Underground Spotlight: Manami Toyota

I will try do an introduction on people in wrestling who are not in the WWE and TNA to get you guys familiar with the talents and how their careers have been. Manami Toyota was trained in the All Japan Women's Wrestling Dojo by fellow Japanese Joshi legend Jaguar Yokota and made her professional wrestling debut on August 5, 1987 at the age of 16 against Sachiko Nakamura in All Japan Women's Wrestling.

It wasn't until two years later at age 18 where she would capture the eyes of the fans and veterans where she and Mima Shimoda who were known as the Tokyo Sweethearts defeating the team of Toshiyo Yamada(Who she would team up with later on) and Etsuko Mita. During that match Toyota displayed the very same skills that would make her a huge star including flashy moves and dramatic near falls. At the time AJW thought the Tokyo Sweethearts could become the next Beauty Pair or Crush Girls but unfortunately did not met those expectations.

Later on that year she would go on and win the AJW Championship, which was her only reign with the title. She defended the AJW Championship a total of 3 times before the title got vacated in September of 1990. A month later she would capture the All Pacific Championship after defeating Bison Kimura in the tournament finals for the vacated championship, she would defend it only once before dropping it to the previous champion Suzuka Minami 5 months later. That year Toyota also won the Japan Grand Prix for the first time defeating Yumiko Hotta in the finals.

Between this time and 1992 Toyota was engaged into a feud with Toshiyo Yamada. Despite the two feuding they would eventually get paired together as a tag team and in early 1992 Yamada and Toyota became the first UWA Women's World Tag Team Champions after defeating the team of KAORU and Lady Apache. From there AJW realized that Toyota's true chemistry lied with Yamada who possessed a different style with short hair and brutal striking.

While tagging with Yamada, Toyota manage to continue her singles career and during that time manage to defeat longtime rival Kyoko Inoue for the IWA Singles Championship gaining her first of many 5 star matches rated by Dave Meltzer,  she would go on to defend the title 8 times over the course of 3 years before losing to Reggie Bennett in 1995. She would earn her next 5 star match against her tag partner Toshiyo Yamada later that year in a Luchas de Apuestas match with both wrestler's hair on the line, Toyota won and ended the feud but despite winning she did not want Yamada's hair shaved so she had to be restrained by four prelim girls as Yamada willing got her head shaved.

Toyota and Yamada would go on to win the WWWA World Tag Team Championships which was the  top tag team championship in AJW defeating Jungle Jack (Aja Kong & Bison Kimura). The tag team would then go on to have a series of tag team matches that made their careers, Yamada and Toyota would defend against the team of Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki from JWP at AJW's Dreamrush show in a 2/3 falls match which gained high praise from fans and insiders. They would have a rematch with the tag team in JWP but this time fell short as Kansai and Ozaki ended their year long reign, the match would also win match of the year from the Wrestling Observer. The final match between the two teams saw Toyota and Kansai regaining the tag titles, each match gained the rare 5 star match rating and even still to this day is considered on of the best series of matches in pro wrestling history.

In the Fall of 1993 Manami Toyota would team up with another rival Akira Hokuto, the two would then go on to win the Tag League. In April of 1994, Toyota would team with Sakie Hasegawa and win the Okanawa Cup Tag Tournament defeating Takako Inoue and former partner Toshiyo Yamada in the finals of the tournament. In August of 1994, Toyota would defeat Kyoko Inoue to unify the IWA and All Pacific Championships but two months later Kyoko Inoue and her partner of "Double Inoue" Takako Inoue would go on to defeat Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada for the WWWA World Tag Team Championships. Manami once again teamed up with a different partner Takako Inoue exactly the day before Double Inoue defeated Yamada and Toyota for the tag titles. The two would go on to defeat Aja Kong and Reggie Bennett with Toyota earning her second win in the Tag League.


Toyota would then give up her All Pacific Championship right before her up and coming bout with Aja Kong for the companies top prize the WWWA World Championship, Toyota would go on to defeat Kong to become the 39th WWWA Champion in her first reign. One of Toyota's defenses was against Kyoko Inoue in a match that when into a 60 minute draw with some lethal spots and yet another 5 star rating and Match of the Year despite 1995 being a year of big competition. She would drop the title back to Aja Kong in another 5 star classic but would bounce right back into title contention after she won the Japan Grand Prix for the second time defeating Yumiko Hotta in the finals. Before she had her title match she would go up against Akira Hokuto at AJW's Destiny event racking up yet another five star bout after gaining another rating just 3 days prior teaming with Hasegawa against Double Inoue and another a month before against Mima Shimoda. After the back to back 5 star bouts, Manami was voted as the Most Outstanding Wrestler by the Wrestling Observer.



At AJW Monday Night Sensation, Manami Toyota received her shot and defeated Dynamite Kansai to win her second WWWA World Championship and defended the title successfully 3 times against Kyoko Inoue, Yumiko Hotta and Aja Kong. Toyota would team up with her former Tokyo Sweethearts partner Mima Shimoda and defeat Double Inoue to once again capture the WWWA World Tag Team Championships, something the team was unable to do before. Despite teaming with Shimoda, Manami Toyota went on to win the Tag League for a 3rd time with Rie Tamada. 7 days after winning the Tag League, Toyota lost the WWWA World Championship to Kyoko Inoue in a match that saw the All Pacific and IWA Women's World titles unified with the WWWA World Title and one month later into the next year Toyota and Shimoda would loss the tag titles to Kumiko Maekawa & Tomoko Watanabe in a 2/3 Falls Tag Match.

Manami would not achieve anymore huge success until January 1998 where she would team with Kaoru Ito to defeat Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka for the JWP Tag Team Championship, However the team would lose the titles to Hikari Fukuoka & Tomoko Kuzumi just a few days later. But Toyota would once again go on to win the Japan Grand Prix for the 3rd time against ZAP I(Kaoru Ito). In November of 1998, Toyota would challenge Chigusa Nagayo at the AJW 30th Anniversary Show for the AAAW Championship from Nagayo's company GAEA Japan. The match was billed as a one-time-only legends bout that saw arguably the two best female wrestlers ever go at it but Toyota would fall short in that match. In August 1999, Toyota would win her final Japan Grand Prix defeating Yumiko Hotta in the finals.

She would also win a battle royal in the month of August. Also that year she managed to recapture the Tag League for a 4th time with Miho Wakizawa defeating the team of Kumiko Maekawa and Tomoko Watanabe in less than 2 minutes. On January 4th, 2000, Manami Toyota defeated Yumiko Hotta to capture the WWWA World Championship for a third time, she would drop the title later that year to Kaoru Ito. Toyota then won a Christmas tournament defeating Momoe Nakanishi is the finals. The next year she would capture her final Tag League victory with Yumiko Hotta as her partner defeating Kaoru Ito and Momoe Nakanishi in the finals.

In 2002, She defeated Kaoru Ito to recapture the WWWA World Championship for the 4th and final time and the last accolade she would obtain in AJW, Later in the year she would lost the title to Ito again. Toyota then moved on to GAEA Japan to compete full time from 2002 to 2004 where she won the AAAW Championship which she held for 406 days with the second longest reign in the company only to be surpassed by Aja Kong by 200 days. She lost the title to Dynamite Kansai in November of 2003. She was also inducted into the Hall of Fame class of 2002 for the Wrestling Observer.

She won the GAEA Tag Team Championship with Carlos Amano in September of 2004 and lost the team lost the titles to Toshie Uematsu and Ran Yu-Yu at GAEA Yokohama Final Impact which was the second to last show before the company folded. In 2006 Toyota won the JWP Openweight Championship which was JWP's top title at it's annual Spring event JWP–Mania–X 2006. She would hold on to that title for 113 days with 3 successful defenses until she was dethroned by Azumi Hyuga.
Toyota put her wrestler career on hiatus after her August 2007 Tribute Show, where she wrestled in every match.

In September of 2009, Toyota captured the Oz Academy Openweight Championship. She held the title for a couple of months before dropping it to tag partner Carlos Amano. In May of 2010 Amano and Toyota also known as Oz Seikigun captured the Oz Academy Tag Team Championship from Jungle Jack 21(Akino and Ran Yu-Yu) but would lose it a month later to Aja Kong and Kaoru Ito. Toyota would make her first wrestling appearance in the United States for the indy wrestling promotion Chikara. Toyota would defeat Daizee Hayes the following night Toyota would team up with Mike Quackenbush and defeat the team of Sara Del Rey and Claudio Castagnoli(WWE's Antonio Cesaro). On April 15, 2011, Toyota would return to the promotion to take part in the 2011 King of Trios tournament, where she would team up with Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush. They went on to defeat the team of Amazing Red and The Maximos in the opening round of the tournament but fell the following night to Team Michinoku Pro (Dick Togo, Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki). On April 17, the final day of the tournament, Toyota defeated Madison Eagles in a singles match.

Toyota returned to Chikara on December 2, 2011, to take part in the special JoshiMania weekend, defeating Toshie Uematsu on night 1. She was also presented with the Diva Dirt Legacy Award, honoring her remarkable career. On September 22, 2012, Oz Academy held a Manami Toyota 25th Anniversary show where she would compete in all 5 matches only scoring 1 win against Miho Wakizawa.

Manami Toyota still competes in various promotions such as Oz Academy, Wave, Stardom, etc. Being to only women to have 14 rated 5 Star classics as well as multiple title reigns and influences on the wrestling world, one thing that's for sure is that the "Flying Angel" is the true standard bearer for future generations of women's wrestling and a once in a lifetime talent.