The (not so) Big Gun Down: We Are Suzuki-Gun

Here is another very quick look at a unique New Japan World offering that appeared in the viewing library following close on the heels of the Best of the Super Juniors. And it's a curious one. While not an all around knock out of a show, I'm all for the inclusion of more than less. Give people lots of options and let them watch what they want. So I wouldn't consider 'We Are The Suzuki Gun' as essential viewing, it is interesting to make note of.

If you are new to the world of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the past few months, you might be asking who, or what, is a Suzuki Gun? Those rabid NJPW fans out there are familiar with the nasty heel group, led by Minoru Suzuki, as a group of wrestlers donned mostly in black, with little charm - far less than even the Bullet Club - and a tendency to use illegal objects to batter and choke their opponents outside of the ring, both during and after matches. There is a fairly large gaijin presence in the group, including Shelton X Benjamin and KES (Killer Elite Squad), the tag team of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer. A few smaller Junior Heavyweight wrestlers are on the team: Taka Michinoku, TAICHI, and most recently Desperado, although in NJPW, I rarely see Michinoku or TAICHI in more than a periphery role. The surly group is rounded out by Iizuka Takashi, an older wrestler with a George 'The Animal' Steel-ish demeanor, who mainly stomps around and chokes people out with whatever pliable objects are in the vicinity.

The leader Suzuki himself has developed a bit of a charm about him. Maybe it's a combination of his cheesy but easy to sing along to 80's rock-like entrance theme, and his 'i just don't give a fuck' attitude.' Oh, and the fact that he is a legitimate threat of a grappler when it comes to in-ring action is important too.

After this year's Wrestle Kingdom, where Suzuki successfully defeated Sakuraba in an MMA shoot-style match, and the rest of Suzuki-Gun fared less successfully in a bout against a team of the strugglingNOAH promotion's wrestlers, the Gun up and split from NJPW, for an undetermined amount of time, to stage a takeover of NOAH. Of course, in the fake sport imitating life world of pro wrestling, NOAH itself was experiencing a takeover of sorts, or maybe more of a life preserver tossed their way, as NJPW took on a considerable amount of the company's expenses (I don't know the details nor do I know if any certifiable factual data is truly out there) and Jado, who with brother Gedo has been successfully booking NJPW of late, went to ply his trade behind the NOAH curtain.

While some fans speculated on a back and forth with NJPW, which would include the coming over of NOAH stars like Marufuji to NJPW events, Suzuki Gun has pretty much been all up in NOAH's business with no movement the other way. Suzuki Gun is not scheduled to be any part of the G1-Climax Tournament either so I would not hold my breath waiting for their return to an NJPW ring any time soon; maybe for some matches at the January, 2016 Tokyo Dome show.

I am tempted to go off on a strange tangent at this point, which will be shelved for maybe another time down the line, about how the NJPW brand could very well be undergoing conscious molding to gear it toward a female audience. An interesting, to say the least, move in an industry that has always attracted a predominantly male audience and has been leveled with many claims of chauvinism, probably more so in Japan than elsewhere. And, it would seem that having Suzuki-Gun elsewhere kind of sort of helps to achieve that end. In this group is a high concentration of talent that one would be hard pressed to describe as cuddly or cute or even 'hunky.' Meanwhile, we are left with a number of 'baby faces' both in the wrestling style and attractiveness sense. But again, going down this road and considering its implications is a trip best saved for another time.

So, with Suzuki Gun fully integrated into the NOAH shows, generating intrigue by shaking things up and claiming all of the company's championships for themselves, with Suzuki Minoru winning the Heavyweight Championship from Naomichi Marufuji, we get a show from what seems to be NOAH soil, shown on the NJPW World service, and seemingly put together or produced by Suzuki himself. It reminds me of those amazing All Tomorrow's Parties events where a band or artist headlines and curates the other acts on the show. Indeed it started out with Suzuki on the mic for a good 15 minutes in what could have been him doing a standup comedy routine. I certainly could not tell what the content was, but it generated plenty of laughter from among the audience.

The first match was the definite highlight for me: former NOAH champ Marufuji VS the anti aging superstar Yuji Nagata. This match really made it clear who is in control of the landscape, as the top NOAH star was unable to defeat the fading but still very capable NJPW representative. The two had a very physical, very technically sound fight to a draw due to time expiring.

A strange tag team match featuring all NOAH talent found two foreigners, John Webb and Jack Gamble, more or less battling among themselves, which their opponents, Genba Hirayangi and Hitoshi Kumano capitalized on to take the win.

Shelton X Benjamin and Taka Michinoku fought with a heavyweight and junior heavyweight alike, Takashi Sugiura and Daisuke Harada. There was some good back and forth action, with Benjamin getting into some heated exchanges with both opponents on the other team. In one pretty intimidating looking expression, an attempt was made to knock Shelton off the apron, to which e responded by extending his arms and pulling himself right back to the ropes with a dead-eyed stare. He and Taka were sent packing though as the other team picked up the win.

There was more tag team awkwardness as Gedo and gainjin wrestler Zack Sabre Jr. took on Captains New Japan and NOAH, who is in fact Jado. Attention was drawn to this, as Jado turned midway through the match to trip up Captain New Japan, leading to Gedo and his partner to be the winners...and in effect Captain NOAH too? Or not really. While it was amusing, it kinda made me feel sorry for Captain New Japan, the big galoot. Not my idea of prime entertainment.

After a presumed intermission, can't be sure since the event was delivered as individual segments, a J-pop girl group came out, all dressed in red, to sing along, or maybe they were lip-synching (doesn't seem to matter) and perform a choreographed dance to some music blaring over the PA. As fans clapped along, it reminded me of my earlier sidetrack, and if NJPW is skewing toward pleasing its female audience, then this NOAH brand was definitely remaining a true to a stronghold of male fans. I could go off further on the weird lolita-complex attributed to adulr males that seems to be treated as completely acceptable running through Japanese pop entertainment, but here's probably not the time. In what I felt was the most true heel move of the show, the girls were joined by TAICHI and El Desperado, who posed and made a gesture of singing along with the group. They took on Jushin 'Thunder' Liger and Yoshinari Ogawa. The baby face heroes took the win, but were beaten viciously afterwards by Suzuki-Gun's TAICHI and Desperado. This is a trope that has been increasingly getting on my nerves: one team or single wrestler wins, but the other attacks afterwards. Then, who cares who won? I understand how it's a nice card to play ONCE IN A WHILE, to show how dastardly someone can be. When Owens attacked Cena after their rematch at the WWE Money in the Bank special, that was a good example of using this story telling convention to good effect. With Suzuki-Gun, it happens far too often, and in the case of the guys of lesser importance, it gets to be a bore.

A high point of the show ended up being a tried and true confrontation: KES (Smith Junior and Archer), who are in possession of the NOAH Heayweight Tagteam belts, against Tencozy (Tenzan and Kojima). It was a good match, nothing shocking or out of the ordinary, with KES picking up the win.

The main event was a strange one: Mr. Minoru Suzuki himself, teamed with Iizuka against the masked Maybach Taniguchi and Yoshihiro Takayama, the long blonde haired veteran, who I should now say is the "featured in the Sono Sion movie TOKYO TRIBE" Yoshihiro Takayama. This movie has been released in Japan some time ago, and for New Yorkers, it will be playing at the annual New York Asian Film Festival, and is a crazy feast of hip hop storytelling, crazy neon set pieces, and violence galore. That aside, this is far from a main event that can be said to be compelling. Heel/Face dynamics are out the window. I admire Suzuki-Gun for sticking to their heel identities, but they are clearly over with fans, so it was kinda like they needed to find wrestlers who have a similar shtick and are not as cool or likable, and could therefore get the fans cheering for the Gun. It is very hard for me to rally behind a guy who does a 'crazy man' gimmick and just runs around the ring and brawls. So Iizuka's inclusion in this main event at all brought the sudden realization that this show was not a very big deal; setting up for other thins down the line, I guess, but I'm not even sure how big a deal that could be.

Suzuki-Gun cheated blatantly. Minoru ripped Maybach's mask off, which basically pissed the fellow old and grizzled old Japanese wrestler off, after which he started gnawing away at Minoru Suzuki's head. At one point the masked wrestler had used a staff with a curved end to drive Iizuka into the corner before he could strike Takayama with his chain, or some other illegal object. Takayama and Maybach won. Did fans ]get excited for their victory? Was any sympathy generated over Suzuki-Gun's loss?? I couldn't say.

Again, I am glad for the variety and want more material on my NJPW World than less, but I do hope the powers that be realize that Suzuki-Gun's takeover will only be as compelling as long as there are dynamic a baby faces to have a rivalry with them. It will make these brand offshoots that much more enjoyable.

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