Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Battle Station (01.27.01-02.12.01)

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- BATTLE STATION:
(aka HOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY SHIT THE WHEELS ARE COMIN’ OFF!)
(Jan. 27th 2001)
* It’s here! The show BEFORE the legendary show where ARSION’s wheels completely come off! Which I sadly can’t find online, lol. That one features not one but TWO worked shoots as the company jettisons both Ryo Miyuki & Aja Kong but decides to make HOT ANGLES out of it to I guess generate excitement or news or publicity or something out of it. And… hoo boy. But this at least lays the stage for that so I can talk about it!

Re*DRAG (GAMI, Rie Tamada & Reina Takase) vs. CHAPARITA ASARI, AI FUJITA & YUU YAMAGATA: A very clipped trios match has each team paired up with a newbie (I think Reina actually joins Re*DRAG). ASARI does her mule kick to GAMI, Reina flies into Re*DRAG, and a triple-team by ASARI’s squad is countered, leaving Yuu there with Reina, who hesitates before judo-flipping her and hitting a jujigatame for the tap-out (0:42 of 9:48 shown).

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. BIONIC J: What a weird match. Jessie Bennett of VIP out there taking on Yoshida, who is somewhat orphaned from important stuff. J counters a whip with a shoulder-ram, gets German’d, then is casually rolled into the Modified Sleeper, struggling a bit before tapping at (0:38 of 5:40 shown). lol what a jobbing.

MASK vs. HAIR MATCH- PIKO vs. LINDA STAR: !! So uhhhhh with Rossy’s fascination with lucha, we get one of its biggest traditions: a Hair vs. Mask match. Naturally, this feud doesn’t even remotely warrant that, but that’s Ogawa booking for you. This probably stems from the December show where Star unmasked PIKO mid-match, earning a DQ. A lack of decorum in Mexico but kinda lost here. This is also clipped despite the stips- we get mostly clips of them trading strikes, like THE ALMIGHTY SHOTEI, which PIKO then turns into a standing armbar for the tap-out at (0:47 of 6:08 shown). LOL they gave them six minutes for that? Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnddd, no hair cutting? Okay.

LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. AJA KONG & RYO MIYUKI:
* IT’S TIME FOR MIYUKI!!! So her story becomes somewhat of a legend in joshi history, as she is trained out of volleyball or some shit, Rossy tries to drum up publicity for it, and she showed up… for like a couple shifts then fucked off, missing a bunch of dates. Here she’s called “Super Rookie”, which makes the subsequent mess even more hilarious. She has a decent look, at least- tall enough and with tasseled leggings, all in white. Aja’s in white, too. She’s in there with three pros, but this is still clipped so we barely see anything.

Miyuki “charges” Shimoda along with Aja, then she & Aja miss a clothesline sandwich and Aja blasts her over (easy to sell THAT, haha). A lot of clips are just Miyuki on all fours, selling. Next we see Miyuki bleeding all over the place and Mita PLANTS her with a banana-yellow chair. Aja brainbusters Mita in the next clip, then SLAPS her own partner and demands she get more fighty- Miyuki is seen hitting the Death Valley Driver TO MITA, but the next clip is a pink chair hitting her in the head, and the DVD finishes at (1:24 of 15:05 shown). haha Miyuki won’t go up for it the first time, so Mita had to try again so the kid could give her SOME jump on the lift. I don’t suppose it was a mistake that the only stuff we saw of “Super Rookie” was the stuff most people could pull off okay (ie. sell stiff offense). Having her blade and eat a ton of stiff moves in her debut seems like maybe not the way to introduce a rookie to the business, especially with these three being not known for being gentle.

AYAKO HAMADA & AKINO vs. AZUMI HYUGA (JWP) & MARI APACHE (ARSION): Hyuga, with JWP in a kind of reborn limbo and probably wanting to hype it up a bit, heads to ARSION for some shows. Here she teams with Apache against the Champ and her… former tag team partner? Are they still cool? We see Hyuga dominate Ayako, using Rolling Germans, then her team hits stereo Michinoku Drivers for the pin at (1:14 of 19:00 shown). This obviously sets up the Queen of ARSION Title match on the Feb. 12th show.

YUU YAMAGATA vs. REINA TAKASE: Rookie Mayhem! Yuu’s in a blue two-piece; Takase’s in a shiny red Re*DRAG outfit. They exchange some pretty light stuff but mostly come off as clones of one another. Takase misses a flying splash but flips Yuu into a jujigatame- the kid fights out, but ends up getting keylocked and submits at (2:14 of 5:55 shown).Seemed fine. At least it was short.

RIE TAMADA vs. BIONIC J: JIP as Tamada hits a missile kick, then counters J with Diamond Dust (flipover stunner from the corner). Tornado DDT and J grabs the ropes, then counters to a Sky High. She swats Rie up top and brings her down with an iconoclams into a Stunner, then legdrops her from Bret’s rope for two. She screams “Powerbomb!” but it’s a wheelbarrow move Rie counters with a “stunner” that looked like shit. J’s lariat is countered to a German for two, they do a bunch of clunky stuff, then Rie charges into a fireman’s carry, Bionic J swinging her into a Michinoku Driver… for three (3:36 of 6:09 shown)! BIONIC J WINS A SOLO MATCH! And against Rie, too- Rie isn’t exactly “elite” in here but she’s been in that midcard position for ages and usually beats nobodies. It’s… not saying a lot for her position she’s being used to get J over. Match was very… Rie vs. J-ish. Uninteresting, clunky, a bit clumsy, and always looked like it was about to turn into a disaster. Execution of what could have been good spots (an icono/stunner?) made it worse. Probably barely ** if they showed the whole thing.

Next: A “Sakie Hasegawa hangs out with Yumi Fukawa” segment! Which… like, both retired due to injury (Sakie YEARS ago) and they’re spending tape time on this, lol. This is like an eight minute segment, and they just show up at a restaurant and eat some oval of meat (?)!

Ai Fujita seems to be doing what’s called “Ganguro”- a strange kind of “urban tribe” fashion that was trendy-ish at the time. Girls tanning their skin ultra-dark for a variety of reasons- some take it to be rebellion against Japanese tradition (“traditional beauty” being more about pale skin and being demure), and a culture of restraint and self-isolation. This isn’t even close to the wildest example.

CHAPARRITA ASARI, AI FUJITA & FABI APACHE vs. Re*DRAG (GAMI, PIKO & PIKA):
* GAMI introduces us to a NEW character- “PIKA”, who is just a clone of PIKO (Command Bolshoi in red gear). This is… Linda Star? Really? She has a pink nose & tiger stripes, while PIKO’s is blue and has jaguar spots. The dead silence they come out to is frightening- like a Rob Conway Pop situation. And to “Who Let The Dogs Out?” at that! “Lucha Trios Matches” is obviously old hat to ARSION by this point.

JIP with Fabi missile kicking PIKO and scoring a super armdrag, then Lionsault for two. GAMI uses a slapjack or something on Fabi so PIKO slides off the top with a stomp for two- more dead silence. PIKO does some rollups but PIKA gets wheel kicked. PIKA throws a shitty slingshot dropkick w/ no contact, but gets superplexed. PIKA scores a lariat, but ASARI interferes and quebradas GAMI on the floor, setting up everyone doing their dives (to more utter silence- are there only five people there?). ASARI & Fabi missile kick PIKA, who dodges Fujita’s 450 Splash, but Fujita “ducks” (lol she forgot) GAMI’s lariat so PIKA takes it. ASARI gets a super frankensteiner, then GAMI holds her for PIKA’s, then PIKA does a flying sunset flip and a weak “just learns forward off the top” corkscrew moonsault for three (5:57 of 13:20 shown). Well we only got half of it, but it seemed very dreary- just people quietly hitting their spots and being louder than the fans.

Rating: * (the worst kind of “lucha”- flavorless jumping around)

Okay, NOW I get it. Rossy’s still a moron, but I can see why you’d take a person with this look and think she might have some future star potential. Miyuki is TALL and looks kinda cool and is good-looking. Great gear, too- the white, black and tassels is very sharp. It’s a very “Rossy Ogawa” thing to do to immediately elevate her over the rookies that work hard but are plainer to look at, regardless of her work ethic or skill, and act like she’s the future of the business entirely on the virtue of her look. GENIUS BOOKER WHO “INVENTED THE CRUSH GALS”, everyone!

AJA KONG, MARIKO YOSHIDA & RYO MIYUKI vs. VIP (Etsuko Mita, Mima Shimoda & Michiko Omukai):
* MORE MIYUKI!! Oh good! I was hoping there was slightly more! She shares most of her name with a JAV porn star so finding videos (um, WRESTLING videos) has been tricky! Aja’s in pink, Yoshida’s in the usual, Miyuki’s in white, Mita’s in yellow, Shimoda’s in violet, and Omukai’s in hot pink.

We’re JIP with Aja/Omukai, Aja charging into a Rock Bottom-style uranage for two. Hilarious bit as AJA KONG sells a straight right fist from Omukai like it’s a KO shot, barely kicking out. Yoshida has to swing in with a German to save Aja from the ferocious might of Omukai’s killshots, allowing Aja’s flying back elbow. Omukai “Fuck YOU!” bridges out, but the Brainbuster gets two. And then AHAHAHAHAHAH OH MY GOD MIYUKI’S OFFENSE, as she walks in, bumbles Omukai to her feet, then whiffs an uraken by a MILE. At least Omukai doesn’t sell it, and Miyuki corrects by making actual contact at 2pm, Omukai ignoring it and slapping her. Miyuki goes off the ropes and they do spinkicks, Miyuki clearly just flopping onto her ass like if I’d done the move with no training. Omukai & Shimoda pepper her with ax kicks that she sorta sells okay, getting two, and when Miyuki does a go-behind, Aja accidentally lariats her again. Tiger Suplex gets two for Omukai, who tries a piledriver next, but Miyuki won’t go up the first time, then “fights out” so hard the second Omukai DROPS HER right on her head! She flops over but is thankfully fine and tries another “fall on her ass” wheel kick, gets kicked again, then avoids LCO’s DVD/Ax Kick combo, another ax kick, then throws an “uraken” but AJA rushes in with hers, cracking Omukai for two. Miyuki then RUNS THE ROPES while Omukai is down and then goes like “oh, uh…” when she’s still lying down at the end of Miyuki’s run, so she awkwardly stops and hits a wheel kick so fucking bad that even Omukai refuses to sell it, as she softens it up WAY too much at the point of impact, then throws another, then Omukai finally ducks after Miyuki messes up the positioning and has to try again, but Time Expires at (3:51 of 20:00 shown).

This match looked like it was in danger of falling off the rails the entire time Miyuki was in there. You could tell she’d barely been trained, as she was often out of position, shoving people around or missing her shit. She was obviously so underconfident that she instinctively “pulled back” on all her strikes, making them look awful, she slipped out of Omukai’s grip (probably be flailing around too hard), and her urakens were even worse than her spinkicks. It’s a testament to everyone involved that this didn’t look EVEN WORSE, but as it was, you could tell in two minutes she had nothing. This is why a typical rookie in joshi goes through matches only with other rookies, consisting of basic offense and uncomplicated stuff like dropkicks and bodyslams, not spinkicks or urakens (where the 3D nature of them, versus a straightforward “run in a straight line and throw your legs forward”, can make you easily spin off course).

Rating: DUD (if these were the highlights, I’d hate to see what they cut!)

Now there’s a weird bit where Yumi Fukawa comes out in a shiny white qipao, cries while talking to her VIP teammates, and then does a big bow & apology to bridge troll Rossy Ogawa at ringside, and he gets mic time. I’m guessing she was leaving ARSION or something? Because VIP puts her on their shoulders and parades her around a bit and they’re off. TURNS OUT this is her actual retirement announcement- the injury was in the middle of last year, but I guess she announces she’s giving up wrestling here- her last match is against Yoshida in March and she’s done- the brain injury was too risky.

Now we see clips of Candy Okutsu’s retirement! I didn’t even know she retired again around here! But indeed, her last match was January 5th against Omukai. They show some highlights of her ARSION career, like showing up as Tiger Dream (which did NOT show up very often compared to how much I heard about it), beating Super Rookie Ayako Hamada, challenging for the Queen of ARSION against Yoshida and losing, and more. Her last match looks like a solid final effort- she hits a moonsault but gets plastered by Omukai’s kicks, an ax kick nearly KOing her. B3 Bomb finishes at (9:28). Her career is honestly that of someone who seemed like they SHOULD have developed into a great worker at some point, but never quite did.

AZUMI HYUGA vs. MARI APACHE:
* So Hyuga’s challenging for the Queen of ARSION soon, so she’s got to have a scrub fed to her first! Apache is usually good, but singles aren’t really her jam. Hyuga’s in blue, Mari’s in black w/ red tassels.

Things start off pretty quick with Mari knocking Hyuga off the apron and diving into her, but they slow it right down with matwork. Hey, been a while since I’ve seen a one-minute half-crab! Mari switches from a camel clutch to a bodyscissors chinlock for more weardown, but eats a slingshot dropkick, but her own holds are easily turned into a nasty toehold/chinlock. Surfboard & Gory Special keep it lucha, but Hyuga rolls her up, escapes a powerbomb, and runs up for a missile kick after a corner whip to finally get her stuff going. Mari won’t give her a German but gets rolled up (nice improv as I think Hyuga over-rotated out of a torture rack and they shifted quick), but Mari hits her with a wheel kick & sit-out gourdbuster for two. Hyuga finally puts her on the floor and cannonballs her- missile kick gets two. Hyuga catches her with a Straightjacket German, misses a flying knee but gets a German after ducking a lariat, but Mari recovers and lands the lariat for two. Hyuga slides out JB Angels style, but charges into a tilt-a-whirl torture rack and screams in agony. Mari calls for the Michinoku Driver, but Hyuga DDTs out, then hits Rolling Germans out of another attempt for two. Hyuga SMOKES her with a Flying Knee for two, but Mari gets pulled up and last-ditch lariats her, then Ligerbombs her for two. SWEET Flying Somersault Senton gets two, and Mari calls to end it, but gets caught in a Fujiwara armbar for a while, then eats a missile kick, catches Hyuga with a superplex… and Time’s Up at (15:00). Wait, huh? They wouldn’t even job MARI to Hyuga?

A solid little match! Not super great or anything, but it told a simple story of Mari dominating with power, lucha submissions and counters, Hyuga having to come back using her speed advantage. A mix of “it’s kept simple because they’re unfamiliar with one another/Apache isn’t Japanese” and “Mari dominates the first half, then Azumi the second half” as they get in a bunch of their shit. Hyuga fighting from underneath the entire time and still not winning is a WEIRD choice, though. I was already writing the ender thing with “she ate ‘90% of the offense because she was winning” and then she starts dominating and ultimately still can’t get it done. The fact that it was kept simple and did things like “fight to get a move, fail, then hit it later” made it a strange outlier in a scene where rapidly-fading stars keep finding new shortcuts and do crowd brawls instead of weardown holds to fill time. A throwback!

Rating: *** (a delightful little surprise!)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AYAKO HAMADA vs. AKINO:
* Hamada now gets a great challenge- her former tag team partner. HamaKINO were a big deal in ARSION for a while, winning the Twin Stars and defending for a while, but Ayako needed to be pushed by Rossy and that was that. AKINO’s in orange and defiantly hoists up her Sky High belt. Hamada’s in black with white.

The “DRAMATIC LOCKUP OF EQUALS” spot goes nowhere for them, but they trade strikes and AKINO gets some of those precise armdrags and they do FAT GUY NO-SOLD SHOULDERBLOCKS (except… both are svelte) until Hamada switches to a dropkick to catch her. Hamada barely catches her with a lionsault press (AKINO looked to be sliding out of the way). Hamada kinda runs out of ideas and throws kicks, but charges into a dropkick of AKINO’s own, and AKINO works her over with disrespectful corner stomps and bootscrapes. Hamada has to come back using flashy lucha-esque submissions to bend the back, like a bow & arrow and an upside-down deathlock with the arms pulled back. The psychology is sound, but Hamada is again acting like there are no fans watching (okay to be fair in ARSION that’s probably actually the case) and isn’t like… yelling or looking around or making the fans engaged. AKINO gets a good swinging headscissors after stopping a corner-whip, but eats a DDT. Hamada spins out of a hold, but La Majistral is countered to a mean crossface. AKINO tries a slingshot but misses, then a rollup but gets wheelbarrowed into a backdrop suplex, but manages to shove Hamada to the floor and hit her signature tope con hilo dive. Okay, telegraphed a TAD with wrestlers guiding fans out of the way and Hamada standing there in her “Finish Her!” dizzied state for ages.

Hamada sells her shoulder off that, and AKINO follows with a slingshot missile kick for two. Hamada stuns AKINO with a headbutt, then catches a rana with a big powerbomb for two, then a Ligerbomb & Springboard Moonsault for two. She missile kicks AKINO to the floor and desperately tries to build up the tiny amount of fans for her big Quebrada spot. Back in, Hamada smokes her with an Owenzuigiri, then tries the Ayakonoclasm but AKINO flips onto her “feet” and spinkicks her. But AKINO gets vaulted up top and hit with the Super Hama-Chan Cutter… for two! Two fans even kinda gasped on that kickout. AKINO sells death, unable to even get pulled off the mat, but Hamada shows RUTHLESSNESS by refusing the ref’s admonishments, but AKINO blocks her spinkick and backdrop drivers her, then again when she tries to no-sell, then again- foot in the ropes. AKINO charges in but meets SHOTEIMANIA. Hamada pulls her up but AKINO suddenly leaps into an upside-down armlock, only to get punched out of it. AKINO fires off a running elbow, but tries again and gets spinkicked. Her selling is good as she stands there all stiffened and stunned so she can eat another one, then Hamada pulls her up for a third for the emphatic three-count at (12:53). Azumi Hyuga comes out for the staredown with Hamada, which would mean a lot if she could have even beaten Mari Apache earlier, haha.

Not… BAD but not really that good, especially for a title match between two people who really know each other. Maybe it’s the novocained up crowd, or Hamada’s lack of engagement or charisma, or that most of the nearfalls weren’t really bite-worthy (how many times did they try submissions or flash-pins that weren’t believable as finishes?), but it was very dreary despite some good execution and agility from both. Really, this should have been AKINO using “I know you” counters and pulling out lots of stuff to try and get a “surprise” win over her former friend, not Hamada slowly but surely wearing AKINO down and hitting all sorts of stuff until eventually winning with a random fourth-tier move that she uses after her big finisher didn’t work minutes before. It really felt like “AKINO is worse than Hamada and can only barely come back on her” more that anything.

Rating: **1/2 (hardly a disaster or a wash, but hardly as good as it should be)

And we end with… the girls shilling stuff! Oh my god it’s like an infomercial for ARSION gear. Yes, you can buy a Carnival ARSION poster for 3000 yen (about $30), which… that’s fuckin’ egregious, especially for 2001, lol. Or a black t-shirt with “True Heart” and Mariko Yoshida’s name in tiny print. Or various other ARSION gear with no faces on it, then a calendar which they open to a pervy “holding our boobs” shot from CAZAI (which isn’t even a thing anymore, haha).

ARSION 3RD ANNIVERSARY:
(Feb. 12th 2001)

Tragically, we miss the Feb. 12th ARSION 3rd Anniversary show, because it’s a doozy. This show is the disastrous one. It starts with not one, but TWO worked shoots.

First is Ryo Miyuki, who had apparently been missing all the shows since the last one. She’s set to wrestle Michiko Omukai, and finally shows up. Per Mike Lorefice, “Rossy’s answer was to have her walk out from the crowd in street clothes, get squashed by Omukai and quit”. It was apparently supposed to look like a shoot, but was very unconvicing. Miyuki does “two pathetic urakens which Omukai didn’t even flinch at, Omukai ducked a third one then did a weak uraken of her own and pinned her Hokuto style to complete the burial” in (1:07) (during which Miyuki apparently still was able to look shitty). Miyuki then gets on the mic and apparently resigns, but says she isn’t quitting pro wrestling. We’ll see her in GAEA Japan before too long… and I’ve seen THAT one, and poor Chigusa, lol. I tried finding clips of the ARSION match, but there’s also a “Ryo Mizuki” in JAV porn, so finding images or videos of the wrestler is proving impossible, lol.

AND THEN ANOTHER ONE! LCO are to defend the Twin Stars of ARSION Titles against former champions Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida. But Aja is not QUITTING ARSION. This one has more information about it, since it came out in court. Aja had issues with Rossy and also resigned from ARSION. Rossy booked an angle where the wrestlers get on the mic and demand that Aja quit (after Aja completely wrecks LCO with ultra-stiff moves). Aja then declares that she is leaving the company and walking out on the match. This leads to Yoshida getting her ass kicked and jobbing in (6:59). Rossy then SUED AJA a couple years later- “Rossy tried to sue Aja for damages on grounds of default in 2003, which he had no grounds for after staging her exit. Aja countersued and the judge ordered Rossy to pay ¥6.7m (around $58,000 USD in 2003) to Aja for unpaid wages, and a further ¥500k (around $4,300 USD).”

Both angles were apparently staged as if they were shoots, a la Vince Russo, but it made ARSION look even more clownshoes- ARSION always did pretty shitty business, but things got even worse after this (losing Aja, who had looked the strongest in 2000, probably doesn’t help).

The Queen of ARSION Title match was apparently very good, with Hyuga carring Ayako to one of her better showings. Ayako kicked out of everything thrown at her and won with a Hama-Chan Cutter 15 minutes in.