, better known by her

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

, is a semi-retired

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional wrestler. She came to prominence as one of the leading female wrestlers in

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling , nicknamed Zenjo (全女: 全 meaning "All", 女 meaning "Woman") was a ''joshi puroresu'' (women's professional wrestling) professional wrestling promotion, promotion established in 1968 by Takashi Matsunaga and his brothers. The group held th ...

during the 1980s. The longtime leader of the stable Gokuaku Domei — which included Crane Yu, Condor Saito and

Bull Nakano is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional golfer better known as . She began competing in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a teenager under the ring name Bull Nakano. As a wrestler she was a villain, who often teamed w ...

— she was one of the main rivals of the popular tag team Crush Gals. Their long running feud would become extremely popular in Japan during the 1980s, with their televised matches resulting in some of the highest rated in Japanese television as well as the promotion regularly selling out arenas.

Professional wrestling career

All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (1980–1986)

Making her debut in 1980, within three years she defeated

Lioness Asuka is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by her ring name . Along with long-time tag team partner Chigusa Nagayo she formed Crush Gals, known for their mainstream popularity in the 1980s, and for being one of the most successful ...

for the

AJW Championship The AJW Championship was a tertiary belt in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion. The first champion, in 1980, was Rimi Yokota. During the title's history, no one held the belt more than two times. The belt was abandoned in 2005 after ...

on January 8 and held the title for almost six months before losing the title back to Asuka on June 1, 1983. During her feud with the Crush Gals, she would often team with

and Crane Yu, who Matsumoto teamed with to defeat Lioness Asuka and

Chigusa Nagayo is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her mainstream popularity in the 1980s as a member of the tag team ''Crush Gals'' with long-time partner Lioness Asuka. She was the founder of the GAEA Women's Professional Wrestling organizatio ...

for the WWWA Tag Team title on February 25, 1985, although the two were forced to vacate the title two months later following Yu's retirement. She later made an unsuccessful bid for the vacant

WWWA World Single Championship The was the top singles women's professional wrestling championship in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) from 1970 until it closed in 2005. It was also known in ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' and other London Publishing wrestling magazines as ...

losing to

Devil Masami Masami Yoshida (吉田雅美，born January 7, 1962) is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for her appearances in All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, GAEA Japan and JWP Joshi Puroresu under the name Devil Masami. She is a member of the All ...

on December 12, 1985. She later lost to rival Chigusa Nagayo for the

All Pacific Championship The All Pacific Championship was the secondary singles women's professional wrestling title in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling or AJW. The belt was started as the Hawaiian Pacific Championship in 1977 and was renamed the All Pacific Championship ...

in Tokyo, Japan on April 5, 1986.

World Wrestling Federation (1986)

In early 1986, she and Nakano made a brief appearance in the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

as The Devils of Japan, wrestling

Velvet McIntyre Velvet McIntyre (born November 24, 1962) is an Irish-Canadian retired professional wrestler. After beginning her career in 1980, she wrestled in American independent promotions before joining the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). She ...

in two separate tag team matches with

Dawn Marie Dawn Marie Psaltis (born November 3, 1970) is an American actress, nurse and a retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling valet. She is perhaps best known for her appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the Smac ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

on March 8, which they lost and with Linda Gonzales in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on March 16, 1986, which they were victorious.

Return to AJW (1986–1988)

Once back in Japan, Matsumoto resumed her feud with the Crush Gals teaming with Bull Nakano to defeat Lioness Asuka and

Kazue Nagahori is a Japanese professional wrestler who stood out in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. Career Nagahori was born in Saitama, Japan, and began her career as a fighter in 1984 in the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling. She received trophies and m ...

(substituting for an injured Chigusa Nagayo) for the WWWA Tag Team title on August 23, 1986, however the two would eventually be forced to vacate the title the following year. Although Matsumoto officially announced her retirement on February 25, 1988, in which she wrestled the Crush Gals in a tag team match with Yukari Ohmori and then siding against her partner by switching with Nagayo against Asuka and Ohmori, she wrestled her final match against Bull Nakano and Condor Saito on February 28.

Occasional appearances (1998–present)

She has since appeared on several All Japan Women "legends reunions", and in August 1998, Matsumoto and Crane Yu came out of retirement wrestling in a ten-minute exhibition tag team match against

Combat Toyoda Noriyo Toyoda (豊田記代, born October 26, 1967) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, best known under the name Combat Toyoda (コンバット豊田). She spent much of her career in Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling. Professional wres ...

and Hyper Cat. She also made several appearances for the now defunct

GAEA In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes partheno ...

promotion, and as recently as November 11, 2007, ran her own show under the banner of Gokuaku Domei Produce at Shinjuku FACE.

Other media

Matsumoto lent her ring name and likeness to the

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

''Gokuaku Doumei Dump Matsumoto'', which was released in some Western countries under the title ''Body Slam''. The game was later

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

to the

Sega Master System The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...

, but Western localized versions (renamed simply ''

Pro Wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

'') removed her likeness and replaced the entirely female cast with male wrestlers. Since her retirement from professional wrestling, she has appeared in a number of Japanese films during the late 1980s and early 1990s most notably portraying the character Bái Yá-Shàn in

Ryoichi Ikegami is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He is best known for ''Crying Freeman'' (1986–1988), written by Kazuo Koike, and '' Heat'' (1999–2004), written by Buronson. The latter won the ...

and

Kazuo Koike was a prolific Japanese manga writer ( gensakusha), novelist, screenwriter, lyricist and entrepreneur. He is best known for his violent, artful ''seinen'' manga, notably ''Lone Wolf and Cub'' (with Goseki Kojima, 1970–6), '' Lady Snowblood'' ...

's ''

Crying Freeman is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. ''Crying Freeman'' follows a Japanese assassin hypnotized and trained by the Chinese mafia (called the "108 Dragons") to serve as its agent and covered in ...

'' series which includes ''Crying Freeman 2: Shades of Death, Part 1'' (1989), ''Crying Freeman 3: Shades of Death, Part 2'' (1990) and ''Crying Freeman 5: Abduction in Chinatown'' (1992). She has also starred in ''Scorpion Woman Prisoner: Death Threat'' (1991) and '' Okoge'' (1992).

Championships and accomplishments

( 1 time) **

WWWA World Tag Team Championship The World Women's Wrestling Association (WWWA) World Tag Team Championship was the top doubles championship in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) from 1970 until it closed in 2005. During those years the title was held by many of the most famo ...

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) – with Crane Yu (1) and

(1) **

Tag League the Best __NOTOC__ The was an annual professional wrestling tag team tournament, founded by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), which held it from 1985 to 2004 (with no tournament taking place in 1990). After the folding of AJW in 2005, the tournament wa ...

(

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

) – with Bull Nakano **AJW Hall of Fame (1998) *

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards This is a list of both active and inactive ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' awards created by professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA) journalist Dave Meltzer. The first fourteen awards were created in 1980 as an informal poll between ...

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) Hall of Fame is a professional wrestling and mixed martial arts hall of fame that recognizes people who make significant contributions to their professions. It was founded in 1996 by Dave Meltzer, editor of t ...

( Class of 1996)

References

External links

Dump Matsumoto
by James Phillips * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Matsumoto, Dump 1960 births Living people Japanese female professional wrestlers 20th-century professional wrestlers