Into the Indies 08.23.11: Happy IndyVersary! (Part 2)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that can’t stop the rock.

If you missed last week’s column, you might want to go back and read it before starting in on this week. Why? Because in that column we began celebrating the second anniversary of Into the Indies’ debut on 411mania with a series of special features looking back on the column’s past twelve months. We’re going to continue those features this week, and we may as well begin by running down exactly what they are!

I2I’s Top 10 Wrestlers of Year 2 – This is exactly what it sounds like, as I rank the ten best individual performers that we’ve seen across all of the editions of I2I that have run over the course of the past twelve months. Last time around we took a look at the first five entrants, with Emi Sakura, Jefferson Saint, Keisuke Ishii, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and Meno-re Oyaji all placing (in that order). Numbers five through one will be revealed today, and it’s your chance to see where your favorite landed.

The Indy-Dex – In the time since I2I was first published, we have covered roughly thirty different wrestling promotions. The Indy-Dex is an effort by yours truly to provide a comprehensive listing of all of those promotions, providing a bit of background on them and then linking to all instances in the history of the column in which they have been covered. The first installment of the Indy-Dex fourteen days ago covered everything from 100% Lucha through Michinoku Pro, and this week we pick it up with everything between NWA On the Mat and ZERO1.

I2I’s Top 10 Matches of Year 2 – 411mania loves lists, so we just had to get in on the action. As with the list of I2I’s top performers, this list is fairly straightforward: It ranks the best matches that have been reviewed in the installments of the column that have been written over the past twelve months. In part one, entries number ten through six included action from SMASH, Mr. Gannosuke’s Productions, and Okinawa Pro. Will those companies be able to appear in the top five as well, or will new promotions take the upper slots? We’ll find out in just a few short paragraphs.

Guest (High) Spots – As I’m really the only person covering this style of wrestling on 411mania on a regular basis, I thought that it might be a good idea to have others deliver their opinions. To put that idea into motion, I recruited a group of 411’s top writers to review Japanese indy matches so that their thoughts could be published as part of this IndyVersary celebration. Last week, Chad Nevett and Jack Bramma put in appearances. This week, we’re going to see what Matt Sforcina thinks when he heads Into the Indies.

I2I’s Top 10 Wrestlers of Year 2size=6>

Number 5: Shurisize=4>

Shuri (sometimes alternately transliterated as Syuri) is our second woman on this year’s list, and she’s also the highest ranked. Making her professional wrestling debut in 2008 and coming from a martial arts background, the young lady was initially competing for HUSTLE under the name KG. (Short for “Karate Girl,” and a takeoff on the names of Razor Ramon Hard Gay a.k.a. HG and his partner Real Gay a.k.a. RG.) When the original HUSTLE promotion folded in 2010, Shuri was part of the group of wrestlers that jumped to Tajiri’s new promotion SMASH. Since that time, we at I2I have watched her make a very interesting career transition. In HUSTLE, Shuri was a female wrestler who almost exclusively wrestled men as a novelty. Granted, SMASH has its fair share of intergender action, and Shuri has participated in that intergender action. However, in her new promotion, Shuri has taken great strides to become a more traditional joshi wrestler. SMASH spared no expense in bringing in top flight female competition for its own resident femme fatale, including cagey masked veteran Command Bolshoi, JWP Champion Kaori Yoneyama, former WWE star Serena Deeb, and joshi’s big flavor of the month, Kana. In some situations such as this, one might expect a wrestler like Shuri to be carried by these outside opponents, with their presence being necessary to get anything decent out of her. However, that’s not what has happened here. Shuri has held up her end of the bargain in every instance and actually outperformed some of her more experienced opponents. She has become one of the best reasons to watch SMASH, a solid, reliable wrestler who almost never has a poor match.

Number 4: TAKA Michinokusize=4>

One of the big themes of I2I over the past twelve months and, moreover, one of the big themes of Japanese independent wrestling as a whole over the past twelve months, has been a boatload of nostalgia for the glory days of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, which occurred in the early 1990’s. There are two big reasons for the nostalgia. The first is the retirement of M-Pro alumnus Dick Togo, who wrestled his last Japanese match on June 30, 2011, and, in leading up to it, did a series of “Final Countdown” matches featuring reunions of the legendary heel stable Kaientai DX in various permutations and in various promotions. The second, unfortunately, was the death of Gran Naniwa, which created its own wave of nostalgia. One of the big beneficiaries of this longing for days gone by was TAKA Michinoku, who was put into significantly more high profile matches during year two of I2I than in year one of I2I, as he too was a big cog in the wheel of Michinoku Pro once upon a time. The interesting thing about TAKA is that he is now thirty-seven years old and has twenty years in professional wrestling under his belt, so you would expect that he would be on the downswing in terms of his performance. However, even though he has slowed down a step or two, TAKA is still surprisingly good despite the beating that his body has taken, and he’s had more than one excellent performance over the course of the past year, in fact doing well enough that he’s become a semi-regular competitor in New Japan recently.

Number 3: Great Sasukesize=4>

As with TAKA Michinoku, Great Sasuke is on this list in large part because of the Michinoku Pro nostalgia that has recently swept the Japanese independent scene, and, like TAKA, he’s a performer who you think would be significantly more battered and unable to wrestle given his age and number of years taking hard bumps. However, even though he’s moving a little bit more slowly than he used to, Sasuke is still AWESOME. The man is taking ridiculous bumps that he shouldn’t have to take, and he still moves through the ring with a fluidity and grace that many men with half of his age wish they could accomplish. However, Sasuke isn’t just a hardworking performer anymore. In addition to maintaining his ability to put on a good, straight professional wrestling match into his 40’s, Sasuke in recent years has also developed and put on display a sense of humor that not many people would realize that he had from watching his career in the 1990’s. In addition to great serious matches from Sasuke in companies like New Japan and his own Michinoku Pro, we are oftentimes now treated to an incredibly wacky Sasuke dressing up like Randy “The Ram” Robinson or performing karaoke to Bon Jovi songs with a cadre of CHIKARA fans. The man has reinvented himself, becoming a more complete entertainer. Though, when the occasion is right, he’s still capable of being the old Great Sasuke who we all know and love.

Number 2: Kota Ibushisize=4>

Most American wrestling fans that are familiar with Kota Ibushi got their first exposure to him thanks to Ring of Honor, which brought Ibushi in for some shots in 2008. At the time, most American observers thought of him as some random Japanese guy who was just being used because he happened to be in the country at the time of the shows. However, as soon as Ibushi actually started wrestling, he was beloved by US crowds and was in high demand by fans in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. In the three years that have passed since 2008, Ibushi has done a significant amount of developing as a performer. He was always an incredibly athletic professional wrestler who had innovative offense and could bust out flying maneuvers that many of his compatriots in the locker room could only dream of performing. Nowadays, he’s not just one of the tops in that area, but he has also gotten significantly better as a wrestler who has matches which are both flashy and well-structured. This has lead to a series of great battles in the last year involving Ibushi in both his home promotion of DDT and also on the biggest stage in Japanese professional wrestling, as the young independent wrestler has had tremendous success in New Japan, recently winning their Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and going on to capture the prestigious IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Number 1: Danshoku Dinosize=4>

I have a feeling that some people might give me a little bit of flack for placing Dino on top of this list over several more “serious” wrestlers, particularly guys like Ibushi who have been pretty red-hot in the ring lately. However, for me, pro wrestling has always been about a lot more than straight in-ring action. It’s about entertainment value in just about any form, and, when it comes to delivering an entertaining product, very few people beat out Danshoku Dino these days. No, we’ve never had many opportunities to see what he could do if he were set to wrestle a twenty minute straight match. (“Straight” match might not have been the best choice of words there, I suppose.) No, he doesn’t really look anything like a traditional professional wrestler . . . or even really a professional athlete. However, the man was given what could have been a one-note gimmick, stereotypical homosexual gimmick that at the most would have been entertaining for a month or so, and he turned it into an enduring, endearing character that has had significantly more shelf-life than anybody might guess if they were to read a description of his act on paper. Plus, earlier this year, Dino achieved what had to have been his career highlight, being given a legitimate, headlining role as part of DDT’s massive Ryogoku Peter Pan show against Bob Sapp, one of the biggest stars in the history of Japanese combat sports. Danshoku Dino is on top of his game, and he shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The Indy-Dexsize=6>

New Japan Pro Wrestlingsize=4>

New Japan Pro Wrestling isn’t an independent group at all. In fact, it’s the single largest promotion in Japan. Why, then, does it have a section in the Indy-Dex? It’s because, when you’re the biggest promotion in the country, you’re bound to do SOMETHING that touches on independent wrestling at some point, something that is likely to be covered in this column. Generally this will involve independent wrestlers popping up on an NJPW event, as often happens in the company’s major tournaments. However, New Japan has also run its own “sub-brand” called NEVER which focuses on younger wrestlers and largely winds up looking like an indy group with a couple of NJPW guys thrown into the top matches at random. So, yes, they’re technically the big players in Japan, but NJPW cannot completely avoid the influence of the independents.

July 17, 1996: Jushin Liger vs. Randy Savage
January 23, 2011: The Gayest Tag Team Ever
April 7, 2011: NEVER Junior Tournament (Part 1)
April 8, 2011: NEVER Junior Tournament (Part 2)

NWA On the Matsize=4>

For a decade between 1975 and 1984, “On the Mat” was the top professional wrestling broadcast in the country of New Zealand. Featuring several native grapplers in addition to many Australians and a few American imports, On the Mat delighted many a kiwi during its run on television. Thanks to an NWA affiliation, it served as a platform to promote appearances of the most recognizable championship in the world making appearances on the island nation. The promotion came to my attention and was reviewed in I2I thanks to two episodes of the program which were archived on the internet by a website known as NZ on Screen. They provided solid if not spectacular professional wrestling which I examined as more of a curiosity than anything else. The result was a couple of hours of entertainment and a Wikipedia article about On the Mat in which I was cited to an unusually high number of times.

July 29, 1980: Featuring the world’s ugliest wrestler
March 17, 1981: Samoan Joe!

Okinawa Pro Wrestlingsize=4>

Okinawa Pro Wrestling was founded in 2008 by long-time lucharesu wrestler Super Delfin. Delfin had previously established Osaka Pro Wrestling, a promotion which, per its name, runs the vast majority of its small shows in the city of Osaka. Okinawa Pro was essentially the second coming of Osaka Pro, with the exception of the fact that it would be based in Delfin’s hometown of Okinawa instead of Osaka. It is a unique company in that its roster is very small and that it does not do much padding of its cards without outside wrestlers. There are no more than nine or ten wrestlers competing in Okinawa at a time, but, despite this fact, the cards always manage to have a fresh feeling to them thanks to the use of various types of matches. Combine solid professional wrestling with unique gimmicks that are mostly influenced by local Okinawan culture, and you’ve got a product that is fun to pick up every couple of months.

January 10, 2009: Meeting Golden Pine & Goya Mask
November 8, 2009: Oyaji steps up for a title shot
January 15, 2011: Oyaji goes for the title again and gets even closer.
March 25, 2011: Okinawa Pro invades New Japan!

Osaka Pro Wrestlingsize=4>

As noted above, Osaka Pro Wrestling runs almost exclusively out of Osaka with an occasional trip to Tokyo or other cities. The business model is an interesting one, with three to four small shows occurring on weekdays in the same venue, all building to a slightly bigger weekend show. In turn, everything leads to four to five major cards per year which manage to draw several hundred fans as compared to the crowds in the double digits that turn up for the weekly shots. Despite the small audiences, O-Pro still manages to get decent television coverage for its more important events, and, because it runs frequently, its young wrestlers progress at a rapid rate and many of them have become very solid performers. If you’re into old school indy lucharesu, there may be no better place to go than O-Pro.

February 11, 2010: Hurricane
April 29, 2010: 11th Anniversary Show
October 31, 2010: CHIKARA wrestlers guest star.

OZ Academysize=4>

In the late 1990’s, women’s professional wrestling in Japan, which had previously been big business in the country, started a long and painful downward spiral. One of the results of this slump was the fragmenting of talent in the country into several small promotions, with one of those promotions being the OZ Academy. OZ Academy was founded by former All Japan Women’s wrestler Mayumi Ozaki, primarily as a way to showcase herself and wrestlers that she had trained. Nowadays, promotional lines seem to mean very little to what joshi wrestlers appear on what cards, so there is little that distinguishes OZ Academy shows from other shows put on by other women’s promotions, aside from the fact that you’re virtually guaranteed an Ozaki match and you’re virtually guaranteed at least one match which involves a fair amount of outside interference and weapons shots, both hallmarks of Mayumi’s booking.

November 15, 2009: Kong, Toyota, & Kansai in action

Perros Del Malsize=4>

Perros Del Mal was the subject of I2I’s second trip south of the border and into Mexico. PDM began as a stable of professional wrestlers in the country’s CMLL promotion, but differences between stable frontman Perro Aguyao, Jr. and the CMLL office lead to the group bolting and becoming a stand-alone wrestling promotion for a period of time. Infused with several independent luchadores who had not previously been a part of the Perros Del Mal group, the crew managed to put on several shows throughout 2009 and 2010, though they were always on uncertain financial footing. Many of the notable PDM members began appearing on shows for major promotion AAA during the summer of 2010, and they’ve been there ever since. In light of this, the stand-alone Perros promotion will occasionally run and isn’t 100% dead, but it’s pretty damn close.

December 19, 2009: LA Park in tag action
May 2, 2010: PDM Debuts on US PPV

Pro Wrestling SUNsize=4>

As noted above, women’s professional wrestling in Japan has seen better days. Many groups attempted to fill the void when All Japan Women’s wrestling and its successor group GAEA both folded. One of those grounds was Pro Wrestling SUN (also known as Chick Fights SUN), which was founded by a parent company called “First on Stage” in 2006. If the First on Stage name sounds familiar, it probably should, because it is also the company which currently owns and operates men’s promotion ZERO1. SUN never really got off the ground and never really had a core roster of more than four or five wrestlers, meaning that, before long, they largely gave up on promoting their own shows and mostly just held women’s matches billed with the SUN name on ZERO1 cards. Ultimately, in April 2009, it was decided to give up the ghost and fold SUN. It was the final show of the promotion which was reviewed here in I2I. There was an attempt to revive the Pro Wrestling SUN named in the United States in 2011 when indy wrestler Allison Danger was given the rights to run cards under its banner, but that appears to have not gone too far after one show held in March.

April 26, 2009: SUNset

Real Japan Pro Wrestlingsize=4>

You can’t go wrong with the classics, according to some. If there is one Japanese wrestling promotion which supports this philosophy, it is RJPW. The group is operated by Satoru Sayama, better known to US fans as the original Tiger Mask. Sayama, who now has a body and ring gear which makes him resemble a bumble bee more than a ferocious predatory cat, is also a regular main event wrestler for the group. He brings with him a bevy of his “old school” friends, including Genichiro Tenryu, Gran Hamada, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Riki Choshu. The older generation’s matches are usually on the short side, though they are also usually entertaining, nostalgic sprints. In addition to the legends of puroresu, the undercards of Real Japan shows usually feature high quality shoot style professional wrestling from two of Sayama’s proteges, Super Tiger II and the Tiger Shark.

March 1, 2009: Tiger Masks I and IV team up

SENDAI Girlssize=4>

Aaaand it’s yet another joshi promotion. This one is based out of the city of Sendai and focuses in on the young trainees of Meiko Satomura. Though Satomura will usually appear on the cards and can put on the entertaining match from time-to-time, I haven’t been too horribly impressed by her trainees for the most part. Yes, they are young, and, yes, they deserve to be cut a little bit of slack as a result, but there are better promotions with other wrestlers who have comparable levels of experience who have come along much further. Maybe I haven’t come across the right SENDAI show just yet, but, by and large, I would be comfortable recommending avoiding this one.

April 19, 2009: One Night Tournament

SMASHsize=4>

When HUSTLE went out of business late last year, several individuals who were involved in it decided that they were going to form their own promotion, known as SMASH. Originally the plan was for SMASH to have three divisions, one promoting kickboxing shows, one promoting MMA shows, and one promoting professional wrestling shows. For whatever reason, though, the kickboxing and MMA divisions of SMASH have yet to really get off the ground. The wrestling division, lead up by Yoshihiro Tajiri, has produced a series of entertaining shows typically held at a rate of one or two a month and typically held in very small venues. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the group is that they draw in wrestlers from across the globe, not just the United States and Canada, but also unexpected locations like Finland and Israel. With an additional focus on joshi wrestling that you don’t see in most “men’s” promotions, SMASH’s shows have been very well-balanced in my opinion, and they are among the most entertaining top-to-bottom cards that I have reviewed in my time doing this column.

March 26, 2010: Debut Show
May 29, 2010: Prince Devitt and the Finnish visit
June 25, 2010: Ladies’ Action in the Main Event
July 24, 2010: SCOTTY II HOTTY Invades~!
July 24, 2010: NJPW’s Tetsuya Naito Guest Stars
November 22, 2010: Bushwacker Luke appears!
November 22, 2010: Tajiri unseats Starbuck
December 11, 2010: Undercard of SMASH11
December 11, 2010: Septuagenarian Gypsy Joe wrestles.

Stand-Alone Showssize=4>

One of the things which differentiates Japanese wrestling from American wrestling is that, in Japan, you’re much more likely to see what I refer to as a “stand-alone” show, i.e. a show that is not put on by a regular professional wrestling promotion but is instead backed by a corporate entity or a consortium of regular promotions. The goal is not to build a wrestling company that will run regularly and generate large amounts of money. Instead, the goal is to do one event and one event only, usually as a promotional tactic for another product and/or to be taped for a television special or commercial DVD release. We have looked at several such shows for I2I, including cards that promoted children’s toys and muscle milk. They have given us some entertaining moments, including many wrestlers dressing up as characters from M.U.S.C.L.E. and later the LARD WARRIORS~!, a group of obese men doing the old Road Warrior gimmick.

April 28, 2007: King of Europe Cup (Night 1)
April 29, 2007: King of Europe Cup (Night 2
May 29, 2009: Kinniku Mania
July 9, 2009: NOWA Bom-Ba-Ye
December 29, 2010: Mr. Gannosuke promotes an indy show with a ONE HOUR main event. (Part 1)
December 29, 2010: Mr. Gannosuke promotes an indy show with a ONE HOUR main event. (Part 2)
December 31, 2009: DDT/BJW/K-Dojo 108 Man Battle Royale
February 28, 2010: Glico Power Production

ZERO1size=4>

Of all the independent groups in Japan, ZERO1 is the one that I feel tries the hardest to emulate the “major league” promotions in the country. While organizations like DDT and Big Japan intentionally adopt styles that differ from New Japan or All Japan in order to appeal to niche audiences, ZERO1 is content to book similarly to NJPW or AJPW, just with smaller audiences due to their lesser television exposure and reduced levels of star power. The only thing that really sets them apart is the fact that they sometimes make very unusual choices as to the foreign wrestlers that they bring into the company, including recent appearances by the former “Just Joe” of WWF fame and “The Predator” Sylvester Terkay. Occasionally a Masato Tanaka or a Shinjiro Ohtani will bust out a can’t miss match in ZERO1, but, for the most part, they don’t offer much that the bigger groups in the country aren’t already doing.

July 28, 2002: Samoa Joe vs. W*ING Kanemura
July 30, 2002: Samoa Joe vs. TAKA Michinoku
March 15, 2009: Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Orlando Colon
May 24, 2009: Young Lions tag team match
May 5, 2010: Japanese debut of the Osirian Portal
March 6, 2011: Daichi Hashimoto’s debut.

I2I’s Top 10 Matches of Year 2size=6>

Number 5: DDT Campground Pro Wrestling (DDT, 09/12/2010)size=4>

We here at I2I have long been fans of the “off ring” matches produced by the Dramatic Dream Team, a concept that I first saw employed almost fifteen years ago by deathmatch promotions like IWA Japan and Big Japan Pro Wrestling. The concept is simple: You gather up a bunch of professional wrestlers, put them into an environment in which you would not expect to see a professional wrestling match, and let them go at it. We’ve seen DDT in a variety of settings over the years, including amusement parks, construction sites, and many more. However, the most consistent location for this crazy action has been campgrounds, becoming an annual tradition for DDT over the last several years. This year’s installment was perhaps the most entertaining yet, featuring big names like Kota Ibushi and up-and-comers like Keisuke Ishii engaging in an odd battle featuring fireworks, bicycles, big bumps on to the bare earth, and battles in a lake. No, it’s not a match that would work on Wrestlemania, and it’s not something that will be rated ***** when compared to any of the bouts out of the Ric Flair-Ricky Steamboat series, but, for twenty-five minutes of pure, wall-to-wall fun, you’re not going to be able to do too much better than the 2010 version of campground pro wrestling.

Number 4: Kota Ibushi vs. Prince Devitt (DDT, 07/24/211)size=4>

As mentioned when we wrote about Kota Ibushi in the Top 5 Performers section of the column, he’s spent a fair amount of time lately in New Japan Pro Wrestling, doing battle with some of the biggest stars of their junior heavyweight division. Perhaps Ibushi’s biggest rival in his time in NJPW has been Prince Fergal Devitt, the Irish-born star who has become a New Japan regular and one of its top performers over the past year. Ibushi defeated Devitt’s regular tag team partner, Ryusuke Taguchi, to win the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament earlier this year, and he followed it up by almost immediately unseating Devitt himself in order to score the IWPG Junior Heavyweight Championship. The rivalry continued with Devitt and Taguchi defending their IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles against Ibushi and his on-again, off-again tag partner Kenny Omega. Taguchi and Devitt were able to come off on the winning end of that one, and Devitt was looking for a similar result when he headed into Sumo Hall on DDT’s biggest card of the year in order to challenge Ibushi for the championship that he stole away from New Japan and took back home with him. Though, as noted in my initial review, the two wrestlers held back in order to not upstage the main events for the evening, they still had a hell of a junior heavyweight professional wrestling match, with Ibushi bringing the breathtaking high flying and Devitt bringing the off-the-scale intensity. Ultimately, Ibushi managed to parlay his home court advantage into an impressive title retention in a bout that many thought he would lose, extending his reign for god knows how long.

Number 3: Kaz Hayashi, MEN’s Teioh, TAKA Michinoku, & FUNAKI vs. Great Sasuke, Minoru Fujita, Kesen Numajiro & Kazuya Yuasa (Kaientai Dojo, 12/25/2010)size=4>

The death of former standout independent wrestler Gran Naniwa was perhaps the biggest news story on the Japanese indy scene over the course of the past twelve months, and, with a story that big, you knew you were going to get a tribute show. The show, hosted by TAKA Michinoku’s Kaientai Dojo, was a fitting tribute to the man in the crab mask, and this eight man tag team encounter, a callback to the glory days of Michinoku Pro where Naniwa made his name, was a perfect way for eight wrestlers and the assembled fans to remember their fallen comrade. The bout was originally scheduled to be a ten man tag, with Dick Togo joining his former Kaientai DX stablemates Hayashi, Teioh, TAKA, and Funaki, but a broken tailbone sidelined Togo and cut the match back to eight. Even a man down, the KDX crew did an excellent job of heeling it up like they did in the good old days, and it helps that the babyface unit, captained by the legendary Great Sasuke, was more than experienced in the ring against them and provided a solid base for the bad guys to work off of. This match would have been a great one even without the added emotion that came to it as a result of Naniwa’s death, and it’s one that I’ll probably keep in my video collection to go back and watch as a bookend for the eight and ten man tags that made M-Pro a standout company from 1993 through 1997.

Number 2: Shuji Ishikawa vs. KUDO (DDT, 7/24/2011)size=4>

This is the second match in the Top 5 which comes to us from DDT’s 2011 installment of Ryogoku Peter Pan. These were two men with whom I only had limited familiarity, but I walked away more than convinced that they were both capable of putting on a hell of a professional wrestling match. Though neither man has done much to break into the wrestling world outside of DDT, they both have a fair amount of experience and athleticism, and they were both able to use those attributes to craft a piece of art that was more than fitting to be on top of this small promotion’s version of Wrestlemania. The undersized KUDO played his underdog role to near perfection, taking a real beating from Ishikawa’s snug offense and periodically firing back with some glorious high flying. Ishikawa was a very good bully heel, using every weight-and-power-related trick imaginable to try to crush his tiny challenger. Ultimately, KUDO, a regular member of the DDT roster as opposed to Ishikawa’s “outsider” character from Union Pro, used an impressive series of knee strikes from the top rope to claim the championship for his home promotion in a dramatic moment. Even if you’re like me and didn’t know the two wrestlers too well going in and had little clue about whatever storyline between the two of them may have existed, the match was so well put together that you could take something away from it and, more likely than not, be rabidly cheering for young KUDO before the final bell.

Number 1: GENTARO vs. Munenori Sawa (Mr. Gannosuke Produce, 12/29/2009)size=4>

I’ve always been a sucker for guys going Broadway. Whether it’s Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe, or Ric Flair vs. any number of wrestlers who were active in the 1980’s, the sixty minute match has always held a special place in my heart. Thus, when I learned that two very capable Japanese independent wrestlers, GENTARO and Munenori Sawa, put on an hour long special on a tiny indy show booked by former FMW wrestler Mr. Gannosuke, I had to go track it down. The match did not disappoint. Sawa, who in my mind is one of the real underutilized gems of the independent scene, was brought up in the shoot style wrestling of BattlArts but has quickly adapted to many other styles, as evidenced by the fact that he meshed so well with GENTARO, who has had the most high profile matches of his career with groups like Big Japan and Apache Army. The two used their respective styles of offense together in a manner that worked surprisingly well to fill out the long block of time that they were allotted, producing the most unique and entertaining match that I’ve seen while doing this column over the course of the past twelve months.

Guest (High) Spotssize=6>

The Predator vs. Keith Hanson (IGF, 02/05/2011)
by Matt Sforcina

So, if you recall last year’s edition of this thing, you may recall my first ever match review, which was, to not to put too fine a point on it, a train wreck of massive proportions. I am not a match reviewer, I am horrible at this sort of stuff. But since Ryan saves my butt on Japan questions all the time, I’ll try again.

Anyway, we’re looking at The Predator taking on Keith Hanson, a.k.a Luke Gallows a.k.a He’s a CM Punk guy. IGF I know is Antonio Inoki’s company and the NWA territory in Japan right now, so clearly this match is vitally important in the standings of who gets to take on the NWA World Champion.

Although considering this is Hanson V Predator, I’ll pretend you said 18.

Actually Predator is in fact Sylvester Terkay, who was the talentless good wrestler they lumped with Elijah Brown in ECW for a bit. And this match is famous for the ending, which we’ll come to shortly.

Gallows is basically doing Stan Hansen 2.0, although given the number of times he’s been copied it’s really more like Stan Hansen 164.0. We begin with a recap of last time, where Hanson got the win, and then Predator attacked him after the bell and choked him out with a chain, which is what he does now. So this is the rematch, although for some reason Hanson’s photo is Festus like rather than Gallows like.

We take you to the match already in progress, with Hanson on his hands and knees before Predator.

…

It’s not as bad as it sounds.

Predator pulls him up and knees him in the side, then again, then punches the same spot a couple times. A weak knee lift puts Hanson in the ropes, and a kick to the gut firmly establishes that Predator is a BAD MAN, but at least he’s a BAD MAN WITH A PLAN!

Although he then goes to a throat thrust, ruining my idea, it seems, but he then goes to a bear hug so it’s cool. And it doesn’t look that impressive unless you realise the size differential, then him picking Hanson up like that is impressive. Hanson tries to fight out, then gets slammed down for 2.

Irish whip leads to a Hanson slap, then a kick, and then he butterfly suplexs Predator! Bit slow but nice! Leg drop gets 2. Hanson then pulls down the kneepad so you know Shit Just Got Real. Shame the knee drop looked bad (but then I’ve rarely seen a knee drop look good, since to look good it kinda has to connect, and if it connects, then it hurts like a boss.)

Predator gets an eye rake, and then some top rope choking with his body weight down on him, which is a rare time when that works. Normally big guys stand on people and then lean on the ropes, so it’s obvious they aren’t really standing on them. In that case, as he climbs the ropes, while he is pushing down on the top rope with a hand, he’s also pushing down on Hanson, so it’s ok.

Into the corner, snapmare, and some weak kicks to the head. And then we get a Predator Texas Cloverleaf, a.k.a the “I just came to talk” hold. Hanson makes the ropes, and Predator is pleased with himself, and gets some polite applause for his pride.

He then follows up with some headbutts, but tries to whip Hanson, reverse, blind charge connects with an avalanche, whip, corner clothesline. ANOTHER whip, back first splash, Hanson hits the ropes as Predator staggers out…

Now then, this is Japan, and Gallows is doing a Stan Hansen rip off. What do you think he goes for?

If you said ‘Lariat’, Partial Credit!

It hits, but it gets ONE, so clearly The Cowbell is Weak with this one. He goes for a big splash but eats knees, although where he was jumping he was gonna eat knees regardless. Predator thinks he’s outsmarted Hanson (they always do) and indicates this by pointing to his head. But really dude, it’s a splash, you got knees up. That’s like Wrestling Reversals 101. It’s hardly rocket science. Had you somehow used your excess hair to form a crude rocket launcher from the gel contained inside it and shot him with a rock you smuggled in your tights, THAT would be Rocket Science and would be worthy of forehead tapping.

He pulls Hanson up (not helping your ‘I R Smart’ claims there) and whips him to the corner, and then nails a corner knee… thingy. Whip to the other corner, same thing. He then lifts up Hanson and nails a pretty cool delayed over the shoulder powerslam.

See, there’s far too much whipping, not enough power moves. I get this is about revenge, but when you have two big guys who can toss each other around… Toss each other around! Especially in a revenge match. Eh, at least they aren’t trading holds. That always bugs me on bad Indy wrestling shows, when two guys hate each other with the fire of a billion suns and then… lock up and do some chain at the start of their street fight. Like… WTF?

Back to the match, and Predator takes his time to rake the eyes and then runs the ropes and… Does nothing, as a blinded Hanson swings with a forearm and totally whiffs, which makes sense, but Predator ducks the shot that wouldn’t have hit, which doesn’t. He comes back off the ropes and… hugs him. Sure, knees are thrown, but it looks more like a friendly hug than an offensive move. Although it’s offending me, I guess.

Predator runs the ropes again, Hanson gets a Brogue Kick, and then hits a fallaway slam. Now, yes, big guy, impressive, but it’s still crappy looking. You either get speed or distance on a fallaway. Most guys go for distance, tossing their opponent half way across the ring. I go for speed, I don’t toss the guy far, but the landing is quick and sudden, and sounds/looks more painful, I feel. This lacked both, and the size of Predator only partly makes up for it. Although he sells it well, I’ll give him that.

Hanson covers, Predator gets a foot on the ropes. Hanson seems annoyed, but then goes to whip Predator again (Oy) but he reverses, and pulls him into a couple of knee lifts, and then nails a decent enough front suplex. The announcers call it a brainbuster, which I suppose it is if this was Arn Anderson against Brad Armstrong, but then this is an NWA affiliate, so we’ll let it slide.

It gets 2, and it’s at this point that this match gains notoriety. For Antonio Inoki, with a pretty sweet red scarf, comes down to ringside. And he is pissed. He yells at a few people with vastly inferior scarves, and then grabs a chair and calls out ‘Stop That!’.

In the ring, Hanson quickly nails what I assume is his finisher, a standing Spinebuster dealy, and gets the 3. Inoki is still annoyed and yells at people seemingly at random as he leaves. Hanson, in a rare reversal of how it normally goes, gets the hell out of dodge, leaving the area while Inoki rants and raves, pushing the headset off of Masahiro Chono, who was doing commentary.

Now then, for the subtext: Chono was actually booking the show, booked this match up the card, and then Inoki came out and demanded it end, which they quickly did. Hence why he attacked Chono at the end.

So, is this a good match? Of course not, at best it’s merely acceptable (no botches), but it’s worth a look just for Inoki losing his shit. But then, that was in a Botchamania (167) so maybe not.

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