2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Aja v. Meiko

Aja Kong v. Meiko Satomura Sendai Girls 4/8

PAS: These two have been feuding since 1998, but this is their first singles match against each other since 2012. One of my favorite match ups in wrestling history. Aja is maybe the greatest monster wrestler ever, she has slowed down a bit but still will beat you silly, Meiko has great looking chop down offense, she was landing some great kicks, and even doing some cool kicks and stomps to Aja's instep. Kong lays a sick beating here, including braining Meiko with chairs and a metal door, punching her in the face and dropping her on her head, and Meiko kept finding ways to land her own shots. I thought it may have gone a bit overboard in the end, including some goofus no selling, but man overall this was a hell of a war. Loved to see this revisited, now we just need another Ishikawa v. Ikeda match.

ER: I love how these two dance with each other. And I always love how Meiko looks like any other unassuming Japanese woman, somebody you wouldn't notice in public, yet if you only know she's a maniac who can get dumped on her head time and again and come right back and kick you in your connective tissue. The early lock up moments were so cool, with neither cutting the other slack, no knuckle lock or arm wringer just given up. Meiko had all these neat short kicks to areas you don't see getting kicked, like a kick to Aja's shin to set up a lock up, or a kick to the forearm to set up a wristlock. It was a cool way of striking to open up an opportunity to get in close. Meiko keeps getting in close for side headlocks and the whole time I'm thinking what a terrible idea it is to put a side headlock on Kong, and sure enough before long Meiko is getting dumped on her head. But the match ramps up to a whole new level when Meiko flies off the top with a splash, and Kong sticks her legs straight up in the air, with Meiko landing full force on them stomach first and bouncing grossly off to the side, like a skater messing up a rail slide. I can't believe spots like that don't go viral. Meiko rolls to the floor and Kong follows for ass kicking reasons. Meiko gets tossed through chairs, gets chairs tossed at her, gets a heavy looking piece of ring barrier tossed at her, gets dropped with a brainbuster on the corner of that ring barrier, gets dropped with a brainbuster on a corner of Kong's trash can. She takes a lot of damage, is what I'm getting at. But she keeps coming back, keeps fighting, keeps finding ways to get at Kong. Meiko probably did take a bit TOO much damage to come back to the level she did, but overall it was a whole lot of fun watching them do their thing.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST