Kyoko Kimura

Who is Kyoko Kimura?

Kyoko Kimura is a professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. Kyoko Kimura is best renowned for her Afro-styled hair and powerpack wrestling performances. Her daughter’s controversial death, on the other hand, drew a lot of media attention to her.

Kyoko has remained dedicated to her dream of becoming a professional wrestler.

In her 14-year career, she has fought in prestigious promotions and won numerous trophies.

Childhood and Family

Kyoko Kimura was born on March 19, 1977, in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.

Her father and mother’s identities are unknown.

She has stated in interviews that her father is not present and that her family consists of three people.

Her older sister owns and operates an okonomiyaki restaurant.

After seeing the iconic AJPW bout between Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher vs. Terry and Dory Funk, Kyoko fell in love with wrestling.

It was 1993, and she had just finished her freshman year of high school.

After seeing a documentary on the sheik, Kyoko decided to pursue a career as a wrestler.

She subsequently dropped out of school and enrolled in the FMW dojo.

He had a knee injury and had to retire early while Kyoko was learning her game. After that, she considered her choices.

She relocated to Mexico and began training in Lucha libre. However, she ran out of money and was forced to return to Japan.

Kyoko was a free spirit, an adventure bug. She worked a few odd jobs to save money and go around Asia. She spent much of her time in Southeast Asia, working part-time jobs to supplement her income.

She met and fell in love with a man while in Bali. He worked as a tour guide and was a wonderful person.

Kimura then married her nameless lover and returned to Japan with him. Hana’s parents, on the other hand, were against the marriage because her husband was a foreigner.

Facts of Kyoko Kimura

Net Worth and Salary

Kyoko Kimura’s net worth is estimated to be around $1million-$5million.

It is hard to estimate her net worth as a wrestler’s value depending on their ranking, experience, and league. It is even difficult for Kimura as she is already retired.

Reports have shown that an average professional wrestler earns at least $500k a year.

The number is more than $1 million for a few star wrestlers. Also, there are endorsements, merchandise, and investments that add to their earnings

Back-To-Training

Kimura resumed her training at the JWP dojo in Tokyo while still caring for Hana. She used to ride her bicycle with Hana, and the small girl would sit there and watch her train.

Kyoko, also, graduated from the JWP dojo in 2003. It was finally time to start wrestling professionally after college. She joined the JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion and made her debut on July 20, 2003.

She played a little role in the promotion and remained in the same position for more than two years.

She finally left that job in 2005 and began working as a freelancer. She worked in Ibuki and Oz Academy, and she participated in deathmatches.

Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts Career

Kyoko’s first significant involvement in wrestling was as the villainous Revolucion Amandia stable leader in the NEO Japan ladies pro wrestling banner in 2008.

In October 2009, she toured Mexico with Revolucion Amandia.

She also played for NEO on a regular basis until December 2010. She then began working for the global wonder ring celebrity component in May of 2012.

Kimura began working for the ice ribbon promotion on a regular basis in September of the following year. She won the International ribbon tag team and Reiner world tag team championships during this time.

In 2012, she reached the first-ever 5-star GP finals but was defeated by Yuzuki Aikawa.

She and two monster gun stablemates won the Artist of the Stardom competition in November 2013.

She won the goddesses of fame tag tournament the same month. Then, in January 2014, she won the goddess of stardom championship for the second time, making her the first woman to accomplish it.

In 2015, she made her American wrestling debut in the shimmer women’s championship. More information on her career and ratings can be found on Cagematch.

MMA

On November 11, Kimura made his mixed martial arts debut at the Pancrase Impressive tour. This was a TKO victory for Kimura over Megumi Yabushita.

Kyoko’s next encounter was at Pancrase Progress Tour in January 2012.

She battled Mizuho Sato, but the fight ended in a tie. After that, in April 2012, the Japanese wrestler defeated South Korean MMA fighter Kim Sung Eun.

On the Pancrase progress tour, she had a match with Rin Nakai, but she lost. This is her first MMA defeat.

Retirement

Kyoko, a well-known wrestler, announced his retirement on January 22, 2017, at a big ceremony in Korakuen Hall.

She competed in matches alongside her daughter and spouse at the ‘Last Afro’ event.

In a six-person tag team match, Aja Kong, Meiko Satomura, and Minoru Suzuki beat Hana Isao and Kyoko. After that, Kimura engaged in a bonus fight with Hana, which Hana won with a huge boot.

Children and Marriage

Kyoko Kimura, who is now a household figure in Japanese wrestling, married Isao Kobayashi in February 2016. He is also a professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, for those who are unaware.

Isao is also 11 years of Kyoko’s junior. When they came out as a couple, a few eyebrows were raised, as was to be expected.

A mother’s daughter holds a particular place in her heart. Hana was no less important to Kyoko.

Kyoko gave birth to Hana when she was just 19 years old, and she battled valiantly to ensure that Hana had a good upbringing.

Not to mention that they were both wrestlers who even fought each other. They were the perfect mother-daughter duo.

Hana, too, grew up watching her mother wrestle and developed an interest in the sport. Despite her mother’s best efforts, Hana’s childhood was far from idyllic.

Hana, for example, was regularly bullied at school because of her mixed ethnicity, and she used to cry all the time. But, happily, she flourished despite the adversity.

Hana had a passion for modeling and dancing as well. She aspired to be a movie star! She used to tell her mother how much she wanted to be in front of the camera.

Nonetheless, Kyoko was overjoyed when Kimura made her professional wrestling debut in 2016. The duo has competed in a number of matches together.

In October 2016, the duo won the title of ‘Artist of the Stardom‘ with Partner Kagetsu. Individual matches were also held between the two.

Hana lost their first match, but in tag team action against Kyoko in 2016, she finally triumphed.

Death and the Terrace House

Hana decided to join ‘Terrace House,’ a Japanese reality show, in 2019. Her motivation behind this action was her obvious love for the camera and her internal wish to spread the word about female wrestlers.

Terrace house is a pretty popular show in Japan and is broadcasted by Fuji TV and Netflix Japan. This show follows six strangers living together temporarily and getting to know each other.

However, the show made Hana’s schedule hectic. She had to shoot for the show day and night in addition to her wrestling matches. By the end of 2019, she was already talking about quitting the show.

After the episodes started to release on Netflix, Hana started to receive online hate and bullying.

The hate was mainly directed towards one episode where she is engaged in a fight with a cast member.

On May 23, 2020, Hana was found dead by suicide. During this time, she was isolated at her house due to the covid pandemic.

Earlier that day, she had made strings of tweets implying suicidal thoughts and posted self-harm photos, and some hate messages she had received.

Aftermath

This incident gained backlash from all over the country and also from international wrestling fans. In addition, the vile fans of ‘Terrace house’ were called out for their problematic behavior.

Kyoko then filed a complaint against cyberbullies who targeted Hana with Japan’s Human Rights Committee. She also vowed to work against cyberbullying’s hideous culture and enact laws to stop similar incidents from happening again.

Later, a formal arrest was made on a person who made death threats to Hana via messages. This person apologized to Hana’s family via email.

Kimura spoke against the show, saying the whole incident was scripted, and Hana was forced to behave that way.

Fuji TV later did an internal investigation of the incident without involving any third parties. However, Kyoko went on to say that the report was full of lies and didn’t tell the actual truth.

Memorial Shows & Shop

In early February, Kyoko announced a Hana memorial online shop.

This shop features merchandise dedicated to Hana. The proceeding from the shop is to go towards trial and lawyer fees regarding Hana’s case.

Moreover, Kyoko has announced a memorial match for Hana during the anniversary of her death called ‘See You Again.’ This show will be held in Korakuen Hall. The tickets will go on sale at the end of February.

Kimura is also teaming up with Kai Koboyasi, Hana’s housemate from Terrace House, who was involved with her in the fight incident, to start a by any way possible.

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Social Media Presence

Kyoko doesn’t have a glamorous social media presence like most stars. Instead, she keeps a low profile there. But she does have a blog where she writes her random memoir and thoughts.

Similarly, her writings express how severely Hana’s passing has affected her.

Her Twitter has 28.5k followers, her Instagram has 1.3k followers