wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 04.13.10: I2I Potpourri #2

April 13, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Byers


Banner Courtesy of John Meehan

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that I need to stop writing so that I can focus on my substitute Ask411 duties.

This week, we’re returning to a concept that I first introduced back in October: I2I Potpourri~! What is I2I Potpourri, you ask? It’s really quite simple. You see, I2I Potpourri is what I do when I don’t have the time or energy to find one indy wrestling show to focus on or can’t come up with a cohesive topic for my column. It’s under these circumstances that I bust out completely off the wall, unrelated match reviews so that I don’t miss a week and thereby incur the wrath of Larry Csonka.

Now that I’ve explained that this column is essentially filler, let’s see what kind of filler I can come up with!



Masahiro Chono, Kohei Sato, & Eric Young vs. Scott Norton, Don Frye, & Dick Togo (ProWres Expo, 10/25/2008)

I couldn’t resist watching this match given the sheer, exquisite randomness of the teams. NJPW legend Chono starts the match with his former nWo Japan brother Scott Norton, who opens up on the Japanese wrestler immediately with a flying shoulder block. Chono takes a powder to the floor off of that open, and Flash goes to his eyes when he climbs up onto the ring apron. That sets up a series of elbows from the Minnesotan, but Chono responds with a kick to the face that takes the big man off his feet. Masahiro is soon perched on the top rope, coming off with his diving shoulderblock for two. He runs into a powerslam immediately thereafter, and the two men circle each other before shaking hands and tagging out to TNA’s Eric Young and Kaientai alumnus Dick Togo, respectively. Armbar reversals are the order of the day between the two junior heavyweights, after which Young ducks under a Togo clothesline and hits a leg lariat, setting up a tag to Kohei Sato of ZERO1. Kohei takes Dick down with some kicks to the chest but gets caught in a drop toehold and then a crossface, which Chono is quick to run in and break up. Togo eats a kneelift from Sato after that, and Chono tags back in. Things break down into a six man brawl at this point, with the cameras mainly focusing on Chono’s efforts to batter MMA pioneer Don Frye. He eventually returns Frye to the ring and tags in Young, who gives the former UFC star a Randy Savage elbow for a two count. Frye shrugs off a subsequent Eric Young dropkick and hits a pair of lariats, pinning the Canadian in short order.

Match Thoughts: This was kept relatively short and clipped up on top of it all, so it’s hard to evaluate the match as a whole. However, if this contest served one purpose, it was to remind me just how truly awesome Eric Young is. The guy has never been booked properly in TNA, playing lame comedy gimmick after lame comedy gimmick before magically turning into a badass overnight in a manner that nobody could possibly find believable. However, if you strip that all away and just watch the guy wrestle with no limitations placed upon him by his booking, he’s one of the best young wrestlers on the scene today. It’s a shame that he’s not able to have performances like this one more often.



Match Numero Tres: Shinjiro Ohtani, Erica, & Margaret vs. KIDATA Low 2006, Monster C, & Dorokon Z (HUSTLE, 10/6/2006)

Ah, HUSTLE, how I miss thee. This is a six person tag team match from 2006, featuring a wacky crew of wrestlers in mixed tag action. Ohtani is obviously the same Shinjiro Ohtani that we’ve known and loved for years, while his partners Erica and Margaret are usually-badass joshi wrestlers Aja Kong and Awesome Kong playing ultra-feminine versions of themselves. Their opponents are members of the Takada Monster Army. The Monster C here is the original version of the character, meaning that it’s being played by Steve Corino. Dorokon is the HUSTLE-ized persona of current TNA star Ayako Hamada. Finally, I have no clue who KIDATA is. He does have an interesting look . . . sort of a cracked out orchestra conductor. I have seen one source speculating that Tajiri may have been under the KIDATA hood, but I don’t know for sure.

The babyfaces attack immediately upon hearing the bell ring, and poor Ayako is crushed by avalanches from both Erica and Margaret for a nearfall. When things clam down, it’s Erica alone in the ring with Hamada, and the smaller woman manages to gain the advantage with a tornado DDT. She tries for a moonsault press, but Eric gets her feet up and buries them right in to Hamada’s face. Erica misses her patented back first, setting up an exchange of palm strikes between the women. Ayako brings a chair into play at this point, blasting Aja across the head with it and whipping her into the ropes to set up another chairshot. Margaret tries to run in to save, but she’s caught and given a springboard armdrag by Hamada, who follows it up with a moonsault bodyblock on to both of her opponents.

Ayako tags in Kidata at this point, but he doesn’t do too well, as both he and Hamada get flattened by an Erica cross body block. She tags in Ohtani, who takes Mr. 2006 into the corner and gives him a facewash to a HUGE reaction. The crowd chants for it to happen one more time, so Ohtani obliges . . . and there’s a third for good measure. Ohtani misses his running Yakuza kick in the corner, though, allowing Kidata to unleash some kicks of his own before hitting a diving knee strike to the ZERO1 standout’s back. A Stinger splash from Kidata sets up the tag to Monster C, and he hits his Kawada-inspired kicks before unloading with punches in the corner. He runs into a boot, though, allowing Ohtani to hit a spinning heel kick before tagging in Margaret. She tries to hit C with her ass, but he stops short, allowing Erica to nail him in the head with a metal box. That sets up Margaret’s pump splash for a two count. Erica tags in at this point, missing her back fist, which gives C enough time to tag in Kidata. He unloads with more kicking and another avalanche, after which things break down in to a six person brawl that leaves Kidata and Erica alone in the ring. Kidata controls, but he’s hit with a missile dropkick by Ohtani out of nowhere. That leads to an Amazing Splash from Margaret and a second rope elbow from Eric which bring the match to a close.

Match Thoughts: HUSTLE wasn’t exactly known for bringing the goods inside the ring, but the promotion was certainly more consistent with its ring work in its earlier days, even if it was never the primary selling point of the promotion. Even though this bout was filled with wacky gimmicks galore and a couple of wrestlers who were at or nearing the end of their physical primes, it still managed to be one of the better HUSTLE matches that I have seen from a pure in-ring perspective. It was short, but the wrestlers involved made sure that there was bell to bell action, with Hamada bringing the flashy, innovative offense early on, Corino milking the crowd’s reactions to “C” for everything that they were worth, and the Kongs doing surprisingly well in babyfaces roles that were a little bit more vulnerable than their normal “monster” personas from other promotions. I wouldn’t beg to watch this again anytime soon, but it was certainly a fun enough ten minute block. **


Match Numero Dos: Milano Collection A.T. vs. Milanito Collection a.t. (El Dorado, 12/29/2007)

This is an interesting little match because it’s a full-sized wrestler going up against the “mini” version of himself, with pre-match stipulation being that it would be the smaller man’s final match under the gimmick.

We clip past what I presume was some basic mat wrestling to Milano bodyslamming Milanito and applying a brutal looking half Boston crab. a.t. struggles to make his way to the ropes and eventually does so, promoting A.T. to break the hold. Once he does, he goes immediately to a backdrop driver, but the smaller man rolls through the attempt and hits the ropes. Unfortunately, he runs directly into Milano’s knee on the rebound, setting a vertical suplex from the full-sized wrestler, which gets a two count. A swift kick from Milano sends Milanito rolling out to the arena floor. He gingerly climbs back in and is chopped in the corner. It looks like the little guy is gong to be murdered, but he ducks under a lariat and hits a springboard dropkick, following it up by low bridging his opponent and kicking him in the face. A springboard back elbow is next from Milanito, but his subsequent forearms have no effect. He does land another back elbow in the corner, though, followed by a tornado DDT for two. a.t. tries to stay on his man with a lionsault, but A.T. lifts his knees and puts an end to that offensive streak. Milanito drops into a MaTrish-style bridge to avoid a clothesline, but Milano sees it coming and drops an elbow onto his stomach as he’s in the bridge. Ouch. Milanito responds with an enzuguiri and looks for his own clothesline, but Milano tries the bridge trick this time. Milanito’s response? A DOUBLE STOMP to the stomach of the bridging Milano.

Both men have some difficulty returning to a vertical base, and, when they do, Milanito hits a version of the shining wizard for a nearfall. He follows it up with a very impressive German given the size difference between the two men. A.T. kicks out of that hold at two as well. Milanito tries to set his man up for piledriver, but Milano stands up, puts him in a wacky submission, and then drops him out of it with an Air Raid Crash-style move. Milano’s next trick is a backdrop suplex, after which he applies his patented A.T. Lock. a.t. manages to roll out of his namesake’s hold and into the ropes, but he’s caught with a flying boot to the face as soon as the hold is broken. It only gets one, but a second kick to the noggin and a bridging backdrop suplex put the little bugger away seconds later.

Match Thoughts: Eh. This was a match. It wasn’t a good match, and it wasn’t a bad match. There were a couple of cool spots when the wrestlers were attacking one another in the bridge position, but, aside from that, it was a fairly typical big man-little man encounter with the big man dominating the majority of the way and the little man showing good fire in his comebacks. Everything was competently put together, but there was also nothing that I haven’t seen hundreds of times in hundreds of other matches, which is a disappointment in a way because I really dig the full-sized Milano’s work and have only heard great things about what Milanito has done since dropping the gimmick in his “Speed of Sounds” tag team. I’d call this **, though it’s hard to say with the beginning of the match cut off.


Match Numero Uno: Kurt Angle vs. Kendo Kashin (Inoki Genome Federation, 12/20/2007)

The wrestlers go immediately to the mat and trade quick reversals until Angle gets Kashin from behind and forces him to go to the ropes for a break. The Olympian controls again with a front facelock and picks an ankle, also causing Kendo to get a rope break. Kurt works a headlock after that and takes Kashin down with the subsequent shoulderblock, but the former NJPW wrestler appears to take the advantage when he tosses Angle out of the ring through the top and middle ropes. Kurt evades Kashin’s attempt at follow-up offense, though, reentering the ring unscathed and getting a big pop from the crowd. As a result, Kashin heels it up by kicking Kurt in the gut off of a handshake. Angle is completely unaffected, and the two men trade European uppercuts for quite some time. They’re really laying in the shots, and, of course, it is Angle who is victorious in the end, knocking Kendo down to the mat and then hitting him with a vertical suplex for a two count. Angle gives his man more uppercuts in the corner and shoots him in to the opposite turnbuckle, but he runs in to Kashin’s boot. That allows the masked man to apply a headscissors variant of Tajiri’s Tarantula, which gets a big reaction from the crowd.

When he breaks the hold, Kashin stomps away, then choking his opponent in the corner. Eventually, Angle is tossed out of the ring for a second time, and Kashin goes for a chair. However, legendary wrestler Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer is ringside for the match, and he grabs the furniture, preventing Kashin from using it. In addition to preventing him from having his brains bashed in, that also allows Angle to retake the advantage with a kick to the gut, which he follows up with another facelock when he brings Kashin back in to the ring. Kashin tries to fight out but eats a belly-to-back suplex for his trouble. Then, in an awesome spot, Kurt Angle climbs to the top rope but gets a taste of his own medicine, as Kashin does Angle’s pop-up belly-to-belly superplex to counter. Kashin immediately looks for a cross armbreaker, and the two guys do a GREAT job of fighting over the hold, with Kashin getting full extension on it literally the same second that Angle reached the ropes. After that, Kashin throws Kurt shoulder-first in to the turnbuckles and reapplies the cross arm breaker, this time getting full extension immediately. Angle stays in the hold without tapping much longer than would realistically be possible, but he is selling the arm like the dickens when he gets back up, so I’ll give him a bit of a pass. A failed Irish whip by Kashin results in him being caught with Angle’s rolling Germans, after which the straps come down and the Olympic slam connects for a two count. Kurt applies the figure four leglock after that as a tribute to Dick Beyer, but Kashin makes the ropes. Angle breaks the hold but keeps his hands on Kashin’s foot, allowing to apply the ankle lock. Kendo rolls through into a cradle for a close nearfall, but Angle is out at two. Kendo blocks a second Olympic slam attempt and tries to roll through in to a sunset flip, but Kurt rolls through THAT and applies a second ankle lock, complete with heel hook, to get the immediate tap out.

Match Thoughts: This was an odd match, and I’m not just talking about the combination of men wrestling one another. I’m also talking about the fact that it didn’t seem like they could decide whether this was going to be a squash or a somewhat competitive bout. Yes, Kashin did look like a little bit of a threat when he applied the cross arm breaker, and he got some memorable offense with his superplex and his counters of the ankle lock. However, even when Kendo was involved in those offensive exchanges, I had a hard time taking him seriously because, at other points during the match, he was treated as being completely inconsequential by Angle. Kurt gave him literally NOTHING in the opening mat work, and, on at least two occasions when it looked like he was going to have an opportunity to open up and go on the offensive (i.e. the two instances in which Angle was thrown from the ring), the former WWE Superstar shrugged things off and fired back on Kashin as though he meant absolutely nothing. This was almost a situation in which Kashin should have taken the vast majority of the offense in the match, just because, without him doing so, it was difficult to believe that he had any chance of winning given the respective backgrounds of the two men, one a former WWE Champion and the other guy whose career highlights were in the midcards of Japanese wrestling shows during those shows’ darkest days. I’ll still go **3/4 for the athletics, but it could have significantly better if the issues that I raised above were addressed.



Match Numero Uno: Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, & Genki Horiguchi vs. Magnum TOKYO, BxB Hulk, & Anthony W. Mori (Dragon Gate, 5/1/2005)

Normally I wouldn’t touch Dragon Gate in this column, because it’s developed to a point that I don’t think it can fairly be considered an “indy” unless you’re talking about its struggling American branch. However, several years ago, DG was still prett small time, which I think gives me license to take a look at their earlier matches here . . . and why not? Horiguchi and Mori open it up to start this particular match, taking things to the mat for some quick exchanges. They trade armdrags, there’s a legsweep, and there’s the popup for respect. Hulk and Saito are in next, and neither man can sholderblock the other down, so Ryo takes his opponent down with a back elbow. BxB responds with a pair of armdrags and a dropkick, and now DK and Magnum are in. Mr. Egoist takes his smaller opponent down with a shoulderblock, but Dragon reverses an armdrag into one of his own and takes Magnum out of the ring with a headscissors before doing the old Tiger Mask dive fake.

Mori immediately runs in to pound away on the kid, choking him in the corner before tagging in Hulk for a standing moonsault. That gets a two count, and BxB attempts to stay on his opponent, only to be forearmed right in the face. That leads to a tag, and Horiguchi and Saito knock Hulk down with a double back elbow before hitting a dream sequence of moves culminating in a Saito basement dropkick to the face. Ryo remains in the ring, and the two men exchange strikes until Saito hits a full body slam. Eventually Hulk struggles back to his corner and tags in Magnum, who kicks away at the less experienced Saito and cradles him for two. Tokyo then holds Saito for a double sledge from Mori, and Mori does the same for Hulk. Saito shrugs off his opponent’s subsequent chops, though, and Horiguchi tags in. He hits a double stomp on Hulk, as does Dragon Kid. Neither of those moves put him away, so Genki hits a brainbuster. It gets two off of a Magnum TOKYO save, and Magnum decides he’s just going to stay in the ring to kick and brainbust Horiguchi. Before long, all six competitors are going at it at center ring, with the technicos eventually isolating Magnum. He does a surprisingly good job of fighting back, taking them all down and giving Dragon a rana. This leads in to an insanely quick sequence of moves featuring BxB Hulk running wild, Tokyo landing a tope suicida, and Mori hitting Dragon Kid with a northern lights suplex for two. Hulk gets a second nearfall on DK with a Side Effect-esque move, and Tokyo’s missile dropkick also cannot end the match.

The focus of the bout then turns to Saito versus Mori, but Ryo high-tails it out of the ring when Anthony gets an advantage, leaving Genki to come in instead. He’s hit with an Island Driver by Hulk and then almost finds himself subjected to a Viagra Driver from Magnum. Genki reverses that into a backslide for two and then eats a rana from DK and a frog splash from Saito for another nearfall. Ryo gives TOKYO a Beach Break, but that ALSO can’t finish the match due to a technico save. The good guys get Hulk alone in the ring and take turns hitting him with corner attacks, and Genki caps off the sequence with a top rope bulldog for two. Saito stays on Hulk, hitting him with an indescribable slam to set up a Dragon moonsault. That’s another two count, as is a Saito German suplex. Ditto for another DK rana, as TOKYO saves.

Dragon also cannot be put away by a Magnum uranagi or a Mori senton atomico. Anthony tries to go up top for more offense but is cut off by Saito, who gives him a superplex for ANOTHER close nearfall. He follows up immediately with a dragon suplex, which gets two due to a save. A tiger suplex is reversed in to a small package by Mori, but it gets two. Saito and Anthony then engage in one of the quickest pinfall exchange sequences that I have ever seen, which comes to an end when Ryo has his opponent’s shoulders down just barely long enough for the referee to register a three count.

Match Thoughts: One of these days, I’ll find a Dragon Gate six man match that isn’t flat-out awesome. This isn’t that day, though. ****

And that will do it for this week. Normally this is where I would stick my final thoughts, but, without a full show to look at, they’re fairly useless. I’ll see you all back here in seven days, when I will be taking a look at one of the most monumental independent professional wrestling shows of the last fifteen years.


Looking forward to the next instalment of Into the Indies? Keep an eye on 411’s Twitter accounts, and you just might see it pop up!

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See you all next week!

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Ryan Byers

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