wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 07.12.11: Exciting Battle in Okinawa

July 12, 2011 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that wishes that it had Jesse’s girl.

Every now and then, there is a single match that I’m looking forward to so much that I have no choice but to devote an entire column to it. It happened when the Osirian Portal debuted in Japan. It happened when the world’s gayest tag team formed. It happened when a couple of deathmatch guys had the match of the year. And, most notably, it happened when Kota Ibushi wrestled a blow-up doll.

You know, looking at that list of matches, I’m starting to suspect that my tastes are a bit . . . unusual . . .

. . . but I digress. For those of you who have been reading the column since the beginning, you know that one of my favorite products to cover has been Okinawa Pro Wrestling, a small regional promotion put together by Super Delfin which features the most off-the-wall characters you’ll find in any wrestling company in the world. Thus, when I saw that Okinawa Pro’s roster was going to get some significant exposure, I knew that I was going to have to focus in on the bout in question.

How did the Okinawa boys get this exposure, you ask? Well, New Japan Pro Wrestling has, multiple times over the past several years, passed through Okinawa for a show. Local Okinawa wrestlers have appeared on those cards with some regularity, but I was never aware of any of those matches being taped for television until March 25, 2011, when six of O-Pro’s finest were called in for an eight man tag match on an NJPW card in Okinawa. Three of the wrestlers would be teamed up with Rysuke Taguchi, one of the most accomplished members of New Japan’s current junior heavyweight roster, while three of the wrestlers would be teamed up with none other than Jushin Thunder Liger, a god among men when it comes to junior heavyweight wrestling. That’s a hell of a jump up in exposure from a group of guys who are used to wrestling in a venue that makes a high school gym look like the Superdome.

If you’re interested in the backgrounds of any of the Okinawa Pro wrestlers before the review begins, check out my first column on the promotion or my third column on the promotion, where all of the relevant information lies.

For those of you who don’t want to brush up on the players first, here is the action!

Rysuke Taguchi, Shisaou, Kijimuna, & Kaijin Habu Otoko vs. Jushin Liger, Mil Mongoose, Guruken Driver, & Menso-re Oyaji

I should note that Okinawa Pro has not just gotten their wrestlers booked on this card but has also somehow obtained the services of their MASKED REFEREE for this bout. In addition to looking hilarious in his hood, he’s actually a fairly decent ref if you keep an eye on him.

Oyaji and Taguchi start for their respective teams, so we’re getting interpromotional action right from the outset. There are some funky arm-wringer reversals and dancing, after which a stalemate sees tags to Kijimuna and Guruken Driver. Driver blocks a hiptoss and hits a couple of his own, followed by a standing dropkick that sends Kiji to the floor. Kaijin and Mil tag in to renew their epic snake/mongoose rivalry, and Kaijin gets an advantage by whipping his opponent with the tail attached to his mask. They do some fancy lucha highspots off the ropes, capped off with Mil getting a headscissors and a tag to Liger. Shisaou joins the match as well, so I believe we now have the two most experienced wrestlers in the match going head-to-head. Liger tries to take the bigger man down with shoulderblocks but can’t quite get the job done, though Shisaou easily runs through Liger and walks across his back. The Okinawa rep looks for an avalanche but misses, after which Liger hiptosses him and walks across his back.

With the initial one-on-one pairings out of the way, Oyaji tags in to go after Shisaou. He quickly hits him with a corner attack to set up his ropewalk beer can attack, though Shisaou no-sells it and lariats the little guy out of his boots, following it up with a second rope elbow drop. It gets two as Shisaou tags out to Kijimuna. The Australian-born wrestler hits a swinging neckbreaker on Oyaji to set up a second rope elbow of his own, which also gets two. Here comes Taguchi, who joins Kijimuna in double mud-stomping Oyaji in the corner before all four heels quadruple-team the man with a hibachi on his head. After the referee breaks up the four-on-one action, Taguchi puts Oyaji into the Tree of Joey Lawrence and gives him a dropkick, next making the tag to Kaijin Habu Otoko. The snake man hits a HIGH standing senton for a nearfall and immediately rolls out of the pinning combination into an ankle lock when he fails to get three. Oyaji makes the ropes but is kicked in the back of the head and placed in the ankle lock once more. Otoko makes what may ultimately prove to be a tactical error, as he releases the hold to go attack Oyaji’s partners on the apron. With the referee tending to the downed babyfaces, Shisaou enters the ring and Otoko jumps on to him piggyback style so that the two can come down with a combined pump splash on to poor Oyaji.

The faces break up the pin before that move has a chance to end the match, after which Oyaji makes a comeback when he ducks under a lariat and grabs his man in a tilt-a-whirl headscissors. There’s the hot tag to Liger, who takes out all of the bad guys with shotei until Kijimuna shoots him in the face with a party popper (no, seriously) and follows up with a rolling senton for a two count. Kiji next leaps off the second rope with a diving codebreaker on to the NJPW legend and floats over into a jackknife pin, but it only gets two as well. Kijimuna looks for a brainbuster but Liger blocks it, setting off a reversal series which results in Liger hitting a backbreaker and coming off the top with a frog splash. Taguchi breaks up the pin attempt, causing Guruken Driver to blindside him and hit a double knee attack in the corner. Driver comes off the top with a missile dropkick for two on Taguchi, followed by a unique bridging suplex that looked like a one-armed version of a butterfly suplex. It also gets two. Driver goes back to his double knees but comes up short this time, with Taguchi dropkicking him RIGHT IN THE FACE for a nearfall. Rysuke follows it up with the Three Amigos for another two count.

Mongoose breaks that one up, at which point Kaijin comes in to help out Taguchi. Mil sends both of his opponents out to the arena floor with a Tajiri-esque handspring elbow and follows it up with a HUGE tope con hilo on both guys. Oyaji looks for his own dive but is cut off and lariated by Shisaou, who tries to follow it with a powerbomb. Oyaji reverses into a rana and hits a bulldog before going up top for a high cross. It gets two. Shisaou is superkicked before he returns to his feet, which sets up Sliced Bread #2 by Oyaji. The bad guys save, the good guys run in after them, and we’ve got ourselves a pier six brawl. The heels are all whipped into one another and collapse in a heap, leading to the old “row the boat” comedy spot with Mil Mongoose giving Kaijin a rana in the center of the circle. Everybody clears the ring after that so that Mil can give Otoko his version of the 619 and La Mistica, but the snake man won’t tap. Instead, he breaks free of he hold and looks for a shining wizard. Mil ducks, but, in an awesome spot, Kaijin simply lands on one foot and uses his other leg to kick backwards and catch Mil in the side of the head. He follows that with a conventional shining wizard, which gets a two count.

Mil ducks a follow-up lariat and hits a Yoshi Tonic for a nearfall of his own, at which point all of the wrestlers run into the ring again. The faces dominate and take turns hitting corner attacks on Otoko, followed up with a big shotei from Liger. Mil Mongoose climbs to the top rope, with Liger pointing at him and yelling some words that, I swear, were some derivative of “Do your finish!” Mil obliges and hits a 450 splash, which looks to be the end except the heels save at the absolute last possible second. GREAT false finish there. After some brawling, Guruken and Oyaji wind up in the ring with Taguchi, though he manages to dropkick them both simultaneously. Mil Mongoose runs in, but, before he can do any damage to Taguchi, Kijimuna cuts him off and double teams Mil alongside Rysuke. Despite their best efforts, the Mongoose kicks out of a pin attempt at two. Shisaou checks in at this point and gives Mil the Last Ride, but all of the good guys save. When the smoke clears, Kaijin is in with Mil again, and he goes to the top rope. A HYYYYYYUGE frog splash connects, and that gives the bad guys a victory via pinfall.

Overall

I have to say that I was surprised by how good this match was. When I started watching it, I assumed that it would be eight minutes or so long, designed for each Okinawa Pro wrestler to get in long enough to do a spot or two with the younger guys like Guruken Driver perhaps being completely ignored. That’s not what we got, though. Instead we got a solid bout clocking in at around fifteen minutes which actually built like a traditional lucharesu tag, culminating with some innovative highspots and intense nearfalls that left me flashing a double thumbs up. I’ve seen the Okinawa Pro guys in similar matches before, but this one was a step above a lot of their bouts in their home promotion. I obviously don’t know exactly what was going on in the ring which caused the difference in quality, but I would imagine that it had a lot to do with having Liger in there. It appeared that there was more than one spot in which he was calling the shots and telling the less experienced wrestlers what they need to be doing. Hopefully as a result of an exciting match like this one, Liger will be able to see some of the talent in these guys and we can see more guest shots. I for one would mark out and mark out hard if we saw Mil Mongoose in a Super J Cup or Shisaou mixing it up with Prince Devitt. This was a very entertaining battle and a breath of fresh air for a New Japan Pro Wrestling card. All-in-all, I have zero complaints here. Fun times all around. ***1/2

Cheap Plug!size=4>

Do you like joshi puroresu? Do you like SHIMMER? If you’re reading this column, chances are that you answered “yes” to at least one of those questions. If you answered “yes” to at least one of those questions, chances are probably also good that you’d be interested in some merchandise related to Hiroyo Matsumoto, one of the brightest young stars in joshi and a former SHIMMER Tag Team Champion.

Well, you’re in luck! Artist and joshi enthusiast shupercousin has obtain from Matsumoto and her booking office S-Ovation the rights to produce and market a Hiroyo Matsumoto t-shirt to the English speaking world, with all proceeds going back to Hiroyo. It looks a little something like this: