The Queen of Villains
極悪女王
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Dump Matsumoto and the 1980s women's wrestling boom — femininity, ugliness and fame as a performance.
1974. Kaoru Matsumoto is a gentle girl from a poor family. Her father, Goro, drinks and turns violent, takes Kaoru's school lunch money and keeps a mistress whose baby he has also named Kaoru; she comes to hate him enough to want him dead. The glamour of women's wrestling, and its idol Jackie Sato, gives her something else to want. At eighteen she turns down a bakery job and passes the audition for All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, alongside Chigusa Nagayo and Tomoko Kitamura. She is one of the stragglers of the class, and Chigusa becomes her closest friend.
The company, run by the Matsunaga brothers, drops wrestlers the moment they stop selling. Chigusa, bullied by a senior, decides to quit, wrestles what she means to be her last match against Tomoko, and the two form the Crush Gals, who become national idols. Kaoru, still not allowed to debut, drives the publicity van. Put among the heels, she cannot bring herself to be cruel. Then she reads Chigusa saying in print that Tomoko saved her from loneliness, and learns that her father has been exploiting the Crush Gals autographs she got for him. She vanishes, and comes back as Dump Matsumoto.
Dump becomes the villain crowds scream at and the draw the company needs; the Matsunagas book her against the Crush Gals again and again, and her younger sister is harassed for being her sister. Dump forms her own gang, the Gokuaku Domei, and half-shaves a timid junior's head to make her Bull Nakano. The rivalry comes to a Loser's Hair-Cutting Death Match with Chigusa. The plan is for Dump to lose, and Toshikuni Matsunaga pays her to make sure. Dump tears it up: she batters Chigusa, wins, and shaves her head in the ring.
Soon afterwards Dump announces her retirement. At her last match, with a word of farewell written on her arm, she will not let it end: over Toshikuni's objections the bout goes on with the partners swapped, and Dump Matsumoto and Chigusa Nagayo fight side by side. Outside, a girl who could not get a ticket lingers at the door. The company's president, Takashi Matsunaga, lets her in, and she walks towards the lights.
Starring
Yuriyan Retrieveras Dump Matsumoto (Kaoru Matsumoto)
A gentle girl from a violent, poor home who becomes the great villain of 1980s women's wrestling.
Dump Matsumoto (Kaoru Matsumoto)’s story
Kaoru, who collects bottle deposits with her sister, grows to hate her father, a violent drinker who takes her lunch money, enough to want him dead. Dreaming of Jackie Sato, she turns down a bakery job to join All Japan. Slow to debut, she is too soft to be cruel even among the heels. Then Chigusa says in print that Tomoko saved her from loneliness, and her father, taken back by her mother and sister, exploits the Crush Gals autographs she got him. She vanishes, and returns as Dump Matsumoto. She stays a villain even off camera and drives out a partner who fraternises with the good guys. Paid to lose the hair match, she beats Chigusa and shaves her head instead. At her retirement match, her family in the stands, she ends up fighting beside Chigusa.
Erika Karataas Chigusa Nagayo
Kaoru's closest friend from their training days, abandoned by her parents, who becomes half of the idol duo the Crush Gals.
Chigusa Nagayo’s story
Chigusa was passed from relative to relative after her parents vanished to escape their debts. At All Japan she and Kaoru are both stragglers. When a karate move gets her bullied by a senior, she decides to quit and chooses Tomoko Kitamura, later Lioness Asuka, for a last match; it goes so well that the two become the Crush Gals, release hit songs and fill arenas. She sees the singing and television as part of the job and drifts from Tomoko, who wants only to wrestle. Meanwhile Kaoru comes back as Dump Matsumoto, and the company books them against each other. In the hair-cutting match Chigusa is supposed to win; Dump breaks the plan, batters her and shaves her head. At Dump's retirement the partners are swapped for one more bout, and Chigusa fights at Kaoru's side.
Ayame Gorikias Lioness Asuka
Tomoko Kitamura, the gifted classmate who forms the Crush Gals with Chigusa and distrusts the pop-star side of the job.
Takumi Saitohas Toshikuni Matsunaga
The youngest of the brothers running the promotion, who cares only for ratings and money and treats the wrestlers as pieces.
Jun Murakamias Takashi Matsunaga
The promotion's president, who still sells fried noodles at the venues himself, ruthless in decisions and soft at heart.
Takamitsu Nonakaas Goro Matsumoto
Kaoru's father, a violent, spendthrift philanderer whose betrayals feed the rage she brings into the ring.
Why it matters
The Queen of Villains dramatises the life of Dump Matsumoto, the great heel of 1980s women's professional wrestling, and treats villainy as a job with a price. Kaoru becomes a monster in the ring because a business built on the bodies of young women needs one, and because her rage at a violent father needs somewhere to go. The series looks hard at that business: promoters who retire their stars the moment they stop selling, a match whose result is fixed in advance, a sister harassed for her sister's persona. It is also unusually tender about friendship between women, two stragglers who end up on opposite sides of a hair-cutting match. The actors gained weight and trained with wrestlers led by Chigusa Nagayo herself, and the series stayed at number one on Netflix's weekly chart in Japan for three weeks.