Myself and many others stand inside capitale, a venue in NYC. Something new and different is debuting, Sukeban! A Japanese women’s wrestling league premiered to a world stage. Several stalls line the perimeter of the event space. Designed to be reminiscent of Japanese festival booths and 80’s metal and punk blaring through the sound system. There is merchandise for sale, and lots of snacks and drinks, free for the guests in attendance. From popcorn and candy apples to coca cola and cans of sake, Sukeban welcomes us into its world of enigmatic pageantry filled with unique characters and personalities.
As we are let into the main space, the gorgeous venue is adorned with old elegant architecture that looks entirely different baked in pink neon. As we settle into the bleacher style seats, with Sukeban branded pillows to sit on. The lights dim and a video plays welcoming us to a world of good vs evil. This is the same video that mysteriously dropped on twitter a few weeks ago on September 1st.
The show opens with a six woman tag team match between The Vandals and The Cherry Bomb Girls. Joan Jett rips through the venue's speakers with Bad Reputation playing for The Vandals, a group of outcasts who have come together to break rules and break bones. Following them, Ch-Ch-Ch-Cherry Bomb! The Cherry Bomb Girls arrive, a heroic trio that make a perfect combination of speed and strength. Everyone in this opening matchup had a standout performance, the eclectic pairing of Bingo the clown, Otaku-chan and Atomic Banshee were the perfect adversaries for Riko Blondie and her aptly named partners Crush Yuu and Supersonic. A moment I really want to highlight tells us all we need to know about Sukeban. Crush is sprinting towards Bingo who holds up her hands like a mime, and creates a door between herself and Crush. What is Crush’s response? Punch through the door? Knock or even try to open it? Crush Yuu decides the best course of action is lift the imaginary door high above her head and toss right into the crowd, much to my fearful dismay as it landed a few mere inches away from me. Sukeban practically screams at its audience to have fun, this is wrestling, we’re are all here to have a great time. Opening the show with this match told is exactly what Sukeban is all about. Fun.
The next match up is a special triple threat featuring Saki Bimi of the Harajuku Stars. Who seems destined for greatness in her future. The “Queen of Hearts” Queen Takase, decorated in a vibrant red corset. The surprise entrant for this match was Konami! A two-time Artist of Stardom Champion, and two-time Goddess of Stardom Champion. An incredibly decorated performer who showed off to the audience just how skilled she was. I will point out my first big criticism with this premiere episode. Wrestlers acted like they knew the ending of the match, several times throughout this match, Takase would take a dramatic rest outside the ring and play up to the crowd. When pinfall attempts were made in the match, she would simply sit and watch. When the bell finally rang, Takase was sitting amongst the audience being fanned by the sukeban program booklets from several people in the audience. (as she should be, she is a queen after all). I’m using Queen as an example but this was a pattern I spotted throughout the whole show in any multi person matchup. Now I am aware that this was an incredibly small space, so it is possible things of this nature were possibly just harder to ignore.
Following the triple threat match, was my favorite match of the night by far, The Vandal’s Midnight Player against Stray Cat, who is the only wrestler currently in Sukeban not affiliated with a group. The spotlight shifts away from their typical entrance area to the balcony behind me. The Stray Cat Strut plays through the speakers as creeping into the spotlight is the Stray Cat herself. She scales the bleachers and heads towards the ring through the audience. Both of these wrestlers are able to show such impressive technical skill. Midnight has an explosive energy that will knock her opponents out before they even realize. Stray Cat’s prowess of karate shows in her brutal strikes and even stronger kicks that sent chills down my spine by simply watching. Following the match, Midnight Player offered Stray Cat to join The Vandals which was denied! The next contest was a tag team match between the Harajuku star’s Babyface and Maya Mamushi and The Dangerous Liaison’s Lady Antionette and Commander Nakajima. All four put on a very fun tag match with some very enjoyable moments.
Before the main event the lights went out, and the large screen began to play old clips of a legendary woman. Was this an intermission? The word “COMMISSIONER” flashed on the screen, a clip of a woman diving off a steel cage plays.
“BULL NAKANO”
If you’re a fan of Women’s wrestling it is near impossible to not have at least heard her name. To the surprise of everyone in attendance, we are in the presence of wrestling royalty! Nakano enters the ring carrying a white leather championship belt, the Sukeban World Championship! She informs us that she is the commissioner of Sukeban and the main event will determine a contender for the championship!
It's only 9:15pm and the main event is starting? This show felt like Christmas especially after being in attendance for AEW’s Grand Slam event the night before, which was still going on close to midnight when I decided to finally leave. Despite it being so early in the evening, every match kept me engaged and excited. Countess Saori makes her way to the ring, Soari is the current Goddess of Stardom Champion and a member of the Cosmic Angel, but this is Countess Saori with an entirely different character and personality. Reinforcing to the audience that sukeban is its own world, like an alternate universe to ours. Ichigo Sayaka arrives in bright pink. Sayaka is a former Artist of Stardom Champion and Future of Stardom Champion. This is a decorated main event for sure. After a fantastic contest of speed and technical ability (and some minor confusion regarding the referee calling pinfalls) Ichigo Sayaka was victorious, but her celebration was cut short as Commander Nakajima appears to confront Sayaka! It was announced here that at Sukeban’s next event it will be Nakajima and Sayaka for the Sukeban World Championship! Nakajima tackles Sayaka! and within the blink of an eye a brawl breaks out between the Dangerous Liaisons and Harajuku Stars. The fight is finally shut down when Commissioner Nakano comes around. A really fun ending to the show that left me excited for the next event.
To say that Sukeban surpassed my expectations is an understatement. Down to the details Sukeban did everything they can to get its audience invested in its product. The short notice guerilla marketing made me feel like I was in on a secret. However this is also one of my biggest concerns with Sukeban going forward. When is the next event? Where is it going to be? Are they based in New York? Will they be touring? There is a mailing list on their website, if you're interested in being ahead of the curve with any and all Sukeban info. Maybe this is exactly what they want us to be asking. All I know is, I loved Sukeban! Selfishly, I hope they stay in New York so I can attend every damn show.
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