#256: Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong, AJW Wrestlemarinepiad II (11/14/1990).
Hello, readers!
March 1st signaled the beginning of Women's History Month, so I thought that there would be no better to celebrate a whole month dedicated to the ladies than to do a theme this week centered around, you guessed it, the ladies!
In the spirit of transparency, I will say that the following five matches that you'll see today were NOT the original five that I was going to do this week. I usually write these match reviews up on Mondays, but this past Monday, I ended up having a tooth pulled. Alas, I didn't have time to write anything for this week.
Thankfully, when in doubt, I can always pull from my wrestling book, "King's Road." In it, I wrote about the 100 Best Matches I've ever seen, and there are a lot of fantastic women's matches in it. You should read it! Reach out to me about it. So, this review, along with the other ones I did this week, are all from my book. Enjoy!
This is a Steel Cage Match for Nakano's WWWA World Championship.
Both Bull Nakano and Aja Kong are known for essentially the same things: a look that was widely different from the beautiful women around them, and for being incredibly hard hitting in the ring. Seriously, these two women made guys like Katsuyori Shibata and Kenta Kobashi look tame in comparison at times. And while their beauty can’t be denied, that’s not what people saw first when they laid their eyes on them.
Kong, who still somehow wrestles today, was the definition of a monster. Short hair, face paint, and a less than appealing attire, Kong wrestled like a legit badass and never settled for anything else. Nakano, meanwhile, looked like a character out of some neo-cyberpunk anime. She was known for wearing band tees at this time. She was cool as fuck.
Due to being so similar, both Kong and Nakano were paired up early on in their careers, with Nakano being the mentor to the younger Kong. They both saw early success as a tag team, but as it always is, the student wanted to surpass the master. Kong wanted to prove her superiority to Nakano, and would soon oppose her as her faction Jungle Jack went to war often against Nakano’s faction Gokumon-to.
All of this animosity between the two former friends would eventually led to them having their first singles matches against each other – both taking place inside of a cage. The first one took place at a nothing show, so both women looked to up the ante in the sequel. What would follow would be one of the most iconic women’s matches in the history of professional wrestling.
As she makes her entrance, Kong exits the cage and meets her on the outside. The fight is on, as both women tear into each other among the fans. Kong tosses Nakano into a row of chairs, and the champion is right back to attack Kong. Now she sends Kong into the chairs. Nakano enters the cage, and Kong follows her inside. The match officially begins.
Nakano slams Kong’s face into the mat, and Kong responds with a headbutt. She then sends Nakano’s face into the steel. Kong bites Nakano’s head, and punches her stiff on the head. Kong slams Nakano’s head off the turnbuckle, but the champion is quick to fight back, dropping Kong with a boot to the chest. She hits a stiff lariat to Kong that drops her. The lights are out in the arena now, but that’s not stopping these two ladies from destroying each other.
Nakano hits a nice suplex to Kong, and hits a bulldog from the top rope. Kong is back up and hits several spinning back fists to Nakano. Each successive shot looks stiffer than the last. Nakano keeps getting up and Kong continues to hit those fists to the head. Looks like Nakano is busted open now. Kong will not stop with these spinning back fists! And Nakano will not stop getting back up! Kong looks to escape the cage, but Nakano stops her by attacking her with a piece of steel. Kong comes off the ropes with a clothesline. Nakano responds by bitchslapping her to the mat.
A nice clothesline, followed by a series of bicycle kicks, and a spin kick drop Kong. Nakano lifts Kong up for a Neutralizer next. Kong comes off the ropes with a body splash, and she goes to catch a trash can from her Jungle Jack stablemates, but Nakano catches it instead and smashes it into Kong’s head several times! Kong no-sells it, and Nakano is stunned! The champion has two pairs of nunchuks now, and she wields them like she has experienced! She hits Kong with them hard, and spikes them into her head a few times.
Kong is bleeding from her head now, as Nakano sends her into the ropes. She hits Kong with a nice lariat, before dropping all of her weight onto Kong. Nakano places Kong between the cage and the ropes and splashes her into the steel. Kong fights back with a series of headbutts. Kong drops Nakano in the middle of the ring with a piledriver, and unloads with strikes and kicks to the champion. Nakano fights back and sends Kong face first into the mat. She scales the bottom rope – yes, the bottom rope – to hit a flying legdrop. She follows that with a flying spin kick.
On the outside, the members of both ladies’ factions appear to be fighting. Nakano comes off the ropes with a bicycle kick and goes to escape. Kong stops her, and swings the piece of steel at Nakano’s body – specifically targeting the thigh. Kong has her trash can and swings it at Nakano’s leg a number of times. What the fuck, Nakano has scissors! She’s stabbing Kong in the arm! This just got fucking serious!
Nakano drives the scissors into the head of Kong, causing further damage. My god, she is just straight up stabbing Kong in the fucking arm with those scissors! Nakano stops one of the Jungle Jack members from entering the cage, knocking them back down to the floor. Kong is back on the offensive, as she now has a rope and she uses it to strangle Nakano. She uses the turnbuckle for extra leverage. Nakano fights back by wrapping the rope around Kong’s mangled arm, and tying the rope to the ring ropes. Kong might be trapped!
Nakano goes to climb the cage, and Kong is quick to meet her there. Kong pulls her back in, and Nakano pulls her to the mat. Nakano goes to escape again, but Kong shakes the ropes so hard that the entire cage shakes with it, and Nakano falls down. Kong headbutts Nakano, and catches another trashcan from her stablemates. She smashes it over Nakano’s head repeatedly. One of Nakano’s stablemates in Gokumon-to hands her a steel chain, and Nakano tries to tie Kong to the ropes with it.
Now the champion uses the trashcan on Kong, as Jungle Jack and Gokumon-to continue to cause chaos at ringside. The chain is wrapped around Kong’s neck and her injured arm, and Nakano ties the end of it to the ropes. Nakano with a series of legdrops next, as she continues her onslaught of her former partner. She drags Kong around the ring, using it to choke her at every possible chance. Nakano goes to escape the cage, but Kong is right there to attack with the piece of steel. She uses it to stab Nakano in the leg – now that’s payback! Kong has Nakano positioned on the top rope, and drops her with a suplex.
Kong goes to escape, and Nakano whips her with the steel. She hits Kong with a rough looking powerbomb, then goes to the top rope. She misses a top rope leg drop, and Kong hits her with a German Suplex. Kong now has a giant piece of wood, and she uses it on Nakano’s body. Kong goes to the top rope to use the weapon, but one of Nakano’s stablemates steels the wood from her. Nakano attempts a powerbomb, but just drops Kong right on her fucking head.
Nakano is on the top of the cage now, and she comes down with a perfect legdrop to Kong! The impact is so great, Nakano pops up off the mat and lands right on her feet! She’s right back up to the top of the cage, and she makes her way down, landing on the floor to win the match! The look of elation on her face is amazing. She just survived a war. She’s so beaten down that you can’t even tell her hair was spiked up when she first came out. Nakano is carried away in victory, as Kong screams in the ring. Both factions enter the cage, and a huge brawl breaks out. This war is far from over.
You want to know how cool Bull Nakano is? She wore a Napalm Death shirt for this match. Google them. You’re welcome.
Was this a wrestling match, or just a legit fucking street fight? These two sold their animosity very well here, and this match came off incredibly realistic. The hatred between Nakano and Aja Kong was the story of the match, as they did away with any kind of pacing or psychology and just focused on battering the other with everything in their power. The chaos in the ring wasn’t enough though, as Gokumon-to and Jungle Jack also fought on the outside, and often tossed weapons into the ring for their leaders.
This was a chaotic mess in the best possible way. The trick to the Joshi phenomenon of the 1990s was that these women set out every time to prove that they were tougher than the men. They fought harder, faster, and were generally more open to insanity at times. So here, you have two rivals going at a fast pace from the beginning, and they are just tossing bombs like there is no freaking tomorrow!
Both women showcased impeccable toughness and grit. Nakano got her ass beat for a lot of this, as Kong was relentless and ruthless the entire time. On the contrary, Nakano was vicious and calculated, resorting to a pair of scissors to slow her rival down. Nothing was off the table for these ladies. They were willing to just about anything to attain victory. Turns out, anything actually means anything, as Nakano would find out years later thanks to this match.
Her top of the cage leg drop – as amazing as it looked – would end up being a big reason why she had to call it quits in 1997. She landed right on her ass a very hard way, and that did not do her any favors in the long run. Still, bouncing off of the mat and right to her feet afterwards was pretty damn cool.
As the post match shenanigans of this contest told us, this was just the beginning for these two ladies, and their blow off match wouldn’t take place until 1992 at the legendary Dream Rush in Kawasaki event.