Kaoru

Kaoru Maeda (前田 薫) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name KAORU (stylized in all capital letters).

Billed as the "Original Hardcore Queen", Kaoru is known for her wrestling style, which combines high-flying with hardcore wrestling.

Trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, Maeda worked in both Japan and Mexico in the late 80s and early 90s, before making her breakthrough in the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably was a founding member of the D-Fix stable.

She made her debut, working under her real name, on August 8, 1986, facing Megumi Kudo at an AJW event in Higashimurayama, Tokyo.

On December 26, 1987, Maeda made it to the finals of a tournament for the vacant AJW Junior Championship, before being defeated by Suzuka Minami.

The following year, she formed the Honey Wings tag team with Mika Takahashi.

After the two made it to the finals of a tournament for the vacant AJW Tag Team Championship, where they were defeated by Erika Shishido and Nobuko Kimura on April 2, 1988, the Honey Wings came back on October 10 and defeated Shishido and Kimura in a rematch to become the new AJW Tag Team Champions.

After a five-month reign, Maeda and Takahashi lost the title to Miori Kamiya and Reibun Amada on March 4, 1989.

The Honey Wings would regain the title on June 1, 1990, by defeating the Sweet Hearts (Manami Toyota and Mima Shimoda).

After another five-month reign, they lost the title to Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda on November 14, 1990.

Shortly afterwards, Maeda left AJW.

After leaving AJW, Maeda began working for Japanese lucha libre promotion Universal Pro-Wrestling, now performing under her given name, stylized in all capital letters.

On January 19, 1992, Kaoru and Lady Apache made it to the finals of a tournament for the vacant UWA World Women's Tag Team Championship, where they were defeated by the team of Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada.

Through Universal Pro, Kaoru also made appearances in Mexico for the Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (EMLL) promotion, where she worked under a mask.

Kaoru's tours of Mexico culminated on March 21, 1993, in Mexico City, when she lost her mask to La Diabólica in a Lucha de Apuestas.

During her years in Universal Pro, Kaoru also held the JCTV Women's Championship.

On August 25, 1994, Kaoru appeared at a press conference, where Chigusa Nagayo announced the formation of the new Gaea Japan promotion.

Kaoru was positioned as the second in command after Nagayo and helped her in training up-and-coming wrestlers in the promotion's dojo.

The promotion held its first show on April 15, 1995, where Kaoru defeated Yasha Kurenai.

During Gaea's first years, Kaoru wrestled as a member of the Gaea Seikigun ("regular army"), while also making sporadic appearances under a mask as Infernal Kaoru.

Kaoru's first Gaea accomplishment took place on September 23, 1995, when she, Meiko Satomura and Tomoko Kuzumi won the Splash J & Running G tournament.

Through Gaea Japan's working relationship with the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion, Kaoru made her American debut on November 30, 1996, in Wheeling, West Virginia, defeating Sonoko Kato in the quarterfinals of a tournament to crown the inaugural WCW Women's Champion.

Kaoru was eventually eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Akira Hokuto, who went on to win the entire tournament.

On December 17, 1999, Kaoru turned on the Gaea Seikigun and joined forces with Aja Kong, Lioness Asuka and Sonoko Kato to form the DorA (Dead or Alive) stable.

As a member of the stable, Kaoru adopted a new wrestling style, combining her high-flying abilities with a hardcore wrestling style.

On February 6, 2000, Kaoru defeated Toshiyo Yamada to become the number one contender to stablemate Aja Kong's AAAW Single Championship.

Kaoru received her title shot seven days later, but was unable to dethrone the defending champion.

Eventually the match led to the dissolution of the DorA stable.

Meanwhile, Kaoru developed a storyline rivalry with Mayumi Ozaki.

After defeating Ozaki with the use of a steel chain, Ozaki came back to defeat Kaoru in a Weapons match on May 14 at Gaea's fifth anniversary event to become the number one contender to the AAAW Single Championship.

On May 13, 2001, Kaoru aligned herself with Ozaki and her male manager Police to form the D-Fix stable, with the three attacking and declaring a war on Aja Kong.

On July 29, Kaoru and Ozaki defeated Dynamite Kansai and Toshiyo Yamada in the finals to win a one night tag team tournament.

A month later on August 26, Kaoru defeated Meiko Satomura in the finals of a tournament to become the number one contender to the AAAW Single Championship.

However, due to Ozaki being the reigning AAAW Single Champion, Kaoru opted not to challenge for the title.

On April 7, 2002, Kaoru and Ozaki defeated Chikayo Nagashima and Sugar Sato to win the AAAW Tag Team Championship.

For most of 2002, Kaoru feuded with Meiko Satomura, which eventually led to a match on October 20, where Satomura and Ayako Hamada defeated D-Fix for the AAAW Tag Team Championship.

On April 6, 2003, Kaoru and Ozaki were defeated by Chigusa Nagayo and Sakura Hirota in a Hair vs. Hair match and were both, as a result, shaved bald.

After the folding of Gaea Japan in 2005, Maeda became a freelancer, though closely affiliating herself with the Oz Academy promotion.

After returning from a three-year-long injury break in March 2014, Maeda resumed working as a freelancer, before signing with the new Marvelous promotion in January 2015.

Maeda received her training in professional wrestling at the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) dojo, where she was trained by Jaguar Yokota alongside the likes of Aja Kong, Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki.