[1998-04-17-ARSION-Starlet] Candy Okutsu vs Mikiko Futagami

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I thought this was another almost great match, only a shade below the previous ARSION match in February. I think aspects of it were better, but so many Germans were thrown out that they didn't mean much after a while, even though they looked really cool. That flaw aside, they crafted something really exciting here with lots of matwork you definitely don't see everyday, and if there's such a thing as a matwork spotfest, this is definitely it. The pace was relentless, but not in the sometimes overbearing Toyota way, but more that they were just working really hard and doing something engaging. Okutsu continues to look good, and Futagami looks awesome if this match is any indication. Anyone who likes suplex-heavy fast-paced action with some top notch matwork will really like this match.

[soup23]

I thought parts of this were really cool but there were too many spots blown through and instead of the spotfest matwork motif, I just saw it as a sprint structure wise as they went through a ton of suplexes and other moves but also mixed in the armbars and submission attempts to keep everything together. I liked the one stiff strike kick being the finish. This was a little uneven for me but didn't sour me at all with looking forward to more Arsion.

[PeteF3]

This was fun, though I would have almost preferred it if they stuck to the matwork because they were busting out all kinds of cool submissions you don't see every day, whereas the late '90s and early '00s is sort of the Era of the German Suplex and they sometimes lose their appeal after awhile. Futagami is sort of a poor-woman's Kandori, but that's not a bad thing.

[TravJ1979]

Fun, and I thought surely it would pick up after the armbar on the floor, but ultimately it lead to nothing as Okutsu didn't sell it at all even though Futagami was destroying it. All the germans didn't get a pin, but the finishing kick did? Definitely a rewatch and despite my complaints, I enjoyed it.

[Jetlag]

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.