>>14888818Influential insofar as shaping the modern smarks taste towards flips maybe, but other than that no. The JBA, particularly Itsuki, wrestled Toyota's style 10 years earlier. Toyota was just doing an extension of the 80s bump & go style, maybe better than anyone else on account of her insane athleticism, but she definitely wasn't the innovator. During her peak in the 90s the company wasn't really innovating anymore like in the 80s.
Also she's definitely top 10. Jaguar and Hokuto are definitely better, Devil is better, Chigusa is better, Bull & Aja are probably better, but then it gets tough. I would personally put Kyoko over her and slot Toyota in at #8. I don't really care about Kudo being sexier but she's vastly overrated as a wrestler which is why she didn't make it in AJW in the first place. Yeah her deathmatch gifs look cool, but she was very one note and Ozaki was always the far better performer. Meiko's peaks never reached any of the Zenjo wrestlers, but I wouldn't argue against anyone putting her in the top 10.
The thing with Toyota is that she's insanely overrated by smarks without a clue that don't watch anything except the very surface level, partly because Meltzer spent decades convincing everyone she's the GOAT, but underrated by smarks who actually watch a lot of different wrestling and have somewhat of a clue, but their innate contrarianism doesn't allow them to rate her highly. Realistically based on ability and catalog of great matches she's easily top 10. If someone told me she's the best, and he thinks that because he actually watched a ton of AJW and not just because of Meltzer and Twitter gifs, I wouldn't think it's too farfetched of an opinion.
