I’ve been kind of down on WWE as of late and have been watching a bunch of random-ass wrestling stuff online during my lunch break. Today I decided to check out a recent show of Emi Sakura’s Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling. Though originally founded in Thailand it looks like most Gatoh Move shows are held in Japan.
This show was held at Ichigaya Chocolate Hiroba in Tokyo, Japan with 76 people in attendance. There is no ring here, just a mat on the floor. I wonder if this is going to be like that Dungeon Match Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock had back in the day. I will mark the fuck out if someone gets their head put through the ceiling.
Match 1: An Chamu vs. Mei Suruga
The dude on commentary informs us that this match is taking place because Mei Suruga is jealous of the fact that An Chamu’s match is the most watched video on Gatoh Move’s YouTube Channel.
Handshake to start. CODE OF HONOR ALL UP IN THIS MUG! They circle each other and pose for the camera as the match begins. An Chamu goes wants to lock up but Suruga catches her with a drop toehold and then poses for the camera again.
An Chamu rolls her up in a schoolboy and then poses for the camera. Suruga gets back to her feet and catches An Chamu with a schoolboy of her own for one. More posing. They shove each other trying to pose for the camera before Suruga grabs a side headlock.
Suruga takes An Chamu down to the mat but An Chamu counters into a headscissors. Suruga escapes the hold and we’ve got ourselves a standoff (during which both women stare directly into the camera).
They circle each other for a bit and Suruga calls for a test of strength. Suruga ends up winning and getting An Chamu in a wristlock. She then runs up the wall and tosses An Chamu with an armdrag in a pretty cool spot.
Suruga stays on offense, booting An Chamu in the gut and then taking her down with a snapmare before locking on the dreaded body scissors. Suruga rolls over onto her stomach to get An Chamu into a pinning predicament (and to pose for the camera)for a few near falls before An escapes the hold.
X-Factor from Suruga. She then targets the leg with a series of kicks (with occasional pauses to pose for the camera). Suruga with a bow and arrow submission hold. An Chamu reverses it into a pin attempt but Suruga kicks out at two.
An Chamu then goes for a leg submission while doing what the announcer refers to as a “sexy pose.” She then stomps on Suruga’s back and we get more sexy posing. An Chamu tries for a bow and arrow of her own but Suruga flips onto her for a pin attempt that’s good for two.
Suruga grabs a headlock and tries to slam An’s head into the wall but An Chamu blocks it and slams her ass into Suruga’s midsection to take over on offense. She leans Suruga up against the wall and goes for a running hip attack but Suruga gets her feet up and push kicks An Chamu in the ass.
Suruga attempts to whip An into the wall but An leaps up onto the wall and pushes off with a flying ass attack to take over on offense. A dude in the crowd pushes An to give her some additional momentum as she nails Suruga with a running hip attack. She covers but only gets two.
An Chamu with a camel clutch but Suruga gets to the edge of the mat for a break. Suruga forearms An Chamu in the tits. An attempts a dropkick but Suruga blocks it. Suruga does some pose and bellows what I can only assume to be her catchphrase but gets caught in a cross armbreaker by An Chamu. Suruga gets to the edge of the mat and the ref breaks the hold.
An goes for a bodyslam but Suruga blocks it. An Chamu kicks her in the gut and charges at her but Suruga catches her with a big bodyslam and covers but only gets two.
Boston Crab from Suruga. An tries to escape but Suruga drags her back to center mat and switches to the Cattle Mutilation. An touches to the wall with her foot to escape. Mei dropkicks An into the concrete wall. She then does her catchphrase again and goes for her signature dropkick but An Chamu gets out of the way and then sits on her and covers but only gets one.
An Chamu goes for a flying ass attack but Suruga has it scouted and blasts her in the ass with a dropkick. She rolls An up with a wacky looking pin attempt but An kicks out at two.
Mei Suruga then hits the Propeller Crush(?) Crash(?) finisher to pick up the win at 6:30.
Winner: Mei Suruga
This was a decent enough match. I liked the lack of a ring gimmick since it made An Chamu and Mei Suruga do some stuff that I hadn’t really seen before in wrestling. I don’t know if I’ll quickly tire of these spots if I see a bunch more Gatoh Move stuff from this venue, but for now seeing a person get dropkicked into a concrete wall and use a windowsill to do launch themselves for an armdrag was kind of cool. [**]
Match 2: Antonio Honda vs. Baliyan Akki
Antonio Honda is one of the few people on this card I’ve actually seen wrestle before due to his association with DDT. He’s facing Baliyan Akki who is apparently from India and has wrestled all over the world.
Collar and elbow tie up to start. Honda grabs a side headlock. He transitions to a hammerlock. Akki reverse it into a hammerlock of his own but Honda tosses him to the mat and applies an armbar.
Akki gets back to his feet but Honda stays in control, working over Akki’s arm with a wristlock. Akki attempts to counter out of the hold but Honda gets him in a hammerlock. Akki grabs Honda’s leg and trips him up to escape the hold. Akki tries for a leg submission but Honda rolls him up in a schoolboy for a count of two.
Akki goes for a test of strength but Honda grabs him by the hair. The ref begins to count to get him to break the hold which he does. Honda then proceeds to grab his own hair and the referee counts that as well. Honda lets go of his hair and boots Akki in the gut and then takes him down with a snapmare.
He follows by stomping on Akki’s face before pulling him back up to his feet by his hair. Honda messes around with Akki’s hair for a bit before delivering some knees to Akki’s head. Honda follows with another snapmare and then grounds Akki with a reverse chinlock.
Akki gets back to his feet but Honda stays in control, unloading on Akki with forearm strikes and chops. Honda tries to whip Akki into the wall but Akki reverses and unloads on Honda with a flurry of strikes that culminates with an enziguri.
Honda gets to his knees and calls for a timeout which confuses Akki. The ref doesn’t allow a timeout so Honda attempts to make peace with Akki by doing the Wolfpac “Too Sweet” hand gesture. Honda jawjacks with Akki for a bit which causes the crowd to laugh and the attempts to poke him in the eyes with his “Too Sweet” hand gesture but Akki blocks it (though not using the Three Stooges method much to my dismay).
Honda attempts to use his free hand to poke Akki in the eyes but again Akki is able to block it. He then forces Honda’s hands together like one would put them if they were greeting someone in Thailand. This leads to Akki bowing to him. Again Honda attempts to attack but is blocked and this time Akki attacks with a headbutt.
Akki’s fired up now and whips Honda into the wall. He then tries for a dropkick but Honda avoids it. Akki follows up and catches Honda with a spinning backbreaker. Akki heads up to the windowsill and connects with a senton that earns him a near fall.
Akki grabs a front facelock but Honda gets out of it and gets Akki up in a fireman’s carry. Akki wriggles free but can’t avoid the swinging neckbreaker from Honda. Honda then tries for a high angle Boston Crab but Akki escapes and puts Honda down with a big body slam. Akki heads back up to the windowsill but Honda cuts him off with a shot to the midsection.
Honda unloads on Akki who is still perched on the windowsill with a series of rights. Honda looks for the bionic elbow but Akki push kicks him away and then connects with a dropkick off the windowsill that puts Honda down. Akki heads back up and tries for a splash but Honda gets his knees up.
Honda then rolls Akki up with a schoolboy but the man from India is able to kick out at two. Honda unloads with a series of rights and the sets up for the Bionic Elbow. This time it connects.
He lowers the straps on his singlet and goes for the high angle Boston Crab again but Akki counters with a head scissor takedown and the hits a rana into a pinning combination for two. Honda reverses the pin and gets a three count even though it looked like Akki was off the mat.
Winner: Antonio Honda
This was another match where both guys did a good job of making the most out of the limitations of working on a gym mat. Akki using a window frame as a top rope from which to do sentons and splashes and stuff delighted me to no end as did Antonio Honda’s transformation from a guy I’d only known as a comedy wrestler into a chain wrestling specialist. [**½]
Match 3: Mitsuru Konno, Riho & Sawasdee Kamen vs. Masahiro Takanashi, SAKI & Yuna Mizumori
Sawasdee Kamen, Mitsuru Konno, and Riho all do flips as they are introduced ahead of the match. They then look for handshakes from their opponents. Masahiro Takanashi shakes hands with Sawasdee Kamen but SAKI and Yuna Mizumori have no desire to abide by the Code of Honor.
The bell rings and the match gets underway with Riho and Mizumori Yuna starting things off for their respective teams. As they circle each other the dude on commentary informs us that the referee for this match is Riho’s sister. I wonder if that will come into play at all in the match.
Riho wants a test of strength and gets it. They go back and forth with wristlocks and hammerlocks and shit until Riho tosses Mizumori with an armdrag. She charges at Mizumori who sweeps her leg with an arm and then goes for a cover only for Riho to bridge out of it before even a one count. Riho then takes Mizumori down and goes for a cover but gets shoved off leading to a standoff.
Mizumori then tags in SAKI and Riho brings in Mitsuru Konno. They go for a collar and elbow tie up until Konno decides to do something else and just forearms the shit out of SAKI’s tits. She boots SAKI in the face and tries for a schoolboy but SAKI rolls through.
SAKI tries for a boot to the face but Kanno ducks out of the way and rolls her up with another schoolboy but only gets two. Both women get back to their feet and Kanno blasts SAKI with a big boot.
Riho comes in and she and Kanno whip SAKI into the wall. Riho then sends Kanno into her with a big forearm before running in and drilling SAKI with a forearm of her own. They then each grab one of SAKI’s arms for a weird arm submission/Sailor Moon pose thing that pops the crowd.
Kanno grabs a front face lock while Sawasdee Kamen yells some stuff and the match suddenly breaks down into a six-way. Kanno gets stomped on which allows SAKI to take over on offense once the mat clears.
SAKI snapmares Kanno and then gets her in the dreaded body scissors. A Kiwi Roll follows that sends Kanno crashing into the wall and then into SAKI’s teammates. Mizumori punches her a few times before SAKI transitions into a pin attempt that is good for two.
Masahiro Takanashi comes in and continues to stay in control. He drills Kanno in the back of the neck with a shot and then stomps on her some more. He then cranks on her neck and forces her down to the mat for a near fall. He stomps on her one more time and then tags Mizumori back in.
Mizumori sends Kanno end first into the wall and then unloads on her tits with a series of elbows. Mizumori stomps around and chants something that the crowd chants along with and then does a running headbutt into Kanno’s stomach. Mizumori then grabs a full nelson allowing SAKI and then Takanashi to also deliver running headbutts to the helpless Kanno’s midsection.
Mizumori then grabs a Boston Crab on Kanno but Sawasdee comes in to break the hold. Takanashi comes in and shoves Sawasdee away and then pulls Kanno back into his corner. Mizumori tags SAKI back in and she and Takanashi put the boots to Kanno.
SAKI gets Kanno in a surfboard submission and swings her around for a bit while Mizumori mocks Kanno. Sawasdee cannot bear this and comes in and boots Mizumori in the face. Takanashi comes in as well and tosses Sawasdee off the mat.
Takanashi gets tagged in and tries for a body slam but Kanno blocks it. Kanno tries for a body slam of her own but is unable to get Takanashi up. She ends up getting muscled into the concrete wall. Takanashi chops her in the tit and then goes for a charge but Kanno avoids it and then gets him up for a big body slam.
Kanno makes the HOT TAG to Riho home comes flying off the windowsill with a cross body block. She drills SAKI and Mizumori at mat-side. She tries for a brainbuster but Takanashi blocks it and gets Riho up. She slides off his back and avoids Takanashi’s attack before hitting a big hurricanrana.
Riho hits a dropkick and then grabs a headlock and runs Takanashi dome-first into the concrete wall. She then attempts that Propeller Crush/Crash/Clutch thing that Suruga Mei did but Takanashi counters. Riho attempts another rana but ends up getting slammed face-first into the mat by Takanashi.
SAKI gets tagged back in. She tries to whip Riho into the wall but Riho reverses it and tries for a lariat. SAKI ducks and hits the ATOMIC DROP before sending Riho into the wall. An armdrag follows to put Riho down.
SAKI then does an handstand up against the wall and comes down with double-knees but Riho rolls out of the way. There’s a pretty botched looking series of moves where it looks like Riho was attempting a wheelbarrow or something. The announcer at one point completely gives up and is just like, “What is she trying to do?” as SAKI gets Riho up like she’s going to give her an ATOMIC DROP but just chucks her across the mat.
SAKI and Mizumori then both charge Riho so that she ends up sandwiched between them. SAKI and Mizumori then attempt to slingshot Takanashi from the mat onto Riho, but again, Riho rolls out of the way and Takanashi eats mat. We get a triple dropkick from the faces and Sawasdee Kamen gets tagged in.
He whips SAKI into the wall and follows with a step-up kick to the face and then boots her in the back when she’s doubled over. They both miss kicks in an exchange that ends with Sawasdee grabbing SAKI’s leg and rolling into a leg submission on her. He taunts Takanashi who comes in, but Sawasdee grabs him in a Crippler Crossface while he’s still got the leglock on SAKI. DOUBLE SUBMISSION HOLDS BABY!! Mizumori comes in and pounds on Sawasdee to break the hold and save her teammates.
Sawasdee Kamen heads up to the windowsill and goes for a double knees but misses. He tries for a big boot but that misses as well. SAKI’s big boot does connect though and she makes the HOT TAG to Mizumori.
Mizumori runs wild with shoulder tackles, hitting Sawasdee Kamen with five of them. She then whips him into the the wall and sets up for a charge, but Sawasdee nonchalantly kicks her in the face before she can charge at him. Sawasdee then goes for a swinging neckbreaker or something but it’s blocked and Mizumori hurks him up for a sack of shit slam. Sawasdee counters by spanking her ass to escape the hold and then connects with a DDT.
Konno gets tagged in and hits a big boot. Mizumori comes back with a forearm and then charges but Konno picks the leg and gets her in a single leg Boston Crab. SAKI comes in to break up the hold which brings Sawasdee back in to deal with her. Konno then whips Mizumori into a sidekick from Sawasdee Kamen. She follows up with a flipping pin attempt that gets two.
Mizumori comes back with a sack of shit slam that sends Konno into the wall. Mizumori’s teammates then come in to clear the mat. Riho gets thrown through the window as the heels dominate.
SAKI slingshots Mizumori onto Konno for a two count. She and Mizumori then get Konno up for a double sack of shit slam but Konno counters into a sunset flip. She can’t get SAKI and Mizumori over though so Riho comes flying off the windowsill with a crossbody to force them over into a pin attempt that gets two.
Sawasdee Kamen hits the mat and the faces hit SAKI and Mizumori with a triple bridging pin attempt that gets two before Takanashi comes in to break it up. Things break down a bit as Konno nails Mizumori with that split legdrop thing that Cameron used to do for another near fall.
Mizumori gets whipped into the wall. Konno and Sawasdee then go for some wonky looking double team move where she attempts to push kick Sawasdee into Mizumori but Mizumori cuts them of by flying at them crotch first and sitting on them for a two count. SAKI and Takanashi are back in and together with Mizumori they do a triple-team slam on Konno. Mizumori then hits a splash on her for another near fall.
Again, things break down into a six way as Riho and SAKI brawl mat-side and Takanashi and Sawasdee fight through the window out into the crowd. Mizumori connects with a dropkick on Konno who is then bodyslammed by Takanashi. Mizumori looks for the splash again but as she runs Sawasdee Kamen comes flying through the window and takes her out with a dropkick.
Konno avoids some kicks before Sawasdee connects with an enziguri on Mizumori. Konno then rolls her up. ONE! TWO! THREE! Mitsuru Konno, Riho & Sawasdee Kamen win in 12:17.
Winners: Mitsuru Konno, Riho & Sawasdee Kamen
This was a pretty fun match in a clusterfuck kind of way. There were six people wrestling on a gym mat surrounded by fans in folding chairs. They were doing ranas and six-way brawling and shit and somehow the front row never got taken out. Again they did some cool stuff here with the heels tossing Riho through the window frame to get an advantage over her teammates at one point. There were parts of this that were sloppy looking but due to the sheer number of participants in the match and the size of the space they were working in it was kind of to be expected and wasn’t as bad as it could have been. [***]
Post-Show Round-Table
I guess after each show everyone from the card comes out and sits in a circle on the mat and talk about feelings or wrestling related issues they might be having. Mitsuru Konno has apparently just turned 29 and hasn’t had that many championship opportunities or won any titles. She asks her coworkers how they went about getting title shots and they give her various suggestions.
Riho apparently went to Singapore and won a lot of matches and got a shot for the title there. Mei Suruga won a tournament to earn a title shot. Masahiro Takanashi meanwhile earned a title shot by winning a battle royal.
Yuna Mizumori talks shit at Mitsuru Konno and then Konno challenges her for the the Asia Dream Tag Team titles that Mizumori and SAKI currently hold. They ask her who she’ll team with and she tells them that she’ll team with Sawasdee Kamen.
Emi Sakura is cool with this and tells them that even though the June 4th show already has a main event, she’s going to add a match pitting Yuna Mizumori & SAKI against Mitsuru Konno & Sawasdee Kamen for the Asia Dream Tag Team Championship to the show.
Yuna Mizumori and SAKI talk some more shit which leads to Sawasdee Kamen attacking them. There’s then a big pull apart brawl during which Emi Sakura hits people with the cane she randomly has and the show ends.
Final Thoughts
Gatoh Move is definitely something I’ll check out again while eating lunch in a cafeteria. The matches are different enough from the other random wrestling stuff that I watch that even if the matches are Five Star Mat Classics® there’s enough unique stuff here that makes this worth watching. I’m also glad that they’ve got English commentary for the stuff that’s up on YouTube. I’ve watched a lot of wrestling from regions where they’re speaking a language I don’t understand and having English commentary to explain what is going on (the backstories of various wrestlers and why certain matches have been booked more than calling lariats and shit) helps out immensely.
If you can deal with low production values and a lack of a wrestling ring, you might want to check out Gatoh Move.
Atomic Drop 