Line #36 Wrestling/BullNakano


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bull_nakano.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:It's too late to run now; she's seen you.]]
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4	Keiko Nakano (born January 8, 1968), better known as Bull Nakano, is a former {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er. She began competing in 1983 under the Bull Nakano ring name as a teenager in Wrestling/AllJapanWomensProWrestling as a {{heel}}, went on to hold several of AJW's singles and tag team championships and briefly entered the WWF's Women's Tag Team division with Wrestling/DumpMatsumoto. AJW began to phase her out in 1992 as she returned to North America to compete in Mexico's Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, becoming its first World Women's Champion, though Nakano made return trips to AJW with her new belt, including two successful defenses against Akira Hokuto and Yumiko Hotta. In 1994, she made her way back to the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} World Wrestling Federation]] (WWF), where she feuded with [[Wrestling/{{Madusa}} Alundra Blayze]] over their Women's Championship belt. After reigning as champion once following another return trip to Zenjo, she switched to competing in [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]] (WCW), where she continued her feud with Blayze, who had returned to her older ring name, Madusa.
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6	She's also had memorable appearances in [[Wrestling/{{FMW}} Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling]], LLPW, JWP, Jd' Star and Wrestling/{{New Japan\|ProWrestling}}. Nakano unofficially retired from professional wrestling in 1997 to pursue a career in golf, though continued to take the occasional booking until her official retirement in 2012. On March 6, 2024, Nakano was announced as a 2024 inductee into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame.
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8	!!Tropes related to Bull Nakano:
9	* {{Acrofatic}}: She was initially kinda big when she first showed up as one half of the Japanese Devils in the WWF, but was always agile and the more mobile of the two. She had slimmed down a bit by the time of her official debut as a singles wrestler.
10	* ArchEnemy: The Atrocious Alliance's feud against The Crush Gals is legendary, though Chigusa Nagayo is Bull Nakano's arch-enemy specifically. Nakano was able to come to a ''few'' short term agreements with Wrestling/LionessAsuka.
11	* BrawnHilda: Heel, when facing The Crush Gals and Tokyo Sweethearts anyway. It's hard to beat Wrestling/AjaKong in this regard, whether she's your Gokumon-to stablemate or the face challenger looking to end your reign as WWWA Singles Champion.
12	* TheBusCameBack: She and Dump Matsumoto were sent back to Japan almost as soon as they arrived in the WWF, only having three matches. Once they put an end to both of their women's divisions two years later it was assumed she would never return but then WWF decided it wanted to promote the singles title belt again and saw Nakano was south of the border.
13	* ByTheHair: A frequent offender, even amongst female wrestlers, who traditionally do this to each other more than men by natural reasons. She rarely did not do a Moolah Whip or hair mare.
14	* TheCameo: In 2012 Bull Nakano was one of Kyoko Inoue's opponents for the 25th Anniversary Gauntlet match Inoue went through in the Diana promotion.
15	* CombatCommentator: Nakano frequently does commentary for shows on Samurai TV, such as those done by Wrestling/WorldWonderRingSTARDOM.
16	* CommutingOnABus
17	** Between Zenjo and CMLL 1992 through 93. Between Zenjo and the WWF 1994 through 95. Then between Zenjo and WCW 1995 through 96.
18	** Gave up pro wrestling full time in 1997 but occasionally returned to team up with Dump Matsumoto until officially retiring in 2012.
19	* CuteMonsterGirl: Face, especially during the 2000s when she found it hard to keep weight on, making her look cute even with the scary makeup.
20	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Dropped the "Bull" from her name and simply went by Keiko after winning her first championship belt, the AJW Junior title. After she dropped it she went back to "Bull" and stayed.
21	* FacialMarkings: Commonly wore lines made with blue paint on her face.
22	* FightingYourFriend: When she had to defend the WWF Women's Championship against Kyoko Inoue.
23	* FinishingMove: A top rope leg drop. At ''Bull Nakano Produce: Empress'' she booked a {{gimmick match\|es}} between four different wrestlers using it as their finishing move in four different promotions.[[note]]Kayoko Haruyama from JWP, Ryo Mizunami from WAVE, AKINO from Oz Academy, Maki Narumiya from Ice Ribbon[[/note]]
24	* ForeignWrestlingHeel
25	** The Devils of Japan, though subverted as they kept the name when they teamed up to win the WWWA Tag Team Titles from The Crush Gals in Japan.
26	** Milked it for all its worth with Sonny Onoo in WCW. Not when the show was in Japan, then she was the hometown ''shero'' (heroine).
27	* HumiliatingWager: Bull Nakano and Kyoko Inoue beat the Bison Kimura incarnation of Jungle Jack in a hair vs hair match, resulting in a shave for her and Aja Kong.
28	* IKnowKarate: She was a UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} champion in highschool.
29	* ImprobableHairstyle: Long before the likes of [[Characters/WWETagTeams Scotty 2 Hotty]] and [[VideoGame/{{Tekken}} Paul Phoenix]]. Wrestling/BobbyHeenan in WCW compared it to a porcupine.
30	* LeanAndMean: Her pro wrestling appearances in the 2010s. Nakano at one point tried to get her competition weight back on, but failed.
31	* {{Leitmotif}}: "Boss of the World"
32	* MadeOfIron: She once no-sold being dropped on her head. Maybe it was the hair that cushioned it?
33	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Madusa didn't decide to do anything about the new Gokumon-to until Nakano became personally involved in the attack on Shotzi Blackheart.
34	* PowerStable
35	** The Atrocious Alliance with Condor Saito, Crane Yuu, Drill Nakamae, Kaoru Kage, Yasuko Ishiguro and of course Dump Matsumoto, then Gokumon-to with Bat Yoshinaga, Grizzly Iwamoto, Kumiko Maekawa, Kyoko Inoue, Sachiko Nakamura and Tomoko Watanabe in Zenjo. Aja Kong and Bison Kimura were part of both groups at points when Jungle Jack wasn't acting as a rival stable.
36	** She started a second version of Gokumon-to with Kris Wolf, Kikyo Nakamura and Didi Cruz in RISE.
37	* TheQuincyPunk: Bull Nakano gimmick in a nutshell, especially when she represented Gokumon-to with Grizzly Iwamoto, who even had multicolored hair and a leather jacket.
38	* TheRival
39	** Nakano's most regularly encountered opponent in her home promotion, Zenjo, was Wrestling/ManamiToyota. Even though they won, the 21st day of ''The Best Tag Team League 1993'' was the only time they teamed together. Naturally Nakano also encountered Toyoda's three main Zenjo tag team partners, Toshiyo Yamada, Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda quite frequently, though Nakano was slightly more willing to team up with them.
40	** As noted, Bison Kimura and Aja Kong weren't always on board with Nakano's stables.
41	** Madusa is her most encountered opponent outside of Zenjo, the two of them [[FireforgedFriends becoming friends]] at the 5*Star Grand Prix when Nakano made a surprise appearance. But then in RISE the two of them formed two rival groups with two STARDOM associated wrestlers (Kris Wolf and Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa)
42	** Semi regularly teamed with Yumiko Hotta, so long as title belts weren't part of the discussion they seemed to get along fine but preferred teaming with others over the WWWA and UWA Women's tag titles.
43	** Kyoko Inoue may have been her stablemate in Gokumon-to but her Double Inoue tag team partner Takako wasn't and Kyoko sometimes chose her over Nakano.
44	** With Mita and Shimoda listed it shouldn't come as a surprise that another member of Las Cachorras Orientales, Akira Hokuto, frequently butted heads with the bull. Hokuto and Nakano did represent Zenjo together while in FMW and CMLL, though given it's association with GAEA they may have just been put together by WCW due to both being Japanese.
45	* SignatureMove: A Scorpion crosslock (elevated inverted scorpion deathlock combined with a surfboard), described by the commentators as "something oriental" (based on such but [[GlobalIgnorance it's actually a lucha lock]], which is why she herself calls it ''[[NameOfPower Bull]]'s [[GratuitousSpanish Angelito]]''). Also an axe guillotine driver (back to belly piledriver) called Bull's Poseidon which was usually done to counter Blayze's powerbomb attempts.
46	* TagTeam: Besides with Matsumoto, Nakano held the WWWA Tag Team titles for The Atrocious Alliance with Condor Saito and for Gokumon-to with Grizzly Iwamoto
47	* TerribleTrio: With Shinja and [[Wrestling/JinseiShinzaki Hakushi]] in the WWF as the {{unwitting pawn}}s of Wrestling/JerryLawler, who had convinced them Wrestling/BretHart was racist against Japanese people.
48	* TournamentArc: Of a sort. She and Lola González were the last two women of their respective sides not eliminated during a Torneo Cibernético on ''Súper Viernes''. This lead to them facing each other one on one to decide who would be CMLL's first World Women's champion. González lost.

Context Wrestling / BullNakano