Into the Indies 12.14.10: Mr. Gannosuke Produces Results (Part 1)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is all sizzle but very little steak.

This week, we are taking a look at one of the smallest pro wrestling shows that we’ve ever reviewed in this column. On average, anywhere between one thousand and fifteen hundred fans will attend the shows that we’re reviewing in this column, sometimes more and sometimes less. However, this time out, we’re taking a look at a surprisingly good show that was viewed live by only THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE wrestling fans on December 29, 2009 in Shin-Kiba First Ring, a venue in Tokyo named after a nearby train station.

The show as promoted by Mr. Gannosuke. Gannosuke has been profiled several times in this column for his exploits as a professional wrestler. He began his career in 1991 by being one of the very first trainees of Atsushi Onita’s Frontier Marital Arts Wrestling (FMW) alongside his real-life college friend Eiji Ezaki, who would go on to become Hayabusa. He would move up the ranks of the promotion rather quickly after making his debut, but, before he could become a focal point, he decided to defect in 1995 and join the brand new IWA Japan promotion that would become infamous among American fans for being one of the groups where Terry Funk and Mick Foley would wrestle each other in barbed wire and explosive laden matches. IWA Japan was relatively short-lived as a major league promotion, closing its doors for the first time in 1996. However, while he was there, Gannosuke continued to be featured as a main event level wrestler, and he even became one half of the NWA World Tag Team Champions while with the promotion due to the IWA agreeing to be a part of the National Wrestling Alliance.

After brief stopovers in other companies, Gannosuke returned to FMW very early in 1997. It was during that run that Gannosuke gained perhaps his most fame and success, immediately entering into a feud with Hayabusa. Hayabusa had been elevated greatly during his former best friend’s absence, and the two engaged in a very dramatic rivalry that played off their real life relationship. An offshoot feud saw Gannosuke regularly brawling with Jinsei “Hakushi” Shinzaki. In the middle of it all, Gannosuke managed to win FMW’s primary singles championship, before ultimately dropping the title to none other than Hayabusa. He would remain a focal point of the promotion until 2002, when a broken leg and ankle suffered during a tag team match put him on the shelf for many, many months. While he was on the shelf, FMW folded, its booker and top star, Kodo Fuyuki, announced that he had colon cancer which would wind up being terminal, and FMW’s former money man, Shoichi Arai, committed suicide. By this point, Hayabusa had also suffered the broken neck that would end his wrestling career and leave him in a wheel chair to this day.

During the summer of 2002, despite several people who were affiliated with him having their lives crumble, Gannosuke announced that he and Hayabusa, alongside Jinsei Shinzaki, would be forming their own wrestling promotion known as “Wrestling Marvelous Future” or WMF. (Get it?) While working for WMF, Gannosuke would also make appearances for other smaller wrestling companies, including the fledgling Pro Wrestling Zero-One. It was on a Zero-One show that he won perhaps the most prestigious title of his career, the All Japan Pro Wrestling All Asia Tag Team Titles. Of course, this lead to a few appearances with AJPW as well, perhaps the most prominent promotion for which Gannosuke wrestled. In February 2004, WMF folded due to financial difficulties, and, though it resumed operations six months later, it was done as a full-time promotion before the end of summer 2005. WMF would continue to run a few shows sporadically with the money coming straight out of Gannosuke’s pocket. Finally these shows ceased in August 2008.

Gannosuke would continue to wrestle somewhat regularly throughout 2008, appearing mainly on cards for DDT, Zero-One MAX, and Ice Ribbon (where he currently helps to train the many young female wrestlers who are produced by the promotion’s dojo). During this time, he was also promoting a show under the title “Mr. Gannosuke Produce” once every several months. His trend of sporadically promoting shows has continued through to this very day, and the December 29, 2009 show that we’re going to start taking a look at in this column is part of that series which features a lineup of very hot young independent talent drawn in by Gannosuke’s excellent reputation among indy wrestlers.

The review of this show is going to be divided into two parts, the first running this week and the second running next week. There is a circumstance in one of the matches that necessitates this divide, though I’m hesitant to mention it here so that I do not “spoil” next week’s column for those who might not know what I’m referring to.

With that being said, let’s see whether Mr. Gannosuke, former top heel of FMW, still had the wrestling sense about him to put on a solid show in 2009.

Match Numero Uno: Kamui & Yasu Urano vs. Daisuke & Keita Yano

This is quite a hodgepodge of wrestlers in tag team action. We’ve seen both Kamui and Urano before here in I2I, though they’re usually in different promotions. Kamui, a masked high flyer, generally frequents groups like FREEDOMS and Big Japan, while Urano, who has a bit more bulk and power to him, is a regular for DDT. They both have ties to Gannosuke, as Kamui was initially trained by him and Urano got his first real push in WMF. The first half of the opposing team, Yano, has also popped up in this column several times. Technically his home promotion is BattlArts, but he seems to go almost everywhere, including a recent stopoff in the United States for CHIKARA. The last wrestler, Daisuke, is the only new one to me. From what I understand, he’s one of the top names in a small indy group called GUTS World that has some loose ties to DDT.

All four men shake hands to start, and the action begins with Yano in the ring against Kamui. The cries from the audience would indicate that the masked man has a few fans in attendance. The two wrestlers trade armbars early on before Yano gets the better of a top wristlock. Kamui is able to counter and tag in Yasu Urano who does a series of amateur-style reversals on the mat with Yano before catching him in an indescribable leg-based submission hold. Keita pops out quickly, bringing Daisuke into the match for the first time. The youngster goes into a collar and elbow tie-up with Urano, but eventually it’s down to the mat once more, where the DDT representative is able to grab a leg and trip Daisuke up to lead into a tag to Kamui. The hooded wrestler avoids some takedown attempts and hits a kick to the ribs followed by a standing moonsault, the first real highspot of the evening. That move leads straight to another tag to Urano, who applies a chinlock.

Yano runs in to break up the hold but gets forearmed by Urano for his troubles. It’s not long before Yasu and Dice K are trading strikes, a series that Daisuke wins en route to hitting a dropkick and tagging out to Urano for the first time in quite a while. Yano goes to the arm once more, dropping his knee across Urano’s elbow. I’ve just realized that Yano and Yurano should have been the ones teaming up in this match if for no reason other than the fact that their names rhyme. Yano now applies a variation on Konnan’s old Tequila Sunrise, working the arm, the back, and the leg all at the same time. Urano is too close to the ropes, so Yano lets it go and whips him into the turnbuckles before hitting a big backbreaker for two. Urano avoids a European uppercut, though, turning the move into a backslide. It only gets two, but Yasu rolls through and gets an immediate second backslide that catches Yano offguard and picks up the three count.

Match Thoughts: This one was just a bit unusual. There was a lot of mat wrestling early on and generally I am a fan of mat wrestling, but it usually has to be the base for some higher impact action later on. The higher impact action didn’t really come here aside from a very limited burst, and I was taken out of things even more because the finish came completely out of nowhere. On one hand, I did like the finish because it seemed realistic in that an individual could be caught offguard with a repeated cradle that he’s not expecting, but, on the other hand, it was just so abrupt that took me out of things. On the whole, everything that the wrestlers did in the match was competently done from an athletic standpoint, but what they did and when they chose to do it was at times unusual. **

Match Numero Dos: Emi Sakura vs. Makoto vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto

All three of these ladies come from Sakura’s Ice Ribbon promotion, with Makoto being one of the real breakout stars of the group and Fujimoto being one who is talented but not necessarily getting the same level of push.

Sakura takes on both of the young girls with a Greco-Roman knuckle lock at the start, with each of the youngsters working one hand. It was a brave move but probably not the smartest one from a strategy standpoint, as Emi is overpowered and stomped. That leads into a three-way headlock spot and bodies flying all over the ropes until Sakura takes both of her proteges down with a cross body block. Emi and Makoto begin trading forearms after the crowd gets a chance to react, and eventually Tsukasa runs in with some strikes of her own on Makoto. Rather than continuing to fight, the youngsters eventually team up once more and nail Emi with some dropkicks, though it’s not long before they split once more and Fujimoto has Makoto in a camel clutch. Sakura stomps Makoto’s face while she’s in the hold but eventually gives Fujimoto a dropkick in the back as well before placing her in a standing version of the Mutoh Lock with more pressure being applied as Makoto runs off the ropes to continually kick Emi in the chest, causing her to fall back to the mat each time.

Eventually Emi is disposed of, allowing the two young wrestlers to get a series of cradles on one another, but it’s not long before Sakura runs back in and flips over the pile of joshi, with the end result being Sakura holding both women at the same time, one in a camel clutch and one in a Boston crab. Makoto is then placed in a surfboard hold by her teacher, and, in a pretty cute spot, Tsukasa inserts her bodies between the two other women while the hold is applied and tries to steal a pin on Sakura. Emi will have none of it and kicks out, then shooting Makoto into the corner. She tries to whip Tsukasa in as well, but she’s ready for it and runs up the ropes on her approach to the corner, flipping back with a high cross on Emi. Fujimoto follows up by dropkicking Makoto and unleashing a series of kicks across Emi’s back and chest for two. Sakura fires back with Mongolian chops after the kick out and catches Tsukasa for a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker when she tries for another cross body.

Makoto runs in at this point, hitting Sakura with a high knee and big boot to set up a bridging butterfly suplex. It gets two, as does a move in which Makoto basically does a roundoff but concludes it prematurely by dropping her knees into Sakura’s gut. Fujimoto runs back in at this point, landing a missile dropkick on Makoto but missing yet another cross body attempt on Sakura and getting caught in Emi’s Oklahoma roll. It does not work, nor does a swank flying bodyscissors into a sunset flip by Tsukasa. Makoto is back in the mix now, and she and Fujimoto charge Sakura simultaneously. It does not play out to their benefit, however, as Emi leaps up and takes them both down at the same time with the same flying headscissors. Emi picks Tsukasa up and throws her in such a way that she is forced to perform a flying headscissors on Makoto, then Oklahoma rolling Tsukasa one more time to pin her and win the match.

Match Thoughts: I liked this match a lot better than several three ways that I have watched recently. Rather than having a formula match in which one wrestler was dispatched followed by the other two wrestlers go at it for several minutes, all three of the ladies were actively involved in the bout for the majority of it. There were some interesting, unique three-way spots between the wrestlers, and it’s to their credit that, despite some of the fast paced, innovative things that they were doing, nobody ever appeared to be out of place. The only real complaint that I have about the bout is that the striking looked reaaaaaaalllly weak, which is a problem that I’ve had with a lot of modern day joshi. ***

Match Numero Tres: Masato Tanaka & Mineo Fujita vs. Tajiri & Asian Cooger

Tanaka and Tajiri are no doubt familiar names to virtually anybody who is reading 411mania, even if they’re not necessarily folks who follow Japanese werstling. Their partners, however, are a bit more obscure. Asian Cooger, teaming with Tajiri, is a junior heavyweight wrestler who has been on the indies for at least ten years, starting off with promotions like IWA Japan and currently being one of the top heels in Osaka Pro. Fujita, meanwhile, is a fellow who was trained by FMW wrestlers at right around the time that FMW was getting ready to shut its doors. He’s bounced around between several indies but has never had that high profile of a home group.

Fujita and Tajiri begin the match, with Mineo scoring an armdrag early on before Tajiri takes him to the mat and begins working the leg. Fujita is eventually able to roll through things and score a cradle for a quick nearfall, at which point both wrestlers pop back up to their feet and go into a Greco-Roman knuckle lock. Tajiri maneuvers that into an armdrag of his own and works an armbar for a bit, next rolling into a crucifix position for his own two count. We’re back to a neutral position and the men begin trading headlocks, which leads into a dropkick by Fujita for another nearfall. That seems like as good a time as any for the wrestlers to tag out to their respective partners. Cooger is very enthusiastically cheered by a large portion of the audience. I’m not entirely sure why. Instead of mat wrestling, these two go for high impact stuff right off the bat, with Tanaka hitting a running elbow smash in the corner and Cooger responding with a double thrust shot off of the ropes. Masato rolls to the outside for a quick breather and starts working his opponent’s arm when he returns to the ring. The masked man is able to escape, and he immediately tags out to Tajiri.

Fujita tags in for his team as well, but the former WWE star signals that he wants to wrestle Tanaka, and Masato is more than happy to oblige. The two ECW vets trade kicks and forearms followed by a couple of armdrags, and there’s the “E-C-Dub” chant from the Japanese crowd. Fujita is back in quickly thereafter and immediately gets floored by a spinning heel kick from Tajiri. Cooger checks in and takes Fujita down again for two. A chop battle breaks out, which Cooger wins by sneaking in a back elbow. He follows up with a monkey flip that sends Mineo into the turnbuckles before heading into some nice, heel-ish choking on the ropes. A guilltoine legdrop to the floor with Fujita’s back stretched out across the ring apron is next, and Cooger is still the most popular guy in the match despite working in some heel mannerisms. A gutwrench suplex gets two for the Coog, and a vertical suplex sets up the tag to Tajiri. There’s some subtle comedy going on here where Tajiri doesn’t want to tag in or stay in unless he’s not going to have to do much work. You know, I’ve heard that complaint about Japanese wrestlers who are coming off of WWE runs.

Speaking of, Tajiri’s first offensive move is a chinlock, and he hits his handspring elbow when Fujita escapes that. Now Cooger refuses a tag, so Tajiri hits a brainbuster for two. The masked man does check into the match eventually, but Mineo catches him with a leg lariat to set up the hot tag. Masato Tanaka runs wild with bodyslams on both of his opponents and takes them both down with a double clothesline. The former ZERO1 ace starts to focus on Cooger but gets taken off his feet and hit with a slingshot legdrop, after which Cooger lands the Stratusfaction bulldog. He covers, but Fujita makes the save. Tajiri is in to cut off Fujita, but Mineo ranas him. Brawling on the ring apron sees Tajiri connect with a high kick that shoots Fujita down to the floor, but the Buzzsaw screws up his attempt to follow up on the move, accidentally baseball sliding into Cooger. Fujita takes advantage by wiping out both of his opponents with a top con hilo, and he connects with a missile dropkick on Cooger once he reenters the ring. A DDT variation sets up a frog splash by Tanaka, but Cooger kicks out. Masato tries for his Sliding D forearm finish, but Tajiri trips him up as he runs the ropes, setting up an electric chair by Asian Cooger. Tajiri looks for his own version of the Sliding D but gets tripped by Fujita, while Tanaka lariats Cooger and gives him a brainbuster for two. A Sliding D immediately thereafter brings the match to an end.

Match Thoughts: Now this was a pretty damn fun little tag team encounter. Of course, all four of the wrestlers involved have over a decade of experience and two of them have consistently worked for some of the largest wrestling promotions in the world, so you can expect everybody to have fairly solid fundamentals. However, they went beyond fairly solid fundamentals and gave us a good back and forth tag team match which combined a variety of styles, including some comedy from Tajiri, a bit of Cooger’s style which he refers to as “mucha libre,” some wacky bumping from Fujita, and much more. Perhaps my favorite part of this match is that it ended when it did, because I’m so used to seeing independent tag matches go on and on and on and on with nearfalls and high impact maneuvers that should have been finishers. Because of that pattern, I almost expected Cooger to get out of the final pin attempt despite the fact that it was the PERFECT place to end the match given how things had gone down earlier in the bout. However, when he stayed down for the three count, I was pleasantly surprised. ***3/4

Match Numero Cuatro: Yuko Miyamoto & Masashi Takeda vs. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi

We’ve got quite the interesting interpromotional matchup here. Miyamoto and Takeda regularly team in groups like Big Japan and DDT, and they’re both competitors who have traditional pro wrestling backgrounds but later added deathmatch wrestling to their repertoires. If I’m not mistaken, Miyamoto was just in the United States this past weekend wrestling for CZW. Their opponents, Ibushi and Omega, are most likely familiar to American fans because of their appearances in Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. In Japan, they are a tag team known as the “Golden Lovers,” and they regularly compete for indy group DDT in addition to periodically appearing for the biggest promotion in the country, New Japan Pro Wrestling. Currently (though not at the time of this match), they hold New Japan’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.

Miyamoto and Ibushi are the first pair in, and it’s pretty rapid-fire counter-wrestling right out of the gate. Not too much of note happens before the men’s partners are tagged in, and Omega spends some time attempting to drum up crowd support. He grabs Takeda’s arm for a little bit, but the Japanese wrestler slips out. Takeda can’t actually counter Omega’s armbar, so instead he goes to the eyes to set up his own version of the hold. Omega reverses out of it in an impressive fashion that involves a step up on to Takeda’s knee, and, in a spot you rarely see in professional wrestling, Takeda attempts to whip Kenny into the ropes but Omega actually STOPS before he hits them. The joke is on Omega, though, as Takeda uses the opening to blast him with a forearm shiver across the back. Omega responds with a pair of dropkicks and tags out to Ibushi. The DDT ace goes for a dive when Takeda rolls out to the floor, but Miyamoto runs in and hits him with a belly-to-belly suplex. Before long, things have broken down into a pier six brawl, and all four wrestlers are trading offense in the ringside area and out amongst the fans.

The majority of the offense on the floor is fairly pedestrian, especially given the deathmatch backgrounds of Miyamoto and Takeda. Eventually Yuko tosses Ibushi back into the ring and puts him in an intense variation on the camel clutch, but Ibushi won’t give up. A tag to Takeda sees the mohawked wrestler dropkick Ibushi in the back and apply what appears to be a variation on the Regal Stretch, working a shoulder that Ibushi has taped up. Omega runs in and breaks up the hold to prevent his partner from being injured, but Takeda and Miyamoto stay on Ibushi when Miyamoto tags in and slaps on the abdominal stretch. He rolls it back into a pinning combination for a two count. Ibushi is able to connect with some kicks when he gets out of the pin attempt, including a Pele that allows him to tag Kenny Omega. Omega immediately comes off the top with a high cross on Miyamoto and takes him down with thrust chops. He also hits a high kick, to which Miyamoto responds with one of his own. However, after some more running off the ropes, Kenny has taken his man down with a rana and a uranagi for a close two count.

It looks like the tide is going to turn when Takeda kicks Omega in the back as he runs the ropes and Miyamoto hits a Tajiri-esque handspring elbow. Takeda tags in and hits a dropkick and a charging back elbow before setting up for a second dropkick, this time to a seated Omega’s face. A variation on the t-bone suplex gets two for Takeda, but Omega catches him offguard with a pair of leaping enzuguiri and a snap dragon suplex before slapping hands with Ibushi. Ibushi ranas Miyamoto out of the ring and then somersaults into a BEAUTIFUL top rope moonsault on the floor before returning to the ring and taking Takeda down for a nearfall. There’s a tag to Omega, who kneelifts the snot out of Takeda, only to get hit with a northern lights suplex variant seconds later. Now we’ve got some PLUNDA~! in the ring, Tony, as Miyamoto feeds Takeda a ladder. The weapon gets propped up in the corner, where Omega is SPEARED into it. The referee is quick to remove the ladder from the ring, but Omega is still getting double teamed, as his opponents take turn hitting him with corner attacks. Takeda connects with a back suplex to set up a K-Driller (i.e. the move that broke Steve Austin’s neck), but Kota Ibushi saves before Miyamoto can get a three count with the deadly maneuver.

The ladder is back in the ring now, with Yuko climbing it. He connects with a moonsault off the structure onto Omega, but Kenny kicks out at two to a surprisingly tepid crowd reaction. Then, out of nowhere, Omega hits his own, even deadlier looking version of the K-Driller on Miyamoto while the Japanese wrestler comes off the ropes, and here’s hot tag number three for the Golden Lovers. Takeda is in as well, and he immediately kicks Ibushi across his chest and lands the DOMINATOR for a two count. Wow, it’s been forever since I’ve seen that move. Clarence Mason is the man, crossin’ t’s and dottin’ i’s. Ibushi rolls through a Takeda suplex attempt, though, and kicks him in the head. A double team German suplex and then double dropkick fro the Lovers take Takeda down, but Miyamoto saves. He is dispatched, allowing both Omega and Ibushi to climb to the top rope in the same corner. Before they can do anything, Miyamoto crotches Omega and knocks Ibushi out of position. Miyamoto and Takeda attempt a two-man superplex on Kenny, but, before they can reel it off, Ibushi comes handspringing across the ring with a Pele kick to both of their backs. Ibushi feeds Takeda up to Omega, who is seated on the top rope, and they pull him off with a TWO MAN STUFF K-DRILLER FROM THE SECOND ROPE HOLY CHRIST MASASHI TAKEDA IS DEAD for the three count.

Match Thoughts It was interesting to compare and contrast this match with the Tanaka/Fujita vs. Cooger/Tajiri match that immediately preceded it. Don’t get me wrong, they were both very fun matches, but they were very fun matches for entirely different reasons. The prior match was enjoyable because, for the most part, everything that the wrestlers did made sense and told a story, building to a logical and satisfying conclusion. This match wasn’t bad in terms of how it built, but it relied a lot more on flashy or unique maneuvers from the younger wrestlers involved than it did psychology or subtle tricks in terms of timing and selling. Both types of match are perfectly acceptable if you’ve got the right guys doing them, and this match delivered in its style just about as well as the prior match did in its style. Perhaps the only thing holding this one back was that, if I recall correctly, Ibushi was legitimately banged up going into it, so he couldn’t move as fluidly or fly as highly as he normally does. Otherwise, this was fine stuff. ***1/4

Overall

It is hard for me to render an overall opinion as to the show given that we’re holding off on a significant chunk of it for next week, but I will say that these four matches were all very solid and set a good foundation for what’s coming up on the next portion of the card. I had absolutely nothing to complain about watching any of these bouts, and pretty much all of them aside from the opener fall into the category of matches that I wouldn’t mind watching a second time. We will see next week, however, whether the remainder of the show is as well received.

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See you all next week!