Hair on the Line: A Look Back at the Greatest Hair vs. Hair matches in Joshi Puroresu

At Marigold’s February 23rd New Year’s Golden Garden show, Miku Aono’s victory over CHIAKI gave her hair-cutting privileges. The match was very good and the post-match scene with Miku Aono only wanting to cut a single lock of CHIAKI’s hair, Darkness Revolution partner Nagisa Nozaki demanding CHIAKI follow through with the stipulation, and CHIAKI finishing the haircut herself backstage, was very entertaining.

But what is it with Hair vs. Hair matches in joshi puroesu that makes them such amazing spectacles every time they happen? It feels like it’s the ultimate stipulation. And that’s perhaps because dating back to ancient times, cutting off a Japanese woman’s hair was a highly emotional thing. A drastic haircut was a visual metaphor for drastic change, leaving an old life behind and starting a new one. And of course, there is the traditional hairstyle of the samurai, which if cut was a huge shame for the warrior in question.

So, let’s revisit some of the greatest Hair vs. Hair matches in joshi wrestling history.

Dump Matsumoto vs. Chigusa Nagayo (AJW – August 28, 1985)

Let’s start at the very beginning. Of course, this is not the very first joshi match with a hair-clipping stipulation. Jaguar Yokota lost both her WWWA World championship and her hair to La Galactica on May 7, 1983, in a Hair vs. Mask match. But this match between huge fan favorite Chigusa Nagayo and eternal rival Dump Matsumoto was so exceptional there was a TV show built around it 40 years later!

Chigusa Nagayo was one half of the insanely popular Crush Gals. The duo had revitalized people’s love for AJW since the popular Beauty Pair had left the company. And people were jam-packed at venues like Korakuen Hall to cheer them on. On the other side was the despised character of Dump Matsumoto, a groundbreaking heel that inspired countless others including the industry-changing Road Warriors.

The match doesn’t have many spectacular moves or anything. But what makes it stand out is the raw, real-life emotion. Genuinely, the crowds of this era are something else! The roar of the crowd in support of Nagayo, the shrieks of fear and despair as their hero gets pounded on by the evil Dump, their tears as Dump wins, it adds to the match story. It makes it feel so very real, even to today’s standards.

The post-match is what truly makes this match legendary. Nagayo sitting in defeat, willingly having her locks shaved. The evil Villainous Alliance taking so much pleasure in shaving her head and soaking in the heat of the crowd. The shock and outrage of Nagayo’s friends, desperately trying to save her from the humiliation. The outcry of the fans, with many openly weeping for their hero. It’s a sight so rarely seen in wrestling as it feeds on real emotion.

Of course, there was a rematch. Dump got her comeuppance. And that match was brilliant chaos as well. But as pure emotion goes, nothing tops the original!

Manami Toyota vs. Toshiyo Yamada (AJW – August 15, 1992)

For me personally, Manami Toyota is one of the best wrestlers in the history of the sport. Not just Japan, not just women. The best. Period! And it’s not a coincidence that she was also part of one of the best Hair vs. Hair matches in history. A five-star classic if there ever was one.

The rivalry between Toyota and Yamada goes back to 1989, when they were both still learning the ropes (both debuted in 1987). Toyota was AJW champion and Yamada fought her to a 30-minute time limit draw. A very good match, that led to both women teaming with and battling each other frequently afterwards. Prior to their August 15 battle, they had actually won the UWA Tag Team title together. The duo also faced each other in a tournament match for the 1992 AJW Grand Prix. Toshiyo Yamada won and challenged her partner to a match for the IWA title. A highly emotional Toyota accepted but demanded her friend should shave her head if the champion was able to retain.

The match started with great intensity, as both women hit each other with suplexes and hip tosses at a frantic speed. A classic showcase of two very different styles clashing perfectly: Yamada’s more mat-based game and Toyota’s high-flying, high-impact style made for a thrilling encounter. The crowd had several girls screaming at the top of their lungs throughout the first half of the match, which intensified as more people joined in as the match went on.

As the match reached its third gear, a now rabid crowd watched on as the two friends turned rivals hit each other with flurries of high impact moves and counters. When Toyota finally hit the Ocean Cyclone Suplex for the win, the realisation of the stipulation she put on her friend set in. She refused to cut Yamada’s hair and even cut off a few locks of her own hair. As the officials carried out the haircut, a screaming Toyota had to be restrained by five other wrestlers, who eventually pinned her down to the mat to ensure the match stipulation was carried out.

Following the match, the two continued to team together and eventually won the coveted WWWA World Tag Team title as a unit.

Rumi Kazama vs. Akira Hokuto (LLPW – November 9, 1993)

This was an interpromotional feud between AJW and LLPW. The two fought each other in August at AJW’s Legacy of Queens show for Hokuto’s All Pacific title. And while the real feud was between Hokuto and LLPW’s ace Shinobu Kandori, Hokuto picking on Kazama like a true bully gave the match an emotional story going into it.

The match started with Hokuto executing a backbreaker that seemed like it hurt herself as much as it did her opponent. Kazawa crawled around the ring acting like her back was split in two, while preliminary girls worked on fixing Hokuto’s obviously injured knee. Literally the first move of the match looked like it could have ended it, before it even started. Despite notably limping, Hokuto slammed Kazama on top of a table, before sliding into the ring as the bell rang to start the match.

Hokuto then took control of the match, locking her young opponent in leglocks and hitting her with high impact moves, all the while grinning like her opponent was way beneath her. But the feisty Kazama fought back, slamming her opponent’s damaged knee into a table and targeting it with dropkicks, leglocks and stiff kicks. For a while, it looked like Kazama really could defeat her seasoned opponent, scoring a few close near-falls. A powerbomb on the floor put Hokuto back in control. Once back in the ring, Kazama fell victim to a second powerbomb before succumbing to a sleeper hold.

Chaos erupted briefly, as Kandori laid in a kick to Hokuto. But Kazama honored the stipulation by sitting down in the middle of the ring and starting to cut her beautiful ’80s style locks herself. Hokuto showed her respect and left the ring as officials finished the haircut. The match might be brief but followed a nice storyline and the crowd was really into it. The emotional haircut lifted it from a good match to a great one, which is definitely worth a rewatch.

Emi Sakura vs. Kaori Yoneyama (JWP – November 2, 2010)

Kaori Yoneyama had won the JWP Openweight championship in July of 2010 and started what she called “The Yoneyama Revolution”. This meant that she would defend the title against all challengers, no matter which promotion they called home. One such challenger was her former tag team partner Emi Sakura, with whom she had held three different tag titles at once the year before. And with it came the high stakes stipulation that the loser would have their head shaven.

At the start of the match, the crowd was firmly in Sakura’s corner. The then 15-year veteran played the “I’m your senior” game at the start as the crowd chanted her name, and Yoneyama was having none of it. She frantically attacked Sakura at the start of the match with high tempo high impact moves. Sakura took control early on though and executed a few perfect tilt-a-whirl backbreakers.

The match spilled to the outside, where Sakura used a running high crossbody to put her opponent into a wall. Moments later, Yoneyama returned the favor by hitting Sakura with a flying knee strike off some equipment. Back in the ring, the tempo really picked up as the match became a brilliant affair of move vs. counter move. As Yoneyama took control, she hit Sakura with her patented flying knee but picked her opponent’s shoulders off the canvas as the ref’s hand was coming down for three.

With the crowd firmly behind her, Sakura took back control of the match. Yoneyama showed true grit though, not succumbing to some of her opponent’s hard-hitting moves. A missed moonsault put Yoneyama back in control and she was able to secure the win with a roll into a bridging German suplex, which stunned those in attendance.

The aftermath saw a teary-eyed Yoneyama struggling to start the haircut, before Sayaka Obihiro came in to give the victor a piece of her mind. After Sakura herself slapped the taste out of Obihiro’s mouth, Yoneyama finally carried out the haircut. Throughout the years that followed, Yoneyama teamed as well as battled each other. But their level of respect, partially earned in this match, always remained.

Tam Nakano vs. Giulia (Stardom – March 3, 2021)

Tam Nakano vs. Giulia is one of the biggest rivalries Stardom has seen in company history. It started in the spring 2020 and would last for several years. In July, Giulia defeated Tam in a tournament final to decide the vacant Wonder of Stardom championship. She followed that up by defeating her nemesis in a rematch in October, establishing dominance over “The Cutest in the Cosmos”.

For a while, it seemed like the feud had run its course and Giulia established herself as the clear winner. However, in the first few months of 2021, the feud intensified again and Tam challenged Giulia with the added stipulation of the loser getting a haircut. The prospect of the match was so intriguing that it was made the main event of the 10th Anniversary All Star Dream Cinderella over the incredibly personal world title match between Utami Hayashishita and Saya Kamitani.

It’s almost a shame this match doesn’t have the white-hot crowds of the ’80s. Nakano and Giulia exchange slaps and kicks that echoed through the arena. In earlier matches on this list, they would have been met by a roar of the crowd or shrieks of terror, instead of the polite applause from crowds of the current era.

The match started with some strong strikes but quickly escalated to the floor where Giulia tried to choke Tam on the ringside barriers before piledriving her through a table. The battle returned to the ring with Giulia firmly in control and even though Tam managed a few counters, the Donna Del Mundo leader kept dominating her opponent. Tam was finally able to hit a top rope cross body on Giulia to switch the momentum in her favor and even hit her rival with her own Glorious Driver. Giulia kicked out and quickly re-established the lead and scored a near fall with a Glorious Driver of her own.

After a fiery exchange, where both women smacked each other into oblivion, the match entered its final stage. Tam hit a few big moves before picking up the surprising win with the Twilight Dream. As a true babyface, she showed pity for Giulia and told her she didn’t have to cut her hair. Giulia went through with it anyway, and even though only half her hair was shaven in the ring, the haircut was finished backstage.

Of course, this wasn’t the final chapter in their feud. The two battled each other for the World of Stardom title as well. And even though no hair was on the line that time, the match where Tam beat Giulia for the red belt two years later was an instant classic as well.