A Triumph, In and Out of the Ring

A Triumph, In and Out of the Ring

Review: The Queen of Villains

Released on Netflix on 20 September, The Queen of Villains is a five-episode miniseries that tells the story of Kaoru ‘Dump’ Matsumoto, the top heel in All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling during the promotion’s high point in the early to mid 1980s.

Owned by the Matsunaga Brothers, All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that, at the request of television network Fuji TV, combined in-ring action with singing and dancing to draw the network’s primary audience of ‘younger women and housewives.’

Coming from an abusive home background, Matsumoto was a shy and polite young woman who transformed in front of the camera to become a violent and unpredictable character. Using weapons like canes and even scissors, she fought in violent and bloody matches, receiving legitimate heat for her antics. According to one poll conducted at the time, she was Japan’s most-hated person, and she received hate mail and death threats.

Beginning with Matsumoto’s younger years growing up in a troubled home in Tokyo, The Queen of Villains traces her life leading into her wrestling career, up to her retirement from the ring.

Actress Yuriyan Retriever depicts Matsumo. Retriever puts in a star making performance and showcases real range from Matsumoto’s star-struck early days as a ‘new face’ (rookie) to her days as a grizzled and world-weary veteran. Retriever does not entirely look like Matsumoto but depicts her in a way that feels close to her character.

Preparation for the role appears to have been a real challenge, with the whole cast undergoing pro wrestling training. In an interview with Cinema Daily, Yuriyan Retriever recalled:

All the actresses who played professional wrestlers were taught from scratch how to climb into the ring and how to perform the Ukemi (Falling technique for Judo or Wrestling), such as the Denguri-Gaeshi RollingOver) and other various movements, and we practiced more and more techniques and Ukemi techniques. We practiced techniques and Ukemi four days a week, almost every day, and rode trains and buses from Tokyo to Funabashi City in Chiba Prefecture.

This intensive training paid off, with the show’s wrestling scenes being close recreations of the original matches. As well as acting and wrestling on the show, Retreiver performs the show’s theme song ‘Dump the Heel’, a cover of Dump Matsumoto’s original song (the biggest stars in All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling sang as well as acted and wrestled).

While Queen of Villains is centered on Matsumoto, her story is not the only one the show explores, with the Crush Gals Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka also taking central roles in the narrative. As the biggest stars in the promotion at the time, the Crush Gals were a legitimate cultural sensation, appearing in CMs (advertisements), music videos, talk shows, and daytime dramas. Matsumoto played an important role as their main antagonist during this time, with Dave Meltzer noting that attendance went down after she retired. In order to draw well, the faces really did need a compelling villain to compete against.

As the show depicts, life was not easy for the women in All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling. At the height of the promotion’s popularity, they performed in around 300 shows a year, traveling by bus to some of the smallest far-flung towns to deliver their brand of athletic entertainment, with some singing and dancing thrown in. Their lives were under scrutiny and strictly managed, with the ‘three taboos’ banned: there would be no alcohol, no tobacco, and no dating. Due to restrictions, they were forced to retire from the ring at the age of 25, a stricture that did not apply to their male counterparts. As Japanese academic Tomoko Seto explores, joshi puroresu (women’s pro wrestling) was something that female performers found freedom and empowerment through but could paradoxically also be exploitative in equal measure.

A Beautiful Show

The Queen of Villains is a beautiful show. It is shot well, with plenty of light and colour, and the production team clearly went to great lengths to recreate the era of the early 1980s. Shooting in the real-life locations like the Nippon Budokan and Korakuen Hall, the show goes so far as to present these arenas as they looked during Matsumoto’s career. The film’s soundtrack also recreates the era well, with covers of the songs the wrestlers performed.

As The Queen of Villains is a fictionalised version of events, creative licence is expected. At several points, the show depicts certain matches as having unplanned results and finishes, with the Japan Grand Prix tournament said to be based solely on reality. This, of course, was not the case, with all match results being the result of the Matsunagas’ carefully laid plans.

Perhaps the biggest departure from the real-life events is the show’s depiction of Matsumoto herself. Presented in this drama as being not-too-different from how she was on-screen, the real-life Matsumoto was described by an American reporter as being quiet and unassuming, lamenting that “It’s not easy to be the bad guy.” Her status as Japan’s most hated person also appears to have taken its toll.

At points, the show’s subtitles are slightly inaccurate (referring to the WWWA titles as ‘WWWO’) but these are minor issues that don’t detract from the story.

The Queen of Villlains is a show with a story about transformation, overcoming adversity, as well as the themes of abuse and gender inequality. As such, it will appeal to a wider audience beyond wrestling fandom. As Yuriyan Retreiver noted, “…It is really a story about young women in their 20s and 30s at the time. As I read the story, I got the refreshing impression that it was a story about the youth of young women in their 20s and 30s at that time, and as I read on, I realised that everyone was doing their best.”

The Queen of Villains is streaming now on Netflix. You can watch the full trailer here.

Jonathan Foye is a freelance journalist. He is currently co-writing a book about All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling with Fumi Saito.

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