Joshi Spotlight: ARSION ARS’99 Tournament

https://archive.org/details/arsion-05-04-1999-ars-tournament

Another one on Archive.org. I couldn’t watch it in the browser so had to actually download it. Watching via mpegs is not fun, lol. I might have to do a “YouTube only” thing even with this one.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- ARS TOURNAMENT ’99:
(May 4th 1999)
* It’s more ARSION! From Korakuen Hall we get a one-night tournament to give someone a new push or something! The issue with one-night tournaments is people inevitably half-ass performances or have to do lots of restholds if they’re working multiple times, so we’ll see what we get. Looks like this whole tape is that, plus one lucha Trios match with luchadoras fighting the native rookie trio CAZAI. Our entrants are:

Hiromi Yagi: Legit judoka who had one of ARSION’s best matches with the champion, Mariko Yoshida, early in the year. One of the best at the “House Style” (used by three wrestlers in the house). Current Tag Champion. Wears purple & black.
Rie Tamada: AJW midcarder turned ARSION midcarder. Current Tag Champion. Wears purple & black.
Yumi Fukawa: Tiny “Pretty Girl” wrestler who uses the House Style and has improved a lot, but is still smol. Specializes in “heartbreaking losses”. Wears pink.
Mariko Yoshida: The current Queen of ARSION and their “Ace” of sorts- mostly being used to defend the title while “putting over” the challengers as people who have a chance, even though they don’t really. Wears a wicked “Spider Lady” set of tights.
Aja Kong: Former AJW Ace & World Champion, currently in a role similar to Yoshida. Wears purple.
Candy Okutsu: JWP midcarder getting a big ARSION push because Rossy loves her. Last year’s victor with a shocker win over Reggie Bennett, leading to a Title shot. Dresses like Diesel in 1995, which is super-weird.
Mikiko Futagami: LLPW scrub turned into the “Shooter” of ARSION with powerful strikes. No personality. Wears blue.
Michiko Omukai: LLPW scrub who gets a push as a “striker” because she’s tall and pretty. Wears white.

FIRST ROUND:

HIROMI YAGI vs. RIE TAMADA:
* The current tag team champions face each other to start. They’re wearing near-identical gear, so thank god they look nothing alike.

They fight as equals to start, Rie using speed and evasion & Yagi using technique. Rie hits DDTs to take over, but buggers a “kick off the ropes” one. Yagi uses a missile kick counter and works the leg, though appears to have difficulty moving Rie around. Rie squeals in some submissions but gets a German and her Perfect Plex, and Yagi gets a good pop for kicking out of the Dragon Suplex. At a loss, Rie does a flying stomp, but gets her leg caught in a big fight. Yagi goes up, and when Rie meets her for a counter, Yagi spins off with the one-armed superbomb and does the Leg Hump, getting the submission win at (8:08)! The most “Rie Tamada” match ever- clunky, not that interesting and with pretty basic offense, but a solid little story as Rie has issues dealing with the counters Yagi can throw out, and legholds wear her down until one last counter does it. This helps put over Yagi, who hasn’t done much since challenging Yoshida for the Queen title.

Rating: **1/4 (“basic” but actually tells a story)

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. YUMI FUKAWA:
* The Queen of ARSION takes on the “tryhard kid”.

They both do good variants of armlocks to start, wrapping each other up from every angle (Yoshida gets a really cool-looking one), Yumi working the arm and even chasing Yoshida to the floor to slap on a hold. She seems to do well when using technique, but as soon as they stand up Yoshida can power her around- Yoshida gets a NASTY hammerlock while straighjacketing the other arm around the front, and the fans actually buzz a bit for a totally credible-looking submission until Fukawa rolls out of it. Yoshida powers her into a German, but the Air Raid Crash is turned into a leg-trap backdrop hold for a close two. Fukawa works the leg a bit, but Yoshida t-bone suplexes her for two, getting too cocky on the pin, then nearly chokes her out with the Million Dollar Dream, transitioning to her Modified Sleeper (the one against the thigh) until Yumi can flip out to a good reaction. Fukawa turns the Air Raid Crash into a series of credible arm finishes, then a flash pin, but Yoshida finally bearhugs her and yanks the arms around (with a leg pulling one end and the wrist pulling the other) until Fukawa can’t escape and taps out at (11:34).

These two remain the most fascinating match-ups in ARSION, as Fukawa really acts like someone trying to submit a larger, stronger opponent, and they two are the best at rolling around and trying to thread legs into the other person’s guard to complete submissions. Fukawa had chance after chance here, and the crowd was actually buying it (cuz tournaments are the time for flukes, especially against the champion), but Yoshida was eventually just too strong. The finish was okay, but a bit weak because Yoshida was at one point just standing over Fukawa’s turtling pose, both kind of just sitting there trying to figure out how to get into this hold.

Rating: ***1/4 (a good tactical battle of submissions, but not Fukawa’s night)

MIKIKO FUTAGAMI vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* Gami outranks Omukai by quite a bit, but both have had “challenge the Queen and fail” matches so far.

Omukai responds to bullying with a slap to a good reaction, but Gami draws a better one for draping her head over the ring apron with her body in the ring, then executing a pair of rolling kicks to the back of her head. Gami works her over with strikes but swings into a Tiger Suplex from her- Omukai misses a flying knee and eats a painful anklelock, but catches Gami with a headscissors, only to be PAINFULLY hoisted into a stretch muffler with an agonized sell-job to a great reaction. Omukai keeps getting mini-combacks but gets stuffed every time, charging into a Shotei palm strike and she’s SURELY screwed, but she keeps kicking out of everything. Gami has to sell the wimpest slap ever for two, but Omukai gets a big kick series to “stagger” her, then scores another slap and that GETS THREE at (6:27), Omukai getting a surprise win!

A pretty weak one with some decent bits, as Futagami keeps measuring her and gets some good counters, but Omukai hit about 30% of what she was trying “flush” and the rest either wildly missed or looked so weak that selling them seemed dumb. This was built as a “fluke” but makes Gami look kinda weak that a bunch of soft strikes can “stun” her.

Rating: ** (fine, with some good stuff, but some really weak offense in the ending)

AJA KONG vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* The promotion’s highest-ranked legend takes on Candy, who won the last tournament and got a title shot out of it.

Candy plays evasion well and catches Aja, but soon Aja settles in with “The Usual”, but Candy tries to power out and fight up a lot to establish more “equality”. Aja flattens her a couple times, Candy fights up, then scores a running kick when Aja keeps going for lariats… until Candy backslides her FOR THE PIN at (5:53), getting a fluke win over Aja! haha makin’ the “shorter recaps” thing easy for me! So we’re now establishing that flukes are easily possible in this thing. The match was like the “opening five minutes of a dull 15-minute match” just with a random finish instead of finisher-trading. The woman who wins the top title of GAEA in two weeks jobbing in 6 minutes to CANDY OKUTSU is pretty funny. She literally pounds the mat like a baby while Candy’s stable comes up to celebrate with her.

Rating: *1/2 (feels very unfinished, deliberately-so. What we got was FINE and just basic early-match stuff, which feels like the point)

SEMI-FINALS:

HIROMI YAGI vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* Oh snap! A rematch of the legendary early ’99 match between the two for the belt!

Yagi jumps the arm immediately and lampreys it over and over, rolling Yoshida into stuff- Yoshida gets a back suplex and attempts an Air Raid Crash and now Yagi’s selling a bunch as Yoshida powers her around. Yagi manages to try the arm a couple more times but keeps getting stuffed and now YOSHIDA is the one with an answer to everything, pushing Yagi over or dodging her leaps and the like- a far cry from their last match. Yagi manages a German and now hits her Super Judo Flip into a jujigatame, but no dice- it doesn’t get a pop and Yoshida mostly just rolls out of it. Yoshida dropkicks out the leg and tries a swinging Dream, but her arm’s too hurt. She does a solid leghold (going from a leg-spin into a kind of leg-assisted calf-pick) but ends up trapped in a Fujiwara armbar and actually gets flattened out attempting a rope-break, getting the fans to bite on a nearfall. Yoshida manages to plant her with a German & powerbomb, then attempts her Modified Sleeper, Yagi rolling out until Yoshida hits a crossface into a rings of saturn for a rope-break. Yagi finally traps that injured arm in a suplex & hold, twisting and turning all over the ring until she hits a reliable Fujiwara armbar, preventing any ropebreaks… until Yoshida taps at (13:39)! Third fluke in a row! Yagi beats the Queen of ARSION!

A weird one, as Yoshida is incredibly dominant for the vast majority of the match despite wrestling with an injury against someone who had dominated her with submissions in their last match until Yoshida had ground her down with power stuff and finally took the lead. But once Yagi won, I figured it out- Yoshida dominated because she was losing, haha. Can’t make the champ look TOO weak in defeat! It helps that Yoshida had a hard-fought win, and that she’d struggled so hard to beat Fukawa and had an injured arm. THe match was well-wrestled enough, but has a lot of those “rolling submissions” that ARSION kinda does when they don’t really wanna do chain-wrestling and instead someone eats a hold for 1-2 minutes and just keeps rolling around the mat so it never “sinches in” and the fans don’t really react to it. Yagi winning seems to be pushing her yet again, though they already tried that.

Rating: **1/2 (one of the better ones so far, but with fewer peaks or valleys- just a consistently pretty good technical match)

CANDY OKUTSU vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:

Omukai swats Candy’s hand away to start, misses her sobat kick, but immediately snags Candy with an overhead uranage, then pops her RIGHT in the side of the head with the Sobat… and pins her (0:25)! Okay this is getting ridiculous now.

Rating: DUD (just two moves and a pin)

“Oh, look at how cool and casual we are. Don’t you just find our lack of effort inspirational?”

ELIMINATION LUCHA TAG MATCH:
CAZAI (Ayako Hamada, Mika Akino & Ai Fujita) vs. LOS APACHES (La Galactica, Mari & Fabi Apache):
* Yes, it’s the Lucha Squadron all set up to fight Candy Okutsu’s rookie squadron, as now Hamada & Fujita, the attractive rookies, are put together with Akino, the good one, and form her minions. They look SO CASUAL AND COOL here, all sitting on the top rope while Ai lies in the corner like Raven, lifting her arms with a slacker’s disdain when she’s called. The lucha girls don’t get called individually, meaning I’m just calling them Galactica, Black & Green.

Green Apache & Fujita do some actually pretty cool twirling lucha armdrags, but after a while they just look phony and choreographed because nobody’s actually being snug and they’re just going with each other. Ayako & Black Apache do a good quick-pin sequence and Pause For Applause too. Akino & Galactica actually look like they’re trying to FIGHT, then Galactica eats three running corner moves but CAZAI get stereo ranas for two, only for the luchas to hit stereo tilt-a-whirls & dives. Fujita gets worked over by double & triple-teams, then she casually just tags out and we get Everybody Dives spots. I think Hamada’s the only one who actually hits the pile and doesn’t eat shit by blasting through everyone and hitting the floor. Crowd is just silent for anything that isn’t a dive cuz nobody here is really charismatic or over. And Fujita takes a bit more offense, but CAZAI runs in and Hamada powerbombs Galactica into Fujita’s 450 Splash (Fujita BADLY missing and absolutely splattering her face on the mat again), and that gets the pin at (8:19). lol seriously?

PINPOINT ACCURACY.

Oh, it’s elimination style. Black Apache missile kicks Ayako but eats a sunset flip Superbomb for two, and a springboard sunset flip finishes at (9:38). She roars at Green Apache, but runs into a Michinoku Driver and is pinned at (9:49). Lariat & flying senton bomb finish Fujita at (10:20). Akino hits a missile kick but misses a run-up dive and a Ligerbomb gets two for Green. She’s rolled up out of another Michinoku for two, then misses her next somersault senton and Akino finishes with the Rey-style Springboard Rana at (11:32).

Just an awful lucha crapfest, as it’s like they do some decent stuff to start, then fuck around in double-teams, then there’s cold-ass tags because nobody’s selling well and Fujita just kind of casually leaves the ring after taking a beating, then everyone hits the dives that are the only thing anyone cares about, and then WHOMP- Fujita misses her big finish.

Rating: * (almost a parody of what people think of indie flip-fests- minimal selling, nothing interesting but the dives, most of the dives miss the people catching entirely and even the finish is botched)

HIROMI YAGI vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* Yes they’re main eventing a show with this. ARSION, everybody! We get a clip of Sakie Hasegawa in the crowd, clutching a Doraemon figure and looking with tears in her eyes. Hey this isn’t a Bret Hart match, young lady!

Yagi dives onto Omukai quickly, but Michiko gets a magical comeback, then counters the Super Judo Flip. Yagi whips her off the top but has to sell all this arm stuff from Omukai like she couldn’t just annihilate this scrub on the mat. Omukai with a kick & backdrop driver but misses her flying knee and eats some leg stuff, but gets her tiger suplex for two. There’s a potential great bit where Omukai telegraphs her sobat and gets caught, but her selling is so awful nobody responds when Yagi snags her ankle. Okay she gets a couple decent sell-jobs later, but Omukai is SO CLUNKY Yagi has to basically spin around this awkward tree. Omukai catches her with an ax kick & double-arm powerbomb for two-counts, but Yagi catches her arm on the kickout and keeps working that now. Omukai overhead suplexes her and is now magically fine, throwing kicks but can’t get an Uranage (ah, so she’s training with Sakie- that explains the close-up… oh also all those solebutts haha), but Yagi swings wildly and ends up in one after all. Another gets two, and Omukai hits a long, LONG lift into a sit-out Razor’s Edge and scores the pin at (10:27), Yagi horrified when she realizes she’s gonna get crushed but can’t do anything to stop it. Omukai is the ARS ’99 Tournament winner, getting a cup and everything. Just accept it. Sakie comes out and aw, I miss seeing her wrestle. Yeah Omukai tributes a lot with her and she does an interview and such.

oh god poor Yagi. To be as good as she is and have to do the “PLEASE try to make this scrub look as good as possible” routine and do the job as well. She was trying really hard here but had to leave everything open to Omukai, who couldn’t sell well enough to get the submissions Yagi was doing over, then she had to often get into position for all the counters and look helpless against all this “lethal offense” like awkward kicks, slaps, suplexes, and more. The emphatic crucifixion lift into the finish was such a big “I’m a more dominant star than you” thing, too. Sadly, Omukai’s poor selling meant her comebacks didn’t get a good reaction, as people responded more with surprise than appreciation- a subtle thing is to look tired & pained even when it’s your turn to do shit. A lot of spotty wrestlers fail at that, even and especially today, and you can see it here the way Omukai hits a comeback… then just stands up like nothing’s wrong. Smiles, acts confident, etc. It’s like none of the work Yagi did had any effect at all and now Omukai’s fine. I think that really takes people out of it and makes it look like “oh, Yagi’s a scrub”, which itself makes OMUKAI’s win seem diminished because oh, the person’s so weak they can barely hurt her.

Rating: ** (just more filler- weak offense and selling from Omukai and Yagi was trying but didn’t have much to work with)

Okay, the booking here was just ridiculous. I can see the appeal of booking a lot of banana peel finishes ON PAPER, because it “keeps the fans guessing” and makes a pretty predictable promotion less so, but this just leads to four straight such wins, making the elite wrestlers look weak. For example, getting caught by a flash-pin is one thing, but two of these were just “hit a random strike and they win” which makes the people eating the pins look a lot worse. Never mind Candy getting the rub from Aja only to job in 25 seconds to a midcarder. Never mind stuff like “Omukai running the field” makes everyone look bad, as she’s scoring flukes over Candy (who thus loses the rub of beating Aja) and then handily destroys Yagi after suddenly springing to life and ignoring all her offense. The Omukai push is apparently a LONG one, so buckle up for a lot more of that, as ARSION pulls out all the stops (Sakie training, tournament win, etc.) to justify their support of her.