Arsion (full official nameHyper Visual Fighting Arsion; frequently styled asARSION) was ajoshi puroresu (women's professional wrestling)promotion established in Japan in 1997 byAja Kong. The first event took place on February 18, 1998 and was called "Virgin".
In its initial conception, the major key figures in the company were founderAja Kong, president, ex-AJW businessmanHiroshi "Rossy" Ogawa, manager Sakie Hasegawa and trainerMariko Yoshida.[2] Arsion's first event, entitledVirgin, took place in front of a sell-out crowd in Tokyo on February 18, 1998.[2]
Arsion's wrestlers were trained at the promotion's dojo daily and attendedPancrase andBattlarts dojo events weekly, learning the styles ofprofessional wrestling,lucha libre andshoot wrestling.[2] The following year, in an attempt to boost audience numbers, Arsion put wrestlers Ai Fujita,AKINO,Ayako Hamada andCandy Okutsu together to form a pop group called Cazai. The act was an attempt to recreate the success of previous teams such as the Beauty Pair andCrush Gals, but in the end failed, leading to Arsion splitting the members up.[2] Arsion then made another attempt to atttract audience by pushing former Cazai member Hamada to the top of the promotion with her defeating Aja Kong for theQueen of Arsion Championship in late 2000.[2]
In 2001, Aja Kong left Arsion following a disagreement with management over the promotion's direction and subsequently sued president Ogawa for falsely advertising her for upcoming events.[2] Kong's departure was followed by Ogawa signingLioness Asuka as the promotion's new booker. Asuka proceeded to push herself,Etsuko Mita,Mima Shimoda and Gami into major storylines.[2] In 2002, Ayako Hamada quit Arsion over internal politics within the promotion, feeling that she had been blamed for Arsion's recent problems and pushed down the card since Asuka took over the booking. Hamada joined Aja Kong at theGaea Japan promotion.[2] Arsion finally folded during the summer of 2003, after whichYumiko Hotta took over the promotion and renamed it AtoZ.[2]
