Into the Indies 10.05.10: SMASHtober! (Part 1)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that loves the ladies.

October is upon us and, this month, we’re doing something different at I2I. For the first time, we are dedicating an entire month’s worth of columns to one promotion . . . so say goodbye to October and hello to SMASHtober~! The promotion, which rose out of the ashes of HUSTLE and is primarily booked by former WWE and ECW star Yoshihiro Tajiri has been chronicled here before in the column. Thusfar in I2I we’ve reviewed its first show and its third show, and this time around, it’s show number four. One of the reasons that I enjoy SMASH so much and have chosen to chronicle it throughout the month is that it’s a company that gives opportunities to individuals who wouldn’t necessarily get them anywhere else.

One of the big ways that SMASH is doing this is through what it’s referring to as its series of “World Tryout Matches.” In those bouts, wrestlers from across the globe have an opportunity to come to Japan and face off against one of SMASH’s finest. In some cases, where the results have been particularly impressive, the wrestler given the tryout has invited back. In the particular case of the veteran Canadian independent wrestler Mentallo, he has in fact become a regular part of the roster and competed on virtually every show since his debut. With his decade in the wrestling business and prior experience in Mexico’s CMLL promotion, Mentallo’s masked face has been a breath of fresh air in SMASH, and he is once again on this card in tag team action.

Another interesting aspect of SMASH which has given many wrestlers opportunities is the promotion’s working relationship with Fight Club Finland, a pro wrestling company based out of – you guessed it – Finland. Tajiri had wrestled for FCF prior to the formation of SMASH, and he parlayed that relationship into an agreement in which several Finnish wrestlers debuted on SMASH.3 and have continued to wrestle in Japan on multiple occasions. Debuting already have been the bizarre transgendered wrestler Jessica Love and the former FCF Champion Valentine, who Tajiri defeated for his title in the main event of the prior show. The promotion has also seen appearances by the frontman and top star of FCF, a Canadian-trained wrestler named Starbuck, though, to this point, he has only appeared in video packages hyping up members of his roster. In his most recent video package, he gave the verbal rub to a pair of savage looking wrestlers named Stark Adder and Haijy-Heimo Ukonselka, who are coming in for SMASH.4 to team with Jessica Love in a bit of a “beauty and the beasts” threesome against the SMASH team of Lin Bairon, Tajiri, and Hajime Ohara, the latter of whom Ms. Love took a bit of a romantic interest in when the two had a singles match against one another on the prior SMASH show.

Finally, perhaps my favorite aspect of how SMASH is giving people opportunities is its integration of female wrestlers into its cards. Traditionally in Japan, there have been men’s promotions and separate women’s promotions, and it was rare (though not completely unheard of) for a company that featured predominantly men to have a women’s match on its show or for a company that featured predominantly women to have a men’s match on its show. However, in SMASH, female performers are featured just as heavily as the men. This is very important to the current Japanese scene, as all-women’s promotions are essentially a dying breed, drawing record low numbers and with many of them having gone out of business in recent years. Without companies like SMASH willing to mix men’s and women’s wrestling on an independent level, joshi as a whole might go the way of the dinosaur sooner rather than later . . . and SMASH is going all out with its female competitors. As noted earlier, Lin Bairon, one of the regular women in the promotion, is regularly allowed to mix it up with men in tag team action. Meanwhile, the company has also brought in several women from more traditional joshi promotions in order to serve as opponents for Shuri, SMASH’s top female star. In particular, hard-hitting female wrestler Kana was brought in for an angle on SMASH.3, where she was sitting in the audience to set up a brawl with Shuri, which in turn resulted in one of the matches for this show. It wasn’t just any match, though. Because of its dedication to women’s wrestling and giving new stars opportunities, SMASH decided that they were going to place Kana vs. Shuri in the main event of SMASH.4.

Yes, it’s a true rarity in women’s wrestling: A card with an undercard comprised almost completely of men being headlined by a match featuring two women. Let’s see if the novel concept pays off or whether it winds up being an experiment that wasn’t worth conducting.

Match Numero Uno: Yusuke Kodama vs. AKIRA

This is a classic matchup, featuring the grizzled veteran against the fresh-faced youngster. Kodama was originally a trainee of HUSTLE who never got to debut prior to the original incarnation of the promotion folding. He got pulled over into SMASH by Tajiri and has made his in-ring debut there. He’s a true rookie, and he’s going up against none other than AKIRA, who spent many a year as a main player in the junior heavyweight division of New Japan before recently becoming a freelancer and making SMASH one of his regular stops.

The wrestlers go to the mat early with a very basic headscissors/headlock sort of exchange and no clear winner. Eventually both men pop up to the adulation of the fans and Kodama grabs a headlock. AKIRA shoves him off the ropes to get out of it and takes the youngster down with a dropkick. The New Japan legend begins to work the leg afterwards, ultimately going into a kneebar. Kodama reverses and tries to lock in a cross arm breaker but can’t quite get it. The wily AKIRA switches into a toehold, though Kodama is able to make the ropes. AKIRA stays on his man with a knee SMASHer (pun intended), but Kodama rallies by rolling through a hiptoss and turning it into a monkey flip. The rookie busts out a series of standing dropkicks for a nearfall and then hits multiple body slams, followed by a running dropkick straight to the mush. However, as he comes off the ropes, Yosuke is caught by AKIRA’s standing spinebuster and a DDT for two. Now the vet heads to the top rope, connecting with a missile dropkick that sets up an STF variation. Kodama makes the ropes once more, but AKIRA stays on his leg until the two men start a forearm exchange. AKIRA tries to bring that to an end by going after the bad wheel, but Yosuke shakes it off and hits a backdrop suplex. From there he tries to go back to the cross arm breaker, but AKIRA is able to counter it, first turning the hold into a pinning combination and then turning that in to the STF variant from earlier in the match. That’s enough to earn him a submission victory, and the two competitors bow to one another after the bell in a show of respect.

Match Thoughts: This was quick and Kodaka is inexperienced, so there wasn’t exactly anything groundbreaking here. AKIRA of course looked great because he could probably wrestle this type of match in his sleep at this point in his career, though I will have to say that the rookie kept up, wasn’t out of place for anything, and didn’t screw up. Sometimes that’s all you can ask for. *1/2

Match Numero Dos: Mentallo & Akira Shoji vs. Kim Numpum & Yun Gang Chul

This is where my inability to speak Japanese really hurts me, because I have literally zero clue what’s going on to set up this match. Numpum’s gimmick focuses largely on his mic work, which always seems to get big laughs from the audience, but I don’t get the tiniest bit of it. His matches have largely been against the super-serious former shootfighter Akira Shoji, though I’m not sure when Mentallo is now pairing up with Shoji given that, last we saw him, he was acting as Numpum’s tag team partner. Chul I’m not that familiar with, though I’m assuming based on his name that he’s another Korean who Numpum has brought in as a tag team partner.

Between a video package recapping Numpum’s prior SMASH appearances, the wrestlers’ entrances, and a monologue by Kim which also features his partner chugging a bottle of some unidentified liquid, there’s almost ten minutes of gaga before the actual match gets underway. When it does begin, it’s because Mentallo tires of Kim’s yammering and flattens him with a dropkick. Chul stays in the ring with the Canadian luchador, and he’s dominated until he catches the masked man with a surprise big boot. Numpum and Shoji check in for their respective teams, and Greco-Roman knuckle lock between the two sees Akira dominate before he strikes his man square in the face. Numpum gets in a low blow behind the referee’s back off of a series of waistlocks, but Shoji catches him running and puts him in an abdominal stretch, which is quickly turned into a pumphandle slam of sorts. Numpum does some comedy where he takes a breather sitting among the fans and then has difficulty rolling back in between the ropes. When he returns to the ring, Shoji puts him in a crucifix-style submission hold before tagging in Mentallo. Numpum goes to the masked man’s eyes and catches him with a clothesline before choking the Canadian behind the referee’s back.

A pair of axe bombers from the Korean hit, but Mentallo kicks out of an elbow drop at two right before Numpum tags in Chul. Chul gets in a full body slam and heads to the second rope for a rolling senton, which also earns a nearfall. Now it’s time for a headlock, but Mentallo escapes quickly and takes his opponent down with an armdrag. However, the rally doesn’t last too long, as Chul blocks a kick, grabs the leg, and turns Mentallo into a stunner. A series of right hands from Mentallo eventually forces Chul to bring Numpum back into the ring, and another slam for him gets another two count. A keylock of sorts is applied and then turned into a cross arm breaker and a triangle choke, which I guess is Numpum trying to show up the shooter Akira Shoji. Mentallo spends a bit too long in those holds for my liking, but eventually he forces a rope break and kicks his man in the mush to set up a hot tag. Chul is in as well, and Shoji powerslams him before taking Numpum down with a judo style throw. The Koreans are both hit with axe bombers and Chul also gets a German before Mentallo returns to the ring. He is immediately caught in a bearhug by Chul and thrown with a belly-to-belly suplex, which is the prelude to an odd spot in which Chul takes about a minute to put on a pair of sunglasses before attempting a twisting moonsault. It misses, and, seconds later, Mentallo hits a standard moonsault press for the three count.

Match Thoughts: This was a bizarre hybrid of styles. As previously noted, Mentallo tries to do a lot of lucha libre influenced wrestling. Meanwhile, Shoji’s got his worked shoot offense. Numpum and Chul, if they’re comparable to anything else in wrestling, are like a couple of old school southern heels who get their heat with schtick and then don’t have to do anything other than the most basic of offense in order to keep the crowd reaction going. Of the three styles, it was the the Memphis style that dominated the match, which makes sense because that’s the easiest of the styles to do while simultaneously allowing the other guys to pepper in spots which highlight the things that make them special. For what it was, it wasn’t bad, though there was a large part of me thinking about how much better matches with Mentallo and Shoji would be if they were wrestling against guys who would mesh with them better. **

Match Numero Tres: Isami Kodaka vs. KUSHIDA

As long-time readers will be aware SMASH has gone out of its way to build up Tajiri’s protege as their ace, their number one drawing card. In order to do that, they’ve put him in a series of very good matches against the likes of Hajime Ohara and New Japan’s Prince Fergal Devitt. This time around, they’ve gone in a somewhat different direction for his opponent by inking a deal with Isami Kodaka of Big Japan Wrestling. Kodaka is a very promising lighter weight wrestler for BJW, though he’s a bit of an unusual choice to face KUSHIDA because the majority of his work is in deathmatches. Coming into this bout, I am very interested to see whether they’ll have Kodaka go with the more traditional junior heavyweight style that KUSHIDA favors or whether they’ll have KUSHIDA go with the more blood-and-guts style favored by Kodaka.

Can I say how much I love the fact that, in 2010, KUSHIDA is apparently using “Jump” by Van Halen as his entrance music? We’ve got a lockup to start and some forearms are exchanged, with Kodaka taking the first bump. However, he quickly recovers and dropkicks KUSHIDA’s knee, sending the SMASH wrestler to the outside. Isami follows him with a baseball slide and whips KUSHIDA through a row of chairs, though a whip attempt into the post is reversed to give KUSHIDA the upper hand. We’re only a couple of minutes in, and already Kodaka is bleeding from the mouth. When the match goes back to the squared circle, KUSHIDA is in control, and he starts working the leg. Either Kodaka is now bleeding from his forehead as well as his mouth or he somehow smeared the blood from his mouth upwards so that it’s covering his whole face. KUSHIDA, meanwhile, doesn’t bother with the blood and hits a Ric Flair-esque kneecrusher en route to applying the figure four. It’s really weird to see a bloody wrestler in that hold less than five minutes into a match. Isami briefly reverses the figure four, but KUSHIDA rolls it into the ropes and eventually out to the floor. Nothing happens there, though, as Kodaka is almost immediately rolled back into the ring and placed in another leglock.

After a while, KUSHIDA decides to look for a suplex, but Kodaka slides out of it, ducks a clothesline, and dropkicks his man. This sends KUSHIDA out to the floor yet again, and Isami connects with an INSANE suicide dive. It looked like, in his attempt to catch Kodaka, KUSHIDA got forearmed pretty badly in the face. This leads to the Big Japan wrestler going under the ring, where he produces a ladder. The weapon is propped up in the blue corner, but KUSHIDA reverses a whip into it and also gives Kodaka a double knee strike into the ladder. Isami is able to use the weapon a bit, hitting KUSHIDA in the head with it, setting up a superkick for two. Now Kodaka has himself a chair. Instead of using it, he places the ladder on top of KUSHIDA, and only then goes he grab the chair. He climbs to the top rope of it and essentially does a top rope kneedrop onto the chair onto the ladder onto KUSHIDA. Hopefully that’s not a regular spot of his, or Kodaka’s not going to be walking ten years from now. The deathmatch pro has left the ring once more, and this time he steps backstage and returns with a barbed wire board. That’s placed in the ring, and KUSHIDA is Irish whipped into it for a nearfall. Kodaka slams KUSHIDA now, and KUSHIDA does a good job of selling the fact that the slam hurts more than it normally would because his back was damaged by the barbed wire. Then, in a really weird spot, Kodaka places the barbed wire board on top of a prone KUSHIDA, but he places the board on him barbed wire side UP. That means that, when Kodaka does his senton atomico from the top rope, he winds up landing in barbed wire. Errrr . . . okay. He completely no sells it and starts trading forearms with KUSHIDA. Eventually Isami hits another superkick, but KUSHIDA blocks a third and gets in a roaring elbow for two. KUSHIDA hits his patented moonsault press, which is often a finish for him, but it’s apparently not enough here. Instead, KUSHIDA busts out the DRAGON SUPLEX~! and uses it to put away Isami Kodaka.

Match Thoughts: This was a couple of notches below the other KUSHIDA matches that we’ve been treated to thusrfar in SMASH. The athleticism that one would except from KUSHIDA and to a lesser extent Kodaka was certainly there, but, from a psychological perspective, the match was all over the place. Instead of doing a straight match and slowly building up to the hardcore stuff, they started out hardcore, then a professional wrestling match broke out, and, to conclude, they started to slip back into the deathmatch style. Bothering me even more was the fact that I could not for the life of me understand how two of Kodaka’s big spots – the flying kneedrop onto the chair and the senton onto the barbed wire board – were supposed to hurt his opponent more than they were supposed to hurt him. Maybe there is a wrestler out there who can do a good deathmatch with KUSHIDA and maybe there is a wrestler out there who can do a good straight match with Kodaka, but they didn’t seem to work all that well against one another compared to what they’ve done elsehwere. **

Match Numero Cuatro: Tajiri, Hajime Ohara, & Lin Bairon vs. Haijy-Heimo Ukonselka, Jessica Love, & Stark Adder

Adder starts it off for his team, and, though her partners don’t want her in there against the man at first, Lin Bairon wants to take it to the dude. Lin utilizes a hit and runs strategy for a bit, though she’s ultimately caught and placed in an armbar. Lin rolls through to escape and applies her own version of the hold, but she’s taken down by a shoulderblock. The young lady responds with a rana and a dropkick, causing Stark to tag out to Jessica Love. The crowd goes crazy for her and chants for Hajime Ohara to wrestle Jessica. Ohara immediately bumrushes Love and destroys her with forearms, though Jessica is able to respond with a spear and a bronco buster. Tajiri runs in for the save and kicks Love from behind but ultimately winds up colliding with Ohara. Jessica moves in for a big kiss on either one of them, and the Japanese wrestlers scatter. Now we’ve got Heimo and Tajiri pairing off, with Tajiri using kicks in an attempt to take the caveman’s legs out from underneath him. It fails and Tajiri gets choked in the corner until Bairon saves. Together they try to Irish whip the big Fin, but he blocks it. Ohara and Tajiri have a bit more success, but ultimately they’re both clotheslined down by the monster, after which Adder slingshots in for a flying clothesline on Tajiri. Stark stays on the Japanese Buzzsaw with the dreaded trapezius nerve hold, but it’s not long before the SMASH producer escapes and connects with his patented handspring elbow.

That’s the cue for Ohara to tag in, and he connects with a dropkick for two. Stark Adder finds himself placed in the Tree of Joey Lawrence, but, before Ohara can do anything, Adder escapes. He doesn’t get in any offense, though, as Ohara catches him with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and tags in Lin Bairon. She gives Adder a big uppercut and a handspring elbow in the corner, setting up her version of the 619 for a two count. The caveman saved to prevent the three there, but Ohara cuts him off before he can do any more damage. Tajiri is in with Stark now, and he lights the Finnish wrestler up with chops. Tajiri looks for a top rope rana but is cut off and met with, of all things, a tomahawk chop. Shades of Tatanka. Jessica Love tags in and runs wild for the European team, dispatching everybody with forearms and hitting Tajiri with a forearm and a high cross. Her momentum is cut off with a kick to the face, though Heimo prevents the Buzzsaw kick from connecting. Bairon and Ohara are successful in getting the caveman out of the ring, leaving Tajiri and Love to go at it once more. Jessica hits her senton atomico, but Ohara runs in for the save. He immediately wishes he didn’t, though, as Love attempts to plant a big smooch square on his lips. Tajiri intervenes and gets kissed by the transvestite, and, in a unique spot, it’s quickly revealed that, as he was being kissed, Tajiri blew the green mist into Jessica Love’s mouth.

Love collapses as a result of the internal misting, but here comes Heimo. He clubs the opposing team with forearms and gives Ohara the thumbs down, though a clothesline misses and Hajime sends the big guy packing from the ring. Bairon hits a cross body off the apron on to Heimo, though it doesn’t quite take him down. Adder joins the pile with a pescado, and eventually Jessica Love follows everybody out with a twisting dive. Eventually Ohara and Heimo wind up back in the ring together, where the Finnish wrestler hits a lame, lame version of Davey Boy Smith’s powerslam to put the match to bed.

Match Thoughts: I’ve not been a huge fan of the Finnish contingent thusfar. Valentine, their former World Champion who did not appear on this show, came off like a very low level independent wrestling heel when we last saw him, and Love is more gimmick than go, though I was correct in my past speculation that she would look a lot better in tag team matches where she could just jump in and do a couple of comedy spots and highspots than she looked in singles matches. Ukonselka and Adder didn’t look clueless in the ring or quite as green as Valentine did, but they weren’t exactly wrestlers on the same level as their opponents. The quick in and out nature of the six man tag team match provided the majority of the excitement here, and, otherwise, it was just a standard six man tag team match which you could see in a million other places aside from the awesome kiss-counter-with-mist spot. **

Match Numero Cinco: Kana vs. Shuri

Early on, each woman tries to get an advantage over the other with leg kicks, and it’s Kana who scores the first effective offense by taking one of her shots a little bit higher and into Shuri’s head. The SMASH wrestler rolls to the floor for a breather, and we get the test o’ strength upon her return. Shuri maneuvers it into a top wristlock and later a hammerlock, but Kana reverses into a headlock takedown. It’s at this point I notice an interesting thing about Kana’s gear . . . . she’s wearing kickpads, but she’s barefoot underneath them. Huh. Some quick attempts at front chancres are avoided by both women, and they pop up to their feet to applause from the crowd. Armbars are traded, and Kana takes us back down to the mat with a fireman’s carry. Shuri catches her in a headscissors, but Kana rolls with it to escape and goes back to the old fashioned headlock. The women pop up to a vertical base again not long after Shuri escapes, and Kana grabs a quick crucifix for the first nearfall of the match. Shuri kicks out but doesn’t escape her opponent’s clutches, as Kana turns the hold into a crucifix-style submission. Shuri starts running the ropes when she gets out, and she avoids a couple of different attempts at offense by Kana before hitting an armdrag.

Shuri starts to unload with kicks to the body, and Kana responds with a few of her own. Shuri retakes the advantage and connects with a vertical suplex to set up her attempt at a cross arm breaker. Kana locks her hands to block it and eventually rolls to the ropes to force a break, though Shuri stays on her with more kicks. Kana responds in kind and then switches to palm strikes, ultimately being taken down to a seated position by Shuri before getting dropkicked in the face. Tajiri’s protege connects with a running kneelift in the corner, but Kana no-sells it just long enough to respond with a bridging German suplex for a two count. Now Kana goes in the dreaded ankle lock/heel hook combination, and Shuri military craws to make the ropes. She does force the break, but Kana immediately catches her with a BIG release German. Kana measures Shuri and waits for her to get back up to her feet before charging in, though Shuri still has her wits about her and leaps up with a knee strike. Both women are down and selling at this point, and it’s Kana who recovers first, hitting Shuri with a diving knee attack for a two count. The ladies begin exchanging forearms while in a kneeling position and then while standing. Out of nowhere, Shuri catches her opponent in a flying version of the cross arm breaker.

Unlike the last time she attempted to apply the hold, this time Shuri succeeds in fully extending Kana’s arm, though the redhead still flops around like a fish out of water in order to make the ropes. After some counters, Kana recovers and hits a vertical suplex for two, though she misses a buzzsaw kick and eats Shuri’s boot. Another running knee strike from the SMASH star connects, and the result is a VERY close two count. Both women are down, and, when they recover, they throw simultaneous kicks at one another that send both down. They recover one more time, and Shuri ducks a Kana high kick before hitting one of her own in order to score the three count and earn the big win.

Match Thoughts: The theme of the show thusfar appears to be wrestlers with completely different styles meeting up to see what the results are. In a way, this match was no different. While Kana is essentially a traditional joshi wrestler (albeit a somewhat inexperienced one), Shuri has primarily trained with and wrestled against Japanese men, so her matches tend to be less like what one would expect from ladies in her home country and more like something off of a DDT or a HUSTLE show. However, more than any other wrestlers matched up on this show, Shuri and Kana managed to find a lot of common ground between their styles. The result wasn’t a classic match or a match that I would remember too fondly if it occurred on a stronger overall card, but, on this particular show, it fit as a main event caliber match and without a doubt, it was the best and most noteworthy bout on the card. Shuri more than held her own against the slightly more experienced Kana, essentially establishing herself as the female ace of the company in one match and laying a foundation upon which she can build to become an equivalent to KUSHIDA if she continues to have strong matches. ***

Overall

This show was a step down from my favorite SMASH moments. It was still interesting to watch in order to observe all of the various wrestlers that I had not previously seen or had only seen very little of, but on other cards, there were also awesome matches in order to compliment the novelty factor. Here there were some decent spots from match to match and the main event was a quality encounter, but, otherwise, there was not much to see. If you can catch this in highlight reel form, by all means you should do so. Otherwise, I would suggest perhaps watch the main event and cherry picking the other matches if there are particular pieces of talent in them in which you are interested.

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