Vacation means catching up with your pals from DDT.
Let us enter the WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
Shunma Katsumata & MAO vs. Jun Kasai & Chris Brookes – Special Hardcore Tag Match (Peter Pan 8/21)
Even with all the pandemic restrictions, baseball stadium shows evoke the best kind of 90’s Japanese wrestling nostalgia. The Sauna Club boys walked in the footsteps of the Kawasaki hardcore heroes of the past and put their own toyetic spin on all of your favorite garbage wrestling tropes. Legos, plastic boxes, party crackers – the entire arsenal of subversive weaponry was brought to DDT’s biggest show of the year.
As a legend in the more straight-forward hardcore scene, Kasai was the perfect foil for these death-defying goofballs. MAO stepped up to the Crazy Monkey, Shunma bumped like a maniac and Brookes supplied the elaborate death moves. Equal parts toy store destruction and car crash wrestling insanity. 100% fun. ***1/2
Tetsuya Endo, Soma Takao & Yuji Hino © vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai – KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles (Peter Pan 8/21)
Somewhat of a cooldown match, albeit a very watchable one. The action didn’t feel much different than your average Korakuen Hall 6-man, but the Hino/Saki story provided a solid emotional core. Saki’s babyfacing remains top notch and Hino is the ideal heel monster for any underdog to overcome. Special shoutout to Endo’s springboard SSP to the floor – exactly the kind of stunt you want to see this guy pull off at Peter Pan. **3/4
Yuki Ueno © vs. Daisuke Sasaki – DDT Universal Title (Peter Pan 8/21)
If you’re going to do the WWE-style Shenaniganz Death Match, this was the right way to do it. Sasaki’s heel act might be tired, but Ueno’s still the best babyface in wrestling and he thrived in this setting. There seems to be a blade-job renaissance happening with the youngsters in Japan at the moment and I’m straight up loving it. Much like Kaito Kiyomiya in his recent match with nefarious bookerman NOSAWA, Ueno hit an absolute gusher and bled all over the place.
The extra color cranked up the drama to 11 and gave the match an old-school territorial feel. As a Dick Togo disciple, 80’s wrestling is probably comfort food to Sasaki. Ueno’s courageous comebacks were vital to the layout and prevented the interference spots from landing right in the Groan Zone. Even if Ueno had better matches throughout this reign, this was a perfect snapshot of his raw talent and endless potential as lead character on the big stage. ***3/4
Jun Akiyama © vs. Konosuke Takeshita – KO-D Openweight Title (Peter Pan 8/21)
Perfect conclusion to the year-long feud between these two. While their previous matches explored more limb-centric scenarios, this was a full-on battle of wills. Through fighting spirit and main event physicality, Takeshita managed to reclaim his spot at the top of the DDT mountain and finally overcame an overpowered Uncle Jun in full renaissance mode.
They built up the match like two old pros, Akiyama taking the well-traveled Pissed Off Veteran route and making his younger opponent work for everything. Much like in the King of DDT finals with Hino, Takeshita impressed with his emoting and did a stellar job getting the story across with his reactions and body language. The frustration was palpable when Akiyama started wrecking him with his signature barrage of knees.
With Takeshita on the rebound, Akiyama refusing to go down for his own knee strikes felt like a proper Moment. For that entire sequence, we were privy to Uncle Jun teaching Takeshita the secrets of high-stakes Japanese wrestling, forcing him to dig deep and hit harder. Take finally pulling through with the Zahi not only captured the core story of the match, but also put a bow on their entire arc.
I won’t delve too deep into the multiple layers of ingenious build for Take’s Plus Ultra chickenwing and cross-arm German suplex, but I’ll simply say that this had all I want from a big Pure-O-title bout. In a year where DDT keeps pumping out must-see matches, this ranks pretty close to the top of the list. ****1/2
Chris Brookes vs. Yukio Sakaguchi (Dramatic Survivor 9/4)
A real fun match that expanded upon the promising sprint Brookes and Yukio had during last year’s D-Oh tournament. Again, hard-nosed Shooter-ISM vs. Britwres trickery was the name of the game – Brookes attempting to slow down Sakaguchi’s ruthless ass kicking by taking out his arm. The difference maker here is that they got more time to pack more cool shit, and pack more cool shit they did!
Brookes pulled a neat slingshot cutter counter for Yukio’s corner charge of death and there were about 3 bicycle knee spots that popped me. I kinda wish Yakuza Shooter Sakaguchi wrestled more selfishly and sold less for his opponents sometimes, but this is a minor complaint. Very cool finish with Yukio trying to get cute by using Takeshita’s Plus Ultra and swiftly biting the dust. ***1/4
Konosuke Takeshita, Yuki Ueno Shunma Katsumata & MAO vs. Daisuke Sasaki, Tetsuya Endo, Soma Takao & Yuji Hino – Losing Unit Must Disband (Dramatic Survivor 9/4)
Spoiler alert: this 8-man tag spelled the end for Damnation, DDT’s long-running heel conglomerate of goths, rockers and jocks. The shakeup was overdue, but the way to get there seemed a bit anticlimactic. These guys deserved to go out with a bang, but instead simply found themselves on the losing end of a one-night tag tournament on some random house show.
Lack of theatrics be damned (pun intended), the wrestling was good and sometimes that’s all you need. We got a decent amount of wild spots from the Sauna enthusiasts and Ueno got some of his heat back by working an efficient finish with Sasaki. The elaborate Mistica counter that led to a Take/Shunma MAD MAX out of nowhere was nothing less than jaw dropping. ***1/4
Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiko vs. HARASHIMA & Kazuki Hirata (Who’s Gonna Top? 9/26)
The pure joy on Akiyama’s face as he watched a puppet unleash a devastating series of rolling German Suplexes on poor Kazuki Hirata. My god. Uncle Jun’s been turning back the clock since joining DDT in 2020. Feuding with the now defunct All Out, working tournaments and delivering a high-quality KO-D title reign. The old man’s been working his ass off, determined to prove he could do more than body slam Black Menso-re on AJPW undercards.
Now that he’s passed the torch to Takeshita, Akiyama might be looking to dabble in the lighter side of DDT. As someone who is very PRO-YOSHIHIKO, I had an absolute blast watching Uncle Jun in this environment. HARASHIMA and Hirata worked some serious magic with their inanimate overlord while Akiyama took it all in with a smile. One of the better comedy matches of 2021. Respect Yoshihiko. ***1/4
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Chris Brookes – KO-D Openweight Title (Who’s Gonna Top? 9/26)
Raw emotion will always trump technical perfection. This is a match that doesn’t completely hold together if you look too closely, but the presentation, performances and atmosphere were powerful enough to keep me on board. The opening package expertly framed this as the current high point in Brookes’ Japanese journey – a Korakuen main event against his best friend for the top prize in DDT.
From bell to bell, you could tell the match meant a lot to both dudes. For better and for worse, they went out there to have an all-time classic and succeeded in a lot of areas. They worked a 70/30% match in Takeshita’s favor, Brookes just holding on for dear life for most of the action and eating an ungodly amount of videogamey punishment.
Takeshita always benefits from being reigned in by a wiser veteran (which is why I loved the feud with Akiyama so much). There was no reigning him in here. The guy did too much, but to his credit – he looked world class and Brookes’s underdog aura only got bigger after all the top-rope Powerbombs and German suplexes to the floor.
As much as I dug the arm-work subplot they kept going on the side, this wasn’t a limb work match. This was about Brookes proving himself in a Full Stop Takeshita Epic and attempting to survive the wrath of the top dog. That story came through crystal clear, no matter how much selling criticism and anti-movez finger waging one may want to throw at the match. Brookes eating all the Zahi’s, the 1 count kickout, the broken nose and that teary-eyed post-match scene. Those emotional beats were undeniable and hooked me deeply in spite of the overkill. ****
