About Chigusa Nagayo
Chigusa Nagayo (長与千種, Nagayo Chigusa; born December 8, 1964) is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the Crush Gals with long-time tag team partner Lioness Asuka. In 1995 she founded GAEA Japan and in 2014 created its successor Marvelous That's Women Pro Wrestling. Nagayo is often regarded as the most popular and one of the greatest and most influential female wrestlers of all time. Wrestling Journalist and historian Dave Meltzer has stated that in the 1980s, the Crush Gals reached a level of popularity in Japan equatable to Hulk Hogan in the United States in the same period, and thereafter Chigusa Nagayo was the most popular woman in wrestling for an extended period until her first retirement in 1989. == Professional wrestling career == === All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (1980–1989) === ==== Early career (1980–1983) ==== Nagayo debuted on August 8, 1980, for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) against Yukari Omori. She cried upon losing and was scolded by Tomi Aoyama, a member of the Queen Angels, who was retiring that night. Through 1981, she only wrestled eight times due to the promotion having too many wrestlers. On May 15, 1982, Nagayo won the vacant AJW Junior Championship by defeating Itsuki Yamazaki. ==== Crush Gals (1983–1986) ==== On January 4, 1983, Nagayo was matched against her future partner and one-half of the future Crush Gals, Lioness Asuka. They had a standout performance and got a good reaction, which led to them becoming partners.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.