Soma Takao & Mad Paulie vs. Yukio Naya & Keigo Nakamura
I love a straight to the point 3 minute match as much as the next guy, but in this case it was just too short for anyone to get over properly. It’s too bad, because I was looking forward to the collision of burly behemoths between Paulie and Naya. My Japanese is extremely rudimentary, but the commentary team seemed to discuss Yukio Naya spending some quality training time with one Jun Akiyama. Considering Uncle Jun’s track record with no non-sense hard hitters, that is music to my ears. Looking forward to the All Japanification of Naya. *3/4
Toru Owashi, Naomi Yoshimura & Kazuki Hirata vs. Danshoku Dino, Super Sasadango Machine & Seigo Tachibana
Poor Tachibana just lost his glorious mane in AJPW due to the harsh discipline of his new mentor and father figure BULLET CLUB HUNTER Yoshitatsu. He was the focus of the match here, his mouthy crime underling shtick a good fit for the DDT comedy scene. Amidst all the unfortunate Dino ass-insertion spots, there was a genuinely fun sequence where Tachibana stole the spotlight from Hirata and sent the entire match spiraling into an impromptu 50’s rock n’ roll dance routine. Why not. *3/4
Shinya Aoki © vs. Maku Donaruto – DDT Extreme Title
Profoundly uncomfortable match that made Dino’s shtick seem harmless by comparison. They sort of teased a straight-up grapple-fest early on but it all quickly devolved into cringey sexual assault fuckery. Why does DDT even need two rapist characters? Donaruto is literally a copy/paste of Dino, with an extra layer of bad taste. Garbage.
Chris Brookes & Drew Parker vs. Daisuke Sasaki & Nobuhiro Shimatani
First time seeing THE DEATH MATCH PRINCE Drew Parker in action and he seems okay? He has a wonky Fire Pro edit move-set and impressively terrible gear that makes him look like an IWA-MS rookie about to get mauled by Ian Rotten, but other than that he seems like a likeable fellow. The match saw the gaijin team fighting off Damnation’s heel trickery with MOVEZ. So many movez. That diving Codebreaker into top-rope senton was brutal-looking, I’ll give them that. I’m sort of dreading the upcoming Brookes/Parker title match already but I was legit impressed with their all Japanese post-match promo. These guys are taking this shit to heart – good on them for immersing themselves into Japanese culture. **1/4
Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai © vs. HARASHIMA, Antonio Honda & Riho – KO-D 6-Man Tag-Team Titles
Now we’re talking! Even with the Antonio Honda comedy shtick constantly looming in the background and threatening to derail the action, I had so much fun watching this professional wrestling match. Riho looked like nothing less than an AMERICAN TV WRESTLING SUPERSTAR, popping the crowd left and right with her graceful high spots, trading hard shots with Saki and effectively playing the David to Higuchi’s Goliath. What a get by DDT.
HARASHIMA and Higuchi threw a Main Event Title Match-level strike exchange in the middle of all the chaos and it blew my god damned mind. I’ll have to backtrack and watch any singles match between these two. The match was so well laid out that the ending stretch got actual HEAT, even with COVID-19-handclap-only reactions and TWO Antonio Honda interruption spots. Well done, Dramatic Dream Team. ***1/4
Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi, Mizuki Watase & Hideki Okatani vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, Shunma Katsuata & Yuki Iino
Another day, another banger between All Out and the newly-rechristened Junretsu. Thanks to an epic ending stretch between Takeshita and Akiyama, this was easily the most high stakes entry in this entire feud. Just wonderful pro-wrestling. I should probably remind you that Jun Akiyama has spent the last 2 years working Masanobu Fuchi comedy 6-man tags, yet here he was believably going toe to toe with the DDT ace – a superhuman wrestling prodigy literally half his age.
The thirst for the singles match is very real, but there was more to this than Akiyama/Takeshita. I’ve been bagging on poor Mizuki Watase in numerous reviews and he was dead set on proving me wrong here. The new hair color is a MASSIVE SUCCESS, as was his bonkers foot stomp counter to Iino’s spear. The guy looked like an actual…star? What is happening. As if the match couldn’t get any better: Oishi broke up Iino’s frustratingly-long haka war dance, clearly indicating that there would be no such bullshit in this feud. Oh, and Takeshita and Shunma did the motherfucking FANTASTIC FLIP shades of Tommy and Bobby. Wild! ***3/4
Tetsuya Endo © vs. Yuki Ueno – KO-D Openweight title
If you crave the high-end, athletic GIF ready pro-wrestling, then look no further than this match. Not only did this have a ridiculous amount of Cool Shit, but it closed the book perfectly on this first chapter of the Endo/Ueno rivalry – cementing Ueno as a real deal main event player for DDT. There was a serious Modern New Japan Epic crossed with Super Indie Dream Match vibe to this thing, with a truckload of callbacks to previous encounters, a late-match fighting spirit showdown and maybe a few things I would’ve done slightly differently (that half-nelson Muscular Bomb was completely mental but why use it as a near-fall instead of establishing it as a proper death move?).
Big time escalation and big time ideas, most of which were delivered with shockingly impressive execution (Holy shit @ Ueno countering the backspring kick with a mid-air sleeper). Endo has the move-set of a wrestler I would normally hate, but here he was able to use all of his trendy movez as credible offense instead of just flash in the pan. I also loved the build towards his dreaded MOUTH HEADBUTT – super well done. If they keep building up Ueno properly, DDT have got themselves a new Sumo Hall-worthy rivalry on hand. ****
