10 Most Brutal Women's Wrestling Matches Ever

Truth be told, you could well compile this list using nothing but Aja Kong matches.

It feels as if Kong has been kicking the absolute sh*t out of people forever, and that's because she's been doing this since she was just 16 years of age. Coming out of the notoriously snug All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling dojo in 1986, the real-life Erika Shishido is still going strong as she approaches her 51st birthday.

To this day, just hearing that Aja Kong is on a card is enough to have you sit up and pay attention, giddily awaiting for something destructive to play out.

Back in 1994, a year before she'd have a cup of coffee in the then-WWF, Kong took on Yumiko Hotta at that year's Ota Ward Champion Legend event in one of the most outright brutal matches in wrestling history. Here, Aja was at her bully best, decimating her opponent for so much of the contest.

Hotta found herself on the end of countless piledrivers, high-angle suplexes, uncooperative tables and a scary array of stiff shots across this match, yet she also held up her side of the bargain, never afraid to deliver a crunching headbutt or powerful strike of her own.

Most stomach-turning from this all-out war, is Aja destroying the already-bloodied Hotta's right hand. Likewise, having seen what happened with Katsuyori Shibata years later, it's hugely uncomfortable to see those aforementioned headbutts here.

Saying Yumiko Hotta was the perfect 'fighting from underneath' babyface here would be an understatement, but it's also an eerily true statement - with her very much having to fight for every inch against Kong.