wrestling / Columns
Into the Indies 10.25.11: Mask Nobility Festival (Part 1)
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the only column that owns lucha libre socks.
Usually, this column focuses on independent wrestling from Japan. Last week, we focused on some independent wrestling from Mexico. Next time around, we’ll be back to a full-on Japanese show. However, this week, I felt like we needed a little bit of a transition card.
To that end, I give to you some lucha action in the Land of the Rising Sun. When you’re talking about lucha libre in Japan, it is almost heresy to not bring up the name Mil Mascaras, who plays a key role in the show that we’re reviewing in this column. Many a Mexican wrestler has come in and out of Japan, but Mascaras has been, by far, the biggest star of the lot.
Mil Mascaras had his first matches in Japan in 1971. Originally he competed for the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA), the original “big time” promotion in the country. At the time, the two major up and comers of the JWA were Antonio Inoki and the Giant Baba, and Mascaras was immediately thrust into a feud with these two mega-stars, teaming up with fellow foreigner Spiros Arion. The two teams did battle in Sumo Hall, one of the biggest venues in the country at the time, going half an hour in an impressive two out of three falls match on March 2, 1971.
However, as hardcore puro nerds reading this column will tell you, the JWA was not long for this world when Mascaras headed there in 1971. By 1972, the company had split into two factions, Inoki’s New Japan Pro Wrestling and Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. The two divided up the talent who regularly came to the country, and, in the war, Baba somehow managed to win the loyalties of Mil Mascaras. Mil became a top-level foreign star for AJPW almost as soon as he set foot in the door, main eventing in singles title matches before sold out crowds against the likes of the Destroyer and also forming a successful tag team with his brother Dos Caras (the father of Alberto Del Rio) to do battle with Baba and his protégé Jumbo Tsuruta. Mascaras and Caras had a good deal of kayfabe success in the promotion, ranking highly in both the 1979 and 1983 standings of the prestigious Real World Tag League Tournament. Perhaps Mil’s single biggest accomplishment in individual action also came in 1983, when he won the annual heavyweight battle royale that AJPW holds in January to kick off every new calendar year.
By the time the 1990’s rolled around, Mascaras was a bit past his prime and could get bookings as a novelty in smaller companies, though AJPW wasn’t going to use him in a serious headlining role anymore. Instead, Mascaras struck up a relationship with WAR (Wrestle and Romance), which at the time was not quite a big league promotion but was also still larger than any independent company going. Highlights of Mil’s time in WAR included facing off in singles action against the “son” of one of his greatest Mexican rivals, Gran Markus, and coming in for the promotion’s Third Anniversary Show to team with Bob Backlund and Jimmy Snuka (who, like Mascaras, headlined numerous times in Madison Square Garden) to face the team of the Eliminators and Hector Garza in one of the most eclectic matches in professional wrestling history. Also during the 1990s, Mil popped up on the third anniversary show of Michinoku Pro Wrestling (reviewed by I2I here), helping create one of the best-remembered cards in the history of the company.
As the 2000’s came around, Mascaras was still able to find work in Japanese independent companies, though he was also fortunate in that some of the larger promotions started to show interest in bring him back as a nostalgia act. In 2001, Mascaras formed a rare team with another lucha legend, El Hijo del Santo, on the undercard of an All Japan Pro Wrestling show which packed in 30,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome. Coming off of that success, AJPW brought Mil back for two shots in 2002, both of which saw him once again teaming up with brother Dos Caras in front of significant crowds. However, given the changes in the professional wrestling industry which occurred between the 1980’s and the 2000’s, Mascaras would no longer be exclusive to AJPW in this decade. He appeared for a variety of different startup companies during this period of time as well, including a six man on the first ever HUSTLE card, a tag match with fellow All Japan gaijin legend Terry Funk for the short-lived WRESTLE-1 promotion, and even an appearance earlier this year for the Inoki Genome Federation in which he wrestled Tatsumi Fujinami to a ten minute draw.
So, given the above, it’s clear that Mil Mascaras has been just about everywhere that one can be in Japan over the course of the past four decades. What could be left for the man of a thousand masks to do? How about hosting his own professional wrestling show, meant to commemorate the mind-blowing FORTIETH anniversary of his first match in Japan? That is exactly what happened on October 7, 2011, when Mil and company came together for a celebration known as the “Mask Nobility Festival.” We’ll be taking a look at half the action from the show this week and half the action next week, with all of it being given to us by Mil and his brother Dos Caras:
And, hey, Hayabusa is here on commentary! I haven’t seen him in ages.
Happy Halloween.
Match Numero Uno: Kikutaro vs. Terrorist F
Most people reading this are familiar with Kikutaro, the clown prince of puroresu. His opponent, Terrorist F, is a character created exclusively for this show as a bit of a mystery opponent, though, with his body type, there are only so many wrestlers who could be under the hood:
Kikutaro attacks with incredibly light forearms before the bell and chokes the Terrorist in the corner. Eventually we get a break and the mystery wrestler applies an armbar, which Kikutaro escapes with a thumb to the eye. After that, he jams his fingers into Mr. F’s ass. That doesn’t sit too well with the Terrorist, so he unmasks to reveal YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA. Old man Fujiwara ain’t gonna take any of this bum-poking comedy schtick. He immediately takes Kikutaro down and puts the boots to him, letting him up only so that he can hit a thunderous headbutt. Kikutaro leaves the ring and tries to run away, briefly cutting Fujiawara off when he reenters the ring. Kiku applies a kneebar, but Fujiawara is easily able to reverse it. The still-masked man barely makes the ropes, and Fujiawara keeps booting him for an uncomfortably long time. Kikutaro tries to fire back with several shots but they’re all no-sold and, in fact, Kikutaro is the one who takes the bump when he attempts to headbutt the legendary grappler. Fujiwara unleashes some headbutts of his own and goes for the cover, only to pull Kikutaro up at two. More headbutts from Fujiwara. More stomping. Kikutaro does get things going his way for a little bit when he hits a low blow, but, in one of his trademark spots, he sets up for a vertical suplex but delays it and delivers a small monologue to the crowd. That gives Fujiwara enough time to block the suplex and apply his trademark Fujiwara armbar for the submission.
Match Thoughts: I get what they were going for in this match. Kikutaro was supposed to do comedy for a bit, and then the crotchety old veteran was supposed to unleash and destroy him to the delight of the crowd. It’s the kind of thing that would appear to work on paper, but it didn’t work in execution. Fujiwara, though great in his day, is just too slow and plodding now. His working over Kikutaro lacked the snap and controlled recklessness it needed in order to get across the illusion that Kiku was in real trouble. Instead, we just had a slow, plodding, skippable match. DUD
Match Numero Dos: A*YU*MI (c) vs. Misaki Ohata for the X-LAW Women’s Title
This is one of the few matches that we’ll cover in I2I where I can honestly say that I’ve seen both of the wrestlers doing their thing live and in person. Misaki Ohata and Ayumi Kurihara (wrestling here under her masked persona of A*YU*MI) are young joshi stars who bounce back and forth between virtually all of the major Japanese groups and also pop over to the United States from time-to-time for SHIMMER. They’re wrestlers who are very familiar with one another, and they’re going after each other here with the X-LAW Women’s Title on the line, with X-LAW being an independent group based out of Mexico in which Ayumi spends a good chunk of her time when she’s in North America.
The wrestlers shake hands before the action begins with some standing switches leading into a headlock by Ohata. Ayumi sends her off the ropes, but, rather than doing a leap over when Ayumi drops down, Ohata kicks her in the back of the head. Awesome. Kurihara fires back quickly with an armdrag before Ohata reels off her own flippy version of the same move, followed by a running forearm shiver for two. Ayumi scores with a drop toe hold as Ohata comes off of the ropes again, and the champ applies a variation on the Indian deathlock. That gets turned into a bow and arrow style submission, which Ayumi makes even worse when she kicks at her opponent’s head while the hold is still on. After that, the two women wind up on the top rope, with Kurihara looking for a superplex. That doesn’t work, but Ayumi does manage to apply a cool-looking octopus hold with Misaki seated up top.
The referee forces the titeholder to break the octopus before a count of five, but Ayumi stays on her opponent with a corner knee strike and a lungblower. Kurihara’s next trick is a half Boston crab, but Ohata military crawls to the ropes for a break. Ayumi goes for the same hold again, but this time Ohata reverses it into a cradle for a two count. Both women regain a vertical base after that and start trading forearms, with Misaki getting the upper hand and grabbing Ayumi’s arm before running up the ropes and putting her into what is a hybrid of Tajiri’s old Tarantula and a cross arm breaker. Ohata follows that up with a second rope missile dropkick and one of my favorite moves from her arsenal, a diving cross body block to her seated opponent in the corner. A swinging DDT gets two for Misaki, after which her attempt at a flying body attack is foiled when Ayumi hits a dropkick. Misaki winds up slumped face down over the bottom rope, and Kurihara dropkicks her in the back as she’s in that position. Here’s another dropkick, this time with Ayumi coming off of the top rope to hit the move. She goes back to the half crab, but Misaki makes the ropes once more. After a couple of odd counters, Ohata winds up in control with a cradle, then hitting another one of her low elevation cross bodies and a German suplex for two. Ayumi is able to fire back with a head and shoulders suplex, but it’s not quite enough to put Ohata away. Not long thereafter, A*YU*MI hits the same move again and uses it to get the three count and retain her championship.
Match Thoughts: Now this was a fun little match. It was apparent that the two wrestlers had been in the ring together many times before, as their timing with one another was perfect and they moved very fluidly as a unit. There were few flaws in the match, and they capped it off with a very entertaining series of modern highspots. If I had one complaint about the match, it is probably that it didn’t get enough time, as their finishing sequence, as entertaining as it was, could have been that much better if it were capping off a fifteen or twenty minute match with a long build as opposed to capping off an eight or nine minute match. Still, though, that is a relatively minor complaint. ***
Match Numero Tres: Sasuke the Great, Black Tiger V, & Yuu Yamagata vs. TAKA Michinoku, Gran Hamada, & NOSAWA Rongai
NOSAWA and TAKA are two wrestlers who, much like Kikutaro before them, are going to be almost instantly recognizable to regular I2I readers. Here they’re being joined by Gran Hamada, a long-time wrestler who was instrumental in bringing lucha style action to Japan. The opposing team is a little bit more obscure. Yuu Yamagata is a female wrestler who is mixing it up with men for no apparent reason here. She has been in joshi for many years but is primarily known as a member of the roster of TAKA’s Kaientai Dojo promotion. She’s paired up with Black Tiger V, who under the hood is Tatsuhito Takaiwa, a Japanese citizen of Korean descent who was originally trained to wrestle in the early 1990’s by New Japan. Rounding out the trio is Sasuke the Great, junior heavyweight wrestler Masao Orihara, doing a Great Sasuke imposter gimmick that he pioneered in Michinoku Pro in the 1990’s.
In a bit of teacher vs. student action, TAKA and Yuu start off for their respective teams, with Michinoku overpowering her on some lockups and some tests of strength, followed up by armbar and headlock reversals. The two wrestlers separate to the applause of the crowd after a particularly quick exchange, after which TAKA goes to the eyes. Yuu responds with an enzuiguiri, code breaker, and rana in short order, and that’s enough to get Michinoku to tag out to Hamada. Sasuke the Great checks in for his team as well, and Sasuke goes to town on the legend with elbow strikes and closed fists. Hamanda fires back with a stunner of all things before placing his opponent on the top rope for a big rana and covering him for two. After that, STG catches him out of nowhere with a flatliner, and there’s a tag to Black Tiger. Tiger actually runs wild on all three of his opponents with clotheslines for a bit, but Team Hamada turns the tables in short order, triple teaming the Tiger with corner attacks, culminating in a shining wizard by NOSAWA. All six wrestlers begin brawling in and around the ring at this point, including Black Tiger sloppily reversing a la magitstral by NOSAWA into a Death Valley Driver. The move connects, and, out of nowhere, Black Tiger has pinned Rongai to win the match for his team.
Match Thoughts: Well, that was out of nowhere. I didn’t skimp on the play by play there . . . the match was just that short, and the finish was just that sudden. I believe it had something to do with the fact that Rongai, who is normally not a masked wrestler, was wearing a hood here and the storyline was that it had some negative effect on his performance. That’s a bit of an odd message to send on a show in which the masked wrestler is one of the biggest draws, but I would assume that there is some good reason for it. As for the match that we did get in the limited time allotted, it was fine but nothing mind-blowing. Simply put, there just wasn’t much to get excited about. *
And, just as that match came to an end suddenly, it’s time for this column to end suddenly. We’ll pick things up in seven days with coverage of the second half of this show, including Mil Mascaras’ big anniversary match and my thoughts on the card as a whole! We’ll see you then . . .
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See you all next week!
