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Post by microstatistics on Jan 4, 2018 18:28:37 GMT -5
Stone cold classic. Outstanding dominant/arrogant champion vs determined challenger narrative, matwork of the highest order, high end limb psychology and a gripping finishing stretch.
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Post by jetlag on Jan 6, 2018 5:34:34 GMT -5
2nd. A great match on his own, which was elevated again by watching ARSION chronologically. Full review:
I've seen this match before and felt it was great. But watching all this stuff now has changed my whole outlook on this bout. Proof that sometimes context is everything. We've seen Mariko demolish everybody else on the mat, and everyone tries to beat her standing. But here's Yagi. Hiromi Yagi, in this match, feels like the lost great female worker. Like we all fantasybook Tamon Honda to go to BattlARTS or Carl Greco in U-Style, here is Yagi, an unusual worker in her home promotion, going into an environment that fits her perfectly, and blooming. Nobody was able to do shit to Yoshida on the mat, until Hiromi Yagi came to town. Even the opening move makes sense now: Yoshida catches Yagi and drops her, and this match is business as usual right? Well not tonight, because Yagi goes back in and proceeds to put the fear of god into Yoshida. Yoshida would show weakness and Yagi would throw herself at her, Yoshida would try a move and Yagi would get her into trouble like no one before. Not only can Yagi hang on the mat, she can win. Suddenly all of Yoshida's sweeps and grounding aren't working. Yoshida would go to the mat, and suddenly she would be the one in trouble. The bandaged arm didn't even seem that important now. In a way, knowing that made the lulls/slow parts better as the bout had a type of tension building that I don't recall seeing in many other matches. Now I understand the crowd reaction when Yoshida escapes that armbar but doesn't engage further. For the first time, Yoshida doesn't want to be on the mat anymore. They do a tremendous job teasing the big throws, and Yagi ends up meeting her tragedy. No wonder she didn't want to shake hands after the match.
Unbelievable, mindblowing, truely great contest. I've loved it before but now it's in my canon of untouchable superclassics. The swank moves, slick matwork were present as before, but the story that the match told has now been elevated in my mind. Hiromi Yagi, what an astounding young lady.
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Post by elliott on Feb 4, 2018 2:37:59 GMT -5
Third.
This is an obvious no-brainer nomination. I haven't watched it since probably 1999 and I wanted to revisit it. It is absolutely a classic match. Mariko Yoshida is a hard wrestler to really peg the online fan narrative of. Literally since 1999 she has been talked about in terms of being among the most underrated/underddiscussed obviously great wrestlers ever. So it feels dumb to say 19 years after this match "Fuck Mariko Yoshida is so underrated, more people need to watch her." But FUCK is Yoshida amazing and more people need to watch her stuff. Any fan of shoot style or just great grappling would love her stuff. This is an amazing match and Im so glad I watched it again after all these years.
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Post by Kadaveri on Oct 4, 2019 14:28:48 GMT -5
Hadn't seen this when I submitted my ballot this year. It's now on my Top 100 list. This is one of the best matches I've ever seen for the use of very high-difficulty matwork to tell a story of the clash of two characters rather than impressive matwork for its own sake. I've only watched a few Yoshida Arsion matches prior to this, but I still totally got what was happening. I love that cocky look she has on her face when she hits that big driver on Yagi right at the start of the match acting like she's just got an easy victory against some goof. That over-confidence came back to haunt her big time.
****1/2 (on the very high end of that rating).
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Post by mrjmml on May 13, 2023 17:12:16 GMT -5
The greatest ARSION match ever. 2nd.
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