Japanese Female Wrestling, Jaguar Yokota

Here is a picture of legendary joshi puroresu star Jaguar Yokota.
This also was posted by hugo999 at the Box y Lucha forum, again showing Japanese womens wrestling's appeal.

In her prime, Jaguar was considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, male or female.
And she held the belts to prove it.
She held the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) All Japan Junior Championship, the AJW All Japan Singles Championship, the World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship (with Ayumi Hori), the WWWA World Singles Championship twice, the NWA International Tag Team Championship (with Hitomi Okumura), the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) World Women's Championship, the TWF World Women's Title, the TWF World Women's Tag Team Championship (with Yuko Kosugi) and the AWF Women's Championship.
And in 1996, Jaguar Yokota was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

The AJW Championship, Part 2

On July 25, 1985, Bull Nakano defeated Mika Komatsu for the AJW Championship.
Yumi Ogura won the belt on January 28, 1988 in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Then on July 10, 1988, Mika Komatsu took the title in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (?).
The title was then vacated and Erika Shishido beat Manami Toyota for the belt on March 19, 1989 back in Tokyo, Japan.
Reibun Amada won the title on August 24, 1989 in Tokyo, but the title was again vacated when Reibun retired in October, 1989.
Manami Toyota won the belt by defeating Mika Takahashi on November 18, 1989 in Matsuda, Kanagawa, Japan, but AGAIN the title was vacated on September 1, 1990.
Kyoko Inoue defeated Takako Inoue to take the title on October 2, 1990 in Yamagata, Yamagata, Japan.
But Takako turned around and beat Kyoko on April 29, 1991.
This was followed by the title being won by Mariko Yoshida, Sakie Hasegawa, Tomoko Watanabe and Kaoru Ito until the American Debbie Malenko won the belt on February 10, 1993 in Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan.
She held the title until it was...guess what?....yes vacated again, in 1993 because Debbie was injured and could not defend it.

The AJW Championship

The first ever AJW Champion, Rimi Yokota

I did an entry awhile back on the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. It was the main title in the Japanese women's professional wrestling promotion All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW).
But they had another title, the AJW Championship.
This title started in 1980 and ran until after the promotion closed in 2005.

The first ever AJW Champion was Rimi Yokota, better known as Jaguar Yokota. She won the belt in Tokyo on December 15, 1980, beating Nancy Kumi.
The title was vacated a few months later on March 7, 1981.
Devil Masami then defeated Tomoko Kitamura on May 9, 1981 to claim the title, and it was vacated again on April 7, 1982.
Lioness Asuka then defeated Masked Yu on July 19, 1982, becoming champion until she was defeated by Kaoru Matsumoto on January 8, 1983.
Asuka came back and beat Kaoru Matsumoto taking the title again till it was vacated yet again on January 18, 1984.
On February 28, 1984, Itsuki Yamazaki defeated Noriyo Tateno to win the belt, and she held it until it was vacated AGAIN on February 25, 1985.

To be continued.....

Aiko Kyo - Japanese Wrestling

Japanese female wrestler Aiko Kyo was born in 1948.
She worked for AJW (All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling) her entire career.
Aiko held the World Women’s Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Championship three times (being the first Japanese woman to hold the title) and was one half of the WWWA Tag Team Wrestling champions three times with Jumbo Miyamoto.

Manami Toyota - Part 2

However, the feud between Manami and Toshiyo Yamada was not yet over.
It reached it's climax on August 15th, 1992 at Korakuen Hall in a Hair vs. Hair match. The bout was a very dramatic one, but what made the event was what occurred after the match. Manami, even though she had won the match, did not want Toshiyo to get her head shaved, and had to be forcefully restrained by four preliminary girls, who eventually forced her back to the mat. In respect of the match conditions Toshiyo wanted her head shaved and went ahead with the stipulation.

Soon after this match the two women once again teamed up to win their first World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship in March 1992, defeating "Jungle Jack" (Aja Kong and Bison Kimura) in Tokyo. At AJW’s Dreamrush shown on November 26th, Manami and Toshiyo defended their WWWA Tag Team wrestling titles against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki in a legendary two out of three falls match, which is considered one of the best wrestling matches ever.

In April of 1992 Manami furthered her singles career by defeating Kyoko Inoue on April 25th in Yokohama for the IWA World Women's Championship. Toyota defended that title eight times over the course of the next three years, before losing it to Reggie Bennett in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on May 15th, 1995.

At Dreamslam II, on April 11th, 1993 Manami and Toshiyo fought a rematch against JWP Project's Kansai and Ozaki in yet another highly-rated two out of three falls encounter. This time, however, Manami and Toshiyo were on the losing side, and Kansai and Ozaki got their revenge. The feud concluded at AJW’s St. Battle Final event, on December 6th, 1993, when Manami and Toshiyo regained their tag titles.

On August 24th, 1994 Manami once again squared off against Kyoko Inoue, and defeated her to unify the IWA and All Pacific Singles Championships. Manami’s run with the two titles was not to last very long, because on October 9th, 1994, Inoue gained a measure of revenge against Manami, when Kyoko and her partner Takako Inoue (no relation) won the WWWA Tag Team Championship from Manami and Toshiyo. Manami then vacated her All Pacific Championship, prior to her first WWWA Heavyweight Championship match against the monstrous Aja Kong at AJW’s Queendom III show, on March 26th, 1995. The match saw Manami reach the summit of AJW when she won and became the 39th WWWA Champion.

On May 7th, Manami defended her crown against arch-rival Kyoko Inoue at the Korakuen Hall, where the two fought to a 60 minute time limit draw. Despite piledrivers on the floor, German suplexes off the top rope, and multiple finishers, neither combatant was able to secure outright victory. Nonetheless, Manami retained, and the match was voted Match of the Year for 1995 in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The following month, Manami lost the WWWA Championship to former champion Aja Kong, on June 27.

Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue (May 7, 1995)