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Tournament ARS '98 Ikkaisen: Mikiko Futagami (7-3) vs. Mariko Yoshida (3-0) |
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"Probably one of the most evenly matched contests of the evening. Both women have killer gimmicks, with Yoshida's spider-woman gimmick giving her the 'mystical' look while Futagami's short cropped hair and staunch look has an intimidating feeling to it. Both women are billed as the technician types, with Yoshida being 'ARSION True Heart' and 'The Martial Arts Mariposa" while Futagami is known as the 'Lethal Qeapon' or the 'Lady of 1000 holds' (yes, that's directly taken from Malenko). Between the two, I would estimate that Yoshida knows more holds while Futagami has integrated a kicker style into her arsenal," wrote Keith. Yoshida does know more moves because for all these years she adapted her style to fit what was being done in AJW at the time, but also had her little side projects, mat wrestling and Lucha Libre. She was put in the position of having to try to keep up with Manami in those Freedom Force spotfests while in the retirement home known as LLPW, Gami was struggling with older women have had little to no interest in doing any moves that they didn't do when they were in the original JWP. Also, as the trainer, Yoshida is working more directly with all the various style women. She's been given the push that allows her to define the style of the league, especially since she's become the champion. The problem is that, while Gami, Yagi, Akino, Omukai, Yumi, Aja, and the now departed Reggie could and were willing to do the new style, you have the the rest of the league who is basically disinterested in it. Their gimmicks forshadowed the style of match they would present. It was a solid, highly technical match. Unfortunately, like pretty much all the matches on this show, it came off flat because there was no crowd heat. This started out like a very technical RINGS match with both women attempting submissions back and forth, but having them blocked or countered. After working the beginning like a shoot, Futagami dominated the stand up with some nice suplexes. This killed the credibility of the early portion, but they were turning it into a submission style spot wrestling match and they never try to do a whole match that looks like a shoot, so they didn't mind. Thus, I only bring it up to point out how good they could be in a "realistic" situation. They did some good near finishes. The finish saw Futagami do a great abisegiri for a near fall and Yoshida looked glassy eyed, but she came back with a stomach breaker and applied the henkei sleeper hold for the win. Yoshida stepped on Futagami's face after the match, so Futagami put her in a heel hold. 10:56. *** Keith: One thing about the post match that was good is that Futagami used that heel hold to set up a match on a later ARSION show. I think she might've got the win on that show with that hold. I don't mind the pull aparts nor the post match attacks, but they need to do something about that continuity aspect to build up those feuds. Miko: The best match of the night. The crowd heat often remained disappointing, but I think they are still getting used to this style, particularly since there is a lot more matwork than they usually see in women's wrestling. There were several submission grappling exchanges, with both women showing good skills and counters. Futagami also showed some good kicks. Special thanks to: Keith Watanabe -
Manami Toyota Rules!, & Miko Kubota - Michiku
Pro 10:56
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