Joshi Spotlight: Shark Tsuchiya

Shark, like Dump Matsumoto before her, liked to use blades to cut up the heroic babyfaces.

JOSHI SPOTLIGHT- SHARK TSUCHIYA:
Real Name: Eriko Tsuchiya
Billed Hgt & Wgt: 5’7″ 194 lbs.
Career Length: 1989-2010

-Of all things, among the most constantly-uttered refains in all of Joshi fandom is “Shark Tsuchiya sucks”. Despite being FMW’s #2 or #1 heel depending on the year and a huge recurring rival of Megumi Kudo’s, there is NOBODY who has more universal disdain leveled at their in-ring skills than Shark. And hoo boy does she earn it. Apparently a nice lady, though!

So Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling had an issue: Women’s wrestling was part of its shows, but only two of the women- Kudo and Combat Toyoda- were well-trained. Everyone else was just kinda junk by comparison. Yet you couldn’t JUST run Kudo/Combat matches, so you had to elevate some of the others. And so this snarly brawler got to join in as well.

Shark wasn’t really physically dominant like the big Combat was- she was just kinda built like a regular American person (though as she’s Japanese, this made her a lot more bulky than the average person there). And she moved like she’d never really trained in athletics her entire life- a very plodding, stumbly style. Her use of weapons was to simply place the item against someone’s forehead and just stand there- I’ve never seen someone use such little perceived force. And her match flow was terrible, too. I’ve seen more Shark matches than I care to count that were borefests extended to sixteen minutes to kill time and featured her just wandering around, holding weapons against someone’s forehead, or taunting.

Shark was very much in the “Dump Matsumoto” brand of heeling- she used weapons, cheating, and run-ins to her advantage, always having goons run interference. But she didn’t have any of Dump’s charisma or timing to pull it off. In fact, she was a big liability in having good matches, with her lack of timing or varied offense turning matches into slogs, and her clumsiness screwing up some complicated spots. Plus the time she blew fire right into Megumi Kudo’s hair during the latter’s retirement match! The number of good Shark Tsuchiya matches can thus be counted on one hand, and it’s a huge black mark in their women’s division.

I will say, at least, that she had a measure of charisma and hate-ability to her. Her cheating made her an easy and obvious bad guy, especially against a virtuous idol with great timing like Kudo, but even COMBAT TOYODA could earn sympathy fighting someone to whom a sickle was as common a tool as an Irish whip.

CAREER TRAJECTORY:
-Eriko Tsuchiya was trained by Tarzan Goto in the FMW Dojo, debuting in 1989 as the company was just adding some female wrestlers, joining Kudo & Toyoda (who were trained by AJW’s Jaguar Yokota and the Matsunaga brothers). She debuted alongside Miwa Sato & Kumiko Matsuda, teaming up with the latter until 1990, when Yoshika Maedomari debuted and Eriko partnered with her instead. She won FMW’s WWA World Women’s Title in March 1992, holding it for two months before losing it to Kudo.

July 1993 saw a big change in her career, as Eriko became “Shark” and Yoshika became “Crusher”- they were decked out like a WWF heel team- facepaint and in matching gear. In this case, Crusher was in red and Shark became distinctively green & black, something she kept for her whole career.

Shark & Kudo square off in a barbed-wire deathmatch.

In Nov. 1995 she beat Kudo for the WWA/IW Women’s Championships, holding them for a month before losing to Combat. In December, she fought Kudo in a dramatic No Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch- Kudo carrying her to a **** match or thereabouts despite Shark’s limitations. In Aug. 1996, Shark teamed up with Eagle & Michiko Nagashima to win the LLPW Six-Wrestler Titles from Carol Midori, Mikiko Futagami & Yasha Kurenai, holding them for 276 days before losing them back. She regained the FMW Women’s Titles (2) in March 1997 from Kudo, losing them a month later in Kudo’s retirement match. A month later, she, Eagle & Lioness Asuka won the LLPW Six-Wrestler Tag Titles (2) from the team she’d lost them to before, holding them for 4 months before losing them to Noriyo Tateno, Rumi Kazama & Yasha Kurenai. She formed a three-person stable with heels in other promotions, joining LLPW’s Eagle Sawai & JD’s Lioness Asuka, which is why that oddball squad won the 6-Wrestler Belts.

She regained the FMW Women’s Belts (3) in Sept. 1997, defeating AJA KONG (!!) in a decision match, but FMW abandoned the titles and joshi as a whole soon thereafter. Shark would leave FMW in June 1998. Joshi itself fractured in the 1997-98 period, and Shark became a freelancer. As a somewhat noted heel and a huge cheater, she could at least get some heat, and ended up wrestling for the various companies off and on. Her stable trio won the LLPW Six-Wrestler Tag Belts (3) again in Sept. 1998, holding them for 222 days before losing them to Harley Saito, Keiko Aono & Noriyo Tateno.

Shark wrestled her last match in Aug. 2010 with “Super FMW”, but didn’t formally retire until Nov. 2016. By that point, she had lost her right leg below the knee due to type 1 diabetes causing it to become gangrenous (having lost three toes beforehand). Breast cancer has resulted in a mastectomy as well. And from what I’ve heard, Shark is considered one of the genuinely nicest wrestlers in joshi behind the scenes- a stark contrast to her vicious heel bully persona.

MATCHES:

NO ROPES BARBED WIRE DEATHMATCH:
MEGUMI KUDO vs. SHARK TSUCHIYA (w/ Miwa Sato & other goons):
(FMW Yamato Nadeshiko II, Dec. 22nd 1995)
* So this is an infamous example of the No-Ropes Barbed Wire Deathmatch between WOMEN, as Kudo is thrown in there against vicious, nasty heel Shark. Shark is a pretty famously-bad worker (it’s virtually mandatory for someone to bash her in-ring skills as soon as she’s brought up), but she’s beaten Chigusa Nagayo this year already, so Kudo’s in trouble. Both are in their recognizable gear- Kudo the white & pink with the one leg, and Shark with her green & black suit and facepaint. The ring is already a complete disgrace, covered in bloodstains and all sorts of shit. I wouldn’t want to walk across it; much less have any part of my skin touch it during a match.

We set off pretty well immediately with the trademarks of what I’ve noticed from FMW’s Barbed Wire matches- it’s not so much a straight bloodbath as a battle royal in execution- people fight NOT to be sent into the pokey stuff. They lock up to start, and merely moving Kudo backwards gets the crowd buzzing a little bit. They reverse Irish whips but rear back and end up in a headlock, then both try to push the other into the wire- Sato grabs at Kudo from the floor, still having the temerity to interfere with barbed wire all around. Kudo resists the wire for a bit, then tries another whip (the spot looks weird when they can’t use the ropes to push off), but Shark REVERSES it, and Kudo’s our first victim, writhing her head back in agony! You can see her hair get hooked on it, too. Shark shoves her into the bottom wire, aided by her goons, and Kudo shows she’s a pro by making sure to crane her head back so the camera gets the shot of blood trickling down her face as the gore begins. Soon she’s a MESS as Shark presses her into more wire, then uses a staff wrapped in the wire for more. She alternates grinding it and throwing some very light strikes with it, but she sets up Sato’s swing and Kudo ducks! But she tries a Thesz press and ends up shoved into the wire again, chest first.

Kudo screams defiantly when the ref asks her if she quits, and the goons toss in a table. Kudo sells “dying of blood loss but has the will to fight” as well as anyone I’ve ever seen, and Shark accidentally flips the table over with Kudo’s legs trying a powerbomb on it. So she’s just like “Well, whatever” and realigns Kudo so that doesn’t happen again, haha. The table makes a good “CRUNCH!”, but is too Japanese to break. Kudo kicks out of a slack pin at two. Sato comes in for an ASSISTED powerbomb, but they just kinda press Kudo onto the table and it collapses on one side. That gets two, and Shark drops her ass first on it- nope. Kudo kicks her in the gut and slams her to FINALLY break it- she grabs the table piece as a makeshift weapon but Shark grabs a huge-ass sickle and Kudo’s SCREAMING in horror at the agony of it being see-sawed into her forehead. They wrestle over the sickle, but then in a brilliant spot Kudo grabs the table piece and BLOCKS THE SICKLE with it, leaving us with the great visual of the blade sticking all the way through the wood as Kudo holds it in front of her. And Kudo knocks Shark around with the table piece! Shark goes into the ropes, then Kudo USES THE ASS to dig her in deeper!

Kudo, caked in blood but defiant, finally has her spirit back and starts whupping on Shark with that wire-staff (SUPER-delicately, though), even getting a subordinate in there for some shots! Shark collapses after a ton of those and some kicks. Shark nearly reverses a stick-shot but Kudo gets a go-behind and chokes her out with it. Okay that’s obviously super-gimmicked- Kudo’s using her bare hands to pressure it in. Perfect Plex gets two for Kudo on a tired Shark, but then she tries another Ass Attack like a crazy person and FLIES into the wire! Vicious backdrop suplex gets two for Shark, who now actually wants to win and not just apply torture. Huge powerbomb gets two. We’re back to “dying Kudo” flopping around, so Shark’s minions snip some wire so she can use barbed-wire assisted FIST STRIKES and clotheslines for two. She tries to powerbomb Kudo ON THE STAFF but she lands on her feet and DDTs Shark onto it instead, then hits a Bridging German… but a goon breaks up the pin at “2”! Oh you ASS! But she tries a chokeslam and Kudo armdrags out, whips her into the barbed wire, then dropkicks SHARK into it, hitting a Butterfly Powerbomb for two! Butterfly Bomb on a chair! Two! Shark nearly backdrops her out of a wild swing, but Kudo lands on her feet, shoves her into the wire again, and hits her MDK- KUDOME VALENTINE!! The move Shane Helms ripped off for the “Vertebreaker!” And that gets the pin at (16:25 shown of 19:41)!

In a brilliant (subtitled) post-match interview, Kudo brings up how the pain of barbed wire matches “was beyond imagination”, but adds “But when I think of the harm that she has done to us- Tsuchiya bullying rookies and forcing Combat (Toyoda) to consider retirement, I could overcome the fear with anger and a sense of responsibility”. BAD ASS.

So this kind of deathmatch brutality is NOT my thing, especially so when it’s women killing each other, but holy shit Kudo is just THE BEST at selling death. She sounded like a horror movie victim in there- something more evocative and sympathy-inducing than even Toyota or Hokuto are capable of. She is REALLY good at timing her “defiantly stand up only to get killed again” shit, and knows how to make her real comebacks count. And after ten minutes of torment she FINALLY lands a reversal, then pays back Shark some. And she gets some good revenge for about five minutes before she horribly screws up by missing her running Ass Attack and DYING on the wire. Then it’s more Shark punishment, but the impact moves that can actually finish. The staff shots were kinda funny because they were being sooooooo delicate with that, even though I think they were all gimmicked. I’m not used to FMW of all places using Lance Storm-tier weapon shots. But the bits with the goon running in were some epic timing, with Kudo perfectly reversing on her and then tossing both of them into the wire. Shark isn’t great, but this covered all of her flaws and made it look like Kudo was absolutely being slaughtered, but also made you BUY her comebacks, which were earned with courage and smarts.

Rating: **** (just an awesome deathmatch brawl- so much emotion and character and not “just” blood & guts)

The final match here.

FMW INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S & WWA WOMEN’S TITLES:
NO ROPES EXPLODING BARBED WIRE DEATH MATCH:
SHARK TSUCHIYA vs. MEGUMI KUDO:
(FMW 8th Anniversary Show)
* So it’s come to this- the retirement of Megumi Kudo. Against the arch-nemesis of FMW girls and workrate fans everywhere- Shark Tsuchiya! This is also for Shark’s FMW Women’s Titles, giving it an extra “oomph”, as Kudo can retire with the belts she got over in the first place. As before, two sides of the ring are wrapped with barbed wire (but EXPLOSIVE barbed wire!), and the other two have a straight drop onto boards spiraled with more wire (and also explosives). Kudo’s in a silver-ruffled outfit with a VERY pensive expression on her face- just blank as if she’s wrapped up in the totality of her career. Shark’s in the usual, staring daggers at Kudo. this match was such a big deal it even made the Apter Mags- I’d never heard of either at the time, but the image of a bloody-faced woman doing this brutal match in barbed wire against a monstrous opponent stuck with me for pretty much ever.

The “battle royal” nature of these matches continues as they struggle to push each other over the edge of the ring, then the wire and the other edge- Kudo gets a big reaction for selling a kick like it’s ABOUT to send her face into the wire, but then BOOM!! Shark reverses a whip and Kudo explodes one whole side. Shark, instead of taking advantage, just throws slow stomps and works the bandaged side of Kudo. Shark keeps pulling at the front of her shirt like Rey fiddling with his mask in that WrestleMania match, and they weakly do go-behinds until she shoves Megumi side-first into the wire- BOOM!! Shark uses the slow-sickle-push and Kudo’s a mess, trickling blood all down her face. Shark keeps sawing away, but misses a few big swings (naturally doing the “it sticks into the mat to show she was SERIOUS” spot again) and Kudo slugs her way out and disarms her, but Shark disarms her back and we’re back to square one. Kudo gets strangled with the sickle-chain and sleepered, the crowd slowly chanting her name when she keeps her hand up at “2.5” (wait, FMW does that version of testing the arm?), and when Shark tries to whip her, she counters with a chain-drag and sends SHARK over the edge- BOOM!! Shark explodes!

Shark slowly gets in (her selling mostly consists of “leaning forward and looking tired”) and Kudo hits a floatover DDT for two (and Shark does my pet peeve of “fucking around with her clothes while selling on the mat”)- she resists the Tiger Driver but gets caught in the Northern lights suplex for two. Shark tries a powerbomb but Kudo does a flawless Manami Roll over her for two, then counters a whip into the kneeling Tiger Driver for the same. Kudo’s taking the lead, but Shark avoids the Kudo Driver and when Kudo insanely leaps up for a rana, Shark just turns around and dumps her right over the edge, NECK FIRST into the explosives- BOOM!! Kudo is dead on the boards, but pulls herself up using the rope tying the mat to the ring and struggles in after 50 seconds, then eats a trio of backdrop suplexes for two. Piledriver gets two and Shark piles up chairs for another, then SPITS FIRE on her. She dives for the ref and he manically puts out the fire to really put it over (also to really put out the fire that Shark just put IN HER HAIR), and Shark gets two out of that, then a powerbomb. Kudo avoids the wire, but Shark pushes her right in- BOOM!! Both take that… but Kudo lands forward on Shark- for three (17:38 of 21:47 shown)! Shark is undone by her own brutality, surprising the fans and netting Kudo both FMW Women’s Titles in retirement!

Kudo & Shark clearly have their goodbyes while in that heap and a purple-faced, bloodied Kudo looks like a war veteran as she’s cared for by the seconds. Shark hasn’t moved at all and gets carted away by her own seconds (Miwa Sato and co.), and Kudo finally recovers enough to take her bows- her post-match appearance almost makes me want to raise this by another star. She says a very quick goodbye to “puroresu” and finishes with “arigato gozaimasu-desuka” and collapses. She’s carried away and sobs to Hayabusa and other FMW wrestlers as she gives the belts back. RIP FMW’s women’s division. Oh, and now we end with a pervy bikini video! Man did Rossy book FMW too?

This whole thing was just Kudo being thrown into stuff and then bleeding, as Shark is so limited she can really only do stomps and then that dumb “slowly push the sickle into someone’s head” thing. At least the psychology is sound- Shark does the brutality and uses the wire, but Kudo manages to reverse her using momentum and physics (the counter-whip over the edge; reversing things to legit wrestling moves). Kudo’s as good a comeback artist as you’re gonna get, but it felt like her “fire” was diminished a bit compared to 2 years prior- I’d imagine all the wear & tear has its effect on her. Her selling is still terrific, though, going flat-backed and still having this “aura” about her that whatever you’re seeing is important. The match itself had decent enough “flow” between segments- Shark’s brutality, Kudo’s reversal into legit wrestling moves, then Shark’s reversal into more brutal stuff, weapons and fire… but the ending didn’t really build quite to the peak, and it almost seems like saving face for Shark, who instead of eating a finisher gets a borderline fluke loss.

Rating: **1/2 (PRETTY good in parts, but mostly slow stuff from Shark- who is NOT good- with Kudo carrying the day via her great selling, but even she’s past her peak by this point)