Hana Kimura

Hana Kimura (木村花, Kimura Hana, September 3, 1997 – May 23, 2020) was a Japanese female professional wrestler, who wrestled for the women's professional wrestling promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom.

A second-generation wrestler, she was the daughter of former professional wrestler Kyoko Kimura.

She was also a cast member on the Netflix reality television series Terrace House: Tokyo 2019–2020, the fifth installment of the Terrace House franchise. One of the episodes resulted in her getting cyberbullied on social media to where she committed suicide at 22 years old. Netflix suspended the release of new Terrace House episodes after her death.

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Prior to her professional wrestling career, Kimura won the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship one time on August 21, 2005, at a live event in Tokyo, then lost the title to her mother Kyoko.

In the 2010s, Kimura was trained at Wrestle-1's Professional Wrestling University.

Wrestle-1 (2016–2019)

After graduating the Wrestle-1 training academy, she debuted for the promotion on March 30, 2016, against classmate Reika Saiki in a losing effort. The pair wrestled against each other many times throughout 2016 in Wrestle-1.

On August 7, 2016, Kimura wrestled against her mother in a match. On September 18, 2016, Kimura captured her first title, the JWP Junior Championship, by defeating Yako Fujigasaki in a tournament final. Around this time, Kimura also began appearing in World Wonder Ring Stardom. On October 2, 2016, Kimura teamed with her mother and Kagetsu to capture the Artist of Stardom Championship. The team vacated the titles on January 3, 2017, when Kimura was injured. One week prior, Kimura also lost her JWP Junior Championship on December 28, 2016, to Yako Fujigasaki. Kimura eventually became a member of Stardom's heel stable, Oedo Tai. On January 22, 2017, her mother retired. At Kyoko's retired show, Kimura defeated her mother in a singles match and on the same show, the two teamed in a trios match in a winning effort.

During 2017, Kimura split her time between Wrestle-1, Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling and Stardom while being a contracted performer for Wrestle-1. On June 21, 2017, at Stardom's Galaxy Stars 2017 event, Kimura teamed with her fellow Oedo Tai member, Kagetsu, to win the Goddess of Stardom Championship by defeating Team Jungle of Hiroyo Matsumoto and Jungle Kyona. The team held the titles for nearly a year, successfully defending against teams such as Jungle Kyona and HZK, Io Shirai and Viper, Jungle Kyona and Natsuko Tora, HZK and Momo Watanabe, Mayu Iwatani and Tam Nakano. The team was defeated by Mayu Iwatani and Saki Kashima in 2018.

Kimura officially became a Wrestle-1 roster member on January 9, 2018. She made an international tour in early 2018, competing for Ring of Honor, Pro-Wrestling: EVE, and various promotions in Mexico. Kimura left Oedo Tai on September 24, after she attacked Kagetsu.

On March 21, 2019, Kimura announced she was leaving Wrestle-1.

World Wonder Ring Stardom (2019–2020)

She officially joined Stardom on March 25, 2019. On April 6, Kimura, along with Stella Grey and Sumie Sakai wrestled Jenny Rose and Oedo Tai (Kagetsu and Hazuki) in a dark match at Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s G1 Supercard. On April 14, at the 2019 Stardom draft, Hana was named leader of the International Army faction. The faction was renamed, "Tokyo Cyber Squad", on April 21. On May 16, Kimura, along with her stablemates Jungle Kyona and Konami won the Artist of Stardom Championship after defeating Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima, and Tam Nakano.

On January 4, 2020, Kimura, along with Giulia wrestled Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki wrestled in a dark match at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 14. It was the first women's match at the Tokyo Dome since 2002. Kimura had her final match on March 24 at Stardom's Cinderella Tournament 2020, wrestling Mayu Iwatani in the first round to a draw.

During her Stardom career, she won the Artist of Stardom Championship twice and the Goddess of Stardom championship once, while also winning the 2019 5★Star GP tournament and Stardom Fighting Spirit Award.

Acting career

• 2017: Tokyo Talk Show
• 2019–2020: Terrace House: Tokyo 2019–2020
• 2020: Lost Decade

Terrace House (2019–2020)

Kimura joined Terrace House in September 2019, appearing on the show until her death. In early January, Kimura was involved in an incident with housemate Kai Edward Kobayashi regarding her Wrestle Kingdom 14 ring attire. Kobayashi washed his clothes while Kimura's outfit was also in the washer; he then threw it in the dryer, ruining her wrestling attire. Kimura was visibly upset, knocking his hat off his head and leading to verbal conflict. After it aired in March, her actions drew criticism, name calling and abuse from social media users, sending her into depression.

Personal life

Kimura was the daughter of Kyoko Kimura, also a professional wrestler. Before she was one year old, she was separated from her father. While the identity of her biological father is not publicly known, Kimura had mentioned in interviews that he was an Indonesian national and because of this she was referred to as Indonesian-Japanese. Throughout her life, Kimura was the subject of bullying in Japan because of her mixed ethnic hertiage.

Death

On May 23, 2020, Kimura died at the age of 22. The body was discovered by Hana's mother, Kyoko, at around 4:00 am. Hours earlier, Kimura posted self-harm images and tweeted:

Nearly 100 frank opinions every day. I couldn't deny they hurt me. "Die", "you are disgusting", "you should disappear" I believed these things about myself more than they did. Thank you, Mother, for the gift of life. My whole life I wanted to be loved. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I love you all. I'm sorry for being weak.

— Hana Kimura, Twitter

Her last Instagram stories and photo were posted with her cat and a caption in Japanese translated as follows:

Good-bye. I love you, have fun and live a long time. I'm sorry.

— Hana Kimura, Instagram

Championships and accomplishments

• Dramatic Dream Team
  • Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (1 time)
• JWP Joshi Puroresu
  • Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championship (1 time)
  • JWP Junior Championship (1 time)
  • JWP Junior Title Tournament (2016)
  • Princess of Pro-Wrestling Tournament (2016)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 60 of the top 100 female wrestlers in the PWI Women's 100 in 2018
  • Ranked No. 61 of the top 100 female wrestlers in the PWI Women's 100 in 2019
• World Wonder Ring Stardom
  • Artist of Stardom Championship (2 times) – with Jungle Kyona and Konami (1), Kagetsu and Kyoko Kimura (1)
  • Goddess of Stardom Championship (1 time) – with Kagetsu
  • 5★Star GP (2019)[45]
  • Best Tag Team Award (2017) with Kagetsu
  • Fighting Spirit Award (2019)