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HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING TOURNAMENT
ZION '98 Kesshosen Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida |
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Ayako looked the best here of her three matches in the tournament because, like in Akino's debut, Yoshida never put her in the position to make a mistake. This was a more mat oriented Yoshida style match, so Hamada didn't get to show as many of her high spots. I think the idea may have been that it was okay for her to lose because she couldn't be expected to beat Yoshida at her own game. However, to me working the match this way was a mistake because it gave Hamada less chance to shine, and kind of exposed her as one-dimensional. Yoshida did loosen her style up down the stretch, including dusting off her AJW finisher, the air raid crash, to take the tournament. "This was the best Ayako match on the show, I agree, but I approved of her doing Yoshida's match instead because she needed to show that she wasn't simply a spot machine. Unfortunately, Hamada is a spot machine and doesn't have the submission style techniques to do well against Yoshida, so it didn't look as good as it needed to in the end," wrote Keith. I think you are forgetting just how inexperienced Hamada is. You said it yourself, Hamada is a spot machine. At this point, that is all we can expect of her. She definitely needs to learn the mat, but give her some time before you trap her in the web. I would have been more than happy if they could have incorporated one well worked sequence on the mat where Hamada worked her counter holds. Hamada is a fish out of water in Yoshida's style, whereas if I've seen one good Yoshida spotfest, I've seen 111. If the commitment was to push Hamada, then Yoshida needed to do the right thing and leave the ARSION style to carry Hamada in her own style. If they wanted the final to be an ARSION match, and it should have been, then you needed an opponent that can do that style. You can't have it both ways. The match got off to a slow start then ended quickly, so it was rather mediocre. What I don't understand about the match is why they went home so soon. Hamada came close to winning with a backslide, and this should have built some momentum for her. Instead, Yoshida went right to the finish with a (released) German suplex and two air raid crashes. As long as they deemed it necessary for Hamada to make it to the finals, they should have at least let her be more competitive. "Considering the way Ayako beat Gami, this match made sense to me. Ayako didn't get much offense but after all, it's the third fight of the night, against the toughest woman in the promotion. I agree that Ayako shouldn't have beaten Gami. Siince they wanted her in the final, she should have beat her in a credible way. Once she got the win over Gami that was was basically a fluke, there was no reason for Yoshida to be pushed by the rookie who was only working the 4th singles match of her career. I don't think it was anti-climatic that Yoshida murdered Ayako. It was her best match of the night, and I really thought she looked better here than winning her match against Gami. I think she was more in this match than the semifinal. I don't know if she blew up, but if it was the case, Yoshida did the right thing by giving her very little offense. She prevented Ayako of screwing up anything, and made her look good in the process. I also thought Ayako was pretty good putting the submission holds over, with good facials (it really seemed that she was choking one time). She also sold her head in the post match ceremony which I thought was a nice touch. It was a mistake to have her in the final, but it would have been a bigger one to have Yoshida in trouble in the match," wrote Jerome. It's like they took things farther than you'd expect with her, but hedged at the same time. This match needed to be dramatic, and to make it dramatic, Ayako needed at least a handful of spots where you thought the Super Rookie would win the match against all odds. Even though this was the best Ayako match in the tournament, I think it was the worst for her push. I'm not saying that because she lost, but because they failed to build any momentum for her before she lost and they failed to do anything to get the crowd behind her. "I don't think pushing Ayako was a waste. Even in defeat, she gain a lot because she defeated two veterans and got to the final of the tournament, with only 4 singles matches in her career. Yoshida's work was the highlight of the night and she looked like a star. The debut of Tiger Dream didn't deliver exactly what it was supposed to, but the match was really good. ARSION maybe pushes their girl too far, but to me it always gives something interesting at worst and something pretty great at best," wrote Jerome. "I think Ayako blew up. She didn't look to be into this match at all, especially towards the end. Even in the Mari match, Ayako looked exhausted. It's just far too much pressure to match move for move against a veteran like Yoshida in a main event, 'high profile' (for ARSION) type of match where you're expected to perform. The end was very anti-climatical and Yoshida didn't get much pops for her win, probably because no one gave Hamada a chance to win this thing and it was too obvious that Yoshida would take this thing. I don't mind ARSION pushing their youngsters like this nor Hamada getting a push, but ARSION really doesn't know its limits. The ending to this match just didn't make any statement for Hamada considering her push up to this point and what was needed from her," wrote Keith. You are right that everyone knew Yoshida would win, but this tournament was setting up the next major show, so it's like why just anyone can't win the Royal Rumble. Only someone who can draw a big buy rate can win. Otherwise, you'd run into another situation where Brooklyn Brawler winning a battle royal at MSG seemed like a good idea to someone at the time, but you don't even need to be a wrestling fan to realize that Bret vs. Brawler for the heavyweight title isn't exactly going to pack MSG, so WWF just forgets about their promise to poor loyal Lombardi. ARSION had a big project trying to sell out Yokohama Bunka on 12/18, and they wanted to have at least one of their top wrestlers in the main event. Wrestling just isn't popular enough right now and ARSION doesn't have enough media exposure to justify a Hamada vs. Candy main event on their top show of the year. I suppose it couldn't have drawn much worse than Candy vs. Yoshida did, and it would have got more publicity, but on paper Yoshida vs. Candy should be a lot better draw and certainly turned out to be a lot better match. Also, I don't think it would have made a lot of sense to have Tiger Dream & Ayako team up in ARS if they were set to meet each other in a major singles match less than two weeks after the tournament ended. "I totally agree with the Royal Rumble argument, and it was probably the major flaw of the tournament," wrote Jerome. "Overall, I found this show very enjoyable, but the formatting of the tournament, Aja's squashing of Akino, and the flawed premise of Ayako's mega-push hurt the type of statement that ARSION needed to make on a show like. The bracketing for tournament ARS was much better (although I personally didn't care for Tamada's win over Omukai) even though the matches overall weren't nearly as good. Candy was able to handle the push given to her because she had the experience and ability to carry through her half. Ayako, on the other hand, doesn't have that level of ability and experience so giving her the push here was a waste. Their match still came off as a squash to me because no one gave Ayako a chance to beat Yoshida and the ending was anti-climatic. Someone else like Aja needed to be in the bracketing so Yoshida's win would be given more meaning," wrote Keith. I disagree that giving Ayako the push was a waste. I think that a rookie making it to the finals of both tournaments they are in makes a major statement about how good they are and what kind of potential they have. I mean, Naomichi Marufuji has a ton of potential, but can you imagine how hard people would be laughing in your face if you suggested that Marufuji should have made it to the finals of both the '99 Champion Carnival and the '99 Sekai Saikyo Tag League? Special thanks to: Jerome Denis & Keith Watanabe - Manami Toyota Rules! 7:39
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