Hustle HUSTLE is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion managed by Nobuhiko Takada . HUSTLE can be described as an industry experiment to market the sports entertainment style of professional wrestling in Japan . History . Original promotion . Booked primarily by Nobuhiko Takada and Yuji Shimada , the promotion ’ s basic premise pits the babyface , or good guy , HUSTLE faction whose goal is to “ defend the industry ” , against Generalissimo Takada ’ s heel , or bad guy , Monster Faction , whose mission is to destroy the sport . Unlike the traditional puroresu , the company emphasizes melodrama and caricatures over realism and athleticism . The group once maintained a close affiliation with mixed martial arts promoters PRIDE Fighting Championships when both were owned by Dream Stage Entertainment , or DSE . Fans in the U . S . consider HUSTLE to be an answer to Takada ' s original wrestling style , the serious shoot style , having lost its popularity in Japan as a result of the UWFi vs . NJPW feud and the rise of PRIDE and K - 1 . As of 04 / 24 / 07 , Hustle ' s ownership group ( made up of former DSE employees ) became " Hustle Entertainment " and former Kami no Puroresu editor Noboru Yamaguchi ( who was part of the original Hustle brain trust ) became President of the new organization . The group is still running their business at the old Dream Stage Entertainment offices , which became the PRIDE Worldwide Holding offices . Earlier in 2007 , HUSTLE ran a storyline where General Takada bought out HUSTLE for 1 billion Monster dollars and that everyone within the HUSTLE army became part of the Takada Monster Army . Some wrestler s received new gimmicks , like Naoya Ogawa turning into " Celeb " Ogawa , where he acted like a celebrity . The storyline was in response to DSE ' s bleak future due to financial troubles caused by yakuza scandals ; DSE would eventually close doors after PRIDE Fighting Championships was officially bought out by Zuffa ( the organization that owns UFC ) . In July 2009 , the leader of the Monster Army , Generalissimo Takada was " killed " when a new enemy by the name of " King RIKI " ( played by actor / singer Riki Takeuchi ) showed up at the " HUSTLE AID 2009 " event and repelled one of Takada ' s lasers , sending it back towards him and wounding him . The following show the Monster Army was disbanded , as the direction of the company started to change . In August 2009 , President Noburo Yamaguchi stated that HUSTLE would be entering a new era . Straying away from the over the top storylines & gimmick - oriented " Fighting Opera " style that made them popular , to a more traditional wrestling " Professional Fighting " style . Hustle president Nobuo Yamaguchi announced on October 28 that the promotion was folding . He made the announcement that they were out of money , and could no longer pay the staff and the wrestlers . He said that the scheduled 10 / 29 show at Korakuen Hall was canceled , as are all the rest of the shows on the schedule . Since Nobuhiko Takada left the promotion as the top heel , interest had gone way down . Many of the shows were before small crowds , and most of those crowds were papered . While nobody would say so publicly , they were behind on paying a lot of the wrestlers , and the demise of the promotion has been expected for the last couple of months . Yamaguchi said his goal was to eventually bring the promotion back . In the beginning of 2010 some of Hustle ' s biggest names announced that they would be forming a new promotion , SMASH , intended to replace the dead promotion . SMASH held its first show on March 26 , 2010 . After a six - month hiatus , HUSTLE held two shows on April 30 and May 30 , 2010 . After another four - month break , the promotion held two more shows in October . Smash . Smash was founded in December 2009 following the folding of Hustle . In the fall of 2009 HUSTLE ran into financial problems that led to several show cancellations . After a planned restructuring and restarting of the promotion failed , a number of officials and wrestlers decided to start a new project . SMASH held its first show on March 26 , 2010 . SMASH tries to chart a different course . There are three brenches : Pro - Wrestling , Mixed Martial Arts and Kickboxing . The Pro - Wrestling is led by Yoshihiro Tajiri while Akira Shoji is responsible for the MMA branch . Yuji Shimada leads the overall supervision of the whole project . From the once great HUSTLE squad , meanwhile , not much is left . Only Hajime Ohara , Yoshihiro Tajiri , Akira Shoji and KG ( " Karate Girl " ) , which competes now under the named Shuri , were present at the press conference , was presented at the SMASH of the public . Since 2010 SMASH has had an active exchange of wrestlers with the Finnish Fight Club Finland promotion .