「Manami Toyota」の記事一覧

Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex (JOCS) was originally developed by Manami Toyota, the ace of All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling(AJWP) in 90’s. Toyota showed not only elegant moves like a beautiful angel but also hard attack which might frighten even male wrestlers. This gap fascinated many fans. Last February, Bea Priestley, who signed to All Elite Wrestling(AEW) lately, used JOCS at Stardom promotion; a Japanese Joshipuro Promotion. Knowing that, Toyota showed her anger on Twitter. That caused pros and cons among fans. Rossy Ogawa, the president of Stardom promotion, tweeted that Bea was angry as well. How would this disagreement finally come to a conclusion? I agree with Toyota because of three reasons. First, JOCS is different from other moves which are generally used, so other wrestlers shouldn’t use it easily. It is not exaggerated to say that JOCS represents Toyota herself. There is a history that JOCS had been used only by Toyota over two decades until she retired. Also, the name came from her hometown Shimane prefecture which was close to the Japanese Ocean. (Rossy proudly said that he named it…) A fan told Toyota “Have you gotten the permission of using Rolling Cradle, Moonsault Press, and Paro special?” They were a part of her moveset. The answer was NO, I thought, but I had a feeling of strangeness because I didn’t think JOCS belonged to the same category as the above moves. Second, there is an unspoken rule that the finisher of a superstar is not allowed to be used freely in the Japanese Joshipuro industry. When Sumie Sakai (WOH) was a rookie of J’d: a Japanese pro-wrestling promotion, she used Northern Light Bomb which was the finisher of Akira Hokuto, a superstar of AJWP. Hokuto didn’t know her at all as Sakai belonged to another promotion. In a magazine, Hokuto criticized Sakai and that finally made Sakai stop using it. It may sound strange for foreigners, but this is a Japanese rule, I think. Japanese wrestlers care very much about their finishers and want them to be taken over to their disciple especially just before their retirement. The story is very moving and beautiful as it tells history, bond, and love between master and pupil. Third, I was disappointed at the reaction of both Bea and her husband Will Ospreay. Despite this issue is getting bigger, Bea keeps on using JOCS without any comments. Moreover, Ospreay also used it, that was like provoking Toyota… I have seen the tweet of Bea which showed her respect to Toyota before. If she really respected Toyota, she would resolve this problem clearly. However, as everyone knows, it is still unsolved… For these reasons, I follow Toyota’s opinion. I can say that JOCS is Toyota's symbol. Therefore it should be treated with respect. Japanese wrestling culture and history might be difficult to understand for foreign wrestlers, but they should learn if they want to use the move of a superstar like Toyota.

The tweet of Manami Toyota