Confession time: I have an on-again, off-again love affair with professional wrestling. It's a soap opera for people who like to punch stuff, with its elaborate plotlines, explosive violence, and simmering queer sexuality. I feel like pro wrestling provides me with a glimpse into the mind of my fellow man, and while it frightens me, it's simultaneously fascinating and pretty damn hilarious.
There's not a lot one could do to improve on the pro wrestling format, but making it Mexican helps, and putting dudes in giant foam rubber monster suits helps even more.
Last Friday's Battel was centered around a charity drive to save the kaiju, who were left destitute after the mad scientist Dr. Cube's recently-ended reign of terror. After a live performance by Poison Ivy League (fronted by Kaiju Big Battel's own high-energy MC Louden Noxious), the monster-on-monster mayhem began. Bouts included fights between such whimsically-named critters as D.W. Cycloptopuss versus Steam-Powered Tentacle Boulder and Hell Monkey versus American Beetle.
These kaiju don't simply bumble around the ring, although their entry into the traditional wrestling ring provided plenty of laughs. The beasties really fight, delivering crushing suplexes, devestating leg drops, and athletic leaps off the turnbuckles.
Kaiju Big Battel is probably one of the easier sells of anything I've written about in this blog. It's giant monsters, wrestling. If that doesn't put a smile on your face, I really despair for you.
Battels take place intermittently throughout the year, with reasonably-recent performances in Philadelphia and Boston. Follow Kaiju Big Battel on Twitter to get updates and learn about upcoming performances. Trust me--you're going to want to check this out!
5 comments:
So jealous I was a week too early for this one! What do you think the chances are of a Southern US Battel tour? Roughly the same as Timecube theory standing up to lab confirmation, I'd wager. :P
I love big Battel and just wish they'd come over to the UK, just like I hope to one day see a full uncut print of grindhouse and a all night movie marathon on these rainy shores. Well might aswell keep dreamin.
I think this is the greatest thing I have ever seen.
These guys used to do shows in the Atrium at Mass Art, like 10 years ago. I'm surprised they're still at it. I discovered one of their videos in this scuzzy record store I used to shop at and couldn't believe what I saw. Then I found out they did it in Boston and that they had a show coming up and I ran down with friends to see it. It was the first of four or five shows that I saw.
They would get this kid from some backyard federation in Florida to come up. His name was Super Akuma. The kid was fucking nuts. He set up Uchuchu on the commenters table and then jumped off the second story balcony and leg dropped that guy through the table. It was amazing! They put on such a killer show. Somewhere at home I have a shirt with an illustration of Dr. Cube slashing Powah Ranjurah with a scalpel.
At some point they started selling tickets through Ticketmaster and booking bigger venues and it started to cost a fortune to see them do their thing and I stopped going.
saw them at the webster ballroom in NYC - it was quite a grand time with saxaphone duo Ronald Reagan playing 80s love ballads for all the intergalatic and mutated bruisers.
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