|
HYPER VISUAL FIGHTING
TOURNAMENT ZION 2000 9/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
In what probably should be seen as a desperation move, ARSION gave a big
push to their only remaining wrestler with potential to be a top star,
19-year-old Ayako Hamada. Hamada, who had only appeared in one of the
main two singles tournaments (ARS & ZION) once, going to the finals
of the ZION '98, took it to the next level today, avenging her loss in
that tournament to Mariko Yoshida by defeating Mari-chan in the finals.
Hamada's biggest win in the tournament was in a way her first, as this
was one of those deals where she was either going to go a long way or
be first round fodder. Hamada passed the test though, scoring her first
singles win over Mima Shimoda, who she had scored the previous biggest
win of her career over in a tag title match on 12/11/99, KO'ing Shimoda
at 10:31. Hamada then faced Re:DRAGS leader GAMI, who had a first round
bye. Just as she had done in her second match at ZION '98, she beat GAMI
quickly, pinning her at 4:13 following the Hama-chan cutter. Hamada advanced
to the finals, defeating improbable semifinalist Rie Tamada, who for the
last two years had seemingly been there simply to fill out the spots in
the tournament, with her la Ayakita at 5:45. Finally, in the longest match
of the night, Hamada showed her progression by avenging her loss ZION
'98 finals loss to Yoshida, pinning her at 13:39 following the Hama-chan
cutter. This tournament was a big gamble for ARSION because they've already
squandered the potential of Yoshida, GAMI, Michiko Omukai, and the others
by proving time and time again that they are no match for champion Aja
Kong. There's no other candidates for a push to the top beyond Ayako,
as AKINO is probably their second best wrestler but since she debuted
so late she's someone that turns 27 next month and is still near the bottom
of the cards, and anyone else is still learning and gaining confidence
in their own abilities. If the Hamada push is screwed up like everyone
else's singles push has been (they win a tournament, Aja kicks their ass,
and then they do a job to "elevate" someone else to the level
they were just at) and her tag push was (they beat the best women's tag
team in their first try and then lost the titles in their next defense
and vanished from the tag scene), then ARSION is doomed to stay at the
current low level of decline because their top star, Aja, hasn't drawn
in years and no one else can draw when it's constantly "proved"
that they are lucky to even be able to hang with her. The problem is it's
really questionable whether Hamada is ready for the mega push it would
take to make her the company's top star. If she's not then even if they
finally book something right, it still won't work. That said, if they
don't try then they really don't "get it" because no one other
than Aja can be over when they get a push, lose to her, fall back to the
pack, and have the focus taken off them.
"Whatever they do, it cannot be as retarded as what GAEA did today.
I still cannot believe it. I think it's the single most surreal booking
I've ever seen. Even if you're a GAEA fan, I can't see how anybody paying
to see a wrestling show can be happy with that booking," wrote Jerome
Denis.
Although she lost in the final, Yoshida had a big day as she scored her
first singles win over the mighty Aja. Yoshida beat :PIKO, who doubles
as the holder of the "prestigious" JWP Musabetsukyu Oza, in
the first round with her air raid crash at air raid crash at 7:21. After
a bye in the second round, Yoshida made Aja submit in the semifinals at
11:34 before jobbing in the finals. The win over Aja puts Yoshida back
in the title picture that before tonight was a big picture of Aja and
then a bunch of empty spots underneath.
Despite never being that good and not improving since early '97, Rie Tamada
is suddenly a player again due to her second run with the TWINSTAR OF
ARSION tag titles beginning on 8/20 and advancing to the semifinals here.
Some of this is actually perception because the way the tournament was
set up, she only had to win one match to get to the semis. That win was
over Michiko Omukai, who has about as good a record in ARSION singles
tournaments as anyone. For that reason, I really think it's a poor choice
on ARSION's part. Omukai really has nothing aside from her performances
in these tournaments, which include winning both in '99 and then going
to the final of ARS 2000. When you take away this edge from her, you are
left with someone that's had few "big" wins and always winds
up back in the pack when she has her "big chances" to break
out of it. I also don't see Tamada getting farther than GAMI. GAMI seemed
to have been gaining a little momentum back this year, but it's like someone
placed a curse on her when it comes to these tournaments. It seems like
I always think she'll finally make it to the final, but she winds up winning
one match at most.
Mari Apache, in her first major tournament, made it to the second round.
Mari used quebrada todo alto to defeat Red Lynx at 5:21 before losing
to the monster, Aja, with a lariat at 3:54. The results are the right
ones as Lynx is still above Mari so the win means something and it doesn't
hurt someone on Mari's level to lose to Aja. The problem I have is that
it's not really a push when a few minutes later she's getting squashed
by Aja. If Mari could have pushed Aja, it would have been huge for her
and also would have given Aja more of a reason to lose to Yoshida. This
is a case where I don't think you necessarily want the final to be the
longest match. You want Mari surprising everyone by going 12 minutes with
Aja, which could make her into something in the eyes of the fans if done
right, and then Yoshida beating Aja at about 14:30. Yes, this takes some
of the steam of Yoshida's win because Aja has an excuse, but if Aja vs.
Yoshida isn't a match where they nearly kill each other and Yoshida just
prevails then her subsequent loss to Hamada takes away much of what she's
gained since Hamada has not been in the same league with Aja if you know
what I mean. Hamada is someone that can withstand a win against someone
that isn't 100% right now, but it's bad enough that Yoshida as nothing
to celebrate after finally beating Aja since she still has to win one
more match, much less having her go on to lose that match without a good
excuse for losing. It could seem like she went home with little to nothing
even though in a way she got the biggest win of her career tonight. Now,
I haven't seen it so I'm not saying that this is the case, just saying
that I'm skeptical that all this is going to come off the way it needed
to.
In the only non-tournament match, AKINO & Ai Fujita defeated Fabi
Apache & Linda Starr when Fujita pinned Linda in her firebird splash
at 8:27. What's weird is this actually came on after the second round
rather than after the semifinals, so Ayako had to wrestle two matches
in a row. This should make her win worth more since she was in the last
semifinal, so she beat Yoshida even though she seemingly had no time to
rest before the final.
|