Into the Indies 12.29.09: Match of the Year?

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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column on 411 which is more sick of “year in review” schtick than any other.

However, the fact that I’m getting sick of it doesn’t mean that I’m immune from falling into the trap myself. In addition to participating in the year-end edition of Buy or Sell and writing copious amounts of blurbs for the 2009 411mania Year End Awards (coming soon to a main page near you), I have been keeping an eye on the retrospective coverage of ’09 by various other rasslin’ media outlets.

One of those year end pieces in particular caught my eye. Beginning in 1974 and continuing for every year since, the newspaper Tokyo Sports has presided over a series of year-end awards for Japanese professional wrestling, inviting journalists from across the country who cover the psuedo-sport to vote in numerous categories, including the most valuable player in professional wrestling, the best technical wrestler of the year, and the wrestler who has demonstrated the most “fighting spirit” over the course of the preceding twelve months. However, the category that has often drawn the most attention and the category that we’re here to talk about today is the Tokyo Sports selection for match of the year.

In the past, this award has gone to matches involving some of the biggest names in Japanese professional wrestling history, including Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, the Funk Brothers, Masahiro Chono, and Mitsuharu Misawa. The battles that have been voted match of the year by Tokyo Sports have included historic moments in puroresu, including IWGP Heavyweight Title defenses, Triple Crown Title changes, and finals of AJPW’s Real World Tag League. Given the almost god-like regard that some of these wrestlers are held in and the almost mythological aura that surrounds some of their matches, winning the same award and therefore being placed into the same category as these legends has to be among the highest of honors for those who regularly compete in puroresu.

That’s why it was odd when the Tokyo Sports match of the year award for 2009 didn’t go to anything from one of the country’s “big three” promotions of New Japan, All Japan, and NOAH. It didn’t even go to a promotion like ZERO1 or or BattlArts, which, even though they are smaller companies, promote a style of wrestling more in line with that which comes out of the big leagues. Instead, the bout that was dubbed match of the year came from Big Japan Wrestling, which can hardly be considered a traditional Japanese promotion. It wasn’t even a straight, one-on-one match from BJW but rather one of the company’s gory deathmatches, a spectacle full of copious amounts of blood, razor blades, and barbed wire.

This was the first time since 1990 that an independent bout had walked away with match of the year honors from Tokyo Sports, and it was only the second time in the twenty-five year history of the awards that a deatmatch grabbed top honors. Given the fact that an independent match got so much love from the mainstream Japanese media and given the fact that this appeared to be such an unusual choice, I absolutely had to track the match down and determine whether this actually was an MOTY-worthy fight or whether the Tokyo Sports voting bloc was making a controversial choice just for the sake of making a controversial choice.

As a result, here is my review of the 2009 Tokyo Sports puroresu match of the year, which is none other than:

Jun Kasai vs. Ryuji Ito in a α+ Deathmatch (Big Japan Wrestling, 11/20/2009)

Ito comes out to the ring with a CACTUS WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE, so you know that he means business . . . and the crowd picks up on it as well, as they are electric from the second that the wrestlers begin walking to the ring. Kasai is an early favorite, with the fans chanting his name loudly before the two men lock up and attempt to shove one another into a cardboard cross which has numerous razor blades embedded into it. Both wrestlers make unsuccessful attempts at putting their opponent into the blades, including the use of a few standing switches. That’s one that I’ve not seen before. When it becomes clear that nobody will be tasting the razors just yet, Kasai puts Ito into a chinlock, only to be kicked off of his opponent within a matter of seconds. The men exchange chops at mid-ring, at which point Jun tries to Irish whip Ito into the blades. Ryuji baseball slides out of the ring to avoid that. Kasai tries to baseball slide out to follow him, but Ito slides back into the ring at the same time and attempts a dive. The Crazy Monkey dodges it, and Ito splats to the floor, giving Kasai the first clear cut advantage in the match. He uses that advantage to walk Ito around the arena and periodically throw him into things, causing a big cut to open up on Ito’s head. Ryuji responds by sending his opponent into a row of chairs, after which he pulls a table from underneath the ring and carries it out amongst the fans, periodically blasting Kasai over the head with it as Kasai attempts to escape into the audience.

Eventually, though not surprisingly, the table is set up in front of an elevated entryway that fans would use to walk into the seating area. Ito places Kasai onto the table and leaves him for dead as he climbs to the top of the entryway, coming off of it with a big frog splash that puts the Crazy Monkey through the wood. Ito, in a bizarre victory celebration, takes a portion of the destroyed furniture and slams it into his own head a few times. Well, I guess it worked for Randy the Ram. Kasai finds himself thrown into an arena wall before Ito grabs him by the back of the head and drags him to the squared circle, where Ryuji covers his opponent for a two count. Ito positions his man in the corner and again attempts to whip him in to the razor blade cross, but Kasai reverses and ITO EATS THE BLADES. Jun won’t let up, either, as he immediately hits Ito with a chair so hard that the seat pops clean off, after which he uses another chair on his opponent, producing the exact same result. All of this only results in a two count, so Kasai backs his opponent into the corner and bites his forehead, them miming spitting a piece of flesh out into the crowd. After that nice visual, Kasai goes to work by creating a pile of chairs at center ring. He tries to soften Ito up with a few chairshots to the head, but Ryuji Hulks up and no-sells them in a spot eerily similar to the spot in every Ric Flair/Sting match that would see the Stinger fire up and shrug off the Nature Boy’s chops.

Unlike Sting, though, Ito eventually has to eat some offense from Kasai, as the Crazy Monkey grabs his man and gives him a German suplex into the chair pile to cut off his comeback. At this point, Jun sets up two chairs so that they face each other in mid-ring and places the razor cross across them, forming a crude table. Kasai then sits Ito on the top rope, looking to superplex him through the ghastly construction, but Ryuji blocks with some punches. In fact, he softens Kasai up to the point that he is able to slip out of the superplex position, ultimately winding up in front of Jun and bringing him off the top with a rana that sends Kasai shoulder-first into the razor blades. Kasai is obviously opened up, and, just to be a jerk, Ito grabs one of his wounds and tears at it with his fingers, opening the gash up further. He follows with a series of kicks to the back and a northern lights suplex for a two count. A vertical suplex onto the remnants of the razor cross is attempted, but Jun blocks and charges his man . . . BUT ITO DROP TOE HOLDS HIM INTO THE RAZOR BLADES! That spot was clearly not faked, as Kasai is immediately bleeding heavily even though his hands never went anywhere near his forehead to gig. The Crazy Monkey is slammed at center ring, giving Ito an opportunity to climb to the top rope while holding a chair. Kasai prevents him from putting the seat to use, though, as he nails Ito from behind and pulls him off the ropes in such a way that he meets the chair face-first as he falls. Jun uses that to set up an angels’ wings, which gets a nearfall. Now it is time to go back to the razors, as Kasai grabs a segment of the destroyed board, double underhooks Ito’s arms and lifts him up, presumably attempting to bull him stomach-first into the razors from that position. Ito reverses, standing upright and running backwards, sending Kasai’s backside into the board. That and a buzzsaw kick to the head get another two count for Ito. He stays on his man, slamming him and then grabbing the aforementioned barbed wire cactus, which he places on Kasai’s midsection. Ito then ascends the ropes . . FROG SPLASH ONTO THE BARBED WIRE CACTUS! TWO COUNT!

Kasai, looking every bit like a man who is operating on pure instinct, rolls out to the ring apron. Ito follows, and the two trade forearms in that position. Kasai wins the battle by going to the eyes, and then the SUPLEXES ITO FROM THE APRON TO THE FLOOR. Jun took the bump as well, but he’s back to his feet easily, grabbing several chairs from audience members and stacking them up on the floor. Ito is supelxed onto the mess o’ steel, after which Kasai produces a table of his own from under the ring and sets it up amid the fans. The Crazy Monkey grabs a roll of tape and wraps it around Ito several times, presumably trapping him on the table as he runs off amid the fans and climbs to the top of a balcony . . . AND THERE’S THE BALCONY DIVE. As far as height of the drop was concerned, that rivaled any of the balcony dives that I saw New Jack do in ECW, though perhaps the scariest part was Kasai not making his first attempt at the move, as he was unsure of his footing and had to step off the balcony’s edge. Had he not adjusted himself or had his balance been just a little bit more off, that spot could have ended in tragedy.

Eventually Kasai carries Ito back into the ring, but Ryuji kicks out of his opponent’s pin attempt at two and takes him down with another big kick. Ito then lands a dragon suplex for a two count, which he follows immediately with a slam. His next trick is to place the razor board onto Kasai’s prone body face-down, but he misses a frog splash. That gives Kasai an opening for another angels’ wings, but it can’t put Ito away. The board is then positioned face down in Ryuji’s prone body, after which Kasai goes up top and dons his patented goggles. However, Ito appears to have been playing possum, as he TURNS THE BOARD OVER. Numerous razors are embedded into Kasai’s stomach as he comes off of the ropes with his frog splash. After that, Ito grabs an entire wastebasket full of thumbtacks, dumps them all over the mat, and gives Kasai a backdrop suplex into them. TWO COUNT. PEDIGREE INTO THE TACKS! TWO COUNT! Perhaps sensing that he needs to bring out the really big guns, Ito goes under the ring and retrieves what has to be THIRTY florescent light tubes taped together and places them across Kasai’s battered form. He heads up to the top . . . FROG SPLASH THROUGH THE LIGHT TUBES . . . AND ONLY A TWO COUNT!

The crowd begins to again chant Kasai’s name heavily, though he has difficulty getting back up to his feet after a move of that magnitude. The razor board is introduced into the match one more time, as Ito attempts to German suplex his man onto it. Kasai avoids that with a low blow and gets a waistlock of his own, looking for the German . . . but Ito low blows him! Eventually, Kasai comes off of the ropes with a pair of lariats that send Ryuji off of his feet into the sick mass of razor blades, barbed wire, and broken glass . . . but those lariats are only good for yet another two count! Still weak on his feet, Kasai picks Ito up one more time . . . BRAINBUSTER ONTO THE SHARDS! TWO COUNT! HERE COMES THE CACTUS AGAIN . . . SPIKE PILEDRIVER ONTO THE BARBED WIRE CACTUS!!! THAT DOES IT!

Overall

In many ways, this was remarkably similar to a lot of other Jun Kasai matches that I have seen since returning to Japanese wrestling earlier this year. In the past, I have praised the man as being light years ahead of other deathmatch wrestlers in that he has the “psychology” of such a match down pat. He knows how to ratchet up the violence throughout a bout in a manner in which each spot builds to the next, and he is capable of pacing everything in a manner that whips crowd into a frenzy to the point that they are distracted from some of the less realistic aspects of his style of wrestling. I have almost come to the conclusion that, unless there is something severely handicapping him, Kasai can almost always produce a main event deathmatch that approaches or exceeds the **** mark. Yet, even though I am used to very good or even excellent hardcore wars from the Crazy Monkey, there was something that set this match apart. That factor was Ryuji Ito. Though Kasai has had some quality opponents in past matches that I have seen, there was something different about his chemistry with Ito which was different than his chemistry with other opponents. This was the first time that I watched a Kasai match and got the feeling that his opponent was intimately familiar with the style of match that he was attempting to work and how to match him spot-for-spot as opposed to being a guy who was following as Kasai took the lead. If I were reviewing the match outside of the context of this match of the year discussion, I would peg it as a ****3/4 bout.

But is that enough to make it the puroresu match of the year? It all depends on your perspective. The vast majority of English-speaking fans that I have seen commenting on the selection of Kasai vs. Ito to take top honors from Tokyo Sports have been panning the pick, pointing to any number of bouts (mostly from Dragon Gate or NOAH) which they consider to have been better all around. However, my thinking is a little bit different. I have long been of the opinion that, once a match reaches a level that it can fairly be rated above ****, the remainder of the rating becomes ridiculously subjective to the point that one man’s even **** is another man’s ****1/2 or ****3/4, and debating what lead to the difference in ratings is about as productive as a fan of chocolate ice cream attempting to convince a fan of vanilla ice cream that the dark stuff is better. This was an awesome match. Was it better than Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles vs. Chris Daniels, Shawn Michaels vs. the Undertaker, or any of the other bouts that are being considered serious match of the year contenders? No, I cannot definitively say that it was better. I also cannot definitively say that it was any worse. What I can say, though, has that it was absolutely in the same league as those matches, and, once a match reaches that elite level, whether you think that it is better or worse than anything else on the same level is nothing more than a matter of personal preference.

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See you all next week!