Under Matches:
Tomomitsu Matsunaga, Mizuki Watase & Keigo Nakamura vs Daichi Kazato, Masato Kamino & Shuhei Washida
A fine undercard match to give the guys a run out to see what they could do. **1/4
Tokyo Joshi Pro 8-Woman Tag Match: Hikari Noa, YUMI, Mahiro Kiryu & Suzume vs Raku, Pom Harajuku, Haruna Neko & Mirai Maiumi
This was a fun match. The closing stretch was hotter than I thought it was going to be. **1/4
Iron Man Heavymetalweight Title – Time Difference Battle Royal: Shota (c) vs Toru Owashi vs Kazuki Hirata vs Gorgeous Matsuno vs HARUKAZE vs SAGAT vs Yuki Kamifuku vs Mina Shirakawa vs Pokotan vs Yoshihiko
*Before this, the chair won the Heavymetalweight title before being pinned by another chair.
An excellent battle royal that was filled with laughs with SAGAT perving over Mina Shirakawa and HARUKAZE. A tremendous finish with Matsuno giving a career singing performance enduring the total onslaught Hirata unleashed. ****
Main Matches:
100 Plastic Cases Match: Sanshiro Takagi vs Isami Kodaka
If you’ve ever watched the weapons rumbles Takagi take part in, you’ll see that plastic cases are somewhat his specialty so why do have that as the main focus? Just a great evolution by Takagi, again. And it’s technically within Kodaka’s ally with it being considered deathmatch territory. It’s a fun opponent. Takagi hit some of his biggest moves and it all looked painful, especially on the broken plastic. Kodaka persevered through. ***1/2
KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Titles: Danshoku Dieno, Asuka, Yuki Iino, Mizuki & Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi vs Super Sasadango Machine, Yuna Manase, Jiro ‘Ikemen’ Kuroshio, Hiroshi Yamato & Makoto Oishi
The classic 10 man tag titles that are defended maybe once and are vacated for a few years. This is always a match filled with laughs and gags. We get everyone doing Ikemen’s entrance at start, then we get down to the action which is more funny. The entire ending with Ino, while in the time-space continuum, getting a message from his dad cheering him on was awesome. Tons of Dino antics with his teabagging aka NIGHTMARE. And the match was filled with some good wrestler as well with Ikemen running wild a few times. ***1/2
Gauntlet Tag Match: Yukio Naya & Cody Hall vs Yuki Ueno & Naomi Yoshimura vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Ryota Nakatsu vs Shuichiro Katsumura & Kouki Iwasaki vs Maki Itoh & Chris Brookes vs Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino
The opening with Sakaguchi/Nakatsu vs Katsumura/Iwasaki was awesome. Great mix of strikes and technical wrestling. The bit where Chris Brookes and Nodoka Tenma faced off was hilarious given the extraordinary height difference. The finishing period with Hall/Naya vs Ueno/Yoshimura was rather decnet as well. An overall solid match. ***
Independent World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Keisuke Ishii (c) vs Fuminori Abe
Both of these guys are awesome. Abe especially, but Ishii is as well. He just doesn’t get the spotlight to show it with Ganbare not being a big promotion. This had some great wrestling. The quick start with Abe catching a kick and hitting a dragon screw in seemingly one motion. Abe and Ishii gelled so well in this match with their ability to combine each other’s styles and incorporate some wicked counters. Some of the grapplying was very slick and fast. They built the match excellently as well. Superb sub 10 minute match. ****
UWA World 6-Man Tag Team Titles – 3 Way Match: Takumi Tsukamoto, Yasu Urano & Takato Nakano (c) vs Tetsuya Endo, Mad Paulie & Nobuhiro Shimatani vs Ken Ohka, Yumehito Imanari & Miss Mongol
Team BASARA~! This was another fun tag match. We got to hear BAD COMMUNICATION again. Endo showed everyone with his aerial moves. Another short match giving everyone a good run out. A good match to break up the wrestling and get crowd favorites on the show. ***
Princess Tag Team Titles: NEO Biishiki-gun (Sakisama & Misao) (c) vs Daydream (Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe)
NEO Biishiki-gun are great as the aggressors in the match,showing great character work as always and working over Rika Tatsumi in an effective manner. Misao in particular was great. Miu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi are great at garnining sympathy and working from beneath so this match got great use out of them. Rika had some great fiery moments towards the end leading to a good finishing stretch. If the match had a little more heat for NEO Biishiki-gun on top, this could’ve been better. A very good match nevertheless - great culmination of a long running Princess tag team title run ***1/2
KO-D Tag Team Titles – 4 Way Hardcore Match: Daisuke Sasaki & Soma Takao (c) vs Akito & Shunma Katsumata vs FUMA & Yusuke Kubo vs Minoru Fujita & Daiki Shimomura
If the 4 way at the Korakuen Hallshow was any indication, this was always going to be a balls out plunder match. And that’s exactly what it was. Shunma came out as the joker which was funny. Shunman hitting a cutter onto lego was nuts. There was some excellent double team work by FUMA and Kubo. Akito was able to adapt to the environment and had some awesome exchanges with Minoru Fujita. Daisuke Sasaki was a highlight. Him throwing chairs at Shunma while he is at the top of the ladder was great. A very chaotic but fun match. ***3/4
Union MAX Title: Ryuichi Sekine (c) vs Masahiro Takanashi
Takanashi showed off his technical skill with some good work on the wrist of Sekine. Starting off with a great mat exchange to kick off the match with both fighting for control of the forearm which Takanashi came out on top of. There was some clever transitions to holds as there usually is with Takanashi matches. Sekine was pretty good too. His strikes were good and meshed well with Takanashi. A good match. ***1/4
Princess Of Princess Title: Shoko Nakajima (c) vs Yuka Sakazaki
Loved the opening exchanges. The mat work was fast as slick but intense as well, surprisingly. Shoko at one point violently slammed Yuka’s head into the mat using her legs, it looked quite brutal. Yuka at one point had Shoko in an arm lock and added more pressure by pushing her palm right into the cheek bones. The chemistry between the two was excellent with everything clicking near enough. There was a great tempo to the match as well, adding to the exciting wrestling. The build to the finish was excellent as well. Just like the rest of the match, it was seamless. Shoko losing though..boo. ****
Souken Holdings Presents Dramatic Dream Match: Kenny Omega & Riho vs Antonio Honda & Miyu Yamashita
Kenny’s return to DDT! Omega obviously looked like a star in the match. The crowd reacted strongly to everything he did. I loved that he didn’t shy away from the comedy by Honda either. I think Honda was my MVP of the match though. His blend of comedy and serious is pure excellence. The set up for his story was fantastic with him totally wiping out his tope attempt. The subsequent reactions were priceless. His scratch/punch combos were the best. The Riho and Miyu Yamashita were great. I don’t believe that they ever had a 1 v 1 match while in TJP but there interactions in various tag matches showed the same promise. DDT always does intergender well and Kenny vs Miyu was a great example of that. Awesome closing stretch as well. Honda going wild with his punches will never not be great. ****1/4
BLACK OUT Presents KO-D Openweight Title & DDT Extreme Title: Konosuke Takeshita (K/c) vs HARASHIMA (E/c)
Everything from the build with Takeshita constantly beating HARASHIMA with the wall of Takeshita whether it was via towel or submission to the match was excellent. It all seemed to point to point victory but the doubt of Takeshita was always there. And it climaxed so perfectly. KUDO returning to ringside, DISASTER BOX being at ringside, it being the biggest show DDT has had in years. Takeshita was excellent in the match. Loved his work on the back, everything looked very impactful, and built to the Wall of Takeshita. Even him turning a bit heelish when egging on DISASTER BOX was great. But the match was built around HARASHIMA’s excellent selling and underdog performance. His comebacks were fantastically timed. His facial expressions were great. Him persevering and overcoming Takeshita, the one who shot over him as the ace of DDT back in 2017, was enthralling to watch. The post match promo was heart-warming as well. *****
Overall
Another big DDT show, another show of the year contender. Also water is wet (apparently, it’s not but that’s not the phrase now, is it?). 6-7 Hours in total but the pacing, the matches helped carry the length perfectly. Everything flowed and it made the show an enjoyable experience. The main event is a classic and maybe the second best DDT match I’ve ever seen. There are several MOTYCs such as Omega/Riho vs Honda/Yamashita - [****1/4]. Shoko Nakajima vs Yuka Sakazaki - [****]. Keisuke Ishii vs Fuminori Abe - [****]. And the time battle royal - [****]. Tons of good matches on the undercard which so much variety as well.
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