ARSION

ARSION (full official name Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion) was a joshi puroresu (women's professional wrestling) promotion established in 1997 by Aja Kong. The first event took place on Febryary 18th, 1998 and was called "Virgin".

History
In its initial conception the major key figures in the company were ARSION founder, Aja Kong, ARSION President ex-AJW businessman Hiroshi Ogawa, ARSION Manager former wrestler Sakie Hasegawa, and ARSION trainer Mariko Yoshida also a former wrestler.

Their first event was entitled "Virgin." It was held on February 18th, 1998 Tokyo to a sell-out crowd. The show was sponsored by BADboy clothing company and as a result the pre-show featured the wrestlers modelling BADboy outfits.

Arsion started well with a sellout first show and developed a strong fan base in their initial shows. With the title belt on Markio Yoshida, their strongest submission wrestler, the promotion was in their prime. A lack of consistency in wrestling style amongst their wrestlers seemed to hurt the promotion as time went on.

In 1999 in an attempt to boost audience numbers ARSION formed a pop group called CAZAI. Consisting of AKINO, Ayako Hamada, Candy Okutsu and Ai Fujita ARSION hoped to cash in on similar success that previous AJW pop/ wrestling mixes the Beauty Pair and Crush Gals had. CAZAI did not have the same musical talent of the predecessors however and failed to gain interest prompting the promotion split them up.

In an attempt to re- gain an audience ARSION put the spotlight on CAZAI member Ayako Hamada, a half mexican half japanese rookie whose father was the legendary Gran Hamada. Ayako Hamada won the Queen of Arsion title beating Aja Kong in late 2000. By this time the style had changed to the more traditional fast work rate of Joshi puroresu elsewhere at the time. Ayako's title reign was unsuccessful in gaining back an audience.

In 2001 Aja Kong left ARSION after a disagreement with management over the direction ARSION was heading. Aja Kong successfully sued ARSION president Ogawa for false advertising when he promoted her as being on a show two months after she had left.

President Hiroshi Ogawa in June 2001 brought in Crush Gal Lioness Asuka as the promotions new booker. With ARSION still suffering from falling crowd numbers Asuka sought to boost the ailing promotion by pushing herself and close friends Etsuko Mita and Mima Shimoda into the major storylines. With Lioness as booker the promotion switched to more story driven matches mixed with comedy relief as a way to try and reinvent itself. An example of the comedic influence in their wrestling increasing over the years was most prevalent in wrestler Futagami. Originally packaged by Aja as a new “Dynamite Kansai” with solid kicks and matching physique GAMI as she became known was primarily a comedy wrestler by ARSION’s closure.

Ayako Hamada, officially made it public that she would start working matches outside of ARSION to those in attendance to a show at Korakuen Hall on January 13th, 2002. President Hiroshi Ogawa then made an announcement about Hamada's resignation. Ayako left due to internal politics within ARSION. Hamada felt she had been blamed by ARSION management and some wrestlers as being the reason ARSION didn't draw crowds. When Asuka took over the booking in June 2001 Ayako started to become a secondary player and felt she was being pushed out. Ayako moved on to work for GAEA where Aja Kong was also wrestling at the time.

ARSION continued to falter and were eventually renamed AtoZ in 2003 by Yumiko Hotta who took over the promotion and would fold in the same year.

Wrestling style
ARSION aimed at creating a new style within Josh Puroresu. Arsion wrestlers trained every day and attend Pancrase's dojo every Monday, and Battlarts' dojo every Friday as a part of their routine. They learn pro-wrestling, Lucha Libre, and shoot style wrestling. The girls were taught a new stronger submission style grapple art. For smaller wrestlers who had a history of injuries from high risk moves and getting destroyed at times in matches from larger wrestlers the mat style meant they were able to work more competitively. Wrestlers that proved to adapt well to the style change and benefited from it included Candy Okutsu, Rie Tamada and Yumi Fukawa. Mariko Yoshida as ARSION’s head trainer also was a strong influence over the direction in the wrestling style of the company. An AJW veteran before joining ARSION, Yoshida was well versed in the aerial manoeuvrers of Lucha, having previously won the Mexican CMLL World Women's Championship title. The combination of strong mat style technique, lucha-inspired submissions, aerial high flying and Mariko's new look “Spiderman” wrestling outfits strongly reflected the lucha inspired style that was to become ARSION.

Alumni

 * Ai Fujita
 * Aja Kong
 * AKINO
 * Alda Moreno
 * April Hunter
 * Ayako Hamada
 * Candy Okutsu
 * Chapparita Asari
 * Debbie Malenko
 * Etsuko Mita
 * Fabi Apache
 * Hiromi Yagi
 * Jessie Bennett
 * Kaori Yoneyama


 * Lady Metal
 * Linda Starr
 * Mari Apache
 * Mariko Yoshida
 * Melissa Anderson
 * Michiko Ohmukai
 * Mima Shimoda
 * Mikiko Futagami
 * Natsumi Nakazawa
 * Princesa Sujei
 * Reggie Bennet
 * Rie Tamada
 * Sakie Hasegawa
 * Yumi Fukawa