Hiroshi Yamato & Nobuhiro Shimatani vs. Keigo Nakamura & Toi Kojima
Damnation Yamato could not be stopped from singing his heart out any longer! That’s the true power of music. Whether he’s Goth Yamato or regular old Voice of an Angel Yamato, this guy working opening matches with DDT kids is always a fun time. Little Kojima is adding a tiny amount of force behind his chops in every new match and I’m pretty sure he will throw a good chop by 2023. **1/4
Chris Brookes & Maki Ito vs. Antonio Honda & Saki Akai
If you’ve been wasting your life watching all of the DDT midcard comedy matches like I have, then this was one of their most rewarding offerings in a while. Years and years of Anton fake injury jokes have led us to this stretcher payoff. History in the making, kids. Maki’s obviously a welcome addition to these matches and her comedic timing with Honda was on point. PS – Brookes and Saki have weirdly good chemistry. Damn you, tall people. **1/4
Yuji Hino vs. Yuki Iino
A match billed as a MEGATON CLASS ONE MATCH has a whole lot to live up to. Considering these guys only got 8 minutes, they damn near pulled it off. Iino kept his comedic tendencies to a minimum and stepped up to the meat-filled plate (Yes, I am removing baseball from this analogy). Trading Kaiju-sized chops and lariats with the indie king of hosses was a good look for the returning beefcake. If he keeps the haka spots on the backburner, the dude could go places. Hino seemed energized by the chunky opposition and added his usual fun facial expressions to this big-boned battering. Real solid wrasslin’. ***1/4
Akito, Shota & Kazuki Hirata © vs. Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA & Danshoku Dino – KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles
This was on its way to being one of the best Dino matches in a while until an Acceptable Amount of Dino turned into Too Much Dino. Very difficult to strike a good balance with this man. I liked what came before the make out-heavy finish though. The pre-match package did a good job selling this as a quasi-generational war of sorts and DDT Legend-Gun embraced their grumpy veteran casting. Can’t say no to HARASHIMA kicking the shit out of Hirata for an extended period of time. **3/4
Toru Owashi & Yukio Naya vs. Soma Takao & Mad Paulie
Lots of Damnation interference fuckery in this one, but the action always stayed on track and didn’t overstay its welcome so I won’t complain too much. Also, Paulie and Hiroshi Yamato doing an X-FANTASTIC FLIP cracked me up. It seems we might be on the verge of a Naya push of some kind. What with the feature spot in the Smile Pissari tag on Kawasaki Strong and now the big win against the Juggalo Juggernaut Mad Paulie. Not sure what to think about that. **1/4
Tetsuya Endo & Daisuke Sasaki vs. Yuki Ueno & Shunma Katsumata
A bit rough around the edges at times and heavy on the ‘’NEPOWER!’’ in the opening, but I still had fun. Gotta appreciate the thought process that went into a lot of the sequences here, even if one of them inexplicably led to Ueno getting busted open hardway. Lots of tricky counter wrestling and clever new ways to approach the same old offense. Ueno’s new-ish pump-handle bomb is really fucking cool. Should probably be saved for big matches only. ***
Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi, Yusuke Okada & Hideki Okatani vs. CIMA, T-Hawk, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie
Total blast! Strong Hearts are so absurdly effective as a straight-up heel unit. From CIMA’s early trolling with the AJPW junior belt to big teddybear Irie just destroying Okada with forearms, these guys can supply both the character moments and crazy workrate. Junretsu mixing up with them for the first time was a real breath of fresh air and it led to all sorts of cool shit.
Yusuke chasing Lindaman (now with mind-blowing 70’s sideburns) around the block, T-Hawk chopping the life out of people and that wacky crucifix triple-team where Oishi was flipped right into oblivion = all great stuff. Most of all, this made me realize how much I’d missed Linda and the Hawkster. Can we get them back in the tag title picture ASAP? ***1/2
Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi © vs. Konosuke Takeshita & MAO – KO-D Tag Team Titles
Jesus Christ on a stick, I haven’t been this energized by a tag match since the Eruption/Nautilus epic from last year. I mean, this had all I want out of wrestling and more. 20 riveting minutes that blended hard-nosed, old-school physicality with high-concept modern wrestling originality.
Everyone played distinct, compelling characters that anchored different sections of the match. Higuchi, the human bulldozer who had to fend off both Sauna Club members after his partner was Package Piledriven straight to hell. Sakaguchi, the dangerous shooter dude who could turn the match around any minute with his dangerous shooter dude shtick. Takeshita, the super-powered Ace who finally got to work the 90’s All Japan slobberknocker finale of his dreams. MAO, the wildcard who was kind enough to supply the Twitter GIF-makers with enough content for the rest of the month.
These guys laid into each other with pure high-level main event intensity. One could argue that MAO’s shtick was borderline at times given the setting, but I thought it was integrated perfectly. From little details like Sakaguchi giving him the death stare instead of selling his WWE punches, to the earth-shattering top-rope rana Choke slam counter, this high-flying goofball felt essential to the match.
Everything coalesced perfectly into the cataclysmic Higuchi/Take ending stretch. What they did here felt on a different level than any of their previous singles encounters. An absolute shitstorm of lariats, chops and Powerbombs. Pissed Off Yukio slapping his own partner to motivate him to get the job done put the whole finish way over the top. I live for this kind of stuff. PRO-WRESTLING LOVE~! ****1/2
