[1994-01-24-AJW] Aja Kong vs Yumiko Hotta

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[MJH]

More copying over:

 

I guess you've heard of this one? This is probably my favourite Hotta match, and not just because she get's the shit kicked out of her. You could make the case, actually, that she even out performs Aja. I'm not sure it's a "great" match, but it's memorable as anything to say the least. It starts out great, Aja comes roaring out of the gate and she's pissed that Hotta beat her three works earlier, and is fucking killing her. Hotta makes a great comeback after about five minutes, damn near kicks Aja's head off in the process, and lands a piledriver... and then Aja nonchalantly takes control and works a pretty mundane control segment for five minutes. If I'm Fuji TV director I'm cutting that shit right out, as its proof 20 was still probably 5 minutes too long here. Then of course, Aja goes after the hand and it picks up again. Hotta is selling (though I'm not sure how much acting was going on) it for all she's worth, and you can't say that often about her. They go to the Carribean Crush a bit too soon (crowd don't buy it), but the work around the Pyramid Driver is great. The finish is a little flat because it looks more like a counter than Aja's actual waterwheel, but like just about everything in the match it still looked like it hurt like hell. Brutal, brutal, brutal match. But then, I guess you already knew that.

[El-P]

Aja kills Hotta. Great stuff.

[Loss]

Brutal match and very compelling. This match probably went a little bit too far and was too hard to watch at times. Still, pretty great.

[BackToBionic]

Yeah, car crash match. You want to look away at certain points, but are strangely compelled to watch.

[Childs]

Why was the match so uncomfortable to watch? The bloody hand thing? It was definitely a punishing match but nothing that seemed out of context from these two women. I enjoyed the nastiness of it, though it wasn't as good as Nakano vs. Inoue.

[Loss]

Hotta's stigmata hand just looked so painful that I had to turn away a few times.

[Exposer]

This was vile. I thought it was extremely dramatic and difficult to watch at times. Overall, I thought it was a great, great match. Hotta seemed to be in incredible pain.

[soup23]

What a great card. After two storyline driven matches we get this war. This match has a reputation and lives up to it. I did get squeamish at some of the joint manipulation Aja was doing. Another great match and I loved the call out to Hokuto at the end.

[PeteF3]

Ah, the summer of '95--the first joshi match I ever saw, and only the second puro match. Oddly the hand work didn't really jump out at me at the time, nor even did the insane stiffness, it was all the near-falls, something I'd never seen before. And now...this really isn't that near-fall heavy. It's definitely uncomfortable now, and really despite a strong dramatic story it's not something that can be considered any less masturbatory masochistic bullshit than Mick Foley's worst tendencies. Hotta splits her hand open early, I think while she was laying shots into Aja, and that becomes the story of the match--and the crazy thing is it could have entirely been an accident considering the circumstances and the timing. Definitely a standout performance from Hotta, as for once she's taking punishment and working underneath instead of taking the match off or cutting off her opponent. Terrific card overall.

[Karl]

I love this match - one of the most brutal I can recall...in fact, I am hard pushed to think of any match quite a stiff as this.

[Zenjo]

Holy shit! This was one of the most brutal and vicious bouts in company history. The palm strikes to the face, elbow smashes and head kicks were plain nasty. Of course it's best remembered for the bloody hand. Both wrestlers and the ring surface ended up smeared with the rouge. Aja was remorseless in attacking the wound. Managing to turn an asskicker like Hotta into a sympathetic babyface is quite an achievement. It's always satisfying to see her get a taste of her own medicine. Not just stiffness and blood either as they constructed a great match around it. Maintaining a great intensity level throughout and keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. There was the possibility of a title change before Kong went over strong at the end. MOTM. Afterwards Hokuto issued a challenge for Queendom.

 

There were many outstanding interpromotional shows in 1993. Here AJW moved back to doing it by themselves. The card revolved around the big two titles rather than dream matches. Three strong matches that each brought something very different, with the diversity complementing each other. It was the best promotion in the world after all.

[Microstatistics]

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. Incredible match. **** 1/2

[Jordan]

GOTNW mentioned this being better than 6/3/94 and it was the only match from that list I hadn’t seen so I decided to watch it. And holy shit this was nuts. Opening already had that sort of unpredictable vibe to it with how little care they had for each other with the wild strikes and then you have Aja teasing this turning into a LA Park/Joe vs. Necro type affair when she piledrives Hotta on a table and chucks some chairs at her. But instead we get an extended version of some of Battlarts’ most violent moments and some disgusting handwork. Yeah, quite the letdown. I’m an Aja Kong fan, but I love when a wrestler can turn in a performance that has me actually wanting to see them lose or get their comeuppance and not just praise their work or compliment the structure. And this is fully at play during that handwork segment with her just kicking the hand around and torturing it. You’re practically begging for Hotta to get in some backhands and kicks. Finish is brutal in that a person getting crushed on a counter after coming down off the top ropes in something this violent should carry that sort of match ending quality to it.

[Jetlag]

Damn. I don't remember this being so brutal. I mean, BRUTAL, yeah, but this felt like one of the Top 10 most gruesome matches I've ever seen. The kicks and palm strikes here put any UWF match to shame. The opening with both of them pummeling eachother followed by a piledriver through a table followed by Aja chucking said broken table at Hotta was one of the best to a match that I can recall. The selling and transitions, as with pretty much any Hotta match, were lacking, but thankfully there was bit of a big vs. little story to add some semblance of psychology below the crash crash horror. Kong dominating Hotta on the ground using her weight was good. Then of course you get the work on Hotta's bloody stigmata hand. I was impressed with the struggle during the nearfall section and how they kept building towards Hotta getting the big powerbomb in on Aja as if it was Hogan/Andre. Smart finish. This is an MOTDC for all Lady's wrestling.

[garretta]

This one was brutal, all right. I expected more work on Hotta's hand than we got, but the fact that Aja went all out to break her neck made up for it. I don't think it's the smartest booking to use a piledriver through a table as almost an opening gambit, but I've givren up trying to figure out joshi booking. As for the strikes and kicks, if they weren't potatoes they sure looked like they were.

 

Has Aja retired her trash can? This is the third or fourth match in a row where she hasn't even brought it to rungside, let alone used it as a weapon.

[SmartMark15]

YES. JUST YES.

 

Oh my god, now THAT is a fight. Brutal, bloody, urgent, this is everything a big time violent match needs to be. Both these ladies put in amazing performances to help put each other over. Aja is the remorseless beast while Hotta is the fiery TOUKON babyface. I absolutely loved this match to bits. It never slowed down for me.

 

I haven't seen 6/3 in a LONG while but I honestly can't recall enjoying it as much as this. This is right around the levels of Hokuto-Kandori greatness if you ask me.

 

*****

[Alex]

There were so many moments that made me go "Oh Jesus".  Brutal, brutal match.  This ruled.

[cactus]

Aja had previously lost to Hotta before and she's pissed off about it. She wastes no time absolutely brutalising her. This is one of the best Aja heel performances ever, so just so unlikable. Hotta gets a moment where it seems that she's stunned Aja with some slaps, but it's not to be as Aja swats her away and continues the destruction, which sees Hotta piledriven through a table. I thought the middle section where Aja worked holds felt too much like an obvious rest hold, but this becomes great again once Aja moved onto breaking Hotta's hand. Aja kicking away at Hotta's bloodied hand was absolutely disgusting. Hotta's only chance of survival is if she can land her big finish, but Aja keeps cutting her off. I thought the finish came out of the blue and the middle section leaves a lot to be desired, but this was a shockingly brutal match which stands out among all the big 90's joshi movefests.

★★★★¼

[urbanecowboy]

Holy hell, this sucked to watch. Every second of this match I just wanted it to be over. These ladies really hate each other, professional wrestling is real and Aja Kong needs to go to jail for assault. I don’t think these two even knew there was a wrestling match going on until the last 5 minutes. A truly brutal spectacle. Aja was a sick, vile, malicious heel and Hotta was the fiery babyface that kept making these miraculous, but brief comebacks. There was a WWE Network exclusive match that happened in 2020 that claimed to “redefine violence”; a match that looks like kids stuff compared to this thing. The stiff kicks to the face, ugly head-butts, biting, blood-smeared all over the place, and horrendous high-angle drops on the neck. This was a horror film that I just wanted to be over and I hope I never see this again. Good goddamn.