January 20, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan
As I like to explain to start my Gatoh Move reviews, the Ichigaya 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 here 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).
The comedy heavy opener of Mei Suruga & Taro Yamada vs Baliyan Akki & Riho pushed things a bit (from the perspective of a foreign fan) with everyone imitating Taro’s narrow eyes, but was in good fun overall and a solid opener. With the talent involved the underlying action was of course really good.
Sayaka Obihiro vs Shota was honestly a touch slow and a bit hard to get absorbed into, but at the same time was a well worked display of chain wrestling at its core and decent overall.
Emi Sakura & Masahiro Takanashi vs Mitsuru Konno & Yuna Mizumori took a little time to find it’s footing, with the normally unflappable Emi seeming a bit off and even poking a bit of fun at herself, but they played off everything well and things really gelled and became incredible down the stretch. I love both these teams and this pairing was a treat for me. Emi pinned Mizumori to pick up the victory after a beautiful counter.
There were admittedly little wrinkles in this one, but nothing that really detracted from the enjoyment and entertainment of the show as a whole. The entire roster has been pushing themselves to try new things as experiment in different directions, which is of course always great to see. This was a fine way to wrap things up with Gatoh for that particular trip, and I can’t wait to go back.
Derailments of Thought 