Quebrada #38

By Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

May 16, 1998

Neo Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling First Kiss Commercial Tape 1/9/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

This was Neo's debut show. The production value of the tape is really good with excellent crowd mic'ing and several good close ups. Other than that, the show was very bare bones. It really felt like an indy show with the really small roster requiring everyone to wrestle more than once. In many cases, they had to work two matches in a row. Kyoko tried really hard to not only make the show work, but to make it special. It was like watching Sabu kill himself to save one of those small shows in Michigan, except Kyoko actually knows how to wrestle. The problem with this show was that it was really no different from AJW. Given the limitations, it was a good show, but it was nothing that we haven't seen before and it was no better, maybe even worse, than what the depleted AJW roster delivers in the same building. Certainly it wasn't on the level of what JWP and Gaea do in the building. With Sumie Sakai & Yuko Kosugi developing really well and Jaguar and Lioness working really hard, I even question whether it was better than what Jd' has delivered in the building of late. The other groups all have larger rosters and they usually book outside talent at Korakuen though. So, for the rusty Neo women to compete with the weaker leagues on this night isn't bad, except establishing yourself as the Pittsburgh Pirates or this year's Florida "let's trade all our talent for Piazza then trade him before we have to pay him more than the rest of our roster combined" Marlins is not a good thing for business.

Triangle Match: Yuka Shiina vs. Saya Endo vs. Tanny Mouse. Wow, Neo is off to a really lackluster start with this very bland match between women who weren't good or over. The first portion was Shiina vs. Saya. Saya looks the same as always, while Shiina has a fairly glamorous shiny white skimpy two piece. With this outfit, I suppose Shiina might be considered the "idol wrestler" of the promotion. If so, they are really in trouble. This match was very slow paced, short, and had little build. Saya controlled the first half with all kinds of basic heel tactics and matwork. The heel tactics didn't get heat and the matwork was indiscriminate, with Saya switching between working Shiina's knee with the giant support to working the knee with the regular old knee pad for seemingly no reason. The best spot of the match, due to the speed of the counter, was Shiina turning Saya's swinging neckbreaker into a backslide. Shiina didn't hook her tilt-a-whirl headscissors in right, but Saya covered it well. She then went to the top, but Saya dropkicked her in midair. Saya followed with her guillotine leg drop, but she pulled Shiina up just before three. She whipped Shiina into the ropes, but Shiina caught her with a sloppy huracanrana for the win. I don't understand why they would have Saya lose to Shiina when Cachorras are getting such a push and Saya needs credibility to get over as a legitimate member. The way Saya lost was fine though because she "had Shiina beat" and then got caught for the flash pin. These two may not be good, but they are capable of a lot better than this. 8:53. *

Yuka Shiina vs. Tanny Mouse. This was obviously even worse than the last match as Tanny is as bad as they come. Tanny has orange hair now, but the hideous tale remains a staple. She has added a couple moves, but you can still count her moves with your fingers. Tanny was in the ring attacking Shiina as soon as Saya was pinned. She rolled Shiina to the floor and did just about the worst attempt at diving over the top rope for a plancha I've ever seen. Even with an added boost from the top rope, both her legs still hit the apron. Pound for pound, Tanny has to be the worst athlete of the women's wrestlers in Japan. She has no speed or quickness and jumps like she has weights in her boots. Tanny used a bridging double arm suplex, which Shiina tried to kick out of by hitting Tanny in the stomach, except she was "just a bit outside." Luckily, by swinging her arm at Tanny, her shoulder came off the mat. Shiina made a comeback at 4:00 with her missile kick, but Tanny avoided her diving press and launched a Tannybutt fest. Shiina countered one of the Tannybutts with a facecrusher for a near fall. Tanny got a near fall with a diving senton then did a nice released German suplex, but Shiina came back with a clubbing type jumping lariat. Shiina then did the same style lariat off the top rope, which appears to be her new finisher, for the win. Luckily, that meant two straight falls for Shiina, so we didn't have to see her in yet another weak match. Shiina is too old to be having these kind of turds back to back, especially when Tanny actually didn't ruin the match by using nothing but Tanny butts. 6:01. 3/4*

Chaparita ASARI vs. Yoshiko Tamura. Tamura continues to improve. Her ring work is better and she's added some nice new spots. ASARI's ring work remains stagnant, but her look is entirely different. Her hair is short and thick now, and she dyed it brown with a patch of this really fake red color. She gained weight, which should be good, but it seems to be all in the butt and thighs. She also has a new white outfit, although other than the color it's much the same as her previous attire. This match surprisingly built slowly. They tried to work a solid match, and they succeeded to whatever extent you can when the matwork doesn't have much meaning. Nothing really notable happened in the first 8 minutes. ASARI tried a series of her Londart kicks (whip into the corner and roundoff kick), but Tamura kicked her on the second one and began focusing on ASARI's knee. ASARI tried to comeback with her huracan rana from the corner, but Tamura rolled through into a pin of her own and maintained control with her new Ace crusher. ASARI countered Tamura's second Ace crusher, but Tamura cut her off on the 2nd rope and rolled out her new Ace crusher off the 2nd for a near fall. Tamura went to the top, but ASARI kicked her to the floor and followed with a great plancha. ASARI got a near fall with a Northern Light suplex and set up her sky twister press, but Tamura German suplexed her off the 2nd. Tamura got a near fall with her double wrist arm sault finisher. Since that wasn't enough for the win, she rolled out a new nadare shiki no double wrist arm sault (double wrist arm sault off the top rope), but ASARI still kicked out. Tamura then went to the top, but after taking the more deadly version of Tamura's best hold, ASARI came right back with her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner then hit her sky twister press for the win. Finish was exciting if you like the Koji Kanemoto vs. El Samurai level of selling and logic. The new holds by Tamura were nice and made for a good match, but ASARI didn't put them over enough and they weren't the finish, so they were relegated pedestrian way too soon. Work was good, but the match lacked direction or focus, as is typically the case with an ASARI singles match. Both could work a lot better and more complete match, but only Tamura seems to have the desire to. 14:56. **1/2

Kyoko Inoue vs. Misae Genki. This was a surprisingly good match, which turned out to be the best on the first two Neo shows. I can't believe I'm typing this, but Genki has gotten a lot better. She filled out, so now she has a solid frame to do her power moves. Her offense is far from flashy, but it's no longer arcane. She has a new outfit, a maroon two-piece with a white stripe down the side now. This match was mainly Genki pushing Kyoko to get credibility. It worked to an extent, but not as well as it should have. The problem is that Genki has the personality of a doormat, so it's hard for the fans to get behind her. This was a traditional style bout. What I liked about this match was that Kyoko made sure they both worked to get their holds off, which gave the moves more meaning when they were finally performed. Instead of Genki trying to play even with the veteran top star, Kyoko tried to keep Genki in check. Rather than do transitions through countering a spot, Kyoko often brought it to a stalemate. For instance, she held Genki in a headlock when Genki was trying to backdrop her. From here one of them would gain the advantage and get a move off, which would allow them to take the offensive and quickly get the next hold off. In that regard, it was much like some of the old wrestling video games for Nintendo. They started with a simple lock up, which Genki won by walking Kyoko to the ropes then slapping her. They went back to the lockup with Kyoko walking Genki into the ropes this time. Kyoko broke cleanly, but Genki popped the crowd by slapping her in the face again. This slap also pissed off Kyoko, so she started taking it to Genki. They fought over who could get a verticle suplex, with Genki eventually getting hers off then dodging Kyoko's lariat and backdropping her. They went back to struggling for the offensive from the verticle suplex position. Genki eventually won this by body slamming Kyoko, which allowed her to quickly execute some more spots. Kyoko came back with her lariats, and got the crowd into the match with her corny shake. She tried to apply la tapatia (Romero special or inverted surfboard), but Genki held Kyoko off for a long time by refusing to give Kyoko her arms. Eventually, Kyoko did get her up in la tapatia though. Kyoko tried her lariats against the ropes, but Genki back body dropped her to the floor and debuted her pescado. Genki tried to suplex Kyoko off her shoulders. Kyoko stopped it twice, but eventually Genki got it off for a near fall. Genki hit her nodowa otoshi (chokeslam), which appears to be her finisher now. Kyoko ducked Genki's second nodowa otoshi attempt and tried her lariat, but Genki ducked that and did a nodowa otoshi off the 2nd after she cut Kyoko's springboard reverse elbow. Genki tried her backdrop, but Kyoko stalemated her with a headlock then got to the ropes. However, instead of giving Kyoko a clean break, Genki gave her two backdrops. Kyoko hit another lariat, but Genki kicked out for a good sized pop. Kyoko tried her Niagara driver, but Genki switched it and small packaged Kyoko for a near fall. Genki whipped Kyoko into the ropes, but Kyoko decapitated her with her lariat then Niagara drivered her for the win. Smart match because it increased Genki's credibility without being tolling on Kyoko, who still had two more matches to work. Genki pushed Kyoko enough that you would want to see a rematch, and there is still plenty of room for her to gain with a loss. 14:07. ***1/4

Las Cachorras Orientales (Shimoda & Mita) vs. Kyoko Inoue & Tanny Mouse. This was the typical Cachorras mayhem. Tanny was incredibly annoying. Cachorras didn't just punk Tanny. They kicked her ass with all kinds of weapons. It was great, but Tanny's comebacks were so incredibly stupid. Instead of either getting away from the bullies and tagging or standing up to them, she made a mockery of the match with her bad comedy and did a bunch of Tanny butts despite her head being busted open. Kyoko didn't log much ring time because she still had another match to work. Cachorras were really over, getting tons of streamers thrown in for them while Tanny appeared to not get a single one. Gotta love the Japanese fans. Tanny was afraid of the heels before the match. However, after they kicked her ass from the opening bell on, she suddenly became a happy-go-lucky joker. Tanny's work looked lame because she's such a poor athlete. Nothing could look lamer than the bump she took to the floor when Mita avoided a double Tanny butt. Kyoko's bump was conservative enough, but Tanny basically stepped through the ropes onto the apron then stepped off the apron onto the floor. Cachorras followed with their regular dives then brawled all over the arena. The highlight of this was Shimoda doing a new version of her ladder drop where she jumped off a ledge on the fall. Shimoda took Kyoko out by ramming her into a wall in the hallway then Mita piledrove Tanny through a table. Cachorras worked over Kyoko for several minutes until she finally hot tagged Tanny, who did a few Tanny butts with her bloody head before getting cut off. Cachorras could have beaten Tanny at any time, but they would rather punish her. Shimoda tried to open Tanny's cut up more, but Tanny bit her and made the hot tag to Kyoko. Tanny tagged back in before the 13:00 mark and tried some more Tanny butts on Mita, as she had apparently reverted back to her Tanny butt or bust offense. Tanny's head crashed into the turnbuckle hard when Mita avoided that Tanny butt, then Mita stomped on Tanny. Tanny eventually came back with you know what. Her comebacks were just horrendous. She didn't sell the previous damage one bit. Instead, she did that lame mouse dance or whatever you want to call that garbage she does when she's fired up to do some more Tanny butts. After coming back from a fierce beating with three Tanny butts, I guess she suddenly thinks she's Kind Mouse? She tried another Tanny butt, but Mita moved and left a chair in her spot for Tanny to land on. This was actually the highlight of the match because it put the stiff who was being goofy back in her place. Kyoko saved Tanny from Mita's Death Valley bomb and tagged in. She did some lariats to Mita, but Shimoda cut her off when she tried to bound the ropes and, after a really long setup, Mita suplexed Kyoko off the 2nd for a near fall. The work picked up considerably with Kyoko in, highlighted by Kyoko turning Las Cachorras double suplex into a DDT. Kyoko tried her finishers, but she was double teamed. She got some revenge later by lariating a wide-open Shimoda, who was blocking Tanny's gutwrench suplex. Tanny tried a sky high Tanny rocket (diving headbutt), but it was more of a weak hit with her hand. Why someone who jumps as low as Tanny would try a sky high move off the 2nd, especially when the wrestler holding the opposition up and the opposition herself are much taller than she is, is beyond me. Finish saw Shimoda nadare shiki no double arm suplex Tanny for a near fall. Mita took Kyoko out with a Death Valley bomb that was weak because Kyoko is so big that even Mita sometimes has trouble lifting her. Shimoda hit her death lake drive (released Tiger suplex off the 2nd), but Tanny managed to get her foot on the ropes. With Kyoko still down, Mita powerbombed Tanny and Shimoda moonsaulted her for the win. Match dragged because of the Tanny overload. Actually, I'd say it was basically ruined by Tanny's bad work, bad selling, stupid antics, and nonexistent move set. Kyoko was also disappointing though, as she didn't work as well with Cachorras as she used to. 18:38 (though my VCR comes up with 20:22 each time). **1/4

Las Cachorras Orientales (Shimoda & Mita & Saya) vs. Kyoko & ASARI & Tamura. This was basically an AJW spot show main event. They just concentrated on ring work, so the match went along for 20 minutes with no real storyline or psychology. ASARI's stuff plays better in this type of match because she can do her spots and tag out. On the other hand, Tamura's stuff doesn't play that well in this setting because she doesn't have any glamourous or over spots and her matwork is kind of useless because no one else is interested in doing it. As expected, Las Cachorras did lots of double and triple teaming. They worked over Kyoko's leg, but she came back when Saya tagged in. ASARI did her spots to Saya, and Kyoko's team did a little triple teaming of their own. Mita Boston crabbed ASARI and Shimoda put a chair over ASARI's head, leaving ASARI wide open for Saya to get some revenge by dropkicking her in the head. Kyoko's team surprisingly initiated the brawling on the floor. Tamura & Saya worked a good sequence together, but Shimoda & Mita stopped it when Tamura got the advantage and took the opportunity to triple team her. Tamura came back catching Shimoda in a hiza-juji gatame (knee cross scissors), but Shimoda got a rope escape. ASARI tried to get all fancy with Shimoda, doing a backflip after she countered Shimoda's whip into the corner, so Shimoda hit her with a chair. ASARI came back with her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner to Shimoda, but a bloody Mita broke up the pin with a chair. Shimoda tried her death lake drive, but ASARI landed on top for a near fall. Cachorras did consecutive dives to the entire opposition. Saya's dive is Shimoda catapulting her onto the top for a plancha, while Mita's dive was over the top rope today and she hit the opposition with her back instead of her chest/stomach. Shimoda & Mita double powerbombed Kyoko off the 2nd, but ASARI got around Shimoda to make the save. Shimoda held ASARI down and Mita perfectly executed her Death Valley bomb to Kyoko, but Kyoko just kicked out. Mita tried another Death Valley bomb, but Kyoko slipped out and came back with a released German suplex. Kyoko fired up and delivered her finishers, lariat and Niagara driver, back to back, but unlike Genki earlier, this was not enough to beat Mita because she had Shimoda to make the save. Shimoda chaired Kyoko then put the chair down so Mita could Death Valley bomb Kyoko on the chair. Mita chose not to go for the pin, instead opting to deliver a regular Death Valley bomb. 1...2...3! Kyoko down! Thus, Cachorras won both of their matches, defeating the top stars team both times and even pinning her once. This takes some of the focus of Neo being the Kyoko league and establishes Shimoda & Mita as key players on her level. This is good booking because Kyoko needs opponents. Her losses also don't hurt her because the first loss was due to having an inferior partner and the second loss came after she had logged roughly 50 minutes of ringtime. 21:51. ***

You could really say this was a good show or a bad show depending on your perspective. If you want to say it was a good show then you can point to Tamura improving and having a pretty good match with the sliding ASARI, Kyoko vs. Genki being far better than one would have thought it had the right to be and showing Genki has improved and is a future star, and Cachorras matches giving career tag wrestlers credibility on the level of a former AJW Triple Crown champion. If you want to say it was a bad show you can point to anything Tanny Mouse touched, that ASARI and Kyoko continue to unimprove, and complain that Shiina is about as old as Toyota, Hikari, Ito, and Tomoko Watanabe, yet just never gets good. The main thing you can say though is the show was bush league because everyone wrestled far longer than they should, and in many cases than they are capable of. Overall, I would say it's not too promising. They had their chance to try to introduce the youngsters as something new or different, but they basically kept them as the same bunch that the fans didn't care much about when they were in AJW. Neo seems to be thinking very shortsighted in everything they do, and appear to be a league that will fold once Kyoko retires, if they even last that long. What is obvious from this show, whether you liked it or not, is that Neo, even more so than the other women's promotions, is really really lacking in depth. Having everyone log so much ringtime, while in a way it showed the group cares for their fans because they were trying really hard to supply an entertaining product, only magnifies the many liabilities of the youngsters and makes it more obvious that Kyoko is a shell of her former self.

Neo Japan Ladies Seven Chocolates Commercial Tape 2/15/98 Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gym

This was Neo's second show, and their biggest to date. Neo doesn't have the kind of talent to run a 7,000+ seat arena, so they had to get all kinds of help. Even with the help of JWP and Jd', they only drew 3,135. In their defense, it was a tough day to draw because New Japan was running Tokyo Budokan Hall and All Japan & LLPW both had shows in Tokyo Korakuen Hall. Given the booking concessions they had to make to not even fill the building to ½ capacity, this show would have to be deemed a failure. On top of that, the matches themselves were generally disappointing.

Saya Endo vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori (Jd'). This match was just a backdrop for the angle where Lioness, Shark, & co. run in to set up the main event of the 3/8 Jd' show at Yokohama Bunka Gym. Saya looked good here and carried the match. The Goddess seemed to be wrestling at ½ speed and her execution was subpar. Shiratori jumped Saya and whipped her into the guard rail, but Saya reversed a subsequent whip into the guard rail and came back with her own and some chair shots. In the ring, they did all their high spots for near falls. They were going short, and neither have a lot to lead to their spots, so just doing the spots made it an exciting match. Saya hit her guillotine leg drop then did another one with a chair on Shiratori, but as she covered The Bloody ran in and broke the count. Right behind Bloody was Ryuna, Fang Suzuki, Lioness Asuka, & Shark Tsuchiya. They weren't there to help The Goddess. They were there to beat up her and mainly Las Cachorras. Shimoda & Mita hit the ring, but they never got started. They got beat on by Lioness with a chain and Shark with her barbed wire rod. Lioness used the chain to tie Shimoda & Mita to the ropes, while Shark cut Mita with the barbed wire. Lioness held Saya in the corner and Shark cut her with the barbed wore as well. The ref eventually called for the bell, ruling the match a no contest. The heels all left, so Shiratori was able to free Shimoda & Mita, who ran and caught up to Shark only to get laid out again. During the press conference, The Goddess tried to give a very bloody Saya a towel to wipe her face with, but Saya threw it back at her. 11:43 (8:32 shown). *1/4

Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Yuka Shiina vs. Tomoko Kuzumi (JWP). This was a decent match, but it pales in comparison to what Kuzumi does in JWP. You could say that it should pale in comparison, given that she is so familiar with those youngsters, but given her opposition here, there is no reason to think it would get much better if they were programmed with each other. It was painfully obvious that Shiina isn't close to Kuzumi's level. Kuzumi worked pretty basic with her, no complicated sequences or super fast transitions. Kuzumi attacked Shiina's bad knee for a while then Shiina made a huge comeback where she was running as fast as she could hitting diving lariats and whatnot as if she was in perfect health. Shiina tried a plancha, but Kuzumi knocked her off the top to the floor then took out three people with her swandive plancha, although Shiina wasn't one of them because she avoided the move. Kuzumi was more solid than I can ever recall, and of course she looked really crisp on her execution. She went back to the attack on Shiina's knee. Once again, Shiina made a terrible comeback where she was in perfect health hitting her missile kicks for a near fall. Kuzumi tried to cut Shiina off on the top, but Shiina did a sloppy sunset flip for a near fall. Kuzumi tried a German suplex, but Shiina turned it into a bodyscissor victory roll for a near fall. Kuzumi hit locomotion German suplexes, but Shiina bridged out. Shiina tried to fight off Kuzumi's nadare shiki no double arm suplex finisher, but Kuzumi eventually got it for the win. Kuzumi is just getting better and better, while Shiina is getting passed by most women who are five years younger. 13:23 (9:31 shown). **1/2

Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Tanny Mouse vs. Kanako Motoya (JWP). This match wasn't good at all. Tanny is just terrible. It's depressing that women's wrestling has fallen to the level that someone this useless can a career out of wrestling. Motoya is too young to be this incredibly attractive and too incredibly attractive to be this good a worker. However, her back was hurting her, and she looked to be in a lot of pain. It seemed to get progressively worse as the match went on to the point that she stopped taking bumps on her back. It opened slow with Motoya really holding back so Tanny wouldn't get lost or embarrass herself. Still, Tanny was screwing up Motoya's executions of the spots. Tanny just did a bunch of Tanny butts. Motoya did a back body drop into a bridge that seemed to either injure or worsened the condition of her back. She followed with her series of sentons, but she came up grimacing. She gave Tanny a German suplex, but she couldn't do the bridge because of her back. She did her double wrist arm sault for a near fall fine, but came up in pain. Tanny got a near fall with a nadare shiki no brainbuster and German suplex. She set up her Tanny rocket, but Motoya was slow getting up so Tanny yelled at her. Tanny got a near fall with her Tanny rocket. Tanny did a terrible "double arm piledriver," dropping Motoya on top of her, for the win. Even though I know Neo has to get some wins, and they already are conceding a lot to JWP, this result still makes me want to hurl. Just plain bad. Probably the worst singles match of Motoya's career. DUD.

Neo Ladies vs. JWP Singles 3 x 3: Misae Genki vs. Tomoko Miyaguchi. This was a good solid match, and the only one on this tape that was better than it should have been. Miyaguchi had a strong performance carrying Genki, but Genki deserves credit for finally becoming carryable. Genki tried to no sell, so Miyaguchi planted her on her head with a DDT. There was a lot of matwork that was just wear down, but they put enough effort into working the holds that it looked like they had some meaning. Genki worked on Miyaguchi's back to set up her power moves. The execution generally was quite good. Miyaguchi came back with her airplane spin. However, Genki slipped out before Miyaguchi could blockbuster her, and did an airplane spin of her own. Genki knocked Miyaguchi to the floor and did a plancha. Genki fought off a German suplex for a while, but Miyaguchi eventually hit it for a 2 3/4 count. Genki came back turning Miyaguchi's lariat into a backdrop, which looked fairly good, but could be improved a lot. Genki tried her nodowa otoshi, but Miyaguchi turned it into her waki-gatame. Miyaguchi missed a diving body press, allowing Genki to finally get her nodowa otoshi off for a near fall. Genki went to the top, but Miyaguchi cut her off with her nadare shiki no blockbuster finisher. However, Genki was close enough to the ropes that she was able to get her foot on them in time. Genki came back with her backdrop and both sold, but Genki recovered first and made it over to Miyaguchi to cover her for a near fall. They struggled to their feet, with Miyaguchi fighting with Genki to climb up the ropes. Genki finally cut her off with her nodowa otoshi off the 2nd for the win. Thus, Neo Ladies won the series 2-1. JWP had been dominating Neo in singles, so winning this series was a little retribution. However, when all is said and done, JWP got a lot more out of this show than Neo did. 17:49 (12:41 shown). ***

Chaparita ASARI vs. Jaguar Yokota. This was really disappointing. It further magnifies the mediocrity of ASARI. This was no better than Jaguar's singles matches with Yuki Lee and Esther Moreno, and those two just plain suck. ASARI apparently has been dining with Kyoko too often, and the extra pounds are weighing her down and slowing her up. This was a good match, but it was just an exhibition of spots with no real substance to them. Jaguar has been so excellent of late that I expect more from her than this. Maybe she overestimated ASARI though because Jaguar can do this weak style and still make it really impressive because she is still a really good worker. The match started hot with lots of cool spots, died in the middle because ASARI has nothing on the mat, then got hot again with great spots for the finish. The work was good, but the match really lacked heat. No one gave ASARI a chance to win, and nothing was done in the early portion to change their minds. It was basically a "big deal" that ASARI could compete with Jaguar. This probably should be a big deal, but that generally isn't the way Jaguar's matches against the lower ranked women in Jd' are booked. Because Jaguar puts her own youngsters over more, this didn't elevate ASARI a bit. Basically, this was bad AJW booking. The thinking is that ASARI will get over because she is in a "special match" with a big star, but because of the way the thing is booked, she's lucky to come out looking second class. Most of the highlights came in the final five minutes, when the match got hot with several cool headscissor variations. Jaguar tried her double arm piledriver, but ASARI backslided her for a near fall. ASARI got near falls with her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner and a Northern Light suplex. Jaguar made a comeback, but ASARI dropkicked her to the floor when Jaguar tried a springboard move then followed with a plancha. ASARI hit her sky twister press for a fairly big pop, but Jaguar got her foot on the ropes. ASARI tried it again, but Jaguar avoided and came back with her great cross-arm German suplex for a near fall. Jaguar hit her shuttle loop buster (back superplex flipping your opponent 180 degrees in the air, which was the old Dan Kroffat finisher) then moonsault pressed ASARI for the win. Jaguar didn't put that much into this match, and ASARI doesn't try to do anything but cool spots. The selling was pretty weak, but the storyline of ASARI pushing Jaguar was far weaker. 13:09 (12:39 shown). ***

Handicap Elimination Match: Las Cachorras Orientales (Shimoda & Mita) vs. ASARI & Shiina & Genki & Tanny. If anyone wants to add Most Pointless Puroresu Match of the Year to the year-end awards, this would be your leading candidate. This booking had clueless AJW scribes written all over it. This was a "special" match because all that was announced was Cachorras would be picking their mystery opponents. The only thing that was special about it though is that the whole concept appeared to be thought up in a Special Ed class. Neo has 3 stars, Kyoko, Shimoda, and Mita. They aren't going anywhere unless some of their youngsters can be added to that group of stars, and people will pay to see them against the other three. So, Neo concedes a bunch of matches to JWP, but they get two good wins back for their youngsters on the big show. Given Neo's leverage, and the fact that their youngsters aren't fit to lace JWP's youngsters boots, this isn't a bad plan for them. This match kills it all though. You are never going to have a better chance to elevate one of these 4 youngsters then you had here. There are twice as many youngsters here as Cachorras, so Cachorras have a great out for jobbing. Cachorras don't even have to lose the match. All Neo has to do here is pick the youngster they want to push and have either Shimoda or Mita lay down for her. You'd have an instant star, a point to the match, and a reason for future matches between Cachorras and that youngster. Instead, whatever bump Tanny & Genki got from winning their undercard matches is immediately thrown out the window by nearly 32 minutes of reminding the crowd that all four of these youngsters are jobbers who can't compete with the established stars. Shimoda & Mita carried the youngsters well above their ability, but all the while we were reminded that the youngsters were inconsequential jobbers, so does it even matter? The Goddess was in Cachorras corner, but unlike Saya, she showed no Desire to help them out. It wasn't like they needed any divine intervention anyway. All kinds of double and triple and quadruple teaming here. The youngsters jumped Cachorras while they were trying to get the streamers out of the ring and brawled to the floor using chairs and whatnot. Two of the youngsters were good enough to control one Cachorras, but they were no match when it was 1 on 1. I know I'm harping on this, but Tanny Mouse is so unathletic that the spot where she ducked a Cachorras double chair didn't even look good. ASARI & Shiina each missile kicked a Cachorras and put them in the figure 4 then Genki and Tanny ran off the ropes and did their signature spot from that setup, elbow drop and Tanny butt respectively. What was funny about this is that they accidentally collided when they were running off the ropes. All 4 youngsters simultaneously did Tanny's whole arsenal of Tanny butts. Mita ducked Tanny & Genki's double lariat then hit her blazing chop and powerbomb on Tanny to pin her at 11:51. Yeah, that win over Motoya earlier really did Tanny a lot of good. ASARI saved Shiina twice, but Shimoda took her and Genki out with a chair while Mita powerbombed Shiina. Shimoda then moonsaulted Shiina for the pin at 13:32. Since ASARI & Genki couldn't do any real damage when they had two partners, the match for all intents and purposes was already over. Simply put, nothing said that they had any real chance of a pin, much less winning the match. Shimoda & Mita brawled through the crowd destroying ASARI & Genki. Shimoda's new spot was setting the guard rail up against the concession stand then doing her guard rail drop onto ASARI & Genki. Genki started doing well against Shimoda, so Mita came in and stiffed her with a chair. ASARI had a brief hot sequence against Cachorras, but she never came close to a pin and Shimoda put her away at 25:17 by rolling through on her nadare shiki no Frankensteiner. Genki came in and gave her nodowa otoshi to both opponents, but then they started teaming up on her and that was about the end of the line. Saya held Genki while Shimoda & Mita did their dives. Mita piledrove Genki through a table then broke a chair over her head. Shimoda hit her death lake drive then Mita Death Valley bombed Genki for the win. Long glorified squash. Even though the work was good and fundamentally sound, the match was dull because it wasn't competitive. There was no heat at all, so I wasn't the only one that was bored. After the match, Bischoff scolded ASARI, Shiina, Genki, and Tanny for not "putting asses in the seats." 31:43. *1/2

Kyoko Inoue vs. Hikari Fukuoka (JWP). Yet another disappointing match. I thought these two could have a **** match, so I wasn't even in the ballpark. Maybe it's me, but it seems like there is something wrong when Hikari can have a **** title defense against the immensely annoying Commando "The damn clown" Bolshoi on 9/20/97, yet only do *** with a former top 10 worker like Kyoko. Hikari looked good, so a lot of the blame has to fall on Kyoko. This was a solid match, but it wasn't that spectacular, especially for a Hikari match. It was too simply booked for the event. There weren't enough false finishes. The heat and drama were still the best on the show, but nothing tremendous for a big show main event. The selling was also the best on the show. The early portion was fairly dull, and the match never heated up to the expected level. Kyoko used la tapatia early, but Hikari quickly used a counter I've never seen before where she did a forward roll out of it. Fukuoka then tried a tapatia of her own, making fun of Kyoko by imitating her little dance, but Kyoko weighs too much for Hikari to get her up. Kyoko & Hikari exchanged Mongolian chops until Kyoko put Hikari down with a lariat and took control. There was entirely too much submission work that didn't go anywhere. It killed the crowd. Fukuoka switched a suplex and did a fast rolling cradle for a near fall then a rolling block off the apron. Fukuoka tried her Tiger driver on two different occasions, but Kyoko blocked and came back with her lariats for a near fall. Kyoko hit a missile kick then went for another, but Fukuoka cut her off with a nadare shiki no brainbuster. Fukuoka went for her moonsault, but Kyoko did a released German suplex off the 2nd, which Hikari took a really good bump on. Kyoko tried her Niagara driver, but Hikari kicked her on the way up then executed a released German suplex. Hikari delivered her moonsault, but Kyoko kicked out immediately and "Hulked up." Kyoko came back with her lariat. Hikari slipped out of Kyoko's Niagara driver and ducked her lariat, but Kyoko caught her in the air with a Liger bomb for a near fall. Hikari pushed Kyoko to the floor when she tried to climb up the ropes then hit her Orihara moonsault. Hikari hit her moonsault footstomp just after the 16:00 mark, but Kyoko lifted her shoulder at 2 1/2. Kyoko rolled out of the way of the second moonsault footstomp, but Kyoko was still hurt too hurt from the first one to get up. Hikari pulled Kyoko up and whipped her into the ropes, but Kyoko decapitated her with a lariat that Hikari took a nice flip bump on. Kyoko crawled over for the cover, but Hikari raised her shoulder at 2 3/4 and both sold for a long time. Kyoko, gasping for air, got up first and set up her lariat while holding her injured tummy. Finally, Hikari got up and Kyoko caught her with a lariat for a near fall. Kyoko immediately tried her Niagara driver, but Hikari sloppily rolled into a sunset flip for a near fall. Hikari hit her rider kick (somersault double kick off the top) then moonsault footstomped Kyoko for the win. 19:18. ***

If you break this show down, it certainly wasn't successful for Neo. JWP and Neo split their four interpromotional matches, but JWP got the important wins. Their champ got her first win over Kyoko and their best youngster didn't have to put over a Neo stiff. Jd' went 1-0-1 vs. Neo, and the draw set up their big show main event the next month that drew more fans than this show. That 3/8/98 Jd' show was also far better booked, but I'll have to get into that in the next column. Neo got two good wins, the wins over Miyaguchi and Motoya, but threw them out the window by having Tanny & Genki immediately job to Cachorras. Luckily, things in ARSION look more promising.

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

I really liked this tape. ARSION only has a few workers and they don't have any names or draws other than Aja Kong. This league had all the makings of an Aja or bust league, kind of like LLPW is a Kandori or bust league. With Aja having so much control, she could easily have used this league to feed her ego. Instead, she totally took a back seat to the other six natives. That ARSION didn't devote any time or energy to pushing Aja was a surprising, but smart move. At this point, it's doubtful that Aja will get over any more than she currently is, so it's better to spend the time on those with more upside. Aja can do all her talking with inside the ring anyway. The only push Aja got before the show was being named License Number 1. The License Number appears to be what they call your rank. Thus, Aja is considered the best and debuting Jesse Bennett is considered the worst.

ARSION is clearly in it for the long haul. Instead of pushing a couple wrestlers, they are trying to push them all. They pretty much all have a new look and new style. Since they started everyone's make-over from day 1, it has a chance of working. They are establishing that these women are people you should care about now, rather than making the same mistake as Neo and saying they meant little in AJW so they should mean little here.

If ARSION is guilty of anything, it's pushing the natives too hard. They are clearly trying to get attention for them. The tape opens with still pictures of every native but Aja. What's eye catching about this is that they don't have any tops on, though their arms are crossed so you can't see anything. Pushing the looks of Yummy Yumi isn't hard, but they are stretching it more than a little bit by trying to make Futagami out to be a babe. I thought Mariko Yoshida was unredeemable, but now I'm getting E-mails raving about how hot she looks in the new Lady Gong, so they must be working wonders with these make-overs of people's images. The first half hour of the tape is devoted to the formation of the league, but it mainly seems to be there to show the different training these women are doing to go about becoming new women who are now stars. For instance, Fukawa & Tamada went to Mexico and were taught some Lucha from the god known as Ultimo Dragon. Unlike the bare bones production of Neo, ARSION sprang for a light show, which they used during the really long introduction of their wrestlers. Again, it was a bit much for opening card wrestlers to come out to a light show, but it shows that they are all stars no matter where they are working on the card. Ayako Hamada, who looks incredibly mature for her age, was even introduced in the light show, and she was just a ring girl on this show. I can't say that the crowd bought it because they were pretty dead for the entire card, but they didn't exactly know what to expect either. ARSION seems to be a league you would want to work for because they don't play any favorites and try to make more of you than you are.

It's not easy to define the style of this group. Based on their debut show, I don't know if anyone really can. I'm not ever sure they know what direction they want to go in. Anyway, ARSION isn't a shoot style league or a ring work league. It's a combination of many styles to try to make a style that looks fresh. It seems to be the closest to Battlarts, and Battlarts president Yuki Ishikawa does make an appearance on the tape, but it's even more loosely defined than the "shooting" that Ishikawa and company do. The first four matches are ground oriented with lots of submission holds, but ARSION is more concerned with being entertaining than looking realistic. The workers do work to their submissions better than most of the women in other leagues, but they really glitz up the transitions and application of the submission moves. Aside from the shoot style stuff, there are also elements of Lucha, mainly being pushed by Fukawa and Tamada. ARSION USA are the power wrestlers. If you want to talk about what they do within the context of a "shoot match," you could compare them to Vader in UWF-I, except they are lucky to have 1/100th the talent. Candy hasn't changed her style that much, so she still pushes JWP style exciting ring work. The main event was totally a workrate match, throwing out any parameters or definitions that you thought you could place on this group based on the first four matches. The main event was a very good match, but I thought it was too different from the first four matches. I think ARSION would be better off with some parameters because there is too much of a clash between shooting and ring work. I thought the first 4 matches made some strides in educating the fans that the style would be submission oriented. They seemed to show that there would be fewer high spots, but all the high spots would have more meaning. Then the main event came on and they rolled out ever finisher they know, so even though they were mainly broke by saves, it killed what they had tried to establish in the first four matches and lessened the impact of the high spots for future matches.

Since all the other groups have at least some relations with other women's leagues in Japan, I don't think it's a bad idea for ARSION to not do anything interpromotional. It means they are going to have to start out small, but it shows they are in it for the long haul. ARSION would be just like Neo Japan, a league with few big stars that would have little leverage with the other leagues. If they did interpromotional stuff, their wrestlers would have to trade wins with undercarders on the other leagues. It's hard for JWP to push Motoya when she's doing jobs to the likes of Tanny Mouse. Fukawa, Candy, Tamada, etc. would be in with wrestlers of the same rank. Maybe they would be in with a more talented young wrestler, but the match wouldn't "put asses in the seats" and trading wins with these women wouldn't elevate anyone who wrestled for ARSION on this card. So you can't blame them for saying the hell with it, especially given that they are so devoted to pushing their own wrestlers. ARSION set up a gym in the USA run by Reggie Bennett, and they are also booking women from Mexico. Right now both countries basically have no scene for women, and no talented women if there was a scene. However, if American women have a place to wrestle, you might get some more that will try out. It costs money to operate a gym, but you don't have much else to lose. You don't have to have your wrestlers jobbing to these outsiders if they suck, and eventually some pushable women, like the next Debbie Malenko, should turn up. Getting women from Mexico probably hasn't worked out well so far for ARSION, but obviously Neo liked the idea because they are now booking Mexican women too. If the interpromotional matches were drawing right now, I might think differently about ARSION's isolationist tactics, but based on the first show or two, ARSION has a lot more future than Neo because they have wrestlers who weren't big stars before that now look like something.

The First Memorial: Candy Okutsu (License Number 7) vs. Yumi Fukawa (License Number 6). I've been calling for Fukawa to be pushed for the last year and a half, but even I was caught off guard by how good this match was. Granted my expectations of what Candy could do were not high after seeing her final running matches. In particular, the mediocre one with Kuzumi because that one should be most like what she could do with Fukawa, except she's not familiar with working with Fukawa and Fukawa is no Kuzumi. I was hoping this match would at least be pretty good, but it was a hell of a lot better than that. It was the best singles match of Fukawa's career, and on par with the best stuff Candy has done with her JWP peers. Fukawa is like a new woman. She's got a more mature look. A super tight blue two-piece where the top is loosely laced in front replaces her old cutesy outfit. It's kind of like a fighting bikini, and my god is it an improvement because, well, it flaunts Fukawa's awesome body and makes me have to keep reminding myself that there's a wrestling match going on that I'm supposed to be reviewing. Her wrestling is almost 100% different. She basically scrapped her old move set and replaced it with submissions and Lucha. She also has a bit of an attitude now, as she got in Candy's face before the match. Fukawa was still giggly as ever in the events leading up to the debut show though. Candy looks much the same despite finally having a good outfit, a black two-piece with white lace. The difference is that her health really looks better. She didn't appear to be in pain and her athleticism was back to where it used to be. It was probably a good move to choose ARSION as the league she would come back in because their style, whatever it actually is, should be a bit less tolling on her bad back. The match started fast with straight Lucha, highlighted by a nice tilt-a-whirl headscissors that sent Candy to the floor so Fukawa could do some bizarre rolling block type move off the apron. Candy was the first to take it to the mat with a roll into a hiza-juji gatame that would have made Plum proud. Fukawa got a rope break then grabbed her knee to sell it. Candy stomped the knee then put Fukawa in a half crab, but Fukawa got another rope break. What made the work in this match so good was the speed and fluidity of the spots. There are sunset flips where one person jumps over their opponent, lands on their back, then the opponent kind of slowly falls down into the move. Here Candy does a sunset flip where she has a hold of Fukawa's legs well before her back hits the ground, and she snaps Fukawa, who goes down to her back super fast. A common spot can look great if it's done exceptionally well, and that was the case here. Candy caught Fukawa with a kneecap dropkick, then worked the knee with traditional submissions as well as one I've never seen before that was like a figure 4 double arm ceiling hold. Fukawa mounted Candy and spun into a juji gatame, but Candy kept her hands locked to block it. Fukawa tried for another juji gatame, but Candy lifted Fukawa up by the arms and slammed her hard, with Fukawa's head bouncing off the canvas. Candy started doing traditional wrestling offense with a missile kick. She tried her rolling German, but Fukawa rolled into a hiza-juji gatame. Fukawa tried to continue attacking the leg, but Candy put her in check with a bodyscissors. Candy switched that into a headscissors hoping to be able to take Fukawa's arm, which was inside the scissors, into a juji gatame, but Fukawa pulled Candy's legs apart and went into a hiza-juji gatame. They went back to wrestling, highlighted by an awesome, lightning fast German suplex near fall by Candy. Fukawa came back with the Rieko Amano jumping take down into the juji gatame, but it was so sudden and so perfectly done that it was the best I've ever seen that spot look, and that is a spot I'm particularly fond of. Fukawa went through all the typical arm submissions then did a Lionsault onto the arm that looked tremendous because she screwed up and landed with her boot in Candy's face. Candy appeared to be shaken up legit. The match was taken down because they stuck to the script and Candy came right back with well-executed high spots. She got a near fall with a moonsault, which is a new spot for her, and others with a cross arm German suplex and a brainbuster. Candy ran up the ropes and did a nadare shiki no brainbuster (superplex), with Fukawa's momentum almost taking her into a sitting position before she slowly fell back to the mat like she was out. Of course, she still managed to kick out. Fukawa made a quick comeback with under a minute left in the time limit, hitting a moonsault for a near fall and applying a juji gatame, but Candy made it to the ropes. She tried a flying huracan rana, but Candy caught her in the air and planted her with a Liger bomb, which both sold. Fukawa made one last attempt at the win with a take down into a juji gatame, but time expired immediately, though they actually went over by about five seconds. Candy sold her arm big after the match because Fukawa had her dead to rights when the bell saved her. Basically this was the best of Battlarts. The focus was on being exciting and entertaining, and it was certainly flashy. It was also solid, as they both had focused attacks. 15:00. ****

The 2nd Memorial: Mikiko Futagami (License # 3) vs. Jesse Bennett (ARSION USA License #9). Futagami's look was also reinvented. Now she is supposed to be the lethal technician. She's all business, coming to the ring with the hood on her robe on that covers her orange hair. Aside from being a bit shorter, Jesse is the spitting image of Reggie, which isn't a good thing. Futagami had a thunderous start, hitting a koppo kick and some shoutes, but Bennett ducked the running shoute and came back with a lariat. She caught Futagami off the ropes with a high impact Kojima spine bomb. This looked pretty dangerous because Futagami's head hit really hard, and Futagami seemed to be shaken up legit. Futagami got a near fall with a perfectly executed Northern Lights suplex, which was impressive given Bennett's size. Futagami threw some kicks until Bennett caught one and tried to roll into something but the spot didn't work. Bennett also did a wheel kick that looked really lame. Her Liger bomb and wheel barrel facecrusher for near falls were excellent though. These set up her guillotine leg drop, which Futagami avoided. Futagami then hit another koppo kick, but Bennett avoided and German suplexed Futagami. While Bennett was hoping to win with the German suplex, Futagami separated her arms and went into a V-1 armlock for the win. Cool finish, which educates the fans that the finish can come at any time. Futagami looked pretty sharp, but Bennett looked like what she is, a debuting wrestler. Bennett's is obviously limited now, but her power moves looked good enough to get her by for a while as she learns how to work and figures out what else she can do. I doubt she will ever be someone you would want going 15 minutes or move, but given her size, she could work out really well if she can get down 8 minutes of quality material. 4:54. *3/4

The 3rd Memorial: Aja Kong (License #1) vs. Michiko Omukai (License #5). This was a really well booked match. Aja is the first one to come out, further showing that she's giving the other wrestlers the spotlight. Aja looks the same as always, but Omukai got a hair cut and now wears a red two-piece that doesn't flaunt her very flauntable body. Omukai has a new attitude now. She's kind of like a female version of early 1990's Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. In other words, she stands up to anyone, no matter how much higher they are ranked or how much more experience they have than her. She was just begging Aja to punk her, and you knew Aja would be much obliged. If it wasn't for some of her kicks totally missing, I would be tempted to say Omukai was awesome in this match. She was not the better wrestler of the two by a long shot, and Aja clearly did a great job of carrying her, but impressed me so much because she played her role to perfection. Her facials were the best I've seen in women's wrestling in some time, and her attitude and reactions were also so perfect. Aja pissed Omukai off by not shaking her hand before the match, so Omukai slapped her hard across the face. Aja still refused the handshake, walking to her corner than flipping Omukai the bird. Omukai is a few inches taller than Aja, so even though Aja has a huge weight advantage, Omukai doesn't look out of place in the ring with her. What Aja has a big advantage in is credibility. Thus, the early portion of the match was designed to bridge that gap. Omukai had to prove she could both take Aja's shots and hurt Aja. Omukai's move set is very different now as well, as she is now mainly a kicker. She has come a long way in kicking in a short time, and I think you'll see her accuracy improve as she logs some more ring time. Aja kicked Omukai in the thigh, but Omukai just stared at her then slapped her own thigh to say "is that all you got?" Aja tried to shoot, but Omukai knocked her down with a hard kick to the chin. This proved Omukai could hurt Aja. Omukai was kicking Aja when she was down, and some of the shots were quite stiff, but others completely missed. Aja came back with strikes that were as stiff, if not stiffer, than what she does against Kansai. They were so stiff that Omukai soon had a welt on her leg. Aja's open hand strikes echoed through the hall. She was giving Omukai a hell of a beating, but Omukai wouldn't stay down. To show what kind of shape Omukai is in, she was doing bridges with Aja standing on her stomach. Aja mounted Omukai and relished the fact that Omukai couldn't get her off, celebrating by slapping the helpless Omukai across the face several times. Omukai finally blocked a slap and went into a juji gatame, but Aja locked her hands to block it then picked Omukai up and slammed her. Aja did her body press off the 2nd and her piledriver, but Omukai found it in her to break the cover. Omukai came back, getting a near fall with a German suplex. Aja stopped Omukai's double wrist arm sault with knee lifts, but Omukai ducked the uraken, put Aja down with a high kick, then hit the double wrist arm sault. One spot that looked bad was when they were in the corner. Omukai was pulling her kicks waiting for Aja to counter, and finally Aja back body dropped her onto the apron so Omukai could do her swandive wheel kick. Omukai tried a juji gatame again, but Aja got to the ropes before she could lock it in. Omukai worked for her Tiger suplex, but Aja fought it off and came back with her brainbuster, which both sold. Aja recovered first and tried her uraken, but Omukai kicked her in the arm and rolled into an outside cradle type maneuver for a near fall. Omukai tried a high kick, but Aja uraken'd her then went right into a choke sleeper. Omukai fought it off, but Aja put her out and the ref "had to" stop it and get in there really quick and break it up. Omukai was really good in the post match as well, attacking Aja when she regained consciousness to reestablish her never say die attitude. Aja took her out again by putting her back in the choke sleeper, and this time the ring doctor "had to" come in and examine Omukai. Aja set Omukai up and booted her in the back even though the doctor was there. Omukai still wouldn't give up though, and as soon as she was "able to" get up, she attacked Aja again, but this time it was broken up. Aja has no real competition in this league, so it's important that she use her matches to set up reasons for people to challenge her. This match and the post match of the main event gave a reason for Omukai to challenge her again. Omukai wasn't that competitive, but that is ok. She definitely gained in the loss and there's plenty of room for her to look better in their rematches while still losing to Aja. The only problem with this match was that, like the previous matches, it lacked heat. It was nice to see Aja kicking people's ass again. She seemed to have a renewed vigor now that she's getting to do things her way. 12:27. ***3/4

The 4th Memorial: Rie Tamada (License Number 4) vs. Reggie Bennett (ARSION USA License #8). Tamada doesn't look good physically. Her bad knees are all bandaged up. She has also gained weight, so now she lacks body tone and looks rather soft. Bennett looks bigger than ever, which isn't good, especially considering her age. Tamada got buried in a ton of streamers, which was surprising given the lack of streamers those who wrestled before her had received. This match was pretty good because it wasn't done in AJW rings, where Tamada would have got squashed in less than 4 minutes. Bennett's strategy was basically to conserve energy. She let Tamada do the running around and try her flying moves, figuring she would catch Tamada in midair and squash her with a power move. Tamada's flying had some credibility within the context of this semi-shoot style, but she clearly doesn't have Jushin Thunder Liger vs. UWF-I ability to make you believe that this spot could really be done in a real match. Tamada didn't just show the Lucha she learned in Mexico. She had a ground game trying to win with a juji gatame. Tamada had the edge in the early portion, showing she was going to be competitive, but she couldn't lock in any submissions. The first big spot was Bennett standing up out of a juji gatame and slamming Tamada hard. Bennett then used her power to punish Tamada, including a quebradora (tilt-a-whirl backbreaker) that Tamada sold big. Tamada tried to come back with a climb up missile kick, but Bennett brushed away the second one and hit her ½ tilt-a- whirl powerslam for a near fall. Bennett tried another, but Tamada turned it into an arm drag. Tamada did a springboard Frankensteiner into a juji gatame that looked good as good as Bennett taking a bump on a Frankensteiner can look. Bennett made the ropes before Tamada could extend her arm. Bennett cut Tamada's flying move off, but Tamada grabbed her arm and rolled forward off the top into a juji gatame. Again, she couldn't straighten Reggie's arm. Bennett came back with a fall away slam for Tamada's diving cross body, and hit her big splash off the 2nd for a near fall. She tried her Reggie rack (torture rack), but Tamada turned it into a juji gatame, which was a really sweet counter. Tamada finally got the arm extended, but Reggie was right next to the rope and had no problem getting a rope break. Tamada fired up, but Bennett caught her with a nodowa then delivered a brutal jackknife that looked to "knock Tamada out." Bennett tried to end it with her Liger bomb, but Tamada found it in her to try to counter it with a huracanrana. However, Bennett showed that she is a Jerichoholic by sitting down into the lion tamer for the win. 7:25. **1/2

The 5th Memorial: Aja & Omukai & Fukawa vs. Futagami & Tamada & Candy. This match was 180 degrees opposite the other four. This was a total workrate based spot fest. Coming after the other four, this match was really exciting. The execution was somewhat spotty because the women made the cardinal mistake of trying spots they can't always hit, and the selling was poor, but the match was still impressive given everyone was doing things so much differently than they used to. I don't really get it though. The first four matches seemed to educate the audience that high spots are a big deal and the finish could come at any time. Then six of the same eight workers come out and do a match that burns through every spot in their arsenal in 12 minutes. There were tons of saves, but the importance of a lot of the spots was killed and I "have no reason" to get excited over a match with a few spots now. If they had a different batch of workers doing this style match in between the semi shooting stuff, like a Michinoku Pro 6 man as a change of pace, I could understand it. Granted Battlarts used to mix the Michinoku Pro guys into their matches and do more high spots when they were involved, but all those high spots didn't help Battlarts draw any fans and hurt when it came to anyone taking their fighters seriously. As a fan, knowing I can see very good "shoot style" and workrate style matches from the same people makes me like them better and have more interest in watching, but as someone who is trying to analyze if this will work, I think this match is detrimental to getting the style that 80% of the show was worked in over. Too many spots here to list. It was weird seeing Futagami's team do a triple flying headbutt after what had come earlier in the show, but the six dive sequence was even weirder. Futagami has the best gimmick of the bunch and if she can't succeed in it then she will never succeed. Fukawa did a bunch of flying, but her execution wasn't perfect. It seemed like she was working out the kinks as she was going along. Her quebrada came up a little short and she was very lucky it was covered or she would have cracked her head. Candy was totally at home in this style and looked as good as ever. Her and Aja were the highlights of the match. Aja gave her a killer dangerous backdrop and Candy put it over huge. Futagami pretty much kicked everyone's ass. Aja put her over selling her shots big, but then came back with a knee lift. Omukai looked worse here than she did against Aja, as her greenness in her new style was more apparent. It came down to Candy vs. Aja with Candy doing well, including getting her German suplex off. Aja came back with a spinning savate then Omukai gave Candy a swandive Destiny Hammer. Omukai held the others off while Aja powerbombed Candy and Fukawa moonsaulted her. Aja splashed Candy off the 2nd, but Futagami just made the save. After Futagami stumbled up the ropes and gave Fukawa a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner, Candy tried to come back and got a near fall on Fukawa with her German suplex. Candy wasted too much time though, and Fukawa came back with a not so fluid La Magistral for the win. Typically big post-match celebration by Fukawa after scoring the pin, with Omukai hugging her and both of them jumping up and down. Fukawa even began to cry. Omukai again petitioned for a rematch with Aja, but Aja did the equivalent of ini-mini-miny-mo between Omukai and Fukawa. She stopped on Omukai then started with the add on, ending up landing on Fukawa. Omukai was none too happy, and was crying in the locker room. 11:55. ***1/2

Based on what has happened so far, ARSION is certainly doing a better job of booking than Neo. I like what they did with their ARS tournament on 5/5. Bennett got put over big beating the top two natives in the promotions, Aja in the first round at just 2:03 and Yoshida in the semifinal. These were big wins by Bennett, and allowed her to look really strong even though she put Candy, who had defeated Fukawa & Tamada in the first two rounds, over in the final. I like the push for Candy because she is the best pure worker in the promotion. I like that a league, especially when they are somewhat of a "shoot" league, will push the smaller talented wrestler over the "monster gaijin." It seems to show the learned something from UWF-I's mistakes, even though Candy surely isn't over at the level that Kiyoshi Tamura or Masahito Kakihara were. Candy was the lowest ranked initially, probably because she was coming out of retirement, so this also shows that anyone is capable of winning and Candy is "back" now. Candy logging 39:23 of ring time in one night seems awfully questionable given her past history though. Candy will meet the winner of ARSION's Autumn tournament in December to decide the first Queen of ARSION.

Oz Academy Debut Show

The coolest of the cool, Mayumi Ozaki, is running her first show on 5/21 at Club Citta Kawasaki, which holds about 800 people. According to Nikkan Sports, the lineup is as follows:

Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs. Kyoko Inoue & Yoshiko Tamura

Rieko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs. Sonoko Kato

Dynamite Kansai vs. Sugar Sato

Mayumi Ozaki vs. X

It seems like kind of a weird show on paper, with Sonoko Kato apparently in a handicap match and Ozaki's opponent not even announced, but it has to be a good show because it is Ozaki's. Both of Sugar's matches could be really good. I think Sugar and Tamura will work really well together, and neither will waste the other's matwork. If Sato & Tamura were programmed together, it would not surprise me if Sugar could carry Tamura to her best singles match by their second meeting. Ozaki & Kyoko worked great together back in 1993 when they were noted for their speed and technique, but now the styles of both are so much different. Ozaki should still be able to ensure it is real good because for Kyoko it will be like working with a better version of Las Cachorras. I seem to get in trouble whenever I expect much from Kyoko these days, so who knows. I'm curious what the Sugar vs. Kansai match will look like. Normally Kansai would just punt the hell out of someone Sugar's age and it would be a big deal when they got some near falls on her. However, Sugar has been treated like a star for some time and she never jobs to anyone but Chigusa, so I think she will take it to Kansai as much as a veteran would before eventually jobbing. The downside of this show is that it's a small club and you have women working twice, so the matches might not be long enough.

Special Thanks to: Chris Zavisa & Hadi Motiee