Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Carnival 1999 (LCO vs. HamaKINO!)

The main event! LCO vs. HamaKino for the tag titles!

ARSION CARNIVAL 1999:
* It’s time for more ARSION! In that pretty stained-glass building this time! The first match is from Dec. 11th and sees Chaparrita ASARI defend her 3WA Super Lightweight Belt against the small, scrappy Hiromi Yagi of ARSION, and the other matches are themed around the Twin Star of ARSION Tag League finale on Dec. 19th. And it’s capped off with maybe the best ARSION match of all time and one of the best joshi matches of the year, as Las Cachorras Orientales’ hellraising run through the promotion is capped off with a legendary assault of the “Super Rookie” tag team of Ayako Hamada & Mika AKINO- a couple of undersized 2nd-years going up against the evil heel goliaths of joshi puro!

LCO’s run through the industry at this point is pretty legendary, and for good reason- they come in, raise hell, then cap it off with some epic bloody matches.

YUMI FUKAWA vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* This is a rematch from the inaugural ARSION show. Candy still has Diesel pants but a much better top (gold & black). Candy impresses with some rapid-fire Tiger Mask spots (the tiger feint and spinning toehold takedown), but Fukawa counters with mat wrestling like a jujigatame & crossface, but misses a moonsault. Candy hits Rolling Germans, but her Tiger Suplex is countered to an anklelock… and she TAPS at (2:23 shown of 11:04)! Yumi beat Candy! Impressive!

LUCHA LIBRE RULES:
RIE TAMADA & LINDA STARR vs. AI FUJITA & MARI APACHE:
* The lower-ranked wrestlers do a “lucha match”. We start with Mari nailing her partner, who does a very lazy selljob and they both eat Linda’s flying plancha. Now it’s clipped to JUST the highspots- Fujita’s cartwheel handspring, Mari’s missile kick & tope con hilo (ow- her back), Fujita’s moonsault plancha, then Mari’s impressive “flip them up from a rana to a Ligerbomb” on Rie. Rie hits a sunset bomb on Mari, but takes Linda’s missile kick by mistake and La Majistral pins her. Linda manages a flying rana on Mari for three. Fujita hits her 450 Splash on Linda to win at (3:21 of 12:08 shown).

ARSION/TORYUMON:
MICHIKO OMUKAI & MAGNUM TOKYO vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI & SUMO “DANDY” FUJI:
* A pretty strange mix here- TOKYO & Omukai do a “stripper dance” to the ring to match TOKYO’s gimmick, both accepting stripper money from fans (you can practically hear Ogawa pounding one out to this). Magnum TOKYO is in black & pink trunks, Omukai’s in black frilly gear, Fuji’s in his black “Andre singlet” and Gami’s in all white.

We start with literally four minutes of comedy and no contact- just stances, until Gami & Fuji try dual “Ropewalks”, Gami clumsy and Fuji worse- both get crotched on the ropes as Fuji can’t even manage to balance himself (poor Omukai is DYING trying to base for him). More comedy, TOKYO messes up a dive to the floor and only barely gets it, then Omukai & Fuji do an elaborate bit of sex jokes when she hits a super rana (TOKYO helps). Gami kicks TOKYO in the nuts when he tries it on her, Gami kisses TOKYO in a chinlock, Fuji tries to sexually assault Omukai but is springboard dropkicked by TOKYO, then Fuji eats sandwhich savate kicks for two. He manages a chokeslam on TOKYO for two, but gets X-Factor’d and eats a Springboard Super Rana for two. He gets a brainbuster but Gami comes in, soon eating Omukai’s savate kick for two. Fuji gets a mother of a chokeslam on Omukai, but she Uranages Gami but gets smoked by the palm strike for two. But TOKYO comes in and nails Gami with his Pumphandle Michinoku Driver, setting her up for Omukai’s Sit-Out Razor’s Edge for the pin (13:04).

Pretty much half nonsense comedy and half “actually trying”, with the weirdness of men doing moves to women half their size, then helping the girls win. Vaguely uncomfortable in the “lol that chubby guy is gonna grab Omukai’s boobs!” sort of way but all for laughs, ending in a pretty legit manner (TOKYO hitting his finisher on a woman is a pretty big set-up move).

Rating: *1/2 (mostly goofy nonsense and not much psychology except for laughs)

WWWA SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE:
CHAPARRITA ASARI vs. HIROMI YAGI:
* Another clipped one sees ASARI defending her signature belt against Yagi… who I would think would outrank her, given her wrestling Yoshida to the brink earlier in the year and her status as a tag champion. But ShiroAbesPants on Reddit corrected me, indicating that as freelancers and in terms of experience, ASARI has her on every metric- she was a way bigger, more recognized star.

Yagi stops the Cartwheel Handspring Mule Kick with a quick anklelock, but we’re clipped to her taking a rana but hitting a judo flip into a jujigatame- for the second time on this set, someone completes that hold and it’s NOT sold as an obvious match-ender. Have they given up on Grapplefuckery now? Yagi gets a good German, but now she’s trapped in some armlocks as ASARI gives her a taste of her own medicine, but does the same to ASARI by hitting a rana into a big plancha and OW- ASARI’s head just CRACKS against the floor as her head misses the mat, and everyone rushes in to check after that distinctive “CLOP!” noise that can only be a skull hitting the hard floor. We’re clipped to a thankfully non-deceased Chapa hitting a plancha of her own, but Yagi chases her to the top for a Super Jujigatame, then pops up with a Lionsault as soon as ASARI escapes. ASARI hits a big Super Rana, but Yagi pops up right into a dramatic leglock for a near-fall. But Yagi charges right into an Attitude Era-style “kick to the gut then finisher” with a Michinoku Driver, Sky Twister Press, and another Driver, hitting her in succession for three (4:58 of 15:07 shown). Poor Yagi was working her ASS OFF for this one, hitting all kinds of great stuff, but was once again booked as “the one who jobs to the one we need to keep happy”. Both are freelancers, but ASARI probably isn’t about to job her title a second time that year. Matched looked **1/2-***-ish, mostly thanks to Yagi’s stuff (which is probably why they cut it this way, as she’s more commonly in ARSION).

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AJA KONG vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* Aja, in pink & black, defends the top belt against Yoshida, the woman she beat for it! Aja has spent the year as ARSION and GAEA Champion. Yoshida looks like she’s about to cry during the intros for some reason.

Aja dominates to start with a chokehold and backdrop driver, going slow & steady with regular shit-talk. Yoshida tries some rapid counters, but Aja beats her every step of the way and just slaps her to stop a rolling armbar attempt. However, Yoshida counters a big swing to a German, then catches a no-selling Aja with a boot to the face! Aja easily turns the Air Raid Crash into a powerbomb, however, but reaches down and gets pulled into the Crippler Crossface! And Yoshida transitions to the Rings of Saturn when Aja raises her arm, trying to grind her out. A bad Air Raid Crash (just a back bump) gets two to no reaction, and Aja just snags her with a sleeper out of another. But Yoshida manages to hook the ankle, Aja selling it by SCREAMING In agony… but I think that’s way too subtle a move to pull off in a wrestling ring, because nobody reacts. Yoshida fades and fades, the ref checking on her, but she finally gets a boot on the ropes for the first crowd reaction of the match. Yoshida finally recovers, and counters the Uraken, and cleverly manages to anticipate Aja’s next move when she rolls through an armbar by kicking her straight in the head again- unusual for AJA to get outgamed! Aja has strike after strike deflected and gets locked in a nasty hammerlock. Aja keeps writhing, so Yoshida switches to a jujigatame, then a keylock, but Aja manages to swat her away, then outgame YOSHIDA by anticipating the next head-kick and Urakens her! Aja bolts up after “2” and pins her at (8:18 of 12:16 shown).

There was some clever stuff here, though they have largely avoided the “ARSION Style” Yoshida helped create, because there was very little hold/counterhold stuff and more of a direct “Zenjo Style” to this one, and they hang in a basic sleeper for 1/3 of what was shown. The stuff with Yoshida hooking Aja’s leg in the hold went over everyone’s heads I think, so they had to to “anticipatory strikes” with those head-kicks, leading to an interesting thing where Aja’s reliable counters were themselves leading to her eating pin attempts, so she had to counter THAT when Yoshida began to over-rely on it. Though it’s kinda sad seeing such a basic finish to one of their matches- just hitting the old “uraken counter, then a proper uraken” after all that is a tad disappointing. Like, where’s Yoshida fighting for her own finishers, like a proper Air Raid or her Modified Sleeper? A dramatic Uraken kickout so Aja tries to uncork one of her other big moves? It just feels like the ending of an upper-midcard match, not one for the belt.

Rating: *** (good, but disappointing)

TWIN STARS OF ARSION TITLE MATCH:
AYAKO HAMADA & MIKA AKINO vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* So LCO have been raising hell in ARSION for half a year, largely laughing at their style and dissing their much shorter opposition- both women are giants compared to the typical trainee/midcarder these days, and their brutal, cheating-heavy style is only making it more one-sided. But now the typical “LCO Story” comes full circle, as their act is always “Enter, raise hell, talk shit, beat almost all the teams, then some triumphant natives take them on in a big finale”. ARSION has been spending the past 2 years trying to put over Hamada & AKINO, and now’s their chance. The video here shows the early bits of LCO’s run, shows them brutalizing Aja Kong (who is now treated like this beloved senior figure by HamaKINO when she’s a heel everywhere else), then the dramatic moments of AKINO & Hamada stepping up to shout them down while LCO blows them off or literally looms over them to emphasize the height difference. Mita’s in yellow & black, Shimoda’s in pink & black, and the champs are in their bitching “WrestleMania Whites”- white and black gear.

haha, the kids try the “jump them right at the bell” thing and Mita just holds up a banana-yellow chair to stymie them. Mita & AKINO spend ages circling, but then the kids spring their trap- Ayako attacks from behind and they double-team Mita to the floor and AKINO tope con hilos LCO out there! But uh-oh- Ayako quebradas her partner and LCO pounce, whipping them into chairs. I love the kids using all this rapid-fire double-teaming and precision and LCO just countering them with brute force and choking- Shimoda emphasizes this by hitting running straight boots to AKINO’s head and trying to gouge out her eyes. Biting commences, and Mita no-sells a comeback and just powers AKINO down. I love how LCO is filling time with stuff but not just doing bullshit. Like they aren’t doing much but AKINO will grab Mita’s leg to counter a crab-hold and Mita will respond by biting her shin- not a lot to it but it takes like a minute for the whole spot AND it fits the story of the match and their characters! AKINO finally escapes and Hamada actually SHOWS CHARISMA FOR ONCE, shouting for the crowd during the comeback, but Shimoda eventually stuffs her. Mita comes in and counters her just by “grabbing a leg and pushing”, then looms up to engage in a slap-war, but Ayako gives as good as she gets, and counters the Blazing Chop to a German (Mita’s look of seething rage as she gets up is great)- Mita just strangles her to break up the pin, but soon her brutish submissions are countered to more scientific stuff by Hamada (Mita talking shit in the bodyscissors and suddenly being made to sell by the squeeze produces a great reaction).

When you try to no-sell so they put on the squeeze.

Naturally Mita bites her way out (she’s been watching RINGS for counter ideas!), but a Lionsault nearly pins her and Hamada swings AKINO off her shoulders for a tornado DDT (Mita kicks off the apron as a shortcut to reposition for the next spot, haha). Mita gets her feet up on the splash and LCO hit their Assisted Tope/Dive combo and we get a second “toss them around outside” spot. But this time, Hamada gets SMOKED with an unprotected chairshot to the head and bleeds out on the floor and eats a piledriver through a table while AKINO gives as good as she gets in the split-screen. Finally they double-team AKINO while Shimoda gloriously wipes Ayako’s blood on Aja’s white shirt to be a shit about it. And NOW we get to the real meat of the match, with Ayako a crimson mask and LCO glorying in it, biting the cut and showing it off to the fans. AKINO herself bleeds badly from a chairshot, stumbling into the ring looking completely dead and dazed in some FANTASTIC selling, and her “breaking up the beating” consists of her just flopping into LCO and collapsing, haha. To be extra rude about it, LCO sit them in colored chairs, sarcastically clap to set up the spot, then do stereo running boots. Mita steps on a dead Ayako’s throat right in front of Aja, staring at her the whole time, and then there’s a great double-whammy bit where LCO handily avoid a “duck down and get them double-missile kicked” spot to disappoint the fans and make things look totally hopeless, only to end up in Stereo Germans! And then they get fired up into their tandem taunt and hit double dives! Aja flying in as their cheerleader is great as they get the momentum! Back in the ring, Ayako is like “YOU WANT CHEATING, BITCH?” and just lays into Mita with a pair of scissors or something until Shimoda chairs her in the back.

This means LCO takes back the lead, with Mita piledriving Hamada on a chair. Ayako collapses off a whip, and can’t even get a German reversal now- Mita fights her off and Shimoda chairshots her AGAIN. But now she MISSES and hits Mita, so AKINO runs in and Ayako goes absolutely apeshit with the chair, smashing LCO repeatedly and roaring to the fans. And when Mita hits her with the Blazing Chop to stop a chair, she just NO-SELLS and enzuigiris her ass down! This FINALLY gives her the opportunity to tag out, but AKINO just runs into Shimoda’s cheating missile kick and she’s Chopped down. But in a great bit, she flips out of the DVD and hits a rana right into a leghold, refusing to break when Mita grabs the ropes. She climbs and nearly gets caught in the Super Electric Chair Drop, but sunset bombs Mita down for two! But their slingshot rana is countered to a powerbomb for a nearfall. Folding Powerbomb- two. Shimoda comes in to gleefully dust off a fading AKINO, who can barely get up, and her counter is stopped by a chairshot from the apron- Ax Kick gets two, enraging Shimoda. Ayako’s missile kick buys AKINO the chance to hit a run-up flying sunset flip for two, but she can’t get anything going and Shimoda missile kicks her for two. Ayako finally just goes nuts with HEADBUTTS to bring Shimoda down into her Rolling Armbar finisher, but Mita chairs her in the head. Hamada still hits a DDT counter and goes up, but the Springboard Moonsault misses, and Shimoda puts her up top for the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex), then into the Flying Ax Kick- two! The crowd finally gets big into an Ayako comeback, the biggest reaction so far because she kicked out last second all on her own, but Mita hauls her dead body up for the Ax Kick/DVD. But Mita’s blocking is too lazy, so AKINO bolts past her for the break! Mita just hauls down AKINO and presses her to prevent this from happening again, but that leaves Shimoda completely alone against Hamada… who pops up to SHOTEI her up top, and she hits a Flying Ace Crusher… three (22:38)! HAMAKINO DEFEATS LCO!! What a comeback! Shimoda just got caught and couldn’t kick out in time to show just now narrow a win this was. Aja cradling Ayako’s dead, bloodied body is the cap-off to the whole thing as Mita threatens the referee

haha this was SO goddamned good. 10+ minutes of a pretty typical LCO match, which the kids working their best stuff with rapid pace and double-teams, but LCO just use brute force and ugly brawling to come back, making them look inevitable and kind of undeserving for doing so well. They kill some times in the best ways (doing character stuff), and finally it’s time for the “money” part of the match, with Ayako eats the mother of all chairshots and goes Full Crimson Mask, bleeding all over the place. Her selling isn’t as good as AKINO’s so it’s good that her bladejob is so much bigger, but AKINO was phenomenal, with a perfect “death stumble” while still looking like she was fighting. Her trying to “save” her partner was such a great spot, because the way she just rapidly stumbles across the ring and then collapses into LCO’s bodies puts over both her pure drive, and the uselessness of their situation. And then the double-reverse where HamaKINO does an old joshi standby spot to try and come back, have it fail utterly to make things look even worse, but trick the fans by THEN doing a double-comeback. The rest of the match is a lot of cut-off comebacks, as they go into a back & forth with everyone only hitting a few moves in succession before the counter comes, making the whole match unpredictable- what “should” be a rapid-fire kid comeback sees them chaired in the back to stop it dead, but then a heel rampage is suddenly cut off with a quick dodge or interference. HamaKINO start firing back with dirty fighting and cheating of their own to match LCO’s. And finally the kids get more and more little comebacks, always stopped by LCO, until finally it isn’t and they can steal one.

The finish is somewhat controversial from what I’ve seen- treated more as a fluke. But given how this match was 30 straight minutes of LCO’s complete destruction of the rookies, it makes sense that it’s a sudden reversal that turns the tide. LCO left their most vulnerable member alone to prevent AKINO from interfering, and that meant a last-minute counter could change the match. And like… Shimoda just eating a single move and getting pinned straight-out would kinda look out of place in the context of the match (where HamaKINO can’t get anything going long-term, and can’t even do much damage- their own offense is too piddly against these giants). Even Shimoda’s kickout out at 3.1 kind of fits things- the kids were “almost getting them” over and over again, so it was inevitable something actually would, AND it was a solid counter that stunned her more than killed her. It wasn’t a “kill their finish cuz you’re grumpy about jobbing” so much as a last-ditch move from a kid pinning the main eventer.

And thus, after like 2 years of trying, Hamada is finally over, as is AKINO- the fans give them a good send-off even as LCO whines (Shimoda’s “boo-hoo” face is why she’s such a great heel- selling the lost with whiny outrage to avoid drawing any sympathy). Major points to LCO for essentially carrying the offense for 20 minutes, then doing the selling of the counters (many of which were somewhat clumsy or could have looked bad given the size difference).

Rating: ****1/2 (one of the better LCO matches, and against a couple of 2nd-years!)

The next three matches feature the Twin Star of ARSION Tag League at ARSION from Dec. 19th, 1999, which seems to be a round robin. Other teams included Mariko Yoshida & Mikiko Futagami, Linda Star & Mari Apache, and Chaparrita ASARI & Hiromi Yagi.

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TAG LEAGUE:
SEMI FINALS:
AYAKO HAMADA & MIKA AKINO vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & YUMI FUKAWA:
* The “rising star division” of the company all faces each other in a clipped match!

After a decidedly poor shitcan-to-dives section, we see Fukawa “Kidman” out of a powerbomb & rana Ayako for two. Clipped to a flying Fukawa rana, then Ayako & Omukai do a not-quite-convincing exchange of running boots. Ayako with a lionsault but then they clumsily reposition themselves and try other stuff, and eats a German & missile kick to dead silence. Flying knee gets two, but Omukai runs into a palm strike and Ayako’s rolling submission for a near-fall. Ayako’s quebrada gets no reaction, then her team hits a leapfrog rana for two. AKINO gets ANOTHER rana, then fumbles around for an armbar, then Omukai just scores a random kick and wins with her Sit-Out Razor’s Edge at (6:01 of 11:50 shown). Man, this was ugly and then some. Ayako keeps having to reposition herself awkwardly after EVERYTHING, which kind of exposes the business each time, and they kind of aimlessly go through high spots to the point where even a very agile quebrada gets no reaction at all.

Rating: N/A (oddly, even with more than half the match shown I can’t really judge it because they clipped out everything BUT the moves… and it was leaning towards bowling shoe tendencies the whole way)

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TAG LEAGUE:
SEMI FINALS:
LOS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. AJA KONG & RIE TAMADA:
* Some ARSION originals take on the invading freelance LCO, who’ve been dissing ARSION the whole time. This is a short clip- Rie controls Mita for a bit until Aja accidentally lariats her, causing a fight between teammates. Mita uses the delay to hit a lariat & powerbomb on Rie, and Shimoda counters both her comebacks, allowing Mita to hit the Death Valley Driver for the easy win (3:02 of 16:39 shown). Aja doesn’t bother to help, showing the break between them.

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TAG LEAGUE:
FINAL MATCH:
LOS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & YUMI FUKAWA:
* Shimoda now swaps her red & black getup for mostly pink, which looks weird on her. This is the final match of the Tag League.

Shimoda takes a beating from Omukai, Fukawa sneaking in with a missile kick, but Omukai tries a tiger suplex on her and Shimoda counters to her own since it’s basically her signature. Mita just casually electric chair drops her but Omukai springs out of the Shimoda splash, and Fukawa breaks up a German and flings back Mita with some help. These “complex reversals” are coming off pretty clunky. Mita keeps hitting these half-effort blazing chops (no scream beforehand!), but flat-backs off an Omukai spinkick and struggles to escape Fukawa’s armbar, then another, then a rana sees her have to get out of a third as Fukawa is PERSISTENT with these jujigatames if nothing else. Shimoda just piefaces her when she tries more stuff- she ends up over-swinging and gets German’d, but manages her own on Omukai to stop a double-team and hit their weak Double Superbomb on Fukawa for two. Yumi manages a nice cradle backdrop hold, but escapes and Omukai clocks Shimoda, only to end up in the Ax Kick/DVD for two, Shimoda holding her head and grimacing as she covers because she rules. Everyone misses kicks and does shoteis until Omukai hauls up Shimoda for the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge- SHOCKED KICKOUT FACE! She tries more stuff, but Mita blazing chops her in the back and Shimoda hits an Ax Kick- Omukai struggles the whole way and kicks out at 3.1, but that’s the end at (6:40). LCO get on the mic and talk shit to all of ARSION afterwards, as Aja is nonplussed, Rie looks defeated… but Mikiko Futagami pipes up, standing on a table and drawing a bit of a reaction (and amusement from LCO) for her response. This might just be them getting an agreed-upon win after jobbing to the tag champs.

Perfectly fine little match, but highly abridged from some presumably tired people. Fukawa in it only to do her armbar attempts on Mita, and the back half was mostly Shimoda/Omukai. 7 minutes just isn’t enough time to tell a more elaborate story than that, but mostly it’s LCO interfering so they can win, not that this finish was particularly decisive. It’s kinda funny seeing Omukai kick out of the Ax Kick/DVD combo but fall to a single weak ax kick.

Rating: **1/4 (solid little half-match with an indecisive ending)