Joshi Spotlight: ARSION in 5.2002 (Asuka vs. Omukai for the Queen of ARSION!)

ARSION:
* Back to ARSION with the rest of early 2002’s stuff! This is mostly scattered stuff, but features several big matches for the company, including Zenjo’s Momoe Nakanishi coming over to face her ARSION equivalent in Mika AKINO! Plus Lioness Asuka vs. Michiko Omukai for the Queen of ARSION Title, then the winner vs. noki-A! This also culminates in a Queen of ARSION match with AKINO getting her chance! Hoo boy but business is suffering, though.

MAY 12th:

AKINO (ARSION) vs. MOMOE NAKANISHI (AJW):
* Probably the best possible match the two companies could combine to make features these two- AKINO has been great since the start of ARSION, but was never quite given than “next level” push owing to various reasons (ie. she’s not as hot as the ones they did push), but she’s exactly like Momoe- a spritely, ultra-fast super-athlete with insane agility and recovery. Objectively she should probably be on the same level given their respective debuts and how desperately ARSION needed new stars, but instead Momoe is in the “gonna get a big push next” zone while AKINO has been Lioness Asuka’s buddy. Commentary indeed puts over how much more important this feels than the other matches, though- as it’s “the future of both companies” in the same match.

They do “even stevens” to start, Momoe tripping up AKINO & hitting a dropkick, but a second one leads to AKINO just chasing her into the ropes for her own. Momoe does her forward-flip counter but gets dumped, but charges up to greet AKINO’s tope attempt and slugs her, so AKINO just illegally strangles her up there and hits the tope con hilo anyways. Hey, what’s this thing the ARSION fans are doing, where they’re clapping and acting like they’re enjoying what’s going on? I haven’t seen them do that in a while so I’m confused. AKINO adds some nasty bootscrapes and an elevated bronco buster in the corner, but Momoe flips her out of some holds and peppers her with mobile dropkicks. AKINO surfboards her out of a bodyscissors but gets hit with windmill cross-bodies, but she’s again able to control on the mat. The story so far is that Momoe is a counter-artist and faster, but AKINO is savvier on the mat, able to easily counter any move there. AKINO rifles her with a dropkick for a nearfall, but Momoe gets pissed about it and fires off her own, then runs in place on AKINO’s back- you ain’t tryin’ THAT shit with the master! Bow & arrows work the back, but AKINO manages to do the same move herself as they expertly draw out the match length with “I can top you” spots, which is great psychology and in character.

AKINO hangs Momoe in the tree of woe for beats and an upside-down armlock, then easily dodges Momoe’s run-up crossbody, pointing to her head to indicate intelligence, which naturally results in her eating a moonsault shortly thereafter. Frog Splash gets two, but AKINO keeps throwing counters- Momoe stunguns her but gets bulldogged out of a German and now *AKINO* gets a run-up move for two. But she gets caught up top, Momoe attempting a Dragon SUPERPLEX, so AKINO desperately squirms out and wins with a Superduperplex for a double-down. AKINO gets two, but misses a springboard move, only for Momoe to overswing and end up backdrop driver’d! But Momoe kicks out at one, then Germans… for one! hah now they’re one-upping THAT! Dazed and dizzied, they stumble around but Momoe sneaks in her backflip-German move for two, then a backslide & flash-pin into a heel hook, but AKINO is able to leverage that into a much nastier Scorpion deathlock! Momoe writhes and writhes as the hometown fans chant for AKINO, and she even pulls Momoe away from the ropes. After two minutes of that, Momoe’s in bad shape, but she suddenly hits a second wind on the floor and SPEEDBLITZES poor AKINO into the guardrail four times in a row, AKINO bumping over the last one and injuring her leg (possibly the ankle, as she keeps arching her foot back). This puts the fight out of her, allowing Momoe to recover, and AKINO keeps having to bail after minimal offense. Momoe gets one Frog Splash, but misses another and AKINO pounces with a jujigatame, then snaps the arm when Momoe gets out. Limping, AKINO does it to each side of the ring, snaps it over the railing, then hits a springboard dropkick to the arm into the Crippler Crossface!

Momoe escapes, then keeps using evasion and leverages AKINO over when she tries another spinning submission, getting two, then goes for the Momo Latch (twisting rana)… and AKINO sits out on her, nearly getting three! Backdrop Driver gets two, but Momoe Germans her for two, but AKINO scores another Driver… and Momoe fires up, slugging her, but AKINO uses the impact to build momentum for a shotei (palm strike). Momoe gets another elbow, ducks the shotei, but AKINO pops her with an elbow for a struggling two-count! And then Momoe greets her run with a big running elbow, right into the Momo Latch- for two, as the ref counts a “phantom kickout”. Dragon Suplex gets two, then a final Momo Latch gets the three (28:26).

A really excellent “Can You Top This?” mirror match, the two playing up their similar positions (but different alignments; AKINO is a heel) with tons of revenge spots and each trying the moves the other is doing in the spirit of good, down-home SPITE. I liked the early bits of Momoe getting the drop whenever she could use speed, but the second they were grappling and their feet were on the mat, AKINO would soon roll her into a submission. Then every time someone gets a successful move, the other tries to either do the same thing or one-up it- even the kicking out at one spots (normally something that annoys me) is fantastic because it’s like… mid-match offense while they’re still fresh, and entirely based out of spite. They kinda out-cuted themselves with the finish, overdoing some kickouts considering the Latch was ending it anyways (the ref/AKINO botching the kickout doesn’t help), and the leg injury stuff in the final 1/3 made it look like they were just killing time to extend the match length, but overall it was a great show.

Rating: ****1/4 (more “Momoe is the future” proof, and one of AKINO’s best performances, too)

HANDICAP MATCH:
MARIKO YOSHIDA, GAMI & ROSSY OGAWA (ARSION) vs. YUMIKO HOTTA & NANAE TAKAHASHI (AJW):
* The AJW/ARSION feud sorta culminates with OGAWA HIMSELF getting involved in a match, coming out dressed like Tiger Mask in a white suit to be a maximum douchebag, climbing to the top like “hey look at me” before revealing his bridge troll face. He starts distracting Hotta immediately, paying off an April 30th show where he kept interfering in a match, causing it to be thrown out- all of ARSION saved him from destruction at Hotta’s hands.

Hotta gets attacked by GAMI for focusing too much on Ogawa, and even Nanae hits a dive into her by accident. Yoshida pulls her run-up plancha out of the mothballs to Team AJW, then Rossy assists with a Spike Piledriver to put Nanae through a table! They smash her with a board and Nanae should PROBABLY be bleeding but just isn’t, and they seem to do the “audience assist” abdominal stretch spot, and we’re clipped to Hotta charging in to attack Ogawa again. Hotta throws some baby chairshots at him and we’re clipped to him bleeding all over the place, Nanae hitting a dive to the other two to keep the focus on Ogawa’s bit. ah, so THAT’S why he’s wearing a white tux- he gets blood all over it, making it look better since he can’t bump or sell at all. He’s taken away after getting dark blood everywhere. Nanae Vader Bombs Yoshida for two, but ends up stuck in the Modified Sleeper- Yoshida’s old finisher- fighting FOREVER before making the ropes. Clipped to Hotta hitting the Pyramid Driver (crossarmed ligerbomb) to GAMI… and Rossy pulls out the ref. Yoshida adds boxing blows to Hotta, then Rossy pulls her off the top out of a Caribbean Splash attempt- GAMI adds a Moonsault but the ref won’t count, saying Ogawa tagged in. He tries with Hotta and has to get saved from a Pyramid Driver, then they pull off a German/STO combo of all things- Hotta no-sells, but GAMI’s eyepoke puts her in Ogawa’s schoolboy, which gets the pin at (9:29 of 23:33 shown). Ogawa is declared the winner, GAMI cuts a promo, and Hotta gives chase.

Well seeing Rossy in pain is something, at least.

A pretty weak, scattered brawl, obviously focused around Hotta abusing Rossy. Which is weird because it’s an ARSION show so he isn’t being booed, and he can’t bump or sell so a lot of the beating doesn’t really pay off as well as it should anyways. I can’t even imagine how bad this would have been at the full 24 minutes.

Rating: 1/2* (just a messy bit of nothing)

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
LIONESS ASUKA vs. MICHIKO OMUKAI:
* The top belt of the company is up once again. And OH GOD A 32 MINUTE VIDEO? Oh thank christ- looks like the belt ceremony is 10 of that. Omukai’s in white and has tons of feathers and thigh-high boots on. Asuka’s in the usual black. This’ll be interesting, as Asuka’s one of the best carry-artists in the business… is what I would be saying if this match was from 1998, but it’s not. Asuka has her work REALLY cut out for her turning a “just a moveset” wrestler into a potential Top Star. Much is made on commentary of Omukai missing time via neck injury and claiming she’ll quit ARSION if she loses.

Asuka suckers Omukai with a handshake right into her rolling kick, getting a quick two-count. She’s game to sell some soft Omukai kicks, but wins a test of strength and methodically wears her down (which is really the gameplan if you want 20 minutes out of Omukai). Omukai does a weird half-triangle choke, and Asuka counters by sorta bending her leg back with a weird grip. Asuka eventually hooks a weak stretch muffler (her neck isn’t in the joint but against the calf), then a surfboard fails and she rapidly switches to a chinlock like a pro. A decently-long Giant Swing gets two. The crowd is VERY mild for this. Asuka PROCURES THE CROSSFACE CHICKENWING as the weardown continues and commentary discusses how the younger generation has of yet been unable to take the baton from the older one in women’s wrestling. Tossin’ shade at Ayako’s long title reign, lol. Or Meiko Satomura at GAEA. Asuka resorts to “just dump Omukai in the stands” without even a beating, and Omukai uses that to mount a comeback with a falling clothesline and some knees. A really bad X-Factor (lol did Asuka forget the bump?) and they throw loose strikes into Asuka’s Iconoclasm for two. Omukai avoids a powerbomb but gets dumped and beaten up on the floor as this just keeps going. 13 minutes in, something interesting happens as Asuka gets her black table set up, but Omukai tosses her on it and “hits” a Shining Wizard, sliding off face-first into the guardrail lol. People shriek with horror as that looked like it could have been BAD.

Asuka is stunned from that, but gets up right after a Shining Wizard in-ring and dumps Omukai, drapes the table across her and hits the Flying Stomp to the FLOOR in a big landing. Omukai does a half-decent “limp doll” sell as Asuka Iconoclasms her off the apron back-first onto the table in a good bump. Nasty Powerbomb onto the table catches the edge of it so it barely breaks. Ligerbomb in the ring- two! Asuka scores a head-kick to stop a comeback and flying stomps the broken table onto her in-ring and she scores her finisher- the Towerhacker Bomb (inverted fireman’s to ligerbomb), but the ref won’t count because of the cheating. She threatens him until Omukai tries a tiger suplex, but Asuka easily averts it and switches to the Towerhacker Bomb again- for two and a very mild reaction to the kickout. Asuka’s practically wrestling herself while giving Omukai instructions, letting her escape the Michinoku driver with an ax kick, then climbs and gets B3 Bombed (sit-out razor’s edge) for two, staying stock-still instead of moving around to “fight” the move (because then Omukai would probably drop her). Asuka scores two high-kicks, and when Omukai Tiger Suplexes out of a third, suddenly fails the bridge and starts flailing around to sell her neck injury returning. Another big high kick has the fans… sit on their asses while Omukai “struggles to stand”, but then the ref kneels down to grab Asuka and prevent her interfering, and Omukai charges in for the Shining Wizard off his back! They’re getting a bit too cute with those. Asuka manages a rolling kick for a big double-down, but then Omukai no-sells two high kicks for elbows, kicks out at one from another rolling kick, then kicks out of another. Omukai keeps escaping Michinoku drivers and hitting Shining Wizards, but Asuka keeps blocking them. But finally Omukai just no-sells a ROLLING kick this time, Asuka pops up after a Shining Wizard, and Omukai catches her with an uppercut into another Wizard for the struggling pin at (22:28), Asuka kicking out at 3.1. New Queen of ARSION! Asuka gets on the mic to warn her that she’s carrying the future of women’s wrestling on her back and “we’ll be watching”, then a bandaged-up Ogawa awards Omukai the belt, culminating a 10-year career.

This just went ON AND ON. Which is a problem as Omukai is not a compelling performer. There are elements where she’s trying hard and you can tell she likes getting pushed, but she just has zero fire or selling behind her. She knows she HAS to sell and she isn’t in “memorize the exact order of moves and ignore the fans entirely” like Ayako Hamada did, but she’s just very “blah” and never seems to have much fire. Leaving Asuka, whose entire job is to put the kid over, with a hard sell as she just kind of has to meander around and beat her up in one-sided manner for like 15 minutes, which is rough on anyone, much less an aging champion. Like, Omukai manages only one single “YEAH COME ONNNNNN!” reaction. People criticize Manami Toyota’s charisma/crowd play and rightly so at times, but even she knows to try that shit again and again. So the whole match is basically 13 minutes of pissing around to kill time, then a weird table spot that probably sounded better in their heads, then Asuka drilling her with finisher after finisher to “prove Omukai is tough”, then takes a B3 Bomb while basically leading Omukai through sequences. And the crowd really never cared- they sorta screamed for the Wizard on the table, then the one off the ref’s back, but once Omukai just starts spamming them out it’s clear she doesn’t have much else.

Rating: ** (this was them fighting towards a ****+ classic but never being as good as they should be for that- Asuka is solid but can’t do everything herself, and “spamming Shining Wizards as offense” ain’t it)

JULY 13th:
* From a bowling alley, this has a ridiculous 1100 claimed on Cagematch, which is NOWHERE CLOSE. Maybe 80-100 people are here.

QUEEN OF ARSION TITLE:
MICHIKO OMUKAI vs. noki-A (w/ Lioness Asuka, GAMI and other stable peeps):
* It’s Omukai’s first title defense! Against the masked AKINO as “noki-A”! And oh my goddddddddddddddddddd it’s a tiny gym with nobody in it. OOF. This is a small enough building but half the seats are EMPTY! AKINO’s in her masked image here. Her heel stable is backing her up, with the babyface ARSION people behind the guardrail and commentary saying this is Lumberjack Rules.

noki-A wins a grappling contest with a jujigatame, Omukai bailing and getting her arm kicked by GAMI on the floor. noki-A presses the advantage but ends up hair-whipped around and hit with the X-Factor, but she comes back and the heels beat up Omukai on the floor. noki-A works a dragon sleeper, but Omukai comes back with armdrags and arm submissions, then bullies her and gets the fans into it, but noki-A snaps off a run-up crossbody and works the leg. noki-A fires off an impressive elbow but runs into one, then they slug it out and Omukai dodges another run-up and hits her ax kick for two. She no-sells two backdrop drivers in a row before taking a third and selling. Now noki-A does the same with uranages for two. noki-A avoids the B3 Bomb with a jujigatame, and the ref has to force her to break in the ropes. noki-A works the arm with the usual armsnaps, springboard dropkick & juji, switching to the crossface for ages.

These poor fans look so bored, lol.

Omukai finally escapes and tries some arm stuff of her own, noki-A powerbombing out of it but being dragged right into a triangle choke. That also lasts a while, noki-A being “revived” by GAMI flapping a cloth over her (against the rules, per commentary), and Omukai gets swarmed by heels again so noki-A can lock her in a torture rack behind her own back. noki-A tries her Blind Rana spot, but gets caught, only to spin out into a rana from powerbomb position for two- a snap rana for two leads to another heel beating but Omukai moves and noki-A wipes out the whole stable with her tope con hilo! Omukai tries to finish with the B3 Bomb, but it’s turned into a rana for two. noki-A hits Tornado A (spinning roundhouse kick), but Omukai does the All Japan Sell and hits a Shining Wizard before flopping over for a double-down. Tiger Suplex from Omukai but noki-A kicks out at ONE, but misses her Tornado A and Omukai gets another Shining Wizard for the pin at (22:24).

Long and boring- once they saw a crowd like this that had to take the wind out of their sails, never mind that Omukai isn’t really that good anyways, so it’s just LONG and arduous, with lots of submission/matwork that you know it’s actually leading to a finish (since neither does armbar finishes). Compare how short this write-up is to the last one with a match of equal length- this was largely just “sit around in holds” with the “real match” happening in the last couple of minutes with some half-decent near-falls, the usual bad habits (no-selling and kicking out at ONE then immediately being killed), and more. Neither showed much fire, but noki-A still has great precision.

Rating: *1/2 (just long and boring, with a dulled crowd)

And that’s it for ARSION in the first half of 2002! A company that’s attempting to revamp itself after the disastrous Ayako Hamada title run, hires Lioness Asuka to do it, and the best they can really manage is “Push Omukai”, who is putting in effort but still kinda sucks and really only has “Spam Shining Wizards” as her best idea, having already dropped most of the offense she “learned” from Sakie Hasegawa. Since the Wizard was “hot shit” once Great Muta invented it, it makes sense that SOMEBODY would try to leech the heat off of it, but doing it in so flagrant a way, throwing them into each match multiple times, is definitely a transparent attempt at swiping it.