Everyone loves a good villain, and in 1980s Japan, there were few who could rival Kaoru “Dump” Matsumoto.
This was the heyday of women’s professional wrestling, when matches were screened on primetime TV and cheered on by hordes of teenage girls. Weighing in at 100 kilograms, Matsumoto was never going to make it as one of the heroic wrestlers known as “babyfaces.” Instead, she became a notorious heel: a rule-breaking brawler in Kiss-style face paint who left her opponents bruised and bloodied, turning her into a hated figure nationwide.
Matsumoto’s story is now the subject of a fictionalized, five-part Netflix drama, “The Queen of Villains,” developed by TV veteran Osamu Suzuki and with Kazuya Shiraishi as supervising director. It’s a vibrant and violent show that goes to considerable lengths to re-create the era, as well as some of its most famous showdowns.
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