Joshi Spotlight: ARSION ARS 2000 Tournament

https://archive.org/details/arsion-2000-04-20-05-07

Come watch it on Archive.org! Which was a HUGE pain in the ass that kept skipping on me and freezing, so I had to download the 2-hour thing and watch it on a video player, which had issues skipping back & forth in time to re-watch points of the matches!

ARSION- HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT:
* Yes, it’s an ARSION Tournament! You can tell Rossy’s booking when… I wonder if this one will be full of inexplicable flukes!

There’s no sound to start (probably copywrite), but it shows the VIP stable walk around in designer clothes, which might be their signature. Tragically, Mita isn’t in a designer dress like Omukai but a ’90s mom sleeveless turtleneck. Also Bionic J kind of doesn’t fit the overall motif. You can tell Omukai’s getting the push because she’s wearing a full-on gown- everyone else is wearing what COULD pass for “everyday people clothes”.

APRIL 20th:

GRAN APACHE & LINDA STARR vs. MARI & FABI APACHE:
* OH GOODY MORE INTERGENDER STUFF. With Apache wrestling both his daughters, lol. Well I guess that means we won’t be getting hentai spots. oh please don’t prove me wrong…

Apache rolls around impressively for Mari and slugs her down, then knocks both daughters to the floor and backdrops Linda onto them, hitting a pescado himself. Clipped to him selling more and more for lariats until they sandwich him, but he sails off the middle rope for a boomerang shot. He eats a wheel kick but helicopter backbreakers Fabi, who gets a good rana- Linda comes in for an ugly set-up to a super rana, misses a moonsault, and Fabi majistrals her for two. Linda gets out of a powerbomb Kidman-style, but gets superplexed. Linda stumbles, then charges into a Ligerbomb and there’s an awkward set-up (did Fabi miss her cue, lol?) where Fabi dropkicks Apache off the apron while he openly stares at nothing, then quebradas him so Mari can hit a Flying Senton for the pin at (4:59 of 9:01 shown).

Not bad for 5 minutes but a showcase of Good Lucha vs. Bad Lucha. Everyone mysteriously looks a thousand times better against the larger, more experienced Apache than they do against each other. Turns out that because he’s strong enough to base for everyone for their shit, suddenly there’s way less sloppiness and awkward set-ups, lol. Once again it’s clear that Mari is better than Fabi because those bits usually look good, though Linda is kinda too small and weak to do much of the good lucha shit.

Rating: ** (fine in parts, mostly thanks to the elder Apache)

MARIKO YOSHIDA & CAZAI (AKINO & Ayako Hamada) vs. VIP (Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa) & XOCHITL HAMADA:
* Okay, that’s a weird one- Yoshida teaming with two CAZAI girls against two VIP girls and… Ayako’s sister Xochitl? VIP does a goofy idol routine with saluting and shit to start, realling showing the Rossy links. Ayako looks stunned to see her much older sister (Xochitl is ten years her senior) unmasked as her rival in a “gotcha” by VIP. CAZAI & VIP are in white, Yoshida’s in the usual Spider-Woman gear, and Xochitl’s in black.

AKINO wows people to start with a huge slap against Omukai, then playfully tosses some baby-slaps until Omukai just kicks her ass cuz she’s a SUPER STRIKER. She mostly throws CAZAI around but AKINO flies onto her and now it’s the Hamada sisters fighting… except Xochitl just pushes her to the ropes and ignores Ayako’s desire for more offense, tagging out instead. Ayako & Fukawa do a good running routine, then Yoshida flapjacks Yumi for two and stretches her out. We’re clipped to some double-teams with Ayako holding Xochitl for moves, AKINO flies onto Omukai, Ayako hits her partners, and Xochitl nails everyone. Ayako finally does her super quebrada and we’re clipped to Hamadas fighting, Xochitl doing a good job running up to greet Ayako’s lionsault and hitting her own boomerang move. Ayako ranas out and Yoshida works Xochitl’s arm, but Xochitl gets a weak ligerbomb for two. Yumi works holds on Yoshida and Yoshida counters as this is like 3 different matches going on here- Yumi hits a Kidman counter but eats an Exploder. Then we’re clipped AGAIN to the Ayakonoclasm on Omukai to crickets (super-obvious set-up there with Omukai so clearly standing up to take it I thought she was going to counter), getting two. Omukai counters AKINO with her uranage, but her Sit-Out Razor’s Edge is stopped by Ayako and AKINO ranas her for two. Omukai finally stops some double-teams and just Razor’s Edges AKINO for the pin at (11:30 of 17:23 shown), her team covering the others. Xochitl cuts a promo after the match and shakes hands with & hugs her sister, so it’s all good… but VIP divebomb both of them and it’s a pullapart brawl.

Wow, what a disjointed kind of match. Most bouts should be FOR some purpose, but this is effectively “Match 1: Xochitl/Ayako fighting, Xochitl seemingly dismissing her younger sister, but it really goes nowhere (which means there’s no real point to it- what’s it supposed to lead to?). Match 2: Yoshida/Fukawa do their chain-wrestling stuff (arbitrarily shoved in during the back third). Match 3: Omukaiberg absorbing tons of offense and countering lots of double-teams because she’s so amazing and a future SUPERSTAR.” But it’s all randomized in the match so it feels like we get a new bout each time. Like what was the point of Xochitl coming in to do stuff with her sister if it wasn’t gonna get ugly/extreme or lead to the match’s finish, thus building for a Sister vs. Sister match? Omukai’s stuff at least looks less gangly and flaily as it did a year or so ago, but this tall beanpole as a Super-Destroyer who can absorb all kinds of shit and deftly outsmart people teaming up on her isn’t really believable. It’s very clearly someone being pushed beyond her station, and ignores a lot of the ways wrestling has shown how you can build an Ace- she should be eating the offense but FIRING UP, showing defiance and fire as she sells and sells but fights past the pain. Here she’s just eating the move, kicking out and then getting up and doing her own shit. More importantly, she’s a heel in a dominant heel stable and doesn’t do anything remotely mean or nasty during matches, saving it all for after the bell rings.

Rating: **1/2 (perfectly fine but weirdly-wrestled and misses a lot of storytelling potential)

LUMBERJACK DEATH MATCH:
QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AJA KONG vs. ETSUKO MITA:
* Okay, this is weird. I recall VIP pissing off everyone in ARSION for a bit (*checks* oh yeah, Shimoda/Omukai are the Tag Champs, beating Aja’s team), but doing a deathmatch already? Against someone who never wins big singles matches? But Mita, in pink, has VIP backing her up on the floor.

We’re clipped right to the opening slapfest and the immediately bail to the floor to show the stips- both women are just tossed right back in. Then we’re clipped (SERIOUSLY) to Aja already in pain as Mita sleeperholds her- Aja makes the ropes and weakly coughs to put it over, then it’s clipped to Mita hauling her off on the OTHER side (the same fans in the hard cam so I can tell it’s clipped). Aja tries for a breather, but VIP pounces and shoves her back in. Mita throws on a rolling front facelock and REALLY pulls, but as the drama’s not exactly there to the fans, Aja fights out with slaps and more or less regenerates her health to hit running attacks. But alas, she backdrops Mita out and can’t follow with her legendary tope cuz Mita’s hauled in! Clipped to the Brainbuster getting two- Aja climbs, but Mita hauls her down with the electric chair drop. Aja resists the DVD attempt, and counters the Blazing Chop with a kick into the Uraken! For two! Aja goes for the Avalanche Waterwheel Drop, but Mita sunset flips over her (not taking Aja with her in a weird spot- like Mita just over-shot and SPLATTED) and swings Aja’s leg over so she can hit the Death Valley Driver! That fails, and another gets two. Mita looks exhausted. She tries a third, but Aja counters by rolling into a crucifix thing, Mita resisting until Aja pulls the arm and she has to make the ropes. Aja roars to build momentum, then tries some finisher stealing with Mita’s own DVD… only to end up Uraken’d for two! Mita actually sells the fist and tries to haul Aja up, but Aja pokes her to get some distance and POW! Uraken gets the three with a high-stack pin at (5:39 of 16:47 shown).

This one’s hard to assess given how clipped it was- it looked solid and had good psychology, though suffers from the usual “LCO in Singles” problem that they’re this dominant duo, but win so rarely in singles that there’s little drama. Like who thought MITA was going to succeed in defeating the AAAW & Queen of ARSION Champion, the most dominant singles wrestler in joshi pro? The fans were at least reacting a bit, but not like WOW or anything. But I did like Aja pulling a unique counter out of the DVD, Finisher Stealing (joshi old hat), and more. Aja was typically good in heavily putting over her opopnent as having a puncher’s chance of beating her, and was SUPER generous in selling and giving Mita cool offense to use.

Rating: **1/2 (too hard to REALLY assess- who knows how good the full match was?)

MAY 7th:

ARS 2000 TOURNAMENT:
* It’s time for another ARSION Tournament! These matches will all be pretty short thanks to clipping and the nature of one-night tournaments. Our stars include top wrestlers and newbies: Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita, Yumi Fukawa, Rie Tamada, Xochitl Hamada, GAMI, Bionic J & Michiko Omukai. Aja & Omukai face winners in the 2nd round, and that winner faces the other ones, so some people might wrestle thrice.

YUMI FUKAWA vs. RIE TAMADA: Rie flies onto her and Yumi sells the leg big, but comes back with a jujigatame. Rie fights her into a Dragon Suplex and seems to hurt her arm, holding it all weird, and keeps using right hands as her big offensive weapon. A shitty tornado DDT & missile kick to the back get two as Yumi’s working overtime doing the “flailing dizzy” sell. Rie gets her own juji for a near-fall, Yumi doing a good job screaming and flailing for the ropes, Yumi gets her own, and then finally rolls Rie into a completed version for the submission at (4:17 of 6:04 shown). That actually got a good reaction because of how hard they were fighting for it! Rie spits in her face for that.

Rating: **1/4 (surprisingly good for the time given)

GAMI vs. BIONIC J: The heel stable leader takes on another heel, the former Jessie Bennett. They throw stiff chops & shoulderblocks at each other to start, then GAMI gets a stunner and we’re clipped to J eating a flipover German and charging up for a lariat, no-sold by GAMI, who gets her own. We get maybe the most obvious spot-calling in history (I legit thought it was a “biting” spot for a bit), and J brings her off the top with a BIG one-armed Ligerbomb for two. Guillotine legdrop misses, but she gets a chokeslam. GAMI throws shoteis until J drops, gets two, then just KOs her with another one for three at (3:10 of 4:28 shown). Kind of a weird mix of stiff with good-looking stuff and disjointed because they’d just stand there and hit a move, then easily do a counter after an intercepting slap.

Rating: ** (again fine, if limited)

ETSUKO MITA vs. XOCHITL HAMADA: Big Mita does pretty good whirling around for Xochitl’s lucha offense, including the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Clipped to Mita’s piledriver and nasty brawling (they even swing wildly on each other, appearing to legitimately be trying to dodge), but she gets tripped up and senton’d. Mita gets a Blazing Chop, but can’t get the DVD and eats a lariat. She dodges a splash and pulls the Northern Lights suplex out of the mothballs (been a while since I’ve seen THAT). Xochitl counters the DVD to La Majistral, but Mita grabs the ropes and then catches her running, casually spinning her around and hoisting her- the Death Valley Driver finishes Xochitl at (4:04 of 5:23 shown). This one was REALLY awkward at points, as Xochitl wrestled like she weighed 400 lbs. and had a body made of cement- like she was just really hard to move around or even get into position for stuff. Mita wisely kept it mostly about brawling, but it’s weird when the 5’8″ power-brawler is the one better at flying around than the luchadora. At points they looked downright disagreeable and “are you fucking kidding me?” about the moves- you don’t often see people windmill out wild swings with their open hands like that.

Rating: ** (some interesting brawling stuff but oddly unchoreographed in parts- Xochitl seems to be that kind of wrestler that buggers up others because her center of gravity is fucked and she’s too lead-assed)

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. MIMA SHIMODA: Clipped to Shimoda swatting away with kicks, but Yoshida cleverly catches her “kick from the ground” move with a heel hook. Shimoda hits the Shimoda-iest crab-hold ever, losing her grip and over-extending a half-dozen times. Shimoda scrappily avoids more stuff and keeps ending up with her ankles grabbed, but gets a German and her ax kick for two. Tiger Suplex & Somersault Ax Kick also get two-counts. Yoshida tries to fight her off, but eats the Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) for a close two. Yoshida manages a crossface, but Shimoda tries her own Air Raid Crash, Yoshida booting her and hitting it proper for two. Yoshida boots her down again, then does an interesting move into her Modified Sleeper- holding a double-arm before reaching behind herself and spinning into it- Shimoda fights and nearly makes the ropes, but ultimately has to give it up as Yoshida won’t let her inch forwards (6:47 of 12:04 shown). This was scrappy and ugly in that very “Shimoda” kind of way, where it looks uncoordinated but like it’s SUPPOSED to look like that, just flailing around into everything. Of course it had tendencies of “hit all your offense in a row and dominate in payment for jobbing”, as Yoshida largely just hits a handful of moves for a mini-comeback win.

Rating: **1/4 (Shimoda’s specialty- the messy but amusing clusterfuck)

SEMI-FINALS:

MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. YUMI FUKAWA: Fukawa keeps ensaring Omukai like a trap- every time there’s contact she ends up lamprey’d. Omukai can only get anything going by catching her running with her overhead suplexes. They bugger a rollup but Fukawa is good enough to improvise an armlock. A backdrop hold leads to a stretch muffler, which Fukawa hits a FULL CRAB on and the crowd pops thinking this is SURELY gonna be it, but Omukai just does the “dig deep” thing and eventually rolls through so the fans are like “oh- just a weardown hold”. Omukai, just having her leg stretched to hell, of course fights up and starts using high kicks, but Yumi teases a knockout and then SNAGS HER with that heel hook out of an incoming solebutt! Good reaction for that, but Omukai hits a Tiger Suplex out of nowhere and Fukawa kicks out at 3.1- Omukai wins at (6:51 of 7:32 shown). This one was actually reall hard-fought and looked good, Fukawa bolting all over the place and capturing her taller opponent at every turn- I loved her just latching on every time Omukai tried one of those wild strikes, turning her opponent’s big advantage into a weakness. Omukai was the issue yet again- she sells HUGE, screaming as if her leg’s been torn off… but only because she thinks she SHOULD, because she eventually loses that energy and just rolls around in the hold, makes the ropes, then gets up like nothing had happened because it’s her turn. Like she either doesn’t want to sell consistently or she doesn’t know how. Given how little she sells in the other matches I’m guessing she’s just pals with Fukawa, lol.

Rating: **1/2 (match of the tournament so far- Omukai was the issue)

AJA KONG vs. GAMI: Aja immediately bolts in with an Uraken and GAMI sells a KO, despite kicking out at one on instinct… but I think she was FAKING, as she bolts up with a lariat and wears away at Aja. A brainbuster (assisted by the top rope) gets two and Aja is stunned. GAMI fires off Aja’s Uraken for two, but gets put up top, uraken’d, and the Avalanche Waterwheel Drop pins her at (3:00)- a huge sprint told pretty well, with everyone swinging for the fences immediately and trying for killshots. Jobbing in 3 doesn’t bod well for GAMI’s role as a heel stable boss, though.

ETSUKO MITA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI: Ohhhhhh dear. The giant of LCO takes on her VIP stablemate Omukai, who is of course getting the monster push. Immediately Omukai nets a Tiger Suplex for two, Mita toeing the ropes to break. Clipped to Mita catching her with the Avalanche Electric Chair Drop for two. Omukai catches her with some more kicks as teh size difference is readily apparent when they try grappling- they’re the same height-ish but Mita is sooooo much physically larger than the beanpole and it’s a credibility issue. Mita goes for the DVD but Omukai gets her unover double-arm Rings of Saturn thing from that position and it’s not over. Mita gets the Blazing Chop off a whip and slugs her down, then they badly mess up a powerbomb spot that looks like Omukai does a lift but arbitrarily puts her down (they weren’t getting a good lift and Mita would have headspiked, but it was probably supposed to be reversed anyways), then Mita slides out and gets punched, then Omukai hits the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge for the pin at (3:05 of 5:34 shown)! Omukai wins super cleanly! They grab each other’s hair for a post-match staredown. That got ugly at points- it was usually well-wrestled because of Mita’s typical precision holstering Omukai’s flailiness, but the repeated attempts at the finisher all looked pretty ugly- I would guess they botched the first “counter” due to lack of lift and had to do it again. I would have imagined a big upset victory like Omukai beating a senior would be treated like more of a fluke than “tries her finisher twice and then hits it in 5 minutes”. Never mind wasting a big “rising star beats an established veteran” win in a 5-minute tourney match.

Rating: *1/2 (despite missing only 2 minutes it looked really disjointed)

AJA KONG vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA: What was the biggest match ARSION could muster has lost a lot of its spectacle now that Aja’s handily beaten her. And Aja shows her IRL kindness by agreeing to use GRAPPLEFUCKERY STYLE to start, as they reposition and work holds to crickets cuz that style’s not only unover, but has been dropped by the company. Yoshida ducks a lariat and Germans Aja, but Aja actually gives her a BUCKLE BOMB. Yoshida tries a German again but charges into a Brainbuster for two, ducks an Uraken but eats a quickie variant for two, but manages to fight Aja into a clunky Modified Sleeper- in some good psychology, Aja’s neck is too thick to make the grab easy, so Yoshida has to really fight to lock her hands. Aja eventually fights for long enough (the fans are, uh, not loud) that Yoshida has to pop it off and butterfly lock her. Yoshida quickly capitalizes on the weardown stuff with the Air Raid Crash, and on the kickout immediately slaps that Sleeper back on. Aja stretch-mufflers her and throws her down to break it, but is beat- but Yoshida charges in like a moron and gets Uraken’d for a double-down. Yoshida just hits a big boot for two, but then gets ANNIHILATED by another Uraken and that’s it at (7:41 of 9:55 shown). Hard-fought, but uhhhhhh probably didn’t get the crowd responses they wanted. Yoshida just has no credibiltiy against Aja and I think they let too many people kick out of the ARC and fight in the Sleeper for too long. With her big arms and figure, Yoshida should have developed a killer strike or two. Cuz the grapplefuckery just doesn’t excite the fans anymore.

Rating: **1/2 (another pretty good one)

CAZAI CONCLUSION:
AYAKO HAMADA, MARI APACHE & LINDA STARR vs. CAZAI (Candy Okutsu, AKINO & Ai Fujita):
* Another weird mish-mash of wrestlers, as Ayako teams up with two luchadoras against her own stable… this is called “Cazai Conclusion” so I’m wondering if they’re breaking up now. Don’t tell me I wasted time remembering what that stable was called this whole time! Haha, just kidding- I’ve always been wasting time remembering all these damn stables. Mari’s bodysuit is really… something- simple AND garish all at once. Linda’s purple & pink superhero uniform is also something.

Ayako & Fujita do a dramatic thing with Fujita defiantly kipping up after everything and they slut it out, probably showing how Fujita has been “elevated”. She resists some double-teams and Manami Rolls Ayako, then AKINO runs in for an ass-kicking on her usual partner. Ayako takes shots from everyone and AKINO gets a TIGHT ran for two, then do some tight reversals on the pin, then Candy runs in for the Assisted Tornado DDT for two. Linda comes in with a lucha submission, slingshot dropkick and giant swing, and the luchadoras double-team AKINO a bit, and Mari impresses with two revolutions of her “haul them up from a rana” powerbomb and windmills everyone in CAZAI, ending with a backbreaker on Candy. Ayako spends like eight minutes building up the crowd for her big dive, but misses the Super Quebrada and eats three straight CAZAI dives. Well she earned that one. A Triple Flying Headbutt gets two on Mari, but I guess she’s fine because she easily lariats Fujita & wheel kicks her while Linda hits an inverted tarantula on AKINO that the crowd seems impressed by. Ayako tosses Fujita into Mari’s ligerbomb, but they try a Super Splash Mountain and Fujita gets an AMAZING Rana counter, more or less doing a faceplant landing so Mari can fly. Ayako runs in again, but CAZAI deals with her so Candy can hit a run-up Super Rana on Mari, setting up Fujita’s 450 Splash for the pin (11:37).

This is the “Lots of Flips” lucha match of the evening, and still looks a bit disjointed and “oh what’s the next spot? Oh yeah!”, but they’re flowing more smoothly and hitting more impressive stuff so the crowd reactions are better. Ayako got to lead her team but actually didn’t do much offense at all, and Fujita was largely alone for the last 5 minutes, eating tons of damage and getting one good reversal, then getting the pin cuz her team helped her. Poor Mari was mostly just a move-eater. Candy was basically unseen all match long.

Rating: **3/4 (impressive flippiness but more or less a match built around just doing cool movez)

ARS 2000 TOURNAMENT FINALS:
AJA KONG vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* As ARSION’s purpose becomes hyper-focused on “Get Omukai over at all costs”, she’s pushed to another tournament finals, and now AJA has to try and get her over. As Aja’s maybe the GOAT at “find what they’re good at and focus on making them look AWESOME at it” that’s a good booking call, but puro fans backlash against uber-pushes same as Western ones do- just more quietly. Omukai’s in black, Aja’s in pink & black.

They trade thigh-kicks to start and Omukai promptly flattens Aja with an uraken of her own- Aja sells it like she “got caught” and can barely get up, but catches a solebutt with a heel hook, sold half-heartedly by Omukai. Aja gets two backdrop drivers for two, then two straight Brainbusters for the same. The last-ditch kickout indicates this could already be ending, and a dazed Omukai ducks some urakens but gets put up top… and uses that to hit her Sit-Out Razor’s Edge for a close two! An angry Omukai gets a stiff Ax Kick (lol think that was a potato) and puts Aja on top, but Aja whacks her away and crushes her with the flying elbow. Omukai does the “Fuck YOU!” bridge-out and even absorbs the short uraken and right-hands Aja to the mat for two, then tries again and gets Uraken’d for the same. Aja DEMANDS her injured opponent get up, and Omukai roars up and gets in her face, but just eats another Uraken and that’s that at (6:39). Aja wins the tournament and Omukai gets crushed.

So I was FEARING a fluke, like Aja jobs because Omukai uses a quick kick, but oddly the solebutt AND Uranage were not used here at all (the kick did get countered, though), but instead they went with “Aja slowly but surely demolishes her opponent and gives them only one nearfall”. Which is fine I guess, but we’ve seen it a lot this year already, and done better. Omukai just lacks the selling or defiance to allow people to REALLY get behind her, so Aja has to basically do everything.

Rating: ** (another “pretty decent” match in a tournament full of ** matches)

So hideous bridge-troll Rossy Ogawa comes out and awards everyone their trophies, Aja being tired but victorious and Omukai does her best “fake dizzy”. A big issue with ARSION here is you have all these wrestlers who were supposed to get pushed and have all faltered a ton, and Aja has sort of become that thing the fans of the 2000s feared most in joshi puro- the elder veteran star who is unstoppable and rarely jobs. Here she deftly beat GAMI, Yoshida and Omukai, who were among the top people who could be expected to take her to the limit, you know? But instead Yoshida’s push had diminished so she’s just another face, GAMI got stomped and looks like a JTTS, and Omukai is now firmly “Not Ready Yet; Maybe Next Year”. Not that Omukai really SHOULD be the Ace, but that’s another problem- they chose the wrong person, AND are kinda pushing them wrong.

So yay! Another ARSION show full of clipped and ** matches! With odd choices in who to push and most of the company getting demolished in short matches so they look weak! Rossy Ogawa = BOOKING GENIUS!