Reggie unloaded with her slaps that are supposed to be shoteis then applied the V1 arm lock for the quick submission.

4:38 (0:29 shown)

THE SECOND STARDOM: Reggie Bennett vs. Fabi Apache

Fabi did a few missile kicks before being caught in the global bomb.

4:57 (0:54 shown)

THE THIRD STARDOM ARSION Survival Game: Mikiko Futagami & Rie Tamada & Hiromi Yagi & Mari Apache vs. Aja Kong & Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa & Ayako Hamada

I also wish they showed this whole match since it looked excellent. Aja was doing a great job of directing traffic and getting everyone involved. She gave the team aspect some purpose at the same time she kept it under control. Fukawa's work made her the other standout. The worst thing you could say about her from the portion that aired is that she still hasn't figured out how to jump up and out off of the top rope. Her plancha looks more like a nosedive. She needs to watch Yagi, who does the best plancha of all the women, and happened to display it as part of this six-dive sequence.

What made the dive sequence better than it would have been wasn't this dive thought. It was Aja and Gami, who rarely do dives in an unimportant match, playing up the fact that they were actually going to do dives. Their dives obviously weren't as spectacular as Ayako's super quebrada, but they were more "special" because they don't show that part of their arsenal in virtually every match like Ayako does, or even every 20th match. Gami never actually did a dive, as she teased a quebrada but then Aja knocked her off the apron and did the suicida she was looking to do before Gami stopped her.

Omukai was the first one eliminated, getting pinned at 9:04 in Yagi's Tiger suplex hold. Aja put Tamada away with her suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster at 11:21.

Mari and Ayako took the match down, I thought, because their spots were goofy. First Aja got a 2 count on Mari with la magistral, so she yelled at referee Daichi Murayama to give Mari the opening to beat her. The problem was that Mari couldn't figure out how she wanted to knock Aja down, so she just kind of bumped into her with a pelvic thrust, and Aja fell down so Mari could la magistral her for the pin at 12:13.

Later on, Mari and Ayako did that ridiculous super powerbomb spot where Ayako doesn't make anyone think she is really going to turn the move into a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner. She just lets herself fall all the way down, and then sits up so Mari can do the move. Another annoying spot that maybe they shouldn't be blamed for saw Ayako take Mari down for her la Ayakita and Daichi start to count the pinfall. In perhaps a panicky move, Ayako proceeded to pull Mari back off the mat. Perhaps Daichi shouldn't have counted because la Ayakita is Ayako's finishing hold and she always does that takedown before she goes into it, but Mari's shoulders were down so he was only doing his job. In any case, it seemed stupid to see Ayako pulling Mari up to break the count even though it was into a hold because she should have been able to go into the same hold had the "pin attempt" failed. Nonetheless, Mari submitted to the goofy Ayakita at 16:09. Yagi then came in and did one move to Ayako, which was notable because she got the submission with a dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame at 16:20. I don't see the point in Ayako losing that quickly considering she was in good condition after beating Mari. It does not make Yagi look good, but it also makes Hamada look bad.

Fukawa was the only one left on her side now, stuck with the unenviable task of not only trying to beat Futagami, but also Yagi as well. Fukawa's effort was valiant, but the opposition was eventually too much, and Gami pinned her at 21:57 after Yagi spiked her suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster.

Jerome: Only seven minutes of this match are shown, but it's an enjoyable and very revealing portion of what was ARSION at this time. The style was similar to every TWINSTAR match, a fast paced workrate match improved by some good matwork from the submission specialists. Fukawa, Yagi, and Gami were particularly impressive, and since they were the best workers on that day, it's a good thing they lasted until the end of the match. In typical fashion at the time, Aja took a back seat. She was eliminated by Mari Apache, a huge upset that would never happen now, even though it was basically a flash pin after a botched la magistral. Mari was progressing then, but was still far away from the quality level she would reach after mid 1999. Like her Mexican counterpart, Ayako, had some great spots, but she still behaved like a rookie and didn't have a great deal of confidence. The last sequence between Gami and Fukawa was technically excellent, but, as always, Yumi wound up on the losing end. Too bad it wasn't shown in its entirety, but it's a fun match in this form anyway.

21:57 (6:59 shown)

THE FINAL STARDOM QUEEN OF ARSION Title Match: Mariko Yoshida vs. Mika Akino

This match was about as good as you could have hoped it would be. Yoshida spends a lot of time training Akino, especially since Akino is willing to put in the extra time, so Akino's inexperience wasn't a factor. I mean, if I didn't know Akino was a rookie, I could have easily believed that she's been wrestling since 1991. Akino was that impressive, and Yoshida was also in top form.

"Just by watching this match, you'd never think that Akino was a rookie. Her moves are incredibly smooth," wrote Keith.

"Agreed. I had seen about five Akino matches before I found out that she was a rookie. Prior to that, I would not have guessed," wrote Gabe.

The match was worked in the style Yoshida was developing, mainly submissions with a few big high spots thrown in. I can't say enough about this match from a technical standpoint. With very few exceptions, everything was done with such precision. The technique was very smooth and clean. The spots were high impact when they had the opportunity to be. I can't stress enough what a master technician Yoshida is. That said, even though she was carrying Akino and leading her through, that she is able to keep up with Yoshida says a ton about Akino's ability. Yoshida did her highest degree of difficulty matwork with Akino even though she hadn't on the previous show with Fukawa, who has hundreds more matches under her belt.

The match started off fast with several submission attempts, but they were all countered or immediately broken when the opponent grabbed the ropes to save themselves. Akino shot in for the takedown, but Yoshida sat on top of her, scissoring her arm on the way down then twisting on the mat to apply pressure. This wasn't going to win the match, but it was a new counter against someone shooting in.

They started slowing the pace down on the mat at 2:30, which kind of sucked because the speed of the counters early on was fantastic. It did make sense because by this point they had to start getting into the body of the match. Yoshida actually went for a bodyslam at 4:00, but Akino turned it into a victory roll, which looked really cool.

The biggest problem with the match, I thought, was that Akino was unable to put together a sequence of moves. I think this is justifiable given the sensei/gakusei and senpai/kohai relationship between the two, as obviously she's not ready to overtake her master, but a match for the top title should be more competitive. Some doubt is expected to be placed on the outcome even when there really isn't any doubt, if you know what I mean.

"In this type of situation, it looks like the student has learned what was put in front of her, but has not made any real progress or has no mind of her own. If there was at least one small period where it looked like Akino was one move away from the win or if she could just get that one last hold on it would be it, then this problem would have been easily resolved," wrote Gabe.

There was a point about 6:30 in where I thought Akino might be ready to put something together and take it to Yoshida, but Yoshida turned her huracanrana into a powerbomb. Akino did get her huracanrana off at 7:00 after elbowing out of Yoshida's released pump handle suplex. Yoshida was always one step ahead of her though, and in this case she turned the huracanrana into a pin of her own at the count of two.

Akino finally put something together at 8:00. She did a series of dropkick variations, which looked nice as always because she has ups and her dropkicks are all high impact, followed by a nadare shiki no brainbuster. However, Yoshida got her feet up for Akino's diving body press, and a second later Akino was once again caught in a submission in the center of the ring. One cool thing about Yoshida's submissions is every time you make a move toward the ropes, she either turns to redirect her opponent away from the ropes or impedes their forward progress by switching to a new submission.

Akino made a comeback selling her knee, but this was the worst segment of the match for her because she came up a little short on her no touch tope con hilo and also had problems with her rope walk corbata. Yoshida once again took control with submissions, and you could see whatever minute chance Akino ever had was slipping away. Akino never lost her desire though, and she young punked up, but Yoshida caught her in the released pump handle suplex then air raid crashed her for the win.

Yoshida's style at this point was so different that it was hard to know how to rate her matches. They just were not structured in the same way, which is a good thing since she was able to pull it off. The match was much better than Akino's debut, which was quite impressive in its own right. The work was very smooth and clean, and the counters were great. Both women gave performances they should be proud of. The work was excellent, but I don't think it was competitive enough to warrant ****. That was the major storyline of the match, Akino fighting the uphill battle, but every time she took one step forward, Yoshida knocked her two steps back. There wasn't any heat, so you could say the match didn't really work because no one took Akino seriously enough to vocally support her, but you'd have to look past the fact that virtually every match in the history of the company has been an ice box to try to justify that one. The transitions between the mat and stand up portions are the worst part of Yoshida's game. It always seems like the only reason she's putting the high spots in is to try to keep the people interested, but, if so, that's pointless because there's not going to be any heat anyway. Some wrestlers (I'm not saying Yoshida is one of them) want to look cool, but if you can't fit the spots into the match then they should be saved until you figure out how to properly incorporate them.

Jerome's review:

This marks the beginning of a great series of pure "Yoshida style" matches. In the course of '98, Mariko Yoshida developed her new style and had a lot of very good matches against various opponents, including a MOTYC with Candy Okutsu at CARNIVAL ARSION '98. In 1999, she would have a number of technical masterpieces worked exclusively in her style, whereas the '98 ones were still a mix with a more traditional approach. Mika Akino was a personal project, the best female rookie of the decade. She learned every old trick of her master, and knew how to execute them perfectly after just a few months. Even though she debuted only six months before, she was the first worker in ARSION to receive a shot at the QOA title because the Queen herself was her senpai. Of course, with such a difference in their level and experience, it should be expected that this match would be one-sided. More than anything, it was an extraordinary learning experience for Akino.

To say that the technical level of the work was incredibly difficult is an understatement, and it's the finer point of Yoshida's game. She was always an excellent technician, but in this setting she's in another galaxy. Her entire body is flexible, smooth, sharp as a knife. Her legs and arms move with an unearthly ability and can snap a hold out of nowhere, from seemingly impossible angles, to stretch the life out of her poor opponent. The beauty of her style also resides in the contrast between the fluidity and aesthetic nature of her matwork and the raw brutality of her shots and highspots. Even though she doesn't look like much, she can be downright merciless. The final air raid crash is a perfect illustration of such a high impact blow.

Yoshida dominated the majority of the match, only giving a few openings to Akino, but never in a flukish or too obvious fashion. Since Akino could never get the best of her master on the mat, the only way for her to try to get the upper hand was by using highspots, and she mixed some of her senpai's old ones, like the rope climbing body attack, and others that would become part of her usual repertoire, like her awesome tope con hilo (not perfectly executed here). One can argue that the weak transitions between the mat and the standup sequences are a detriment to the match, but this style is too experimental and different to be judged with traditional criteria. The unreal technical difficulty mixed with near perfect work and a good kohai/senpai story make this match a must-see for every Yoshida fan, and a great way to discover her unique talent. Excellent match, but better ones were still ahead for Yoshida.

14:39

Rating:

Special thanks to: Jerome Denis, Gabe Bautista, & Keith Watanabe