Keiko Nakano
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| Bull Nakano | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Ring name(s) | Bull Nakano Keiko Nakano (kanji) bù rù naka no |
| Billed height | 168 cm (5 ft 07 in) |
| Billed weight | 95 kg (209 lb) |
| Born | January 8, 1968 Kawaguchi, Saitama |
| Resides | Orlando, Florida |
| Trained by | All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling |
| Debut | 1983 |
| Retired | 1997 |
Keiko "Bull" Nakano (born January 8, 1968) is a former professional wrestler.
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At the age of 15, Keiko Nakano began her career as a professional wrestler in her homeland of Japan. She trained and performed with the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling organization (AJW), and quickly became one of the greatest heels in the history of Japanese women's pro wrestling.
After winning the AJW Junior Championship under her real name, her identity was changed to Bull Nakano and she teamed with the legendary Dump Matsumoto to feud with the popular Crush Gals (Chigusa Nagayo and Lioness Asuka). With Matsumoto as her partner, Nakano won the WWWA World Tag Team Championship. She later won the title a second and third time, with Condor Saito and Grizzly Iwamoto as successive partners.
Nakano briefly wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation in 1986, teaming again with Dump Matsumoto, their team known as the Devils of Japan.
In 1990, Nakano won a tournament to win the vacant WWWA World Heavyweight Championship, and went on to hold the title for nearly three years, before dropping it to Aja Kong.
Nakano also travelled to Mexico, in 1992, where she won a battle royal to become the first CMLL World Women's Champion. She then made her way to the United States and competed for the World Wrestling Federation once again. Debuting as an associate of Luna Vachon, Nakano dominated the WWF Women's champion, Alundra Blayze, in a series of matches and won the WWF Women's Championship on November 20, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan. This made Bull Nakano the only person to have held both the WWWA World Heavyweight Championship and the WWF Women's Championship, both of which claim a historic lineage, dating back to 1937 and 1956 respectively. Furthermore, she was also the first female of Asian descent to win the WWF/WWE Women's Championship.
Nakano held the title for five months, until losing the title back to Blayze on April 3, 1995 in Poughkeepsie, New York. The WWF had planned on bringing in Bertha Faye to feud with Nakano while Blayze got a nose and breast job, but Nakano was found in possession of cocaine and quickly fired from the company.[citation needed]
Nakano returned to Japan, where she continued to compete in AJW, then went back to the United States in 1996 to feud with Blayze, now going by her original ring name, Madusa, in World Championship Wrestling.
That was the last time Bull Nakano was seen on North American television. She continued to wrestle in Japan, but retired in 1997 to pursue a career in professional golf.
In the years following her retirement, Nakano began to diet and gradually lose much of the weight she had to maintain to stay in her role as one of AJW's monster heels, going from a peak of 250 pounds down to 143 pounds. In 1998, Nakano released a book about her weight loss called Bull Nakano no Diet Nikki: 19-gou Size no Watashi ga 9-gou Size ni (Translated: Bull Nakano's Diet Journal: How I went from a Size 19 to a Size 9).
In January 2006, Nakano, still pursuing her pro golf career, joined the Duramed Futures Tour on the Ladies Professional Golf Assocation. She is currently based in Orlando, Florida, U.S.. [1]
- Finishing and signature moves
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- AJW Champion (1 time)
- AJW Junior Champion (as Keiko Nakano) (1 time)
- AJW All Pacific Champion (1 time)
- Japan Grand Prix (1988)
- WWWA World Heavyweight Champion (1 time)
- WWWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Dump Matsumoto (1), Condor Saito (1), and Grizzly Iwamoto (1)
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- CMLL World Women's Champion (1 time)
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- WWF Women's Champion (1 time)
Categories: Articles lacking sources from July 2007 | All articles lacking sources | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | Japanese professional wrestlers | Female professional wrestlers | All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling alumni | World Championship Wrestling alumni | World Wrestling Entertainment alumni | Living people | 1968 births