Into the Indies 07.20.10: InterSMASHtional

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is the best around . . . nothing’s ever gonna keep it down.

After stopping through Argentina last week to take a look at their wacky version of professional wrestling, it’s time to return to Japan. However, I think it’s necessary to take some babysteps back into serious Japanese wrestling after spending time with the unusual cast of characters found in 100% Lucha. As a result, this week we’re going to use one of the nuttier companies in Japan to aid in the transition. That’s right, we’re going back to SMASH.

About two months ago, I2I took a look at the SMASH debut show. The promotion, which is being booked primarily by Tajiri, featured a motley crew of former HUSTLE wrestlers, Tajiri’s own trainees, joshi wrestlers, and former WWE stars. The second show continued that trend, with none other than Eugene coming in to take on Tajiri and a mixed tag team match featuring Tajiri’s pupils Shuri, Lin Byron, and KUSHIDA as well as former HUSTLEr Hajime “Rey” Ohara. Both shows have been modest successes at the independent level and reportedly sold out the small venue in which they were held in addition to gaining television coverage and being promoted on the internet through the promotion’s official YouTube channel perhaps better than any company of a similar size.

One of the videos on that YouTube channel provides highlights of the aforementioned second SMASH show:

This week, it is SMASH’s third show that we will be taking a look at. The card was a fairly unique one, as it was built around the theme of the Japanese wrestlers of SMASH taking on competitors from foreign countries, with every single match featuring a native Japanese wrestler taking on a rival from a different point on the globe.

Two of the matches feature wrestlers that Tajiri decided to import from, of all places, Finland. I frankly didn’t even realize that Finland had its own professional wrestling promotion prior to hearing about its involvement in SMASH, but apparently the company is known as Fight Club Finland and was established in 2003. It was founded by a wrestler who works under the name Starbuck, who was born in Canada to Finnish parents and fell in love with wrestling while in North America and ultimately decided to import it to his European motherland. Somehow, FCF managed to book Tajiri for an appearance on one of their cards, which in turn resulted in a relationship that lead to the Japanese Buzzsaw reaching out to Starbuck when he needed a few international names to round out this SMASH card. The first wrestler that FCF decided to provide was Valentine, a cowardly heel character who was holding the promotion’s championship at the time of SMASH.3. He was booked to defend his championship against none other than Tajiri himself. The second wrestler was the unique Jessica Love. Jessica was originally FCF male wrestler Jesse Kiddia, but, once Kiddia suffered a strong blow to his head, he awoke and had been transformed into the transvestite wrestler Jessica Love. Love now essentially does the Finnish equivalent of one of lucha libre’s “exotico” gimmicks. For SMASH.3, she was paired up against former HUSTLE wrestler and one of the men who main evented both SMASH.1 and SMASH.2, Hajime Ohara.

As interesting as the FCF/SMASH working relationship may have been, Jessica Love and Valentine weren’t the biggest crossovers coming to Tajiri’s company on this show. As some of you may already be aware, the man who has been billed as the ace of SMASH, a young wrestler named KUSHIDA, has recently been gaining a fair amount of exposure in New Japan Pro Wrestling. KUSHIDA, a junior heavyweight, has been used by NJPW on several recent tours, most notably the tour which featured the 2010 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. BOSJ featured many New Japan juniors and several from outside the company, and, of them all, it was probably KUSHIDA who had the biggest breakout performance in terms of establishing himself as a wrestler who can hang with the Jushin Ligers and the Gedos of the world. KUSHIDA may not have had the best win-loss record of the entire tournament, but one of the victories that he DID score was against the eventual tourney winner “Prince” Fergal Devitt, a young man out of Ireland who has been an NJPW regular several years and who would go on to defeat Naomichi Marufuji for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title as a result of his tournament victory. SMASH managed to book a rematch between KUSHIDA and Devitt as the interpromotional, international main event for its third show.

With that background established, let’s move forward and see how the crew from across the world meshed with the native SMASHers on May 29, 2010 . . .

Match Numero Uno: AKIRA vs. Golem Knight

This is the latest in a series of “World Tryout Matches” that SMASH has been hosting, featuring newcomers to puroresu going up against established stars in an attempt to earn regular spots on the SMASH roster. This time around, we’ve got Golem Knight going up against AKIRA. I’ve not been able to find much information about Knight, but the word on the street is that he was born in Israel and later immigrated to Canada, where he trained to be a professional wrestler. AKIRA, his opponent, was a long-time member of the junior heavyweight division in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He is technically a “freelance” wrestler these days, meaning that he’s not associated with any specific promotion, but he still works with NJPW more frequently than he does anybody else.

The Knight, clearly a heavyweight wrestler, uses his size to his advantage early, repeatedly shoving down AKIRA off of lockup attempts until the veteran is able to surprise him with some leg kicks and grab a headlock. Golem responds with a shoulderblock that takes his man down and some forearms in the corner. A full body slam looks to set up an elbowdrop for the foreigner, but he misses it and gets dropkicked out of the ring by the New Japan representative. AKIRA follows him out with a pescado, but Knight catches the smaller man and sends him back-first into the ringpost. The Israeli fires off more basic offense on the inside of the ring, including a scintillating chinlock that AKIRA elbows his way out of. Knight stays on his man with a vertical suplex for a nearfall and hits a short-arm clothesline for the same result. A drop toe hold and a basement dropkick begin a comeback for AKIRA, and a missile dropkick continues it. Unfortunately for the native wrestler, he’s caught with a spinebuster when he hits the ropes, and Knight begins winding up for a lariat. It’s ducked, giving AKIRA an opening for more dropkicks and a big DDT. An attempt at a blockbuster suplex by Knight is turned into a second DDT, and then AKIRA puts his man away with a superfly splash.

Match Thoughts: I’m not sure how long the Golem has been wrestling, but, if it’s no more than two or three years, he looked fairly decent here. He resembled a less experienced version of Mike Knox or Bobby Duncum, Jr., both in terms of his build and in terms of how he moved about the ring. As a result, this was essentially a WWE-style match in terms of how it was laid out and paced, though the offense on AKIRA’s end remained his normal Japanese spots. Nothing was really screwed up, nothing really stood out, and I don’t think we need to see that much more of Golem Knight in Japanese promotions like this one until he’s had an opportunity to gain more seasoning elsewhere. **

Match Numero Dos: Hajime Ohara vs. Jessica Love

Here is the first match from the aforementioned Finnish contingent. Ohara attacks at the bell, earning immediate heel heat before posing a bit and kicking Love SQUARE in the face. Love is able to respond with a quick rana and a lariat, eventually setting up for and hitting a running shoulderblock in the corner and the bronco buster. Jessica looks for a big kiss but eats a knee to the gut and a shotei, after which Ohara puts the boots to her. Choking on the ropes is next, but Love is still able to kick out of Ohara’s pin attempt at two and come back a bit with several forearms. Hajime cuts her off quickly and slams her face-first in the mat, next landing what can best be described as a buzzsaw kick to the ass. A basement dropkick follows and earns a two count. Now we have a Boston crab from Ohara, though Love is able to quickly make the ropes. She ducks under further offense from Ohara and connects with a cross body block and a big double stomp before heading to the second rope. That leads into a tornado DDT for two. Now we’ve got a trip to the top rope from the Fem Fin, but Ohara cuts her off and gives her the Flair beal. Jessica slips out of Ohara’s attempt at a version of the air raid crash, though, and there is the big kiss. Hajime falls to the mat with a look on his face that can best be described as a combination of confusion and ecstacy, and, whatever state he is in, it leaves him vulnerable to a senton atomico that gives Love the win.

Match Thoughts: Eh. There are a lot of people who have done gimmick similar to Love’s over the years, whether it’s Cassandro and Pimpinela Escarlata in Mexico, Adrian Street in the old territories, Goldust in the WWF, or even the Christopher Street Connection on the US indies. The key to doing this gimmick and doing it well seems to be that, in addition to doing the odd gender bending and the “gay” comedy spots, you have to be a damn good wrestler so that people will take you seriously in between your gimmick spots and so that you can build those spots into the body of a wrestling match without having the bout come to a grinding halt. Though Love has a lot of commitment to the character itself, it seems like she’s not quite good enough in the ring to portray the character and have a fun match simultaneously. She would be better utilized in tag team matches for the time being, where her partners could do the wrestling and tag her in to get one or two of the comedy bits in before tagging back out. Ohara, meanwhile, looked decent here for what he was given to work with, though it was certainly a disappointment in light of the really fun match that he had to main event the first SMASH show. *1/2

Match Numero Tres: Kim Numpum, Mentallo, & Lin Byron vs. Shuri, Akira Shoji, & Yusuke Kodama

Here we’ve got a six person tag that continues the Japan vs. The World theme of the show. The home team consists of Shuri, the top female babyface of SMASH; Akira Shoji, the group’s resident MMA/wrestling crossover; and Yusuke Kodama, a rookie and Tajiri trainee who made his pro wrestling debut on the second SMASH show. Representing the non-Japanese portions of the world are Mentallo, a Canadian who competed in a World Tryout match on the first SMASH show; Lin Byron, the second female SMASH regular who is billed as Chinese even though she’s actually Japanese; and Kim Numpum, a supposedly Korean wrestler who I have been able to find literally zero information on.

Numpum taunts Shoji before the bell, so Akria slams the holy hell out of him, causing the Korean to run to his corner and tag out to Mentallo as soon as the match officially begins. Mentallo, who is sporting the Pebbles Flinstone/Portia Perez top-of-the-head ponytail this evening, goes for an armbar on Shoji. The shooter reverses it several times and winds up in control, and he and the Canadian luchadore continue to exchange quick reversals on the mat before doing the double pop-up spot to the delight of the crowd. Now it’s time for Lin to tag in, and she calls for Shuri to join her. That’s not what she gets, though, as Kodama tags in instead and takes her down with a shoulderblock. Byron fires back with a dropkick and a slap to the face, and NOW she gets her faceoff with Shuri. The former KG immediately takes Lin down with some big kicks and steps on her throat, but Byron cartwheels out of the way of a corner attack and unloads with punches in the corner. Byron connects with a handspring elbow and looks for the cover, but Shuri is out quickly and kicks her in the face. That sets up a tag to Mentallo, who dropkicks Shuri and gives her a big backbreaker for two. He quickly runs into the young lady’s boot, though, and that gives her an opening for a rana and a tag to Akira Shoji. The former Monster Army commander wants to give Numpum a chance to tag in, but he refuses to do it until Mentallo gets a bit of an advantage on Shoji.

Once the tag is made, Akira immediately recovers. He looks for a German suplex on the portly Numpum and can’t quite get it, though Kim does hit his lariat en route to dropping a headbutt into Shoji’s groin. A toehold of sorts is applied by the Korean star, but Shoji slaps him across the face to escape and goes to a variant on the ankle lock. Numpum makes the ropes, but Shoji has the match well in hand, so he trades off to Kodama. Numpum is immediately able to go on the offensive against the younger wrestler with very basic American style heel tactics including biting and eye gouging. Fortunately he tags out to Mentallo, who slaps on an STF which really just serves as a setup for Byron kicking Kodama in the face. Lin tags in officially and engages in a strike battle by Kodama before reversing a vertical suplex attempt into a blatant low blow. That’s not one you see too often in a serious Japanese match. Lin trades off to Numpum, who misses a splash and thereby allows Kodama to tag out to Shoji.

He takes out Numpum with a lariat and Mentallo with a judo throw before giving the Korean an axe bomber and a vertical suplex. Lin Byron breaks up the ensuing pin attempt and provides enough of a distraction in doing so that Mentallo is able to kick Shoji in the back of the head. Now things have broken down into a pier six brawl, and, believe it or not, it’s LIN BYRON who stands victorious at the end of it, having dispatched all of her opponents with thrust chops to the throat. Team Shoji has all gathered on the floor to regroup, so Mentallo takes them out with an Asai moonsault. Byron encourages Numpum to do a dive, but he chickens out in a comedy spot. As a result, the match is brought back to the inside, where Mentallo gives Kodama a sit-out Michinoku driver and Lin follows with a moonsault press in order to give the foreign team the victory. Numpum celebrates like he did a fair portion of the work while Mentallo and Byron stare holes in him.

After the bell, words are exchanged between Shuri and joshi wrestler Kana, who happens to be at ringside. This eventually escalates to a brawl which will no doubt lead to a match further on down the road.

Match Thoughts: This was an interesting one for me to watch, because it was the first time that I’ve seen Numpum, Kodama, and Byron, and it’s only the second time that I’ve seen Mentallo. I thought all four of them were quite good in the roles, truth be told. Kodama didn’t screw anything up, which is sometimes the best that you can hope for from somebody with his level of experience. Numpum, though he did virtually nothing athletic, brought some wacky Southern-style heel tactics that brought a flavor to this match that you don’t normally see in puroresu. Byron has a fast-paced joshi style down pat and tops it off with some AWESOME heel facials, with expressions that make it clear her “character” doesn’t give the slightest care about the physical well-being of her opponents. Finally, Mentallo continued to impress with his pseudo-lucha style, and I’m frankly surprised that he hadn’t picked up some degree of exposure in major US independents before being snatched up by SMASH. All of this, combined with the solid performances that I’m used to seeing out of Shoji and Shuri, lead to the most entertaining pure match of the card thusfar, though that’s not saying a heck of a lot. **3/4

Match Numero Cuatro: Valentine (c) vs. Tajiri for the FCF Championship

And here we go with Finnish import number two. In a move that I don’t think I’ve ever quite seen before, the national anthem of each wrestler’s homeland is played over the house sound system before the match begins. Valentine is clotheslined over the top rope and to the floor early in the match, and eventually Tajiri goes after him with a baseball slide. The Fin responds by Irish whipping Tajiri through a row of chairs and slamming him into the apron. As the men are reentering the ring, the champion climbs to the top rope for a diving back elbow from the top. He follows that up with a leg lariat and a sitdown splash across the challenger’s back before slapping on what I can only describe as a combination of a chinlock and Barry Darsow’s old submission hold from his days as the Blacktop Bully. (“I’LL BREAK HIS STINKIN’ ARM!”) Tajiri fights out of that but is cut off with a clothesline and caught in the head with a jumping knee strike. A bulldog variation gets two for Valentine as he begins to show some signs of frustration. Now the champion sets up for what I assume is his version of the unprettier, but the Buzzsaw slips out of it and kicks his man straight in the face to set up a double KO spot. Tajiri is able to reel off a dropkick to the face once he returns to his feet, and his handspring elbow also connects. There’s a German from the former ECW star, but it only gets him two. He sets up for the buzzsaw kick, but Valentine ducks and responds with a lungblower and an ace crusher for a nearfall. Then, out of nowhere, we get an uncharacteristic-for-Japan REF BUMP. Valentine low blows Tajiri with the official down and gives him the unprettier on to the championship belt, but the challenger kicks out at two. This angers the champion, who looks for a second unprettier. Tajiri blocks it and turns it into a crucifix bomb out of nowhere in order to get the three count and win the championship. After the bell, Valentine puts the boots to Tajiri, so the Buzzsaw sprays some mist into his face to put an end to that.

Match Thoughts: I’m sure that he’s a lovely person, but Valentine was just flat-out bad. With the exception of Jessica Love, he appeared to be several leagues below everybody else on the card, including the rookie Kodama and the not-horribly-polished Golem Knight. He didn’t horribly botch anything, but he didn’t seem to understand where the match was going and came off as a guy who learned 90% of what he knows about professional wrestling by watching and emulating present-day WWE tapes. (That’s not to say that present-day WWE is necessarily a bad product, but a poor imitation is going to look like a poor imitation regardless of how good the original is.) Tajiri tried his hardest to keep the match basic and get the best that he could out of the guy, but, at the end of the day, Valentine wound up dragging the Buzzsaw down almost as much as Love did to Ohara earlier in the show. *

After the bell, we are shown a pre-taped promo from Fight Club Finland founder and top wrestler Starbuck, who cuts a lengthy promo entirely in Finnish. This is intercut with footage of a strange, caveman like creature frolicking in the woods. The result is the announcement of a six person tag team match for SMASH.4, with Tajiri, Ohara, and Byron going up against FCF’s Heimo Ukonselka, Stark Adder, and Jessica Love, one of whom I’m assuming was the odd caveman thing.

Match Numero Cinco: KUSHIDA vs. Prince Devitt

It’s main event time . . . hopefully these two find a way to save what has been a ho-hum show up to this point. The men shake hands as the match begins, after which they go into a rapid-fire exchange of armbar reversals that culminates with KUSHIDA locking on a hammerlock. Devitt is out quickly and grabs a hold of his own, and this pattern repeats itself for a few minutes until the wrestlers do stereo kip-ups and shake hands again. KUSHIDA gets a series of nearfalls when the two go back to the mat, catching Devitt in a submission hold that forces his shoulders to the mat and then reversing the Prince’s escape attempt into a version of a prawn hold. Now it’s time to run the ropes, and the wrestlers avoid one another’s attempts to strike each other, highlighted by a KUSHIDA carthwheel away from Devitt. Eventually KUSHIDA gets knocked down to the arena floor, and the Irishman runs the ropes for a suicide dive. Before he’s halfway across the ring, though, KUSHIDA is back in between the ropes and catches him with a lariat to set up a standing moonsault for two. Tajiri’s prize pupil decides to work the knee after that, but Devitt quickly elbows his way out of the leglock he’s placed in and starts dropping big elbows across KUSHIDA’s extended arm. The Prince puts on a version of a keylock which causes his opponent to scream at the top of his lungs, though ultimately KUSHIDA gets his foot across the bottom rope to force a break. Now the New Japan representative is raining down chops, and he quickly cuts off KUSHIDA’s attempts to respond in kind before going back to the keylock. Once more, the ropes are made, so Devitt goes into a insane hold that looks sort of like a cross arm breaker except that, instead of being extended, KUSHIDA’s arm is bent at an odd angle across Devitt’s leg.

Once that is escaped, forearms are traded, with KUSHIDA apparently winning until Devitt takes him off of his feet with a lone chop. The Prince sends his man out to the apron, and it looks like KUSHIDA might be able to come back with some offense off the top, but it misses. Eventually he does manage to hit a dropkick to send Devitt to the floor, which is followed up with a tope con hilo from the Japanese wrestler. Devitt is rolled back into the ring quickly and eats a double knee strike from KUSHIDA, though the Prince is still able to cut off his opponent when he goes to the top rope. KUSHIDA wins the war on the ropes, however, and he gets a high cross on the other wrestler for a nearfall. Germans are attempted by KUSHIDA after the kickout, but Devitt escapes his waistlock and connects with a version of the Pele kick and a lariat. Now Devitt is ascending the ropes, but KUSHIDA cuts him off and they pull off the SUPER RANA WITH BOTH MEN STANDING ON THE TOP~! That’s followed with KUSHIDA’s moonsault press, but Devitt somehow kicks out at two. KUSHIDA goes up for a second moonsault, but Devitt digs down deep and dropkicks his opponent in the butt as he’s standing on the top , which leads to a BACKDROP SUPERPLEX~! KUSHIDA finds a way to kick out of that one and superkicks Devitt before hitting him with a satellite DDT . . . for two. KUSHIDA’s buzzsaw kick misses to set up Devitt’s enzuguiri and brainbuster, which also can’t put the match away. Then, out of nowhere, Devitt hits his “Bloody Sunday” finisher (a variation of an elevated DDT), and that gets him sa three count.

Match Thoughts: As I expected heading in, these two wound up putting on a very fun match, albeit one that was a step or two below KUSHIDA’s bout against Hajime Ohara that main evented the first SMASH show. I can say that, without a doubt in my mind, Devitt is one of the top three junior heavyweights in Japan right now, so I would be amazed if he got to headline a show and DIDN’T produce a match of at least this quality. KUSHIDA was keeping pace with him hold-for-hold and move-for-move, too, which leads me to believe that the SMASH ace is going to have an opportunity to be one of the top juniors in the country himself once he has learned a little bit more. The mat wrestling in the opening featured some of the quickest exchanges that I have seen in quite some time, all of the high flying maneuvers were executed flawlessly, and the two wrestlers did a fine job of telling the story of two men who respected each other but needed to take some extreme measures in order to beat one another because they were just that evenly matched. My only real complaint was the fact that the big moves off the top rope – the super rana and the avalanche backdrop – were used to set up the finish instead of one of them being the finish itself. It always seems odd to me when such amazing moves aren’t the climax of the match . . . why not put things to bed when the excitement is at its peak? ***3/4

Overall

This wasn’t the best show in the world from an in-ring perspective. In fact, aside from the main event, it was pretty bad. However, I still had a decent time watching it just because I’m always curious to see wrestlers that I am not familiar with, especially when they’re from promotions or even countries that I am not familiar with. It’s the novelty factor that draws me into cards like this, if you will. Unfortunately, once the curiosity wore out, there wasn’t much here to keep me captivated, and I doubt that there would be much to keep the attention of the average professional wrestling fan either. See if you can hunt down the main event if you’re a big fan of Devitt and/or KUSHIDA, but, otherwise, take a pass on this one. Fortunately SMASH’s upcoming show lineups look much more promising than this show has been, otherwise I might have been giving up on them after only three shows.

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