Wrestle-1
Tokyo Dome City Hall
EWP Intercontinental Championship; Twelve 3-minute Rounds
Keiji Mutoh’s melting pot booking philosophy for Wrestle-1 is intriguing.
Mutoh is not the first Japanese booker by a longshot to subscribe to the idea that a pro wrestling promotion should be an eclectic mix of personalities, nationalities, and styles. Wrestle-1 is however the promotion currently making the most of that particular booking ideology. The first couple of shows they ran were built entirely around the Wrestle-1 roster facing outsiders from around the Japanese wrestling landscape. Since that time the promotion has made regular use of freelancers, utilized TNA talent on their owns, done Joshi offer matches, and done stylistic-clash pairings such as matching MMA fighter/pro wrestler Masakatsu Funaki up against the comedy/hardcore Braham Brothers duo in a handicap match.
Now Mutoh seems to be expanding the reach of his promotion a little further by bringing in several champions from Europe to compete in Japan, with Europe Wrestling Promotion Intercontinental Champion Leon Von Gasteron being first on the list (Robbie Dynamite is scheduled to defend the British Middleweight Championship at a Wrestle-1 show in June).
The match was contested under modified British round rules of twelve, three-minute rounds. The match lasted 3+ rounds with each round being wrestled in a slightly different manner. It made for a fun and interesting match if nothing else.
The first round was largely a mat battle with takedowns, submission attempts, and reversals. This is the first I have seen of Gasteron and I got the impression that it was not his go-to style, although he was perfectly adept at it as was Yamato. A major selling point of a rounds match in pro wrestling is the ability to segment a match without much work. The rounds provide that segmentation naturally. The tricky point is often using those natural starting and stopping points effectively to build anticipating. Going with a stalemate sequence for the first three minutes largely accomplished that.
The second fall was more fast paced, with both wrestlers coming out strong after failing to gain a real advantage in the third. There was some flying here which Gasteron – your somewhat typical bald-headed, muscled up British wrestler – pulled off surprisingly well. They cut a good pace each round and by the end of the second round, Gasteron seemed noticeable tired. The third round brought out the more high impact offense as the match built towards the stretch run, which occurred in the opening minutes of the fourth round. By the end Gasteron was running on low so the match ended on time even if they did wrestle just a bit over 10 minutes in total.
This was the good kind of “different” in pro wrestling – a European champion defending his title in Japan in a rounds match in a match that utilized a variety of styles. A wonderful element of pro wrestling is that it has such a diverse history that it is easy to find variety without straying too far outside the confines of pro wrestling fundamentals. This match was a good example of that and made an enjoyable viewing experience out of what – in another context – would have been a mundane pairing.
British Round Rules| Worthwhile | Quality & Uniqueness
