Wrestling / Aja Kong

"God made the Devil just for fun
When He wanted the real thing, He made Aja Kong!"

— From her theme song, "Jungle Emperor"

Erika Shishido (born September 25, 1970) is a Japanese-American Professional Wrestler as Aja Kong. She started her career in 1986 at the age of 16 under her own name, becoming Aja Kong in 1988. She was a long-time regular in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling and helped establish the ARSION promotion as one of the top monster heels. Among her achievements, she is a 4x AJW WWWA World Tag Team Champion, holding the belts 1x w/Grizzly Iwamoto, 2x w/Bison Kimura as the Tag Team Jungle Jack and 1x w/Amazing Kong, a 2x AJW WWWA World Singles Champion, a 1x Queen of ARSION and a 1x HUSTLE Super Tag Team Champion as Erica w/Margarete (Awesome Kong). She made her PPV debut at WWE Survivor Series 95. Kong has also competed for FMW, CMLL, CHIKARA, Dragon Gate, All Elite Wrestling and many other promotions. She was inducted into the AJW Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2006.

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"He made Aja Kong's Tropes!":

• Acrofatic: Her Northern Lights Superplex is a top rope backdrop splash while suplexing her opponent. Not just of the agile variety either but also surprisingly flexible and dexterous.
• Action Girl/Dark Action Girl: She's fought just about all the competition available to her in some form or another and won more often than not.
• Animal Motifs: Gorillas, obviously but also piranhas and snakes.
• Arch-Enemy: Manami Toyota is by far her most faced foe. They have had enemy mine periods that lead to them teaming up but it usually doesn't workout and always manages to be broken up even when it does.
• As Herself
  • Herself in Ringu ringu ringu: Namida no chanpion beruto (wrestling movie, obviously)
  • In UFO Kamen Yakisoban Ikari no agedama bonbâ, (a super hero movie promoting the noodles and sea food company Nissin)
  • In Jigyaku no uta (a romance comedy)
• Ass Kicks You: A seated senton to counter those pesky sunset flippers. Like most wrestlers she often misses, though she hit Kaoru Maeda and Xóchitl Hamada with it at the same time!
• Author Avatar: In the now defunct Arsion promotion, where she booked herself as a tag team partner turned starter villain to Ayako Hamada, to get her over as the eventual champion and face of the company (herself stepping aside in favor of Mariko Yoshida). Though during the time Kong was Ayako's partner you could call Fabi and Mari Apache their starter villains.
• Badass Boast: Check the page quote.
• Bash Sisters: With Bison Kimura, Kyoko Inoue, Amazing Kong
• Blatant Lies: How Erica got into the HUSTLE model contest. She was not a model, but the housekeeper of a foreign model who sent a photo of her mistress.
• Brainless Beauty: Erica acted deliberately this way, even although she wasn't exactly a beauty either. She was unaware of the story between Devil Masami and Jaguar Yokota, and didn't recognize Mirko Cro Cop either (although at least she deduced he was likely a martial artist).
• Bullying a Dragon: After Kong (obviously) lost a beauty contest to Yinling in HUSTLE, Commander An Jo and Assistant Chief Shimada came to insult her. Quick to get angry, she attacked them.
• The Cameo: Made a surprise appearance in SHIMMER to see off a retiring Tomoka Nakagawa...but not before beating the butts of the Global Green Gangsters and Seven Star Sisters.
• Captain Ersatz: Double Kong had them in the Playstation 2 Fire Pro Wrestling
• The Cavalry: She arrived in All Elite Wrestling at Fight For The Fallen to save Allie from Awesome Kong, who had been sicced on Allie by Brandi Rhodes. Dealing with Rhodes was still something Allie had to do for herself and there was no further conflict between the two Kongs after that (not in AEW anyway).
• Celebrity Endorsement: At one time in Japan, she was the national spokesperson for orange juice. You can see her commercial here.
• Cheap Pop: Erica and Margaret would sometimes give flowers to audience members
• Combination Attack: Aja Kong jumps on Hiroyo Matsumoto's back, causing the enemy to suffer a 300+ lbs senton. At Oz Academy Stand by my Woman Ran YuYu jumped on as well, allowing Matsumoto to give Mayumi Ozaki a 522 lbs butt drop.
• Cooking Duel: Erica often won when she wrestled but when it come to other contests, she lost a bikini contest to Hikari Okada and a posedown to Yinling in HUSTLE.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After defeating the American Amazing Kong who had temporarily replaced her. Now there were two of them for everyone else to worry about.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: She ended Bull "boss of the world" Nakano's three year reign as the WWWA world heavy weight champion (though she had to lose a couple times first). Later defeating Aja Kong herself would be considered this trope (unless you were Bull Nakano, presumably)
• Delinquent Hair: It seems arbitrarily tacked on in relation to the rest of her serious monster persona and especially Erica's goodie good role but most fans get used to it.
• Distaff Counterpart: Unofficially, to Vader, who was also known for some nasty backhands while working in Japan (Virtual Pro Wrestling 64 ties her, Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow together), however, her use of Uraken and Nunchucks bring to mind EMLL Luchador Kung Fu during his rudo run.
• The Dreaded: When freakin' Minoru 'Murder Grandpa' Suzuki treats you with respect and deference, you know you're one tough mother.
• Facial Markings: The above picture is a milder example. Sometimes Aja Kong had painted her whole face red or blue.
• Finishing Move: Brainbuster, Uraken (spinning back fist), Northern Lights Superplex, backwards diving elbow drop, brain buster.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: At ZERO1 Celebration Return in Zeros, when Nanae Takahashi and Hikaru started getting the advantage on and double teaming Amazing Kong, Aja Kong ran in the ring and proceeded to destroy Team SUN. The first move Aja Kong actually sold was a drop kick Toshie Uematsu, one of her own partners, accidentally hit her with.
• The Gloves Come Off: She could not keep Amazing Kong down for the three count until she removed her gloves. Prior to that everything up to the trusty foreign object failed.
• Gonk: Aja's rotund build and lack of conventional attractiveness was a big part of her character, and it was taken to hilarious level with his gimmick in HUSTLE, Erica, a female wrestler who was convinced she was beautiful. She even accidentally weaponized it by kissing some of her opponents, which was meant to seduce them but instead left them in a BSOD.
• Heel
  • Foreign Wrestling Heel: In the USA and in Mexico.
  • Monster Heel: One of the best in Japanese women's wrestling.
    • Even Evil Has Standards: Thrashed a young Dynamite Kansai on August 30, 1993 and appeared to show respect for her after the match.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Against Bull Nakano and Monster Ripper.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Her father was a black member of the US Military stationed in Japan, and she suffered from this during her childhood as a result.
• Heart Symbol: Erica had two on her cheeks
• Hidden Depths: Erica and Margarete were Girly Girl babyfaces, and she is a 1x Dramatic Dream Team Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion, a title that is a parody of the WWE Hardcore Title, to the point that animals, people from the audience and inanimate objects have been recognized as "Champions." The Dramatic Dream Team promotion in general makes CHIKARA look old-fashioned.
• I Have Many Names: Besides AJA Kong, Hula Kong, Erica and America are among them.
• Just Toying with Them: She took a little more pleasure than she should have out of beating up Hana Kimura at an Oz Academy show, since Hana's mom Kyoko was watching. When Hana managed to catch Kong in an elevated guillotine however, Kong made sure to quickly end the match after she got out of it.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: There was a video of big bad Kong putting off her farm duties to shelter a cat from the rain.
• Lighter and Softer: In Future of Wrestling and Fighting Opera HUSTLE as Erica.
• Lovely Angels: Despite not being around her as long as other partners, Hula Kong and Tracy Taylor probably played the trope the straightest in Hawai'i Championship Wrestling and Pro Wrestling ZERO1, as far as contrasting personalities go (Kong\Zero1 were trying to be good hosts) For more regular partners, the bubbly, annoyingly optimistic near Perpetual Smiler Hiroyo Matsumoto is probably the best candidate.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Villainess/What Could Have Been: Got herself exiled from WWE for working, in their eyes, too stiff with Chaparita ASARI in their match on the December 11 (taped November 21), 1995 Raw. WWE was supposedly building Kong up as a contender to Alundra Blayze's WWE Women's Title, but this match cancelled those plans. That, and Blayze jumping ship to WCW a week later, returning to her Madusa name, and throwing the belt in the trash on WCW Monday Nitro. This killed off the Women's Division in WWE until Jacqueline defeated Sable for the vacated title on the September 21 (taped September 15), 1998 Raw. Kong has never had a match on American television since.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Besides her own ring name, about half the tag team and stable names she has been a part of.
• No-Sell: To the point where it can become almost cruelly amusing watching her smaller opponents getting so worked up trying to get her to sell any kind of offense.
• Oba-san: Erica called Devil Masami this way, being Innocently Insensitive and such.
• Odd Friendship: With TJPW wrestler Raku. Aja is a badass and one of the all-time great monster heels, Raku is a soft-spoken and placid idol. They tend to tag together whenever Aja shows up in TJPW and Aja absolutely adores her.
• One-Hit Kill: Her Uraken. At one point in the "New Dimension 8 Queens" match (also known as "Thunder Queen Battle") between Team AJW (Kong/Kyoko Inoue/Takako Inoue/Saki Hasegawa) vs. Team JWP (Dynamite Kansai/Mayumi Ozaki/Cutie Suzuki/Hikari Fukuoka), July 31, 1993, Kong came in, hit Kansai with one Uraken, and put her down for a 10-count to win that fall for her team.
• Pink Is for Sissies: Subverted, Erica was a lot less malicious than Aja Kong usually is and was clad in pink arm bands and leggings. But she was still a successful competitor. Fabulous Frank (better known as Air Paris) was one of her first "victims" at FOW May Madness.
• Power Stable
  • Mayumi Ozaki's Team Nostradamus with Akira Hokuto, Sugar Sato, Chikayo Nagashima and Kaori Nakayama
  • Gokuaku Domei: Under Dump Matsumoto and her tag team partner Bull Nakano, joined with her jungle jack partner Nobuko
  • Gokumon-to: With Bat Yoshinaga, Bison Kimura, Bull Nakano, Grizzly Iwamoto, Kumiko Maekawa, Kyoko Inoue, Sachiko Nakamura and Tomoko Watanabe
  • Jungle Jack was itself a power stable for awhile, with the additions of Debbie Malenko, Kaoru Ito, Mika Takahashi, Miori Kamiya and Sakie Hasegawa
  • Team Himiko: With Mayumi Ozaki, Chiyako Nagashima and Sugar Sato
  • Lioness Asuka's Super Star Unit with Akira Hokuto and teaming with Las Cachorras Orientales
  • Mayumi Ozaki's Oz Academy with Carlos Amano, Chikayo Nagashima, Dynamite Kansai, Mika Nishio and Police, later within the Oz Academy Promotion, a revived "Jungle Jack 21".
  • Erica was part of The HUSTLE Army(the original HUSTLE Army)
• Power Trio: Won Dramatic Dream Team's KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles with Danshoku Dino and Makoto Oishi
• Prone to Tears: Erica in HUSTLE, although she had also a fearsome temper.
• Punny Name: Puroresu King #30: Chigusa Nagayo Produce Marvels Night #1 saw America team up with Hamada Mexico and South Korean Kansai to face Made In Philippines, Snack Bar and Torn. You should be able to tell which one is the subject of this page but the others run on different in jokes. Can you figure out them out? Give up?^note Ayako Hamada, Dynamite Kansai, Tomoko Miyaguchi, Toshie Uematsu, Mayumi Ozaki
• Red Baroness: "The Rial Queen"
• Ring Oldies: Pushing 50 years old and still going in the ring.
• The Rival
  • Aja Kong has backhanded Toshiyo Yamada to into submission a lot. Yamada has been able to beat Kong when it really mattered though, often while teaming with Kong's own somewhat regular partner Kyoko Inoue or arch nemesis Manami Toyota. Aja Kong and Toshiyo Yamada made a decent team too.
  • Kyoko Inoue and Aja Kong were almost the same size (Kong being a little bigger) and had a similar look (light hair, facial markings) that putting them against each other just seemed natural. Kyoko also happened to be half of the responsible pair who shaved Aja Kong and Bison Kimura, so that helped too. Oh and Double Kong, that name wasn't chosen by coincidence as "Double Inoue" had long been running. For most of the same reasons that pitting against them seemed natural also worked for teaming them together. They do have a lot in common but not to the extent people are ever going to confuse which is which.
  • While they haven't teamed or even fought as many times as the others, Aja Kong has always been a fan of Ayako Hamada. Erica had some issues with those two no goods Arizin Z and Dokron Z, who remind us of Hamda for some reason we can't quite put a finger on.
  • In tag team action, Nanae Takahashi slowly but surely shaped up to be one, as Aja Kong on more than one occasion came to Amazing Kong's aid and reformed W Kong in response to some group activity of Takahashi, mostly notably in Zero 1\Sun and SEAdLINNNG.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Erica after winning a match in HUSTLE.
  Commander An Jo: [sarcastically] How could you not to win the match with such cuties? See? Even GM is in love.
  [GM Keiichi Sasahara looks disgusted]
  Erica: Ah, GM, I’m a shy girl, don’t make me blush.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Aja Kong publicly announced her withdrawal from ARSION after walking out of the match she was booked in.
• She Is the King: Note it's called Jungle Emperor, not 'ess''. She was also a third of the King Of DDT Six Man Title Holders with Makoto Oishi and Danshoku Dino.
• Sole Survivor: In the Team Bertha Faye^note Faye/Kong/Lioness Asuka/Tomoko Watanabe-Team Blayze^note Blayze/Kyoko Inoue/Sakie Hasegawa/Chaparita ASARI match at Survivor Series 95.
• Spam Attack: Famous for being able to throw rapid barrages of punches and kicks.
• Spinning Piledriver: Used a Spinning Package Piledriver on Chaparita ASARI in their Raw match mentioned above, years before the regular Package Piledriver became common again.
• Squash Match: She and Manami Toyota beat Stalker Ichikawa and Yosuke (loves) Santa Maria in thirteen seconds Dragon Gate Memorial Gate 2015. Yosuke and Ichikawa would do better on the second attempt but still not good enough.
• Stout Strength: That backhand's effectiveness makes it a given
• Tag Team
  • Won the WWWA Tag Team Titles with Grizzly Iwamoto, AAAW's with Mayumi Ozaki, then with Devil Masami, the OZ Academy Tag Team Titles with Hiroyo Matsumoto, then with Kaoru Ito, then Sonoko Kato, then Hikaru Shida, both Daily Sport and JPW's with Sachie Abe and Twin Star of ARSION with Mariko Yoshida.
  • Jungle Jack, with Nobuko "Bison" Kimura, who had at least three championship runs in at least two different promotions
  • Double Kong (alternatively, "W Kong" or Erica and Margarete), just edging out Jungle Jack to be her most successful team (if you count their runs during their alternative gimmick)
  • Super Maniacs, with Kyoko Inoue
• Tournament Arc
  • Beat Toshiyo Yamada in the finals of the AJW Japan Grand Prix 1992. As it was a round robin, Manami Toyota would have won on points alone but a mix up lead to Kong and Toyoda having another match, allowing Kong to win and then beat Yamada, who had an equal number of points in her own block.
  • The 1996 Japan Grand Prix was another round robin which Aja Kong won on points outright. Kyoko Inoue, Reggie Bennet and Yumiko Hotta tied for second place.
  • Aja Kong beat Michiko Ohmukai to win the third ARSION ARS Tournament, after declining to be part of the first two and any others after it.
  • Aja Kong defeated Chikayo Nagashima in the finals to award a new OZ Academy Openweight Title Holder
• Villains Out Shopping: The only time Kong doesn't seem to be wearing that war paint are on days when she isn't going out. Whether she's tilling a field, shopping, observing at a shrine, eating out, exercising in the gym or commuting to work Kong always seems to look the part.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Contrary to popular belief, Chaparita ASARI was a reliable ally Aja Kong could fall back on for most of her career, but people assume they were mostly antagonistic mostly because of some WWF related shenanigans.
• Wolverine Publicity: After she got fed up with ARSION and left, Aja Kong was still promoted for the promotion's future shows, until she sued them.
• Wrestling Monster: One of the greatest, if not the greatest female example of all time. She's so big that she could do sumo if she wanted to, and is perfectly capable of flattening any girl smaller than her (i.e all of them).