Gatoh Move 12/21 & 12/22/18 Live Thoughts

December 21 and 22, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan

 

 

Michinoku Pro 12/21/18:

Ok, this clearly wasn’t a Gatoh Move show, but at the risk of sacrilege the Gatoh Move 6-person tag was the reason I went. To be perfectly honest the rest of the card was incidental to me outside of the main event, and that’s a whole other story all together. So for now as I work through my significant backlog of shows I’d like to focus solely on the Gatoh match from this show.

 

 

The way this trip (and many of my others for that matter) fell I only saw Gatoh Move shows at Ichigaya, missing their larger, more traditional offers at places like Shinkiba 1st Ring that took place shortly before and after my visit. I adore Ichigaya and its unique environment (much more on that to come), but working and thriving in that space adds depth and versatility to their wrestling as a whole, not only what they can do there. So it’s also a treat to see them let loose in a traditional ring in general, let alone in a rare appearance at Korakuen Hall.

 

 

Emi Sakura, Masahiro Takanashi, & Baliyan Akki vs Riho, Mei Suruga, & Greg Glorious was fantastic. Just non-stop, energetic fun for a straight eleven and a half minutes. It was my first look at Greg, who fit right in with the Gatoh crew and had a great showing in a victorious effort alongside Riho & Mei.

 

 

It was so cool to see rookies Mei and Akki’s Korakuen debuts, and of course any opportunity to see ring masters like Emi, Riho, and Masahiro let loose is to be cherished. Call me overenthusiastic if you like, but this was fantastic and is will certainly be in the discussion when I put together my best of the trip list.

 

 

Gatoh Move 12/22/18:

A day later and I was had my first show of the trip in Gatoh’s home base.

As I always explain to start my Ichigaya reviews, these events are held in a small room with no ring and two large windows on one wall which are removed for the shows. The crowd itself is effectively the “rope break” marker and the wrestlers will sometimes use the front row to bounce off of for “running the ropes” and the windowsills to jump off of for high risk maneuvers. The limitations of the venue restrict the action in ways compared to “normal” matches, but also provide opportunities for creative variations on standard wrestling elements.

Pictures are not allowed during the show but can be taken afterward, so my pics for this won’t contain anything from the matches and will only be of the roundtable and dancing following the shows (as well as of some souvenirs).

 

 

Kazuhiro Tamura is a familiar guest at Gatoh, and provided a strong test for Yuna Mizumori to open the show. As I’ve noticed and remarked often about Sakura’s trainees, Yuna has a very distinct personality and energy that’s worked well into her ring style. In her specific case, the impression is that of a friendly, hyper wrecking ball and I adore watching her wrestle. Tamura was victorious here, but it was a fight.

 

 

I really love when Masahiro Takanashi teams with Gatoh’s rookies, and Mei Suruga’s exuberance is a particularly great compliment to his straight ahead style. It was absolutely wonderful to see Sayaka Obihiro, recovered from injury and fully back, across the mat from them teaming with another regular guest in Saki. Fun back and forth contest, with Mei managing to be just a more on the same page with her veteran teammate than Obi and Saki managed as time wore on, opening the door for Takanashi to pickup the win. Nice story underlying a good match.

 

 

I adore the Riho & Mitsuru Konno pairing (and honestly wish Riho had won the tag belts with Mitsuru instead of Makoto, but I suppose it’s possible that’s my bias speaking), so seeing them main event against Emi Sakura & Baliyan Akki was great.

Akki has come so far in the year since he came to Gatoh Move, and he had already been pretty impressive in my first exposure to his work. He’s making the most of the unique and rewarding experience of training and wrestling at Gatoh Move, and seems really comfortable with his wrestling and as a result can push himself in new directions.

Mitsuru’s showing a nice aggressive streak as frustration with her losses builds, and of course with Gatoh’s ace and founder anchoring this everything came together in an engaging contest that had several nice layers lurking beneath the surface.

 

 

I always enjoy Gatoh Move a lot, but something clicked even more so than the already high usual standard throughout the batch of shows I saw this trip, and it was immediately noticeable starting right here.