Into the Indies 11.15.11: Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament (Part 1)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the only column that idolizes Harvey Milk.

One of the promotions that we covered back during the first month of I2I in August 2009 was SENDAI Girls, a joshi group which runs out of northeastern Japan and consists largely of veteran wrestler Meiko Satomura and her young trainees. I was not particularly enthralled by the SENDAI show that I reviewed over two years ago, and there haven’t been a lot of opportunities to give them another chance in the ensuing months. The company tends to run televised shows fairly infrequently, and they were thrown significantly off track early this year when their dojo and offices suffered damage in the massive earthquake that rocked Japan in March.

Fortunately, Satomura and company have managed to land on their feet after what could have been a major tragedy, and, just last month, they had recovered to the point that they managed to run what may have been the biggest show in company history, held in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall. Because SENDAI Girls, like many joshi promotions these days, has a fairly limited roster, most of their shows involve “outsiders” from other companies, but this particular show is one of the most outsider-heavy in history.

The show also features one of the most unique tournaments in history. Billed as the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament, the competition involves eight different joshi promotions assembling teams of five wrestlers each which are put into single-elimination brackets. That’s unusual enough, but what really makes the tournament stand out is that, in each round, the number of wrestlers competing in a given match is reduced. In the first round, all five members of each team wrestle in a ten woman tag team match. In the second round, the team gets to select any three of its members to send out for a six woman tag. Then, in the finals, the teams pick two women to go at it in a traditional tag team match. It’s not entirely clear WHY the rounds are structured this way, but it is still an interesting method for determining which women’s wrestling company reigns supreme in Japan.

This week, we will be reviewing the first portion of the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament show promoted by SENDAI Girls, which occurred on October 27, 2011, consisting of two first round matches. Before we get to the reviews, though, here’s a bit of background information on the four teams that we’ll be seeing today!

SENDAI Girls: Of course, SENDAI Girls (a.k.a. “Senjo”) is our host promotion. The company was founded in 2005 by joshi star Meiko Satomura and Jinsei “Hakushi” Shinzaki and based around a dojo in which Satomura attempts to train the latest crop of female wrestling stars. The five woman team that SENDAI sent to its own tournament consists of founder Satomura; DASH Chikaso, a Senjo trainee who often emulates her favorite wrestler Jeff Hardy; Sendai Sachiko, who is DASH’s younger sister; Kagetsu, a former judoka who debuted in 2009 at age sixteen; and Miyako Morino, an alternate gimmick of current top joshi wrestler and SHIMMER roster member Misaki Ohata.

JWP: Japan Women Project, or JWP, is the only women’s wrestling organization in the company which can claim to have been founded back in the glory days of joshi, before the market really collapsed. They were brought into existence in 1992 and are currently run by Command Bolshoi, a former comedy wrestler (she wears a clown nose on her mask) who has grown into being one of the most experienced veterans on the current joshi scene, having made her debut in 1989. She is, of course, captaining Team JWP in this tournament, and she is joined by relative rookie and former MMA fighter Hanako Nakamori as well as three longer-term JWP loyalists who all have about a decade of experience: Kaori Yoneyama, Leon, and Kayoko Haruyama.

Pro Wrestling WAVE: It seems like every joshi wrestler with a certain level of experience has the option of opening up her own promotion if she wants to, which is the only way that I can explain twenty year veteran GAMI introducing Pro Wrestling WAVE to an already crowded indy and joshi landscape back in 2007. Despite the large number of other promotions out there, GAMI has actually be successful in convincing some impressive talent to consider WAVE their home base, and, in this tournament, she’s joined by two such vets, former GAEA star and first ever WCW Women’s Cruiserweight Champion (yes, that belt existed) Toshie Uematsu and twelve year vet Yumi Ohka, who just debuted in the US for SHIMMER in October. The team is rounded out by two slightly less experienced wrestlers, twenty-six year old Moeka Haruhi and Shu Shibutani, who debuted in the middle part of this decade but had to spend August 2010 through August 2011 on the shelf due to a very nasty injury to her right knee.

Ice Ribbon: Ice Ribbon is perhaps the most heavily-reviewed joshi promotion in this column, so much so that I almost feel silly giving their background one more time. But, for the uninitiated, the short version is that former wrestler Emi Sakura was teaching a group of teenage girls gymnastics when they learned of her past in pro wrestling, which lead to Sakura training them to wrestlers instead of gymnasts. Somehow, this managed to turn into a full-time promotion that has produced some of the most promising joshi rookies of the last three years. Headmistress Sakura is captaining her Dantai Taikou team. She’s joined by Tsukasa Fujimoto, who has been with Ice Ribbon almost since the beginning and is one of their most seasoned wrestlers; teenage sensation Hikari Minami; and Hikaru Shida, who has been wrestling for only a couple of years but has already won one of Ice Ribbon’s most prestigious championships. However, the real focal point of the team in a lot of people’s eyes is Tsukushi, who made her in-ring debut in 2010 at age 13 and now, a year later, is looking to be a surprisingly well-rounded performer, similar to early Ice Ribbon product Riho.

And, with the background out of the way, it’s time to get to the matches! However, I feel like I would be the world a disservice if I didn’t note that this show is being hosted by a man who looks like he is knocking on death’s door.

Seriously, TAKE A SICK DAY. Surely his co-host will look better . . .

Okay, nevermind. Apparently we’ve got one announcer who is slowly dying from a painful, undiagnosed ailment and one who is higher than Rob Van Dam’s frog splash.

Match Numero Uno: Team JWP (Command Bolshoi, Kayoko Haruyama, Kaori Yoneyama, Leon, & Hanako Nakamori) vs. Team Pro Wrestling WAVE (GAMI, Toshie Uematsu, Yumi Ohka, Shu Shibutani, & Moeka Haruhi) in the first round of the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament

We actually have a ten woman brawl as soon as the bell rings, though things quickly come down to Yoneyama and Ohka in the ring. Ohka takes her opponent down in short order with a big boot, but, out of nowhere, Leon flies in and takes Yumi down with a missile dropkick. Shu Shibutani runs in as well, but Yoneyama grabs her and throws her THROUGH the ropes so that she essentially hits a tope suicida on a pile of women. To make things even crazier, Uematsu and Leon stick stereo planchas on opposite sides of the ring down on to piles of indeterminate women. It’s back to Yoneyama and Shibutani when there’s action in the ring once more, and Yoneyama MURDERS Shu with a kneelift to the back of the head and a CHOAS THEORY~! German suplex. That gets two as a million women run in to break up the count. Everybody finally gets back to their corners, and, when they do, Nakamori and Shibutani remain in the squared circle. Shu gets in her first real offense in the match, namely a series of forearms and a cross body. All of team WAVE runs in at this point, knocking the JWPers off the apron and taking turns hitting Nakamori with corner attacks. Shu caps off the sequence with a Diamond Cutter for a two count, after which she tags in Moeka Haruhi, who gets a high cross off the ropes for a nearfall of her own.

Moeka tries to follow up with some offense off the ropes, but Leon kicks her from the apron as she runs, setting up a high kick and a shining wizard by Nakamori. Those only get two, so we get a tag to Command Bolshoi. Bolshoi briefly locks on her version of the Tarantula and follows with a grounded torture rack, only to have GAMI and Ohka break it up. The clown commander looks for a suplex on Moeka, but the younger wrestler blocks it and hits a Northern lights for two. Now Toshie Uematsu is brought into the match for WAVE. She and GAMI team up to go after Bolshoi, though the masked wrestler fights them both off and gives GAMI a German. Things break down again and really get weird at this point. All of the women run in once more, and the result is a triple submission spot in the middle of the ring involving six of the girls while GAMI and Bolshoi both do rope walk spots on opposite sides of the ring with different opponents. Well, it’s different, I’ll give them that.

Eventually the triple submission breaks up, which leads to GAMI and Bolshoi being shooed (not Shu’ed) off the ropes. Team JWP knocks the WAVErs down to the floor and isolates Uematsu for some corner attacks, capping off with a big palm strike by Bolshoi for two as Shu saves. Leon is left alone with Uematsu and spears her twice. Toshie avoids a third, but the two wrestlers change directions on the ropes and Leon winds up giving her the POUUUUUUUUNCE . . . period. Leon also hits a frog splash, but it can only get two. Uematsu reverses a submission attempt by Leon and dropkicks the masked woman right in the face, giving us a tag to Yumi Ohka. Ohka BLASTS Leon with a big boot as Leon was up against the ropes and hits a dive for two. Leon comes back with a high kick and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, giving us a big tag to Haruyama. Haruyama and Ohka trade kicks before Yumi flattens her out with a belly-to-back and a couple of boots to the head for a quite close two count.

There’s a tag to GAMI, and she and Haruyama takes turns no-selling each other’s lariats until the WAVE boss finally gets a knockdown blow. All of the women run in and hit moves again, with the upshot being that GAMI gets Haruyama in position for a top rope rana and hits it . . . though it can only get a two count. GAMI misses another lariat, but Haruyama runs straight in to Ohka, who hits a Sky High powerbomb, which sets up a GAMI German. Believe it or not, that also only gets two. Another GAMI lariat also fails to finish the match, as Bolshoi makes the save. It looks like GAMI might have the match won with a kappo kick, but more run-ins from the JWP crew take her down and give Haruyama an opportunity to hit an Alabama jam. It gets two, so team JWP takes some drastic measures and forms a weird human pyramid in the corner that Kaori Yoneyama jumps off of so that she can hit a high elevation senton bomb on GAMI.

Haruyama connects with a kick after that, but it’s still not enough, as a WAVE wrestler saves. GAMI is out at two off of a lariat as well. GAMI goes to the eyes and catches a small package on Haruyama. Two count. Shining wizard by GAMI. Two count. GAMI sets up for her finish, but Yoneyama runs in and hits a SWEET twisting Code Red on GAMI to put her team back in control. From there, one more Haruyama lariat connects, and that’s finally enough to give JWP the three count.

Match Thoughts: This match was INSANE. In some ways it reminded me of the Scramble Matches in ROH back in 2002, in that the goal seemed to be to cram as much action as possible with as many bodies flying around the ring as possible inside of a fifteen minute span. However, the difference between this match and the ROH Scramble matches is that, even though they may have shared the same concept on paper, the joshi match was executed much better due to the greater level of experience in the wrestlers. They just had a better sense of where to be during the course of the match and a better idea of how to time comebacks and various highspots. If the match had a drawback, it was almost that there was too much going on at points, to the extent that I would’ve had a hard time keeping track of what was going on even if I wasn’t taking notes for my play-by-play. Still, though, if you wanted an opener to tell you that you were going to see an action-packed show, this would be it. ***1/2

Match Numero Dos: Team SENDAI Girls (Meiko Satomura, DASH Chisako, Sendai Sachiko, Kagetsu, & Miyako Morino) vs. Team Ice Ribbon (Emi Sakura, Tsukasa Fujimoto, Hikaru Shida, Hikari Minami, & Tsukushi) in the first round of the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament

As opposed to being a random opening round tournament match, there is actually a backstory here, as SENDAI boss Satomura and Ice Ribbon boss Sakura had a major feud in the joshi world in 2010, including Emi losing her hair to Satomura in a big stipulation match towards the end of the rivalry.

There are shenanigans that play off the feud early, as Team SENDAI asks for a group handshake, but Sakura tells them not to accept it. Sakura and Satomura also start for their respective teams, and Emi immediately sandwiches Satomura in the corner with a flying cross body. This sparks off a five-on-five battle, culminating in Sakura coming off the top rope with a 450 splash on to Satomura, though it only gets two as an unseen SENDAI Girl makes the save. Satormura rolls to the floor and Sakura tags out, leaving their protégés Kagetsu and Hikari Minami to go at it. Kagetsu hits a pair of dropkicks early in the encounter, after which Minami just sort of starts running from her. It apparently works to throw Kagetsu off balance, though, as Minami quickly hits her with a kick and prompts the rest of the Ice Ribbon team to run in. They take out the rest of SENDAI and land a series of rolling sentons on Kagetsu, followed by a five woman diving headbutt. The destruction of Kagetsu continues with numerous corner attacks by the Ice Ribbon girls, including run-ins by a few members of the Ribbon dojo who were at ringside but not officially part of the match. I’m having flashbacks to Special K, here. Somehow Kagetsu is not murdered by all of this and tags out quickly to Miyako Morino, who I’m just going to call by her better known name of Misaki Ohata, because otherwise I will have some big problems keeping things straight. Ohata hits some basic offense early, but ultimately Minami kicks her and hits a Finlay roll to set up a tag.

The tag goes to Hikaru Shida, who engages Ohata in a forearm battle. This breaks down to another situation in which a ton of bodies are in the ring. Somehow the focus becomes DASH Chikaso and sister Sendai Sachiko, who isolate Shida and double team her a fair deal, giving Misaki an opportunity to apply a variation on the Mutoh Lock. She follows that with a lucha-esque armdrag off the top rope, though Shida quickly thereafter catches her running and hits a powerslam. The two women run in and fight over a suplex, which in turn leads to all of their partners running in and engaging in a NINE WOMAN SUPLEX SPOT (Satomura remained on the apron) with four SENDAI Girls lifting five Ice Ribbon wrestlers for an odd little vertical suplex trainwreck. This sets up a tag to Satomura, who kicks everything that moves and in particular starts to focus on Shida. Meiko tries to climb the ropes but is cut off by intervening Ice Ribboners and brought down by a Shida superplex. Sendai Sachiko runs in to defend her boss’ honor and DDTs Shida, followed by a missile dropkick for two. Another DDT by Sachiko connects, but she runs into a high knee that gives Shida the opportunity to tag out to Tsukasa Fujimoto.

Fujimoto kicks Sachiko’s back numerous times and pops her in the chest, giving us a two count. DASH Chikaso tries to run in to save her sister, but she gets double teamed by Shida and Fujimoto, in particular eating a nasty elevated double stomp from Fujimoto. Things go back to Tsukasa and Sachiko, with the latter connecting with a bodyslam and suplexing sister DASH down on to Fujimoto. Sachiko follows with a flipping senton for two. Tsukasa blocks a Northern lights suplex with an enzuguiri but runs into a boot, and it’s not long before we’ve got tags on both sides of the ring. The tags are to Meiko Satomura and the tiny Tsukushi, with Tsukushi throwing everything she’s got at Satomura and the veteran completely no-selling it. Meiko shows no mercy and hits a big kick to the gut, setting up for a DVD. Mama Bear Emi Sakura runs in to prevent that but pays the price as Satomura forearms her in the kisser. Tsukushi, who is still legal, schoolgirls Meiko for two. It might not have gotten the pin, but the move distracts Satomura long enough that Sakura is able to get a tag and come in as the legal competitor.

Things don’t go well for Emi, though, as it’s not long before she is high kicked and hit with a DVD. Satomura goes for the pin, but everybody in the match makes a save. DASH Chikaso tags in and looks for a frog splash but gets none of it, setting up an Oklahoma roll by Sakura. Again, it gets two as everybody saves. Emi gives DASH a tiger driver, but she manages to kick out at two. Tsukushi tags in and heads to the top rope, only to be pulled off by a Sachiko rana. From there, DASH goes after the little girl but is cut off by Shida. That permits Tsukushi to connect with a TIGER SUPLEX on DASH, but the SENDAI Girls save. In a move that I’ve never seen before, Tsukushi grabs DASH and leaps towards the ropes, coming off with an insane bodyscissors into a rollup. Chikaso manages to kick out of that one. The crowd is DIGGING Tsukushi here, until Sachiko runs in and murders her with a German suplex.

Everybody is involved in the match at this point, so it’s really difficult to keep track of . . . but the finish comes pretty quickly, as DASH Chikaso goes to the top rope again and flies off with her frog splash, landing on little Tsukushi and pinning her. I guess that’s what you get for sending a girl to do a woman’s job.

Match Thoughts: This match in a lot of ways felt like a carbon copy of the last one, though it was slightly inferior in that there was more comedy gaga as opposed to straight up action. I suppose that is to be suspected given that the age and experience level of the wrestlers is a fair deal lower here. I was amazed by just how over Tsukushi was given her position in the wrestling industry, but, other than that, there was not much to see here so long as you watched the opener. It would be a decent little bout to watch outside the context of the remainder of the show, though. ***

And that does it for this week’s installment of Into the Indies! We’ll be back next week to follow up on the remainder of this SENDAI Girls show.

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