Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Complete, Vol. 1 (June 1998)

https://archive.org/details/arsion-07-21-1998-complete-arsion-vol.-1-487517522-456239301

There’s a version on YouTube, but it’s almost without sound, so I used Archive.org.

ARSION COMPLETE, VOL. 1:
(July 21st 1998)
* At last! It’s time for another ARSION show! One from Korakuen Hall, attended by… oh god, 1,450 people? That does NOT sound good. *checks* okay the max is 2,000 so if they’re not lying (they probably are) it’s not THAT bad. But this show features the first time I’ve seen Mika Akino in my watchthrough, so there’s that! And the main event is newly-pushed Rie Tamada (who won that ARS ’98 Tournament, remember?) vs. undersized JTTS Yumi Fukawa! Yeah, that’s uh… a CHOICE for main event.

This is on Archive.org but thankfully isn’t messing up in my browser. The YouTube one doesn’t have any sound. We’re immediately greeted by a shot of Candy Okutsu tapping out Reggie Bennett at the ARS ’98 Tournament, followed by Yumi Fukawa’s ass in a blue bikini. Yeah, Rossy Ogawa is in charge, alright. A ton of it is a clip show of everything the promotion’s done since it’s Feb. 1998 debut. Then the girls do a tour of Los Angeles for something, then we’re introduced to Ayako Hamada… in a red bikini. Wait I already mentioned Ogawa. Then it’s Mariko Yoshida fighting Lady Apache for the CMLL Women’s Title in June 1997, being tapped out by a wacky lucha submission in less than 5 minutes, then winning the next two falls quickly. She holds that belt well into 1999! Then it’s clips of Yumi Fukawa dropping a fall to Aja Kong in 21 minutes (!!) and Reggie Bennett in 18, as they really emphasize her “tries hard and pushes everyone to the limit before jobbing” thing.

Finally, an HOUR IN, we have our first match:

THE FIRST STARLIGHT:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. MIKA AKINO:
* It’s Mika Akino! She later becomes AKINO and a decent star for the era, and she’s a big trainee of ARSION’s, as the company is also doing in-house training and is getting its own rookies to be threaded into the cards. And of course Akino comes out to be destroyed by one of the promotion’s top stars. Akino’s classmate is Ayako Hamada, who also gets a huge push because of her looks and athleticism, and they form a “Sporty Girl/Pretty Girl” pair pretty much immediately, in a clear attempt at recapturing old Joshi standbys, started by Beauty Pair, the Marine Wolves, and later Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada. In any case, Akino comes out with “Sporty Girl” short hair and a more elaborate outfit than most rookies- the Sporty Girl two-piece get-up but in green, white & yellow. Yoshida’s in the incredible black & red Spider-Woman gear.

Things are established right away as Yoshida manages to hit four submissions go-tos in succession (sleeper, cross-armbreaker, sharpshooter, STF), establishing experience & skill, but of course Akino easily GETS OUT of all four things, which is above your average scrub. She’s not showing any nervousness at all, nor the “Running Rookie Dropkick” stuff endemic to other promotions, but oh wait there’s some dropkicks, but Yoshida won’t sell and anklelocks her. She keeps tying Akino up every time she gets out of something, and it’s interesting because the kid isn’t quite REVERSING anything exactly, she’s just pivoting and Yoshida’s immediately loosening the hold to roll into something else. It’s actually more of a grappling exhibition, as Yoshida is doing nearly EVERYTHING, though Akino grabs some leghold attempts.

Yoshida dodges a corner dropkick and locks on a sleeper, which assuredly should end it… but Akino’s able to scoot to the ropes! She’s getting decent reactions for getting out of stuff, despite no real offense. Akino nearly snags her with a backslide in a close one, and Yoshida La Majistrals her right into a cross-armbreaker, but again it’s too close to the ropes. Akino with a rana, and she slaps on a cross-armbreaker on the kickout! But Yoshida won’t let her complete it, and eventually pivots weight to end up in a bodyscissors. Akino shows good instincts in shoving at her face and then SLAPPING her (finally drawing a reaction other than “amusement” from the veteran, who does the “OH REALLY?” wide-eyes), and Yoshida pretty quickly slams her head into the mat and locks her up in a nasty headscissors with the arm wrapped to get the tap-out at (7:18).

A very good first match from the rookie, as she already appears to know what she’s doing and seems athletic instead of clumsy and lost, but of course she does like four offensive moves all match long and it’s just Yoshida fighting a “wrestling buddy” for the entire thing, often unlocking submission holds as soon as they shift weight and throwing on another one. Again and again this happens, letting Akino draw reactions for makign the ropes, and then she sells almost getting caught in a cross-armbreaker, having to actually fight and adjust position before she just smashes the kid and merks her with a twisting necklock. So a good first performance yet it shows almost none of Akino’s offensive capabilities. Good smoke & mirrors from the veteran.

Rating: ** (a miracle of Rookie First-Time Matches, but largely Yoshida wrestling a dummy until the end)

Fabi Apache fights Lady Metal here. We don’t see it (SHUCKS), but Fabi wins in (9:21).

AJA KONG & MARI APACHE vs. CANDY OKUTSU & REGGIE BENNETT:
* An interesting mix here, as Reggie has beaten Aja unexpectedly & recently, and is teaming with the pushed Candy (who beat her in that same tournament’s final) against Aja and one of ARSION’s Mexican talents (Mari is barely 19 at this point, and I hope she’s better than Fabi the botch-machine). Aja’s in green & black, Mari’s in a garish black/pink Power Rangers bodysuit, Candy’s in white with black undies over it (a reversal of her usual ARSION gear) and has red dye in her hair, and Reggie’s in white. Aja disregards the opening-match handshaking.

Candy & Mari do a very fast lucha sequence ending with Candy’s Tiger Feint (a prelude of things to come), but Aja just roars in and lariats her head off, taking a weak bump when Reggie charges her. Candy does her run-up plancha but Mari & Reggie are caught- Aja dodges. Mari does a HUGE springboard moonsault, completely sailing over the heads of both opponents and only barely grabbing Reggie on a flyby. Aja dominates Candy, and Reggie tries against Mari, but Mari’s a bit too fast and has a different style so she just looks lumbering and the fans sit on their hands for a bit. Reggie tries a keylock and Mari mostly treats it like an annoyance, but runs into a Samoan drop/splash combo for two. They do the “Reggie reverses a rana reversal and completes a powerbomb” spot for two, but Mari tags out and Aja backdrop drivers Reggie for two.

The fight HARD over a suplex spot, but Candy missile kicks Aja, who avoids a piledriver and misses an Uraken backfist, and Reggie nails a cradle DDT into the nasty butterfly lock submission she beat Aja with last time they fought! Sadly that spot’s not over with the crowd (who might not have even seen the last thing). They tease the same pass-out finish, but Aja silently roars and gets to the ropes. Not really using her best body language to indicate passing out, but it IS a hold where you can’t see her face and Reggie practically buries her. Aja’s so dead she collapses off a whip and Reggie has to set up Candy’s moonsault, but Aja gets her feet up and gets a backdrop driver for two. Candy reverses the Brainbuster for a Bridging German for two, then misses a Run-Up Moonsault, but Aja tries the Avalanche Waterwheel Drop and Candy gets the old sunset bomb reversal for two. Aja’s dead again, but Candy runs into the Brainbuster for two (botched lift, there), and Aja finally tags out. Mari misses a moonsault and gets powerbombed for two, but Aja urakens Candy… and THAT only gets two! A Brainbuster/Moonsault (Mari misses almost entirely) gets three at (10:49 of 16:40 shown).

So they cut up a bit of this, which might explain why Mari is only in for like 60 seconds of the match. They seemed to have a gameplan, but it wasn’t really over, as Reggie’s big submission attempt nearly finishes Aja early, but the fans don’t seem to care about it and Aja finally stops selling death and just starts fighting back again like normal. Candy keeps trying with her but can’t handle Aja’s mass (in kayfabe) and struggles to finish, then Mari comes in for some stuff. Mari seems fast and okay, but BADLY misses two big moonsaults and obviously doesn’t mesh with non-lucha performers as well. Then there’s even bits where Aja & Candy struggled a bit- everyone just kinda came off as clumsy or not hitting things right. Interestingly, Reggie can’t beat Aja again and Candy (who just won a big tournament, remember) loses from a double-team by Aja and somebody the fans barely know.

Rating: ** (a solid idea, but a bit of a mess)

The Omukai push: just get used to it.

MIKIKO FUTAGAMI vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* It’s a big match between the two “Rising Kids We Actually Want To Push”- the “tough, strong fighter” Futagami vs. “The Idol but we wanna push her as a kicker” Omukai. Gami, in orange, looks downright bored during the intros, while Omukai is all “I’m SERIOUS!” despite having a frilly Sears bra and skirt as part of her costume. She’s been training with Sakie Hasegawa at this point, and is looking to show it here.

Supershooter Omukai goes all “martial arts” to start as some fanboy in the crowd goes nuts over her, clapping all by himself rapidly. Very “NOTICE ME, MY BELOVED!” about it. They grapple to the ground, chanting position repeatedly and fight for some stuff, exchanging slaps. Omukai uses MMA knees, and won’t let up in the corner despite the ref’s insistence, but Gami defiantly strolls out and eats five straight running kicks to the head, refusing to sell until even MORE come flying her way, and an eighth finally flattens her. A Sobat spinkick (she’s been training with Sakie, alright!) knocks her flat for two, and Omukai works an STF, but Gami reverses a chinlock and swipe-kicks her in the face to buy herself some time to recover, massaging her knee from the STF. Shotei (palm thrust) gets two, but a dazed Omukai springs off the ropes on a whip for two, and hits a keylock on the kickout, tries a cross-armbreaker when Gami rolls out, and fires off two big kicks that daze her, then a very solid charging wheel kick that puts her on the floor. Omukai follows with a plancha, then drags her from the apron into the ring with a sleeper and two backdrop drivers get two.

Bridging German gets two (damn, Omukai is TRYING tonight!), but Gami switches to a nasty headscissors to stop her. Gami plunks her headfirst with a Tiger/Dragon Suplex, losing the bridge and working the lock into a submission attempt. Gami attempts to finish with a Super Frankensteiner, but something happens where Omukai “powerbombs” her but mostly just lands on her feet while Futagami collapses onto her side from mid-air. Omukai uses that to hit a Flying Knee to the back of a stunned Gami’s head for a close two, then hits a release German, Gami using the momentum to stumble up, but her clumsy shot is countered to another German and she walks into another Sobat for two. Now Omukai tries the Tiger/Dragon Suplex, but Gami counters, only to end up in the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE, Omukai cranking it on and Gami only barely makes the ropes. Hammerlock suplex gets two for Omukai and she works the crossface again, but Gami finally recovers enough to blast her with a Shotei to stun her, then hits a Brainbuster for two into a sleeperhold. On the rope-break, she picks Omukai up but gets Tiger Suplexed for a close call, and Omukai ducks a Shotei and just punches her in the face for two (hilariously almost running the ropes before changing her mind). But Omukai tries that Sobat one too many times, and Gami finally ducks it, cracks her with the Shotei again, and stuns her into the Sleeperhold w/ Bodyscissors, and after a long fight, it’s lights out at (14:19)- Futagami wins!

HOLY SHIT THIS WAS ACTUALLY AWESOME! Okay, it was all over the place but actually very interesting. I’ve snarked on Omukai a lot, as her body type and athleticism do NOT make her “Shoot-Kicking Martial Artist” act very believable, as she keeps flopping around and is more slender and gawky than athletic (like Gami is), but she was trying her ASS off here, doing as much as she could and flinging her body around with reckless abandon. As weird as it looks to see Gami (who typically dominates physically) eat the majority of the offense in the first half, Omukai put in the work, throwing out kicks, slaps, germans, counters and a great wheel kick. Character-wise, she is less convincing, not really portraying anything but “serious fighter”- note how she just kinda holds her mouth open in submissions and doesn’t really work anything aside from “I want to win”. Even on the finishing sleeper, she doesn’t wave her arm around maniacally to avoid it- she just kinda holds it up in the air and waves it occasionally, looking like she’s coughing, and then finally goes out. Gami’s selling wasn’t as good, but seemed to be doing a thing where she was taking Omukai’s strikes lightly and slowly paying for it, but occasionally looked like she was just unemotionally stumbling into everything.

But overall, Gami keeps weathering the storm, and has enough physical credibility that I can buy her absorbing a lot of this stuff and scoring comebacks. Here, her Shotei was key- for all Omukai was throwing at her, Gami only needed one palm thrust to the face to stop all that momentum, and repeatedly stunned her, then caught Omukai spinkicking for the third time in the match and that was that. A very good chess-match- they were both still learning, but had that thing where it looked like they were constantly trying to work shit out and figure out a way to win.

Rating: ***1/2 (a great little “game of chess” match, as they kept trying to work out a way to succeed, countering past stuff, and kicking out of big finish attempts)

RIE TAMADA vs. YUMI FUKAWA:
* Yes, THIS is the big main event of the show. AJW’s most forgettable career midcarder and a tiny idol ARSION won’t let win any matches. Fukawa is notably 0-11 at this point, while Rie is 6-6. Fukawa’s in the usual blue two-piece, and Rie’s in army fatigue-print, but has now also swapped in the ARSION “two-piece skirt & top” look.

They to AJW-style to start, throwing a ton of running attacks, whipping each other into things, and throwing shots. Rie wins that, but Fukawa lands the JB Angels armdrag and each armdrag the other to a Pause For Applause (though the crowd seems a bit taken aback at first and didn’t expect them to just stop). They almost do ARSION-style matwork until switching to AJW-style “trading random submissions”, Rie trying to work the injured arm of Fukawa eventually, but the kid fires back with a clothesline, perfect plex & DDT. Fukawa badly misses a flying splash but lands a superplex & missile dropkick for two. Fukawa goes for the arm but Rie works a sleeper, then her own perfect plex for two, but Fukawa gets some cradles. Rie hits a backdrop suplex & a bridging double-arm suplex for two, goes up and counters Yumi’s charge to a weird tornado DDT (Fukawa was almost flat on her belly on the bump), but Fukawa tries a cross-armbreaker after kicking out. Rie ax kicks her to set up some missile dropkicks, including a BIG one to the back of the head, getting two, but puts her up top and gets Super Chokeslammed off! Yumi recovers from the landing and hits a spinkick into a desperate pin for two, but Rie gets a terrible rolling elbow for two. Rie tries to finish with her Dragon Suplex, but Fukawa spins free and rolls over her for the Cross-Armbreaker, Rie failing to prevent full extension… and TAPS OUT at (11:01)- YUMI FUKAWA FINALLY WINS A MATCH!! The crowd actually erupts for that one, after being quiet all match- she finally scores a win for all her effort!

A very typical Zenjo match, with the fast start, quick counters, perfunctory matwork to nowhere, then escalating big moves (with an early superplex setting up later stuff). The matwork hadn’t exactly been set up as a big finisher in this one, but the cross-armbreaker is one of those eternally credible moves in Japan, as everyone knows it’s a legit auto-submission when properly applied, so even though Yumi had only gone for it once before, and this one was more “well I kicked out, time to spin her arm and roll over her to set this up” instead of a smooth application, it’s a bankable move. Having Rie established as the same midcarder she was in Zenjo over in ARSION makes her ideal for these “rookie gets a big win” moments, though doesn’t exactly say the best about where she’s going.

Rating: **3/4 (hard-fought and fine, but a little dull since it’s the basic kind of match Rie ALWAYS does and nothing really stands out)

This felt very much like a “Filler” production from ARSION, with no big matches, but it plays up some stories. First off, we get the debut of Mika Akino, who looks very good in her first TV match, already looking athletic and confident, and gets to hang with top wrestler Yoshida. We get the continuation of the Aja/Reggie rivalry, with Reggie’s same finisher from before failing to get the win here, but Candy doesn’t have much momentum from her ARS ’98 tournament win. Futagami/Omukai of all things ends up being Match of the Night, with the same kind of supreme effort Candy/Gami was on an earlier show, which both going all-out (especially Omukai, who isn’t quite GOOD but the attempt makes up for it). Gami’s newfound credibility as a rising big deal and someone who can give trouble to Aja and other top-tiers paid off in making Omukai look more credible, as she dominates the match and makes Gami have to WORK for the win- Gami’s Shotei palm thrust is thus put over as it’s her one reliable big momentum-shifter and was used here for the win. And then the main finally elevates Yumi Fukawa to someone who can win matches, against the AJW person most-defined by her role in that “putting over others” spot, Rie Tamada.

In short, ARSION remains the most interesting of the joshi promotions to me- the others are all rooted in “Evil Heel Armies constantly interfering in matches” for the time being, GAEA is the same it’s been for years at this point, and the styles remain the same everywhere else but here.