Joshi Spotlight: ARSION’s Carnival ARSION 2000

https://archive.org/details/arsioncarnival-arsion-2000

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- CARNIVAL ARSION 2000:
(Nov. 19th 2000)
* It’s time for more ARSION, as I was told there was one last show yet to review! And… oh boy, a TOURNAMENT! Haven’t seen one of THOSE in a month or so! It’s a “Hyper Trio Six-(person) Tag Team Tournament”! Also a singles match between Ayako Hamada & JWP’s Azumi Hyuga! uhhhhh they must be airing the tourney stuff in full, because this is a 2-hour video and there’s only a handful of matches listed. but hahaha NOPE, as I get confused near the 30-minute mark, and realize they just didn’t write down the other matches on Archive.

The second half is MUCH bigger, as we get a big double-main event featuring the Twin Star tag belts and the Queen of ARSION Title being up for grabs, as GAMI & Rie take on Las Cachorras Orientales, and Ayako Hamada gets another chance against Aja Kong! It also has Yuu Yamagata make her debut! Who I’ve never heard of, so I’m guessing she doesn’t make a major mark! Plus a lot of random tags, more man vs. woman stuff in a Trios match, AKINO vs. Chaparrita ASARI for the Sky High ARSION Title, LCO vs. GAMI & Rie Tamada, and another Aja Kong/Ayako Hamada match for the Queen of ARSION Title!

REINA TAKASE vs. LINDA STARR: It’s the green rookie vs. Starr! Who is now dressed like a superhero in much better gear- a black/pink/white bodysuit with bare arms & legs. Takase’s in red, and surprises her with a spear before the bell, but we’re clipped to a slingshot dropkick and Linda trapping her in a Tarantula variant, hanging her right-side-up on the second rope. Starr side-Russian legsweeps her into a painful-looking grounded octopus hold but gets judo-flipped into a jujigatame. Linda catches her with a big lariat for two, gets rolled up, then dodges a missile kick and… gets rolled up again, and gets pinned at (2:41 of 10:24 shown)! haha the kid beat her! Match looked by the numbers, but fine. Takase doesn’t stand out much from any other rookie, but had some fire. Starr’s stuff is usually well-executed but bland.

BIONIC J vs. AI FUJITA: Fujita’s in gold with black trim, and J’s in a black singlet and now has blonde hair. We’re clipped to Fujita’s rana, then Bionic J catches her with D’Lo Brown’s Sky High powerbomb for two. Yup, we’re in that era. Legdrop off the second rope gets two, then she screams “Whiplash City!” and tries a fireman’s-to-michinoku-driver, getting rolled up. Some clunky counters set up Ai’s Orihara moonsault, two missile kicks & a German for two, then her 450 Splash for three (2:42 of 8:57 shown). haha THAT was pretty decisive! You don’t often see “just hits several unanswered moves in a row for the win”. Bionic J continues to amuse me- a low-ranking American woman randomly in Japan, but like… as a JTTS? She’s gotta be pretty low on the totem pole if she’s eating clean decisive losses to AI FUJITA.

HYPER TRIO TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT:
SEMI-FINALS:
* So yeah, if you’ve followed ARSION at all, you’d know that ARSION loves several things, but two of the big ones are 1) Tournaments and B) Lucha Libre. So now it’s a TRIOS TOURNAMENT!

GAMI, PIKO & RIE TAMADA vs. FABI APACHE, MARI APACHE & XOCHITL HAMADA:
* This seems to be obviously setting up GAMI’s heel stable with an “easy win” as the luchadoras could win or lose in whatever way the wind is blowing. Mari is the “Good Apache” (the heavier one), Fabi the “Bad Apache” (the lighter one) and Xochitl is Ayako’s sister and not good from what I’ve seen. PIKO is Command Bolshoi’s heel clown act, GAMI is the former submission/striker turned silly heel, and Rie is kinda floundering. All the heels are in red.

Fabi starts with GAMI and does some SLICK spinning armdrags (hey, she’s improving!), then the heels do their “chain of assisted abdominal stretch” spot with the fans. Team Lucha does three “chase” spots in a row, ending in luchas cross-bodying heels, then the heels complete ranas… except GAMI, who eats a ligerbomb and gets yelled at for it. GAMI does a People’s Elbow riff to Xochitl, then PIKO runs the ropes 10 times to set up her silly Irish jig kicks. 3 Luchadoras suplex 2 heels, everyone pokes each other’s eyes, then Fabi whips the heels to the floor and follows with a corkscrew dive. Mari adds a somersault plancha & Xochitl a tope, but GAMI superkicks Fabi into PIKO’s tiger suplex for two. Fabi fights back a bit, but gets caught in SHOTEIMANIA, as PIKO palm-strikes her for three at (5:55 of 19:42 shown). Looked like a lot of comedy spots interspersed with “let the lucha team do some dives”. With only a third shown it’s too hard to rate, maybe ** ish?

AJA KONG, AKINO & MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. VIP (Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Michiko Omukai, w/ Yumi Fukawa & Bionic J):
* An interesting collection- the two veterans of ARSION with AKINO, then the heel-adjacent stable that merges the “star of the future” (Omukai) with the established veteran tag act (LCO).

Aja immediately gets quadruple-teamed and VIP poses over her. We’re clipped to Mita flattening Yoshida (her 1992 rival!) but Shimoda getting caught in a slow-motion submission as the styles clash between her & Yoshida is VERY apparent as it’s really ugly. Shimoda rolls into a tiger suplex for two, then Yoshida hits the Kick of Fear. Clipped to Aja trying to stop Shimoda’s climb but taking Mita’s electric chair drop. She kicks Shimoda out of mid-air, but eats so many ax kicks from her & Omukai that she goes down- a double-one gets two. VIP tries a triple-team but Yoshida sets up Aja’s flying back elbow to Omukai. AKINO hits her perfect tope con hilo to LCO, letting Aja hit a great Brainbuster- two! We go through some clips as various people run in during AKINO/Omukai, but AKINO gets a rana for two, then runs into an uranage. Aja tries the “superplex her partner onto them” trick, but misses and AKINO gets hoisted into Omukai’s Razor’s Edge… but ranas out for two! Aja’s team tries triple finishers but LCO germans her & Yoshida- Omukai uses SHOTEIMANIA to stun AKINO and finishes with the Sit-Out Razor’s Edge at (5:32 of 16:54 shown). Everything not involving AKINO looked horrifically clunky until Aja settled into her slower-speed stuff- a focus on Shimoda doing things with people who had vastly different styles will do that.

AYAKO HAMADA (ARSION) vs. AZUMI HYUGA (JWP):
* Interpromotional mayhem! Except it’s a weak indie (ARSION) vs. a dead promotion (JWP). Though JWP apparently resurrects itself immediately following death as a random non-entity promotion. Hyuga is good, and considered a bit of a “lost worker” since most of her stuff is either unrecorded or on a show nobody watches. With JWP being so weak, they probably booked this as an opportunity for Ayako to “establish herself” further with a win over the Ace-ish person of another company.

They start out with one of those relatively simple but high-speed sequences to pop the fans, then slug it out until Hamada kips up and DDTs Hyuga. Hyuga gets a victory roll & run-up dropkick, then a regular missile kick & somersault plancha, springboard dropkick & German to mostly little reaction. Hyuga lands on her feet from a German & powerbomb, but eats SHOTEIMANIA and a spinkick into Hamada’s quebrada, missile kick & Ayakonoclasm for two. The Super Hama-Chan Cutter is countered to a Victory Star Drop (more of a rollup than Manami’s vicious neck-drop version) for two, then Rolling Germans gets the same. Clipped to a double-down & Hamada brutally botches a rollup into her submission finisher, and Hyuga handily rolls out (with Hamada’s obvious help). Hamada with a wheelbarrow German & spingboard moonsault for two. Hamada climbs, but takes a Butterfly Superduperplex for two. They roll back and forth in a rollup several times- Hyuga DDTs out of a Michinoku Driver but eats SHOTEIMANIA again and a Spinning Ligerbomb gets… two, as Time Expires at (7:19 of 15:00 shown). Well that’s one way to do it. Wasn’t expecting a fifteen minute one, lol.

I wonder if this excited the tape-traders of the day- it’s a pile of MOVEZ, but not much of a contest, as it’s largely just “you hit your moves, then I’ll hit mine” with not much character to it. Like… antiseptic move-trading. Since they’re unfamiliar with each other, that kinda makes sense, but it makes the match pretty bland because it’s not coming out of a series of hot counters or big moves, but like… “Ayako hits 3 moves in a row, gets two, then picks up Hyuga, who elbows her in the ribs out of a regular thing and then hits 3 moves of her own”. And instead of selling big, they just pop up and do their own stuff after a counter, rarely actually PUTTING OVER their opponent or making the struggle seem big. The execution was mostly fine but lacked emotion or intensity, and the finish came out of nowhere since there wasn’t a dramatic countdown or a lot of desperation pins.

Rating: **1/2 (seems FINE and only one major mess-up, but very antiseptic and mostly just okay)

HYPER TRIO TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT:
SEMI-FINALS:
GAMI, PIKO & RIE TAMADA vs. VIP (Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Michiko Omukai, w/ Yumi Fukawa & Bionic J):
* It’s the tournament final!

GAMI’s team attacks before the bell, but Mita gets tripped into… GAMI doing a comedy spot, as she runs the ropes a bunch and then just stops. GAMI gets beaten up repeatedly, eventually taking Mita’s avalanche electric chair drop. Shimoda comes in and quickly starts eating eye-pokes and other counters, then GAMI wows the crowd by hitting a pumphandle move that spikes her right onto her head… but ignores the impact because it’s just the start of a double-team sequence where Shimoda keeps popping up to take more moves. Shimoda comes back and LCO hits their electric chair/splash combo (… wow it’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen that), but PIKO comes in with a super rana to Shimoda, into a side slam/inverted DDT from the other two. Mita runs in but takes a backdrop suplex/neckbreaker as this is like… on PAPER good but is in practice just super-clunky and full of odd bits where people are being jerked around. Case in point, Shimoda takes a pumphandle powerbomb for two and just flat-faces on the kickout, needing to be hauled up whining, then awkwardly counters out so Omukai can beat GAMI square in the face with the sobat kick, haha. Blazing Chop/Tiger Suplex combo gets two. Death Lake Driver (tiger superplex) gets two. Flying Ax Kick misses but Mita waffles GAMI with a slapstick or something to a good reaction, but everyone’s just staggered and stumbling around. Shimoda accidentally ax kicks Mita and awkwardly bends over after taking SHOTEIMANIA, likely expecting a different move and instead gets dragon suplexed by Rie into GAMI’s own for two. Fisherman’s Buster finishes Shimoda at (5:57 of 12:46 shown). lol why were PIKO and Rie NEVER legal? Did they cut out everything except GAMI’s stuff.

Oof, what a MESS. It came off like they were just improvising the whole thing, not helped by Shimoda being in the lion’s share of the match and seemingly being fucked up, either by the neck-drop or just in general. GAMI did the entire match herself, with her partners only helping, and the same nearly seemed true for VIP, as Omukai wasn’t even in the match for more than 20 seconds (and just by interfering). This had all kinds of “they don’t know what’s next” bits, like Shimoda bending over to get ready for moves that never come, people awkwardly pulling others into position for moves, the dreaded “stall for 1-2 seconds before a move”, etc. And if THIS is what they showed, how bad did the rest look?

Rating: *1/2 (just a mess of a match- some execution wasn’t so bad for mostly it lacked desperation and was mostly a tired, clumsy Shimoda being pulled around)

Dec. 3rd, 2000:
* Another show!

New rookie time! Meet Yuu Yamagata. She’s still wrestling!

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. YUU YAMAGATA:
* So Yuu Yamagata makes her debut against her own coach, Mariko Yoshida. Looking her up, she’s actually a bigger name than I thought, but appears to be a career wrestler in the minors. She even wrestles TO THIS DAY, mostly in something called “Just Tap Out”… oh, that’s Taka Michinoku’s indie! Yeah so she mostly wrestles in front of 50 people, lol. Yamagata debuts in a pretty sporty navy blue outfit- shorts and a top with a diamond logo on it. Haircut’s almost too small for her head, if that makes sense- styled tight and short, but REALLY short on the sides. Physique somewhat non-descript- not the shapeless Zenjo Rookies (who typically debuted as teenagers) but not quite athletic.

Yamagata tries a takedown to start, but gets jujigatame’d, Yoshida releasing to prove a point. Yuu takes an armdrag so badly she basically does a head bump, and Yoshida does a simple headlock, eventually standing up so they can do more basic Yoshida-esque grapple-fu. Yuu tries some AJW rookie dropkicks but doesn’t get a lot of speed, and Yoshida tees off on her more with an inverted figure-four and other stuff. Yuu gets a crossbody out of the corner, but Yoshida quickly flips her over and hits the Modified Sleeper for the win at (3:42 of 5:01 shown). Looked like a pretty standard “Yoshida wrestles herself” match, with Yuu doing a lof of spinning but ending up in holds.

Rating: 1/2* (kind of a clunky “obviously a veteran leading a rookie through grapples” match)

This weirdo curtain thingie takes up a huge chunk of the hard cam, to the point where I thought this show was in some small gym or something. It wasn’t until much later I realized this was KORAKUEN HALL, which makes this look like a huge attempt to compress the crowd and make it look like more people are there.

PIKO vs. LINDA STARR: The battle of the tiny wrestlers! Linda jumps PIKO in the aisle and whips her into chairs, then takes the same. Both do Tiger Feints in a silly spot, then PIKO counters a rana with an arm submission, refusing to release even as she hangs off the ring apron. Starr keeps going for the mask, getting the ref physically involved, but PIKO manages to toss Starr off the top (probably her Super Rock Bottom but she let go and spun around on it), but on the kickout, Starr unmasks her, the ref immediately jumping on PIKO and disqualifying Starr for this egregious lack of tact that is lost on the audience, who seems to not get that this is an auto-DQ in lucha rules and this huge lack of decorum. PIKO wins by DQ at (2:28 of 8:14 shown).

AZUMI HYUGA & XOCHITL HAMADA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI & BIONIC J:
* More of Hyuga in ARSION, and she’s teaming with Xochitl against a VIP duo.

Hyuga promptly hits Omukai with two double-arm backbreakers and works submissions while clawing at her back. The KAORU press and springboard dropkick keep it up, but Omukai hits one of her insta-comebacks with a clothesline & a shitty flying knee (basically grabbing Azumi’s head and pushing her instead of making it look like a strike). Hyuga counters out of the Razor’s Edge for two, then hits Rolling Germans after dodging an ax kick. Hyuga hits a flying thing and “plays dizzied”, avoiding a tiger suplex but taking a sobat for two. J comes in and they hit what was probably a backdrop-suplex-to-double-Ace Crusher for two, then Xochitl shoves VIP off so Hyuga can hit a somersault plancha on them. Hyuga with a missile kick & dodges a spear so J nails the corner pad, then blocks a lariat with a Fujiwara armbar. J fires back but takes a straightjacket German, over-rotating and messing up the bridge part. VIP double-teams Hyuga but get double-clotheslined down by Xochitl so Hyuga can finish Bionic J with the Michinoku Driver at (6:32 of 15:40 shown). Another weirdly edited one, as it’s ALL Hyuga/Omukai, then Hyuga/J, with Xochitl playing on the apron. Looked clunky at first but ended up a bit average.

Rating: ** (inoffensive but pretty uninteresting, like a lot of Omukai stuff)

THE APACHES (Gran, Mari & Fabi Apache) vs. MR. CACAO, CANDY OKUTSU & AI FUJITA:
* A weird intergender Trios match sees Gran teaming with his daughters against someone named “Mr. Cacao” and two former members of CAZAI. Cacao appears to be some Japanese indie wrestler with a lanky, ripped physique, though he’s masked in the pictures I’ve seen but maskless here. Gran Apache’s short and chubby, as usual. His daughters are in matching blue bodysuits- actually pretty good gear.

After a tease of Cacao/Fabi, Cacao takes on Gran and does some really impressive acrobatic armdrags, then tilt-a-whirls him, then Fabi, then aaaaah here comes the perv spots, as Gran is punched and “sells” by kissing first Ai, then Candy while they writhe in his grip and he goes “Yes!”. More kissing leads to Cacao’s quebrada on all three Apaches, then Candy & Ai dives, but Ai hits her partners so Fabi hits a corkscrew plancha, Mari gets lifted into a HUGE somersault plancha, and fatass Gran hits a goddamned Running No-Hands Springboard Ass Slam like he’s Manami Toyota or something! Clipped to Cacao hitting a superduper armdrag on Gran, who then bases so well for Candy she looks like a better worker than ever because suddenly it’s easy to hit a “countered rana into a Manami Roll” and sitting up to hit a super rana on the second try, haha. A weird triple-Apache move sees Mari powerbomb-toss Candy to Gran, who tosses her to Fabi who intantly hits a Ligerbomb for two. Fabi misses a flying headbutt and takes a Moonsault from Candy for two, then Fujita hits a missile kick & rana, but gets superplexed, Ligerbombed & torture-racked. A triple-team sets up another Ligerbomb for two, then Mari finishes her with a Michinoku Driver at (6:59 of 16:12 shown).

A weird one, with far better work and more intricate double-teaming than the other matches thus far, with Apache again kind of exposing how the person TAKING moves is more important than the one DOING them (it makes sense that ranas are impossible without help, but then you can plainly SEE IT when a heavier, stronger wrestler can easily make Candy look way more acrobatic than normal with all these skillful counters). Cacao did some flashy stuff but that’s all- probably a “pretty moves but can’t really WORK” kind of a thing. I’m probably mixing up the Apache sisters (same outfit and their physiques are looking more similar) but they looked solid and quick. Fujita was oddly only shown in her ending bit where she lost.

Rating: **1/2 (hard to assess given the clipping but looked MUCH better than the other bouts this show)

SKY HIGH OF ARSION TITLE:
AKINO vs. CHAPARITA ASARI:
* So ARSION’s belt for smaller wrestlers has been vacant since Ayako Hamada relinquished it weeks before. This is a decision match with AKINO, probably the best and most athletic high-flyer, taking on ASARI, who is now a freelancer. AKINO’s in orange with blue trim, ASARI’s in yellow.

They trade submissions, Chapa able to hang with AKINO on that front, then AKINO hits a bunch of dropkicks & bootscapes. She bronco-busters into the turnbuckle, but expertly counters the cartwheel handspring mule kick by hopping up and ass-slamming Chapa’s back. AKINO cleverly improvises after falling short on a “leapfrogging onto the top rope” by hopping on the landing and falling forward, then gets headscissored to the floor & plancha’d. Chapa misses an in-ring dive and AKINO dumps her and hits her high-speed tope con hilo into a springboard dropkick & backdrop suplex for two. Chapa catches her up top with a rolling armbar for a while, but charges into a Ligerbomb for two. Chapa is selling the “hard to pick up” death-sell, but dodges AKINO’s springboard dropkick this time and runs up for a rana, then hits multiple arm submissions to harry AKINO. Missile kick hits but she gets thrown off the top out of the Sky Twister Press, only to chase after AKINO when she tries a run-up move and hits the ropes so she trips up. Super Rana for two, countered for two, then AKINO counters her Michinoku Driver and catches a punch with a rolling jujigatame and Chaparita taps out the SECOND it’s applied at (7:37 of 11:15 shown)! AKINO is the inaugural Sky High Champion! I didn’t expect that- usually a Freelancer gets to beat natives in bouts like this, especially when they’re not usually pushed.

Match was a good, solid affair- not really shooting for the stratosphere but good enough. Which is almost kind of disappointing, given it’s a TITLE WIN for AKINO and you’d have expected them to try and show off a ton of big things. AKINO has a toolkit of incredible moves, so her not using the “blind rana” or Mysterio-style springboard rana in a match for the Sky High Belt feels weird. The finish was kind of out of nowhere but sort of fit the story- ASARI had been hitting arm submissions all match long, so AKINO countering a move into one of her own kind of gave her a taste of her own medicine.

Rating: **1/2 (fine but also somewhat disappointing since you’d expect a ***1/2 floor for an important title match for AKINO especially)

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLES:
GAMI & RIE TAMADA vs. LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita):
* So GAMI & Rie have won the tag titles from Shimoda & Omukai months before, and now Shimoda teams up with her regular partner to try again. LCO have by this point won EVERYTHING and were travelling to to nearly every promotion to feud with (and eventually put over) the top teams.

GAMI’s team attacks with slapsticks to start, then they brawl all over Korakuen until ending up back in the ring for a falling clothesline from Shimoda & Blazing Chop from Mita. Bitch Pose to GAMI! Piledriver gets two, then GAMI… messes with the timing of some spots (okay so that IS definitely her) and an avalanche electric chair drop hits her for two. The crowd just DIES for all GAMI’s stuff, but pop a bit for Rie’s missile kick. GAMI uses her pumphandle thing to drop Shimoda vertically AGAIN (what ARE they doing with that?), Shimoda at least falling sideways this time, then no-sells a German and lariats her, only to end up Tiger Suplexed. Man these transitions are INCREDIBLY lazy- just “pick me up then I’ll turn you around” type stuff. She splats Shimoda with a lariat/shotei and a pumphandle ligerbomb gets two. She goes up and gets caught by LCO for the Death Lake Driver, taking a HUGE bump but kicking out to impress the fans. She sloppily counters Mita’s DVD and it’s stereo dragon suplexes (lol she just releases Mita and rolls over on hers) and her Fisherman’s Buster- Mita saves. DVD/Ax Kick and GAMI AGAIN kicks out, then Rie sets up a weird submission that has poor Shimoda desperately clawing for the ropes like a shoot because the positioning is so bad she almost can’t move herself. GAMI tries her Fisherman’s Buster again but Shimoda slides out, lets Rie accidentally missile kick her, then hits an Ax Kick for the pin and the titles at (6:57 of 15:49 shown). LCO talk shit after the match, take the Twin Star belts… and just toss them back to GAMI & Rie. Then call in Mr. Cacao and he gives them shinier, prettier belts. Then GAMI brandishes hers like “mine is better”. No idea what this is about, lol.

Man, GAMI was so INCREDIBLY bad in this match- someone who was kinda good and did a great match a year or so earlier is now just herky-jerky, buggers up basic timing, and does the worst transitions I’ve ever seen. It’s fascinatingly bad and either there’s something wrong with her or she’s just given up (like all her efforts didn’t result in a push and she’s instead “secondary heel JTTS leader” and was like “Well FUCK IT then”). Like there’s a lot of “runs up to someone, then stops on a dime and delays her next action” which exposes the business to fans and tends to kill crowds instantly without being a physical botch in the sense of a messed-up move or fall. That we didn’t get ANY of Rie being legal was strange and obviously deliberate, which is too bad because she’s at least capable.

Rating: *1/2 (legitimately terrible- GAMI was uncarryably bad)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AJA KONG vs. AYAKO HAMADA:
* So Hamada had challenged Aja months before this, but it was a very one-sided bout, Aja barely even looking troubled as she handily stomped Hamada in Ayako’s best match to date- like *** ish. I guess there’s a lack of other challengers cuz here it is again, even though I don’t think Ayako’s picked up any big wins in the interim. Ah, there’s a tournament win against Yoshida from September- that KINDA counts, I guess.

Aja wisely plays it “slow and steady” during the lockups to put over the moment, though Ayako’s boots being cartoonishly squeaky kind of robs the moment of some gravitas. Aja works in some slow chops, Ayako firing back and getting flattened for it until Aja peppers her with kicks and a chinlock to slow her down. Ayako plays up her speed with three low running dropkicks, but Aja schools her by hitting her own and bouncing Ayako with it, haha. This really puts over the hopelessness of Ayako’s mission, and Aja hits the methodical beatdown portion. A reminder that Aja’s crab-holds are the BEST- absolutely nobody does so much to make it look like they’re putting their entire body weight on their opponent, just crushing them and leaving them exhausted when they finally escape. Aja works the midsection with kicks and front suplexes Ayako onto the top rope, but just bounces her off as she hit it with her upper leg. Aja pulls off a surfboard, hanging Ayako upside-down and even dragon sleepering her with the legs still trapped, absolutely dominant. See but here’s where Ayako fails- she just kinda sells “grumpy pain” at this- where’s the screaming agony? The defiance? The FIRE? Even wrestlers with questionable selling or psychology tend to at least sell SOME of that- I’ve heard people criticize Manami Toyota for her “scream in agony then bolt up for instant comebacks” but she at least did the FIRST part, and this is Ayako’s biggest match ever and she’s barely even performing.

So all of this has had Aja pressuring the lower back, adding strikes as well, then she easily dodges Ayako’s lionsault, but gets cocky and is hurricanrana’d. And now it’s Ayako’s big comeback… and all she does is some back kicks while occasionally pumping her fists. LOOK AT THE CROWD, DAMMIT! Engage with them! They get into a slapfest, Aja winning a headbutt war and piledriving her back to square one. Ayako dodges a second lariat and Germans her, but her own strikes are weak and she can barely lift Aja for a backdrop suplex. A Super Lionsault eats feet, Aja lariats her down again, and Ayako has to haul her off the top out of her back elbow… but Quebradas right into a chair. It’s been 12+ minutes of straight dominance as Aja hits that back elbow for two. Ayako counters another suplex but gets Brainbustered for two, ducks an Uraken, and eats one on a counter-swing for two. Aja keeps missing the big one, gets frustrated, and puts her up for the Avalanche Waterwheel Drop, of course getting sunset-bombed off. What’s left? SHOTEIMANIA, as Ayako spams them like crazy, then hits the top rope one into the Ayakonoclasm, but Aja kicks out at ONE and Ayako charges right into an Uraken! Two! That creates a double-down, Aja drawing the best reaction thus far for taking off her gloves to set up the murderous final Uraken… but she injures her hand on Ayako’s head, and eats three spinkicks in a row… for three (17:38 of 17:52 shown)? Ayako wins the Queen of ARSION Title outta nowhere! Crowd is noticeably taken agack and gets the “delayed pop” when they realize it’s actually over. Aja hugs Ayako from the mat and Ayako gives a grateful promo. The Hamada Era has begun.

Man, Ayako Hamada is just the shits. Obviously they wanted to push her to justify all the attention and hype she got, but I’m struggling to think of any wrestler pushed to this level who struggled so hard with the basics of “make the crowd care about you”. She wrestles like she’s trying to remember the order of moves, not sell pain, defiance, and fury- she never EVER looks to the crowd for reassurance or “come see me KICK THIS MONSTER’S ASS!”. And this leads to a pretty dead match when it’s like 13 minutes of Aja kicking her ass and a short bit for comebacks. While Aja typically dominates the majority of her matches, which fits her monster style, you really gotta put more oomph and desperation into your comebacks than this, as this ends up looking more like a squash with a lucky finish. Especially since while Ayako typically used a spinkick, it was always a transition move and nothing with the credibility to take out a monster like Aja. And so that dud of a finish really hurts what could have been an incredible match… but how else do you call it when the winner only hits like 4 moves for the win?

Rating: **1/2 (an exceptionally long squash into a random comeback win- hardly Top Title material, despite Aja’s usual skill in crushing people)

So this is one of the “bigger” ARSION shows, especially for the year given how three titles changed hands- a new Sky High Champ in AKINO (FINALLY giving her some more recognition for her talents), new Tag Champs (as LCO will need to be taken down again), and now a new Queen. Though Hamada’s lack of connection with the fans is a HUGE issue and something like… some of the vets should have been coaching her on given how their money is likely tied up in how well the Champ is drawing. Overall it was a pretty weak two hours, as ARSION’s editors seem to want to clip matches to 1/3 their length and only focus on ONE wrestler, maybe two- this leaves a lot of matches looking either incomplete or like someone didn’t bother to perform. Some flaws are easily picked up just from the movesets- you saw repeated moves ALL SHOW LONG, which is not great when they’re all used for the same default near-falls. Like I think every match had 1-2 Ligerbombs in them, never mind the ludicrous SHOTEIMANIA, which has poisoned all of puro at this point but was particularly virulent here, with wrestlers using it as a lazy transition constantly. Similarly, was it necessary to have a plancha and a springboard missile dropkick in EVERY MATCH?

Oh also, there was a HUGE issue going on behind the scenes at this point, with Aja Kong, booker of the promotion, being forced to drop the belt to the green fuckup Hamada while business is already in the shitter, and Aja herself quits the promotion she started in Feb. 2001- two months after this. This leads to an even worse year for ARSION, as Hamada herself quits before it’s over! This also might explain why Aja was very disinterested in looking less than dominant even though she was losing, when in 1997 she was going all-out to make GAMI & Omukai look like they had a puncher’s chance at taking her out at any second in this same promotion.