[1992-04-25-AJW-Wrestlemarinepiad] Aja Kong vs Bull Nakano

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[FLIK]

(3WA Title Match) Bull Nakano © vs Aja Kong

Their underlings may be getting along but these 2 certainly still aren't as Aja's in a surly mood before the match even starts. She gets on the mic and essentially tells Bull "bitch, you die tonight". Battle of the monsters to start, lariet, no sell, running smash, no sell, Aja with the bad ass standing drop kicks to get the advantage. 1 min into this and Bull is allready bleeding. Aja takes the fight into the crowd and starts hurlying rows of chairs at her head then leaves her for dead thear, heading back to the ring. Bull slowly returns, dripping blood and holding her eye. Aja works over the cut some more, punching, biting and headbutting away. Bull has a lot harder time fighting back then usual tonight. This isn't the first time she's been beaten down but usually all it takes is 1 lariet and she can turn things in her favor, here she has to put a lot more effort into it. Perhaps a sign she's begining to weaken, perhaps a sign Aja's growing stronger, perhaps neither or both. When she does finally pull it off she goes for revenge, taking things back out into the crowd and busting Aja open with chair shots of her own. Aja starts swinging wildly but Bull quickly shuts that down and continues her beat down until Aja grabs her can. Ref won't count so Aja starts spamming urakens and taking a page out of Yamada's book and punting the snot out of Bull every time she goes down from one. Each time Bull gets up a little bit slower but won't stay down. Bull hits another lariat followed by a suplex and then the big leg drop but Aja kicks out. Megadeath flipping leg drop misses and Aja hits a top rope plancha to the outside. Back in Aja's back drop smash off the top gets 2 and Bull comes back with a suicide dive to the outside. Bull again hits the Megadeath but this time Aja kicks out, the 1st time that's ever happened I believe and Bull just has this awesome "oh shit what do I do now" look on her face. She digs deep and bust out the moonsault to finally survive this match and come out the victor. Aja is carried out to the back post match and Bull can't leave under her own power either. In the back Watanabe has to hold her up during the post match promo whear she's in near tears. Certainly bot the best match these 2 have had, a little slower then i'd have liked at times but yeah, this was still awesome.

[MJH]

I've always thought the tag matches were better in this feud. This is good, but (and I can see somewhat of an argument for the 11/90 cage match) you're waiting for them to really deliver in singles and I don't think they ever did. That look you referred to from Bull, though, is absolutely perfect; she's easilly one of the best actresses in Joshi and her celebration after the great 1/24/93 tag is another favourite of mine.

[FLIK]

Heh, i'd def argue the 11/90 cage match but yeah, Aja vs Bull feud was made by the tag matches mostly.

[Loss]

Bull is the master. One of the best ever. I like Kong a lot, and Kong was great here, but Bull Nakano is amazing. This was a great, epic match I thought. Brutal, bloody brawl mixed in with some great wrestling moves and classic build. I loved it.

[Tim Evans]

I need to watch this again but the final 5 minutes were really great. I agree with Loss about Bull Nakano. She was just a different breed from the rest.

[El-P]

Great great match. Aja wasn't quite there yet, but Bull in her prime was special.

[Zenjo]

The fans clearly thought there was a realistic chance of a title change going in. Aja took the fight to the champion as she bloodied the champion and worked a control segment. Phase 2 was the same except they switched roles. During the stretch when Kong kicked out of Bull's finisher it looked like it was her time. Yet Bull added a rare move to her repertoire and won with a moonsault. Fans were rightly chanting her name afterwards. Though it was well constructed these 2 are not well matched opponants in singles. Super heavyweights need someone to dominate.

[MikeCampbell]

Now this was something I was able to get behind, just a hateful bloody brawl, with Bull really standing out to me. Al most like a female Jumbo Tsuruta. She was the top woman in the company, but had no issues with making her rival look for all the world like the person to knock her off, before digging down and finding the key to win.

[WingedEagle]

I've yet to try, but imagine if you put something like this in front of someone that's never seen women's wrestling and has the prejudices you'd expect come with such limited exposure that they'd rethink things pretty quickly. Headbutts and brawling to start with things moving outside quickly where Bull is busted open. Kong is soon juicing as well. Awesome near fall for Kong on a German suplex after Bull hit a top rope legdrop but missed the somersault version. The two trade awesome dives and Kong's uraken is only enough for a nearfall. After connecting on the somersault legdrop for only a near fall Bull gives us the facial that absolutely makes the match and finishes her defense with a moonsault.

 

****

 

I really haven't watched a ton of joshi -- a couple comps here or there and some other matches sprinkled in, so its great to hear what others who are more well versed in it can add. My general understanding was that Kong was appreciated as an all time elite with only Hokuto considered her peer. Both here and in the other matches I've seen, Bull is not only better but clearly so. She's got thy physical presence to work as a monster against smaller foes, while faring no worse going toe to toe or working underneath against someone like Aja. More than anything else her style, facials and emoting are some of my favorite and never fail to draw me in.

 

The other comments here similarly tout Bull as the man, so maybe I'm just imagining how they're viewed or its been that long since Bull was on top so maybe she was simply forgotten for a bit. Either way this holds up about as well as anything other than All Japan from the era.

[PeteF3]

This really feels like a role reversal from the Bull of the previous years. There she was almost selfishly dominant, cutting opponents off and coming off as near-unstoppable. Now, even a joshi n00b like me knows that she has a long way to go. But here in '92, with Aja having gotten multiple victories over her and making her look vulnerable, this comes off as Bull's "mid-'90s Stan Hansen" hour--the monster veteran suddenly working underneath. It's the most sympathetic look at Bull yet, weathering Aja's non-stop attack and getting in comebacks but with Aja withstanding every big move she can pull out. Definitely a primo illustration of storytelling and hate over big spotz, and this comes from a guy who really liked the previous match. This, however, is probably the best joshi singles match of 1990 to spring of '92.

[Loss]

Previously on PWO:

 

Bull Nakano vs. Aja Kong, 4/25/92

This was the best match Bull and Aja had against each other, perhaps the best match you could expect between women of their size. It was a slobberknocker, basically, but they kept it real tight. The only downer is that they struggle to pull of some of their offence due to the size factor. This was a key match in Aja's rise as The Woman in AJW and Bull kinda realises that a victory here is not really a victory. Aja was much better than in 1990 but not as good as she'd become later. She was a real late bloomer.

[garretta]

I'm not sure what can ve said about this that hasn't been said already. If two men wrestled this kind of a match, it would be known as a classic to wrestling fans everywhere instead of just a relatively few devoted fans. These two take turns beating each other out of whatever term you want to use for excrement, but neither can put the other away (nor do they really want to, at least until the final few minutes). You can tell that they're having the time of their lives trying to beat each other to death, and the end only comes when Aja's squashed like a bug by Bull's moonsault and has to be carried from the ring horseback. Talk about an amazing visual!

 

I love the way Bull sells the cut over her eye even during the postmatch trophy ceremony. That's dedication and attention to detail if I've ever seen it from a wrestler.

 

Bull's facial expression after Aja kicked out of the top rope legdrop is indeed a classic, but how many wrestlers in her situation actually come up with not only something else to do, but the move that wins the match to boot? Not many, I don't think. Bull's not just another pretty head of hair!

 

When Aja dives to the outside, she takes out Bull and somebody else as well. Is it someone we should know?

 

Talk about a doubleheader to end my evening/early morning of wrestling: Misawa/Jumbo followed by Aja/Bull. If you're into puroresu at all, it doesn't get much better than that!

[dawho5]

Bull is amazing.  The more I see of here the more I think she is a top worker of all time.  Kind of like a more agile Vader, but a woman?  Anyway, loved this match.  As an aside, why does this ref bother checking anyone?  We know this is going to go into the stands and Aja is going to use her garbage cans.  So do you, Mr. referee and there ain't shit you can do to stop it, so drop the pretense of control.

[Kadaveri]

I love this match so much. As great as their cage match was, it's something special that they were able to produce a match this good without having to rely on weapons or shocking violence like their last big match. Not that this wasn't pretty violent itself. The pacing is very slow in terms of momentum shifts. Aja takes control early on blasting Bull in the head and leaving her with a cut above the eye after a beatdown on the outside. Bull sells this all the way through to the post-match constantly holding her head. It's a full eight minutes into the match before Bull manages to regain control of the match, and then we get another 6 minutes of Bull in control. 14 minutes in a 90s Joshi match and only ONE momentum shift is very strange stylistically and makes me wonder if they did this deliberately and what the thought process was.

The biggest wtf moment of the whole match has to be this move off the top rope though:

What the hell was that.

Bull also has one of the best versions of the "I can't believe they kicked out of that!" face in wrestling history here. Aja kicking out was actually a genuine shocker, she wasn't just going through the motions of reacting to a nearfall. Plus she followed it up by hitting a rarer finisher, adding to the gravity of it all. From watching AJW chronologically, this feels like the real moment Aja Kong became established as a top star.