Joshi Spotlight: ARSION Battle Station- Ayako Hamada vs. Michiko Omukai (07.2001)

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION:
(July 3rd 2001)
* Here’s a full show from July at Korakuen! And wonder of wonders, LIONESS ASUKA has been hired away from freelancing (where she’s been a central part of GAEA Japan’s booking for years now) and is behind the scenes now the booker of ARSION. This naturally extends to her being a big star in the promotion as well, with Filthy Bridge Troll, Rossy Ogawa, making a statement and Asuka comes out to her standard music, leaving Ayako Hamada (the promotion’s Champion) in shock and shaking her hand. All of ARSION seems to be in the ring, but Michiko Omukai slaps her hand away and gets in her face, dragged away by her VIP stable-mates. LCO talk shit (perhaps referencing their GAEA run, where they abandoned Asuka mid-match). Asuka also calls out Mariko Yoshida for some reason, setting off another pullapart (humorously, a single referee is all it takes to split up everyone getting in each other’s faces). A backstage interview has Asuka happily put up an “ARSION Executive” piece of paper, so she’s also publicly the matchmaker I guess.

AI FUJITA vs. YUU YAMAGATA: The rookie of 1998 takes on the new rookie, Yamagata. They keep it simple with dropkicks and holds, Yamagata gets some rollups, Fujita hits her cartwheel handspring elbow and a standing moonsault for two. Yamagata gets whipped to the corner and hits a good run-up crossbody (!) for two, but Fujita awkwardly clobbers her down, then hits a German, missile kick and Moonsault for three (4:47 of 6:56 shown). I like how ARSION’s hiring & pushing tricks make me always assume Yamagata must be REALLY gifted since she doesn’t have model looks but is still there.

Rating: * (They just skipped the first two minutes but it still barely felt like a complete match)

CHAPARRITA ASARI & FABI APACHE vs. RIE TAMADA & RENA TAKASE:
* Freelancer ASARI is here with Fabi to take on more of GAMI’s stable- Rie with Takase, a rookie. Takase being so low-ranked suggests to me her side is jobbing.

Rie misses a missile kick on Fabi, but scores her stunner to ASARI, but ASARI gets a dive and Rie takes two flying moves in a row for two. ASARI scores a Northern Lights suplex & Super Rana for two, but Rie Germans her off the second rope and hits a discus punch after no-selling a German. Fabi surfboards Rena, but gets stunnered by Rie on the apron and Rena jujigatames her, then hits a plancha to both girls. She runs interference with a chair so Rie can blast Fabi with one, then drapes the chair over her head while she’s sitting down so she can missile dropkick it! I love this on two levels- she’s clearly ripping off RVD’s Van Terminator (which debuted the previous July) and wants the heat from it… but she’s unable to go coast-to-coast with it so she has to do it 3/4 a way across the ring, haha. And even THAT doesn’t score a pin, as a German gets two. Fabi springs to life after dodging a double-team, but her heel kick gets two- flying headbutt misses and Rie sets up a flying splash for two. Fabi gets a surprise lariat (3-4 this match) for two, gets backslid for two, but a heel kick/Ligerbomb gets three at (6:35 of 10:52 shown).

Well… it kept me guessing! Like, they changed momentum often enough and kept doing nearfalls to the point even the crowd were reaction (more than they did for the main event, even!). But it’s all from miracle comebacks as the wrestlers eat a ton of stuff and then suddenly bolt up like nothing ever happened and hit a perfect move. ASARI got to use very little on-camera, too. Fabi has MASSIVELY improved from her terrible 1997/98 ARSION (where she was one of the worst I’ve ever seen in Japan), hitting tight offense with good movements, while Rie has gotten a lot more lethargic and slow. She’s not even 30 yet but the dreaded Joshi Injury Slowdown Bug has hit her as surely as it came for Kyoko, Manami and others. And since they were 10/10 athletes and she peaked at 7/10, that’s not great for her.

Rating: **1/4 (tolerable MOVEZ match with a lot of solid work on nearfalls)

Well, they tried.

GAMI vs. BIONIC J:
* The former “Jessie Bennett” looks out of place as hell on the VIP stable (it’s these glamorous, flamboyant Japanese heels and a blocky American girl with no makeup and “meh, a ponytail’s enough” hair), but has been improving just enough, and is a believable power wrestler on the scene. GAMI’s effort level changes with the wind, so let’s see! GAMI’s in red & J’s in black.

Bionic J uses NUNCHUCKS to start as we’re JIP, swiping Bull Nakano spots, but GAMI pokes her in the eyes and jokes around with the nunchucks. J thrust kicks her and spears in, but gets caught in a front facelock as GAMI keeps catching her in holds. GAMI with the super rana but J no-sells and lariats her down for two, then hits a fireman’s swinging cutter, only for GAMI to do the same, but J refuses to fall down and roars at her. GAMI catches her lariat & trips her, and a weird diving elbow/sideways splash gets two. J kicks out and immediately chokeslams her into a Texas cloverleaf, working the back but missing some charges as GAMI dodges her, but GAMI can’t get a pumphandle powerbomb and J hits the Pedigree for two. J misses a legdrop off Bret’s rope and GAMI hits a lariat/pumphandle bomb for two- they no-sells lariats but a slap puts J down for 2.8, and GAMI immediately rolls her into Anaconda Vice for the tapout at (5:26 of 6:41)!

Actually pretty good! Sorta! GAMI was lethargic (and at least appeared to be selling the back to justify it later) and J is still a tad unsteady, but she’s gained confidence and is now a “Baby Power Wrestler” able to justify some no-selling and just hucking others around while GAMI played the “avoid their charges” game with strikes. J swiping American finishers (TKO, Pedigree) is a good bet, too, as those haven’t infiltrated puro to the same extent. It’s still not GREAT and J’s still beaten pretty easily by any midcarder, but it’s something.

Rating: **1/4 (another perfectly acceptable match)

A look at just how INCREDIBLY small all these clowns are compared to LCO. Shimoda’s only 5’5 1/2″!

TWIN STAR OF ARSION TITLES:
LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda) vs. PIKA & POKO (w/ GAMI & PIKO):
* hahahaha oh dear. Now it’s LCO vs. The Clowns. PIKA is Linda Starr & POKO is someone named Alda Moreno. Thank god- I was thinking I’d been calling PIKO the wrong name this whole time. Imagine mistaking PIKO for POKO, haha. How embarassing! POKO is a ten-year veteran in her last year, actually. PIKA has pink with larger rosettes for animal print, and POKO has green with tighter rosettes. LCO are in pink & black.

For some reason we’re JIP right with Shimoda brutally exposing the business by missing a punch and THEN bumping over the top rope, as if she went “oh right”. GAMI holds LCO for dives, but a clown tope con hilos into her own stable. A funny bit sees a clown dizzied but Shimoda is stymied by ALL THREE clowns entering the ring and mimicking the same selling, allowing one to hit her with a super rana. jesus christ these people are fucking short- POKO bumps into Shimoda and is a full head & a half shorter than the 5’5″ LCO member. Shimoda still goes down to a clothesline, but knees POKO in the nose- the Flying Ax Kick misses and La Majistral gets two for POKO, but Shimoda ax kicks her. Mita comes in and gets rolled up & cannonballed, can’t get her DVD, then the clowns do comedy spots like repeated spins on an assisted whip or a multiple rolling move that gets Mita whacked by GAMI’s fan. Mita can’t get a Blazing Chop on PIKA, but Shimoda boots the clown and Mita has to kneel wayyyyyyy down to get one, falling off the pin at “2”. PIKA tries a DVD but can’t get it, so ALL THREE CLOWNS try the lift, Shimoda spoiling the fun. Mita DDTs both legal ones, then Shimoda missile kicks them and Mita powerbombs PIKA for two. They trick GAMI into strikign PIKA and get rid fo her, but PIKA uses the fan to strike Mita, only to charge up onto her and end up getting Death Valley Driven for three at (6:34 of 10:27 shown).

Another short one full of counters, but with some comedy bits. LCO largely dominated but sometimes got rolled around, and once again Mita does nearly EVERYTHING in the matches. I’ve heard her knees were going at this time but she could still easily swing these dwarfish clowns around regardless. LCO didn’t bother to sell more than a bit for their puny opponents but acted like a rollup MIGHT work, sorta.

Rating: ** (standard issue “just good enough” match. Mita looked good but the clowns looked more silly than agile)

Man, Yoshida just has the most AMAZING gear.

LIONESS ASUKA vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* So Asuka comes into ARSION like she runs the place (which… well, she kinda does) and Yoshida takes exception, so right away we get the Dream Match of one of the biggest legends active vs. ARSION True Heart herself, who was the first Champion. Will Lioness book herself into a loss immediately? Or establish herself right away by beating someone who already peaked and got pushed down? … yeah okay it’s not that mysterious BUT STILL.

Wisely, they set up the match using the old ARSION style- hesitancy and jockeying for position before grappling into a stand-up, Yoshida scoring some punches but demanding Asuka get up again to face her. Lioness takes the mount next, but Yoshida slowly pulls her into a triangle choke, the crowd not reacting- to be fair it was slow and Lioness didn’t sell it, handily escaping. Yoshida keeps fighting for a jujigatame, but Asuka finally scoots out and kicks her in the ribs, then immediately slide-trips her and smashes her leg against the ring apron. Yoshida gets flung into some chairs a bit, then Asuka brings in her table, Yoshida getting swatted when she resists getting whipped into it. Asuka’s slide into the table whiffs on Yoshida so thankfully they improvise with some slams into it, and Asuka hits her flying stomp to the table across Yoshida’s stomach. Ligerbomb gets two. Yoshida tries a sleeper after another attempt but fails, which makes it cooler when she intercepts a high kick with an anklelock instead- Lioness freaks and the crowd reacts, and when Yoshida gets tired she repositions with a neck & leg hold, then a juji, but Lioness finally rolls out and tries to clobber Yoshida, only to get German’d. She no-sells but gets rolled again, having to escape Yoshida’s Modified Sleeper finisher and nearly getting triangle’d, but she impressively hauls Yoshida up into a powerbomb for a breather.

Asuka heads up top, but Yoshida won’t get up, and reveals she was luring her in when Asuka hops down and gets charged- Asuka eats a ton of right hands to the forehead and gets superplexed after a fight up top. She kicks out at one, then counters the Air Raid Crash with the Blue Thunder Bomb, but now YOSHIDA kicks out at one and the Air Raid Crash (behind-the-back inverted cradle ddt) gets a nearfall, Asuka being dazed. Another juji, Yoshida actually raising her other arm to signal victory so the fans will react (nobody buys that move anymore lol). Asuka gets out but is vulnerable to a weird release Air Raid Crash for two, Yoshida pausing after the kickout and finally getting SMOKED by a head kick when she charges in. But she counters the pin to a crippler crossface, releases for La Majistral, then pops on the Modified Sleeper, Asuka ass-scooting over to the ropes while the fans chant something. Yoshida pumps herself up and goes for another Crash, but Lioness has her hand ready to scoop her up backwards into her inverted fireman’s carry- Towerhacker Bomb! Yoshida kicks out last-moment to milk it. Lioness responds by immediately hauling Yoshida to the floor at Flying Stomping her through a table (which actually breaks appropriately, though she kinda goes off the middle rope mostly) and hauling her in for a Ligerbomb. Another last-ditch kickout has the announcer having a heart attack (the fans are into it but not like THAT much), and Yoshida pops out of another attempt but gets rolling kicked in the head, popping her foot onto the bottom rope last-second so Lioness has to immediately hit the LSD (inside-grip Michinoku driver) for the pin at (14:37)- Lioness wins! Post-match, Yoshida ignores Asuka’s DEMANDS for a Handshake of Respect, but finally pops up and does so, forming a tag team out of the deal.

An interesting one! I don’t think anyone bought Yoshida winning, so the submissions had a tough row to hoe, but they got some reactions out of the fans for a few, mostly by doing protracted fights or Asuka knowing to sell big and struggle for the ropes. But she didn’t QUITE have the urgency to really make the fans buy it. Since Asuka was winning AND forming a team with Yoshida out of respect after, they wisely had Yoshida take most of the match. They do the “Yoshida/ARSION House Style” for like 4 minutes until Asuka fucks off out of it and instead of trying to do that style, immediately goes for her own stuff like table spots, as if to say she knows she can’t beat Yoshida at her own game. Then they start with the “sudden counter” submissions which are a lot more effective, Lioness selling big until the fans are more or less forced into responding. Once Yoshida starts pulling off Air Raid Crashes it’s looking dominant, but this cues Asuka’s own comeback where she more or less ignores accumulated damage and fires off desperation finishers until Yoshida finally falls. Some of these are REALLY good, as Yoshida sells them all as potential match-enders and barely jolts out last-second, then barely makes the ropes and Asuka desperately hauls her up for the last move.

Rating: ***1/2 (kind of struggling to get where they wanted it until the last 2-3 minutes of big kickouts and sudden desperation moves putting over the desire to win)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
AYAKO HAMADA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* So it’s come to this- the failing champion of ARSION defends against the person who’s been getting pushed heavily since 1999. The tall, gangly Omukai has been pushed non-stop since some fluke tournament wins, various good workers being forced to put her over, and this is her big shot against the “top star” of the promotion. She even makes her challenge while wearing a crown and cape after winning ANOTHER tournament. ARS ’01 ends in horrific faction, Omukai & GAMI botching their way through a 7-minute disaster and GAMI tapping out to a triangle choke that draws zero reaction. At least we’ll know if Omukai goes for it here it “means something”. Hamada’s in pink, with a hunched posture that makes her look weak and underconfident. Omukai’s in red, and comes out in samurai gear. Humorously, the pre-match flower-giving ceremony has someone holding a tiny baby, its mother holding a tiny single rose, then they awkwardly push it into the baby’s hand and forcibly close it so it can “give” Omukai the rose. Man even her pre-match has people exposing the business.

Omukai goes for a pre-match dropkick, but gets dumped- Ayako goes for the super Quebrada, but I think meets a chair and is selling on the ground. However, they immediately get into a weapon fight out there, Omukai eating some chairshots, but she immediately no-sells a missile kick and scores a falling clothesline. Ayako immediately hits a lionsault and they’re grabbing hair and talking shit, and they take turns elbowing each other- they at least seem to get they need to act like they hate each other here. Annoyingly they follow that up with two trip-pins and a “pause for applause” and it’s time for some DRAMATIC LOCKUPS into shove-offs. Ayako wins that with a slam and hits a Texas cloverleaf of all things to stretch Omukai out, switching to a variety of leg stuff. I do at least like her throwing some knees to the back to set up the bow & arrow. Omukai manages an armdrag and puts on her armscissor-hold thing, but nobody reacts and Hamada sells it as an annoyance resthold. Omukai catches her with a dozen ax kicks in a row, Hamada selling them all like they’re offending her, and it’s a bullshit SHOTEIMANIA strike that puts her down, whiffing by a foot. I hate shoteis so fucking much, haha. “work hard? Sell? Set up moves? Who cares- just whiff a shotei!”. Worse still, Omukai climbs on and starts grinding away the forehead, leaving Ayako to go into an obvious “blading position” and come up bleeding and in shock.

Omukai boasts and throws some kicks to be a shit, then grinds away on the cut some more, grimacing as she displays the blood to the fans… but only ONE side of the ring! Dammit Omukai, Dump already showed y’all how to do this- ya gotta show all four sides the blood to be like “See? Look at your hero now! See how she bleeds? Her pain is your pain!” and revel in it, not do this lazy stuff! Hamada selling basically be grimacing isn’t helping. X-Factor into the Hokuto knee-pin gets two. Ayako gets flung around but scores her headbutt, then spams them out (nullifying all the previous “omg I’m flopping over dead” selling she was just doing) and scratches at Omukai’s face to make HER bleed. WHY ARE THESE BLADING SPOTS? You gotta make that a big bump or a hugely sold strike or something! Whip someone into the post! Don’t just lie on them and get blood through attrition! Omukai immediately gets the full “I want a PUSH!” crimson mask, though, and the two headbutt each other- Ayako scores an enzuigiri but misses a spinkick and gets clobbered down for two. She resists the Tiger Suplex and scores an octopus hold, Omukai selling more like she’s dead instead of struggling. Ayako scores her head & leg submission, same result- fans still don’t give a shit even with this finisher. Ayako instead tries her Ligerbomb finish but Omukai goes for the TRIANGLE CHOKE (psychology!!), but Ayako just pushes her to the top rope for her Shotei combo, but Omukai ax kicks away to prevent the follow-up, only for Hamada to get the Super Hama-Chan Cutter anyways. But Omukai kicks out at ONE (oh good lord) and stumbles around in a bloody daze… and catches a chargign Ayako with the Triangle Choke! OOOOOOOOOOOOF Omukai won the ARS 2001 tournament with a triangle choke, challenges Ayako, and catches her with that exact move in this match… to zero reaction. Did Rob Conway just make his entrance or something?

A blood-soaked challenger throttling the champion with the move that won her a tournament just a bit ago- this should be a BIG spot and have the crowd fearing a title change… but they’re just not interested. “random yelling” is all this match gets.

This hold goes ON while Ayako sells more like “I’m tired” rather than “I’m about to get choked out”, and they roll around in it, Omukai taking about 40 seconds before going “GIVE UPPPPPP!” and arching back, but Ayako never does more than the same sell, getting some minor applause for making the ropes. Omukai goes for the B3 Bomb (sit-out razor’s edge), but Ayako shoteis away… but falls to one knee! And if you were watching puroresu in 2001 you know what’s coming next- SHINING WIZARD! Apparently the first woman to do this, haha. Where they’re on one knee so you hop off the bent leg to knee them in the side of the head. After Liger popularized shoteis and took the puro world by storm (“we can do a phony slap and get a reaction by being LAZY?”), Muta inventing the Shining Wizard set off a storm of “moves off the knee” until everyone got it out of their system. And THIS actually gets a reaction- not for the move, but for Hamada getting her toe on the ropes at the absolute last moment. Omukai scores some feather-light backfists, but whiffs a third and SHOTEIMANIA puts her down for two, and Ayako springs to life for the Spinning Ligerbomb for the same. She tries a spinkick and misses, Omukai tries a Sobat and misses, and a spinkick hits her and Ayako gets the pin at (18:12) to retain. There’s hairpulling after, but Ayako offers the hand and the spirit of competition has them as hugging friends afterwards. Even the win mostly draws “polite clapping” from the fans.

ERRRRRGGGHHHHH a fascinating mess- what a weird, weird match. Like ON PAPER this is a ***1/2 match- they challenge each other, both blade like crazy, Omukai uses the move that won her the tournament for a big nearfall, Hamada uses an established finisher but fails, use the big FINISHING MOVE MEME OF THE MOMENT for the most dramatic nearfall of the match, and Ayako finally uses a storm of moves to defeat her opponent. This match SHOULD be very good… ON PAPER. And that’s the trouble with wrestling- you can “write out” the best match possible and it don’t mean shit if your wrestlers can’t sell nearfalls, can’t sell submissions, aren’t over, and don’t have great execution a lot of the time. Like if you wrote a great screenplay but you cast David Hasselhoff & Denise Richards as the leads.

They worked hard but both innately suck so much it still wasn’t good. Too many “I could tell what they were trying but it didn’t work” bits. Like doing mutual blading, but from shitty mounted punches and soft strikes instead of weapons or big bumps. Doing big submission near-falls except neither knows how to sell a submission as a nearfall so you get neither screams of agony nor desperate clawing to escape- it’s just “I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead, oh now we rolled into the ropes” tiredness. They bore the fans enough that the actual psychology of using her touranment-winning Triangle Choke to try and win gets zero pop, and it takes swiping Muta’s big new move to get one for the kickout. The phrase “Forced Epic” seems apt, here- like they were trying for this huge, epic throwdown with big strikes, blading, huge bombs, etc., but never really made it even with the foundation of psychology. Shockingly, even with 18 minutes, Omukai didn’t hit her Uranage or B3 Bomb, relying on sloppy submissions and awful ax kicks. And the fans were just dead- they never really cared about Hamada, and their responses are more just “K, let’s get this over with” of silence, which is the Polite Japan version of “the fans shitting on Roman Reigns being pushed over Daniel Bryan”.

Rating: ** (ehhhhhhhhhhnnnnnn almost wanna go higher for the effort, but it was dreary and nothing ever came off as well as it should- this is almost a pity 2-star rating, lol)

After the match, Ayako has some words, then Lioness Asuka gets provoked into saying stuff, with Shimoda (NATURALLY) coming over to start some shit. This results in Asuka scrapping with all of VIP, as she promptly booked herself to be the central figure of the entire promotion, LOL.

So that’s another ARSION show! They try to stave off disaster by letting Lioness Asuka take over the front and back ends of the promotion, she & Yoshida form the new “top team” to take on LCO, and Hamada takes on one more contender.