Joshi Spotlight: Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARSION)

Hey- it’s another one-match Joshi Spotlight review, since I posted Dump/Yamazaki earlier this week but needed to fill things out with another. This is from a show I don’t otherwise have, and it’s said to be one of the best early ARSION matches.

AJA KONG vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
(ARSION, June 21st 1998)
* This is from a short “ARSION Behind the Scenes” tape, which features the final Rie Tamada/Yumi Fukawa team match, a clip of the ARSION women training in Pancrase with Minoru Suzuki (yes, that one), upcoming prospect Ayako Hamada modeling bikini pictures in Mexico (oh yeah, Rossy Ogawa is running this promotion, alright), a 2.5-minute clip of a 15-minute Reggie Bennett/Mikiko Futagami draw, and this one. This features the #1 and #2 wrestlers in ARSION, more or less (though Yoshida hasn’t quite been “made” yet)- Aja in particular was a Main Eventer and top challenger in All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling during 1997. Aja’s in blue & black, and Yoshida’s in the red & black spider-lady gear.

They circle each other VERY carefully to start, jockeying for position and doing non-committal grappling into the ropes- Aja lies back and dares Yoshida to come at her from there, and Yoshida taunts her by leaning casually in the corner, refusing to give in and waits her out. Aja goes to all fours, then finally backs Yoshida into the corner and viciously slaps her, Yoshida trying not to give her the dignity of a sell-job, but failing. Aja follows with the corner lariat for two and gets the mount, but each counters to get it- Aja tries to wear Yoshida down with kicks, but gets caught and taken down, only to make the fans laugh by resting her head on her hands as if she’s lying casually when she stiffens up to refuse Yoshida any leg submissions. Aja no-sells some strikes and powers Yoshida down when she attempts to grapple, showing dominance and grinding her down with a forearm. Yoshida again catches a swiping kick and tries to get a leghold, and finally gets a heel-hook to make Aja holler a bit and she has to make the ropes and work on the ankle outside the ring for a while. Back in the ring, Aja just swats the crap out of Yoshida and headbutts her, setting up the piledriver as she’s now relying on her specialty rather than trying to match Yoshida’s skillset- I feel that’s important psychology.

Yoshida still ties up Aja from her back, so Aja has to give up trying technical stuff and smashes her up again, hitting a backbreaker rack… but Yoshida manages a choke in mid-air, then hauls her into a sleeper and now AJA is in trouble! Aja barely makes the ropes with her toe and has to spring up and slap Yoshida to buy herself some time and counter a takedown with her own body weight, trying to flatten out Yoshida, only to have her spider-lady around with a side sleeper when she counters a backdrop suplex, scoring a bodyscissors and really cranking on it. She eventually catches Aja’s reaching arm and hits the MILLION DOLLAR DREAM from that position, and Aja looks puffy and defeated while the referee scrambles, repeatedly checking her arm to put over the move (a random ground submission isn’t over enough in joshi for that to be “legit” without his help), and Yoshida senses her moment and goes for her Modified Sleeper (with Aja’s neck against her leg) but Aja uses the temporary release to get the ropes- clever.

Yoshida powers up to the fans and goes for a waistlock, Aja counters, and Yoshida does too and rolls over her for a cross-armbreaker, Aja grabbing the ropes again. Aja counters a German so Yoshida slides down and leg-hooks her, throws on a figure-four, and actually gets a Northern Lights suplex for two. She swats away at a fading Aja, looking dominant, but gets stupid and charges right into her- Aja catching her with the Brainbuster quasi-finisher for two! Backdrop Driver- two! Aja has to try another Brainbuster, Yoshida countering to a sleeper, but the Brainbuster again hits for two and Yoshida threads right into a headscissors as time starts counting down! Aja rolls over her to make the ropes, and when Yoshida tries to pick her up, Aja nails the Uraken backfist! But Yoshida rolls all the way over to the side of the ring on the sell and is able to put her foot on the ropes at 2.8. Aja, with nothing left to try, tries to figure out an armhold as Time Expires at (15:00), and we’re at another draw. Yoshida was dominating for half the match (very important when establishing tiers) and nearly beat Aja, but Aja threw in some last-minute big-match stuff and just couldn’t seal the deal.

This was a very, very interesting “Human Game of Chess” match, to quote Larry Zbyszko- the slow, smart jockeying for position and trying to maintain an advantage when the opponent is SO skillful that you’re afraid to overcommit. When AJA KONG is fighting with hesitation you know the opponent is good. In this case, Aja was cocky and powerful, but realized she couldn’t get anywhere just trying kicks or grappling with such a reversal-hungry opponent. She instead resorted to brawling and using her body weight to take the lead, but again Yoshida is dangerous with those chokes and Aja can’t really counter that. Aja looks WRECKED once Yoshida starts landing all these submissions in a row, and is now fighting desperately in defense instead of handily controlling, and that’s a big deal. Aja of all people manages the “Last Minute Finisher Storm” comeback when she catches Yoshida charging in (that is SUCH a common default comeback spot in joshi these days), hitting big move after big move to try and finish her. And she’d likely have it won, too, but Yoshida has the energy to kick out of two Brainbusters, and gets lucky and clever on the Uraken and then time is over.

Rating: ***3/4 (fascinating chess-match as they keep jockeying for position and trying to find openings, and finally start to work them out as YOSHIDA actually takes the dominating lead)