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Decided to start this thread since both Stardom and Pro Wrestling WAVE now have their own streaming services, plus the Real Hero google drive makes it easier to find shows from other groups. Just finished watching the opening night of the 5*GP. Thought it was a fine show, but nothing memorable. Storm/Bito, Hojo/Wolf, and Iwatani/KLR were all good yet would say that you have to rush out to see any of them. The only bad match was Blanchard/Watanabe, which was a mess. Courtney Stewart looked good having a short, solid match with Jungle Kyona. The show ended with promos from Kay Lee Ray, Toni Storm, and Io Shirai whom I assume they are teasing as being in the finals.

Yukari Lynch "the female Giant Baba", real name Yukari Kawamura Yukari Lynch made her debut in AJW at the young age of 14 in 1975 after being scouted by AJW for her height, (her billed height is 180cm but Weekly Asahi lists it as 185cm), and because of her unique look due to being half white. Because she was biracial, Yukari was made into a heel and would team with whichever foreigners were on tour with AJW but she was promoted in the press with Mach Fumiake and an early Beauty Pair as their villain before Black Pair formed. She didn't stick with wrestling long enough to become skilled, she was reportedly slow in the ring and relied on elbow strikes and kicks for offense, and she reportedly decided to retire early in her career because she was sick of being a villain. After retirement she became a kickboxing instructor and worked as a hostess where she would be arrested for drug possession in April 1985, the possible reason why she was thoroughly erased from AJW's official history; she's only seen or mentioned in a match clip from the 1988 AJW home video release, ZenJo Fighting Again.

The rush of great Jaguar Yokota matches continues. This was frickin AWESOME. It was kind of a preliminary to the later, bigger Sato/Yokota title match and mainly served the purpose of building up Jaguar, but for a match that is essentially typical half baked young wrestler gets first taste against the star this is really outstanding. Jaguar was absolutely ferocious. Picture Hashimoto, except lighter, faster, girlier, and replace the brutal kicks with brutal matwork. The wrestling was as tight and on point, while still keeping a graceful note, but the struggle and fighting and wild-eyed determination from Jaguar is what pushes it over the top. People talk about Jaguar having ahead-of-her-time offense, but fuck that talking point. She didn't need any of it. The basic spots, such as boston crabs, body scissors or small package holds were made into holy shit spots here. I mean seriously the technique is flawless, but the timing and defensive use of the moves is stunning. Some might argue that structurally the match was messy and had the kind of meandering spots typical of young wrestlers in big matches, but the focus of the match was Jaguar Yokota sticking it to Jackie Sato with a vengeance and that was present at all times. Sato was somewhat reserved, but a great foil for Jaguar's fury and added a few slick moves to the match. Also, there is some arm work that gets paid off nicely, and the repeated leg attack stuff from Jaguar gets played up later in the match, building to an incredible last 5 minutes.

Jenne Yukari Debut - October 1988 Retired in 1996 Jenne Yukari is a wrestler of note because she's the most blatant example of The Rose of Versailles and Takarazuka Revue's influence on young women and popular media during the last quarter of the 20th century. Her entrance gear is the most complete cosplay I've seen of a Takarazuka Revue Top Star's finale feathers, and specifically, Yukari cosplayed the main character of The Rose of Versailles, Oscar Jarjayes. Jenne's (ジェンヌ) name is a reference to Takarazuka as タカラジェンヌ/Takarasienne, is an official term used for Takarazuka actresses. It's ironic that in previous decades the crossover between Takarazuka, The Rose of Versailles, and joshi wrestling is seen in both the fanbase and on the rosters but during the 90s it grinds to a halt while Takarazuka goes on to have one of their most successful decades in their then 80-year history.

Great little match that takes place in a tiny little hall in front what looks like 40 people, filmed with one cam. You know a match is gonna be good when it starts it with them ramming their heads into eachother. Amano had some nice explosive moves early on including a great deadlift back suplex before they slowed the match down with grinding matwork. I thought the JWP ace Hyuga being able to control in parts before Amano slowly got the better of her using her grappling skill was really well done, as Amano has these crazy twisting flash submissions making the moments where she catches Hyuga extra off-guard. Also, Hyuga came into the match with a bandaged knee that was an obvious target for Amano. All the stuff of Hyuga evading Amano's leg attacks was really good, and once Amano closed the distance her legwork was pretty great too. At one point she just rammed into Hyuga's knee with a running boot, and her double stomp right to the joint drew an audible reaction from me. Hyuga aside from one brief fuckup did very well here as her fastness and slickness is entertaining to watch, she did an admirable job selling her knee too altough she Supergirls it a little right before the finish. Really cool match that stayed in the ring and never went into overkill while going well over 20 minutes.

Oscar Ichijou March 1957- May 1975 Debuted at age 17 and the first tragic death of an active joshi wrestler, (there had been rookies that had died before Oscar and before Plum Mariko in 1996). Oscar Ichijou's name and choice of formal attire represent a "what if" for women's wrestling as both foreshadow what would become the sport's popular image just a year after she suffers a fatal injury, (I've read neck injury but haven't found a source that isn't a fan's blog to confirm), while training at the AJW dojo. The January 1975 issue of Girl's Wrestling speaks of Oscar's increasing popularity and that she's flying higher on the wings of young power, a popular phrase during Mach Fumiake's time in AJW. She's one of two joshi wrestlers wearing a pants suit in the earliest documentation that I've personally seen, this fact along with the ring name that she chose, Oscar was a wrestler that was openly showing her fandom for some of the most popular media properties for girls her age, The Rose of Versailles and The Takarazuka Revue. The iconic character of the Rose of Versailles is the female captain of the Royal Guard turned revolutionary, Oscar de Jarjayes, a highly-respected woman that's adored by both the men and women in her company and social circle for living beyond the boundaries of normal femininity. The ever increasing popularity of the Rose of Versailles and its stage adaptations by the Takarazuka Revue were the impetus for Fuji Tv producer, Hitoshi Yoshida, to create an androgynous, singing tag team to attract that demographic: Beauty Pair.

Haruko Ogawa - born in January 1950 in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture. Haruko moved to the major port city of Nagoya and graduated from barber school, but after spending time in the profession she joined AJW and made her debut in April 1969. Was the Japanese lightweight champion in January 1973, billed at 150cm, and her hobby was listening to the blues.

Shigeko 'Peggy' Kuroda - born in 1953 in a remote area of Hokkaido. Three years after graduating junior high school, she moved to Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture and worked for textile company, Teikoku Sen-I. Shortly after she left the company and joined AJW after seeing a show at age 19. She was named Rookie of the Year at the Professional Sports Festival hosted by Professional Sports Council in 1972, she would also win the Japanese women's middleweight championship in October of the same year. Billed height: 163cm

Makiko 'Maki' Ueda (マキ上田)- born March 8, 1959 in Tottori, Tottori Prefecture. Originally set on playing volleyball through high school and having an aversion to the idea of wrestling in a swimsuit, Maki isn't set on becoming a wrestler when her dad first brings up the idea. Maki's own desire to leave her small town and her dad's persistence lead her to dropping out of high school and joining AJW in 1974, she's said in an interview that due to the lack of interest at the time there were no formal auditions or pro-tests for potential wrestlers and after a year of training she debuts on March 19, 1975. A year later Maki and Jackie Sato are put together to form Beauty Pair and create the first major boom for AJW, while Mach Fumiake made AJW popular with general audiences and young people she doesn't mobilize an entire fanbase demographic like Beauty Pair did. A year after Beauty Pair forms there's 600 applications sent for the 1977 auditions, now held at the Fuji TV studios. Maki Ueda is the first woman in AJW to hold the WWWA singles championship, the WWWA tag championship, and the Hawaiian-Pacific/All-Pacific titles. Due to personal differences with Jackie Sato, anxiety about life-threatening injury (Maki is a part of AJW when Oscar Ichijou suffers a fatal neck injury while training in the dojo), and missing her mom's passing due to schedule, Maki Ueda makes the decision to retire in late 1978 and has her retirement match against Jackie Sato on February 27, 1979.

Kyoko Okada - born in 1949 from Tajiri Town, Miyagi Prefecture Had wrestled prior to joining AJW from retirement in the summer of 1972. She was originally living above a hair salon that she was learning at in Nakameguro before quitting after half a year to become a wrestler. Signature move is the Cobra Twist. (Information from January 1973 issue of Daily Sports Girls Wrestling) [Her previous wrestling years may have been 1968-1970 but I haven't been able to verify that as of 2023]

Hitoshi Yoshida, (吉田斉), a tv producer at Fuji TV that went to AJW to propose and eventually create Beauty Pair. Hitoshi got Beauty Pair their record deal with RCA, promoted them on Fuji TV programming, and produced the Beauty Pair Shows in 1977 and 1978. The Beauty Pair Show were concerts featuring Beauty Pair, other singing wrestlers, and popular entertainers of the era held at the Asakusa International Theater.

The Big Stupid List of Great ARSION Matches 1998 Yumi Fukawa vs. Michiko Ohmukai (4/11) Mikiko Futagami vs. Rie Tamada (8/31) Mariko Yoshida vs. Rie Tamada (4/17) Rie Tamada/Hiromi Yagi vs. Tiger Dream/Ayako Hamada (Twinstar Tag Final, 12/7) Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (8/31) Mariko Yoshida vs. Ayako Hamada (8/31) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (6/21) Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (2/18) Mariko Yoshida vs. Candy Okutsu (Queen of ARSION Title, 12/18) Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (2/18) Reggie Bennett vs. Mariko Yoshida (5/5) Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (5/5) Candy Okutsu vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/17) Michiko Ohmukai vs. Rie Tamada (8/9) Mariko Yoshida vs. Michiko Ohmukai (8/31) Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (7/21) Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (12/18) Rie Tamada vs. Candy Okutsu (5/5) Yumi Fukawa vs. Rie Tamada (7/21) Best ARSION Matches of 1999 1. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (2/18) 2. Etsuko Mita/Mima Shimoda vs. Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino (12/11) 3. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mikiko Futagami (4/14) 4. Yumi Fukawa vs. Mariko Yoshida (9/26) 5. Mariko Yoshida vs. Hiromi Yagi (5/4) 6. Mariko Yoshida vs. Mika Akino (1/17) 7. Mariko Yoshida vs. Yumi Fukawa (5/4) 8. Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (8/6) 9. Mikiko Futagami vs. Michiko Ohmukai (5/4) 10. Ayako Hamada vs. Mari Apache (7/25) 11. Mari Apache vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) 12. Mima Shimoda/Etsuko Mita vs. Yumi Fukawa/Rie Tamada (7/25) 13. Mika Akino vs. Chaparrita ASARI (7/25) Comprehensive list of the Best ARSION matches of 2000. The really good stuff is in bold. Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (Queen of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Chapparita Asari vs. Mika Akino (Sky High of Arsion Title, 12/3/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida (Arsion ZION Tournament Finals 10/17) Mariko Yoshida vs. Aja Kong (ZION Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 10/17/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada vs. Mika Akino (SKY Tournament II Final, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Mika Akino vs. Mary Apache (SKY Tournament II Semi-Finals, 7/16/00 Tokyo) Aja Kong vs. Ayako Hamada (8/18/00 Tokyo) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask IV (P*MIX Grand Prix Semi-Finals, 6/29/00) Hiromi Yagi/Tiger Mask vs. Chapparita Asari/Great Sasuke (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/24/00) Yumi Fukawa/Minoru Tanaka vs. Mariko Yoshida/Alexander Otsuka (P*MIX Grand Prix Quarterfinals, 6/7/00) Aja Kong vs. Mariko Yoshida (ARS Tournament '00 Semi-Finals, 5/7 Tokyo) Michiko Omukai & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida (ARSION 04/07/00) Ayako Hamada/Gran Hamada vs. Faby Apache/Gran Apache (4/7) Ayako Hamada/Mika Akino vs. Aja Kong/Mariko Yoshida (2/18) ARSION is such an interesting fed. Pretty much the joshi equivalent of BattlARTS with it's crossover style and tiny roster that they had to use efficiently. With this fed you get the ace run of the mighy Mariko Yoshida, a period of the work or Aja Kong or Lioness Asuka that doesn't get talked about much, and a handful of unexplored workers like Futagami or Rie Tamada that deserve some recognition. For this project I will go through the Best Of Arsion comp that is floating around and post my Top Matches for each year after finishing. Yes I know that's cherrypicking but for now I want to get the essence of it (judge a style by the best matches it produced etc) and compare to high end BattlARTS/RINGS/UWFi etc. If you know any essential ARSION that's not on the comp feel free to drop a comment. Yumi Fukawa vs. Candy Okutsu (2/18) The first ARSION match. It is a very appropriate debut match. They mix the traditional joshi with lucharesu and tricked out submission work, and the whole thing has the flair of two overzealous young workers going all out to show the world especially with the bomb throwing at the end and Fukawa hitting those face-shattering moonsaults that nearly KO'd Candy. I give them a ton of credit because they really delivered a good match that sets the tone. They kept going back to the submissions and really had a hard fought battle to the very end that the crowd got into. Can't remember the last time I watched a „young workers showing the world“ match on this level. Side note, a Cagematch user mentioned that he went to a few ARSION shows and he felt that many guys there went for the pretty workers and the „product“ (apparently Arsion had lots of quality mags, posters etc. for sell) and not the wrestling, so Arsion matches had not as much heat as GAEA. It's not hard to see why especially with Okutsu wearing a ridiculous outfit that made her butt look gigantic but to their credit the wrestling was top notch and on the level of the presentation. Aja Kong vs. Michiko Ohmukai (2/18) Michiko Ohmukai was this skinny girl with supermodel looks who worked like Daisuke Ikeda. I have no idea why she's not famous. She threw all those reckless kicks and impressive suplexes and was like a magic ingredient for matches that made everything crazier. Here she slaps Aja right at the bell and Aja just smirks at her and then Ohmukai starts dropping her with those 50 yards football kicks. Hell of an opening for a match. They get into a slugfest like this fucking BattlARTS or WAR and I am in love with this. Then they settle down a little with Aja dominating on the mat through size and Ohmukai trying to topple her. I think Aja was kind of mailing it in in Arsion which is such a disappointment but this match hit all the right spots and was really good stuff like it always is when Aja has someone to work with who brings the fight to her. Aja Kong/Yumi Fukawa/Michiko Ohmukai vs. Candy Okutsu/Rie Tamada/Mikiko Futagami (2/18) They end the debut show with a chaotic fast tag team match where everyone runs in and hits their stuff. Kind of pointless main event as the previous matches had done a good enough job to establish everyone, but I guess they had to work around having such a tiny roster to work with. Everyone has had matches before that evening so the execution wasn't at 100% anymore. Fukawa almost fell on her head doing an asai moonsault and then hit another reckless one inside the ring like a lunatic. Aja had solid interactions with everyone and I always get a kick out of watching Futagami work, but this wasn't much. Mariko Yoshida vs. Rei Tamada (4/17) WOAH! Apparently this was the debut match of Mariko in ARSION. I was expecting something good, but this was far more than a formative bout. Rei Tamada, for a name that never gets dropped, looked damn impressive. The bout was built around establishing Yoshida's new, signature style, and her focus was to take it to the mat no matter what. Tamada was far more than a piece of luggage for Yoshida to chuck around, however. Tamada could roll on the mat and I really liked her determination to get the match into standing position. I want to emphasize the standing exchanges here were also really good. Tamada hit a mean elbow and tried her darndest to cut Yoshida of, who rolled one submission counter after another out of her sleeve. Even some of the fancier lightweight moves landed as if to shut a door. It created a kind of intensity that I really love in a wrestling match and this was just an absolutely fabulous contest. 3 real hits out of 4 so far. Pretty damn good start for the project. Stay tuned & maybe come out of the woodwork and comment if you are an old ARSION superfan.

This was a good match that could have been a lot better. First of all, Kuragaki rules on offense. Her flippy shit looks really graceful, and she was just launching Hyuga around with her power moves and lariats. Those back suplexes were all kind of crazy. Hyuga did a really good job working as the ace and preventing Kuragaki from attacking her bandaged leg, including just stomping on her face when she went for a kneebar. I also dig the out of nowhere knee attacks. On the other hand there were some awkward/blown spots and I disliked Hyuga's lazy no selling transitions during the finishing stretch. Kuragaki hit a brutal shoot headbutt, and Hyuga would act unphased and just continue her offense. This had a really good layout opening with some nice matwork and the leg story, so it has that going for it.

The original JWP is painfully underexplored. This is probably it's most prolific match, and it's more interesting than a great match. You may theorize that this is Kandori, the dangerous shooter putting the pro wrestler under fire and setting the blueprints for Kandori/Hokuto... which is a good formula, but in reality it was Devil dragging a green Kandori by the nose through a long match. Kandori looks good on the mat, and not very good doing anything else. Devil is as mean as you can want a hardened veteran to be carrying this and brings the goods, downing Kandori with a huge punch, almost ripping her in half with a surfboard, dishing out clubbing blows to make up for Kandori's weak kicks and so on. The biggest problem with the match is that it's needlessly long, as the iconic moment - where they both start bleeding all over the ring - only comes about 30 minutes into the match, and before that, there's a lot of meandering. It felt a bit like Devil redoing the Chigusa match against a far lesser Chigusa with nice submissions. The actual bloodbath was kind of underwhelming too, honestly. There's always charm to watching a rookie and a veteran going along for a lengthy match and this had enough good moments and nearfalls to keep you satisfied, but I gotta say this wasn't as good as I've seen it hyped up. Also, I'll never understand what was up with that restart/overtime they did.

Lioness Asuka enters. Her License Number is 100! Yoshida is unimpressed and brings the fight right to the legend. Man, this dark looking Asuka is so different from the 80s Crush Gal. It's like some 80s pop star reinventing himself into a dark goth guy. I'd say this was a pretty good Yoshida signature match. Asuka gives an uncooperative & dangerous vibe so is a good match up for Yoshida's style. Altough she brought her own signature table to the match and tried some ECW shit that kind gave me a bad feel about her. Still Yoshida was a total trooper here taking a bunch of cringeworthy stiff shots from Asuka and working good submission nearfalls. Altough it is becoming noticable that move overkill is getting really out of hand in ARSION, seems the promotion is in it's death spiral, altough I'll see where it goes.

Ohmukai has done a good job at making me hate her and her bullshit. This match was a good way to redeem herself as it was a blood-drenched, stiff puro epic. Basically Hamada wasn't having Ohmukai's crap and forced her to up her game. At this point Hamada is good enough to carry a questionable worker by adding some much needed selling and struggle to everything, and she really knows how to use her intensity properly. Opening stuff had good animosity, and everything that came after the double juice was very good. Hamada at this point is close to masterful at selling covered in blood, beaten to a pulp, and Ohmukai's moveset consisting mostly of kicks, punches and knees to the face worked very well. Could see this being a low end MOTYC for some.

Seen a handful of her matches and enjoyed what I've seen. I've got a bunch of early AJW, so let's assess her properly. Victoria Fujimi/Nancy Kumi v. Seiko Hanawa/Rimi Yokota - AJW TV 1978 I don't think Jaguar had been wrestling for a very long time at this point, hence her and Hanawa are called Young Pair. This is distinctly joshi from the get-go, which is kind of cool to see that the style was firmly in place as early as 1978. Fast paced, quick in and out tags, momentum changes, hard to tell who's in etc. I enjoyed this more than some of the 90s sprints because the takedowns and throws in this all ruled, the match was fairly scrappy and hate filled and laid out in such a way that the lack of selling didn't stand out in a bad way. Yokota and Yanawa were a pair of vicious pricks, rushing their opponents at the start and always coming out on top when the action spilled to the outside. I enjoyed how calmly they walked back in the ring after sending Fujimi and Kumi headfirst into chairs with no regards for anyones safety. Jaguar did some cool flying headscissors and attacked people's eyes after getting the hot tag which was cool, but hard to stand out in this kind of match. I also enjoyed the Golden Pair's arm work. My favourite thing about this early joshi stuff is that it all feels like a struggle. No laying in holds or waiting for the other guy to hit his offense at all. I also enjoy the whole 70s look with the stylish bathing suits and the colorful flower ring. Marina Figueroa vs. Rimi Yokota 78/79 Marina looks like a grumpy farmer's wife who's not afraid of hard work. Of course she was great. The match was very short (and apparently clipped) and essentially Marina delivers a rudo beatdown at double speed. Yokota gets two quick comebacks but essentially gets stomped. Not a bad showing at all from Marina, she has a really great chinlock, attacks the nose, uppercut to the throat and stomps the shit out of Yokota's arm, but this was just a squash. Yokota completely ignores the work on her bandaged arm so Marina finishes her with a neat backbreaker hold. One thing I noticed is how silent the crowds for these matches are, makes you wonder what AJW's premise at the time was. Marina Figueroa deserved better than this. Victoria Fujimi vs. Rimi Yokota late 1978/early 1979 Fujimi wears a karate jacket here and tries working like a Kung Fu/Stan Lane/Kato Kung Lee type which may be my least favourite type of babyface worker. The crowd took some delight it in though and they didn't go overboard. Interesting style for this, as the open with exchanges that feel absolutely lucha (Rimi does neat Negro Casas "stand on your toe and push you" takedown), then things break down and Fujimi takes a bump into unforgiving looking wooden chairs before Yokota does some really solid groundwork. Fujimi removes her jacket for her comeback and wrestles like a standard 70s joshi again which was amusing but I don't care for her stuff at all. The finish felt typically japanese. Nothing much to see here. Lucy Kayama vs. Rimi Yokota late 78/early 79 This was a solid, basic match between the youngins. I only noticed Lucy Kayama for fearlessly going for springboard dives on a 70s ring with loose ropes, but she was calmed down here. Once again Yokota rushes her opponent at the bell and stomps the fuck out of her leg. It was really nice, intense varied legwork that I imagine would've looked pretty great if these matches had any heat. Or if Lucy had sold any of it. I get US style limb selling and psychology is not what these rookies are going for but watching a few minutes of limb work followed by a payoff of another couple minutes of limbwork with neither section being sold is kind of pointless. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't call it something that's worth going out of your way to see. Good finish here as they scramble for Cobra Twists before Kayama lands a few nifty backbreaker variations and seals it with the gory special.

Jumbo Miyamoto defends the WWWA World Title Really important match for the history of AJW and joshi wrestling as a whole. Until the debut of Mach Fumiake joshi wrestling only had sporadic tv appearances and public matches as since its beginning in the near aftermath of WWII due to having a reputation of being a sexual sideshow at dance clubs and cabaret halls. Even legitimate promotions couldn't rent gyms cause landlords didn't want to attract a crowd with any potential links to the underworld. Enter Mach Fumiake, a runner up in a national singing competition a couple years before her wrestling debut, a debut aired on Fuji TV, and her built in celebrity helps bring a respectability to the sport and brings in a larger audience. Here is her lone WWWA title win against Jumbo Miyamoto in a match less than 5 minutes long that ends in a three-count despite Jumbo getting her shoulder up. The wrestling itself isn't spectacular but is indicative of the time, (in my opinion Mariko Akagi is the best wrestler in AJW during this time up until the final years of the 70s) with Mach's significant offense being big boots and a double underhook suplex. Jumbo Miyamoto would win the belt back 14 days later and later in April, 1975 Fuji TV reaches a deal with AJW to regularly broadcast their wrestling and create the long lasting relationship between AJW and Fuji TV.

Stardom All-Star Dream Cinderella PPV 2021.03.03 Nippon Budokan I have no idea why they booked such a big show in a big venue where you can’t fill it with people. High Speed Championship: AZM (c) vs Natsupoi Of course, they do the superfast paced matrix intro for the match. First diving double stomp looked pretty weak, but the second one looked ok. AZM pretty much was dominating and did a flying nothing so Natsupoi could get a dropkick in. Natsupoi bridges are gorgeous. Lots of pinning attempts in the home stretch, Natsupoi hits three bridging/rolling German and gets the straight jacket suplex for the pin! New champ! Match was a pretty good spotfest, most of the moves hit pretty well. AZM being only 18 is crazy. Goddess of Stardom Championship: Maika & Himeka (c) vs Natsuko Tora & Saki Kashima Cool spot where Himeka gets both Oedo Tai members in the Torture Rack. This match felt like filler, they just didn’t get a good rhythm going. Nice to see that the WWE let Io Shirai cut a promo for Stardom. Tanahashi! Kairi Hojo! Main Card: All-Star Rumble I do prefer the Rumble format over Battle Royales, it’s just strange they don’t give more time in-between entrances but granted this isn’t the main event. Because of this the ring fills up really fast. Lots of comedy spots. Lady C is the first to get eliminated by Kyoko Inoue. Inoue gets another Lariat for another elimination but is ganged up afterwards and gets pinned. Mima Shimoda! Chigusa Nagayo and Kikutaro are the last to enter. Kikutaro doing his schtick, being a creepy old man, really could have done with this. Unagi Sayaka ultimately wins over the Cosmic Angels girl in the final three. Momo Watanabe vs Nanae Takahashi (SEAdLINNNG) Lots of strikes to start off, Nanae gets the early advantage after a german suplex and more strikes. These girls were working their asses off! Very good, though short match, barely 10 minutes long. SWA Undisputed Title: Syuri (c) vs Konami Matwork opens with Konami getting the extension of the armbar, and the control of the opening moments. Konami brought some cool armwork, but we go to suplexes almost right away. Pretty short match, I would’ve preferred if they got more time for what kind of match they were going for. Konami taps out to a cool submission. Pretty decent match. Mayu Iwatani vs Yoshiko (SEAdLINNNG) Akira Hokuto on commentary! Yoshiko gives Mayu the bird before the match. Clear roles to begin with, Mayu – the babyface technical wrestler, Yoshiko the power rudo. Mayu’s tope was so fast, looked like she could’ve hurt herself. Mayu sells the backbreaker like death. The women definitely worked very hard, and the finishing stretch was very good. Match of the card so far, almost great. World of Stardom Title: Utami Hayashishita (c) vs Saya Kamitani Clearly defined roles again, Utami the more powerful wrestler, Saya the flashy type. Saya’s flashiness gets her controlled by Utami, and Utami starts hitting power move after power move. Saya comes back with a dropkick and a huracanrana and hits a tope con hilo. Saya pretty much had control afterwards and gets a springboard huracanranda for a 2.9. Saya hits a Stardriver, but was slow to cover letting Utami get a kickout. Phoenix splash misses, and Utami goes back on offense hitting a Torture Rack bomb for a two. Black Tiger Bomb gets reversed into a huracanrana for a HUGE 2.9. Two lariats and a Black Tiger Bomb later and Utami gets the dub. Utami definitely made Saya look like a million bucks even though Saya probably shouldn’t be in a title match. Very good match. Bea Priestly calls out Utami afterwards. Hair vs Hair Wonder of Stardom Title: Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano Here we go…grudge match for a long feud and a lucha de apuesta to up the ante! Things get going pretty quickly, and Giulia hits a piledriver on the table! Tam is definitely selling Giulia’s beatings and even after reversing a Glorious Driver to a reverse DDT, Tam still can’t get up. Eventually she gains her strength, hits a plancha and a Tiger Suplex. Tam can’t hit a second Tiger, but hits Giulia’s Glorious Driver instead. Tam kicks the shit out of Giulia, but Giulia hits a backdrop driver. Glorious Driver by Giulia for two. Both women slap the shit out of each other, with Nakano selling being loopy and then slaps Giulia while Giulia has her hands tied behind her back. Giulia returns the favor, the last one sounding real hard. Nakano with two spin kicks then a Tam Screwdriver!!!! Twilight Dream for the win and Nakano’s first white belt!!!! Damn what a match! Tam and Giulia deliver promos afterwards and Giulia sits in the chair to get her hair cut. Nakano doesn’t want to cut Giulia’s hair, so Giulia gets one of the guys nearby to do it, but he doesn’t finish. The two talk afterwards and Giulia shows Nakano respect. Great show, I would say this is a borderline 5-star show, but I have to give it a 4 since the rumble match was awful and the longest match of the show. Everything else is completely watchable, with every match except the tag being ranging from good to great, and a MOTY contender main event makes this a HIGH RECOMMENDATION. 4.5/5 show.

DRAKE MF MORIMATSU!!! I'm starting to think JD is indeed the next lost great joshi fed. This was a super fun title match between two workers with great movesets, who mesh really well. Morimatsu is this butch powerhouse who is not afraid to have a go at Yabushita on the mat. The powerhouse vs. grappler style contrast worked really well. Great opening exchange in this match, and they fought like mad on the mat, stubbornly going for arm attacks. Keep in mind I didn't say the submission work here was pretty. I really liked how Morimatsu, when she couldn't get the advantage, resorted to punching Yabushita in the face and then roughing her up good by again attacking her face and finally cracking her with chairs and lariats. Both of them sold the ongoing wear and tear nicely and mixed it up well with some innovative moves and counters. Finishing run had good bomb throwing and drama, altough some people may be annoyed by Yabushita making a few easy comebacks. Still, she's a slick technico (technica?) and I still love her flash submissions. Still thought this was Morimatsu's match, altough that's not a knock on Yabushita.

At this point, I'm starting to think JD stands for JUDO and DEATH. This was another unique match as it has some big violence and blood. Starts out with a few psycho bumps, Sakai takes a really dangerous looking spill down a flight of stairs, misses a moonsault from a height into a pile of chairs etc. To be honest I thought the pace was a little off but it could've been due to the clipping. The second half was really well worked as you had Sakai doing her best Sangre Chicana impression, being bloodied and doing a very good job selling dazed and hanging on by a thread. I really liked how desperate Sakai was to avoid the chain punches from The Bloody, and the worked in some good exchanges. There were a few weird lulls in the match and some parts that felt a little rushed keeping this below it's potential.

Their previous matches were quick tournament finals, with Ayako as a huge underdog. Now, Ayako is the champion and they have their sights set on „epic“. Largely this match was pretty great, but there are some flaws. Yoshida dominating Ayako with submissions and punch combos still works perfectly, and these two still mesh really well. I thought Ayako's selling was great, and the spot that set up her dominance was both brutal and really smart. All of Ayako's stuff was extremely sharp and well timed. However, I expected a little smarter work from Yoshida in the last third of the match. Her selling was pretty spotty and she could've picked her offense a little better as the match progressed, as the previous urgency was a deflated a little. However, they redeem themselves with a great finish that was just fucking awesome pro wrestling. Anyways, this is one of the better and more interesting matchups japanese wrestling had in the store in the 2000s, and to be fair some of the flaws here are par for the course with lesser workers.

Found out this morning that Joshi might have started way before the 1950s. Juan Nunez from Reddit found this out.

Ayako has done it all in ARSION in 2000. All she has left to go for is the gold. Aja remains unimpressed and thrashes her like she was still a 1st year rookie anyways. Aja really may be the ultimate „do the same shit in every match“ wrestler. If you can get over that this was really good. Aja just gives Ayako a monumental thrashing. I thought it wasn't quite right to have Ayako work this match the same as she would have in her rookie year given how much she had achieved previously, and Aja no-sold her a little too much, but when you get past all that and look at this in isolation this was brutal and efficient pro wrestling. Ayako is just the gutsiest wrestler you've ever seen taking every painful shot Aja has to dish out and getting caught in the ribs with a chair while doing an Asai Moonsault. The finish was fucking brutal aswell and easily one of the best moments ARSION has produced so far.

This was clipped but we get a good picture of it. I imagine this would have been really good if we had gotten the early build, because what was shown was really good. Asari is really sharp, and the contrast between her lucha headscissors and flash armbars and Akino's more basic style made for an entertaining match. They had great rhythm and Akino's arm selling was right on the money. The finish was really neat aswell. Even without the ARSION trademark gone these two are still a welcome antidote to the more overkill-y joshi workers.