Short match. Highly edited, but that was a good thing since it looked fine in this form. Fabi was improving, and looked to be the best of the three at this point, although if she was it didn't take Mari long to surpass her. In any case, Fabi did a nice reverse Frankensteiner off the apron. She also at least made it look like she was doing a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner before Mari turned it into a super powerbomb for the win. Since the Apache's were green and I believe Galactica 2000 is even older than LOD 2000 Years Old, it was a good idea to keep this short. However, 3 falls in less than 6 minutes is, at best, verging on ridiculous.

1:51 shown

THE THIRD STARDOM: Reggie Bennett (6-0-1) vs. Mikiko Futagami (5-1-2).

This looked like a really good match. They did a lot of nice spots in the third that aired. I was particularly impressed by the job Gami did of looking woozy, including having to be held up by Mari so Reggie could suicida her. Reggie followed this up with a powerbomb on the floor.

Futagami came back by countering Reggie's avalanche with a drop toe hold where Reggie's face hit the middle rope. The one bad spot was Futagami's nadare shiki no Misteriorana. Of course, this is normally a cool move, but today it was really sloppy. The rest of the spots they slowed looked great though, and were also properly sold. They worked stiff, with the shotei knock down by Reggie being particularly brutal. Gami eventually beat Reggie with the ground cobra twist.

9:15 (3:43 shown)

Yumi tried to work on a broken foot, but you can imagine how difficult that must be. She didn't even wear any kind of cast, just put a little tape on her foot and went out there like a warrior. You have to give Fukawa a ton of credit for her toughness, but the thing is she was having all kinds of problems just walking on her foot, much less trying to work an ARSION style match on it.

Tamada was actually nasty here, kicking Fukawa in the foot before the bell. Fukawa was pissed, so she tackled Rie, but she was so limited in what she could do that it wasn't long before Rie leg dropped Yumi's bad foot. Fukawa hobbled around and threw a mean chair, but Tamada was so vicious in focusing her entire attack on the bad foot. For about the first time in her career, Tamada was actually wrestling a match that made sense. The only problem was that Fukawa legitimately couldn't even stand after a few minutes of having her foot beat on. Poor Yumi was screaming in pain, so Daichi stepped in. Fukawa still tried to get up, but her foot gave out so Daichi was forced to stop the match against Yumi's will. Fukawa pounded the canvas in disgust, probably over the fact that she was in such bad shape that it had to be stopped rather than over the stoppage itself.

Even though she could barely stand, Fukawa still tried to actually wrestle, and succeeded in wrestling better than most of the American "wrestlers." This was actually a good match while it lasted because the psychology was strong with Rie finally launching a focused attack on a body part. Things just didn't work out though, not that I know why anyone would have expected them to.

Jerome: This match was certainly good for what it was from a storyline standpoint, with Rie brutally attacking Fukawa's broken foot. However, I question the idea of sending Fukawa into the ring to begin with. It was obvious that she was badly hurt, as she was hobbling around the ring, and she could have reaggravated her injury basically for nothing. I admire the courage of Yumi Fukawa, and the match certainly helped to portray her as the gutsy person that she is, but it was not a pleasant sight to see. Technically the match was good, albeit awfully short. Tamada played her role very well, and showed no mercy for Fukawa, who worked the best she could despite her handicap. Her sell-job was excellent, but sadly it was because a lot of the pain was legit. Not really cringeville, but still pretty uncomfortable to witness.

Keith: Fukawa vs. Tamada was interesting because Fukawa just had that accident (jiko), so her foot was heavily bandaged. Tamada was a total punk in this match and immediately assaulted Fukawa's heel. Suddenly, Tamada missed a dive and Fukawa got all pissed off and tossed Tamada into a pile of chairs then proceeded to slam them over Tamada's head! Fukawa was incredibly gutsy in this match because you could see the pain etched into her face, but she'd constantly reject the referee when he ask, "give up?" She'd go, "Dekiru! Dekiru!" (I can do) Eventually, the ref stopped that match and Fukawa looked legitimately pissed and/or in pain. Tamada grabbed the mic and said something that I couldn't understand, but Fukawa retorted that she wanted another fight with her. God, Fukawa has changed so much. When she was giving her interview, she seemed so much more mature. Her voice, her attitude, the fact that she didn't cry here when she lost because of injury. She definitely deseved that award for most improved.

3:25

Rating:

THE FIFTH STARDOM: Mika Akino (1-3-1) vs. Ayako Hamada (1-0-2)

A Hamada style spotfest where too many of the high spots were rolled out. Hamada needs someone experienced to carry her, and as good as Akino is, she's too inexperienced to be asked to do this. The thing with Hamada though is that she has a little bit of an ego, so unless she's in with a veteran like Aja or Yoshida, she'll basically make sure she gets her way anyway. Thus, we got a fast-paced match with both showing off their athleticism. Both women have huge move sets for rookies, so it was entertaining.

They showed off all of their big spots in a very even match. The action was definitely good, but the selling was pretty much non-existent. Akino did some submissions, but not as many as normal because Ayako is out of her element when they go to the mat. Still, I thought the best spot was Akino turning Ayako's fisherman buster into a hizajujigatame.

This was like watching an ECW TV match, well except no one was yelling for Ayako to "show her tits." Anyway, it was seven minutes of nothing but high spots. Just like most ECW matches, the finish seemed to come out of nowhere because when it's all spots and no one really acts like any of them hurt, there's no reason to think the match is going to end other than looking at the time and saying, "Wow, it's been a whole six minutes, the attention span of the marks should just about have run out." Hamada beat Akino with her la Ayakita. I felt Akino should have won because, like Fukawa, her wrestling has been so good, but her record is remaining so bad. Of course, it's no surprise that she didn't because for better or worse the promotion is going to be all about Ayako.

Keith: Ayako vs. Akino was good, even though a bit spotty at times. Akino has good focus in her attacks, but Ayako constantly tries to assail her opponents (except Yoshida) with her moonsaults and other high spots. I was a little disappointed in how Akino lost to the Ayakita since Akino looked really good here.

Jerome: The two girls who debuted in ARSION only seven months before were put in an interesting situation here, with no veteran to carry them. The result was a good little match that proves the incredible advancement of the two young women at a stage of their career where most rookies would go dropkick and snapmare crazy. With Ayako and Akino it is more about no touch tope con hilos and springboard rolling sentons. Of course, the match was a spotfest, but they made a pretty good use of their repertoire, multiplying the teases and counters. Akino focusing on Ayako's left leg gave the match a nice little story. The execution was not perfect and the set up of the spots was hesitant or deliberate sometimes, but when seven month rookies are executing super quebradas and jumping Mysterioranas there's not too much to complain about, really. Ayako's confidence was growing at this point, and Akino looked incredibly mature as always. A testament to the quality of ARSION's training (Mariko Yoshida is not far...) and to the talent of these two young workers.

11:16 (7:09 shown)

Rating:

THE SEMI FINAL: Candy Okutsu (0-0) vs. Michiko Omukai (4-3-1)

The editing seemed to ruin this match. The work was excellent, but in this form, the match came off as being incredibly disjointed. It seemed to be just an exhibition of spots where they merely switched off who was on offense. I hate when they chop matches up, but in this regard the problem seemed to mainly be the wrestlers weak transitions and quick comebacks.

They traded blows early on. Omukai got the advantage, but Candy was mainly showing that she could take Omukai's best shots. She finally was injured, but then she made her comeback right after this "injury," which made exactly no sense. Candy's offense looked great, but her comebacks were just too fast. At least Omukai's selling was typically good.

The finish of this match set new standards for ridiculous. Omukai nearly KO'd Candy with kicks, so for some reason she sat on the 2nd rope while Candy was down. Don't try to make any sense of this by considering that she might have been setting up a diving move because she chose a corner that was three quarters of the ring away from where Candy was lying and Omukai doesn't jump like Van Dam. Anyway, after Daichi was unable to revive Candy, he started a ten count. Suddenly, Candy popped up at one and ran at Omukai. Perhaps because she was too shocked that the immortal Candy had just awoke from the dead, thoughts like "maybe I should get off the rope" or "if my opponent is going to run at me, maybe I should jump at them" apparently were not running through Michiko's brain. In any case, Candy bounded up those ropes and nadare shiki no Frankensteinered Omukai, who was basically in perfect shape after getting a little rest on the top rope, for the win.

I found this match very frustrating because they were working above **** level, but they left their brains somewhere else. That this was that much less logical than what Ayako was doing really says little for this match regardless of the fact that the work it contained was a lot better. All you can do is shake your head in disgust.

Keith: Candy vs. Chama was......weird. Mainly, because Candy has a new look to her. I don't know how to describe it. Her hair looks like something out of the '80's, not just the color, but the style. It wasn't one of those 80's glam band looks, but the shape is just bizarre. Then when she did her moves, she'd wave her hands around. It's kinda funny and very difficult to describe. She didn't do any matwork. She just did her powerbomb, moonsaults, vertical brainbuster, and a fast top rope Frankensteiner. On the other hand, Chama was pretty brutal here. Her kicks are on the mark, and it looked like she knocked Candy out at one point. Then Candy popped up with all this vigor and delivered the said Frankensteiner for the win. I didn't like the ending to that match, it was too sudden.

13:24 (6:11 shown)

Rating:

Special thanks to: Jerome Denis & Keith Watanabe - Joshi Puroresu