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THE FIRST ARSION: Mari Apache & Fabi Apache & Mika Akino vs. Lady Metal & Esther Moreno & Jessie Bennett |
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What we had here was either a good match or a video editor posing as the lord of illusions. Only a little more than 1/3 was shown, but it was a strong highlight reel. Once again, Akino really impressed me here. She did a lot of things she hadn't done before, mainly because she had to do double and triple teams with the Apaches. Akino fit in really well with them though, doing the team moves as if she'd been teaming with the Apaches all along. The Apache team jumped Metal's team, knocking them to the floor so they could do simultaneous dives. Esther did a rope walk to Mari, who called for her sister to break it up. However, when Fabi came over, Esther jumped off the top rope, headscissoring Fabi at the same time she arm dragged Mari. Jessie did a body attack off the apron then Esther did a Shiryu tope con hilo. The main thing I didn't like was Esther taking a year and a day to do a move off the top rope. Akino got up looking pretty recovered and then just staggered slowly toward the corner until Esther finally did the rolling body attack. The finish looked really good, with Akino doing a climb up reverse diving body attack, which looks extra cool since she extends her body like Hiromi Yagi does, then going right into the udehishigigyakujujigatame to get the submission on the highest rated member of the opposition, Lady Metal. I doubt this match was better than average in unedited form, but it was cool in this truncated version. Miko: The match starts off with a triple dive then what looks like the classic Lucha A vs. A, then B vs. B, then C vs. C. Aside from Mari Apache doing her usual -way- short moonsault (so short Jesse had to roll toward the corner to try and get hit by it) this match was decent. After the fast paced dives and Lucha stuff it was almost a surprise to see Akino win with the decidedly ARSION flying cross body into jujigatame. Jerome: What was shown was enjoyable, but I'm sure it was a lot worse in complete form. They didn't show a lot of Lady Metal and Fabi, which explains why this appeared to be good. Still, there were some cool spots from Esther and Akino, who were the best of the six. Jessie Bennett also showed some sparks, but it's hard to tell if she was a lot better than six month before. Akino winning with a submission made sense in ARSION, but was still a little surprising in this style of match. Cool highlight reel. I tend to disagree with it being surprising that Akino won with a submission in a Lucha match. There are tons of submissions in Lucha, it's just that a lot of the guys haven't modernized their submission style, so they are still doing the grab an appendage and their opponent acts like he's about to be broken in half and immediately submits kind of finishes. That's one thing the Japanese have always been good at though. They might not come up with the idea, but show them something and they are liable to come up with ways to improve upon it. In the case of Lucha, that's been the case for years due to Michinoku Puroresu. Special thanks to: Jerome Denis & Miko Kubota - Michiku Pro 8:58 (3:06 shown) |
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