Joshi Spotlight: ARSION ZION ’98 Tournament

https://archive.org/details/arsion-08-31-1998-zion-tournament-98

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ARSION- ZION TOURNAMENT:
(Aug. 31st 1998)
* Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION returns with a one-night 8-woman TOURNAMENT! The announcement- in English- states that the ZION (pronounced “Sheown”) tournament is to determine the strongest. Oh, and Candy Okutsu is being repackaged as we see the debut of TIGER DREAM, the amazing PINK variant of the Tiger Mask legend, as one of ARSION’S bigger stars gets her biggest push yet!

This is a LONG two-hour show with tons of matches so I’m gonna try to do a less-recappy version for some of it. I tend to be long-winded naturally though, so no promises, lol.

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu/Tiger Dream, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada

THE PARTICIPANTS:
AYAKO HAMADA: Oh crap, HAMADA debuts! So Ayako is the daughter of wrestler Gran Hamada with a Mexican woman, and her looks are quickly going to get her a LOT of attention. uh, but she’s only like 17 here, so easy, fellas! As a rookie, she’ll probably be toasted but made to look good.
MARY APACHE: A luchadora, probably brought in as a jobber. She does a lot of ARSION shows, though.
MIKIKO FUTAGAMI: Quickly rising up the company as a “tough-girl” shooter-type who hits hard. Put over strongly by others.
REGGIE BENNETT: The big powerhouse from AJW, reintroduced in ARSION as a top-tier threat.
YUMI FUKAWA: An undersized Idol-type who’s nonetheless put in the most work of anyone and does the “ARSION House Style” of submissions. Has just recently picked up a decent win.
MICHIKO OMUKAI: A tall, skinny attractive girl given an incredulous push as a deadly striker. Awkward, but seems to be trying hard.
MARIKO YOSHIDA: One of ARSION’S top “gets”, having redone her style to be a superior “Worked Shoot” wrestler with lots of cool grapples. Chokes people out with a Modified Sleeper (double-arming their necks against her bent leg and choking them out that way).
RIE TAMADA: Career midcarder in AJW now kinda-sorta being given a push to the next level to see where she ends up.

FABI APACHE vs. LADY METAL:
* Oh god and we start with the clumsy lucha girls, lol. These two were in some of the worst, most business-exposing stuff I’ve ever seen in puro, so this will likely be very un-good. Metal’s dressed in a dollar-store Wolverine costume and Fabi’s in a detailed brown outfit.

Since they both wrestle the same style, this at least doesn’t expose the business, but it’s pretty clunky and obviously rehearsed. It’s weird seeing two fairly small women be about as acrobatic as John Tenta. Lots of stop & start and “that didn’t look like when Rey does it” moves. Fabi gets “kicked back” in the fakest way possible and slowwwwwlly leans down for a “flash” pin and tries more clunky-ass pins. Finally a clunky-ass pin is reversed to another clunky-ass pin and Fabi wins at (2:54).

Rating: DUD (fantastically terrible- like watching a lucha version of Tough Enough. Clunky and full of that “stop and start I dunno what to do next” stuff)

THE UNDERCARD:
AJA KONG vs. MIKA AKINO:
* So Akino got crushed by Yoshida in her debut, and is immediately put up against the other mega-veteran, Aja Kong. Who is of course the best carrier in wrestling, just about.

Speaking of, Aja IMMEDIATELY gets caught by a big rana (from a rookie in her first months!) and is so “dazed” she’s caught by a missile kick to the back. Akino charges under her lariat and tries an idiotic move and gets Wheelbarrow German’d for it, then charges right into a huge lariat for the pin at (0:54). Haha, well, okay!

Rating: 1/4* (barely even a match, but you gotta love Aja selling near-pins so quickly to a kid. But crushing her in less than a minute is a bit odd considering Akino was so good so fast)

I always look forward to “the debut of a new worker” stuff in the Joshi Spotlight, and here’s a name we’ll be seeing a LOT of going forward- Ayako Hamada!

ZION ’98 FIRST ROUND- SUPER ROOKIE vs. GENIUS LUCHADORA:
AYAKO HAMADA vs. MARY APACHE:
* Gran Hamada’s daughter vs. Gran Apache’s daughter! Hamada’s in white & blue and… jesus did they vacuum-seal her into that outfit? Mary’s in a weird pink & black bodysuit. She’s not been around for more than a year, either. Given her push, this is pretty clearly to give Ayako a win without beating someone important.

Both immediately show more agility and lucha-ness than the opener’s wrestlers did, impressing the crowd with flips & kip-ups, but Mary quickly murders herself doing a tope con hilo and eating shit. Ayako sells it anyways, and ends up in an inverted Gory stretch that took too long to set up- she ends up hitting a flashy armdrag and perfect plex for two, then a not-quite Asai moonsault. She’s doing the “stop & start” too, but not as bad as the opener. Mary catches her with a superduperplex, missile kick & surfboard, impressing people, but gets superplexed herself, only to hit a rana for two. Then, in a horrifying spot, Ayako tries the same thing, but gets “caught”, but has to catch herself and hang upside-down until Mary can finally position her into a powerbomb off the second rope. Mary pulls her up at two to hit an ugly tombstone on Ayako’s limp body, but it only gets two- a powerbomb into an awful moonsault (shins to chest) gets two. The fans are dead. Mary puts her up top again, but Ayako sunset flip bombs her for two in my pet peeve- releasing the pin for a kickout before the other person even moves. A crappy running DDT by Ayako has them in a double-down until Ayako rolls over for two, then charges in and locks Mary up in a Wacky Lucha Submission (figure-4-ing her head while pulling the arm out while Mary’s hunched over) for the submission at (9:27)- Ayako Hamada wins!

Man I saw what they were going for here but it was all kinds of ugly because after the initial flurry of agility, Ayako started doing the “stop & start” thing rookies do when they’re unsure of themselves or the next move’s execution. Then Mary buggered a flip to the floor, then they both messed up moves here and there, clearly going for a “flashy spectacle” but not having the experience to pull it off. And then they just started messing up tons of stuff and doing loose, sloppy execution and weak bumps and kickouts until the fans were kinda bored of it. So this was SUPPOSED to be this big, impressive epic of awesome moves, but ended up more like if the Dirt Bike Kid was doing the cool spots he saw on tapes with another indie dweeb, as they started getting loose and it just got worse. And Ayako eating this huge superbomb into a tombstone and STILL kicking out was pretty nuts, and her “I’m dead” selling was weak so her comebacks weren’t over, either. Her selling is just “lying down with her eyes closed”.

Rating: * (like the match they were SHOOTING FOR was ***1/2, but this is an important way to determine execution vs. intentions in terms of ratings)

ZION ’98 FIRST ROUND- FIGHTING CHEETAH vs. LADY OF 1000 HOLD:
RIE TAMADA vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI:
* Rie’s in black & red and Mikiko’s in a detailed black/orange/yellow look. Rie’s higher in the pecking order but Gami’s getting a push, too. She only barely lost to Candy Okutsu in a great **** match earlier in the year.

Rie starts fast, but gets whupped until she leg-whips Gami and goes to the leg… for a WHILE. Which is a problem because Rie’s limbwork is right out of 1980s WWF and very basic. Gami finally manages to come back by countering to the arm as I notice she’s doing the “shotei” palm-strike more as match filler than as a killer move or transition here. Gami can’t really get anything going and they’re at a stalemate, Rie knocking Gami off the top for a missile kick (first losing her balance and having to get back up). Rie fires elbows for two as Gami bounces around for her, but her German is countered to some good arm stuff from Gami. Rie backdrops her to set up MORE missile dropkicks, and she works the knee again to have Gami wailing, and her comebacks keep getting countered until she hits a pumphandle sit-out bomb for only a one-count. Brainbuster, rolling kick, armbar and more strikes keep her on offense, but Rie counters her Dragon Suplex to her own for two, but another attempt has Rie trapped in a Fujiwara armbar and she gives up at (13:46)- big win for Gami!

This felt like two people having an uncomfortable “ARSION Style Submission Match” without actually being capable of it, as Rie’s very basic “hit a figure-four for a minute” and “twist the knee in the ropes” stuff just wasn’t the same. Also MORE missile dropkicks? That’s been in every match so far- sloppy agenting! It was weird seeing the usually powerful, dominant Futagami be on her back for almost the entire thing, worked over as RIE TAMADA is more effective against her than Aja Kong. It was pretty clearly “Rie’s losing so she dominates for 8 minutes” as Gami barely got anything going until the end, where she controls until countering Rie’s last comeback.

Rating: **1/4 (got a little better in the end, but I think Rie’s grappling is painfully boring and Gami was only half-heartedly selling most of it, clearly more interested in her own offense)

ZION ’98 FIRST ROUND- BEAUTY VENUS vs. DYNAMITE MINI:
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. YUMI FUKAWA:
* Yes, that’s what the chyrons call them. The two “Idols who went from nobodies to pushed acts cuz they’re pretty” are opposed in the first round! The height difference is truly preposterous here. Fukawa’s in the usual white gear (and has a nasty shiner), while Omukai looks like she’s in black lingerie.

They start REALLY fast, Omukai using her reach with kicks, and catches Fukawa with an overhead belly-to-belly, only to get caught in a headscissors-to-armbreaker. Fukawa hits an X-Factor (called a “DDT”) and they each struggle for the arm, then Omukai catches Yumi with a powerbomb into a springboard dropkick… but Fukawa just gets up and NO-SELLS, causing a scrap. Fukawa keeps catching her in armholds but the size difference is making it pretty awkward (a “takedown to Fujiwara” spot sees Omukai land ON Fukawa and start screaming before the hold is even applied), and Omukai uses leverage to try a pin out of a hold. Her kicks are countered to an STF, and Fukawa hits a Super Chokeslam (!) to cross-armbreaker attempt, but Omukai makes the ropes and fires off Aja-style backdrop drivers and a flying knee to the head- Fukawa barely puts her foot on the ropes. Fukawa counters a big uranage attempt to the heel hook, but she’s fading and a Bridging German gets two on her. Omukai gets her Springboard Wheel Kick (again it’s clumsily hit) for two, but ends up in two big submissions trying more stuff and Omukai is SCREAMING and dying, collapsing on a whip… but then magically pops up for two rolling sobats and scores the pin on a struggling Fukawa at (9:50). Okay that was outta nowhere, haha.

This was another case of people who weren’t doing THAT good but were putting out maximum effort, and they had a pretty good match despite the size difference causing some ugly bits- Fukawa has issues doing submissions on someone six inches taller than her and as willowy as Omukai,. but since it’s grappling/submissions it feels more “real” and natural than if they were messing up impact moves. Omukai was going all-out on selling, but it’s that kind of unsubtle “OMG I’m DYINGGGGGG!” stuff that’s over the top and kinda unearned, and everyone knows it means less when she can just pop up and hit whatever springboards after having her leg worked anyhow- even the finish completely ignored a worked leg. BUT they had a good effort and it was fun.

Rating: **3/4 (very good effort and some good submissions by Fukawa, but iffy, if big, selling)

Reggie Bennett gets an upper-midcard push in ARSION, and despite being a huge powerhouse trained in the US style, is arguably third-best at the “ARSION Grapplefuckery Style”.

ZION ’98 FIRST ROUND- THE POWER OF U.S.A. vs. ARSION TRUE HEART:
REGGIE BENNETT vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* Easily the top match of the first round, as everyone else is unproven. Honestly, the winner here is obviously going to the finals.

They immediately hit the mat, Yoshida fighting for stuff but Reggie using her size and leverage to smother her and try for a kimura. Yoshida sneaks out to do leg stuff, but Reggie bends one ankle around the other and uses brute strength to make it hurt. Yoshida first chokes her as a distraction then switches to a cross-armbreaker attempt by threading her legs just so- they’re at a stand-off 5 minutes in, but Reggie just nails her ankle with a kick from the ground and stretches it! Yoshida counters a powerbomb to a sleeper and now Reggie’s on the defensive, but manages to whip her off the ropes for the Reggie Rack! Yoshida manages to pull out a sleeper again, but Reggie spins her into the kneeling powerbomb for two! Reggie wears her down with her front facelock and some chops, avoids a leg thing and scores an inverted DDT when Yoshida tries another counter, and a wobbling Yoshida is hammered with the Global Bomb (spinning ligerbomb), but Reggie foolishly tries the FLYING SPLASH and misses completely! Yoshida nearly gets her with an anklelock and cross-armbreaker, then Reggie shifts onto her belly and she has nowhere to go- she gives up at (10:49)! Yoshida wins!

This was a pretty good look at the “ARSION Style”, as it was almost entirely grappling, and always looked like someone was fishing for a win, not just a “resthold”- the constant repositioning and finding everything possible to counter was terrific (like Reggie picking out Yoshida’s ankle with a kick from the ground, or Yoshida spinning out of a tilt-a-whirl and Reggie immediately hitting the inverted DDT from that position while Yoshida was off-balance). That said, the crowd was mostly into the established finishers and big moves, and the central spot of the match was a flying splash, so they still got that “AJW Style” in there. Reggie being as good as she is at this esoteric style is pretty funny considering she wasn’t THAT great at the standard joshi one- she just understands how to use her size and leverage to counter the more complex holds, has good instincts at doing “whatever works”, and has the physical credibility to hit near-falls with big offense.

Rating: ***1/4 (very good altogether- hard-fought and the counters were solid)

ZION ’98 SEMI-FINALS:
AYAKO HAMADA vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI:
* Both scored big wins in long matches earlier. Hopefully Ayako’s got the zoomies out of her system now.

Futagami outgrapples Hamada to start, then fires off a Stone Cold Stunner, but gets caught with a Super Frankensteiner, but earns one in return. Both are kinda just blankly going through this, though. Ayako manages a lionsault press and perfect plex, then a wacky dumb lucha submission against a non-resisting Gami, then messes up a hop to the top and it’s the dreaded EMERGENCY IMPROV as Gami misses a rolling kick that’s sold anyways. Gami cranks her with a lariat, but Ayako slaps her for the only reaction so far, only to get wheelbarrow German’d (uh, sorta) for two. Ayako manages a tornado DDT (was that the move she was supposed to do last time?), but gets shotei’d trying to pick Gami up and a sleeper is… sold shittily, Hamada just kind of making a “choking face” a bit. She dodges a rolling kick and hits a rana, reversed for two, then reverses Gami… and gets the surprise three at (4:39)! Yes, they sacrificed a rising midcarder to the brand-new girl’s mega-push, lol. Futagami at least sells the shock and it was a flash-pin and all. But she laughs off the loss in the post-match- see, a smarter move would have had her rip Hamada’s head off and stretch her out after to make the final match even more of an uphill battle.

Weak, ugly match, though at least it was short. Both had this problem where they were TOTALLY sleepwalking through it, like they’d memorized it by rote and were just going move to move without thinking of the fact that the REAL match is the one against the audience. In Ayako that can be passed off due to her being a month in, but Futagami’s very experienced and shouldn’t be doing that, unless she’s nervous about the rookie and reining it in because of that. The finish was okay, I guess, and serves Gami right for not really attempting proper finishes. Hamada hit like two good moves in the whole thing and the rest either had her bumping or performing moves ugly-like.

Rating: * (okay-ish in bits, but short… and ugly in various parts and wrestled in zombie mode)

ZION ’98 SEMI-FINALS:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* The outcome here isn’t exactly in doubt, but Yoshida’s likely gotta try and get something out of Omukai to justify her rising midcard role.

ELITE STRIKER OMUKAI tries kicks, but gets her leg caught, only for Yoshida to get careless and be swipe-kicked. Omukai fires off a storm of stiff kicks that actually look good, and counters a reversal to a leaping knee and a Northern Lights suplex for two. But Yoshida threads that into arm & leg stuff again, tying up the kid and beats her up, hitting a hammerlock DDT for two and stays on the leg for a few minutes. Omukai of course responds to the legwork by throwing kicks, charging around, and hitting her overhead belly-to-belly, and some mis-timed kicks get two. She gets tied up trying submissions but scores the sobat for two, but ends up in a crossface chickenwing to cobra clutch and barely escapes, but fires off a snap Tiger Suplex for two, Yoshida doing a last-second kickout and “holy crap!” expression to sell it, but the springboard wheel kick misses and Yoshida nearly gets her with a big anklelock, then drags her off the ropes for the Modified Sleeper, eventually tapping her out at (7:59).

This was a pretty simple one, as Yoshida spends half of it controlling, tying up the leg and lying there, and defaulting to it for most of her segments. But hey, she’s working thrice. Omukai gets some big comebacks with her kicks, but as usual they’re all over the place, with the ax kicks in particular being flail-y and missing a bunch. Yoshida was definitely in “Aja Mode”, selling big comebacks and “oh god that almost got me” type stuff with Omukai’s reversals, and I liked her strategy, but the finish wasn’t overly strong- the anklelock counter was a good spot, but wrapping her up in the sleeper took way too long and they were just kind of clustered together all weird so it wasn’t clear it was actually applied right.

Rating: **1/2 (perfectly fine- Yoshida mostly dominates, then sells some important comeback stuff, then wins- the main issue is Omukai selling legwork then immediately doing kicks like nothing happened)

Candy Okutsu repackaged as “Tiger Dream”, the first female incarnation of Tiger Mask. And a video game character who looks kinda like that.

TIGER DREAM vs. HIROMI YAGI:
* It’s here! Candy Okutsu’s run as TIGER DREAM, the first lady of the Tiger Mask family! And of course it’s PINK. The lead-up shows Dream at a press conference with both the current Tiger Mask AND the original one, training with Satoryu Sayama himself and perfecting his moves! Okay, that’s good gimmick shit. Rossy Ogawa was a big fan of Candy’s, and being able to stick her in the iconic masked gimmick had to be fun for him. And she’s up against former JWP wrestler Yagi, who’s recently returned to wrestling, and fits ARSION’s grapplefuckery style way better than any other promotion’s. Yagi’s in white & black with garters on in a new look, while Dream’s in pink & black in some SHARP tights, I gotta say.

Yagi jumps Tiger Dream before the bell, but has to escape her and we do proper intros- Yagi tries a rana and gets flipped off onto her feet, but things get awkward fast with some clumsy Dream stuff, as Candy kind of can’t hit a cartwheel cross-body flush and resorts to just jumping out of the corner with a clothesline instead of doing a flip. Yagi bails, they square off, a grapple goes nowhere, and Dream does the flashy “run up and flip off” move she was trying in all the practice video… to zero reaction. Yagi kips up out of an armdrag to get her own and work the arm, but Dream gets a lightning fast “Tiger drop toehold” to applause, then a Tiger feint, but Yagi goes for the mask. Dream hits a weak powerbomb and misses a flying headbutt, then sells a cross-armbreaker like a resthold, and Yagi keeps grappling and flash-pinning her until a bridging German gets two for Dream. They’re both down, then trade legholds until Dream gets a brainbuster and three Moonsaults for two. Yagi counters the Tiger Suplex with a flash-pin, but Dream gets a NASTY powerbomb, only to get perfect plexed for two as I guess we’re just alternating moves. And Yagi tries the tiger suplex herself and Dream counters to her own at (11:03) for the win, coming off as out of nowhere. Yagi brawls with her after the bell and has to be pulled away.

A somewhat weak match for most of it, with execution problems as Candy gets used to her new gimmick. She didn’t do the flips and stuff right, often has trouble even getting all the way to the top (and this is someone who used to SPAM the “run-up to the top” move) and has probably lost a step in raw agility since her peak, but the toehold was good… all in all not the most auspicious of debuts, and the crowd didn’t really take to it. This kind of thing is oddly more suited to the Western style of “have them demolish a jobber in 3 minutes” or Rey Mysterio coming in and trouncing Chavo in his WWE debut, not fighting back & forth for 11 minutes and doing stop & start shit. Yagi ended up looking a bit more impressive, with better movements and agility, but her selling was a Big Show-like “flail back with both arms flinging” and it didn’t look great. By the end, both were tired and just doing “I do a move, then you do a move”.

Rating: **1/4 (again, mostly “just okay”- 11 minutes of somewhat clumsy, stop & start wrestling with random move-trading)

ZION ’98 FINAL MATCH:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. AYAKO HAMADA:
* So yes, the literal “Super Rookie” is pushed right to the finals of the ZION ’98 Tournament against ARSION’s big star.

They circle each other almost to the point of being silly (Ayako almost turns away from Yoshida at one point), and Yoshida starts schooling her on the mat for a while. Ayako eats that hammerlock DDT, but Yoshida just waits for her to pop up and they’re at square one again? Ayako fights out of a leg thing and a LONG sleeper spot, but fires off knees, then tries a rana but gets tossed into a stun-gun (sorta- she lands in a standing position). Yoshida dares her to try elbows, but charges right into Ayako’s submission move that beat Mary, only to easily get out and STF her, as the complex set-up give her an opening. Ayako gets out of the sleeper that turns into and finally gets her rana, then a close backslide, but Yoshida spikes her with a Straightjacket German and it’s as good as over. She easily hits the Air Raid Crash (over-the-shoulder cradle inverted DDT), then hauls up Ayako’s dead body for a second one, pinning her with a knee on the chest at (7:39), winning the match with little trouble. She gets awarded the trophy with an introspective “Boy, this didn’t get over as well as I thought it would” look, and we’re out.

This one ended up being Ayako’s best match so far, probably because Yoshida controlled ALL of it and there was little opportunity for flips and weirdly convoluted lucha stuff. It mostly ends up being Yoshida schooling Hamada on the mat again and again, Ayako doing the same fight-outs repeatedly as she rolls around or extends a leg to make the ropes, but at least it’s something. Seeing Yoshida get out of Ayako’s submission with hilarious ease was funny, as was Yoshida eventually just hitting three moves in a row for the easy win. Though it’s kooky how she does submission attempts the whole match then just crushes her with big grapple moves.

Rating: **1/2 (pretty decent since Yoshida controls all of it and gives Hamada some hope spots that she’s actually capable of, but Yoshida never looked to be remotely in danger)

So that’s another ARSION show! This one having the worst match average yet, in a very quiet arena with bored fans watching people kinda clumsily go through stuff and have execution problems throughout! And Ayako Hamada is introduced to the fans in a big way, getting right to the finals of a one-night tournament! Except she had one of ARSION’s worst matches in the opening round, then looked bad in subsequent matches, having some of the moves but no idea of how to wrestle in front of an audience (ie. react to them or try to make them react), and bad improv skills. And Futagami, supposedly a rising star, looks bad in a loss to her, and barely seems into it, either! And Tiger Dream makes her big debut, but in a pretty weak match with its own problems (most of which are hers). So the whole thing looks like a horrifying glimpse of a dark future instead of this new shot in the arm for the new promotion with two big debuts, haha.