Into the Indies 11.22.11: Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament (Part 2)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that is stringing things along.

Last week, we started looking at the 2011 Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament, a show hosted by the SENDAI Girls joshi promotion in which eight teams representing eight different women’s wrestling promotions go at it in a single elimination format. The first round of the tournament features ten woman tag matches, the second round features six woman tag matches, and the finals will be a standard two-on-two tag team match.

Because my schedule has been a little strained lately, we’ve actually had to break this review into an unprecedented THREE parts. Last week, we took a look at the first half of round one. This week, we’ll be taking a look at the second half of round one. Next week, we’ll wrap it up with the semi-finals and finals. However, before we get to this week’s action, let’s provide a little bit of background on the four teams that we’ll be seeing for the first time in these matches.

Stardom: We name-dropped brand new joshi promotion Stardom a couple of weeks ago in this column, when their breakout star, Yuzuki Aikawa, appeared on Mil Mascaras’ Japanese anniversary show. Aikawa isn’t part of Team Stardom for the first around of this tournament, though. Instead, the team is captained by Nanae Takahashi, the veteran cornerstone of the largely young Stardom roster. Her second-in-command is Natsuki*Taiyo, who has been around for close to a decade and is probably considered to be one of the best high flyers in all of joshi these days. The last three slots on the team are taken by women who all made their pro wrestling debuts as part of the Stardom roster earlier this year: Yoko Bito, who had success in Japan on a national level in the sports of karate and handball; Yoshiko, who at 5’3″ and 165 pounds is built like a real fire plug and uses that low center of gravity to her advantage; and Mayu Iwatani, a seventeen year old competitor who was part of the aforementioned tag team match that I2I reviewed earlier this month.

Reina: Reina, which is also referred to as Universal Women’s Pro Wrestling, is another joshi promotion which ran its first show earlier this year. As with many upstart joshi companies, it has a veteran wrestler from the glory days as its cornerstone, and, in this case, the veteran is Yumiko Hotta, who made her wrestling debut until the mid-1980s and stuck with the powerhouse All Japan Women’s organization until it died in the early part of last decade. Hotta is in to captain Reina’s Dantai Taiko team, and she’s joined by teenaged up-and-comers Aki Kambayashi and Aoi Ishibashi. What makes Reina stick out in a somewhat crowded independent wrestling landscape is that they, for reason that I’m not aware of, have been able to enter into a working agreement with Mexican promotion CMLL, allowing several luchadoras to compete for them. Two of those women have come in for the tournament, namely La Comandante, a long-time ally of the legendary Pierroth who is one of the largest women on this particular show, and Zeuxis, a masked woman who is young in the business but has already held Reina’s Tag Team Titles with Comandante.

Diana: I don’t know what it is about 2011, but joshi promotions opened up left and right this year. We already talked about Stardom and Reina opening their doors in the last twelve months, and the same is also true of Pro Wrestling Diana. The top star of Diana is Kyoko Inoue, who was one of the biggest stars of joshi during the 1990s, main eventing many a show for All Japan Women. Karou Ito is a woman who was on the same level – if not on a slightly higher level – than Inoue during the glory days of AJW, and she has joined Kyoko both in the new promotion and on this team. Ito, though never a small woman, has gotten VERY large as she’s headed into her early 40s, so she now brings a style of throwing her weight around which not a lot of joshi wrestlers do anymore. A third veteran joshi is the next entry on the team, namely Keiko Aono (formerly Keito). Aono has been around for over fifteen years, but, unlike Inoue and Ito, she never competed regularly for All Japan Women and instead was more closely associated with a smaller yet still respected company by the name of LLPW. While Reina brings in Mexican stars to give its cards a unique flavor, Diana has taken a different approach and picks up women from the American indy scene. To that end, their team for this event is being rounded out by Jennie Rose, a Ring of Honor/SHIMMER trainee who performs under a mask in the States under the name of Jamilia Craft and Annie Social, an alumnus of the Naked Women’s Wrestling League (no, seriously) who has been trying to become more of a “legitimate” in-ring competitor in recent years.

Freelancers: One of the things that really sets the Japanese wrestling scene apart from the American scene is that there are some wrestlers out there who are fairly big stars who aren’t considered to be a part of any particular promotion. They’re called freelancers, and they’re actually pretty vital to joshi these days because there are so many small, splintered promotions with full-time rosters of six or eight girls. The freelance team in this tournament combines two absolute legends, one not-quite legendary veteran, and a couple of up-and-comers. The legends are Jaguar Yakoto and Manami Toyota, who were considered the best wrestlers in the world (male or female) during their respective primes in the 1980’s and the 1990’s. Saruka Hirota is their first partner, and she’s a remarkably tiny yet butch-looking woman who has been wrestling for almost fifteen years but has never quite worked her way into a top-of-the-card role. Up next is Mio Shirai, a young wrestler who is pretty good in the ring but gets by in large part due to her sex appeal and the fact that she has a unique tag team with her sister Io. The last member of the freelance roster is a woman named Nancy Mari, who, quite frankly, I’ve never heard of before and can find very little information about. From the match, though, she appears to mostly be a comedy wrestler.

Now that you know the players, let’s head to the action!

Match Numero Tres: Team Stardom (Nanae Takahashi, Natsuki*Taiyo, Yoshiko, Yoko Bito, & Mayu Iwatani) vs. Team Reina (Yumiko Hotta, La Commandante, Aki Kambayashi, Zeuxis, & Aoi Ishibashi) in the first round of the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament

Yoko Bito steps up and volunteers to start the match for Team Stardom, and she gets to go up against the veteran Yumiko Hotta at the bell. Bito scores with a dropkick early, but Hotta no-sells her attempts at double leg takedowns. Bito responds with a variation on La Mistica, which she quickly turns into a cradle for one. After that, Hotta takes her down with one palm strike and applies a cross arm breaker, which gives us our first mass run-in of the match. Hotta tags out to Aoi Ishibashi, and Aoi is immediately taken down by a pair of bulldogs from Bito, giving us a tag to Mayu Iwatani. Mayu and Aoi engage in a forearm/slap battle, which Mayu initially wins, though Aoi cuts off her momentum quickly with a high kick and follows with a series of three cross bodies. From there, Aoi Ishibashi tags out to Aki Kambayashi (try saying that three times fast), but Aki is immediately taken down off the ropes by a NICE looking sleeper drop by Iwatani. It gets two, so Mayu goes to the corner dropkick. Aki is able to fire back with a lariat for a nearfall of her own, followed by, believe it or not, the Bronco Buster and an Oklahoma roll. Mayu gets her foot on the SECOND rope at two and, after breaking the pinning combination, applies a submission consisting of a simultaneous hammerlock and bodyscissors.

Unfortunately, Aki is able to get out of the hold by running forward and thereby ramming Mayu’s back into the turnbuckles, setting up a tag to Zeuxis, our first Mexican representative to take to the ring. Mayu quickly finds herself triple-teamed by three of her opponents, but she manages to evade them before running to the corner and tagging out to Natsuki*Taiyo. Taiyo does an AMAZING high speed lucha high spot with Zeuxis, including some armdrags and a headscissors takedown. Taiyo leaps to the top rope and comes off with another armdrag, though Zeuxis is able to boot her in the gut and hit a moonsault press for two. She uses her momentum to tag out to Comandante, but Taiyo gets the better of the two luchadoras with some flips and armdrags. Eventually Zeuxis is able to recover and kick Taiyo out of the ring, but she fails MISERABLY on a suicide dive attempt, as the move wipes out Comandante and not any member of the Stardom team. That leads into a dive by Taiyo, who pops up on to the top rope with ease and hits a cross body on both of the CMLL representatives.

Back on the inside of the ring, Taiyo runs into Comandante’s boot and finds herself in a GIANT SWING~! Comandante follows with a chokeslam and tags back out to Hotta. Yuko Bito tags into the match as well, and she is able to repeatedly kick Hotta and get the advantage for a bit. Before long, though, Hotta is in a position to respond, and she wipes out the rookie with a Kappo kick. Before Hotta can score the pinfall, Yoshiko runs in for the save. They double team the veteran Reina member for a bit, but Hotta gets the upper hand when she blocks a high kick by Bito and turns it into an ankle lock. This prompts every wrestler in the match to hit the ring for a big ole’ schmozz.

When the smoke clears, it’s still Bito and Hotta in the ring, with the youngster hitting a HUGE pump kick in the corner before tagging out to Yoshiko. Yoshiko gets a pretty big pop and goes into a strike war with Hotta before raking her eyes and hitting a codebreaker. A lariat against the ropes follows, but Hotta responds with one of her own and puts Yoshiko in a sleeper. Again, all of the match’s participants run in. Somewhere in the chaos, Aki Kambayashi becomes the legal woman for Reina. She looks for a buzzsaw kick on Yoshiko, but Yoshi blocks it and grabs her for a chokeslam. Aki avoids that, but she doesn’t avoid a lariat. Yoshiko then teams up with Taiyo for some double teaming, and they hit a really dangerous looking facewash/basement dropkick combo on Aki as she is slumped in the corner. From there, the Stardom girls hit a rare QUADRUPLE team move, as Taiyo holds Aki up so that, at the same time, two other Stardom girls can bulldog her into a Yoshiko codebreaker. It only gets two, as a save is made.

In the ensuing brawl, the Reina team takes the advantage back, with Aki and Comandante hitting a version of the Doomsday Device on Yoshiko for a nearfall. Hotta grabs Yoshiko after that, putting her in place for a Comandante lariat. It misses and hits Hotta, and, before long, the two partners are brawling. All five women are in the ring fighting, and, amidst it all, Yoshiko pins Aki with a second rope senton.

Match Thoughts: This match had a little bit of a different flavor than the other two that came before it. The first two matches on the show were heavy toward the “scramble” side of things, with bodies flying all over the place and virtually non-stop action. There were plenty of instances in this match in which many if not all of the participants ran in to break up a pin or provide a transition, but, aside from that, this resembled a traditional tag team match much more than anything that came before it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing and it’s not necessarily a good thing . . . it just means that the match is different. Part of the slowdown was probably due to Comandante and Zeuxis being in the match, as you could tell that the two of them weren’t exactly at the speed of the joshi-trained competitors. Yet, despite the slower pace, the match still accomplished its primary goal, which seemed to be getting Yoshiko over as a force to be reckoned with. She really got an opportunity to shine in the last several minutes of the match, and everything built well to her coming in and cleaning house. Absolutely nothing to complain about here, with solid action all around. ***

Match Numero Cuatro: Team Diana (Kyoko Inoue, Kaoru Ito, Keiko Aono, Jennie Rose, & Annie Social) vs. Team Freelancer (Jaguar Yokota, Manami Toyota, Mio Shirai, Sakura Hirota, & Nancy Mari) in the first round of the Dantai Taikou Flash Tournament

Nancy Mari and Kyoko Inoue are the first two women in the ring, with the larger and more experienced Inoue dominating in a couple of comedy oriented spots, including setting Mari up to be squished by a top rope attack from the, ahem, rotund Karou Ito. Inoue tags out to Annie Social, and Mari attacks Annie’s ridiculously large fake breasts. There’s a tag to Mio Shirai, and Social makes fun of how relatively poorly endowed Mio is until the Shirai sister kicks her ass and puts her into an armbar. Annie comes back with a kick to the face and tags in Keiko Aono. Aono and Mio exchange leg kicks, and it is Aono who first succeeds in taking her opponent down. Mio answers with a tornado DDT and a kick to the face, which gives her the opening she needs to bring in the legendary Jaguar Yokota. After some quick exchanges, Aono connects with an enzuguiri on Yokota, followed by a Falcon Arrow for two. Jaguar tries to make a tag but gets hit with a belly-to-back suplex for her trouble, at which point Aono tags in Karou Ito. Jaguar succeeds in taking both of her opponents down with the old flying headscissors/flying headlock spot, after which the match breaks down, with all of the freelancers hitting corner attacks on a stacked up Ito and Aono.

Eventually the majority of the match’s participants wind up out on the floor, giving Ito an opening to hit a FLYING FAT WOMAN OUT OF CONTROL dropkick through the ropes. She follows that up by bringing Jaguar Yokota back into the ring and slamming her with a sit-out powerbomb for two. She looks for the same move again, but this time Jaguar turns it into a rana and tags out to Sakura Hirota, which I believes gives us the largest possible size differential in this match. Hirota tries to spear Ito and fails, leading to another series of corner attacks, this time favoring Team Diana. Karou looks to slam Hirota after that, but the smaller woman blocks it and hangs on to her opponent’s back with a rear naked choke. Ito escapes by falling on Hirota (no foolin’) and follows it up with a senton. Well, at least her offense has a theme.

Another series of run-ins sees Manami Toyota and Inoue become the legal women, with Toyota hitting a pair of missile dropkicks for two but being cut off via interference before she can land a third. This allows Inoue to hit a SUPERPLEX for two. Kyoko missies a lariat and gets tossed out to the arena floor by Toyota, who then heads to the top rope and comes off with a big ole’ cross body. Toyota is able to roll Inoue back into the ring with ease, but Kyoko is gone by the time Toyota comes off the top rope with her moonsault. Kyoko tries to hit a powerbomb but Toyota slips out of it, and a second attempt is cut off by Minami’s teammates. This angers Inoue, who flattens both Manami and Nancy Mari with a double lariat before tagging out to Jennie Rose.

The ROH alumnus takes to the skies with a diving lariat on Toyota for a two count. Jennie tries to Irish whip the legend but meets with some resistance, which leads to Toyota wiping her out with a high cross and tagging Nancy back in. Mari’s first trick is goosing Jennie, which she follows with an Ultimo Dragon-esque handstand in the corner. However, she gets stuck and has to have her partners help her down. That leaves her open for a series of clubbing forearm blows by Jennie, who follows up with a fisherman suplex for a two count. Now it’s Karou Ito’s turn to hit the ring, and she takes Mari down with a superkick, only to have Nancy kip back up and kiss her. Seriously. Nancy sets up for a head a shoulders suplex on Ito, but that’s easily blocked. Ito also no-sells the goose that Nancy was able to successfully use on Rose, after which she wipes out Mari with a lariat. An exploder suplex by the large woman also connects. Manami Toyota makes the save with a missile dropkick on to Ito, though there is actually a bit of miscommunication, as Toyota lands right on top of Nancy Mari while delivering the move, essentially hitting an “accidental” senton on her own partner.

Fortunately, Mio Shirai is there to try to pick up the pieces for her team, giving Ito a kick to the gut. This too sees Mari getting inadvertently crushed in the process. However, all four other freelancers come to the aid of Mari, and they team up for a five way kick on Ito, which again leads to Mari setting up for a suplex on the fat lady. Ito simply falls backwards and smashes Nancy into the mat. Karou follows up by going to the top rope. Mari tries to run up and cut her off, but Inoue is there to GERMAN SUPLEX Nancy Mari off of the second rope, which Karou Ito follows up with a TOP ROPE DOUBLE STOMP. Not a good day to be Nancy Mari’s internal organs. Unsurprisingly, this puts her down for three.

Match Thoughts: There was some good, athletic action in the middle of this match, but, because the opening focused so heavily on Nancy Mari and her wacky antics and the finish focused so heavily on Nancy Mari and her wacky antics, this came off as nothing more than a run-of-the-mill comedy match . . . and a comedy match that wasn’t particularly funny at that. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against comedy in professional wrestling if it’s done correctly, as it can really help to break up a long, “serious” show. However, there is something really disappointing about having top flight competitors like Yakoto and Toyota who can still go despite their age and basically having them stand around as window dressing. The same could be said for Jamilia Craft/Jennie Rose, who is a heck of a developing wrestler. I’ll go *1/2 for the limited straight wrestling we did get, but I’m a bit sad that we didn’t get more.

And that’s it for the first round! We’ll be back in seven more days. Until then, be good to yourselves . . . and each other.

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