ARSION The Grand Opening Virgin Commercial Tape 2/18/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

The 1st Memorial: Fukawa vs. Candy. Really good match that was the best singles of Fukawa's career and on par with the best stuff Candy has done with her JWP peers. Exciting, flashy, and well executed submissions and high spots, but also focused attacks. Fukawa is like a new woman with a more mature look and an entirely different move set. Candy looked like her old self. ****

The 2nd Memorial: Futagami vs. Jesse Bennett. Bennett's debut. Futagami looked good in her new gimmick as the lethal technician, but Bennett is very limited in what she can do right now. *3/4

The 3rd Memorial: Aja vs. Omukai. Very good match. Omukai plays the Kikuchi-esque role, just begging for Aja to punk her, and Aja does so with unbelievably stiff strikes. Even after Aja has put her out twice, Omukai is still looking for more. Omukai's facials in this match are incredible and she plays her role to perfection. Aja, who has a renewed vigor here, does a great job carrying her. ***3/4

The 4th Memorial: Tamada vs. Bennett. Unlike in AJW, this was actually competitive with Tamada doing a few nice things. Not a bad match with Tamada running around and trying flying, and Bennett just letting her do so hoping to squash her with a power move. **1/2

The 5th Memorial: Aja & Omukai & Fukawa vs. Futagami & Tamada & Candy. Very good workrate style match with more spots than you can count. A bit sloppy, but definitely exciting. Totally different in style from the other 4 matches. ***1/2

ARSION STARLET '98 Pro Shot Handheld 4/11/98 Aichi Nagoya Sogo Taiikukan

*reviewed in Quebrada 47*

THE FIRST STARLET: Candy Okutsu vs. Faby Apache. 1/4*

THE SECOND STARLET: Yumi Fukawa vs. Michiko Omukai. ****

THE THIRD STARLET: Candy Okutsu vs. Jessie Bennett. **

THE FOURTH STARLET: Rie Tamada vs. Reggie Bennett. ***1/4

THE FINAL STARLET: Aja Kong vs. Mikiko Futagami. ***1/2

ARSION STARLET '98 Commercial Tape 4/17/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

*reviewed in forthcoming Quebrada*

The first starlet: Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa vs. Reggie Bennett & Jessie Bennett. **

The second starlet: Michiko Omukai & Faby Apache vs. Aja Kong & Lady Metal. ***1/4

The third starlet: Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada. Yoshida's ARSION debut. ***

The fourth starlet, women's kickboxing: Aya Matsui vs. Kaori

The final starlet: Candy Okutsu vs. Mikiko Futagami. ****

Miko comments

B 1102 Arsion Comm 4/7/98

1. Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa v. Reggie & Jessie Bennett

Time: 19:50

Rating: *

Jesse Bennet really drags down this match. The rest of it is not awful,

but Jesse really blows some spots. Despite her size, she seems unable to

even do a powerbomb, not one of the tougher moves to execute.

2. Michiko Omukai & Faby Apache v. Aja Kong & Lady Metal

Rating: **

An average match. Faby looked green, but there were no major screw ups and

things went fairly smoothly. Nothing special, just decent.

3. Mariko Yoshida v. Rie Tamada

Rating: ***

I liked this match. It had no big high spots, but focused on mat work and

submission grappling. Yoshida usually seems to have the edge there, but

Rie worked the leglocks pretty hard, while mixing in DDT's and a Dragon

Suplex.

4. Aya Matsui v. Kaori

Rating: ***

Another good match with good action. I thought Matsui had the edge, but

Kaori fought back enough to keep it interesting. Kaori just seemed to wear

down as the fight progressed.

5. Candy Okutsu v. Mikiko Futagami

Rating: ***

I was really not sure how to rate this. I enjoyed the match and got into

it, but forgot to watch it with an eye toward rating it.:^)

ARSION HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT ARS '98

Commercial Tape 5/5/98 Kawasaki Shi Taiikukan (2,850)

ARSION is easily my favorite promotion right now. Every commercial tape they have put out is very good and certainly worth getting, with the exception of this one. That's not to say this is a bad tape because it was a pretty good tape that's better than any US PPV or edition of RAW, Heat, Nitro, or Thunder from 1998. However, just about every match on this tape was disappointing. The two main problems were that they experimented too much and that the show was too great a departure from the style they had established in the first three months. Having to work more than one singles match in a night also didn't help, and there was also some bad luck involving Yumi Fukawa and to a lesser extent Rie Tamada. In any case, on paper this looked like it would be the best ARSION show up to this point in time, but it really fell flat.

The important thing about this tournament is it proved that unlike the other women's promotions, ARSION was committed to creating new stars. How many promotions do you know of that have two of the top three natives lose in the first round and the remaining one lose in the second round? The new star the tournament created was Candy Okutsu, who had never been taken seriously as a world title contender because she was too small. They knew what they were doing having Candy win this tournament rather than ZION because it gave them nearly four extra months to push her as a top flight star. Candy winning this tournament also showed the unpredictable nature of ARSION. Even on the small shows, there always seems to be one interesting result.

THE UNDERCARD TRIANGLE MATCH: Lady Metal (1-1) vs. Fabi Apache (0-3) vs. Jessie Bennett (1-9).

"Until someone explained this situation to me, I honestly thought that this match was a handicap match because of the constant double teaming. The actual rules for the match were that one girl was supposed to stay in a corner, but Jessie, being the biggest opponent in the ring, was targeted initally by the Mexicans. You could see Jessie speaking with the referee prior to the beginning of the match, telling him to watch the girls. Afterwards, Jessie flipped off the girls and yelled at the referee because he didn't try to control the Mexicans' double teaming. So, they double teamed her to get the pin," wrote Keith.

If they would have done a handicap match, the quality probably would have been a little better. Simply put, asking three wrestlers who can't carry a regular match to try to pull off a triangle match is recipe for disaster. However, this match sucked because Jessie and Fabi are way too green and Metal, well, she just blows. It was all spots, and on paper this might sound like a "cool" match, but most of the spots weren't well executed. It wasn't even so much that they were blown, but that most of the individual spots lacked that certain something that makes them look good.

The match was slightly interesting when Jessie was involved because the double teaming wasn't bad, but Fabi used a moonsault off the second to put Jessie away in a mere 2:40. Still, the double teaming exemplified the typical ARSION problem, that there was not much of a reason for the event to happen. I guess the idea was that they ganged up on Jessie because she's a different nationality and works a different style, but then again, that sounds like one of those wonderful racist McMahon justifications.

"What was more confusing was that Fabi Apache would decide to team with the veteran Lady Metal to take out the bigger woman. Although Jessie is bigger than both woman in terms of weight and possibly power, she lacks experience to make her a big enough threat to Fabi," wrote Keith.

Keith brings up a good point. Theoretically, Metal should be the biggest threat to Fabi because she's been wrestling for several years longer than Fabi and Jessie combined. Probably the only thing scarier than these three trying to pull of a triangle match would be Fabi and Jessie trying to form a cohesive unit to take Metal out as part of a triangle match, so they went for the team that could stylistically function as a unit.

"Jessie did beat Fabi on the Aomori show on the 4/19/98, so Fabi's choice of partners might have been decided as a result of that show. Also, since both Metal and Fabi are from similar styles, the double teaming effort, at the end, is justifiable by both women. I wish Metal concentrated more on that, rather than trying so hard to get the audience to applaud. It winds up looking like she is ends stalling most of the time," wrote Keith.

After Jessie was eliminated, the match was truly awful. There was all kinds of hesitation and sloppiness from both Luchadores before Metal put Fabi away with La Mosquita.(ars02) 6:20. 3/4*

Miko: This was a pretty bad match. Jesse was double teamed by the Mexicans most

of the match, lasting only 2:40 and not showing much in that time. Then the luchadoras squared off and showed that Jesse was not the only reason this match was not very good. The crowd was dead except for some occasional, half hearted cheers.

ARS '98 Round 1

Candy Okutsu (5-3-2) vs. Yumi Fukawa (0-7-1). This wasn't nearly as good as their 2/18 match, but given what happened to Yumi, it's surprising that it was good at all. The match got off to a good start, but once they settled into the body of the match the pacing was too slow and even for these two. Thus, even when they went to high spots it wasn't that exciting, and the totally dead crowd didn't help things either.

"The early part of the match subtly hints at the original Tiger Mask's training of Okutsu, as she throws a quick rolling savate along with Tiger Mask's trademarked through-the-ropes-feint. Okutsu later would be the first woman wrestler to assume the Tiger Mask tradition, this time appearing under her own moniker, 'Tiger Dream.' The lead up prior to Fukawa's accident was done pretty well. I didn't mind the ground attack after Fukawa and Candy had set up the fast start with Candy doing the feint, a la Tiger Mask. The sequence where Candy began selling her leg, leading Fukawa to target Candy with the moonsault looked nice because it seemed pretty logical from move to move," wrote Kieth.

The match got really good at 10:30 with pro style high spots, including Yumi avoiding Candy's moonsault attack(ars05) and La Magistralling her for a near fall. Fukawa had focused on Candy's leg earlier, and now she was catching Candy in legitimate leg finishes, which Candy was putting over well.

"Unlike her matches in the All Japan Women federation, Yumi Fukawa has come a long way in developing both her aerial and submission style along with improving her aggressiveness.

Unfortunately, for this night, her luck would run out; but not due to facing the more

experienced and sleeker Okutsu," wrote Keith.

For Yumi, facing the more experienced and sleeker Okutsu should only be a plus. If someone is truly sleek and smooth, that should rub off on their opponents if they have some semblance of athletic ability, skill, and experience, which Yumi does. Also, Yumi isn't at the level where she can carry a match yet at this point, so the experience of Candy should help in this regard. I think these aspects of Candy's game would only have served as a plus. I still don't think this match would have been quite as good as their previous one or Candy vs. Gami from 4/17/98, but we'll never know.

In one of the most unfortunate accidents of the year, the match was ruined right in the middle of Yumi's big run when she landed on her head twice in a row while attempting moonsaults off the 2nd.(ars06) These were incredibly nasty landings, to the point where she was lucky she wasn't the next Nobutaku Araya (he broke his neck when he didn't get all the way over on his moonsault finisher).

"About mid-way through the match, Yumi sufficiently works over Okutsu's leg, which Okutsu sells as she tumbles to the ground, when Yumi sends her for the ride. However, here's

where the situation for Fukawa becomes ugly. Seeing the prone Okutsu, Yumi goes for her

running Quebrada, but instead ends up crashing on her face! A mixture of laughs and noise breaks from the crowd, but Yumi is determined in executing the move. She approaches the ropes for a re-try, but once again lands on her head! It's difficult to assess the actual reaction of the crowd since they might be used to lucha comedy and probably realize that Yumi works in Mexico. However, this situation is no comedy spot as Yumi legitimately hurts herself in both spots, with the second mishap damaging both her face and her ego. At first, Okutsu doesn't realize the extent of the injury and stands

up to place a foot to Yumi's head. When Yumi doesn't move and the referee moves in to check on her condition, Okutsu moves away, not knowing the extent of the injury. But this is where I gain a lot of respect for Yumi Fukawa. Rather than quitting she staunchly begins moving and Okutsu responds by placing her on the top rope.

Candy really carried things from this point, but still the quality was up and down, as Yumi was clearly hurting, but she was able to "get it back" from time to time.

"After seeing Yumi's accident, I have a difficult time in assessing how this match might

have developed. Up to the accident, the execution was well done, imo. The thing about

the missed Quebrada was that it hurt Fukawa's pride more than her body. I think the

mixture of laughter from the audience and her problems in doing well on ARSION's big show

convinced her to quit using the moonsault/Quebrada. Prior to this she had some trouble

with the move as you can see her get these low elevation Quebradas on some other shows

like their first one," wrote Keith.

The problem with all of Yumi's flying moves is that she jumps out, but not up. Due to the pull of gravity, it usually looks like she's jumping down because you descend so fast when you don't force your own an ascent. Since she is always going down, she has a lot less time to do any flips, spins, or turns in the air, and that's when things can get dangerous because neck injuries, which luckily she didn't suffer here, are a very serious matter.

"It should be pointed out that when Yumi missed the first moonsault, it was not a goof on her part. When she jumped up on to the ropes to do the springboard, the ropes were a little too loose. When she tried to leap back off the ropes, her knees were caught under the top rope, which resulted in her being whipped backward into the mat on her head. That's even worse than her just falling because she had quite a bit of speed from the whipping effect. As far as the second moonsault goes, she was obviously still stunned from the first, so she shouldn't have even tried it," wrote Chris.

Remarkably, Fukawa managed to go another 5 ½ minutes like they planned. The audience proved they didn't belong in Dawn of the Dead, actually starting a Fukawa chant because they realized what a gutsy performance they were seeing.

"I was glad for the audience to have realized Fukawa's need for encouragement. It's not

like in America where you see a missed move and the crowd idiotically screams "You fucked

up!" Either way, Fukawa '98-'99 has shown incredible heart and the proof is her

willingness to go on from here," wrote Keith.

Luckly, the Japanese fans aren't that pathetic, and don't engage in pointless mindless chants like that. If there is a point to that chant, I'd like someone to explain it. I mean, you get a bunch of marks and smarks together and they think they belong on one of those lame Secrets of Pro Wrestling shows because they are able to pick out the most obvious blown spots. It's like, when 90% of the building realizes there was a mistake, what do you want a fucking metal for being one of the 90%? Not to mention 2 seconds later they'll expect the guy they were just trying to humiliate to be motivated to continue "killing himself for their entertainment." With some of these people, you have to wonder if the only remorse they would feel if someone did die doing a stunt for them is that they wouldn't be able to scream "You fucked up!" at them anymore. Then again, there will always be others who will make mistakes because even the best are not perfect, and the completely talentless Psucko Sid will be around for them to mindlessly mark out for, well, that is if he actually shows up.

Candy did all her big spots, but kept the pace slow because Fukawa was really hurting. Fukawa couldn't go with the rolling German suplex that was probably supposed to lead to the finish, so Candy settled for a German suplex and Fukawa went back on offense. Candy soon cut her off and did her rolling German suplex followed by her powerbomb for the win. An unfortunate match because we've seen what these two are capable of, and this certainly wasn't it. 17:57. **1/2

Keith: This match was disappointing because of the accident. Right up to the accident, everything seemed pretty crisp, so the potential was there. Afterwards, Fukawa's head swelled up for a few weeks as you can see on later shows where she has "raccoon" eyes. Also, I heard she was prone to receiving black eyes after that incident.

Miko: I expected more from this match. Fukawa mostly worked submissions, while Candy did her more acrobatic spots. I can't remember seeing any woman in Japan try the same spot twice in a row, and miss it badly both times. It looked really painful each time. Candy stood on Fukawa's back while the ref checked her to make sure she wasn't hurt too badly. Probably because of the injury, the match seemed to break down a couple of times with neither being sure of what to do. No better than **

Michiko Omukai (2-5) vs. Rie Tamada (2-5-1). This was a weird match. It had elements of something really good, but it had too many weak looking spots and it didn't follow any kind of pattern. The match was hurt by an overall lack of direction, as well as Tamada switching her point of attack and overly relying on a slow, imprecise, not very coordinated looking, and typically low impact, rolling elbow.

"It's sounds low impact but the sloppiness of the move is what makes this thing hurt. It's

comparable to a weak uraken delivered by Aja in the sense that Tamada's blind attacks

have caused the girls in the backroom to complain on more than one occasion," wrote Keith.

The best analogy I can draw is to compare this to a video game match because they just did things back and forth when they could rather than chain the spots together in any kind of a logical order. Omukai has turned into one of the best sellers of all the women wrestlers. Her shoulder was all taped up, so Tamada should have attacked this from the outset, especially since Omukai was putting it over from the start of the match. Instead, she attacked the knee, and it looked like Omukai was going to do a really good job of selling that. However, as Omukai was selling the knee, Rie switched to attacking the bad shoulder for no apparent reason.

"Tamada's mental aspects have improved in the sense that she focuses on a body part, but

she really has no idea what to do with it outside of attacking it. It makes the structuring of her matches really weak," wrote Keith.

I think even with that, you are giving Tamada too much credit. She is capable of working a body part over, everyone is. I agree that she doesn't understand when and why, but I think she wouldn't bother at all if she wasn't lead if not forced into it. Anyway, You'd think that if Tamada was going over, she would have used a submission to either the knee or the shoulder since she weaked both, but instead she won with her uncoordinated rolling elbow that at least looked decent this time.

"I think they wanted to put over that move as a legit finisher, so they had her continuing

to finish off her opponents with that move. That doesn't mean that's a good thing, as she's definitely no Misawa,"

That may be the case, but why not use rolling elbows to the weakened shoulder. Well, probably because Tamada is lucky if she could consistently hit a target the size of Eagle's gut with it, but nonetheless. Again, attacking one body part is good. However, she attacked two in a short period, and neither of them had anything to do with the outcome of the match even though she won. What the hell was the point of the first seven minutes of this match?

It's a shame that this match wasn't better because there were some really good spots and sequences. I really hope they were just out there reacting because I'd hate to think that this sounded logical in the locker room.

"I didn't mind the beginning that much where both women went for their finishers early (i.e. the tiger and dragon suplex holds). I thought it was an interesting way to start the match. Both sold both moves initially to a small reaction; I thought by kicking out of those holds it told the audience that those moves weren't going to be the finishers," wrote Keith.

A key idea in ARSION at this time was that the old finishers weren't going to work anymore, so you could argue that placing them this early in the match devalued them. On the other hand, sometimes wrestlers will use a big move early just to get it out of the way, figuring they can get the crowd into the match a lot earlier if they show them something they "aren't supposed to see" until later on. In any case, if Rie wasn't goofy and she would have waited until she could properly perform her rolling elbow to start using it, this could have been quite good. 7:56. **1/2

Miko: I'm all ready to like these matches, but I'm not being impressed. They go at it pretty hard, but Omukai's kicks are still hit and miss and so is Rie's rolling elbow. Omukai needs to work on improving the stiffness of her kicks.

Mikiko Futagami (7-3) vs. Mariko Yoshida (3-0).

"Probably one of the most evenly matched contests of the evening. Both women have killer gimmicks, with Yoshida's spider-woman gimmick giving her the 'mystical' look while Futagami's short cropped hair and staunch look has an intimidating feeling to it. Both women are billed as the technician types, with Yoshida being 'ARSION true heart, the martial arts mariposa" while Futagami is known as the 'lethal weapon' or the 'lady of 1000 holds' (yes, that's directly taken from Malenko). Between the two, I would estimate that Yoshida knows more holds while Futagami has integrated a kicker style into her arsenal," wrote Keith.

Yoshida does know more moves because for all these years she adapted her style to fit what was being done in AJW at the time, but also had her little side projects, mat wrestling and Lucha Libre. She was put in the position of having to try to keep up with Manami in those Freedom Force spotfests while Gami struggling with older women in the retirement home known as LLPW that have had little to no interest in doing anything different since they left the original JWP. Also, as the trainer, Yoshida is working more directly with all the various style women. She's been given the push that allows her to define the style of the league, especially since she's become the champion. The problem is that, while Gami, Yagi, Akino, Omukai, Yumi, Aja, and the now departed Reggie could and were willing to do the new style, you have the the rest of the league who is basically disinterested in it.

Their gimmicks forshadowed the style of match they would present. It was a solid, highly technical match. Unfortunately, like pretty much all the matches on this show, it came off flat because there was no crowd heat.

This started out like a very technical RINGS match with both women attempting submissions back and forth, but having them blocked or countered. After working the beginning like a shoot, Futagami dominated the stand up with some nice suplexes. This killed the credibility of the early portion, but they were turning it into a submission style spot wrestling match and they never try to do a whole match that looks like a shoot, so they didn't mind. Thus, I only bring it up to point out how good they could be in a "realistic" situation.

They did some good near finishes.(ars08) The finish saw Futagami do a great abisegiri for a near fall and Yoshida looked glassy eyed, but she came back with a stomach breaker and applied the henkei sleeper hold for the win.(ars08) Yoshida stepped on Futagami's face after the match, so Futagami put her in a heel hold. 10:56. ***

Keith: One thing about the post match that was good is that Futagami used that heel hold to set up

a future match on a later ARSION show. I think she might've got the win on that show with

that hold. I don't mind the pull aparts nor the post match attacks, but they need to do

something about that continuity aspect to build up those feuds.

Miko: The best match of the night. The crowd heat often remained disappointing, but I think they

are still getting used to this style, particularly since there is a lot more matwork than they usually see in women's wrestling. There were several submission grappling exchanges, with both women showing good skills and counters. Futagami also showed some good kicks.

Reggie Bennett (8-0-1) vs. Aja Kong (7-0-1). A really short sprint, most likely to conserve Reggie's energy for the later rounds. Theoretically, it should have helped the heat by showing the finish can happen at any time, similar to Liger putting Ultimo over in about the same amount of time in the first round of the J Crown. Aja once again let the other girls be stars because she doesn't need to beat everyone to remain over. She can lose to Reggie without giving anything away while the other girls are elevated to the point she can put them over. Reggie beating Aja really quickly made her look really impressive, which Aja knew would at least partly rub of on the women who beat Reggie. Reggie won with a reverse full nelson.(ars10) Very good while it lasted, but too short to rate. 2:03.

Keith: This win didn't look too un-credible since Reggie is a big woman. ARSION wants to put on serious appearing matches, so that reverse full nelson hold worked as a finisher. This wasn't like Hamada rolling up Gami for the out-of-nowhere pin in the semifinal or ZION'98.

Semifinals

Candy Okutsu vs. Rie Tamada. This was a regular pro style match. This was very similar to Rie's match with Omukai. It was good in points, particularly at the outset, but it was too sloppy and it was hurt by Rie's goofy strikes that took too long and weren't stiff enough. The highlight was Rie dropkicking Candy in midair then jumping really far on her plancha. Rie's shoulder seemed to go out of place when Candy gave her a drop toe hold, so she rolled to the floor and they popped it back in. Candy attacked Rie's shoulder, and, as you'd imagine, she seemed to be in a lot of pain. Too bad she Rie doesn't sell this well when her injuries aren't legit. After a really weak sequences of strikes, Candy small package Rie for the flash pin. 11:51. **

Keith: The small package flash win wasn't that bad because it showed that wins can come from anywhere and that the types of falls can vary.

Miko: More a normal pro style match with good back and forth action. Tamada seemed to injure her shoulder early on, but the match maintained a good pace.

Mariko Yoshida vs. Reggie Bennett. Surprisingly, this was the best match on the show. It had the most heat, but the heat was still pathetic for a tournament semifinal between a native and a gaijin where the outcome was definitely in doubt.

"In this match, Bennett would have the advantage with her win over Kong, both in terms of

conserving her stamina and gaining incredible momentum in motivation, whereas Yoshida had

a more gruelling match with Futagami. Looking at Yoshida, one would say that her strengths are her incredible wrestling knowledge, her quickness, and her flexibility in comparison. Also, you can never count out any of these girls in lacking strength; most of them have the ability to pick up and suplex 200 lbs. women (trust me; I've seen Fukawa pick up a 5' 9" Japanese tourist and hold him in this giant swing type of position before floating over and putting him in a boston crab, and that wasn't a work!)," wrote Keith.

This is all true, but Yoshida's main advantage was that Reggie didn't play to her own strengths. Instead, she tried to match Yoshida on the ground, which made no sense. I like that she is trying to learn this style, but it's not logical for her to try to beat one of the best technical wrestlers there is at her own game.

"To my mind, Bennett is on the mat doing the ARSION submissions too much. She has a huge power edge and size edge, so going to the mat doesn't play to her strengths. She does get a guillotine choke that looks good because she can lean her weight into it, much as she did with the finishing hold in the Aja match," wrote Miko.

Still, Reggie did a good job on the mat until she got tired and passed up good opportunities to rest. Of course, one reason for this was that Yoshida excelled on the mat, and that translated into her making Reggie look better than she is in this aspect.

The first 6 ½ minutes were basically on the mat, with a lot of submissions used, but nothing locked in that could have been the finish. Reggie took control with a suplex that Yoshida sold really well, acting very dazed. This allowed Reggie to hit her diving body press off the 2nd for a near fall. Reggie tried her global bomb finisher, but Yoshida slipped out and went right into her henkei sleeper (cobra clutch). Yoshida was getting frustrated that Reggie was escaping her submission holds.

Both women used the hiza jujigatame, but it wasn't until Yoshida's turned Reggie's small package into one that it looked like anyone could win with it. Reggie turned Yoshida's lariat into a powerbomb for a near fall then went into a guillotine choke, which finally woke up the fans. Yoshida made it to the ropes, but to make it dramatic, she didn't move once the hold was broke.

"I liked this spot because the audience really woke up once Yoshida got locked in for

a good minute or so," wrote Keith.

It looked like the ref was going to stop the match, but he just let Reggie drag Yoshida up instead, which seemed kind of ridiculous. Apparently Yoshida was playing possum because she almost caught Reggie in a wakigatame, but instead Bennett global bombed her for the win.(ars12)

"Although one may question why Bennett received a huge win over the much more talented Yoshida, I think the positioning of people in this tournament made a strong statement for ARSION in terms of their determination to build stars," wrote Keith.

I think one of the main reasons Yoshida lost was that she had only been back from her broken arm for a little more than two weeks. Reggie was the favorite in this match, and killing the momemtum she gained by beating Aja would have been goofy. You could make the argument that losing to Candy killed this momentum, but that would be missing the point. The point was to transfer that momentum to Candy, who overcame seemingly impossible odds to win this tournament. That's one way you can create a star, and in turn, although Reggie was taken down a bit, she is still set up for return matches with Aja, Yoshida, and now Candy.

Overall, the match was well worked and executed even though it was goofy in points. Yoshida deserves credit for the job she did of carrying Reggie. 12:24. ***1/4

Final

Candy Okutsu vs. Reggie Bennett.

"If the federation was AJW, Neo Ladies', or any other one which utilizes the old style structure, the outcome of this match would be known way in advance. And most likely we wouldn't have these two wrestlers competing for the tournament final if Aja had an ego. Yet, this match demonstrates why ARSION is so good: you can't tell who will win. At first, one may think that this match is a complete mismatch in styles and sizes. Bennett has a history of beating Okutsu in singles for ARSION. Also, Okutsu's wins going into the final weren't as dramatic as Bennett's huge wins over ARSION's top two wrestlers. So, one would automatically favor Bennett in this case. However, what people may not realize is how strong Okutsu is and what a ring technician she can be (not the best but definitely good, although she looks to have slipped recently)," wrote Keith.

Reggie was definitely the favorite, no question about it. I mean, I considered her the favorite over Yoshida at this point based on their positioning and push in AJW. As far as the match went, it was another pro style match. They blew a few spots, but overall it was a good match that told a story. Reggie injuried Candy's bad knee (and, for whatever reason, the good one at points) to make her even more of an underdog. The highlight of this was Reggie rolled through on Candy's plancha, and immediately locking the hiza jujigatame on.(ars13)

Candy came back with two missile kicks and a DDT, doing a really good job in between of hobbling and hopping around to put over the knee. She hit three moonsaults in a row, but it wasn't enough and Reggie came back. Unfortunately, the match kind of fell apart toward the end with a blown powerbomb that was to be a hope spot for Candy. They had to redo it, with Candy turning it into a 2 kaiten ebigatame for a near fall. Reggie caught Candy off the ropes in her Reggie rack, the finish of their 3/2/98 Hakata Star Lanes match. Just when it looked like Candy was done, she turned it into a sleeper for the MEGA UPSET WIN! This spot looked really lame in actuality, but it's almost like I'm so happy for Candy that it didn't even matter.

"Seizing the opportunity, Reggie placed Okutsu in the Reggie Rack. As mentioned before,

Reggie's immense size and power lend a great deal of credibility to her limited arsenal. She doesn't need a flashy arsenal to beat the other girls. Also, the Reggie Rack is considered one of Reggie's "bigger" finishing holds, so it looked as if Okutsu would walk home empty. However, Okutsu escapes the rack and slips on a sleeperhold for which Reggie passes out! With Okutsu receiving the big win, she would go on to challenge the winner of the ZION tournament for the first ARSION singles title," wrote Keith.

I don't think many people would have predicted that at the end of the night, you'd be seeing Candy doing her muscle pose on the stage with the winner's trophy.(ars14) This tournament took the lowest ranked native in the promotion, a women who we all thought was done due to a bad back, and made her a far bigger star than she was at any point in her five year tenure with JWP. What separates ARSION from other companies is not only did Candy have her night, but they followed through and made her a main eventer. 9:35. ***

"One can firmly say that the ARS tournament was Okutsu's night up to this point. However,

there is a double meaning to that statement. Essentially, her three wins over three different opponents with three different finishes comment on Okutsu's ability to work in any style. If for any reason, that statement suggests the qualities that they want in their champion, which is a positive one," wrote Keith.

Among other things, the way Candy won this tournament shows that ARSION doesn't want to be narrowly defined or predictable. In this way, they attempted differentiate themselves as something new and different, but it didn't really take off like they hoped.

"This last match proves a number of ARSION's strengths as a federation. First, by having

a smaller woman beating a larger woman, ARSION, thus, opens the doors for the rest of their wrestlers by de-mystifying the traditional "monster gaijin" ideology that seems prevalent in Japanese wrestling (cf. Nicole Bass' one minute squashing of Asari)," wrote Keith.

This is very true. If this was AJW, Reggie probably would have beaten Candy, Rie, and Yumi at the same time within 5 minutes. A win for a small girl over Reggie on a major show was crucial for showing women like Candy, Rie, and Yumi had a chance, and it opened the door for someone like Yagi to come in since they wouldn't be treated like a "junior."

"Second, Reggie does not "lose" by losing. What she gained in this tournament was two

tremendous wins over ARSION's two top names in Aja and Yoshida. More importantly, I think this idea of not "losing" by losing is a statement that ARSION has been able to make with their wrestlers. If Michiko loses to Aja Kong in 13 minutes, that does not necessarily mean she is incompetent as a wrestler. Instead, it shows that she is an equal to Kong by being allowed to wrestle her. Also, it shows that she is capable of lasting that long in the ring with Kong and gives her enough time to show her offense. With the exception of Kong vs. Reggie, the majority of the wrestlers in this tournament received ample time to develop their matches and show their talents off.

I agree with your point about Michiko lasting 13 minutes, but it should be pointed out that time is relative. If someone lasted 13 minutes in an 80's NWA Heavyweight Title match with Ric Flair, they would basically be seen as a walk over. The same could be said of a Triple Crown match against Misawa. Since ARSION has shorter matches that are often 15 minute time limits, 13 minutes is a long time. As far as ample time to develop their matches, I thought most of these matches were short even by the standards of nights when people are working multiple singles matches. As for the development, even for in the time they were out there, it was often lacking. I often felt like these girls were searching for a style, especially in the earlier matches.

"Also, the tournament had several subtle developments for future matches. For instance, Futagami would later receive revenge against Yoshida with the leglock she used in the post-match segment, but the set up would give fans a reason to see their next match up (although the in between parts might be off). Either way, this show does leave a satisfactory feeling because of the booking," wrote Keith.

The booking was very strong, but the matches were better on paper than they were in actuality. The only matches you could make a case for being as better than it should have been were Reggie's final two, but in the case of the Candy match, it's only because other promotions are rather narrowminded. The show leaves you with conflicting feelings. On one hand, there was nothing spectacular and there are no matches that I'd really care to see another time (but I have seen this show three times so I could write a good review), which isn't something I'd say about most ARSION tapes. On the other hand, the show leaves you with a really positive feeling that there is hope that a women's federation has the potential to take off simply because they know what they are doing. Looking back, this aspect isn't truly the case. It's more of the case when it comes to the biggest shows like the tournaments, but not so much the day to day affairs, although a lot of the problem is a lack of visibility and resources. Still, the importance of a quality product being out there for those who care to take the time to find it and the monetary gamble to sample it cannot be understated.

ARSION STARLET '98 Pro Shot Handheld

5/8/98 Aichi Toyohashi Shi Sogo Taiikukan (850)

THE FIRST STARLET: Rie Tamada vs. Jessie Bennett. Rie isn't on the level where she can carry a green wrestler to close to a good match yet. Rie's performance was good work wise, but now that she's been wrestling 7 years she needs to start wrestling like a veteran as well. I can really see why Jessie decided to lose weight because she was using her size to her disadvantage. Several things they did here worked, but several others didn't.

The mat worked because while they aren't going to put on a clinic like Volk Han, there was nothing wrong with what they did here, and at least the match looked like the style ARSION is shooting for. Rie catching Jessie in submissions when Jessie was very close to the ropes worked because Jessie could just immediately grab the rope, which hid what was a problem on 4/17, that she isn't the greatest at selling while she's trying to make her way to the ropes. Any power move that Jessie did where she didn't have to lift Rie worked really well, as they looked like killer moves.(58ars01) Jessie's short lariat counter for Rie's Irish whip worked really well because Jessie got her weight into a move. She followed through by falling on top of Rie, which made the move look all the move effective.

Some of Jessie's spots really didn't work. She doesn't get off the ground enough to do an impressive wheel kick. At this point, she would have been better off trying a spinning kick where she just put her weight into it instead of jumping. Jessie's fisherman suplex didn't work because her weight prevented her from being able to do the bridge. Her powerbomb, which she tends to have problems with, could have worked, but they aren't used to working with each other and they got crossed up as Jessie wanted to do the move, but Rie wanted to turn it into a huracan rana.

The finish saw Jessie put Rie on the top, but Rie knocked her away and delivered a missile kick. When Jessie kicked out of the missile kick, Rie went into udehishigigyakujujigatame for the win. 8:07. *

THE SECOND STARLET: Faby Apache vs. Lady Metal. These two have shown no desire to conform to anything close to the ARSION style. They only do Lucha, and really bad Lucha at that. Apache is 18 and has some potential if she's decides she wants to learn and hits the gym more often. However, Metal is 26, has been wrestling since 1989, and isn't even a good athlete. This was Tijuana opener level. This is one to watch in the infamous fast fowardvision. Metal with La Mosquina (kind of like an inverted standing figure 4) in 8:26. -**

THE THIRD STARLET: Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida. Yoshida carried this submission oriented match, pretty much dominating Yumi. The match itself wasn't close to as good as what Yumi has done with Candy & Omukai because it had less spots and the matwork was slower. However, it wasn't intended to be. Yoshida is the trainer, and she pretty much forced this match to be a learning experience for Fukawa. She purposely kept the pace slow as a way to get Yumi to explore her matwork. This match was Yoshida trying to turn Yumi into a better and more diverse wrestler.

"Yoshida did carry the match, and it was slow, more to the style that Yoshida is developing. Since this wasn't a big show, I don't think she really cared about putting on a great match. I think Yoshida's purpose in dominating was to make Yumi learn and/or utilize counters in a pressured situation. She spent the match trying to get Yumi to figure out ways to move in and out of her holds. When Jessie told me that she was going to wrestle Yoshida, she mentioned that, 'That means I'll get to try some of my stuff out.' This statement kinda clued me in that perhaps Yoshida allows some sort of experimentation to take place in the ring with her. Since supposedly she knows the most holds as the trainer, I'd imagine that Yoshida would also be the person to develop your style with. The segment from this match that really stood was when Yoshida had Yumi in some kind of ankle lock and Yumi tried to go for the ropes, but Yoshida pulled Yumi back and said, 'No!' then applied a different submission. Thus, Yumi was forced to reverse it. I'm assuming that this was one way Yoshida achieved her goal of getting Yumi to utilize her counterhold knowledge instead of relying on the ropes," wrote Keith.

Like Reggie, Yoshida taunted Fukawa about her diminutive size. When the finally locked up for the test of strength, Yoshida went to her back and lifted Fukawa up with one leg. Yoshida then pushed off with that leg and tried to lock the udehishigigyakujujigatame in while Fukawa was in the air.(58ars10) This was an awesome new spot, and the fact that Yumi made it from the center of the ring to the ropes was fine because Fukawa managed to keep Yoshida from fully extending her arm.

Chris wrote, "I love this spot, but it is only new to puroresu The basis for this is tomoenage, a judo/jujitsu throw. I have seen Gracie Jui Jitsu guys use a similar move to take the opponent into the guard. If you really know your martial arts, this is a nice touch and it really helps Yoshida with the image she has now. If you don't, it still looks darn good!"

Fukawa then tried to take Yoshida down into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, but Yoshida was in perfect condition so she would have none of it. Yoshida seemed to be waiting for Fukawa to do something, but the match was about five minutes old before Yumi really tried. They went back and forth with submissions, with neither being able to lock in a finisher. Yoshida would counter most of Fukawa's offense, forcing Fukawa to counter her back. Yumi wasn't all that successful at this until Yoshida had her in a standing ankle lock and Yumi rolled forward, catching Yoshida in a hiza jujigatame. Yumi seemed to gain some confidence from this even though she was forced to rope escape when Yoshida turned it into the Volk Han cross heel hold.

"I think this is a key point. Yumi really needs to build confidence in her ability on the mat to beat a Yoshida. In the other leagues you had your place depending on your tenure. When Yumi was in AJW, she was only allowed to do certain moves. Jessie explained to me that Yumi showed some fear in AJW, especially when she was in with the veterans. When she wrestled these veterans, Yoshida, Kong, Reggie, and the others, for the most part she only got to do her basic spots like versions of the dropkick before getting squashed in 5 minutes. Since the ARSION environment allows someone with a stature like Yumi to credibly take on anyone in the league, she doesn't have those restrictions and she must do more than get squashed. Thus, sometimes she might feel unsure about what she is supposed to do or awkward applying certain holds to the veterans. You can see that she has some confidence in certain spots, for instance her rolling neckbreaker drop (Buff blockbuster) and her top rope cross arm scissors, but she has to really begin to explore her full ability in ARSION. Constantly grabbing the ropes to escape a submission looks like it might be nothing more than an old habit she developed in the non-submission oriented AJW, but here she needs to develop counters because that is the ARSION way," wrote Keith.

Fukawa tried a flying move, but Yoshida cut her off. However, Fukawa grabbed Yoshida's arm and rolled off the ropes into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, which forced Yoshida to rope escape. Yoshida had her henkei sleeper locked in the center of the ring, and Fukawa was in it too long before making it to the ropes. I think Yoshida may have wanted her to submit here because she was holding Yumi back instead of sliding with her to allow Fukawa to get to the ropes. Fukawa came right back, rolling Yoshida into a hiza jujigatame, but Yoshida twisted out of it and put Fukawa in the henkei sleeper again. Fukawa snuck out of this sleeper, but Yoshida still had her in a bodyscissors so she couldn't go too far. Yoshida then brought one leg up behind Fukawa's head and locked it with her arm so it was a choke. This is another move they call a henkei sleeper, and it was enough to beat Fukawa.(58ars11)

Fukawa was basically outclassed in this match. Neither really gave each other too many openings, but Yoshida is the superior mat wrestler so she created her own openings to counter Fukawa's submissions. I think she might do this to Yumi to show her how a more realistic style can be worked in hopes that Yumi will begin utilizing this technique herself.

"I agree with this statement. Yumi knows several styles, but she still needs to learn when and how to incorporate them into her matches. Yoshida is in a similar situation, but she has the experience to have a better idea of when and how to utilize them. For Yumi to beat Yoshida, she will have to develop more counterholds and learn to adjust her style. She'll have to begin controlling the tempo of the match, rather than depending on a Yoshida or Okutsu to maintain the pace," wrote Keith.

After the match Yoshida let Yumi know just how superior she is, taunting Fukawa by stepping on her face and raising one hand in the air.(518ars19) She also stood right in front of Fukawa with both arms up in the air when Fukawa was finally getting up. Of course, this led to a rather contrived looking, maybe due to the weird expressions Yoshida makes now, brawl.

"That sleeper is one of Yoshida's primary submissions, so I imagine that she wanted to end it there. I think your last paragraph sums up the match. Yoshida had outclassed Yumi, and demonstrated this by getting in her face immediately after the match," wrote Keith.

The problem I see with Yoshida's style is that at this point none of these girls are good enough to do almost all matwork. Her matwork isn't incredibly exciting, and this match had no heat. Perhaps the fans didn't really know what to make of it. There were too many high spots for anyone to consider this a worked shoot, but too few for it to be a regular pro wrestling match. Maybe this doesn't make the most sense in the world, but this is a match where you are awed on occassion, but most of the time just sit there and go okay... 11:11. **3/4

THE FINAL STARLET: Aja Kong & Mikiko Futagami vs. Candy Okutsu & Reggie Bennett.

"This match was interesting because you had Futagami looking to avenge her flash loss to Candy on 4/17, Aja looking to get back at Reggie for the quick loss in the first round of ARS, and Reggie teaming with the woman who beat her in the finals of the ARS tourny three days earlier. Unfortunatley they didn't really play into any of those stories, so while the match was good it wasn't as good as it could've been (and the crowd didn't help either)," wrote Michael Smith.

This wasn't much different from the tag main event on a small AJW or JWP show. It was basically ring work. It was quite good since Aja & Futagami work well with Candy, who carried the load. Reggie looked good when she was in, mainly doing her high spots. The main problem was that, as you'd expect, they kind of took it easy early on because this was a small show.

Candy was coming off winning the ARS tournament, so she was no longer an underdog. She was a whole lot closer to Aja's level than she was before, but Aja still kicked her ass. The gist of the match was that Candy got beat on most of the way, but Aja & Gami couldn't put her away no matter what they threw at her.(58ars27) At one point Futagami caught Candy with a Yakuza kick, which was the move Candy beat her with in their 4/17 singles match, but Candy kicked out even though Futagami made a deep cover. The match got quite good from this point forward, as they turned things up when the match was winding down.

The finish saw Candy land on her feet for Futagami's suplex and apply her sleeper, which is the move she used to beat Reggie in the final of ARS '98 three days earlier, but Futagami quickly escaped and tried a backdrop. Candy once again landed on her feet and locked in the sleeper, but this time Futagami was unable to escape. Thus, the match once again put Candy over huge because the higher rated women pushed her, but she took all they had and came back to beat them. 16:39. ***

Syuu Puroresu Video Vol. 30 Kore Ga Usuwa no ARSION

Commercial Tape 6/21/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1850 sellout)

THE FINAL STARLIGHT TamaFuka Graduation Road The Final: Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu & Michiko Omukai. This was Tamada & Fukawa's last match together as a tag team. The match was more representative of how they wrestled as a team in AJW, as there was very little in the way of submissions. It was an xciting, really fast-paced, spot oriented match. Unfortunately, it was somewhat sloppy, and at times they weren't on the same page. Tamada was surprisingly the best of the four. She pinned Candy with her old AJW finisher, the Dragon suplex. 12:44. ***1/4

Miko: They stepped up the pace here. There was not nearly as much mat wrestling, and what grappling there was mainly focused on getting flash submissions. In any case, the submissions still don't seem overly over with the crowd. They showed Sakie teaching her rolling savate to Omukai earlier in the tape (621ar02), so Omukai was showing off her new kick here. Candy looked good as ever, and Fukawa & Tamada worked well as a team. If I had a complaint about the match, it would be that sometimes the person who was getting the spot done to them looked overly cooperative.

THE THIRD STARLIGHT: Mikiko Futagami vs. Reggie Bennett. This didn't look impressive at all. I guess they needed to show highlights of the match rather than the final 2:30. A draw. 15:00 (2:27 shown).

THE FOURTH STARLIGHT: Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida. This pitted License Number #1 vs. #2, and fighting producer (booker) vs. trainer. It was the most believable match that ARSION has produced so far. More than 90% of the spots would be acceptable in RINGS, with the ones that wouldn't be coming toward the end to make the match "more exciting." This was a really well built match due to Aja, but it showed that Yoshida is as good if not better in the ARSION style than Kong is. Of course, that was Kong's purpose in doing the match this way.

Neither woman could come close to gaining an advantage in the first two minutes, so Aja lied on her back and then on all fours, taking in the bottom position in amatuer wrestling, but Yoshida just stood in the corner refusing to engage. This was interesting because Yoshida is the mat wrestler. What it did was show that Kong is very confident in her mat skills, even against an opponent the calibre of Yoshida. It wasn't that Yoshida was playing chickenshit. The reason she didn't want to engage is that she has too much confidence in her own skills to want Aja to just give her an advantage.

They did a shoot sequence where both controlled each other on the mat, but neither could get a submission. Both women got ankle locks simultaneously, but neither did all that much damage with them. They had quite a good RINGS style match going. It was just about time for all the build to end, and I was expecting the match to really kick in with submissions. Unfortunately, this is where they inserted a little pro style, and kind of ruined the match because they didn't do enough of it to warrant the departure. Aja took the credibility way down by putting Yoshida in a Canadian backbreaker, but Yoshida slipped out and went into a doushime sleeper. Aja made it to the ropes, but Yoshida soon had Aja in several more versions of the sleeper.(621ars03)

They did several more near finishes, including Yoshida getting a near fall after an overhead belly to belly to big Aja, which was sold well. Aja caught Yoshida off the ropes with a Northern Lights bomb type of brainbuster.(621ars09) Both women really wanted the win, so they really cut loose in the final minute. Aja backdropped Yoshida and suichoku rakka shiki brainbustered her for a near fall. When Yoshida kicked out, she hooked Aja in a crooked head scissors. Yoshida dragged Aja up after she made it to the ropes, but Aja whacked her with an uraken. I mean, Yoshida was blown ½ way across the ring. The problem for Aja was that she "hurt her hand" hitting Yoshida so hard and collapsed out of exhaustion. Aja desperately crawled over and covered Yoshida, but her feet were on the ropes. Aja dragged her away from the ropes and really wrenched Yoshida's arm with a wakigatame,(621ars10) but the time limit should have expired 15 seconds ago, so they finally rang the bell.

Some people won't like this match that much because it didn't have many spots until the end, but it's their loss. To me, it's refreshing to see these women do something different. This wasn't as good technically as a very good RINGS bout due to Aja, but Yoshida was so good on the mat that she was on that level. Aja did make the build and psychology a lot better than in the vast majority of RINGS matches. Overall, the match did about as good a job of elevating Yoshida without giving her a submission win over Kong as it possibly could have. 15:00. ***1/2

ARSION COMPLETE ARSION Vol. 1 Commercial Tape

7/21/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1450)

The first part of this tape shows highlights of all the important things that have happened in ARSION so far. What I liked about it is that they showed a lot of handheld footage that wasn't previously available on commercial tape. From here, we saw four of the five matches from the 7/21/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall show.

THE FIRST STARLIGHT: Mika Akino (debut) vs. Mariko Yoshida (11-1-1). Yoshida did a fantastic job of carrying her protégé, the debuting Akino, to a good, highly technical match. Akino looked really good because she was never put in position to make a mistake. Akino wasn't all that competitive, but she hung in there on the mat long enough, and showed some spunk before, of course, doing the job. Yoshida looked great going from hold to hold on the mat. Akino didn't really initiate anything, but who would want her to at this point when she could just follow Yoshida's strong lead?

The strength of the match were the counters, which were pretty choice. A couple of times Akino looked like a rookie, but for the most part she appeared to be a natural. Beyond those few occassions, you really couldn't tell if she had been wrestling for one day or four years. Akino nearly won a few times, most notably with her huracan rana,(721ar01) before Yoshida put her away with a henkei sleeper hold.(721ar03)

With the exception of Jun Akiyama's debut vs. Kenta Kobashi on 9/17/92 at Korakuen Hall, this was the best debut match I can remember seeing in this decade. If Akino wasn't 25 years old already, I'd almost be willing to say she's a lock to be a great wrestler. Even in spite of her age, it's very likely that she could be great because she's the smoothest female wrestler to debut in this decade. This was mainly on the mat, so she didn't show great smoothness here. I'm not sure if she even had it yet, but if not it came really quickly. ARSION gave all the hype to Ayako because of who her father was, but it looks like Akino was better than her from day one. 7:18. **1/2

Miko: Akino showed spirit and some good moves here. She almost beat Yoshida with a backslide and a hurracan rana. She hung in there on the mat, getting a couple of near submissions, but Yoshida is always able to counter her way out and pretty much controls the match. I liked Yoshida's transitions into the submissions.

THE THIRD STARLIGHT: Aja Kong & Mari Apache vs. Candy Okutsu & Reggie Bennett. The match was good when Aja was in with Candy. Mari did some flying, but she wasn't impressive because she really needed to be lead along and her execution wasn't all that good. The most notable spot played off Aja vs. Reggie from 5/5/98, with them teasing that Reggie would once again defeat Aja with her reverse full nelson.(721ar06) The finish saw Aja uraken Candy then Mari made the cover, but Candy bridged out. Aja the gave Candy her suichoku rakka shiki brainbuster and Mari pretty much overshot Candy with her moonsault for the win. The finish gave Mari a big push, which she didn't deserve, but did need to warrant her inclusing in ZION '98. At the same time, it the loss didn't really hurt Candy because it was more that Aja beating her but Mari happened to score the actual pinfall. 16:40 (10:48 shown). **

THE FOURTH STARLIGHT: Mikiko Futagami (12-4-1) vs. Michiko Omukai (3-8). This match was great in points, but weak in others. Overall, it was a very good match. Futagami gave a strong performance. Her selling, particularly her facials, are so much better than they used to be. Up to this point, it had been Omukai selling for the majority of the match when she fought a higher ranked wrestler, but she finally got to be dominant offensively in this match. Omukai pushed Gami for all she was worth, in an attempt to get her first victory over one of the big 3 natives in ARSION. Gami(721ar07) sold as well as Omukai has been so that part of the match was really strong, but Omukai's offense, while improving, still isn't where it needs to be. You can tell that working with Sakie is helping her though, and it's easy to be patient with someone when they are giving you very good matches and showing improvement on each tape.

The match got off to a slow start, showing that neither could gain an advantage standing up or on the mat. Omukai finally pinned Futagami in the corner, and used a series of knees. She followed with a series of Yakuza kicks, several of which were no sold by Futagami because they were building to Omukai putting her down with the Sakie rolling savate. Omukai took it to the mat, but Futagami escaped all of her submissions. She knocked Futagami to the floor with a leg lariat, and followed with a plancha. Once Omukai got the advantage, it pretty much went this way for the first 8:30. She tried every kick, suplex, and submission(721ar10) she could think of, but Futagami withstood them all.
Futagami finally came back, including using Ozaki's Tequila Sunrise into the modified full nelson (721ar11) that she beat Omukai with in their 3/22/98 match. Omukai was in this for a long time, but she eventually got her feet on the ropes.

Omukai countered Futagami's Frankensteiner off the top with a powerbomb off the 2nd, but it was really weak looking because she let Futagami go in midair. Omukai did her old destiny hammer finisher for a near fall then the Sakie uranages and rolling savate for a near fall. They countered each others suplex attempts until Omukai went into the Crippler crossface for a great near submission.(721ar13) Omukai was disgusted when Futagami made it to the ropes, so she Machine windmill suplexed her to the center of the ring then reapplied the Crippler crossface, but once again Gami got to the ropes.

Futagami, whose selling had been so good, made a quick comeback that culminated in a near submission with a hadakajime (rear naked choke). Omukai ducked Futagami's shouda, and punched her in the face pretty hard for a near fall. She tried to end it with her rolling savate, but Futagami ducked it and caught her with a shouda. Futagami proceeded to apply the hadakajime, but Omukai refused to submit so she just lied there in it trapped until she "passed out." Futagami's facials made this move seem deadly,(721ar14) but in reality she wasn't putting any pressure on at all to the point it looked bad when they showed a close up of her arm around Omukai's neck. The idea of the match was to get you to pull for Omukai to win. Even though it's not surprising that she didn't, losing in this manner helped get over how much heart and fighting spirit Omukai has. Although Yoshida may have surpassed her by the end of the year, Gami was the best overall performer in the promotion up to this point, and this match was no exception. However, Omukai's offense was what was going to make or break this match, and in this case it made it. 14:19. ***1/2

Miko: They did the usual Arsion mat work, working toward submissions, though at times it got

a little unfocused. At last, we saw some slaps by the wrestler on top. Omukai's stiffness level seemed to be down some because she was kicking with the sole of her boot more often than not.

THE FINAL STARLIGHT: Yumi Fukawa (0-11-1) vs. Rie Tamada (6-6-2). This match didn't have much direction or focus. It was basically AJW style spot wrestling, except with more submissions. The match was fast-paced and exciting, but somewhat lacking in flow. Fukawa's selling was quite good, but the pace was too fast to put much over. Unfortunately, her flying wasn't all that impressive. Fukawa got the win out of nowhere with an udehishikigyakujujigatame. This was a much needed win for Fukawa because, as you can see, her singles record was disgraceful. Having her get the win over Rie was important because it's the first step in showing they are equals. TamaFuka stood with their backs to each other after the match to symbolize they had gone their separate ways. 11:01. ***

Miko: This was more of a fast-paced, pro style match than we usually see in ARSION. Yumi and Rie really went at it, trading flying moves, strikes and working submissions. Rie used her rolling elbow and went for her Dragon suplex, but Yumi pulled off the win with a jujigatame. I liked how they did the finishing spot, with Yumi taking Rie down into the jujigatame, but it looked like Rie would be able to block it because she managed to lock her hands together. We've seen this used to stop the submission quite a few times, but this time Yumi managed to break the block and force the submission.

ARSION STARTIST '98 Commercial Tape

8/9/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1800 "overcrowded")

THE FIRST STARTIST: Mika Akino (0-5) vs. Yumi Fukawa (3-12-1). Fukawa is not close to Yoshida's level when it comes to carrying wrestlers, so there was no chance of this match duplicating the quality of Akino's debut. Furthermore, Fukawa played the role of the veteran giving the rookie a hard time for one of the first times in her career (first time I ever saw her do this), so she was a little unsure of herself. They did some good moves, but the work wasn't fluid and Akino wasn't smooth yet. This match was fine for what it was though. Akino got to show a little offense, and Fukawa got to pick up a much needed win. The match was incredibly short, but Akino was smart enough to protect herself by selling her shoulder on the way out. Thus, it made sense that she tapped the second Fukawa applied the udehishigigyakujujigatame. 2:35. *

THE SECOND STARTIST: Lady Metal (ARSION Mexico 2-13) vs. Fabi Apache (ARSION Mexico 2-14). A lot better than you would expect. It certainly wasn't good, but it wasn't a negative star nightmare like the last time I saw these two wrestle each other. Overall, the execution was passable even though the moves weren't what you'd call well executed due to Metal.

The main problem with this match is Lady Metal was still Lady Metal. She is just way too slow and unathletic to try to do straight Lucha match without playing heel. Her bumps in this match looked typically pathetic. Metal is not over in the least, in fact she didn't even get one streamer thrown for her. Fabi was not as bad here though. She actually showed some potential. One thing that helped was that she didn't do her pace killing clap even once. She also tried fewer high spots, which was fine by me because she the vast majority of what she tried. Metal still beat her though with her la mosquita.(8998ar01) 5:56. *1/4

THE THIRD STARTIST: Reggie Bennett (ARSION USA 15-1-2) vs. Mari Apache (ARSION Mexico 5-5-2). The idea of this match was to help get Mari over, but the fans didn't seem to buy it. Maybe they were watching intently, but when neither wrestler gets a streamer and they get no reaction in 15 minutes, disinterest seems to be a more likely explanation.

Reggie did an admirable job of carrying the match, but Mari is so inexperienced and they had barely worked together before, so you couldn't expect too much. I mean, It's pretty obvious that Reggie only looks impressive when she's in with a crafty veteran that can figure out how to carry her, while at this point it isn't clear if Mari is good enough that any of these veterans can carry her to a good match.

These two didn't have good chemistry and the match seemed kind of disjointed. Still, the execution was fine for the most part. They did the spots you'd expect, highlighted by Mari doing a no touch tope con hilo.(8998ar02) I was surprised that Reggie pushed the mat as much as she did. If only Rie would do the same instead of being a displaced AJW wrestler. The problem with the match was that they weren't able to make the moves have any meaning. It wasn't a bad match, but it was quite mediocre.

The basis was that Reggie took it to Mari, but Mari wouldn't give up, and she made a lot of comebacks. Mari's offense didn't seem all that credible against Reggie because it was pretty obvious that Reggie was letting her do most of the moves. In their defense, I realize sometimes it was supposed to be obvious. They went the full time, which was a big deal for Mari because Reggie's record is so exceptional. The result helped justify Mari's inclusion in ZION '98, but it wasn't enough to make anything think she had a chance of going anywhere in that tournament. 15:00. *1/2

THE FOURTH STARTIST: Rie Tamada (6-7-3) vs. Michiko Omukai (3-9). Omukai was impressive here, carrying and really saving the match. On the other hand, Rie was more unimpressive than she usually is, adding nothing to the match. She did some submissions, but was typically disinterested in matwork. My problem with her though was that she seemed to just want to do as little as possible. I mean, she did the spots, but they didn't look credible because she took all kinds of shortcuts when it came to setting them up and putting them over. She almost reminded me of a little kid who wants to wrestle you so they can do some moves they think are cool, but quits after a minute or two because you aren't just laying down for them and letting them do anything they want to you. Then the kid whines in hopes of convincing you to just let them do the moves to you so they can "show them to you." In this match, Rie just didn't make the sequences look believable. She didn't want to fight to get anything off, she just wanted Omukai to let her do things with no resistance. They seemed to lack communication so Rie decided well, if I whip Michiko into the ropes and don't make it look like I'm going to do a manuever, then she'll know she should make a comeback here. The result of this was that Omukai had to work a faster pace than the normally would to make up for the fact that Rie wasn't doing any acting. Overall, the match was pretty confused because the moves weren't logically ordered or chained together all that well.

They attacked each other's bad shoulders, which was good. Rie's shoulder went out once again early in the match, which obviously wasn't good and certainly didn't help things. Still, Omukai made you think her shoulder was in a lot worse shape than Rie's was.(8998ar09) Even though there was some focus on the shoulders, the match was very work oriented because that is the only way Rie wrestles. Omukai got more offense in than Rie and her kicks are much improved, so that helped the match a lot. I can tell I'm making the match sound worse than it really was, but there isn't really anything positive to say beyond what you could always say about the wrestling of these two.

I think Omukai needed to win this match because her record is just disgraceful and she should be rewarded for improving, especially when she's wrestling someone who hasn't made any real effort to change her style. Instead, they also went the distance. I'm always surprised to see two draws in a row if I'm watching any league but Pancrase. 15:00. **1/4

THE FIFTH STARTIST: Ayako Hamada (debut)(8998ar10) vs. Candy Okutsu (10-3-2). The fans showed up to see Hamada's debut, so all the hype worked. Both women were showered with streamers. The match itself was pretty much all you could ask for from these two. It was very rehersed, but I think that was a good thing. Obviously, things look better if they seem natural (ok, maybe that isn't so obvious because how could liking Sable and Anna Nicole Smith be justified if this was the case), but Hamada was already asked to do way more than any normal wrestler does in their debut match. We cannot expect the world of even the Super Rookie, so the rehersed aspect may have made some spots look contrived, but it also took some of the pressure off her. It allowed her to just try to remember the ordering and hit her spots, which is a lot easier than making a lot of split second decisions on what to do and how to react.

Hamada looked really good for a debuting wrestler. What separated her from the rest is that she didn't do one rookie spot. Instead, they did a match that was more complicated than a lot of the second and third year wrestlers do. By no means is she even close to as good as she's pushed as being, but there's no reason to think she won't become that good with more experience.

This was a fast-paced match that incorporated a lot of Lucha and flying because the purpose of the match was to showcase Hamada, and obviously at this stage, that can only be done by working to her strengths. Hamada didn't go crazy with the moonsaults like she did in later matches, so her offense wasn't quite as glamourous as it would soon become. Some of the spots looked so bad because Hamada was freezing when something didn't go as planned. Aside from that, it was a good match. The only thing I didn't like about the match is that the finish was pretty weak. I mean, if you are going to practice a match, don't practice a match where the match suddenly ends when a huracan rana is turned into a powerbomb.(8998ar15) Considering they were going to go so far with Hamada three weeks later, they may as well have had her go down a little harder. 7:22. **1/4

THE FINAL ARSION: Mikiko Futagami (13-4-2) vs. Mariko Yoshida (15-1-2). This match really didn't deliver the goods like it should have. These are the two best at the style that we should be calling the ARSION style, so this should have been an excellent match. Instead, it was at the same disappointing level as their ARS match even though it was the main event and neither woman had worked/had to work another match on the show.

Not surprisingly, the match was very technically sound. It was similar to the old UWF style, mainly submissions back and forth with some fairly credible high spots thrown in. Both women used a few creative submissions, so it wasn't like it was just the standard fair. Still, the fans didn't react to it even though the result was definitely in doubt. The problem for me is that while I saw the catches, they didn't convince me that any of them were going to be the finish. I was pretty shocked that the match ended so soon, and maybe the dead crowd was too. Futagami scored a major win with an innovative submission called a Futagami shiki neck and leg lock,(8998ar18) beating Yoshida in singles for the first time. This result seemed to prove Gami was a member of the ARSION elite, reinforcing her gaudy singles record. 7:56. ***

ARSION HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT ZION'98

Commercial Tape 8/31/98 Osaka Namihaya Dome (2100)

This show was a huge step up from ARS, with every tournament match that didn't involve Ayako Hamada being good to very good. Even though Hamada killed three matches, this show made her a star because she scored a major upset over Futagami to get to the finals and then held her own with Yoshida.

"I agree that this show was an improvement in the tournament style that they started at ARS. I attribute most of that to how many of the girls improving throughout the year," wrote Keith.

The show also helped Candy Okutsu become more of a star, as she became the first female Tiger Mask, making her debut as Tiger Dream. This didn't work quite as well as planned because she had some trouble doing the Tiger Mask spots, but her match against Hiromi Yagi was still the best on the show.

Yoshida came out of the show as almost the unbeatable force of ARSION, increasing her singles record to 21 wins against only 1 loss. This push is so much better than any she ever got in AJW that I can't even begin to describe it, and winning ZION'98 was just the beginning of it.(zion9817) Yoshida also erased any doubt that she was worthy of this push because she was the best performer on this show. Her performance here went a long way toward establishing herself as one of the top 5 female workers in the sport today.

Unfortunately, ARSION still isn't catching on at all. Even though this show was held at a dome, that is decieving because this isn't some 50,000 seat baseball stadium. In fact, All Japan announced a sellout of 2,050 when they ran this building during the Real World Tag Team League tour on 11/17/98. I don't know what the AJ attendance looked like, but I could see that for this show the upper level was practically vacant. While this show was not a total failure at the gate, it was yet another attempt to draw a good sized crowd outside of Tokyo that didn't exactly pan out.

"This is true. There are many problems with women's wrestling in Japan right now, but two of the ones I can cite are 1) too many promotions without enough stars; and 2) too many promotions that lack star power that also do not differentiate themselves from each other. With ARSION's initiation in

the women's leagues, they drew some great response because the style was fresh and the idea behind the federation was fresh. The problem is that ARSION didn't follow up by enforcing their original image of the submission specialist federation. You had only two wrestlers that decided to uphold this image in Yoshida and Futagami while the other wrestlers, although beknighted by titles such as Okutsu's "Ms Perfect," did little to reinforce the idea behind their identities. In turn, the fad that was ARSION initially has begun to die out, especially when other leagues like GAEA have begun recruiting women with star power from other leagues and involving them in a big, interpromotional angle," wrote Keith.

I tend to disagree with narrowing it down to only two wrestlers that upheld the image. I think Fukawa is credible as either Dynamite Mini, representing her more fiery attitude and her improved fast-paced ring work, and Princess of Submission, representing her major improvement in arsenal, transitions into, and application of submissions. Omukai sure as hell looks like a "Beauty Venis" to me, and she's stuck with her kicking style through thick and thin to the point that she is proficient enough in it that predominantly kicking is helping her matches. Reggie's nickname was never well worded and never had anything to do with the submission style, but she has stuck with the submission style and is now worlds better at it than the gaijins of similar size (speaking comparitively to their sex) that worked in the men's shoot leagues, Vader and Gary Albright, ever became. I see Fukawa, Omukai, & Reggie as all being new improved wrestlers due to sticking with, and greatly improving upon, the shoot oriented changes they initially displayed on the debut show. I have no problem calling these three, along with Gami & Yoshida, "Hyper Visual Fighters."

I think the problem with the nicknames is that half of them sound like Reggie came up with them at four in the morning after five glasses of "beeru" too many. I mean, Rie Tamada as "The Fastest in the World?" Must be one hell of a small world. I'm sure Chikayo would smoke her in a race, much less all the actual track stars. You mentioned Candy as "Ms. Perfect," but that nickname just further proves my point that a lot of these were names that no one could possibly live up to. Having a concept is the first step, but having a concept that actually fits the performer is the step you need to take. If they could not come up with a nickname for every woman initially, they should have focused on the nicknames like Futagami's "Lady Of 1000 Holds," which isn't too outlandish considering her technical excellence. Also, "ARSION True Heart" makes sense for Yoshida because she is the trainer and essentially the heart of the submission style and all that is good about ARSION wrestling. Another thing about the nicknames is that it made no sense to try to get over two nicknames for the same person at the same time. You can only be so many things at once, and one concept or identity is more than enough anyway. Save the double dealing for wrestlers who are already incredibly over like Lazy Muta.

"One big problem with the nicknames is that they're in English. Most of the audience

won't be able to relate to them in this manner because they simply don't know what they

mean. Another problem is that some of them don't make sense or were directly copied from

popular American stars that Reggie probably thought would go over well with the audience

in Japan. I mean, calling Jessie Bennett 'the Loose Cannon' was a bit of a stretch," wrote Keith.

I think that a major problem with some of these nicknames is that noone stopped to think if these guys had any name value in Japan. For instance, when Brian Pillman last appeared in Japan, he was still Flyin' Brian. How many people in Japan saw him call Sullivan "booker man." Obviously some of the fans saw this and more heard about it, but it wasn't the buzz of the industry over there like it was here. Plus, it's been three years since that happened so people have had a lot of time to forget about it, especially since he's unfortunately out of sight. Dean Malenko has some name value in Japan, but he really hasn't been over there since he became the "Man of 1000 Holds." I'd expect more Japanese fans would understand who Ms. Perfect was lifted from, but still it's like WCW, in that the casual fan is not going to be able to put two and two together to figure out what they are referring to. "Even if an American viewer would readily acknowledge Omukai as 'the beauty Venus,' you'd have to wonder what being a 'Venus' has to do with one's wrestling talents. Her book title of "Artemis" makes more sense because the the warrior woman goddess applies to Omukai's fighting ability. Still, I seriously doubt that many people in Japan would get the significance of the name "Venus" nor "Artemis," unless they're forced to study Greek mythology in school. The real problem with these "concept" names I've been told is that ARSION didn't try to relate the wrestlers' nicknames to their gimmick somehow, or rather they didn't explicitly state why some of these women are called what they are, and what the audience should be looking for. For instance, calling Candy "Ms. Perfect." She might have problems, but you can say, for instance, that she has good all-around ability that makes her great. Now, the problem, of course, is that ARSION doesn't have any normal television and relies on video sales, DirecTV, magazines, and their shows so it might be harder to get to a broader audience who these women are. But you can, for instance, have the announcer talk about what to look for in a wrestler in each show. The main thing would be to remind the audience who the wrestlers are so that they get it drilled what each person represents. I was told that this was something lacking," wrote Keith.

THE UNDERCARD TOURNAMENT: Lady Metal (ARSION Mexico 3-15) vs. Fabi Apache (ARSION Mexico 3-17). The Apache's father, Mexican wrestler Gran Apache, was the ref for this match. He did a backflip off the top rope before the match,(zion01) which unfortunately turned out to be the highlight of this crummy match.

Fabi was a lot better here, as she wasn't blowing any of her spots and she wasn't clapping in between every offensive manuever. She also lost the high cut outfit, which normally wouldn't be an improvement, but it was because she's not exactly trim and toned. This was completely Lucha style, but the pacing was uneven and it lacked the flow and grace normally associated with Lucha. The match was too short to amount to anything, but if the point is to work from the ground up then this was a good start because they stayed within themselves and didn't blow anything. Of course, their spots still didn't look very impressive. Fabi won with tornado Apache, which starts like a Russian leg sweep, but instead she drops forward into a crucifix on the mat.(zion04) 2:54. 1/2*

Keith: One of the problems about the Luchadores is that they're often fighting each other or getting squashed, so they get no heat. The other problem is that they have refused to change styles because of heritage in Lucha. Aside from Mari, the other Luchadores receive no push. The match itself wasn't as horrible as the triangle match at ARS or some of their previous encounters in '98. I do think Fabi improved in that she wasn't blowing spots, but Lady Metal really doesn't have any good spots.

For instance, her reverse body attack that she uses when she comes off the ropes looks absolutely useless. This match was, for all intents and purposes, filler.

THE UNDERCARD TOURNAMENT: Mika Akino (0-9) vs. Aja Kong (11-1-2). I love Aja's booking because she pushes the young talent more than any promotion does. That said, this is one match that I have to take issue with. I just don't see the point of having it on this show. Aja means nothing at the gate if she's on the second match of the card against a rookie who hasn't won a match yet. Akino isn't really going to open anyone's eyes if she's pinned after only two moves.

"I agree that Aja's positioning of herself on this card was ridiculous. Sure, Akino had little credibility coming in, but that shouldn't have stopped her from having a meaningful match with Aja, even if it was only an undercard match. One of the problems that I've been noticing about Aja's handling of herself in ARSION is that she's basically made this her side project now that she's involved in "more meaningful" things with GAEA's SSU. I think that positioning has hurt ARSION because people realize that she's effectively taken herself out of the mix and her "star status" is rendered ineffective by that move. Compare what happened on this match to the previous ones where Aja was involved in making the matches more meaningful like Omukai and Fukawa's challenges to her. As far as I know, there was no build to this match and therefore no one gave an ounce of a chance to Akino.

"I agree that Aja doesn't mean anything at the gate when she is in a match like this in this spot on the card. That's exactly the point though, she isn't pushing herself. She is pushing ARSION and her girls, so she puts herself in a position where she is basically unimportant. For better or worse, Aja

is letting her girls carry the load themselves, not relying on her name to inflate the gate. This is a long term thing. She is trying to make sure that ARSION will be around even when Aja is not," wrote Chris.

I realize this, but you have to pick your spots. If the building was even close to full, then your opinion would be justified, but once again it was a miserable major show attendance. The main draw was going to be the tournament either way, but Aja in a special match against a credible outsider in between one of the rounds in the tournament would have helped this gate out a good deal. Aja is working in a lot in GAEA, and she did the match with Kyoko less than two months later, so it's not like there's nobody that owes her a favor.

This was quite good while it lasted, but be sure to not comtemplate that this match should be called THE TOURNAMENT UNDERCARD rather than THE UNDERCARD TOURNAMENT because you'll miss the match if you do. Akino got off to a fast start with a dropkick and a great huracan rana.(zion07) At her size, it's almost amazing that Aja can take a good bump on a huracan rana. Anyway, Akino hit a missile kick, but Aja caught her in a wheelbarrel suplex then lariated her out of her boots for the win. Every spot looked excellent, but that was the whole match. 0:54.

"Akino is one of the better rookies in '98, but you couldn't tell in this match, even (or especially) against Aja. Like the previous ARS tournament, Aja decided to take the night off. The time for this match was about the same, but Aja wasn't putting anyone over here," wrote Keith.

"I am still amazed at Aja's smarts in all aspects of wrestling. She has a great ability to get someone over without putting them over. Sure this thing was only 54 seconds, but she let Akino go to town and even score near falls before clobbering her. She showed that even the ARSION juniors can be a threat. They come to fight, not throw drop kicks and bodyslams for 15 minutes like the other promotions jumiors. All women in ARSION are a threat. Aja managed to help Akino get over some and help her company step away from the competition, while still maintaining her monster image. She did all in a 54 second match," wrote Chris.

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT ZION '98 1st Round

Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache. One thing that really hurt this match was the ropes were too loose. It hurt other matches as well, but these two relied almost solely on acrobatics, so obviously they were more adversely effected.

"You would think that loose ropes would be a MAJOR concern after that terrible accident with Yumi at ARS, but that does not appear to be the case," wrote Chris."

That said, matches like these are the reason the Matsunagas only allow their rookies do very simple moves and maybe a couple of more difficult ones. This was like any number of US indy match where the inexperienced wrestlers use some of the best moves in the business to make it entertaining, but the match still stinks because the lack the fundamentals and they screw up more than their share of the spots. These two were kind of brash young punks there. Whether they knew it or not, they were in over their heads because they just don't have the experience to pull this match off. It's not all their fault because having Ayako work twice as long with Mari as she did with Gami is beyond dumb. I realize the point was to showcase the young talent, but they were under way too much pressure here. You have to stay within yourself to succeed in this business, or most others for that matter. Instead, these two tried a match that would be very good if everything worked even though that was a long shot because they are still learning.

"The part about the incredible pressure being there is true. Even though I enjoy how ARSION pushes a lot of their girls compared with some other leagues (e.g. LLPW), I feel that they are over pushing them to the point where they're expected to do more than they can. Ayako's one night

performance was no exception," wrote Keith.

The beginning of the match was very rehearsed. It went well until Mari came up short on her no touch tope con hilo 45 seconds in. This was the weirdest dive because it had no trajectory at all. I mean, Mari cleared the top rope, but was lucky she didn't break her neck on the ring apron.(zion11)

"The problem you can see is that Mari was expected to do way too many things at once. First, she sent Ayako to the outside where Ayako didn't have much experience in selling damage to make an outside high spot look good. Second, Mari took a brief second to signal to the crowd that she was going to hit a high spot. Lastly, Mari did the dive but Ayako wasn't anywhere near the landing spot. It was like she was diving into a pool without water, and Ayako wasn't there to catch her. What was weirder was that Ayako actually sold the blow on the floor while Mari got up okay. The whole scene

was very odd because the camera angle didn't do a good job illustrating this spot (or rather it did a better job hiding the mistake)," wrote Keith.

Mari had all kinds of problems with her execution. She was finally able to get Ayako up in a reverse Gori special when Ayaka helped her out with a big jump. Ayako soon countered this with a victory roll, which was a cool spot.(zion12) Hamada did a quebrada,(zion13) but her ankle hit the security rail.

"This was another weird spot. It looked like that Ultimo Dragon spot where he does a feint as he prepares to hit some outside highspot, but instead does a reverse kick to set up hitting his quebrada. The problem is that Ayako looked like she was going for a tope con hilo of her own, jumped over the ropes, turned, and hit her quebrada while Mari had to wait and see what Hamada was going to do so she could prevent Ayako from killing herself crashing into the floor. That's an experience problem because Ayako seemed like she wanted to maintain the high momentum, but wasn't thinking about how this spot should look. The difference in execution is that Dragon knows that he has to create the link so the spot comes off more "naturally." The little kick he executes works very well, especially when it comes to credibly allowing his opponent to stand in the right spot to catch him, even though it's subtle. Also, it helps him slow the momentum down just enough so he can hit his quebrada perfectly," wrote Keith.

Ayako tried to follow the quebrada with a plancha, but Mari cut her off with a great nadare shiki no brainbuster where she didn't release Hamada until after both of them bounced up from the mat. Hamada tried to revenge Mari's nadare shiki no Frankensteiner, but Mari didn't catch her right on the counter. This meant Hamada had to grab the ropes while she was upside down(zion14) and do a sit up, so Mari could powerbomb her off the 2nd. Mari came up short on her moonsault. She tried a back body drop type move off the top, but Hamada turned it into a great sunset flip powerbomb for a near fall.(zion15) The finish saw Hamada do a swinging DDT, which both sold, for a near fall. She followed with her La Ayakita for the submission.(zion16) Both women have a lot of potential if they can learn the fundamentals.

"I agree about the potential these two have. Their spots were entertaining, demonstrating the tremendous potential both women have if they can get the knots out of their weaknesses. I liked the work involved in this match, but the selling was non-existent. I think if they focused more on that aspect and built into their big spots, the match wouldn't have had as many flaws. The fast pace hurt both wrestlers because in trying to maintain it for the duration of the match, they didn't building to their moves. If they can work on those aspects, I think they both will have great potential in the future," wrote Keith.

I agree with what you say, but to me that was the problem with this matchup. In a year or two, this same matchup might deliver good or better matches, but right now there was really no chance for that. Going on first, they were expected to set the tone for this tournament and uphold the quality of the previous tournament (which actually wasn't that high of a standard), but they are too inexperienced to do this on their own or together.

"After saying what I said about the Akino match, this does make a good counterpoint. If Hamada had been in with a veteran native it would have made a better match since Apache sure as hell couldn't help carry Hamada. On the other hand, having Hamada beat two veterans in one night would be a little too much to swallow. It's a double edged sword. She could credibly beat Apache in a poor match or she could beat one more veteran in a sightly better match that would make things even more far fetched," wrote Chris.

I am of the opinion that Futagami should have beat Ayako in the second round because she just wasn't ready to work three matches in one night, especially under this kind of pressure. If they really wanted to push Ayako, they needed her to have good matches. I mean, if Ayako's matches on this show were good, we wouldn't even be having this discussion because even though she was carried, her push could be somewhat justified. This was a case where one or two quality workers needed to be sacrificed. Whether Ayako won or lost in the second round, she clearly needed to beat a better worker in the first round. Tamada & Fukawa were losing anyway, so you could have switched Mari with one of them, although how much Tamada could have helped Ayako is really questionable. The problem is Omukai beating Mari is even less of a big deal than Omukai beating Fukawa, and Gami vs. Mari is such an obvious result. Still, at least Fukawa may have been able to have a decent match with Ayako. Futagami's match with Ayako might also have been decent if they gave it any time. The other option was to have Mari vs. Ayako be half the length and less complex, so they might have had a chance to pull it off.

Rie Tamada (6-8-4) vs. Mikiko Futagami (15-4-2). A pretty solid match with a good story. Futagami looked really good here, as always, but Tamada didn't seem to be all there. It was like her heart and her mind weren't fully into this match, which is surprising. Overall, she just wasn't convincing. Maybe it's just that she was all banged up? She does deserve credit for launching a focused attack though.

"Indeed, Tamada knows how to launch a focused attack (in this case the knee), but she doesn't know how to build into the attack. She relies far too much on her AJW style, multi dropkick offense as her 'build.' It normally doesn't come off convincing, and it didn't today due to the pace that Gami tried to establish. Tamada is like Yoshiko Tamura, relying on her spots without figuring out ways to build into her big ones. It's probably comfortable for Tamada because that's what she's experienced in, but it just doesn't work given the type of environment that ARSION is (was) trying to develop. In turn, Gami did an excellent job of selling Tamada's legwork, but she seemed to have trouble helping Tamada develop a good pace to match her selling," wrote Keith.

Tamada worked over Futagami's knee, with Gami doing a typically good job of putting this over.(zion20)

"Tamada focusing on the leg was great! A big improvement over her work at ARS. I

thought she looked good as far as the story of the match went, and that was totally because of Gami," wrote Chris.

Futagami finally came back with her abisegeri, but she couldn't stand, so Tamada regained control and continued working the knee. On two separate occassions, Tamada put her foot on the back of Futagami's knee and tried to ram it into the mat. The problem was, she released it before Futagami's knee hit the mat, so it looked awful.

Futagami surprisingly had some lapses in her knee selling while on offense. Still, Rie's knee attack being constant went a long way to making this a good match. The execution being strong also helped, as the lowlight would be Rie hitting a spot, but not hitting the knee like she was intending to.

The lack of heat seemed to hurt this match more than others. What also stygmified the

match is that Tamada is weak in the mental aspects. Her lack of putting over damage done to her shoulder rendered the offense Futagami aimed at the shoulder, which really wasn't incredible much given the result they were shooting for, useless.

"I loved how Gami tried to work the whole match without taking the obvious easy way out and attacking Tamada's injured shoulder. It wasn't until she realized that Tamada just wouldn't quit that she attacked the injured shoulder and got the win. This helped Tamada look good because Gami just could not beat her through normal means," wrote Chris.

Thus, when Futagami applied the finishing hold, I felt that this would not end the match because nothing Tamada was doing made me think that any serious damage had been done to her pertetually bad shoulder. As a result, the wakigatame seem to come out of no where. They tried to have the underdog receive so much offense to look good before she lost, but her inability to make Futagami's offense look good by selling it and build towards that ending presented a problem. It is truly pitiful that Akino knew enough to put her shoulder out on the way

out less than three weeks into her career, but Rie has been wrestling for seven years and

still doesn't have a clue. 13:46. ***

"Gami had performed some work over Tamada's shoulder (considering she had that shoulder

injury in the first place) with a variety of arm/shoulder submissions. The problem is that Tamada's selling of her shoulder (except for a few probable lapses in actual damage her shoulder has) was non-existent, and it especially hurt the logic of the match when she would go for key moves that involved her shoulder like her rolling elbow. The result is that you tend to forget that Gami put any offense against Tamada's shoulder/arm at all. Most likely that hurt the heat level for the match as well. Gami did a good job of trying to put over Tamada's legwork, but Tamada worked too much on the mat with her AJW spot-style thinking, so it doesn't come off as well as it should," wrote Keith.

Michiko Omukai (4-10-1) vs. Yumi Fukawa (5-13-1). These two were all banged up. Fukawa had a black eye, and a nasty bruise around her shoulder, while Omukai was all taped up again. The worst thing about these two teaming up is that they have such a good little singles rivalry. This was not as choice as their 4/11/98 match because it was shorter, but it was still very good match.

"I agree here, although both women have come a long way since their superior 4/11/98 match. Omukai's kicks are now done with more confidence and she isn't missing as often. She lacks weight behind her kicks, but she has the range to make her kicks against a smaller opponent like Fukawa look pretty impressive. Their singles matches have been excellent, but it's like Benoit and Malenko teaming up in WCW; you know you're going to get better matches with them in singles against each other because they respect each other so highly. In Fukawa and Omukai's case, it's a similar situation and the ironic thing is that both are great friends," wrote Keith.

I agree with your comparison to Benoit and Malenko, except Omukai & Fukawa are going to try hard one way or the other. Malenko has just totally given up. He just lifelessly walks through all his matches these days. It would probably take Benoit opposing him in singles to get him to fire up.

Omukai slapped Fukawa before the bell, so Fukawa, looking very intense and a little bitchy, slapped her back before they grudgingly shook hands.

"Within the past year, Fukawa has developed a bit of an attitude that subtly emerges in ARSION. This was one instance of it and I can safely attribute 'Fukawa's coming out of her shell' to Jessie's influence," wrote Keith.

This match was really strong technically, with both women focusing on their matwork. Omukai did the most incredible swandive missile kick,(831ar01) just blowing Fukawa's chin away. Fukawa did a sankakujime, but Omukai countered it with a jackknife hold for a near fall.

"I thought this match was excellent technically, but aside from the one instance of Omukai's 'collapsing,' there wasn't much selling of the previous damage. Omukai had great expressions as usual, and Fukawa was intense in her explosive delivery of her submission style. To me the

difference between this match and the previous match with Tamada in it is that both Fukawa and Omukai were going for openings in developing their submission work, so the selling didn't seem as necessary except at that one part of the match. On the other hand, Tamada working over the leg just

seemed like pro-style body work, but still didn't come as nearly as good as say Kobashi assaulting Misawa's neck," wrote Keith.

Omukai's strikes were much better in this match, as her execution was pretty much perfect. However, the highlight of them was Fukawa jumping up and catching Omukai's leg in midair to turn the rolling savate into a hiza jujigatame.(zion9801) This was just a great spot that I've never seen before. Fukawa damaged Omukai's leg to the point she "collapsed" when Fukawa whipped her into the ropes. However, when Fukawa ran off the ropes, Omukai got up and gave her two rolling savates for the win. The finish didn't really work because it came right after they pushed Omukai's knee injury the hardest. If Omukai would have used a different hold to win, I wouldn't have had a problem with the finish, but here she used the nearly useless leg to deliver the finishing blow. 9:50. ***1/2

"I completely agree. The two rolling savates that ended the match seemed to come out of 'nowhere.' Even though Omukai's primary weapon is the rolling savate, the fact that she 'collapsed' from Fukawa's previous attack should logically mean that her leg wasn't strong enough to deliver the finish. I think the finish would have worked if they extended the match about 4-5 more minutes so Omukai could 'work off the damage.' They could have build toward Michiko injuring Fukawa enough that her 'previously injured' leg could execute the rolling savate kick," wrote Keith.

The main problem is that doing one night tournaments just doesn't bode well for match quality, especially when we are talking about the tough styles you see in Japan. Every match is short because they don't want the wrestlers to run out of gas, but everyone is so concerned with making a good showing that they lose track of what makes for exceptional wrestling and start rolling spots out to impress the audience. I imagine that the finish would have been a lot better if this was the only match they had to work. It was like Omukai had too many things on her mind to realize whe she did at the end didn't make any sense.

Reggie Bennett (17-1-3) vs. Mariko Yoshida (18-1-3). This was a big match, as the one loss each that both of these women had came in the ARS tournament. Yoshida's loss was to Reggie, so she was looking to even the score here. It was a really good match, the best in the tournament, due to Yoshida. Reggie deserves a lot of credit for improving her matwork a great deal. I mean, the matwork in their 5/5 match can't hold a candle to this technically, and thus wasn't as interesting to watch. This was actually technically better than a lot of RINGS matches, which really says something, but they mixed in a lot of pro style spots so it wasn't meant to be believable.

"I've been incredibly impressed by the way Reggie has adapted so well to the ARSION style, given her age and weight (and now that she had lost 75 pounds, you really have to admire that she's put a great deal of effort into ARSION). I was really surprised by her mat work. It was very slick at times. In particular, Reggie did a leg sweep and a roll over, which was incredible for a woman her size. Her interview prior to the match where she mentions how she and Yoshida train together probably reveals why Reggie has done so well in that regard," wrote Keith.

The match built well. The first 5:30 was mat wrestling, with both women being even. Considering Reggie was involved, it was almost amazing how well they chained the submissions together. Reggie tried her global bomb, but Yoshida avoided it. Reggie went back to the mat then tried another global bomb, but Yoshida turned it into a version of the sleeper.(zion9805) Reggie had Yoshida in the Reggie rack, but Yoshida used a counter with more holes than swiss cheese to turn it into a sleeper. However, Reggie turned this into a powerbomb for a near fall.

Reggie took over, which lead to her KO'ing Yoshida with her global bomb. Instead of going for the pin, Reggie wasted time climbing to the top rope, which allowed Yoshida to avoid her diving body press. They exchanged submissions until Yoshida won with a version of the jujigatame. 10:49. ***1/2

"The finishing sequence should've had a little more heat to it. Reggie had locked on her 'big moves' like the global bomb, Reggie Rack, and even her reverse full nelson that she beat Aja with. The problem was that the crowd, for whatever reason, 'didn't remember' those finishers, so it wasn't as hot as it should've been," wrote Keith.

ZION '98 2nd Round

Ayako Hamada vs. Mikiko Futagami. This was pretty disappointing. It was too short for a Futagami match, especially since she was losing.

"It was disappointing for a Futagami match, but necessary for Hamada because she was going towards the end of the tournament, so she needed to reserve her energy. Just looking at her coming into the ring, you could tell she was already fatigued from her first match," wrote Keith.

I don't find that flukish upsets like the one they did here come off well in Japan.

"Hmmm...I think it came off pretty well, not in terms of people 'liking or disliking' the finish, but the fact that it caught people off guard. Unfortunately, even if Ayako was getting the push of her life, I was pretty sure that no one was going to buy Ayako beating Yoshida at the end of the tournament. I think it would've been a different story if she did beat Yoshida because then it really would have symbolized ARSION as this federation with all the up and comers and holding unpredictable endings in their matches," wrote Keith.

I think a flash submission can work fine because it's art immitating life. Those goofy cradles where it's so obvious that someone is either; just laying down, has their shoulder up but the ref is ignoring it, or is getting a really fast count only work in America because US fans are taught that the matches are much better the less they think about them. Well, that's not really what they are taught, but the wrestling and angles in America are so illogical that you have to turn your brain off if you want to enjoy it. In Japan, you can maybe justify it with two stars opposing each other, but this was just a cop out. It did nothing to help Ayako going into the final and it did nothing to further assert what they started on 8/9 when they had Gami beat Yoshida to avenge her ARS loss. Beyond giving the floor to the two flagbearers of the style, there was some depth to having a Gami vs. Yoshida final, but they chose to ignore it.

The problem with this match is that Ayako just didn't look worthy of beating Futagami. This was especially true after seeing how good Omukai looked pushing Futagami on the last tape, only to once again fail to beat one of the top stars in the company. Futagami was good here, and Ayako didn't make too many mistakes, but her inexperience was still all too apparent given the result.

"My problem with this match and what they did with Ayako in this tournament

was a double edged sword: she was pushed too far and not pushed enough. On the one hand, she was pushed beyond what she was apparently capable of wrestling wise by making it this far in the tournament. She looked legitimately hurt (not too seriously) from the first match and this one was a sprint for her. The fact that she got a fluke win in such short of a time with the surprise roll up

made no statement about her overall endurance nor ability to beat Yoshida in the last match, so in my opinion, having Ayako lose to Gami here was a waste of both women," wrote Keith.

I don't think they needed to make a statement about her endurance. Whether she was running on empty or not was another story, but showing the fans she can last a long time doesn't even register as far as what was important for her to prove in this tournament. If Hamada would have beaten Futagami in a convincing or at least semi credible manner in such a short time, that would have made a statement and possibly convinced some of the fans that she was a phenom.

"I do think it would've made a difference if Hamada won the whole thing. When Candy won the last tournament, ARSION had done something similar to this situation: push the lowest ranking native to the top to continue to create new stars. But between that time and here, they became a bit predictable in booking. Now and then you'd see the lower ranked girls get a bone like Omukai pinning Yoshida in a tag match, but it isn't a consistent thing to make you want to watch them (as a fan paying for a show that is). Sure, Hamada isn't an Okutsu and sure, Yoshida was the one

that deserved to win this tournament, but the way they pushed Hamada in this tournament didn't make the statement ARSION needed," wrote Keith.

I think it would have been beyond the realm of sanity to have Ayako win the tournament. It's one thing to have someone like Candy who had been wrestling for six years, but had never recieved a top level push. Ayako hadn't even been around six weeks and she didn't have a big name in another sport like say a Naoya Ogawa did, so there was no way you could justify having her win the tournament. Having Omukai or Fukawa win would have been on par with having Candy win because they have the talent to justify a push, although not that big of one. They are not great, but they aren't going to drop the ball either. Having Ayako make it to the finals was like flying into a black hole. I'm sure they had theories on what the results of the adventure would be, but there was no way to prove the great big unknown without trying it. Unfortunately, th results of their little science project turned out to be proof of their worst case hypothesis.

There's really not much to say about the match itself. Hamada avoided Futagami's abisegeri. Futagami then rolled through on Hamada's huracan rana, but Hamada tucked Futagami's head in between her legs(zion9807) for the upset win. *1/2

Michiko Omukai vs. Mariko Yoshida. This was a good match, but it was hurt by the fact that Yoshida had to work another match. I think this could have been the best match on the show if it was the only match these women had to work, as my main problem with the match is that it was kind of short. They did the match in Yoshida's ground style. Omukai's kicks were not killer, but they did land solidly. She came close to winning with her rolling savate, and expecially her Tiger suplex. Yoshida avoided her swandive wheel kick though, and worked really hard to get the submission, dragging Omukai to the center of the ring and applying the sankakukome (triangle strangle) for the win(zion9809). Omukai got over well even though she lost. 7:59. ***1/4

"This was another match I enjoyed just to see how diverse both women are, particularly in seeing how Omukai can adapt to Yoshida's ground work. One thing that I noticed in comparing this match to Omukai vs. Fukawa was that Yoshida isn't that good at blocking kicks while Fukawa actually defends herself against Omukai's kicks by bringing up her hands. The part in the

end with Yoshida locking on her henkei sleeper hold and Omukai fighting out was cool because she had lasted so long in that hold. Thus, the crowd (as well as I) popped pretty loudly for Omukai's determination. Once again, Yoshida stood above her fallen victim arrogantly as the spider woman caught yet another victim in her web of submissions," wrote Keith.

'98 FINAL SUMMER FANTASY: Tiger Dream vs. Hiromi Yagi (Free). This was Candy Okutsu's debut as Tiger Dream.(zion9811) I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I thought this was the best match on the show. Fittingly, this was a junior style match. It was the most exciting match on the card, and had the best work and high spots. The downfall was that Candy blew a few of the Sayama spots the match was intended to showcase, and the finish came out of nowhere.

"I wasn't too surprised that Candy blew the Sayama spots. In the small video package just before the match, you could see that Candy was having some difficulty executing Sayama's spots, particularly the rope walking. In the more complex spots, it seemed like Candy hesistated because she was unsure if she could execute them. In turn, that led to her fall in confidence and the spots looked somewhat blown," wrote Keith.

In a Black Tigerish move, Yagi attacked before the bell, but Tiger warded her off, so for once it made sense that they still had the ring announcements. The match got off to a fast start, and turned into a very good match once they got over a couple flaws in Candy's execution. The best spot was early on where Yagi tried a huracan rana, but Tiger Dream pushed her off, so it was like Yagi did an assisted backflip off Tiger's shoulders and landed on her feet.(zion9812)

"I disagree with this point because I remember seeing TD land uneasily and do a roll out onto her feet. It wasn't done that well even though TD tried hard. I thought that the best Tiger Sayama spot was TD doing the go behind into the drop toe hold. That Tiger Sayama spot was hit perfectly and the

crowd, in recognizing that Tiger Sayama spot, popped for Candy's efforts. Also, in the match, there seemed to be one or two times that Candy looked to be going for the Space Tiger Drop, but it's questionable whether she had ever learned this spot before," wrote Keith.

A lot of people have tried to duplicate Sayama's drop toe hold, but no one has ever come close to matching it. The speed and fluidity Sayama did this spot with when he was in his prime was awe inspiring. Candy did the move, but to me it's like a cover song, I'm not going to be impressed unless you do it better than the original artist or bring a good deal of originality to it. As far as the space flying Tiger drop goes, I don't buy that lil' Candy can clear the top rope out of a handstand, so I don't expect to see anything more than an occassional tease of it.

Like Sayama's protégé Tiger Mask IV, Candy mainly did Sayama's spots from 1981-83. However, she also incorporated some more modern moves like the Merosault.(zion9813) Tiger eventually pinned Yagi with her Tiger suplex.

"This match made me feel uneasy in a way because I think it was another instance where ARSION was pushing their girls too hard. In this case, I think you could see, even under the mask, the amount of pressure on Candy for doing the Tiger Mask gimmick. Her hesistation at a few points in the match seemed to be the reasons why she couldn't execute the Tiger Mask moves. The match seemed very rehearsed at some points because they wanted Candy to look her best. It didn't come off as naturally as when Candy was wrestling her JWP style against say Fukawa on their debut show. That said, she did a great performance considering she was debuting the gimmick," wrote Keith.

I'd hardly call it a great performance by Candy. I wouldn't even call it a great performance by Yagi, even though she was the better of the two. It was more that Candy's actual ability is good enough, and her opponent was one she was so familiar with, that it was a very good match in spite of not really accomplishing what it set out to do. There is no way you can justify calling this great when Tiger really only had problems with the Tiger spots this match was designed to showcase.

In a move that was definitely right out of Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger, Yagi attacked Tiger after the match, and they had a pull apart. This was necessary because Sayama never ever lost, so they needed to create reasons for him to have rematches with the top guys that he always downed nonetheless. 11:03 (10:04 shown). ***3/4

"I think Yagi was a great (but not perfect) choice as an opponent for Candy and she did her role very well, to the point of attacking Candy before and after the bell, as well as assisting Candy in some of the Tiger Mask moves (like when Candy ran above her in the corner). Unfortunately, I don't think the gimmick really has worked for Candy, if anything, possibly leading her to her back injury that landed her in the hospital during the month of January. Candy's an incredible worker, but I don't think she has the level of athleticism to handle the TM gimmick, especially with her previous injuries.

Hikari might've been a better choice for this style and gimmick with Candy acting as Black Tiger instead, but we all know the story with Hikari," wrote Keith.

I think Yagi was a great choice for this match. First of all, there is no one that works better with Candy. Secondly, the focus of the Black Tiger role against Tiger is being the base that helps showcase the flashy Tiger spots and being dickish enough that you make people want to see rematches even though you always lose. Yagi typically shows heelish tendencies even though she isn't a heel per say, while Candy just doesn't have that mean streak. Plus, with Hikari & Candy, you'd have two Lucha technicos, meaning you have no base for the flying moves. We know that those two would do a weak beginning and then turn it into a spotfest, which isn't what Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger is supposed to be. Most of the reason this match was as good as it was had to do with Yagi, but Tiger Mask was also carried in his best matches by the likes of Dynamite Kid and Kuniaki Kobayashi, yet he still came out looking like the star because he won and everyone was in awe of his spots.

ZION '98 Final

Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida. Ayako looked the best here of her three matches in the tournament because, like in Akino's debut, Yoshida never put her in the position to make a mistake. This was a more mat oriented Yoshida style match, so Hamada didn't get to show as many of her high spots. I think the idea may have been that it was okay for her to lose because she couldn't be expected to beat Yoshida at her own game. However, to me working the match this way was a mistake because it gave Hamada less chance to shine, and kind of exposed her as one dimensional. Yoshida did loosen her style up down the stretch, including dusting off her AJW finisher, the air raid crush, to take the tournament.(zion9816)

"This was the best Ayako match on the show, I agree, but I approved of her doing Yoshida's match instead because she needed to show that she wasn't simply a spot machine. Unfortunately, Hamada is a spot machine and doesn't have the submission style techniques to do well against Yoshida, so it didn't look as good as it needed to in the end," wrote Keith.

I think you are forgetting just how inexperienced Hamada is. You said it yourself, Hamada is a spot machine. At this point, that is all we can expect of her. She definitely needs to learn the mat, but give her some time before you trap her in the web. I would have been more than happy if they could have incorporated one well worked sequence on the mat where Hamada worked her counter holds. Hamada is a fish out of water in Yoshida's style, whereas if I've seen one good Yoshida spotfest, I've seen 111. If the commitment was to push Hamada, then Yoshida needed to do the right thing and leave the ARSION style to carry Hamada in her own style. If they wanted the final to be an ARSION match, and it should have been, then you needed an opponent that can do that style. You can't have it both ways.

The match got off to a slow start then ended quickly, so it was rather mediocre. What I don't understand about the match is why they went home so soon. Hamada came close to winning with a backslide, and this should have built some momentum for her. Instead, Yoshida went right to the finish with a released German suplex and two air raid crushes. As long as they deemed it necessary for Hamada to make it to the finals, they should ahve at least let her be more competitive. It's like they took things farther than you'd expect with her, but hedged at the same time. This match needed to be dramatic, and to make it dramatic, Ayako needed at least a handful of spots where you thought the Super Rookie would win the match against all odds. Even though this was the best Ayako match in the tournament, I think it was the worst for her push. I'm not saying that because she lost, but because they failed to build any momemtum for her before she lost and they failed to do anything to get the crowd behind her. 7:39. **

"I think Ayako blew up. She didn't look to be into this match at all, especially towards the end. Even in the Mari match, Ayako looked exhausted. It's just far too much pressure to match move for move against a veteran like Yoshida in a main event, 'high profile' (for ARSION) type of match

where you're expected to perform. The end was very anti-climatical and Yoshida didn't get much pops for her win, probably because no one gave Hamada a chance to win this thing and it was too obvious that Yoshida would take this thing. I don't mind ARSION pushing their youngsters like this nor Hamada getting a push, but ARSION really doesn't know its limits. The ending to this match just didn't make any statement for Hamada considering her push up to this point and what was needed from her," wrote Keith.

You are right that everyone knew Yoshida would win, but this tournament was setting up the next major show, so it's like why just anyone can't win the Royal Rumble. Only someone who can draw a big buy rate can win. Otherwise, you'd run into another situation where Brooklyn Brawler winning a battle royal seemed like a good idea to someone at the time, but you don't even need to be a wrestling fan to realize that Bret vs. Brawler for the heavyweight title isn't exactly going to pack MSG, so WWF just forgets about their promise to poor Lombardi. ARSION had a big project trying to sell out Yokohama Bunka on 12/18, and they wanted to have at least one of their top wrestlers in the main event. Wrestling just isn't popular enough right now and ARSION doesn't have enough media exposure to justify a Hamada vs. Candy main event on their top show of the year. I suppose it couldn't have drawn much worse than Candy vs. Yoshida did, and it would have got more publicity, but on paper Yoshida vs. Candy should be a lot better draw and certainly turned out to be a lot better match. Also, I don't think it would have made a lot of sense to have Tiger Dream & Ayako team up in ARS if they were set to meet each other in a major singles match less than two weeks after the tournament ended.

"Overall, I found this show very enjoyable, but the formating of the tournament, Aja's squashing of Akino, and the flawed premise of Ayako's mega-push hurt the type of statement that ARSION needed to make on a show like. The bracketing for tournament ARS was much better (although I personally didn't care for Tamada's win over Omukai) even though the matches overall weren't nearly as good. Candy was able to handle the push given to her because she had the experience and ability to carry through her half. Ayako, on the other hand, doesn't have that level of ability and experience so giving her the push here was a waste. Their match still came off as a squash to me because no one gave Ayako a chance to beat Yoshida and the ending was anti-climatic. Someone else like Aja needed to be in the bracketing so Yoshida's win would be given more meaning," wrote Keith.

I disagree that giving Ayako the push was a waste. I think that a rookie making it to the finals of both tournaments they are in makes a major statement about how good they are and what kind of potential they have. I mean, Masamichi Marufuji has a ton of potential, but can you imagine how hard people would be laughing in your face if you suggested that Marufuji should make it to the finals of both the Champion Carnival and the Real World Tag Team League this year?

ARSION TWINSTAR OF ARSION SHODAI CHAMPION LEAGUE Commercial tape

Some people will really like this tape because it's mainly a highlight reel. The reason for this is that they show at least a little of every match in the league before showing the complete final. I would have preferred they didn't do it in digest form, and instead showed the four or five best matches from the league portion and the final in their entirety. The good thing about showing highly edited matches is that everyone looks good. The bad thing is they all seem like nothing more than a clusterfuck of high spots, so it's hard to know what to make of most of them.

10/7/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1,250)

Mari & Fabi Apache vs. Gami & Lady Metal. This match seemed like it was decent, although it probably was less than ** in unedited form. With the editing, there weren't any blown spots by the Mexicans, and Metal didn't ruin the match. The Apaches actually seem to have improved. Mari pinned Metal after a super powerbomb (stuff powerbomb off the 2nd). 12:44 (3:11 shown).

Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi vs. Mariko Yoshida & Mika Akino. This was the first match where Yoshida didn't do as much matwork. This would become a trend throughout the tournament though, one that I didn't find to be a good one. I don't know, maybe it's due to the editing, but it seemed like ARSION forgot what makes them different and fell into the work and spots pattern that holds back most of the other leagues. In this match, I think Tamada was the main reason Yoshida didn't do much on the mat, as she just isn't very comfortable there. Tamada never looks very natural, but she actually had one of her better days in ARSION here. She did several nice dropkicks here, but her double missile kick with Yagi didn't hit perfectly.(twinar01) The double missile kick, when done from different corners, is probably the single hardest double team move to perfectly execute though, so that is excusable. I often wonder why wrestlers ever try to do it, but they got it right a few times in this tournament, and it did look incredible. Yagi & Yoshida were really strong technically, particularly when working together. Akino scored the big upset here, pinning Tamada with a small package out of nowhere. 17:35 (7:35 shown). ***

Tiger Dream (Candy Okutsu) & Ayako Hamada vs. Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa. This seemed to be a good match, but didn't seem to be as good as I had hoped. It was exciting with a lot of cool spots and flying, but they didn't seem to work as well together as I would have hoped. Candy is still having trouble with her Tiger Mask spots. Her kicks looked bad in comparison to Omukai's, and Omukai still isn't the world's greatest kicker. Omukai was probably the best wrestler in this match though because Candy was hurt by doing the Tiger Dream gimmick. The highlight was Fukawa doing a great springboard corbata. Tiger Dream made Omukai submit to a chickenwing facelock.(twinar05). 14:55 (3:52 shown).

10/13/98 Nagano Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan (600)

Reggie & Jessie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida & Mika Akino. Akino picked up a low level win, pinning Jessie in her huracan rana. 15:26 (0:57 shown).

10/19/98 Tsu Iso Messe Shizuoka (650)

Tiger Dream & Hamada vs. Tamada & Yagi. This is one that I really wanted to see because I wanted to know how it compared to the final. Even though it was highly edited, the match still proved that these women work hard on the small shows, even when they don't draw well. Tamada & Yagi's teamwork seemed better here than in their previous match. The problem with this match is these women have too much stamina for the good of the match. I mean, none of these four tired in thirty minutes. The selling must have been non-existent in this match because even down the stretch they weren't showing me any signs that they'd been out there more than a couple minutes. Tiger worked almost the entire portion that aired, which probably says something about Ayako's execution in this match. Tiger & Yagi were good though, so what we saw was entertaining. 30:00 draw (4:47 aired).

10/25/98 Mie Yokkaichi Shi Australia Kinenkan (memorial hall) (1,400)

Yoshida & Akino vs. Gami & Lady Metal. Akino looked incredibly smooth and fluid for a rookie. This had the obvious result of Yoshida making Metal submit to a crooked headscissors. 18:57 (1:05 shown).

10/26/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2 Kyogijo (sports arena) (1,200)

Tiger Dream & Hamada vs. Gami & Lady Metal. The coolest double team spot Gami & Lady have is swinging their opponent into a double Argentine backbreaker.(twinar06) Hamada did the KAORU swandive moonsault (twinar07)and the Gran Hamada jumping swinging DDT in this one. Gami pinned her with La Gamistral (La Magistral) though. 19:43 (2:25 shown).

Yoshida & Akino vs. Omukai & Fukawa. This appeared to be a very good match. Omukai kicked Akino's hand away, rather than shake it before the match. Akino was barely shown after that. Omukai & Fukawa worked really well together. Omukai used her rolling savate to score one of the biggest pins of her career here, handing Yoshida a rare loss. This somewhat avenged losing to Yoshida in the semifinals of ZION '98. 16:27 (4:47)

10/27/98 Hiroshima Hatsukaichi Shi Sports Center (700)

Mari & Fabi Apache vs. Yoshida & Akino. The focus of the highlights was on the Apache's double team moves,(twinar08) culminating with Akino getting pinned by their super powerbomb.(twin09) 17:55 (0:38 shown)

10/28/98 Yamaguchi Hagi Shi Min Taiikukan (300)

Mari & Fabi Apache vs. Omukai & Fukawa. Apache's continued their surprisingly hot start to the tournament, when Mari pinned Fukawa with a super powerbomb. Believe it or not, this gave the Apache's 6 points already, which put them in a tie for first place with Yoshida & Akino. These fast starts for the teams we figured would do bad gave them both some much needed credibility. 11:07 (0:47)

10/29/98 Yamaguchi Refresh Park (450)

Mari & Fabi Apache vs. Reggie & Jessie Bennett. Reggie seemed to work pretty well with these two. She was just beginning to lose weight for her shoot match with Elina here, and Fabi was surprisingly able to give her a nice fisherman suplex.(twinar10) Reggie pinned Fabi with an RKO,(twinar12) which is a reverse version of Mero's TKO. This was basically a battle of the lousy foreign teams, but the win for the USA team should have meant a little more now that the Mexican team was in contention (though it's doubtful that it did because most people didn't see these matches). 13:57 (1:55 shown).

11/3/98 Yachiyo Cho Sogo Taiikukan (1050 overflow)

Reggie & Jessie Bennett vs. Tamada & Yagi. Rie dislocated her shoulder on 10/29, but she didn't even miss one show. This is her hometown, and you could tell she is very popular here by the fact that she practically got 1 streamer per person in the building.(twinar13) Not surprisingly, they let Tamada go over, as she pinned Jessie after the double missile kick. 16:03 (1:06 shown).

11/4/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Tamada & Yagi vs. Gami & Lady Metal. This match was so chopped up that it didn't come off that well. Yagi pinned Gami with a kaiten ebigatame (victory roll). 22:23 (3:37 shown).

Tiger Dream & Hamada vs. Yoshida & Akino. This looked like a really good match. Yoshida & Akino were very impressive. Akino did some Lucha with Ayako. She also did a nice small package for Hamada's suplex, and a great springboard huracan rana.(twinar15) Yoshida did her air raid crush then went into a sankakujime, two of her top finishers in a row, but Tiger still made it to the ropes. That would have been a strong finish, especially in comparison to the weak finish they really did. The actual finish saw Tiger counter a double whip into the ropes by hitting only Akino with her rolling savate.(twinar17) Of course, I don't know how you could hit more than one person at a time with a rolling savate, but this was the problem. Yoshida just stood there while this happened then realized she wasn't in position for Candy to Tiger suplex her for the win, so she turned around kind of looking at Akino and kind of selling the rolling savate that she didn't get hit with. In any case, Dream Tiger suplexed her for the win.(twinar18) 16:39 (5:08 shown).

11/6/98 Chiba Funahashi Shi Sogo Taiikukan Sub Arena

Tiger Dream & Hamada vs. Reggie & Jessie Bennett. This didn't look good at all. Hamada pinned Jessie with her swandive moonsault.(twinar19) 16:03 (0:30 shown).

11/17/98 Aichi Toyohashi Shi Sogo Taiikukan (850)

Omukai & Fukawa vs. Gami & Lady Metal. The Metals were so bad in this match that they didn't look good even in the 1/15th that aired. It's a waste to have a great technician like Futagami be a heel. It's also a waste of someone with great facials like Futagami to have her wear a mask. In addition, why have the far better wrestler of the team, Gami, immitate the poor wrestler, Lady, when Gami is the senior member of the team? Omukai pinned Lady with a kaiten ebigatame (in this case, a reverse rolling clutch cradle hold).(twinar20) After the match, Omukai kicked Gami in the face when she was down, so they wound up having a pull apart. 15:10 (1:04 shown).

11/20/98 Kanagawa Yokosuka Shi Sogo Taiikukaikan (850)

Tiger Dream & Hamada vs. Mari & Fabi Apache. Tiger & Hamada came into this match with 7 points and no matches after this. Thus, a win for Tiger's team clinched them a spot in the finals, but a loss put them on the brink of elimination. Meanwhile, spot blowing Mexicans sisters were sitting pretty with 6 and one match after this, meaning they really only needed a split to make the finals. This shows that ARSION books round robins like New Japan. The difference is that they have less workers, so they keep the bottomfeed on about the same level as the stars, whereas the bottomfeed in NJ would never get a chance to be in a tournament like this.

This match didn't look too good. Ayako's sunset flip powerbomb seems to be her most consistently well executed high spot.(twinar22) Ayako pinned Fabi with her La Ayakita to clinch a spot in the finals. 13:23 (0:43 shown).

Omukai & Fukawa vs. Tamada & Yagi. Both teams had one match after this, but Tamada & Yagi had 5 points to Omukai & Fukawa's 4. This meant that Tamada & Yagi would still have a chance of making the finals if they lost one match, while Omukai & Fukawa needed to win them both to be sure.

Fukawa was wrestling in her hometown, so she got a ton of streamers.(twinar24) Yagi was more heelish than normal when attacking Fukawa, which was designed to garner more support for Yumi. The focus of the match was Fukawa going at it with her former partner, Tamada, and they let Yumi go over here with a version of the udehishigigyakujujigatame for obvious reasons. Omukai hoisted Fukawa up on her shoulders after the match to celebrate the victory.(twinar26) 17:19 (2:12 shown).

11/21/98 Kanagawa Odawara Shi Sento Town Center (2650)

Tamada & Yagi vs. Mari & Fabi Apache. Mainly the double team spots were shown.(twinar27) Yagi made Fabi submit to a reverse achilles tendon hold. This win put Tamada & Yagi in second place with 7 points. The Apaches, who got off to the hot start, lost all their matches in the second half of the tournament, winding up with 6 points. 14:46 (1:23)

11/27/98 Chiba Koen Taiikukan (1050)

Omukai & Fukawa vs. Reggie & Jessie Bennett. Omukai & Fukawa came into the match with 6 points. All they needed was a draw with the Bennetts, who they had beaten in the past, to make it to the finals. Rie Tamada sat at ringside with a worried look on her face, as she knew there was a good chance that her team would fall just short of the finals. The great thing about ARSION is a girl Yumi's size can credibly challenge a girl Reggie's size. Not that it matters booking wise, but it should be mentioned that Reggie weighed a lot less here because she was training really hard for her shoot match against Elina. Anyway, they keep trying to do this in America, but it's always incredibly predictable when the little guy will win, and either with either result it comes off as a farce. The reason for this is that the whole match accentuates the size difference. This is the wrong thing to do because the whole point of the match is to show the size difference isn't an issue. The trick is for the smaller wrestler to just go in there with confidence and even cockiness, like Ozaki does. If they believe they would beat the larger wrestler and they can act decently, they can make you believe too.

Even though she was as thin as she's been since LPWA, it still amazes me that Reggie could take Yumi's ultra huracan rana. In a way, this move actually looks better when it's done to Reggie because she's such a large and strong base.(twinar31) The smaller Yumi didn't come out on top here, as the ref stopped the match when Reggie KO'd her with a shouda.(twinar33) This was not a legit KO because the way Fukawa went down was the way you'd fall when you were looking to put over the move big.(twinar32) Also, Reggie doesn't do her shoudas properly, so they are more like slaps than true palm strikes, which mean they aren't nearly as deadly as they should be. Still, they made this look like an accident, with referee Daichi Murayama doing a particularly good job of handling this situation. Perhaps they did the finish in this manner to save face for Omukai & Yumi or to show that Reggie doesn't know her own strength? In any case, it was a little too convenient that Reggie would legitimately win in this manner this close to her shoot match, but that does show that the booking was leading somewhere. Omukai & Fukawa were once again left behind in favor of Hamada, which is a trend I'm not all that happy with. 13:39 (1:46 shown)

12/3/98 Niigata Phase (450)

Reggie & Jessie Bennett vs. Gami & Lady Metal. Both of these teams were battling for last instead of first. This wasn't much of a way to finish the league portion, but it may have been done to fool the smarts into thinking one or both of these teams would still be in contention. The purpose of this match was to get Reggie, and to a much lesser extent Gami, over more as shooters. Reggie pretty much handled Gami in the shoot sequences, including putting Gami down with a series of shoudas. This looked interesting, but they didn't really show any of Jessie & Lady, which would obviously have taken the match down a lot. Gami pinned designated job girl Jessie with a small package. This meant Jessie got neither win for her team, but did all four jobs. 16:19 (0:40).

TWINSTAR OF ARSION Final League Standings

Wins	Losses	Draws	Points

Tiger Dream & Hamada	4	1	1	9

Tamada & Yagi	3	2	1	7

Yoshida & Akino	3	3	0	6

Mari & Fabi Apache	3	3	0	6

Omukai & Fukawa	3	3	0	6

Reggie & Jessie Bennett	2	4	0	4

Gami & Lady Metal	2	4	0	4

12/7/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (1350)

THE FINAL TWINSTAR Twinstar of ARSION Title: Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi vs. Tiger Dream & Ayako Hamada. This was basically the Yagi show, as she was a few notches above of the others. Yagi doesn't waste a motion, and everything she does is so precise and well done. Yagi also did a really good job of saving Hamada from obviously blown spots. Still, it was once again obvious that Hamada was out of her league. At this early stage in her career, she really has nothing beyond her great high spots, and she misses more of them than a lot of the more experienced spot wrestlers do. There was such a difference in the match when Tiger was in, particularly when it came to the execution of the cool flying moves. Luckily, Tiger, Yagi, and Tamada, were good enough to make it a very good match in spite of Hamada. I don't want to rag on Hamada too much because when you come right down to it, she always does well for a rookie. The problem is that rookies aren't supposed to be pushed on this level. Hamada is good enough that it's certainly not a joke that she recieves this push, but it's not wrong to expect a more polished worker to be vying to be a member of the first ever ARSION tag champs.

This was a fast-paced match that focused on the work and high spots. This is Tamada's style, so she made a good showing here. Unfortunately, the match didn't seem to build. Yagi & Tiger Dream started, but Hamada pulled Tiger into the corner to tag herself in before Yagi & Tiger could even lock up. Hamada quebrada'd both opponents in the ring early on.(twinar34) Later on, she did her super quebrada to both outside the ring.(twinar37) The problem with both of these spots is that Tamada & Yagi weren't close enough together, so Hamada basically landed in the middle of them. The moves looked incredible until she made contact with them, and from that point it looked weak because it was obvious that they were putting over a move they were barely even hit them. A good thing about putting over the moves here was that Tiger seemed to be taking more of the great athletic bumps that Yagi is known for. One highlight was Yagi whipping Tiger into the corner and doing a great dropkick then Yagi & Tamada did consecutive diving footstomps followed by a double diving footstomp.(twinar42) The finish saw Yagi beat Tiger out of nowhere with a facelock.(twinar43) Tiger losing shows you just how much they think of Hamada, especially since everyone knows Tiger is Candy, and Candy had a match for the top singles title less than two weeks later. This match also shows just how much ARSION thinks of Yagi because they gave her one half their tag titles even though she was the only wrestler in the tournament who isn't a member of ARSION. 14:28. ***3/4

ARSION HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING CARNIVAL ARSION '98 Commercial Tape

12/18/98 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan (1650)

This was ARSION's biggest show to date. They tried to do something different here, use legitimate matches to draw. Unfortunately, this show once again drew miserably, as the building appeared to be about 1/4 full. The idea of drawing with the shoot matches wasn't a total failure because the crowd was more a Yoshida martial arts crowd than a pro wrestling crowd. The problem is that this show was designed to get those people to come in addition to the pro wrestling fans, not instead of the pro wrestling fans. Beyond that, the pro wrestling matches failed to accentuate the submission style the group implemented in their earliest shows, so it was kind of like they alienated the pro wrestling crowd by having shoot matches and bored the martial arts crowed with AJW style worked pro wrestling matches. To me, the show needed to bring the two crowds together, but it didn't do that because they didn't give the new martial arts audience any reason to attend the shows that didn't have shoots, which is basically every show since this one. That said, the pro wrestling matches were very good to excellent. They just didn't have much heat because that wasn't what these fans came to see. The shoot matches were lackluster, and that may have been the reason they also didn't have much heat. I assume it would be pretty hard for anything to seem heated when the building was this vacant. All flaws aside, it's sad that this product isn't catching on because ARSION is easily the best women's league for match quality.

THE FIRST ARSION: Mari Apache & Fabi Apache & Mika Akino vs. Lady Metal & Esther Moreno & Jessie Bennett. This was either a good match or good editing that gave the illusion that the match was good. Only a little more than 1/3 was shown, but it was a strong highlight reel. Once again, Akino really impressed me here. She did a lot of things she hadn't done before, mainly because she had to do double and triple teams with the Apaches. Akino fit in really well with them though, doing the team moves as if she'd been teaming with the Apaches all along.(12189804)

The Apache team jumped Metal's team, knocking them to the floor so they could do simultaneous dives.(12189801) Esther did a rope walk to Mari, who called for her sister to break it up. However, when Fabi came over, Esther jumped off the top rope, headscissoring Fabi at the same time she arm dragged Mari. Jessie did a body attack off the apron then Esther did a Shiryu tope con hilo.

One thing I didn't like was Esther taking a year and a day to do a move off the top rope. Akino got up looking pretty recovered and then just staggered slowly toward the corner until Esther finally did the rolling body attack. The finish looked really good, with Akino doing a climb up reverse diving body attack, which looks extra cool since she extends her body like Yagi does,(12189805) then going right into the udehishigigyakujujigatame to get the submission on the highest rated member of the opposition, Lady Metal. I doubt this match was better than average in unedited form, but it was cool in the truncated version. 8:58 (3:06 shown).

THE SECOND ARSION Women's Brazilian Jui Jitsu: Aikyo Sato vs. SAYA. They showed 0:28 of this match and then 0:38 of interviews. I guess that shows you how eventful it was. The only thing notable was that Enson Inoue of Shooto was the referee. Just a waste of tape.

THE THIRD ARSION World Free Fighting: Mikiko Futagami vs. Chi Unjyu (sp). This was a shoot match. Unjyu is a Chinese fighter with a background in Taikwondo. She didn't appear to have trained at all in mat wrestling. All she did when they were on the mat was try to strike, but she didn't know how to strike from this position, so she was basically pawing at Gami. To make things look even bleaker for her, Unjyu appeared to break her right thumb during the match. They taped it up and sprayed it after a rope break before restarting the match. Unjyu must have had a really miserable experience because Gami just kept grabbing a body part and wrenching it. Futagami wasn't locking in winning moves, but Unjyu's extremities were being twisted against the grain the whole match. It had to be very painful for her even though it wasn't painful to the extent where she would submit.

Gami stayed focused and showed some of the 1002 holds that it says she knows on her tights, as apparently she doesn't know that our paragon of virtue claims to know 1004 and will even take the time to recite them for you. Anyway, eventually Gami got Unjyu in a situation where she needed to tap, but Unjyu refused to give up, so referee Daichi Murayama made a good call in stopping the match. This was very one sided, and not very good. 7:51 (5:18 shown).

THE FOURTH ARSION Women's Kickboxing: Aya Mitsui vs. Natsumi Nakazawa. Mitsui is my favorite of the kickboxers who appears on puroresu shows. What I like the best about her is that it really looks like she's trying to hurt her opponent with each blow.(12189811)

This was the best kickboxing match I've seen on a joshi puroresu show. It's much better seeing two highly skilled professional kickboxers go at it, especially when they are both champions like these two, than seeing the pro wrestlers try to kickbox. I can see why it's more interesting to see the wrestlers do something different, but the skill level declines so much when they delve into something else because they just don't have the time to do all that much training in other disciplines. The wrestlers kickboxing looks more like what you'd see in a toughwoman contest, in other words crap, so they kind of bore me with their lack of technique even if most of them are less awful than the "King of the 4 Rounder" Butterbean.

This was also a slugfest, but unlike a lot of the wrestlers who throw these looping roundhouses, these two can really strike. It was very fast-paced, particularly the first round. At 2:00 in round 1, Mitsui tried a low kick, but Nakazawa punched her in the face for the knockdown. Nakazawa immediately raised her hands in the air in celebration. Mitsui wasn't done yet though. When Mitsui got up, she motioned to Nakazawa with her arm as if to say, "come and get it."(12189810) This ignited the best exchange of the match, as Mitsui was throwing as fast and as hard as she could, just determined to knock Nakazawa down. Nakazawa was answering her though, so it was just a great flurry of action! Mitsui wound up with a bloody nose from all this.

Mitsui landed several kicks to the side before finally knocking Nakazawa down with one in the second round. Nakazawa appeared to be in incredible pain, looking sick(12189813) and coughing before getting up. You could tell Mitsui was licking her chops at the chance to go in for the kill.(12189816) Nakazawa still had a lot left though, and she had no problem surviving the round.

Early in round 3, there was basically a repeat of the knockdown from round 2, except this time it was a knockout. Nakazawa held her ribs like they were broke, grimacing in pain then starting to cough again.(12189820) 3rd round 0:45.

THE FIFTH ARSION TWINSTAR OF ARSION Title Match: Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi vs. Michiku Omukai & Yumi Fukawa. Omukai & Fukawa got the first title shot because they had the best record in the tag league that didn't advance to the final. The only thing that held this match back was the short length. Everyone was on, so it was not only a very exciting match, but one with well executed and well ordered spots. Yagi & Tamada once again proved they had the best teamwork in ARSION, but it was Yagi & Fukawa who were great here, and made the match. Those two were just tearing it up on the mat with quick moves and transitions into submissions.

Omukai & Fukawa were banged up as usual, with Omukai having a big bruise under her eye and Fukawa having a big bandage on her forehead. They were really intense,(12189823) so it came off as though they really wanted to make the most of an incredibly rare opportunity for them to hold major titles. They also were kind of excitable, attacking Tamada & Yagi as soon as they entered the ring. However, the ring intros not being canceled worked because Murayama pulled Omukai away and some of the seconds pulled Fukawa away.

Yagi plancha'd both opponents then Rie actually did the Hokuto tope con hilo to both.(12199824) This is kind of ironic because one of Tamada's nicknames is Baby Hokuto, based on a supposed resemblance in their faces. Tamada's dropkicks look better now because she is now doing them the same way Yagi does, bending her knees and then extending them to jolt the opponent. Meanwhile, Omukai's kicks all hit their mark, and Fukawa is one of the only women in ARSION who is moving toward wrestling like her nickname, the Princess of Submission, says. In fact, it should be pointed out that most of the nicknames seemed to have been scrapped. Anyway, at one point Fukawa did her old fisherman suplex then swung right into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. The speed she did this at made it that much more impressive.

Yagi & Fukawa were displaying great speed and technique by countering each other left and right. Tamada & Yagi did their consecutive diving footstomps then double diving footstomp spot. Tamada & Omukai got a little goofy when they wrestled each other, but that was about the only downside here. Omukai tried to Tiger suplex Tamada, but Yagi missile kicked her. Tamada and Yagi followed by each giving Omukai a missile kick then doing their double missile kick. Tamada did her old Dragon suplex, and it was actually enough to pin Omukai, which once again showed that the trent is unfortunately for people to go back to their roots. The finish would have been better if they did something to eliminate Fukawa, rather than having Yagi kick her once in a while to fend her off.	This match had awesome action. It was way too good to warrant complaint about this being yet another spot oriented TWINSTAR match. It looks like this title is going to be used to present a match that's different from most of the rest of the card, and there's nothing wrong with that. This was certainly a great change of pace from the legit matches it was sandwiched in between. 12:17. ****

THE SIXTH ARSION World Free Fighting: Reggie Bennett vs. Rojina Elina. This was a major match for Reggie, facing the winner of the U*TOP tournament or, in other words, the women who singlehandedly ruined AJW's plans to make Hotta a credible ass kicking champion by beating Hotta in both of their shoot matches. Reggie had tried her hand at shooting before, also appearing the the U*TOP tournament, where she lost to Elina in the semifinal. Reggie knew that avenging that loss is likely to be the best chance she'll have to increase her stardom.

Reggie worked her ass off in the gym to get into shape for this match. The problem is that dropping so much weight in such a short period of time isn't really healthy. Reggie didn't seem to have her normal power, which you might expect given the amount of weight she lost is probably about the same as Miho Watabe weighs in real life, but she also didn't have much stamina. Elina has never looked in shape for a shoot match in Japan, but she wasn't the one who was tiring.

Reggie's strategy was to beat Elina in standup. I assume this strategy was derived from Reggie knowing she couldn't match Elina on the mat. Elina kind of went along with this strategy, using almost no energy in the standup portion. The point of this was for Reggie, who was working hard here bouncing and moving in hopes of landing a big strike, to just wear herself out. After about 1:30, Elina had the timing of Reggie's shoudas down and was able to score a big takedown. (12189825) From here, Elina began overpowering Reggie. Reggie was able to get back to her feet, but we just saw more of the same lack of success from Reggie.

The finish was really controversial. Elina was on top and had Reggie in a rather ineffective ude garame. The fact that she had all her girth on top of Reggie, basically smothering her, seemed to be more effective than the arm lock.(12189828) I don't think this ude garame would be enough to make any fairly tough fighter tap. Reggie didn't appear to be trying to escape the hold or get Elina off of her, so considering she was being smothered, I can see where it might look like she was out. I took it as she was just tired and the arm wasn't in that much pain that it was desperation time, so she just laid there calmly trying to think of a way to get the load off of her. In any case, Daichi Murayama stopped the match and Reggie was both shocked and furious.(12189829) You could just picture what was going through her head as she protested the finish,(12189832) "I gave up all my sweets and trained as hard as I've ever trained only to have you go and stop it when I'm in a crummy arm lock that isn't even fully locked in." What she did say in her post match interview was that Dai-chan is a good pro wrestling referee and she knew he was just trying to protect her, but there was no catch. "My arm was not in danger."

The moral of this story is if you are going to do a shoot match, get an experienced ref whose background is in shoot style matches. I know this costs more money, but it's safer for the performers and should result in the proper decision a lot more often. In a way, and I know this can't factor into the decision making process when reffing, Murayama defeated much of the purpose of having the match by stopping it here because the hope was for Reggie to win. However, it was such a controversial finish that it gave Reggie an out in a match that she was basically overmatched in. I don't think Reggie would have won the match if Murayama let it go on, but we definitely should have found out. 6:49.

THE SEVENTH ARSION ARSION War Dream: Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada. This was easily Hamada's best singles match and performance to date, mainly due to an excellent performance by Aja. In my mind, this match solidified Aja's as being among the top 7 or 8 women in the world for 1998. That said, the match quality should not have been a surprise to anyone because Aja has certainly proved she can carry aerial wrestlers over the years. To me, this was more impressive than most of her better matches because the opposition was not a polished great worker like Toyota. What made this match very similar to the afformentioned great matches was that Aja basically handled all aspects, pretty much only leaving hitting the great high spots to the opposition. Hamada was able to do this better than expected, which made it a very good match because her flying was excellent. I mean, we still have to be patient with the rookie because she'll do an incredible flip off the top out of rope walk(12189838) but then she won't be able to fluidly chain it together with the arm drag.

The problem with this match is it was kind of just rolled out. There was no real reason for Aja and Hamada to be wrestling each other. They had been partners for the most part and there was no known resentment between the two. Obviously it was a major challenge for Hamada, but they didn't do anything to set it up. That said, Hamada should have had credibility to anyone who had been paying attention because she made the finals of both the singles tournament and the tag tournament. I know that noone expects the youngster to beat the master the first time out, especially in Japan, but the idea that Hamada wasn't a credible opponent in the minds of the fans to me is either false or shows that the "fans" aren't paying any attention. The reason I say this is that anyone who follows ARSION booking should know that a wrestler of Hamada's experience has more chance of beating the veteran than in any other league in Japan. I suppose you could argue that no chance is still no chance, but I've seen Tsuruta vs. Tiger Mask, Kawada, and Kobashi when those three had no chance of winning and the heat was awesome. I could come up with similar examples for All Japan or any number of Japanese leagues where the heat was as good, maybe even better. Even though in perhaps every case, the youngster had way more experience than Ayako when they made their first big challenge, the likelyhood of Aja doing the job was probably greater than the likelyhood of whatever example we could use from the other leagues.

Hamada got in Aja's face before the match and gave her a very stuck up, snooty look. (12189836) This showed just how much confidence Hamada has in her ability because in Japan a rookie getting in the face of a former world champion is very disrespectful.

Aja let Hamada display her athleticism early, but she didn't let her hit any big flying moves because the match was young. Hamada's sloppiest moments in the match were right off the bat, as she seemed to be nervous despite the facade her pre-match attitude purported. Aja roughed the young punk up, but she was noticably less stiff with her than she is with most of the rest of the women. She attacked Hamada's bad elbow, and Hamada put this over huge.

Hamada came back with a quebrada at 6:45,(12189839) one of the many versions of the moonsault she would do in this match, but Aja immediately cut her off with the Akino killing lariat for a near fall. That Ayako kicked out after taking much more of a beating than Akino had on 8/31 showed she was indeed a "Super Rookie."

Aja did a really good job of incorporating the big spots into the match, as usual. The spot in this regard that worked the best was Hamada's sunset flip powerbomb for Aja's nadare shiki no suisha otoshi because these two moves are such an integral part of the respective wrestlers singles arsenal. Hamada did a (reverse) dobitski swinging DDT(12189842) for a near fall then went for her swandive moonsault, but Aja released German suplexed her off the 2nd. From here, they traded big spots, culminating in Hamada hitting two swandive moonsaults off the second followed by one off the top for a near fall.(12189846) Hamada "went to the well one to many times" and Aja avoided her moonsault then did her suichoku rakka shiki brainbuster, but much to her dismay, Ayaka got her foot on the ropes. Aja dragged Hamada up and botched an uraken then urakened her again.(12189849) Akino was screaming for Hamada to kick out, but it was not to be.

What hurt the match for me was that the finish was not that impressive. It just seemed really flat, especially with Aja blowing the first (and probably only planned) uraken. Instead of having Aja avoid the moonsault, I would have had her cut Hamada off on the top rope when she was trying a regular flying move (by regular, I mean one where you are facing your opponent because that is the setup they needed). Everyone would think Hamada might be able to counter again with her sunset flip powerbomb. Hamada tries this, but Aja catches her on her shoulder and does the nadare shiki no suisha otoshi for the win. Hamada would not be hurt losing to one move because this one move was once the move Aja would finish the major stars off with during her WWWA World title reign. 13:32. ***1/2

THE FINAL ARSION Shodai QUEEN OF ARSION Title: Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy Okutsu. What we have here was pretty much everything we could ask from these two. As expected, the match pitted Candy's flying against Yoshida's submissions. It was almost like the two factions of ARSION coming to a head, the head of the one that does the same thing as they did in their previous league and the head of the new submission oriented style. Speaking of which, Yoshida was really great at moving in and out of submissions. Candy's matwork will never be close to that tight, which hurt the match to some extent. Still, both women did a good job of selling (particularly Yoshida, who even has the glassy eye part down now), and the match built really well to the decisive finish you need in a big match like this (unless you ask and U.S. bookers).

After a brief portion of feeling out, they went to the mat. Yoshida's superior skill there was very evident, although it was played up as being as if they were fairly equal. Candy finally got a (reverse) diving body attackby countering Yoshida's whip into the turnbuckle, but Yoshida avoided Candy's diving body press and it was right back to the mat.

Candy avoided Yoshida's udehishigigyakujujigatame and German suplexed her. Candy tried a diving body attack since Yoshida countered her whip into the corner, but Yoshida had seen it earlier, so this time she turned it into a wakigatame. Countering Irish whips was a motif of the match, and Yoshida soon turned a series or Irishi whips into some kind of released pump handle suplex.(12189853) Yoshida really acted like she was going to win on this, but obviously Candy kicked out.

Candy tried to turn Yoshida's sleeper into her powerbomb, but high spots were really hard to execute in this match, so Yoshida back body dropped her way out. Candy tried her powerbomb again, but ironically, Yoshida turned it into sleeper.(12189855) From there, Yoshida went into a doushime sleeper, which was the first serious chance for a finish in the match. Candy reached the ropes then mounter her comeback, including a nadare shiki no brainbuster that took too long to set up because Candy lost her balance on the top and a DDT that began Yoshida's great selling streak. Candy unleashed her moonsaults(12189857) for a near fall, and Yoshida looked like she was going to throw up from taking that impact to the stomach.

Candy finally delivered her powerbomb then rolling German suplexed Yoshida. Yoshida was acting limp and dizzy during this segment, but kicking out just in time as if she was waking up from a nightmare, or at least trying to having them about this match. Still, Yoshida acted as if she couldn't even stand. Yoshida found it in her to counter Candy though, and soon delivered her old AJW finisher, the deadly air raid crush, for a near fall.(12189860) Yoshida set her sights on putting Candy to sleep. I liked that Candy did a good job of acting like she was going out. What I really liked about the segment is that Yoshida kept pulling Candy back to the center when Candy would edge her way too close to the ropes. It's really simple and nothing new, but it's very demoralizing to think if I can only hold on a little longer, and then a second later you are right back in the position you started in. I think it made Candy's loss to the henkei sleeper hold credible because her effort to escape was valiant, but there simply was nothing she could do because she was too out of it to be able to escape while Yoshida dragged her so she eventually had to tap. The only problem with the segment was that once again, the credibility of Yoshida's sleeper goes way down when you go from looking at her face (how much effort she's working you to make you believe she's putting in) to the actual lock (some light shown and no real pressure being applied).(12189861)

For the longest time it looked like it would never happen because she was never even a contender, but Mariko Yoshida finally rose to the top. Yoshida was overcome by emotion after the match, crying and having trouble getting the words out.(12189866). 16:05. ****1/4

James: Really good match. Probably the best match ARSION has contested so far. These two worked together really well throughout. Even though the result was pretty obvious from the start, there were moments when it seemed like Candy might win.

Miko

Mika Akino & Las Apaches v. Jesse Bennett, Lady Metal & Esther Moreno

A kinda lucha style match, not too surpising when you consider only two of

the six are not luchadoras. The match starts off witha triple dive then

what looks like the classic lucha A v. A, then B v. B, then C v. C. Aside

from Mari Apache doing her usual -way- short moonsault (So short Jesse had

to roll toward the corner to try and get hit by it) this match was decent.

After the fast paced dives and lucha stuff it was almost a surprise to see

Akino win with the decidedly ARSION flying cross body into jujigatame.

Jesse Bennett improved alot over the year, which was a pleasant surprise.

Sato v. SAYA

Despite all the talk about Gracie judo, which normally emphasises

groundwork, this match was almost totally fought standing with both women

working hard to get throws while locking up grabbing each other's jackets.

Not at all exciting in a pro wrestling sense, but very active and closely

matched.

Mikiko Futagami v. ?

Another good match. What happens to the Korean girl in this match

demonstrates clear why in a MMA bout you should NEVER wear a gi. It's not

likely to help you and the odds are good it can be used against you. Not

only did grabbing the gi help Gami take down her opponant, but she was able

to use the extra leverage from grabbing the gi to escape a choke. Overall

the korean girl didn't look bad, her standing strikes were ok, mostly

kicks, and she showed alot of spirit hanging tough during the grappling.

But she was clearly out of her element. She simply didn't know how to

strike on the ground so Gami could simply ignore most of her strikes there

and work on submissions.

Aya Mitsui v. Natsumi Nakazawa

Now this is kickboxing! Not Kumiko Maekawa flopping or Bat Yoshinaga

toughgirl boxing, but real kickboxing by two woomen with skills. Aya

Mitsui looks a little faster and stronger than Nakazawa but it's Natsumi

catching Aya in mid kick and knocking her down in the first round. Aya

comes back strongly, so it's obvious it's just a flash knockdown. About a

minute iunto the second round you can see Aya picking up on how she's

hurting Nakazawa with the kicks to the body and keep going back to them.

She knocks Natsumi down with a kick to the body, but Nakazawa fought back

bravely. That second knock down looked nasty, Nakazawa looked like she was

past worrying about beating the 10 count, she was just trying not to throw

up. This was the best kickboxing match I've seen at a women's wrestling

card, fast paced and excellent action.

Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi v. Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa

A little different from your average ARSION match, but the tag matches

often are. Omukai and Fukawa both come in with a ton of attitude, first

trying to attack TamaYagi before they even get in the ring, then when they

offer to shake hands. The battle spills out of the ring with chairs thrown

and a few dives pulled off before we get back to the ARSION style

wrestling. Tamada was nothing special here again, but the exchanges

between Fukwawa and Yagi were sharp and Omukai sold well and got in some

good moves. An excellent match with a ton of action but while everyone

else either is good or has gotten good in ARSION Tamada seems to have hit

her plataeu and gotten just about as good as she is going to get, at least

for the moment.

Reggie Bennett v. Elina Rodina

They start with training clips, Reggie Bennett training with Keiichiro

Yamamiya of Pancrase. Her strategy is to keep the match standing and try

to score with palm strikes. We've seen enough of Rodina to know she's

going to work submissions on the ground. And that's how the fight goes.

Bennett looks in great shape, probably the lightest I've seen her. I do

wonder if she should have lost so much weight though, since she's obviously

outpowered by the Russian. Bennett does get in some palm strikes but never

looks close to having the Russian in trouble. Rodina gets some slamming

takedowns and pretty much dominates the ground but Reggie is alot more

submission aware now and manages to Rodina from locking in any submissions.

The end comes rather unexpectedly, especially to Bennett, as the ref stops

the fight with Bennett trapped in a keylock. Bennett didn't tap out and

seems prepared to outlast painlocks, which a keylock is. The fight should

have been allowed to continue, though I doubt it would have made a

difference. Reggie was locked firmly in the lock and getting smothered by

Rodina as well. The match might not have ended with the keylock, but I

think Rodina would have locked in a submission evnetually.

Aja Kong v. Ayako Hamada

This is a nitpick, I admit. Aja bodyslams Hamada and climbs up to sit on

the second turnbuckle to hit a splash on Hamada. So..presumbly we're

supposed to believe Hamada is dazed enough she can't avoid the 200+ lb Kong

coming down on her. If so, why is she bothering to brush the hair off her

face?

Overall, a good match. Both wrestlers seem pissed off at each other,

Hamada in particular is stepping up to Aja. The flow of the match was as

expected, Aja was nearly unstoppable, but Hamada is more of an athlete and

always finds ways to come back, though any attempt to hit Aja with forearms

or headbutts is pretty much doomed. This reminded me alot of the Toyota

matches Aja's had, as you said. Hamada still has a ways to go but she

shows alot of potential and she's young. I have a feeling sometime this

year, even if just in a tag match, she'll get a pin on Aja.

Mariko Yoshida v. Candy Okutsu

Another excellent match. Yoshida was as good as I've seen her working her

hardcore submission style and her selling was better than ever. Candy did

her usual flying, powerbomb and german suplexs. What happened to the

Moonsault? It used to be a finisher, now three moonsaults in a row can't

get a pin. I really liked some of the transitions in this match. Candy

found alot of ways to try to work into her powerbomb, while Mariko kept

trapping Candy into submissions. The final spot, leading to the Air Raid

Crush and Mariko Sleeper was excellent. I liked both wrestlers in this

(except Candy's outfit), but I thought this was Yoshida's match. She

seemed totally on while at times Candy was just trying to keep up with her.

Keith wrote:

>I looked at the scheduled card for the 5/4/99 >Korakuen Hall show, especially at the >tournament. The bracketing goes something like >this:

>Round #1

>1) Rie Tamada vs. Yagi

>2) Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida

>3) Futagami vs. Chama

>4) Aja vs. Candy

>I can say this: there is no way that Reggie >should make it past the first round. She isn't >even scheduled for any other shows.

I believe Yumi is replacing Reggie in the tournament. It would be hard to predict Yoshida over Reggie for the third consecutive tournament if not for her problems there of late, which I'd assume are the reason she's apparently out.

> I predict the show to breakdown like this:

>Winners of round #1:

>1) Yagi

>2) Yoshida

>3) Futagami

>4) Aja

This looks good except it's almost too predictable. No real upsets at all unless Yagi over Tamada is considered one (Tamada is the higher rated member of the team). Yagi over Tamada is a given, as is Yoshida over poor Yumi. Omukai & Fukawa seemed to never catch a break in this league. I still haven't figured out why that is. It's really hard to fathom at this point with Omukai. Aja needs to beat Candy and I think she realizes that, but that's probably the best chance of one of these going differently than you say.

>Round #2

>1) Yagi vs. Yoshida

This goes against the law of trading wins with freelancers/outsiders/members of other promotions. Yoshida beat Yagi in the title match, Yagi revengers the loss here.

Yoshida has been kicking everyone's ass for months. The title isn't on the line, so here is where you set up your next set of challenges. The problem with my tournament is that the two finalists are the last two women who got title shots. This is VERY PROBLEMATIC because it's just not how anyone books, Candy would probably be more logical because it'll already be almost 6 months since her title match, meaning she's about due for another shot (most rotations in the bigger companies are no bigger than 5). If you notice though, only women who can get the job done on the mat are getting title shots. The more spot oriented wrestlers are in the tag title matches.

>2) Futagami vs. Aja

I'm going to disagree with this one as well. Futagami's been in line for a big tournament push for the past year, but they went in other directions first. Her record shows what they think of her though. ARSION tournaments don't feed egos, they "create" new stars.

>Winners of round #2

>1) Yoshida

>2) Aja

This is like the people who make their picks for the NCAA basketball tournament by just filling in the highest seed every time. It goes against everything ARSION has done so far.

>Round #3 Aja vs. Yoshida.

>Winner: Aja Kong

>It would make the tournament really "old school" >(i.e. veterans over youngsters),

You don't usually see this kind of booking in Japan because it's too predictable and uncreative. Aja doesn't need the win to set up her challenging for the title. I mean, even if it was a long time ago, she was only world champ for longer than any other woman in this decade, Everyone else in there needs to prove they are worthy of their first shot or show why they shouldn't go to the end of the line as far as getting another.

>but I think they need to re-establish Aja Kong's presence in ARSION.

I agree totally, but this isn't the place.

>Candy won last years, so unless they plan to push her again, I doubt she'll make it past the first round.

I think when the tag titles change, Candy will be leading the team that gets them.

>That leaves Gami with a big challenge for the second round, but I still think that Aja should take it.

I'm not sure how many times Gami can keep coming up short. I almost think she has to be the one to take the title from Yoshida because Aja doesn't seem interested and there's no one else that can uphold the style on top except Yagi, who isn't a full time wrestler so that basically lets her out. If Yoshida beats Yagi in the second round, that's just a waste of Yoshida vs. Futagami having it again so soon in the final and it also goes a long way toward taking Yagi out of the title singles title picture, at least well Yoshida has the belt. If Futagami is going to win, she can't beat Yoshida in this tournament because it'll mean too many Yoshida vs. Futagami matches in a short period of time, especially since their next title match is likely to also be at Korakuen like their first was and this show is.

>Yoshida needs to have a big time challenger to her title. She's already gone through Candy, Gami, and Akino, but not Aja. They've only drawn against each other in the past. A win for Aja here would establish her as a top contender to make the belt meaningful in a defense for the future.

Aja can be a meaningful challenger without that win. Having them meet in this tournament does nothing but give away a result for nothing. A result that should be saved for their title match. If the next champion is going to be Futagami, you have her beat Aja here and go on to win the tournament. It shows she's the real deal, not someone who beats the lesser wrestlers but has serious problems getting the job done when the stakes are high. Go back to Yagi as a challenger. It's quick, but she's got an issue with Yoshida being that really no one else in ARSION has shown they can beat her in singles. Yagi, of course, loses. Meanwhile, Aja goes on a big submission winning streak . Soon, she makes Yoshida submit in a tag match to show she can beat Yoshida in the style Yoshida is pushing. Yoshida is disheartened by the loss, so she challenges Aja. That way in a storyline sense, Aja still isn't using her power as booker for her own interests. They work the match shoot style like thier 6/21/98, which was one of the best singles so far in ARSION. This time the time limit is longer than 15 minutes. I'd have this be an incredibly even match, especially for the first 15 minutes. Yoshida would focus her attack on one of Aja's bad knees, leading to Aja eventually being forced to submit to the hiza jujigatame at around 22. Yoshida is riding high, but it's August at Korakuen Hall, about a year from when Gami got her first win over Yoshida, and she also defeated Aja (in ARS'99) so she's looking very credible. Gami takes the title here, and then you use ZION'99 to bring Omukai up to the level where she can challenge for the title. Candy put Gami over before Omukai gets her shot and does the same.

>Down the road what they need to do is figure out where Aja belongs with ARSION. Either pass the torch from Aja to Yoshida at a "big show" or make Aja dominant. I really can't see Aja lasting much longer so Yoshida should take that one. But she needs the challenger to get the credibility the >belt deserves.

That's definitely true. It would be like if KAORU got the GAEA AAAW title initially and Chigusa never even challenging for it. KAORU could have beaten Satormura, Kato, and Sugar, but so what? Aja needs to win the title at some point, but Yoshida needs to beat her first. For me, Gami doesn't need to have that long of a reign and I'd have her avenge her loss to Gami by taking the title from her,probably at Carnival ARSION'99 in Dec. When Aja has the title, that would be a real good time to get Ayako involved in the singles title picture. I figure she already has held or still has the tag titles at this point.

>Unfortunately, you'd have to wonder whom Yoshida's next opponent will be.

I don't think there are any new ones at this point that I think "could beat her" other than Aja, but (no offense to her, but she was the lowest native at the time) Akino getting a title shot proves that anyone can.

>The undercard looks like a small rivalry between the Mexicans and the remaining natives. I won't read anything else into it.

Probably isn't anything to read into it. It looks like the elimination match is just there to give the others something to do. What they should do is run it before the final rather than as the opener to give the finalists some rest.

Mike

I have to pick up my workrate to keep Glenn happy, so here's some comments on this ARSION photobook.:P

HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING ARSION 1998 OFFICIAL PHOTOBOOK Sugao (face without makeup) no ARSION

photographed by Noburo Ohkawa

2000-en, available at a store probably very far away from you(:.

This book has virtually no text, which means it's safe for me to read it.:)

The cover has Yumi, Candy, Hamada, and Omukai with no tops on, but their hands covering their breasts. This is a good eye catching selling point, more appealing than when Gami was involved in this. Unfortunately, it's better than any picture in the book, but it's smart to put the best picture on the cover from their standpoint because that's the pic that is going to garner buys.

They start with the grand opening VIRGIN tour. Candy is getting over her muscle flexing fighting pose. There's a great picture of a bloody Rie firing up with a Kansai like pose.

They start going through stuff you've seen on comm, Yoshida's ARSION debut, Candy winning ARS'98, etc

TAMAFUKA in Mexico has some choice bathing suit shots of Yummi Yumi. Tamada should not quit her day job in hopes of being a model. At least she isn't wearing the life preserver here...

The Omukai vs. Aja angle should never have been dropped. I like how Michiko is kicking ass lately, but her selling is so good that it's more fun when she's mainly taking a beating.

There's a bunch of Hamada graduation pictures. She's mainly being a clown. This leads to Akino's debut on 7/21 and "Super Rookie's" on 8/9.

Ai Fujita seems to look different in every picture.

Mari actually looks pretty decent in some of these pictures. I guess they just said no makeup, not no touch up...

The most impressive thing in the book is Yoshida's conditioning. You can tell when she wrestles that she's in great shape, but they have some pictures of her lifting and flexing, and she's really ripped. I mean, to the point where she makes Jaguar look like she's just one of those anorexic (or is it belemic now?) Berkeley girls that Keith always talks about.:P

They have the teams from Twinstar of ARSION. Gami is trying to hold back the laughter while doing these goofy Metal poses. Gami is always interesting to watch because she seems like she's always plotting something. Very devious, but in a good way, I guess.

There's some pictures from the little modeling show they did to promote the HYPER VISUAL SERIES. I hope Yumi & Candy didn't have to pay anything to get their hair done in this manner...Hamada actually looks the best of the four here. I still need Candy's book, but I don't see it changing my opinion that of the bunch, Fukawa has the best combination of book and video. I'm sure James will agree.:P

The black and white section is pretty boring, IMO. Basically a waste because none of these pictures are actually better because they are in black and white. There's one picture of Yumi, Michiko, and Candy all talking on cell phones. Another has Yumi holding up a TAMAFUKA 1995-98 Graduation shirt. A lot of Reggie goofiness, which should be no surprise if you've ever heard on of her interviews. At least in the book, we don't have to hear her talk about "I'm a big girl, and she's a big girl..."

They have a page devoted to each person with their licence number. They are all in order except we get #7 Candy on one side and then #15 Tiger Dream before going to #8 Reggie. My favorite, LOL, Esther Moreno makes an appearance at 17. At this point Kado and Fujita don't have numbers yet. The whole license number thing is a big waste because they are permanent, instead of changing like the rankings in say RINGS and Pancrase. It's like, she showed up first so she has a lower number. Big deal. *yawn*

They have a section on TAKA-FUKA-CHAMA in LA. Unfortunately, Keith does not make an appearance, but Omukai is in a bikini, so I can forgive them.:)

There's some pictures of the women with other wrestlers. Yumi & Rie are with the vastly underrated Shiryu, but then under that there's a picture of them with the infamous Rayo de Nabisco. Tanny and Shiina also make an appearance, unfortunately.

The awards that Candy vs. Yoshida 12/18/98 won MOTY in were the ARSION Awards. For once, the right match actually won match of the year (these awards are only within the company, I think Lioness vs. Kyoko from 5/6/98 was better).

When I'm able to use USB hardware on my computer, I'll try to scan some of this stuff. For now, check out the Shiratori and Kudo pics I had Keith scan and place in the gallery. These represent The Goddess at her finest, IMO, especially 5-9. Blame the lack of page numbering in these books on Kudo 9...

Mike