Jetlag
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ZION Tournament 98 Round 1 Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache (8/31) Mari Apache: Genius Luchadola. This was pretty much a lucharesu exhibition with some big nearfalls. Not a lot of selling and a bunch of pop-up transitions. I liked this as Mari is chunky so her graceful flying around is really cool to watch and I prefer swank armdrags over dragon suplexes. Plus Ayako continues to look incredible in her second match ever. Full worldwide point. Mikiko Futagami vs. Rie Tamada (8/31) Oh Mikiko Futagami, where you have been all my life? This was tremendous. Two workers who are always doing something nifty having a gritty match. Tamada worked over Futagami's leg for most of the bout, and Futagami came right back at her with all these neat/violent comebacks. Some of you selling purists might object to Futagami's selling here, but I thought it was just right. She was initially overwhelmed and would collapse after landing a single comeback move, then slowly work out the kinks, always hobble around and slapping at it as if to get it back working 100 %, and the leg seemed to come back and haunt her at the most uncomfortable times. Did I mention Futagami has this really great palm strike and nifty armbars and reckless desperation kicks and whatnot? Really dug how Tamada seemed to have Futagami's number throughout the match but went desperate near the end when Futagami kept catching her bad arm. Another damn good match where Tamada targets a limb, another damn good match where GAMI is GAMI. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Yumi Fukawa (8/31) This was kind of like an abridged version of their 4/11 match but not as good. They start out all scrappy and slapping eachother at the bell, and then it was Ohmukai's kicks and suplexes vs. Fukawa's submissions. Fukawa had a few neat counters and worked over Ohmukai's arm, which is a good idea when you look at Ohmukai's super thin matchstick like arms. I cringe when I see a wrestler with arms that skinny, male or female. It wasn't anything transcendent like previous matches and I felt Ohmukai was physically awkward at times. Also, the match was short and I felt like they were getting all their shit in. The crowd was also fairly dead too. Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (8/31) Reggie took the spider woman out of the last tournament; can she do it again? I love this matchup. They work this like the previous match and do callbacks and all that and start out with a bunch of matwork and it's all stupidly great. Reggie may have been better on the mat here than before as she did these great spots where she just collapses Mariko with her power and weight and it's brilliant. Mariko sells big time for Reggie and snaps her submissions on like a snare. I mean the first 5 minutes of this match would've done Negro Navarro proud. Reggie really lays in the chops and Mariko does her damndest to avoid the power moves. It all leads to an utterly brilliant finish. Fantastic stuff and it's so cool to see Bennett as a gaijin monster that doesn't suck on the mat.
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Ayako Hamada debuts. And Arsion would never be the same! AYAKO WAS 17 COUNT THEM 17 YEARS OLD HERE!!! As far as the match goes, structure-wise it was pretty much a chaotic mess, altough I can think of worse ways to debut. The point was to introduce Hamada as this new hot thing, and she really did make that point doing all those stupidly fast armdrags and intricate flips and her dad's signature spots including the fucking brilliant cannonball into rana which I love – it veered into dangerous territory at times and there were one or two somewhat blown spots, but it didn't matter. You are supposed to look at this match and wonder how in the world a 17 year old girl can do all that. I'm just glad she didn't get the generic dropkicks-and-rollups treatment. Those fast armdrags were awesome. -
Their last match blew. They go out to redeem themselves here. Mostly slow paced mat based match, altough Ohmukai's reach advantage does come into play, and a few face-shattering kicks are landed. Both girls target the arm, and while not anything mindblowing in terms of the skill displayed here, they stay focussed and if you are into Arn Anderson style „target the arm“ matches you will really dig this. Time limit again comes into play so I can forgive the one no-sell in the last minute. Another strong outting, better than I expected going in.
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Remember when I talked about standing exchanges earlier? This starts out with another super neat one that feels like you're watching Misawa vs. Kawada or something. Then they get down on the mat with Tamada targeting Fukawa's bandaged shoulder and Fukawa returning the favor with a couple armbars of her own. They abandon the groundwork in favor of going for bigger moves and I don't mind it as they keep it building nicely and making the big moves feel important. Match starts getting a little wonky and I'm ready to write that these matches all start like a house of fire only to go completely of the rails in the second half, but instead a shock finish occurs and I will shut up. Another short match that had a few really outstanding parts.
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A sprint. This had all the things a joshi hater can't stand. Random moves and transitions a plenty, fuck all rhyme or reason. I guess it's true that you need matches like this to go along with the mat clinics, but I felt like was watching a „Greatest Hits“ clip of their previous matches at times. The level of execution was pretty high (besides Tamada almost KOing Candy with a missile dropkick) and everyone here had unpredictable offense, plus you get to see Ohmukai kicking people in the face a bunch and Fukawa grabbing all these fancy armbars. And, the match only went about 12 minutes which I think is a lot better than having this type of bout go 20+. So, it was a solid watch overall.
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Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (7/21) I've actually written about this match before, but it can't hurt to watch again. Because this is such a wonderful quasi BattlARTSian piece of cake. Ohmukai really lays it in on Futagami in the corner with some malintentioned knee strikes and then rocking her with that Ikeda-like running solebutt of hers, so Futagami, after a brief mat scramble, replies in kind by just standing up and punting Omukai square in the eye. Futagami really was brilliant at this stage as she did all this neat wrestling and had these Tenryu-like facial reactions. She is like William Regal portrayed by a gender switched Katsumi Usuda. The second half could have used a portion edited out as they really throw out way, way more than they should, but then Futagami always does something random and nifty (like in this case almost ripping Ohmukai's skinny shoulders off with an ultra painful looking double armlock thing) and Ohmukai keeps landing these ungodly stiff shots. It builds to a pretty dramatic finish. The use of the time limit in this fed is great. Yumi Fukawa vs. Rie Tamada (7/21) Remember when I talked about standing exchanges earlier? This starts out with another super neat one that feels like you're watching Misawa vs. Kawada or something. Then they get down on the mat with Tamada targeting Fukawa's bandaged shoulder and Fukawa returning the favor with a couple armbars of her own. They abandon the groundwork in favor of going for bigger moves and I don't mind it as they keep it building nicely and making the big moves feel important. Match starts getting a little wonky and I'm ready to write that these matches all start like a house of fire only to go completely of the rails in the second half, but instead a shock finish occurs and I will shut up. Another short match that had a few really outstanding parts. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Rie Tamada (8/9) Their last match blew. They go out to redeem themselves here. Mostly slow paced mat based match, altough Ohmukai's reach advantage does come into play, and a few face-shattering kicks are landed. Both girls target the arm, and while not anything mindblowing in terms of the skill displayed here, they stay focussed and if you are into Arn Anderson style „target the arm“ matches you will really dig this. Time limit again comes into play so I can forgive the one no-sell in the last minute. Another strong outting, better than I expected going in. Ayako Hamada vs. Candy Okutsu (8/9) Ayako Hamada debuts. And Arsion would never be the same! AYAKO WAS 17 COUNT THEM 17 YEARS OLD HERE!!! As far as the match goes, structure-wise it was pretty much a chaotic mess, altough I can think of worse ways to debut. The point was to introduce Hamada as this new hot thing, and she really did make that point doing all those stupidly fast armdrags and intricate flips and her dad's signature spots including the fucking brilliant cannonball into rana which I love – it veered into dangerous territory at times and there were one or two somewhat blown spots, but it didn't matter. You are supposed to look at this match and wonder how in the world a 17 year old girl can do all that. I'm just glad she didn't get the generic dropkicks-and-rollups treatment. Those fast armdrags were awesome.
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Coming from someone who hyped LA Park-Mesias as one of the best matches of the decade I can't tell if this is a troll or not. Hey, I can forgive "forced epic" if the match is actually outstanding.
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It doesn't get more forced epic in mexican wrestling than doing a Tombstone and have the match continue. There was plenty of your turn-my turn stuff. They took turns hitting eachother with chairs, hitting slaps to the chest, and trading rollups/submissions in the 3rd fall. It's a common thing in big lucha matches and they do the exhaustion selling to make it not seem as bad as in some japanese matches, but it's still blatant turn taking. EDIT: Since people have been pimping it as Match of the Decade, have they actually compared it to the top mexican matches from this decade so far? I didn't think the match was bad, but I expect more from something that gets pimped as MOTD. And I think stuff like the 2012 Panther/Casas match or the Santo TxT tag, the 2011 IWRG vs. AAA tags or assorted 2010 IWRG bloodbaths shit all over this.
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I don't see what's great about the match either. The brawling wasn't near good enough and I disliked the use of the Tombstone. And I'm a fan of both guys.
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They both got stomped by Reggie Bennett; now which one will redeem herself? I don't quite know where to put this match in relation to the others. There was some fantastic, clever stuff in this contest. Loved the character work, Aja intentionally being a stiff on the mat and Yoshida not caring for her at all. In a way they accomplished a ton here on the mat without actually doing much, which is great. On the other hand, this was similiar to Yoshida/Bennett, so I want to compare. The Bennett match was really good because Bennett could crush Mariko and even lock in submissions of her own, forcing Mariko to be careful and maneuver around her. Here Aja is uncooperative, but doesn't achieve much. Eventually Aja goes back to her old route: throwing bombs. I felt it was a little cheap, altough still good. It didn't have the novelty of Bennett because you've seen Aja doing it in a 100 other matches. Altough it was well worked. Loved Yoshida busting out the Greco headscissor and the finish was smart.
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Reggie has taken out the two biggest names in the tournament, can Candy overcome her? Talk about really smart booking. This was a match of two halves. They start out with an awesome Vader/Sting-like exchange where Candy charges full speed at Reggie and ends up getting clocked with a bear paw like right hand and then do more cool big vs. Small matwork in the vein of the previous Bennett vs. Yoshida match, with Bennett looking pretty good. Then there are some weird blown/poorly executed spots and Candy just goes on offense... Bennett had been super dominant throughout the match, which she was good at and I dug it, but Candy just strings a bunch of moves together... I didn't really buy it. Nor did I buy the finish, which came at just 9 minutes just when I thought the match was getting good again. I appreciate that they are not going for bloated epics all the time, but this was kind of underwhelming for a final, especially compared to the previous Bennett/Yoshida match.
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Reggie upset Aja in the 1st round, can she do it again against the submission queen? This match is totally perfect. They take it to the mat and Bennett just uses her weight advantage to squish Yoshida like a bug. Yoshida has to use all her skill and ride Bennett like a bull. I love this kind of stuff and Bennett could believably control on the mat and get in submissions which made things even better. Then Reggie starts busting out all these great power moves, just repeatedly crushing Yoshida who desperately tries to avoid and go for the submission. Great great stuff, absolutely one of the better skill vs. Power matches I can remember and I loved the final reversal.
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This starts out great with Candy recklessly flying right into a Tamada dropkick. Then a weird thing happens when Okutsu tries a japanese leg roll pin and seems to dislocate Tamada's shoulder and she has to take a break. If that was intentional I'll have to give them points for creativity because I've never seen a simple rollup used in such a way. Tamada comes back and they take it to the mat and Okutsu is immediately going after her shoulder and Tamada fights back by going for the leg and this match is getting really really good now. They move back to standing and really smash into eachother, Tamada has a really great elbow smash and an awesome roaring elbow where she spins around really fast while keeping her elbow perfectly straight like a spinning top, while Candy just smashes her in the face with that forearm. Then Tamada starts busting out these missile dropkicks where she hits Candy right in the face. I guess it gets pretty joshi, where they forget the legwork and throw out a ton of moves, but it's hard to hate it when they do all these super neat standing exchanges, like Candy blocking a Dragon Suplex and eating an axe kick to the back of the head for it etc. I think joshi standing exchanges can be underrated and this was a good example of match with great ones. Match also ended just right. Another really good bout.
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Reggie Bennett! Y'know with people in the past years gaining new appreciation for portly workers like Earthquake, maybe it's time to give her a reevaluation. She had pretty face and a fit-fat body that no one would have batted an eye on if she were a man. Along with Bull Nakano she feels like someone who could've been a postergirl for modern Tumblr/college feminist girls. They start this of like lumpy heavyweights and slapping the fuck out of eachother in the corner and Reggie ducks a really fast Uraken. Then Reggie locks in this Carl Greco-esque rolling neck crank and beats Aja in just two minutes!!! I like how this compilation included this to provide context for the next rounds.
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This was more like it. I love this matchup. Yoshida is the top girl on the mat, but Futagami is this crafty, unpredictable, stoic wrestler. They work this pretty much like a BattlARTs match with pinfalls and do all these awesome counters and traditions and kicks to the face. Yoshida does some neat selling of a choke and bandaged arm to allow Futagami to believably hang with her, which I dug. Another match that goes just over 10 minutes and is a blast.
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They start this out with a bunch of suplexes that they no sell. Ugh. This was the first match that really wasn't good. The matwork was boring and the standing stuff was mostly a mess. There's a big skill gap between Ohmukai and the others. Atleast it was over in less than 8 minutes.
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Double shot of Candy! They start this out with a typical joshi sprint section. The first move was a move that ended a previous match – but not a „death move“, so I am giving them big clever points. After that they settled down and had a more regular matwork-centered match. It was some great bantamweight style matwork with Fukawa constantly looking for the armbar. Too bad we have no 1998 IWRG to compare the matwork. Okutsu has these really amazing rope climbing spots. The match kept building nicely and the selling was spot-on, and then... Fukawa almost cripples herself by falling on her head TWICE trying an Asai Moonsault. Dear god that looked bad. They did a good job getting the match back on trail after that, and in a way it added drama to the finishing run, with Fukawa selling her neck and Okutsu suplexing her a bunch, but I felt that they ran out of ideas. I liked that it was mostly Fukawa submissions and roll ups vs. Candy's bombs. Good match despite all. Also, for continuety: Their first match ended in a draw, while this one goes just over the time limit. Watching stuff in context really adds to the enjoyment sometimes.
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HNY folks. Finals of ARS Tournament Reggie Bennett vs. Candy Okutsu (5/5) Reggie has taken out the two biggest names in the tournament, can Candy overcome her? Talk about really smart booking. This was a match of two halves. They start out with an awesome Vader/Sting-like exchange where Candy charges full speed at Reggie and ends up getting clocked with a bear paw like right hand and then do more cool big vs. Small matwork in the vein of the previous Bennett vs. Yoshida match, with Bennett looking pretty good. Then there are some weird blown/poorly executed spots and Candy just goes on offense... Bennett had been super dominant throughout the match, which she was good at and I dug it, but Candy just strings a bunch of moves together... I didn't really buy it. Nor did I buy the finish, which came at just 9 minutes just when I thought the match was getting good again. I appreciate that they are not going for bloated epics all the time, but this was kind of underwhelming for a final, especially compared to the previous Bennett/Yoshida match. Yumi Fukawa/Rie Tamada vs. Michiko Ohmukai/Candy Okutsu (6/21) A sprint. This had all the things a joshi hater can't stand. Random moves and transitions a plenty, fuck all rhyme or reason. I guess it's true that you need matches like this to go along with the mat clinics, but I felt like was watching a „Greatest Hits“ clip of their previous matches at times. The level of execution was pretty high (besides Tamada almost KOing Candy with a missile dropkick) and everyone here had unpredictable offense, plus you get to see Ohmukai kicking people in the face a bunch and Fukawa grabbing all these fancy armbars. And, the match only went about 12 minutes which I think is a lot better than having this type of bout go 20+. So, it was a solid watch overall. Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (6/21) They both got stomped by Reggie Bennett; now which one will redeem herself? I don't quite know where to put this match in relation to the others. There was some fantastic, clever stuff in this contest. Loved the character work, Aja intentionally being a stiff on the mat and Yoshida not caring for her at all. In a way they accomplished a ton here on the mat without actually doing much, which is great. On the other hand, this was similiar to Yoshida/Bennett, so I want to compare. The Bennett match was really good because Bennett could crush Mariko and even lock in submissions of her own, forcing Mariko to be careful and maneuver around her. Here Aja is uncooperative, but doesn't achieve much. Eventually Aja goes back to her old route: throwing bombs. I felt it was a little cheap, altough still good. It didn't have the novelty of Bennett because you've seen Aja doing it in a 100 other matches. Altough it was well worked. Loved Yoshida busting out the Greco headscissor and the finish was smart.
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This is some grainy handheld of a houseshow match which is better than a fuckload of highly praised matches. They start this of with some lucharesu then morph into a BattlARTS style match. The matwork wasn't high end slick and smooth like in other matches but they went out to tell a story. Ohmukai was battering Fukawa with kicks from left and right, and Fukawa made all these awesome desperation armbar attempts. All of Ohmukai's stuff landed with bad intention and Fukawa was as brilliant as ever. The finish was fucking brutal aswell. Great little match.
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[1998-04-17-ARSION-Starlet] Candy Okutsu vs Mikiko Futagami
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in April 1998
I am stoked to see serious Futagami. This was another match with a crazy amount of talent and innovation on display. You know how BattlARTS is shootstyle doped up with Lucharesu and AJPW headdrops? This was like joshi doped up with lucharesu which was in turn doped up with shootstyle. The opening minutes are some of the most fantastic sprint type work I've ever seen, joshi or not. The match was Futagami's armlocks and palm strike vs. Okutsu's athleticism. I can not emphasize how slick, smooth and intelligent some of the things they did were, and every few moments you had something like Okutsu crushing Futagami with a surprise moonsault, Futagami doing a slick reversal or Candy doing an awesome turnbuckle climbing spot that got you excited. It was like the world's greatest WCWSN match. The match turns into this kind of Kurt Angle-ish bombfest with multiple german suplex combos, which I don't love, but I will say it was better than any Kurt Angle style match I've seen by actual Kurt Angle. Plus it's cooler to watch Okutsu fly around because she is chunky. I want to say there were a number of spots here that could be stolen by current day workers and they would be praised as fresh and innovative. Hell the whole match could be copied at an EVOLVE show (if you can find two workers with this level of execution and athleticism) and would go down as near best possible Evolve match. My favourite moves here were probably the Solarina into Kimura and crazy Victory Roll into Fuchi style neck crank/legbar combo. -
WOAH! Apparently this was the debut match of Mariko in ARSION. I was expecting something good, but this was far more than a formative bout. Rei Tamada, for a name that never gets dropped, looked damn impressive. The bout was built around establishing Yoshida's new, signature style, and her focus was to take it to the mat no matter what. Tamada was far more than a piece of luggage for Yoshida to chuck around, however. Tamada could roll on the mat and I really liked her determination to get the match into standing position. I want to emphasize the standing exchanges here were also really good. Tamada hit a mean elbow and tried her darndest to cut Yoshida of, who rolled one submission counter after another out of her sleeve. Even some of the fancier lightweight moves landed as if to shut a door. It created a kind of intensity that I really love in a wrestling match and this was just an absolutely fabulous contest.
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They end the debut show with a chaotic fast tag team match where everyone runs in and hits their stuff. Kind of pointless main event as the previous matches had done a good enough job to establish everyone, but I guess they had to work around having such a tiny roster to work with. Everyone has had matches before that evening so the execution wasn't at 100% anymore. Fukawa almost fell on her head doing an asai moonsault and then hit another reckless one inside the ring like a lunatic. Aja had solid interactions with everyone and I always get a kick out of watching Futagami work, but this wasn't much.
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[1998-02-18-ARSION-Grand Opening] Aja Kong vs Michiko Ohmukai
Jetlag posted a topic in February 1998
Michiko Ohmukai was this skinny girl with supermodel looks who worked like Daisuke Ikeda. I have no idea why she's not famous. She threw all those reckless kicks and impressive suplexes and was like a magic ingredient for matches that made everything crazier. Here she slaps Aja right at the bell and Aja just smirks at her and then Ohmukai starts dropping her with those 50 yards football kicks. Hell of an opening for a match. They get into a slugfest like this fucking BattlARTS or WAR and I am in love with this. Then they settle down a little with Aja dominating on the mat through size and Ohmukai trying to topple her. I think Aja was kind of mailing it in in Arsion which is such a disappointment but this match hit all the right spots and was really good stuff like it always is when Aja has someone to work with who brings the fight to her. -
[1998-02-18-ARSION-Grand Opening] Yumi Fukawa vs Candy Okutsu
Jetlag replied to Loss's topic in February 1998
The first ARSION match. It is a very appropriate debut match. They mix the traditional joshi with lucharesu and tricked out submission work, and the whole thing has the flair of two overzealous young workers going all out to show the world especially with the bomb throwing at the end and Fukawa hitting those face-shattering moonsaults that nearly KO'd Candy. I give them a ton of credit because they really delivered a good match that sets the tone. They kept going back to the submissions and really had a hard fought battle to the very end that the crowd got into. Can't remember the last time I watched a „young workers showing the world“ match on this level. Side note, a Cagematch user mentioned that he went to a few ARSION shows and he felt that many guys there went for the pretty workers and the „product“ (apparently Arsion had lots of quality mags, posters etc. for sell) and not the wrestling, so Arsion matches had not as much heat as GAEA. It's not hard to see why especially with Okutsu wearing a ridiculous outfit that made her butt look gigantic but to their credit the wrestling was top notch and on the level of the presentation. -
I meant in terms of skill-level. Well, I guess she can't do that twisty matwork as easily because she's tall and skinny, while Fukawa, Tamada etc. are tiny and compact. She also misses her kicks sometimes but I guess that's part of the charm. I've watched some IBUKI and Queen Bee (Lenny used to have all that stuff up... can someone reup? I remember a tag with Yabushita that looked especially interesting...) Ibuki doesn't have much footage and some of it is clipped. I mainly watched Yoshida stuff from Ibuki and it's all pretty good especially the interactions with Megumi Fuji. Anyways, back to ARSION! Semi-Finals of the ARS Tournament Rei Tamada vs. Candy Okutsu (5/5) This starts out great with Candy recklessly flying right into a Tamada dropkick. Then a weird thing happens when Okutsu tries a japanese leg roll pin and seems to dislocate Tamada's shoulder and she has to take a break. If that was intentional I'll have to give them points for creativity because I've never seen a simple rollup used in such a way. Tamada comes back and they take it to the mat and Okutsu is immediately going after her shoulder and Tamada fights back by going for the leg and this match is getting really really good now. They move back to standing and really smash into eachother, Tamada has a really great elbow smash and an awesome roaring elbow where she spins around really fast while keeping her elbow perfectly straight like a spinning top, while Candy just smashes her in the face with that forearm. Then Tamada starts busting out these missile dropkicks where she hits Candy right in the face. I guess it gets pretty joshi, where they forget the legwork and throw out a ton of moves, but it's hard to hate it when they do all these super neat standing exchanges, like Candy blocking a Dragon Suplex and eating an axe kick to the back of the head for it etc. I think joshi standing exchanges can be underrated and this was a good example of match with great ones. Match also ended just right. Another really good bout. Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (5/5) Reggie upset Aja in the 1st round, can she do it again against the submission queen? This match is totally perfect. They take it to the mat and Bennett just uses her weight advantage to squish Yoshida like a bug. Yoshida has to use all her skill and ride Bennett like a bull. I love this kind of stuff and Bennett could believably control on the mat and get in submissions which made things even better. Then Reggie starts busting out all these great power moves, just repeatedly crushing Yoshida who desperately tries to avoid and go for the submission. Great great stuff, absolutely one of the better skill vs. Power matches I can remember and I loved the final reversal. BONUS MATCH – This match is not on the Best Of comp but you can just watch it on Dailymotion. Yumi Fukawa vs. Michiko Ohmukai (4/11) This is some grainy handheld of a houseshow match which is better than a fuckload of highly praised matches. They start this of with some lucharesu then morph into a BattlARTS style match. The matwork wasn't high end slick and smooth like in other matches but they went out to tell a story. Ohmukai was battering Fukawa with kicks from left and right, and Fukawa made all these awesome desperation armbar attempts. All of Ohmukai's stuff landed with bad intention and Fukawa was as brilliant as ever. The finish was fucking brutal aswell. Great little match. I think I will create threads in 90s forum so people can discuss without flooding this thread.