Into the Indies 07.27.10: Before and After

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is young enough to know better but still too young to care.

This week, instead of taking a look at a specific event or a specific promotion, we are going to present the first ever I2I “Before and After” column. What is the Before and After column, you ask? Well, one of the things that has always kept me interested in the Japanese independent scene is that it seems to serve as the bookends for the careers of American stars. Several young wrestlers will show up there before they break big in the United States, and numerous old favorites will go there to wind down the years before their retirement. To celebrate that fact, we will be looking at a total of four matches today, two featuring older American stars who headed to Japan after their peak and two featuring men who are now major stars in the United States on trips to Japan prior to really hitting their stride.

Let’s get to it!

Match Numero Uno: Yoji Anjoh vs. The Iron Sheik (UWFi, 10/23/1992)

This match comes to us from UWFi, a “shoot style” promotion popular in the early and mid 1990’s. Anjoh, who we have seen previously in I2I as part of HUSTLE, was at the time of this match was a professional wrestler who would later become more popular as a shoot fighter. The Iron Sheik, meanwhile, had just finished up his run in the WWF as Sgt. Slaughter’s flunky Colonel Mustafa.

The tale of the tape has the Sheik listed at 5’11” and TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE POUNDS, the majority of which appears to be concentrated in his rapidly expanding gut. There’s a feeling out process early, which mainly features both guys looking for some sort of opening and Anjoh periodically finding a way to back the Sheik into the ropes, causing the referee to break them up. This goes on for a while . . . and goes on . . . and goes on . . . and goes on. Eventually Anjoh doesn’t give a clean break on the ropes and instead sends a kneelift into Sheiky Baby’s breadbasket, which causes the former WWF Champion to protest to the referee. We’re back to awkward attempts at locking up after that, which eventually Anjoh tires of. He starts reeling off kicks to the Sheik’s thigh and abdomen, which don’t have that much impact but mainly serve to take the man off of his game. As Sheik walks forward for another lockup attempt, Anjoh takes him down with a fireman’s carry for a bit but brings him back up for some kneelifts. Sheiky responds with a German suplex variation, but Anjoh barely sells it, hits more knees, and locks on a leg hold that is essentially an STF without the facelock in order to get a victory. Sheik shakes hands with his opponent after the bell, and, to his credit, he does a very good job of selling the leg.

Match Thoughts: Before becoming a professional wrestler and later a running gag on the internet, the Iron Sheik really was a legitimately good amateur professional wrestler, so one would think that the shoot-style UWFi would be a perfect fit for him. However, for whatever reason, that just wasn’t the case. Part of it appeared to be because Sheiky was past his prime physically, but another part of it appeared to be that nobody had really smartened the guy up as to the style of professional wrestling that he was supposed to be working here. The guy just wanted to go out there and have an easy WWF-style match, and it appeared that he couldn’t figure out why this Japanese fellow was attempting to kick the snot out of him and apply wacky submission holds. This was just a horrific clash of styles, though it’s a clash of styles so horrific that I couldn’t help but look away from it. DUD.

Match Numero Dos: Kintaro Kanemura vs. King Joe (ZERO1, 07/28/2002)

This is the battle of the big boned. Just about everybody reading this column should know who Samoa Joe is, though here he’s being referred to as “King Joe” by ZERO1 as part of a gimmick in which he came much closer to playing a stereotypical Samoan Savage than he did at any other point in his career (though he didn’t come close to going all the way with it). This match is taking place several months before the beginning of theRing of Honor career that would launch him to national prominence in the United States. He’s up against Kintaro Kanemura (formerly W*ING Kanemura), who is best known as a deathmatch wrestler that got his start as a protege of Atsushi Onita in FMW and has since competed in every noteworthy hardcore promotion in Japan.

For everybody who thought Joe looked stupid with tribal facepaint in TNA, it looks like you’ve got ZERO1 to blame, as he’s sporting a very similar look here. The match begins with shoulderblocks by Kanemura that fail to take Joe down, so the Japanese wrestler hits his opponent with a low blow, which makes the shoulderblocks much more effective. Joe responds with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex that sends the former W*ING star out to the floor, and the Samoan follows him with the FAT GUY OUT OF CONTROL PLANCHA OVER THE TOP ROPE. The two wrestlers brawl around ringside and wind up on the entrance ramp, where Joe gives Kanemura a swank powerslam. Kintaro is able to come back a bit by reversing a Joe whip into the guardrails, and now the deathmatch star has a table. He wacks Joe over the head with the furniture before setting it up at ringside and slamming the future ROH Champion on to the wood. Kanemura climbs to the top rope but Joe cuts him off, ultimately teasing a suplex off of the apron and down through the table at rinside. Attempt number one at the move doesn’t go anywhere, but attempt number two CONNECTS and shatters the table . . . which is quite the accomplishment in the eyes of those of us who have seen the beating that these Japanese tables can withstand. More crowd brawling occurs at this point, though it is difficult to tell exactly what is happening due to poor lighting.

Whatever occurred, Kanemura is bleeding from the forehead when Joe rolls him back into the ring and drops a knee for two. Joe’s next trick is a nice German suplex followed by an enzuguiri, though Kanemura no sells the back brain kick and hits a dropkick followed by a flying cross chop. The bout again goes to the arena floor with Kanemura grabbing another table and setting it up underneath a lighting rig. Kanemura scales the rig and gives Joe a HUGE splash through the table before breaking off a chunk of the wood and carrying it back to the ring along with the Samoan. Kanemura tries to use the wood as a weapon, but Joe blocks it and gets in a few shots of his own. The Japanese wrestler no-sells things and comes off the top rope with a senton on Joe for a nearfall. The island boy is whipped into the corner and Kanemura runs in for a splash, but Joe cuts him off and hits an STO. Joe’s next attempt is a powerbomb, but Kanemura kicks out of the subsequent pin attempt at two. Undeterred, Joe goes into a half crab and then immediately in to an STF to earn himself the submission victory.

Match Thoughts: This was a shorter brawl, but it worked out very well for what it was. For those of you who have seen and loved Joe’s matches against the Necro Butcher, this was essentially the prototype for those matches, though Kanemura is a better pure in-ring wrestler and a little bit less violent at this point in his career than Necro. It also provided a clear indication that Joe was ready for prime time and ready to move up the ranks in both the US and Japan at this point in his career. Granted, it wasn’t the best match that I’ve seen either wrestler in, mainly due to the time constraints, but it was still interesting to watch as a historical oddity. **

Match Numero Tres: Bob Backlund vs. Daisuke Ikeda (BattlArts, 05/14/1999)

This is similar to the Anjoh/Sheik match in that we’ve got a former WWF Champion on the outs with the company locking horns with a Japanese star in a shoot-style promotion. Hopefully it turns out better than Sheiky’s effort. Unfortunately, Backlund looks pretty rough, perhaps even older than he appeared when he was harassing the Murder City Machine Guns in TNA a few years ago. Despite cutting a humble, midwestern pre-match promo and slapping hands with fans on his way out to the ring, Backlund turns heel as soon as the bell rings, yelling at numerous members of the audience. He’s all action and no schtick once he makes contact with Ikeda, though, as they two men grapple and look for takedowns. Ikeda tries a double leg but gets stopped and caught with a chicken wing submission by the American. Bob eventually turns that into a double chicken wing and rolls it over into a pinning combination for a two count, celebrating with a crazy dance when he returns to his feet. Ikeda regains a vertical base as well, so Backlund single legs him and slaps on a toe hold. It looks like he’s going to try rolling it into a half crab, but Ikeda kicks him in the face before he has the opportunity. The former WWF Champion responds by applying another leg submission, but he leaves his back exposed to a series of Ikeda forearms that lead into a sleeper hold. Perhaps frustrated that the hold isn’t putting his man out, Daisuke starts tearing at Backlund’s face and then headbutts him once the referee forces a break. The impact causes Backlund to roll to the floor, and, when the cameras catch up with him, it appears that he’s had his nose SHATTERED. Blood is pouring out of the poor guy’s face, and he does a great staggering sell which is seemingly designed to expose his face to the crowd as much as possible while simultaneously not blowing the job that he’s trying to do of getting across that he’s hurt. Ikeda jumps out to the floor and pulls Backlund into the ring, kicking him a couple of times and getting a two count. Backlund rolls to the ring immediately once he kicks out, and the referee has seen enough. He stops the match and awards it to Ikeda.

Match Thoughts: This was a bit on the shorter side and there were brief periods of stalling, but, otherwise, it was a damned entertaining little match. Backlund was clearly drawing on his amateur wrestling background in order to put on exactly the type of match that BattlArts was looking at this point in its existence. He fit the promotion like a glove and looked like he could have been one of its biggest stars had he showed up there when he was twenty years younger. Even the non-finish didn’t bother me that much, because it provided an impressive visual, a great sell job by Backlund, and something relatively unique in professional wrestling. Go out of your way to see this one if all you know about Backlund is that he is a crazy old man who tried to run for president. ***

Match Numero Cuatro: Hisakatsu Oya & Yoshinori Sasaki vs. Lance Cade & American Dragon (FMW, 12/12/1999)

Here’s a unique one. In the late 1990’s in FMW, Shawn Michaels agreed to make an appearance for the company if he could also get some bookings for his young trainees. FMW jumped on it, and, as a result, Lance Cade and the masked man we now all know as Bryan Danielson worked as a tag team for the promotion on several shows before they signed their initial WWF developmental deals. Here their opponents are Oya, a veteran midcarder with the Japanese promotion, and Sasaki, who at the time was a rookie on the rise within FMW’s ranks. He’s better known as Mammoth Sasaki, the man who Hayabusa was in the ring with when he suffered his paralyzing neck injury.

Oya and Dragon begin things, with the veteran wrestler working an armbar until Danielson cartwheels out of it and reverses into a cross arm breaker. Oya easily escapes and goes to a leglock, though the youngster escapes before engaging his opponent into a Greco-Roman knuckle lock. Oya has the advantage coming out of that encounter and goes to a toehold briefly before tagging out to Sasaki. Amazingly, Dragon manages to force the much larger Sasaki back into the corner and tag out to Lance Cade. Cade and Yoshinori trade hammerlocks and top wrist locks, with Sasaki being the one to open up the offense thanks to some kicks. He hands cade off to Oya at this point, with the veteran going after the arm further before switching over to the old fashioned chinlock. The HBK trainee tries to power out of it but is cut off by Oya, who trades off with Sasaki. The Japanese rookie drops a leg and goes to a variation of the Fujiwara armbar, but he’s too close to the American corner and Cade is able to tag Danielson with his free arm. The masked man engages Sasaki on the mat but isn’t quite good enough to keep him from tagging out to Oya, who gets a front facelock. Dragon reverses with an armbar and tags out to Cade. The Texan takes his opponent down with a single shoulderblock and brings back Danielson, who heads into Fujiwara armbar number two of the match. Oya is too close to the ropes, so Bryan locks in CATTLE MUTILATION~!, which is not yet a finisher. Oya escapes that with the aid of the ropes, but he doesn’t escape the Americans’ offense altogether, as Danielson dropkicks him in the back while he stands in the corner and Cade snaps his arm down across the top rope.

Cade reenters the match here, cranking on a chinlock for a bit until it’s Danielson’s turn to wrestle again. Oya immediately pounds the little guy down and hands him off to Sasaki, who hits an axe bomber and a standing splash in the corner, followed by a snap suplex for two. The suplex looked particularly brutal because Sasaki accidentally let go of Danielson in mid-move and dropped him down to the mat instead of following him down. Dragon is able to escape Sasaki’s clutches thanks to a drop toe hold, though, and there’s yet another tag to Cade. Lance nails Sasaki with a boot that causes the youngster to tag out to Oya. Oya too is dispatched with a Cade boot as soon as he hits the ring, but the cagey veteran responds by ducking a lariat to hit a backdrop suplex for two. Cade manages to reverse the second attempt at the same move into a cross body for a nearfall of his own, and here’s Danielson once more. His dropkick sends Oya to the floor and is the setup for the giant springboard tope con hilo that Danielson still busts out to this day when it’s warranted. Back on the inside, AmDrag connects with a dragon suplex that would have gotten three if Sasaki didn’t run in for the save. Cade follows that up with a chokeslam on Oya, but the man manages to kick out at two. Lance looks for a powerbomb, but Oya reverses and tags Sasaki. With both big men in the ring, shoulderblocks are traded with nobody going down. Sasaki gives Cade his own version of the chokeslam, but Dragon saves. He is taken down for his trouble, setting up a German suplex/lariat combo by Sasaki and Oya for two. Danielson is hit with Oya’s backdrop driver, Cade is hit with Oya’s backdrop driver, and Lance Cade is pinned to end the match.

Match Thoughts: I was amazed by how polished both Cade and Danielson looked this early in their careers. They hadn’t been training for long at all, but they absolutely looked like they could have been dropped into the middle of a major promotion’s card and more than held their own. Granted, they weren’t yet the world class performers that we all know Danielson is and that I personally think Cade is. Also impressive was Sasaki, though he was a step behind the Americans. Oya, of course, did a solid job directing traffic. As with the other matches that I’ve taken a look at this week, this one didn’t go much beyond what you would expect from any midcard wrestling match, but it’s fun to watch to see Danielson and Cade at a different point in their careers and in an a completely different environment than what we’re used to seeing them in. ***

And that does it for this week. We’ll be back in seven days with more independent wrestling action!

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