Joshi Spotlight: ARSION in July 1999

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- STARLIGHT ’99:
(July 30th 1999)
* It’s time for more ARSION! With Las Cachorras Orientales showing up! Largely because they’re freelancers and the promotions all need big matches, so the best heel team in the business makes BANK selling their appearances to all these small companies! And the first team to stand against them is the TamaFuka team of Zenjo given renewed effort, with ARSION’s try-hardest wrestler Fukawa finally trying to prove her worth!

ARSION Roster: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Rie Tamada, Yumi Fukawa, Michiko Omukai, Reggie Bennett, Jessie Bennett, Hiromi Yagi, Chaparrita ASARI, Mikiko Futagami, Candy Okutsu, Esther Moreno, Mary Apache, Rookies: Fabi Apache, Mika Akino, Ayako Hamada

Man the rookies of the ’90s are just RIDICULOUSLY short.

AJA KONG vs. YUMI FUKAWA:
* Time for tiny Fukawa to get yet another “tiny upstart gets beaten but looks defiant in defeat” match! I got a whole version of this on Dailymotion from a reader. Aja absolutely dwarfs Fukawa.

Aja hits a lariat & 2nd-rope splash immediately, but Yumi gets an impressive flying rana and tries to sleeper her out, but Aja just deadlifts her away and beats on her some more. Yumi gets WAY too cute trying to slap Aja in a mount, and gets absolutely clobbered for it, showing defiance enough to get a pop, then snags holds & counters. Aja finally rolls her into a figure-four and other leg stuff, taunting her all the while. LONG surfboard/stretching sequence takes up much of the match. Aja then methodically flattens her dwarfish opponent, hitting the emphatic vertical suplex and backdrop driver, leaving Fukawa wide-eyed and lurching to the ropes. Yumi dodges the flying back elbow and actually snags Aja’s arm when she comes at her, Aja howling in anger and pain and having to use her power advantage to get out. But Yumi follows by trying a suplex like a dumbass, countering the counter but slipping and having to reapply her jujigatame, and Aja catches her flying whoopie cushion with a wicked ligerbomb for two. Yumi ducks the Uraken for a backdrop hold and it’s a double-down, but Aja hits the Brainbuster for two in our “token big move kickout”. Fun bit as Yumi blocks another Uraken and “goes flying” despite that, but her rollup is turned into a nasty armbar at Fukawa taps at (4:48 of 12:33 shown). Fukawa disses Aja’s handshake and slaps her a bunch before bailing. Very “token effort” here with a lot of the usual tricks, but Fukawa’s stuff was very sloppy.

Rating: **1/4 (solid Big/Little match from the middle of a card)

We see clips of HamaKino taking on the Tag Champs and losing via backslide, then acting like poor sports about it. And now the rematch!

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLES:
HIROMI YAGI & RIE TAMADA vs. AYAKO HAMADA & MIKA AKINO:
* The challengers are in matching powder-blue outfits this time, while the tag champs are in matching animal-print gear. Aw, I miss the purple.

Yagi quickly gets double-teamed by the kids, but Tamada flies in with a dropkick to both of them- the kids’ double-dives are foiled so they brawl into the crowd but the champs soon beat them up, Rie flying onto them on the floor. Yagi does the same, but then Ayako hits her quebrada to a good reaction and Akino’s beautiful tope con hilo is next. Back to the regular match, as they tee off on Rie- Yagi saves, but Rie takes Ayako’s springboard moonsault for two. But she tries one too many flying moves and lands on Rie’s feet and takes a tornado DDT. Yagi goes, Ayako first stalling her out by selling for no reason (Yagi has to stop on a dime), then going down way too hard off a rollup so Yagi has to let her recover. Yagi hits her Super Judo Flip, Ayako not really selling the following arm move much, then Yagi hits a German, and backdrops Akino when she comes in. Akino does a better job of selling than Ayako, but tries a few too many spins and loses her grip at points, recovers with a good missile kick… then cannonballs off onto nothing at the fans laugh. CALL MAFFEW!

Yagi at least doesn’t sell that, and the champs hit a Doomsday Device Thesz Press and trap her in a hold so they can recover the match. Three straight missile kicks get two, but they miss stereo ones. Akino hops onto Ayako’s shoulders and tornado DDTs Rie from there. Akino keeps trying flash-pins and they mess up ANOTHER thing, Rie missing a dropkick counter, but at least she improvises so Akino flies off the top onto her feet. Rie gets a German suplex, but her Dragon attempt is stopped by Ayako and Mika FINALLY hits that damn run-up crossbody for two. She gets fired up, but Rie clobbers her down for two only for Yagi to missile kick her by mistake, and Akino hits a run-up sunset flip… for three (12:37)! New Tag Team Champions! The former champs just look nonplussed as the kids get a ceremony, then Akino starts talking shit to LCO in the stands, who appear amused and then come up to state their challenge. But Fukawa comes out to rebuff then and oh man she just looks COMICALLY tiny next to these two. Even 5’5″ Shimoda towers over her. Pretty soon everyone in ARSION is out to jaw at them, Aja Kong (a stablemate of theirs up until recently) calmly takes them away. The infamous Rossy Ogawa, looking like a total slob, is in the back talking to Fukawa as we finally move along.

Well that went horribly after a strong start. Okay, so the early stuff was just “People Flying Around” but at least it was SOMETHING, and they had planned it ahead and it went off well. But around when the challengers started messing up all their moves it got disjointed, like people were also forgetting what moves they were doing AND botching others, and the kids were probably too green to know how to fix it. So the rest of the match looks clunky and just people trying random stuff” and instead of good sequences or exchanges everyone starts defaulting to missile dropkicks, usually super-measured ones that slow the match down. Then instead of trading finishes it’s mostly Akino trying flash-pins until one works, while Yagi & Ayako aren’t even a part of it.

Rating: *3/4 (really, really weak match considering what it was supposed to mean for the promotion)

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. RIE TAMADA & YUMI FUKAWA:
(July 25th)
* Oh crap, we’re doing this already! So Fukawa’s challenge leads to LCO’s first bout in ARSION, and alongside her big partner in AJW- Tamada! LCO are in closely matched purple & white gear. They have absolutely WILD silver & gold uniforms made up of pineapple-leaf chapes.

Rie starts in on Mita’s injured knee immediately, but Mita just rolls to her feet after a missile kick like nothing happened. To be fair, she’s IMMENSE compared to either of these girls. To put a point on that, she immediately holds her hand all the way up for a test of strength with 5’1″ Fukawa like a total boss, then ignores a double-dropkick and helicopters the dwarf around by her hair. Shimoda puts some stink on the Bitch Pose and even cuts off Fukawa’s attempts to get defiant with her (slapping her right in the face when she flexes). Shimoda coming into the “shoot-style” grappling promotion and pulling hair and biting every chance she gets is amazing. Speaking of, Mita gets put in a leghold and just bites Yumi’s ass. Man it’s just like watching RINGS. Yumi FINALLY gets a proper hold on Shimoda (who perfectly sells it like this was both shocking and somehow unfair) and Rie at last stops the slaughter 6 minutes in. Shimoda gets worn down with a figure-four, Yumi flying off onto her in the hold, and Mita contemptuously powers Rie around and swats away her offense, but Rie counters the electric chair drop with a dragon screw to that knee! But she misses a flying stomp and Mita hits the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop for two. Rie avoids a powerbomb and finally counters Mita’s slaps with persistent strikes and Tornado DDTs her- two missile kicks get two, but Mita catches her leap with a powerbomb.

Rie keeps trying flash-pins, but finally gets Blazing Chopped and Shimoda scraps with her, Rie taking a chop/ax kick for two, and Yumi finally interferes to turn the tide. Rie with a flying stomp but gets tiger drivered, but fires off a German into a Dragon Suplex for two. Fukawa’s in and actually counters Shimoda’s bullying by persistently countering and surprising her with another German, but she hauls the kids down with a double-clothesline and it’s now the Assisted Tope/Dive into Electric Chair/Splash combo for two! Yumi gets a backdrop hold and threads the kickout into a Fujiwara armbar- Mita tries to cheat and Shimoda chokes Yumi to stop the grappling, but gets stunnered and booted down, defiantly growling at her the entire time. Yumi roars, but Shimoda catches her with the tiger suplex and in a great bit, Mita’s powerbomb is turned into a triangle choke… which she laughs off because of the power difference, slamming Yumi on the mat to try and break… but gets overconfident and suddenly starts thrashing around as Fukawa snags her entirely! Mita keeps escaping but ending up in them again, even when trying another top-rope electric chair and finally Shimoda just cheats, drawing big boos. Mita hits a monster powerbomb for two and gets Rie to dropkick her own partner… but her DVD is ALSO countered to that armhold! Mita looks ridiculously bedraggled and beaten as Yumi FLIES off with a rana for a DRAMATIC two-count and senses victory. She roars… but Mita stops her backdrop lift and Shimoda boots her into the Death Valley Driver! But Mita just pulls her up in a last act of egotism, hitting another just because she can (and wants it to look more emphatic) for the world’s most casual pin at (21:21). Man these chicks deserve SUCH a beating.

Man have I missed the old-school LCO match. Their standard template, extended here, can just slot in ANYBODY and get a *** match, and this was particularly fun because of how openly dishonest and nasty they are, their “bullying” act being perfect for such tiny opponents. The size advantage justifies their dominance, and their cheating justifies the kids being unable to manage any consistency on them- every time they get going, in comes a slap or some cheating to halt it. It’s just funny seeing SHIMODA of all people look like an unstoppable colossus. But it was perfectly done with the smaller opponents having to take every lead they could, using speed and technique to counter them. Rie’s always a bit boring, but Fukawa has the fire and the submissions necessary to pull that off, as the match makes it quite clear the only way you’re catching LCO is with stuff like that. Great ending stretch there, as a slow, methodical LCO match with them cutting off all the comebacks eventually leads to a bedraggled Mita stumbling around as she can’t manage a single move without Fukawa spinning her into that damn armhold again- her initial struggles to the ropes weren’t the best, but eventually she was just LUNGING for it, and getting up like she was dying inside and the next move just might get her. Great near-fall with the flying rana (flash pins- another way for a little to beat a big), but then Shimoda comes in and it’s all over. Rie’s no help on the apron as Shimoda easily fends her off and Mita can complete her DVDs and just crush her.

Rating: ***3/4 (with a better partner than Rie, this could have been ****+ easy)

Man Rossy looked like such a slob even then, haha.

ARSION TOURNAMENT SKY:
* Rossy Ogawa running a tournament to fill time? Will wonders never cease! These features all of the “lucha”-type wrestlers ARSION has used, plus a couple natives. Oh hey, Candy Okutsu’s back as Tiger Dream! I thought they’d stopped doing that!

PRINCESS SUHEI vs. LA GALACTICA 2000: Suhei, in pink, pins Galactica with that lucha “upside-down rollup” in (0:45 of 5:12 shown).
TIGER DREAM vs. AYAKO HAMADA: Bits of a spotfest are shown, Candy looking pretty bad doing Tiger Mask spots. They even leave her botching a landing form a powerbomb counter. Ayako gets her quebrada, then Tiger gets a flying headbutt & moonsault into a Tiger Suplex for two. But she climbs and gets caught with the Ayaconoclasm (inverted superbomb) and tapped out to Ayako’s submission finisher at (3:40 of 5:44 shown)!
MARY APACHE vs. LINDA STARR: Linda is a blonde luchadora. They actually have chemistry and do some good dives to the floor. Mary finishes with an Asai moonsault, powerbomb and senton bomb and Michinoku Driver at (1:56 fo 5:33 shown). Looked like a good near-squash.
AKINO vs. GAMI METAL: GAMI Metal is Mikiko Futagami wearing a dork-ass mask. AKINO is just going by all-caps now I guess. The match is mostly comedy- AKINO tries a tope suicida, but GAMI sneaks in a chair and donks her with it. AKINO with a rana, GAMI gets the dreaded “slips in the corner so the opponent has to stand there while they get ready and do their move” moonsault, AKINO hits a run-up dive, but GAMI gets a good sit-out inverted powerbomb and moonsault. They start doing a mix of solid flying and “it gets kinda awkward” until AKINO gets her “launched to the corner and jumps backwards” Rana finish at (5:40 of 8:00 shown). Despite showing a bunch, they cut out so many transitions it’s just a collection of moves.

AI FUJITA vs. CHAPARRITA ASARI:
* ASARI comes over from Neo Ladies to take on the ARSION rookie (note: as I notice later in the show, I guess she bailed on Neo! Partially, as I see her working there occasionally still). ASARI has pretty bomb-ass gear at this point- teal and blue with a blended look.

They play “can you top this?” with flips to start, but when Fujita climbs up she gets launched off, then her corner cartwheel is countered to ASARI’s iconic cartwheel handspring mule kick. Quebrada & missile kick hit, but Ai gets a dive and crossbody for two. Fujita does a sleeper and ASARI is really good at selling her flippy armdrags by more or less flipping herself with zero contact even if Fujita botches something. Fujita with a moonsault to the floor, but her 450 misses and ASARI gets a rana, Northern Lights & fisherman’s suplex. Fujita gets La Majistral, then dodges a moonsault and hits her own for two. And then the obvious ending, as Fujita misses her 450 Splash and takes the Sky Twister Press at (6:17 of 7:13 shown). ASARI beats the flippy rookie.

Not a bad little match- pretty basic but fully of pretty flips, which is the appeal of a match like this anyways. It was a complete and open carry-job by ASARI, who would both do her own things, then set up Fujita doing her own and more or less fling herself around so it looked like Fujita knew what she was doing and was super-good instead of green and clunky. Some of that clunkiness still showed itself with Fujita sometimes stalling out and being like “okay, what was the next thing?”, but there was no big botching. The match itself was more or less WCW’s Nitro Cruiserweight style- people doing high-flying spots the big guys couldn’t, then ending with someone missing a big move and immediately eating the other person’s.

Rating: ** (a pretty good Ai Fujita solo match, entirely thanks to ASARI selling for her and eating all her stuff)

SEMI-FINALS:
AYAKO HAMADA vs. MARY APACHE:

Mary greets Ayako with a dropkick before she even gets in the ring, then they do a rolling sequence that actually works a bit, and then they alternate lucha-style submissions of various complexity. Ayako does a rope-walk (to a completely fresh opponent?), egging on the fans for a better reaction, then hits a springboard twisting dive. Mary catches her with a superplex, but runs into a powerslam. Mary goes for the superplex again and takes a sunset flip superbomb, but dodges Ayako’s springboard moonsault. Mary signals her Michinoku Driver, but Ayako flips back into a good DDT, pumps up the fans a bit, then charges right into a lariat. Ayako goes for a palm thrust when Mary climbs, but tries a super frankensteiner and Mary holds on and swings her into a Superbomb for the pin at (8:58). Actually not a bad little sprint! Ayako has finally learned some character bits (much as a lot of it is “try to pump up the fans while being mid-move”, which always looks like a bad tactical decision that somehow just doesn’t backfire) and Mary’s offense is precise and well-executed.

Rating: ** (just fine for what it was- a Spotfest with lucha spots to start)

AKINO vs. CHAPARRITA ASARI:
* For the sake of clarity, AKINO will just be called “Akino” here since the names otherwise look too similar in print.

Akino goes to one knee to “prove” she won’t jump ASARI before the bell, but of course tries a jujigatame from there. Fun reversal as Akino just sits on ASARI when she tries her mule kick, and she works the back for a while. ASARI gets a good rana for two, then a dive, but Akino keeps going for her arm. I’m digging the psychology of styles here, with Akino going for submissions and ASARI being able to counter with superior speed, though Akino is “actually” faster. To indicate that, she catches ASARI with a sneaky dropkick by hopping over the ropes, then hits her tope con hilo, impressing the fans. She gets a missile kick for two, but ASARI hits a tornado DDT after being put up top. Akino counters to a leglock and her run-up crossbody, but ASARI charges to the top to meet her, hitting a Super Frankensteiner, re-rolled, re-rolled again, and they try a couple more times until ASARI ends up on top for the three at (6:52 of 8:38 shown). Akino is a disrespectful shit after the match and whines in the back, too.

Rating: **1/2 (Actually quite good, with tactical displays shown, Akino dominating with submissions and ASARI having to rely on counters and speed, but Akino matching her own speed and being her superior at THAT, too, so ASARI really had to rely on timing and countering as Akino gets ahead of herself)

AJA KONG & MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA & HIROMI YAGI: So the top two stars of ARSION team up with midcarders, Yoshida having the ex-tag champ judoka and Aja being stuck with “Ms. Jesus Push”. This is immensely JIP, with Yoshida pulling on Omukai’s leg- Omukai’s in black frilly stuff. Yoshida quickly “gets caught” with a kick and takes three Uranages, per instructor Sakie Hasegawa, for two. She nearly gets pinned trying to be too cute with a crucifix lift, but lands a solebutt. Aja slaps Yoshida, eats a German, then lariats her for two. Aja hits two straight Backdrop Drivers but Yoshida holds a facelock and starts going for the arm. Yagi flies off onto it and Yoshida tries again, then works her Modified Sleeper and finally TAPS AJA OUT to the jujigatame at (2:57 of 21:46 shown). Not nearly enough to rate with that amount of cutting, but Yoshida getting a clean win over Aja like that is pretty decent.

FINAL MATCH:
MARY APACHE vs. CHAPARRITA ASARI:
* Apache isn’t really the biggest star in the division and is kind of a dark horse here. But ASARI works for another company, so I dunno. Wait they announce her as “License #21” so she’s in ARSION full-time, never mind (edit: I guess this isn’t actually the case but she’s a “Freelancer” who is just always there). Mary’s now in a black bodysuit with red tassels.

They do a good job to start with Mary controlling ASARI with lucha holds and rolling counters- like everything ASARI tries has a counter, and her counters are countered. Mary even turns a leghold into an STF just by turning over and around- good stuff. ASARI gets her rana at last and all she has for holds is a crab, and Mary wheel kicks her to death. oh yeah, ASARI’s winning if she’s eating offense like this. ASARI takes a torture rack and tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, then a ROLLING surfboard as this is just a mauling. ASARI finally puts her on the floor and then hits a SKY TWISTER PRESS to the mats, but stupidly flies off into a rana attempt in the ring while Mary looks fine and eats a vicious powerbomb for two. Mary senses a win and hits a missile kick and monster cannonball to the floor. Big Ligerbomb gets two and it’s getting unbelievable that ASARI can come back. ASHe gets a couple of flash-pin attempts but charges into a big lariat, then gets countered into ANOTHER and barely kicks out. Mary, annoyed and wanting to end this, tries her somersault senton but crashes, but ASARI’s slow to capitalize and is tossed off- but that’s the last bit, as Mary goes up again and gets caught with that flipping wheelbarrow pin off the SECOND ROPE and that’s the flash-pin fluke ending at (7:36 of 10:51 shown). ASARI wins the tournament!

Man, Mary was KICKING ASS in here. Like, they just let her go uncorked and so she got move after move, just looking remarkably good and vicious in there. Her taking everything made ASARI’s kickouts seem more impressive as they went on, as it started to look impossible. Once ASARI’s flash-pins were exhausted it looked like they’d given the fans their last tease, then her own counter is countered and she scores on final one to win.

Rating: **3/4 (another very excellent showcase match- Mary carried the day and had a ton of great stuff leading to the banana-peel ending, but a solid 80/20 match)

Overall, a very good night for ASARI. She looked more like her old self, but a bit smarter as a worker than her old “relies on the opponent to carry the match and then does her flippy moves” style. Here, she had to play a smarter, more tactical game, flying around for the other person’s stuff before pulling out the stops with counters. Mary was even more impressive overall, though- tight offense, good match-carrying and more. She could do the lucha-submissions and then could fly as well as anyone else. In short, she’s the worker they wanted AYAKO to be. I don’t imagine it’s leading to a giant push (hell, she’s probably only in this spot because they didn’t want AKINO or Ayako jobbing in a prominent final match), but still. LCO invading ARSION is gonna have a much bigger impact than any “SKY Tournament” is ever going to have, though.