The death of Hana Kimura this past week is a complicated story about reality shows, the worst aspects of social media and cyber bullying, and likely with the unique aspects of the time we are living in.
The end result was the suicide death of a 22-year-old woman who had high-level stage presence and a unique look, and was likely to explode in 2020 had this been a normal year, as the most marketable and biggest star in Japanese women’s wrestling.
The story has far wider implications in so many different ways than most pro wrestling stories. Its repercussions, besides her own death, include the possibility of the end of a popular worldwide television show, and even more, talk in Japan about enacting new legislation that would make cyber bullying a more serious crime. While obviously a huge news story in Japan, it garnered a lot of mainstream attention in the U.S. due to the popularity of the television reality show “Terrace House.”
Hana Kimura, who was the most charismatic wrestler in the Stardom promotion and one of two women the company was planning to be built around, passed away today at the age of 22.
No details are available but she had posted what came across like a suicide message yesterday that had people concerned as well as photos of her arms being self mutilated.
The death appears to be the first result of a pro wrestler’s depression coming from social media cyber bullying.
She wrote, “Nearly 100 opinions every day. I couldn’t deny that I was hurt. I’m dead. Thank you for giving me a mother. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I love it. I’m weak. I’m sorry. I don’t want to be alive anymore. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you everyone. I love you. Bye.”
Kimura was the only child of Kyoko Kimura, a pro wrestling star who had retired in 2017. She grew up around the business and started at the age of 18, although she held the comedy DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight title at the age of seven in a DDT comedy sketch.
Kimura had started in September on Terrace House, a popular Japanese reality show that airs worldwide. She was becoming a celebrity off the show because of her unique look and because she was physically stronger than most Japanese women. Stardom, the leading women’s wrestling company in Japan, under new ownership, had planned to try and push women’s wrestling mainstream around Kimura and Giulia with the idea they were the two most marketable stars. Of the two, Kimura was by far the most charismatic and the better wrestler of the two.
The first step of the push was an appearance in the opening match on the New Japan January 4, 2020, show at the Tokyo Dome. It was the first women’s match at the Tokyo Dome since 2002. Before the pandemic, Stardom was planning a much bigger and higher profile show with her, as the leader of the Tokyo Cyber Squad, to feud with Giulia after a split in the tag team match on the Dome show.
In an incident on Terrace House filmed in early January, a male housemate named Kai washed his clothes while her outfit that she wore at the Tokyo Dome was in the washer and then threw it in the dryer and ruined the outfit. She lost her temper and knocked his hat off his head.
Since that incident aired, she had been getting hate messages from people all over the world and it sent her into depression. It was getting worse in recent weeks. Because she had big shoulders for a Japanese woman because of her athletic background, even before the incident she was getting some negative reactions.
She was flooded with support on social media over the past 12 hours.
A look at the life and career of Shad Gaspard, plus tons of news.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $14.50 for 4 issues, $35.50 for 12, $70 for 24, $116 for 40 and $149.50 for 52.
In Canada and Mexico, the rates are $16 for 4, $27 for 8, $38.50 for 12, $76 for 24, $126 for 40 and $162.50 for 52.
For the rest of the world, rates are $18 for 4, $48.50 for 12, $93 for 24, $155 for 40 and $201.50 for 52.
If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order to P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228, you can get $1 off in every price range.
FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
We will have a new Observer Radio today with an interview with Ross Hart of the Hart family, talking about Owen Hart and the glory days of Stampede Wrestling. We will be doing a weekend poll for Double or Nothing II which takes place at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on PPV and B/R Live in the U.S. and FITE outside the U.S. You can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected].
There was a major scare earlier today involving Hana Kimura, one of the top stars of Stardom. She evidently had a severe bout with depression. She is part of the cast of a reality show in Japan that is also popular on Netflix. She lost her temper at one of the male roommates on the show for not taking her ring outfit out of the wash before starting his own wash and her ring costume got ruined and she lost her temper and slapped him. It resulted in her become a big villain to people viewing the show and led to her depression where she posted photos of her cutting her arms and there was an implied suicide threat.
In the incident filmed in early January, one of the housemates named Kai had washed his clothes, and unbeknownst to him, Hana’s wrestling gear was in the washer. He washed it again with his stuff and threw it in the dryer. Then it shrunk and she couldn’t wear it anymore. She was angry and said it was the costume she wore in the Tokyo Dome, and it had many memories, and that her ring gear was her life. Without it she can’t work. This was all on the show.
She confronted the guy and slapped him upside the head to knock his hat off, because he didn’t seem apologetic. Since that episode, Terrace House fans worldwide were sending her nasty messages and telling her to die, etc. “If your costume is your life, why did you leave it in the washing machine” and stuff like that, telling her to leave the show and die.
Newsweek has a story on COVID-19 affecting pro wrestling including interviews with David Starr and Deonna Purrazzo. Purrazzo said: “We were given the option and were told had we said no, it wouldn’t be held against us. I don’t believe that. I feel like a lot of people do feel pressured. It’s a very presumptuous thing to ask people to do right now—to choose to work or not. Especially in the political company that we work in, people don’t believe they’re not going to lose their job or their spot [on the show] if they say no. It’s a really hard choice to ask people to make. It’s just a scary thought because you don’t know who’s been exposed to what. And then we’re touching each other, we’re sweating on each other. I don’t think, no matter what precautions can be taken, that it’s necessarily the safest option.”
Evan Husney, one of the producers and co-creator of Dark Side of the Ring, mentioned on Pat Laprade’s Les Anti-Pod de la Lutte show that they did contact Bret Hart for the episode on Owen Hart. Bret never got back to them. Husney noted that there were no restrictions imposed on who they could contact for the show and they could have asked other members of the Hart family but decided to concentrate on Martha and Owen’s children.
The John Cena hosted Nickelodeon reboot of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” was nominated for a daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show.
WWE
Smackdown tonight has A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus in IC title tournament matches, plus Charlotte Flair vs. Bayley in a non-title match and Otis & Mandy Rose vs. Dolph Ziggler & Sonya Deville. They will be doing a 205 Live show, not live, as this was all taped on 5/12 with Isaiah Scott vs, Tyler Breeze.
Corey Graves will be doing a second podcast, called “Bare With Us” about relationships with girlfriend Leah Van Dale (Carmella) which will debut on 6/11.
WrestleMania 34 from Santa Clara, CA in 2015 will be replayed on 6/2 on FS1.
Total Bellas did 533,000 viewers last night, but did a 0.25 in 18-49, a number almost as high as AEW and was No. 8 on cable in the demo.
There are a number of new UFC fights that have been announced over the past 24 hours:
Cortney Casey vs. Gillian Robertson is set for 6/20
Tecia Torres vs. Brianna Van Buren is set for 6/20
Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo for the vacant flyweight title is set for 7/18
Jennifer Maia vs. Viviane Araujo is set for 6/27
Chase Hooper vs. Alex Caceres is set for 6/6
Paige VanZant vs, Amanda Ribas is set for 7/11
Besides Smackdown, there will be an AEW Countdown to Double or Nothing special tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT.
Odds for tomorrow’s AEW show from www.BetOnline.ag
Jon Moxley -250 vs. Brodie Lee +170
Nyla Rose -200 vs. Hikaru Shida +150
Lance Archer -150 vs. Cody +110
Inner Circle -180 vs. Elite +140
MJF -150 vs. Jungle Boy +110
Shawn Spears -400 vs. Dustin Rhodes +250
Ladder match: Darby Allin +175 vs. Mystery Guy +275 vs.Rey Fenix +400 vs. Orange Cassidy +700 vs. Colt Cabana +900 vs. Frankie Kazarian +1000 vs. Kip Sabian +1000 vs. Scorpio Sky +1000 vs. Luchasaurus +1200
The premiere of the reality show Labor of Love last night on FOX did 890,000 viewers. Matt Striker is one of the contestants on a show where a woman is attempting to pick a man to impregnate her. Seriously. It only did a 0.2 in 18-49 and was by far the least watched prime time network show. Those are disastrous numbers.
Zachary Wentz of the Rascalz and Kimber Lee were married as both put wedding photos up on their social media.
MLW Anthology tomorrow night at 10 p.m. on Bein Sports and on YouTube at 6:05 p.m. will feature Mance Warner.
ROH is adding a new YouTube show called “ROH Week by Week” which will debut on Monday at 1p.m. Eastern hosted by Quinn McKay. It will air every Monday and cover the news of the week in the promotion.
There will also be an ROH Trivia Night on 5/28 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Zoom
This week’s ROH TV show will feature Dragon Lee with some of his biggest ROH bouts..
The Fale Dojo in Auckland, New Zealand has opened for public fitness training. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
CWE has announced a live streaming show for 5/29 from Winnipeg. They are asking for donations. This will be the company’s 11th anniversary event. It will air live and free on the CWE Wrestling group discussion Facebook page.
NWA Wildside starts on IWTV on 6/8 and will be airing the promotion’s TV shows starting with the first episode in 1999. More than 300 episodes were produced and featured people like A.J. Styles, Hernandez, Ron Killings, Abyss, New Jack, Matt Sydal, The Briscoes and more.
A new group of New Japan Pro Wrestling action figures has been released, including Los Ingobernables.
The musical “Rockquiem for a Wrestler” loosely based on the life of the late Ivan Koloff is scheduled to live stream from the Triad Theater in New York on 6/27.
An ESPN story on Randy Savage. (thanks to Barry Werner)
Rocky Romero’s new song Someday is out now. He’s interviewed on the newest episode of On The Turnbuckle to promote it.
Shazza McKenzie has launched a new podcast. First episode discusses Becky Lynch’s pregnancy and the CZW story from the perspective of a female performer. (thanks to Kevin Chiat)
