With it's fifth pick,
Team Kayfabe selects, in the
Women's category, one of the greatest wrestlers, man or woman, of all time,
Akira Hokuto.
Born
Hisako Uno, Hokuto became a professional wrestler in the wake of the enormous popularity of tag team the Crush Gals (
Chigusa Nagayo and
Lioness Asuka), and was responsible for organizing the
Bull Nakano fanclub. She joined the AJW dojo after quitting high school. Debuting for
All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) shortly before her eighteenth birthday, Hokuto immediately stood out from the crowd, winning AJW's Rookie of the Year award for 1985
[3]. The next year, she won the AJW Junior Championship, and participated in AJW's Match of the Year, paired with Yukari Omari in a losing effort against Chigusa Nagayo and Yumiko Hotta in the final of the annual Tag League Tournament.
In 1987, Hokuto won the AJW's top
tag team belt, the
WWWA World Tag Team Championship paired with Yumiko Hotta. Twelve days later, however, the two lost the titles to the Red Typhoons (Kazue Nagahori and Yumi Ogura) in a
two out of three falls match. During the finish of the second fall, Hokuto took a
tombstone piledriver off the top rope and broke her neck. She wrestled the entirety of the third fall holding her head in place with her hands. This gained Hokuto a reputation for toughness
[3] .
After a year of recovery, Hokuto returned with a new persona. She had bleached her hair blonde, and now called herself
Akira Hokuto, after popular wrestler
Akira Maeda.
[4] Teaming with Suzuka Minami as the Marine Wolves, she won the WWWA Tag Team belts twice more.
In 1990, Hokuto was booked to win the
Japan Grand Prix, AJW's annual tournament to determine the number one contender to the top singles belt, the
WWWA World Heavyweight Championship. However, she once again suffered a severe injury. During a Grand Prix match against
Manami Toyota, Hokuto performed a
plancha and crashed her knee into the ringside metal barrier. She tore open her knee, and was rendered unable to walk. Crying, she tied a bandage around her leg, pulled herself back into the ring, and attempted to continue the match. It was clearly impossible, however, and she was removed from the tournament
[3][4]. Hokuto returned to singles competition during the early 1990s. She won the
All Pacific Championship in 1991 and 1992, and sustained many more injuries. She earned the nickname 'the Mummy' since she so often came to the ring wrapped in bandages.
The year 1993 is considered by many to be the best year of her career. She feuded with
Shinobu Kandori of the
LLPW promotion during the inter-promotional period, where the major promotions active in women's wrestling in Japan at the time combined to run shows with dream match-ups that attracted some of the largest cards in history. At Dreamslam I on
April 2,
1993, Hokuto defeated Kandori, which was given a perfect five-star rating by
Dave Meltzer [5] and is considered by some to be the greatest women's match in history
[4].
Hokuto was subsequently defeated by Kandori in a tag match at Dreamslam II nine days later and in a singles match in December of that year. Also in 1993 she won the Japan Grand Prix and was granted another shot at the WWWA Championship, against champion
Aja Kong on
October 9. Hokuto was again injured in August of that year, and requested that the match be made a non-title match, since she felt wrestling in her injured state would insult the prestige of the belt
[3].
Later that year, having married Mexican wrestler
Máscara Mágica, Hokuto moved to Mexico. She continued her career in her new home, adopting the persona
Reina Jabuki. On
July 30,
1994, she defeated
La Diabolica for the
CMLL World Women's Championship, and carried it for over two years. Later that year, having divorced her first husband and returned to Japan, she defeated
Aja Kong in the final of the interpromotional V*Top Woman Tournament, an event which drew a gate of 42,500 to the
Tokyo Dome [3]. Hokuto had one her last great matches for AJW on September 2, 1995, losing a thrilling 21-minute battle against Manami Toyota.
She married Kensuke Sasaki on
October 1,
1995, after Sasaki proposed to her on their first date.
[4]. On
November 26,
1995, Hokuto made her U.S. debut at the
WCW World War 3 pay-per-view event. She teamed with
Bull Nakano and defeated the team of Cutie Suzuki and
Mayumi Ozaki. The same teams competed in a match on
Monday Night Nitro the following night, with Hokuto and Nakano winning again
[6]
In 1996, she left AJW and joined Chigusa Nagayo's new promotion,
GAEA Japan. Hokuto and several other GAEA wrestlers, including Chigusa Nagayo, KAORU,
Meiko Satomura, and Sonoko Kato, came to America to compete in a tournament to crown the first
WCW Women's Champion [7]. Hokuto competed in the first round of the tournament twice, using both the Akira Hokuto and Reina Jabuki gimmicks. As Reina Jabuki, she lost in the first round to
Madusa Miceli. Because of this TV appearance, she was stripped of the CMLL title. As Akira Hokuto, she won the tournament, defeating Madusa in the finals, held at WCW's
Starrcade on
December 29,
1996 in
Nashville, Tennessee [8]. Hokuto later defeated Madusa at WCW's
Great American Bash on
June 15,
1997, a match where Madusa was forced to 'retire' due to a stipulation
[9]. This was the last time Hokuto ever appeared in WCW and the Women's Championship was apparently dropped, as it was never defended or mentioned again. This made her the only WCW Women's Champion.
This is no divas match.....