Japanese women's wrestling legend Chigusa Nagayo saves woman from assault in a parking lot

On November 19th in the early morning, former professional women's wrestler (and head of Marvelous women's pro-wrestling) Chigusa Nagayo was involved in a physical altercation after intervening when she saw a man in his twenties physically assaulting his wife, Sankei News reports.

While walking through the streets of Sapporo, Nagayo (53) heard cries of help emanating from the third floor of a parking structure. When she rushed to the scene she found a man straddling a woman and grabbing a hold of her leg and neck, with the woman's personal belongs strewn about the floor. Nagayo called the police, but says she was concerned about how long they would take to arrive and approached to break up the struggle. The former pro wrestler then scolded the man, warning him to stop. For a moment the man complied and said he would, but upon releasing the woman, he then grabbed a hold of Nagayo's hair and left hand and tried to throw her to the ground.

On Fuji Television's "Direct LIVE Goody!", Nagayo recounted the encounter, saying she kept her hands interlocked with the assailant to keep him at bay, even when she felt that her finger bone had broken until fellow Marvelous wrestler Takumi Iroha and subsequently police arrived to arrest the man, who was intoxicated.

When asked about her role in the altercation, Nagayo says "I couldn't stand to pretend not seeing a woman getting hurt, but I couldn't lay a hand on him because of my work, if I were to even lay a hand on him, it could ruin the lives of the young women in our promotion...when I felt that my bone was broken, I was at my limit of anger, but if I hurt him I would be just the same as him...I'm glad I'm a professional wrestler, because that's why I was able to control my feelings. I'm just glad a professional wrestler could be some good in the world."

Nagayo is receiving an out-pour of praise on Twitter for not only coming to the victim's rescue, but applying so much restraint while suffering a possible broken bone and having her hair ripped out. In a later interview, she said she has no plans to take action against the man and instead hopes the couple can get along, and can protect his wife instead of using violence against her. After speaking with him, Nagayo felt that he didn't lack understanding of his wrong doing, hopes to see the couple the next time she goes to Sapporo, and even apologized for making anyone worry about her.

Chigusa Nagayo is often hailed as the most historically important women's wrestler of all time, with the popular team of "Crush Gals" along with Lioness Asuka in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling being credited as a major catalyst for the break through of women's wrestling into mainstream Japan's pop culture (the team recorded multiple top ten singles and appeared in various magazines) inspiring many young women in Japan to become trainees.