Mima Shimoda

Mima Shimoda
Height: 168cm (5' 6")
Weight: 62kg (136.7 lbs)
Date of Birth: December 23, 1970
Pro Wrestling Debut: : 8/5/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall vs. Etsuko Mita

Shimoda was a member of AJW's class of 1987, which featured future stars Manami Toyota, Toshiyo Yamada, & Etsuko Mita. Originally, Shimoda was paired with Toyota as an idol team called the Sweethearts, while Yamada & Mita formed Dream Orca. Of the two teams, Dream Orca had more success, capturing the Zen Nihon Tag Senshuken from Reibun Amada & Miori Kamiya (Cooga) on 6/14/89. However, they soon had to vacate the titles when Yamada, who was clearly the star of her team, was injured. Toyota was clearly the star of her team. Just after Sweethearts lost the Zen Nihon Tag decision match to the Honey Wings on 6/1/90, Toyota got a major singles push winning Japan Grand Prix '90 to get her first title WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken shot against Bull Nakano. She had basically left Shimoda in the dust, doing two things in singles at the young age of 19 that Shimoda would never do in her entire career. Mita & Shimoda were put together as a team, and Shimoda got her revenge against the Honey Wings taking the title from them on the undercard of the 11/18/90 Wrestle Marinepiad '90 show.

Early in her career, Shimoda progressed slowly. Her offense was pretty weak, mainly jumping around the ring with low impact moves. She was the lower rated wrestler on her team, so she usually wound up being the bump girl, especially when teamed with the larger Mita. Although she had a run with both Zen Nihon singles titles, she's always been almost exclusively a tag wrestler. In fact her name is synonymous with women's tag wrestling, and that's where she's always done her best work.

Shimoda showed a lot of improvement in 1992, but it wasn't until 1993 that she really got good. The thing with Shimoda is once she got good, she got really good. Although her first six years weren't that great, and she would never have had the chance if they still forced you to retire, Shimoda's body of work since 1993 is good enough to place her in the second ten of best women ever list.

One important change that helped her improve was being positioned as a heel under senpai Akira Hokuto in the Las Cachorras Orientales group. Shimoda would have become a great bump girl and complementary wrestler either way, but this got her to develop her persona, emotions, and charisma. She was no longer just a worker, she was a wrestler with a "nasty" attitude that was becoming a diverse, all around, performer. Ironically, her most memorable moment of 1993 probably wasn't punking anyone, it was the display of emotion that seemed genuine, crying while watching Kandori put her mentor Hokuto away in the only rematch of their legendary Dreamslam match on 12/6/93.

http://www.quebrada.net/info/Shimodainfo.html