In the Dream Explosion series, Ryan Dilbert revisits and explores the best matches in All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling history.
Aja Kong vs. Yumiko Hotta
AJW Ota Ward Champion Legend
January 24, 1994
To call this a WWWA World Championship match is misleading. A title bout is a battle of honor and of heart. Aja Kong vs. Yumiko Hotta was something more primal, an exploration of malice.
To emphasize that point, Kong began this collision by throwing down the coveted championship indignantly. There would be no pre-match posing for pictures. There would be no hungry eyeing of the gold from the challenger. Just two pitbulls pressing their faces together, bearing their fangs.
Before this meeting in 1994, Aja Kong had been a dominant force in All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling. She and Bison Kumura had won tag gold three times over. She came out on top at the Japan Grand Prix in 1992. And the title that she carried into this fight was one she’d held for 14 months.
Kong had taken down the likes of Manami Toyota, Akira Hokuto, and Kyoko Inoue in ‘93, a year she went 29-0 in singles action, per CageMatch.net.
And she did it all in a brutal, unforgiving way. Kong battered her opponents. She overwhelmed them like a raging storm. But could she do that against Hotta, a powerhouse in her own right?
Hotta had bested Aja twice before this, once admittedly before the monster had fully formed (when she still wrestled as Erika Shishido back in 1988), but the other victory was mere weeks before this big showdown. That victory at Korakuen Hall netted her this title shot, a chance to fell this great beast in front of over 4,000 fans.
Despite Hotta’s own accomplishments (a trip to the Japan Grand Prix finals in ‘93 and three WWWA tag team title runs) Kong dismissed her in the pre-match interview. When asked what she thought of Yumiko and her recent form. Kong said, “Nothing” (h/t Violent People).
Kong showed considerable contempt when they met at Ota Ward Gymnasium. She gave her foe a good look at her middle finger and pantomimed slitting her throat. She wanted to destroy her rather than defeat her. Driven by bloodlust and disgust.
That’s clear seconds into this match as Kong and Hotta start pounding on each other in a whirlwind of wild strikes. The referee immediately struggled to maintain order.
The action escalated quickly as Kong moved things outside, flinging Hotta in the crowd and piledriving her into a table. Unsatisfied with this level of violence, Aja then smashed her opponent with the broken table. Chaos ruled early. A place where Kong was right at home.
But what of the challenger? She absorbed kick after kick and then rose, charged up, teeth gritted. She responded with nasty palm strikes to push back the monster.
The bout thrives here with Hotta matching Kong’s intensity. Beast against beast.
Soon, blood paints the scene and it’s hard to tell whose it all belongs to at first. It’s simply a crimson mess, a layer atop this struggle.
The wrestlers scramble. This is imprecise and rugged. More alley fight than athletic competition.
The kicks, the strikes, the power moves are all so forceful, one has to wonder about each wrestlers’ health. Is something broken amid all this? Is there internal damage?
Atop a blood-smeared mat, Kong cranked on a sleeper hold with a sadistic smirk and tried to suck the life out of Hotta. The pace grew slower here, a break from all the wild energy. Thankfully we get this respite as the audience because the level of brutality gets cranked up soon after.
Hotta’s palm got cut open during this war. Blood paints her hand red. And Kong sees that as an invitation, an open door she must charge through. The champion stomped on Hotta’s bloody hand, tore at the flesh and pulled her fingers back, delighting in the torture of it all.
This is where fans of wrestlers pushing the limits of violence will be locked into the action and some audience members may instead grow squeamish. It devolves into horror movie territory.
When Hotta dared to her injured hand in a test of strength, taking Kong’s bait, she suffered dearly. Kong sunk her fingers into the wound, the ref powerless to stop her destruction.
The bruiser focused on Hotta’s weak point and attacked. With no mercy.
Hotta fought back on wobbly legs. She nailed Kong with her own spinning back fist. It looked for a moment like she might not just survive but overcome this apex predator. However, Kong derailed those hopes. She countered a butterfly suplex off the top and smashed her own body weight onto the challenger. And so ended a stunning display of violence. https://youtu.be/W1BN-jfo6PU?si=kebFgyHwR-m0N8d6
You cannot help but believe in their disdain for each other. You cannot help but cringe at how hard they hit. This is a match where the animosity is palpable and the sound of boots cracking on flesh echo.
The images are lasting, from Hotta’s bloody hand to Kong tearing at it like a crazed animal.
It remains one of the most dramatic and brutal matches in All Japan Women’s history, a showcase of Kong’s savagery and Hotta’s toughness.
As a fan of slugfests, I ate this up. It went further with its violence than I expected and I found myself captivated. By the severity of the strikes. By the sight of all that blood. It remains a match I go back to often. Self-confirmed sicko, I guess.
Kong vs. Hotta sticks with me, haunting, astounding. A classic painted blood red.
Check out the previous entries in this series:
Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs. Akira Hokuto & Shinobu Kandori
