Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Stardom 2000

https://archive.org/details/arsion-2nd-anniversary-stardom-2000-01-30-02-18-2000

This one’s available on Archive.org.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- SECOND ANNIVERSARY STARDOM:
(Jan. 30th & Feb. 18th 2000)
* Thank God I found something for 2000 that wasn’t just more GAEA. It’s a pair of winter shows for Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION- this is ARSION’s second anniversary show, leading to a pair of HamaKINO Title defenses against Futagami/Tamada (who have no chance) and Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida (who definitely do). We also get Aja defending her belt against Candy Okutsu, and a whole bunch of stables forming as Rossy Ogawa gets a new idea- FACTIONMANIA RUNNING WILD! By the end of the tape, ARSION, a company with like 20 active wrestlers, will have three factions in it.

JAN. 30th:

FABI APACHE vs. AI FUJITA:
* Newbie Fujita takes on one of the luchadoras they sometimes feature. Clipped to less than 2 minutes, with Fujita hitting a moonsault to the floor and another dive in the ring, then misses a moonsault. She kicks out of La Majistral but is pinned by a Sit-Out Pedigree at (1:27 of 6:20 shown).

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. LINDA STARR:
* The former top star takes on one of the lower-ranked lucha ladies (the blonde one in neon pink). They start with a spinning armbar routine, then we get clips of Starr hitting high-flying moves. Looks mostly like Yoshida is going all-in to put her over, getting caught with stuff and nearly losing to flash-pins. She then just hits a kick to the face, powerbomb, and Modified Sleeper for the tap-out at (2:14 of 9:07 shown).

ETSUKO MITA & MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. MIMA SHIMODA & YUMI FUKAWA:
* !!! Okay- THAT”s an interesting idea. Splitting up LCO to be on different sides and pairing them with ARSION’s rising stars. Mita’s in pink, Omukai’s in red/black, Shimoda’s in red and Fukawa’s in powder blue.

The juniors hit LCO with Stereo Germans on the pre-match handshake, and we’re clipped to Omukai trapping Shimoda in a variety of upper body holds, then Mita casually bullying Fukawa, who manages a couple weak submission holds. Funny bit sees Omukai do the Mita “helicopter hair whirl” on Fukawa, then tag Mita in for the proper version. The giants then press tiny Fukawa up and drop her face-first, then Mita powerbombs her for two. Shimoda works a tiny bit with Mita (which you’d think would be hte POINT of doing this match), being scrappy with her but Mita casually hitting the Blazing Chop and tagging out. Omukai swipes Shimoda’s ax kick for two, but eats it herself and kicks out at one. Shimoda with the Somersault Ax Kick, but Omukai does the “Fuck YOUUUUU!” bridge and Mita sneaks in for the Death Valley Driver on her typical partner. She also chops Shimoda to set up an ax kick into the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge, and Fukawa breaks up the pin just as time expires at (7:19 of 20:00 shown). Looked like it was pretty decent, but so full of clipping you never got the full story. In a US-style tag, we’d probably have seen a lot of “they know each other” spots with LCO, but here they just work a standard tag match with no greater psychology. They are set to wrestle later in the tape, too!

Rating: ** (looks about that from what we get, but who knows?)

We see clips of a Jan. 7th show with what looks like 20 fans in attendance. Holy crap why show this? It’s mostly random people arguing and fighting.

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLES:
AYAKO HAMADA & AKINO vs. MIKIKO FUTAGAMI & RIE TAMADA:
* A weird Tag Title defense sees HamaKINO take on a pair of random midcarders. Tamada is painfully generic but was tag champ last year I guess. The champs are in white & black, while the challengers look like a real team, in shiny red outfits. Rie now has her hair heavily crimped.

We get a lot of clipping, with a crowd fight leading to double-teaming on AKINO and an assisted-sitout facebuster on Hamada. They get their own double-teams on Rie, like an assisted tornado DDT off Hamada’s shoulders, and her Ligerbomb gets two. Gami repeatedly interferes, but Hamada hits her top-rope Quebrada on them, only for AKINO to accidentally nail her with her tope con hilo. Rie hits a somersault dive to both and Gami takes care of the champs in the ring, and escapes a jujigatame with a RINGS-style “jam her fingers in the face” move. Pumphandle bomb gets two. Hamada sets up a superduperplex into a flying splash for two, threading right into a great jujigatame spot that has Gami actually screaming in desperation. Hamada hits a springboard moonsault, but Gami goozles her on the kickout like a champ, then hitting a Northern Lights into a Super Rana for two while Rie assists and runs interference. Hamada eats a missile kick from Rie for two, then avoids another pumphandle but her German is kicked out of with a keylock. Double uranage sets up two flying moves for two. Rie with a dragon suplex and Gami hits a flash-pin and goes up, stopping Ayako’s usual shotei with a bitchslap, but AKINO charges in and that lets Ayako hit the move for real and a Super Cutter finishes at (10:13 of 16:46 shown).

Man, where has THIS Gami been? Futagami kicked ASS in this match, hitting all sorts of cool counters, selling her ass off, and firing off repeated submissions and chokes from a prone position. Rie was her usual “just a warm body” self but her constant interference made for some drama as Gami was able to always find space to hit her moves. The match wasn’t really OVER (a tiny crowd and the Champs still aren’t permanently over, plus I don’t think there was any drama as to who was winning). It took till the very end for the fans to start popping for some kickouts, and the ending was kind of disappointing- instead of a lot of flurrying drama and desperation, AKINO just interrupts one move and Ayako scores the pin. Essentially the whole last 4 minutes looked like it was just Hamada & Gami trading stuff with some interference. I’ll say Hamada’s selling has greatly improved, now learning how to struggle for the ropes and look pained. That goes a long way towards getting someone more over.

Rating: **3/4 (looked like it was getting really good and had a great effort from Futagami)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AJA KONG vs. CANDY OKUTSU:
* Bugger me we’re still trying with Candy, haha. Candy’s dropped her Diesel lookalike gear for white & black like her CAZAI partners from the last match. Still similar pants, I guess. Aja’s in pink & black.

Candy quickly hits a run-up dive & Tiger Feints, then fights out of a test of strength (lol, yeah right) and lands an octopus stretch, but charges into a lariat. Candy gets the usual sunset powerbomb reversal out of the Waterwheel Drop, then a flying stomp into her moonsault for two. Aja manages a powerbomb, but climbs again and gets bombed off for two. Aja can’t get a full Uraken but a quick counter one gets two, but she’s caught with a Super Rana for two. Candy charges into some Backdrop Drivers, ducks an Uraken, and eats the Brainbuster for two, backslides out of another Uraken, but builds her SmackDown! meter and walks right into an Uraken like a dumbass for three at (8:07 of 16:13 shown). Well that was succinct. Aja does a promo after, and now Yoshida’s out to challenge (AGAIN?). The match looked fine, but VERY “By the Numbers”, with them going right into Aja’s finishing routine, Candy hitting the typical expected counters and kicking out of some stuff, but being dusted off with a simple Uraken outta nowhere.

Rating: **1/2 (we only get half of it and the finish was pretty standard-issue, but they’re too good NOT to hit this, and it was competently wrestled and pretty tight the whole way through)

FEB 18th:
* This show is from Korakuen Hall.

GAMI vs. RENA TAKASE: Another newbie debuts! Rena is a short-haired generic-looking chick in a blue/grey version of Fukawa’s usual gear. Gami’s in red. The match is a pretty good rookie version of ARSION’s old “Grappling” style, Takase going for stuff but getting handily countered by the superior veteran. And suddenly time’s over at (2:45 of 3:00 shown). well okay then. Rena did a good headlock takeover throw and some decent selling but otherwise didn’t get to show much.

LINDA STARR & AI FUJITA vs. MARI & FABI APACHE:
* Lucha style! Fujita’s in black, Starr’s in pink, Mari’s in black & white and Fabi’s in white with black. Same gear in reverse colors for the Apaches- I always liked that.

Fujita gets some impressive flips and then do the “trip and cover” lucha sequence for a “Pause For Applause” spot. Fabi rolls them both out and the Apaches do tandem dives, and Fujita works some decent stuff with both Apaches, looking a million times more competent than last year. Starr powerbombs Fabi for two, but Fabi counters another to a mid-air Fameasser for the same. Fabi then wheelbarrows her into a FLYING Fameasser from Mari, but not only does the crowd not react, but they ignore the move to attempt a powerbomb, Starr Kidmanning out and immediately doing a taunt with zero selling. Starr with a great rana, but Mari cannonballs both women on the floor. Fabi corkscrews and Starr dives after, then Fujita moonsaults out. Starr hits a Rey-style flying rana for two, but Mari counters a flying one and hits a Ligerbomb for two, impressively stopping Starr’s rana swing in the process. Mari & Starr do some weak stuff (Mari’s gutwrench Emerald Flosion being countered to a rollup) as things break down and they’re just kinda playing grab-ass with it at this point, but Fabi suplex-lifts Starr into Mari’s Splash Mountain (razor’s edge off the TOP), only for Starr to hit a rana for two. Starr charges in straight into Mari’s Flosion for three (6:26 of 16:30 shown).

haha wow that was actually REALLY impressive considering how bad the matches usually are involving these four. Fujita looks a million times more competent against proper lucha-trained people that her own promotion’s typical wrestlers, as she’s right there in tight sequences and counters. Starr looked impressive, too, as did Fabi. The only issue here is the selling- Starr got hit with an AMAZING move (charging into a wheelbarrow sit-out slam/fameasser off the top) and just immediately pops right back up as if nothing happened and hits super-tight offense. This is pretty much the story of the match, and suddenly things get weaker as Mari starts struggling with Starr as they kinda get lost in the weeds and likely have filled in too much of their match plan and have nothing else to go on. And it’s just a random counter on Starr, who now arbitrarily sells, and that’s the ballgame. Fujita wasn’t even in the last half of the match, really- I think the language barrier meant she could only be in the simple stuff earlier, haha. So the match had flaws, but was well-wrestled for most of it and actually got over- the Korakuen Hall crowd was

Rating: **3/4 (a fascinating match in terms of great offense and unusual counters, but a complete lack of selling)

GAMI & RIE TAMADA vs. CANDY OKUTSU & HIROMI YAGI:
* We see clips of GAMITamada beating Candy’s team on a prior show, and now she’s teamed with Yagi for revenge. Mikiko Futagami is now just “GAMI”. Candy & Yagi appaear simpatico with white & black gear.

Candy’s team attacks right away to start, but she comes back with a ligerbomb on Rie and fires away on both women. But she ends up double-teamed repeatedly, eating a stunner, then a superkick into a German- Yagi gets caught up with the referee for a comically long time as Candy just eats a ton of offense like a Super rana & missile kick, but she ligerbombs Rie again- Yagi does the bare minimum and immediately hops out to tag an exhausted Candy. haha I had this spoiled ahead of time but I’d like to think this would be obvious looking at it live- Yagi gets knocked to the floor and is like DEAD, so Candy’s comeback fails as she has nobody to tag, then she missile kicks her own partner when GAMI moves. Increasingly wiped out, you can see Candy fading as they tee off on her, hitting the Assisted X-Factor for two. Another comeback ends when Yagi just openly trips her. Candy eats the big Shotei palm strike, but GAMI pulls her up and ends up eating a super rana herself, but Yagi pulls Candy over and GAMI scores the three at (6:20 of 7:00 shown). See, Yagi has joined GAMI’s stable in secret, turning on her partner! So she’s allied with former tag champ partner Rie again.

Rating: **1/4 (Actually a well-wrestled match that told a succinct story- everyone’s offense was super tight and Candy did a good job of wrestling like she was being steadily worn down and incapable of taking such a protracted assault)

ETSUKO MITA & YUMI FUKAWA vs. MIMA SHIMODA & MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* A rematch! But with the ARSION girls swapped! We get a clip from another show of Shimoda handily tapping out Fukawa with the Liontamer of all things. Omukai, meanwhile, ligerbombs Mita but the time expires before the ref counts all the way. Another one sees Mita demolish Fukawa with the DVD and carry her away, and then Shimoda beats Omukai with a straight right to the face. Weird seeing kinda-lower-ranked Shimoda pinning heavily-pushed Omukai.

Omukai does the LCO hair whip to Fukawa to start, followed by other LCO spots like the assisted flying overhand and the Bitch Pose. Mita/Shimoda this time is great fun, as they take turns biting each other and Mita Blazing Chops her usual partner and hair whips her. Clipped to Mita eating double-teams but Fukawa assists her and she chops Omukai down. Omukai manages a Tiger Suplex on Mita out of a DVD attempt, but Fukawa assists with the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop on Shimoda. But Fukawa quickly gets demolished by Shimoda- it’s always funny seeing her look like a literal giant against the tiny wrestlers. Almost nobody projected “smaller” than Shimoda during the 1987-1994 era, so seeing her against the Midget Generation is always a weird experience. Shimoda gets cocky against Fukawa but manages her Ax Kick for two, but misses her Somersault Ax Kick and ends up in a jujigatame, half-heartedly selling it (looks like even ARSION has given up on that move as a match-ender).

\Shimoda keeps getting caught with counters and actually bolts away to escape Fukawa in a good bit to put her over, and Omukai fares little better. She manages a superplex, but Shimoda flies in onto Fukawa’s feet and Omukai’s uranage is countered to an anklelock- Fukawa getting all this shine means she’s eating the pin, doesn’t it? She finally swings wildly into an uranage, and a second gets two. Fukawa eats more and more stuff, including a Flying Enzuiknee into Shimoda’s Somersault Ax Kick (which FLATTENS her as Shimoda ass-slams her right on the back), getting two. Mita accidentally chops her partner to assist the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge, but Fukawa AGAIN kicks out. But Yumi’s done, stumbling around as Shimoda throws some comically whiffed punches, and Omukai finishes with a big right hand at (10:47 of 17:00 shown). Putting over Fukawa’s perseverence. Not much attempts at saving from Mita, though. After the match, everyone is all hugs, putting over Fukawa and carrying her around- is this when she reveals she has to retire? Nah, Mike Lorefice says that “VIP” formed after the match- a Mita/Shimoda/Fukawa/Omukai stable!

A pretty good, fun match, though everyone mostly seemed to be wrestling at half-speed here, especially Shimoda (who looks like she’s slowing down to emphasize the size difference between her & Fukawa- like she needs to do “Godzilla” spots and be a powerhouse brawler for once and thus “miss” a lot). Omukai appeared to be trying hard with her selling, and Fukawa did some good “cross-eyed on impact” sells from big moves. Mita was practically a non-entity, just doing her basic spots in the beginning and some attempts at finishers later on. But she had zero mania or effort to her stuff later on, barely trying to help Fukawa, who spent most of the last 8 or so minutes either doing or eating offense. So it comes off like more of a Fukawa Showcase than anything, featuring her big counters, grappling moves, and perseverance against big moves. I’d say it’s kinda unwise to have her kick out of so many finishers, though- she’s TINY and at least some of that could have Mita helping. Which would also have shown more drama and effort from her.

Rating: *** (a very solid match, mostly through Fukawa’s efforts)

(This one is at least on YouTube)

TWINSTAR OF ARSION TITLE:
AYAKO HAMADA & AKINO vs. AJA KONG & MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* Incredibly, ARSION now pits their inexperienced tag champs against the two top wrestlers in the promotion- the only two Queen of ARSION Champs in Aja & Yoshida.

Yoshida/AKINO start with a super-fast mat exchange that leaves the ones Omukai/Fukawa were doing in the dust, Yoshida dominating but AKINO scores some bootscrapes and acts like a jerk, earning a beatdown for it. Aja works her over in methodical fashion, and when Hamada charges in all hot Yoshida easily schools her repeatedly. Aja slaps the shit out of her and I’m liking Hamada’s snarling defiance- she’s getting stuffed at every turn but she’s very growly about it and won’t let Aja just steamroll her. Hamada scores a DDT and we’re clipped to the sunset bomb reversal of the Waterwheel Drop but Aja’s still too smart AND too strong for her, hitting the backdrop driver. They do a bit where Aja leapfrogs AKINO into Hamada, but they turn that into their Assisted Tornado DDT thing, but it was a bit clunky and sucked. But it still lets them press the advantage- Hamada can now counter the counters, catching Aja with an enzuigiri after failing it earlier in the match, then hitting a Springboard Moonsault on her second try. AKINO hits a rana into a jujigatame, then Hamada holds the arm so AKINO can flying stomp it. The arm pressure keeps Aja off her game for a while, but we’re clipped to Aja powerbombing AKINO out of the Leapfrog Rana spot and lariating Hamada, and here’s Yoshida with a powerbomb & anklelock. They keep clipping us to what looks like seconds ahead and it’s weird. Yoshida hits a nasty facelock/keylock with her arms linked, and Hamada has to help out against Aja, AKINO needing several tries to finally counter to a bulldog. Ayako won’t let Yoshida tee off on her, and uses speed to hit a tornado DDT and some sloppy counters, but Yoshida handily turns her Lucha Submission into a figure-four.

Aja completely crushes a weakened Hamada with 2 Backdrop Drivers into the Brainbuster for two. Ayako avoids some Urakens and scores a rana & German, but Aja easily avoids AKINO’s slingshot attack. Ayako charges in to hit Aja up top with her shotei, but Aja swats AKINO out of another leapfrog move and Brainbusters her. The kids manage their Super Quebrada/Tope Con Hilo combination to the vets, and stereo flying headbutts on Yoshida get two. The Ayakonoclasm sets up a flying splash for two, and Ayako stunners out of a sleeper, but Aja mops up the champs. Yoshida tries to finish with her Modified Sleeper, treated here more like a “maybe sorta bring them down eventually” move, but AKINO finally manages to hook the ankle and threads it into an anklelock for a nearfall- AKINO nearly pins her with leverage but gets booted into the Air Raid Crash for two, doing SHOCKED KICKOUT FACE off that. Ayako charges in to help and gets armbarred to death while Aja just UNLOADS on AKINO with a huge slap, but AKINO manages a big counter by turning a second Air Raid Crash into a flash-pin and another anklelock on the kickout. But Yoshida counters to her own, immediately releasing to pounce on a hunched-over AKINO and spiders her into the Modified Sleeper while Aja weighs down Hamada, making it a dramatic move where AKINO’s on her back and you can see her fight and slowly fade out as her arms are held out of position by the complex hold- the ref calls it at (19:48 of 24:40 shown)- new Tag Team Champions! Aja & Yoshida become the Twin Star of ARSION! AKINO does a great job shoving the ref around for his call, pounding the mat in grief while Ayako’s just hunched over, defeated. Following the match, Aja gets all the wrestlers out of stables to form “ARSION Sekigun”, a NEW stable, but Ayako refuses to join, leaving AKINO to try and keep the peace between factions. GAMI comes out to talk shit and gets the best reactions of everyone, but Shimoda & AKINO get good bits, too.

Well that was a match where the finale couldn’t really justify the great build at the beginning. I really liked the story of the first half, where the veterans casually took the juniors apart, countering them at every turn with power and experience, but the kids had this snarling grit to them the whole time, forcing them to earn every bit of ground. Ayako had some great expressions, defying Aja’s power. But still they got their asses kicked until their double-team worked, and from there they were able to keep the offensive, now hitting moves that had missed before. But then the veterans work again and usually put the kids down repeatedly, and Ayako’s offense in particular gets sloppy and the match fails to really convince you that the kids have a chance at anything but a flash pin. That’s still fine, though- the GAEA tag belts changed hands in 1999 off of that kinda thing in a great match. But here the only drama was “can a flash pin or a last-minute submission beat the vets?” because they were just SO dominant for most of the match and the kids had nothing that could really pin them legit. So the match just ends up being “the veterans easily outmaneuver and overpower the kids”, which could theoretically set up a rematch where the kids successfully make up the difference.

Rating: ***1/2 (a very good beginning into a more mediocre middle with a good finish- more of a prolonged beating by the veterans and not quite competitive, but good for what it was and with a good sequence to end it)

So a pretty strong couple shows for ARSION, with a LOT of wrestlers sporting fires under their asses for some reason- possibly because yearly assessments are up and people are getting renewed pushes. AKINO, Hamada, Candy and even GAMI were trying super-hard. However, Factionmania rears its ugly head in ARSION as well, as we now have CAZAI (Candy’s stable), GAMI’s stable, and now Aja’s “ARSION Sekigun”, because Rossy Ogawa adores stables and sees them as a perfect booking crutch to create “false heat” in matches.