Lioness Asuka "invaded" ARSION on 6/3/01, taking over the company as the new "Fighting Producer." She was supposedly going to change the company, but was immediately met with opposition from perpetual tournament champion Michiko Omukai, singles champion Ayako Hamada, and trainer Mariko Yoshida. Although Yoshida has not been much of a factor this year due to helping the younger wrestlers out in the opening match or two, she was the logical first defender of the promotion because as trainer she is theoretically the wrestler that has the most influence over the style Lioness vowed to change.

These two worked the match in the manner that made the most sense. They don't like each other and both women have a long established style that very much conflicts with their present opponent's. Yoshida doesn't want Lioness running ARSION, and Lioness isn't going to change her style just because she's in a different league. Thus, setting the match up so each woman forced the other to enter her world as much as possible was the way to go.

The match was kind of innovative because Yoshida's submission and violent attack style is at least somewhat different from what any other wrestler does, and it had never been combined with the brand of high impact brawling that Lioness brings to the table. What made Lioness' first ARSION match work though was it was contested like a hostile invasion rather than a new friend's first match in the company. There were elements of pride and hatred, a great deal of intensity, and a sense of urgency from both parties (although not 1/10 as much as their should have been when Lioness was in Yoshida's submissions). This was everything LCO's debut against Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa should have been. It looked and felt different, and was worked with the us vs. them mentality that gave the crowd reason to care. Sure, the crowd pretty much knew they'd be seeing a lot of the "them" in the upcoming months, but wrestling has never been about the real situation, it's about creating an illusion that fans buy into.

The beginning was fought in Yoshida's more realistic style. One of the things that makes Lioness great is - although she generally does brawls - she is capable of excelling in any style well, at least over a short period of time. Lioness has won actual shoots in the past, and had the best women's worked shoot with Yumiko Hotta on 3/26/95, so she wasn't out of her element even though Yoshida clearly has the advantage here. What impressed me about the early portion is how hard they fought for the holds. This was not Keiji Muto applying or being put in a hold quickly so he could virtually take a nap on the mat. No, Yoshida was yanking Lioness' arm and using the full force of her legs to try to extend it and win the match right there. When that wouldn't work, she was immediately changing the way she controlled Lioness' arm and trying to figure out a different way she could wrench it hard enough or straighten it enough that Lioness would be forced to tap.

The transitions between Yoshida's style and Lioness' style were all very smooth, fluid, believable. The first time Lioness did damage with a kick, it was because she escaped Yoshida's sankakujime attempt by pushing Yoshida to her stomach then stood up and kicked her in the ribs before Yoshida could get into a position to defend herself.

Lioness took over with her kicks and brawling. While Yoshida didn't get into using tables and chairs, she did do some punching. The point was to prove that either could do the other wrestler's style if they needed to, but obviously not well enough to beat them at it. This is why Yoshida mainly focused on trying to counter Lioness' suplexes and powerbombs by slipping out and applying a submission. She finally turned a high kick into an ura akiresukengatame (reverse Achilles' tendon hold) at 7 minutes, which briefly forced Lioness back to the mat.

The pace greatly picked up when Lioness got off the mat at 7:30. At this point the idea of one wrestler trying to exist in the other's universe was left for an exciting blend of the combatant's styles that could theoretically result in an immediate end to the match. This is where the match would get really good in most people's eyes since there were all kinds of nice counters into potential finishers. It was here when the crowd actually showed they were still capable of getting into the match.

Even though it became fast paced, they were still battling for their moves. For instance, Yoshida stopped Lioness on the turnbuckles with punches and there was a major leverage struggle as they vied for the suplex. They'd take a step up to the next turnbuckle in hopes it would give them the advantage, so by the time Yoshida suplexed Lioness' off they were both standing on the top turnbuckle.

The superplex got Yoshida into attempting some power moves, but even on the third try when she delivered her air raid crash Lioness wasn't stunned enough for Yoshida to put her away with an udehishigigyakujujigatame. After Lioness had escaped two air raid crashes it was starting to look like her typical excellent match where you have to hit someone with the kitchen sink to be victorious. However, Lioness wasn't dominant in this one like she usually is even in the big matches she wins. Actually, the match was more Yoshida than Lioness, which shows Lioness respects Yoshida since this hasn't been the case in any strong Lioness match since the Jaguar feud.

After being caught in several of Yoshida's submissions that Lioness didn't put over very well, they seemingly switched to the segment where it looked really bad for Yoshida. Lioness came back with a new counter where she pushed her way out of the air raid crash (looked kind of lame because you could see Yoshida let her go) and lifted Yoshida right up into torture rack position so she could deliver her towerhacker bomb. Unfortunately, that was about it for Yoshida. Lioness put Yoshida through a table with a diving footstomp to the floor and did a few of her favorite moves like the Ligerbomb before pinning her in the LSD II. This was the one area where I really expected more. I realize they had been setting up the idea that the match could end at any time, but it didn't make sense for Yoshida to suddenly be overwhelmed. I'm pretty sure they ran out of time because ARSION uses those ridiculously short 15-minute time limits. Even with Lioness simply putting a few big moves together for the finish, they only made the time limit by a little more than 20 seconds. If they had another 3-4 minutes they could have spread things out a little more and structured the match better. Yoshida could have been given a few more choice counters to give her fans hope instead of going with Yoshida's run then Lioness' run that ends it. This is such a recurring problem in ARSION. When you think about it though, this was one of the better laid out matches they've had in ages. It had clear portions that were differentiated even though the effect of them, and thus the credibility of Yoshida's offense, was lessened by all the rushing at the end.

The respect issue came into play as Lioness actually offered to shake Yoshida's hand. She tried to convince the reluctant Yoshida to be her ally in whatever way it is that she's supposedly going to "improve" ARSION (realistically, she didn't need Yoshida's help to dominate the singles division like Aja, but she couldn't rise to the top of the tag division without a partner). Eventually they shook hands and Lioness raised Yoshida's hand as if she was victorious.

This was the best ARSION match since Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 12/11/99. Lioness and Yoshida are at worst two of the best women, and they proved it here by giving us something different and showing their diversity. Both women applied their stamp to the match, but were almost equally good when they were "out of their element." They were actually given enough time to have a high caliber match (although not enough to have the match they are capable of) and aside from Yoshida being too far away when Lioness tried to knock the table into her, they basically did everything as close to perfectly as you could ask from wrestlers that haven't worked with each other. It's not so much that they did all their holds properly, it's how beautifully they set them up. What I saw here is what I was looking for from Yoshida when she was having the best matches in joshi from the end of '98 through mid '99, the ability to logically and unabruptly transition from the standing portions to the mat portions. They made all their movements come together to form a whole.

Jerome's review:

At the risk of sounding very negative, allow me to not share the general enthusiasm this match generates. Before I go off on a rant I prefer saying right away that technically this match is excellent, both in terms of execution and pace. No time was wasted, and two of the best workers in joshi were in the same ring delivering a lot of good work. Still, this match was mainly a source of frustration and ultimately, of boredom.

This is the synthesis of everything wrong about Lioness Aska. Even though she's one of the top workers of these past few years, and can take the credit of a few MOTYC in '97, '98 and '99, Lioness is also a selfish worker who doesn't show a whole lot of respect for her opponents and usually is not very giving. Of course, her level of work often hides that fact, so she doesn't take a lot of shit for her attitude. Well, since this match involves Yoshida, I take the opportunity to say what I think about Lioness' flaws. First of all, there's no reason with Aska was not dominated on the mat by Yoshida. I don't care about her past experience in shoots. She's coming to the ring with a table for Christ's sake! That's the persona and the kind of worker the audience expects from her. Still, she was mainly Yoshida's equal on the mat during the first minutes, and later in the match she also countered many submission holds. It would have been less damaging if the matwork in question was as good as what we witnessed in Yoshida's '98 and '99 matches, but it was not the case at all. So there goes the super matwork of Yoshida's style. It was not bad by any means, but it can't compare with the sequences Yoshida worked with Yagi, Fukawa, GAMI or even Aja. Yagi & Fukawa came close to beating Yoshida on the mat, but Yoshida was still clearly better on the mat than both even though she gave them a lot for the match to be competitive and exciting. These two are mat technicians and submission workers, while Lioness is a garbage brawler. The match I wanted to see was Lioness getting dominated badly on the mat and trying to crush Yoshida with big garbage spots. Instead, I had Lioness having no problem on the mat.

After the first four minutes, it was already established that Yoshida was not superior on the mat. Then Lioness took it to the outside without much reason (since she was handling herself quite well in Yoshida's territory) to do some brawling, which led to the use of a table 4 minutes into the match. Too bad they screwed up the table spot because Yoshida was too far away. Anyway, during the rest of the match, Yoshida would occasionally lock on a submission hold, but Lioness' selling was extremely selfish. She never gave the audience any sense of urgency because she didn't try to get a rope escape. Of course, she had a painful expression on her face, but that was pretty much it. On one occasion, Yoshida had to apply three different submission holds in succession because Lioness would not move toward the ropes. Of course it kept the pace up, but it also showed how inefficient Yoshida's submission were. I haven't even mentioned the ultra-quick counters that Lioness did pretty much every time Yoshida countered one of her big moves. Lioness also no sold a German suplex, just for the sake of it. Lioness didn't respect Yoshida's submission style and this took the match down in my view. If she did respect Yoshida, she would have given her a few dramatic near submissions by rushing to the ropes. That way the match could have been great. It was not the case.

The last part was worked very fast, with Yoshida alternating submission holds with big spots like her Air Raid Crush. However, Lioness always made a comeback, to the point Yoshida had to use the ARC two different times because she didn't have any other big move. Once again Lioness established all Yoshida's big spots were not enough to pin her. And since there were only a few minutes left, Lioness commanded a ridiculously rushed transition to the outside where she put Yoshida through a table because God knows Lioness can't have a match without putting some garbage into it. The transition was bad, the spot was poorly set up, and more than anything, useless. Lioness can work well enough that she doesn't need to do this, but that's the way of having a good match in her mind. So she put Yoshida through a table for nothing, then finished with her big moves. Of course, Yoshida got to kick out a few times, but this entire sequence was extremely rushed and Lioness acted like she was totally fresh at this point. If they went 20 minutes with much better laid out work to the finish, the match could have been excellent despite Lioness' reluctance to sell Yoshida's submissions because the level of work was that high. But the point is elsewhere to me. Lioness performed well as a worker, but she was extremely selfish and pretty much buried Yoshida. Visually it was different because Yoshida pushed her matwork and Lioness agreed to play along, but in essence it was the same because she did it in a way that made Yoshida's matwork inefficient and useless. To me it was a Lioness by numbers match, the kind of match I expect her to work against girls like The Bloody. It had her minimum level of quality (because of the work and the pace), but couldn't get too good because of the formula that includes not making the opponents key moves seem dangerous. Add to that the very rushed aspect of the whole match, especially the final minutes, and you have a very good match thanks purely to the quality of both wrestlers. I'm probably making it sound worse than it was because work wise it's very good, but I've seen it numerous times already and I expect something else when Yoshida is in the ring. Yawn. ***1/2

14:37

Rating:

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