Jetlag
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Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Lioness Asuke/Mariko Yoshida (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 7/29/01 Tokyo) LCO face their biggest challenge, maybe ever! This was a 30 minute draw and probably JIP for good reason. We get some basic LCO plunder brawling before they settle right into the finishing stretch. Yoshida was bleeding big which added something to her usual exchanges as she was pounding the heels angrily with her fists, and I actively liked everything involving Asuka, as she is so recklessly brutal and also not afraid to get smashed by LCO chairshots. As a result this was going good before Yoshida hits a nutso rope climbing dive as if she was her 1992 self again because why not? And instead of going for the win Asuka goes for another table spot. She got herself a custom made table, so she is using it, dammit! So the match is over and Shimoda gets the mic asking for the match to be restarted. That was a pretty poor idea considering Mita just got double stomped through a table. Another 4 minutes of bomb throwing and false finishes ensue and Yoshida picks up the win in a nice moment with a fucking rollup. To be fair the false finishes worked, and also did I mention you had Asuka spin kicking everyon e in the face like a madwoman. MAX Tournament Round 2 (8/12/01 Tokyo): 2. Lioness Asuka vs. Etsuko Mita A sprint. Bombs are thrown. Asuka kicks her in the face a bunch because that's all she does. Atleast it only toke one of her spin kicks to end the match. noki-A vs. Michiko Ohmukai AKINO in her goofy masked noki-A persona. JIP of a match that was only 11 minutes... they do some submission based stuff to keep things inoffensive before noki-A picks up the surprise win with a funny mexican stretch bomb. Mikiko Futagami vs. Mariko Yoshida JIP again. These two are counter-wrestlers each, so their matches are always interesting to watch. Some submission work on the ground before they settle into bomb throwing, with GAMI really throwing the bombs before securing a fast win. Ayako Hamada vs. Mima Shimoda Aaand it's another JIP bomb throwing match. Not much I can say here. There was some fast dodging and evading, and chairs came into play. Can't say these 1st round matches are worth checking out so far. Semi-Finals (8/12/01 Tokyo): 6. noki-A vs. Ayako Hamada This was their usual match... except kinda slow, and wooden, and not that good really? Weird how that can happen. Maybe Akino was inhibited by her mask. Lioness Asuka vs. Mikiko Futagami The funnest match of the tournament so far was, somehow, this. Turns out the trick is to hit Asuka with a paper fan. Asuka is totally game to go along with Futagami's bullshit and gets eyeraked and smacked in the face a bunch before the inevitable happens. Their moves were smooth and they never slowed down. FINAL (8/12/01 Tokyo): 8. Lioness Asuka vs. noki-A Aaaand I liked this a lot too. Basically Akino throws the kitchen sink at Asuka and busts out all these super-slick moves to keep her contained, while Asuka fires back with her usual stiff ass offense to bust her ass. Picture a shootstyle Rey Jr. vs. A shootstyle Psicosis... well maybe not like that, but noki-A was damn impressive. Could've used a slightly grander finish, but this slight noki-A push is giving me positive vibes. Let's hope there's more to come for the masked lady.
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This is in the RealHero archive if you go to the GAEA section. Great little match. Not shootstyle at all, closer to lucha/IWRG if you ask me, as both of them just try locking in nutty submissions in on eachother, in between trading unpredictable shoot headbutts and punches to the face. Amano as a quick on her bare feet maniac grappler using her hard head as a battering ram really is awesome. I also loved her counter to Yoshida's finisher which would later be made famous in a certain UFC bout. Amano's quickness and inventiveness here was great, and her style fit Yoshida's like a glove. Perfectly good bantamweight 11 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka match.
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So, this match. When I watched this for the Best 2000s Japan project, I thought this was pretty bad. Now that my mindset has grown and I'm not in the situation of watching and evaluating a gazillion mediocre 2000s puro matches in a short time period, I've made up a slightly more differentiated opinion. There is a ton of really good stuff going on here. In fact, I'd say for the first 25 minutes the match is very good. Solid matwork with some great holds displayed, and because they are going very long, they do a deliberate pace and build to their spots. Another positive is that they really don't make it obvious that they are going very long, always leaving the possibility on the table that the match could end now or atleast transition into the finish. After the 25 minute mark the match starts falling apart with a few hiccups, such a no-selling or a weak comeback here and there, but they always managed to do something that pulled me back in. Granted, some of the more Kurt Angle-ish spots here are also seen in more highly praised joshi bouts, so I guess big chunks of this come down to taste, and to their credit, many spots here are timed very well, and many sections (such as the work on the arm or back, or Tamura's long section of dominance where she tries to finish her opponent, creating a lot of tension) are done better than many other workers would have. Yoshiko Tamura looked pretty excellent, as she was very dominant, and she actually has the moveset to keep things compelling for such a long. Her elbow and knee combos were pretty great and had the feel of what Kawada or Misawa would do, I also really liked her chucking a chair at Hyuga to set up her big dive. She knew how to mix up her offense and be inventive. Hyuga, on the other hand, didn't seem to have enough moves to go this long. I mean, I've seen 20 minute matches where she ran out of ideas, so that was going to be a problem from the very beginning. I liked her cradles and the flash armbar was cool, but other than that she mostly relied on her suplexes, Michinoku Driver and endless running knees. The running knee is especially a way too cool spot to be done 20 times. On the other hand, some of her suplexes were damn good; at one point, she just caught a Tamura kick and dumped her on her head, straight out of the Alexander Otsuka playbook. The part that will probably kill a lot of people's estimation of the match are the last 10 or so minutes where they just go nuts throwing out a slew of death moves. You may hate or tolerate that depending on how much you can get into the fact that this was a rare promotion ace vs. ace match with a bunch of titles on the line giving them the permission to go super duper epic. Well, you can give them credit as they were frantic to go for the kill as the time was running out, and they ended the match with a classic spot. Also, they never lost the crowd. Overall this is a pretty difficult match to evaluate because it's part great and part pretty bad. I'd say if this went 30 or 45 minutes this probably would've been great. As it is I'd say it's still on the "good" side atleast for me and still a solid attempt at doing an AJPW style super epic. But you be the judge.
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[2000-03-25-Osaka Pro] Takehiro Murahama vs Naohiro Hoshikawa
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in March 2000
This was less of a great shootstyle match and more of a great balls to the walls fight. I didn't notice any great mat work and the rounds seemed to be interrupting the flow a bit, but they knew when to throw down and how to use their charisma. The little prick heel superior striker vs. larger wrestler was a unique story and they used it to good effect. Murahama did these disdainful stomps, not breaking in the ropes, complaining about a foul. I'm mostly familiar with Hoshikawa as a mediocre BattlARTS guy, and while he looked good here it's hard not to see Murahama as a really great foil for him. Last two rounds were pretty great and Murahama's combos looked just amazing. -
Mikiko Futagami was full blown GAMI at this point. That means, paper fan and all that. And she gets a shot at the big gold! This starts out like a Monterrey match. Hell, it might be their Monterrey match worked as a puro epic. Somewhat comedic feel, tricky arm drags, rope walking joke and a paper fan hit. Then Hamada eats a tombstone on her belt and sell a huge a deal. This had that „overmatched loser goes for the gold“ feel with GAMI being tricky like Yoshinari Ogawa or Kendo Kashin, so the match was endearing, and GAMI absolutely has the slick moves, so if you like that type of match I'd say this match is recommendable, altough there were a few blown spots. Not as good as GAMI vs. Hyuga, altough this is a match closer to Hamada's lucha background building into a hard hitting finish.
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Hey!!! Bionic J is getting a push!!!! AWESOME!! Well, maybe not exactly a push, but she got a lot of focus in the match, which was cool. And this was a pretty good match as it was just 4 fun workers having fun exchanges and doing stuff they are good at. Jesse & Ohmukai are at a disadvantage early on, with Ohmukai even doing a convincing job selling (!!!) and they end up doing a cool section with Jesse as face in peril. Everything with Jesse ends up being so much funner than usual because she is a cool bullish powerhouse which adds something new to Yoshida's and Asuka's stuff. At one point, Asuka hits some really dainty looking kicks to J, so she just slaps her in the face hard! How's that you lazy old time wrestler coasting on your name! Jesse actually gets some fun powerhouse exchanges going wAsuka and they lay into eachother with big damn lariats, and Asuka who seemed to be half assing stuff started laying it in. I also really liked all the facepunchy boxing exchanges Yoshida and and Ohmukai dished out, channeling their inner Takeshi Ono's. Ohmukai keeps getting back to my goodside as she was in-offensive here aside from one bit where she was trying these insanely inaccurate spinning backfists. The dominance of the Yoshida/Asuka early on added a lot to the second half of the match, really making YOU flip out for Jesse Bennett taking it to the big names and getting big offense and nearfalls until Ohmukai pointlessly turns on her and the match ends in a schmozz. BOOOO! Still, you owe it to Jesse Bennett and yourself to watch this match. It's fine pro wrestling.
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Lioness Asuka/Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai/Bionic J (7/21/01 Sendai) Hey!!! Bionic J is getting a push!!!! AWESOME!! Well, maybe not exactly a push, but she got a lot of focus in the match, which was cool. And this was a pretty good match as it was just 4 fun workers having fun exchangesand doing stuff they are good at. Jesse & Ohmukai are at a disadvantage early on, with Ohmukai even doing a convincing job selling (!!!) and they end up doing a cool section with Jesse as face in peril. Everything with Jesse ends up being so much funner than usual because she is a cool bullish powerhouse which adds something new to Yoshida's and Asuka's stuff. At one point, Asuka hits some really dainty looking kicks to J, so she just slaps her in the face hard! How's that you lazy old time wrestler coasting on your name! Jesse actually gets some fun powerhouse exchanges going wAsuka and they lay into eachother with big damn lariats, and Asuka who seemed to be half assing stuff started laying it in. I also really liked all the facepunchy boxing exchanges Yoshida and and Ohmukai dished out, channeling their inner Takeshi Ono's. Ohmukai keeps getting back to my goodside as she was in-offensive here aside from one bit where she was trying these insanely inaccurate spinning backfists. The dominance of the Yoshida/Asuka early on added a lot to the second half of the match, really making YOU flip out for Jesse Bennett taking it to the big names and getting big offense and nearfalls until Ohmukai pointlessly turns on her and the match ends in a schmozz. BOOOO! Still, you owe it to Jesse Bennett and yourself to watch this match. It's fine pro wrestling. Ayako Hamada vs. GAMI (Queen of Arsion Title, 7/29/01 Tokyo) Mikiko Futagami was full blown GAMI at this point. That means, paper fan and all that. And she gets a shot at the big gold! This starts out like a Monterrey match. Hell, it might be their Monterrey match worked as a puro epic. Somewhat comedic feel, tricky arm drags, rope walking joke and a paper fan hit. Then Hamada eats a tombstone on her belt and sell a huge a deal. This had that „overmatched loser goes for the gold“ feel with GAMI being tricky like Yoshinari Ogawa or Kendo Kashin, so the match was endearing, and GAMI absolutely has the slick moves, so if you like that type of match I'd say this match is recommendable, altough there were a few blown spots. Not as good as GAMI vs. Hyuga, altough this is a match closer to Hamada's lucha background building into a hard hitting finish.
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I thought this was really nice. Sasaki looking like a U-Style guy is near surreal. It's a basic match, but their big moments look real good: Sharp dropkicks, Taro takes a sick bump on a german suplex, great looking DDT etc. They worked the match well enough to make you appreciate the more simple spots like the DDT or lariat. Also gotta give Taro some credit for being able to immediately salvage his blown spot with a beautiful flip dive.
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This was the first clipped up match that looked real good. There was a bit of selling and neat transitions going on elevating this above your standard move exhibition. Instead you had Akino being all spunky underdog, pulling off all kinds of wonky complicated spaceman headscissor type moves and turnbuckle climbing dives. And well, Apache when on offense is just blasting her opponent and they kept things interesting with nifty spots. The best move was Mary countering a weird Akino rollup in mid-air by stopping her, pulling her back up and just splatting her with a fat powerbomb. Akino's a tiny girl but still looked like a freakish spot.
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D'aaawww look it's the little cubs fighting for their first big win! And this was actually really, really good! You could tell this was their „young workers trying their ideas for an epic“ match. Except... their ideas worked? This was closer to a lucharesu match than anything and it had to have been the best singles match in that style since... since... Sasuke/Tokyo from the previous year? Oh whatever. The matwork was real good, the lucharesu exchanges looked great and most importantly, fresh. Ayako had great instincts – just little things like doing a kneedrop while working for a submission add so much. They also played up the fact that Hamada was pretty dominant in the tournament while Akino had gone by using her flash rollups. Making Akino's intricate rollups and wonky twisted headscissors into great nearfalls. That's economic working baby! Awesome nearfalls for ROLLUPS!!! Rollups that actually add to a match! Man fuck why can't we get more wrestling like this and less headdrops and thigh slapping. Terrific little match.
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This was quite the badass little war. At this point they had matched up a few times, so to keep things interesting Mariko Yoshida had now started using GLOVES. Which means she absolutely goes nuts with stiff punches on Aja here to even things out a little. Aja also has a barrage of crazy stiff offense, altough that's nothing new. Still, she just ragdolled Yoshida around in ways that just had to absolutely suck and I winced at her brutal kick to Yoshida's hamstring. This had the usual cool matwork were Yoshida has to work hard in order to lock her holds on the beast that is Aja. Also really loved Aja's modified ankle hold here she just hugs and squeezes Yoshida's heel into her thigh. That is such an angry bear grappling move. This matchup is great everytime but this was especially compact, the selling was flawless and you get the usual neat, well timed, violent spots. Plus, punches to the face.
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This was clipped but we get a good picture of it. I imagine this would have been really good if we had gotten the early build, because what was shown was really good. Asari is really sharp, and the contrast between her lucha headscissors and flash armbars and Akino's more basic style made for an entertaining match. They had great rhythm and Akino's arm selling was right on the money. The finish was really neat aswell. Even without the ARSION trademark gone these two are still a welcome antidote to the more overkill-y joshi workers.
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Ayako has done it all in ARSION in 2000. All she has left to go for is the gold. Aja remains unimpressed and thrashes her like she was still a 1st year rookie anyways. Aja really may be the ultimate „do the same shit in every match“ wrestler. If you can get over that this was really good. Aja just gives Ayako a monumental thrashing. I thought it wasn't quite right to have Ayako work this match the same as she would have in her rookie year given how much she had achieved previously, and Aja no-sold her a little too much, but when you get past all that and look at this in isolation this was brutal and efficient pro wrestling. Ayako is just the gutsiest wrestler you've ever seen taking every painful shot Aja has to dish out and getting caught in the ribs with a chair while doing an Asai Moonsault. The finish was fucking brutal aswell and easily one of the best moments ARSION has produced so far.
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[1997-01-05-LLPW-Live Battle] Megumi Kudo vs Shinobu Kandori (Street Fight)
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in January 1997
I could never really get into this match. Looks like your average wandering brawl to me. They rumage about the place and do stuff for 20 minutes, including some gimmicks, before the awkward finish. Match seemed to be lacking in hatred despite all the goofy attempted murder spots. There were some things I liked such as the work on the cut, but in total the match just couldn't grab/keep my attention. They both look like corny 90s action flick characters so I guess there's that. -
When you find out about Masashi Aoyagi having his own promotion, you picture a bunch of reckless crazy wrestler vs. karate fighter spectacles. Instead it's mostly reckless seedy indy wrestling involving some half baked wrestlers mostly coached by Masashi Motegi. This, however, is the match that you picture when you hear "Masashi Aoyagi booking a sleazy indy fed". Mochi, Taru and Okamura are guys from Koji Kitao's dojo who all dress in black. You won't be surprised to learn they all have terryifing haircuts. Fukuda, Kamikaze and Kotsubo (famous caveman comedian) are the hybrid wrestlers to combat them and this is pretty much a dojo gang war where the karate guys spin kick recklessly and the wrestlers are looking to grab them and go for takedowns and head-dumping suplex moves. While it was more of a professional wrestling match and not like your typical Aoyagi different style, there was still lots of chaos and disdain to enjoy. Super fast paced general anarchy with a bunch of guys throwing kicks and flying around. For some reason the WDF homeboys work as the heels, it seemed the Buko dojo guys had their whole entourage with them so the whole match was ultra heated. Kamikaze despite being on the "wrestler" team took his time to soccer kick the Buko guys in the face. Taru took a good beating, incuding a bunch of dropkicks to his face and getting squished with sentons and double stomps, and the finishing stretch that had all the guys throwing down was pretty great and had a few neatly timed moments despite the mayhem. Especially loved Fukuda who decided he had enough and just hurled one of the karate guys around like a ragdoll with suplexes, then did this really awesome faceplanting bump for Mochizuki leg trip. Kotsubo, for a guy who has been nothing but shit in every match I've ever seen him in, had the night of his life when he went at it with fellow nobody Okamura (not the guy who went to CMLL) and had one submission counter into a chokehold that was probably the greatest thing he ever did. He was enjoying himself too and you know you are watching something special when fucking Tsubo Genjin is bringing it. So yeah, you had different style fighers trying to prove who's best, guys getting hurled around with uncooperative suplexes and decked sideways in the temple by surprise flying Mochizuki kicks, guys in black karate gis doing dives etc. Can't say I didn't love this match. Also note that all the Bukoh guys in this match would go on to be in Toryumon/Dragon Gate. How the fuck did that happen?
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Yeah this was pretty damn fun also. This is Fujiwara & Nakano working as the Anderson brothers, tough veterans roughing up the young highflyers. Fujiwara and Nakano really can dish out a beating aswell as cut off the ring. I especially liked the spot where Nakano cut off one of Yume boys by grabbing his head and bashing it into into Fujiwara's skull to knock him silly. Nakano in his brief wrestling exchanges looked legit too. He had an awesome side throw. Fukuda & Kamikaze work pretty well as poorest mans Rock'n'Roll express. They even do a segment where Fujiwara & Nakano feed into a bunch of bodyslams and then Kamikaze hits a fucking Sasuke Special because he's indy trash. Finish plays off the previous Fujiwara/Fukuda interactions if you are into that.
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Fujiwara and Fukuda had a very good singles match later in the year, and their story began at Yume Factory. This is a match very much carried by Fujiwara, who is really spry and turns it up to 11, totally being in "I can cripple you in two seconds" mode. Fujiwara brings the stiff fucking punches and matwork and Fukuda proves himself a game opponent. Kamikaze is the guy who'd go on to be in Big Japan and Zero1, and while I'm not going to pretend his exchanges with Kotsubo were good, they weren't dull either, and soon your attention will be back to Fujiwara snapping fools arms. I really liked the finish where Fujiwara kills Fukuda dead and seems to have the match in the bag but gets tricked.
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Yes, I'm pimping a Motegi match now. What are you gonna do about it? Altough I'm pimping this mostly because of Shinichi Nakano, who had gotten all MUGA and really darn good at this point, as if he was hoping for getting another shot in NJPW or AJPW, but only ended up doing those weird 90s MUGA shows that never made tape. Dude looked way too in shape to be wrestling in fucking Wrestle Dream. This is easily the most epic a match Motegi has ever been in, as they rip it up on the mat and do a sleazeball BattlARTS match full of super stiff, nasty stomps and kicks to the hamstrings, short headbutts and truely spiteful slaps aswell as a bunch of ultra tight pop-his-arm-out-of-his-arm submission work. I could see some people hating the selling and lack of invetiveness, but the intensity was enough for me. There is a story about Maeda making Nakano pass out with a Boston Crab in the NJPW dojo, and his holds had the feel of a guy who held a grudge about simple holds cranked in to a point beyond human tolerance. Then they build into a gazillion big moves and nearfalls that actually work and don't come across as corny, as they had the selling in place and never did any stupid fighting spirit shit. I kinda got the feel that because Motegi is sorta part owner of this fed the match was designed to make him look good, but to his credit he tried hard to overcome his general crappiness. Motegi landed a really nice missile dropkick, and his desperation dive where he landed on his face was pretty gruelling and added to the match. Nakano has the really great offensive moments, his flash enzuigiri's are amazing, he also has the best powerslam and double wrist flip you've ever seen and also punches Motegi in the face for being such a sad sack. So there you have it, the greatest Masayoshi Motegi match ever. Whatever that means to you.
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WDF is the kind of shit you start watching when you run out of BattlARTS. Everyone in this fed has a haircut straight out of Gummo, and everyone here hits stupidly hard. Cosmo Soldier is pretty green/possibly a backyarder who blows half his spots and hilarity ensues. Fujisaki and Saito are the WDF guys while Cosmo and Sato (no idea about that guy) are billed as IWA Japan scum so interpromotional hatred ensues aswell as hatred for no talent piece of shit pretty boy wrestlers, and they brutally beat the snot out of Cosmo. You really don't see this kind of shit anymore. Fujisaki and Saito are your ersatz Otsuka and Ikeda and ready to throw down and pummel a masked tanned goof into oblivion. It's kind of funny to watch these two nobodies puffing their chests and acting like they run shit, but yeah the shots in this match here are no joke. So you are watching this mess of an indy match full of kicks to the face, stomps to the jaw, dropkicks to the kidney and general pummeling anarchy full of awkward painful looking moves (especially the double teams), to the point where the crowd gets behind behind the crappy indy sleazeball and wills him on to keep going despite getting near KO'd a few times and then it dawns on you that Fujigasaki and Saito are Fugofugo Yumeji and K-Ness of Dragon Gate. And then you want to order some wrestling tapes from the alternate reality where Fugofugo Yumeji stayed Tadahiro Fujisaki and ended up saving japanese wrestling. I didn't get much from Sato. He took the dangerous head dropping back suplexes from future Fugofugo pretty nicely. This was 15 minutes of awkward brutal trainreck and pretty glorious.
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DRAKE MF MORIMATSU!!! I'm starting to think JD is indeed the next lost great joshi fed. This was a super fun title match between two workers with great movesets, who mesh really well. Morimatsu is this butch powerhouse who is not afraid to have a go at Yabushita on the mat. The powerhouse vs. grappler style contrast worked really well. Great opening exchange in this match, and they fought like mad on the mat, stubbornly going for arm attacks. Keep in mind I didn't say the submission work here was pretty. I really liked how Morimatsu, when she couldn't get the advantage, resorted to punching Yabushita in the face and then roughing her up good by again attacking her face and finally cracking her with chairs and lariats. Both of them sold the ongoing wear and tear nicely and mixed it up well with some innovative moves and counters. Finishing run had good bomb throwing and drama, altough some people may be annoyed by Yabushita making a few easy comebacks. Still, she's a slick technico (technica?) and I still love her flash submissions. Still thought this was Morimatsu's match, altough that's not a knock on Yabushita.
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Their previous matches were quick tournament finals, with Ayako as a huge underdog. Now, Ayako is the champion and they have their sights set on „epic“. Largely this match was pretty great, but there are some flaws. Yoshida dominating Ayako with submissions and punch combos still works perfectly, and these two still mesh really well. I thought Ayako's selling was great, and the spot that set up her dominance was both brutal and really smart. All of Ayako's stuff was extremely sharp and well timed. However, I expected a little smarter work from Yoshida in the last third of the match. Her selling was pretty spotty and she could've picked her offense a little better as the match progressed, as the previous urgency was a deflated a little. However, they redeem themselves with a great finish that was just fucking awesome pro wrestling. Anyways, this is one of the better and more interesting matchups japanese wrestling had in the store in the 2000s, and to be fair some of the flaws here are par for the course with lesser workers.
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Lioness Asuka enters. Her License Number is 100! Yoshida is unimpressed and brings the fight right to the legend. Man, this dark looking Asuka is so different from the 80s Crush Gal. It's like some 80s pop star reinventing himself into a dark goth guy. I'd say this was a pretty good Yoshida signature match. Asuka gives an uncooperative & dangerous vibe so is a good match up for Yoshida's style. Altough she brought her own signature table to the match and tried some ECW shit that kind gave me a bad feel about her. Still Yoshida was a total trooper here taking a bunch of cringeworthy stiff shots from Asuka and working good submission nearfalls. Altough it is becoming noticable that move overkill is getting really out of hand in ARSION, seems the promotion is in it's death spiral, altough I'll see where it goes.
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Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to the face worked very well. Could see this being a low end MOTYC for some.
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Ayako Hamada vs. Michiko Ohmukai (Queen of Arsion Title, 7/3/01 Tokyo) Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to the face worked very well. Could see this being a low end MOTYC for some. Ayako Hamada vs. Emi Motokawa (7/21/01 Sendai) Hey look, it's... uh... Emi Sakura? Well that is a random worker to show up and battle the promotions ace. Hamada just wrestles her standard match, same spots as usual and so on, but Motokawa added some fun touches. I really liked her fast, vicious drop toe hold and her „crumbling“ style sells of Hamada's big strikes were fun. Feels weird that of all the wrestlers to show up in ARSION Motokawa would probably end up being the most influental one by training dozens of girls into wrestlers.