Io Shishido, better known professionally as Kanako Susanoo, is a professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, currently running, and wrestling for, her own joshi poruresu promotion, Gravity Women's Sports Championship (Commonly simplified as simply GRAVITY). With her iconic and striking appearance coupled with her signature, ultra-aggressive in-ring style, Kanako Susanoo would become one of the most recognized and celebrated female wrestling stars in the industry, with a career spanning decades. Known for her ability to achieve top billing and pay rates, competitive with her male counterparts, Susanoo is also viewed as a pioneer in portraying females as equally capable stars in the wrestling business, although criticism remains on how adequately she's used her success and influence to help other up and coming female wrestlers. With over a dozen world championship reigns to her name across multiple promotions, Kanako Susanoo is considered one of the greatest and most successful professional wrestlers of all time, regardless of gender.

Shishido started her professional career in the long-running though fading promotion Joshi World Sport, wrestling under her real name and presenting herself as a capable, if somewhat generic professional wrestler. Shishido was admired for her work ethic and overall toughness but struggled to connect with the audience in a way which would facility her desired ascension up the card. Finding difficulty presenting herself in the role of a heroine to be cheered, Shishido felt that her physicality and relentless in-ring style would be better suited toward a villainous character. Shishido would begin coming to the ring in increasingly intricate face paint, designed to intimidate the audience and portray her as a dangerous and unhinged individual. Her style of brutal suplexes and torturous submission holds helped to solidify the perception of the young wrestler as a villainess with no mercy for her opponents. After finding some success in this new, heel role, Shishido would catch the attention of One Japan F-Class Wrestling (Commonly referred to as One-F), which had recently become recognized as the region's premiere joshi promotion, and remains as such to this day. Before debuting for her new company, Shishido brainstormed ways to take her character to the next level, realizing that she risked falling behind in the new, bigger promotion if she didn't immediately connect with the audience there. It was during this time that Shishido would begin assembling the pieces of what would become the Kanako Susanoo character.

-BECOMING SUSANOO-

The debut of Shishido in One-F would see the wrestler ditch her more plain ring gear for more colorful, eye-catching attire and, most notably, mark the first appearance of her now-iconic face mask, albeit simpler in design than it would go on to be. Maintaining and building off of her villainous nature in Joshi World, Shishido would antagonize the audience and intimidate her opponents through a constant torrent vocal rhetoric throughout her early One-F matches, issuing threats of violence or mocking an opponent's apparent weakness or injury. Finally, during ring entrances for a match against Himari Tanahashi, Shishido would confront the ring announcer and 'correct' him, declaring her name to be Kanako Susanoo, taking the name of a deity of storms and mischief.

As time went on, Kanako Susanoo would continue to develop the traits she'd come to be known for under this outlandish gimmick, incorporating bizarre movements into her act, such as convulsions or strange dancing on the way to the ring. She would also incorporate her now-trademark wicked cackle, and display her intimidating grin, aided by her very long incisors. Susanoo aimed to present herself less as just another, albeit unorthodox, professional wrestler and instead portray herself as more of an entity, a force of nature wrought upon her opponents. Her dive into the character also saw Susanoo increase the ferocity of her already brutal offense, dumping opponents more severely on their shoulder and head area and tearing at their joints and limbs with ever more excruciating submission holds, including her signature hold known as the Susanoo Lock, a modified dragon sleeper with body scissors. Colleagues of Susanoo during this time say she also endeavored to isolate herself from her fellow competitors backstage, communicating mostly with management and few others, decreasing her familiarity among her partners in the ring. During this time, Kanako Susanoo was widely regarded as the most terrifying female wrestler in the world, with reports of other female wrestlers refusing to work with her out of concern for their personal wellbeing a fairly common occurrence at the time. Leaning into this perception of fear, Susanoo further incorporated elements into her performance to create the perception of an unhinged, dangerous competitor, including one of her more infamous habits: biting her opponents. Making use of her long and razor-sharp incisors, Kanako Susanoo would occasionally turn up the intensity of a match by gnawing into the forehead or neck area of her opponents, sawing deep enough to produce blood in some instances. With many of her in-ring partners unwilling to bleed the 'hard way,' Susanoo often pantomimes the biting or at least bites with less intensity than she otherwise would. Only a handful of her opponents are willing to subject themselves to the full bite, although Susanoo's method of doing this is closer to that of blading, so the bite itself may be less painful than some would expect.

-ARASHI SUSANOO-

As Susanoo was being readied for a main event run of dominance, she was scheduled to take on foreign opponent Luna Blood. Blood was something of an attraction in the joshi promotion, a giantess compared to her smaller, more nimble counterparts, and had been booked as a monster heel, crushing her opponents during her sporadic appearances for the promotion. Although Susanoo had been portrayed in a villainous light for her entire time in One-F, the match would prove to be an opportunity to portray the fast-rising female star as somebody for the audience to rally behind, slotting her, for the first time, into an underdog role opposite Blood, who filled the role as the oversized, foreign killer. As both Blood and Susanoo were known for working a stiff style, the match, as expected, was a hard-hitting affair which saw both competitors dishing out unrelenting punishment onto the other. Luna Blood tossed and slammed the smaller Susanoo around with ease, while Susanoo responded with vicious strikes and concentrated attacks on the larger female's limbs. Throughout the early portions of the match, Susanoo would attempt multiple times to hit Blood with suplexes, failing to lift up the larger female. With her size and strength apparently proving to be too much, Blood would gain a dominant advantage late into the match, striking down any and all hope spots Susanoo would attempt to mount. As an apparent final humiliation, Blood would tear at the mask of Susanoo, leaving it crooked and misaligned on Susanoo's face until finally succeeding in removing it altogether. Blood would hold the mask up high, proudly displaying what she had done to a disgusted audience, as Susanoo lay on the mat, seemingly beaten. However, as Blood turned around to finish off her opponent, Susanoo would rapidly rise from the mat, revealing a terrifyingly painted visage, rolling her eyes back, and loudly screaming "Machigaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Shinuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" The effect of the moment was enhanced by the crowd's audible gasp at the visual as well as the somewhat genuine look of terror on the face of Luna Blood, who had not seen Susanoo's unmasked face prior to the match. Susanoo immediately followed up by leaping onto the upper body of Luna Blood, latching onto the bigger female and tearing into her forehead with her teeth, drawing more blood than usual from Luna who desperately thrashed around in an attempt to throw Susanoo off. For the remainder of the match, Susanoo fought with even greater aggression, apparently recovered from all previous damage, and, in a payoff of the initial story of the match, suplexing Luna Blood multiple times with ease. While the match would remain competitive for a few more minutes, Susanoo would claim victory with her signature KanaPlex, a high-angle, bridging half-nelson suplex and pin combination, causing the live crowd to erupt at the sight of such a move performed on an opponent that much larger.

Susanoo's unmasking against Luna Blood is considered to be one of pro wrestling's most iconic moments and perhaps the most iconic of Susanoo's career. In the aftermath of the event, Susanoo's maskless alter ego was referred to as Arashi Susanoo. This version of the character would make sporadic appearances throughout her career, either as a result of an opponent foolishly removing her mask, or Susanoo removing it herself, in a rage, although no instance of the character's appearance is likely to be considered as memorable as the original debut.

-ADVOCACY FOR INTERGENDER MATCHES-

As Susanoo's fame rose, the female star began to advocate for participating in intergender matches against her male counterparts, feeling she had proven all she needed to among her female peers. Although mixed gender wrestling wasn't unheard of in the region, the idea was met with sizeable pushback, particularly due to Susanoo's instance that she win the majority of these potential confrontations. Although top male puroreso stars rarely agreed to these bouts, Susanoo would secure several matches against male talent considered to be around midcard level, winning around half of those matches. Susanoo would find more success in getting booked for intergender matches in her tour of Western promotions later in her career.

Although true matches never came of it, Susanoo has had very electric staredowns with big, male stars like Nyra and Jin-Yuta. In an homage to her role in normalizing intergender matches, Susanoo was an entrant in NWF's generally all-male Grand Royale battle royal, eliminating multiple participants until ultimately being eliminated herself after about 12 minutes.

-INTERNATIONAL FAME & FINANCIAL SUCCESS-

Although not without its share of successful performers, joshi wrestling had never had a star like Kanako Susanoo prior to the masked superstar's ascent. Susanoo's success represented a departure from the norm in all of women's wrestling, with successful female wrestlers after Susanoo occasionally bragging that they were making something akin to "Susanoo money." In addition to dominating the joshi wrestling scene, Kanako Susanoo found herself making a successful tour of the Western promotions, many of which never seeing a female wrestler as 'legitimate' as Susanoo, with women's wrestling of the time being focused more strongly on physical appearance and presented as something of a novelty. Susanoo's win record was even more impressive during this time, as she refused to lose to any opponent she deemed to be lacking in credibility, which, given the female rosters of most western promotions, included the vast majority of her opponents. Susanoo's stay in these promotions was often brief, making her something of a special attraction when she was around, further increasing her star power within a culture that had yet to seriously embrace female wrestlers before her. It was during her tour of the West that she earned the nickname the Empress of Chaos, a name she embraced and took with her back home and all over the world.

Susanoo's ability to leverage her star power in both her home country and abroad has made her something of a celebrated figure with industry insiders, particularly female talent, who admire the joshi star for knowing her worth and accepting nothing less. Of course, this also came with some criticism or at least light-hearted teasing, in reference to Susanoo's well-known love of money, and her occasionally unscrupulous methods of maximizing her payouts. Susanoo is also known for her hefty leverage, creatively, easily vetoing any creative plans or results she disagrees with, aiding in maintaining her rather one-sided win-loss record over the years, another source of criticism for the veteran star.

-GRAVITY-

Following her mainstream success as a wrestler, Kanako Susanoo would go on to form her own wrestling promotion, Gravity Female Sports Championship, better known simply as GRAVITY. Although not as large or successful as One-F, the star power of its founder coupled with the novelty of its matchups has earned GRAVITY a comfortable niche among wrestling fans. Many view Susanoo's founding of Gravity as something of a playground for the veteran wrestler, allowing her to book the kinds of matches she wants, such as an increased number of intergender matches and an increased number of deathmatch style bouts, without pushback from higher-ups. Susanoo has faced criticism from some suggesting that she too often makes herself the star of her own promotion rather than investing in younger talent to be the stars of the future. Indeed, while there have been many world champions in Gravity, it's a common occurrence for a new champion to have to win the title from Susanoo herself, only to lose it back to her to repeat the process with a new contender. Susanoo has been dismissive of such criticism, claiming that her drawing power and continued ability in the ring justifies her position, insisting that those who would seek to take her spot have to prove themselves as better talent and bigger stars, as she had to do.

-APPEARANCE-

Kanako Susanoo is known for her eye-catching appearance. The centerpiece of her appearance is her iconic face mask. The mask comes in a variety of colors and patterns, most often white with various, colored patterns and accents. Earlier versions of the mask were simpler with wider eyeholes, making it easier to see the wrestler's eyes underneath. Updated versions of the mask usually feature narrower eyeholes, cut into more sinister shapes. The narrower eyeholes are all but certain to compromise the wrestler's vision to some degree, necessitating that Susanoo rely on her veteran's instincts to get around the ring and work with her opponent. Hanging from the mask, and occasionally other parts of Susanoo's ring gear, are colorful ribbons which fall down around her neck and shoulders like something of an artificial 'mane.' The visible, bottom half of Susanoo's face often contains paint of some kind, in a variety of patterns. A recurring type of pattern here simulates liquid flowing out from her mouth and occasionally from under her mask. This is possibly a reference to her history of biting her opponents bloody, although the appearance of the paint can be a variety of different colors in addition to blood-red. The paint also frequently extends over the length of her ears and down her neck. The paint may also be present on the upper half of her face in the event that she is unmasked during a match. The paint on her upper face is designed to be more frightening and bizarre. The specific style of Susanoo's clothing has changed many times over the years but a constant feature has been the copious use of color across all articles. A frequent feature of her ring attire is a long and elegant loincloth fitted over the top of her wrestling trunks or longer pants.

-LATE CAREER & LONGEVITY-

In the later stages of her career, Kanako Susanoo has settled into a role of a legendary fan-favorite, maintaining her mischievous mannerisms and stiff in-ring style but without the same edge of brutality which made her such a feared villainess in her youth. Although some longtime fans pine for the Susanoo of old, in her current iteration the star has found a balance of showcasing her classic 'hits' while maintaining a hero's welcome of fans when she does make an appearance. With a career spanning over 30 years, Susanoo is well known for her longevity within the business. While she no longer wrestles a regular schedule, focusing more on her business and managerial roles, her ability to maintain pace with younger, modern stars of today is a remarkable feat for somebody who has taken over three decades of the punishment associated with professional wrestling. With her ongoing work in her promotion GRAVITY and showing no signs of retirement up to now, one can only guess how much longer Kanako Susanoo will be entertaining fans and bedeviling opponents with her unique brand of chaos.

-NOTES-

Susanoo intentionally keeps her incisors long in an effort to give her a more intimidating or deranged appearance, although this is considered rather un-ladylike.

It has been revealed on multiple occasions that Susanoo's favorite genre of music is classic Eurodance.

As there are no confirmed photographs of an unmasked, unpainted Susanoo in known circulation since the earliest days of her career, commentators often make a point of speculating on her 'hideous' or 'frightening' face beneath the mask. However, if her younger appearance is anything to go by, she is in fact quite rather beautiful.

In her later years, Kanako Susanoo implemented a recurring moment in her matches which fans refer to as the "Susanoo Sell," which sees the veteran star take what appears to be a devastating move from her opponent, only to immediately shrug it off as ineffective, often including her signature wicked laugh after the fact. Some fans criticize this practice as making her opponent's offense look weak, while others suggest that any wrestler who has performed as long as Susanoo has earned the credibility to occasionally no-sell their opponents.


Technically not my first female wrestling character but, the first one I've made up since started this little unofficial project.

Full disclosure, the Arashi Susanoo thing is inspired by (See also: stolen from) Jushin "Thunder" Liger's 'Kishin Liger' alter ego, which he debuted against the Great Muta in 1996. In that match, Liger wrestled in his standard Junior Heavyweight way, making use of high flying and technical maneuvers and generally fighting as an honorable babyface while the villainous Muta wrestled using his usual underhanded tactics. When Muta forcibly removed the mask of a beaten down Liger, Liger rose to reveal a demonic-looking painted up face, spraying Poison Mist into Muta's face (A move Muta himself was known for) and 'powering up' before fighting more aggressively and violently for the remainder of the match. It's a cool-ass moment even for non wrestling fans, like something out of a video game, and while New Japan Pro Wrestling is even worse than Nintendo when it comes to copyright claims, the match can be seen here on this website that appears to basically be a Chinese Youtube (Seems safe enough from my brief research into it): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1qp411d7A6/

(Cut to about 15 minutes into the match, the unmasking happens shortly thereafter).

The "Susanoo Sell" is based on this thing Sting's been doing lately in AEW and my fan-explanation for it is basically the same way I feel about Sting who is also older than dirt. Although I try not to think about his Christian conservative ass on a personal level.

Sting absorbs the "Superkick Party": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCx2h1BdQI

So, you get the idea here