Sanshiro Takagi & Jun Akiyama vs. Keigo Nakamura & Hideki Okatani
Why do I feel like Chris Brookes is behind those OK BOOMER shirts on Keigo and Okatani? Anyway, this wild new merch reveal perfectly set the tone for a grumpy intergenerational clash. Fresh off his Atsushi Aoki Memorial appearance, Akiyama used Nakamura as a Black Menso-re replacement and joyfully trashed him with body slams on the floor. Even if he’s not as dangerous as Uncle Jun, old man Takagi stepped up too and cracked me up with his two-step Van Terminator. The two rookies brought the fighting spirit but were clearly outclassed by the two vets, as they should be. Keigo getting destroyed by an endless BODY SLAM RUSH near the end was tremendous. Thoroughly entertaining opener. ***
Toru Owashi vs. Nobuhiro Shimatani vs. Kazuki Hirata vs. Danshoku Dino
They should’ve stuck to their first gag: the match ending before Owashi could even make his entrance. That one was pretty good.
HARASHIMA, Antonio Honda & Yukio Naya vs. Chris Brookes, Makoto Oishi & Mizuki Watase
Man, they really played the long game with the Honda fake injury spot here. Just building and building towards that thing like a 90’s All Japan match. True pros. Rest of the match was allright if a bit inessential. HARASHIMA and Brookes have pretty decent chemistry and I wouldn’t mind seeing what a singles match between the two would look like. **1/4
Takeshita Konosuke, Akito & Shunma Katsumata vs. Daisuke Sasaki, T-Hawk & Soma Takao
The T-Hawk/Sasaki mashup theme truly is the stuff of nightmares. This was a bit weird as Akito and T-Hawk were fired up and ready to build their KO-D match, but everyone else was in house show mode. Takeshita almost wrestled the entire match doing a parody of stablemate Yuki Iino’s haka comedy shtick, so there’s that. The contrast between these bits and T-Hawk aggressively straight punching people in the face was comically jarring. **1/2
Tetsuya Endo & Mad Paulie vs. Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi
A solid tag to build up the upcoming Endo/Higuchi KOD semi-final match. Endo leaned into the heelishness a bit more than usual and Damnation cut the ring in half to work over Sakaguchi. I must say that I was a big fan of the Juggalo Juggernaut Mad Paulie adopting a full MMA STANCE to battle Yukio. This large man is full of resources. The ending stretch made ‘Guch look like a badass and I dug that wonky over-the-ropes elbowdrop he busted out. Very Stan Hansen on crack. He also seems to be going all in with the charging POUNCE HEADBUTT thing as a new finisher. I support the decision. **3/4
Yuki Ueno & Naomi Yoshimura © vs. MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba – KO-D Tag-Team Titles
While this couldn’t match the first adrenaline rush of Toba punching the shit out of all the DDT pretty boys in that lead-in Beer Garden tag, it was still a pretty good time. Even if the danger level didn’t feel as high, Nautilus came off as dominant against the two indie scum legends – always a good look for your tag champs. In other good news, Yoshimura brought back some nonsensical color to his hair and he feels like himself again!
He worked a lot of the match with MIKAMI, which had its ups and downs. The Jeff Hardy aficionado using a bunch of clever rollups and leglock takedowns on the big boy was a cool idea, but you had to stretch you disbelief in order to believe Naomi just couldn’t squash him like a bug at any given time. The best parts all came from Nautilus absorbing ridiculous face punches from Toba and surviving to tell the tale. Inoki-ISM lives on in DDT, as it was always meant to be. ***1/4
