Kyoko Kimura

[10.0] "I am at my core a women's wrestling fan, so I'm always the last to say "Women's wrestling is behind men's, " as a whole. BUT I can acknowledge that in terms of extreme, bloody, brutal wrestling, women have always been far less represented in that style, with far fewer seeming genuinely good at it. Kyoko Kimura was the first, best, and the standard for women in deathmatches. She's brutal. Terrifying when she gets started. Aside from that, capable of shifting into more traditional technical or joshi style wrestling smoothly, and a personality and gimmick with an infectiously fun edge. I've heard she's injury prone, and I admit I don't "follow" joshi, I just watch a bunch of it, so that might be true and I just don't know. But her talent and ability to put on just really freaking good matches is unprecedented. Joshi LEGEND."

[5.0] "Always had the ability to sell and be a solid base for her opponents, but severely limited in every other aspect of prowrestling. Her 2010s work is especially poor. To the point where you could argue she's one of the worst, experienced, wrestlers on the scene in that era."

[9.0] "Obviously I haven't seen most matches from Kyoko, but I've seen enough of her career in the 10s. I think this type of wrestler like Kyoko Kimura is very underrated. People really love pure wrestlers like Okada or Shirai, and in fact, about 4 out of 5 wrestlers in puro aspire to be like them. And it's not bad, I just don't think that only this style of wrestling is beautiful. Kyoko was that evil bully heel and in many cases it made the matches so much more interesting. I was interested in her biography a bit, and the dream of becoming a wrestler was actually not easy for her. She had to fight for her career in the literal sense, so everything she did in the ring looked so organic. Yes, and in general her contribution to joshi is huge."

[10.0] "I think it's fair to call Kyoko Kimura an all time legend in Joshi Puroresu. Willing to take and give crazy beatings without a single hesitation, with boatloads of charisma just by her look, founder of the all time best heel group Oedo Tai, and mother to one of the most charismatic wrestlers of the 21st century."

[10.0] "A hardcore, hard hitting, risk taking legend of Japan, unique style in the ring and character something complete new for the Women's Wrestling in Japan, an amazing heel and thank to her we had Oedo Tai!"

[6.0] "If there ever existed a version of ECW dedicated to lady wrestlers, Kyoko Kimura would fill the position of Tommy Dreamer almost perfectly. In the ring she never amounted to much, but she was completely unafraid not just to go hardcore but to take some serious beatings and terrible falls. Unfortunately that took a heavy toll on her body and seriously affected her mobility during her last years of activity and ultimately forced her to retire. Based on that alone I'd say she is an overachiever, but just like Tommy anybody willing to take those beatings and live with the consequences get my grudging respect."

[7.0] "A lot of matches in her 13 year career and it has been a good career so far. She has good skill and can be mean inside that ring. A little bigger than most of the Japanese ladies but definitely not someone who is slow and relies on mere brute force."