DDT 2015/12/13

Super Star Lanes 2015

(2015/12/13)

God Bless DDT

Never Mind 2015

(2015/12/23)

DNA 1

DNA 1

(2014/11/28)

KUDO/HARASHIMA

DDT Audience 2015

 (2015/05/31)

KO-D Openweight Championship: KUDO vs. HARASHIMA ©

This championship constantly produces some of the best title matches in the entire world of pro-scraps. I see some people being confused thinking it all started with HARASHIMA. Well, it didn’t, because if you find title matches even from 2008/09 onwards, even the random ones out of order, you’ll never be disappointed. Sanshiro Takagi showed everyone very clearly that matches for the top strap in DDT are taken very seriously, and really, when you watch them they feel like they’re from some other universe, and not from the DDT lowcard & midcard one. That’s what I love about DDT, when you watch their shows they’ll make you laugh countless times with light-hearted approach and hilarious gags, but when time comes to wrestle for tag team and singles titles – shit gets real, very real. They even produce best damn pre-match video packages that feel very sportslike.

Apparently this is the 14^th time these two face off in a singles match. I’ve only seen the two matches from last year and they were both great. This one was even better, as they added so much variety to make it feel fresh and different. Both guys played dirty by using closed fist punches, despite both being “good guys”. I loved it. HARASHIMA was the particular asshole as he punched KUDO’s stomach and head almost a dozen times. His signature midsection attacks were excellent once again. The match was getting more and more brutal as they were approaching towards the end, and both sold everything so well. Some new tweaks to the combos and moves were used I’ve never seen before from these two. Drama was super high in front of the amazing Korakuen people. Such a great match.

****1/2

Dramatic in Korakuen

King of DDT 2015

(2015/6/28)

Drama in Saitama

Saitama Super DDT 2015

(2015/2/15)

1.       Yoshihiko, Antonio Honda, Great Kojika vs. Akebono, Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata

The HIRATA GO! magical glasses fad goes on, this time with Bono in the mix. Dancemania is on! Yoshihiko is scarier than ever! Akebono doubts himself!

GOLD

2.       12-PERSON BATTLE ROYAL for Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship: Kubo Yukamoto © vs. Yasu Urano vs. Shunma Katsumata © vs. Yuto Aijima vs. Soma Takao © vs. Hikaru Sato © vs. Bernard Ackah vs. Tomomitsu Matsunaga © vs. Zeus © vs. Saki Akai vs. Makoto Oishi © vs. Aja Kong ©

Ridiculous(ly fun), which is always the case with these looney Ironman Title matches, this time we had the cameraman jumping Aja Kong backstage to win the title, among many other things that happened. Pure camp.

**1/2

3.       RULE RUMBLE for DDT Extreme Championship: Shiori Asahi vs. Akito ©

The Rule Rumble gimmick means the match rules change every 90 seconds, which led to one of the most creative matches I’ve seen lately, this was top notch entertainment.

***3/4

4.       KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Shuten-doji (KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi, Masa Takanashi) vs. Gorgeous Matsuno, Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei ©

Whacky Brahmans style match, first there was some really funny brawling through the crowd before calling it a day inside the ring, starring Sakaguchi and Matsuno, they had a surprisingly competitive round. Fun stuff.

***1/4

5.       4-WAY SUPER TLC MATCH: Daisuke Sasaki & Suguru Miyatake vs. MIKAMI & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Shigehiro Irie & Keisuke Ishii vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Jun Kasai

So basically the point of the match was to promote DDT’s next outdoor show, and the prize Takagi and Kasai won is the right to compete in a Street Wrestling Match there. Hehe. The match wasn’t super spectacular and they didn’t exactly break any new ground here, but damn it if it wasn’t tons of fun and charm. Cute little match worth of your time.

***1/2

6.       Michael Nakazawa vs. Danshoku Dino

I understand the stories they were telling, but I’ve never been a Nakazawa fan (probably my least favorite puro guy ever) and Dino’s act can be very amusing, but more than often it’s not. Again, though, I get it why they did what they did here, but they bored the shit out of me because I don’t care for the participants.

bad

7.       Super Sasadango Machine vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

PowerPoint presentation, hilarious slides, banana peels, three Lehman shocks, narrated video packages… Vintage SSM!

wat

8.       KO-D Tag Team Championship: Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo ©

Marvelous match with interesting booking where the Strong BJ duo proved to be a more complete and experienced tag team, as they dominated majority of the match, basically they slowed the pace down and were systematically wearing down the Happy Motel duo in all the slow paced workovers. The only way for the young champions to gain some advantage was through heroic comebacks and rapid fire shots, which led to great tag team wrestling. Seriously, the entire thing was beautifully booked in this clear cut piece of storytelling, and I hope we get all the one-on-one match variations possible, matter fact they already booked Endo/Okabayashi for February 21^st to play off the finish from this match. Fuck yes, DDT!

****1/2

9.       KO-D Openweight Championship: Kota Ibushi vs. HARASHIMA ©

Excellent main event between DDT’s biggest stars, HARASHIMA’s long reign is in real danger here against his biggest rival. This was a three act match: careful/defensive grappling and SHIMA working on Kota’s mid-section in the beginning, the second act was fighting on the entrance stage and the third one was calling it a day slowly but surely, Kota didn’t give the champ another opportunity to damage his mid-section and that’s what prevailed. They threw some very rough smacks at each other and the finish was amazing.

****1/2

Awesome show with loads of hot shot entertainment, DDT delivered again.

DDT Sweet Dreams 2015 (Greatness)

Sweet Dreams 2015

(2015/1/25)

4.       Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. Antonio Honda & Great Kojika

Poor Dancing K got himself a nice brand new GO! glasses, but somehow it always ends up being stolen by someone else, which means the absolute highlight of everything I’ve ever seen in my life was Great Kojika jammin’ to Go Tokyo and laying some smackdown on everyone in the ring. Good times.

GOLD

5.       Super Sasadango Machine vs. Sanshiro Takagi

Naturally, Sasadango’s pre-match PowerPoint presentation lasted longer than the actual match, hehe. He talks about having zero percent chances of beating Kazushi Sakuraba in Saitama, but after he defeats Takagi, it’s gonna boost his confidence and chances to 25%. He also said many, many other things, lol, I have no idea what exactly, something about previous big battles he lost, something about the future, whatever the fuck, lol, there were stats, graphics and shit. Vintage Sasadango. Korakuen adored it. The match itself was a giant weird WAT that I enjoyed immensely.

wat

6.       NO ROPE ESCAPE for DDT Extreme Championship: Makoto Oishi vs. Akito ©

You can always count on Akito in singles competition, and his current Extreme Title reign is all kinds of awesome, the guy loves his old school strategic and ground based wrestling and his title reign gimmick is based on it. The Honda defense was absolutely sensational, and while this one didn’t quite reach those levels of awesomeness, it was still pretty damn nifty on its own way. They built things beautifully and focused mostly on each other’s legs. The only thing that slightly bothered me was two cases of too obvious overcooperation early in the match, but no biggie there really, I might even be nitpicking, lol. The match was built very well, the climax was awesome and they used the ropes effectively, reminded me a lot of the classic ROH Pure Championship bouts. Yet another great Akito match, dude’s fantastic and severely underrated, he’s just so fucking awesome.

****1/4

7.       Kota Ibushi, Daisuke Sekimoto, Yuji Okabayashi vs. HARASHIMA, Konosuke Takeshita, Tetsuya Endo

Here we go, two big upcoming title matches combined into one awesome Korakuen 6-man tag, shades of New Japan and classic All Japan right there, this felt big and the guys delivered on every front. The most important thing is – they built their drama, they took time and made sure everything mattered, there were at least two superb face-in-peril sequences on Endo and Takeshita, there were some intriguing subplots such as Takeshita trying to German Suplex Sekimoto, all those things were built properly and added so much to the match, hence the finishing stretch being truly brilliant. Fantastic match loaded with detailed storytelling, must-see 6-man tag.

****1/2

DDT 9/21

Wrestle Koyama Hyotei 2014

(2014/9/21)

2.       Nuru Nuru Brothers (Michael Nakazawa & Tomomitsu Matsunaga) vs. Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai

**

3.       DJ Nira vs. Super Sasadango Machine vs. Antonio Honda

bad

4.       Akito & MIKAMI vs. Danshoku Dino & Makoto Oishi

bad

*** Two bad comedy matches in a row? Even DDT flops from time to time, I guess. I mean, this is a small C-show, but still, kind of strange to see. ***

6.       KUDO & Masa Takanashi vs. HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano

Quality tag team wrestling that reminded me to re-watch the two KUDO/HARASHIMA title matches from the first half of the year.

***1/2

7.       Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo vs. Kenny Omega & Daisuke Sasaki

Fucking excellent, this was a prelude to the tag title match that’s highly praised, here we got the 3/4s of that match and it was so good. Omega is pissed at the young guns and is there to kick some ass, Takeshita and Endo think it’s a good day to die, while Sasaki is a more than suitable replacement for Ibushi.

****1/4