Yukio Naya vs. El Lindaman – King of DDT (Round 1)
Didn’t think this was going to be a lot more than size-based comedy, but they actually worked a really fun match that made the crowd break the no-noise restrictions more than once. They used the comical size difference logically with Naya only leaving his feet for Lindaman’s absurd feats of strength. Holy shit at his Backdrop and Watermill drop on the big man! Also quite enjoyed the bits where Lindaman tried to work around Naya’s massive frame by using the power of INOKI-ISM and throwing some Ali kicks to the leg. Big time near-falls before the Toru Yano-esque finish, which was a smart way to get Linda through the next round while protecting Big Yukio as a viable monster. No complaints. ***
Toru Owashi vs. Seigo Tachibana – King of DDT (Round 1)
Short and sweet professional wrestling match: Tachibana’s Yakuza heel antics clashing with Owashi’s SANDSTORM-infused power fighting. The Twittersphere seems to be souring on Tachibana’s shtick, but this stuff still cracks me up. Once they got past the antics, they brought some proper heavyweight wrestling to the table with Seigo impressively getting Owashi up for his Olympic slam thingy. **1/4
Danshoku Dino vs. Antonio Honda – King of DDT (Round 1)
These guys actually had… a straight forward match with minimal rape? Huh. Nothing must see or anything like that, but the lack of forceful anal insertion was super refreshing. They worked most of the match around their WWE-style punches (which they do pretty decently if you’re into American punching) and Big Match Dino pulled off two Moonsaults for the finish. **
Kazusada Higuchi vs. Mizuki Watase – King of DDT (Round 1)
You won’t find a more satisfying 3 minute match anywhere. Watase’s been spending a lot of time with Jun Akiyama and he clearly wanted to put his newfound toughness to the test against DDT’s ultimate badass. The ‘Guch proved to be on another level, but Watase’s performance was inspiring. They beat seven shades of shit out of each other, Higuchi destroying Watase’s chest with gnarly chops and Mizuki responding in kind with feisty forearms. Everything felt like a real fight and they even dabbled in shoot headbutts for the finish. ONE STAR PER MINUTE, baby. ***
Yuki Ueno vs. Nobuhiro Shimatani – King of DDT (Round 1)
Probably the most convincing performance I’ve seen from Shimatani in these last few months. They had 10 minutes to make something out of this and ended up with a pretty solid match, complete with super indie opening standoff and juicy near-falls down the stretch. Nobu controlled most of the action, using heel shortcuts to keep rising star Ueno in check. Not a whole lot of wheel reinvention, but Shimatani came off as more competent than usual and Ueno picked his comebacks nicely. The two main subplots were the build towards Shimatani’s Tornado DDT and Ueno’s Blizzard suplex – the match wrapped up quickly once we got both. Perfectly enjoyable. **3/4
Daisuke Sasaki vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga – King of DDT (Round 1)
Liked this one more than I expected thanks to an interesting layout. They worked a slow opening with deliberate hammerlocks and armbars like they were setting up a freaking 30 minute draw, but then skipped the entire mid portion of the match and went barrelling right into the ending stretch, Sasaki trying to get Matsunaga in the Crossface by any means necessary. I dig Sasaki when he focuses on the technical side and stays away from the WWE tropes. **1/4
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Shunma Katsumata – King of DDT (Round 1)
Perfectly structured for what it was trying to accomplish. Shunma got lucky and ended up outsmarting a stone cold killer. I much prefer this type of booking than having Shunma convincingly put away Sakaguchi in an even match, which would have made no sense considering the stature of both guys. Shunma got the shit kicked out of him but never gave up believing in the power of THE ROLLUP. Let this be a lesson to all of you. **1/2
HARASHIMA vs. Mad Paulie – King of DDT (Round 1)
They had the right idea here, but Paulie’s leg selling was so hilariously weird that I was struggling to take the story seriously. Even the crowd was giggling at his neurotic, high-pitched screaming during the Harasheemster’s leg attacks. If you take that out of the equation, the match was well thought-out. HARASHIMA tried to cut off Paulie’s power advantage by taking out his leg, but the Juggalo Juggernaut wouldn’t go down easy. A shame about the selling because HARASHIMA was bringing some genuinely cool ideas to the table, what with the Tanahashi-esque Dragon screw variants and stiff low kick onslaught. **1/2
Shinya Aoki vs. Yuki Iino – King of DDT (Round 1)
Would’ve taken a longer match between these guys, but a one minute insta-tapout armbar win is cool too.
Chris Brookes vs. Makoto Oishi – King of DDT (Round 1)
Dug this! Sometimes I feel like Brookes wants to do too many things at once (Crafty Britwres, flashy indie high spots, thigh-slappy knee strikes, hardcore spots), but his performance here felt pleasantly streamlined and he matched quite well with Oishi. Both guys brought the usual clever counter spots (Brookes’ gigantic Tombstone out of the Reverse Tornado DDT attempt was tremendous), but they added an extra layer of physicality that made the match more compelling than I would’ve expected. They slapped each other around, worked some nasty holds and had Oishi use his brain to manoeuvre around Chris’ ridiculously unfair height. The ending was completely unexpected too. In the best way. ***
T-Hawk vs. Kazuki Hirata – King of DDT (Round 1)
The best Kazuki Hirata match I’ve ever seen by a mile and a testament to T-Hawk’s insane ability to get a quality match out of absolutely anyone. T-Hawk was having none of his opponent’s comedic Magnum TOKYO shtick and worked the match in strict disciplinarian mode, chopping the be-jeezus out of Hirata and smartly cutting off all of his comeback attempts. To Hirata’s credit, the dude had his working boots on and kept up shockingly well with T-Hawk’s speed and brutality. When you force the guy to work a straight match, he’s actually a pretty competent babyface. Kazuki countering the T-Hawk knee upper/double chop combo with a last second enzuigiri was fucking wild and I 100% bought that small package near-fall as a legit finish. Good times! ***1/4
Minoru Tanaka vs. Soma Takao – King of DDT (Round 1)
THE SPECIAL ONE HAS ARRIVED. I’ve been a Minoru Tanaka fan since his early BattlARTS days and seeing him mix it up with the DDT riff raff is already a great time. Takao was a good first round opponent for him as his fast paced junior style isn’t that far from Minoru’s. Hell, both use the same missed-dropkick-into-rolling dropkick spot. Tanaka was cool as a cucumber and went after the arm with pinpoint precision, as he usually does. Takao wasn’t selling much of it but he brought enough energy to the match that I’m willing to forgive this sin. Lots of dope offense from both: Minoru with the prettiest kneedrop in the game and funky standing Moonsaut, Takao with the Yoshinobu Kanemaru-esque 2nd-rope DDT and clover rollup sequence. Minoru/Shunma in the next round has banger written all over it. ***1/4
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Naomi Yoshimura – King of DDT (Round 1)
Let’s start with the negative. Yoshimura made the fatal mistake of shaving off his colorful hairdo and it feels like half of his goofy appeal is gone with it. Not sure if this ill-advised decision impacted my appreciation of the match, but I expected a bit more from this. A darn solid match, but not the banger that it could’ve been. Yoshimura jumping the Ace at the bell and going right for the kill was an awesome start. Takeshita’s eventual comeback led to a bunch of cool crowd-popping offense, including an Arn Anderson fakeout DDT on the apron and epic top-rope lariat spot. He has some Mike Elgin-level thigh slapping abuse tendencies, but balances it out by projecting a pretty undeniable top star aura. I guess I would’ve given Yoshimura more offense during the ending stretch because he kinda faded from the match after that initial burst. ***
Tetsuya Endo vs. Akito – King of DDT (Round 1)
A worthy main event to end this first round of the tournament, with perennial chill dude Akito getting to showcase his technical wizardry against the champ. The story here was Endo trying to beat Akito at his own game only to get upstaged by the real submission master. Instead of fully relying on his usual high impact aerial offense, Endo attempted to take out Akito’s leg (using Akito’s own ankle lock amongst other things) but Akito responded in kind by taking out both his arm and leg. Double trouble, baby.
The selling from both guys wasn’t perfect, but the twists and turns kept me engaged. The various multi leg work/arm work plot threads came close to becoming a bit convoluted at times, yet Akito somehow managed to pay off all of them by trapping Endo in a crazy submission that neutralized every limb for the finish. Big win for CYBERFIGHT EVP Akito, but I’m a bit bummed out about Endo being taken out from the tournament this early. ***1/2
