Intro

I recently got into shoot-style puroresu by watching a few Kiyoshi Tamura UWF-i matches by accident. I immediately fell in love with the style after that. You mean I can have puroresu but with more realistic-looking submissions, snug mat work and stiff and lightning-fast striking as the main vocabulary for story-telling? Sign me up! I'll even endure the occasional snooze-fest when two wrestlers just lay on top of one another and do nothing 5 minutes straight. I soon started looking around for anything UWF-i related that I could find, as I often do with any new niche micro-interest.

While poking around wikipedia pages looking for more information on shoot-style, I came across GLEAT, a modern puroresu promotion that holds these so-called LIDET UWF events twice a year under "UWF rules". Bingo! Shoot-style! What's even better, these shows are all available on Youtube for free to watch! After a casual watch, here are my quick thoughts on GLEAT's first (kinda) LIDET UWF show. Keep in mind that this is my first exposure to mostly everyone on this card, so apologies if I come off as harsh to your favourites.

Before the first match, a bunch of people come out to the ring which I now realize are the home-grown GLEAT talent. The last one out caught my attention, he (she? they? I found it really hard to tell at first) is absolutely gorgeous. He talks a bit, the talent bow the clapping crowd and head backstage. Nice little legit sports touch.

Michiko Miyagi vs. Maya Fukuda

The opener is not a very great match. Maya Fukuda is really cute and has good babyface charisma, but her striking is meek and shy at best (she does land a few nice kicks at some point). At the ground she is dominated by Miyagi, who unfortunately does not have the charisma to keep the match entertaining, she seems bored if anything else. Basically a squash match, Fukuda fights back when on her feet, but seems to be in completely unfamiliar territory on the ground. Miyagi gets the win easily in 4 minutes with a Rear Naked Choke and doesn't even celebrate, she immediately heads backstage.

Not a bad match, maybe a bit boring at times? It's 4 minutes, you can skip this and you won't miss anything, you can watch it and you wouldn't waste any time. Is it worth watching? Probably not. While writing this I found out that Fukuda's pro debut was only 3 months back. Taking that into consideration, she did quite fine, I'd like to watch her again in a few years and see how much she's improved. Miyagi seems quite uninteresting to me at the moment, but I'd like to watch her in a more competitive enviroment to get a better feel for character and moveset.

Hideki Sekine vs. Rionne Fujiwara

Apparently, Sekine's nickname is "Shrek". LIDET dub his entrance theme with some random metal song, but I like to think that All Star by Smash Mouth was playing in the arena. This match is all about him for me. Sekine is as awkward in the ring as Giant Baba and Akira Taue, only he looks way more brutish and intimidating. This match is also really short, it is apparent that Fujiwara can wrestle rings around this guy and is much quicker, but his lightning quick kicks are totally no sold, they hardly earn a reaction from Shrek. Taking the big man to the ground doesn't seem to have an effect either. Rionne grinds at Shrek with more kicks, until Shrek wraps his arms around Fujiwara and drops him on his head with a sick German Suplex. The bell then rings? Huh? No 10-count? I was really confused at first, but Cagematch says the match ended by referee stoppage, ref apparently didn't wanna see poor Fujiwara get mauled some more, I'll roll with it.

Another nothing 4-minute match, but at least this time someone with an aura was in the match and that made it a lot more enjoyable. I now love Shrek and want to see more of him. His aura, his charisma, the way he moves around the ring, he is just amazing to watch. Unfortunately he seemed to be quite limited in the ring. Kinda worrying that for the last two matches the imported wrestlers were more interesting than the LIDET UWF talent.

Daijirou Matsui vs. Tetsuya Izuchi

Can I be honest? I remember nothing about this match ://.

Could you tell that Daijirou Matsui is 48 in this match and has been an MMA Fighter for more than 20 years? He barely looks over 30! Tetsuya is only 21, so he's less than half his years! They could be father and son with this big age difference.

For some unknown reason, Matsui busted his nose open pretty early in the match.

These two provided a very enjoyable technical match with some high quality and energetic mat-work. Even in other shoot-style matches I've watched, mat work is usually an excuse to take a breather and do some methodical work; these guys didn't get that memo. There isn't a single moment with these two on the ground that they don't work towards a transition or a submission and this makes the mat work highly enjoyable. Too bad the crowd doesn't seem too into it, they stay very silent during this whole match (maybe they just don't know who these guys are?). Just as I was thinking "hey, this match is great", the finish comes out of nowehre like a wet fart. After Izuchi downed Matsui with a stiff kick, the latter immediately goes for the takedown, slaps on a heel hook and makes Izuchi tap in a very anti-climactic finish. Matsui had only 1 point left too, but this didn't play into the finish all and there was no drama whatsoever in this ending. What a shame. Still a good match, though. A big step up in quality from the previous two matches.

Kaz Hayashi vs. Tatsuaki Nakano

Old guy vs. even older guy. Kaz Hayashi is of WCW Jung Dragons fame. Nakano was 57 in this match and it showed. He was slow, sluggish and mostly unexciting, but did hang in there and, to be honest, the match could have been much worse. Nakano is the only wrestler in this card that I've watched before. Granted, it was a loss on the receiving end of a squash against Super Vader in UWF-i, but it still counts. Hey, he even looks a bit leaner than in his UWF-i days, so props to him for staying fit. Hayashi carries this match.

Just skip this one. Apart from thinking "hey, I know that guy!", I wasn't particularly entertained.

Minoru Tanaka & Takanori Ito vs. Hikaru Sato & Rocky Kawamura 2

Two 40-year-olds, one of which looks like Japanese Ernest Miller, a 46-year old and a 28-year old. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to the semi-main event of this card. Tanaka I've never watched despite his long career and stints in AJPW, NJPW and NOAH, and I don't think this match is going to be the best first exposure to him. Sato looks cool, Kawamura looks goofy, so all my hopes rested on Ito who I've also never seen before to deliver the goods with some youngster fire.

Ito and Sato start out very cautiously and Sato outwrestles his opponent. Kawamura and Tanaka come in. At this point Kawamura won me over, big tall lanky bastard towering over Tanaka and moving around goofily. His head bobbing and weaving and fighting stance make his kickboxing background obvious. he gets the upper hand in all exchanges as well! Bless this guy. Tanaka only gets some offense in when Sato re-enters, but is still on the back foot. Ito tags himself in and blasts Sato with a crisp German Suplex. Sato seems really dazed by this, but survives by keeping the fight on the ground as much as possible, where he has the advantage. Sato also starts toying with Ito at this point, sticking his tongue out while applying a submission and taunting Ito after a barrage of strikes, despite seeming gased and out of breath. These exchanges between the two feel very heated and are filled with stiff strikes, kicks and rough-looking (but in a good way) matwork. They both soon tag out, though, what a shame. Almost immediately, Kawamura unleashes a flurry of open-palm strikes to Tanaka to knock him down. He answers the 10-count at 9, but a second flurry and knock down results in a TKO loss, as Tanaka's team's points ran out.

Post-match the two teams face each other and trade words. While Tanaka and Kawamura 2 seem to be having a friendly chat, Ito and Sato grab each other by the hair as the tension increases and they are quickly separated. A little traditional pro wrestling touch in the shoot-style product.

This match exceeded my expectations. The second time Ito and Sato were in the ring together was great, Kawamura was awesome to watch, but maybe part of it was due to his sarcastic beauty. Tanaka honestly underwhelmed me, he always seemed to be on the receiving end of his exchanges with Kawamura 2 and I don't remember him retaliating in any meaningful way. Him busting his nose open towards the tail end of the match added to the drama. A pretty decent match, but it ended when it had just started building up steam.

Yu Iizuka vs. Daichi Hashimoto

Can I get this out of the way as soon as possible? Iizuka is really cute. His long blonde hair really suit him, I was sad to find out that later down the line they become brown and much shorter, a more boring look in my opinion. Daichi Hashimoto is the son of Shinya Hashimoto and is working for BJW.

Hashimoto plays the big hoss in the match and takes the center, while Iizuka circles around him, never staying still, and is constantly in his video game idle fighting animation which is very satisfying to look at. Iizuka looks to be very comfortable wrestling in this style, his strikes are quick and stiff and his ground work very flashy. He had a couple of transitions into holds that I've never seen performed before. I'm already awestruck by him in the opening minutes, he's so agile and quick with everything he does and every move from him looks very legit. He also busts out a Jumping Cross Armbreaker thingy towards the end that looks absolutely amazing! Hashimoto on the other hand is a bit bland on the opening stages, but he does get his groove on as the match progresses. Hashimoto is deceptively quick for such a big guy, he manages to catch Iizuka off guard with a back suplex (the first of the night, woohoo! I really missed them) and a sweeping low kick followed by an old-school pro wrestling DDT! This move shatters kayfabe after all the realistic mat wrestling that preceded it, but I loved seeing it! The last few minutes of this match are really heated and builds up very organically to the finish, something that the rest of the matches on this card lacked. Hashimoto manages to grab Iizuka's leg after they trade stiff kicks, Dragon Screw and then locks in an STF, Iizuka gives it a great sell by screaming, flopping around and trying to reach for the ropes, but he eventually taps out. Post match, Hashimoto fucks off immediately, Iizuka bows to the crowd and then slaps the match in a fit of frustration at his loss. He still seems grateful to the crowd, however.

By far the best match on the card. These two worked a very solid match that built up to a very heated finish. Shoot-style purists (and especially Lou Thesz) may argue that the end devolved into standard puroresu (mainly because of Hashimoto it has to be noted), but I am not that and I enjoyed the last few segments of this match as a natural progression from the more mat-oriented start of the match. Only complaint I have is that I really wanted to see Iizuka win, and was quite disappointed with the result. He looked a bit more at home than Hashimoto in the shoot style of wrestling and he is signed to GLEAT as opposed to Hashimoto, why wouldn't he get the win? Confusing. I recommend you go watch this match if you're interested in Lidet UWF, it's very entertaining.

Conclusion

This show was quite enjoyable, but not great. The main event was good, the tag match and Matsui vs. Izuchi were decent. I believe this show might have been more enjoyable if I had done more research on who was featured here, because most have legit MMA backgrounds or are still active MMA fighters (Kawamura, Sekine, Matsui), but I still found the trained pro wrestlers to be more enjoyable to watch (Sato, Iizuka, Hashimoto, Ito). I didn't like the storytelling in many matches as well, as the finish came out of nowhere in most cases in a very anti-climactic fashion. In every finish, the would-be winner dropped any semblance of selling and went straight for the kill, no drama, no stakes, nothing. In conclusion, the fact that most wrestlers in this card have MMA backgrounds or are active MMA fighters gives Lidet UWF legitimacy, but the match quality is not there yet.