Into the Indies 11.17.09: Watch the SUNset

Banner Courtesy of John Meehan

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the only internet wrestling column written by a man who has apparently lost his right to say anything negative about WWE or TNA.

This week, we are once again returning to the land of women’s pro wrestling in Japan, commonly known as joshi. I’ve discussed my history with joshi a few times in this lil’ old column, including reviewing shows from joshi promotions SENDAI Girls and Ice Ribbon. The short version of the story is this: In the 1990’s, which were widely considered the glory days of women’s wrestling in the Land of the Rising Sun, I was a huge joshi fan. Then, due to real life intervening, I had to significantly back off in terms of watching any professional wrestling that wasn’t readily available on free television. When I returned to watching a decent amount of Japanese wrestling earlier this year, I decided that I was going to take a look at modern joshi to see if it was still as good as I remembered it being fifteen years ago. By and large it has not been, though there is still the occasional entertaining match or performer. In particular, I really dug the Ice Ribbon show that I previously mentioned.

For this week’s peek at joshi, the promotion that I have decided to take a look at is known as Chick Fights SUN (formerly Pro Wrestling SUN). Like many of the women’s professional wrestling promotions that were active in the twenty-first century, SUN came into being after the collapse of All Japan Women, which had previously been the predominate joshi group in the country, receiving national television exposure and drawing thousands of fans to live events. Many of the AJW veterans who still had a few years left in their careers when the company folded attempted to start their own promotions. One of those women was Nanae Takahashi, who first attempted to run shows under the name “Dream Catchers,” which was taken from a stable that she participated in during her career.

Eventually, however, Takahashi hooked up with the same company that provided the financial backing for men’s wrestling promotion ZERO1. Thus, Dream Catchers morphed into Pro Wrestling SUN, holding its first show on September 3, 2006. The early days of the company featured not just Takahashi but also names such as Ayako Hamada, Amazing Kong, and Toshie Uematsu. In the main event of that first show were Hikaru & Saki Maemura, two women who had begun training at the All Japan Women’s dojo in 2002 and who remained with the school until the promotion closed its doors in 2005. They followed Takahashi to SUN, where it quickly became apparent that they were going to be positioned as the young, up and coming competitors in the promotion.

Unfortunately, things did not go exactly as they were planned. Though the promotion ran numerous shows throughout 2007, none of them were particularly well-attended. They held only one stand-alone card in 2008, after which the SUN girls spent the majority of their time working the odd undercard match or two on ZERO1 shows. Eventually, Hikaru and Maemura, the youngsters who were in that initial main event, were the only wrestlers competing regularly under the SUN banner. Then, in the closing weeks of 2008, the duo made the joint announcement that they would both be retiring at a show held on April 26, 2009. Both of them were young enough and popular enough that they could have commanded a fair amount of dates on the independent circuit if they so desired, but they did not want to wrestle without the regular bookings and full contract that involvement with ZERO1 provided. With the writing on the wall for the women’s matches in that promotion, they decided to call it quits when their contracts came to an end.

This is the April 26, 2009 Chick Fights SUN show, which, due to Maemura and Hikaru retiring, would be the curtain call for the promotion. This is the SUNset.

Match Numero Uno: Minoru Fujita & Saki Maemura (c) vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Toshie Uematsu for the World Dubai Tag Team Titles

As noted, this is a match for the World Dubai Tag Team Titles, a championship which is one of the concepts that pulled me back into the Japanese pro wrestling scene after my time away. The WBD Titles, a pair of straps for inter-gender teams, were created by ZERO1. The storyline, however, was that a husband and wife from Dubai were such big fans of professional wrestling that they decided to bankroll creation of the titles, promising that any duo who could successfully defend them ten times in a row would be awarded a “palatial residence” in the United Arab Emirates. Sadly, Maemura and her partner Minoru Fujita were holding the titles when the announcement of Saki’s retirement was made, meaning that the belts had to be done away with before anybody could rack up the magical ten defenses.

Maemura and Hidaka begin the match in a bit of an odd pairing, and the two trade armbar and headlock reversals for a while before popping up to the standard applause. Hidaka has entirely too much trouble winning a test of strength, though Maemura is impressive doing the bit where her opponent jumps on her bridge only for it to not give out. Saki takes her man down with a headscissors, and we get a comedy spot in which everybody involved in the match – including Toshie and one of the cornermen – takes a turn dancing on Ikuto’s back. Hidaka has had enough of these hijynx, so he tags in Uematsu. She heels it up by rubbing Saki’s face across the top rope. She’s hit with a cross body block out of nowhere, though, and a follow-up dropkick leads into the tag to Fujita. Toshie somehow blocks his punch and pops him in the nose, but Fujita low bridges the woman as she runs the ropes. He goes for a dive but winds up running directly into a Hidaka heascissors. All four wrestlers spill out to the floor at this point, with Maemura coming off the top with a dive on to the pile. Minoru and Uematsu wind up back in the squared ciricle, with Fujita catching a SWEET back elbow in the corner, though he misses a second attempt at the move. That sets up Toshie unloading with punches in the corner, and she blocks Fujita’s attempt at a reversal in to a powerbomb before giving him a facewash in the corner and a dropkick south of the border.

Fujita fires back with a bodyslam but stops to sell his family jewels, allowing Uematsu to kick him in the shins and hit a dropkick to the face. Minoru stomps on her foot to cut off her momentum and then pulls her hair for a bit. Hidaka winds up holding Fujita for an Uematsu attack, but the two heels collide to set up the good guys’ comeback. Maemura and Saki pair up for some sort of wacky double team kick on Ikuto, but it’s reversed into a back body drop thanks to some assistance from Toshie. Hidaka gives Fujita an enzuguiri to set up an Uematsu German, though, a few seconds later, Ikuto gets caught with a Saki dropkick from the apron. That allows Fujita to score a quick nearfall, after which he goes for a northern lights bomb, only to be cut off by Maemura begging for the tag. She hits a NICE rana variant on the kneeling Hidaka which drops him face first on to the canvas. A Fujita enzuiguri allows Maemura to hit a fisherman buster for two, which would have been three if not for the interference of Uematsu. A flash rana rollup will also not finish the match for Saki, and she’s caught with an Uematsu missie dropkick out of nowhere. Hidaka reverses a wheelbarrow bulldog attempt into a blue thunder bomb, though his subsequent powerbomb fails to end the match. As such, he gives Maemura over to Toshie for a superfly splash, but that’s not enough either.

The women pair off and trade strikes for a bit after Saki Hulks up, though she’s taken down again with the missile dropkick. Again, it only gets two, as does Toshie’s tiger suplex. Uematsu ascends the ropes one more time, but she’s cut off by Fujita. Toshie tries to give him a German for his trouble, but he escapes and tosses Maemura skyward for a Thesz press on Toshie. Minoru then gives his female opponent a tombstone piledriver, and the champs pair up as Maemura gives Fujita a rana off of the top rope on to the fallen Toshie. A Saki German looks to finish quickly thereafter, but Hidaka makes the save and goes to work on Fujita. He lands a spinning heel kick to take Fujita out of the match, leaving the women alone in the ring. Uematsu catches Maemura in a wacky cradle for two and looks to finish with another tiger suplex. Reversals abound in a cluster-y finish, with the highlight being Uematsu elevating Maemura in to the air for a Hidaka superkick. Toshie rolls forward in to a jackknife pin that only gets two, and, fortunately for Saki, Fujita is right there to give Toshie an Ace Crusher. That sets up another cradle for Maemura, and it wins her the match.

Match Thoughts: The last three to five minutes of this match were glorious if you are an individual who loves teams trading big moves and rapid fire pinfalls. Both the champions and the challengers seemed adept at snapping off big move after big move in a clutch situation, but there were other portions of the match that felt lacking to me. First of all, though the big moves were being fired off fast and furious in the final few seconds, there was a significant lack of drama in my mind because none of the wrestlers were too horribly good with their timing on kickouts. Additionally, in the ten or so minutes that existed before that five minute long closing sequence that I have talked about for the last several lines, things were kept VERY basic, especially on the end of the women, which lead to the match feeling a bit repetitive at points. Combine that with a small crowd that was either not reacting well or not mic’ed well, and this is a match that I don’t ever really need to see again, though, as noted above, the last five minutes managed to prevent it from being a complete waste of time. **

Match Numero Dos: Hikaru & Aja Kong vs. Haruka Matsuo & Manami Toyota

This a match featuring two of the true legends of joshi, with Kong and Toyota being two of the top competitors in the history of the All Japan Women promotion. These are two of the wrestlers who were being pointed to in the promotion when fans claimed that joshi matches in the mid-1990’s were as good as if not better than most North American men’s matches in the mid-1990’s. They’re being joined by Hikaru, who is one of the focuses of this show, and Haruka Matsuo, who strikes me as nothing more than the odd woman out.

Hikaru and Matsuo kick it off, with the retiring wrestler controlling on a lockup and a test of strength until Toyota makes the save and assists Matsuo in a double dropkick. The women then hit back-to-back missile dropkicks on Hikaru, all while Kong hangs out on the apron and leaves her partner to her own devices. Hikaru fires back with a back body drop on Matsuo and has some words for Kong before applying a bodyscissors on her opponent. Matsuo eventually pops out and gets a kneebar, but Hikaru attempts to roll out of the hold. Unfortunately for Hikaru, she runs right into Manami Toyota’s corner, and the legendary wrestler tags in and kicks her repeatedly in the face. Manami busts out another missile dropkick for a two count, but Hikaru rallies and kicks her opponent in the corner before tagging in Aja. The heavyweight bruiser chops away on Toyota and flattens her with an axe bomber for two. A scoop slam and elbow drop from the largest woman in the match also connect, and she heads into a chinlock on Manami. Toyota tries to escape by kicking Kong in the head repeatedly, but Aja no sells it and busts out some boots of her own. Toyota responds with a springboard cross body and a double stomp, allowing Matsuo to tag in.

The younger wrestler repeatedly dropkicks Kong, but they’re all shrugged off and Matsuo is chopped down to size. Hikaru returns to the ring for another dropkick in the corner and a running high knee, after which the women exchange forearms for a while. Hikaru gets the better of it and elevates her opponent in to the fireman’s carry position for a GREAT gutbuster. I will always mark out for that move. Hikaru gives her a variant on the German and a dropkick before we get our next tag to Aja Kong, who tries for a suplex but has it reversed into a prawn hold. She refuses to stay down and clotheslines Matsuo before heading up to the second rope. Matsuo cuts her off and gives her a German off the strands, which sounds a lot cooler on paper than it looked in execution. Fortunately Kong does not sell the weak move much, coming right back to clothesline both Matsuo and Toyota. A Matsuo rana also fails to keep Aja down, so Toyota tags in and traps Kong in a rolling cradle before heading to the top for a moonsault press. It only gets two. Manami fails to lift Aja for a northern lights bomb, allowing the larger wrestler to kick her in the face and attempt a Saito suplex. It looks like Toyota has escaped the move with elbows, but Kong smacks her with a clothesline and then hits the move. An Aja brainbuster gets two, and here comes Hikaru. She gives Toyota another Saito suplex followed up immediately with a head-and-shoulder-suplex followed up immediately by a trip up to the top rope. Toyota knocks Hikaru to the floor, though, and suddenly that’s where all four ladies are. Manami hits a plancha on to the whole crew, and Matsuo follows with her own version of the same move.

Hikaru is rolled back in to the ring for a Toyota missile dropkick, but it only gets two. Toyota’s moonsault press attempt on Hikaru misses, allowing the future retiree to ascend the ropes. Kong then joins us in the ring a SUPERPLEXES HIKARU ON TO TOYOTA. Hikaru follows it up with a sit-out fisherman buster, but Toyota manages to kick out. An elbow smash also will not keep Manami down, nor will the Shining Wizard thanks to a Matsuo save. Luckily for Hikaru, Kong is right there to toss Matsuo from the ring. Unfortunately for Hikaru, Aja accidentally punches her seconds later, allowing Toyota to hit a version of the northern lights bomb. She sets up for the Japanese ocean cyclone suplex, but Hikaru slips out. It looks like she is ready to mount a comeback, but Totyota still manages to catch her with a German out of nowhere to log the three count.

Match Thoughts: Sometimes a match features two big names returning to the ring to do battle against each other with the result being an absolute classic which reminds you why you came to love the big names in the first place. Other times a match features two big names returning to the ring to do battle against each other with the result being a match that was obviously booked to get the two big names on the card and for no other purpose. This was the latter match. Though in some ways I feel that it is unfair to expect a barnburner out of Toyota and Kong given that they are now at least ten years out of their primes during which they worked one of the most physical wrestling styles in recorded history, it is still disappointing when you watch them work a match against one another and the end result is nothing more entertaining that what you would see in the main event of the average episode of Monday Night Raw. Of course, much of the focus in terms of the in-ring action was on Hikaru and Matsuo as opposed to their legendary counterparts, but the younger wrestlers did not appear to have anything in their respective bags of tricks which would allow them to compensate. *3/4

Match Numero Tres: Shinjiro Ohtani, Ryouji Sai, & Osamu Namaguchi vs. Masato Tanaka, Kohei Sato, & Shito Ueda

And here’s a men’s interlude for the otherwise female show, with ZERO1’s top wrestlers duking it out in a six man tag team match. Sai and Ueda start us off, with Ryouji kicking away until Ueda kicks his leg and uses it to take him down. That starts off our token mat wrestling, and that leads into the token strike exchanging. Eventually Sai knocks his man down with kicks, and in comes Namaguchi to stomp the proverbial mudhole in Ueda. They fire chops back and forth, with Ueda getting the upper hand and tagging in Sato. He kicks away at Namaguchi, after which more chops are fired back and forth. Now it is time for Masato Tanaka to make his presence felt in the match, though he is immediately dropkicked by Namaguchi, who introduces Ohtani in to the bout. He and Tanaka hit each other with numerous shoulderblocks with neither man going down until Shinjiro eats the final shot. Masato hits the hammerlock thereafter and hands Ohtani off to Ueda. That was a bad choice, because Ohtani gets the upper hand there and allows Sai in the ring. He fires off more of his kicks and slides into the chinlock.

Ueda gets the ropes to break that up, and Sai attempts to stay on him with a scoop slam, only for that to fail and for Ueda to hit one of his own before tagging Kohei Sato. Sato slaps on a half crab and hands it off to Ueda without a tag behind the referee’s back. The hold is also given to Tanaka, but Sai eventually makes it to the bottom rope. That gives us another chop exchange and another kick from Sai, after which he tags Namaguchi. There’s ANOTHER strike exchanging sequence, and, when the smoke clears, Osamu has crumpled in the corner. Tanaka gives him a leaping elbow smash and a series of elbowdrops to follow, which earns him a two count. Sato tags in and puts his boots to Namaguchi, and the youngester’s back and chest are beat red from the kicks and chops that he has absorbed during this battle. Sato hits a piledriver out of nowhere, but Namaguchi manages to kick out and hit a couple of dropkicks.

That allows Ohtani to tag in for a facewash on Sato, and nobody does it like the master. The crowd prompts Ohtani to do it one more time, after which he gives Sato a Yakuza kick and a spinning heel kick for two. Shinjiro runs in to a kneelift seconds later, and Tanaka reenters the ring. He gives his long-time foe an axe bomber and a torando DDT, after which Sai and Namaguchi run in. They eat a DDT/stunner combo, but they do succeed in distracting Tanaka just long enough for Ohtani to hit a leg lariat and tag Sai. He plants the former ECW Champion with a brainbuster but walks right into a spear, and now we’ve got Ueda in the squared circle once more. Shito gives Sai an avalanche and a vertical suplex, but neither of those moves put the man away. Ueda climbs to the top rope and is cut off with a kick to the chest, after which Ryouji lands a superplex. Namaguchi is tagged in, and he takes out all three members of the opposing team en route to coming off the top with a missile dropkick on Ueda for two. If I ever see that move again, it’ll be too soon. Namaguchi butterflies Ueda’s arms and gives him a facebuster, after which he goes up again and gets a diving headbutt. Tanaka saves for two on the subsequent pin attempt.

Namaguchi runs the ropes and gets planted by a Ueda shoulder, and here’s a tag to Sato. Namaguchi is peppered with more kicks and a uranagi for two. All three members of Team Tanaka hit corner attacks on Namaguchi after that, with Ueda then slamming him to set up a Tanaka frog splash and a Sato kick for a close two count. Namaguchi reverses a couple of Sato suplexes into cradles for nearfalls of his own, and then, out of nowhere, Namaguchi’s teammates roll in to make the save. This allows Osamu to get a springboard sunset flip for a two count . . . sort of. It should have been a three, but it looks like one of Namaguchi’s partners was supposed to save but missed his cue by a bout a second and a half. . . . just a short enough period of time that it was understandable but just a long enough period of time that it was noticeable.

Namaguchi attempts to springboard into the ring again, but he’s caught by Sato’s knee and driven in the mat with a falcon arrow. Kohei then gives him a deadlift German suplex to win the match for his team.

Match Thoughts: So far, the trend on this show has been that it features tag team matches in which I consider myself a big fan of at least one of the participating wrestlers. In match one, that was Hidaka. In match two, it was Kong and Toyota. In this bout, it was Tanaka and Ohtani. However, in the two prior matches and in this bout as well, the names that I enjoyed from the past weren’t featured too heavily, and, to the extent that they were, they did not appear to be giving it their all. Furthermore, the newer wrestlers with whom I am not as familiar have not really been picking up the slack. That was particularly true in this match, which, despite featuring some quick action and physical strikes, seemed to consist of nothing more than a string of pro wrestling cliches. In other words, if I saw one more instance of two men standing in the middle of the ring and trading chops, kicks, or punches, I was going to scream and chuck my television out of the window. *

Match Numero Cuatro: Saki Maemura v. Hikaru

Well, I suppose this makes sense as the final match in each woman’s career. Armbars and headlocks greet us out of the gate, and then we’re trading shoulderblocks and armdrags before popping up and getting a few polite claps from the crowd. Up next it’s the Greco-Roman knuckle lock, which the larger woman, Hikaru, wins before turning it into a beal. She stays on her opponent with some fists and a dropkick in the corner, following up with a chinlock and then a bodyscissors. Maemura turns around in the bodyscissors, gives her opponent a double axe handle to the gut to break the hold, and then turns it into a half Boston crab. That wasn’t a half bad counter. Hikaru obviously makes the ropes, which Saki takes advantage of by STANDING ON HER HAND as it grasps the bottom strand. Brilliant. Hikaru makes Maemura pay for that by giving her a vertical suplex and applying the camel clutch, tearing at Maemura’s face in the process. Saki takes the advantage back after an Irish whip, hitting Hikaru with a high cross and then reciprocating the face-tearing. Hikaru mounts a comeback with a back body drop, and then positions Maemura on the top rope, trying to pull her off and in to a fireman’s carry. Saki slips out of that and goes behind her opponent, ultimately catching her with a wheelbarrow armdrag that sends Hikaru to the floor. Maemura tries to follow her up with a plancha, but Hikaru cuts it off and gets Saki in fireman’s carry on the apron. Maemura escapes the hold again, resulting in the two women brawling on the apron for a while before Maemura is able to knock Hikaru off, following her down with a jumping rana to the floor.

Hikaru is whipped through a few rows of ringside chairs before Saki climbs to the top rope one more time and gets that plancha she’s been looking for over the course of the last fifteen minutes. Maemura gives her a hip attack for good measure before finally tossing Hikaru back into the ring, where she looks for a German. Hikaru blocks and charges back-first into the corner, squashing Maemura and sending her down to the mat. Hikaru climbs to the top but gets cut off by Saki, who looks for a rana . . . but Hikaru prevents it from happening, sending her opponent down to the mat with a splat. Hikaru lands a second rope double stomp and then baseball slides Maemura out of the ring. Once on the floor, Hikaru gets a bit of revenge by sending Saki through some folding chairs. A bodyslam on the floor is next, which gives Hikaru enough time to grab a bottle of water, some of which is spit in to Saki’s face. The women hit the ring again after the water spot, and Hikaru lands a backdrop suplex and the Barbie Crusher for a two count. Her next trick is going up to the top rope, but Maemura catches her to set up the two women exchanging headbutts on the second rope. Saki wins and lands that rana she was looking for earlier, followed by a fisherman suplex for her own nearfall. A German also nets a count of two for Maemura, and she heads up again. Hikaru barely touches her with a palm strike for the cutoff and lands a second rope variant on the Michinoku Driver, only to have Saki bridge out and up to her feet. Perhaps she should have stayed down, because, upon getting up, she’s immediately treated to a pendulum suplex and a dropkick to the face for two.

Hikaru tries a fisherman buster but has it blocked, as she is then rolled up several times for several two counts. Saki lands her kneeling rana from earlier in the show and a big kick, but she’s too dazed to go for the cover. By the time that she finally gets over to Hikaru, she decides to just pick her up for some forearms. Naturally, Hikaru responds in kind. It’s Hikaru who wins that war with an elbow to the face and a big kick that connects as Saki is down on all fours. Still, all the offense only gets us a two count. Maemura then lands another German literally out of nowhere, but it’s another two. Hikaru fires back with a spear that knocks Saki in to the turnbuckles, and there’s a missile dropkick for two from Hikaru. She then land a powerbomb out of a torture rack position, but it’s only a two count. The follow-up, a sit-out Michinoku Driver, does get us a count of three.

Match Thoughts: As readers may have picked up on, it is very difficult for me to watch contemporary joshi without comparing it to the absolutely great women’s wrestling that was coming out of Japan during the early and mid 1990’s. At some point, I should probably stop doing that, because I have a feeling that it is hampering my enjoyment of what otherwise might be entertaining matches. For example, this bout was nowhere near what I would expect from some of the masters of joshi, but if I completely ignored the gender of the wrestlers and the company in which they were wrestling, I would probably consider it to be somewhat above average. Both women did a good job of hitting their big moves, the timing of the offensive exchanges was better than in many men’s matches in the United States, and I couldn’t complain about a lack of psychology. It was hampered, however, by the fact that the two women were not quite masters of building up suspense in a bout and communicating to the crowd with their facial expressions and body language, as they appeared to be more preoccupied with how their offense looked. As a result, it felt like just another Japanese wrestling match as opposed to the epic, simultaneous conclusion of two careers. Essentially, it was a good match if you look at it by the standards of an average match off of the street, but it hardly fit the context of the point that the wrestlers were at in storyline. **3/4

Overall

Some retirements have provided among the most memorable moments in wrestling history. Terry Funk leaving Japan in 1983, Mick Foley in 2000, and Ric Flair in 2007 all come to mind in that regard. However, in order for retirements to work on that level, the wrestlers involved have to be major stars with the notoriety and talents to take fans on multi-year thrill rides throughout their careers. Hikaru and Maemura were not those wrestlers. They were a couple of wrestlers who never quite moved out of the midcard in a company that never drew more than 2,000 fans to a show. Though I’m sure that they’re both very lovely women, they weren’t at the level of wrestlers who really deserved to have an entire show built around their retirement. A retirement match on the lower tier of a regular promotion’s card? Maybe. However, they didn’t quite have the talent for a main event against one another to carry a card that was supposed to be as big as this one. The result was a decent but not spectacular bout to cap off the card, and, as should be clear from my comments throughout the review, the matches lower down didn’t exactly have the chops to save the show. Track down the main event if you feel that you must, but there are hundreds of more entertaining shows and matches that you could spend your time on.

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!

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

See you all next week!