Joshi Spotlight: ARSION’s ZION Tournament 2001

https://archive.org/details/arsion-09-22-2001-zion-tournament

Unfortunately it’s another Archive link.

ARSION- ZION 2001 TOURNAMENT:
* Guys!! Guess what?? ARSION’S RUNNING ANOTHER TOURNAMENT!!!

This is very different from other ARSION tapes- rather than showing like 15-16 matches in 3-minute snippets, it shows FULL matches, but all are about half ARSION’s typical length. But it also shows post-match arguments, interviews, etc., which goes a long way towards making it look like a more lively promotion.

AYAKO HAMADA vs. MIMA SHIMODA: Shimoda beats up Ayako outside & missile kicks her on a chair, but badly telegraphs her punch and gets German’d. Ayako sells after falling onto the chairs repeatedly and eats the flying ax kick for two. SHOTEIMANIA and the Spinning Liger Bomb come back, and a bunch of spinkicks score Hamada the win at (3:31 of 10:46 shown). Ayako seems to be doing a big, dramatic “flail her arms up and flat-back flop” sell now. Still not great but at least it’s something.

AYAKO HAMADA vs. noki-A:
* Okay, so noki-A is a name I’ve seen a bunch, and it’s Mika Akino/AKINO (the name is obviously reversed) under a mask in white gear.

Ayako hits her Quebrada at the bell, then controls on the mat and hits an X-Factor & Springboard Moonsault for two. noki-A gets a bulldog but eats an Ayakonoclasm, but scores a good rolling jujigatame. Ayako nails an Owenzuigiri and deadlifts noki-A into a Spinning Ligerbomb for two, then they counter each other’s pins off noki-A’s sunset flip powerbomb to impress the crowd. Ayako catches her with a running dropkick but takes a tilt-a-whirl DDT, then they brutally mess up noki-A’s springboard tornado DDT and noki-A fires off a big roundhouse kick (Tornado A) for the pin at (7:55). Quite spritely, though just a collection of moves- literally two lines for an 8 minute match, lol.

Rating: ** (seemed fighty and quick but no real story to it)

The Rest of the Tournament:
FIRST ROUND: Lioness Asuka defeats Etsuko Mita (3:12), noki-A defeats Michiko Omukai (11:33), GAMI defeats Mariko Yoshida (8:25), Ayako Hamada defeats Mima Shimoda (10:46).
SECOND ROUND: noki-A defeats Ayako Hamada (7:54), Lioness Asuka defeats GAMI (5:53)
FINAL MATCH: Lioness Asuka defeats noki-A (10:45)

PIKA & REINA TAKASE vs. FABI APACHE & YUU YAMAGATA:
* PIKA is (checks notes) Linda Starr. This is the two rookies paired with unover luchadoras. PIKA’s in red & white, Takase in xxxx, Fabi in black & Yamagata in white/blue.

Yamagata uses Jobber-Fu on PIKA, who gets twisted in a headscissors. PIKA hits an impressive Manami Roll Rana & boomerang dropkick on Fabi, then rolls her up after Fabi nearly drops her on a torture rack. Takase comes in and takes Fabi’s surfboard & rolling kick. Takase gets a slingshot bulldog for two. Fabi gets a lariat but Takase bulldogs her & Yamagata at once, the kids do a good quick sequence, then PIKA & Fabi interfere for their partners & Yamagata gets a flying splash for two. But Takase intercepts her charge with a judo flip and taps her out with a Jujigatame at (5:31 of 6:31 shown). The usual heatless lucha stuff, but the kids showed good fire & PIKA is highly agile.

Rating: *1/2 (the classic “decent work in a vacuum” stuff)

ZION 2001:
* Time for another tournament! An 8-woman one with three rounds in one night. Mima Shimoda comes out beforehand to talk shit to Michiko Omukai- does this mean that V.I.P. is finally dead as a stable?

FIRST ROUND:

RIE TAMADA (ARSION) vs. AZUMI HYUGA (JWP):
* Hyuga, whose JWP promotion is still nearly dead and about to be rebooted, is still in ARSION. Both are wearing such similar outfits (tights with cut-outs and lots of white stuff all over them as flair) in different colors that they look like a tag team.

They quickly fight to the entrance ramp, but Rie gets a stunner. Hyuga gets a run-up missile kick in the ring, but Rie ducks another & stunners her again, then Hyuga hits her with rolling butterfly suplexes for two. They mess up a slingshot Byers Bridge from Hyuga, who boots away but ends up in a figure-four. Rie does her own rolling butterfly suplexes and then counters a thing to a SUPER DDT, getting TWO. What the AEW is THAT? They mess up Rie’s inside-grip Fisherman’s Buster, Hyuga hits her Michinoku Driver finish for two, then Rie (sorta) anti-airs her flying move with a dropkick. That Buster & a missile kick get two, but Hyuga no-sells a German and hits the Kick of Fear- Rie fires off some punches but Hyuga Germans her & hits the Michinoku Driver again for three (8:26). All these matches kinda look the same- just people hitting 2 moves then getting countered to 2 more moves- Hyuga always having to spam her finish and absorb the other person’s before winning. Very clumsy, with the repeated “Byers Bridge” moves (that underarm double-heel-hook thing rolling into a bridge) looking like SHIT in particular.

Rating: *3/4 (not actively bad for the most part but heatless and with no flow)

Possibly the surest sign of Rossy Ogawa influence on the booking- either “attractive but shitty girls get pushed” or “wrestlers randomly create masked identities”.

noki-A vs. GAMI:
* Like I said, noki-A is Mika Akino/AKINO under a mask in white & blue gear. They showed a thing where she was all beaten up by Mariko Yoshida, who offered her hand in friendship and I think she’s in the Asuka/Yoshida stable now. GAMI’s in street clothes and well into her “goofy” era.

haha immediate points for GAMI’s eyepoke being foiled by noki-A’s EYEHOLE MESH. A headscissors puts GAMI into the ropes and she bails after a jujigatame, then eats the tope con hilo, but dodges a flying cross and octopus holds noki-A. noki-A gets a flipping DDT and another juji for a long fight, then keeps using speed but gets countered by GAMI just shoving her off- a flying move is intercepted with a mid-air stunner. A pumphandle powerbomb is turned into noki-A’s triangle choke into another juji, then another as noki-A keeps slickly charging in and rana-ing her into them. Superkick & Pumphandle Ligerbomb get only 1, and noki-A gets a snap rana for two. GAMI gets a dragon suplex for two, then three big lariats in a row for the pin at (7:13). huh- noki-A is doing jobs already in the new gimmick? Match was actually pretty good and hard-fought- noki-A’s athleticism is THE SHIT and she got to show off a lot of it here. GAMI ended up kinda dominating more through counters and pushing her weight around.

Rating: **1/2 (good, hard-fought bout)

MIMA SHIMODA (w/ Etsuko Mita) vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* Pink for Shimoda, red for Omukai.

They fight & scrap to the floor immediately, Shimoda using chairs but sets Omukai in one and gets slapped in the face for it. Shimoda dodges her B3 Bomb (sit-out razor’s edge) but loses a slugfest and resorts to a chair again. A reversed Van Daminator-type spot looks ugly and mistimed, but she sets Omukai in the chair and missile kicks her for two. Omukaiberg no-sells several ax kicks and slugs Shimoda down but then… arbitrarily… starts selling? What is that? Looks like she just had a stroke because the move affected her late. Shimoda gets the Tiger Suplex but misses her Flying Ax Kick and Omukai drops a loud ax kick for 2.8. Shimoda does the “Toyota no-sell” after a big uranage, but gets pushed over and Mita saves with a big chairshot. Shimoda wastes time acting snotty & taunting her and Omukai pops up and hits a release B3 Bomb, then does the same act to Shimoda, teasing a KO or something, then shoves Mita over before running into something the camera misses, and Shimoda Germans her for the win (6:39). Post-match it looks like Shimoda used mist but it’s all in HER face, not Omukai’s. This was a particularly ugly one- Shimoda never really has great execution and is more manic, which is a bad mix for Omukai, who needs more grounding as all her shit constantly feels mis-timed. In this case, I suspect Shimoda was supposed to use the mist earlier but didn’t, as it looks like she was about to spit then got intercepted?

Rating: *1/2 (pretty ugly and weird in a lot of cases)

Her push has failed and fizzled and her style has mostly withered away, but she always has the BEST gear.

AYAKO HAMADA vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA:
* It’s the Champion vs. the first Champion! Ayako’s in white & pink, Yoshida’s in a badass silver & black version of her spider-gear.

Yoshida immediately throws punches & takes Hamada down, then absorbs her strikes and does it again. Hamada gets a spinebuster, seated dropkick & Lionsault for two, but gets pulled into an STF. She manages an abdominal stretch & spinning DDT out of the corner, then enzuigiri & Ligerbomb for two. Yoshida counters a spinning Ligerbomb to the Rings of Saturn and into the Modified Sleeper, which gets ZERO reaction. Oof. Yoshida with a punch combo, but Hamada dodges the Air Raid Crash (behind-the-back cradle inverted DDT) but charges into the Pedigree (called as such) for two. Hamada again escapes the Crash and kicks her in the brain, following with the Super Hama-Chan Cutter for two. A headscissors/arm lucha submission stretches Yoshida, but she springs up with the Air Raid Crash for only two. Hamada looks dead but magically springs up with a spinkick for a double-down- when she’s finally up, she tries another and nearly gets tapped out in a long fight over a heel hook- an actual pop for the rope-break! Hamada enzuigiris her again and keeps trying spinkicks, but Yoshida keeps blocking them and catches her with another Crash, but it’s a shitty flat-back one, so does a better one with a high-stack pin at (12:11) to win. This one wasn’t bad- still mostly heatless but they put some effort into selling and there was psychology to Ayako repeatedly going to her spinkick and losing because of it.

Rating: **1/2 (not GREAT but pretty hard-fought)

ROUND TWO:
AZUMI HYUGA (JWP) vs. MARIKO YOSHIDA (ARSION):
* This one is almost kinda high profile… if either JWP or ARSION were popular.

Yoshida immediately throws out her punch combo and the Air Raid Crash to start, getting two, then chases after Hyuga when she bails to recover and Pedigrees her for two. Yoshida pulls out a nasty double-arm front facelock and a beaten-down Hyuga finally fires back after eating some kicks, but gets taken down again. She gets a missile kick but is anklelocked, but pops the fans a bit by reversing to a half-crab and kneeing Yoshida from the apron. Somersault plancha to the floor! Flying knee misses in the ring and she ends up in a sleeperhold, then the cobra clutch into the Modified Sleeper for another long fight. This being so one-sided is making it really clear Hyuga is winning, lol. She counters another Crash to a sunset flip & gets Rolling Germans for two, then a Flying Knee. Yoshida avoids a knee and slugs Hyuga down, but Hyuga counters another Pedigree with a knee to the nose, but charges in and gets taken down with a vicious mounted keylock that looks inescapable. Air Raid Crash- nearfall! Yoshida’s outta shit so of course defaults to “run in like an idiot with no plan” and gets beaned in the face for it. She throws punches but gets her arms grabbed and a Straightjacket German gets two, as does a Michinoku Driver. Yoshida tries to fight up, but collapses in the midst of building her SmackDown! Meter and Hyuga pounces- a second Driver finishes at (10:56).

They fought themselves into a good match! They worked hard and won the fans over by the last 1/3 of the match, as they were NOT biting on anything all match long and Yoshida’s submission style isn’t over anymore. Hyuga pulled off a lot of desperation counters but would be hauled back down to the mat, looking like she had no chance. She’d use her high-flying style to compete and counter, then finally starts cycling through her offense but failing every time. Flash-pins, surprise bridging suplexes, etc. not getting it done, but then Yoshida expends her entire moveset trying to pin her and has nothing left, so Hyuga beats her in the end.

Rating: *** (a solid example of “styles make fights”- Yoshida’s submissions & power vs. Hyuga’s speed & counters- if you get an *ARSION* crowd excited you’re doing something right)

MIMA SHIMODA vs. GAMI:
* GAMI immediately attacks during the entrances with her clacker thingie and we’re off!

Shimoda gets the clacker in the ring and fires away, but GAMI deadlifts her with a wheelbarrow German. Shimoda hits the Flying Ax Kick for two, can’t get the Tiger Suplex, and spams regular ax kicks for two. GAMI catches her with a slap/fisherman’s buster, Shimoda avoids another, and they have an awkward, mis-timed strike exchange won by GAMI with a small package… for three (3:16). Oof, that was AWFUL. Shimoda took a bump for no reason and GAMI just pulled her up for lack of a better idea and they did that.

Rating: 1/4* (barely even a match- just some really ugly counters and move-spam)

Fujita has been kind of a disappointing, shitty rookie to this point, never having any important spot on the card.

LIONESS ASUKA vs. AI FUJITA:
* Oh, interesting! Asuka, one of the best carry-artists in joshi puro history, is the new Booker and has all this power, and one of her first singles matches is with Fujita! Fujita has struggled for a while- she was given an insta-push but sucked and was probably a disappointment in-ring (lots of botches- really only brought the MOVEZ), but if anyone can get something out of her it’s Asuka… preferably 4 years before this when she WAS the best worker in the style, but uhhhhh let’s see! I’m actually genuinely interested if she can pull it off, and what we’ll get out of Fujita!

Fujita immediately Germans Asuka out of a handshake and hits a tope suicida, then moonsaults her for two. Asuka is temporarily stunned but boots her head off for two, then calmly stands there and bases for Fujita to try flips and really tries not to mess up their spots with her bad timing. Asuka deadlifts her up powerbomb-style but gets rana’d, then sandwiches her into the upright table with a lariat- shitty bump & speed from Fujita. Blue Thunder Bomb gets two, but Fujita gets a 2nd-rope rana, headscissors & forward roll in succession until Lioness hauls her down. Iconoclams gets two, but Fujita scores five Germans in a row and Asuka bails after dodging the 450 Splash. Fujita misses a Moonsault to the floor but rolls to her feet… and walks right into the rolling kick. Asuka beats her up in the stands & follows by putting the table on Fujita and Flying Stomping it on the FLOOR (ow) and Ligerbombs her limp body for two. Running Ligerbomb- Fujita bolts to life and kicks out. Lioness goes for the Towerhacker Bomb (inverted fireman’s ligerbomb) but an interesting counter has Fujita spin out and roll her forwards for two, but a lariat crushes her for two. Fujita counters another powerbomb lift with a rana for two but gets her head kicked again, and Lioness pins her with a Cradle Michinoku Driver (LSD, I think) at (7:00). Lioness is ungracious afterwards, talking shit & throwing the mic down, provoking Michiko Omukai & Ayako Hamada to come down and take swings at her.

Well that was both more and less than I was expecting! I was expecting a much longer match with possibly a lot more carrying to it, with Lioness having to do a couple last-second kickouts and “shit, she almost caught me” moments, or more surprised reactions to Fujita kicking out. As it was, she ran through a lot of big moves in a row and couldn’t get her, so that’s KIND OF a push for Fujita, who was at least getting really good at the “bolt to life and swing the arm up” kickout timing. Though she didn’t really show any fire or crowd reaction, nor did she ever really look like someone FIGHTING- she should be yelling, talking shit, roaring in defiance, etc. As it stands, it was still a decent carry-job (at points Lioness was noticeably standing stock-still so Fujita could get the timing/motions right) but not really a full “Carry a kid to a good match” thing- just not enough time or effort.

Rating: **1/4 (solid by Fujita standards, but more of a standard Lioness carry-job)

ZION 2001 TOURNAMENT:
FINAL ROUND:
AZUMI HYUGA (JWP) vs. GAMI (ARSION):
* So Hyuga gets to beat two ARSION originals to get to this point, which is usually “enough” for a guest wrestler. Or will ARSION job out GAMI? They’ve rarely been serious about pushing her, and she’s been a half-joke wrestler for a year by this point at least. This is also a perfect time for GAMI to show the bookers what she has to offer, and Hyuga also can show off her qualities in a “JWP maybe won’t be around so here’s my resume” sort of way. BUT both have already worked thrice- this could be good or bad.

GAMI wins a matwrestling contest, then bashes Hyuga’s face into the corner a few times and rakes her face with her shoes. Hyuga no-sells her eyepoke (… how?) and elbows her to the floor and hits a flying plancha, but GAMI no-sells long enough to boot her in the face. Hyuga does the run-up dropkick to counter a corner whip (that’s the third straight match she’s done that in- coming off pretty same-y) and swings over a no-selling GAMI to knee her in the nose- GAMI stops Rolling Germans after two, but Hyuga impressively powers her into a third. Another ugly Japanese leg roll clutch (LEARN HOW TO DO THAT MOVE) by Hyuga gets two, but she wipes out trying to run up the corner and gets Super Rana’d. But she no-sells only to get superkicked. GAMI gets a pumphandle ligerbomb for two then rolls her into a nasty head & arm thing for a while, looking like Stranglehold Gamma, but Hyuga gets a missile kick (literally just hops up and does it as GAMI tries to charge her). Hyuga gets a running enzuiknee, but GAMI rolls out of the Michinoku Driver and hits Adios Amiga (fisherman’s buster) for two. Hyuga just gets up and easily Drivers her for two. After a double-down (FINALLY) she goes up and ends up with a SUPER Japanese Leg Roll Clutch (almost like a Victory Star Drop), but gets two and GAMI immediately snaps on a jujigatame for a nearfall. GAMI slaps her in the face and hits a great Tombstone, but goes up and Hyuga springs to life and hits the Spider German Suplex (german superplex while clutching the top) and the Flying Enzuiknee gets two. GAMI escapes another Driver with an ugly stunner (spinning Hyuga around to finally hit it) but Hyuga no-sells and slugs her and hits two running knees for two-counts. She goes for another Driver, but GAMI slaps her again and hits Adios Amiga a second time… Hyuga JUST starting to bridge out at three (9:24), making it look a bit like a botch.

This was pretty weak, heatless and sloppy- GAMI wearing streetclothes makes her mat wrestling look kinda poor (they scrape against each other a lot), Hyuga was probably too tired to smoothly fly around and do flash-pins, and they were way too up on this “no-sell moves to hit another” thing. Things started looking up by the last third, but by that point it was just Finisher Spam, at least Hyuga bringing out some different moves (all her matches were featuring the same offense).

Rating: ** (too much no-selling and “we don’t really have a story- just hit all our shit” match)

GAMI wins the ZION 2001 Tournament! Kind of a surprise, as it always looks like they’re giving up on her push until they’re not. She’s half-comedy, half-real worker, and has a silly stable full of clowns & rookies, and now has the silly robe & crown. We end things with a hype video of a future show, notably Ayako Hamada vs. Lioness Asuka for the Queen of ARSION Title.

This ended up being a much better ARSION show that usual for these tapes, just by virtue of not spamming out digests of a dozen matches- it’s a way breezier watch to see ten or so 7-10 minute matches in full and show some post-match. That said, this had issues. One-night tournaments nearly ALWAYS result in weak matches, as few will go all-out on such a minor tourney, resulting in quick flukes, “ah let’s just spam finishers until somebody wins instead of doing hard stuff like coming up with a story”, or whatever. Only one match of the show was particularly good (Yoshida/Hyuga) and the rest were weak. Repeating Moves kinda became an issue all match long, too- nearly every match involved ligerbombs or fisherman’s busters after a point. Hyuga is quite good but somewhat limited, it seems, into doing her big moves all the time, leaving every match featuring the exact same moves whenever she wrestles- a problem if you’re gonna work thrice.