Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Millennium Starlet

hahahaaha. Rossy Ogawa, future creator of Stardom then Marigold. Looking like the guy all the strippers warn each other about.

https://archive.org/details/arsion-millenium-premium-starlet-03-15-04-07-2000

ARSION MILLENNIUM STARLET:
(March 15th & April 7th 2000)
* It’s time for more ARSION! This is a mix of stuff, with Jessie Bennett returning under a new identity, the various lucha-style wrestlers taking on bigger stars, and more. This is a massively clipped show, but NOT as bad as past ARSION affairs- instead of cutting many matches to 1-2 minutes and leaving 2 full ones, it’s essentially a ton of matches cut by half, leaving more of the meat intact. Still not quite getting the full shows, though. Of note here is STABLEMANIA RUNNING WILD as Las Cachorras Orientales’ “VIP” goes up against GAMI’s “Re*Drag”, Jessie Bennett returns as “Bionic J” to join VIP, Re*Drag trying to win back their tag belts from Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida, and a Father/Daughter tag match as Gran Hamada & Ayako take on Apache & Fabi Apache! And the dads actually FIGHT the girls in this one!

STARLET 2000:

AI FUJITA vs. RENA TAKASE:
* Fujita now has a REALLY dark tan and what looks to be a huge amount of lip filler- early 2000 is a tad early for Ganjuro fashion, innit? Rena is ARSION’s brand-new rookie. Fujita’s in pastel blue & white and Rena’s in red. This looks to be a full match.

They do a pretty basic rookie match to a quiet audience, Rena showing little fire as Fujita leads her through a lot of legholds and bodyscissors for several minutes before finally starting up with character stuff and running dropkicks. Hilariously Takase’s forearms already look better than Fujita’s, and she takes the senior down with a SPEAR of all things before Ai just lets her try dropkicks that are sold half-heartedly (I can’t tell if Fujita is TRYING to no-sell or legit just sucks at it). Fujita avoids a jujigatame and hits her sloppy cartwheel handspring (elbows? body attacks? She’s not sticking a limb out or anything) and finishes with a Boston crab at (6:07).

Rating: 1/2* (A pretty extended match in the early ARSION style with lots of chain-wrestling, but not exactly the good kind, leading to Fujita just demolishing the rookie with the basics- Fujita couldn’t lead her through many spots that showed ROOKIE FIRE or anything)

AKINO vs. BIONIC J:
* Oh hey! Jessie Bennett is back! Reggie’s “pretend relative” missed like a year. Now she’s in black with yellow tassels and has a new name.

Bionic J starts out with EFFORTZ immediately as she hits a thrust kick but launches herself out of the ring on a missed charge. AKINO hits a run-up plancha but we’re clipped to J beating on her, only to trip hitting a thrust kick to stop a flying move (AKINO takes her leg out) and gets bulldogged. Everything J does is very loose and sloppy as she seems to slip out of moves by accident, then AKINO crunches up on a stunner, landing on her own knees. J pulls her up at “1” and is like “not yet”, hitting a Lo-Down… for two! Last-ditch kickout from a dead AKINO, who has to be deadlifted into a Fireman’s Carry to Michinoku Driver for the pin at (3:02 shown of 7:33). Yanking her tights up to lift her legs for the pin should not count, ref! Looks like they want to set J up as a strong midcard challenger or something now that she’s back- she’s seen in the back with the Mita/Shimoda/Fukawa/Omukai stable, increasing its numbers for ARSION STABLEMANIA. This was all kinds of ugly in the clips we saw, with J being just kinda wriggly and too energetic, missing stuff and having poor execution. Hard to rate overall but it was probably below **.

CANDY OKUTSU vs. GAMI:
* This is revenge for a match where Hiromi Yagi betrayed partner Candy to join GAMI’s stable. We see clips of GAMI beating on Candy in sparsely-attended house shows, too!

We’re JIP with Candy hitting the Kick of Fear, but GAMI slickly pulling down the whole turnbuckle pad thingie so Candy charges right into the steel and hurts herself. Never seen THAT one before! Candy goes into the bolts repeatedly but we’re clipped to her being whipped into the “East” sign at Korakuen, then back to ringside (GAMI spits on her- I thought it was a whiffed headbutt but got clued in, lol). Then Candy tries the same move, but goes into the OTHER sign (North), but hits a powerbomb into two Moonsaults in the ring for two. Gami fires back with strikes and a sit-out spinebuster for two, then launches her with two Germans, Candy powering up but walking right into a BIG Shotei palm strike. She pops up but immediately collapses like a Looney Tunes character, and GAMI pumphandle ligerbombs her for two. Good reaction since Candy was selling a KO there. A release pumphandle powerbomb gets only “1” and Candy looks to be fading, but fires up into a run-up Super Rana into Rolling Germans for two, but GAMI grabs her arm and kicks out to hold a keylock, grappling her head for the tap-out at (5:08 of 15:00 shown). Looked like a solid, hard-fought match with Candy working hard to put GAMI over as a threat. GAMI talks shit to Rossy Ogawa after the match. God that man is ugly.

VOGUE IMPACT POISON (Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Yumi Fukawa) vs. AYAKO HAMADA, FABI APACHE & LINDA STARR:
* So LCO formed a new stable last show with Fukawa & Omukai as trainees, and now they’re taking on a Job Squad of sorts- Hamada’s getting pushed but the other two are just “filler”. Lol the full name of VIP is “Vogue Impact Poison”. Good job, Rossy. Especially the tiny color-coded fans of the stable to show how heelish they are. How did this company ever lose money?

VIP deny handshakes and earn a Hamada plancha for it, Hamada looking good against Fukawa but getting tied up by LCO into a 4-person VIP pose (Omukai hits the ring and starts waving the fan to really show them). Hamada lands on her feet from a Mita powerbomb attempt and hits a SWEET enzuigiri with great timing, but Shimoda missile kicks her to put a stop to that. Mita’s DVD is turned into a spinkick and she has to escape after a Blazing Chop, but Shimoda ends up mostly scrapping with Hamada until the junior hits some suplexes and a Springboard Moonsault for two. Shimoda hits a German & Ax Kick to escape, Ayako now having kicked all three of their asses and chased them away. She stops several double-teams in elaborate fashion, tricks Fukawa into missile-kicking Mita, and Fukawa has to throw some counters to finally stop her. They mess up a move and Hamada segues to her abdominal stretch-y finisher, but Fukawa reverses with a leverage move that looks REALLY effective and Hamada finally tags out after five minutes of stuff. Starr is in, missing a corkscrew but hitting a powerbomb for two, then Fukawa Germans her and they hit an awkard Doomsday Double-Jujigatame falling move, Linda making the ropes. Mita hits her with an electric chair drop to stop a lucha move, but Starr super ranas an interfering Shimoda and hits VIP with a dive. Apache does one, but Hamada moonsaults her own partners out there and Starr gets worked over- powerbomb and double-rocket launcher get two, but Linda starts flipping around on her and counters her a bunch- impressive job by Mita to fling herself around given the huge size difference here (Linda is SHORT). Mita gets her knees up on a moonsault but STILL almost gets pinned by a rollup, and finally Shimoda sets up the Death Valley Driver for the pin at (9:28 of 19:59 shown).

That was an interesting one- cut in half, with apparently ALL of Fabi’s in-ring stuff taken out, and coming off as if it was 50% Hamada in the ring, and 50% Starr. Hamada’s stuff was almost all very good (she’s improved, but this feels like a “greatest hits” of her stuff) and put her over by making it seem like she had everyone’s number and they had to finally hit her with something huge and immediately escape, repeating that with all three VIP girls. Then it’s Starr’s turn and she pretty much only wrestles Mita, who is a rock-steady base for all sorts of lucha shit despite being more than a head taller. It lacked a lot of character, though, coming off more like a collection of stuff rather than a cohesive story, especially as the heels weren’t nearly as, well, HEELISH as you’d expect. Where is the chair-tossing mayhem of LCO? Them just being snarky and waving fans doesn’t quite cut it.

Rating: **1/4 (looked pretty good, especially Ayako’s stuff, but more like an exhibition, especially when Starr was in there)

CHAPARRITA ASARI vs. MARI APACHE:
* The freelancer comes to ARSION to take on its flippiest flipper. Mari’s in a green bodysuit with red tassels in a new look.

They seem to mesh well right away, doing a lucha armdrag into ASARI’s cartwheel handspring mule kick, then Mari ties her up in a hold but ends up missile kicked in the face. Things turn into an exhibition of sorts, partly messing about until Mari hits a few tilt-a-whirl moves and wheel kicks ASARI in the mush, but nobody sells much, and honestly just counters a move then wheels right onto offense. ASARI hits a plancha, but gets caught in the ring on a crossbody, and hits a cannonball to the floor and a ligerbomb for two. She climbs but gets Super Rana’d down, but manages to ligerbomb ASARI out of a Manami Roll for two. ASARI gets a German counter for two, then gets lariated, then forward rolls Mari off the top and misses the Sky Twister Press. Mari finally hits a big lariat counter, a flying wheel kick, and a Michinoku Driver for the pin at (6:01 of 12:16 shown). This one was somewhat interesting, as it was mostly “you hit a move, then I hit a move”, and a bit of hesitation before moves probably due to the language/not-worked-together-before barrier, so the whole match kind of ends up an athletic one, yet an openly choreographed exhibition of what their offense was. Like it all looked GOOD but with the lack of selling or real trouble executing anything it barely looked like a MATCH.

Rating: ** (about what you’d call a good exhibition of athletic moves with no heart behind it)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLES:
AJA KONG & MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. RIE TAMADA & HIROMI YAGI (w/ GAMI):
* The current and former tag champs face off! Rie & Yagi are in a heel stable now, while Aja holds both the singles & tag belts in ARSION. The heels are all in red, Yoshida’s in her usual Spidey gear, and Aja’s in purple.

The heels divebomb Yoshida to start, GAMI helping with a trip, and she finally has to fight out with an exploder, but Rie dragon screws her. Great sell on that, just SPINNING and then curling up in pain. She recovers with a powerbomb & anklelock, but GAMI lariats her while Rie tornado DDTs Aja on the floor, and Yoshida eats three top rope moves in a row for two. Aja finally charges in to mop the floor with the heels, but gets German’d off the second rope by Yagi, no-selling and hitting a big lariat for two. The champs gets halted up top and Yagi throws AJA with the Super Judo Throw, then Aja eats a double-DDT & tornado DDT and a missile kick to the back of the head, but gets her kick reversal and backdrop drivers Rie a couple times before missing her flying back elbow. Rie, Yagi & GAMI all hit flying stomps to her and Rie’s Dragon Suplex gets two (you can tell Rie ain’t no Manami because she can’t bring her down properly in it and pins at an angle), but Yagi accidentally missile kicks her partner and the champs hit stereo finishers (Air Raid Crash/Brainbuster)… for two! Rie ducks an Uraken, but GAMI charges in and is tricked into Shotei-ing her pal, and Aja’s Uraken finishes at (9:19 of 19:09 shown), Yoshida sleeperholding GAMI to keep her away. After the match, LCO talk shit to GAMI’s group and send them into a tizzy, then Aja cuts a promo on LCO.

A very ugly, scrappy match, looking like everyone was scrambling for whatever they could get. Not the worst look, but full of strange counters, people randomly cutting off comebacks, people slipping out of grips, etc. Not much flow to it, though they eventually managed a general story of GAMI running in to cheat. Still, the challengers never came close to winning so GAMI’s stable just kinda looked like a JTTS squad against the Superteam- what were they gonna toss out that could challenge Aja & Yoshida?

Rating: **1/4 (Again cut by half, so it’s hard to REALLY say, but it was more “scrappy” than “good”, with the result little in question)

This was a solid show, but weirdly “agented”, with people repeating spots throughout the night. Repeated spots aren’t the worst sin, but there were a bunch of Michinoku Drivers, super ranas, countless ligerbombs & missile dropkicks, etc. They even had TWO MATCHES use the “take the turnbuckle pad off and slam them into the bolts” bit. Granted it’s the same stable doing it but I’ve never seen that before in joshi puro and now it’s twice in one show. Like they couldn’t be bothered to watch each other’s stuff or come up with unique shit.

ARSION MILLENNIUM PREMIUM:
(April 7th)
* This one’s in that brightly lit hall with the raised stage behind the ring on hard camera. Kawasaki Gymnasium, apparently!

AKINO vs. RENA TAKASE:
They wrestle on the mat a bit, then Rena hits that spear again, clearly making it A Deal with her offense. AKINO gives her some Otani bootscrapes but the kid judo flips her into a jujigatame, working the arm & rollups. Takase gets a “fuck YOU!” bridge and dodges a flying move, but AKINO easily escapes her juji attempts and finishes her with a sick armbar with her leg around Rena’s head at (3:33 of 6:16 shown).

Rating: ** (it’s super apparently how much better than Fujita AKINO is- Rena looked a million times more competent and the opening mat stuff looked better and more interesting)

CHAPARRITA ASARI & AI FUJITA vs. CANDY OKUTSU & LINDA STARR:
* Interestingly, Fujita is part of Candy’s CAZAI stable but teaming with the freelancer while Candy gets the luchadora. Linda’s in a WILD pink tasseled getup this time.

Candy takes an immediately lead by doing the Flair Kick between ASARI’s uprights (… okay don’t think I’ve seen that in women’s wrestling before) and lariating her. Linda immediately eats Fujita’s weird cross-body (hits funny, like it has IMPACT not the smooth fall because of how she lands) and takes some business-exposing stuff with lots of stop-and-start (Fujita is GREEN and the language barrier isn’t helping). Starr hits a giant swing and slams her on her SIDE, misses a moonsault but armdrags Fujita off the top (they cut between h er attempting and actually doing it- I wanna see why, lol). Fujita flies onto both opponents, then counters Candy climbing but doing the “fingerguns then jam it up their butt” move (…), eats a German but dodges a moonsault and hits a missile kick. ASARI adds her own, then Candy eats a tons of Germans, but Starr hits the ring and allows Candy to hit a bad falling powerbomb on Fujita for the three at (5:37 of 12:50 shown). OOF, that was just bowling-shoe ugly. I can see why the tall, attractive Fujita would be up Rossy’s alley, but jumpin’ fuck she is bad. That unique kind of terrible where they’re too hesitant in addition to being too fast- something guaranteed to mess up everyone else’s timing and leaving them unable to guess when she’s actually diving in to do her shit.

Rating: *1/4 (it was classic “House Show Mode” in addition to “let’s focus on Fujita getting her shit in” when she’s still dreadful)

RE*DRAG (GAMI, Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi) vs. VOGUE IMPACT POISON (Etsuko Mita, Yumi Fukawa & Bionic J):
* And now ARSION’s TWO heel stables are already squaring off, GAMI bringing her whole team against a weirdo squadron of Mita with subordinates. And finally I realize that logo that keeps showing up is GAMI’s stable name- Re*Drag. With a cartoon dog logo. I guess Rena’s in their stable, too.

Re*Drag attacks before the bell and swings their opponents all over the gym. Yagi takes a beating in the ring, and tries to come back on J, who does power spots and catches her a bunch. Cute bit as she holds Yagi in mid-air but GAMI comes in with a cartoonishly evil poke to the eyes to stop her. Yagi & Fukawa mess up something (Fukawa loses her on a rollup) but Yagi recovers with leg stuff. GAMI plays mop-up and they do a double-team facebuster to Yumi, then another with Rie helping. Pumphandle powerbomb gets two, but Yumi grabs a leg and works it, then J powerbombs GAMI from a top-rope move. Rocket Launcher gets two, but Mita’s caught with an STO. GAMI goes up but Mita hits her Avalanche Electric Chair Drop. Cocky pin gets two, and GAMI fires back with a lariat, now not selling at all. Rie runs into a powerbomb, but her team sets up her tornado DDT, then Yumi interferes so Mita powerbombs her again. More scrapping as nobody maintains momentum, then GAMI shoteis Mita into a Dragon Suplex, Mita blazing chops to escape, then J comes in so they can fuck up a “wheelbarrow-slam-to-stunner” spot. Rie runs into a spinebuster slam for two, but GAMI super ranas her into some missile kicks from Re*Drag, so Mita helps her hit a chokeslam to Rie. Now GAMI cheats again but accidentally shoteis Rie, then things get ugly as Rie twice messes up a Byers bridge, first rolling J into their opponents in the ropes, then slipping off Mita in the corner and improvising a German, Yagi judo flips Fukawa off the top, then J gets left alone with Rie and hits her Fireman’s to Michinoku Driver finisher for the three at (11:21 of 12:47 shown). And then everyone fights to the back!

Not a bad match, but a bit disjointed since it was clearly “everyone gets a few minutes to do stuff” so it was very segmented. First Yumi’s in there, then Mita gets a long run against all three, then it’s Bionic J’s turn. As things frequently got botchy with Yumi & J, that wasn’t great. J just keeps repositioning her grip and is awkwardly unathletic, and Yumi gets the zoomies. And a few too many transitions are just “a person runs in to set up their partner on offense”. Another issue is that everyone keeps milking the “last second kickouts”, often jolting their shoulder out the instant the ref’s hand is about to touch, which makes each individual kickout mean less. I mean, they’re not even doing it with real finishers! And then things start getting ugly and botchy in the end as there’s a bit too much running in and people getting tangled up, and J sorta wins out of nowhere. They seem to be emphasizing her a bunch- I wonder if she’s set up as a new challenger for the top belts?

Rating: **1/4 (looked like it was going well, then gets a bit ugly and way too disjointed with people randomly going in and out)

GRAN HAMADA & AYAKO HAMADA vs. APACHE & FABI APACHE:
* !!!!! A Father/Daughter Intergender match! Now THAT’s unique! Hamada & Apache are both deals in Mexico, and their daughters are both pushed-too-soon flippy rookies.

Ayako & Fabi do a pretty good lucha sequence since they both “speak” that, then Hamada shocks me by running in and just beating on Fabi until she armdrags him to the floor, haha. So I guess everyone can fight each other! The crowd at least boos him for that. The old men do a pretty quick lucha sequence, then Ayako springs out of the corner with a tornado DDT, only to end up backbreakered. The Apaches double-team Gran with stuff, leading to Apache’s standing moonsault for two. Clipped to Gran setting up Ayako’s springboard moonsault for two, both daughters hitting their fathers by accident, and Fabi countering Ayako with a stunner. Apache faults Ayako, but she super ranas Fabi instead while he dives onto Gran. Ayako hits her springboard moonsault to the floor on both oldsters, and Fabi’s corkscrew dive does the same (but falls short). Back in, Apache accidentally BLASTS his daughter with a right hand, setting up the finish- Gran tackles & pescados him to the floor so Ayako puts a stunned Fabi up top and hits a Super Ayako-Chan Cutter, winning at (6:52 of 8:47 shown).

Not a bad little match- everyone was familiar with the style, so the guys did a very steady version of Old Man Lucha (not too fast; not too slow) while the daughters did some quick, accurate work. Ayako got to hit her stuff smoothly and then got a big finish, too, as she’s adopted a new move (I remember this one from an old “List of Moves”, haha).

Rating: **1/2 (far better than the usual Hamada matches)

TWIN STARS OF ARSION TITLES:
AJA KONG & MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. VOGUE IMPACT POISON (Mima Shimoda & Michiko Omukai):
* We’re shown of Shimoda actually PINNING YOSHIDA right a simple right hand of all things.

Immediately we blast off with Aja hitting two backdrop drivers on Shimoda and and Uraken right away, getting two. Omukai quickly saves with an uranage, but gets lariated for a one-foot pin attempt. Yoshida with a rolling facelock and ties Omukai up in knots, making her wail in agony with a half-crab, but she abdominal stretches her to escape the Air Raid Crash. Omukai misses a solebutt and keeps getting rolled into holds, then Aja avoids her legendary striking abilities and counters both her finishers, stopping the solebutt with a heel hook. Omukai is interesting here because she’s trying SUPER HARD with the character stuff, but it’s all “roars defiantly” and “screams massively” but with nothing really BEHIND it and done constantly so none of it means much. Aja climbs and Shimoda sets up Omukai hitting her Sit-Out Razor’s Edge for two. Shimoda comes in roaring, but Aja kicks her in the ass out of the Flying Ax Kick and Yoshida throws boots and works the leg. Omukai’s flying knee sets up the Ax Kick for two, Aja interferes but gets sunset-bombed off the top, and the Flying Ax Kick gets two. Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) gets two to a very light reaction. The challengers have now used all their big moves- not a good sign. The Champs hit their tandem finishers, getting two! Yoshida actually hits her Modified Sleeper on Shimoda, who sells it like a resthold and casually gets free. Omukai runs in with a solebutt and Aja accidentally URAKENS Yoshida, and VIP hits a Razor’s Edge/Flying Knee… for two! That was such an easy win that the crowd reacts well for the kickout. Shimoda has a cow at that kickout and pounds the mat in frustration, and nearly gets a crossface from Yoshida before she leverages out… then casually Tiger Suplexes her FOR THE BELTS at (11:00 of 15:11 shown). Shimoda & Omukai are the Twin Stars of ARSION! I was not expecting a title change! Aja kind of laughs off the loss and Yoshida is helped out as VIP are now the top stable in town (I guess).

A weirdly constructed match, here, as the challengers are eaten alive by the champs to start, actually taking some finishers. Then suddenly Omukai hits her big finisher on Aja and Shimoda pulls off both of hers on Yoshida, meaning they kinda did all their best shots. Aja & Yoshida doing their big finishers in tandem is a recurring routine to signify the endgame, but then Shimoda just kinda ignores Yoshida’s sleeper (selling it like she’s less passing out and more… tired? Building her energy?) and we get an “obvious finisher” leading to a big kickout. This leaves us with the “heatless, regular move getting the pin instead” finish which is less predictable but also less dramatic. Like, when was the last time Shimoda won with the TIGER SUPLEX? Stuff was pretty well-executed for the most part.

Rating: *** (seems better than the usual stuff on this tape- not extremely good but solid throughout, if a bit oddly constructed and not shooting for the fences)

Thus ends another ARSION collection! ARSION has now utterly dropped their “Grapple-Heavy” style completely and is doing basically the same match everyone else is doing, but it less star-power. Which… isn’t GREAT, especially for the houses. They’ve got a lot of young, hungry wrestlers, which is normally a bonus, ESPECIALLY since the intent is to push them all heavily… but the issue is they’re all bad in different ways except for AKINO, who of course is the least pushed (jobbing to Bionic J here). Ayako isn’t connecting as a character, Omukai is all effort and zero skill or credibility, Fukawa is too small and just not pushed, etc. And Yoshida, once the “Pure Heart” of the promotion, is now losing on the regular it seems.