NJPW's SHO To Wrestle In UWF Rules Match

New Japan Pro-Wrestling's SHO will compete outside of his home promotion next week.

NJPW and GLEAT announced the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion will face Takanori Ito at GLEAT's Ver. 1 card at Tokyo Dome City Hall on July 1. The match will be contested under UWF Rules and will main event the show.  

GLEAT is a relatively new promotion in Japan, having been founded in October 2020 by Kiyoshi Tamura and LIDET Entertainment, the former owners of Pro Wrestling NOAH. The promotion has held a number of preview and experimental shows but Ver. 1 will be their first fully-fledged event. 

One of the reasons GLEAT was founded was to revive shoot-style UWF Rules matches that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Wrestlers would start with 15 points each and they would lose points for knockout attempts, breaking a hold by grabbing the ropes and being at a disadvantage within a hold. Matches would be won by submission, knockout or running out of points. Pinfall victories were also added to the mix in 1995.