[1998-05-05-ARSION-ARS Tournament] Reggie Bennett vs Mariko Yoshida

[Jetlag]

Reggie upset Aja in the 1^st 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.

[KB8]

Super nifty match. I think this is the first time I've seen Bennett and I thought she was perfectly fine at playing tank. She could also handle herself pretty well on the mat. Much of that was down to the weight advantage, but she was still snapping into cross arm-breakers and such. Yoshida was really fun as usual, trying to figure out ways in which to grab a limb or work around the size difference. The bull analogy is pretty apt. Stretch run with Bennett trying to slam Yoshida through the mat while Yoshida has to scramble and look for submission attempts was really good. I noticed it when I watched a bunch of her during the GWE project and I noticed it again here -- Yoshida is really outstanding at milking submissions for all they're worth, often past the point where most other wrestlers make it obvious there's going to be no tap out. There was one Bennett choke where I thought for sure Yoshida was going to tap, then I thought for sure she was going to pass out, and I popped for her finally making it to the ropes. The more of her I watch, the more she pulls ahead of every other joshi wrestler on my personal favourites list.