Joshi Spotlight: Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION in 04.01

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION:
(April 2001)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AYAKO HAMADA (ARSION) vs. AZUMI HYUGA (JWP):
* Manji found the video for this match from the last ARSION show! This was the disastrous show’s main event, ending two “worked shoots” to kick people out of the promotion with an Interpromotional match to help solidify Ayako’s reign. For recap purposes, as they have similar looking names, this will be Hamada vs. Azumi. Hamada’s in blue & white, while Azumi has a big frilly blue suit.

They test each other and grapple to start, Azumi doing a good job of making it look like she’s someone in a fight, squirming around and trying to find an advantage- she tries some arm stuff for a bit, but carefully steps back after a rope-break. Hamada looks weird trying a drop-toehold from too far away and can barely bring Azumi down, but manages to knee her until a bow & arrow wears her down. A few more complex lucha-style holds follow, but Azumi does a really quick leap up to the top and dropkicks her, then scores some double-arm backbreakers and dumps her to the floor. She waits in the ring for Hamada to recover (doing a rest period by ACTUALLY taking a rest? Interesting play!), but gets powerbombed trying too many leaps, and has to get her feet up from the springboard moonsault. They slug it out, Azumi counters the headbutt, then they do go-behinds until Hamada eats a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but enzuigiris Azumi, who rolls to the floor to put it over. Azumi dodges the quebrada easily and throws chairs, but messes up a springboard and improvises a DDT. Hamada hits a sunset flip powerbomb for two, then wins a slugfest and gets that headbutt after Azumi blocks her spinkick, only to run into a high knee to the face and a German! Suplex! Hold-oh! gets two (love that commentator’s punctuation).

Azumi climbs, but eats the shotei & Ayakonoclasm… but does the “kick out at ONE!” thing, only to scream in terror as Hamada hits a spinning Ligerbomb for two. A good “now what?” look crosses Hamada’s face as she climbs for lack of a better idea, and Azumi meets her and seems to be trying a German SUPERPLEX, but they keep shifting weight and nearly falling until they settle for a more sane Spider German from the top (about 2 feet lower). A dazed Hamada is easy prey for a big missile dropkick and now Rolling Germans and a bridging one for two (haha I think Hamada nope’d out of another jump and so they had to reposition for a separate one). They seem to mess up a spot (Hamada probz supposed to counter a slam) as the “emergency improv” hints go up (the “kneel and sell while the other person throws a long running kick so it’s out of their system”), Azumi misses a flying knee smash but clobbers Hamada with an elbow and hits the Michinoku Driver (oh, that’s what Ayako was supposed to counter) for two. She fires up while Hamada does the death-sell and can’t be pulled off the mat, and naturally this is the cue for her to hit a bunch of shoteis to counter another Michinoku Driver, but she tries another spinning ligerbomb and nearly gets pinned in a close one. So Azumi slams her and is like “THIS TIME FOR SURE!”, but she climbs up and once again eats the shotei, and Hamada finally learns to cheer to the fans to get them into it and hits the Super Hama-Chan Cutter for the pin at (15:08), barely pulling this one out.

One of Ayako Hamada’s best matches so far, as it turns out that one of the keys to getting something out of her is to trade all your best shit, build to your bigger moves, do some “What’s it take?” reactions here and there, and make it look competitive. Hyuga was largely dominant (as she was losing), but them being the same size and on generally the same tier helped a lot, as Ayako didn’t have to “fight from beneath” the whole time, and they looked fairly equal in terms of ass-kicking. And like, while Hamada has a lotta holes in her game, “eat a ton of moves and look like you’re about to lose for a while” honestly always works in making a match compelling. There were lots of neat reversals, too- where someone LOOKS like they’re about to hit a huge thing and the cadence of the match suggests they WILL, but suddenly it’s countered (like Hyuga getting her feet up to stop a moonsault, or Ayako’s flurry of strikes into a ligerbomb, only to be nearly pinned). So the match was fairly compelling right until the end, without doing beamspam or too many finishers.

Rating: ***1/4 (one of Hamada’s best matches so far- a really strong testament to Azumi Hyuga’s skills)

https://archive.org/details/arsion-04-30-2001-ars-tournament

The Archive.org link.

ARSION (April 30th, 2001):
* Guys you’ll never guess… ARSION is doing a ONE NIGHT TOURNAMENT again! With Sakie Hasegawa joining them on commentary (adding occasional chatter and gasping at the moves).

But first… clips from some gym house show thing!

BIONIC J vs. FABI APACHE: J wins in (0:50 of 5:04 shown) with a Texas Cloverleaf, as they slowly build her up.
CHAPARRITA ASARI vs. AI FUJITA: ASARI dodges the 450 Splash and finishes with the Sky Twister Press (0:50 of 7:36 shown).
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. CHIKAKO SHIRATORI: Omukai crushes the frilly girl at (0:59 of 5:58 shown) with the B3 Bomb (sit-out razor’s edge). … wow it’s been a WHILE since I’ve seen Chikako. She quit JD’ to go freelance but I ain’t seen shit!
SKY HIGH OF ARSION TITLE: AKINO vs. LADY APACHE: AKINO wins in (0:23 of 10:02 shown) with a frankensteiner into a jujigatame to retain.
GAMI, PIKO & PIKA vs. HIROMI YAGI, REINA TAKASE & RIE TAMADA: Tamada takes out PIKA (Linda Starr) with a vicious keylock at (0:58 of 17:10 shown).
QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE: AYAKO HAMADA vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA: Lots of Yoshida dominance is shown to start. She even pulls Ayako up from the Air Raid Crash. All we get of the end is Hamada’s miracle four spinkicks in a row winning at (1:38 of 16:06 shown). Oh nooooooooo poor Yoshida also has to do the job to Hamada.

PIKA & PIKO vs. FABI APACHE & YUU YAMAGATA: The job squad is put up against the clowns. PIKA (Starr) has the pink nose, PIKO (Bolshoi) blue. Fabi does okay against them, but they switcheroo while she’s climbing and dodge her corkscrew. What was probably supposed to be a do-si-do spot is awkward as hell. Their legs get tied together by the clowns and they actually SUBMIT to a stereo camel clutch in that position at (3:01 of 4:54 shown).

Rating: 1/2* (clipping out only a minute means this came off as kinda disjointed BY ACCIDENT almost, but they did keep cutting out any “between” points and tags)

ARS 2001 TOURNAMENT:
FIRST ROUND:
BIONIC J vs. REINA TAKASE: J gets the trip through easy street against the rookie. Standard big vs. little stuff, but J goes up for a big German after missing a charge. Takase kicks out after a front wheelbarrow slam, so Bionic J finishes with a Chokeslam at (3:23 of 4:07 shown).

Rating: *1/2 (actually a solid showcase, as Takase got a ton of offense off, kept J staggered with speed, and more)

GAMI vs. RIE TAMADA: The former stablemates go at it. GAMI hits a good superkick & rolling kick for two, beats her up a bit, then goes for a super rana but gets SUPERBOMBED off for two and Rie Dragon Suplexes her. lmao why are they doing that with 3 minutes to go? Rie hits a tornado DDT & two missile kicks for two, then GAMI finally comes back with a shitty dragon suplex, some slaps, and two Adios Amigas (a fisherman’s buster with a weird inside grip of the leg) at (4:20 of 7:25 shown).

Rating: ** (seemed fine, though we miss almost half of it. Mostly just Rie spamming huge moves because she’s losing- GAMI’s stuff was mostly weak)

AYAKO YAMADA vs. HIROMI YAGI: Y’know, I was just wondering “where has Yagi been?”. After being in ARSION a lot she now only does 5-8 matches per year. She gets her Super Judo Flip as we’re JIP, but Hamada starts no-selling her and hits a powerbomb. Spinning Ligerbomb hits, but Yagi starts getting out via submissions. But Yagi charges into Hamada’s complicated lucha submission thingie- the crowd doesn’t bite, and Ayako just plops her up top for the Super Hama-Chan Cutter at (4:42 of 8:12 shown).

Rating: ** (looked a bit clunky- like they were having issues working together, Ayako still can’t sell submissions much, and they’d just randomly bump into one another. The finish is also weird- working her big submission and then just arbitrarily plonking her on the top rope for her finish?)

MARIKO YOSHIDA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* The “Next Big Thing” takes on ARSION’s “First Big Thing” (who I repeatedly will not was never that big a deal in the first place).

Omukai awkwardly holds Yoshida up for the B3 Bomb, but hits a release version and ends up trapped in a triangle choke. Fans are deathly silent. Yoshida even hits her Modified Sleeper (the one-time finisher) but Omukai, Master Shooter, just rolls backwards to get out of it. She gets a double-arm submission but is put in a “muffler hold” (even in Japan the stretch muffler gets that name?). Omukai does a long fight out of that and hits her solebutt for a close two, then a Tiger Suplex and the fans are FINALLY biting on some stuff. Yoshida with the old reliable “wear ’em down with running head-kicks” and Air Raid Crashes her… and pulls her up at “2”. This is a regular thing now? Another one with a high stack pin gets only two. Yoshida gets stunned with a kick and a big one to the side of head fucks her up- she stumbles around and barely makes the count, and is easy prey for another couple kicks, a surprise Solebutt finishing her at (4:58 of 9:20 shown)- she kicks out at 3.1 but is believably “stunned”. So yeah, OMUKAI PINS YOSHIDA. It took Yoshida being an utter moron and a fluke strike but they did it.

Rating: **1/4 (an interesting look at how the ARSION style failed to get over- the fans bought ZERO submissions- so they instead have to do strike & slam finishers to have a hope of anything. Omukai’s strikes are almost passable at this point)

SEMI-FINALS:
BIONIC J vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI: lol who is directing J’s facial expressions in the pre-match graphics? All her features are set to “random” as she moves her eyebrows and mouth around willy-nilly. J gets a quick lariat & chokeslam to take over, and another gets two, but she gets superplexed. Omukai throws strikes but ends up in the sky high powerbomb for two, and J pulls out NUNCHUCKS and somehow draws zero crowd reaction for working Omukai’s stomach with them, then hitting her from the top rope with them. She grinds away in the corner till the ref & Omukai shove her off, but Omukai just peppers her with stiff knees and punches until an uraken actually flattens her… and she’s counted down in the ropes at (4:45)! Surprising finish!

Rating: ** (a pretty clunky match that didn’t get that over, but Omukai actually laid her shit in really good in the end and it became actually somewhat believable that the beanpole could beat on and stun big Bionic J)

AYAKO HAMADA vs. GAMI:
* A decent sequence puts GAMI on the floor for the Quebrada, mostly hitting chairs, and Ayako gets a missile kick but charges into a superkick. She quickly gets her lucha submission on GAMI, who quickly rolls out and puts her in a nasty hold of her own, then an arm-crank and a crossface keep it up. GAMI controls until Ayako gets the mandatory “pop-up/shotei/Ayakonoclasm”, GAMI lariats her anyways, and Ayako tries her own no-sell but a second lariat gets two. A stiff elbow stuns GAMI- she gets a rolling kick but eats an enzuigiri and springboard moonsault for two. Ayako cranks on an octopus hold for a while, GAMI barely getting out and having to force her into a wheelbarrow German. She climbs and resists the Super Hama-Chan Cutter, but can’t get a sunset flip powerbomb, Ayako basically touching her ass against the mat she’s pulled so far down. GAMI fires off a crazy razor’s edge lift into a flipover front slam using the top rope and a moonsault gets two. Ayako ranas out of a pumphandle slam and they keep doing desperation pins until Hamada uses the Spinning Ligerbomb for two. GAMI’s put up top and eats a weak Super Hama-Chan Cutter, but blocks some spinkicks and keeps firing off slaps until Hamada is stunned enough for Adios Amiga to pin her at (9:04)! GAMI beats the champ!

A good match! They went all-out and it was worth it, GAMI finally fighting like a contender for once and pulling out all sorts of unique stuff to pressure the Champ, and it got kinda over. This really came off like GAMI was dominating her, which was good since she hadn’t really been a contender, AND this sets up a future title match.

Rating: **3/4 (GAMI fought like someone who wanted a push RIGHT NOW for the first time in ages and it paid off as she had Hamada countered at every corner, blocked much of her best stuff, and kept up the pressure until Hamada lost)

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLES:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. AKINO & AI FUJITA:
* LCO defend the Tag Belts against AKINO and her stable-mate, though Fujita has nowhere near the credibility to be taking on the champs. LCO are in pink & black, Fujita’s in gold and AKINO’s in neon green. And for the first time ever, Mita wrestles someone more tan than she.

We’re JIP with Mita working simple sequences with Fujita, which looks an awful lot like Fujita just flinging herself everyone and Mita just stoically blocking and sitting on her. She stops the cartwheel handspring elbow with a boot to the spine, for example, and sits on her face out of a wheelbarrow rollup attempt. Fujita goes behind on an electric chair attempt and hits a snap German (her third time attempting that), then counters the DVD to La Majistral for two. AKINO spams dropkicks (always clever- using speed and agility against an older, slower opponent). And now Mita’s powerhouse stuff isn’t working because AKINO is TOO good, hitting her run-up crossbody. Mita’s finally able to dodge her and immediately tries a powerbomb, but AKINO sits out and Mita FINALLY takes the lead with a Blazing Chop. AKINO flips out of the DVD but Shimoda’s right there with the chair, and a huge powerbomb gets two. The kids get thrown into chairs a bunch as Shimoda is unwilling to do anything fancy, but the kids do a do-si-do and fire back, Fujita hitting an Orihara moonsault and AKINO her tope con hilo. Mita’s chair halts the comeback a tad, but AKINO puts on a juji to Shimoda. Fujita gets a German & missile kick, but Shimoda finally dodges a flip and they use chairs (Ai sells like shit)- Ai cartwheel dodges one shot but another beans her in the forehead. Shimoda missile kicks Fujita out of a chair, but the kid runs into a boot and has to dodge the somersault ax kick. Fujita gets a rana, and both women do “fight off a suplex by making the ropes so their partner can attack” spots, then AKINO does the Assisted Tornado DDT and Fujita gets a German for two (Shimoda is WAY telegraphing her “swing her arms around to sell”- Fujita hadn’t even touched her!). Fujita splats trying a 450 Splash and takes the Somersault Ax Kick for two. AKINO tries to help but only dropkicks Fujita, who is left isolated. Shimoda hits an ax kick, pulls her up at “2”, and after Fujita gets a last rollup, hits her Tiger Suplex for three (10:55 of 17:00 shown).

This was a fairly disjointed “LCO vs. Others” match, with a lot of awkward pausing and “I don’t want to do that” bits, especially when Fujita was in the ring. Her inability to plan out spots, do complicated routines, or even SELL are becoming a bigger issue the more she gets pushed, as she can’t shoulder the load in matches like this, where ideally the junior should be getting SLAUGHTERED, rolling her eyes back into her head, screaming in agony, looking desperate, etc. Instead she just kinda eats some moves until it’s time for her to do shit again. Shimoda was also pretty lazy, doing very little more complicated that kicking someone in the head or eating a German. As someone who remembers the 1994-1997 days when an LCO match was guaranteed *** no matter who the opponents were, it’s disappointing seeing them slow down (especially Shimoda, who used to arguably be better than Mita) and wrestle someone who doesn’t get it to the extent Fujita don’t.

Rating: **1/4 (perfectly okay, but disappointing)

And now… clips of past ARS Tournaments! Which is a funny display of “people who don’t work here anymore”. Candy Okutsu, the winner of the 1998 tournament, got very little out of it and retired a couple months before the 2001 tourney. And in fact, Reggie Bennett, the semifinalist, retired for good as of March 2001, about this time in our timeline! Her final match was against Manami Toyota (not listed on Cagematch). 1999 sees the Omukai Megapush begin in earnest, with a surprise win over Candy, and she pins Hiromi Yagi (who won a lucky one over Mariko Yoshida, and was thus an easy choice as a loser in the finals) with the B3 Bomb. 2000 sees Omukai beat Mita, but get flattened by Aja Kong. Who also ain’t here no more.

ARS 2001 TOURNAMENT:
FINAL MATCH:
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. GAMI:
* Omukai gets her second shot at the ARS winnings. She’s now in purple, and GAMI, in red, has a serious expression.

The opening is… not good, as GAMI scores a sudden rolling kick at the bell, but Omukai’s “selling” is to just lean against the ropes slightly and awkwardly stumble out to hit an Uranage. GAMI no-sells and kicks her in the head, but Omukai no-sells and Uranages her again. GAMI finally takes her down and works the leg, Omukai failing at one rope attempt and having to crawl the other way. Omukai no-sells a necksnap and hits her Springboard Heel Kick for two and hits an early B3 Bomb for the same. She spams ax kicks to a disinterested GAMI, who fires off Adios Amiga for two. WHY ARE THEY KILLING OFF THEIR FINISHERS?!? Pumphandle Ligerbomb gets two, and they somehow fuck up a BOSTON CRAB, GAMI releasing the legs and then Omukai overbending and doing it the wrong way when GAMI slips. Oh no. And Omukai no-sells a backbreaker to awkwardly push GAMI around until she manages an O’Connor Roll/Japanese Leg Clutch for two. Omukai does a death sell off a slap/sleeper, but awakens for an uraken as it’s 50/50 if any move will be sold or not. They appear to be openly stalling to chat and Omukai gets an X-factor. Omukai “hits” an uppercut that impresses the fans, but GAMI no-sells and catches her with that great “Intercepting Shotei” of hers for two. GAMI pulls her up for an uraken, Omukai weakly ducks another, then she ignores a slap to hug GAMI and haul her into a Triangle Choke- the fans are dead silent as they roll around and struggle a bit, GAMI just lying down… and she taps at (7:32)! That was the FINISH, haha! Well it was probably good to get out of there when they did.

OOOF, haha. Just an ugly mess of a match. Both had already wrestle twice, if we’re being fair, so it being not great is somewhat understandable, but it was a total disaster. First off, hitting their finishers in the opening couple minutes for kickouts and then just wrestling like normal was STUPID and something no wrestler should ever do, and the random no-selling just made the fans think “nothing really mattered”, which is why you don’t just “Jon Moxley” things and roll back to your feet like nothing happened. Then you have GAMI messing up a Boston crab so badly they have to reposition entirely, whiffed strikes, and the stuff that can completely jettison a match’s heat- awkwardly pausing between moves to reveal the work, sorta bump into each other to “push each other” into place for stuff, and other awkwardness. And since Omukai has no credibility as a submissions expert, her casually rolling back into a triangle choke means nothing, meaning the tap-out comes from a move that was drawing zero reaction. And they sacrificed Yoshida & Hamada jobs to get here!

Rating: * (a real mess)

All hail Queen Omukai, the most “Fake It Till You Make It” wrestler basically ever.

The former LLPW wrestlers are buds after the match, Omukai thanking GAMI and GAMI pushing the announcer out of the way to do the “Champion Lecture” herself, to the amusement of the fans and Omukai. GAMI gets to celebrate a bunch, getting the second trophy while Omukai gets a royal robe from horrifying Bridge Troll, Rossy Ogawa, plus a crown. The other tourney participants come out for photos, and Ayako has some words with Omukai- they appear buddy-buddy until Hamada seems to talk some shit, then slaps her, provoking a fight. And our new contender is ready!

Soooooooo ARSION just lived through one of the most disastrous shows ever, lost their top star, draws poorly, and has unsteady, not-that-over top wrestlers. Things are ugly, and Ayako Hamada isn’t drawing. And their big idea is “Omukai can sell bikini calendars! Let’s make her the big challenger!” and now the promotion is revolving around the two of them. We still have LCO around, and AKINO has a ton of potential, but won’t really get to live it out here. And I mean… in 2.5 hours of ARSION I’ve just watched, my big takeaway is “wow, Azumi Hyuga is really good” and SHE DOESN’T EVEN WORK HERE!