This ad is for a genki drink being promoted by the new Japanese "Hustle" (Ha-tsu-su-ru) wrestling promotion. I don't know much about Hustle, but from what I can tell it looks really interesting. It's so far the only Japanese wrestling promotion I've seen to attempt a WWF style of show, with lots of colorful characters with larger than life gimmicks. Even Michinoku Pro-Wrestling star Jinsei Shinzaki goes by his American wrestling name "Hakushi" when he wrestles for Hustle. I said WWF rather than WWE on purpose because it seems to have more of the cute cartoony feel of 1980's wrestling as opposed to the "Attitude" of the 90's or the "Suckitude" of the last five years of so. This was never more evident than last Monday when a bunch of WWF Legends returned for a special "Homecoming" edition of RAW and were the among the only bright lights on an otherwise dull and forgetable show.


The Hustle promotion features two factions, the fan favorite Hustle group, and the heel Monster Army. The show centers around a colorful dictator named General Takada (pictured above) who seems to have borrowed his wardrob from M.Bison. At their next big Hustlemania event, it appears that our old friend Hard Gay will be taking on a woman in some kind of way. Sounds like a great show! It's just too bad it's not anywhere near Aomori.