Into the Indies 12.07.10: Ripped from the Headlines!

Posted by Ryan Byers on 12.07.2010

I2I returns with a look at wrestling news from across the indy scene. Which former WWE stars are tearing it up in Japan? Where is Kota Ibushi holding gold? Why is Tajiri getting ready to beat up a 77 year old man? Click the link to find the answers!



Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that has a better anchor than Jimmy Kimmel.

This week, we're departing a bit from the normal I2I formula. In the past, this column has consisted of me covering independent wrestling news in Japan by way of show reviews, i.e. providing a look at the current scene by looking directly at shows. This part, due to a time crunch on my part, we're going to try something a little different, as, rather than reviewing a show, I have just highlighted some of my favorite news stories from the past month in a series of write-ups. If this is the sort of feature that you'd like to see on a semi-regular basis as a compliment to our standard columns, drop a comment!

With that, we move on to the completely unimportant news . . .

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DDT, which is high on the list of many fans' favorite independent promotions for 2010, has had quite the eventful November. The biggest news is that the company's top championship, the KO-D Openweight Title, has changed hands on two different occasions. The first switch saw Hikaru Sato, a badass shoot-fighter who for some reason wrestles dressed like a cat-girl, defeat reigning champion HARASHIMA. Then, just two weeks later, Sato was defeated for the championship by Dick Togo. Togo's win was particularly surprising because it has been known for some time that his retirement is set for six months from now. It's not quite the Dudley Boys holding the ECW Tag Team Titles hostage for an hour or ROH's "Summer of Punk," but it will be interesting to see whether the former Kaientai frontman has the ability to hold the KO-D Title from November through June. Togo will have his first championship defense on December 26 against Antonio Honda.

Also in DDT, the company has seen some high profile guest stars as of late. Most if not all readers of this column are familiar with Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega, who were originally made into independent stars in Japan by DDT before getting regular bookings with US groups such as Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. After exposure in DDT, ROH, and PWG, Ibushi and Omega became semi-regulars in the big leagues of New Japan Pro Wrestling, where, earlier this year, they managed to win the company's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. On the same November 14 show where Sato defeated HARASHIMA for the KO-D Title, New Japan sent in former IWGP Jr. Tag Champs Prince Devitt & Rysuke Taguchi to attempt regain the titles. They failed in their effort, though, with Ibushi pinning Taguchi with his breathtaking Phoenix Splash. The IWGP Titles will be on the line again in DDT on the aforementioned December 26 show, when New Japan's Jado & Gedo make a guest appearance.

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The wrestling show that I am anticipating the most within the next month is the annual New Year's Eve independent wrestling summit. This past year, I reviewed the 2009-2010 version of the event in I2I, and the 2010-2011 version looks like it will be even bigger.

This year, the event will be co-promoted by five different wrestling companies: Big Japan Wrestling, DDT, Kaientai Dojo, FREEDOMS, and Ice Ribbon. For those not familiar with how the show works, it begins a couple of hours prior to the dawn of the New Year, and, at some point during the card, the countdown comes to an end with the entire locker room emptying in celebration.

Last year, despite other matches occurring on the card, the 108 man battle royale in the main event was far and away the highlight. This year, though the promotions will not commit to the same number of wrestlers, they have billed a "30 Organization Battle Royale" as the main event, no doubt meaning that thirty different wrestling companies will be represented. In addition to that match, there will be a one night, eight wrestler single elimination tournament with the competitors to be announced and, in what may be the greatest clusterfuck of all time, GENTARO takes on Atsushi Ohashi in a "7 Referees Match."

If this doesn't have "must see" written all over it, I don't know what does.

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On November 7 in front of 174 fans, independent wrestling star Abdullah Kobayashi of Big Japan Wrestling held a show to celebrate his fifteenth anniversary in the business. The billed main event was Kobayashi himself going up against Daisuke Sekimoto, which is always an interesting pairing because Sekimoto is an absolutely JAKKED power wrestler who specializes in strong-style, while Abudllah is an overweight hardcore brawler who tries to be the modern version of Abby the Butcher. However, despite the apparent clash of styles, the two managed to have a thirty-minute draw on top of this card, which should be a hell of a match to watch.

It was after that bout came to a conclusion that things really started to get fun, though. What was billed as an Abdullah Kobayashi "bonus track" began, as the star of the show set about having a series of fifteen different matches, all with absurd one minute time limits. In the first, Kobayashi managed to best Sekimoto in an immediate rematch of their half hour draw, and, after that, Abdullah went up against virtually every regular member of the BJW roster, including Jun Kasai and Ryuji Ito, in addition to a couple of wacky guest "wrestlers," including female referee Nikkan Lee. All in all, it sounds like a great way for Abby to have looked back on a decade and a half in wrestling.

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Antonio Inoki's bizarre Inoki Genome Federation ran a show with a heck of a lot of interesting guest stars on December 3. Perhaps the biggest names on the card came courtesy of Pro Wrestling NOAH, with Go Shiozaki appearing to defeat IGF'er Atsushi Sawada in singles action. Lower on the card, a tag team from NOAH was not nearly as successful, as IGF's Eric Hammer & Taka Kunou got a bit victory over Mohammed Yone & Atsushi Aoki.

NOAH's regular business partners from the Kensuke Office were also in the house, and they also did battle against some IGF outsiders. Japanese pro wrestling legend and K-Office boss Kensuke Sasaki tagged up with his protégé Katsuhiko Nakajima in order to do battle with a pair of American wrestlers who had been cut loose by WWE fairly recently. Yes, on the opposite side of the ring from Sasaki & Nakajima was the imposing duo of BOBBY LASHLEY and HURICANE HELMS. I don't know if I could succeed in booking a more random match if I tried. Ultimately, it was the Japanese team that won, as Kensuke pinned the Hurricane (who was decked out in his full WWE superhero outfit) with a northern lights bomb.

Oh, Carlito also made a trip to Japan for this show so that he could be pinned in less than five minutes by Kendo Kashin. To quote Larry Csonka, "LOLCarlito."

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Many women from outside of Japan have been receiving opportunities to compete in joshi promotions over the course of the past month. Most notably, current SHIMMER Champion Madison Eagles, who in addition to SHIMMER also works regularly for the Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance in her native Australia, made a rare trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. Eagles competed on a show for a company called S-OVATION on November 30 and also wrestled for longstanding joshi promotion NEO on 28. The S-OVATION card (entitled "Joshi 4 Hope") was the show that big-time Eagles fans were looking the most forward to, as it featured the reigning SHIMMER Champion in non-title singles action against reigning NEO Champion Yoshiko Tamura. The two wrestled to a twenty minute draw on a card headlined by up-and-coming rivals Tomoka Nakagawa and Ayumi Kurihara. On the NEO show, Eagles was in tag team action, pairing up with Sexy Star and Cherry Bomb in a losing effort against Tamura, Hailey Hatred, and Ice Ribbon's Makoto.

The six woman tag, as well as several joshi shows from the past couple of months, have had quite the international flavor. In addition to Eagles hailing from Australia, Sexy Star was on loan from AAA in Mexico, while Hatred is from the United States and Cherry Bomb is from Canada.

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QUICK HITS:

~ On November 25's FREEDOMS show, wetsuit-wearing wrestler Keita Yano defended a championship called the Wallabee TV Title against Onryo. No word yet on whether he'll be unifying that with the Dingo Washing Machine Championship anytime soon.

~ In a rare inter-gender match for a somewhat prominent championship, the Strongest K Tag Titles of Kaientai Dojo were up for grabs on November 10 when champions HIROKI & Kengo Mashimo put the belts up against the female team of Bambi & Yuu Yamagata. The men won. Chyna cried.

~ December 9 will see a unique match for Real Japan Pro Wrestling. RJPW, which is promoted by the original Tiger Mask, will see that man go up against the fourth generation Tiger Mask, the man currently wearing the hood in New Japan.

~ SMASH, the promotion which won my heart in part because it brings in the most off the wall guest stars imaginable, is doing it again on December 11, when the promotion's card will be main evented by none other than the seventy-seven year old Gypsy Joe. Joe goes up against SMASH booker Tajiri in a singles match.

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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!