 2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno vs. Crush Gals (Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo). If you want to see the birth of the go-go style (or whatever other name it was christened as) that would become the trademark of Japanese women's pro wrestling as everyone knows it for decades to come, this is it. It's the first time we see the Crush Gals named as such on TV and wearing their trademark colors. Much of this match was contested at a super-fast pace generally only seen in bursts previously. The constant in and out tags that would soon become commonplace were showcased as well. This was undoubtedly the style of match Jaguar always wanted to do, but never had opponents capable of it. Jaguar herself was the standout and miles above everyone else, Lioness was able to go with her and did some great stuff in the third fall. Chigusa didn't stand out much and wasn't a particularly smooth worker at this point, but she was game, and able to keep the pace. Tateno, despite being a junior with limited offense, wasn't a passenger either, she was also game and had a lot of energy (and Jaguar wasn't dropping any falls, so someone had to eat two pins). The first fall was short, only clocking in at around three minutes (all of the falls were on the short side with the other two going around five minutes each). Chigusa and Jaguar started things off, but they all had a go within the short amount of time. Jaguar took the first fall after a couple of seated sentons and suplexes to Lioness. The second fall was the slowest of the three, with the Crush Gals generally in control. At the end of the fall, Jaguar took over and brought Tateno in, but Tateno accidentally whipped Chigusa into her, sending her crashing out to the announce table (making sure it made a loud band for the microphone to pick it up so it sounded nasty), while Chigusa took advantage and quickly finished Tateno off. Chigusa started the third fall with Tateno in a gutwrench position and canned her on her head, which looked horrible in more ways than one. There were loads of tags in and out and we had some terrific fast exchanges between Lioness and Jaguar here, with Tateno and Chigusa being more junior-esque with theirs. Tateno got caught in a Giant Swing at the end, which spelled her end. Jaguar gave referee Jimmy Kayama a beating after the match like always. Historic match from a stylistic perspective, really well worked with tons of action t hough perhaps not one that will necessarily stand out if you're comparing it to matches that took place in the 20 years that followed. ****

1: Jaguar Yokota. Like 1982, although Jaguar was further ahead this year as Devil didn't have as strong of a year, and Mimi did nothing noteworthy. The Crush Gals came into the picture, but they weren't top wrestlers yet (particular Chigusa, who had little going for her at this point other than psychology and will).

2: Devil Masami

3: Lioness Asuka

4: Chigusa Nagayo

5: Jumbo Hori

1 8/21/1983: 2/3 Falls: Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno vs. Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo ****

2 1/4/1983: 2/3 Falls, WWWA World Tag Title Match: Devil Masami & Tarantula vs. Jaguar Yokota & Mimi Hagiwara ***3/4

3: 5/7/1983: WWWA World Single Title Hair vs. Mask Death Match: Jaguar Yokota vs. La Galactica ***1/2

4: 1/4/1983: All Japan Title Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo ***1/2

5: 7/1983: All Japan Junior Title Match: Noriyo Tateno vs. Itsuki Yamazaki ***1/2

Bull Nakano (Keiko Nakano)

Yumi Ogura (Hyper Cat)

Mika Komatsu

Kanako Nagatomo

Masami Yanagishita (Tommy Ran)

Yuko Tajima

Mr. Buddhaman (midget wrestler)

Tomezo Tsunokake (midget wrestler)