Into the Indies 03.08.11: Campground Pro Wrestling

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is hopefully getting a little bit back on track.

One of the staples of Into the Indies since its inception has been our looking at the crazy, so-called “off-ring” matches from the promotion DDT. The Dramatic Dream Team has hosted several of these bouts over the years, including matches that we’ve reviewed which took place in amusement parks, in regular parks, and even in a refinery.

However, when I first heard of the DDT off-ring match, it was some time before I started writing this column, and it involved a match that was held at a campground. The match took place in 2008, and it pitted DDT founder Sanshiro Takagi and the company’s current ace and most popular export Kota Ibushi against the duo of Muscle Sakai and Antonio Honda. The match almost immediately became a cult classic among English-speaking fans on the internet, and, in addition to leading to more off-ring matches in a variety of settings, it also spawned a second camp ground match in 2009, this time featuring Ibushi teaming with new friend and regular partner Kenny Omega in a three way against the team of Takagi and former KO-D Openweight Champion HARASHIMA as well as all-around wacky character Michael Nakazawa and obese Ibushi wannabe Gota Ihashi.

Of course, after the success of these two matches, it was announced that DDT would return to the camp ground for a third time in 2010. However, in a bit of a surprise, it was also announced that this would be the LAST camp ground match for the company. In order to make the final appearance at the campsite extra-special, one more team was added to the prior year’s match to make the 2010 installment a four-way. It is that match we will be taking a look at today, and the participating teams are:

Dick Togo & Kota Ibushi: Ibushi, of course, is a camp ground wrestling veteran. This year, he selected a formidable partner in the form of Dick Togo, the man who made his name in Michinoku Pro Wrestling and who also had a cup of tea with the WWF. Togo has been a force on the Japanese independent scene for roughly fifteen years now, and he made sure that the DDT camp ground match was one of the stops along the tour to his retirement, which is upcoming in 2011.

Michael Nakazawa & Mammoth Handa: Mammoth Handa, not to be confused with Antonio Honda, is a comedy wrestler who occasionally pops up in DDT but is more frequently seen in even tinier indy groups like Sportiva Entertainment out of Nagoya. He is paired with another campsite veteran, Michael Nakazawa, the former oiled up Nuru Nuru Brother who has been a staple of DDT’s interaction with US company CHIKARA.

Keisuke Ishii & YOSHIHIKO: We all know and love YOSHIHIKO, the wrestling blow-up doll who has captured wrestling fans’ imaginations over the past couple of years. We have seen him in singles action in this column against Kenny Omega and against Kota Ibushi, so we know that he brings some serious chops to the table. His partner, Keisuke Ishii, is a lower card DDT wrestler with three years of experience.

Sanshiro Takagi & Muscle Sakai: The only team consisting of two camp site veterans, Takagi and Sakai are counting on their experience advantage to give them the edge in the matchup.

With that background out of the way, let’s go to the match itself . . .

Dick Togo & Kota Ibushi vs. Michael Nakazawa & Mammoth Handa vs. Keisuke Ishii & YOSHIHIKO vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Muscle Sakai (DDT Campsite Pro Wrestling, 09/12/2010)

The wackiness starts with the wrestlers’ ring introductions, which are made by a young man over a bullhorn. The announcer is inexplicably wearing angel’s wings. All of the wrestlers are in their standard gear except for Sakai, who has taken things a bit far and is actually dressed like he’s on a camping trip, complete with large backpack and, for some reason, cross country skiing poles. Ibushi carries road flares out with him to add a little bit of spice to his entrance, but he drops them as soon as they start burning his hands.

Various combinations of wrestlers lock up with one another as soon as the bell rings, and they actually start the match by grabbing holds and working them and also apparently by obeying standard tag team rules, as it’s only one man from each team in at a time. I should probably mention, just for clarity’s sake, that there is NO RING, and the wrestling is beginning in a dirt patch and will continue throughout the woods as things start to break down. Takagi and Togo in particular do a good job of working traditional holds against one another despite the unusual environment, including at one point a headscissor/kip up spot. When Nakazawa and Ibushi tag in for their respective teams, they go at it with forearms while Muscle Saki locks in a triangle choke on YOSHIHIKO. Ibushi hits some of his trademark kicks and a STANDING MOONSAULT on the bare earth. That’s no good for your knees.

Now things start to open up, as Takagi grabs a guitar and hits Togo in the gut with it before Irish whipping him into a tree. We’re constantly cutting back and forth between shots from five different cameras, so the play-by-play is going to be more than a bit scattershot here. Takagi’s guitar also finds its way into Handa’s back as Sakai bodyslams Ishii down on to YOSHIHIKO in what is probably one of the more comfortable bumps of the match. After another cut, Ibushi and Takagi are shown teasing throwing one another off of a bridge, while Togo connects with a ROLLING SENTON on to Nakazawa off of a wood pile. Muscle Sakai and YOSHIHIKO both take a rolling bump down a hill. Takagi and Ibushi have apparently started brawling on top of a cabin. In a first for one of these off-ring matches, DDT is doing a split screen showing three different pairings of wrestlers at a time, so this is getting REALLY difficult to keep track of.

Eventually, Ibushi knocks Takagi off of the top of the cabin and flies off at him with a high cross body block that sends Takagi flying back into some kind of table. Meanwhile, Ishii and YOSHIHIKO are running as fast as they possibly can away from Muscle Sakai. Takagi, taking a breather after the cross body spot, grabs the guitar he was using as a weapon earlier and starts playing it while singing what I can only assume is some kind of traditional Japanese camp song. In the middle of his ditty, he runs across Ishii and YOSHIHIKO and hits them both with the guitar. Elsewhere, Kota Ibushi does a moonsault off of a hill and down on to Handa. Speaking of hills, there’s a good shot of Takagi throwing YOSHIHIKO off the side of a hill, a fate which Sakai suffers at the hands of one of his opponents seconds later. I’m guessing that was a bit harder on Sakai’s body than it was on YOSHIHIKO’s.

In a spot that would make Kevin Sullivan proud, Dick Togo takes Michael Nakazawa into one of the campground’s on-site toilets and shoves his face into a urinal. Nakzawa actually comes out spewing urinal water from his mouth, so he took that one like a champ. Out of nowhere, Kota Ibushi exits the adjacent stall pantomiming that he has just used the facilities. Needless to say, Togo seizes the opportunity, kicks Nakazawa low, and shoots him into the privy that Kota had been occupying. Fresh off of his constitutional, Ibushi gets set up for a lariat by Takagi, but it misses and Sanshiro hits nothing but tree. Now Nakazawa and Togo are brawling near a small waterfall, with Togo forcing Michael down into the water, not just attempting to drown him but also no doubt doing some serious damage to the fine leather jacket that Nakazawa chose to wear to the match. Nakazawa responds by using one of Muscle Sakai’s discarded skiing poles to choke Togo . . . and now we hear an odd noise, as Sanshiro Takagi has apparently found a LEAF BLOWER. Unless it was in one of the split screens that I wasn’t paying attention to, he does nothing of note with it.

Not to be outdone, Handa has grabbed an inflatable pool toy in the shape of an orca, which he begins riding through a small pond. I don’t know why. Unfortunately for him, he comes across Sakai and Togo, who are sitting next to one another and fishing while also chopping each other across the chest. With the aid of an obviously biased referee, Sakai and Togo begin SHOOTING FIREWORKS at Handa as he sits helplessly in the water on his orca. Kota Ibushi joins in on the fun, and it appears that several of the projectiles are actually connecting with Handa, which can’t be fun. At least he’s in the water. After that sequence ends, we join up with Ibushi, who is now carrying an umbrella and wearing a wicker backpack of some sort. He meets up with Takagi, who catches him with a guitar shot. They also come across some bottle rockets, and it’s not long until we’ve got a Takagi/Ibushi firework duel which Michael Nakzawa also joins in on. Ibushi winds up taking a shot right to the top of his head, which probably would’ve ignited his hair if it weren’t sopping wet. With Takagi running out of ammo, Ibushi makes a smart move and recruits several fans in attendance to help him out, arming them all with fireworks and creating a veritable firing squad that goes after Michael Nakzawa.

Sanshiro Takagi is singing again. This time, Dick Togo catches up with him and gives him a guitar shot so hard that the back finally breaks off of the instrument. This leads to them sitting on patio furniture and exchanging chops, teasing that each will eventually do a backwards bump out of his chair. Seriously, if you want to see great selling of something completely absurd, watch this sequence. Eventually it is Takagi who takes the fall, and he catches his head on a wooden guardrail on the way down. A great subtle highlight of the match was the referee immediately jumping in to check on Takagi as though he’d just taken a hellacious bump, even though he was obviously fine. Elsewhere, Kota Ibushi finds a set of swings and enjoys rocking back and forth on them until Nakazawa locates him and tries to use the fireworks again. Ibushi responds by simultaneously swinging AND firing off his own bottle rockets, which may be more impressive than any Phoenix Splash he’s ever done.

Togo catches up with Nakazawa and ambushes him, setting him up so that Ibushi can hit a couple of swing assisted flying kicks. Handa eats one as well, but the result is that Ibushi gets so twisted up on the swing that he eventually goes flying out of it. Togo grabs Handa and slams him on a platform of some kind, dropping an elbow and applying the crippler crossface. Nakazawa breaks it up. On another side of the campground, Keisuke Ishii has located a rope swing and attaches YOSHIHIKO to it, shooting him down like a wrecking ball at Sanshiro Takagi. Takagi eats it and is clearly in pain as Ibushi gives Nakazawa a rana on the same wooden platform Togo and Handa were on earlier. The men also tease suplexing each other on the wood, but those moves never connect until Ibushi first softens Michael up with a PELE KICK to set up a DEADLIFT GERMAN. Ouch. Handa is there to prevent Ibushi from getting a three count and ending the match.

While all of this is going on, YOSHIHIKO eats a Pedigree from Togo on the bare earth. Dick climbs a hill presumably looking to finish him off with a senton atomico. Ishii breaks it up, so Togo nails him as well and throws him into a cabin. Once there, Togo hits a rolling thunder on both Ishii and YOSHIHIKO, though it only gets two. Apparently Sanshiro Takagi and Kota Ibushi are also in the cabin, as they brawl on a small balcony. Takagi eventually takes a (very safe) fall off of the balcony and back down to the ground. This all leads, somehow, to Ibushi giving Takagi a snap mare into a river as Togo tries to drown Handa in a mud puddle. It gets two. Not long after, Michael Nakzawa, who has now been stripped down to a thong for god knows what reason, suffers a similar fate. Virtually all of the wrestlers are brawling in the river now, when, out of nowhere, Keisuke Ishii throws YOSHIHIKO down off of a bridge, which takes out all of the men down below and elicits a “HOLY SHIT!” chant from the audience. I can’t say that I blame them.

A few minutes later, Sanshiro Takagi is seen wheeling around a bicycle covered in a tarp. He removes the tarp to reveal that the basket on the bike has been outfitted with a FIREWORK CANNON. He tries to shoot the cannon off at Handa, but it backfires and the camera winds up blowing up in Takagi’s own face. He takes a bump off of the back of the bicycle, so Ishii runs over and tries to pin him. It only gets two as Handa makes the save. Handa may not get nailed by any of Takagi’s fireworks, but he is hit with a few more bottle rockets by Ibushi, who steals the cannon off of the front of Sanshiro’s fallen bike and uses it to shoot at Handa. This softens Handa up enough that Ishii can throw him into a pond and follow him down there with a SPINNING HEEL KICK. It gets two, as Takagi saves and POWERBOMBS Ishii into the pond. Ibushi breaks up the pin attempt with a MISSILE DROPKICK on Takagi, followed by a QUEBRADA into the pond. Michael Nakazawa is in now, but he’s nailed by Dick Togo and given a POND PEDIGREE followed up by a SENTON INTO THE POND.

When we cut away from all of that, it’s to a shot of Muscle Sakai. For some reason, he has started a gigantic campfire. Dick Togo and Kota Ibushi get into a truck not that far from the fire and drive it in very slow motion, with Sakai and Handa both taking bumps off of the truck as though they were taking shoulderblocks. Eventually the truck comes up on Takagi, who briefly acts like he is stopping it and then pushing it back, but eventually he too succumbs and takes the shoulderblock bump. Keisuke Ishii, the smart one of the group, runs away from the truck instead of towards it, so Togo gets out and holds him in place as Ibushi drives. However, that leads to a MALFUNCTION AT THE JUNCTION, as Ishii moves and Ibushi winds up driving the truck into his own partner. Now the focus becomes Michael Nakzawa and YOSHIHIKO, as YOSHI gets his face thrown into Sakai’s campfire by Nakazawa. YOSHIHIKO’s partner Ishii makes the save and unfortunately has to stomp on his own tag partner’s face in order to put out the flames.

From there, Kota Ibushi gets ahold of YOSHIHIKO and pulls him up on top of the truck that was being used earlier. Ibushi powerbombs YOSHI on top of the cab, but it only gets a two count. Ibushi then locks YOSHIHIKO for a brainbuster and LEAPS OFF THE TRUCK to connect with the move. It only gets two as Ishii saves. The distraction allows YOSHIHIKO to give Ibushi a satellite rana, after which YOSHI starts setting up for his very dangerous variation on the Canadian Destroyer. Ibushi fights it, knowing he doesn’t want to take the move on the bare ground. YOSHI is too much for Ibushi to handle, though, as the DESTROYER INTO THE DIRT CONNECTS . . . AND SO DOES A SECOND!

Needless to say, that is enough to earn YOSHIHIKO a pinfall victory over Kota Ibushi to end the match.

Overall

As noted above, I’ve watched a fair number of matches similar to this one over the years, not just from DDT but also from groups like BJW and IWA Japan who pioneered this style of wrestling in the mid and late 1990’s. (Though they didn’t do it for laughs as DDT is largely doing.) Of all of them, this probably ranked among one of my favorites, in part because there was a lot of creative stuff and in part because the creative stuff was done with a lot fewer props available to the wrestlers than there have been in other environments. If you’re wrestling in an iron works, you’ve got a ton of bars and forklifts rolling around. If you’re wrestling in an amusement park, there are scads of rides and games to use as weapons. However, at a campground, you’re mostly dealing with dirt, water, and a couple of small buildings. These guys took the limited props that they had (and lack of ring) and turned it into a fun match that ran for a FULL HOUR and never once dragged for failed to be entertaining.

Perhaps the only drawback was the fact that, with three split screens up at the same time during various points at the show, it was hard to track exactly what was going on. However, if you’re watching this match on tape as opposed to live (which virtually everybody reading this column will be doing), you could almost spin that into being a positive, as it gives the show rewatchability, as you can focus on a different frame of action each time.

In summary, though it is difficult to assign star ratings to matches like this one, I have to give it my highest recommendation to watch if you can stand comedy in your professional wrestling. It’s definitely one to go after if you’re only going to watch one match of this genre.

Looking forward to the next installment of Into the Indies? Keep an eye on 411’s Twitter accounts, and you just might see it pop up!

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

See you all next week!