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 Akino in April 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1973-10-24)October 24, 1973 (age 52) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Akino noki-A |
| Billed height | 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) |
| Billed weight | 61 kg (134 lb) |
| Debut | July 21, 1998 |
Mika Akino (秋野美佳,Akino Mika), better known asAkino, (born October 24, 1973, in Tokyo, Japan) is a femaleJapanesejoshi wrestler, signed toOz Academy. Billed fromHonshū, she started late in the sport and didn't debut until the age of 24. Trained byMariko Yoshida, she proved to have an innate ring presence and excelled at the sport.
Akino debuted in the newly formed federationArison (then run byAja Kong) as Mika Akino. In her first months she floated around and tagged with fellow rookieAyako Hamada now and again. Her most notable match was for theQueen of Arsion Championship, against her mentor, Yoshida. This match is considered by some to be the quintessential rookie versus veteran match of the 1990s, and both women were praised for their performance.
It wasn't long before Akino was repackaged as Akino, and placed in thestable called "Cazai", or Girls with Attitude. Fellow members included tag team partner Hamada, Ai Fujita, andCandy Okutsu. The heel stable gain notoriety and popularity within Arison. Hamada and Akino eventually won theTwin Star of Arsion Championship, which set the stage for possibly both women's biggest match in 1999.
Wrestling as "HamaKINO", the two champions entered a storyline with popular tag team "LCO" (Las Cachorrus Orientales), made up ofMima Shimoda and Estuko Mita. The story culminated in a bloody brawl that was later considered one of the matches of the year. Held at the Carnival '99 show, the match skyrocketed the popularity of HamaKINO, and cemented the two women as draws for the promotion.
The group split up later, and Akino went on to win theSky High of Arsion Championship from Chaparita ASARI. Kong left ARSION after disputes with Rossy Ogawa, andjoshi legendLioness Asuka took her place. Hamada left not long after, and AKINO stayed. While she never won the Queen of Arsion Championship, she was involved in several spotlight storylines and matches, including tagging with Asuka and competing against Michiko Ohmukai.
After Asuka left, wrestlerYumiko Hotta took over and renamed Arison AtoZ. In 2003, Akino parted ways with the promotion, and declared herself a freelancer. Her mentor and friend Yoshida left AtoZ as well, as did wrestler Baby-M (at that time billed as Baby-A).
Akino began performing with other promotions, likeJd' andJWP. She also began training inmixed martial arts (MMA), and competed at theLoveImpact show, on February 8, 2004. She KO'd her opponent, a middle cup tournament winner, less than a minute into the match. She also competed at theSmackGirl show, on August 5, 2004, and went all three rounds against her opponent, winning by split decision.
During this time Akino wrestled primarily in Jd', JWP, andGaea.
After leaving AtoZ, Akino joined with three otherjoshi wrestlers to form a new promotion. Her longtime friend Mariko Yoshida and fellow Arison wrestler Michiko Ohmukai joined her, and rising starMomoe Nakanishi also jumped on board. The name of their promotion, M's Style, stemmed from the fact that all four women's first names started with the letter "M".
M's Style held its first show in April 2004. At the time, the promotion was thought to be the future ofjoshi puroresu, and had been rumored to be working withpuroresu powerhouseNew Japan Pro-Wrestling. Nothing came of the partnership, and the promotion suffered another blow.[1]
Momoe Nakanishi announced her retirement the same year, with nagging injuries being among the top reasons. Many in thejoshi fan community considered this a death knell for M's Style, and expected the promotion to go under. It has stayed open. Running a show once a month, AKINO and Ohmukai still remain, with Yoshida occasionally wrestling, though she left to open Ibuki to train up the next generation ofjoshi wrestlers.
M's Style closed in the Fall of 2006. After the final show, Akino announced she would be taking some time off from wrestling to let a lingering neck injury heal up.
While still teaching classes at U-FILE, she has scaled her wrestling appearances back dramatically, appearing in anOz Academy show in January 2007 and in theJaguar Yokota show on March 11, 2007.
In the meantime, she has taken up golfing and currently travels with a female golfer, Sakura, acting as her caddy while competing in tournaments herself.
One of her most notable students, who was also trained by Yoshida, isAyumi Kurihara, who has tagged with Akino several times and also wrestled in M's Style.
Akino has held tag championships with Ranmaru andTsubasa Kuragaki, and has held many singles titles as both Akino and her heel alter-egonoki-A.
Akino returned in mid-2007, working primarily with Oz Academy while freelancing with Pro Wrestling WAVE and performing in special shows held byFuka.
She is currently a member of Aja Kong's Jungle Jack 21 stable along withHiroyo Matsumoto andTomoka Nakagawa. On April 24, 2013, Akino defeatedChikayo Nagashima to win theOz Academy Openweight Championship for the first time. After a record-breaking eighteen-month reign, she lost the title to Tsubasa Kuragaki on October 13, 2014. She regained the title on May 17, 2015, only to lose it toMio Shirai on June 7. On December 11, 2016, followingDynamite Kansai's retirement, Akino officially signed with Oz Academy, ending her days as a freelancer.[2]