New Japan Pro Wrestling’s hot prospect, Kawato, suffered a big loss on Wednesday. The Japanese Young Lion lost his hair in a “Lucha de Apuestas” against Dulce Gardenia.
The show in which Kawato San lost his hair was CMLL’s Sin Piedad. This is a New Year Celebration show, in which Arena Mexico gathers lots of tourists. The show had two “Lucha de Apuestas”, with Kawato vs. Dulce Gardenia headlining the evening. Mexican media, Medio Tiempo, reported that Arena Mexico had a gathering of 13,000 fans. La Catedral (“The Cathedral”) had many of the new young stars in Mexico in high profile matches.
Kawato specifically had a big come out. He’s been in Mexico for over 2 years. CMLL, the partner of NJPW, tends to have Young Lions in Mexico for the training – excursions as they call it – and so that they can learn the Lucha Libre style. Stars like Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Takahashi and BUSHI have benefited from this method of training. Kawato San’s journey in the company has been one of a low profile in CMLL. He’s been griding in various shows, but never in big feuds. He previously won the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship but had to vacate it after some “absence”.
Kawato’s opponent yesterday was a young, up-and-coming exotico wrestler, Dulce Gardenia. Gardenia is the latest exotico youngster to enter CMLL. He has had an outstanding 2019, having been pushed since the summer by CMLL. Gardenia had told before to Medio Tiempo that he faced discrimination and the road of his character in CMLL was a confusing one to his family members. As he said, “I’m playing a character”.
Yesterday’s match went to three falls. Kawato has shown improvement and his physique is incredible. But, Gardenia is the hometown prospect for CMLL. It’s uncertain what’s going to happen to Kawato now that he lost his hair. This is a big deal in Mexico. Previously, BUSHI suffered the same fate as a young man wrestling in Mexico. Kawato may be on the move to go to the US or return to New Japan. It might be soon since the Light Heavyweight title was quickly stripped and now he suffered a high-profile loss in one of CMLL’s biggest show.
Kawato ended up losing in a submission in the third fall to Dulce Gardenia. The whole Sin Piedad show is available in this link. The show also features Mask vs. Mask match between Principe Diamante and Espíritu Negro.
