#2 Megumi Kudo
Hardcore wrestling is probably the only subgenre of wrestling that’s pretty much male exclusive. The only time you’re likely to see a woman in this area is either, as a valet or as a hapless victim getting smashed through a table. Seeing a woman as the centrepiece of a hardcore wrestling match is something of an anomaly.
Unless your name is Megumi Kudo.
Known as ‘the Evil Princess’, Megumi ‘Kudome’ Kudo was the female version of Cactus Jack; an unrelenting, fearless and borderline-sadistic hardcore wrestler that wasn’t afraid of putting her body through incredible pain and suffering.
She wrestled primarily for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and became known for her penchant for wrestling in deathmatches. In doing so, she set a new standard for women’s wrestling, proving that not even the ultra-vicious sphere of hardcore deathmatches could be limited solely to men.
Kudo’s reputation for hardcore matches made her a major draw in FMW, and many women in that promotion and elsewhere became genuinely afraid of her due to the crazy things she did in the ring.
If it wasn’t her patented Kudo Driver (a.k.a. the Vertebreaker, made popular by The Hurricane and Homicide) that was terrifying people, it was her match stipulations. Her retirement match was a "No ropes 200V double hell double barbed wire barricade double landmine glass crush death match".
Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like.
A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE
