[2007-11-11-IBUKI] Arisa Nakajima vs Mariko Yoshida

[Ma Stump Puller]

WOW I did not know this was filmed (all the thanks to Kadaveri for digging it up) and am all the much better knowing that it was and actually perfectly preserved for IBUKI standards. Rookie Arisa Nakajima is definitely talented; despite her relative lack of experience here wherein even basic stuff like dropkicks can come out funny, she had already a very strong understanding of things that some simply never get the hang of, in this case selling. Nakajima does a terrific job selling, struggling, and fighting her way out of every hold that Yoshida is able to throw her in, conveying just enough to showcase her lack of advantage while never making herself seem overtly weak as to seem passive or not willing to fight back. Whenever there's a hold applied or one to be used she's always applying agency to either escape the hold but failing that to at least reach a rope instead. For much of the first half this is the formula we see as Yoshida does a solid job as always doing her submission-bullying antics, flowing well with every attempt and keeping the momentum going just enough that the match doesn't grind to a halt whenever she does apply her holds fully.

Nakajima keeps in the game with more or less just defence until she starts to slowly edge out any sort of advantage with whatever she can chain together, generally simple moves like DDT variations. Yoshida however takes these with strides and continues to hunt for submissions, in particular honing in on the arms as a weak point with really cool modifications. The second half of the match becomes more explosive and inevitably with greater speed as Nakajima does some pretty sweet flash pins and rollups alongside top rope dropkicks to really hammer in that she's just throwing anything at the table to get the most out of her fleeting offence. We get some more struggles over submissions as Yoshida inevitably finds a opening to slap on a long cross armbreaker that the two women do a masterful job selling the sheer work involved on both sides as Nakajima has to roll around and manically find the ropes to escape the danger she's in. Yoshida also hits a pretty disgusting flush boot to the face that despite looking like murder was somehow not the end of the match as they manage to convey a nice crescendo piece where the vet gets far too confident trying to win and almost pays for it with Nakajima snapping on a very abrupt 2.9 rollup to escape another armbar attempt. Despite a neat escape from an Air Raid Yoshida is able to parry a forearm shot into the Spider Twist for the submission victory.

This isn't astonishing in terms of content: there's no miraculously crazy spots or anything of that sort: but Nakajima here proves more than anything that, despite losing, her talent was pretty much undeniable even at this early point; her timing here is incredible but most importantly she 100% understands how to progress from bit to bit without losing the sense of legitimate struggle or fatigue. She gets bursts of action, sure, but there's always a tying back to her inevitable difference in hierarchy, that sense of impending doom where she's bound more or less to lose eventually. Yoshida similarly does obviously a great job at that and also working with those advantages to make a well-crafted match that has just enough of her opponent to be a showcase of her ability without it seeming too much like padding. Could've been the standard Yoshida Bully match we've seen a good couple of times but thankfully this is much better than just that. Sadly these two would not have a rematch a couple years down the line when Nakajima was considerably more capable and experienced yet for what it's worth this is still nevertheless pretty good by itself.