[2000-12-03-ARSION] Aja Kong vs Ayako Hamada

[Jetlag]

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 1^st 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.

[ohtani's jacket]

Ayako has been one of the stars of 2000 but she gets picked apart by Aja for most of this bout. I had no recollection of how it turned out so I kept thinking "this is a weird way to book your young star." I was kind of resigned to this being another bout where Aja uses bully tactics to reassert her dominance over the women's scene, though in fairness to Aja her tactics were brutally effective. It would have been nice if Ayakao had fired a shot, but Aja was merciless.  I started thinking about how Japanese this was -- the underdog gets the shit beaten out of them and everyone praises her fighting spirit -- then Ayako pulled off a near miracle. It wasn't quite the Miracle on Ice or a walk-off home run to win the World Series but in her fledgling career it must have felt like it. Kind of a difficult match to rate. Aside from one spectacular moment, Ayako wasn't at the races and the shock finish had minimal emotional build to it (aside from shouts of "ganbatte, Ayako-chan!") Perhaps if Ayako had worn her emotions on her sleeve a bit more then this would have been comparable to Satomura/Kong but it wasn't really close. Hell of a year for Ayako, though. She was on top of the world in her sphere of Joshi. 

[soup23]

An awesome end to the year for ARSION. Aja was a complete prick throughout this match brutalizing Hamada with all sort of crabs and kicks to the back. Hamada hung in there and gave some spots of hope by flying to the outside and trying strike exchanges but the monster wasn’t going down. Utilizing a quasi rope a dope approach, Hamada finally finds some success in the final moments and we have both women running on fumes. Mustering up all her strength, Hamada is able to hit three large kicks and pick up the huge win. Great match. **** (8.1)