Jetlag

Their previous matches were quick tournament finals, with Ayako as a huge underdog. Now, Ayako is the champion and they have their sights set on „epic“. Largely this match was pretty great, but there are some flaws. Yoshida dominating Ayako with submissions and punch combos still works perfectly, and these two still mesh really well. I thought Ayako's selling was great, and the spot that set up her dominance was both brutal and really smart. All of Ayako's stuff was extremely sharp and well timed. However, I expected a little smarter work from Yoshida in the last third of the match. Her selling was pretty spotty and she could've picked her offense a little better as the match progressed, as the previous urgency was a deflated a little. However, they redeem themselves with a great finish that was just fucking awesome pro wrestling. Anyways, this is one of the better and more interesting matchups japanese wrestling had in the store in the 2000s, and to be fair some of the flaws here are par for the course with lesser workers.

Lioness Asuka enters. Her License Number is 100! Yoshida is unimpressed and brings the fight right to the legend. Man, this dark looking Asuka is so different from the 80s Crush Gal. It's like some 80s pop star reinventing himself into a dark goth guy. I'd say this was a pretty good Yoshida signature match. Asuka gives an uncooperative & dangerous vibe so is a good match up for Yoshida's style. Altough she brought her own signature table to the match and tried some ECW shit that kind gave me a bad feel about her. Still Yoshida was a total trooper here taking a bunch of cringeworthy stiff shots from Asuka and working good submission nearfalls. Altough it is becoming noticable that move overkill is getting really out of hand in ARSION, seems the promotion is in it's death spiral, altough I'll see where it goes.

Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to the face worked very well. Could see this being a low end MOTYC for some.

Ayako Hamada vs. Michiko Ohmukai (Queen of Arsion Title, 7/3/01 Tokyo) Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to the face worked very well. Could see this being a low end MOTYC for some. Ayako Hamada vs. Emi Motokawa (7/21/01 Sendai) Hey look, it's... uh... Emi Sakura? Well that is a random worker to show up and battle the promotions ace. Hamada just wrestles her standard match, same spots as usual and so on, but Motokawa added some fun touches. I really liked her fast, vicious drop toe hold and her „crumbling“ style sells of Hamada's big strikes were fun. Feels weird that of all the wrestlers to show up in ARSION Motokawa would probably end up being the most influental one by training dozens of girls into wrestlers.

Michiko Ohmukai vs. Ai Fujita (6/9/01 Sapporo) Hey look... it's Ai Fujita. Pretty basic main eventer vs. Lower carder match. Ohmukai tortures Fujita a little before Ai gets some token nearfalls. Ohmukai landed some stiff shots, but she's so disinterested in selling it's hard to get into her matches. Okay take at the trope. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 6/9/01 Tokyo) Bizarro world version of their 1999 match. LCO are busted open and have to fight back valiently against Hamada and Akino who act like pricks! Also, AKINO gets a lot of focus, which was nice for once. This was probably the best LCO performance in a while and pretty good in parts, but also kinda stupid. Hamada and Akino pretty much have LCO at their will and land all their finishers, but can't win the match. Eventually LCO make their big comeback by waffling Hamada and Akino with stiff weapon shots, and literally burying them under a pile of trash. Match wasn't bad though and I like that they are still trying new things. Lioness Asuka vs. Mariko Yoshida (7/3/01 Tokyo) Lioness Asuka enters. Her License Number is 100! Yoshida is unimpressed and brings the fight right to the legend. Man, this dark looking Asuka is so different from the 80s Crush Gal. It's like some 80s pop star reinventing himself into a dark goth guy. I'd say this was a pretty good Yoshida signature match. Asuka gives an uncooperative & dangerous vibe so is a good match up for Yoshida's style. Altough she brought her own signature table to the match and tried some ECW shit that kind gave me a bad feel about her. Still Yoshida was a total trooper here taking a bunch of cringeworthy stiff shots from Asuka and working good submission nearfalls. Altough it is becoming noticable that move overkill is getting really out of hand in ARSION, seems the promotion is in it's death spiral, altough I'll see where it goes.

20 minutes of matwork? I didn't think so.There were holds, yes, but when I think matwork I think of something more than that. Plus there were a ton of impact moves, flying and rope running. Pretty much just a regular match with a slight emphasis on holds in my book. That aside this was a really nice match as it was just them picking eachother apart over the duration. Plenty of bomb throwing, and Yagi gets to look excellent, surviving some harsh powerbombs and landing some great moves of her own. I tend to belief joshi matches are better when it's (talented) rookie vs. veteran and this was a very good showcase for lucha judoist Yagi in the 2nd year of her career, aswell as Ozaki's competence at putting a match together.

It's become a cliche, another box to tick off in the "This is Awesome" checklist, just like the shoot headbutt which everyone is doing now. Clueless wrestlers gonna be clueless.

ARS Tournament '01 Round 1 (4/30/01 Tokyo): Bionic J vs. Rena Takase This was a fun WCWSN 4 minute match. I liked Takase's judo throws and submissions, really liked Bionic J's power moves especially her turning a triangle choke into a sit down powerbomb. Mikiko Futagami vs. Rie Tamada Oh GAMI, you've really let yourself go. The moves her looked good but the stuff between was just...ugh. I expect better from two workers who have been working eachother for years. This just felt lifeless. Ayako Hamada vs. Hiromi Yagi We join the match just as the matwork ends. Seems like they removed the really good part. Yagi still has some amazing lucha cum shootstyle moves, but Hamada can't be arsed to sell for her and just beats her like a jobber. What a joke. Michiko Ohmukai vs. Mariko Yoshida This was okay. Just their standard stuff. Seems the workers stopped giving a damn about those 1st round matches. Semi Finals Michiko Ohmukai vs. Bionic J Man, Ohmukai didn't give a fuck in this match. Bionic J starts the match hitting all her finishers to avoid her jobber fate, but Ohmukai just looks so uninterested. Eventually J busts out a nunchaku and gives her some stiff hits. That may have been unintentional as Bionic J probably didn't have much experience about doing safe nunchaku shots. Ohmukai gives her some pretty stiff shots of her own and Bionic J joins the list of unfairly jobbed out women along with Hiromi Yagi. Mikiko Futagami vs. Ayako Hamada There was one cool moment here where Futagami counters the Ayakita. The rest of this was kind of terrible, however. Never seen Ayako so disinterested in selling and there was one horrid blown spot. This went 9 minutes but felt like half an hour. Finals Michiko Ohmukai vs. Mikiko Futagami Damn I hated this. Literally every 2nd or 3rd move was no sold. I try to be a little lenient in order to enjoy things, but this just couldn't grab my interest at all. Terrible. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Ayako Hamada/Azumi Hyuga (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 5/6/01 Tokyo) LCO faces the dream team of Hamada and Hyuga.My patience on LCO and their bullshit has far run out, but this atleast had a somewhat interesting layout. Basically Hyuga was barely in the match and Hamada just steamrolled both of them, so LCO were forced to use chairs and odd timing to their advantage. I dig Ayako in the ace role and thought this was a good performance from her. For me the match was a little too focussed on bomb throwing and a few no selling hiccups but overall the exeution was good and the narrative made this an effective bout.

I have seen Apollo before but not this match. Just leaving this here so people know Apollo was a total cat on the mat. He moved like a panther and did all these crazy Solar-ish moves. Boyer didn't seem to quite know what to do about it altough you need an advance degree in Negronavarrology to do that. I really liked the fistfight after the match too. Short and to the point.

I didn't think the interference was that bad here. In fact it's befuddling to me that in a match full of really graphic violence and lunatic bumps with one of them mostly taking a brutal one sided beating people are distracted by some (pretty minor) interference. Jaguar is a maniac here, bouncing around like she's not old enough to be your mom and splatting on the floor. Asuka is equally crazy slicing her up with reckless kicks and smashing her with props including chucking the wooden splittered edge of a table in her face. Asuka takes some certified lunatic bumps too for good measure. I didn't think it amounted to a great match like others as it really felt too rushed and ECW-ish in parts but as far as gruesome trainwrecks goes this is pretty high up.

This was pretty fun. AJ Styles bouncing around for Roman's superhuman strength and Roman just nuking him repeatedly made for an entertaining match. The crowd brawling, prop-focus and absurd overkill made this feel like a Big Japan match with WWE booking. I don't hate Roman but I really thought he shouldn't have won the match especially after AJ's flipping out and thrashing everyone with the chair. I got a kick out of the Usos "Doing it for the bloodline!!!"

You should upload that 1991 Santo/Casas match. I recall it being pretty great despite poor picture quality. These two developed had these borderline shootstyle lucha matches that are so fascinating.

Interesting backstory. I'll see how it turns out... Ayako Hamada vs. Azumi Hyuga (Queen of ARSION Title, 2/12/01 Tokyo) I liked parts of this, but overall wasn't exactly amazed by what was going on here. Hyuga seemed to be going through the motions and coupled with Hamada's green-ness that wasn't the greatest combinatilon for a match. I liked Hamada in this, liked her matwork, and she is game to take crazy punishment. I think this is the first ARSION match that went full „puro epic“, building from matwork to a slew of big moves and strikes being dished out. Hamada sold fine and the match had it's moments, but Hyuga's lack of urgency just kept taking me out of the match. Also, there was the popping up and sense of overkill that I've grown to dislike in 2000s japanese wrestling so much. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Michiko Ohmukai/Bionic J (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 3/20/01 Tokyo) This looked good but suffered from having the integral parts clipped out. We get to see LCO brawling and chair swinging, leading to Bionic J being bloodied and becoming the focus of the match. J sold fine and was a fun powerhouse, so this was a nice breath of fresh air. They seemed to have good drama going, but the finish was a little cheap and due to the clipping the match feels incomplete. Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida - Fukawa Retires (3/20/01 Tokyo) Yumi Fukawa retires. Hey, remember when this lady got to look like a worldbeater in 1998? This wasn't much serious like most retirement matches are. Decent grappling in a time when ARSION didn't do that stuff often anymore, but mostly just a nice sendoff for Fukawa. Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Queen of Arsion Title, 4/21/01 Kanagawa) Their previous matches were quick tournament finals, with Ayako as a huge underdog. Now, Ayako is the champion and they have their sights set on „epic“. Largely this match was pretty great, but there are some flaws. Yoshida dominating Ayako with submissions and punch combos still works perfectly, and these two still mesh really well. I thought Ayako's selling was great, and the spot that set up her dominance was both brutal and really smart. All of Ayako's stuff was extremely sharp and well timed. However, I expected a little smarter work from Yoshida in the last third of the match. Her selling was pretty spotty and she could've picked her offense a little better as the match progressed, as the previous urgency was a deflated a little. However, they redeem themselves with a great finish that was just fucking awesome pro wrestling. Anyways, this is one of the better and more interesting matchups japanese wrestling had in the store in the 2000s, and to be fair some of the flaws here are par for the course with lesser workers.

Comprehensive list of the Best ARSION matches of 2000. The really good stuff is in bold. Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (Queen of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Chapparita Asari vs. Mika Akino (Sky High of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Arsion ZION Tournament Finals 10/17) Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (ZION Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mika Akino (SKY Tournament II Final, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Mika Akino vs. Mary Apache (SKY Tournament II Semi-Finals, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (8/18/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask IV (P*MIX Grand Prix Semi-Finals, 6/29/00) Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask vs. Chapparita Asari/Great Sasuke (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/24/00) Yumi Fukawa/Minoru Tanaka vs. Mariko Yoshida/Alexander Otsuka (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/7/00) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARS Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 5/7 Tokyo) Michiko Omukai & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 04/07/00) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Faby Apache/Gran Apache (4/7) Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong/Mariko Yoshida (2/18) So, 2001 is next... a big name makes her ARSION debut. Azumi Hyuga vs. Mary Apache (1/27/01 Tokyo) Our first look at Azumi Hyuga in ARSION!!! And she makes her debut in a... solid but very dry time limit draw. God damn it. There was technically nothing wrong here, but the match just felt extremely by the numbers and there was absolutely no fire from Hyuga which killed it. I mean, Hyuga was like, the super-ace of JWP at. this time, right? And she goes and works a „We are equal“ move trading match with Mari? That was nice of her I guess, and I like Mari, but... there wasn't a lot to sink your teeth into here. Mari dominated a big portion of the match with her submissions which was fine and technically Hyuga didn't no sell it, but they just settled down and ran through their offense for the rest of the match. The crowd was absolutely dead too. Proof good moves aren't worth a thing when the connection isn't there. Ayako Hamada vs. Mika Akino (1/27/01 Tokyo) I liked this a lot, fun match in the same style as their match from the year before, which shows Akino's growth. It didn't have the same air of excitement around it (I guess the crowd at this event just sucked) but the work was slick and fun. Really liked the matwork, and really liked the way Hamada dominated the match as she has learned to mix things up with vicious strikes. Akino's execution wasn't as good as in other matches but she could stay in the match believably. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Mariko Yoshida/Aja Kong (Twinstar of ARSION Tag Title, 2/12/01 Tokyo) Aja is MAD! She waffles the hell out of LCO with stiff chair shots to start this match.Then she gets on the mic, yells something angry and leaves the match. What? Yoshida is left to fight on her own, and LCO quickly finish the 2 on 1 situation with a bunch of DVBs and the Avalanche Tiger Suplex in 5 minutes. More of an angle than a match. Also when Aja left they showed a chalkboard backstage. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Now that I think of it, I'd take both Orton and Chono over Dory Funk Jr.

Last 2 matches for 2000. Rie Tamada/Mikiko Futagami vs. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita (Twinstar of Arsion Tag Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) More sprinty clipped action, with Futagami being in the ring most of the time. Futagami was no longer the tricky shootstyle wrestler. I guess this was a solid sprint altough there was nothing here you haven't seen before. They get some points for ending the match early instead of doing a million 2.99999 spots. Also, LCO's Smells like Teen Spirit ripoff theme is amazing. Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (Queen of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) 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 1st 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. Well, that was 2000. ARSION had kind of lost the cool quasi-shootstyle that made it's first two years so neat, and some of the wrestler degraded considerably. Still, we got a cool new development with Ayako becoming the ace, and there's still some things left on the table for Akino, Yoshida, etc.

At this point, I'm starting to think JD stands for JUDO and DEATH. This was another unique match as it has some big violence and blood. Starts out with a few psycho bumps, Sakai takes a really dangerous looking spill down a flight of stairs, misses a moonsault from a height into a pile of chairs etc. To be honest I thought the pace was a little off but it could've been due to the clipping. The second half was really well worked as you had Sakai doing her best Sangre Chicana impression, being bloodied and doing a very good job selling dazed and hanging on by a thread. I really liked how desperate Sakai was to avoid the chain punches from The Bloody, and the worked in some good exchanges. There were a few weird lulls in the match and some parts that felt a little rushed keeping this below it's potential.

I'm on a quest to watch every Yabushita match I can find. This was a very good skill vs. power match. Fang Suzuki is certainly a lot better than you expect a random Dump Matsumoto-midcard heel from a forgotten indy fed to be. Instead of brawling they mostly stuck to a clean, simple wrestling match. It was really cool to see what Yabushita could do to a bigger opponent and Fang was a ton of fun. Fang able to get in a few submissions of her own was a nice touch, and her simplistic back elbows, clubbing lariats and STOs looked great, her selling was neat aswell. Yabushita basically stuck her game plan to two moves, armbars and shotais, and they made good use of them. Her slick bantamweight grappler spots and nifty ways to set up her springboard moves remain a sight to see. I wouldn't say there's great matwork here, but Yabushita has some spectacular ways to get armbars. There was a brief spill to the outside where Yabusita gets suplex into a pile of chairs and hits a dive from a big height which was a little out of place 2000s indy trope for this kind of match, but they quickly went back to the wrestling and delivered a strong, effective finish.

This was a fast paced joshi match. One thing that stands out about these JD' matches is the slick spots these girls do. It almost feels like watching a CMLL Minis match integrated into a joshi bout. Yabushita was a maniac here taking one psycho bump after another, eating a dangerous spill down a flight of a stairs and a huge german suplex on the floor aswell as getting dumped on her head multiple times including with a Dragon Suplex off the top rope. I thought the match wasn't quite great, as I thought the rhythm was off, there were some slight upfucks and some of the selling and transitions where... you know what they were. Still, I liked how Bloody was able to reverse Yabushita's armbars so Yabushita resorts to vicious palm strikes which they built to a strong finish, and because the match was interesting I enjoyed it.

I saw this match before and thought it was very good. But now, I have some additional info: Ayako was on an absolute roll, having won the SKY tournament and taken out a bunch of veterans to get to the finals here Ayako had matured insanely as a worker, using her crazy Ayakita Submission Holds to finish people off, and adding vicious strikes and bombs to her arsenal, while keeping the technical and flying moves Yoshida, on the other hand, has added devastating punch combos which she used to beat Aja, who had in turn crushed Ayako earlier And the resulting match was seriously fantastic. They continue from the tournament finale they had years before and show their growth as wrestlers, while still paying respect to eachother's strengths. To reiterate: God damn these two smoke any other junior in the world. The matwork is super, with Yoshida again fighting like an animal and catching everything Hamada tries. Aside from the crazy submissions you get Yoshida working Hamada over with punches and Hamada firing back with some really sharp and well timed offense of her own. Yoshida briefly works over Hamada's stomach a bit and while it wasn't the focus of the match, Hamada sold very well, same for Yoshida with her bandaged arm. The thing that really stands out is Ayako's awesome fire as she was in that sweet spot of a young athlete who has great triumph in reach but needs to push beyond her limits to get it. Also thought Yoshida did a monster job here with her selling, eating the fuck out of Ayako's big shots and creating just the right kind of space between moves to keep Ayako within said spot. Terrific terrific lucharesu/BattlARTS fusion bout that told a great story, this is what ARSION should be all about.

Gran Apache may be one of the more influental wrestlers of the 2000s with how many wrestlers he trained and helped train. genickbruch.com alone lists 60 trainees. Guy seemed like a hidden wrestling genius, his stuff in the 2011 IWRG vs. AAA maestros feud was great.

Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Arsion ZION Tournament Finals 10/17) I saw this match before and thought it was very good. But now, I have some additional info: Ayako was on an absolute roll, having won the SKY tournament and taken out a bunch of veterans to get to the finals here Ayako had matured insanely as a worker, using her crazy Ayakita Submission Holds to finish people off, and adding vicious strikes and bombs to her arsenal, while keeping the technical and flying moves Yoshida, on the other hand, has added devastating punch combos which she used to beat Aja, who had in turn crushed Ayako earlier And the resulting match was seriously fantastic. They continue from the tournament finale they had years before and show their growth as wrestlers, while still paying respect to eachother's strengths. To reiterate: God damn these two smoke any other junior in the world. The matwork is super, with Yoshida again fighting like an animal and catching everything Hamada tries. Aside from the crazy submissions you get Yoshida working Hamada over with punches and Hamada firing back with some really sharp and well timed offense of her own. Yoshida briefly works over Hamada's stomach a bit and while it wasn't the focus of the match, Hamada sold very well, same for Yoshida with her bandaged arm. The thing that really stands out is Ayako's awesome fire as she was in that sweet spot of a young athlete who has great triumph in reach but needs to push beyond her limits to get it. Also thought Yoshida did a monster job here with her selling, eating the fuck out of Ayako's big shots and creating just the right kind of space between moves to keep Ayako within said spot. Terrific terrific lucharesu/BattlARTS fusion bout that told a great story, this is what ARSION should be all about. Ayako & Xochitl Hamada vs. Mima Shimoda/Michiko Ohmukai (10/29/00 Tokyo) The team that I've dubbed Nu-LCO is next on Ayako Hamada's list. It was cool to see someone like Xochitl actually get to be in a longer match. She wasn't a great worker, kind of a sub-Mari Apache, but her chunky girl legdrops, clotheslines and powerbombs were fun. This was kind of a typical crowd pleasing match where they run through their offense and the action is of the roll-out-of the bed type, with the Shimoda/Ohmukai duo not really having much good offense. Ohmukai had one good moment where she really brought it to Ayako with stiff punches and knees, altough that was over all too quickly. Ohmukai really exemplifies the hit and miss worker – or should say, hit and miss and miss and miss and miss... there was one cute spot where Xochitl did the Kobashi cover spot to protect her baby sister. They kept it moving and had clear roles with the Hamada girls having to overcome the evil lingerie model duo, so I guess this was acceptable action for the joshi completists. Chapparita Asari vs. Mika Akino (Sky High of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) This was clipped but we get a good picture of it. I imagine this would have been really good if we had gotten the early build, because what was shown was really good. Asari is really sharp, and the contrast between her lucha headscissors and flash armbars and Akino's more basic style made for an entertaining match. They had great rhythm and Akino's arm selling was right on the money. The finish was really neat aswell. Even without the ARSION trademark gone these two are still a welcome antidote to the more overkill-y joshi workers.

Really fun match between two undercarders. Ranmaru has really sharp looking kicks and really lays the stiff shots into Kuragaki, while Kuragaki does a mix of power spots and integrated flying moves. I knew Kuragaki was "agile for a thick power wrestler", but her athleticism absolutely blew me away here, approaching Super Astro-ish levels. She did all these slick cat landing on her feet spots and asai moonsaults that wrestlers half her size can't pull off as clean. Most wrestlers will occasionally wobble a little when doing that kind of stuff, but everything she did had a perfect 10 landing. I also really liked how she caught Ranmaru in a canadian backbreaker hold, then followed up with a dropkick to the back and a sharpshooter for a nice submission nearfall. Her twisting moonsault where she crushed the Ninja with her hip was really nasty too. I'll be hunting for more Kuragaki.

Female worker that doesn't get talked about enough. Great unique moveset with the combo of headbutt variations and shootstyle submissions including the awesome Imada triangle choke. What matches do I need to see? Anything from her run that is considered a "highlight"? Seems like she was midcarder for life while occasionally playing tag partner for Chigusa and other old timerettes. I've really enjoyed her vs. Hyuga, Yoshida, Mizunami, Kana, Ran Yu Yu, AKINO, Chikayo Nagashima, and her vs. Aja Kong is on my to watch list. Also apparently she teamed with Hiromi Yagi was Masked Angel Freia which is total dream matchup. Apparently, only two of her singles matches vs. Meiko Satomura made tape, and one was clipped down to about 2 minutes, the other was in 1999. What a travesty. Any fans of her around here? Maybe an opinion from someone who was watching in realtime?

Aja Kong vs. Mary Apache (ZION Tournament '00 Round 2, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mikiko Futagami (ZION Tournament '00 Round 2, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Kong/Apache was 4 minutes of chunky girl bombthrowing. Perhaps I'm expecting too much, but I thought Mari was a little exposed as she just wrestled Aja like she wrestles everyone else... throwing bombs. Hamada vs. GAMI was somewhat neat due to GAMI being tricky and heelish, altough Hamada squashes her very quickly. That missed Asai Moonsault bump and brutal unprotected chairshot that Ayako took were probably a wee bit unnecessary in that match. Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (ZION Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 10/17/00 Tokyo) This was quite the badass little war. At this point they had matched up a few times, so to keep things interesting Mariko Yoshida had now started using GLOVES. Which means she absolutely goes nuts with stiff punches on Aja here to even things out a little. Aja also has a barrage of crazy stiff offense, altough that's nothing new. Still, she just ragdolled Yoshida around in ways that just had to absolutely suck and I winced at her brutal kick to Yoshida's hamstring. This had the usual cool matwork were Yoshida has to work hard in order to lock her holds on the beast that is Aja. Also really loved Aja's modified ankle hold here she just hugs and squeezes Yoshida's heel into her thigh. That is such an angry bear grappling move. This matchup is great everytime but this was especially compact, the selling was flawless and you get the usual neat, well timed, violent spots. Plus, punches to the face. Ayako Hamada vs. Rie Tamada (ZION Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Rie Tamada is this wrestler who looks like not much at one time and then does some really neat stuff at others. This was less neat moments and more fairly standard, even a little sloppy bomb throwing. Atleast Tamada put up a valiant performance, but there really was no stopping Ayako.