(AfroGamers.com) In wrestling, a squash means that a jobber is being used to put over a up-and-coming star in the promotion.
In anime, a squash is basically a character that defeats another character within seconds or minutes.
I have seen many squashes in my two decades of watching anime and specifically Dragon Ball.
Here are my top 5 favorite squashes in Dragon Ball history.
1. Broly Squashes Super Saiyan Red Goku – This squash is now my favorite Dragon Ball squash because it was paying homage to the very first Broly film when the non-canonical version of Broly grabbed Super Saiyan Teen Gohan’s head and slung it several yards through a brick wall in the very first Broly film and in the recent Dragon Ball Super Broly film, the canonized version of Broly went up against Super Saiyan Red Kakarot when Kakarot used some technique that managed to temporarily trap Broly until he broke free from it and then proceeded to lay the smackdown on Super Saiyan Red Kakarot and then he proceeded to grab Super Saiyan Red Kakarot’s head and running with his head through the avalanche wall and throwing him in the air in which he fell hard into the snowy ground squashing him in less than 5 minutes.
2. Super Gogeta Squashes Super Janemba – In the old Dragon Ball Z film “Fusion Reborn” Kakarot and Vegeta were getting beat down extremely bad by a much more powerful form of Janemba called Super Janemba so Kakarot comes up with a plan to defeat Super Janemba: fusion. At first Vegeta refuses to do the stupid dance pose because it’s no secret that he strongly dislikes fusion, but when he realized he had no other choice, he reluctantly agrees to fuse with Kakarot with Pikkon distracting Super Janemba long enough to finally fuse into Super Gogeta and then proceeded to do a few kicks and then finishing him off with The Soul Punisher squashing him in less than 2 minutes.
3. Kid Buu Squashes Super Saiyan 2 Vegeta – When Kakarot got burned out from using his Super Saiyan 3 form against Kid Buu which didn’t do much damage to the antagonist, Vegeta agreed to step in to buy Kakarot some time to recover energy, but as Vegeta powered up to Super Saiyan 2, he did absolutely everything to buy Kakarot some time to recover by firing energy blasts and attempted to throw punches and kicks and nothing Vegeta did could do anything to hurt Kid Buu at all and then he ended up getting the biggest squash of his Saiyan career when Kid Buu easily wiped the floor with him to the point of choking him from Super Saiyan 2 back to base form. I have always admired and respected Vegeta’s courage to never back down from a fight and take a beating like a true warrior.
4. Universe 11’s Hakaishin Toppo Squashes Universe 7’s Frieza – Throughout most of The Tournament Of Power Arc in The Dragon Ball Super Anime, Frieza mostly stayed in the background and carefully picking his fights that he can easily win such as one against Cabba. But when he later went up against Hakaishin Toppo from Universe 11, he sounded so condensing against Hakaishin Toppo that Hakaishin Toppo preceded to absolutely wiping the floor with Frieza until he was nearly choked to death by Universe 11’s Hakaishin in which Frieza got the worst beating he ever took by getting squashed in less than 5 minutes.
5. Broly Squashes Super Saiyan Teen Gohan – In the very first Broly film, the non-canon version of Broly was literally thrashing everyone until Super Saiyan Teen Gohan decided to challenge the vicious Broly by trying his hardest by throwing punches and kicks and shooting energy blasts and none of those attacks had even phased the non-canonical Broly who proceeded to squash Super Saiyan Teen Gohan within minutes by viciously beating him down and then grabbing his head and slinging it across the brick wall. I know Gohan still has nightmares of that to this day.
The Conclusion – Squashes in anime and especially in Dragon Ball can be good if used in the right way for plot progression and amazing fighting scenes.
Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)