Manami Toyota

"Toyota single-handedly injected new life into my love for wrestling. Admittedly my interest for this art back in middle school wasn't anything but watching Mick Foley compilation in youtube for hours on end, and by the time i finished high school it had basically faded away. By a simple twist of fate, the recording of Toyota vs Hokuto '95 appeared in my youtube feed: I was completely blown away by the careless catharsis embebed in these women's style. Toyota specially seems to carry a borderline misanthropic approach that rejects any embellishment of the art to deliver pure, uncut violence. Without trying to abate Foley's work, for me wrestling had never seen more real until i discovered Manami Toyota."

[6.0] "Ugh. If there's a wrestler I don't understand how well she is received...it's her. It's Manami Toyota. She's undoubtably good, but she's reckless, she can miss spots, she botches a lot and psychologically-wise, she isn't the best in that regard. A 6 for me"

[10.0] "I've never seen a wrestler with greater endurance than Manami Toyota, her ability to go at full speed for up to an hour while throwing caution to the wind is entirely unmatched in my eyes. I'll never get tired of watching Toyota matches"

[10.0] "Top 5 wrestler of all time. Definitely the greatest woman's wrestler of all time. Fearless and always gave you your moneys worth. Always."

[10.0] "Arguably the greatest women's wrestler of all time. So many incredible matches in her career. My favourite thing about her is that she was never afraid to take risks. There was always an urgency about her moves. She never looked robotic or basic."

[10.0] "God. Damn. Manami Toyota is wrestling incarnate. If Mayu Iwatani didn't exist, we'd be talking about the undisputed greatest women's wrestler of all time. And honestly, there's still a massive argument that she already is. No one -- no one -- did it like Toyota in her prime. Her performance against Aja Kong at Big Egg Universe was a masterpiece. Legit one of the greatest in-ring performances I've ever witnessed in my life. You could frame that match next to the best stuff from Kenny Omega, Mitsuharu Misawa, or Kenta Kobashi and it holds up perfectly. She sold like her soul was leaving her body. She bumped like death was around every corner. And she came back, over and over, with this fiery spirit that was just... unmatched. No wasted motion. No break in character. Just pure, explosive wrestling perfection. She wasn't just fast -- she was lightning. She wasn't just graceful -- she was violent. Every match had this emotional rhythm to it, like a musical performance mixed with chaos. The near falls, the insane athleticism, the storytelling through pain and resilience -- she was the full package before people even knew what that meant. Toyota was the blueprint for what "goat-tier" women's wrestling looks like. Her consistency, her intensity, her unmatched cardio, her timing... all of it was decades ahead of its time. She could've main evented any WrestleMania and blown the roof off. So yeah, this is an undisputed 10.0. Manami Toyota was absolute elite. If you've never watched her matches, you're missing the foundation of high-speed, emotionally charged wrestling. She's not just one of the greatest women's wrestlers ever -- she's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Period."

[10.0] "Special pro wrestler. One of the best wrestlers of all time, she could do it all, her willingness to take any bump, her selling, her fast paced style, such an incredible worker."

[10.0] "If you know little about women's wrestling prior to what WWE has offered, once you learn about Toyota, your jaw will hit the floor. If Billy Graham is the male wrestler who was amazing to a degree before the business was ready for it, Manami is that when thinking of women in wrestling."

[10.0] "How do you describe Manami Toyota? It's as simple as just one of the greatests females wrestlers in history. Nobody did what she did in the ring, especially back then. She's one of the pioneers and an example for many female wrestlers. Her matches are unbelievable, have never aged and are still appreciated today! If you don't know this woman, check out her work !"

[10.0] "The Greatest Female Professional Wrestler Of All Time! Seriously, how good this woman is as a wrestler is insane, it's unfair that she's so gifted. Her matches with Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue, Akira Hokuto, Toshiyo Yamada, Mima Shimoda to name a few, along with her tag team bouts, all speak for themselves and should be seen by anyone who appreciates professional wrestling in general. Her move set is breath taking, watching her taking nasty bumps, selling like crazy, taking all kinds of high flying risks, getting technical, there's so much to offer that she can provide and always delivers, not to mention that she's also a great storyteller, she's a very believable babyface and plays the role super well in her matches. I know this phrase gets thrown around a lot, but this is 100% deserving of a title for her, Manami Toyota is a generational talent that we will never see anyone come close to being on her level of in ring talent, psychology, story telling and able to have the crowd in the palm of her hand ever again. Seriously, she's so refined and athletic, that it's almost unreal how out of this world her in ring abilities are, she makes everything look so easy and takes so many risks with no hesitation whatsoever, truly on a whole different level, no matter the race or gender, also impressive how she can recover from a botch and/or make it work for her matches. Overall, Manami Toyota has a 30 year career that has influenced many talents since then through amazing athelticism and classic matches, that alone could warrant a 10."

[10.0] "Manami Toyota is the best wrestler in the world. She has it all and she understands it all. She has what many wrestlers (male or female) lack: ring psychology. She reminds me of Bryan Danielson in her positioning, intelligence and speed. All her actions seem natural and almost thoughtless, she seems to seize opportunities, act on what's happening, simply react. Even her few botches seem credible. She gives us confrontations that seem truer than life. Her confrontations with Aja Kong are my all-time favorite fights of all genders. Her speed, flexibility, selling skills and intelligence are matched only by the impact she puts into each of her blows."

[10.0] "Manami is on my Mt. Rushmore alongside Chigusa Nagayo, Jaguar Yokota and Akira Hokuto. I recall a quote from the creator or Mario Bros, Shigeru Miyamoto, where he says the essence of what makes Mario so fun is its simplicity: it's a game where you run and jump. I think that's part of the reason Manami resonates with so many people. She's considered an innovator but she actually cared less for intricate spots and more for running and bumping. Her matches felt like authentic contests where her offense often looked improvised and always ran the risk of failing. People will criticize her botches but I would rather take a wrestler who took chances than a wrestler who played everything super safe with their moves. She's like the equivalent of a quarterback that takes shots down field even though the analytics favor short passes with a higher completion percent. Rambling aside, Manami is wrestling excellence and I love her interpretation of the art form. Also, the "Mamani Toyorita" commenter below has rated all the most famous joshi of all time as 2.0 or below, making me wonder what kind of agenda is going on there or if it is bot activity."

[10.0] "I can't possibly comment on her mic skills since I don't speak Japanese, but I don't need to to understand what she's doing in the ring. She is the total package in a wrestling ring and I have never seen her have a bad match."

[10.0] "Manami Toyota makes all of our favourite wrestlers seem like amateurs, its hard to comment on her ability because words feel like they cheapen her fight, passion and her ability to seem like she is fighting Gods and surviving. When Manami Toyota bumps you forget wrestling is a work, one of the best of all time, and deserves to be known by every wrestling fan."

[10.0] "The best female wrestler ever and can be argued the best wrestler ever. Probably has the best cardio in wrestling ever, her gas tank never emptied. The way her body would fold during powerbombs and Germans always made them look incredibly impactful. The jump to the top rope followed by any type of dive she decided she wanted to do was always a great spot & she continued to be great even at the end of her career putting on great matches. From videos Ive watched her work ethic was also undeniable never not putting on her absolute best."

[10.0] "Not all of Manami Toyota's matches are for me, sometimes because of the frantic pace. But Manami Toyota is simply the greatest women's wrestler of all time and a top 10 wrestler of all-time in the very top league. Toyota had fantastic work-rate, great highflying and speed based offense, some great power moves as well. She had some of the greatest matches of all-time. 100% legend."

[10.0] "She is one of if not the greatest wrestlers to have ever graced this planet, she has influenced a generation of talent, her high flying and technical ability legit changed the way Joshi style was, of course she deserves a 10"

[10.0] "She is arguably the greatest female wrestler to ever do it. It's clear how influential she was when you look at how much modern day wrestling is influenced by her body of work. Phenomenal. 10/10."

[8.0] "Definitely a great wrestler, has her shine and her great matches, but I'd consider Yokota, Nagayo, Hokuto and Matsumoto over Toyota."

[10.0] "Manami Toyota is up there with the greatest to ever do it, and that includes the male wrestlers. She could do everything and have a 10/10 match with anyone. Perfection"

[10.0] "Manami Toyota is the greatest women's wreslter ever. The perfect professional wrestler. Great technical abilities and high flying. She is a legend and influenced the modern generation of wrestling."

[10.0] "A true pioneer for womens wrestling today not just within the Joshi based promotions we see today like STARDOM, TJPW, and Marigold, but for any womens division elsewhere. One of the standard bearers of the revolution and rise of Japanese professional wrestling in the 90s as well. A genuine candidate for greatest professional wrestler of all-time, regardless of gender."

[10.0] "That insane "I am the best and I also don't care" attitude. Likely better than any female wrestler even now. Maybe Io could match her."

[10.0] "Every LGBT male person usually has one random woman who they are the biggest fan of for no reason. for me Manami Toyota is that women. One of my favorite pro wrestlers ever, one of the best of all time. The prefect pro wrestler."

[10.0] "The greatest female wrestler of all time. One of the greatest wrestlers regardless of gender. Minami Toyota is an icon of joshi puro and puroresu in general. An absolute legend. 10 out of 10."

[10.0] "Easily the best female wrestler ever. Perhaps even the greatest wrestler period. Her matches with Kyoko Inoue and Akira Hokuto sold me on her and I can't recommend her enough."

[10.0] "For my money the greatest female wrestler of all time. She was before her time in my opinion. Toyota had a moveset and in-ring ability that could stand against the best even now. Her matches with Aja Kong were some of my favourite, same with Meiko Satamura."

[10.0] "Go back and watch her matches. She was not only ahead of her time, but she would still be one of the best wrestlers in the world today if she was competing like she did in her prime. Absolutely fantastic. Sometimes she took risks which might have been ill-advised, but that's part of what made her so great. She's without a doubt the best female wrestler of all time, and she's in the conversation for best wrestler of all time period."

[10.0] "Manami Toyota is my favorite wrestler of all time, and I think the greatest female wrestler of all time. The first Joshi match I watched was her versus Aja Kong, and most of the womens wrestling I had seen previously was WWE (this is about 2007), so needless to say I was blown away by the intensity, the athleticism, and the storytelling. Her matches in her prime are nothing short of art."

[10.0] "The high peak excitement and danger of Manami Toyota is what makes her spectacular. The adrenaline rush that comes watching this woman crash at high speed, or deliver a devastating maneuver, is what gives me the joy and pleasure of considering Toyota as one of the absolute best. Many will simply say "She's the best" without ever telling you why. The leaps of faith with zero hesitation, the dangerous yet wildly innovative offense and her refusal to compromise made her extremely compelling in her prime. Her famed matches against Kyoko Inoue, Akira Hokuto, Aja Kong and so many others are legendary at this point. My favourite stuff has got to be the tag work during the interpromotional feuds with JWP and LLPW. The two WWWA tag championship bouts with Toshiyo Yamada against Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki are spectacles, masterclasses in tag team wrestling. Those on top of her feud against Yamada were key to me getting deeper into the joshi scene. It's the art of it all that made Manami Toyota great. The raw emotion and danger - all learned from the innovator before her and another all time great Jaguar Yokota. Don't let either the revisionists who say she's an emotionless no-seller or the uneducated Meltzer-repeaters that never watched and will fail to explain her greatness fool you. Just watch the matches and see for yourself. She was the real deal who became one of the key pieces of the post-Crush Girls era of AJW, and I will always view her as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time."

[10.0] "Manami Toyota is one of the best wrestlers of all time, male or female. With a lot of 5 star matches, her bouts stand the test of time, being some of the most impressive women's matches of all time. She was always giving 100% in her matches, doing a lot of crazy moves and taking some big bumps. Great seller and always had a great connection with the audience. Truly the GOAT."

[10.0] "The best female wrestler of all time, and one of the best in general. She had 13 5-Star Matches in her carreer. She had no fear to be agressive, to put her limits on test every single match, to be innovating. She makes moonsaults, backflips, turnbuckles rolling pins and falling dropkicks in a age of the most wrestlers uses backsuplexes and hammerpunchs as better move. She also had a incredible balance control, jumping on the ropes without a single trace of sliping, and could be considered one of the pionners of the future "high-speed style". And she completed with good sellings. No much more to say, she's simply the best!"

[10.0] "The best women's wrestler of all time. Her movement and her agility feel more like a man wrestler than a woman. TRUE GOAT."

[5.0] "Fine Wrestler that has had many good matches. But theres something missing; selling. Whenever I watch a Manami match, its like i'm watching advanced AI art, sure its impressive on a technical level but theres no soul to be found. Somehow, she lacks the charm that some of the more successful american spot monkeys have. I still respect her, and maybe one day I will get it, but its not today."

[10.0] "The best female wrestler of all-time in my humble opinion. There's revisionists out there that will claim she had no psychology and couldn't sell. I wholeheartedly disagree here. She was a tremendous seller that could take some crazy bumps. She could squeeze out any emotional reaction from the audience at any time, she always had them in the palm of her hands. And wow, what a worker she was. Setting the standards for in-ring action for the decades to follow, insane pace and stamina in her prime, she was just a joy to see perform."

[10.0] "The greatest female wrestler of all time and one of the best wrestlers in general. Matches against Hokuto, Aja, Inoue, and Kansai always deliver and her wide array of moves is amazing. My favorite match of hers is against Akira Hokuto at Destiny 1995"

[10.0] "One of the greatest professional wrestlers to walk this Earth. Lou Thesz, Buddy Rogers, Harley Race, Bret Hart, Manami Toyota. A real shame that many outside of Japan will never know the true genius of her work."

[7.0] "I? ve always liked Aja Kong better because Manami? s matches just have never been as exciting. Don? t get me wrong she is still very good. Even her matches with Aja aren? t fantastic. One of them I can? t even finish because Manami won? t stop screaming. I feel like she doesn? t sell as much as her other contemporaries but maybe I just don? t notice it. Because I am decently new to Japanese wrestling. I think a 7 out of 10 currently is satisfactory. Maybe I? ll change it later once I watch a little bit more of her work."

[9.0] "While I don't think Toyota was the best of her generation, she could do wonderous things in the ring. And, like her peers, her longevity is underrated. She wrestled as a top level for a good while. Perhaps not twenty years like some of the male wrestlers, such as Negro Casas, Bryan Danielson, etc, did but the lack of footage doesn't skew in her favour either. But for what we seen, she has a long list of great matches against different opponents or tag team partners. Her feuds against Toshiyo Yamada and Aja Kong are well known throughout history and for good reason. But she had a lot of good matches against lesser known rivals such as Yumiko Hotta and Kaoru Ito. Her longevity was certainly helped with the hyping by Dave Meltzer and while I think she is below the likes of SHonbu Kandori, Akira Hokuto, Chigusa Nagayo, she was a quality wrestler in her own right. Someone who helped push the hyper competitive mindset that allowed for everyone to be on their top games for a period of time. That's an achievement."

[10.0] "You can make great arguments for a few different people, but I think that Manami Toyota is the best female wrestler of all time. But it's insulting to give her that label and call it a day, as she is easily one of the greatest wrestlers period. This woman was insane. I don't understand how she would do that MISSILE DPROPKICK FROM THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR every single show and still wrestle for 30 years. No one has been as successfully reckless a high flyer, and honestly, no one should ever try. You can probably count on two hands the number of wrestlers with her stamina (about half of them would have been working with her in 1990s AJW by the way). To this day, she holds the distinction of participating in the fastest 60 minute draw of all time against Kyoko Inoue in 1995. Seriously, they sprinted towards the finish for a whole hour. She is proof that you don't need to be flashy outside the ring in order to get over: her soft-spoken nature in interviews never held her back. An ultimate face during her prime, she would seldom fail to get the crowd cheering. Her feuds against Toshiyo Yamada, Kyoko Inoue, and Aja Kong are legendary. It is difficult to keep track of the number of classic matches she had. Even in the 2000s, during the dark ages of joshi wrestling, she still managed to have her share of awesome matches. But most importantly, she never compromised: she always stayed true to her vision of wrestling and did it her way. Because of that, modern wrestling is only just catching up."

[10.0] "The GOAT, the Queen of Queens. Simply the greatest female professional wrestler of all time and one of the best regardless of gender. Innovator of moves and absolutely fearless in the ring, throwing herself 100% into everything. A joy to watch her matches with Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue, Akira Hokuto and many more. Legendary."

[10.0] "Bar none the greatest women's wrestler of all time, and arguably one of the greatest wrestlers of all time in general. Had an unrivaled career full of legendary matches, great moments, and innovative offense thats still used by many indie wrestlers to this day. A truly incredible wrestler."

[10.0] "The greatest Joshi/female wrestler of all time, she is a innovator with his aerial moves, a lot of aerial wrestlers owe respect to Toyota"

[10.0] "Best woman I've ever seen wrestle. Glad her matches are on youtube. I'm surprised other professional wrestling ladies don't mention her?"

[9.0] "If we were discussing the prime of her career, I'd most definitely say she was a 10, no question. Fantastically agile and had a workrate that not even the vast majority of the talent today can really keep up with. Extremely innovative and consistently having world class matches, as well as being a sensational seller, especially against the monster heels at the time: no one has quite made me cringe as much as she has with some of her brutal bumps. The only gripe I'd have with 90's Toyota was that she had a tendency to just never really slow down, which is great for some but for me I like the slower paced, psychological ringwork rather than just going full steam all the time, which was a habit she consistently dipped into. Why not a 10 if she's so talented then? Well, it's the fact that she slowed down considerably in her later years (not helped by her relentless workrate wearing her down pretty fast) and couldn't really go for a good bit near the end of her career. Sure, she'd still have great matches now and then depending on who was there, but never on the level that she'd have in her better days. That for me keeps her at a 9 despite her numerous accomplishments."

[10.0] "I don't think you can be hyperbolic when talking about Manami Toyota. She was ridiculously talented in the ring and she might be the best pure babyface in Joshi history next to Chigusa Nagayo. Also the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex is the greatest suplex ever conceived."

[10.0] "Gorgeous Moonsault, maybe the best ever in the business. Love her matched against Aja Kong especially."

[10.0] "Toyota did in the 90s what is considered "modern" today. She, alongside all of the AJW roster but I think it was even more obvious with her, was 20 years ahead of her time and she really helped women's wrestling grow in Japan and in the world. She is imo the best wrestler of all time."

[10.0] "The greatest women's wrestler of all time, her ability, and how great she in terms of storytelling or being the biggest babyface in the match, unfortunately she wasn't as popular as Aja or Bull or Hukoto for the international fans, but that doesn't change the fact about her greatness."

[10.0] "One of the best wrestlers in history, I've seen her do some incredible moves that nobody else can really do, her offense is incredible, she's not bad at selling either, in 1995 she was the best wrestler in the entire world"