Punches will be thrown. Kicks will connect. Backs will be smacked. It’s tense before the bout. And stepping into the ring wearing a rubber monster suit does not make it any easier. At Kaiju Big Battel (SIC)… there will be blood. It’s more than wrestling in monster costumes since the smackdown doesn’t just destroy the opponent, this match decimates a tiny model city built for destruction.
Kaiju Big Battel, an unofficial Comic Con event (open to the public of all ages), attracted crowds ready to witness live creature throwdowns inspired by old Japanese monster movies and TV shows. What might surprise you most about Tokyo-flavored wrestling match is that it is not a Japanese invention at all, in fact, it came from Boston, Massachussets. The ringmaster and creator of the live events and video series is the Boston-bred Randy Borden. He created the original event as performance art as a student. Randy describes its Japanese influence as, “…the cultural feedback loop. Japan takes American things and turns them into Japanese and we take them and turn them back. We go back and forth with things.” In a way, it’s like pop culture eating itself, vomiting and then… well, you get it.
“I loved Japanese monster TV shows when I was a kid like Ultraman, Johnny Socko, Godzilla movies.” says Randy. “And I originally wanted to shoot a short film, like an Ultraman episode, so I started making costumes. I tried to figure out how to do this by reading Japanese magazines and looking at the pictures. They turned out really bad.”
A lucky trip overseas for research, turned up monster gold. “I went to Japan and happened to be staying across the street from the old studio where they shot Ultraman,” Randy proclaims. “I started taking pictures and the security guard invited me in. They were fixing costumes in the back and I basically stole all their techniques. I learned a lot from that.”
Sure, monsters like to destroy things, but why combine that with wrestling? “The monsters need a reason to fight, so I can’t just have a stage show, this is a live show. So, wrestling, that’s the American half and it just kept growing from there.”
The very first show took place in 1996 in which Randy’s early creations layed waste to cheap cardboard buildings in a three-minute performance art piece at a gallery in Boston. An announcer proclaimed this “Monster Battle,” but to add a Tokyo-pop feel, Randy later added the Japanese word “Kaiju.” The literal translation means “mysterious beast,” but the common American translation of the word “Kaiju” is “monster” because of Godzilla. For a few years, Randy and his monster-obsessed cohorts just taped the performances, but they then began to put on live wrestling with men in rubber suits and renaming the show “Kaiju Monster Battel.” This attracted a following of both sports fans and geek enthusiasts. Randy then put the merchandising machine in motion with DVDs, stickers, and t-shirts based on crowd favorites.
The San Diego bout during Comic Con turned out a crowd hungry for monster-on-monster action. While there were no injuries during this particular show, past events have resulted in horrific results. “One time someone threw up in the suit.” Randy reveals, “That was pretty gross.”
Words by Chris Gore, photos by Dustin Downing
