Spotlight: Aja Kong

by Sarah

Aja Kong is a name synonymous with Women’s wrestling in Japan. Famous for her hard kicks, brutal power moves, and deadly Spinning Backfist (Uraken), Aja Kong is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Kong has been a main stay in Women’s wrestling in Japan for over twenty years, and has even dabbled in Intergender matches during her career (winning the HUSTLE Super Tag Team Championship with Amazing Kong in 2006). Dave Meltzer has rated two of her matches with five stars[1. Those two matches being 11/20/94 vs. Manami Toyota for AJW and 07/31/93 Thunder Queen Battle JWP], and has won countless titles during her career for promotions such as AJW and GAEA. She also branched out and started the ARSION promotion in 1997.

Kong had a brief stint in America back in late 1995 to early 1996, debuting in a PPV eight women elimination match and pinning all the members of her opposing team, which featured the then Women’s champion, Madusa Miceli. Kong was being built as the top contender to the title, and wrestled on TV twice more to hype up a future match it future match. It never materialized as Madusa changed promotions, and Kong did not appear again.

Kong appeals to me on such a personal level because, while she’s not the prettiest or the skinniest woman around, she shows that’s not what Pro Wrestling is about and has the actual skills to be the best. She is the epitome of what a wrestler should be. Plus, the face paint is just amazing.

When Kong hits her Uraken, or any one of her suplexes, you’re left in awe as these moves look like they could genuinely kill you. She has that presence about her and when the bell rings you know that you’re in for a great match. Kong never disappoints. Her smoothness in the ring along with her intimidation factor just makes her one of the best in the sport, even today. I’ve only been watching wrestling for twelve years and I don’t know everything there is to know about wrestling, but Kong’s performances speak for themselves.

Currently, Kong primarily wrestles for the Oz Academy promotion in Japan, which features some of the biggest names in Joshi ( including Manami Toyota, Mayumi Ozaki, AKINO and KAORU). Kong still looks and wrestles as she did 18 years ago. I hope in the near future that Aja makes a return to America, perhaps for CHIKARA or SHIMMER, so that even more people can be introduced to her greatness.

I hope after this article at least one person searches out Kong, you can see her classic matches in full on YouTube and newer work as well. In fact, below is a two hour compilation of some of her timeless battles from the All Japan Women’s promotion. Enjoy!

Aja Kong: Aja Classic

1. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada – 1993.01.24
2. Aja Kong & Bull Nakano vs Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito – 1993.04.02
3. Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai – 1993.08.25
4. Aja Kong vs Kaoru Ito – 1997.01.20
5. Aja Kong vs Kyoko Inoue – 1997.03.23

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvRgFURAUMo