[2022-03-05-GLEAT-LIDET-UWF-Ver. 2] Tetsuya Izuchi vs. Yu Iizuka

[corwo]

It’s no secret that I’m quite high on Iizuka and Izuchi. So, when I heard they had a sub-one-minute main event, I knew I had to see it. Iizuka jumps Izuchi at the opening bell with a running knee strike. Thinking he has Izuchi down for the count, Iizuka goes to celebrate, only to turn around and see that his foe is back to his feet. Iizuka goes for a flurry of strikes and back elbows, but Izuchi has his guard up and catches him flush with a knee. Izuchi then clamps on a chokehold to tap out Iizuka in under a minute. This would be easy to dismiss as “just an angle,” but I loved the way the match played out. Iizuka’s overconfidence costing him is a wonderful, easy-to-digest, self-contained story. The fact that they got there in so little time is a testament to both competitors. Izuchi’s look of incredulity after the bell is also fantastic. More than anything, I like how this match turns what a main event should look like on its head. It doesn’t need any fancy set pieces, flashy moves, or big nearfalls. All it needs is a little effort.

[MikeCampbell]

For a 39 second match, they certainly packed a lot of intensity into it. Iizuka jumpstarts with a flying knee and when Izuchi gets back up, he unloads with more strikes. Iizuka shoots in for a takedown and throws himself right into Izuchi's knee and his lights go out. It certainly begs for a rematch (if GLEAT ever decides to run another Lidet UWF show, since we're coming up on five months since the last one), and leaves questions about both of them coming out of this. Was this a fluke strike or was Izuchi ready for it? What does this say about Iizuka after his second straight main event loss?