Yoshiko Tamura

Yoshiko Tamura (田村 欣子) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler.

Tamura was trained by the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion, made her debut in September 1994 and worked for the promotion for three years, winning the AJW Junior Championship, before taking part in a mass exodus led by Kyoko Inoue and following her to the newly founded NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling promotion.

Recognized as the "Ace" of NEO, Tamura performed with the promotion from its first event to the last, in the process becoming its most accomplished wrestler, winning the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships a record seven times and the NEO Tag Team Championship three times.

All in all, Tamura held the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships for 2,074 days and successfully defended them 38 times.

Tamura was trained at the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (AJW) dojo and made her debut on September 15, 1994, in a match against Kaoru Kanayama.

Tamura won her first championship on June 27, 1995, defeating Misae Watanabe for the vacant AJW Junior Championship.

After a fourteen-month reign, Tamura lost the title to Tomoko Miyaguchi on September 1, 1996.

The following year, Tamura, along with several key wrestlers in AJW, took part in a mass exodus led by Kyoko Inoue, and left the promotion, which was struggling with financial difficulties.

After parting ways with AJW, Tamura affiliated herself with Kyoko Inoue, who had purchased a dojo and was planning to start her own promotion.

However, the promotion, NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling, would not start running regular shows until over two years later.

Meanwhile, Tamura made appearances for several independent promotions, including Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion and Oz Academy.

On July 19, 1997, Tamura made a guest appearance for Gaea Japan, defeating Toshie Uematsu for the WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship, a title also recognized by American promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

Tamura would hold the title for two months, before losing it to Sugar Sato on September 20, in her second Gaea Japan appearance.

In 2000, NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling began running shows regularly, starting with an event on May 31, where Tamura and Azumi Hyuga wrestled Misae Genki and Ran Yu-Yu to a thirty-minute time limit draw in the main event.

In NEO, Tamura reinvented herself as "Tamura-sama", adopting the character of an arrogant villain.

On August 24, Tamura represented NEO at a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) event in Wildwood, New Jersey, United States, where she defeated Nicole Bass to become the inaugural NWA Women's Pacific Champion.

The title was from the start unified with the NEO Single Championship and, although both championships were represented by their own belts, they remained together for their entire history.

Tamura made her first title defense back in Japan on September 22, defeating Takako Inoue.

Before the end of NEO's first year, Tamura also defended the titles against Misae Genki on October 13 and Kyoko Inoue on November 21.

On February 11, 2001, Tamura lost the titles to Mima Shimoda in her fourth defense, ending her reign at 171 days.

The following May, Tamura made it to the finals of the NEO Japan Cup, before losing to Misae Genki.

On December 7, Tamura regained the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships by defeating champion Lioness Asuka, Kyoko Inoue, Mima Shimoda, Misae Genki and Ran Yu-Yu in a six-way elimination match.

After successful defenses against Misae Genki, Yuki Miyazaki and Kyoko Inoue, Tamura lost the titles to Etsuko Mita on April 13, 2002.

However, the following month, Tamura defeated Mima Shimoda to win the 2002 NEO Japan Cup, which earned her another title shot on June 8, where Tamura defeated Mita to win the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships for the third time.

Tamura's third reign ended on October 14, 2002, when the HJPG (Horipro Joshi Puroresu Group) stable stole her belt, which was then declared vacant and put up for grabs in a tournament.

On November 10, Tamura defeated Kyoko Inoue and Mima Shimoda in a three-way elimination tournament final match to win the vacant titles for the fourth time.

On February 2, 2003, Tamura lost the titles to Inoue in her first defense, a Two Out of Three Falls match.

Just three months later on May 5, Tamura defeated Azumi Hyuga to win the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships for already the fifth time.

In September, Tamura attempted to become a double champion, when she teamed with Ofune in the Itabashi Tag Team Championship tournament.

Tamura and Ofune made it all the way to the finals of the tournament, before losing to the NEO Machineguns (Tanny Mouse and Yuki Miyazaki).

Tamura's fifth NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championship reign of 314 days ended on March 12, 2004, when she was defeated by Momoe Nakanishi.

On August 14, Tamura took part in a unique match, when she faced 31 other wrestlers in a gauntlet match.

On September 20, Tamura defeated The Bloody to win Trans World Federation's (TWF) World Women's Championship, a title owned by the JDStar promotion.

On December 19, she put the title on the line a title vs. title match against the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Champion Misae Genki; the match ended in a one-hour time limit draw, meaning that both champions retained their titles.

The rivalry between Tamura and Genki continued a year later on December 11, 2005, when Tamura defeated Genki to win the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships for the sixth time.

Tamura would hold the titles for all of 2006, successfully defending it against Mima Shimoda, Ran Yu-Yu, Toshie Uematsu, Kyoko Inoue, Hikaru, Kayoko Haruyama, Chikayo Nagashima, Kyoko Kimura, Mariko Yoshida and Azumi Hyuga.

On June 24, 2006, Tamura returned to the United States to compete in ChickFight V in San Francisco, California.

After being eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Cheerleader Melissa, Tamura went on to successfully defend the NEO Single and NWA Women's Pacific Championships against MsChif.

On August 19, Tamura and Haruka Matsuo defeated the Oz Academy team of Carlos Amano and Chikayo Nagashima to win the Mid Summer Tag Tournament VI.

After being inducted into the NEO Hall of Fame, Tamura ended her sixteen-year career on December 31, 2010, retiring at the end of NEO's final event.