It’s been far too long since I’ve watched Japanese ladies wrestle on gym mats in a dingy gymnasium somewhere in Japan so today during my lunch break I checked out another episode of Gatoh Move on YouTube. Here are some words brief words about it.
The first chunk of matches are “Exhibition Matches” pitting what I am assuming is Gatoh Move’s version of Young Lions or WCW Power Plant Students against more established wrestlers. Each of these matches have a three minute time limit and the winner is the wrestler who scores the most pinfalls or submissions in those three minutes. I guess that makes them 3 minute ironman matches.
Match 1: Chie Koishikawa vs. Mei Suruga
Exhibition Match
Koishikawa is the rookie here with a yellow t-shirt with her name printed on it. All the rookies would sport these t-shirts (though with their own names on them rather than Koishikawa’s name) and shorts which makes a lot of these rookies look more like people who played bass in late 90s emo or indie bands than pro-wrestlers.
The match begins with a collar and elbow tie up. Koishikawa gets shoved off by Mei but she comes back with a schoolboy on Mei that’s good for two. Mei gets back to her feet and the two women trade wristlocks and go behinds before moving to front facelocks.
Koishikawa reverses Mei’s front facelock into one of her own and then rolls through with it into a guillotine choke in a cool looking spot. Koishikawa then tries to send Mei into the wall but Mei blocks it but eventually gets sent in anyway.
Koishikawa then hits a wonky looking drop toehold on Mei to take her down. She then unloads on Mei with a series of strikes and hits a dropkick to put her back on the mat. Koishikawa follows with a series of pin attempts but she is unable to keep Mei down for three.
Mei gets Koishikawa in a Boston crab as the time limit expires. She then slaps Koishikawa upside the head as she leaves the mat for that heel heat.
Winner: Time Limit Draw [0:0]
This was exactly the sort of match I’d have expected from a rookie and someone with a bit more experience. They did some really basic stuff and it ended up going to a time limit draw. Mei Suruga, who I don’t think has been wrestling all that long, is actually pretty good in the ring…or on the mat if you prefer and has a pretty good gimmick though I don’t know how well it would work outside of Asia. [*½]
Match 2: Tokiko Kirihara vs. Lulu Pencil
Exhibition Match
I’m pretty sure that the announcer dude said that Lulu Pencil is a freelance writer which means she’s elected to go the mid-90s WWF wrestler with a side-hustle route when selecting her nom de guerre. This is absolutely fantastic. Her opponent, Kirihara, is 44 years old and apparently a former kickboxer. Both of them are sporting the rookie attire of a bright yellow t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers.
They lock up and Pencil gets shoved into the crowd. Pencil comes back with a roll up but Kirihara kicks out and goes to work on Pencil’s arm. Pencil rolls to escape the hold but Kirihara shoots the leg and gets her in a kneebar. Pencil boots her and reverses the hold, but Kirihara counters and slaps on a Figure Four causing Pencil to tap.
Kirihara stays on her, grabbing a guillotine choke but Pencil fights out and covers but Kirihara hurls her off at one. Pencil sends Kirihara into the wall, but Kirihara blocks so Pencil goes for a drop toehold. Like Koishikawa before her it looks wonky as hell, but she eventually gets Kirihara down for a pin attempt. Kirihara kicks out.
Pencil stays on her, grabbing her by the hair and taking her to the mat with a snapmare. Pencil then walks on Kirihara’s gut which is a standard Big Boy Who Loves to Roughhouse move. Lulu Pencil, however is a skinny Japanese woman so this move is ludicrous from her, but the crowd is still like, “OOOOOOOOH!” when she does it.
Pencil then delivers a goofy-ass splash on Kirihara who again kicks out. Pencil stays on her, attempting to get Kirihara up in a surfboard as the clock ticks down. She can’t get her up though an Kirihara ends up pinning her bringing the score to 2 to 0.
Kirihara stays on top of her, transitioning into an arm lock of some sort. Lulu Pencil promptly tap out giving Kirihara another point. She then gets Lulu Pencil up and slaps on an abdominal stretch. Lulu Pencil taps out as the clock runs out giving Kirihara the victory 4 to 0.
Winner: Tokiko Kirihara [4:0]
I actually watched this match twice. The first time I watched it I thought that it was the sloppiest of the four exhibition bout with Pencil being a decidedly terrible wrestler, but upon the second viewing I realized that that is probably what her gimmick is. The announcer talked about how she lost every match but has remarkable “fighting spirit,” which made me think that she’s probably supposed to be terrible in the ring, but is still willing to go out there and fight even though she’s probably going to lose which is a gimmick I can get behind, besides, she had the single greatest bullshit wrestling name I’ve ever heard in my life.
As for Kirihara she honestly looked really good. She didn’t do anything all that flashy but her offense looked like it actual hurt (and it might have since she was doing a lot of holds and shit) and she sold well when she needed to. Add to that the fact that she’s a 44 year old rookie (if I didn’t mishear the announcer) and it’s pretty remarkable that she’s out there throwing chicks around and slapping on Figure Fours. [*½]
Match 3: Sayaka vs. Yuna Mizumori
Exhibition Match
The match begins with a lock up. The two women work back and forth with waistlocks before Sayaka rolls Mizumori up with a schoolboy for an early near fall. Mizumori grabs a front facelock, but Sayaka sweeps Mizumori’s legs to counter out of the hold. She goes for a pin but Mizumori powers out a one.
Back to a vertical base, Sayaka tries for a snapmare, but Mizumori blocks it and puts Sayaka down with a big slam. She then tries for a Boston Crab but Sayaka is able to escape.
Sayaka then takes Mizumori down with a drop toehold (the first decent looking one out of a rookie) and succeeds in getting Mizumori in a Boston Crab. Mizumori powers out and forearms the rookie into the wall. She charges in with a punch but Sayaka gets out of the wall and Mizumori ends up blasting the wall instead.
Sayaka hits a trio of snapmares and then does the schoolyard bully thing and gets behind Mizumori on her hands and knees, tripping her up as she staggers about the mat. A pin attempt gets two.
Mizumori gets back to her feet and forearms Sayaka in the tits a couple times before going for a sack of shit slam. Sayaka escapes though and gets Mizumori over with a sunset flip for another near fall. She follows with a weird bridging pin for another two count before Mizumori again kicks out.
Sayaka then forearms Mizumori in the tits a couple times. Mizumori fires back with some forearms of her own and we’ve got ourselves a STRONG STYLE STRIKE BATTLE! Sayaka eventually gets fed up of forearming Mizumori in the tits and sends her to the mat with a dropkick that’s good for two. She tries for a couple more pin attempts but Mizumori keeps kicking out.
Sayaka tries for a big body slam, but Mizumori blocks it as the bells is rung signifying the end of the match. Mizumori doesn’t give a fuck though and she body slams Sayaka and covers her even though the match is over.
Winner: Time Limit Draw [0:0]
This match was a pretty awesome little bout. Of the rookies I saw in this episode Sayaka seems the most polished and managed to work a good back and forth match with Mizumori. [**]
Match 4: Mitsuru Konno vs. Sayuri
Exhibition Match
The two women shake hands before the match. The bell rings and they lock up. Konno and Sayuri go back and forth with waistlocks before working to wristlocks. They go back and forth a bit before Konno grabs another waistlock.
Sayuri escapes a waist lock by sliding between Konno’s legs and tripping her. She then goes for a Bow & Arrow but Konno rolls on top of her for a near fall. Konno gets her up and goes for a body slam but ends up getting rolled up by Sayuri for a near fall.
Sayuri goes for a snapmare but it’s blocked and Konno hits one of her own and then gets her in the dreaded body scissors. Sayuri attempts to counter into a pin attempt a couple times but Konno keeps the body scissors applied. She then rolls over and gets Sayuri in a wacky bridging pin attempt. ONE! TWO! THREE! Konno’s up by one point.
Sayuri is fired up and unloads on Konno with forearm strikes. She goes for a dropkick but Konno moves out of the way and pushes Sayuri down to the mat. She gets Sayuri back to her feet but Sayuri again unloads on her with forearms. She then attempts a drop toehold, but like everyone except Sayaka it doesn’t look that good. Konno sells pretty well for it though.
Sayuri goes for the Bow & Arrow again, but Konno doesn’t submit. Sayuri sends Konno into the wall and then charges in but Konno moves out of the way and then looks like she’s going to go for a lungblower but instead just uses her legs to send Sayuri into the wall. She tries for a rollup, but Sayuri holds onto the window frames to keep from getting rolled up.
She boots Konno in the chest and then heads up into the window frame to go high risk. Konno holds onto to her so Sayuri just jumps off and rolls across the mat because she can I guess. She charges Konno and connects with a big dropkick. Sayuri then goes for a crucifix but only gets two. She goes to send Konno back into the wall as the time limit expires.
Winner: Mitsuru Konno [1:0]
This was another pretty good match. The rookie here, Sayuri, was fairly polished and was able to pull off some pretty cool reversals. She was also the first person on the card to go high risk and leap out of the window frame. Like all the other rookies in the exhibition matches on this card she wasn’t a superstar or anything but with a bit more work and a little seasoning I think she’ll probably be a pretty good wrestler. [*¾]
Match 5: Kaori Yoneyama vs. Mei Suruga
Mei Suruga’s back out, this time for a singles match with the veteran, Kaori Yoneyama. The announcer informs us that both women wrestle a similar style and they open the match by going through a series of simultaneous moves. A double clothesline attempt turns into do-si-do illustrating just how similar these two women are offensively.
They work to a strike exchange that Yoneyama gets the better of when she unloads on Suruga with a gosh dang series of Mongolian chops. Yoneyama goes for a pin but Suruga reverses it into a pin attempt of her own. The two women roll through a series of pin attempts and reversals until the ref drops down to count a pin fall. ONE! TWO! THREE! She raises both women’s hands as all four shoulders were on the mat. This one is a draw.
Winner: Draw
Bell to bell this was a minute tops, but that one minute was all action. I’m assuming this will lead to a rematch between the two somewhere down the line. If you’re going to do this sort of double pin finish in a match, this is probably the best way to do it. Have the two wrestlers unload on each other with a flurry of offense and then do the double pin thing right away. No need to draw it out. [NR]
Match 6: SAKI & Yuna Mizumori vs. Antonio Honda & Sayaka Obihiro
Honda and Obihiro do the “slicking back my hair” hand motion after faking out accepting the Code of Honor from SAKI and Mizumori. Apparently this will be A FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR!
SAKI and Honda start things off with a series of shoulder tackles. Honda gets the worst of the exchange though does not leave his feet. He does the “Look over there!” gag and then stomps on SAKI’s foot to get on offense.
He tries for a suplex but SAKI slides out and goes between his legs and trucks through him with a shoulder tackle. She tags in Mizumori as Honda looks for a tag from the crowd.
He gets to his corner and tags in Obihiro who comes up short with a dropkick. Mizumori then tries for a splash but she misses as well. Obihiro tries for some downward punches but Mizumori rolls out of the way and Obihiro ends up getting a boot in the face from SAKI.
Mizumori channels the Ultimate Warrior at Halloween Havoc ‘98 and log rolls into Obihiro taking her down. She then log rolls over Obihiro’s body. SAKI tags back in and bodyslams Obihiro and then she rolls on her as well before covering for a near fall.
SAKI with a modified camel clutch. She mocks Obihiro a bit and the flips her onto her back for a pin attempt that gets two. Mizumori tags in and after SAKI blasts Honda the two women put Obihiro in a double team submission hold (half of which was a Boston Crab because what else would it be in Gatoh Move).
Mizumori sends Obihiro into the wall and elbows her a few times. Mizumori then gets fired up as the crowd gets behind her. She tries for a running headbutt but Obihiro moves and Mizumori goes head first into the wall.
Obihiro goes for a Mongolian chop but Mizumori blocks it and gets her in a full Nelson. Saki charges for a running headbutt but Obihiro moves and she ends up hitting her partner.
Obihiro hits a double dropkick and then makes the HOT TAG to Antonio Honda. He and Mizumori then have a comedic chop battle where each of them chop the other and then sell how much their hand hurts while also pretending that their hand doesn’t actually hurt that much. It’s very meta…
Honda hits her with the Cobra to the throat and then whips her into the wall. He charges but Mizumori comes charging out with a shoulder tackle. They both try for shoulder tackles but neither competitor goes down. They charge each other again and this time Mizumori drops Honda with a dropkick. She covers for two.
She then gets him up for a sack of shit slam but instead runs and slams him into the wall in a pretty impressive spot. She then runs up the wall to attempt a splash but Honda gets his knees up in another cool looking spot.
Both sides change as SAKI and Obihiro tag back in for a STRONG STYLE STRIKE BATTLE. SAKI wins and suplexes Obihiro before heading up into the window frame. The splash misses. Obihiro does some wacky combo but ends up getting caught in a pinning predicament. She’s out at two.
Obihiro fires up and after Honda nails SAKI with a Cobra she hits a bridging German but Mizumori comes in to break it up at two.
The match breaks down into a four way that sees Honda and Obihiro take over on offense. They try for stereo Bionic Elbows but get cut off by Mizumori and SAKI who try for Bionic Elbows of their own. They too end up getting cut off. Honda and Obihiro end up getting stuck rolling their arms in preparation for Bionic Elbows that never come. SAKI and Mizumori send Honda and Obihiro into each other so that they punch each other with their nonstop rolling arms.
Honda and Obihiro then get sandwiched between SAKI and Mizumori and dropped to the mat. SAKI and Mizumori get Obihiro up for a double team back body drop. Mizumori then holds Honda back while SAKI heads up top to the windowsill and comes off with a splash. She then covers Obihiro to pick up the win for her team.
Winners: SAKI & Yuna Mizumori
This was an okay tag team match. They worked a pretty standard issue tag team bout with some comedy spots spread through. Obihiro was someone I’d never seen wrestle before. I thought she looked pretty good in the match and did a good job with both serious wrestling and shit that would piss Jim Cornette off. [**]
Match 7: Emi Sakura & Masahiro Takanashi vs. Hikaru Shida & Mitsuru Konno
Sakura and Shida to start. Sakura gets the crowd to chant for her but before she and Shida can lock up she tags out to Takanashi to get some early heel heat.
Takanashi and Shida work some quick back and forth. Takanashi pulls Shida down by her ponytail but otherwise misses with most of his offense and gets nailed by a rana from Shida.
Shida makes the tag to Konno and Takanashi begs off. Sakura jumps her from behind and puts the boots to her. They try to double team her but Konno blocks the double duplex attempt and sends Takanashi and Sakura into each other.
She gets them up for a double noggin knocker but gets kicked and Sakura gets tagged in. She biels Konno across the mat to take over on offense. Sakura hits some brutal sounding chops and the nails Konno with a dropkick. She tags Takanashi back in who slows things down for a bit with an abdominal stretch before tagging Sakura back in.
She stands on Konno’s hands and does a hula dance before slapping on a Boston Crab! They really love that move in Gatoh Move. Konno gets to the crowd for the break but gets pulled back to center mat for another Boston Crab.
Shida comes in and tries to kick Sakura in the head to break the hold but Sakura ducks it.
Eventually Konno gets to the crowd for another break. Takanashi tags back in and continues to do some real heely bullshit to Konno, stretching her hand out towards her partner before pulling it away and mocking her inability to make a tag.
Takanashi sends Konno into the wall but misses on the charge and gets chuck out a window. Unfortunately before Konno can make a tag though Sakura comes in and works her over. She looks for a Pedigree but gets back body dropped by Konno.
Konno crawls to her corner for the tag, but before she can make it there Takanashi comes back into the building through the front door and pulls Shida out to the street to prevent the hot tag.
Takanashi and Konno fight over a body slam and Konno gets sent into the wall again. Takanashi charges at her but ends up eating a boot. Konno finally hits the big body slam and is able to make the HOT TAG to Shida. Shida runs wild on Takanashi and Sakura but misses an enziguri attempt on Takanashi and gets rolled up for two.
Sakura gets tagged back in. STRONG STYLE STRIKE BATTLE between Sakura and Shida. Sakura comes off the ropes (aka gets pushed by the crowd) but before she can do anything gets blasted in the face with a jumping knee strike from Shida.
Konno comes back in and gets Sakura in an impractical submission hold. She kind of sits on Sakura’s head and bridges backwards and I’m not sure what part of Sakura’s body is supposed to be getting damaged. Eventually Shida comes flying in with a knee strike that seems to wreck both Sakura and Konno’s shit. Konno covers but Takanashi breaks it up at two.
Things break down into a four way with Konno attempting to launch people into Shida with her legs. There are a bunch of reversals and a do-si-do spot that leads to Sakura falling on Konno because she’s THICC and Konno isn’t.
Konno and Shida get sent into the wall and Sakura nails both of them with a crossbody. They then crush Konno and cover but she kicks out at two. Sakura gets her back up and sends her into the window frame with a double underhook suplex and then crushes her. A brutal chops to put Konno down out in the alleyway.
Sakura goes high risk but Shida cuts her off and tries for a superplex off a windowsill. Takanashi however manages to catch his partner out of the air.
Stereo dropkicks put Sakura and Takanashi down. Takanashi gets suplexed and then Sakura gets suplexed on top of him. Shida then looks to suplex her partner onto their opponents but Konno has other plans and blasts Shida a few times in the ribs, and reverses the move, slamming her into Sakura and Takanashi.
Konno hits Sakura with that split legdrop thing that Cameron used to do. Two count. Takanashi and Sakura try for some double teams but Konno avoids them and ultimately Takanashi ends up blasting his partner in the head.
Konno covers but only gets two. She tries for a lariat but Sakura catches her and she and Takanashi hit their double team slam to pick up the win.
Winners: Emi Sakura & Masahiro Takanashi
Another decent enough tag team match. I thought there were parts of it that looked overly choreographed (a lot of the comedic spots) but overall it was pretty fun. Since I do not follow Gatoh Move religiously or anything I don’t know if there was a reason that Konno and Shida fought over who would be slammed into their opponents or if it was just a spot that they thought would be funny so I’ve got no idea if it will lead to anything or not. [**]
Final Thoughts
Gatoh Move is a unique, easy to watch wrestling promotion. While some people might not care for how low the production values are, I am here for it. I thought the Exhibition Matches, while not the best in terms of in ring (or on mat) skill were a cool introduction to some newer (to me wrestlers) and will be cool to see how these ladies develop as wrestlers.
The matches between the more established stars were decent enough for what they were and it was kind of cool to see women I’d seen compete in from of tens of thousands of people at Double or Nothing (Emi Sakura and Hikaru Shida) wrestle on gym mats in front of a couple dozen people in a match that saw people get thrown through a window and cut off a tag by pushing someone out of the venue’s door onto the street.
While there are no five star mat classics to be found here (though the match between Sayaka and Mizumori might be in contention for one of my favorite sub-five minute matches) it’s overall a fun 30 some-odd minutes of pro-wrestling worth checking out if you’re tired of mainstream, big budget wrestling promotions.
Atomic Drop 