The 12 months following Hana Kimura’s passing have been a rollercoaster of emotion, No Stardom or Hana Kimura fan will ever forget where they were on the morning of May 23 2020 when it was announced that our beloved Hana Kimura had passed away. Since then its been a tough road to come to terms with the fact that the special leader of Tokyo Cyber Squad is gone, I’ve gone from being unable to think of her, to wanting to celebrate her, back to being upset as we approached her one year anniversary and everything in between. The announcement of the Matane memorial show offered us the opportunity to say goodbye that we never got last year, and thankfully Matane was everything I could have ever needed as a send-off for such a special talent. If the past 12 months have been an emotional rollercoaster, Matane made me feel every single one of them again in the space of one show.
Matane was the perfect show from start to finish, from the very beginning when Hana’s favorite DJ played music to amp up the crowd it was filled with moments that were designed purely for Hana. It was almost impossible not to smile and fall back in love with wrestling as her favorite wrestler won the opener, her friend won a battle royal filled with legends, and some of her greatest allies teamed together one final time in the main event to take on a team led by her former Flourish tag team partner ASUKA. We even got a bonus main event between Kagetsu and ASUKA, two of Hana’s most memorable tag team partners. It was a celebration, what Hana’s mother Kyoko wanted people to do, with references to Hana spread throughout the show bringing a tear to the eye.
TCS FOREVER pic.twitter.com/JPRvY8kfP1
— Tapla — タプラ (@D_TaPla) May 23, 2021
That’s when this show decided to rip my soul to shreds. With the wrestling finished it was time to pay tribute to Hana. A long video played about Hana’s life and career, there were moments in this video showing Hana as a young child that was tough to watch knowing what tragedy would meet this girl in the videos. This video, while difficult to sit through, was bearable. The video was just the beginning as a clearly upset Jungle Kyona rang the bell for a 10 bell salute to Hana, the ensuing standing ovation with Hana’s theme playing was the first moment of the show that truly broke me. It was a moment of beauty with an entire venue paying respects to Hana while her mother stood in the center of the ring but felt like the moment where it really hit me that Hana Kimura was actually gone. I know this sounds silly but with us never getting a chance to say goodbye to Hana it felt easy to avoid facing the reality that she was no longer with us, in this moment as an entire venue mourned her it was impossible to run from reality, and it hit like a ton of bricks.
https://twitter.com/DrinkMothDrink/status/1396368729328570370
As if that wasn’t enough Matane had one more trick up its sleeve. This trick aws a video with an array of professional wrestlers from around the world (mainly Japan) saying “matane” to Hana. Matane is an informal goodbye in Japanese that is similar to “see you later”. This video closed with Kyoko Kimura hesitantly saying see you later to her daughter. To say I was bawling more than I have in years would be an understatement. If the ten bell salute was a reminder that Hana was gone this video served as my personal goodbye to her, or should I say my persona “see you later” to Hana.
Matane made me laugh, it made me cry, it had me in awe, but ultimately it served as the closure I have so desperately needed regarding Hana Kimura’s death. The past 12 months have been a rollercoaster and Matane made me relive it all again, but this time it had an air of finality to it. May 23, 2020 will remain one of the most painful days of my life but thanks to Matane May 23, 2021 will be looked back on with a smile as I got to say matane to Hana Kimura, once and for all.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can also find memorial merchandise for Hana at an official store set up by Kyoko. Also please support Kyoko Kimura by purchasing and viewing Matane over at Fite TV.
