May 23, 2007

Jazz crushes the competition

Like any full-blooded male wrestling fan, there is no greater guilty pleasure for me than watching two or more women open a can of whoop ass on each other. Oh, yeah. It is a thing of beauty.

What makes things even better though is if the women involved actually know a wristlock from a wristwatch, unlike the majority of those emaciated, synthetic WWE bimbos.

While Chick Fight V may not have all the razzle dazzle of a WWE DVD it does have plenty of inspired performances from women who would rather show off their skills in the ring than their breasts on a glossy magazine cover.

With only about 60 fans at ringside, the eight woman tournament held in 2006 at the Kenzar Pavilion in California, sure didn't break any attendance records but it did give North American fans a good look at such Japanese stars as Yoshiko Tamura, Sumie Sakai and Tanny Mouse.

Of the three Japanese imports, Yoshiko Tamura is the one who really shone. Dressed like a raging death metal priestess hell-bent on destruction, Tamura showed that she too is an "innovator of violence" in her first round match-up against Canada's own Allison Danger and later on when she locked horns with Cheerleader Melissa in perhaps the best match of the night.

Ah, Cheerleader Mellisa. She is the first female to ever be honoured with the "Future Legend" award by the Cauliflower Alley Club and she guest-starred on an episode of Attack of the Show on G4TechTV. Does it get any better than that, fan boys? I think not.

Yoshiko Tamura grinds Allison Danger into the mat

As if the rough housing wasn't fierce enough with heavy hitters like Tamura and defending tournament champion Mschif on the card, ECW alumni Jazz took part as well. Being the big name draw at the show, Jazz went far in the tournament but you didn't need a crystal ball to see that coming.

There are seven tournament matches on the DVD plus two bonus bouts so you are looking at over two hours of slickly-produced independent wrestling mayhem. For those who are not familiar with "joshi puroresu" or female pro-wrestling in Japan, releases like the Chick Fight series serve as well-meaning primers but they will never surpass the real thing.

RATING: 6 / 10

CHICK FIGHT V
*First Round*
Cheerleader Melissa Vs Tanny Mouse
Yoshiko Tamura Vs Allison Danger
Jazz Vs Simply Luscious
MsChif Vs Sumie Sakai
BONUS DVD MATCHES: Yoshiko Tamura vs MsChif; Allison Danger & Simply Luscious vs Sumie Sakai & Tammy Mouse, Plus Bonus Commentary From Cheerleader Melissa, Roland Alexander and Jason Deadrick

RELATED LINK

www.chickfight.tv

Like Shawn Michaels, SLAM! Wrestling co-creator John Powell has regained his "smile" and returned to the site. We just knew he would ... eventually. He can be emailed at pow2112@hotmail.com.