Aja Kong Marks Four-Decade Career Milestone with Backfist KO in Okinawa Beach Event

By: Thom Fain

Aja Kong capped 40 years in professional wrestling on Saturday night, flooring Yuki Kamifuku with a backfist (uraken) to win the main event of her self-produced anniversary show Yume no Utage ~ Dream & Festival at Toyosaki Seaside Park’s Chura SUN Beach. Kong teamed with Hikaru Shida, Kaori Yoneyama, and Ryo Mizunami to defeat Saori Anou, Nagisa Nozaki, VENY, and Kamifuku (with Maya Yukihi cornering) in 20:40 in front of an outdoor crowd ringed by food trucks under the Okinawan sky.

The 55-year-old Erika Shishido debuted on September 17, 1986, against Noriyo Toyoda for All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling, immediately joining Dump Matsumoto’s Gokuaku Domei heel stable. She reformed with Bison Kimura as Jungle Jack in 1990, and on November 15, 1992, ended Bull Nakano’s three-year WWWA World Single Championship reign — at the time the most prestigious singles title in women’s wrestling. A brief WWF run in 1995 followed (including a Survivor Series appearance), before she co-founded ARSION in 1997. She would go on to become OZ Academy’s inaugural Openweight Champion (“Wizard of Oz”) in 2007, was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2006, and remains a multi-time WWWA, AAAW, AJW, and OZ Academy titleholder across both singles and tag divisions.

Now four decades deep, Kong continues to work a freelance schedule across joshi’s independent circuit — OZ Academy, TJPW, Diana, Sendai Girls, Marigold, and a handful of overseas dates. Her 2025 Marvelous match against then-rookie Senka Akatsuki was widely cited in joshi discourse despite running only around five minutes — a clinic in minimalism that demonstrated she still has the gas to take on generational talents on near-shoot terms.

Staging the anniversary show in Okinawa rather than Tokyo was a deliberate choice. “Doing it in Tokyo is boring,” Kong told Battle-News in pre-event press, arguing that regional fans spend their own money traveling to Tokyo all year for big events, so Tokyo fans could repay the favor for once. She reminded readers that her own national profile was built on AJW’s relentless touring of the entire country in the eighties and nineties.

Around 26 wrestlers worked the card, selected — in her own framing — on the basis of who Kong finds interesting to watch and who she most enjoys drinking with. Takumi Iroha, who featured in the semi-main, was singled out beforehand as the one top-tier joshi star Kong has somehow never shared a ring with — a “riddle” Kong publicly directed at Chigusa Nagayo. The Crush Gals (Nagayo and Lioness Asuka) — Kong’s childhood idols and the wrestlers who inspired her to break into the business — attended in person, and dance-vocal group MAX topped the non-wrestling portion of the bill.

There was no live stream and no official match report — by design. You either made the trip to Okinawa or you missed it.

Full results: Aja Kong Produce — “AJA KONG 40TH ANNIVERSARY INDEPENDENT EVENT ~ DREAM & FESTIVAL”

May 16, 2026 — Toyosaki Seaside Park Chura SUN Beach Multipurpose Grand Plaza, Tomigusuku, Okinawa

1. Shoko Nakajima & Rina Amikura def. Mika Iwata & Sora Ayame (11:11) — Nakajima diving senton on Ayame
2. Unagi Sayaka & Momoka Hanazono def. Shin Sakura Hirota & Mizuki Kato (15:37) — Unagi Furafura Don on Hirota
3. Kyoko Inoue & Hiroyo Matsumoto def. Rina Yamashita & Yurika Oka (8:50) — Matsumoto Rock Drop on Oka
4. Syuri, Takumi Iroha & Chihiro Hashimoto def. Kakeru Sekiguchi, Itsuki Aoki & Haruka Umesaki (13:42) — Iroha Running Three on Sekiguchi
5. Main Event: Aja Kong, Kaori Yoneyama, Ryo Mizunami & Hikaru Shida def. Saori Anou, Nagisa Nozaki, VENY & Yuki Kamifuku (w/ Maya Yukihi) (20:40) — Kong backfist on Kamifuku

Source: Purolove.com