Joshi Spotlight — page 3

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.

WHY ARSION DIDN’T WORK:
* So here’s a li’l thing I was thinking of doing that indicates in greater detail just WHY Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION didn’t work. It’s a bit funny to me, because as I’ve indicated before, I distinctly recall getting into Joshi circa 2002-2005 or so (I was in college so it was around then) and reading all sorts of stuff about ARSION and how cool it was, with Ayako Hamada talked about a bunch. I’ve been told it was probably a bunch of gooners who adored it because Hamada was purty, but I recall CherryBabes and such going on about the promotion, how unselfish Aja Kong was in putting people over instead of just brutally squashing people, etc. And Mike Lorefice on Quebrada was always adoring its in-ring stuff, too, so I know other contemporary sources were big fans. So I was a bit surprised and amused to find this weak-ass promotion struggling along doing crap business and never really getting over despite all the hype.

So “Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION” was formed in late 1997 by former All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling (aka AJW/”Zenjo”) office bitch Rossy Ogawa (future founder of Stardom & Marigold), alongside Aja Kong, who at that point had been dethroned as Zenjo’s top Champion a couple years before but was still a constant presence at the top of the card. Zenjo was losing its shirt and not paying wrestlers, and so Ogawa snuck in, found a backer or two, and a new promotion was formed using Zenjo’s wrestlers and a lot of other talent. Right away the promotion was a bit different in terms of identity, because it was decided to focus on grappling in a quasi shoot-style sort, focused around lots of mat-wrestling, holds and counter-holds, submissions, etc. In this, Mariko Yoshida, who’d been developing her style along those lines (along with a newer, muscular physique), would be very important, and she’d be pushed as their signature star right away. Various other wrestlers trained with men who had put a bit of focus on that style- according to stuff I’ve found, they attended Pancrase’s dojo as well as that of BattlArts, both doing a style I’ve seen jokingly called “Grapplefuckery”. Here, people would spend several minutes working moves on the mat, with submissions being taken seriously as potential match-enders and not just “random time-wasting”, weardown holds, or restholds like it usually was in Zenjo, JWP and other women’s companies.

GAEA JAPAN:
(May 13th)
* Big happenings in GAEA Japan… by which I mean STABLE RESHUFFLING TIME AGAIN! Yes, GAEA falls back to their exact same idea as always- once they run outta shit for their existing stables to do against one another, they break them up and do other stuff. Case in point: Last show saw Aja Kong get sick of KAORU’s endless cheating and URAKEN her. She then pals up with Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada, her pals in the Second Generation Army. Meanwhile, the rest of the stable is in tatters- Devil Masami suffers a brutal leg injury that puts her out of action for an entire year! Also, Akira Hokuto puts so much of herself into a losing effort against Meiko Satomura that SHE’S out of action for months as well! We won’t see her again until the Fall. Therefore, the rest of the stable is effectively Mayumi Ozaki, KAORU, Police & Sakura Hirota. Thankfully Ozaki is still GAEA’s Champion.

But injuries are found elsewhere, too- Sugar Sato will miss a year with a knee injury, and even Chigusa Nagayo’s going down for shoulder surgery, and will miss months! Therefore the entire promotion is in a highly vulnerable position, missing out on a few major acts and even some midcarders to fill out the cards!

The card here sees the Class of 1995 split off into a variety of teams to take on veteran squads, making use of the limited roster for a unique show at Korakeun. And the aftermath sees the formation of the three NEW stables that form GAEA Japan for the next chunk of time: D-FIX, Rai Rai Ken & Team Crush!

AJW IN JUNE 2001:
* It’s time to move into Zenjo’s Summer, punctuated by what looks like a hotly contested Japan Grand Prix! This one features the whole company and ends up in a really tight race to the final match, which is very much a “Push the Next Generation” sort of deal! We also have the rising team of MihoKayo taking on Black Joker, plus Manami Toyota & Yumiko Hotta against a jobbery squad of try-hards! And… guys, you’re not gonna believe it… Miyuki Fujii WRESTLES A GOOD MATCH!

GAEA JAPAN- LIMIT BREAK:
(April 29th)
* It’s time for a big GAEA show! this show pays off the Meiko Satomura/Akira Hokuto rivalry that sprung up, pushing the kid farther. Also of great interest is Chigusa Nagayo & Maeda Miyuki having one of the messiest, most business-exposing matches in wrestling! I’m also gonna do a thing where I try to read YouTube’s translations of commentary because I pick up some interesting stuff. I find that doing that means I start skipping action and reading (like watching subtitled anime, lol- I have the same issue where I stop WATCHING and just read), but occasionally I pick up some insight.

THE OPENING CEREMONY:
* Coming down to Detroit Rock City by KISS of all songs, they bring out the entire roster of the 2nd Generation Army, who now includes Kyoko Inoue I guess. Apparently KAORU is “The Hardcore Queen”. The Third Generation Army, the Crush Gals and their students, are next, but Sugar Sato sits it out on the floor because she’s injured. … and injured BIG-TIME, as I take a look at Cagematch and she doesn’t wrestle for an ENTIRE YEAR after winning the Tag Titles on the last show. Incredibly, they hold the AAAW belts for her & Chikayo until then (and spoiler alert- they lose them to D-Fix, haha).

GAEA JAPAN IN SPRING 2001:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! Mostly because I got ahead on Zenjo and didn’t realize I still had April & May to do here, lol. And they stack the HELL out of their April content, with something like 3 Spotlights’ worth of matches just from there! This one continues the Meiko Satomura/Dynamite Kansai rivalry, adds Akira Hokuto into the mix, ramps up the Satomura “Rocket Push”, and eventually leads to the dream match of the Crush Gals vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue!

APRIL 14th:
* Our first show is at Korakuen Hall.

AJW IN MAY 2001:
* It’s a big arena show! Well, Kawasaki Gymnasium, which looks PRETTY big. This is a very unusual show in that they seem to fill the entire thing with HUGELY long matches- Mike Lorefice counts it as 109 minutes of content starring Hotta, MihoKayo & Kumiko. We miss the MihoKayo vs. G-Max (LLPW’s Sayori Okino & Carol Midori) match, which is apparently 27 minutes long, which seems way outside of the capabilities of anyone there. It went to a no-contest, too. Also Manami Toyota beating Miyuki Fujii in (12:06). hahah that had to suck for TOYOTA- everyone else getting all these giant showcase matches and she has to deal with the Eternal Rookie?

The show features three big blood feuds at once- the increasingly-big Momoe Nakanishi vs. Kumiko Maekawa rivalry, which ends in the way only Zenjo likes to end ’em to establish people, then a Tag Title Match- LCO defending against new babyface squad Tomoko Watanabe & Nanae Takahashi, who is being increasingly focused-on and elevated! And finally, a HUGE arena-wide brawl with Yumiko Hotta vs. Kaoru Ito!

MOMOE NAKANISHI (w/ Miyuki Fujii) vs. KUMIKO MAEKAWA (w/ Manami Toyota & LCO):
* The two “upstarts” of the company, and obvious stars of the future, are up against each other in a feud that I’ve learned is to be a BIG part of 2001- as Kumiko has aligned with the heel veterans but is the lowest-ranked, and Momoe is the obvious rising star on the babyface side beneath Ito & Watanabe, this is an obvious choice for a “career-defining rivalry” in which two stars can hopefully rise each other up and become icons of a new era. If all the booking pans out and everyone gets over, of course. On paper, the idea is ridiculously-solid- a new feud with the stars of the future. If both girls are smart, they understand they need to BRING IT here. Kumiko’s in white & blue, Momoe’s in a ton of colors.

I’m away for a late Thanksgiving thing, so I figured I’d do a shorter Spotlight… and this ended up being 2400 words anyways because there was more than I expected, lol. And that’s AFTER I deleted a Hyuga/Bolshoi match that was actually from 2009! I’ll have to save that for focused Spotlights on both! Anyways, this is the three promotions too MINOR to focus on during my Spotlights, with some notes on JWP, a pair of IWA Japan matches, and Chikako Shiratori’s Retirement Ceremony in Osaka Pro!

JWP in 2001:
* So Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling shut down in late 2000- Wikipedia blames a February show co-promoted with All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling that failed, but I think the promotion was just a money-loser for a long time. The promotion always seemed kinda snake-bit- the first JWP was founded in the 1980s and had a combination of Zenjo stars who’d been forced to retire (Jackie Sato, Devil Masami) and fresh stars and Zenjo rejects they could train, resulting in some incredible rookies who turned into great workers (Shinobu Kandori, Dynamite Kansai, Mayumi Ozaki). Internal politics led to a big split in 1991-92, with Rumi Kazama and her friends forming Ladies Legend Pro-Wrestling (LLPW), while the others teamed up with President Masatoshi Yamamoto to form JWP Project, effectively a second version of JWP. This acted as a small indie with a roster of about 10+ wrestlers.

After some good business with a Zenjo feud in the “Interpromotional Era”, however, they were falling on hard times. Popular idol wrestler Cutie Suzuki called it quits. Plum Mariko died in a huge in-ring tragedy in 1997. They’d lost Mayumi Ozaki in 1998, and she became a Freelancer and started up her own micro-promotion with monthly shows (OZ Academy). Candy Okutsu, a reliable midcarder, retires around then, too. Hikari Fukuoka, the champ for a year or so, retired (I’ve been told it’s because she wasn’t allowed to quit and join ARSION with her friends). Dynamite Kansai, whose health problems helped sink business, ended up leaving around 2000 to join GAEA Japan. Even Devil Masami mostly did as well. In 2000 there was a JWP/AJW feud of sorts that saw JWP’s top wrestler Azumi Hyuga come in and… mostly get beaten by Zenjo veterans and trade the All Pacific Title with Kumiko Maekawa (a 3rd-stringer). So by this point they held none of the cards and probably needed the exposure, and so Zenjo got to take them to the woodshed.

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.

AJW IN SPRING 2001:
* And now it’s time to check out Zenjo in the spring, as we hit a March show and some April ones! The “Old Guard” vs. “New Stars” feud now dominates the entire promotion, as eternal babyfaces Yumiko Hotta and Manami Toyota now join up with the hated LCO to take on Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, and the “plucky rookies” making up post-1993 classes, particularly Nanae & Momoe. Essentially anyone whose push peaked after 2000 is a good guy and any preceding star is a baddie. Except traitorous Kumiko Maekawa, who is the “Akira Taue” in this situation- a disloyal traitor siding with the veterans. A lot of this show becomes about “elevating Nanae Takahashi”, as Momoe is already impressing people, but Nanae was lagging behind- here she gets a lot of focus in a tag match, then a solo bout against Etsuko Mita, who is VERY aware of what the assignment is, from the looks of things. But yeah, almost everything here is based around the “Old Guard” vs. “New Stars of the New Fans” feud.

Case in point, before the festivities, the Zenjo wrestlers welcome the fans and do introductions… and the yellow-clad heels assault them from behind, beating them all over the front rows. Ito & Tomoko come back and see them off, but someone is injured.

MARCH 25th:
* One match from Differ Ariake!

MARK WAR ON V:
MIHO WAKIZAWA & NANAMOMO (Nanae Takahashi & Momoe Nakanishi) vs. MANAMI TOYOTA & LAS CACHORRAS ORIENTALES (Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda):
* The babyface squad gets another shot against the heels dominating Zenjo- LCO recently stole back their 3WA Tag Titles from NanaMomo, giving this feud a lot more juice. Nanae’s in purple, Momoe’s in black & green, Wakizawa’s in yellow, LCO’s in pink/black & Toyota’s in some ALL NEW GEAR for once- a black & red kinda Mad Max version of her normal shit.

GAEA JAPAN IN MARCH-APRIL 2001:
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! This one features a pair of big shows, as Aja Kong announces her partner for a match against the Crush Gals, Chigusa & Meiko team up against the main eventer squad of Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto, and finally the Crush Gals team up for revenge against that same team… in a match where if they lose a second time, the Gals have to split up!

First off, however, I hadn’t realized there was a mini-angle after the match on my last GAEA review- Aja Kong comes out in street clothes & attacks Chigusa Nagayo & Chikayo Nagashima after the match, then seems to argue with teammates Mayumi Ozaki & Akira Hokuto as well. Judging by the comments section, Aja declares a challenge to the Crush Gals, but won’t announce her partner:

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.

AJW (Feb. 28th 2001):
* It’s time for more Zenjo at last! When we last saw, Yumiko Hotta had committed a heel turn and joined with LCO to form a rival squad to the “new stars of Zenjo” (Kaoru Ito and rising stars NanaMomo). Now smug, blonde-haired and WEARING SUNGLASSES INDOORS, Hotta is a proper heel, and her credibility as Zenjo’s “Shooter” will be important going forward. And that leads to tonight’s Vale Tudo match against Shinobu Kandori (an even more credible “Super Shooter”). Also, come see MihoKayo come out to disco while in Native American headgear! And Miyuki Fujii end up in the doghouse again after splattering a rookie!

Oh and now MANAMI TOYOTA is a heel! I don’t know when exactly she did that, but she’s definitely a heel here, having aligned with LCO and Kumiko as well! This sets up a “New Guard” vs. “Old Guard” feud, but with Manami in a role she hasn’t had in ten years- an aggressive heel. Let’s see how she does!

MIYUKI FUJII vs. MIKA NISHIO:
* Rookie Mayhem! Except Fujii is at the same experience level as NanaMomo, Wacky and others… which I always forget, because she’s so bad and always being a jobber. But she finally has an opponent she can bully! Pray she doesn’t fuck it up! And OMG the Rookie Swimsuit! The BANGS! It’s a throwback to old times! I’m oddly nostalgic for the “flavorless rookie” look now. I think this actually hails from the last show I reviewed- this is why I wish more uploaders would post dates/shows.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- SONOKO KATO:
Stats:
Billed Height & Weight: 5’2″ 143 lbs.
Career Length: 1995-2001, 2006-2026 (still active- retiring in 2026)
Trained By: Chigusa Nagayo

So if you’ve been following the Joshi Spotlight column, you’ll notice that I rarely do bios on the wrestlers whose careers basically last forever, or peak later. With GAEA Japan, I started watching their 1995 stuff and have only hit 2001, so I wanted to hold off on most of its wrestlers. Sonoko Kato, however, has a strange career- she gets injured in 2001 so badly that she never wrestles for GAEA again! The promotion actually DIES before she can return to wrestling, but she’s actually maintained a career since then. Which is impressive, given how she was assumed to be washed in 2000 thanks to injuries. Which was quite the fall, given what was thought of her as a rookie.

GAEA JAPAN (Jan. 27th):
* It’s time for more GAEA Japan! This is a combination of shows- a Jan. 27th one with a big Meiko Satomura vs. Dynamite Kansai match to pay off their month-long rivalry, plus CRUSH2000 challenges for the AAAW Tag Titles against Mayumi Ozaki and Akira Hokuto! After that, it’s a Feb. 2nd show with more of the veteran squad fighting Chigusa’s trainees! A Feb. 18th OZ Academy show! Then a Feb. 25th house show!

P & A (Police & Sakura Hirota) vs. Toshie Uematsu & Saika Takeuchi:
* Sakura Hirota’s goofy “heel turn” has led to her and Police being a comedy duo (with Sakura as “Akura” now I guess). And they take on the two spare GAEA wrestlers!

AJW IN JAN. 21st 2001:
It’s time for more Zenjo in January, as I check out the second half of stuff from that month! This one sees one of the most amazing “Toyota being a shitbag” performances of all, as she selfishly gobbles up humiliation spots against the supposed heels and won’t give them ANYTHING in a tag match featuring her & Kayo Noumi vs. Black Joker. BJ’s leader Eagle Sawai also takes on hapless Zenjo weakling Miho Wakizawa in a singles match, and then we get a FANTASTIC 8-woman tag with the heel army (Yumiko Hotta, Kumiko Maekawa & LCO) against Kaoru Ito, Tomoko Watanabe, and NanaMomo.

JAN 4th:

AJW TITLE:
MIHO WAKIZAWA vs. KAYO NOUMI:
* MihoKayo EXPLODES! This is for Wacky’s AJW Title (the “Rookie Elevation Belt”). Though this was apparently on the 4th so I should have reviewed it last week, haha. Oh well- it’s clipped anyways!

AJW IN JANUARY 2001:
* It’s time for more Joshi Spotlight! And that one Chinese channel that uploads a bunch of stuff has a reliably large amount of Zenjo material from 2001, some of which is in fairly long videos! Though this set starts with a lot of clips under a minute.

JAN. 3rd 2001:

GAEA JAPAN IN JANUARY 2001:
* We’ll start off with some GAEA Japan! Their 2001 playlist seems PACKED, with 11 matches in January alone! This ends up being so many, with such LONG matches, that I stop at 8, as this one features not only the huge World Title match between Aja Kong & challenger Mayumi Ozaki, but a mini-feud developing between Meiko Satomura and Dynamite Kansai, as Meiko racks up another veteran to fight! Also we get both comedy shenanigans with Sakura Hirota, and her asking to JOIN THE HEELS!

Jan. 14th, 2001:

JOSHI IN 2000:
* It’s 2000 and hey! Things are pretty good! I mean… I didn’t expect that!

So like, in 1997 or so Dave Meltzer completely stops reporting on the joshi scene and so online discourse about it drops off significantly. Almost nobody I’ve seen talks much about that era and it’s often assumed as some kind of “dark period” that lasts all the way until 2005, when both GAEA & AJW go under and things get EVEN WORSE. But then you watch 1999 & 2000 shows and… they’re packed! Fans are into it! KAORU ITO is drawing bigger, better reactions than Manami Toyota, Meltzer’s favorite! WTF is that?

So it turns out that the scene is going actually pretty good all the way through 2000, at least for the big two companies (GAEA, AJW/Zenjo). This is mostly due to the strength of their core angles and building fanbases or bringing back old ones. GAEA rides high off of REFORMING THE CRUSH GALS of all things, forming CRUSH 2000 and rebranding the company around them and their GAEA trainees (from 1995 on), up against the established veterans of the middle years (all the veterans who are making their way to the “Joshi Retirement Home” as freelancers). Zenjo hits a pretty big thing with a combination- the slow build of Kaoru Ito as the Ace and the rise of the generation of kids the new young fans “grew up with” as “our girls”, defending against the evils of puro like LCO! You can see big shows full of fans throughout the year!

And yet… some dark clouds on the horizon! GAEA still can barely keep rookies and is thus top-heavy! Freelancers who trained between 1986-1994 are the rule and clog up nearly every promotion, usually getting paid more if they lose so promoters often want to keep them happy and let them win! Zenjo still has a depleted roster! And there are some REAL dregs in the non-top promotions, as JWP dies for a second, LLPW is a non-entity, and poor ARSION keeps chugging along into disaster.

https://archive.org/details/arsioncarnival-arsion-2000

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION- CARNIVAL ARSION 2000:
(Nov. 19th 2000)
* It’s time for more ARSION, as I was told there was one last show yet to review! And… oh boy, a TOURNAMENT! Haven’t seen one of THOSE in a month or so! It’s a “Hyper Trio Six-(person) Tag Team Tournament”! Also a singles match between Ayako Hamada & JWP’s Azumi Hyuga! uhhhhh they must be airing the tourney stuff in full, because this is a 2-hour video and there’s only a handful of matches listed. but hahaha NOPE, as I get confused near the 30-minute mark, and realize they just didn’t write down the other matches on Archive.

The second half is MUCH bigger, as we get a big double-main event featuring the Twin Star tag belts and the Queen of ARSION Title being up for grabs, as GAMI & Rie take on Las Cachorras Orientales, and Ayako Hamada gets another chance against Aja Kong! It also has Yuu Yamagata make her debut! Who I’ve never heard of, so I’m guessing she doesn’t make a major mark! Plus a lot of random tags, more man vs. woman stuff in a Trios match, AKINO vs. Chaparrita ASARI for the Sky High ARSION Title, LCO vs. GAMI & Rie Tamada, and another Aja Kong/Ayako Hamada match for the Queen of ARSION Title!

REINA TAKASE vs. LINDA STARR: It’s the green rookie vs. Starr! Who is now dressed like a superhero in much better gear- a black/pink/white bodysuit with bare arms & legs. Takase’s in red, and surprises her with a spear before the bell, but we’re clipped to a slingshot dropkick and Linda trapping her in a Tarantula variant, hanging her right-side-up on the second rope. Starr side-Russian legsweeps her into a painful-looking grounded octopus hold but gets judo-flipped into a jujigatame. Linda catches her with a big lariat for two, gets rolled up, then dodges a missile kick and… gets rolled up again, and gets pinned at (2:41 of 10:24 shown)! haha the kid beat her! Match looked by the numbers, but fine. Takase doesn’t stand out much from any other rookie, but had some fire. Starr’s stuff is usually well-executed but bland.