Big Japan: July to October shows (part one)

I've been working through all the Big Japan shows since the last one I reviewed in full. Come 2009, I'll start on show-by-show reviews, as Big Japan is moving towards my favourite promotion in Japan. My girlfriend has recently looked over my shoulder whilst I've been watching these shows, expressing disgust at the gory deathmatch stuff. I explained to her the validity of watching deathmatch wrestling as something other than morbid. I talked at length about a basic psychology of professional wrestling matches which build towards a certain winning move, something teased by early attempts, or something which logically follows from wear down hold. I elucidated that the weapon based offence of these match is just a tool and mechanism for telling the same story, but instead of finishing moves, the winning blow is the big hardcore spot.

Anyway, she'd walked off a long time before I finished this thesis, which is probably for the best because the next line was, "plus, some of this stuff is really cool", which lacks a certain intellectual rigour.

What's been good in the second half of 2008? Let's do this by type of match, of which there are basically four in Big Japan. Firstly, the MEN's Club matches. Most shows, especially the bigger ones have one. To be honest, a lot of these matches, especially in the final bit, are entirely interchangeable, but they do a good line in continuous motion wrestling. Watching these matches is furiously entertaining, which is really there purpose. They do have a small degree of continuity between matches, generally with some issue between a couple of the guys, which tends to get lost amongst all the other action. They also tend to play off comedy spots from match to match, taking the joke a little further, or doing something else with it.

I know the October 27th match got mentioned by several people as the pick of the bunch, but I certainly can't find reason to single it out. The stuff with Onryu and Sato was amusing, playing off the previous month's eight-man. MEN's stuff, especially with Shinobu is always nice - they do a spot where MEN's uses Shinobu to charge into one of the other guys in the corner, and keeps reversing the Irish whip so Shinobu is always the one running into the corner. Then he uses his as a projectile and catapults him. Actually, thinking about this, the seven-way UWA Middleweight title match from August 18th might be my favourite for number of entertaining spots - the invisible sword, and the human chain submission bit stand out in my head. Anyway, it's all very simple and fun, and exactly the sort of thing that undercards need.

Second type of matches is the non-hardcore heavyweight stuff, usually based around Sekimoto and Mammoth. They won the tag belts in July, and have defended them a few times. My general impression of these isn't particularly favourable. Nothing actively bad, but also nothing I can really recommend. The September 14th match against Numazawa and Kasai is the best of the lot - it breaks down into a brawl early on (and a good one), with Kasai and Numazawa taking a load of shortcuts having earlier indicated they wanted a straight wrestling match. Mammoth was a lot of fun here.

Also need to mention the rookies. This, to me, is one of the most positive aspects of Big Japan is the amount of time they have spent in the past year in building up a new generation of guys to freshen up the entire card - they have newer guys in their deathmatches in Hoshino and Isami, as well as new guys in their non-hardcore stuff. Hoshino is fantastic as a slightly unlikely-looking wrestler who will take a bunch of crazy bumps (especially onto the edge of ladders and tables) and even more of a beating. His August 18th hardcore match with MASADA, blowing off their summer feud, was surprisingly great - wild brawling all around Korakuen, Hoshino takes a suplex off a raised seating area, loads of big, nasty looking nearfalls with the drama of Hoshino trying to sneak a upset victory. MASADA is a guy I never really liked until recently, and I can't quite put my finger on why that has been. He is a bit workmanlike (in a good way) in his matches, moving between each spot with a sense of purpose. He's also suitably reckless with some of his weapon stuff - which only makes a guy like Hoshino more sympathetic for his eventual comeback. His match with Takeshi Sasaki on November 1st was almost as fun. MASADA dominates again (using his head sticks in a spot that appalled my girlfriend more than anything else she happened to see), and Sasaki gets to play more of an underdog than he usually would, is is pretty good in that role. And his roundhouse kick is better than anyone else in wrestling.

Big Japan, to confuse me, now have two S. Ishikawa's, and even now I can't quite remember which name goes to which guy. Shinya Ishikawa is working non-hardcore tag team undercard stuff. He's energetic and works hard, and he could be useful, although I've been enjoying the stockier Okabayashi in those matches. I shall call him mini-Sekimoto. He's like Sekimoto, only one-eighth the size (of seven Sekimotos). Shuji Ishikawa is a bigger guy, and although he's not been around as much, I think I'm going to enjoy his work - he has a simple offence, but uses his size well. I know in 2009 he tags with Ito a lot, and I'm looking forward to seeing him on a more regular basis, both in deathmatch and non-deathmatch stuff. The standout match for me so far is from October 27th, in a six-man hardcore match with Ito and other rookie Takeda, which was a lot of fun. Ito's been tagging with the rookies a lot, which gives those matches an smart simple story - the young guys end up taking a lot of offence from the more experienced opponents, while Ito tries, ultimately in vain, to get into the match and take control. Shuji Ishikawa presence changed this a bit - he's a lot more dominant, as a bigger guy, making the match slightly more even.

I'll talk about Isami next time. Next time: deathmatches. And Isami.