GLEAT G Prowrestling Ver. 0
Opening - Feed started with a DJ in the ring, playing some basic EDM.
I'm not really familiar with either guy, but I have seen Sato before, he was an Aoki guy. TiiiDA is slightly more experienced, but both are fairly new to in-ring action.
This was a good basic wrestling match, it felt quite competitive, but there really wasn't any drama or anything. As a new promotion, a lot of these guys just seem to be wrestling to showcase and rank up some wins. Sato would end up winning with a Crucifix Bomb.
Post-match - Kaz Hayashi came out and kinda tried to welcome Sato, offered a hand shake, but Sato wasn't ready to shake hands just there, he first wanted to offer his thanks. They shook hands and posed afterwards.
Akira is a rookie from AJPW, Takanori from Wrestle-1 Dojo. I'm not familiar with Onitsuka, but he is the greenest of the bunch, and Irie is the most established wrestler of the match, part of #STRONGHEARTS.
The match was mostly Onitsuka and Irie on top. They cut off Francesco for a while and Takanori had a bit of a hot tag. At the end, it came down to Onitsuka and Takanori, with Akira and Irie coming in and out to aid and assist, but at the end, it was Takanori getting the win over Onitsuka with a great German bridge. Good match, I was impressed with Onitsuka and Takanori. Akira was great, but he didn't show half of what he can do in AJPW.
Call it greenness, but there was a near fall that the referee definitely stopped himself from counting because Onitsuka wanted to cut it close.
Post-match - Takanori offered Onitsuka a hand, but was slapped away. They played it more like a sore loser caught in the moment, so I wouldn't look beyond that.
Main event hype - Everyone involved in the main event came out to cut promos on each other. It took me forever to recognize T-Hawk, he cut his hair and looks so much younger.
Most of these women are from Actwres girl'Z. Miyagi is indeed Andras Miyagi, so she was the most experienced of the four. The rest have less than 5 years wrestling and have mostly done a couple of indies like PURE-J or Oz Academy. MIyagi has been promoted as a surprise competitor, and given that we mostly see her in her Andras gimmick or in 666, I was pleasantly surprised. She wasn't wearing the facepaint or hairdo.
Match was good. Everyone looked good for the most part, I was impressed by Shimizu and Matsui, I can see some potential in them if they keep learning. Miyagi, being the experienced of the four, got to look strong, even getting the win for her team with a piledriver on Miura. Match itself saw Miyagi adn Matsui cut off Miura, Shimizu had a short hot tag, but once Miura got tagged in again, she got pinned by Miyagi.
It was nice seeing a Joshi match in a card like this, even if they kept it as basic as possible, there was still a tone change, just for the nature of Joshi training and the nature of a lot of wrestlers being loud and more energetic.
This was great. I can confess that I didn't really keep up with Yoshida after he was done with NJPW, but I was glad to see that he is looking great and has improved quite a bit. And for that matter, Iizuka mostly worked for HEAT UP prior to joining GLEAT, so I can't really say that I've watch much of that promotion.
The match saw Yoshida control most of the early minutes of the match, Iizuka made a comeback, leading into the final minutes where they traded near falls until Yoshida got the win with a backdrop.
This was a great, back and forward match, with just fantastic wrestling by all involved. Watanabe aside, all of these men are greatly experienced, while Watanabe is great for only two years in.
This was a match between two teams that were there to compete for a win, not personal griefs or anything of the such, there were no heels or babyfaces either. The match started with some pair ups and followed with CIMA being cut off for some work by the other team, only to come back, cut off Watanabe, and now it was the other corner getting to work.
Final minutes of the match, all men went in for the Dragon Gate style, fast paced tornado tag spots. At the end, it came down to T-Hawk and Hayashi, with T-Hawk getting the win with the Night Ride.
Post-match - All men were in good terms and shook hands. Before they left, Ryuichi Kawakami walked down and attacked CIMA. T-Hawk stood up to Kawakami. After a couple of back and forward promos, Kawakami left. The winning team closed the show with a couple more promos.
This was a really good wrestling-wise, 2 hour show. This being a really young promotion, there wasn't much to it other than watching wrestling inside the ring, but I also get the impression that this is going to be a norm going forward. The promotion right now feels as one that will try to focus on competition and not storylines, even with the introduction of Kawakami at the end, it still felt that it was based on competition.
The roster is really young and impressive, backed with some really strong veterans, so there is potential, but it also feels like the potential of many other promotions in Japan, that never made it to stage 2 of development, so we'll see where this promotion goes.
Keiichi Sato vs. TiiiDA - 6.5/10
I'm not really familiar with either guy, but I have seen Sato before, he was an Aoki guy. TiiiDA is slightly more experienced, but both are fairly new to in-ring action.
This was a good basic wrestling match, it felt quite competitive, but there really wasn't any drama or anything. As a new promotion, a lot of these guys just seem to be wrestling to showcase and rank up some wins. Sato would end up winning with a Crucifix Bomb.
Post-match - Kaz Hayashi came out and kinda tried to welcome Sato, offered a hand shake, but Sato wasn't ready to shake hands just there, he first wanted to offer his thanks. They shook hands and posed afterwards.
Akira Francesco & Takanori Ito vs. Issei Onitsuka & Shigehiro Irie - 7/10
Akira is a rookie from AJPW, Takanori from Wrestle-1 Dojo. I'm not familiar with Onitsuka, but he is the greenest of the bunch, and Irie is the most established wrestler of the match, part of #STRONGHEARTS.
The match was mostly Onitsuka and Irie on top. They cut off Francesco for a while and Takanori had a bit of a hot tag. At the end, it came down to Onitsuka and Takanori, with Akira and Irie coming in and out to aid and assist, but at the end, it was Takanori getting the win over Onitsuka with a great German bridge. Good match, I was impressed with Onitsuka and Takanori. Akira was great, but he didn't show half of what he can do in AJPW.
Call it greenness, but there was a near fall that the referee definitely stopped himself from counting because Onitsuka wanted to cut it close.
Post-match - Takanori offered Onitsuka a hand, but was slapped away. They played it more like a sore loser caught in the moment, so I wouldn't look beyond that.
Main event hype - Everyone involved in the main event came out to cut promos on each other. It took me forever to recognize T-Hawk, he cut his hair and looks so much younger.
Michiko Miyagi & Misa Matsui vs. Ami Miura & Hikari Shimizu - 6.5/10
Most of these women are from Actwres girl'Z. Miyagi is indeed Andras Miyagi, so she was the most experienced of the four. The rest have less than 5 years wrestling and have mostly done a couple of indies like PURE-J or Oz Academy. MIyagi has been promoted as a surprise competitor, and given that we mostly see her in her Andras gimmick or in 666, I was pleasantly surprised. She wasn't wearing the facepaint or hairdo.
Match was good. Everyone looked good for the most part, I was impressed by Shimizu and Matsui, I can see some potential in them if they keep learning. Miyagi, being the experienced of the four, got to look strong, even getting the win for her team with a piledriver on Miura. Match itself saw Miyagi adn Matsui cut off Miura, Shimizu had a short hot tag, but once Miura got tagged in again, she got pinned by Miyagi.
It was nice seeing a Joshi match in a card like this, even if they kept it as basic as possible, there was still a tone change, just for the nature of Joshi training and the nature of a lot of wrestlers being loud and more energetic.
Ayato Yoshida vs. Yu Iizuka - 8/10
This was great. I can confess that I didn't really keep up with Yoshida after he was done with NJPW, but I was glad to see that he is looking great and has improved quite a bit. And for that matter, Iizuka mostly worked for HEAT UP prior to joining GLEAT, so I can't really say that I've watch much of that promotion.
The match saw Yoshida control most of the early minutes of the match, Iizuka made a comeback, leading into the final minutes where they traded near falls until Yoshida got the win with a backdrop.
CIMA, Kaz Hayashi & Minoru Tanaka vs. #STRONGHEARTS (El Lindaman & T-Hawk) & Soma Watanabe - 8.5/10
This was a great, back and forward match, with just fantastic wrestling by all involved. Watanabe aside, all of these men are greatly experienced, while Watanabe is great for only two years in.
This was a match between two teams that were there to compete for a win, not personal griefs or anything of the such, there were no heels or babyfaces either. The match started with some pair ups and followed with CIMA being cut off for some work by the other team, only to come back, cut off Watanabe, and now it was the other corner getting to work.
Final minutes of the match, all men went in for the Dragon Gate style, fast paced tornado tag spots. At the end, it came down to T-Hawk and Hayashi, with T-Hawk getting the win with the Night Ride.
Post-match - All men were in good terms and shook hands. Before they left, Ryuichi Kawakami walked down and attacked CIMA. T-Hawk stood up to Kawakami. After a couple of back and forward promos, Kawakami left. The winning team closed the show with a couple more promos.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a really good wrestling-wise, 2 hour show. This being a really young promotion, there wasn't much to it other than watching wrestling inside the ring, but I also get the impression that this is going to be a norm going forward. The promotion right now feels as one that will try to focus on competition and not storylines, even with the introduction of Kawakami at the end, it still felt that it was based on competition.
The roster is really young and impressive, backed with some really strong veterans, so there is potential, but it also feels like the potential of many other promotions in Japan, that never made it to stage 2 of development, so we'll see where this promotion goes.