El Lindaman vs. Shigehiro Irie (GLEAT, 5/18/2022)

El Lindaman (c) vs. Shigehiro Irie

G-REX Title Match

GLEAT G PROWRESTLING Ver. 25

Korakuen Hall – Tokyo, Japan

Watch: YouTube

A fantastic main event title match beaming with personality. Linda’s lovable but resilient, and Irie’s an unstoppable wrecking ball willing to crush anything in his path to become champion. There’s also the dynamic of Irie and Linda being stablemates at play. That manifests in interesting ways, such as Irie being reluctant to hit Linda early on and sticking to friendly exchanges for a brief period. Linda lands on his feet after hitting an impressive topé over the ropes, and then decides to lie on the floor out of exhaustion.

Back inside the ring, Irie starts to show more aggression, nailing Linda with some crunchy elbow strikes and a Pounce. Irie eggs Linda on, but it only takes one strike to send him crashing back down to the mat. Irie looked for a powerbomb onto the apron, but opted for a piledriver on the floor instead, and quickly rolled Linda back into the ring. In this moment, Irie’s desperation and urgency shone through. Linda got pushed off the top rope and kept coming back, but his determination got the better of him, and he got cracked with a wicked headbutt. Linda’s freakish strength was also on full display, as he hit Irie with an exploder suplex. I love the way Linda sells using his facial expressions, and it felt like a potentially tide-turning moment when he hit a body slam on Irie.

The match then became a tale of who could withstand bigger bombs being thrown. Irie hit a Black Hole Slam, a cannonball, and a Beast Bomber, but Linda’s resolve was still too much. Another gruesome running elbow strike followed, but Linda, not to be outdone by Irie, kicked out at one. There are times when I find one-count kickouts eye-roll inducing and artificial, but it worked here because of the story they were telling. After an onslaught of offense capped off by a tiger suplex, Linda retained. Gnarly headbutts, earned near falls, and a tale of determination where the consummate babyface came out on top. Set aside some time for this one.