GLEAT – MAY 18TH 2022 (ENTER THE CARTWHEEL)

WATCH THE FULL SHOW HERE

Jun Tonsho and Takehiro Yamamura (STRONGHEARTS) have both signed with GLEAT

MINORU TANAKA, MUSASHI & SOMA WATANABE VS CHECK SHIMATANI, QUIET STORM & MASATO KAMINO

‘CHECK’ Shimatani is a new one but he’s cool enough to pull it off. I understand Masato Kamino isn’t a member of BULK Orchestra but he should be because his body if the definition of BULK Orchestra.

MUSASHI didn’t connect with his partners and seemed very annoyed that he had to tag with them so watch this space as MUSASHI could take on a heel role within the promotion in the upcoming months. There was an intense chop exchange between Kamino and MUSASHI out of nowhere that had the crowd loudly applauding, that was fantastic wrestling. Quiet Storm… Good old Quiet Storm…. He did a lot of yelling and pounding of his titties.

Minoru Tanaka is one of my favorites of all time and It’s an absolute pleasure every time I get to see him wrestle, it’s remarkable how well he moves at his age. The story of Soma in GLEAT isn’t what it should be but he has lots of time and I believe he will still reach the heights we imagine for him but on this day Shimatani got the best of him with an inside cradle.

RATING – ***1/4

TAKANORI ITO VS YU IIZUKA

Great match hampered by an odd little mix up during what should have been an unreal sequence but outside of that I thought everything else was pretty fantastic. These two spend a lot of time together training in the gym and on the grappling mats so they have great chemistry and know how to structure a fast paced, hard-hitting contest.

I’m doing this review the day following the event and out of all the bouts I’m struggling to remember a lot of the action that occurred which isn’t the greatest sign but I do really remember enjoying it and a few folks on twitter certainly felt the same.

Ito got the win over Iizuka and got on the microphone afterwards to spray Iizuka and Soma for being losers. These three are the original three young guns GLEAT picked up so they all share a special bond and Ito is by default taking the lead of the unofficial stable given he is the only one picking up W’s.

RATING – ***1/2

MICHIKO MIYAGI VS DASH CHISAKO

Like most Dash matches this was very entertaining whilst simultaneously being extremely frightening. Poor ol’ Miyagi botched a swanton bomb in the latter stages and my god Dash made her pay for it with three absolutely disgusting foot stomps that had me quivering. Other than that this was one of Miyagi’s better matches in GLEAT as I thought she certainly held her own and brought the fight to Dash who of course was very awesome. I don’t think the finish was ever in doubt but Miyagi gave it her best, FUN match.

RATING – ***1/4

T-HAWK, ISSEI ONITZUKA & JACK CARTWHEEL VS TETSUYA IIZUCHI, KEIICHI SATO & JUN TONSHO

CARTWHEEL!

Look there’s no chance on earth I’m watching a GCW show so I’ve never seen this JACK CARTWHEEL fella before but considering the name I sort of expected him to be this unbelievably athletic gymnast type and that’s exactly what he was. It was genuinely perfect for what they were looking for. In this GLEAT atmosphere of fast paced, stylish action Jack Cartwheel bought things to another level with his jaw-dropping talents.

It’s not the style that is my favourite but every now and then I do like to have my socks blown off by unreal athleticism and that’s precisely what this match provided. My favorite moment of this match had to be when Cartwheel nailed the Sasuke Special and Kaz Hayashi literally creamed him jeans on commentary for like thirty minutes calling it the best Sasuke Special he has ever seen.

The 60 Seconds stable of Sato, Iizuchi and Tonsho are rapidly gaining momentum and have recruited a few fans in their short time as a unit, I could see them adding another member over the next couple of months. 60 Seconds should have probably got the win here but in actuality this match was all about Jack and it was important his team got the win. This match just worked and probably was my favorite match of the evening, crowd LOVED it.

RATING – ***3/4

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Yuji Nagata vs Takanori Ito in UWF Rules is set for GLEAT’s return to the Tokyo Dome City Hall July 1st

Septimo Dragon is being flown over next month

HIROOKI GOTO VS TAMURA HAYATO

Wow Hirooki Goto! I haven’t watched this dude wrestle in many moons and I don’t mean that negatively as he used to be one of my favourite guys to watch when I was into New Japan. All these guys like Goto and Tanahashi are finally aging and it’s sad, I wish they could all looks like marvel superheroes forever.

I heard some people saying this is what a highly motivated Goto looks like and jeez I wouldn’t want to see an unenthused Goto because I didn’t think he looked too ‘motivated at all’… Not to say his performance was bad ( I rated this ***1/2) but it just didn’t scream world class action by any means. One day I see Hayato calling New Japan home and what a come up story that will be, One match in HardHit in 2015 followed by making his official debut in 2019 for JTO only to be poached by ZERO1 and then poached by GLEAT and eventually poached by New Japan.

Tamura was great in this and you could tell it meant a lot to him facing an established star from the biggest promotion in the country. I do very much like the NJPW/GLEAT relationship because GLEAT are getting a ton of exposure from the much bigger promotion. Goto was never ever going to lose as him appearing on this show is due to the fact CIMA pinned Goto during the New Japan Cup so Goto has to get a win back over GLEAT and Tamura was the guy to take that defeat. I definitely could see Goto returning but if he doesn’t then this was a very fun one off contest.

RATING – ***1/2

CIMA 25TH ANNIVERSARY MATCH: CIMA & SHINGO TAKAGI VS KAZMA SAKAMOTO & RYUICHI KAWAKAMI

This was much better than I expected it to be. These four veterans all delivered a quality contest that had the fans applauding. Who would have ever though Shingo and CIMA would be teaming up ever again? With Shingo appearing I thought the show would do way better in terms of attendance but the 650 fans or whatever they got Isn’t necessarily the worst thing either.

Shingo seemed to relish the environment and absolutely bought his aggression and high energy to the GLEAT ring. It’s doubtful but far out Shingo against the likes of Takanori Ito and Yu Iizuka would be spectacular.

Happy 25th Anniversary to the Cola man, he is a legend and one of the most impressive wrestlers I’ve seen. Nearly every match of his is good at worst and his impact on puroresu and wrestling as a whole will live on forever. I thought CIMA would do his own 25th anniversary show but it seems like match is all he will be doing to celebrate which is interesting.

KAZMA and Kawakami certainly delivered, KAZMA especially worked his ass off to produce a much higher quality match then the usual. CIMA got the big pinfall over KAZMA for the big happy ending. Loved all of this and it made for a perfect semi main-event.

RATING – ****

G-REX CHAMPIONSHIP: EL LINDAMAN(C) VS SHIGEHIRO IRIE

Very interesting match here because work rate wise it’s exactly what you’d expect from these two machines but I think the genuine awesomeness from the semi-main really took it out of the crowd and these two had to do some pretty vile things to one another to pull them back which they eventually did following some disgusting headbutts.

I think on the re-watch this match would be much better than it was live, It was getting late in Australia and I was a bit tired from the previous two and a half hours of wrestling I’ve watched so I’m probably not going to be able to deliver the best review but ya know I did enjoy this and I guarantee the majority (who can stomach shoot headbutts) will also enjoy it.

A few other moments that stand out include the backpack cannonball into the corner that Irie pulled off, I was so scared for Lindaman but thankfully he didn’t land on his neck. The blackhole slam Irie uses always looks quite impressive. After taking two shoot headbutts El Lindaman garnered the strength to shoot headbutt Irie in a shocking moment.

El Lindaman thankfully retained his G-Rex championship following a Tiger Suplex.

Riki Choshu who we forget is still apart of GLEAT presented Lindaman with medals following his victory.

RATING – ***1/2