Nancy Kumi & Mami Kumano

[Stefano]

My name is Stefano and I am from Italy. This is my first post here.

Some 20 years ago, a local italian channel shown several puroresu matches. I would like to ask you some questions about 2 of the most famous wrestlers: Nancy Kumi and Mami Kumano.

What was their real name?

How many titles did they win?

When did they retire?

What are they doing now?

If I am not wrong, Nancy was a face, while Mami was a heel.

Did the Fabulous Moolah fight against these 2 wrestlers?

Thank you..

PS: Do you have any pics of Mami and Nancy?

[frankp316]

My name is Stefano and I am from Italy. This is my first post here.

Some 20 years ago, a local italian channel shown several puroresu matches. I would like to ask you some questions about 2 of the most famous wrestlers: Nancy Kumi and Mami Kumano.

What was their real name?
Don't know.

How many titles did they win?
Hard to tell. They probably both held the WWWA Tag Titles but title belts changed hands so frequently in those days, who can keep track of it?

When did they retire?
Well, forced retirement was age 26. They were both gone by the mid 80s.

What are they doing now?
Don't know.

If I am not wrong, Nancy was a face, while Mami was a heel.
Correct.

Did the Fabulous Moolah fight against these 2 wrestlers?
Kumano was a heel, so no. Moolah wrestled Nancy Kumi in 1979. I have that match. Nancy was DQd for clobbering the heel ref with a soda pop can. Moolah only wrestled in Japan twice and that was the second time though her wrestlers continued to tour Japan until 1988.

Thank you..

PS: Do you have any pics of Mami and Nancy?
Not me, but maybe someone else does.

[Stefano]

Well, forced retirement was age 26. They were both gone by the mid 80s.

I didn't know this thing. Why that?

[frankp316]

Because AJW was the only womens promotion in Japan and they could do whatever they wanted. They had to change in the early 90s when other promotions started.

[Stefano]

Ok. Was there a specific reason for this rule?

[frankp316]

Not really. They did it because they could. Wrestling promotions sometimes do things for no reason.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

No reason??? Don't be so sure about that... I gotta run to work, but let me get back to y'all after I come home.

As for the titles, you can always visit my website.

[bannabop]

*Anxiously awaits Hisa reply* It had something to do with women getting old if I remember.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Ooops, sorry about that.

Yeah, the Matsunaga Brothers wanted to keep their girls young (supposedly) with these reasons:

• Didn't want the talent roster getting stale
• Wanted to give their girls different/new lives outside "un-girly" business before they get too old

They even got rid of the great stars like the Beauty Pair, Jaguar Yokota, Devil Masami, Lioness Asuka, Chigusa Nagayo just for this policy, and they wouldn't be so stupid to let these girls go with no reason.

[bannabop]

Jaguar Yokota,Lioness Asuka.

I have heard of them, but besides that... Did letting them go early actually help them?

[frankp316]

Ooops, sorry about that.

Yeah, the Matsunaga Brothers wanted to keep their girls young (supposedly) with these reasons:

• Didn't want the talent roster getting stale
• Wanted to give their girls different/new lives outside "un-girly" business before they get too old

They even got rid of the great stars like the Beauty Pair, Jaguar Yokota, Devil Masami, Lioness Asuka, Chigusa Nagayo just for this policy, and they wouldn't be so stupid to let these girls go with no reason.

What you fail to mention is that AJW was the only joshi fed until the early 90s. In other words, they did it because they could and once there was competition, they had to stop doing it in order to be competitive. Forced retirement was an AJW whim, so there was no real reason for it.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

I didn't "fail" to mention that. I just didn't care to mention because I didn't understand your logic (and I still don't). Just because AJW was the only promotion, they had the rule without any real reason? Sure, they did it because they could, but it doesn't mean they had no real reason. I believe they were forced to change the the policy as a result of having the competitions. Prior to that, they often had to let the big names retire even though those girls were still drawing, and some of the big names such as Jackie Sato, Yokota, Asuka, etc. remained with the company as the trainers/coaches in the dojo. They did this with no real reason?

Also, AJW was the only joshi promotion until mid-80s. There were other joshi promotions in the 70s (and probably 60s as well), but I guess they weren't really competitions for AJW since they didn't last long.

I have heard of them, but besides that... Did letting them go early actually help them?

I'm not sure, but these are the facts:

• I can't think of any joshi wrestlers who are famous among the non-wrestling fans since the Crush Gals (Asuka & Nagayo). I might be wrong, but if there are any, please let me know. Kandori is famous, but she started during the CG era and was never an AJW employee.
• Both Yokota and Asuka helped to train the girls for AJW's competitors.
• Many longtime fans consider Yokota as the best joshi pro-wrestler ever.

By the way, here's the only pic of Nancy Kumi that I've been able to find on the net:
http://urawa.cool.ne.jp/kazunari60/j...o/jproep02.JPG

Let me dig out my room and see if I can find more from the old magazines.

[Stefano]

Hisaharu Tanabe,

I thank you a lot for the pic of Nancy. If you could also find something about Mami, that would be great!

I have also find this other pic of Nancy.

http://www.wrestling-titles.com/imag...kumi_nancy.jpg

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Wrestling-Titles.com is my website. I can't believe I actually forgot that I had the photo on my site.

[bannabop]

Yes I have a book 100 top pro wrestlers of all time and it spoke about the Crush Gals.