Chigusa Nagayo
The women's division in WCW was slowly revived in 1996 following the return of Madusa, who spent the first half of the year feuding with Sherri Martel and Bull Nakano. This led to the creation of the WCW Women's Championship. The first official WCW Women's Champion was crowned in an 8-woman tournament that began on an episode of "WCW Monday Nitro" on November 4, 1996 and concluded at Starrcade on December 29, 1996. The tournament used only seven wrestlers; five of these wrestlers were Japanese talents from the GAEA Japan promotion (Akira Hokuto, Chigusa Nagayo, KAORU, Meiko Satomura, and Sonoko Kato). The other competitors were Madusa and Malia Hosaka. Akira Hokuto actually competed twice in the first round of the tournament, losing to Madusa wrestling under her masked Reina Jabuki gimmick and defeating Satomura competing as Hokuto.