Manami Toyota Speaks Candidly About Bullying She Experienced From Veteran Wrestlers Early In Her Career

At the time, Toyota thought it was normal.

Sports Graphic Number rolled out an extensive interview with Manami Toyota, who many wrestlers, past and present, consider to be one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time.

Among the subjects covered during the chat were the early days of Toyota’s time in the business. She opened up about the bullying she and other younger wrestlers experienced from veterans. Toyota said that the way her personality was, she just took whatever happened and never internalized it.

She said by today’s societal standards, what happened to her and her peers would be a huge deal. There were times when her seniors would have the younger talent kneeling while scolding them. Toyota added that if things escalated, the veterans would hit the younger wrestlers.

Toyota stated that those situations only lasting an hour would be on the shorter side of things. There were times when their legs would be numb from being in a kneeling position for so long. She said that had been happening in their spaces, and she thought it was normal.

“I might have been bullied, but because of my personality, I don’t really remember it. I just accepted it as the way things were. I thought I had no choice but to put up with it. Even things that would be a huge problem now, I thought I had to put up with.

I was afraid to go into the dressing room. I only have one body, but once I went in, I’d get told to do this and that, one after another. I couldn’t do it all at once, but I’d get yelled at if I didn’t. So, there was a ‘gathering’ almost every day… A daily debriefing. When we finished work for the day in the provinces (on tour), a senior would call us over to so-and-so’s room and first make us sit in seiza (kneeling position). It was already late at night. Then they would scold us about how this happened today and how that happened, and if it escalated, they would hit us. All we could do was sit in seiza and say I’m sorry. If it ended in an hour, that was on the short side. We’d be sitting in seiza for two hours or more, so by the time it was over and we tried to stand up, we’d be like newborn fawns—our legs would go all limp and we’d be on the verge of falling over from the numbness… It’s been passed down through the generations. I thought that was normal, and that you couldn’t survive unless you endured it.”

To read another quote from this interview about Toyota learning that All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling had been keeping overseas offers from her, click here.