ARSION doesn't have a lot of fans, but this match would have solidified Hamada & AKINO as stars to ARSION's niche audience had they done anything to follow it up. It had big time aura; the ARSION wrestlers that weren't in the match were at ringside supporting Hamada & AKINO against the evil outsiders, with Aja Kong acting as the head cheerleader. Of course, you can have all the cheerleaders you want but if there's nothing to cheer for than nobody will. Luckily, this match was wrestled so the fans had good reason to support Hamada & AKINO, and that is really why it worked so well.

Just because Hamada & AKINO were the favorite of the fans, that didn't mean they weren't their usual punk selves.

"The match wouldn't have worked if they were. Not that CAZAI are truly heels, but they act enough like them to have not come off as the babyface underdogs they were in this match had they been their usual selves," wrote Michael.

I think for the most part they were their usual selves. The thing is, their antics were somewhat justified because LCO kind of "invaded" ARSION and none of the ARSION wrestlers "wanted them there." Realistically, Shimoda & Mita would have treated them the same way no matter how they acted, but Hamada & AKINO staying in character worked because it seemed like the the lack of respect they showed Shimoda & Mita caused LCO to teach them a lesson by giving them the beating of their lives.

"To an extent they tried to show LCO up, but because LCO are the ultimate bad ass heels, Hamada & AKINO didn't come off as punkish as CAZAI usually are. Hamada & AKINO played their roles perfectly, not going overboard in playing their usual 'characters,' but they also didn't back down from Mita and Shimoda," wrote Michael.

I can agree with this, except that LCO never gave them a chance to go overboard because they took over and were relentless in their beatdown.

"I really like the gimmick of punking people around, but it's hard to come across as someone who does a good job at it. When Takako Inoue, for instance, tries to take a similar approach to her in-ring personality, it doesn't work that well because she's not that good at acting tough, and the fact that she often winds up being the one that's being pushed around doesn't help things any. The gimmick works for LCO though because Mita and Shimoda seem pretty tough and nasty, while still maintaining their ladylike charm," wrote Gabe.

Hamada & AKINO started the illegal tactics right off the bat when they double teamed Mita so AKINO could gain the initial advantage over her.

Michael wrote, "I guess this was because LCO didn't shake their hands, but I don't understand what that was supposed to signify in the first place. LCO are the unwanted punks in ARSION, yet Hamada and AKINO forget the war between ARSION and LCO to attempt to shake hands?"

AKINO wouldn't have sustained this advantage for more than a few seconds if it wasn't for Ayako tripping Mita when she was trying to step out of the corner to avoid AKINO's dropkick. Ayako held Shimoda & Mita so AKINO could give them her no touch tope con hilo. LCO weren't going to allow Hamada & AKINO to get away with these kind of antics for long. AKINO followed by holding Shimoda & Mita so Ayako could do her quebrada, but they moved out of the way and began their heel attack.

Before LCO could have their way with Ayako & AKINO, they had to wear them down. They started off with the typical little rule infractions and shortcuts, only throwing a wrestling move in once in a while. Hamada & AKINO weren't going to make it easy on their opposition, so they would constantly make comebacks, but their advantages would be really short lived. LCO really began pummeling them after Mita got her legs up for AKINO's diving body press. Well, first they did their dives, but then they dragged Hamada & AKINO all over the building and started using chairs on them. Mita also piledrove Hamada through a table. Soon both Hamada & AKINO were bleeding like crazy. Shimoda literally rubbed it in by wiping her hand that was covered in the oppositions blood on Aja's sweatshirt.

"This was the coolest part of all the heel antics LCO did. It was nearly the ultimate slap in Aja's face," wrote Michael.

The story of the rest of the match was that Hamada & AKINO wouldn't give up. They took all kinds of punishment and lost a pint or two of blood, but they kept fighting. Their tremendous display of fighting spirit made it really easy to root for them, especially since in spite of being the champs they were the underdogs to begin with.

Michael wrote, "Agreed, but they were supposed to be rooted for the entire match. Their never give up attitude put them over the top though, which in turn also would make them stronger heels because you know they won't go down easy. Of course, all that went out the window when they lost to Aja and Yoshida, but what else isn't new?"

I'm sure the fans root for someone, but, unless one of the couple women in Japan that are over and aren't on ARSION's roster are wrestling, they don't seem to volunteer anything and a lot of times it takes prodding if not begging to get any reaction. The other thing is that even though LCO are heels, they are the cool kind that you root for, and I'm sure they have a bigger following than Hamada & AKINO because who else on this show does anyone pay to see? We've seen time and time again that Aja doesn't draw fans anymore and Yoshida never did, which is why it was such a travesty when they robbed Hamada & AKINO of their big chance to become stars and draws for no logical reason or possible financial gain.

Hamada attempted to stick up for herself by brawling back, but she isn't experienced so her chair and scissor shots didn't look that good. Hamada & AKINO also aren't used to losing tons of blood, so they had a few lapses in their near collapse act. Other than those minor problems, the match was top notch. AKINO, in particular, looked really awesome in points. Her high point came when she flipped out of Mita's Death Valley bomb, landing on her feet, then did a Frankensteiner right into a hizajujigatame. It was moves like this that made you always think Hamada & AKINO had a slight chance, even though for the most part they were getting pummeled.

"I guess it's an arguable point, but AKINO has shown herself to be the best overall athlete in joshi puroresu. She may not have the gymnastic skills of ASARI or the 450 like Fujita and Motokawa, but overall no one moves smoother than AKINO," wrote Michael.

I think Yagi is smoother than AKINO, but only because she's a better worker and bumper. I think ASARI's lack of size gives us a false sense of her athletic ability. She doesn't strike me as the type that could do the same moves if she was 6 inches taller (which still wouldn't make her that big), especially since her conditioning is never close to top notch. Ayako can't/doesn't do one move as cool, but she seems like she can do more in spite of a bigger frame. Emi can do a half-assed version of one great move, but nothing else about her game makes me think she's an exceptional athlete. Fujita probably seems like a worse athlete than she is because she is more stiff than smooth. She seems like someone who could do a lot more than even she does, but she lacks the confidence and experience to pull it off. I'd give Sakai high marks because she does a lot of nice flying moves, but even moreso than her natural ability she seems like one of those people that is good at what they do because they work hard to be. Another woman I'd rate highly as an athlete is Momoe, just look at the spring she gets when she jumps if you don't already know why.

LCO threw everything they had at Hamada & AKINO, but still couldn't pin them. Instead, the one or two move comebacks by Hamada & AKINO were getting more frequent. It looked like Hamada was done for when Shimoda avoided Hamada's swandive shiki no moonsault and gave her a deathlake drive followed by her rolling kakato otoshi, but she somehow got her arm up at 2 9/10.

"The main reason the match was so dramatic was that the underdogs, Hamada and AKINO, were taking a consistent beating and bleeding heavily, but they kept fighting from their hearts for pride, and refused to be beaten. No matter how bad things got, their friends like Aja Kong kept cheering them on at ringside without losing faith in them."

Las Cachorras were much too cocky for their own good. They had Hamada where they wanted her, but instead of following up they taunted AKINO. Finally, Mita dragged Hamada up into Death Valley bomb position, with Shimoda giving her a kakato otoshi before Mita dropped Hamada on her head. Shimoda covered, but Mita didn't do her job because, while Mita was standing in AKINO's path, she had her back to AKINO and her hands raised in the air so AKINO just ran around her and made the save before she could react. Mita stomped on AKINO to make her pay, but the damage was already done. While this was going on, Hamada cut Shimoda off on the top rope with an upper and delivered her father's Hama-chan cutter for the win.

Shimoda pounded the canvas in disgust, but it worked this time because it wasn't campy and the heels were really disgusted that they lost to a team that was beneath them. They had their opponents beat, but were so confident that they failed to capitalize and let Hamada & AKINO hang around forever. Then, all of a sudden, Shimoda was pinned and it was too late for LCO to just go about their business and win the titles.

While Aja hugged her girl Ayako, Mita threatened to hit referee Daichi Murayama because he counted the pinfall. AKINO and Ayako lie on top of each other and hugged. Everyone went back and forth on the mic to keep the LCO vs. ARSION program going strong. Finally, Aja put one arm around Ayako & one around AKINO, helping her battered understudies walk to the back.

"That's all well and good, but the finish of the match sucked. I didn't mind Ayako using the cutter 'out of nowhere,' but Shimoda made it look obvious by not giving Hamada time to get up or dragging her to the corner before she ascended the ropes. Although Shimoda took as strong a bump as possible off the cutter, she totally didn't sell it, and in turn killed a lot of the point of Hamada & AKINO winning," wrote Michael.

I agree that she didn't sell the move, but I disagree that her actions made Hamada & AKINO look bad. This was hardly a Scott Hall where Shimoda dominated the whole match and did everything in her power to let the fans know the score when it came to her laying down, then popped back up 100% and beat up the young wrestler that just got the upset. It was hardly the campy comedy we saw from The Glorified One when she was pinned by Candy in ARS '99. Shimoda had a fit because she couldn't stand the fact that no matter what she threw at these two kids, they kept coming back, even if only for a few moments, and eventually it was her, the veteran, that made the rookie mistake that ended the match. She wasn't blowing their move off, she was just so worked up that she could only think of hitting anything in sight. When her disbelief ended and her loss finally set in, she looked like she was going to cry. It's not like Hamada gave Shimoda 10 finishers and she kept popping up like Stupid Heel Devil Masami, this pin came after two moves so I don't think Shimoda should be expected to act like she was dead. She was moving while the ref was counting 1-2-3, but Hamada had bent her in half and had a strong lock on her leg, so she couldn't quite kick out.

"Just hanging with LCO isn't enough to establish Hamada & AKINO when they win on a fluke," wrote Michael.

Isn't the whole point of just trying to hang around to squeak by in the end? They were in it and they won it. The problem was that they needed to follow it up, but instead of doing the right thing Aja Kong "Ego" got in the way as always.

"You didn't need Shimoda to pop up after the 3 count to setup a rematch because LCO losing 'clean' would've automatically done that anyway," wrote Michael.

Certainly, but I don't see where this was ever anyone's intention. They were going for flash wins the whole match because they couldn't sustain an advantage. The point was they won because they were resilient. It was never meant to be convincing, and Shimoda was never meant to be KO'd by the Hama-chan cutter. The point was Hamada & AKINO were able to hang around the whole game, in part because the are good and in part because LCO underestimated them. That combination allowed them to squeak out the win, resulting in Shimoda showing she felt like ass for not putting the final nail in the coffin when she had the chance.

"Instead ARSION again blows a golden opportunity to do the right thing and instead of winning strong, Hamada & AKINO won on a missed shot or a dropped ball," wrote Michael.

I don't see how winning with one of your finishing moves can be equated to the Earnest Byner fumble. Hamada won with her best, not because of their worst.

"It's great that they won and few people have been as critical of how ARSION's been run as I have, but Hamada & AKINO winning this match doesn't make everything better just because they won. It's arguable either way if LCO would've done a clean/strong job, but as great as the match itself was the finish totally killed it for me. If Hamada won with a roll-up or small package, it would've sucked but would at least have been acceptable. Shimoda no-selling a cutter off the ropes after wrestling for over 20 minutes is inexcusable," wrote Michael.

Winning with a roll-up or a small package would have looked a lot more like a fluke than this did, it always does. No one has ever sold losing to one of those holds, and why they when they don't even do any damage? Yes, it wasn't a convincing win. Yes, Shimoda selling the hold and then throwing her tantrum when she "woke up" and realized what had happened would have made Hamada & AKINO look better. I can't see it as a point that killed the effect of the result though because the way this match was worked, Hamada & AKINO won the only way they could have won. The flash win had been teased several times during the match, so even though it was out of nowhere in the sense that Shimoda wasn't in bad shape, the close calls to set it up where present throughout. Really, the shock was that they actually won, not really how, and this reaction quickly turned to elation.

"Yeah and the Giants were elated when they beat the Bills on a missed field goal. The difference though was that the underdog Giants dominated the time of possession in that game, so at least they earned the win (as much as it still pains me to say this). Hamada & AKINO had a good showing against LCO, but lucked into winning instead of it looking like they earned it.

The Giants didn't earn their win, they were just lucky that Scott Wood took the payoff to miss the 47 yard field goal to the right, costing poor Billy Brown $10,000 that he didn't have. Seriously, if the Giants would have won when someone missed a tackle on their favorite Otis Anderson run then maybe it would equate, but as lackluster as the Bills performance was, they still had the game won.

"You can say they earned it by hanging with LCO for 22 minutes, and I'd probably concede that, but there's no way in hell that anyone can justify Shimoda popping up from a legit finisher like she did. I'm surprised you do considering how much you hated when KAORU and Chigusa did it in their 7/19/98 match. Maybe I'm a hypocrite for loving that match, but it was booked totally differently and KAORU didn't pop up after the 3 count so I don't consider myself one," wrote Michael.

I don't see how you can compare KAORU vs. Chigusa to this match when they popped up after finisher after finisher like they were a bunch of Francis Buxton body slams. It didn't matter that KAORU didn't pop up in the end because there were probably a dozen moves that meant jack shit by the time that match was over, and it wasn't believable for either to finally lie down after they'd been doing some stupid undead act or whatever you want to call it for the entire match. If you want to say that the perceived effectiveness of Hamada's Hama-chan cutter was lessened then I could maybe concede that, but the win was hardly meaningless since the storyline was that they were underdogs who hung in there long enough to pull it out. You can listen to the crowd actually reacting like they saw something and look at how the ARSION wrestlers put it over to see that it did mean something, more than something actually. It's certainly possible that an entirely different finish would have helped them more, but if they had followed this up like they should have then it should have been apples and oranges. As you know, since it's ARSION and they are incapable of doing this, Hamada & AKINO didn't get over because two months after the win over LCO, Aja & Yoshida took the titles in basically their first match as a team, and then Aja booked Hamada & AKINO as meaningless members of her unit, taking all the focus off them, giving them exactly zero big matches, and really hardly even having them in four woman tag matches. Suddenly, in mid 2000 Hamada started getting a big push again to get her back to the level she was at after this match and then try to take her to the next level, but AKINO toiled all year and means nothing at this point even though she has a good chance of winding up being their 2nd best in ring performer for the year of 2000.

LCO's ARSION stint had been disappointing, but this match virtually wiped away those memories. It was like LCO matches from their 1997 peak, except the story was stronger.

"The Marinepiad 1997 match between LCO and Maekawa and Nakanishi would've been much better had it been closer to this match. I would've bought a flash pin in that match since it was 2/3 falls, but since this match wasn't the flash pin ruined it," wrote Michael.

If Maekawa & Nakanishi only won one of the three falls, and that fall was on a flash pin, that wouldn't have made them seem very credible at all. I don't think you could have had them win two out of the three falls there because they were a new team with basically a rookie wrestler, albeit a great almost rookie, and LCO were coming off a big loss to Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe in the cage match. As far as how the match itself went, Maekawa & Nakanishi looked much more credible than Hamada & AKINO did, but in this situation you take the win over being put over in the body ten times out of ten.

LCO did most of the same moves they did in their best brawls from '97, but they were more dominant as a whole even though they gave their opponents more comebacks. Since one of these comebacks actually lead right to the winning fall, it really validated a lot of the earlier spots. Several of the moves that would just be there added to this match because of when and how they were done. Hamada & AKINO were just plugged in, but they have become really good workers, especially AKINO, so they made for really good opponents and took their beating like woman. They made a few mistakes that the far more experienced AJW wrestlers LCO were wrestling in '97 wouldn't have, but it was pretty much their first attempt at working this style so that was to be expected.

Although there were a lot of similarities to Shimoda & Mita's other top tag matches, including the same foundation LCO generally uses whether the match turns out to be great or just adequate, it was the first time Shimoda & Mita really added to their style in quite a while. It contained more blood and some new moves, but the thing that separates it is they tied all the parts of the match together this time. It wasn't like they were just doing things to say they were brawling or whatever, they were doing them to swing the mood of the audience back and forth between hope and despair. When you think about the finish in retrospect then you can see that all these little comebacks by Hamada & AKINO are there for more than just keeping the fans hope up, not that this isn't a key reason for them. So while the match didn't have the new style done right feeling that Yoshida vs. Gami had, it was a better version of a style that used to be the best in the brawling genre but unfortunately has gotten stale over the last two years because of the constant repetition and overall sameness.

Overall, I had very few nitpicks with this match, and they were very much overshadowed by all the good. This was LCO's best match since the classic 9/21/97 cage match. It was a special match because the veterans actually tried to make the youngsters stars right away. You have to remember that this didn't come after Hamada & AKINO had lost to LCO 20 times, it was their first match and the upstarts actually won.

"I too was a little disappointed with the ending of the match. There was no glorious comeback, no buildup. It just sort of ended without warning. Even with this finish, I can honestly say that it was one of the 10 best tag matches of 1999," wrote Gabe.

"Although GAEA appears to use a heat machine (like everyone else), I thought Satomura vs. Aja from the September Yokohama show was slightly better. Even though I'm far from being an Aja fan and she won that match, it still helped Meiko more than Hamada & AKINO were helped in their match with LCO. Not sour grapes on my part because Meiko had more offense in that match and the finish was strong as opposed to being anti-climatic due to it being booked wrong," wrote Michael.

The matches were similar in quality, but they accomplished different things. Satomura came into the match title match with Aja having done nothing against the veterans except pin Aja in tag, which really doesn't mean much when it comes to what she can do in singles. Hamada & AKINO came into the match with LCO having done nothing against the veterans (Ayako did have a few props in singles), but holding the tag titles nonetheless. Aja made Satomura look like she belonged on the top level that a top singles title challenger needs to be at, but at the same time Satomura lost so obviously she still had a ways to go. LCO made Hamada & AKINO look like they still had a ways to go in terms of dictating style and controlling the match, but beating LCO in their own style validated them and elevated the belts. They had seemed like weak champions because they hadn't beaten anyone of note in a title match, or a non-title match for that matter, but this showed that maybe the reason they hadn't beaten anyone of note in a title match was that they simply hadn't been put up against any big guns. After Satomura's second title loss to Aja, we both agreed that she was nowhere and it was doubtful anyone would still buy her as a serious contender, if they ever did. There's no denying that Hamada & AKINO were nowhere quicker than Satomura was, but had Hamada & AKINO given LCO a rematch instead of losing to Aja & Yoshida right away, even if they lost to LCO they would still be at .500 against a, perhaps the, top team. Unless the second match against LCO was a travesty, it would at least take a third match for it to start looking like they were just fodder for the veterans like seemingly everyone else that debuted after the 1980's. I'd take any win over a veteran that isn't Aja or Hall style over the most credible loss because credible losses only go so far and veterans that mean something and are willing to put you over are unfortunately very few and very far between.

"When I think about this match (on it's own, forgetting what's happened since) I'll always wonder why they fucked up the finish. I'm not taking away from the fact that Hamada & AKINO shocked everyone because they did, but it was due more towards a fluke then them actually being able to keep LCO down. I don't see how Shimoda staying down and selling the cutter would've hurt this match or any future heat in the LCO vs ARSION war. It still would've been a flash pin of sorts, so that could've been LCO's excuse, but instead of it just being them 'whining' it was a legit reason for LCO and everyone else to look down on how Hamada & AKINO won. Instead of it being a joyous occasion and giving everyone hope that new stars were finally being born, it just proved that the same shit that's been hurting this business for the last few years is just continuing instead of changing. You could argue that LCO winning the rematch would've done the same, but I would not have allowed LCO to get this win back. Bottom line though is that nothing has changed and despite one pop at the end of the match, you can't fool people and I believe keeping this shit up is one of the main reasons ARSION's attendance has continually dropped to the point where they have to announce crowds of 500 on a regular basis. People obviously don't care to see Aja on top, but instead of them realizing this and pushing the Fukawa's (before her career suddenly ended) and Omukai's that actually got heat, Aja had to have all the belts and try to be the league," wrote Michael.

Aside from Aja vs. Satomura, the other matches that should be brought up for the best women's match of 1999 are Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami from 3/16 and Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue from 1/24. The thing with Lioness vs. Kyoko is that they had so many excellent matches in 1998-99 that, aside from the 8/22/99 60:00 draw which is also up there, they started blending together. I think this match was slightly the better than Yoshida vs. Futagami and the two Lioness vs. Kyoko matches. Yoshida vs. Futagami was by far the most unique and best technical match of the bunch, and Lioness vs. Kyoko had better gimmick spots and was stiffer and crisper, but both played before dead crowds and had no aura. I normally don't put much stock in heat, but when a match is designed to elicit a certain reaction and it does then you have to give it a little credit. The thing here was that the match was a perfectly laid out way to get Hamada & AKINO over, and even though the bookers didn't that what they did worked or simply didn't care, Shimoda, Mita, Hamada, & AKINO totally pulled it off on this night. It worked not because the wrestling was great (not that it wasn't), but because everyone involved played their roles properly.

Jerome's Review:

Hamada and AKINO came into this match with the attitude that they could beat the world, this quickly turned into the attitude of the champs realizing that they were in over their head. Hamada and AKINO started out the match aggressive by double teaming Mita to get the advantage, the tide quickly changed after Hamada missed her super quebrada and LCO then attacked by doing what all great heels do best, destroying their younger and more inexperienced opponents with brawling throughout the ringside area. The young champs tried to counter but they were just overwhelmed at every opportunity. Eventually Hamada and AKINO were bleeding like crazy from the brawling. Hamada was put through a table with a piledriver from Mita, LCO then figured that they could finish off HamAKINO in the ring. Back in the ring, LCO dominated early but Hamada and AKINO were able to comeback every time LCO thought they had them beat. After a double tope suicida by the champs, Hamada came back in the ring with a pair of scissors that she used on Mita with seemingly little results.

LCO would break up every little comeback by using chair shots to further open the head wounds, particularly on Hamada. It seemed that Mita and Shimoda were growing too confident that they had Hamada and AKINO finished because the comebacks seemed to happening more and more. Hamada barely kicked out of Shimoda's deathlake drive followed by her rolling kakato otoshi, thinking one more move would finally finish Hamada off, Mita came in to deliver her Death Valley bomb + Shimoda's kakato otoshi to drive Hamada head first into the canvas. Shimoda made the cover, but Mita was too cocky and let AKINO slip by to save Hamada. Shimoda went to the top rope to finish off Hamada, but while Mita held back AKINO, Hamada surprised Shimoda with a palm strike followed by her Dad's Hama-chan cutter for the victory.

The finish really worked for this match; it showed that Hamada and AKINO had the heart not to give up and they just took all of the punishment waiting for a moment when LCO's lack of respect for them would give them a chance for the victory. I like the fact that Hamada used her father's move which could stun an opponent, if they weren't expected it, enough for a three count, it works better than a flash pin out of a roll-up or something similar. Also ARSION needed this type of match to really open the eyes of joshi fans, but because it wasn't on television it seems it has fallen on blind eyes.

Special thanks to: Michael Smith, Jerome Denis, & Gabe Bautista

Rating: