Note from Cube, today’s reviewer:
To preface this review, I want to say two things to begin, firstly, Hello! This is my first review here, and I wanted to introduce myself, and second, I want to explain my position within the wrestling community and landscape. I’ve been a fan of wrestling since I was around 8 years old, I’m not American, so it’s less popular over here in England, and all I watched was WWE at that time, only knowing very little about the outside companies except their names.
I stopped watching wrestling in 2017, I got bored by the show and moved onto to other things, I returned to the wonderful sport in very early 2022 when I discovered AEW, which then turned into me watching New Japan, and then I became a lot more interested in alternatives and the rabbit hole deepened.
Now it’s September 2023, I watch AEW, Stardom, New Japan, AWG, Dragongate, Sendai Girls, SEAdLiNNNG, Ice Ribbon (occasionally), ROH (occasionally) and many others. Since I’ve only been in the more niche community the last 6 months, I still have lots to learn about when it comes to Puro/Joshi history, and I have a review series on my twitter for old matches which I call my ‘Legacy Review’, and so, now you have caught up with who I am, we begin the review of…
With the introduction out of the way, let us get on with what you’re all here for, this is my thoughts, my feelings and my criticisms on Sukeban, the new USA based Joshi promotion, and its pilot from Capitale, New York City.
When Sukeban was first announced, I was incredibly excited about it, I’d never experienced Lucha Underground, and I heard many comparisons in concept between the two. I loved the idea of an Anime x Wrestling show, especially one based in the US rather than Japan, as not only would it be more English friendly, it would be more accessible to me, as it was streamed on TikTok (an odd choice) and uploaded to YouTube after, making it, so I didn’t have to rely on a Google Drive link from discord.
I went into the first show with an open mind, I didn’t really know what to expect at all, and despite that being a feeling I’ve felt a lot recently from being new to the Joshi scene, it was a different kind of fresh for me, I had no idea what I was going to witness, none at all, the only expectation was that it would be a bunch of fun to be here for the first ever episode.
I knew some of the wrestlers quite well, like Saori Anou, Arisa Nakajima, Miyuki Takase and Yuu, having seen either their matches, their work or their characters before. I was less aware of people like Unagi Sayaka, Maya Yukihi, Risa Sera, Ram Kaichow and Riko Kaiju, I had seen a few matches, but I had not seen too many, and did not know much about them, so I was excited to see what we would get from this first episode. The idea of a retired Stardom wrestler being here too was a very cool premise, and being told by @Velkej_Bracha it was the person of which the High Speed title was made for, I was excited.
The official roster has 4 stables, the Harajuku Stars, the Dangerous Liaisons, The Vandals and the Cherry Bomb Girls, with each having 3–4 members, and then Stray Cat all by herself, you can view the roster here
This show was good, it was great even, I want to make sure that you all know that I enjoyed this show, and I’m very glad many have the same thought with me. It felt very fun, it felt new, it felt like a modern touch on Joshi mixed with retro 70s/80s characters, the word Sukeban in Japanese literally means ‘delinquent girl’ and was a big subculture in Japan in the 70s, the vibes of the show were all there, it did feel like a bunch of wrestling delinquents, but also some Sailor Moon-esque characters, some stereotypical bad guys in the Dangerous Liaisons and the edgy rebel Vandals. It truly felt like every talent inside the ring grabbed a hold of their characters and ran with them, they made their personalities known, their allegiances clear (but still with a touch of uncertainty) and their characters were presented with a unique sense of humor and style, one which isn’t present in the regular wrestling I watch myself, and it was awesome to watch.
The show opened with the ring announcer speaking both English and Japanese, and he announced all the matches very well, the show itself consisted of some solid matches, whether that be in-ring quality or the sheer comedy and character work from them (I’m looking at you Otaku-chan), and that was that for me, I enjoyed seeing how each wrestler worked with their own strengths, their new attires, their crazy personas and their attitudes of being one within their stable, acting like a Vandal, a Star, a Cherry Bomb Girl or a Dangerous Liaison (I couldn’t think of funny archetypes to relate the stables to, I’m sorry).
Each person reflected their character, it felt really genuine, it was unforced character work and there was true, natural vibes to each person, for example, with Midnight Player (Aoi) having a very edgy look, that was reflected by their in ring style and posture, Queen Takase (Miyuki Takase) acting stuck up, arrogant and very entitled, exactly like a Queen of Hearts should, very similar to Alice in Wonderland, and Stray Cat (Tomoko Inaba) having a cat-like style, it was sly, sleek, fast and smooth, with attacks using her ‘claws’ and other such feline-based offense, it was humorous without feeling over the top.
My criticisms do not lie within the ring, they do not lie within the wrestlers at all, but instead with the production, and I mean the technical side of it. The music was so cool, they had Mother by Danzig, Bad Reputation by Joan Jett and even Cherry Bomb by the Runaways, all actual licensed music, and oh my gosh the costumes all looked stunning, they were beautiful, they made a big deal about it on commentary, shouting out the nail designer and the clothes designer, but of course, this is not what I am complaining about when it comes to production, since we can all see the perfection in this side.
For such a hyped up show, consisting of many animated video packages of introductions, vignettes and short scenes drip fed to us for the last month or two, we experienced hardly any within the actual show. There was the opening anime scene, which we had seen a part of before, and animated matchup screens… that was all. Everything else was just commentary talking, which I will also touch on in a minute. This production of the art style we had thought would be present lacked in my opinion, being advertised with so many animated packages I expected more to be present in the show, but it wasn’t really there at all, and with people expecting it to maybe reach a streaming deal with a platform like Crunchyroll, you’d have thought to see more of the Anime side of it.
Now, I can’t speak for the TikTok stream from personal experience, I didn’t watch live, but from what I had heard, it sounded painful. The odd viewing angle, TikTok chat being the usual, slow speeds, buffering and funny quality of video and all the like, it sounded very patchy and not high quality, especially with the budget they seem to have from the roster and rest of the show. I myself watched on their official YouTube upload, which had no lag or quality issues, but I can understand how frustrating it would be to watch that live, especially if you prefer to watch wrestling live.
The most disappointing thing for me was the venue, because it looked so beautiful from the website on google and people who posted it online, but on the video it looked exactly like a dark basement. I had been working on creating a Sukeban show for WWE 2k23, and finding references images for the actual venue, you could see how genuinely cool it looked, with the vibe of the place, it’s stone columns, the purple lighting in the show, the roof tiling, the neon signs, the olden feel, it was all there, and you could see it all in person on people’s videos and pictures on social media, but on the actual show… darkness.
Credit to @EggyDrago, @AncientMinority, @TeeCoZee and @Reverse_Rell for the pictures above.
What we saw on the video and the stream was not at all how it could’ve been, it came across like the only thing there was a ring and the wrestlers, hardly any crowd visibility, let alone noise, and the darkness was all-encompassing, when a lighter video would’ve looked fantastic, especially with how good the Capitale looked on fans in attendance pictures and videos, and the backstage neon signs and colorful stalls were completely hidden from the show, it felt dark and dingy, not neon, bright, excitable and animated, as I felt it would be from their promotional things.
The crowd sounded lively, to an extent, but the crowd noise wasn’t very loud on the videos and the stream. There were definitely times when it felt a little off, like the crowd didn’t know who to cheer or to boo, but that can be put down to it being the first episode, as I think it was clear who the heels and faces were by the end of the show, there were reports that there were influencers and stuff in the crowd who were more about the event itself than the actual wrestling, they didn’t know anything and were there for the potential publicity, not the show. It did come across this way in the entrances in some moments when a more knowledgeable crowd would’ve been more loud and interested, it’s no crime to not know who people are, I’ve been guilty of that, but for such a niche event you’d seemingly think it would only be the niche fans, not a ton of people who weren’t regulars at wrestling shows.
Commentary by Veda and Sam was good, the female duo was something on character for the “all-womens wrestling league” and I liked that part of it. I enjoy them both as commentators, and they did a great job explaining characters, selling the event and keeping with kayfabe (except a few name slips), shouting out the animators, designers, production and more. They were both knowledgeable on who was who and their histories, but a personal critique from me is that I feel like they should be more a part of the world rather than onlookers like us, they could’ve had their own character or something, add them into kayfabe too, otherwise it just feels like we’re with friends who know about wrestling, not people who are involved with Sukeban.
The commissioner reveal was incredibly flat, I was so shocked it was Bull Nakano, genuinely flabbergasted, but the lack of sound on her video vignette and the limited light and camera visibility made it feel very underwhelming for who she actually is, she’s a legend and the only thing that made it feel like she was, was commentary and her outfit. The Sukeban belt is cool, it’s not the best I’ve ever seen, but it’s definitely not the worst, it’s unique, and I dig it, that’s just personal taste it comes down to, and the way the show finished with the Commander Nakajima vs. Ichigo Sayaka for the title at the next show was a great moment once again let down by the cameras, commentary was the only thing making it feel like a big deal, as it just has the Harajuku Stars in the crowd escaping from the attacking Dangerous Liaisons, we could’ve had so much more to finish of the show than a messy fade to black, but I did like the final segment, it was just the production for me, again.
To finish, I feel like most of this was just baby steps and little ironing out issues, I’m pumped for the next episodes in this chapter of Sukeban, and I don’t think anything was really that bad, just a lot of personal preference issues, it was a really great show with wonderful vibes that was only a little let down and lowered by the production value, but overall, I did love this show and I hope for the best for its future.
Oh, and also? Commander Nakajima for champion! This page is Dangerous Liaisons stan account.
See you all on Episode 2 of Sukeban, the Japanese all-female wrestling league!
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