1/7 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,250
Ayako Hamada & AKINO beat Aja Kong & Yumi Fukawa when Hamada used her la Ayakita on Fukawa at 18:39.
As a way to push Candy Okutsu hard for her title match on 1/30, she defeated former champion Mariko Yoshida with a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner at 13:10.
Chaparrita ASARI made her third successful defense of the SKY HIGH OF ARSION, downing Ai Fujita with her Michinoku driver II at 8:44.
Candy & Ai are getting two title shots this month, as they have a shot at Hamada & Akino's the TWINSTAR OF ARSION on 1/15.

ARSION Award '99 were announced. They spread them around so they could use them as a fairly equal means to push the women they've been pushing all year.

Michiko Omukai got MVP. This award could have gone to Aja Kong, Mariko Yoshida, or Omukai. Yoshida was dominant for the first 7 months, while Aja was unstoppable in singles after beating Chigusa in GAEA on 5/16, while Omukai's main push came during ARS '99 and ZION '99 (although she did make it to the final of the tag tournament). The problem with all three is that they aren't drawing any fans. The goal of the promotion should be to get to the point where Omukai is truly their MVP. At this point she still cannot beat Yoshida or Aja, and she's not a better wrestler or draw, so she really doesn't deserve the award. Hopefully in 2000 she can get to the level where she does deserve it, but then they'll probably give it to someone else...
James Phillips comments:Ohmukai as MVP made sense because she won both the singles tournaments, taking out people like Candy, Futagami and Shimoda along the way, and reached the finals of the Twin Star tournament. Holding Yoshida to a draw in the QofA match earlier in the year was likewise a step forward, but IMO if any of her title matches were to go to a draw, it should have been vs. Aja as they have had a bit of a rivalry going back to the debut show. My only problem with Ohmukai is that while her push has increased, her match quality has dropped, although that isn't necessarily her fault because working with people like Candy and Rie Tamada doesn't exactly help you have **** matches.
Jason Higgs comments:I guess Omukai winnning the MVP makes since from a kayfabe point of view because she did win the two big singles tournaments. She didn't really have that many good matches though. I would have given it to Yoshida again, but I can understand spreading the awards around and not giving the MVP to the same person two years in a row. Maybe that is why Yoshida won the "Special Award."
If you have an opinion on whom the MVP should have been, you can vote in my poll by clicking the hyperlink. 1999 ARSION MVP POLL

Aja Kong got Winning Average Sho .This simply means she had the highest winning percentage in singles matches. To bad her job to Candy Okutsu was used for absolutely nothing, as it would have been a much better way to get Candy back into the title picture than winning yesterday's Millenium Countdown Battle. However, if people remember Candy's win over Aja in May instead of all the jobs she did in November and December, then maybe they'll believe she has a 5% chance of taking the QUEEN OF ARSION from Aja on 1/30/00 at Tokyo Zepp TOKYO.

Mariko Yoshida won Tokubetsu Sho (special award). As far as I can tell, this is basically a bogus award to honor a star that didn't get any other award.

Mari Apache took Kanto Sho (fighting spirit award). Yumi Fukawa deserved this. She was always nicked up, but she worked and fought really hard the whole year. She even wrestled when she was in excrutiating pain from a broken foot that she could barely even stand on. I think she showed more determination than anyone in the league. She continued to improve even though they still didn't give her any kind of a push until the final tour. I would give Mari most improved if they had the award because she was practically unwatchable last year, but has developed into a good, probably very good worker. CIMA, Minoru Fujita, Tomoaki Honma and Kazushi Sakuraba are some others that come to mind for most improved (if we expand the scope beyond ARSION of course), but they were fun to watch last year while Mari had about one match that looked good, and that was probably because they edited most of it off the tape.
James: Mari Apache getting Kanto Sho pleased me a lot. Mari has been one of the legit most improved wrestlers this year. Unlike 1998, she is actually interesting to watch.
Jason: Fukawa showed tremendous fighting spirit in her matches against the veterans like Yoshida and LCO. In particular, her tournament ARS match against Yoshida and tournament ZION match against Shimoda. She just kept fighting without not giving up, and the fans recognized this by cheering for her to win. I guess her "spirit" shows more because she is smaller than most of her opponents, but she won't give up until she doesn't have a choice. Apache has improved since she first started, but she hasn't really shown much fighting spirit, and she didn't really look that impressive making it to the finals of TOURNAMENT SKY. I think Fukawa deserves more than losing most of her matches in '99.

Best Match Sho went to the Ayako Hamada & AKINO vs. Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda TWINSTAR OF ARSION Title Match from 12/11 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan. I haven't seen this yet, but I a hard time believing it was better than Yoshida vs. Futagami from 3/16/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall. However, Keith Watanabe saw it live and agreed with this pick.

12/26 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,350
ARSION had a two match show that featured a marathon ARSION vs. CAZAI & ASARI Millennium Countdown Battle where Candy Okutsu's push was renewed. The match started off with a series of singles matches with a 5 minute time limit. Chaparrita ASARI beat Rie Tamada in 0:51 with a nadare shiki no Frankensteiner to eliminate Tamada from the match. Ai Fujita vs. Yumi Fukawa, AKINO vs. Michiko Omukai, Candy vs. Mikiko Futagami, and Ayako Hamada vs. Mariko Yoshida all went the distance. The match then became an elimination match. Futagami was the first wrestler eliminated when Hamada pinned her at 11:57 after ipponashi atama tsugi (one foot strike to the head?). ASARI eliminated Fukawa at 13:49 with her Michinoku driver II. Omukai then went on a big run, eliminating Fujita at 16:34 with a Tiger suplex hold, ASARI at 18:44 with her rolling savate, and Hamada at 20:20 with her B3 bomb. Candy finally eliminated Omukai at 24:33 after a lariat. AKINO then won it for CAZAI at 28:46 by forcing Yoshida to submit to a nadare shiki no udehishigigyakujujigatame (cross armbreaker off the top rope). Apparently, the match continued until there was one winner because Candy pinned AKINO in her German suplex hold at 31:49 to be the sole survivor.
The other match saw Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda down Mary Apache & Linda Starr when Mita Death Valley bombed Linda at 13:49.

12/19 Kyoto KBS Hall 800 "sellout"
ARSION had their four team tournament to close out TWINSTAR OF ARSION '99. The first semifinal saw Michiko Omukai & Yumi Fukawa beat the tag champs Ayako Hamada & AKINO when Omukai pinned AKINO in her B3 bomb at 11:50. This result isn't surprising in that Hamada's team beat Omukai's team during the league portion. What is weird is that this tournament seemed to be setting Hamada & AKINO up to repay Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita for putting them over on the 11th. While it is a good thing that LCO didn't already take away some of what Hamada & AKINO gained, this result hurts Hamada & AKINO more because Omukai & Fukawa don't have 1/2 the credibility that LCO have. It does set Omukai & Fukawa up for a challenge though. The other semifinal saw the predictable result of Mita & Shimoda beating Aja Kong & Rie Tamada when Mita Death Valley bombed Tamada. Tamada hasn't played a meaningful role in ARSION in quite some time so just getting to the final helps her, while Shimoda has something else to bug Aja about now that she beat her team to advance to the final. The final was predictable because Omukai & Fukawa aren't on the level where they should be beating LCO coming off LCO doing a huge job here the previous week. Aside from Omukai being the one that was pinned following Shimoda's kakato otoshi, it sounds anticlimatic being that it only went 6:40. The problem with TWINSTAR is that the champions Hamada & AKINO shouldn't have been involved if they were going to get the win over LCO on 12/11. It just doesn't make sense to job them so quickly after getting that win, but you can't ask LCO to do two major jobs in a row. Furthermore, if Hamada & AKINO won TWINSTAR the way it was set up this year then you would be short on challengers because they would have just beaten two of the three best teams with the other one being even worse off because they lost to the team Hamada & AKINO would have beat in the finals. The best situation would seem to have been to keep LCO & Hamada & AKINO out of the league. In this situation, you'd have the winner of the league face LCO in the finals. The league would obviously be weaker, but realistically it wasn't much of a draw either way and Hamada & AKINO didn't mean much at the gate before beating LCO after the league ended (they still might not mean much, but we don't know yet). Thus, they may as well have put Omukai & Fukawa over in the league so they would be strong challengers in spite of losing to LCO in the final. That way Hamada & AKINO would have remained really strong, Omukai & Fukawa would still have been elevated, and LCO still gets what they had coming to them in exchange for doing the big job on 12/11.
There were two other matches on this show, both coming before the semifinals, meaning there was no rest before the final. Candy Okutsu was actually put over again, as her and Ai Fujita beat Mikiko Futagami & Mari Apache when Candy pinned Gami at 13:50 after Fujita did her firebird splash. The opener saw Mariko Yoshida make Linda Starr submit at 10:52 to a henkei hadakajime.

Keith Watanabe'scomments:
Part of the problem this year was that Candy and Ai were taken out of the league because Ai was injured. I didn't mind Hamada and Akino being in the tag league, but they should've been taking on LCO in the final given the way the final was handled. I would've preferred having Ohmukai and Fukawa win a long final match over Hamada and Akino then have LCO challenge Ohmukai and Fukawa in the final at Korakuen on 12/26. In this manner, it makes Ohmukai and Fukawa look like slightly stronger competitors going in against LCO and gives Ohmukai and Fukawa some decoration before having them job. Not to mention it provides a little heat and build prior to the match,.rather than allowing LCO simply get in a challenge to help sell out the house. The way they handled this situation made it obvious that LCO was going to win, and makes me think that Hamada and Akino as well as Ohmukai and Fukawa look weaker than they should. The final sounded more like a squash given the time and the fact that LCO are the "30 minute girls not in your bedroom." The way I look at it was that they did a series of exchanges of wins and losses to get this result in the end. They should've gone at least 15 minutes to show that Ohmukai and Fukawa were up to challenging LCO, but given the size of the show, it's not really surprising that they didn't have a long match.The good thing about what happened today is that Hamada and Akino didn't immediately face LCO again, so they still haven't jobbed to them and are ARSION's aces to go in against LCO. Just linking the matches between shows with a little build to help boost interest is something that ARSION really needs to work on in terms of booking.

12/11 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan 3,600
Although they were dominated for most of the match, battered and heavily bloodied, Ayako Hamada & AKINO managed to defeat Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita to retain the TWINSTAR OF ARSION. This was supposed to be a really strong match. It was said to be very emotional with all the ARSION girls out there supporting Hamada & AKINO. Shimoda & Mita were totally destroying them with their heel routine, including Mita piledriving Hamada through a table, and Shimoda was constantly yelling at Aja (they have an ongoing rivalry in ARSION since Aja is the booker and Shimoda is an outsider punk that puts down Aja and all "her" girls, similar to how LCO would always put down Masatoshi Yamamoto when they wrestled JWP women). Hamada got the big push here because she was taking a ton of punishment while AKINO was out for a while, but she came back in the end and pinned Shimoda at 22:38 following Hamada-chan cutter. The finisher is Gran Hamada's Ace crusher off the top rope. Supposedly she used this to please her father. There was a huge celebration after the match with all of ARSION, especially Aja, hugging Hamada & AKINO. Everyone is surprised that Hamada & AKINO won this match. That's what makes it a great result, that no one thought the youngsters could possibly pull it off. This is the kind of result that could put them over the top, and the timing was perfect coming on the last match of the biggest show of the year. I'm really surprised that Shimoda & Mita put Hamada & AKINO over without at least beating them for the titles first and defending them a few times. This is the second major defeated LCO have suffered in the past three days, as they just lost the WWWA Tag to Tomoko Watanabe & Kumiko Maekawa.

The result of the other title match was puzzling to say the least, as Aja Kong made her third successful defense of the QUEEN OF ARSION, beating the only former champion, Mariko Yoshida, with her uraken in a mere 12:16. The work was as good as you'd expect, but the match was way too short. Previously, Yoshida & Aja went to a 15:00 draw and then a year later, Aja beat Yoshida in 20:33 to win the title in what might have been the best ARSION match of the year if they didn't decide to edit like half the match off the commercial tape. I would have had this match go the distance because Yoshida was struggling for credibility against Aja from the outset, and now she's lost two in a row to Aja without beating her once. The win leaves ARSION without any challengers to Aja's title because 1) she's already turned back Omukai, Shimoda, and Yoshida 2) Futagami, Mita, Yagi, and Candy all lost on this show (and all but Mita, who hasn't really wrestled any singles matches here, have been devalued) and 3) Hamada & AKINO have no singles wins to justify a title shot (although AKINO recieved the first even though she was the lowest ranked native), much less make anyone think they could beat Aja. It's good that Aja is finally dominating once again, but she still needs opponents if she's going to draw any fans. The only direction they can go in right now is Yoshida or Omukai trying again. After the match, Aja said that she wanted Yoshida to do better, which sounds like a lame justification for Yoshida's poor showing (as far as not lasting long goes, not her ring work) and a "reason" for Yoshida to dedicate herself to doing better against Aja the next time. The thing is, Yoshida has run over everyone in ARSION except Aja, who she hasn't come that close to beating, so there's really nothing they can do (outside of an interpromotional win that isn't coming Mari-chan's way) to build Yoshida up between today and their next title match.

In a mixed gender match billed as ARSION & Toryumon Dream Tag Match, Magnum TOKYO and MagChama TOKYO (Michiko Omukai) beat Sumo Daddy Fuji & Mikiko Futagami "Beauty" when Chama pinned Futagami at 15:09 with her B3 bomb. Omukai and Magnum both did Magnum's stripper routine before the match, bantering to the crowd and soliciting for money. Like seemingly all mixed gender matches, this was comedy based with Gami, who loves doing comedy (even though when she's just Futagami, she's very serious and an excellent technical wrestler), being a riot. At one point, Fuji had Magnum in the camel clutch and Gami faked the Ray Guy special, but instead kissed TOKYO. TOKYO then left the ring as fast as could, whipping his mouth since Gami's face has been compared to that of Corey Feldman (but she could probably get better parts than he does these days). This match was disappointing though because there was so much talent in the ring (aside from Fuji), but they were doing the tired gender cliches instead of delivering the goods like they could in a serious match. I think it was a good use of Omukai in that they could't put her in either of the main title matches (she just lost to Aja and her and Yumi need to win the TWINSTAR league before they get a title shot), but at least they put her over in a special match that will get press. Still, they need her to kick ass do jokes.

Chaparrita ASARI made her second defense of the SKY HIGH OF ARSION, defeating her partner Hiromi Yagi at 15:07 with her Michinoku Driver II. Even though the SKY matches are pretty much just flying and Lucha, ASARI did some submissions because that's more toward Yagi's style. Yagi did more flying than normal here, including a moonsault off the 2nd rope. This was said to be a damn good match. The best spot was when ASARI tried her londart (?) kick (roundoff reverse dropkick), Yagi dodged it and went into an ankle hold. I figured ASARI would win, even though Yagi is a bigger star and far superior wrestler, because Yagi isn't really part of the SKY division, they consider ASARI to be the bigger star as noted by her getting top billing when these two team, Yagi had beaten ASARI in the Reyna De Reynas match on 11/3, and they probably need to keep ASARI happy now since she just became a free agent.

Ai Fujita & Mari Apache beat Rie Tamada & Linda Starr in a Lucha Libre Saiyo (use) Tag Match. Mari won the first fall, pinning Tamada in la magistral at 10:03. Starr then took the second fall, pinning Mari in an ultra huracanrana at 11:04. Continuing the rapid fire pins, Ai put Starr away at 12:00 with her firebird splash. This was said to be pretty good, largely due to Mari, who is one of the most improved wrestlers of 1999.

In the opening match billed as ARSION Premium Single VIRGIN '99, Yumi Fukawa upset Candy Okutsu at 11:44. This had a beautiful finish where Candy tried her Tiger suplex hold, but Yumi rolled into a hizajujigatame for the win. Fukawa looked sharp here. She also reintroduced her moonsault, which she had stopped using after landing on her head twice in a row (trying Lionsaults) during ARS '99. Supposedly it was slow, but she did hit it. It seems like Fukawa is finally getting pushed because she made it to the finals of the TWINSTAR league and beat Candy on ths show. Now she needs to win the TWINSTAR league, there's just no two ways about it (continuing to push Hamada & AKINO is good, but they already have the titles so there's no point in them winning the league). On the other hand, Candy has almost totally been phased out of the singles scene. This can be justified based on how her work has declined, and her health is always questionable, but they spent half of 1998 pushing her, so it's also a real waste. This match should have went on after the Lucha match, as it's hard to see Fukawa's big win being that important when it was only an opening match. The Lucha match wasn't even close to anything special like it has been in the past when ASARI and all of CAZAI were involved. It was just Mari and the girls that didn't have an important match on the card.

I think ARSION did a good job here of pushing their new stars, but the matches were too short and it was at the expense of last year's stars (and LCO, although I'm sure they'll get revenge at some point). It's nice that the show actually drew.There were still a lot of empty seats, and AJW's 12/8 show had a lot more heat, but nonetheless this was the most fans ARSION has ever drawn.

Special thanks to: Keith Watanabe