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#Post#: 17866--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Knockout or Wrestler?
By: SheriffLonestar Date: September 14, 2013, 3:26 am
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So did you see Knockout's Knockdown on Wednesday? It was
awesome, there was some dream matches put together by the
combination of Shine and the female TNA roster, including and
impressive mainstream début for one of my favourites Mia Yim, I
will be hitting rewind on her match with Tara later. However it
got me to thinking about the whole essence of women's wrestling
in North America, and more specifically a somewhat failed
experiment in using Japanese talent. As always on PPV of the
week though there is some wrestling to watch so I give you not
really a PPV but a compilation (still two hours worth to get
your rasslin' kicks together). Hamada; Queen of ARSION.
ARSION was Aja Kong's sadly doomed company that she began in
1997. Her protégée Ayako Hamada became its champion in 2000 and
this video shows her build up to winning the title and having an
incredibly productive year as the Queen of ARSION. As some of
you will know Hamada later became a TNA Knockout (I hate that
term, but it's needed for this column) and two time tag team
champion, but left the company under stressful circumstances
asking for her release after a year. Back in the beginning
though she was a prodigy.
Hamada is the daughter of Gran Hamada, the Jap Lucha wrestling
legend who did pretty much more than anyone else to bring Lucha
Libre to Japanese shores. He spent that much time in Mexico he
married a local girl and had two daughters who both became
wrestlers. Ayako took Japan as her home and Xóchitl took Mexico
settling down with long time AAA Heel Pentagon, her first
marriage was to Silver King. But back to Ayako, this video shows
her early days in ARSION and as you can see she had some stiff
losses to Aja Kong, but tellingly never gave up, really for any
rookie no matter how connected or good you are, in Japanese
wrestling you are going to be staring at the lights in the first
few years of your career. It was a short period of time though,
before she turned twenty she was getting shots at the Queen of
ARSION title, taking the belt less than two and half years after
he début. She was Aja's chosen queen. That belief was justified
and shows in her performances, as you look across this tape you
see her mixed style pays dividends, producing great matches with
mat based shooters like Akino, bloody brawls like the Tag Team
title against Michiko Ohmukai and Mima Shimoda, pure wrestling
matches, lucha style, Japanese style she could do it all. This
was a case of strong performance after strong performance. Her
run in ARSION ended not long after she dropped the title and new
management brought in sweeping changes to the promotion making
it more mat based. Hamada was out in the cold, but she found
warm places in All Japan Women taking the biggest title in Joshi
the WWWA belt before moving over GAEA and taking the AAAW belt,
the second most respected title in Joshi. Dropping one and
picking up the other in the space of a week. She also wrestled
in the gender divisionless HUSTLE. She had reached legend status
a plateaux that some find hard to cope with in Japan, because
really when you have been that high the only place is down. She
moved on to Mexico, like her father and sister before her and
became a trainer in Martha Villalobos' wrestling school after a
long stint in AAA. With the stratified nature of Joshi
wrestling, her best bet was a long term commitment to one
company and she announced in 2009 she was to quit Japan and
signed a contract with TNA. Her run in TNA was quite successful,
nearly beating Eric Young for the TV(sorry Global) title at one
point. She had strong tag team victories taking the belts twice;
losing it the first time after Awesome Kong quit the company and
the second when she asked for her release. So the question
comes, why did she ask for her release? It was obvious she could
handle the pressure, she was on a light schedule compared to
Japan, she had worked for bigger companies than TNA and had
bigger crowds to handle. At the time the roster was strong so it
wasn't like she was having bad matches either. The rumours, as
you will see in the comments section of the video is that TNA
management asked her to have breast implants and Hamada
understandably baulked. Seeing the writing on the wall she hung
it up and headed home, where she could continue to be adored.
She has recently celebrated 15 years in the business and is
still a good draw, though further down the card these days due
to the nature of Japan. Like Meiko Satomura and Manami Toyota
she is the proving ground veteran for WAVE, she brings
credibility to the company.
This leads me to the question what’s the difference between a
Knockout and a wrestler? Well clearly having wrestling skill is
necessary for both jobs, but what is required for being a
Knockout is apparently a total lack of irony and a willingness
to take you clothes off when required. Now Hamada wasn't adverse
to the cheesecake stuff, she had sold a lot of T Shirts in Japan
that way, but she wanted to be respected as a wrestler like her
father. I think she broke ground in much the same way bringing a
Lucha style to Japanese women's wrestling and highlighting it in
the tough as nails ARSION environment (ARSION girls trained with
the male shoot promotion Battlearts on down days). The question
still remains though if the Knockouts division can be a platform
for great wrestling. The best match, and certainly the most
talked about, this year has been Gail Kim vs Taryn Tyrell so
despite everything they can steal the show occasionally. However
as Wednesday night proved the women can put on compelling
matches of PPV length. What annoyed me more than anything was
the breaks for pictorial shots that undermine that sports
aesthetic. While watching last weeks Impact, myself and
MissChrissi got talking about female wrestling attire. The
insistence that every promo has to be done in a short skirt and
heels undermines the fact that some of these women are the best
in the world at what they do. When Gail Kim hails that she is
the best female wrestler in the world (she isn't but hey ho),
her conviction comes undone if she says it in her underwear
while waiting around for another cheesecake calendar. I know
that is how TNA make money, and I know it won't change, but
every once in a while you could throw us a bone and present
women's wrestling in a none sexist manner. That is why the
company loses so much female talent a lot of whom where none to
fussed about coming back.
Enjoy the show.
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX1IYBEDCpo
#Post#: 17869--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Knockout or Wrestler?
By: tnafanforum Date: September 14, 2013, 10:06 am
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Very good read like also .
#Post#: 17877--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Knockout or Wrestler?
By: ChrissiCalvert Date: September 14, 2013, 1:38 pm
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Really liked Mia Yim from the PPV. Santana also impressed me.
Always good to see Serena & Jackie Moore.
#Post#: 17878--------------------------------------------------
Re: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Knockout or Wrestler?
By: SheriffLonestar Date: September 14, 2013, 3:38 pm
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Mia is just awesome, her feud with Greg Excellent was the high
point of CZW last year. She has also been hard at work in Japan.
She works for REINA over there and helped them by bringing in
some Mexican talent for shows. Also anyone who wrestles in a
halter top is brave lol.
And thank you sir :).
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