Imagine “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and The Legion of Doom took on Bret Hart, Owen Hart, The British Bulldog, Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart. Wait, scratch that. That actually happened. Okay, imagine “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Ricky Steamboat, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle took on Bret Hart, CM Punk, Ric Flair, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and Curt Hennig all while they were at or near their prime. Now subtract one from each team and make them Japanese women and you more or less get this match.

Without hyperbole I can say that this is not only arguably the greatest women’s match in the history of professional wrestling, but arguably one of the greatest mutli-person/gimmick matches as well. This was no easy feat as it took two promotions, eight top joshi wrestlers and what could arguably be considered five matches rather than one to pull it off.

This may all be a bit confusing so let me explain. This was an interpromotional bout between Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project (JWP) and All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (AJW) called Thunder Queen Battle. Representing JWP was Hikari Fukuoka, Cutie Suzuki, Mayumi Ozaki and Dynami Kansai against AJW’s Sakie Hasegawa, Takako Inoue, Kyoko Inoue and Aja Kong. One combatant from each team was paired up in four five minute singles matches to begin the first wave of action. No matter what each singles bout had to last five minutes. If someone lost before the time ran out then the opposing team would be awarded one point. After these singles matches a 40 minute eight person tag match was held with the team earning the most points after the time expired being named the winners.

JWP gains an early advantage when Fukuoka manages to pin Hasegawa with a small package after less than three minutes of the first singles encounter. It looks like AJW is going to be the underdogs until in the last pairing Kong gets a knock out win over Kansai after some vicious striking. Brilliant! It ties things up for the main course and makes Kong look like a beast!

The tag match has plenty of action including Kyoko Inoue nearly getting embedded into the mat after the JWP team delivers a stampede of top rope stomps. Speaking of high impact moves Kong hits one of her own with a massive elbow on Suzuki for a point. Kong’s stiffness doesn’t end there because she also hits a sick looking lariat on Kansai when she is going for another splash mountain after just pinning Kyoko Inoue with that move.

As the bout winds down there is only seconds left with Ozaki and Takako Inoue as the legal wrestlers in the ring. Each promotion is tied with two points a piece. Who wins, JWP or AJW? There is only one way to find out! Watch the video if you haven’t already, you won’t regret it!

Categories: Wrestling Clips

Tags: "Macho Man" Randy Savage, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Aja Kong, AJW, Bret Hart, Brian Pillman, CM Punk, Curt Hennig, Cutie Suzuki, Dave Meltzer, Dave Meltzer 5 Star Match, Dynami Kansai, Goldust, Hikari Fukuoka, Jim Neidhart, JWP, JWP Thunder Queen Battle, Ken Shamrock, Kyoko Inoue, Legion of Doom, Mayumi Ozaki, Owen Hart, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Sakie Hasegawa, Shawn Michaels, Takako Inoue, The British Bulldog