DVD Review-Manami Toyota:Queen of Queens

DVD REVIEW
Manami ToyotaQueen of Queens Vol. 1-6
Cost:6 DVDs for $25US including shipping
Contact Sonny at usjpn@cox.net



When discussing the history of joshi puroresu and the heyday of the 1990s, the discussion inevitably leads to the All Japan Women class of 1986. Most of the wrestlers we enjoy watching were trained in that class. I'm talking about Akira Hokuto, Erika (Aja Kong) Shiseido, Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita, Nobuko (Bison) Kimura, Toshiyo Yamada and of course Manami Toyota. We can debate all their strong points and weak points endlessly but they are all very entertaining to watch. My joshi video dealer friend Sonny in California has decided to take on the daunting task of chronicling the entire career of Manami Toyota on DVD. He's calling it Queen of Queens. He says there will be 30-40 DVDs when he's finished. So he sent me the first six volumes which cover Toyota's career from 1986 to 1991. I'm not complaining. I love Toyota.



Sonny is doing this project in chronological order. He's including any Manami Toyota match he can find and he's also including some more unusual footage. The first DVD includes footage of Toyota's audition and some footage of her room at AJW. The matches cover 1987 to May 1989. For the most part they're nothing special though it is interesting to see Toyota's March 1989 match against her good friend and pre-Aja Kong Erika Shiseido. I don't see the greatness in Toyota at this stage. She looks like just another rookie. The second DVD starts with a complete 30 minute episode of the Ringstar TV show from 1988. It includes a rookie race that Toyota actually wins but it also has footage of Lioness Asuka waking the girls at 4:30AM. It went on too long and I could have lived without it. The matches are mostly from the 1989 Tag League The Best when Toyota teamed with Toshiyo Yamada. They're OK but Toyota still hasn't figured things out.



In 1989 it should be obvious to Manami Toyota that her 1986 classmates Akira Hokuto & Erika Shiseido had progressed a lot faster than her. She needed to develop a ring style and a distinct personality. The third DVD demonstrates that she did exactly that in 1990. First she put on about ten pounds so she looked less like a little kid and she started to bring more intensity to her matches. She's still struggling with her look and isn't that comfortable yet with her high flying but those things will come. The key match is from June 17, 1990 against Akira Hokuto as part of the 1990 Japan Grand Prix tournament. This is the fateful match when Hokuto jumped on Toyota from the top rope to the arena floor, banged her knee on the ringside railing and cracked her kneecap. This injury would plague Hokuto for the remainder of her career. The doctors ended the match over Hokuto's protests. Boy, was she pissed. It appears that Hokuto was supposed to win the JGP but this changed things and Toyota won the final over Yumiko Hotta. The other wrestlers viewed Toyota's victory as a fluke and would constantly bring it up for the next year. And just to prove it, Toyota challenged Bull Nakano for the WWWA Singles Title shortly after and Bull killed her in short order. The fourth DVD continues with 1990. The matches are OK and we're starting to see Toyota's legendary flexibility. In one match, Hokuto twists her in such knots that I figure Toyota must be double jointed.



The fifth DVD begins with a match that has Akira Hokuto with her arm in a cast. I'm not sure of the story behind that angle though I suspect it has to do with Hokuto taunting Toyota about her JGP win. It's followed by a May 1991 Toyota match vs Aja Kong. The video quality isn't the best but it's the best match on this collection and demonstates the chemistry between those two. We also get a couple of clips of Manami Toyota & Etsuko Mita singing Time To Go. Some guys are fans of the singing. I'm not and Toyota is a terrible singer anyway. Some fans will probably enjoy the singing more than me. The sixth DVD features Toyota teaming with Debbie Malenko in the 1991 Tag League The Best. The matches are OK and we are starting to see Toyota flying all over the arena. But Malenko herself says after one of the matches that she didn't think the match was up to par. The DVD ends with Manami Toyota winning Wrestler of the Year at the 1991 AJW awards banquet.



The video quality of these DVDs is excellent for the most part. Sonny has tried to get commercial video masters when possible. But some matches were on TV only and never released on video so the quality depends on the source. It only becomes a real problem twice. Once on DVD #4, Manami Toyota, Mika Takahashi & Suzuka Minami vs Aja Kong, Bison Kimura & Madusa Miceli is virtually unwatchable and the Toyota/Aja match on DVD #5 is shaky but well worth watching. The bottom line is that if the match is available on a high quality source, the quality on the DVD is equally high. And these matches on DVD are superior to anything on VHS anyway. Sonny is charging $25US for all six discs. You can't beat that. You can contact him at usjpn@cox.net and he'll take care of you. As a major Manami Toyota fan, I was very interested in watching her career develop from its infancy. I'm looking forward to future DVDs and I will review them when I get them. There's no such thing as too much Manami Toyota.