Aja Kong vs Yumika Hotta (AJW - 1/24/1994)

Not Aja Kong's best match but I think this is the best match to define Aja Kong. Such a display of intimidation and power. The spot where she starts to rip open the wound in Hotta's hand is brutal and ruthless. You have to know that if you challenge Aja she's not gonna have a moment's hesitation in doing whatever's necessary to beat you.

The most brutal match ever? Some of the strikes are so ridiculously stiff, they would make Ikeda and Ishikawa wince. And on top of that you have all that work on Hotta's cut hand. The violence is perfectly incorporated into the fighting underdog vs. ultimate bully story. Not sure about Top 50 but should easily make my final list.

Thanks to Microstatistics for recommending this one. This is easily one of the most violent matches I've ever seen and also a tremendous story in stages. The opening blitz from both, Aja laying out Hotta with the piledriver on the table, the work on Hotta's bleeding hand, and Hotta's valiant last stand ending in failure.

Tremendous match and very strong contender for the list.

Ok... I also have to rewatch this with knowledge of these motivations. I love love love this match. It is not just brutal it is MEAN. I know I know... brutal has a grander connotation, but its MEAN... like intentional in all the wrong (read: right) ways.

An absolute horror show of a thing. I'm glad I knew more of the backstory this time as well (thanks in part to Kadevari), as it gave all the brutality and violence an extra layer. Aja has been steamrolling everyone for a while now, but Hotta beat her recently in a non-title match and Aja will run through brick walls to see that rectified. These are also two of the stiffest maniacs to ever live so you knew you were getting some potatoes. Aja going apeshit at the start and piledriving Hotta through the table (then launching the table at her) was a great way to kick things off, but Hotta picking up a nasty cut on her hand around this point is what later makes the match so memorable. Until that comes into play they just eviscerate each other. Some of this is ludicrous. Hotta's kicks may never have looked meaner and if you know anything about her then that should tell you something. Aja was hurling them too though, really trying to punt teeth into the crowd and mangle spine, adding a little extra mustard with basically every passing minute. The palm strikes that leave Aja's face swollen up like Jocelyn Wildenstein were insane and that only made Aja even angrier, to the point where Hotta came across as a serious underdog even before all the hand stuff. Hotta, renowned crowbar bully, as de facto babyface because her opponent is THAT much of a bastard. That's wild. And I thought Hotta nailed the role, with probably her very best selling performance from below, garnering sympathy in a way I've never seen her do before or after. There was a brief spell in the middle where they took it down a notch with a headlock segment, but then the ref' tells Hotta to get her bloody hand checked by the doctor and Aja, presumably on the fly because I can't imagine this was planned pre-match, decides she's going to punch, stomp, twist and kick the thing into uselessness. Any obscure body part work is going to be cool to me and this was right up there with some of the best ever. The close-up camera shots of Aja trying to rip her fingers apart were straight out of the Puerto Rico playbook and then she went and brought the finger-biting to really seal the deal. If I'm being critical I'd have liked them to stick with the hand a little longer, but the overall theme of Hotta being all the way up shit creek continued until the end regardless. I suppose you can boot someone in the face two dozen times as hard as humanly possible, but if that someone is Aja Kong then it might not matter.

I wanted to include this on the ballot there but I hadn't seen it in about fifteen years, so I really had no idea what to do with it. Next year, though...