Matches:

  1. UWF Rules: Tatsuo vs Soma NR
  2. UWF Rules: Sato, Suzuki vs Izuchi, Yu ***1/4
  3. UWF Rules: Chihiro vs Miyagi ES
  4. UWF Rules: Masakatsu, Tanaka vs Matsui, Nagai ***
  5. UWF Rules: Ishikawa vs Takanori ****1/4
  6. Aoyagi, Tonsho, Niki vs Masaoka, Keiichi, Soma ***1/2
  7. DASH vs Yukari **1/2
  8. Michinoku Pro Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title: MUSASHI(c) vs Hayashi ***1/2
  9. Elimination Rules Apuesta: #STRONGHEARTS vs BULK Orchestra ****1/4

Thoughts:

I'm giving some love to GLEAT here because, well, they earned it. Check out the companion piece write-up on the promotion HERE.

Up first, on the latest gig from the crew, we have Tatsuo besting Soma with a quick KO finish. Fans of the UWF style should be very aware of the story here, but for those that aren't, Tatsuo is one of the original UWF dudes. Soma is a young dude that's trying to make a name for himself. The outcome, and speed of the outcome, is interesting.

The tag match was good shit. It's Suzuki. Of course it was good. Good dynamics.

Chihiro basically squashed Miyagi and won with a KO call after a german suplex. Miyagi was defiant throughout.

Tanaka was in action in the next one. I have really enjoyed Minoru for years now and love that he's getting booked in a new home. Good overall, keeping the show rolling along nicely enough if nothing else.

The last UWF rules match was a fucking explosion. I didn't think I could love Shuji more, but I was very wrong. Takanori was great here, too. Fan-fucking-tastic stuff and the best match of the genre of the night for sure. 

The G side of things kicked off with a pretty good, junior style six-man tag. Good pacing and content.

We then moved to some joshi action, with one of my favorite performers, DASH, besting the former Rin Rin. The latter had departed Gatoh and ChocoPro last year. This was okay, but really just a borderline ES as the Sendai squad ran through their opponents on the night. 

Michinoku Pro championship content followed in the semi-main. It saw Kaz Hayashi challenging MUSASHI, who's a worker I'm not sure I've seen before. If I have, it didn't leave enough of an impression to stick. Still, M-Pro still has some redeemable qualities as a fed, even if their peak was long ago, and I was certainly intrigued to see a rep from that side taking on a puro legend. I also really love that belt design, for the record, even if that's honestly a nothing stance in the end. My expectations were largely nonexistent still, but overall this was enjoyable albeit largely forgettable throwaway content. It didn't take away from the flow and was pretty good if nothing else, but I doubt I'll remember it in a month and MUSASHI likely will fade to the back of the mental storage locker along with it.

Now, I had watched the main event as a separate pull and reviewed it HERE in a Digest post. In short, it was an epic, and fantastic, apuesta contest. So enjoyable, in fact, that it led me to taking the time to watch this full event. Alongside the Shuji battle that closed the UWF side of things, this was a highly recommendable showcase of the roster.

GLEAT Ver. 2 was one of the most entertaining events I watched from 2021. I appreciated the UWF portion as well as what they were doing with G shit, and I think they have a lot of promise as a brand. I will surely be back for more and look forward to seeing what 2022 holds for GLEAT. I recommend fans to check out this show, or the two big matches if you're pressed for time.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Overall Rating: 80/100%