Joshi Spotlight: ARSION ZION ’99 Tournament

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- SUMMER CARNIVAL THE QUEENS:
(Aug. 6th & 22nd, 1999)
* It’s more ARSION! This time from a summer tour in bright-ass gymnasium-style shows. It’s always weird not seeing dark arena lighting. And we start off with the Queen of ARSION Title being defended in a bout with the company’s top two stars: Mariko Yoshida and Aja Kong! Shockingly even THAT match is clipped, though- this is a two-hour tape and they couldn’t fit their top belt’s match in full? It’s also the ZION ’99 Tournament on the Aug. 22nd show, featuring Aja, Rie, Futagami, Omukai, Fukawa and even LCO’s Mima Shimoda!

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

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. AJA KONG:
* We’ve seen this pairing a bit in ARSION thus far, but never in such a big context- the top belt in the promotion fought for by the top two stars. Both have been in the “Carrying Others” mode for more than a year by this point, usually trying their hardest to put over unready midcarders as threats. Yoshida has a taped left shoulder.

We’re almost immediately clipped to what looks like a late point, as Yoshida is unable to get some good arm submissions because of her shoulder. Aja gets a body attack and her flying back elbow for two. Aja stunners Yoshida out of a sleeper attempt, but ends up in several anklelocks. Yoshida gets a German, doing her “wobble-legs” sell after every move, and Aja turns her Air Raid Crash attempt into a backdrop driver. A lariat & Brainbuster keep up the damage, but Yoshida turns her kickout into a jujigatame & headscissors, then her Modified Sleeper, but Aja stretch mufflers her out of that. The crowd really isn’t feeling this one and the work is pretty anemic so far, but they pop a bit when Aja sells some armholds as big. This pays off when she catches a charging Yoshida with the Uraken, but her own arm hurts so much that both collapse! Aja blocks an armhold and tries the Uraken, but Yoshida BLOCKS it, and Aja’s sell of pain allows the Air Raid Crash to hit! Two! Modified Sleeper nearly hits, but she can’t get it flush and Aja rolls out. She plants Yoshida with a powerbomb out of another Crash attempt, but Yoshida gets the miracle kickout of the “slap them in the face” Uraken. That stunner finally gets a “Yo-shi-da!” chant going, and she tries a top-rope submission, but gets urakened (kinda) on the ground and just flops over dead- Aja can’t lift her up and tries a pin, then whips off the glove and the Bare-Handed Uraken finally finishes at (11:59 shown of 20:23). New Queen of ARSION!

A pretty weak, anemic match that got good in the last 4-5 minutes as they kept going for the same finishers. Some nice reversals and counters, but it took Yoshida kicking out of the surefire Uraken finish to actually get a really good crowd reaction. The “uraken out of a submission” spot didn’t really look good, as they were tangled up and Aja just hit a quick, short backhand and Yoshida did a normal sell until just flopping over dead and being dead-weight. We’re missing almost half the match, but the crowd- sparse and in a huge building, weren’t that loud.

Rating: **1/2 (perfectly fine. Which is a disappointment considering the stakes and the two workers)

With this win, Aja is now both the Queen of ARSION and the AAAW World Champion of GAEA Japan.

A good visual demonstration of the difference mass makes in perception- Michiko Omukai is very nearly as tall as Etsuko Mita, but stand them next to each other and one looks a dozen times more credible, because Mita isn’t so rail-thin.

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita) vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & MIKIKO FUTAGAMI:
* It’s LCO vs. ARSION continued! This time Omukai is paying off the shit-talking from the last LCO bout (where they crushed Yumi Fukawa & Rie Tamada). LCO are in matching navy blue & white gear, Omukai’s in black & Gami’s in blue.

Omukai is nearly as tall as Mita, giving a somewhat more impressive image than the dwarfish ARSION girls from last time, but Mita is MUCH more solid, and when she responds to a test of strength, reveals her hand is still almost a full hand higher than Omukai’s. It’s a good showing of how much of a difference mass makes- Omukai is still so lanky, Mita looking like she has 30-40 pounds on her. Omukai tries to use speed but catches two Blazing Chops regardless. Gami charges in with a rolling kick, but palm strikes her own partner and LCO beats them up. Team ARSION copy the LCO Pose and counter-bite, Shimoda doing a good job selling things with that look of annoyance and “how dare you do offense to me!?” that makes her such a great heel. We’re clipped to a dead Gami springing to life on Mita, countering the DVD with a submission. Clipped to Omukai’s savate kick on Shimoda for two, but Mita sets up the ax kick from her partner. Then it’s a WEIRD bit as a dogpile ends Omukai’s Razor’s Edge attempt, but LCO try a DVD/Somersault Ax Kick and instead Mita just DVD’s Gami and Omukai completes the move solo, then hauls down Omukai after a regular one (why is she still just standing) into the “Fuck YOU!” bridge. But LCO sets up the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) at (6:36 of 26:33 shown).

A weird one, as they clip it so badly it’s basically three separate pieces of a HUGELY long match, but it’s a blatant Omukai lovefest, as she’s in nearly every segment. Her stuff looks loose and she doesn’t well well, either- she’s eating Shimoda’s ax kicks and just kinda does the “stand their flopping around” thing. But LCO easily defeat their opponents- no near-falls seem close to pinning them and they just overwhelm Team ARSION and hit tons of unanswered moves.

Rating: N/A (not enough of the match was shown to adequately rate it. It looked about **-ish, like a basic-ass house show match)

A LONG shit-talking sequence goes on after the match, Shimoda getting into it with Aja, Yoshida hitting ringside, one of the Morenos piping up, Omukai saying things, etc. Seems like everyone hates LCO. ie. it’s a Tuesday.

ZION ’99 TOURNAMENT:
-oh jesus another ARSION tournament. This is apparently a total Rossy Ogawa thing, as we get never-ending one-night tournaments in this company. But yeah, just like 1998, we get an ARS and a ZION tournament.

The Participants:
Rie Tamada: Lifelong AJW scrub/midcarder, now in a similar role in ARSION, but a former Tag Champion. Probably in the “puts over others they actually want to push” zone already.
Michiko Omukai: The winner of last year’s tournament, with an idea to push her as far as they can.
Hiromi Yagi: Tamada’s tag partner and a judo expert. Fought Yoshida to the limit earlier in the year but is just a midcarder now.
Mikiko Futagami: Initially got a push as ARSION’s “Shooter” tough-girl, but is now a midcarder.
Aja Kong: The Champ. She’s lost in the both prior tournaments via flukes (to Reggie & Candy).
Yumi Fukawa: Tiny and cute, she’s nearly destined for a push but is always in that “looks spirited in a crushing defeat” mode.
Mima Shimoda: One half of LCO pops up for some reason. An invader hated by everyone. As a freelancer, I can’t imagine she’s gonna lose early.
Mariko Yoshida: She drops out of the tournament immediately beforehand due to injury.

FIRST ROUND:
RIE TAMADA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
Actually looks pretty hard-fought, with Omukai throwing high kicks and knees to the face while Rie tries to use speed and mobility. Omukai actually catches her off the top in mid-air. Rie hits a cannonball from the top to the floor, but we’re clipped to Omukai high-kicking her. Ugly spot as a German is supposed to have Rie land on her feet but she just lands on her face and no-sells it instead. She hits two missile kicks and blocks a kick with a NASTY fisherman’s buster, Omukai barely getting a foot on the ropes. Rie tries to pick her up, but Omukai clocks her, Rie rolls her up out of the Razor’s Edge, but Omukai hits the savate kick for the pin at (4:28 of 5:36 shown), Rie doing the “struggling hard to kick out to the point where it doesn’t look like she was actually pinned”. Obviously a “loser dominates the entire match to make it look better when she’s pinned” match.

Rating: *1/2 (I was thinking this was “too clipped for a fair rating” but they only took out a minute, haha- mostly Rie doing an exhibition of moves until Omukai randomly springs to life and comes back. A couple nice moves, but an uninteresting bout)

AJA KONG vs. HIROMI YAGI: Just a handful of assorted moves- Yagi hits a dive & missile kick, then works over Aja’s ankle, but misses a flying stomp to it and Aja hits La Majistral for three (5:14). Two minutes shown.

MIMA SHIMODA vs. YUMI FUKAWA:

Looks like the full match is shown. Once again, Yumi being a full head shorter than MIMA SHIMODA is eye-opening. Fukawa keeps hitting submissions, leaving Shimoda growling with her gravel-voice and flailing, and she just ignores a missile kick and kicks Yumi’s ass with her sheer size. Shimoda shows her respect for the submission-style ARSION was going for by trying to pull out Yumi’s hair and eyes during a choke, but Yumi eventually snaps on a series of armholds that leave Shimoda scrambling. Her having no real grappling-defense makes it a fun contrast, because she’s left just flailing, growling, and using her size to reach over or make the ropes. Or just punch the shit out of her. Shimoda finally reverses to a release double-underhook powerbomb (OUCH) but Fukawa’s got another hold on! Weirdest Tiger Suplex ever gets two for Shimoda (lol she’s like curled over onto her side for some reason), but Yumi counters again and gets Mandatory ARSION Missile Kicks, flies off onto feet, and eats the ax kick. Somersault version misses, but she ignores Yumi’s horrible ax kick and does her own for two. They botch a superplex reversal but thankfully immediately go to a submission attempt, but messes up a bridging suplex and tries the arm again. Shimoda finally clocks her out of a charge, and the Somersault Ax Kick… gets two! lol already letting midcarders kick out of that. Death Lake Driver finishes at (9:48 of 10:27 shown).

ehhhhhhhhhhhh fine, but not great. They played up how Fukawa’s submissions could counter Shimoda’s size and experience advantage a bit, but the submissions weren’t sold with “OH GOD!” desperation and Shimoda more or less just confidently beat her opponent repeatedly. Then some stuff was messed up (on the superplex, Yumi popped into Shimoda’s arms while they were perched, not in mid-air; then Shimoda over-rolled on the suplex bridge). I like Shimoda adding another move to her chamber (most of the vets have long-since stopped adding offense) but she’s already letting 110-lb. kids kick out of it? Most of the match was sloppy, but at least it did what it was intended to do- show some Yumi kickouts and half-dominating the match, but losing in the end to a veteran.

Rating: **1/2 (the most 2.5 match to ever 2.5)

MIKIKO FUTAGAMI vs. RIE TAMADA: The three losers draw straws (literally) before the match to see who takes the injured Yoshida’s place. Rie uses, shockingly, Mandatory ARSION Missile Kicks to start, but gets kicked. Gami’s Super Rana is turned into a pin for two, but Gami does the same to a regular one, works a submission she can’t fully apply, then hits a pumphandle powerbomb for two. Rolling elbows, a blind missile kick & the Dragon Suplex get two, but Gami reverses a second to a Sleeperhold, passing Rie out at (3:16 of 8:07 shown). Seemed fine, but another typical Rie match. Interesting to have her job TWICE in one show like that.

SECOND ROUND:
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI:
Another full match. They grapple in DEAD SILENCE for like 2 minutes, which is actually disturbing, but Gami finally gets a reaction for kicking Omukai in the face and yelling. Rolling kick gets two, but Omukai gets a tiger suplex. Ax kick actually impresses the fans, but the springboard wheel kick gets two. Sleeper & pumphandle flip toss by Gami, but Omukai FIRES UP and hits the savate kick for two. She charges into Gami’s palm thrust but gets German’d, but turns the pin into a top hammerlock then a Fujiwara and Omukai’s SCREAMING, actually putting in some effort on selling for once. That earns her a decent reaction for making the ropes- Gami’s lariat hits, but Omukai slugs her down, but Gami counters the Razor’s Edge with an uraken that has some STANK on it (jesus, that sound), getting two. Running palm thrust flat-backs Omukai for a “9” count. She weakly gets to her feet and eats a Brainbuster, but KICKS OUT AT ONE and magically springs to life, hitting an Uranage for two, now being totally fine… until her Limit Break runs out or whatever, and she flops down again. Lariat & pumphandle powerbomb get two for Gami, but she charges into a palm of OMUKAI’s, only to roll her up right away. Omukai’s done for… but springs to life again and hits a savate kick into the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge at (7:38 of 9:31 shown).

This has a lot of the “Typical Omukai Stuff”, as her Rocket Push continues and we’re getting to see what kind of worker she’s developing into. Seems like she’s still too lanky and clumsy with a lot of her movements, and her default “go-to” is “eat a big move, then get up and ROAR TO LIFE and hit a big move” which looks weird on an physically unimpressive wrestler (like AJA KONG could get away with that, but Omukai?), especially since the move is a savate kick with too tight a rotation and a limp kicking portion so it doesn’t look that impactful. Then it seems like everyone has to wrestle their match AROUND her- controlling the offense and hitting big moves, then inevitably charging in and getting countered to an Omukai thing. Hell, nearly every single transition was “charge into a move or have the other person spin out of one”. Then of course the Uranage bit is pure “Omukaiberg” as she just no-sells ENTIRELY, but then she’s back to selling again! Like it’s not just “no-selling”, it’s an inconsistent “stop and start” where you don’t know where the match is going because it seems to be totally arbitrary whether or not Omukai will sell it like death or roar to life. And so she ends up hitting 6-7 of these roaring comebacks PER MATCH instead of timing it to just have one or two. Like Hulk Hogan wasn’t exactly Ric Flair in-ring but he knew to have only two major comebacks, y’know?

Rating: *1/2 (immensely flawed, annoying-ass match. Gami’s stuff looked good but she was up against the Random Omukai Comeback Pattern)

AJA KONG vs. MIMA SHIMODA:
Shimoda doesn’t wrestle a ton of singles, much less against the top stars. She agrees to a double-knucklelock for some reason and gets her ass kicked- thankfully Shimoda is one of the best ever at taking an ass-kicking, going all-out with the snarl and holding her limbs in agony as Aja pummels her. Aja even laughs off her comeback and lariats her down, and we’re clipped to ANOTHER comeback failing, but Aja telegraphs her flying back elbow and Shimoda first tries the DL Driver, then avoids the elbow when tossed off. Ax Kick gets two, then another hits but she goes up and takes a particularly nasty bump missing a dropkick. Shimoda misses her Somersault Ax Kick but kicks out after Aja’s Brainbuster, then rolls her up out of an Uraken and we even get the return of the old “sunset flip powerbomb counter” spot. Shimoda misses another ax kick and eats the full Uraken… but when Aja goes for the pin, Shimoda rolls her up FOR THREE at (6:45 of 7:44 shown)! Dear god, ANOTHER banana peel finish, and against the champion!

This one wasn’t bad, as few take a beating like Shimoda, but it’s quite short AND has a weak finish, as Shimoda takes one of Aja’s most reliable finishers and just “NOPE! Pinfall!”. Common to ARSION by this point, but it’s still weird. Naturally Aja scores nearly all the offense because she’s losing.

Rating: **1/2 (they’re both too good to have it NOT be good, but it’s mostly the “Total dominance into a banana peel finish” ending)

TOURNAMENT SKY PREMIUM:
CHAPARRITA ASARI, MARI APACHI, LINDA STARR & PRINCESS SUJEI vs. CAZAI (Candy Okutsu, Ayako Hamada, Mika Akino & Ai Fujita):
* ohhhhhhhhhhh dear, looks like it’s time for some FLIPZ. Some of the biggest spotfest workers in joshi puro up in here, and we finally get Candy’s full stable in one match. And it’s just ASARI (a freelancer) teaming up with three luchadoras. Starr is the blonde in pink, Sujei’s got the mask, and Apachi’s in a black bodysuit. ASARI’s in blue & white, Candy’s in black, Ayako’s in light blue, AKINO’s in slate-grey (I’ll just say “Akino” since I don’t feel like doing “ASARI & AKINO” all match long) & Fujita’s in black.

ASARI/Ayako stars, Akino running in and splattering ASARI when she tries her cartwheel mule kick (lol, nice). But Mari tanks a quadruple-kick and just runs the field of CAZAI with lariats. They work over Fujita for a sec (the Latinas scoring a horrible attempt at a triple-dropkick sandwich so mistimed it’s like “meh- close enough”), then we’re clipped to dives to the floor (check poor Sujei repositioning cuz she’s going in wrong, then still miss and dive straight to the floor). Akino gets her wicked tope con hilo after a tease earlier. Mari & Ayako do good springboards. Then ASARI does a Sky Twister Press SUICIDA… almost literally, as she eats the floor. RIP her hips. Poor ASARI is clearly in AGONY as she’s limping around the ring doing slow spots with Candy (the only person on CAZAI I trust to play it safe with an injured person), doing only a short bit before collapsing in her corner. They do goofy spots while Candy’s in a surfboard, Mari trucks her with a lariat, and Ayako get a lionsault press for two. Sujei tosses Ayako off the top for two, gets a decent crucifix out of a spinning slam, but runs into a Ligerbomb. That finishes the deal, as CAZAI holds off the other three for an unrealistic amount of time while each girl hits Sujei with a high flying move, Candy’s Moonsault finishing at (9:04 of 11:01 shown).

Just a collection of spots- when people deride spotfests, this is what they mean- no real build-up to anything, just flipping around and hitting big moves. And most of the suicide dives weren’t even hit right! Poor ASARI just annihilated herself (she appears to miss very little time, judging by Cagematch, but it says a lot that I had to check) and others missed, too. Lucha/ARSION matches always tend to be pretty clunky because lucha is pretty intricate and ARSION always tosses in the rookies for these, which is a bad combo. And in this case the match doesn’t even really build to anything- it’s just CAZAI singling out the weakest person and hitting four unanswered moves for the win.

Rating: * (nothing much to it- nine minutes and I barely found it worth rating because it’s just a bunch of STUFF)

ZION ’99 TOURNAMENT:
FINAL ROUND:
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. MIMA SHIMODA:
* Yes, main eventing a show with Omukai/Shimoda. Don’t expect to see a lot of precise execution in THIS one. I mean, I love Shimoda but most of her shit is loose and sloppy at the best of times. At least she can sell and direct a match, unlike Omukai.

They scrap and throw clotheslines & kicks for a while until Omukai lands her savate kick and tries ARSION-style “roll them into submissions” stuff. Not as good as Yoshida but at least she’s trying. Bridging butterfly suplex gets two, a bad “missed missile kick” turns the tide, and Shimoda hits the ax kick but fails the tiger suplex and settles for a one-handed choke to wear her down. Omukai counters a whip and hits an overhead belly-to-belly, but Shimoda gets defiant from some running kicks and hits her usual weak “just throw ’em” German. Funny bit as Omukai does the full extension of a jujigatame and excites the crowd, only to remember this isn’t the finish so she arbitrarily sits up to “fight for it”. haha like the crowd pops and she’s like “oh shit” and undoes the extension so they can have a fight instead. Shimoda bails to sell it and gets beat up some more, but manages some ax kicks that Omukai sells in business-exposing ways (appearing to no-sell them but then just leaning backwards), then hits a powerbomb as her arm is now fine. Oh but Omukai tries for the juji again on the kickout, then hits a tiger suplex for two. But Shimoda avoids a savate kick and just punches her in the face, but gets suplexed & a terrible Uranage gets two. She ends up in two more, but avoids the Razor’s Edge and winds up savate kicked for two. Punch & Somersault Ax Kick, but now SHE gets punched down, and after two more tries, the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge gets three (12:53 of 13:03 shown). Omukai is the ZION ’99 Tournament winner!

A pretty scrappy, fighty match, which is Shimoda’s specialty, and takes advantage of the fact that nothing Omukai does can hit smoothly either, so now it doesn’t stand out. Not great, though- just a lot of scrambling for stuff and Omukai trying her same three moves over and over again until they work. And fighting for armbars, which Shimoda is good enough to sell, but not enough to really modify her own offense afterwards. And having to spam her ax kick (which is HORRIBLE and always whiffs to the point of exposing the business) wasn’t helping. Of course working like 30 minutes in one night will do that. At least we didn’t get any of Omukai’s “Spirited FIGHTING UP!” spots… which in and of itself is weird, because that was obviously a key to her offense in the Futagami match- instead, this one is just her dominating and eventually pinning Shimoda.

Rating: ** (another “the most xx match to ever xx”- it’s just a flat-out obvious ** match)

A… wow, a really mixed back of a show. No great matches, lotsa clipping, then some baffling decisions, weak matches, and more of the Omukaiberg push. Aja Kong winning the Queen of ARSION Title should be a big moment, but then of course she goes and suffers a fluke pin to Mima Shimoda- not exactly the most fearsome invader. I feel like all these fluke losses, WHILE FLUKES, have really deflated Aja’s aura- she’s gone from this invincible god who was crushing everyone alive from 1992-1996 and just turned her into an upper midcarder who nearly anyone can pin. And her matches have suffered too, mostly from having to carry all these scrubs to show them off and not just crush everyone who was so far beneath her (like she would have had this been her top run in Zenjo- compare her taking on Sakie Hasegawa in 1994-ish to here). Good effort from Shimoda today, though- wrestling about 30 minutes of matches in one night, and giving one of the better performances!