GLEAT V. EX

June 7, 2023

T-Hawk . . . has a match that doesn’t make me want to burn out my corneas with Drano!

Soma Watanabe . . . continues to find his groove while working the pro-style side of GLEAT.

Shinya Aoki . . . once again comes out looking like an absolute world-beater, even without having a title belt around his waist.

KOTARO SUZUKI/YUTANI/EMPERADOR AZTECA vs. JUN TONSHO/KEIICHI SATO/OJI SHIIBA

The stereotype of juniors matches being little more than choreographed spotfests seems particularly applicable for this match. It’s not very long and there’s nothing as far as any theme or story goes. Everyone just sort of shows up and does their stuff, and there always seems to be a member of the opposing team in the exact position for a particular spot or sequence to come off seamlessly. This has its cool moments, such as Suzuki and Sato’s counter and reversal sequence and Azteca’s dive is impressive for his size, but there’s nothing in the work itself that would make anyone (outside of a diehard fan of any of these guys) really care about what happens. Suzuki gets the pin on Sato with a Tiger driver, and the camera almost completely misses it because of Azteca’s dive. The angle afterwards with Suzuki and co. checking on Sato, and Tonsho and Shiiba taking exception to it, is more engaging than anything in the actual match.

T-HAWK/EL LINDAMAN vs. MINORU TANAKA/KAZ HAYASHI

If this were given enough time to fully develop then it would have had a shot at being at least decent. But this is so rushed that they don’t get a chance to flesh out any sort of story. Stronghearts get a couple of minutes to work over Kaz and try to build up to the hot tag, and Kaz has to sell like he’s dying, even though he’s taken no real abuse. Kaz manages to tag in Tanaka, and the match breaks down into a brawl and they go to the surprise finish of Lindaman tapping to the Minoru Special. If nothing else, T-Hawk doesn’t get the chance to do anything monumentally stupid, like when he and Ishida had twenty-five minutes to fill. Of course, they still manage to screw over Lindaman’s German suplex finisher; he gets a near fall on Tanaka and then tries for a Tiger suplex which gets countered into the Minoru Special. It’d have been just as easy for Tanaka to block the German and then go to the finish or skip the German and have him start with the Tiger and get countered. They get the same result and Lindaman loses because he went for his big move too early, rather than his suplexes (which he’d used to win six of his seven title defenses during his own G-REX Title run) looking ineffective. The best compliment for the match is that they showed enough intensity, and Stronghearts showed enough attitude, to make me want to see a rematch with more time.

ITSUKI AOKI/RYDEEN HAGANE vs. SAYAKA UNAGI/YUKARI HOSOKAWA

It appears that the theme of this undercard is “This Could Be Good If They Had Enough Time.” Hosokawa is wholly ineffective against Hagane, although Unagi has a little bit of success, but then she’s too worn down to be able to do much with Aoki. Aoki’s initial offensive run is the best stretch of work of the whole match, she hits a few nice spots, and the forearm exchanges actually get a little bit of meaning, when Unagi is too worn down to trade shots with her. Hosokawa fares a little better with Aoki, and her sleeper-into-armbar is probably the highlight of the match, and between the tightness of the hold and how well Aoki puts it over, it’s believable that Hosokawa can pull off the upset with it. After Aoki gets free, Hosokawa gets a couple of near falls which also come off rather well, but it only takes one running lariat from Aoki, along with Hagane keeping Unagi occupied on the floor, to turn the tide and let her finish off Hosokawa with her frog splash. More time to work (and them slowing things down) would have let the match breathe more, but this is still a rather fun ride.

SOMA WATANABE vs. TETSUYA IZUCHI (#1 Contender’s Match for the G-REX Title)

Between this and the tag match from April, Soma definitely looks more suited for the pro-style side of GLEAT, rather than the UWF side. He’s a ton of fun to watch here, with the early chain-wrestling with Izuchi and his floatover into the crossface being early highlights of the work. Soma’s dive is easily the most mind-blowing thing on this entire card up to this point; it’s the same sort of tope suicida that Homicide was known for, only Soma’s looks much more natural and he doesn’t look like he’s cheating death (his own or the crowd’s). Their work is fun to watch, even if they don’t really seem to know where they want to go with it, but they have a few nice ideas. Izuchi first gets control of the match when he manages to get Soma to the floor and then scores a big kick from the apron, and when Soma takes over again, he does it by blocking another of Izuchi’s kicks. Soma’s missed moonsault landing him almost directly into Izuchi’s Triangle choke was a nice touch, and Soma puts it over so well that it seems believable that Izuchi can put him out with it. Izuchi also gets a near fall with a German suplex that Takayama would be proud of. They go a little crazy at the end, with the chop and kick exchanges, but nothing extraordinarily long. The Canadian Destroyer spot was questionable, Soma uses it to set Izuchi up for the firebird splash, but Izuchi gets to his feet and stops him, although at least Izuchi thinks to continue selling while he does it. And after the Destroyer wasn’t enough for Soma to set Izuchi up for his finisher, it’s a simple dropkick that gets him there. Soma sucks up Izuchi’s superkick and lets Izuchi charge himself into the dropkick. Izuchi has to grasp onto Soma’s leg to keep him from climbing the ropes. Soma shakes him off and connects with a 450 to the back and then flips Izuchi over for a second one that gets the pin. There’s some room for improvement for sure, but if GLEAT is serious about getting the young guns moved up the card and into prominent spots, matches like this are a big step in the right direction. ***

KAITO ISHIDA/FLAMITA/HARTLEY JACKSON/EL BENDIDO vs. RYUICHI KAWAKAMI/KAZMA SAKAMOTO/QUIET STORM/GALENO del MAL

This isn’t any different than the opening trios match or the Stronghearts tag match, everything is rushed, and the match doesn’t have the time to develop any real theme or structure. The closest is the brief period with Flamita being the victim of a four-on-one assault, culminating in Galeno putting KAZMA on his back and then splashing Flamita. The very next sequence sees Flamita surprise Storm with a 619 and then hit a facebuster before slumping down to give the idea that both men are too worn out and need to tag. If Flamita has it in him to do all of that, it’s probably safe to say that what he went through wasn’t all that punishing. They have some nice spots, especially the dives from Galeno and Bendido, but they’re just an excuse to get a bunch of them out of the way. The miscue between KAZMA and Kawakami is a fine way for Ishida to get the inside cradle on KAZMA and win the match, although it wasn’t like Ishida had taken a ton of punishment to begin with, and a former title holder should be winning throwaway matches like this in a less fluky manner.

HAYATO TAMURA/CHECK SHIMITANI © vs. JUN SAITO/REI SAITO (G-INFINITY Tag Team Titles)

For a near twenty-minute title change against a pair of outsiders, this sure is boring. There’s no sense of hate or intensity from either team, and almost nothing during the match that creates any sort of drama in the form of heat for the AJPW team or sympathy for the GLEAT team. Tamura working over Jun’s leg is fine, but that’s about it. Aside from the cloverleaf, it never feels like he’s trying to genuinely win the match by going after the knee. Jun is passable at putting it over for a bit, and aside from Shimitani making his comeback by hitting a couple of low dropkicks, they don’t do anything to work back to it. The Saitos working over Shimitani with body slams is a little better thanks to Shimitani’s exaggerated bumping and selling, but it’s still just filler with no real meaning behind it. Beyond that, they have a few cutesy ideas like Rei being too big for Shimitani to take down with the drop toehold and Tamura giving an assist with a lariat which results in Rei taking a decent sized bump, and both teams have a couple creative tandem spots. But by and large it’s just dull and plodding, with precious little in the way of any real story to make it feel engaging.

Jun and Rei do a decent job of putting Shimitani through the ringer to lead up to the finish. Tamura tries to even the odds using his lariat, which is probably wonderfully effective against the likes of YUTANI and Flamita, but not so much with these guys. When his lariat isn’t enough, there’s nothing left for him to fall back on. Shimitani gets a couple of near falls with flash cradles and tries for too much with a crucifix and Rei counters that into a Samoan Drop. Rei hits a piledriver that takes out Tamura for good and they quickly commence to finishing off Shimitani with a vertical suplex from Jun and diving splash from Rei. This was probably the match that had the best chance of succeeding, and it fell the shortest of actually doing it. It seemed like each team went into the match expecting the other team to do the heavy lifting, and as a result the match never picked up the way that anyone would have expected.

TAKANORI ITO vs. SHINYA AOKI (Tournament Final for the Lidet UWF Title)

This is a fun match all on its own and watching it with the knowledge of exactly how Ito and Aoki came to be in the finals shows how brilliant of a match it really is, even though it’s on the short side. Ito certainly wasn’t favored going into the title tournament (Hell, he wasn’t even considered a favorite amongst the four GLEAT young guns who were entered), but he found the path he needed to take, simplistic as it was. Aoki only had a couple of GLEAT matches prior to entering the tournament and he virtually dominated Izuchi (who was considered a favorite) then he basically won his semifinal match with Sato before the bell even rang, with Sato going into the match looking like he was scared to death.

Ito’s strategy in both of his matches was relatively simple, take whatever his opponent throws at him and wait for the opening to finish it. His performance here isn’t vastly different, but it’s still different because Aoki is much more dangerous on the mat than Tamura or Iizuka, so Ito knows that he can’t afford to simply try to wrest himself free the way he could in his earlier matches. Instead, Ito keeps enough space between them to prevent Aoki from taking him down, but not enough to stop him from going after Aoki with leg kicks. Aoki tries a couple of unorthodox things to get in Ito’s head, such as sitting on the mat and scooting toward him, but Ito recognizes what he’s trying to do and keeps a safe distance. Ito’s strategy works for a while, Aoki never takes him down and the leg kicks eventually start to wear on Aoki. Aoki gets a lucky break when his leg gives out, but he gets back to his feet before the ref can call him down (and dock him a point) but a few more well-placed kicks from Ito cause that luck to run out.

Ito only makes one mistake, but it’s a costly one. He thinks he’s ready to finish the match before he really is. It’s hard to fault him for thinking he had it in the bag; he’d knocked off a couple of Aoki’s points and Aoki’s attempt to tie him up in the corner was the perfect opening for Ito to counter him into an inverted piledriver. Ito wants to follow the piledriver with his German suplex, but Aoki uses the same counter that he’d used on Izuchi and traps Ito in a waki-gatame. Ito crawls to the ropes and breaks the hold, but the damage is done. Aoki fires off his own kicks at Ito’s weakened arm, and Aoki’s 5-3 deficit becomes a 3-2 lead. Aoki gets behind Ito and locks in a sleeper, and Ito sees the win slipping away from him, and then, just like in the matches with Tamura and Iizuka, the opening presents itself and Ito doesn’t let it pass him by. Aoki jumps on Ito’s back to try to exert more pressure (as well as protect his leg) and Ito manages to leverage him into position for another piledriver, this time a Tombstone. Ito hits the Tombstone (and really spikes Aoki with it) and then quickly takes advantage of Aoki’s stunned state to hit his German suplex. Aoki can’t get to his feet and the ref stops the match. In the blink of an eye, Takanori Ito went from the brink of defeat to being crowned the first Lidet UWF Champion.

As critical as I’ve been about a number of things that I’ve seen from this promotion, the booking of this tournament is one case where they absolutely get it right. Wrestling has always been something of a morality play, and it’s all over the way that Ito goes about getting the title. Ito/Tamura was one of the longer matches of the first round, and Ito’s semifinal win was over the guy whose quarterfinal match was the shortest. Not only was Aoki’s semifinal win over Sato a good bit shorter than Ito/Iizuka, but he’d also won both of his matches in a dominating manner ,while both of Ito’s matches were much more even and competitive. The message isn’t as obvious as Randy Savage at WrestleMania IV or Bret Hart in the 1993 King of the Ring, but it’s still there: hard work pays off. This isn’t a deep match on the level of the classics from All Japan, or really even the better stuff from ROH and AEW, but it works pretty well in the vein of Cody Rhodes’ “Finish the Story.”

Conclusion: The pro-style side of GLEAT continues to underwhelm me, but the decision match for the UWF Title and the G-REX contender’s match are both worth going after.