Promotions Watched: AJPW, NOAH, DDT, Dragon Gate, Ganbare Pro
February was the month where DDT and its adjacent satellite promotions firmly cemented themselves as the best thing in Japanese wrestling at the moment. Two supershows. Two homeruns. The title picture booking cannot be fucked with and guarantees top notch professional wrestling. Akiyama as your new KO-D champ, Ueno gunning for that WOTY spot via his current Universal title reign, Eruption beating the shit out of all tag team challengers and delivering my favorite match of the year so far. You need to get over your Danshoku Dinophobia and hop on the Dramatic Dream Train right now.
The other highlight of the month was NOAH’s return to Budokan, which produced nothing less than three matches on this list and one honorable mention. One hell of a good time and undeniable proof that Misawa’s boyz can still deliver on the big stage. Dragon Gate are still taking it slow after a bombastic 2020. Steady storyline progression but not much in the way of must-see matches. Similar results on the All Japan side, as the company pulled off their craziest angle in years with the Jake Lee/Shotaro Ashino double turn but didn’t quite reach their workrate heights of January.
The Top 10
- Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Konosuke Takeshita & MAO – KO-D Tag Team Titles (DDT 2/23/2021)
- Tetsuya Endo vs. Jun Akiyama – KO-D Openweight Title (DDT 2/14/2021)
- Shunma Katsumata vs. MAO – Kid’s Room Death Match – DDT Extreme Title (DDT 2/28/2021)
- Keisuke Ishii, Koki Iwasaki & HARUKAZE vs. Asuka, Hagane Shinno, Shoichiro Tominaga – GWC 6-Man Tag Titles (Ganbare 2/20/2021)
- Naomichi Marufuji & Jun Akiyama vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura (NOAH 2/12/2021)
- Go Shiozaki vs. Keiji Muto – GHC Heavyweight Title (NOAH 2/12/2021)
- Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi, Yusuke Okada & Hideki Okatani vs. CIMA, T-Hawk, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie (DDT 2/23/2021)
- Daisuke Harada vs. Seiki Yoshioka – GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title (NOAH 2/12/2021)
- Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Abdullah Kobayashi – AJPW Tag Team Titles (AJPW 2/23/2021)
- Yuki Ueno vs. Yukio Sakaguchi – DDT Universal Title (DDT 2/14/2021)
Honorable Mentions
1. Kagetora, Shuji Kondo & Yosuke Santa Maria vs. Ryo Saito, Bokutimo Dragon & Punch Tominaga – Triangle Gate Next Challenger Tournament (DG 2/21/2021)
2. Konosuke Takeshita, Akito, Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Iino vs. Daisuke Sasaki, Soma Takao, Yuji Hino & Mad Paulie (DDT 2/14/2021)
3. Kenoh vs. Masakatsu Funaki – GHC National Title (DDT 2/12/2021)
4. Suwama vs. Kohei Sato – Triple Crown (2/23/2021)
5. Yuji Hino vs. Yuki Iino (DDT 2/23/2021)
