Into the Indies 02.08.11: Back to SMASH (Part 2)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column shrouded in mystery.

Last week, this column unexpectedly vanished. Unfortunately, as occurs from time to time, I had a few other things going on and had to skip out on I2I for one week only. However, we’re now back in full force, picking up exactly where we left off. Two weeks ago when we last saw you, the column focused on the tenth show produced by the Yoshihiro Tajiri-booked company SMASH, which was their debut in JCB Hall, a significantly larger venue than they had been running in the past.

Having covered the undercard, which featured a bizarre variety of performers including Jushin Liger, Scotty II Hotty, Bushwacker Luke, and Takao Omori, we now start to move up the card and head into matches that are more important and showcase more if SMASH’s key talent. Will SMASH 10 wind up being as fun as the earlier shows from the promotion that I’ve watched?

It’s time to find out.

Match Numero Cinco: Yoshiaki Yago vs. Akira Shoji

Shoji, who we have seen before as one of SMASH’s regular veterans, got this match against Yago as a result of a beatdown that the younger wrestler inflicted upon him at an earlier show. For those not familiar with Yago, he has been around since roughly 2004 and started with TAKA Michinoku’s Kaientai Dojo promotion. Lately, he has been a freelancer occasionally appearing with DDT, and he also has a kickboxing background which was put on display in his most noteworthy independent appearance in the United States, where he wrestled the Necro Butcher in CHIKARA in a match where the two guys absolutely DRILLED one another with strikes.

Speaking of strikes, it’s Shoji’s forearms and headbutts vs. Yago’s kicks and punches as soon as the bell rings, a battle which Yago wins when he ducks under a headbutt and attempts an abdominal stretch. Shoji blocks it, so Yago settles for throwing him out of the ring. Back on the inside, Yago tries to ram his man’s head into the turnbuckles, but Akira no-sells it. Yago responds with a neck snap over the top rope and the same draping DDT that Bushwacker Luke just used to win the prior match. Where, oh where, have the road agents gone? This time around, the move only gets a two count. An axe bomber and a CM Punk corner kneelift connect for Yago, followed by a missile dropkick. A brainbuster also gets two for the K-Dojo product, after which he tries for the abdominal stretch once more. Shoji blocks it and reverses into an impressive deadlift gutwrench, culminating in a bit of a powerbomb variation. Shoji takes his man down with shoulderblocks and a lariat for his first two count of the match. The MMA vet looks for a hiptoss, but Yago blocks it and goes for the abdominal stretch once more. Shoji rolls out before it’s fully locked in, and Yago’s next attempt is reversed into a Fujiwara armbar. Yago almost makes the ropes, so Shoji lets it go voluntarily and headbutts him. HARD. A couple more of those connect before Yago, obviously groggy, returns to his feet. He gets up in Shoji’s face, so Shoji responds with another big headbutt that takes Yago off of his feet for three.

Match Thoughts: This was an interesting match in terms of how the wrestlers decided to put it together. Both of these guys have legitimate fighting backgrounds, Yago in kickboxing and Shoji in more conventional MMA. Normally when wrestlers with that sort of background have a worked match against one another, you expect a worked match that at least in some ways will mimic a shoot. (Moreso than all pro wrestling matches are technically supposed to mimic shoots.) However, in this particular case, the wrestlers seemingly decided to leave their respective backgrounds at the door and have a more traditional professional wrestling bout. The result was good, but not spectacular . . . and part of me thinks that it would have been better if they’d stuck more to what they’re comfortable with. **

Match Numero Seis: Leatherface & Kim Numpum vs. Lin Bairon in a Handicap Match

For those of you new to SMASH, Bairon is a female wrestler and one of three or four young wrestlers who the company is really trying to establish as one of its big stars. She has had a bit of an issue with Numpum, who is a Korean heel who does a lot of comedy that I don’t understand because of the language barrier. Lin was originally supposed to have a partner here in the form of Israeli-Canadian wrestler Golem Knight. However, he was injured at the last minute, leaving her to go it solo against Numpum and his partner, Leatherface. Yes, Leatherface is doing a gimmick based on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. I’m frankly not certain who is playing him here. The original Leatherface in Japan was the former Corporal Kirchner of WWF fame, though the gimmick was taken over after a time by Canadian wrestler by the name of Rick Patterson. Both have been active in recent years, as have any other number of large Caucasian men who could put on an Ed Gein mask, so who knows who I actually playing the character here.

They’re doing this match with tag rules enforced, and it’s Leatherface who takes the first crack it Lin. He no-sells a bunch of her offense but falls to his knees off of a single-leg dropkick and takes a bump off the 619. It doesn’t take long at all before he takes control, though, tossing Bairon down with a snap mare and then a hair beal. There’s the tag to Numpum, who tries to take Lin down with a waistlock but gets kicked low. Bairon tries to take her man down with a cross body block, but she’s caught and slammed . . . only for Numpum to accidentally clothesline Leatherface. Lin follows up by dropkicking Kim in the face and hitting a handspring elbow for two. Leatherface makes the save but Numpum accidentally boots him this time, and now we’ve got a shoving match between the partners. Bairon tries to take advantage of the situation with a top rope cross body. Numpum was supposed to catch her, but he falls down into a heap. Numpum and Leatherace jaw with one another for a bit until some more weak kicks from the movie monster put the Korean down. Lin tries to slip in and capitalize again, but ‘Face grabs her and sets up for a vertical suplex. Lin reverses it into a DDT that causes Leather to roll out of the ring, at which point Bairon is able to pin Numpum with a moonsault press.

Match Thoughts: This. Was. Bad. From what I’ve seen of Numpum, he’s not that great in the ring and relies primarily on his schtick to get over, sort of SMASH’s equivalent of Santino Marella. Leatherface, regardless of whether he was Kirchner, Patterson, or some other guy, seemed like he was having a really hard time moving out there and was limiting himself to only the most basic of offense, and even that didn’t look great. I’m a fan of Lin Bairon from what I’ve seen so far, as she’s got great charisma and is fairly athletic, but she can only get so much done against two big lugs like these. At least this gets her a big win from a kayfabe perspective. DUD.

Match Numero Siete: Emi Sakura & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Kana & Shuri

Those of you who have followed our SMASH coverage in this column will probably recall that Kana and Shuri had a two match feud going. However, they turned their rivalry around as Kana developed respect for Shuri and the two decided to team up to find off to female outsiders attempting to invade SMASH, namely JWP’s Kaori Yoneyama and the leader of Ice Ribbon, Emi Sakura.

It’s Sakura and Shuri at the bell, with Shuri looking surprisingly good in the opening mat work before tagging in Yoneyama. Kaori takes a cheap shot at Kana as she stands on the apron, though that proves to be a poor move as it gives Shuri a chance to ambush her. Kana tags in from there and connects with some kicks and forearms. Yoneyama responds with boots to the mush and begins choking Kana on the ropes and tearing at her face. Kana tries to fight back with a German suplex, but Yoneyama rolls through it and hits a big running knee. She tries for a second version of the move, only to have her leg grabbed and pulled into Kana’s ankle lock. She follows it up with a German that DOES connect, though Yoneyama recovers quickly and kicks Kana back into her corner, giving us tags to Shuri and Sakura.

The two fresh wrestlers exchange armdrags until Sakura takes advantage with her Mongolian chops. That builds into a forearm exchange, which Emi wins to set up a cross body block in the corner. Yoneyama checks back in, giving Shuri a facebuster and placing her in an Indian deathlock, later turned into a Mutoh lock. A bow and arrow hold is Yoneyama’s next submission maneuver, but Shuri won’t give it up. Kaori stays on her woman with a dropkick and makes the tag to Sakura, who puts Shuri into an impressive rolling surfboard hold. That’s followed up with a pair of butterfly backbreakers, which Shuri does a great job of selling. Backbreaker number three is reversed into a back body drop and Shuri hits the ropes, but she’s cut off and given a tilt-a-whirl version of the backbreaker. Emi hits the ropes now, but she too is cut off, this time by Shuri’s lungblower.

Emi rolls the dice to regain the advantage, after which Yoneyama runs in and hits a senton. The duo tries to team up for their version of Poetry in Motion, but it misses and Shuri gives her lungblower to Yoneyama. That gives us the hot tag to Kana, who hits a barrage of missile dropkicks to start the comeback and takes Sakura down into a keylock. Emi makes the ropes to force a break, after which Kana connects with the Rude Awakening and the butt butt. Shuri tags back in and kicks away at Emi Sakura, getting two off of the Ed Leslie memorial high knee before Yoneyama saves.

Yoneyama lays into Shuri with a running kneelift, which sets up an Argentine backbreaker by Sakura. Yoneyama briefly has Kana in a submission at the same time, but Kana eventually breaks free and saves Shuri from Sakura’s submission. Yoneyama gets right back on Kana, though, dispatching her with a CHAOS THEORY~! suplex. That allows Sakura to hit another backbreaker on Shuri, followed by a sequence in which Sakura hits a Vader bomb, Yoneyama hits a Dick Togo diving senton, and then Sakura hits another Vader bomb. Kana saves her opponent from certain defeat, so Emi goes back at her and hits a 450 SPLASH on Shuri. Kana saves again and blocks Yoneyama’s Stratusfaction attempt with a suplex. From there, Kana takes Sakura down with a big strikes and starts slapping Shuri around in an “I’m trying to revive you and get you back into the action” sort of way. Shuri and Kana then trap Emi Sakura in the middle of the ring and hit her with a series of kicks and forearms, culminating with a big high kick by Shuri. That’s enough to earn her the three count.

Match Thoughts: This was a fun little match. I’m very impressed by how quickly Shuri has been able to transition from wrestling a style that was essentially rooted in her matches against men to fitting in with current joshi matches, which can be a completely different animal. The action was really hot and heavy towards the end especially, with everybody moving at a rapid pace and getting some heated nearfalls all with no wrestler every being out of position. If I had any complaint about the match, it was Kana going for too much big offense too early in the match. She was out there hitting German suplexes and other maneuvers that should be potential match enders in the very early going, and it made the rest of the bout hard to get into for a little while, though the more seasoned wrestlers were able to bring it back and reinvigorate things. ***

Match Numero Ocho: Super Crazy, KUSHIDA, & Isami Kodaka vs. Hajime Ohara, Haijy-Hame Ukonselka, & Jessica Love in a Hardcore Match

This is a match pitting wrestlers loyal to SMASH against the rival promotion of Fight Club Finland. Everybody knows Super Crazy, and he’s captaining a team that also includes SMASH’s main rising star KUSHIDA and Isami Kodaka, a hardcore wrestler most commonly associated with Big Japan who is a KUSHDIA opponent from a prior edition of SMASH. On the other side, it’s FCF’s resident caveman Ukonselka and FCF’s resident transvestite Jessica Love working alongside Hajime Ohara, a Japanese wrestler who turned his back on SMASH and supposedly joined the FCF roster in storyline.

Unlike every other match on the show, we are for some reason joined in progress here, with Ukonselka working over Super Crazy in the ring. The Fin places Super Crazy on the top rope for some offense, but that backfires, as the luchadore hits a tornado DDT. The focus then shifts to Kodaka and Ohara, with the former throwing the latter into the ring steps. Now we’ve got KUSHIDA throwing love into the ring and hitting her with a push broom. Okay then. Crazy joins KUSHIDA in the ring with a chair, giving Love the old Raven drop toe hold spot onto the furniture, followed by dropkicking the seat of the chair into her face. Kodaka, who is now bleeding, takes over on Love at this point, propping a table up in the corner and whipping her into it. Love avoids a lariat and responds with a dropkick, though, giving Ukonselka a chance to run in and take over on Kodaka. Ukonselka wears him out with a Singaporean cane for a bit, then asking Love to set up the table. Kodama is placed on it, at which point Ukonselka grabs Love and powerbombs her onto Kodama. The table doesn’t break, so Ukonselka does it a second time, this time with the table barely giving away.

That spot gets a good reaction from the crowd, after which Super Crazy interferes to go after the Fin. Love hands to Ukonselka the FAKEST LOOKING FAKE SWORD EVER. Seriously, the blade was flopping around like a fish as the thing was being handed off. Ukonselka pretends to cut Super Crazy open with the “sword” as Crazy blades. Just embarrassingly bad stuff there. Super Crazy is incapacitated, having just been cut open with a sword and all, so Kodama runs in and dropkicks the big European’s knees out from under him. That sets up a KUSHIDA springboard leg lariat and a rana on Ukonselka, which takes him out of the ring. KUSHIDA follows his man off with a no hands tope con hilo off of a chair. Unfortunately for KUSHIDA, Hajime Ohara is right there and grabs him, ultimately slamming him into a wall. At this point Crazy goes, umm, Crazy, and hits a moonsault off of a balcony onto both Ohara and KUSHIDA to a big ECDub chant. Crazy celebrates in the ring after that, but Ukonselka catches him unawares and spears him into a barbed wire board that was apparently set up in the ring while the cameras weren’t looking. It gets two. Ukonselka tries to Irish whip Love into Crazy, but Supes backdrops her and she winds up landing in the barbed wire. All six wrestlers are briefly in the ring, with Kodama and KUSHIDA double teaming Ohara. They give him a series of corner attacks and lay a ladder on top of him, after which Kodama comes off the top rope with a version of the Arabian facebuster.

KUSHIDA covers but Love saves. Jessica and Ohara double team KUSHIDA for a bit and Love goes up top for her version of the senton atomico. KUSHIDA kicks out at two. Kodama returns to the ring and tosses love to the floor before he and KUSHIDA team up again to send Ohara into a ladder. KUSHIDA starts to take wild swings at Ohara with a kendo stick but misses, allowing Hajime to take him down with a leg lariat. KUSHIDA is quick to recover, though, and a cane shot from Kodama sets up a DRAGON SUPLEX~! on Ohara. Somehow, he kicks out a two. He should have stayed down, because kicking out ensured that he would take an even more brutal move, as Kodama throws him out of the ring and blasts him with a tope suicida executed while holding onto the cane. While that is going on, KUSHIDA sets up his ladder one more time, climbs to the top, and comes off with a moonsault onto Jessica Love to pin her and win the match.

Match Thoughts: I have to admit, I haven’t been the biggest fan of the FCF wrestlers competing in SMASH. Starbuck, who we’ll get to in a bit, is rather experienced and in good shape, but his various trainees are all fairly green and/or wrestle like they’re just doing their favorite spots off of WWE television. However, it appears that people backstage have caught on and done things to help hide their shortcomings, including adding the very talented Hajime Ohara to their team and putting them into a hardcore match like this one where they wouldn’t necessarily need to wrestle well. The result was a better match than usual from the crew, though it still wasn’t exactly a showstealer. There were some eye catching spots, don’t get me wrong, but it was hard for me to get into the match mainly because it didn’t seem like there was agreement on what the match should be. For part of the bout, it was wrestled like a serious hardcore brawl in which the SMASH contingent was trying to get some revenge against the FCF posse. For another part of the bout, it was wrestled like a more lighthearted ECW nostalgia bout, with Super Crazy doing his spots from that promotion and mugging for the crowd for some cheap pops. Sometimes a “hybrid” match like that can work, but usually it starts in one mode and transitions to another instead of swinging back and forth like this one did. That combined with the silliness with the fake sword takes this match down a couple of pegs. **

Match Numero Neuve: Starbuck (c) vs. Tajiri for the FCF Championship

This may well be the culmination of SMASH’s biggest rivalry. When wrestlers from Fight Club Finland first started popping up in Japan, their champion was a man named Valentine. Tajiri defeated Valentine to take the title, after which FCF’s promoter and biggest star Starbuck showed up to avenge his company. ‘Buck was put over like a monster, selling very little and pinning guys with one finger after hitting him with his piledriver. He immediately took the FCF Title off of Tajiri and continued to terrorize the roster, including getting a win over New Japan legend AKIRA. Now, in SMASH’s biggest show to date, Tajiri tries to take the gold back.
It’s very basic offense off of the ropes early, with headlocks and shoulderblocks abounding and a few forearms peppered in. Of course, the two wrestlers stand off after a bit and the fans applaud. Starbuck takes his man down with a snap mare and gets two off of a crucifix when they reengage, after which Tajiri does the same. More basic holds are traded on the mat, culminating in Starbuck maneuvering his man back into the corner for a while. Coming out of that, they fight over more waistlocks and headlocks, with Tajiri being in control when the sequence comes to an end. He works a headlock for a relatively long period of time and actually does a fairly good job of keeping it interesting, which is a fast dying art. Starbuck eventually tries to power out with a suplex, but Tajiri rolls out, only to be hit with a back elbow seconds later. ‘Buck follows up with the Mr. Perfect flying neck snap and a swinging neckbreaker for two, presumably softening his man up for the piledriver. A superkick in the corner is the Fin’s next bit of offense, and he follows it up with a basement dropkick. In a move you don’t see too often anymore, ‘Buck climbs to the top rope behind a standing Tajiri, places his knee on the back of his opponent’s neck, and “rides” him down to the mat. From there, a Starbuck baseball slide kick sends Tajiri dropping down onto the floor, after which the FCF Champ hits his man with elbows and kneedrops to the neck as Tajiri is draped out across the ring apron.

When things get back to the ring, Starbuck leaps off of the top rope but gets kicked by Tajiri and cradled for two. ‘Buck comes back with an inverted atomic drop and a tiger driver, which may be the first time in wrestling history those two moves have ever been performed consecutively. It’s like a 1970’s MSG house show meets a 1990’s Budokan show. Now Starbuck heads into the sleeper and takes Tajiri all the way to the mat with it, causing the fans to chant their countryman’s name. This empowers Tajiri, allowing him to elbow out of the hold. Starbuck stays on him with a side Russian legsweep for a nearfall. Now it’s time for the STF, which Tajiri breaks thanks to a military crawl to the ropes. During this camera shot, we learn that Tajiri has inadvertently lacerated his arm at some point during the match. He’s got bigger problems than that, though, as ‘Buck gives him a gut wrench suplex and heads to the top rope. Tajiri blocks whatever was coming, though, hitting a high kick that sets up the Flair beal. At this point the wrestlers start trading open hand strikes, which Tajiri wins to set up some more kicks and the handspring elbow. Now we’ve got ourselves a comeback.

Tajiri keeps the offense rolling with the Tarantula, which is, of course, quickly broken up. He goes to the top rope after the hold is broken and Starbuck follows, only to be caught off balance and driven to the mat with a sunset flip powerbomb by Tajiri. Starbuck is able to come back almost immediately with a backdrop suplex, after which he starts to signal for the piledriver. Tajiri kicks him in the head as he’s being lifted up for the move, though, and connects with another high kick to really stun the Fin. Tajiri teases the buzzsaw kick and connects, getting himself . . . TWO. The fans are not happy with that one. Tajiri tries for buzzsaw kick number two, but it’s ducked and Starbuck HITS THE PILEDRIVER. It gets . . . TWO. A second piledriver is attempted, but Tajiri blocks a kick and hits a piledriver of his own to set up a second buzzsaw kick that gives him the three count and the FCF Championship.

Match Thoughts: This was a very solid, old school professional wrestling match. It was an interesting departure from a lot of what you’ll see on a Japanese professional wrestling show, looking more like something you’d see in the main event of the Mid-South Coliseum twenty-five years ago. Some people might say that as a knock, but I say that as a compliment because this match absolutely worked for the crowd it was presented to, regardless of the fact that it might not have been the most innovative, groundbreaking wrestling in the world. It was the classic old story of the guy who has been built up as a killer finally meeting somebody who may have found around him. It was also great to see a match that was built entirely around one killer move (the piledriver) that had been well-established beforehand, as that’s the sort of thing that you very rarely see in professional wrestling in the twenty-first century. No, you’re probably not going to love this is you judge all professional wrestling by how closely it resembles a Dragon Gate match, but, if you’re somebody who can get into all genres, you’re probably going to dig this one more than a lot of more fast-paced wrestling. ***1/2

Overall

I can’t put my finger on what exactly it is, but I always wind up thoroughly enjoying shows from SMASH even though, if you look at the star ratings top from bottom, they’re nowhere near the best shows that I review from this column in terms of pure match quality. Part of it probably has to do with the storylines, as they’re always easy to follow despite the English-Japanese language barrier. On this card, for example, the story of the whole show was that SMASH’s home unit had suffered a number of embarrassing defeats on recent cards and this was the night on which they redeemed themselves with Shuri, Lin Bairon, KUSHIDA, and Tajiri himself all picking up big wins. Part of it probably also has to do with the eclectic talent rosters, as I’ve always been a guy who has a desire to see unique and/or unusual pairings of talent, and you’re certainly going to get a lot of that with SMASH’s Finnish crew, their World Legend Revival, their World Tryout Series, and their loose working relationship with Ohio Valley. There’s just a certain charm that this company possesses despite some weaker matches, and it makes it one of the easier Japanese products to watch on a consistent basis. SMASH 10 easily gets two thumbs up if you’re somebody who is already a fan of the company’s style.

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