Chris Brookes & Toi Kojima vs. Yusuke Okada & Yuki Iino
Hard fought opener with big time crowd energy. I’m pretty sure this was Nice Boy Kojima’s best performance yet. He was actually putting some strength behind his chops and showing more fire than usual, which makes me think he might’ve spent some time with Okada in the dojo. The positive influence of Okada wasn’t limited to Kojima – his fun dynamic with Iino made the guy’s shtick a lot more tolerable. No complaints. ***
Soma Takao vs. Hideki Okatani
Red-haired menace Soma Takao is the very definition of someone who shows up when you least expect it. Okatani’s explosive opening lit a fire under no one’s favorite Damnation member and the guy turned into a surprisingly great disciplinarian. Peak midcard wrestling action with both wrestlers falling into logical roles and giving spirited performances. Loved the super legit-looking dropdown into dropkick sequence from Soma. **3/4
Danshoku Dino, Makoto Oishi & Saki Akai vs. Toru Owashi, Akito & Keigo Nakamura
A lot to process here. Oishi was scolded by the comedy crew for being a stick in the mud and eventually gave in to non-sense (‘’WE WANT ASSHOLE!’’) only to be accidently turned into a zombie by Dino’s anal energy? Yes, that checks out.
Shinya Aoki, Super Sasadango Machine, Antonio Honda & Kazuki Hirata vs. Sanshiro Takagi, Yukio Naya, Chikara & Yakan Nabe – KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Titles
I could not believe how confident Naya looked in his victory promo after this. Where is this coming from? If he could inject this into his actual wrestling, he’d be a star in no time. As for the match, it was fun whenever Hirata was around and less fun when he was not. *3/4
HARASHIMA vs. Yukio Sakaguchi
Man, I would’ve taken a longer match from these two. I appreciate a curveball once in a while, but I’m pretty sure a fuller layout would’ve worked better. The shoot-flavored matwork and subsequent strike exchanges hinted at pretty great stuff. Hopefully, this just means they’re saving all of their best shit for the Smile Pissari/Eruption tag title match. **3/4
Konosuke Takeshita, Yuki Ueno, MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs. Daisuke Sasaki, Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo & Mad Paulie
Not quite as fluid as the usual Sauna Club multiman tags, but still bursting with big ideas and creativity. The early comedy with Hino wasn’t landing as much as usual and ended up sidetracking the match more than anything. Everything that came after that was a good time though and I suspect that GIF-makers will have their hands full.
Endo was in an even flippier mood than usual, even stealing the lariat-flip-through spot from the recent Ospreay/Shingo match at one point. Some of his stunts with MAO felt a bit borderline, but I’m always down for his exchanges with Take. Speaking of Takeshita, his ending stretch with Paulie closed the match on a very fulfilling big boi note. ***1/4
Jun Akiyama © vs. Kazusada Higuchi – KO-D Openweight Title
A vintage heavyweight throwdown that played to both guys’ strengths and made great use of Uncle Jun’s recent limb work obsession. They established Higuchi as an iron-headed monster early on, Akiyama unable to keep up with such a force of nature until he started lasering in on his hand. As with his recent matches with Takeshita, Akiyama’s limb work was as much kayfabe-equalizer as it was compelling pro-wrestling.
His attacks looked properly vicious and The Gooch sold his ass off to make the whole story work. The spot where Higuchi had to use his fuckin’ teeth to complete a sleeper hold because of his injured hand felt straight out of an 80’s Stallone movie. Super satisfying meathead grittiness.
Akiyama’s relentlessness turned the Eruption colossus into a shockingly effective underdog: Korakuen fully rallying behind the big dawg for the epic forearm/chop duel and all the crunchy late-match near-falls. I also thoroughly loved what they did with the brain claw here. Higuchi desperately slapping on the pinning version instead of the submission-type made for an incredible near-fall and nicely paid off the damaged hand plotline.
Needless to say, I am super into this Akiyama reign and Higuchi can do no wrong in my eyes. Homerun match for both dudes. ****1/4
