Essays
Megumi Kudo. Heart and Barbedwire
This video will contain discussions of deathmatch wrestling. Any clips or retelling is of consented actions between wrestlers, but is violent and at times bloody. Please, proceed with caution.
Intro
Wrestling is about hatred and love. Pain and joy. Suffering and thriving. Wrestling is about a petite woman, bleeding profoundly to defeat a wrestler she hates, for hurting those she loves. Wrestling is today’s protagonist. The face of the women’s division of FMW, the extreme queen and icon Megumi Kudo.
So please, join me as I talk about why Kudo, Kudome for the fans, was so beloved and she meant so much to all the people. This won’t be a recap of her entire career. That video already exists, better done than I could ever do so myself, and also, not what I am interested in. In the description you can find links to biographies and career retrospectives.
That being said, let’s contextualize things. Something that is important that you know is that Megui Kudo was a teen during the late 80s and like many Japanese girls, she fell in love with pro wrestling through the crush gals. One day I will make a video about them, but what you need to know is that this tag team changed the history of the sport as we know it.
So she tried to apply to AJW, and she failed… But then she succeeded, and joined the company her idols were in. She trained, she debuted 1986 and sadly, she left the company two years later. I have seen people say she was not good enough, or she got lost in the shuffle. I think that is unfair, and I believe it was more about not finding her place and dealing with a lot of health issues that only got better after she temporarily retired. The industry, which still is to an extent, was quite toxic and demanding on their women, so it makes sense she struggled, being so young and dealing with health issues.
It was not until 1990 that she came back to wrestling, attacking the current FMA wrestlers for being “bad” and a “shame” to women’s wrestling. She was in this heel faction that wanted to show those rookies what is good. Soon she would have a face turn, also known as becoming the good guy. It was hard to boo her, because she was very likeable and Atushi Onita reportedly thought she was too pretty to be a heel. Which is a whole can of worms I can’t really unpack here.
What matters for the topic at hand is that in July of the same year she already was cheered, with this turn being hinted at for months. And this change was the right decision, and she was beloved and quickly rose as the face of the women’s face.
During this time she was yet not the “queen of hardcore” we know and love. But she was still a massive draw for the company, considered by many a sexsymbol. She was in many tv shows, a movie and even released a single named Keep On Running.
Old friend, new rival
A storyline that I think properly exemplifies what I am talking about is Aja Kong vs Megumi Kudo for the WWWA title. This was the main title from AJW and Kudo and Kong were old friends, for they were roommates!
Before she was released she lived in the dojo together with legend Aja Kong, someone who I also probably should make a video about one day. Now, years after their paths have separated, they were going to fight once more to prove who was the superior wrestler. At ringside, their trainer, Jaguar Yakota helped with the commentary.
The match starts, and both women know each other very well. Megumi Kudo knows she is smaller, she is weaker and she’s fighting a monster. So because of that, she decides to go to the great wrestler equalizer. Grappling and submission. It doesn’t matter how much taller, bigger and stronger you are. Your joints will snap out if you get put in an armbar.
So that’s what she does. She uses a lot of grappling, a lot of submission and a lot of high flying moves that use Kong’s strength to her advantage. The match is hard, and she fights and fights and fights. Issue is, Aja Kong punishes her. She hits her hard, throws her around, using her height and weight advantage. There is a moment in the match though, in which it looks like Kudo might win. She hits a hurricanrana and pins Aja Kong. Sadly, at that moment the referee was hurt and unable to do the three count, something that would have won her the match.
And so, Aja Kong had time to recover and started just backhanding Kudo until she fell to the ground. Aja Kong wanted to keep on hitting her backfist, but she was stopped by the referee. He, worried Kudo wasn’t okay and maybe knocked out, forced Aja to stop and started a 10 count. Aja, panicked, would slap her and then go out of the ring to pick up the mic and scream at her. Scream at her to get up, because their match wouldn’t end in count out. That’s not the Kudo she knows.
Kudo, hearing the words of her friend, got up, and continued fighting. They traded moves, had near falls but in the end, Aja Kong would retain. Before she celebrated, or held her belt, she would help Megumi Kudo on her feet, raise her arm and put her over for the hard work. She thanked Jaugar Yakota, who was emotional in the ringside seeing how her two students grew.
The reason why I highlight this specific match is for two reasons. Firstly, Megumi Kudo was a great wrestler, and not only in the realm of deathmatches. Secondly, Kudo and Aja were able to tell a story that exemplifies Kudo’s character. A smaller, scrappier opponent who might not be as tall, as buff or as strong, but she is resilient. She gets hit, and gets up, and it takes a lot to put her down.
The audience was transfixed in her fight. Both the people in the stadium and us, the people who watch this match years after, probably knowing the result feel for Kudo. We scream for her, we believe the near falls and we want her to win. Both performers play their parts to perfection.
Bloody Women
After Atushi Onita retired from FMW, there was a switch in the men’s division. They went from doing hardcore/deathmatch stuff to more highflying performances following the lead of the great late Hayabusa. That allowed the women to step up, and start fighting a stronger, bloodier style. And they were bloody good.
Shark Tsuchiya was a thorn on Kudome’s side for most of her career. She was a horrible heel who used dangerous weapons to hurt her opponents. After one particularly violent match between Kudo and Tsuchiya, Kudo watered the wounds of the shark-woman to show her respect. This angered Tsuchiya’s friends, and she began tagging with Kudo. Until after a loss against said friends, Tsuchiya turned on Kudome. This time, brutally. The other two wrestlers chained Megumi Kudo and had Tsuchiya pour lighter fluid on, and then threw fire on her. Her body lit up in a terrifying maner.
After that she would get meaner, beating rookies up, mistreating Kudo’s friends to the point that Combat Toyoda questioned if she should continue wrestling. Kudo, angry, decided to have a barbed wire match against her.
A barbed wire match is a match in which usually, the ropes are changed for actual, for realsies barbed wire. And this match fucking ruled.
The story they tell is masterful. In a normal match, throwing yourself or your opponent to the ropes would be a normal, no big deal part. But here it was terrifying. The two wrestlers played a game of strength, afraid of hitting the barbed wire but knowing it was high time to put their opponent through it. Eventually, Kudome would be the first to hit the barbed wire. The match soon got bloody. Tsuchiya dragged her face through the barbed wire, and started using a barbed wire bat and a literal sickle to cut her opponent's face. Kudome was now blessed with a crimson crown, which is wrestling lingo for just a bloody face. A lot of blood. Tsuchiya would try to stab Kudo with her sickle to, presumably for realsies, kill her, but Kudome was able to stop her with a plank of wood.
Kudo would start getting revenge, getting the rookies Tsuchiya brutally bullied to get her revenge, hitting her with weapons of their own. Tsuchiya would throw a fireball to Kudome, so, more fire. Before Kudo hits the Kudome Valentine (which we will talk more about later, don’t you worry) and pins her for the one, two, three.
Even if she won the match, Megumi Kudo was punished the most during the match. Afterwards, in a post match promo you heard at the top of the video, she talked about how she was terrified but knowing how much pain Tsuchiya had brought upon her friends, and the fact that everyone was counting on her gave her strength.
We can joke about the power of friendship all we want, but Megumi Kudo endured a gruesome match, and survived by sheer will and resilience. She faces the punishment Shark Tsuchiya threw her way heart first, making one of the if not the best barbed wire matches in the history of the sport.
Wrestling often is a story of good versus evil, and we love cheering for someone who struggles. Someone who suffers. Someone who isn’t undefeatable, and yet defeats the odds. I think this match is a match of someone who wears her heart on her sleeve. Megumi Kudo would always be an emotional wrestler, and nothing beats a bloody woman thanking a crowd for giving her strength.
Earning respect
The last story we will look into today happened right before her retirement match against the aforementioned Shark Tsuchiya. A three match series against Shinobu Kandori.
Shinobu Kandori has a legit background in Judo. A very good technical wrestler who entered a feud against Kudo. She was part of Ladies’ Legend Pro Wrestling. I am not going to talk about her role in politics because honestly, it’s probably best if I just eventually do a video on wrestlers turned politicians. Important to know is that she was a great wrestler who had the fame of being very technical.
Their first match together was a regular match. All rules apply, no gimmick, no hardcore weapons, no blood. Mostly.
After a fight in which Kudome got quite a bit of offense, she ended up passing out in a sleeper hold Kandori held. Kandori would then throw water into the face of Kudo, a way to mock the practice Onita and other deathmatch wrestlers had to take care of the wounds of their opponents. After that, though, Kudo was not satisfied. They did things the LLPW, not it was their turn to do things the FMW way.
Their second match was a street fight match. Weapons, chains and chairs. This time it seemed like Kudome started with the advantage, after all, they were in her realm now. Things swiftly became hard for Megumi Kudo, though. She did many brutal things, piledrivers to chairs, choking with chains and more… Yet, Kandori would not be pinned.
Kudo grew more and more aggressively, and so did Kandori. The match ended with Kandori using the chain to hang Kudo from the top of a balcony. Obviously, the referee stopped it and gave the win to Kandori, you know… To avoid death!
But something changed after that match. In another match in LLPW, Kudo got attacked after the match, and Kandori would go to save her rival. Kudome wouldn’t say thanks and she would slap Kandori’s hand away.
They had one last match. A barbed wire deathmatch. Like usual, Kudo would be the first to fall onto the barbed wire. It was brutal, bloody. Both women would wrap their hands in barbed wire to maximize pain, although Kandori would use her tie to protect her hand and Megumi would… She’d just go straight up.
The match ended when Kudo was able to throw Kandori into the barbed wire, hit a Kudome Valentine and 1, 2, 3… Win the match. At the end, Kandori offered her hand once more to Megumi Kudo, and this time, she accepted. They both hugged, after Kudome was able to avenge her losses to Kandori.
It is quite relatable to want respect. To demand respect. To know you deserve better, and you ought to be given it.
There are many more matches I would like to talk about, but I might leave it for another day. This series of matches are just a peek into her career, into what she was able to do. One day I will talk about when she fought her idols, her history with Combat Toyoda or retirement. But for today, I want you to remember her fighting spirit, and her never say die attitude as we reach the conclusion of this video. But before that, let’s talk about innovating.
The Vertebreaker
There is a long running joke that your favorite indie boy in the 2010s wrestled the way he did because he copied a Japanese woman from the 70s, 80s or 90s. And to be fair, there is some reality to that. I will leave an article about it in the description. But there are many wrestling moves that nowadays are staples of western wrestling, especially used by men, and they came from young women in the 80s and 90s from Japan who just wanted to make their mark.
Sadly, they are rarely credited as such. It is not an overt desire to erase the women, at least not one I have noted. But very often men in the west would perform the same move years after them and we’d remember them and not the women who pioneered it.
One of these cases is the now famously known Vertebreaker. A move Shane Helms had during the early 2000s. Also popularized by Homicide as.. the cop killa… And a move that Megumi Kudo was finishing matches with in the 90s. And while it is publicly acknowledged in the Internet that she innovated the move, it is rarely acknowledged in mainstream TV wrestling.
Sadly, these women rarely get credited for it. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying any life changing information. A lot of people call it the Kudo driver, and a lot of people mention her as the innovator. But as it is far too often, they aren’t really given enough flowers. And the reasons for that are far too complex and I don’t even know if I am the indicated person to talk about it. What I am trying to say is that Megumi Kudo is still an influential figure in the wrestling industry and someone that should talk more about it.
Heart and Barbedwire
Megumi Kudo never fully stopped being involved in wrestling. She was in radio-shows, worked as a referee for special occasions and was and still is involved in a few companies as trainer or an EP. In her case, being an Explosion Princess.
Nowadays, her legacy lives through rookie wrestler Natsumi, who debuted against her old roommate and friend Aja Kong. A wrestler she’s trained and probably is in some shape or form, her protegeé. Natsumi’s style is not the hardcore, brawly style of Megumi. She sort of has this more highflying, flashy moveset. But there is something that is very Kudome of her. Her resilience. The fact that she gets up, that she tires, and that you want her to succeed.
At the top of the video I talked about how wrestling is fantastic when there is pain and joy, love and hate. Megumi Kudo held multitudes. She was beautiful, kind, but brutal and violent. She was so easy to love, to want to cheer for.
She was a baby-face in peril, but yet, she was not powerless. Her power resided in her comebacks. In not giving up. In enduring pain and becoming stronger. Not giving up before Aja Kong. Fighting for what’s right despite being terrified in a deathmatch. Not being satisfied until she pinned Shinobu Kandori.
She wrestled with her heart on her sleeve, no longer afraid to get emotional. To show she was happy, afraid, angry. She had earnestly in her movements. She wrestled like it was an emotional response. It didn’t matter that I speak no Japanese, I understood what she felt. I understood her joy, frustration and anger.
And she also wrestles with barbed wire in her sleeve. Both literally, and figuratively. Without losing that softness, she was brutal. Deadly even. She commanded respect, destroyed her opponents and endured grueling matches by the end of the career in the name of art.
Megumi Kudo was a wrestler that carried the beauty and the horror of wrestling. She was the heart, and she was the barbedwire.