wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 08.02.11: The Biggest Show of the Year (Part 1)

August 2, 2011 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the company with a healthy fear of the P’Zone.

This week, we’re taking a look at the 2011 version of what has unquestionably been the biggest independent wrestling show in the world for the past two years. Yes, it’s once again summer, and that means it’s time for the boys at the Dramatic Dream Team to take their acts which normally run in front of a few hundred fans at a shot and move them over to SUMO HALL~! where in 2009 they were able to attract 8,800 fans and in 2010 they were able to attract the same number once again. The company decided that they were going to try to make it a three-peat on July 24, 2011, and they were going to try to make it a three-peat primarily on the back of two matches . . . one of which was set up by this video:

Yes, that’s former Japanese MMA mega-star Bob Sapp, being found on the street begging for money and getting picked up by DDT brass, who would ultimately book him for the Ryogoku Peter Pan spectacular at Sumo Hall. There was a large match held amongst all of the major players in the DDT roster to determine who would have the honor of facing Bob Sapp, and it turned out to be none other than this man:

Yes, that’s Danshoku Dino, DDT’s resident gay rapist character, the last person that most sane individuals who expect to have a match against Bob Sapp for any reason. When I read that bout was taking place, I knew that this show would be a must-watch.

What’s the other match that DDT lined up to headline Ryogoku Peter Pan? Well, let’s go back to the video vault for that one:

That highlight package comes from a match between DDT’s Kota Ibushi and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Prince Devitt going at it in the semi-finals of NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament back on June 10 of this year. Ibushi would go on to win the entire tournament, and, just a short time later, defeat Devitt again, this time taking his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title off of him and taking it back to his home promotion of DDT. Devitt was itching for a rematch, and Ibushi had the smarts to make him come to his home company’s big Sumo Hall show in order to get it.

Between Ibushi/Devitt and Sapp/Dino, you’ve got the perfect combination of quality serious wrestling and quality over-the-top indy sleaze comedy. However, these two main events were just part of the appeal, as DDT booked a stacked card to fill out the evening. We’re going to take a look at the version of the show which aired on television, which cut some of the undercard stuff but kept all of the major bouts almost completely intact. Because the show is so big, we’ll split the review up over two weeks, taking a look at the first two bouts of the televised card this week and picking up the final three, including the two big bouts referenced above, seven days down the road.

We begin with an unorthodox opening ceremony, as DDT wrestler Michael Nakazawa makes his way to the ring in nothing but a thong and lays down face first on the mat. He is eventually joined by Dick Togo, who, less than a month earlier, wrestled his Japanese retirement match in DDT. Dick is looking unusually militant this evening.

Dick fires off a small rocket launcher, which causes a pyrotechnic display to go off around Nakazawa’s ass. This stems from a tradition which began when the first Ryogoku Peter Pan show opened with Michael losing an “Anal Explosion Death Match.” Most likely, something will be blown up in his backside to open every one of these shows for the rest of time.

Match Numero Uno: Royal Rumble for the Iron Man Heavy Metal Title

For those not in the loop, the Iron Man Heavy Metal Title is similar to the WWE Hardcore Title of old, in that it’s defended twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and has been held by such unlikely champions as a dachshund, a ladder, a bowl of curry, and a poster. The title is just being reintroduced into the company after a bit of a hiatus, and here we have a big Royal Rumble with the belt on the line.

Daisuke Sasaki, the defending champion, is the first man to set foot into the ring. He’s joined by Gorgeous Matsuno, a fifty year old man whose whole gimmick is basically that he’s unathletic and does high flying wrestling moves verrrrry slooooooowly. Matsuno, as usual, is dressed as the lounge singer in the kitschiest gay night club imaginable. He spends the entire time between entrances crooning his theme music and gets in the ring just as the buzzer goes off to introduce our next wrestler. It’s Makoto Oishi, a Kaientai Dojo wrestler who I initially didn’t recognize because he has gear which includes a pleather skirt and a cat mask. Oishi immediately hits Sasaki with a top rope moonsault bodyblock and sets up for a chokeslam. Sasaki escapes that move, though, and he tries to toss Makoto from the ring. Oishi hooks the top rope to avoid this fate, and here comes female DDT star Cherry. She’s kicked in the gut by Oishi and punched in the face several times by the man, which does not endear him to the crowd. Cherry comes back with a rana and stomps a mudhole on the poor guy in the corner. Now we’re joined by Rion Mizuki, who has a rose in his mouth, which he hands to Cherry before unloading with big kicks to the chest of Oishi. He also gives Makoto a big running knee to the face as he leans against the ropes, which didn’t look pretty. Meanwhile, in the center of the ring, Gorgeous Matsuno misses a handspring elbow on Daisuke Sasaki. All of the wrestlers in the match dogpile Matsuno as he lays prone on the mat, and his shoulders are counted down, giving us our first elimination in the match.

Just as Matsuno is eliminated, DDT’s resident kick boxer, Tanomusaku Toba, makes his entrance. Toba and Mizuki go at it with kicks, with Toba getting the better of it. Toba continues to run wild on the other wrestlers in the match until he gets to Cherry, who kicks him low and hits him with both a missile dropkick and a German suplex. Toba kicks out at two. After that, another female wrestler joins the fray. It’s Yuzuki Aikawa, a bikini model who was trained to become a professional wrestler and debuted this year in Stardom, a new joshi group that I’ve yet to have an opportunity to review here. Aikawa tries to showboat, but Cherry ambushes her and tries to pin her with a victory roll. Aikawa kicks out and the two women hit a double clothesline on each other just as DJ Nira joins the match. Mizuki’s gotten a bouquet from somewhere, and he tries to use it to charm Aikawa, who previously had been laying out the other wrestlers with the most godawful worked kicks that I’ve ever seen. Aikawa accepts the flowers but then hits Mizuki with one of her lousy kicks, setting up Rion to be splashed by Makoto Oishi and pinned, causing his elimination.

And now it’s time for . . . YOSHIHIKO!!!! The lights in the arena go out and, when they come back on, the blow-up doll warrior is in center ring with Oishi in position for a chokeslam. YOSHI hits the move, but Oishi manages to kick out at two. Makoto tries to get revenge by hitting a chokeslam of his own, but the ever athletic Oishi turns the move into a HURICANRANA and gets the three count to eliminate Oishi. At this point, former Iron Man Heavy Metal Champion Antonio Honda enters the match. Honda and Daisuke go head to head with each doing really over-exaggerated selling of each other’s punches. They’re so thrown off base by one another that, when both men go to superkick each other, they miss their mark and simultaneously hit Cherry, who they then throw over the top rope. Now it’s time for EMI SAKURA~! of Ice Ribbon fame to make her entrance. She immediately goes after Aikawa and beats the holy hell out of her. Aikawa tries a comeback with a couple more of her putrid looking kicks, but Emi gets her over the top rope. Aikawa lands on the apron at first and Antonio Honda makes a valiant effort to save her, but ultimately Emi Sakura both gets Honda out of her way and manages to deliver one last kick to send Aikawa falling off the apron and to the arena floor. That eliminates her from the match. I’m not that familiar with Aikawa’s pre-wrestling work, but apparently it was damn good, because the audience LOVED her in this match and boo’ed the hell out of anybody doing anything remotely negative to her.

The competitors just get more and more awesome as the match goes on, with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi being the next man to set foot into the ring. Based on his facial expression, Kikuchi ate a lemon covered in cow dung before making his entrance. Emi Sakura looks for a last ride powerbomb on YOSHIHIKO, but YOSHI reverses it into a rana. However, before he can pin Sakura, she rolls through the cradle and gets YOSHIHIKO in a sunset flip, which sadly takes the awesome wrestler out of the match. Next in the ring is Riki Sensyu, a seventeen year indy veteran whose entire gimmick is that he is a blatant, unapologetic ripoff of Riki Choshu. He slams Honda with a good looking lariat upon entering the ring and gives a lighter version to Sakura before rebounding and hitting two more nice looking versions of the maneuver on Sasaki and Kikuchi. He plants Toba with a backdrop suplex and puts him into the Scorpion Deathlock, causing Toba to tap and be eliminated from the match just as former sumo Hoshitango sets foot in the ring. Hoshi makes short work of Riki, putting him out on to the apron and shoulderblocking him off for another elimination.

Our next wrestler? It’s MR. #6~! For those of you who don’t know the story on Mr. #6, he is a masked boy who began wrestling at age six. He’s now nine, at the oldest. Rather than doing any spots, he just poses to the delight of the crowd, shooing wrestlers out of corners so that he can climb the ropes and showboat. The wrestlers always oblige and the audience eats it up. This continues until DJ Nira grabs the kid by the throat to huge heel heat and stops the match to cut a promo. He basically holds the match hostage, threatening to harm the child if the other wrestlers don’t form a single file line and get on their knees. Mr. #6 thereafter steals Keiji Mutoh’s “Wrestling Love” pose and hits a shining wizard on the first wrestler in the row, causing a domino effect which sees all of them fall over. Nira quickly turns on Mr. #6, punching him in the stomach and working him over with forearms, which, as you can imagine, the crowd doesn’t particularly care for. Fortunately, #6 is able to rally and get a quick submission hold on Nira, who taps out to the young boy to everybody’s delight.

The next sequence is a sumo match breaking out between Hoshitango and Kikuchi, with Hoshi “winning” by throwing Kikuchi to the mat. Mr. #6 tries his sumo skills against the big guy next, but he accidentally runs over the top of the young boy and through the ropes, where other wrestlers set him up to be eliminated by #6. 6 stays on top of his opposition by jumping off the top rope with a rana on Antonio Honda. However, in the heel move of the night, Emi Sakura turns the child’s mask around backwards so that he can’t see, then places him over the top rope and on to the ring apron, where she kicks him in the gut and sends him flying into the arms of a waiting ring boy. This leaves us with a “final four” to Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Emi Sakura, Antonio Honda, and Daisuke Sasaki.

Sakura runs wild on the men with low blows and attempts to charm Kikuchi by blowing him a kiss. Emi tries several moves, including kicks and Mongolian chops, to get Sasaki and Honda out of the match after knocking them on the ring apron. However, none of her efforts are successful, so she tells Kikuchi to do her dirty work. He changes at Sasaki and Honda, but they sidestep and put him out on the apron. Sakura, deciding she’s not going to keep Kikuchi around if he can’t get the job done, hits him with a big kick that sends him off the apron and eliminates him from the match. She celebrates but immediately turns around into a stereo superkick by Sasaki and Honda and his pinned, meaning that it’s Antonio against Daisuke in the finals. They throw punches at each other, with Honda doing a Dusty Rhodes-esque flip, flop, and fly. He looks for a DDT, but Sasaki hooks the ropes to block it. Daisuke suplexes his man over the top rope and dropkicks him as he hangs there, following it up with a rana for a two count. The wrestlers start throwing another wild flurry of punches, and, somewhere in the middle of the flurry, Honda is able to grab Sasaki’s arm and maneuver him into an octopus hold, to which Sasaki immediately taps. Antonio Honda is your winner and NEW Iron Man Heavy Metal Champion.

. . . but that’s not the whole story. As Honda celebrates on the entrance ramp with his new belt, Gorgeous Matsuno sneaks up behind him and takes advantage of the 24/7 rules under which the Iron Man Heavy Metal Title is defended. He cradles Honda, gets the three count, and becomes the new champion.

Match Thoughts: The purpose of matches like this one is pretty clear. There are a lot of people who only check out DDT a handful of times a year, one of which is going to be a massive show on the order of this one. The battle royale for the Iron Man Heavy Metal Title is an opportunity for the roster to do all of its “greatest hits” of rasslin’ comedy for the people who aren’t following the promotion hardcore throughout the year. The result is usually entertaining because, even if you’re somebody who sees these characters pretty consistently throughout the year, they’re good enough at what they do that, even if you’ve seen one of the spots before, they can put a new twist on it to make things entertaining. A quite fun twenty minutes of professional wrestling, right here.

Sanshiro Takagi, Hikaru Sato, Takao Soma, Kazuki Hirata, & Akito vs. Minoru Suzuki, Kengo Ohka, Super Shit Machine, Tomomitsu Matsunaga, & Yoshiaki Yago in an elimination match

You could write pages if you tried to recap the entire backstory of this match, but the short version is this: The Minoru Suzuki-lead team is part of a stable called the Shit Heart Foundation. Yes, the Shit Heart Foundation. Takao Soma and Hikaru Sato on the opposite team are both former Shit Heart members, though they were both kicked out of the group at different times. Soma was actually the leader of the stable at the time Sato was eliminated, though they have since patched up their differences. They’re teaming up with Takagi, the President of DDT who has had his own problems with the bad guys, and Aktio and Hirata, two rookies who Takagi has taken under his wing.

We join the match about a minute or two in with Matsunaga and Soma going at it, exchanging big forearms before Ohka cuts off Soma from the apron. The heels take over in the ring, and Matsunaga grabs a pair of scissors from god knows where and starts trimming Akito’s hair. That ends for no apparent reason, at which point Akito and Ohka go at it in the ring, with Akito hitting a variation on the gut wrench suplex for a two count. Ohka follows it with a spinal shock and applies the ankle lock briefly before transitioning into a German suplex. He misses a corner dive, though, which brings Yago into the ring. Yago and Ohka take turns hitting corner attacks on the rookie before Yago gives him a second rope bulldog and a brainbuster, though Akito still manages to kick out at two. Yago’s next trick is a version of the cobra twist, which actually gets Akito to tap out in relatively short order, securing the first elimination for the bad guys. Kazuki Hirata and Super Shit Machine take over the ring next, with the Machine fending off some dropkicks from Hirata. Kazuki rebounds and hits a rana, but the Machine catches him running off the ropes and gets a big slam. That’s followed with an axe bomber, after which the masked man looks for a superplex. The move connects, though Hirata kicks out of the pin attempt at two. Machine also connects with a sit-out powerbomb, but Hirata kicks out at two again. SSM hits the ropes for some more offense, but, out of nowhere, Hirata trips him up and cradles him to score the second elimination of the match, evening the two teams at four men apiece.

Hirata is quickly double teamed by Ohka and Matsunaga after the elimination, with Ohka hitting a brainbuster and Matsunaga hitting a backdrop suplex. That’s just too much for him to handle, and he is pinned. Sato tries to take up the mantle for his team, but he’s quickly tossed out of the squared circle by the bad guys and worked over with a chair by Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki also takes over on Sato when the two men return to the ring, hitting some kicks to the chest and applying what is almost Konnan’s old tequila sunrise hold. Eventually that turns into a cross arm breaker, but Sato makes the ropes. Rather than continue the beating, Suzuki tags out to Yoshiaki Yago. Yago connects with a dropkick on Sato and follows with a Northern lights suplex, but it only gets two. He also hits a butterfly suplex, but it too cannot put Sato away. Yago gives his man a lariat for his next nearfall before setting up for the cobra twist. He almost locks it in, but, before Sato can tap, all of the men involved in the match hit the ring for a brawl. Sato is isolated from the rest of his teammates and almost triple-teamed, but he actually manages to take advantage of some miscommunication and duck a Yago kick before elevating Yoshiaki up and over the top rope, which counts as an elimination in this style of match.

Suzuki returns to the ring and unloads more big kicks on Sato, after which the two get into a chop battle. Sato gets the upper hand and looks like he’s set to run the ropes, but Ohka strikes him from the ring apron and holds him in position for a corner Yakuza kick by Suzuki. Minoru follows it up with numerous open hand shots in the corner before hitting a cradle piledriver to pin Hikaru Sato. Soma runs in at this point and tries to forearm Suzuki, but it’s no-sold and the Pancrase legend takes over with short headbutts. At this point Suzuki tries to take Soma off of his feet with big boots, but he refuses to go down and comes up of nowhere with an enzuguiri to take Suzuki off of his feet. That allows Soma to tag out to Sanshiro Takagi, his only remaining partner, though Takagi makes the mistake of coming off the top rope and lands face-first on Suzuki’s foot. From there, Suzuki goes into a cross arm breaker, but Takagi makes the ropes just before he would have to have tapped. With Takagi down to only one good arm, he lands a couple of big kicks to rally the crowd, but it’s not long before Suzuki catches him with a sleeper hold. Eventually Minoru voluntarily releases the hold so that he can attempt to pin Takagi, but the DDT founder kicks out at two. Suzuki gets angry with the referee and roughs him up, after which he charges at Takagi. Unfortunately for Suzuki, Sanshiro has had enough time to recover a bit, as he ducks the charge and elevates Suzuki up into a fireman’s carry. Both men wind up on the apron and fight over who will go out to the floor . . . and the answer is ultimately that both of them will, giving us two simultaneous eliminations.

So now Takao Soma is left alone against Kengo Ohka and Tomomitsu Matsunaga. All three men get in the ring, with Soma dropkicking both of his opponents down before setting Ohka up for a tornado DDT. Ohka throws him off, however, and hits a big kick to the chest for two. Ohka misses a brainbuster and Soma avoids a backdrop from Matsunaga, turning it into a lungblower. A brawl between Ohka and Soma sees both men go over the top rope and to the apron, where they trade strikes to see who will fall off. Eventually, Soma is able to get enough of an advantage that he can climb to the top rope, where he comes off with a missile dropkick that connects with Ohka (who is still on the apron), sending him to the floor for the elimination. It all comes down to Soma and Matsunaga. Soma looks for a corner attack on his opponent, but Matsunaga moves out of the way and the referee is taken out. This allows all of Soma’s eliminated opponents to return to the ring and hit an axe bomber on him, followed up with a corner Yakuza kick from Suzuki. Before long, Soma’s partners run in for the save and clear the ring as legendary All Japan Pro Wrestling referee Kyohei Wada (who had left AJPW shortly before this show) hits the ring to serve as replacement official. Matsunaga roughs Wada up a bit, so the ref grabs him and throws him over the top rope. Matsunaga lands on the apron, and Soma decides that, instead of taking the cheap win, he’ll bring his opponent back into the ring. That was apparently a bad idea, as Matsunaga immediately gives him a lariat and a backdrop suplex for two. Soma is placed in position for a backdrop SUPERPLEX, which also connects, followed seconds later by a tiger driver . . . but Soma still manages to kick out at two. A piledriver is attempted by Matsunaga but Soma blocks, reversing in to an AIR RAID CRASH! Soma follows up with several forearms off the ropes and a second air raid crash, but now it’s Matsunaga’s turn to do the Superman kick out. Soma goes up to the top rope, comes off with an Alabama Jam, and that’s the move that gets him the victory.

Match Thoughts: From my viewing of the match, it seemed to have two major goals. The first was to get Soma, who only has about three years of experience in the wrestling business, over as a major star. The second was to set the stage for a Takagi/Suzuki feud and match later down the road. It actually accomplished both of those goals near perfectly. None of the in-ring action was clunky or rushed, which was particularly impressive given the level of youth involved. The smoothness of the wrestling by all parties was important because it didn’t detract from either of the two goals listed above. Soma absolutely worked his ass off, and, if he had a bit more distinctive look, he probably could be a top guy in the company. Takagi and Suzuki, despite not really having a history I’m aware of, were able to get a lot of heat from the audience based on fairly limited interaction that they had here. A very solid match here that did exactly what it needed to do, and I can see why they chose to include it on the TV version of the show, because highlighting a guy like Soma is so important. ***1/2

After the match, there is a loooooong verbal confrontation between Sanshiro Takagi and Minoru Suzuki, with the upshot basically being that the two of them will have a singles match against one another next year at DDT’s fifteenth anniversary show, which will be at the MASSIVE Nippon Budokan, a venue that is perhaps even more insane for DDT to run than the Sumo Hall they’re doing this show in.

However, before we get to the Budokan, we’ve got to get through the rest of this year’s Sumo Hall show, which we will do in next week’s column. DINO/SAPP, HERE WE COME!

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: