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THE FOURTH STARLIGHT: Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida |
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This pitted License Number #1 vs. #2, and fighting producer (booker) vs. trainer. It was the most believable match that ARSION has produced so far. More than 90% of the spots would be acceptable in (worked) RINGS, with the ones that wouldn't be coming toward the end to make the match "more exciting." This was a really well built match due to Aja, but it showed that Yoshida is as good if not better in the ARSION style than Kong is. Of course, that was Kong's purpose in doing the match this way. That said, Yoshida would go on to establish herself as ARSION's finest performer. Neither woman could come close to gaining an advantage in the first two minutes, so Aja lied on her back and then on all fours, taking the bottom position in amatuer wrestling, but Yoshida just stood in the corner refusing to engage. This was interesting because Yoshida is the mat wrestler. What it did was show that Kong is very confident in her mat skills, even against an opponent the calibre of Yoshida. It wasn't that Yoshida was playing chickenshit. The reason she didn't want to engage is that she has too much confidence in her own skills to want Aja to just give her an advantage. They did a shoot sequence where both controlled each other on the mat, but neither could get a submission. Both women got ankle locks simultaneously, but neither did all that much damage with them. They had quite a good RINGS style match going. It was just about time for all the build to end, and I was expecting the match to really kick in with submissions. Unfortunately, this is where they inserted a little pro style, and kind of ruined the match because they didn't do enough of it to warrant the departure. Aja took the credibility way down by putting Yoshida in a Canadian backbreaker, but Yoshida slipped out and went into a doushime sleeper. Aja made it to the ropes, but Yoshida soon had Aja in several more versions of the sleeper. They did several more near finishes, including Yoshida getting a near fall after an overhead belly to belly to big Aja, which was sold well. Aja caught Yoshida off the ropes with a northern lights bomb type of brainbuster. Both women really wanted the win, so they really cut loose in the final minute. Aja backdropped Yoshida and suichoku rakka shiki no brainbustered her for a near fall. When Yoshida kicked out, she hooked Aja in a crooked headscissors. Yoshida dragged Aja up after she made it to the ropes, but Aja whacked her with an uraken. I mean, Yoshida was blown ½ way across the ring. The problem for Aja was that she "hurt her hand" hitting Yoshida so hard and collapsed out of exhaustion. Aja desperately crawled over and covered Yoshida, but her feet were on the ropes. Aja dragged her away from the ropes and really wrenched Yoshida's arm with a wakigatame, but the time limit should have expired 15 seconds ago, so they finally rang the bell. Some people won't like this match that much because it didn't have many spots until the end, but it's their loss. To me, it's refreshing to see these women do something different. This wasn't as good technically as a very good RINGS bout due to Aja, but Yoshida was so good on the mat that she was on that level. Aja did make the build and psychology a lot better than in the vast majority of RINGS matches. Overall, the match did about as good a job of elevating Yoshida without giving her a submission win over Kong as it possibly could have. If only Kong would have gone on to put people over in matches like this instead of on flukish rollups and the like... 15:00
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