Kyoko Kimura

Quick Facts | Kyoko Kimura

Full Name Kyoko Kimura (木村 響子)
Birth Date March 19, 1977
Birth Place Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Nick Name N/A
Religion N/A
Nationality Japan
Ethnicity Japanese
Education N/A
Training JWP dojo
Father’s Name N/A
Mother’s Name N/A
Siblings One older sister
Age 45 Years Old
Zodiac Sign Pieces
Billed Height 1.64 m (5 ft 4 1⁄2 in)
Billed Weight 62 kgs (137 lbs)
Hair Color Black
Eye Color Dark Brown
Shoe Size N/A
Married Yes
Husband Isao Kobayashi since 2016
Children Daughter, Hana Kimura
Profession Professional Wrestler, Mixed Martial Artist
Debuted July 20, 2003
Retired January 22, 2017
Net Worth $1million – $5million
Last Match 2017
Retired January 22, 2017
Social Media InstagramTwitterBlog
Wrestling Merch ShoesHeadgear
Last Update August, 2022

For most people, life is hardly a bed of roses. While many of us enjoy lamenting about life’s challenges and attributing them to bad luck, others gracefully deal with misfortune. One such person is Kyoko Kimura.

Kyoko is a mixed martial artist and professional wrestler by trade. As of 2022, she is 45 years old. The land of the rising sun, Japan, is Kyoko’s native country.

The main things that make Kyoko famous are her powerpack wrestling style and her Afro-inspired hair. Her daughter’s contentious death, however, also garnered a lot of media attention for her.

Kyoko has experienced a lot in life, including ups and downs, but she has steadfastly persisted to her goal of becoming a professional wrestler. In her 14-year career, she has participated in reputable promotions and won numerous trophies.

Women like Kyoko are evidence that, despite what we may believe, women are more resilient than we realize. We will review her life and work in this article. Here are a few intriguing fast facts to start:

Childhood And Family

On March 19, 1977, Kyoko was born in Yokohoma, Japan. Her mother and father’s identities are unknown.

Kyoko Kimurahas hinted in interviews that her father is not present and that her household consists of three people. One of her older sisters has an okonomiyaki eatery.

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

1993 was the year, and she had just started her freshman year in high school. After seeing a documentary on the sheik, Kyoko decided she wanted to be a wrestler. She afterwards stopped attending school and joined the FMW dojo.

He was forced to quit early due to a knee injury while Kyoko was learning her game. She then considered her available options.

After relocating to Mexico, she picked up lucha libre. However, she eventually ran out of money and was forced to go back to Japan.

Backpacking Through Asia

Kyoko was an adventurous free spirit. She worked a few jobs, saved some cash, and visited various parts of Asia.

Kyoko worked part-time jobs to support herself while mostly spending her time traveling through Southeast Asia.

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

The two eventually got married and moved back to Japan together. Hana’s parents disagreed with the union, nevertheless, as her husband was a foreigner.

In 1997, their daughter Hana was born. The young couple put in a lot of effort, day and night, to provide their daughter with a wonderful life.

Hana’s father, however, found living in Japan to be too much of a cultural shock and made the decision to leave for Indonesia.

Due to two factors, Kyoko found the transfer to be challenging. One is related to her early age and Asian countries’ social stigma towards unmarried mothers. But despite all the challenges, Kyoko raised Hana by herself while following her aspirations.

Kyoko with kid Hana.(Sourcve=Instagram)

Back-To-Training

Kimura began resuming his training at the JWP dojo in Tokyo while also caring for Hana. Little Hana would stay there and watch her train when she used to ride her bicycle alongside her.

The JWP dojo also awarded Kyoko her diploma in 2003. It was finally time to begin wrestling professionally after college. She joined the JWP Joshi Puroresu promotion and debuted on July 20, 2003.

Kyoko had a minor part in this promotion and held the same position for more than two years. She eventually left that position in 2005 and began working as a freelancer. Kyoko participated in challenges like deathmatches while working at Oz Academy and Ibuki.

How Did Kyoko Kimura Start His Career?

When Kyoko was the leader of the evil Revolucion Amandia faction in the NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling promotion in 2008, she played a significant part in professional wrestling. In October 2009, she traveled throughout Mexico with Revolucion Amandia.

Kyoko Kimura continued to perform regularly for NEO up until December 2010. She began working for the global wonder ring fame section in May of 2012.

The following September, Kimura also began contributing consistently to the ice ribbon campaign. She triumphed in the Reiner and International ribbon tag team championships during this time.

In 2012, she advanced to the first-ever 5 star GP finals but fell to Yuzuki Aikawa. She and two monster gun stablemates won the Artist of the Stardom competition in November 2013.

Kyoko Kimura triumphed in the goddesses of fame tag competition that same month. Then, in January 2014, she won a second goddess of stardom championship, making history as the first person to do so.

She made her American wrestling debut in 2015 with the Shimmer Women’s Championship. On Cagematch, you may learn more about her career database and ratings.

MMA

At the Pancrase Impressive Tour on November 11, Kimura made his mixed martial arts debut.

Megumi Yabushita was the opponent in this fight, which Kimura won through TKO.

Kyoko Kimura subsequent match took place at the Pancrase Progress Tour in January 2012. She engaged in combat with Mizuho Sato, but there was no winner. Following that, the South Korean MMA fighter Kim Sung Eun was defeated by the Japanese wrestler in April 2012.

On the Pancrase Progress Tour, she faced Rin Nakai in their subsequent match, which she lost. Her loss in MMA is her first ever.

Retirement

On January 22, 2017, the legendary wrestler Kyoko announced her retirement at a lavish ceremony in Korakuen Hall.

She competed in matches at this occasion called “The Last Afro” with her daughter and husband.

In a similar manner, Hana Isao and Kyoko were defeated by Aja Kong, Meiko Satomura, and Minoru Suzuki in a six-person tag team match. Hana triumphed with a huge boot in Kimura’s subsequent bonus battle with Hana.

What is the Relationsip status of Kyoko Kimura?

In February 2016, Kyoko, who is now well-known in the Japanese wrestling community, wed Isao Kobayashi. For those who don’t know, he is also a mixed martial artist and professional wrestler.

In addition, Kyoko is 11 years older than Isao. And as was to be expected, when they came out as a couple, a few eyebrows were raised here and there.

There is no information on how they met, but given that they are both wrestlers, we can assume they did so at a wrestling event!

Kyoko and Isao get married.(Source=Instagram)

Kyoko’s daughter

A mother cherishes her daughters greatly. Hana was equally important to Kyoko. When Kyoko was only 19 years old, she became pregnant with Hana, and she struggled for Hana to have a good upbringing.

Not to mention that they both competed in bouts and were wrestlers. They made the perfect mother-daughter team.

Hana developed an interest in wrestling after growing up watching her mother wrestle. But despite her mother’s best efforts, Hana’s childhood was everything but simple.

In reality, young Hana frequently suffered bullying because of her mixed heritage, and she used to cry her way home. Fortunately, she flourished despite these challenges.

On top of that, Hana loved dancing and modeling. She aspired to stardom! She used to tell her mother that she wanted to look into the camera.

Nevertheless, Kyoko was thrilled when young Kimura made her wrestling debut in 2016. The pair has competed in several games together.

Together, the two and Partner Kagetsu earned the title of “Artist of the Stardom” in October 2016. The two also held individual contests against each other.

Hana lost their initial encounter, but in tag team competition in 2016, she ultimately defeated Kyoko.

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Terrace House and Hana’s Death

In 2019, Hana chose to participate in the Japanese reality series “Terrace House.” Her desire to promote female wrestlers and her clear love of the camera served as her inspiration for this move.

Fuji TV and Netflix Japan both air the popular Japanese television program Terrace House. This program centers on six strangers who temporarily live together and get to know one another.

Hana’s schedule was however rendered frantic by the show. In addition to her wrestling battles, she had to film the show day and night. By the end of 2019, she had begun to discuss ending the show.

Hana began to experience online bullying as soon as the Netflix series began to air. The animosity was primarily directed towards an incident in which she fights a cast member.

Hana committed suicide and was found dead on May 23, 2020. She spent this time confined to her home because of the covid epidemic.

She had tweeted several times earlier that day with hints of suicidal ideation, showed images of self-harm, and shared some hate mail she had received.

Aftermath

This event drew criticism from people all throughout the nation as well as from fans of international wrestling. Additionally, the ugly “Terrace house” followers were criticized for their unruly behavior.

Kyoko Kimura then complained to Japan’s Human Rights Committee about online trolls who harassed Hana. She also committed to fight the abhorrent culture of cyberbullying and pass legislation to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

A person who had sent Hana death threats via SMS was later officially arrested. Through email, this person expressed regret to Hana’s family.

In his speech against the program, Kimura claimed that Hana was coerced into acting that way and that the entire episode was staged.

Later, without involving any other parties, Fuji TV conducted an internal investigation into the incident. Kyoko said, “However, the report was full of lies and didn’t actually tell the truth.”

Memorial Shows & Shop

A Hana memorial web store was announced by Kyoko at the start of February. Hana-themed goods is available in this store. The money from the shop will be used towards Hana’s case’s trial and legal expenses.

Additionally, Kyoko has revealed that a tribute match named “See You Again” will take place on the anniversary of Hana’s passing. The venue for this performance is Korakuen Hall. At the end of February, tickets will be available for purchase.

In order to create a by whatever means necessary, Kimura is also working with Kai Koboyasi, Hana’s Terrace House housemate who was also involved with her in the fight event.

Social Media

Like other celebrities, Kyoko doesn’t have a glamorous social media presence. She instead prefers to remain unnoticed there. She does, however, have a blog where she posts her rambling story and ideas.

Her works also reflect how deeply Hana’s loss has touched her. It may be read here. (Hint: if you don’t read Japanese, you may need to translate it.)

28.5k Followers on Twitter

1.3k Followers on Instagram

Blog: 292 Subscribers

How was the Networt Value of Kyoko Kimura?

Kimura is not particularly open about her personal life, as we all know by now. Her lifestyle as well as her net worth are unknown. However, we do know that she is currently living a retired life in Tokyo with her husband and kitties.

Her net worth is difficult to ascertain because a wrestler’s worth varies depending on their standing, level of expertise, and league. Even Kimura finds it challenging because she is already retired.

According to reports, the average professional wrestler makes at least $500k annually. For a select few professional wrestlers, the sum exceeds $1 million. Additionally, investments, goods, and endorsements all increase their income.

Since Kimura is from Japan, the situation there can be much different. According to online reports, she is worth between $1 million and $5 million.

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