Wanna piece of this?

Even by pro wrestling standards, the concept is a bit wild: Outfit a bunch of guys in creature costumes that could easily be from a late-’60s Japanese monster movie, put them in a steel cage lined with a crushable cityscape and let them have at it.

Yet that is precisely why the colorful wrestling show “Kaiju Big Battel” (no, it’s not a typo) has drawn a rabid following in New York and Boston -- and why, on Wednesday, it will make its onstage Los Angeles debut at the Avalon nightclub.

During a typical match, kaiju (“monsters” in Japanese) such as a radioactive sea urchin-type creature, a cleaver-wielding can of chicken soup and a cube-headed evil genius do battle, squashing miniature cardboard buildings in the process, as if they were Godzilla and Mothra themselves. Monster innards often hit spectators in the first few rows, also known as the “danger zone.” (The recent death of the character Club Sandwich involved flying mayonnaise.)

“The reaction so far has been so strong that I don’t anticipate a problem with selling out the venue,” says David Borden, “chief kaiju officer” at Studio Kaiju in Boston. “The novelty of [the show] -- the fact that there aren’t a hundred other things like it -- is part of the appeal. People who aren’t into the performing arts can still walk away and appreciate the thing.”

Last year, the “Kaiju” troupe appeared as guests on Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show. But Wednesday’s performance will mark its first ticketed public outing in Los Angeles.

In bringing its live shows, DVDs, books, tchotchkes and Internet updates on kaiju.com to hipster fans and kids as young as 8, Studio Kaiju has created an elaborate universe full of wild back stories: chop-socky melodrama, family honor gone awry, industrial accidents and paternity mysteries.

According to the Studio Kaiju mythology, mankind is plagued by monsters of various stripes, scales and slimes. The creatures come from places including landfills, the third level of hell, Sweden and, in the case of the Silver Potato, the scene of a microwave-oven explosion.

The good monsters want to defeat the bad, of course, and vice versa, but their antipathy toward one another has threatened to destroy the world. Enter the mysterious Commissioner, a man whose face appears only in shadow and who has managed to entice the monsters to mix it up in a safer setting.

Hence, “Kaiju Big Battel” was born.

Well, OK, not really.

The reality-bound version of the story begins with Boston art student Randy Borden. He started the show in the mid-’90s, after creating four monster costumes for a short film. The film never got made, but he and some friends decided to repurpose the creatures for live comedy shows.

“It was just a stage, four costumes and some cardboard,” brother David Borden recalls. “At the time, there was no goal in mind, just, ‘Let’s have a good time with these monsters.’ ”

David, who had studied entrepreneurship at Northeastern University, joined the studio in 2000, and the show’s production values began to improve.

The monsters fought with an increasing degree of panache, adding back flips, spin kicks and other acrobatics to the fights. The sets grew more elaborate. So did the props: exaggerated meat cleavers, toxic sludge and Silver Potato’s Super Spud Chips, which apparently stun the enemy with a “crispy chip shower” when a bag is opened onstage.

Even the promotional materials are wacky.

Early on in the show’s life, Randy Borden made a T-shirt to promote his newly created “Big Battles.” But he misspelled the name.

“People thought it was a riot, so he kept the spelling,” David says.

Consequently, the “Kaiju” experience is studded with intentionally mangled spellings, Japanglish phraseology, soap-opera-like twists that are updated constantly online and other hallmarks of Asian pop-culture imports that have made their way back and forth across the Pacific one too many times. A book about the most popular of the more than 30 characters -- “Kaiju Big Battel: A Practical Guide to Giant City-Crushing Monsters,” published by Hyperion earlier this year -- proclaims itself the “most official Kaiju book!!”

The studio is so meticulous about maintaining its alternate universe, much like the old-school World Wrestling Federation (before it had to change its name), that performers insist on being interviewed in character. (“I just want to give the fans what they want, and what they want is monster-on-monster action,” show emcee Louden Noxious told The Times.)

“And all of our monsters,” David Borden insists, “are real.”

So what exactly can a ticket buyer expect to see at the Avalon on Wednesday? It typically goes like this: A “super-fun” slide show starts things off, followed by a musical prelude and an introductory film filled with deliberately cheesy special effects.

After that the “Battels” come thick and fast. Battel 1 in Los Angeles is being billed as “Eternal Justice of the Aquatic Kind,” featuring a hero called Neo Teppen who will fight a rogue named Call-Me-Kevin, a kelp farmer from the “aquatic paradise planet” of Piscon 7.

“I would say that you either get it or you don’t,” says fan Aaron Blitzstein, a Los Angeles-based comedy writer. “But it’s actually so easy to get, and so much fun. It’s so immature and ridiculous that you can’t help but get into it.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Danger: Deadly monsters ahead

The world of “Kaiju Big Battel” is filled with villains, heroes, rogues and cartoonish supporting characters -- all with fanciful back stories. Expect to see at least a few of these in the ring Wednesday:

Sky Deviler: Discovered by archeologists in the Arizona desert, Sky hatched from a blue egg that had fallen to Earth during a meteor shower. He is a member of the feared Team Space Bug, described as the “intergalactic menace” of “Kaiju Big Battel.”

Dr. Cube: The scalpel-wielding evil genius behind the most troublesome characters, this former plastic surgeon creates horrible monsters bent on world domination. Favorite phrase: “Keep your friends close, and your enemies dead.”

SDS-1, a.k.a. Super Dimensional Slug 1: Another product of science fiddling as well as a member of Dr. Cube’s Posse. SDS-1 is a giant mutant snail slated to team with equally evil partner the Grudyin, a “shark-ape-thing,” to fight the heroic Los Plantanos brothers this Wednesday.

Los Plantanos: Twin, overgrown plantains Pedro and Pablo grew up in the South American jungle under the thumb of a “whimsically evil Sock Puppet Dictator.” Archenemy: Hell Monkey.

Hell Monkey: The current “Kaiju Big Battel” champion and Dr. Cube’s fire-breathing henchman. The one-eyed simian is also colorblind and believes that the green Los Plantanos brothers are actually giant yellow bananas.

Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle: A giant soup can who wields a large cleaver and, as a “rogue,” harbors no affiliation with Cube, Team Space Bug or the heroes. Created by a freak accident at a Cantonese soup canning plant. Ingredients include 1 cup of egg noodles, 5 cups MSG, 1 bay leaf with stem and 1 cup of uranium.

*

‘Kaiju Big Battel’

Where: Avalon, 1735 N. Vine St., Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

Price: $22.50

Contact: (323) 462-8900; www.kaiju.com