Into the Indies 10.26.10: SMASHtober! (Part 4)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that brings it full circle.

If you’ve been reading the column at all this month, you know that we’ve dedicated October to SMASH, the Japanese independent promotion booked by Yoshihiro Tajiri that brings together an eclectic crew of wrestlers from across the globe for fun shows in small Tokyo venues. If you want to catch up with any of the SMASHtober action, you can do so by clicking here to check out our review of SMASH’s fourth show, here to check out our review of SMASH’s fifth show, and here to check out our review of SMASH’s sixth show.

This week, instead of focusing on the next show in the SMASH series, I decided to do something different. One of the things that has really caught my attention about SMASH is that its wrestlers have very diverse backgrounds. As a result, I thought that it might be interesting to take a look at pre-SMASH matches from five of the company’s biggest names in order to more fully understand where they come from. It’s a piece that I have decided to dub “SMASH Origins,” and it will focus on the booker himself, Tajiri, the up and coming ace of the promotion, KUSHIDA, the femme fatale Lin Bairon, the Golden Lion Gurvinder Sihra, and the top gaijin Starbuck.

Let’s take a look at what the SMASHers had to offer in the years before the promotion formed!

Match Numero Uno: Chihiro Oikawa vs. Ray (BattlArts (07/26/2008)

Ray is the former masked persona of Lin Bairon. Here she is wrestling in BattlArts, a shoot-style promotion which sadly we’ve only had a few limited appearances to cover before in I2I. I say “sadly” because, even though I’ve not seen a ton of stuff from the company, everything that I have seen is really fun. Bairon’s opponent here is Chihiro Oikawa, a female wrestler with an MMA background who was trained for pro wrestling by BattlArts. I have seen a handful of matches of hers before, and I’ve always quite liked her compared to many other contemporary joshi wrestlers, though at the time of this particular match she would have been very new to professional wrestling, as I believe ’08 was her debut year.

There’s lots of circling and light kick attempts early before Oikawa gets caught in a front facelock by Ray and taken down. Chihiro reverses into a waistlock and rolls her woman onto the mat for some palm strikes, but Ray covers up after the first few and makes it very difficult for the offense to continue. Oikawa tries to maneuver over into a cross arm breaker, but the masked wrestler manages to avoid it and tries for one of her own. Eventually the two ladies pop back up to their feet, but it’s not long before Oikawa shoots in for a double leg. Ray puts the brakes on her and grabs a bodyscissors/armbar combination. Oikawa escapes after a bit and catches an ankle lock, but Ray still has a free leg and kicks away. For the third time, both women have regained their vertical base. Ray gets the advantage with a pro wrestling style kick to the gut to set up another cross arm breaker attempt. She does fully extend the arm, but Oikawa makes the ropes to avoid having to tap out.

The referee stands the women up, and now we get a strike flurry from the two, with Ray throwing kicks and Oikawa throwing palm strikes. Eventually Chihiro switches to boots as well, and a big roundhouse kick from her takes Ray down for an extended period of time but not quite for a ten count. Oikawa capitalizes and applies a guillotine choke of sorts, which stays on for quite some time until Ray rolls out. Oikawa tries to stay on her with kicks and palm thrusts but gets caught with an STO. Ray attempts to follow up with a Buzzsaw-style kick, but Oikawa ducks and gabs a leglock. This sets up a really fun sequence in which the two women trade four or five different types of leg submission back and forth in the span of about twenty seconds. Neither lady wins with any of her holds, so Ray kicks her opponent in the face when they go back to their feet. A roundhouse kick to the head also connects from the masked wrestler, and Oikawa cannot answer the referee’s ten count. Lin “Ray” Bairon is your winner.

Match Thoughts: This was a really solid sub-ten minute match, especially given the fact that at least Oikawa and possibly Ray as well were very fresh into the wrestling business. What also struck me about the bout was the fact that Bairon/Ray was working a completely different style than what she normally works in SMASH and was doing it so well. In SMASH, many of her matches have been against Japanese men, and as a result she works a style that, more than anything else, resembles what male junior heavyweights do in the country. That’s a far cry from the simulated shoot fighting of BattlArts, which she did here like a champ. It will be interesting to see whether and how she works that into her SMASH matches down the road. ***

Match Numero Dos: Tajiri & Zumbido vs. Black Warrior & Chicago Express (Big Japan Pro Wrestling, 05/29/1997)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the evolution of Tajiri, it goes something like this: He started off wrestling for indy groups like Big Japan and IWA Japan, sometimes under his real name and sometimes under a mask with the name Aquarius. From there, he was sent to Mexico for some time, and it was in Mexico that he was discovered by ECW, which in turn lead to his run in WWE. This match would be taking place after one of his early trips to Mexico, with three other wrestlers who were experienced in lucha libre joining him in the Land of the Rising Sun for a BJPW match. In the years that would follow this match, Zumbido and Black Warrior would go on to become regulars in the world of lucha libre. Zumbido has never really risen above midcard status in the many different promotions that he has worked for, while Warrior actually had a huge run in 2006 and was one of the biggest heel opponents for Mistico when Mistico was the most popular act in lucha libre and arguably the most popular act in pro wrestling the world over. Chicago Express is the one person in the bout who sticks out for not having a noteworthy career, as, aside from a handful of matches on big Mexican cards around this time, I’m not aware of anything that he has done. It does appear that he’s an American wrestler from Chicago who competed almost exclusively in south of the border as opposed to in the US.

Chicago Express and the surprisingly clean shaven Tajiri start it off, with Tajiri getting several armdrags before showboating with a front flip. When the men get back to wrestling, it’s now the Express who wins the armdrag war. That leads into a series of legsweeps from both men, and they pop up to the cheers of the crowd before tagging their respective partners. Black Warrior immediately takes Zumbido down, but ‘Bido is quick to reverse his man’s armbar, and many quick exchanges lead to another pop-up and applaud spot. By the way, the permed mullet sticking out of the back of Zumbido’s mask is a thing of glory. Black Warrior grabs a variation on the figure four but makes the mistake of leaving one of his feet right in Zumbido’s face. That means ‘Bido is able to put his own hold on Warrior’s free leg, and before long we’re both in the ropes to force a break. The two men do a rapid fire exchange with rope running, arm dragging, and leg sweeping, which rivals anything that you’ll see a guy like Masato Yoshino doing today.

The American and Japanese wrestlers tag back in at this point, and Express hits a springboard cross body and a second version of the same move off the top rope before dropkicking Tajiri out of the ring. The Mexicans immediately tag back in after that, and Zumbido does filps. Literally. He then hits what can best be described as a Pele kick turned into a rana, which sends Black Warrior to the floor. That’s followed by an INSANE dive from Zumbido, and it was insane because, instead of colliding arms to arms or shoulders to shoulders as a lot of luchadores do, Zumbido just buried his head and neck straight into Black Warrior’s shoulder. We switch back to ChiEx and Tajiri in the ring, and the future ECW star hits a springobard armdrag before avoiding a charge by the Express. The masked American falls out of the ring and on to the arena floor, so Tajiri gives him an Asai moonsault. Back on the inside, Warrior also throws Zumbido to the floor and gives him a moonsault from the second rope.

Tajiri and the Express have gone back to the ring by this point, and the US wrestler hits a clothesline for a nearfall. A powerbomb looks to finish for ChiEx as well, but it only gets two. Tajiri is up immediately and hits a spinning heel kick and a rana, and the latter move is enough to earn the victory for his team.

Match Thoughts: This match was a big surprise. Normally when you’ve got international guest stars on the undercard of a Japanese show, whether it’s in the big leagues or on the indies, you’re going to see a relatively brief match which showcases what the foreign wrestlers can do but doesn’t really threaten to upstage the native stars. This bout was an exception to that rule, as, though it wasn’t quite a main event caliber match, it definitely got the time that it needed to develop into something special and the wrestlers involved weren’t holding much back at all. You could tell that at least three of the four men in the ring had futures in professional wrestling, as they were very fluid in their movement and were working at a pace which would have been considered near unthinkable just a couple of years prior. A person who was more familiar with the work of these men from around the same time might tell you that this was actually typical of their matches and as a result not much to write home about, but, for somebody like me seeing it in isolating, it appeared to click on all cylinders and really be a top-flight bout for its position on the card. ****

Match Numero Tres: Petey Williams vs. KUSHIDA (Border City Wrestling, 09/12/2009)

This match comes to us from Border City Wrestling, the independent group based out of Toronto promoted b Scott D’Amore. Before SMASH formed, KUSHIDA was sent on a tour of North American by his trainers, which included not only several shots for BCW but also a couple of appearances for CHIKARA and a bunch of matches for miscellaneous indies. Here he’s up against Petey Williams, who most readers will remember from TNA. Williams is perhaps the star pupil of D’Amore’s wrestling school, which is of course associated with Border City.

KUSHIDA tries to kick Petey low off of a pre-match handshake, but Williams blocks it and gets the early advantage, ultimately dropkicking his man in the back as he is laid out across the ropes. A diving elbow to KUSHIDA’s back also connects for two, and it’s followed by a trip to the turnbuckles for KUSHIDA’s head. However, as the Canadian attempts to scale the turnbuckles, KUSHIDA catches him with a dropkick that sends him down to the arena floor. (And by “arena” I mean “Elks Club,” as that’s where this show appears to be taking place.) There’s some brawling on the floor which the cameras miss, and, back on the inside, KUSHIDA hits his man with not one but two big tomahawk chops from the top. I’m amazed Petey is still walking after those. KUSHIDA blatantly chokes his opponent in front of the referee, but the cheers of the crowd rally Williams. He dropkicks KUSHIDA in the knee, but irony intervenes and the result is the hometown boy holding his own leg as he comes up from the move.

KUSHIDA goes after the limb like a shark that has just smelled blood, applying a version of the stretch muffler for a bit and then hitting a series of Ric Flair kneecrushers. Speaking of Flair, here’s a figure four in the middle of the ring from the future SMASHer. Petey flips over to reverse the pressure, and more rolling around leads to both men getting caught up in the ropes. KUSHIDA tries for the figure four again, but Petey reverses it into a small package for two. KUSHIDA starts kicking at his man’s bad wheel, but Williams manages to reverse an Irish whip into a leg grapevine DDT to set up a double KO spot. Petey is first to his feet and hits a jawbreaker and a bulldog before signaling for the Canadian Destroyer, KUSHIDA blocks it but doesn’t block Petey’s slingshot lungblower, which gets two. Now it’s time to fight over a suplex, which leads to several reversals culminating in a KUSHIDA standing moonsault. He then apes his mentor with a handspring back elbow and the Buzzsaw kick, but they only get two.

There’s a fisherman’s suplex for another nearfall, and KUSHIDA heads up top for his moonsault press. Wiliams cuts it off and puts KUSHIDA into the Tree of Joey Lawrence before attempting to stand on his nuts. In a GREAT reversal to that spot which I don’t recall seeing before, KUSHIDA grabs Petey from that position and hits a variation on a German suplex. Williams rallies with the side Russian legsweep and the enzuguiri, and, for a split second, it looks like KUSHIDA is out cold. However, he’s just playing possum, taking advantage of Williams while he is offguard and kicking him in the head. I don’t really understand why they did that spot, though, because Petey winds up completely no-selling the kick, almost immediately afterwards hitting a powerbomb and the Canadian Destroyer for the pin.

Match Thoughts: This match was a bit of a mixed bag. As those who have seen Petey and those who have seen KUSHIDA would probably expect, there was some GREAT athletic stuff here, with both men hitting their big moves so dead on that things like moonsaults and ranas looked almost effortless. They also got plenty of time to showcase what they could do, which was a breath of fresh air as it relates to Williams, because the last time that I saw him it was in TNA, and, during his last run in that company, he was being limited to three minute long tag team matches despite the fact that his real strength is fifteen minute bouts like this one. With all of that being said, if the match had one negative, it was a lack of real build. There were points at which, instead of starting with small moves and working up to bigger and bigger stuff until the finish, they would just hit a big move out of nowhere and immediately go back to basic stuff with the big move having had no apparent impact. That’s to be expected from a less seasoned wrestler like KUSHIDA, and, even though Petey has a fair amount of experience, that has always been one of the weakest aspects of his game. Despite the flaw, it was still a fairly entertaining bout. ***

Match Numero Cuatro: Gurvinder Sihra (c) vs. Phantasmo for the NWA Pacific Northwest Lightheavyweight Title (Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, 09/2006)

This match comes to us from ECCW, the Vancounter-based independent group that Sihra has primarily called home from what I can tell. His opponent, Phantasmo, is another ECCW regular. He’s wearing a lucha-inspired mask and is billed as hailing from Mexico, though from what I understand he’s a white Canadian dude.

It’s an armbar by Sihra to start, but the luchadore escapes and gets a go-behind. Gurv responds with a headlock takedown, though it’s not long before Phantasmo gets one of his own. More exchanges see the masked man exit the ring for a breather, and, once he returns to the ring, he blocks a Sihra rollup, only to be caught in a series of armdrags by the champion. Phantasmo begs off but catches his man off of the ropes and hits an inverted atomic drop for one. Sihra was right in the ropes, so that wasn’t going to work. The challenger stays on his man with a vertical suplex and a big legdrop, but again he can only muster a two count. A snap mare takes Sihra off his feet once more, and, in a solid heel move, Phantasmo asks the crowd “Ready for a big kick?” before applying a garden variety chinlock. Gurv tries to fight out of it, but Phantasmo takes him back down with an inverted DDT. More counter wrestling by Sihra gets him a couple of rollups for two each, but Phatnasmo trips him up and lands a double stomp to the gut. The challenger then connects with a dropkick into the corner, though Gurv catches him as he comes off the ropes and connects with a spinebuster and a high knee. There’s a spinning heel kick and a floatover DDT as well, but Phantasmo is out at two. The guy in the crowd who responds to every move with “Whoa!” is really grating on me. Sihra goes to the top rope, but he’s crotched and hit with a NICE popup enzguiri by Phantasmo while seated on the top rope. The challenger looks for a superplex to follow but gets shoved off, and Sihra follows him down with his Randy Savage elbow to earn the three count.

Match Thoughts: Nothing appeared to be horribly screwed up here, but the match was kept short and the action was kept basic, so it also wasn’t horribly spectacular aside from the one big enzuguiri spot from Phantasmo. Given that Sihra’s SMASH matches have followed the same formula, I’m really starting to itch to see whether he can sink or swim in a longer, more complex bout. *1/2

Match Numero Cinco: Starbuck vs. Bernard Van Damme (Fight Club Finland, 10/07/2006)

This is an interesting match, as it’s a street fight taking place in a nightclub, and they haven’t even bothered to set up a ring. Van Damme, who I have no prior familiarity with, is being billed as a Belgian wrestler who holds the European Heavyweight Title. He has apparently been brought in to Starbuck’s promotion, Fight Club Finland, so that ‘Buck can test his mettle against the supposed best that Europe has to offer. It’s basic strikes and kneelifts between the two men in the early going, with Van Damme getting the first real advantage and looking for a powerslam on the club stage. Starbuck slips out and connects with a superkick, though, then going back at the European Champ with rights to the skull and a headshot to some unidenetifiable metal object. I should note that the lighting here is not the greatest, so I might be missing out on some of the action. Case in point, the announcer tells me that Van Damme is choking Starbuck with a chain, though I can’t see anything of the sort.

We move to a better lit portion of the club where the Belgian puts the boots to his opponent, only to have Starbuck reverse an Irish whip into a column. ‘Buck follows up with a back elbow and some knee strikes as Van Damme lays up against a wall. Van Damme regains the advantage when his valet goes after Starbuck’s eyes, and we see a puddle of blood forming on the nightclub floor from god knows who. Bernard works a chinlock for a little while and grabs a folding chair, which fortunately are plentiful in any wrestling venue. BVD swings but gets caught in the gut by ‘Buck’s fist before the shot connects. Starbuck hits a combination of European uppercuts and headbutts. Van Damme’s valet proves to be a distraction once again, letting the Euro Champ land a few more forearms. At this point I want to give some props to “Rhubarb Johnson” who is the billed English-language announcer for this match. He’s doing a fine job as the sole man providing commentary. BVD slams ‘Buck back-first into a wall and applies the camel clutch. He voluntarily lets it go after a while, though initially it does not appear to be a mistake, as some strikes by Bernard get him a two count. However, when he tries to pin Starbuck again, the Fin punches him in the side of the head instead of kicking out. Van Damme finds himself whipped into some metal casings by Starbuck and then eats a reverse atomic drop and a LARIATO~! Rhubarb identifies the source of the blood that is all over the floor as Starbuck’s right thigh. Thanks, Barbie.

Now we head back up to the stage where the match began, and Starbuck continues to maintain the advantage with basic strikes. He looks for a Boston crab, but Van Damme smartly fights to remain on his back. Eventually ‘Buck gives up and goes to the eyes to set up a kick to the gut. A series of big rights by Starbuck appear to have put Bernard down for the count, but ‘Buck looks to put him out for good with a piledriver on the stage. BVD’s valet jumps on Strabuck’s back, though, and before long ‘Buck’s valet has joined the fray. All four brawl, and our referee calls the match off as a no contest.

Match Thoughts: I suppose I should state the obvious first and point out that the “no contest” finish in what was billed as a street fight doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense, especially when you previously had one of the valets interfering freely. Even setting the finish aside, this match wasn’t particularly entertaining. I understand that countries like Finland haven’t had the amount of live or televised professional wrestling that we are accustomed to in the United States, which means that, for those native fans, the standards are probably going to be a bit lower. However, for somebody who has seen a lot of professional wrestling, I don’t see any way in which this match could hold up. It was a lot of punching and kicking with a few other basic spots, none of which seemed to gel into any particularly entertaining story. The novelty of having a street fight with no ring might have been enough to let this ride with the fans for whom it was intended, but that’s not quite a big enough hook for most. 1/2*

I hope that you have enjoyed are month long look at the show and the stars of SMASH. Starting in November, we’ll be back to our normal I2I rotation. Feel free to let me know whether you think we should do more theme months in the future, and it’s something that I will consider!

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See you all next week!