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The G.O.A.T. 100 #82 | Bull Nakano
- Peter Edge
- 5 hours ago
- 12 min read
Welcome to the G.O.A.T. 100 where we will count down with PWM wrestling historian Peter Edge the 100 greatest wrestlers of all time, based on many different stats and criteria. A new wrestler will be added on Mondays and Thursdays every week. Here is a link to an introduction essay with Peter explaining his GOAT100 concept. At the bottom of the article you can find the GOAT 100 Portal with links to all profiles so far published, as well as a visual key... Enjoy learning more about the history of our great hobby!
Let me set the scene. I’m eight years-old and I’m watching WWF Superstars on the German channel on my satellite. Mom refused to let us have Sky Sports so I had to make do with having German as the background sound to the New Generation of WWF wrestlers. Well, until November 1995 when a Birmingham Cable salesman came to the door and had the cheaper alternative to Sky.
The card was being shown for the Summerslam PPV that was to come in August 1994 and up came a picture of Alundra Blayze and next to her was the scariest human being I had ever seen.
Bull Nakano with facepaint designed like veins going through her face stood there with a psychotic-looking grin and golden hair rising what looked like over a couple of feet.
She looked like a villain dreamt up in the lab of a master criminal. When it came to match time that night at the United Center, the match itself was very different from what the men were offering on the whole.
While 8 year-old Peter was scared, older me absolutely adores Bull Nakano. In a world where looking awesome is an important part of getting over, not many looked as awesome as Bull Nakano.
Born Keiko Nakano in January 8th, 1968, she made her debut as a wrestler at the age of 15, winning a handicap match against Masami Yagishita and Mika Komatsu on 1983.9.23, and then 10 days later would face Chigusa Nagayo in the midst of her Crush Gals run.
In November of the year, Keiko would win the 3rd Rookie of the Year Tournament adding her to the roll of honour that included both Crush Gals: Lioness Asuka and Nagayo.
Just as her rookie year was ending, Nakano would win the AJW Junior Title from Yumi Ogura, who had defeated her in a match for that belt six months previously when it was vacated by Chigusa early in 1984.
Nakano went on to vacate that championship herself in Q1 in ‘85 for “undocumented reasons”. The reality is that the secondary titles saw vacations aplenty, as wrestlers were booked to step up to a higher title, and for a talent on the rise to lose the belt in the ring wasn’t needed in the mind of the bookers.
Bull would go from the Junior Title – the fourth belt on the totem pole of singles titles – to the AJW Title, the third, winning the belt in July 1985. By now, she was no longer Keiko – she was Bull Nakano.
Joining the Atrocious Alliance, helmed by Dump Matsumoto – who had become the chief villain of All Japan Women against the Crush Gals – she rose quickly to second in command of the Alliance, over other members Condor Saito and Crane Yu. Bull would be the main tag partner of Dump in matches against the two most prominent face teams in AJW, the Crush Gals and the Jumping Bomb Angels. Bull and Dump would also go to the States and wrestle on WWF shows in the run up to WrestleMania II, making it onto the Prime Time Wrestling that populated Monday nights before RAW became a thing in 1993.
Bull would come into her own after Dump retired in February 1988 because of AJW's “retire at 26” rule, now leading the Atrocious Alliance and winning the WWWA Tag Championship with Condor in 1987 and then with Grizzly Iwamoto in 1988, making it three reigns with three different Atrocious members. In 1988, she won the Japan Grand Prix – a prestigious annual AJW tournament – again joining a roll of honour alongside Lioness and Chigusa.
The All Pacific Championship, the second most important belt in the company, would be won by Nakano defeating Mitsuko Nishiwaki to fill the vacancy after Chigusa became the next big name in AJW forced to retire at 26. The number of days that Bull held the title (148) would actually be the least of anyone that held the All Pacific in the 80s. But her loss of the belt to Noriyo Tateno in November 1989, who was getting a singles push after her fellow Jumping Bomb Angel, Itsuki Yamazaki retired in the spring, earlier in the year because…… well, you can guess why – was because with the churn of wrestlers because of the retirement rule, someone was needed to keep the ship steady and be the next ace of All Japan Women.
As the 90s began, Bull would win the WWWA World Championship, again defeating rival Nishiwaki in the final of a tournament to crown a new champion after Lioness Asuka…… I’m going to end up being repetitive at this rate. (Yes, Asuka had also turned 26.)
To show how isolated Bull was in the level of notoriety – out of the 21 names on the WrestleMarinepiad show at Yokohama Arena that took place on 1989.5.6 that were Japanese, none, Nagayo and Asuka aside, had had a WWWA Title match and those two both were retired when the new decade came.
Bull seemed the inevitable woman to be in the World Champion role. But there had not been a heel holding the WWWA World Single Championship since Devil Masami in the summer of ‘86. But the thing was, despite being ostensibly heel, Bull had started to garner a cult following from fans thanks to her unique look… and also a rival was emerging in 1990 – a fellow Titan in Aja Kong.
Billed as The Daughter of King Kong, Aja would butt heads with Bull throughout her reign. The final match of the 1990 stanza of Bull’s hold on the belt seeing a cage match main event at the 1990 Wrestlemarinepiad show. The 11.14 match was in many Top 10 lists for that year's MOTY list (8th on mine) and was best remembered for the match ending moment when Bull hit her finisher, the top rope legdrop but instead from the top rope, Bull hit it from the top of the cage.
It was insane, considering a) the top of the cage was really high, and b) All Japan Women’s rings were stupid hard. It’s a miracle that her hip didn’t end up in the same state as my dad’s new significant other has, so that she needs aids to help her get up the stairs!
1990 saw Nakano defend the WWWA Single Title five times – the first time it was defended more than four times in a year since 1982 and Jaguar Yokota’s first reign with the title. It was proof of a change of identity for All Japan women, as it could be said that it has been a tag-team territory during the majority of the 1980s. But Bull’s 1,057 day reign as champion saw more defences than any other with her twelve overtaking Jaguar’s nine in that first reign.
The 1991 portion of that reign saw defences against Akira Hokuto, Yumiko Hotta, Monster Ripper, Aja’s Jungle Jack stablemate Bison Kimura and a stablemate in Bull's own Gokumon-to heel group, Kyoko Inoue.
Wrestlemarinepiad 1991 would see Nakano and Ripper face each other in the main event and in a strange set of circumstances where they also teamed to face Aja and Bison earlier in the show, with both matches being cage matches. Nakano would leave the show and the year of ‘91 still champion after hitting another top of the cage legdrop on Ripper. (Seriously, how is her hip not at least metal these days?)
It was in 1992 that a decrease in title defences happened with just two in the year, both against Aja Kong. Aja’s chase of the main title of the company had got to the fourth attempt for Kong to take the WWWA belt off Nakano.
The two former charges of Dump Matsumoto (Kong also having been in the Atrocious Alliance in its final days) would really de-escalate from the violence of the weapon-filled cage brawl in the autumn of 1990 – with their ‘92 matches both being straight matches (albeit with the customary brawls on the outside and the odd weapon shots because AJW didn’t do DQs.)
On a night where Bison retired from wrestling because of an accumulation of injuries, Aja would seize the incentive in the match and hit Bison’s chop and then hit her own guillotine legdrop for the win and the title, ending the nearly three year reign of Bull Nakano.
The emotional scenes afterwards felt like a true passing of the torch. The keys to the All Japan Women palace now belonged to Aja Kong. (Aja’s run with the WWWA Title gets covered later in this project.)
Now, the question you are all asking, I presume is – “so when does Bull Nakano turn 26?”
January 8th, 1994 is the answer.
1993 would see Nakano involved in the inter-promotional warfare of the big 3 joshi promotions. AJW, JWP and LLPW with a match against 31 year-old Devil Masami in a AJW vs JWP match at a JWP show at Korakuen and a match at Dream Slam I in which Nakano and Aja Kong teamed up in various matches and realised that they had tons in common in the process – a liking of hitting people really hard.
I’m guessing you spotted something in the previous paragraph that goes against one of the themes from the previous 1,200 words. Devil was past 26 when she entered the ring for her match against Bull Nakano. She, just like other roster members from All Japan, had retired when her 26th birthday came.
This policy brought in by All Japan bigwigs, the Matsunaga brothers, was established to maintain a young roster and appeal to a teenage fanbase even if it meant forcing big stars to bow out at the peak of their popularity.
But while some retired to have family lives or business careers away from wrestling, some pined to be in the wrestling ring and Masami, who retired in December 1987 was back in the ring but not for the company where she built her Hall of Fame resume.
After wrestling on two independent shows teaming with fellow “retired at 26” AJW alumni Itsuki Yamazaki in the latter of those two, both would start to work for JWP.
Despite the fun that Bull Nakano brought to All Japan Women in her WWWA Title reign, the line was going down. It was always going to. After the era of Beauty Pair and their heirs apparent Crush Gals that lasted a decade, it was going to be hard for someone to replace them – hence the shift of philosophy from tag wrestling to singles wrestling. With that downward trend, and the threat that other forced-retired stars from the eighties would also join competitor JWP, the “retire by 26” was abolished.
1994 was maybe Bull’s greatest year, which is ironic, don’t you think?
She would enter into a feud with Shinobu Kandori which saw a Chain Match, which is out of this world great, on an LLPW show on 7.14 and then not long after headed to the States for a small cameo on WWF television as a part of a deal made between AJW (and probably Rossy Ogawa) and the WWF, shy of a decade after the appearances she made in 1986.
Her match with Alundra Blayze on Summerslam 1994 for Blayze’s WWF Women’s Title is quite possibly the best ever women’s singles match that the “New York territory” ever put on, until the Sasha Banks vs Bayley match on NXT Takeover: Brooklyn on Summerslam weekend 21 years later.
While Alundra won the match in Chicago, a rematch between the pair on the biggest night in Joshi history would be won by Bull. As part of the Big Egg Universe show at the Tokyo Dome that All Japan put on in November 1994, Bull’s challenge for the WWF Women’s Title was situated in between the semi-finals and final of the tournament that was the main theme of the event.
The second to last match of the 10-hour show (and yes I watched the whole thing uninterrupted on YouTube during lockdown) was played out in front of a crowd that was exhausted for understandable reasons but Nakano’s win was treated like a big deal in Japanese magazines, definitely more so than on Fed state media.
Nakano would lose the belt to Alundra on the RAW after WrestleMania XI because apparently we needed to see the British Bulldog and Lex Luger against The Blu Brothers instead of this match on the biggest show of the year.
Nakano was planned to carry on wrestling for WWF in 1995 while Blayze had plastic surgery on her nose and breasts (this is the WWF we’re talking about.) The plan was to turn Bull face for a feud with Bertha Faye, (in her new guise after decades as Monster Ripper) to set up for Bertha to feud with Blayze upon her return.
However, Bull liked to live life in the fast lane. She was someone who didn’t live by the three commandments sent down to AJW wrestlers. The “Three No’s” were No Drinking, No Smoking and No Boyfriends. Bull certainly didn’t try to abide by the latter of the three. All I’ll say is, type "Bull Nakano" and "Jeff Bowdren" into your Google.
Suffice to say, Nakano enjoyed a party – to the point that she indulged in class A drugs, and would get caught with cocaine on a traffic stop while in America. She wouldn’t wrestle for WWF again
However, this wouldn't stop WCW from using her not long after. Bull was part of the notorious Collision in Korea show that took place in North Korea’s Rungrado May Day Stadium in front of 190,000 people.
She reportedly got the second biggest pop of the night behind Antonio Inoki with her look prompting such a reaction. You’d have to imagine that no North Korean had ever seen someone like Bull Nakano before.
Ok, I’ll say it now. Bowdren was an idiot for turning down Bull's advances. I mean, he was single and everything… (did I just reveal what my type is?)
WCW did a deal with not just AJW but their competitor JWP as they looked to expand their roster and add a women’s division. Bull would appear on the World War III show in November 1995, teaming with Akira Hokuto to face Mayami Ozaki and Cutie Suzuki in what was an inter-promotional match on a WCW PPV with a rematch the next night on Nitro.
WCW then signed Alundra Blayze or Madusa as she was better known outside New York and she promptly dumped the WWF Women’s Title into a bin, which would lead up to a resumption of hostilities between the two in a new promotion.
But first, back in Japan, Bull would spend her 1995 in a series of matches against her friend Kyoko Inoue, with the story being that Kyoko was not able to defeat Bull in the ring despite so many attempts.
Before she had dropped the title back to Blayze on US TV, Bull’s sole successful defence of the WWF Women’s belt had been against Kyoko in a cracking match – the best match for that version of the title until it was unified with the Divas’s Championship – with the post match scenes seeing Bull talk about closing the Gokumon-to stable.
Kyoko asked Bull not to close the stable until she could beat her leader. That day would come on 9.2 when Kyoko hit three Niagara Drivers to beat her senpai in an unbelievable match. One that even at my ****½ star rating still doesn’t make my Top-5 AJW matches of the year. That’s how good the company was in 1995.
But Bull’s body was breaking down. She broke her hip and then it somehow readjusted itself back into its normal place, all before Bull actually noticed, only finding out when she felt pain in her hip area and the doctor pointed out the medical marvel. But Bull at 27 was slowing down considerably from the athlete she had been in her peak as Ace of AJW when she was 21.
Bull and Madusa would feud in WCW with the pair wrestling on the Hog Wild PPV in August at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in a Winner Destroys the Other's Bike match. Madusa won and Bull's Honda was destroyed, meaning a nice looking bike (even with questionable livery) ended up being made into scrap.
Nakano would wrestle Madusa twice more in the week that followed, on an episode of Saturday Night (booked by Jimmy Hart in this era, Saturday Night was becoming the sickos show) and on Clash of the Champions… and then that was that.
Nakano would officially retire in 1997 but the final match of her career was at the Clash show in Denver.
Bull took a swing at professional golf, but to no success. Attempts to go qualify for the LPGA, the top body in worldwide golf failed despite entering what is regarded as the second division of the sport in the Duramed Futures Tour in 2006.
Her involvement in wrestling was limited post-1996. She has made appearances in shows in managerial roles and commissioner roles in Sukeban (a company that looks to hybridise the worlds of modelling and wrestling) and she has a successful YouTube channel in which she interviews her peers of the second golden joshi era (which will be a very good resource when I go through the fall of AJW in my Manami Toyota bio…)
Unlike many of the greats of Japanese wrestling, Bull Nakano is someone who the mainstream fan would know, Her look made her perfect for American wrestling and perfect to oppose the idols of joshi in the 80s and the new wave of joshi heroines of the 1990s. Bull was one of a kind, and one of the greatest women in wrestling history
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