10 Most Brutal Women's Wrestling Matches Ever
Thunder Rosa, Britt Baker, Combat Toyoda, Shark Tsuchiya, Bull Nakano and plenty of Aja Kong!
Right now, fresh in the memory is the phenomenal Lights Out battle between Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker at the St. Patrick Day's Slam episode of AEW Dynamite.
There, La Mera Mera and the Role Model put on a match laced with violence and dripping with literal blood. Not only was this the sort of bout rarely seen in mainstream professional wrestling, it was also an extremely brutal offering that managed to elevate both of its contestants at the same time as being so outright gnarly.
Rosa and Baker aren't the first ladies to up the ante on the violence stakes, of course, for there have been so many examples of female wrestlers being just as violent, if not even more so, than their male cohorts over the decades - and here, so many of those wars are being spotlighted.
Full disclosure, Mercedes Martinez vs. LuFisto from WSU's Ultraviolent Affair was going to be included here, but it proved tricky to find images or footage from that bout. So, that gets an honorary mention before we get into the bloody meat of things from here on out.
With that in mind, here are ten of the most brutal women's matches in wrestling history.
10. Mickie Knuckles Vs. Mayumi Ozaki – IWA Mid-South Queen Of The Deathmatch 2006
Mickie Knuckles is someone famed for her brutality, with her making quite the name for herself during her run in IWA Mid-South in the 2000s.
There, Knuckles battled men and women in matches laced with weapons and physicality, competing in two King of the Death Match tournaments before winning the company's first ever Queen of the Death Match tourney in 2006.
It's that '06 tournament final that gets included here, where Mickie faced Mayumi Ozaki in a crazy *deep breath* No Rope, Barbed Wire, Electrified Light Tube, Fans Bring the Weapons, Steel Cage Death Match.
As a whole, the Queen of the Death Match tournament was full of pain and torture - Knuckles winning an Unlucky 13 Staple Gun Death Match and then a Taipei Death Match to even get to the final - and the conclusion of this event was as ugly a match as they come.
With the reputation of both Mickie Knuckles and Mayumi Ozaki - who has the Queen of the Street Fight nickname - this tournament final was always going to be a violent one. And on that front, it certainly delivered.
Thankfully, this match was only actually seven minutes. But man, it was seven minutes of action that will make you queasy, with the sheer variation of weapons utilised here making it an oft-uncomfortable watch.
In the end, it was Mickie Knuckles who emerged the victor on that November 2006 night, getting the win after kicking (and smashing!) a light tube into the face of Ozaki.