When I'm asked what my favorite weird sport is, I always say Kaiju Big Battel. Always.
And what is Kaiju Big Battel, you ask? Well, it's the world's only live monster fighting spectacle. Hello!
"Kaiju Big Battel is a modern conflict of epic proportions," reads the official Kaiju site. "Evil villains, menacing alien beasts, and giant, city-crushing monsters threaten to destroy the planet Earth. Who will save the helpless humans from total ruin?"
Who, indeed? A few heroes, of course. And some heroines. They must contain the havoc and minimize the damage as they fight within the arena of Kaiju Big Battel. Think Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah in the WWE with scaled-down papier-mâché buildings perfect for blindsiding opponents when the ref isn't looking. Watch out for the Empire State Building, yo!
I know I'll start a heated debate, and perhaps even get death threats, saying this, but the Kaiju aliens (from outer space via Boston) are way more original than Godzilla. And way more wonderful.
Doubt me? Check out this mind-blowing video...
The Battel comes to Wallingford, Connecticut on Cinco de Mayo during WrestleJam 8. I'd love to be there. I've caught Kaiju twice, most recently in Vegas, which seems somehow appropriate for so grand a spectacle. The spectacular card included Sun Buster vs. Hell Monkey and Steam Powered Tentacle Boulder vs. a younger version of the time traveling Super Wrong. I also saw The Macho Man Ref taking on Yarsminko and Cycloptopuss. And it goes without saying that the evil Dr. Cube, who destroys by appointment, was up to no good.
My dear photo friend Tiffany Brown-Anderson joined me ringside and said she could hear my distinct laughter from backstage all night long. Why was I laughing so hard? The character development and story lines are amazingly preposterous. It raises absurdity to new levels, then doubles it.
How absurd? Check out the back story for one of my Kaiju characters, Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle (AKA Soup), who was once Jet Ng, a soup factory worker from Canton, China:
"Living a simple life, the industrious Ng toiled 12-hour days at the Kung-Fu Canned Foods factory. During the Y2K doomsday scare, the demand for canned goods skyrocketed and the workers of Kung-Fu Canned Foods were forced to stir liquid food for weeks on end. The overwhelming workload sank the middle-aged factory employee into a deep depression and he attempted suicide by jumping into a Super Sized™ canning machine (Model #10661492). Yet, the desperate Jet Ng did not die. Instead he was transformed into the seemingly indestructible 120-ton can of soup now known as Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle. Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle is 100 parts Kung-Fu fighting mystery, three parts consumer food product, and 2 parts real chicken parts. Although dented and damaged by many re-heated Battels, Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle continues to hold his own in Cantonese street fighting and live monster wrestling. His high MSG content notwithstanding, he continues to preserve his place in the Japanese-type Hell's Kitchen known as Kaiju Big Battel."
One thing that differed from my first Kaiju show in Brooklyn is they let me backstage. When I was in NY, they politely but firmly asked me not to photograph the performers backstage. Maybe that's why the show was so magical: I was a photographer and a witness, watching the show unfold like everyone else. I had no idea what to expect until it happened.
In Sin City, though, Tiff and I wandered backstage and were greeted warmly. I got to meet another favorite wrestler, Dusto Bunny. I felt star-struck. Dusto was covered with baby powder. It made for a nice, but sneezy, special effect during his match.
Many of these performers have played the same character throughout their Kaiju lives. The Dusto Bunny I met in Vegas was the same cat I photographed in Brooklyn. Given that we never see human faces, I figured local players filled the roles. Not so.
I'm often hesitant to revisit fabulous photo ops, because I often doubt I'll have as much fun the second time around. Oh sure, it never hurts to reshoot the same sport. Hell, I photographed college football for years without complaint. But when it comes to weird sports, so much of the fun is in having new experiences. There's a certain surrealism to witnessing something like Kaiju for the first time. Not only am I a photographer, but I'm also a fan, watching something magical with new eyes and a fresh perspective. Can you capture the same feeling the second or third time you see it? Sometimes it is best to go, get the shot and walk away.
I'm not saying this is a healthy approach to photography. Skimming the surface will always be a superficial way of seeing things. But one of the things I love about my Weird Sports project is the constant feeling of, Holy Shit! How in the hell did I get here? How did I find this? Of all the places I could be at this very moment, this is exactly where I want to be. You don't always experience that, and once you have, everything else is a bit anticlimactic.
That is why I love Kaiju Big Battel. Whenever I'm there, it is exactly where I want to be.
