Category: Gatoh Move

Rina Yamashita vs Mei Suruga, Game Changer (5/9/25), ChocoPro

A battling Apple. Credit: Here

I don’t want to slag off Rina Yamashita. She’s a fantastic wrestler who has been part of some amazing stuff. However, in recent times, she’s been stuck in what I think of as the Hiroyo Matsumoto vortex. She’s old-reliable. A freelancer who pops up in countless promotions and can be trusted to fill a spot anywhere on the card. That’s no bad thing. In fact, it’s a talent in its own right. However, it’s easy to see why someone in that role would slip into a rut. There’s nothing to get your teeth into. You arrive, do your thing, and go home. The matches are rarely bad. They’re just not what you remember.

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Mei Suruga vs Miya Yotsuba, It’s Timeee (18/7/25), ChocoPro

It’s quite the upgrade. Credit: Screenshot

Conventional wisdom dictates that we all eventually morph into our parents. It doesn’t matter how different a road you might walk down, nature or nurture will lead you back to the door you were born behind. That certainly seems true for Mei Suruga. The deeper into her career Mei gets, the more Emi Sakura creeps into her game. We’ve seen it with her bullying of youngsters in Ichigaya, and now we get the joy of watching her go in as the dominant champion against a wrestler she trained. Miya Yotsuba was Mei’s first student to debut, and while she perhaps doesn’t feel like she’s walking in Mei’s footsteps (more on that in a second), she was desperate to prove herself the equal of her teacher.

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Baliyan Akki vs Shin Suzuki, ChocoPro #416 Purple Chocolate (30/12/24), ChocoPro

More than just a nice guy. Credit: Screenshot

There is a chance I might have unfairly pigeonholed Shin Suzuki. I don’t want to overplay it – I never disliked him or thought his wrestling was rubbish – but he wasn’t someone I sought out. Part of it might even be that he seems like a lovely bloke, and it’s always a delight when wee Konigiri-chan turns up on ChocoPro shows, which made what he did on the mat feel like it played second fiddle to his perceived decentness. I’d tagged him as a foil for more interesting partners. However, in the last few months, something has started to change.

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Mei Suruga vs Sayaka, ChocoPro 400 Day 2 (5/10/24) Review

Credit: ChocoPro

Mei’s second title defence was the real test of her reign. Wrestling Miyuki Takase is easy. She rarely dips below a certain level and, with it taking place in a ring, you know what that match will look like. That’s not to suggest it wasn’t good or exciting – it was – but there was a comfort level there. Arguably, wrestling Sayaka in Ichigaya should be similar. It’s their home, and most of the sixty-plus times they’ve faced off before have taken place there. However, with that belt on the line, things change. We’ve never seen Sayaka in a high-profile one-on-one match before, and it’s always intriguing to see how someone adapts to that pressure.

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Miya Yotsuba vs Emi Sakura, ChocoPro 400 Day 1 (4/10/24) Review

She won’t be bullied. Credit: Screenshot

Recently, after friend-of-the-site Flupke shared some GIFs on Twitter, I came to the realisation that Miya Yotsuba feels less like a product of Mei Suruga and more like one of Mitsuru Konno. If Mitsuru had kept wrestling, taking up her position as Gatoh Move’s ace and working in Darejyo, you could imagine her producing a Yotsuba – a wrestler who still has that Gatoh spirit but is also aggressive and ambitious. Mei and Mitsuru’s big ChocoPro feud, one of the final things Konno did in wrestling, was built around their differing ideologies, Mei’s fun vs Mitsuru’s drive. It’s funny then that Suruga’s first student would come to reflect Konno’s way of thinking as much (if not more) than she does Mei’s.

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Gatoh Move – To The Future

It’s a good gang. Credit: Screenshot

Gatoh Move probably shouldn’t have survived the last five years. When COVID shut down wrestling in Japan as we knew it, things looked bleak for even the big promotions, never mind the tiny one that inhabits an old dentist’s in Ichigaya. Emi Sakura has admitted that she thought it was the end, and honestly, with the world seemingly burning down, would anyone have blamed her for giving up? Thankfully, she’s made of tougher stuff. Instead of curling up in a ball, she took a wild swing, calling on an old friend in Minoru Suzuki and putting on a show intended entirely for YouTube. On that day, ChocoPro was born, and while we didn’t know it yet, Gatoh Move was saved.

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Miyuki Takase vs Mei Suruga, Final Countdown (31/7/24), Gatoh Move

She still knows how to enjoy herself. Credit: Screenshot

There’s never been any doubt about Mei Suruga’s talents as a wrestler. It didn’t take long for her to earn her genius tag, and while there were things to improve, Mei’s ability to hook you in has always been there. Instead, the questions have been about how Suruga adapts to a more serious style. She shines with the joy of someone who loves this stuff, capering around the ring, delighting in everything she does, and while I would happily have that be the main event style of every wrestling company in the land, the sad reality is that no one listens to me. There has always been a feeling that if Mei wanted to reach that next level (and she’s been open about that being the case), she was going to have to find a way to take that carefree approach and hone it into something a little bit sharper.

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Gatoh Move Road to Korakuen – MAKE@IKUSA (19/6/24) Review

Mei meets a fellow menace. Credit: Screenshot

The build to Korakuen Hall continued as Gatoh Move once again stopped by Shinkiba for a show with all the potential in the world. We now know our main event for Gatoh’s biggest event in years, as Mei Suruga will take on Emi Sakura, but with the boss having returned to America, she’s deputised one of her oldest friends to step in and put her trainee through her paces. Kaori Yoneyama vs Mei Suruga? Yes, please.

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Gatoh Move ‘Road to Korakuen – Apple Ambitious’ (30/5/24) Review

It’s a weird, but brilliant, gang. Credit: Screenshot

That Gatoh Move trip to Korakuen Hall is drawing ever closer, meaning this show served a double purpose. The first is the same as every Gatoh Move event this year, as they pave the road to that big day. As for the second? Well, the Apple Goblin has been wrestling for six glorious years, and it’s time to give her some dues. Not that she was blessed with an easy anniversary showdown, as Best Bros took on Hyakkin Thunders in the main event. Still, if you want to reach the top, you’ve got to deal with the best, and Emi and Masa are certainly that. Let’s see what went down.

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