Today the 5th annual Hana Kimura Memorial Event, which has been held on this date the last 4 years, was held in Tokyo. The event, put on by wrestlers and supporters from throughout Japan with help from Hana’s mother, former longtime women’s wrestler Kyoko Kimura, helps keep Hana’s memory alive while raising funds for an organization started by Kimura to push for tougher punishment against cyberbullying/online harassment in Japan, which caused Hana to tragically take her own life in 2020 far too soon. Today marks the 5th anniversary of her death at only 22, so once again the wrestling community comes together to put on a special event to honor their friend’s memory and keep her spirit alive in a celebration of life. The theme of this year’s event is “Hanabi”.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand worldwide as a PPV in Japanese. Outside Japan it is available on TrillerTV/FITE for $24.99. You get unlimited replays with purchase, considering all the prior events are still on the service it will probably be available forever as long as they have the rights to it.
The paid attendance has not been announced. Looks like it was on the low site, maybe 500-600 at most, possibly hurt by (among other things) sumo.
The broadcast began at least 20 minutes before the event began, at about 20 minutes in a couple of the wrestlers-one of which I believe is Menso-re Oyaji, came out for the opening greeting and perhaps explaining the battle royal rules for today. Then Kyoko Kimura came out to address the crowd.
The matches begin at the 39 minute mark of the broadcast. The GLEAT ring announcer handled the duties today.
Match 1: Tae Honma beat YUNA by submission.
Match 2: Kaori Yoneyama/Fukigen won a 12 person Hana Sports Day comedy battle royal. Order of elimination: Super Delfin, Yuki Miyazaki, Ram Kaichow, Banana Senga, Tsutomu Oosugi, Fuminori Abe, Sayaka Unagi, Yuko Miyamoto, Shuji Ishikawa, Munenori Sawa, Cherry.
Match 3: Aja Kong beat Seigo Tachibana. Squash. Which led to…
Match 3 (again): Aja Kong beat Seigo Tachibana. Squash (again). Which led to…
Match 3 (yet again): Aja Kong beat Seigo Tachibana. Slightly glorified squash (Tachibana actually hit a spear).
Match 4: Jaguar Yokota beat Sakura HIrota (dressed as Hana Kimura) & Menso-re Oyaji in a 3-way by pinning Oyaji. While Hirota had him in a Figure 4 too.
Match 5: Miyuki Takase & Mika Iwata vs. Sareee & Natsupoi and Dash Chisako & Hiroyo Matsumoto in a 3-way went to a 15 minute time limit draw.
Match 6: Minoru Suzuki & Konami beat Shotaro Ashino (All-Japan) & Chihiro Hashimoto. Suzuki pinned Ashino.
Main Event: Veny beat Rina.
After the two began their post-match promos, Kyoko Kimura took a framed picture of Hana and a stuffed animal from a table at ringside and joined them in the ring (as did Konami who cornered Rina for the match). Then the ring announcer did a memorial introduction for Hana Kimura and some fans threw streamers followed by Rina leading a shout of “Hanabi” before the final memorial video of Hana (lots of footage from her early Stardom days including when she was teaming with Rina well before she was the “Pink Devil” she is now, and her Tokyo Cyber Squad faction which also included Konami) and a reel of all the wrestlers saying “Hanabi” to end the event (also featuring former Stardom wrestler Giulia-now in WWE-and ending with Kyoko Kimura, her mother).
It was another event filled with lots of laughs and smiles and a few tears at times, especially at the end, because it’s very sad that such a bright talent with limitless potential was taken from us far too soon-she would have been 27 now and still with many great years ahead of her. I’m sure this tradition will continue every year as long as Kyoko Kimura can keep making it happen and I hope it does because it’s a chance for all of us to come together and celebrate her very full life and career in wrestling and while nothing will bring Hana back, we can keep working to prevent situations like this from happening again. Let us all be kind to each other and keep Hana close to our hearts and never forget her. We love her and miss her so very dearly.
Hanabi.
If the event is held next year we should find out details in early 2026.
