Despina Montagas | |
---|---|
Born | Athens, Greece | June 9, 1961
Spouse(s) | Tarzan Goto (until death, 2022) |
Children | 3 |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Despina Montagas Despina Goto Batgirl |
Trained by | The Fabulous Moolah |
Debut | 1984 |
Retired | 1991 |
Despina Montagas (born June 9, 1961) is a retired Greek female professional wrestler.
Despina Montagas debuted in 1984 for the American Wrestling Association in Minneapolis. [1] She would also wrestle for various territories including Florida (Championship Wrestling from Florida), Mid-Atlantic (Jim Crockett Promotions), Memphis (Continental Wrestling Association), and New York (World Wrestling Federation). [1] She also went overseas to Japan to wrestle for All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling. [1] In 1986, she had a brief stint in the Gulf Coast for Continental Championship Wrestling. [1] She also had a stint in Mexico for the Universal Wrestling Association. [1]
In 1989, she returned to Japan to wrestle for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. [1] In October 1990, she took part in the country's first mixed tag team match. In March 1991, she left the promotion and retired shortly thereafter.
Montagas was married to Tarzan Goto, and the couple have three sons. [2] A year after beginning to wrestle, Montagas quit and sold life insurance, but returned to wrestling shortly afterwards. [2] Goto died on May 29, 2022, from liver cancer.
Agatupu Rodney Anoaʻi was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. He was also known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Great Kokina.
Richard Erwin Rood, better known by his ring name "Ravishing" Rick Rude, was an American professional wrestler who performed for many promotions, including World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
Michael McCord is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Austin Idol. He is best known for his appearances in the Mid-South with the Continental Wrestling Association, in particular his recurring feud with Jerry Lawler.
Cathy Allison Corino is a Canadian retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager, better known by her ring name, Allison Danger.
Akihisa Mera, better known as The Great Kabuki, is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is famous as the first to blow Asian mist in his opponents' faces.
Megumi Takayama is a Japanese entertainment personality and former professional wrestler. She wrestled under her maiden name for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, where she became the top star of the Women's Division. Kudo is primarily known for competing in brutal death matches, where the ring ropes were replaced with barbed wire. She is currently the general manager for Pro Wrestling ZERO1.
Atsushi Onita is a Japanese actor, politician, and semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and is credited with introducing the deathmatch style of professional wrestling to Japan. He is a former All Asia Tag Team Champions alongside Yoshitatsu.
Junji Hirata is a Japanese retired professional wrestler currently working as a trainer for the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, known primarily by his ring name Super Strong Machine.
Masanori Morimura better known under his ring name Ricky Fuji is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Action Advance Pro Wrestling, where he also runs the day-to-day operations. He is perhaps best known for his time with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he wrestled between the promotion's early days in 1990 until the promotion's closure in 2002, making him the longest-tenured wrestler in the company's history.
Michael Davis was an American professional wrestler best known as one half of the tag team Rock 'n' Roll RPMs with Tommy Lane which lasted several years. The RPM's were one of the best-known heel tag teams throughout the southern United States in promotions such as World Class Championship Wrestling and the Continental Wrestling Association based out of Memphis. Mike Davis was also a member of Kevin Sullivan's faction known as the Army of Darkness.
Rimi Yokota is a Japanese professional wrestler and later wrestling trainer, who wrestled under the name Jaguar Yokota (ジャガー横田). She is currently signed to World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana, where she is the leader of the CRYSIS stable. Yokota is widely considered one of the greatest female wrestlers of all time, and during her heyday in the early 1980s, was considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, irrespective of gender.
The Ladies Professional Wrestling Association (LPWA) was a women's professional wrestling promotion which operated in the early 1990s. It was considered a successor to such women's promotions as Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW), but it differed in that, while GLOW slanted more toward WWF-style sports entertainment, the LPWA treated its product seriously and put its primary emphasis on in-ring athletics.
Angel Orsini is an American professional wrestler, bodybuilder and mixed martial artist. She has competed in North American independent promotions including Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), Women's Extreme Wrestling (WEW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where she was known as The Prodigette who managed the stable the 'Sideshow Freaks' during the last years of the promotion.
Michel Pigeon was a Canadian professional wrestler better known by his ring name, Jos LeDuc.
Seiji Goto, better known by his ring name Tarzan Goto (ターザン後藤), was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled on the independent circuit most of his career. He is best known for his exploding steel cage matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW).
Vanessa Kraven, is a Canadian professional wrestler who competed in several independent promotions in both the United States and Canada. She made several trips to Japan for wrestling between 2006-2010 and was a competitor in WWE's second Mae Young Classic tournament in 2018. After having suffered a broken ankle in late 2018, Kraven returned to Pro wrestling and had a match against Hikaru Shida for All Elite Wrestling's AEW Dark in October 2022 and has been active on the independent scene since.
Kenichi Oya (大矢健一) is a semi-retired Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Hisakatsu Oya (大矢剛功). Although he started out for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he is well known for his stint in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
Michiyoshi Ohara is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he wrestled from 1990 to 2004, winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Tatsutoshi Goto in 1999.
Tony St. Clair is an English retired professional wrestler. He is well known for his stints in Joint Promotions and All Star Wrestling in the United Kingdom, Catch Wrestling Association in Austria and Germany, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is also known as a trainer, with his trainees including "Gentleman" Chris Adams and Osamu Nishimura.
Eriko Tsuchiya is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Shark Tsuchiya (シャーク土屋). She spent most of her career working for Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling.