December 24th, 2019: That’s the date many people remember as being Hana Kimura’s best match: a match where she came out of her shell and showed the world what she was capable of. It’s not just an important match for Hana, but for Giulia as well, whose first match in the company was only two weeks prior and didn’t really fit in as well as Hana had done in her first appearance for STARDOM. Her match with Giulia showed that Giulia belonged in STARDOM, more so than any other match the former Ice Ribbon wrestler had competed in at the time. It’s almost as if that match at Year End Climax brought Giulia up to the metaphorical level of Hana herself, as months later Giulia would become a much bigger personality and Donna del Mondo would be formed. It was a star-making performance for both women, establishing one as a Stardom mainstay and the other who was destined for greatness in the future.
The time between Hana’s debut match against classmate Reika Saiki and her match with Giulia in December 2019 is the same as it has been since she passed to the day that I write this; both are three years apart, roughly speaking. By next year, she will have been gone as long as her entire wrestling career was, and by next year I will turn the age that Hana was when she passed — twenty-two. The pandemic felt so long and so short at the same time, that it almost feels like Hana’s career itself, at the time it felt so long but retrospectively it was very short.
Even with the phenomena of time passage, her time in Oedo Tai felt so long but was just a little over a year and a quarter of her in-ring career. Her tenure in the long-standing group founded by her mother is what gave us what I believe is her true first star-making performance, as she faces off against her Goddess of Stardom title partner Kagetsu in the 2017 5STAR.
With Giulia, the two just hate each other and brawl until the match reaches its limit. On the other hand, Hana finds herself trying to defeat her best friend in one of women’s wrestling’s biggest tournaments when she thought he would just lie down for her to help her win as they agreed. It’s such a multilayered encounter and fight that you can’t help but see why, in this exact match, why Hana was so beloved. She’s so easy to root for, even when she’s outmatched by someone so much better than her in Kagetsu, that you can’t help but want her to defy the odds and win. When she won the 5STAR GP final, it was a similar situation of facing her best friend who is much more experienced and skilled than her, yet this time she’s in the finals of the same tournament and fighting to win it all and challenge for the Red Belt. No matter how hard you tried, no matter whether she was in Oedo Tai or Tokyo Cyber Squad, it was impossible to dislike her, she had a likeability and presence like no one else did and you could never take your eyes off her.
FloÜrish, consisting of Hana and VENY, teamed together frequently when she was still a freelancer, and they even faced off against each other at WRESTLE-1 in 2018. This was another chapter in Hana’s growth that led to her becoming a major figure for STARDOM. Both wrestlers have entrances that highlight that this is an important match, and throughout the match, Hana has that same fire and determination to win that she had against Kagetsu, she continues to fight and hold on against another best friend that would end up becoming one of the best wrestlers in the world (and, those two friends would end up facing each other on the first memorial show) yet that doesn’t phase her. Hana is someone that gives you hope even in the darkest of times; a reason to keep going, a reason to keep fighting, as by the end of the match she’s able to defeat her tag team partner just shortly after returning from her excursion to Mexico. She may have lost to Kagetsu, but she didn’t lose to VENY or Konami because her brightness outshined that of those she competed against.
As I write this piece, I’m looking through my physical copy of Weekly Pro-Wrestling that has Hana on the cover shortly after her death, it reads: “We will never forget Hana Kimura – she will be in the hearts of wrestling fans forever.” Even if she were just in the hearts of wrestling fans, many wrestlers themselves have put in the effort to keep her memory around years after the tragedy. Giulia has used the Tiger Lily combination twice, at both Dream Queendom shows, as well as dyeing her hair similarly to Hana when facing off against Suzu Suzuki, and paying tribute through subtleties of her own gear and physical performances; Rina when she won the Future of Stardom championship against Ami Sourei only a few weeks ago won the match with her own variation of hydrangea whilst wearing pink braids in her hair. Most notable is the former Sasha Banks, now under the name Mercedes Moné, who came out to her IWGP Women’s title match against KAIRI with an entirely new gear set that was a homage to Hana’s first iteration of her late-2019 gear. Mercedes even made a point to say that Hana was the person that inspired her, one of the most accomplished in-ring women’s performers of the 21st century, to go and live her dream and wrestle in Japan.
It’s amazing how someone like Hana was able to inspire and impact so many with her presence, performance, and personality despite Joshi being relatively niche and having a much more hardcore and dedicated fanbase in comparison to bigger companies such as WWE, AEW, or New Japan. One of AEW’s premier PPVs, Double or Nothing, took place only days after her death, and yet the company went out of its way to pay tribute to her live on air despite the fact she had never stepped foot in AEW, a segment that was handled with incredible respect by lead commentator Excalibur.
Tokyo Cyber Squad may have disbanded in STARDOM following the death of its leader, but the group is representative of Hana herself. It was a group well beloved by everyone, full of silly and crazy characters, and it was a positive force for many people around the world. As long as the memory of Hana is around, Tokyo Cyber Squad will still be around, too. One of the press conferences that Hana attended as part of Stardom’s roster perfectly sums up her ethos in her own words: “I think professional wrestling can inspire people. I want to show people our potential, and the potential of every young person, and how the possibilities in life are endless.” You may not know the name Hana Kimura or have seen her wrestle, but it’s almost certain that you know a wrestler that was inspired by her in some way, shape, or form.
For many, life is chaotic and there’s never any certainty in what will happen or what comes next. During those times that I had myself, there was at least one constant throughout my chaotic life, and that was the joy that was brought to me by watching Hana wrestle, by watching her perform, by watching her be a role model and example to people around the world. She taught everyone that it’s okay to not fit in with others, that it’s okay to be yourself. Her beliefs carry an important message that rings true both in the past, present, and the future, and her ability to not only be an eccentric and well-beloved pro-wrestler but to give others the strength to carry on fighting, it’s a trait that not a lot of wrestlers can say that they have — a pure soul who wished to show the world the power of professional wrestling — and in doing so, created a lasting legacy in just four years but will remain forever, as Hana Kimura in both name and spirit continues to be a force for good in the world.
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