And the Discovery of the Year is…
Hello everyone – it’s the end of another year here at Ringbelles, which means it’s time for us to gaze back over the year of female grappling from around the globe and celebrate the success stories of 2012. So, coming this week, we’re announcing our now traditional Year End Awards, in the categories of Discovery of the Year (today, right here in this very post), Breakout Star of the Year (on Wednesday) and Wrestler of the Year (on Friday). We top that all off with our festive 49th edition of the Women of Wrestling Podcast, which is planned to drop on Saturday, where we invited the Three Wise Men of Independent Women’s Wrestling – Dave Prazak of SHIMMER, Drew Cordeiro of WSU and Stephane Bruyere of NCW:Femmes Fatales – on board for a roundtable discussion, wherein (amongst a host of other topics) we discussed the results of these very awards. So, without further ado, let’s see who caught our eye this year for Discovery of the Year.
“Rookie of the Year” awards can sometimes be difficult (because if you stick to the dictionary definition of someone in their first year in wrestling at the time of writing, the pool can often be quite shallow), so our Discovery of the Year award, whilst similar in spirit, is envisioned as an award for the talent that this time last year wasn’t even on our radar, but this year caught our attention in a positive way… and is therefore someone that we’re tipping to bloom and flourish in the coming years. We discussed a number of potential winners before settling on our final pick, and before we announce the winner, it’s only fair to list a few honourable mentions, as these women all burst into our consciousness in 2012 and we’re banking on them becoming players in the coming years. Right near the top of the list is Chikara‘s own luchadora intergaláctica, Saturyne, who wowed us with fantastic aerial skills and fearlessness the like of which women’s wrestling has rarely seen. Canada’s Leah Von Dutch is starting to come into her own and command interest with her work both domestically and internationally. Over on this side of the pond, WAWW (soon to Bellatrix‘s) Penelope genuinely seems to improve by leaps and bounds every time we see her, while down in Florida, Santana Garrett has turned our heads with some really good performances in SHINE and a thoroughly enjoyable SHIMMER debut in October. However – our choice for Discovery of the Year goes to someone who snuck up on us and quickly became one to watch on every show she was on. (more…)
Kyoko Inoue to visit the US
Joshi legend, multi time champion and Diana promoter Kyoko Inoue is making a whistlestop tour of the US in the middle of this month, wrestling for Combat Zone Wrestling, taking part in a training session and doing some signing appearances.
The 41-year old debuted in 1988, and in that time, has won countless titles in AJW, WWWA and NEO, as well as winning mens’ championships in DDT and WEW – additionally, she was the first woman to hold a male belt in Japan. Having wrestled for more than 22 years and wrestling four matches which were give five stars by the Wrestling Observer, Inoue also won Match of the Year in 1995 for her contest against Manami Toyota on May 7.
1995 was a pretty big year for Inoue, as she also gained some exposure to an American (and possibly worldwide) audience by working briefly for the WWF, competing in an 8-woman elimination match at the Survivor Series and also competing on Monday Night Raw in December (click the links to see the matches). Unfortunately, the division crumbled the following month when Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze‘s contract expired and she jumped to WCW. (more…)
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